An American Lion

This is where Norman Rogers practices the manly art of curation.

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The Frisky Mole Boy of Groton

Norman Rogers recounts the summer he spent hiding from the stern love of his father and living as the world-famous “frisky mole boy” in the Groton, Connecticut sewer system. The Frisky Mole Boy of Groton seduced the women of the town and solved crimes, all while subsisting on a steady diet of depravity and confusion.

Rampage of the Innocents is my unfinished but brilliant Historical Romance Novel (now, with more sex and violence for my teenaged readers)

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    An American Lion

    Entries in Current Affairs (215)

    Friday
    Sep032010

    Like a War Zone

    Christchurch Square, Christchurch New ZealandChristchurch, New Zealand has been hit by a massive earthquake:

    Power and water have been cut to parts of Christchurch after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck about 30km west of the city at 4.35am today.

    The quake was at a depth of 33km and was centred near Darfield.

    “Check on your neighbours”

    Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told Newstalk ZB that the morning had been “pretty traumatic.”

    Mr Parker said that people were being taken to Christchurch Hospital for emergency treatment, and he had not heard any reports of serious injuries.

    “It wouldn’t surprise me if there were some.”

    Mr Parker urged Cantabrians affected by the earthquake to check on their neighbours to ensure they were safe.

    The best sources are probably right there in Christchurch. If I see anything to add, I’ll put it here. What a tragedy. The Earth is really coming after humanity these days.

    Tuesday
    Aug102010

    Ted Stevens 1923-2010

    Senator Ted Stevens

    Saturday
    Aug072010

    If You Are Born Here, You're a Citizen

    Since there were no Czech machine guns when the 2nd Amendment was passed, good luck convincing me to give mine up, sir.I don't understand the ignorance of American history exhibited here, but what else is new?

    At a breakfast on Thursday in Washington, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, tried to tamp down a controversy that started when SenatorLindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, questioned the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants the right to citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

    “I am not aware of anybody who has come out in favor of altering the 14th Amendment,” Mr. McConnell said.

    But Mr. Graham, speaking on Fox News last week, said it was “a mistake” to allow American-born children of illegal immigrants to become citizens automatically, a practice known as birthright citizenship. He said that along with a plan to grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, he would also amend the 14th Amendment as a way of discouraging future unauthorized immigration.

    Throughout the week Mr. Graham stood firm on his proposal. “We can’t just have people swimming across the river having children here — that’s chaos,” he said Wednesday in another interview with Fox News.

    The proposal caught Republican and Democratic lawmakers by surprise, not least because it came from Mr. Graham, who earlier this year was the leading — and almost the only — Republican negotiating with Democrats to create an immigration overhaul bill. Mr. Graham gave new prominence to an issue that has long been a favorite of conservatives advocating reduced immigration, but has been peripheral to the immigration debate in Congress.

    Mr. McConnell said Republicans were calling only for hearings on the issue. The debate centers on the first sentence of what is known as the citizenship clause: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The amendment was adopted in 1868 to ensure the citizenship of the American-born children of freed slaves.

    Opponents of birthright citizenship contend that illegal immigrants are not under United States jurisdiction, therefore their American-born children should not automatically be citizens. They say the amendment could not apply to those immigrants because there was no illegal immigration when it was adopted.

    America gives you something that is better than anything any other nation on Earth can give you, and that's the right to call yourself an American. Look very closely at the last paragraph:

    They say the amendment could not apply to those immigrants because there was no illegal immigration when it was adopted.

    I just want to shake my head and laugh. 

    There were no assault weapons then, either. This means we should ban them, right? I mean, let's apply some old-fashioned common sense here. If you believe in gun rights, as I certainly do, there's nothing more ridiculous than someone who says, well, you know, back in the olden times when Ben Franklin was president, he said that we should all have guns, but we didn't have like guns that shoot four thousand bullets a second so, you know...

    The enticement for people to come to America has always been a free, open society that welcomes all comers. The idea that a woman could immigrate here and give birth on American soil is one that countless people have seen as their best reason to come here. We don't ask for papers in America. We give you freedom. And that kid of yours? Back in the old country, your child was a veritable indentured servant for life. Here, he or she is free.

    Free.

    Anyone who can't figure out that one does not take rights away from Americans is a fool.

    Monday
    Aug022010

    Senator John McCain Will Always Envision Himself a Player on the National Stage

    Never mind that this is a farce:

    Senator John McCain is stalling a Senate vote on the retired general nominated to be President Barack Obama's intelligence chief, a McCain spokeswoman said on Monday.

    "Senator McCain requested a specific report from Mr. Clapper and until that report is provided, Senator McCain will continue to hold his nomination," the spokeswoman said.

     The move by McCain could delay the confirmation of James Clapper as director of national intelligence until September, after the congressional summer recess.

     Before McCain's move, a Senate vote on Clapper had been expected to happen this week.

    McCain, a Republican, has placed a "hold" -- a procedural move blocking a floor vote -- on Clapper's nomination until he gets a report from the nominee, the senator's spokeswoman said. She did not name the subject of the requested report.

     

    The President will get his DNI. There's no popular will out there to stop Mr. Clapper from taking the job simply because there is very little to the job and there's no one who will take the job. When you find a warm body that will take the DNI job, then that's your DNI. Plain and simple. This is akin to making the man turn in the homework no one believes is worth a damn (those "reports" are too sanitized to be believed nowadays).

    As to McCain, well, I guess he's up for re-election. He has almost no claim on "leading" the Republican Party and no chance of rising within his own caucus. He's that rare elder statesman with no credibility, a resume stocked with failure, and the continued love of the press driving him forward. At no time in our history has a man with less stature, capability, or accomplishment received so much coverage and exposure. A hundred years ago, his hometown newspaper would run polite items about him but the rest of the country would be treated to the derision his colleagues maintain for him.

    Senator John McCain remains a national joke only no one remembers the punch line.

    Monday
    Aug022010

    Don't We Have Anything Better to Worry About?

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pissy machinations of the White House Stenographer Corps are not important:

    The White House Correspondents Association is moving Fox News up to the front row in the briefing room, according to sources familiar with the process. The WHCA board's decision was unanimous. [It's now confirmed; see update below]

    Since veteran journalist Helen Thomas retired, three news organizations—Fox News, Bloomberg News, andNPR—have argued that they should move to the front row. Fox News will join the broadcast networks and CNN up front.

    However, Fox News will not be taking Thomas's long-held seat in the center.

    The Associated Press moves to the center under the new set-up, with Fox News taking the wire service's spot in the front row. 

    The idea of moving the AP—which normally gets the first question at presidential press conferences—was under discussion in recent years, long before Thomas retired. Bloomberg remains in the second row, while NPR moves up from the third row to Fox's current seat.

    I was losing sleep over this. I was seriously considering how I would cope with a world turned inside out--one where Fox News had to sit in the second row where, you know, you can still ask inane questions of people trained not to answer them.

    Friday
    Jul302010

    I Don't Call it Fatass Nation for Nothing

    I would rather not see your muu muu riding up like that, Ma'am.Are there still some sensitive souls out there who don't want to hear the truth? We are living in Fatass Nation. A self-centered, overfed country full of chattering boobs is slouching toward a self-amused rendezvous with oblivion. We need to slim down, toughen up, think of the common good, and put an end to tomfoolery, grabassing, and spirited hijinks. No more excuses. Start walking!

    Why am I thinking that the use of the word "cranky" here is intended to defend a useless generation from criticism?

    Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a former Eagle Scout, addressed the Boy Scout jamboree being held at Virginia’s Fort A.P. Hill.—and struck a decidedly cranky tone.

    In his Wednesday speech, Gates said that young Americans are “increasingly physically unfit,” and cast doubts their character, too. QuotingWalter Lippman, Gates said he sees daily “the disaster of the character of men” and “the catastrophe of the soul.”

    But, he was quick to add, not among Boy Scouts.

    “At a time when many American young people are turning into couch potatoes, and too often much worse, scouting continues to challenge boys and young men, preparing you for leadership,” Gates said.

    Gates praised scouting for pushing young people into the wilderness to learn both about nature and self reliance. He also said the Boy Scout’s great contribution was encouraging public service. “The scouting movement shows dramatically that service, public service, still beckons the best among us to do battle with complacency, neglect, intolerance, and the emptiness of the spirit that are the common enemies of social peace and justice,” he said.

    The Boy Scouts are just another paramilitary organization, you know.

     

    Friday
    Jul302010

    Hey, Thanks for the Panic Attack

    Awful:

    Three employees of the U.S. embassy in Paris were being treated for poisoning Friday after opening mail, a police source told Reuters.

    The source was not immediately able to specify the nature of the poisoning or the seriousness of their condition.

    A spokesman for the U.S. embassy was not immediately available for comment.

    Was this a biological attack? There are several different kinds of poison that could overwhelm someone, but how could they have gotten through the mail? Will the people who handled and distributed the mail be affected as well?

    This is a significant attack on American interests. I wish I knew more about what happened.

    That's what I ran earlier--and now, come to find out:

    Two employees of the U.S. Embassy in Paris were being given medical tests Friday after handling a suspicious package and reporting feeling "unwell," officials said.

    However, an embassy official said no-one appeared to be in danger, with preliminary test results indicating the envelope was "not harmful."

    French police officials said the two people involved were feeling "unwell" and that the incident was being investigated. A mobile laboratory was deployed at the site to test for poisonous substances.

    Elizabeth Detmeister, deputy press attache at the embassy, said in a statement: "The embassy confirms that a suspicious envelope was received. Per embassy security procedures, the two employees who were exposed to it were evaluated by medical professionals and the envelope is being analyzed by a laboratory."

    "Preliminary results indicate that the envelope was not harmful," she added.

    Embassy spokesman Paul Patin added that employees in the mailroom had identified a "suspicious letter" and French authorities were then summoned to examine it.

    "We have no indication that anyone is in danger or hurt," he said.

    MSNBC really is a crappy news organization. A screaming red headline talked about three people being poisoned, and now this comes out?

    That was my last link to MSNBC for a while.

    Thursday
    Jul292010

    Could the Republican Party Take Back the House?

    If Congress is in play, then all bets are off. But Congress really isn't in play. Sure, there's a lot of anger out there. There might even be a great deal of motivation for people to go out and vote. Noise does not equal actual votes, however, and I think people will find themselves turned off by the last few years of economic and political upheaval. In other words, I think apathy will overwhelm the chances of a Republican takeover of the House.

    Here's Nate Silver on what might be "in play" this silly season:

    In fact, there are 101 Democrat-held seats that are rated as something other than safe by at least one of the "Big 4" forecasters (Cook, CQ, Rothenberg, Sabato). And if you include Real Clear Politics' forecasts in the mix, the total rises to 108.

    That's a fairly liberal definition of "in play", but at least it's one with some concrete standard attached. By a slightly more conservative definition -- a seat is "in play" if at least three of the five forcasters noted above think it is -- the figure is 89 seats, still higher than the range that the DCCC memo suggests.

    But I don't know that we should be erring on the side of conservativism in defining the number of seats that are "in play". Occasionally, in a wave election, a few seats that nobody was polling and nobody was paying attention to might wind up switching sides: one instance I recall is the 
    IA-2 district in 2006, which was won by then-obscure political science professor Dave Loebsack, who edged out 15-term (!) Republican incumbent Jim Leach. (I was following the race intently because Leach, although a moderate Republican overall, was a leading proponent of the legislation to prohibit online poker, from which I was making a portion of my living at the time.)

    I sense that the apathy is stronger than the noise. Sure, there is a fair amount of "throw the bums" out being generated. But what if a few economic indicators begin to tick upwards this fall? What if there's good news on the job front after the summer is over?

    Obstructionism does not inspire people to vote. I know that this was the strategy adopted by the beaten and cowed Republicans when President Obama took office, but that strategy comes with its own pitfalls. It's one thing to make a lot of noise and say that your opponent is not doing the right thing. It's another thing when all you've been doing is blocking the wrong things and the right things and everything else.

    Obstructionism is a temporary strategy, one that has to be followed by substantive proposals, statesmanship, and a bit of inspiration. If you can get people talking about what you stopped, what you want to do, and how that might benefit the country, you have the chance to roll a national election into a takeover of Congress.

    When the Republicans took back the House in 1994 and when the Democrats took it in 2006, there were clearly defined examples presented in many races as to what the party would do and what it stood for. You could argue that those were elections where ideas counted and where the national sentiment was such that anyone with a decent idea and a good head of hair stood a pretty good chance of getting their ticket punched for at least one term in Congress.

    Okay, but how does this translate into what's necessary to take back the House this year? What are people voting for? More obstructionism?

    Where are the ideas, in other words? I'm not hearing any.

     

    Tuesday
    Jul272010

    What Did I Tell You About Rummage Sales?

    Ansel AdamsThis has turned a pauper into a prince:

    Rick Norsigian's hobby of picking through piles of unwanted items at garage sales in search of antiques has paid off for the Fresno, California, painter.

    Two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $45 -- negotiated down from $70 -- is now estimated to be worth at least $200 million dollars, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser.

    Those boxes contained 65 glass negatives created by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. Experts believed the negatives were destroyed in a 1937 darkroom fire that destroyed 5,000 plates.

    "It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets, the appraiser and art dealer who is hosting an unveiling of the photographs at his Beverly Hills, California, gallery Tuesday.

    Amazing. That kind of money can buy you a wonderful home in Southern California nowadays. Remember that the next time you sneer about the treasures being found at rummage sales.

    Monday
    Jul262010

    Panic and Chaos at the Love Parade

    Here in Germany, people are in shock over what happened at the Love Parade:

    Survivors of a stampede at a free dance music festival in Germany in which 19 people were killed have blamed organisers for the deaths.

    Witnesses criticised the decision to have just one entrance through a tunnel to the Love Parade, and said they had warned police about overcrowding.

    However, the mayor of Duisburg told a press conference that it was too early to blame anyone for the incident.

    The officials in question are due for a serious appraisal of their decision to hold the Love Parade in Duisberg, and I think the finger is going to be pointed at the good mayor:

    [...] BBC Berlin correspondent Tristana Moore says critics argued that the organisers and police were not prepared for such huge numbers of visitors and the site itself - an old railway yard - was too small and completely unsuitable.

    The police insisted that security arrangements were adequate and claimed the site was not overcrowded. German media said the festival had drawn about 1.4 million people.

    The head of a major police union, Rainer Wendt, told the Bild newspaper his organisation had warned a year ago that Duisburg was "too narrow, too small to manage the masses of people".

    Police said that no-one had died inside the tunnel.

    Deputy police chief Detlef von Schmeling said: "Fourteen people died on the metal steps leading away from the tunnel, two on a wall outside the tunnel."

    If you look at the video above, it's just horror--a stampede with no easy answers. The decision to funnel people into the site through a single entrance--a single point of failure--stands as the dumbest move of all.