Looking Askance At The New Mexico State Legislature

Jerry casts a gimlet eye towards Santa Fe:

Looks like some of the folks in the New Mexico legislature may have too
much time on their hands.

Why, what could possibly be up in the Land of Enchantment?:

Last fall, Pluto suffered a blow when 2,500 scientists in the International Astronomical Union voted that the little guy was something of a slacker and didn't dominate his orbit the way the other planets do. Thus, the downgrade to a dwarf planet.

"We really took it as an affront," Gutierrez said.

So she introduced a measure to recognize Pluto as a full-fledged planet when it passes over New Mexico.

The House on Tuesday passed the measure; it's pending in the Senate.

Excellent idea! As a New Mexican, all I can say is that this is the best law ever proposed, and it should be passed immediately! I feel oddly bereft without Pluto as a planet: the New Mexico of the Solar System. Like it's really lonely out there in space!

Strict Dad

Don't leave:

A 6-year-old boy stayed in an apartment with the body of his father for two days after the man died on their sofa, obeying instructions to never leave without permission, firefighters said.

The boy, whose name was not released, didn't want to leave even after firefighters arrived, fearing punishment if he left, fire department Maj. Noble Lee said.

"He wasn't as distraught as one might think," Lee said. "I don't think he understands the gravity of the past few days. He wasn't as upset at the situation as he was about being outside the residence without permission."

Increasingly Baroque Jurisprudence

What constitutes 'religious freedom' has many aspects, including land use:

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday overturned a January 2006 lower-court decision and said the use of recycled sewage water to make artificial snow at the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort violates the religious freedom of Navajos, Hopis and several other Southwestern Indian tribes, the Gallup Independent reported.

... The 9th Circuit found that the Forest Service's approval of the sewage-for-snowmaking violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and that the final environmental impact statement does not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, according to Appellate Judge William A. Fletcher's written opinion.
Attorney Howard Shanker, who represented the plaintiffs/appellants, said the ruling was especially important for Indian tribes, because an earlier federal decision -- Lyng vs. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Assn. -- held that Native Americans did not have First Amendment rights when it came to federal land-use decisions, the Independent said.

"Essentially, Native Americans have had no recourse challenging government land-use decisions which often times impact sacred sites and culturally significant sites," Shanker said.

...The San Francisco Peaks, located in the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona, have had a longstanding religious significance to Southwest Indian tribes, according to the Independent.

The Snowbowl is located on Humphreys Peak, the highest mountain in the range and one of the most spiritually significant to the tribes, the Independent reported.

Squirrels

The electric utilities hate 'em:

Every year, Neil Engelman carefully collects his data, stands before his company's board of directors and is asked the same question: What caused more outages? The lightning or the squirrels?

Four of the past five years, the answer has been the squirrels, says Engelman, vice president of operations for the Lincoln Electric System in Nebraska. Nebraska is not alone. Many states are grappling with a big increase in the number of power outages caused by squirrel electrocutions.

... Some states have seen a massive jump in recent years in the number of such outages. In Georgia, squirrel-related outages more than tripled from 5,273 in 2005 to 16,750 in 2006.

... Acorns from oak trees are a squirrel's main diet, says Peter Smallwood, a squirrel expert and biology professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. When oaks produce more acorns, you get more squirrels — and more outages.

... Squirrels are not electrocuted when they run across power lines. It's when their body makes contact with both the wire and either the ground or a transformer that they become a conduit for electricity to flow through.

"That completes the circuit and bammo!" said Ed Bettinger of the Public Service Company of Oklahoma.

Among recent outages:

• A squirrel caused a power outage in October that shut down Merced College, southeast of San Francisco, for half the day.

• In January, a squirrel cut power to 4,500 customers in Amarillo, Tex.

• Hundreds of gallons of raw sewage poured into Mobile Bay in Alabama after a squirrel cut power to a sewage lift station there.

Pop Tart

Rabbits do a retrospective on the career of Britney Spears.

Australian Nostalgia

Not for the weak of stomach:

KRAFT is closer to identifying the original Happy Little Vegemites after a national call for the children who appeared in the iconic 1950s advertisement to come forward.

Some 13 people contacted the food producer today claiming they starred in the original Happy Little Vegemites commercial, although only eight children appeared in the ad.

Elk Grove Fine Arts Festival

I notice the folks at Pepper Von's are beginning to work up for this event, on Saturday, March 31st. It looks like a big hodge-podge of interesting stuff!

The Trouble With Blogs - Episode MMVLIV

I write about local musical theater player, in passing mentioning a minor injury to hand incurred during show.

Months later, local musical theater player gets involved in on-line activities with strangers (e.g., gaming, etc.)

I notice lots of hits on blog regarding past shows.

Stranger E-Mails local musical theater player and asks, "So, how's your hand?"

Failing To Understand People - Episode CCLVIII

Severely winded in exercise class, I gasped to a neighbor "How are you?" She said, "This is the best possible time to talk, because you can just let go of those inhibitions you might have about talking with me." "Really," I managed to croak, at a loss for both words and breath, and somehow feeling more inhibited than ever....

Top-Down Crash

Significant decline of the stock market today. I always thought the day of reckoning for the real estate boom would be a bottom-up affair, with the rapid spread of foreclosures, but instead it looks like a top-down kind of business:

Last month, the company said it lost track of how frequently borrowers missed payments on their mortgages. Because New Century's books didn't reflect how often borrowers defaulted and how likely borrowers were to default in the future, the value of the company's loan portfolio was overstated.

Last week, it stopped accepting all new loan applications because it hasn't been able to raise enough capital or renegotiate its existing financial agreements. It has since disclosed that all of its lenders have slashed funding or announced their intent to cut it off altogether. The lenders have alleged the company failed to make payments.

The company is now under pressure from several lenders to pay back what it owes them. One of its backers, UBS Real Estate Securities Inc., is demanding New Century's subsidiaries pay immediately some $1.5 billion in repurchase obligations for outstanding mortgage loans, according to documents filed Tuesday with the SEC

Fox News And The Democrats

The Wall Street Journal is worried about the decision of Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at a Nevada primary debate hosted by Fox News, and seems to think that the candidates are knuckling under to the demands of some fanatical left-wing MoveOn.org horde. WSJ points out that many Democrats watch Fox News and that they will be under-served by a Democratic boycott.

I wish the MoveOn.org types had that much power! No, what is happening is that Fox News has no credibility among Democrats in general, and the candidates in particular. Memo to WSJ: does anyone think any Democrat relies on Fox News for unbiased information about Democrats? The only tricks Fox News doesn't do is play scary music and intense wide-angle close-ups when featuring a Democrat. After all, it was Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News himself, who was pushing that idiotic Obama-Osama meme, supposedly as a 'joke'. And then you wonder why Senator Obama doesn't want to have anything to do with Fox News? Or Senator Edwards? Or any Democrat?

Journalism is a delicate dance between the newsmakers and those who cover the news. It's time for Fox News to learn something beyond the Foot-Stomping Fascist Clodhop.

'Rocky Mountain High'

Colorado adopts John Denver's 1972 song as its second state anthem.

"The Emperor's New Clothes" - DMTC's Young Performer's Theater

Left: The cast at final bows. I apologize if I get the name order not quite right:

Left to right: Cassidy Patterson, Ashlyn Barbieri, Sally Li, Lindsay Mitchell, Kelsey Garrett (Herald), Kat Holder (Sinister The Prime Minister), Chris Petersen (Emperor Maximilian The Most), Nora Unkel (Empress Carlotta The Least), Matthew Fyhrie (Stitch), Alice Moylan (Sew), Alex Chen (Chester), Sabrina Schloss (Verity), Kiyo Nishiyama (Lady Winifred), Juliana Wynkoop (Lady Lynn), Kelly Ragsdale, Petra Favorite, Soomi Yoo.

I can still recall the 2003 "Emperor's New Clothes", and indeed, one person was in both shows (Nora Unkel: 'Sew' in 2003, 'Emperess Carlotta' in 2007). I saw at least two people in the audience who were in the 2003 show (Mary Ellen Price and Rebecca Rudy). The sumptuous costumes, designed by Anna Johnson in both 2003 and 2007, were sometimes used for both shows. And Jan Isaacson directed both shows. The ties to the immediate past are strong!

Chris Petersen is a fine actor and Nora Unkel is honing her stage skills (she did a brief tap solo that looked great). Sabrina Schloss played a winning Verity. Later, it occurred to me Schloss looks rather similar to Emily Jo Seminoff, her predecessor in that role: it was almost like deja vu! Kat Holder's makeup and costume served her well as Sinister the Prime Minister. As Stitch and Sew, the Fyhrie/Moylan team worked well: it seemed to me younger than the Spangler/Unkel team had been in 2003, but maybe better-spoken. In the ensemble, two people seemed to stand out - Kelly Ragsdale (I believe) and Soomi Yoo.

Two more performances left! - Saturday morning and afternoon, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17th. Go see it!

Here's another picture of bows:

"Camelot" Gallery

(I'll put recent "Camelot" photos here)

Left: Guenevere (Marguerite Morris) and Lancelot (Tae Kim).













Nimue Singer (Bridget Maguire), seen from behind and below.

Guenevere (Marguerite Morris).

The entrapment of Arthur: Pellinor (Paul Fearn) and King Arthur (Gil Sebastian), foreground; Morgan La Fey (Anne Marie Trout), background.



Mordred (Jon Jackson) finally meets his aunt, Morgan La Fey (Anne Marie Trout).





























Nimue Dancer (Meg King, foreground), Merlin (Paul Fearn, middle), and Nimue Singer (Bridget Maguire, background).

King Arthur (Gil Sebastian) and Guenevere (Marguerite Morris).

King Arthur (Gil Sebastian).

"Camelot" Weekend

Left: Bridget Maguire, and Kaya, the Red-Tailed Hawk, wearing her fashionable hood.


On Friday, a sandbag broke, and scattered sand stage left. Sitting on the floor, stage left, in 'Lusty Month Of May' was apparently more akin to sitting on a beach than sitting on a meadow.

On Sunday, Kaya, the Red-Tailed Hawk, began muttering to herself in her cage, back stage. Her calls were familiar, yet eerie - the calls of a living raptor. Bridget had to take Kaya into the costume shop until she calmed down.

It's bad enough to spend week after week with stealthy humans, prowling around the same dull, dark building and always doing the same things, but at least usually it's after sunset. But when it's a glorious March afternoon, with the fields full of mice and gopher snakes, and there you are, trapped in the dark, it's almost more than a hawk can bear.

"Wild Hogs"

Left: William Macy experiences a New Mexico hello.

With the news that Stephanie Skewes was cast in "Wild Hogs" (see previous post), together with the New Mexico locale (where I'm from), there was finally enough incentive to see what promised to be a pretty predictable film.

Sadly, Stephanie Skewes gets only one line, plus several scenes where she's in the background. Nevertheless, she's broken into the big time, and her next film, "Growing Out", promises much more time on camera.

"Wild Hogs" was fairly amusing, but a bit lame: Martin Lawrence and William Macy made the experience enjoyable.

Of course, what really got me was the New Mexico locale. I used to go up to Madrid in the 70's with friend Steve Martin for New Mexico Jazz festivals, held at the old ball park. My dad remembers going up there with his dad in the 30's for exciting boxing matches in the coal camps.

By the early 60's, with the coal mines closed, the town nearly died, but it was reinvigorated in the late 60's with counterculture folks. That was probably the time when the accent on the town's name changed, from Ma - DRID (Spanish), to MA - drid (English): lots of English speakers had moved in. The town's location, more or less in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but off the main highway, is a help, especially since they can tap into the boom in Santa Fe-related interests. After all, Shirley MacClaine and her crystal crowd is based at her ranch near Galisteo, not that far away from Madrid....

The last time I visited Madrid was in 1995. I picked up some Casas Grandes pottery in a Madrid shop. The pottery came from northern Mexico, in Chihuahua: close enough culturally to be similar to New Mexico pottery (I think the Casas Grandes Indians are related to the ancient Mimbres culture of SW NM), but nevertheless different - much thinner pottery; more elegant. The folks who ran the shop knew their pottery well.

Hollywood is shockingly cavalier with places and locales in movies - they've always been that way. An example from this movie are some of the road scenes, supposedly filmed in Missouri, but which were obviously filmed in the lush, piney, high-elevation Jemez Caldera, west of Los Alamos. They also used the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, just west of Taos, in the same careless spirit.

Nevertheless, these filmmakers were very, very careful with Madrid. Madrid is a real place, after all. They didn't try to change the name of the town, and they repeated the town's name's pronunciation, for the benefit of the slow. I wonder why they were so careful? It's quite striking, really, when Hollywood couldn't care less, usually. They must like the place!

I loved the immediate surroundings of Madrid - the San Pedro and Ortiz Mountains, looking bright, fresh, and glorious. Interestingly, in the 60's and 70's, bikers used to gather at a bar in Golden, NM, not far from Madrid (but not directly featured in the movie). Bikers are part of the folklore of the area. Maybe that's why they picked Madrid for the movie???

The main street of Madrid looked more-or-less familiar, with that sharp bend in the main street, but I didn't see the old ball park (unless that's where the 'chili festival' was filmed) and I didn't see any pottery or any crystals or any jazz musicians. Oh well - can't have everything!

Homeless People Watch

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, as the remaining cast members of "Camelot" dwindled away into the dark from Applebee's, a young man in his early 20's approached and asked if I knew whether Davis had a homeless shelter. The question took me aback: Davis is a comfortable community with little obvious need for a homeless shelter. On the other hand, people can drop into town anytime from anywhere from Interstate Highway 80. In addition, there are lots of young people in Davis, and you never know what happens even in comfortable communities.

There is a portion of my brain, about the size of a walnut, where I make decisions about whether to aid the distressed. The walnut is schizophrenic and irrational. Given any two homeless people, I might aid one and not the other, neither, or both, depending on whim. In this case, even though it wasn't that cold, he was visibly trembling. I asked if he was cold, and he said yes.

So, apropos enough, I gave him a well-worn "Oliver!" sweatshirt, which I've had for more than six years. Time for the sweatshirt to get more wear in other hands! So, if you see a forlorn but unfamiliar DMTC aficionado wandering near the Richards Blvd. exit off of I-80, that is how he came to have his sweatshirt.

Fortune Cookie Watch

Following the usual practice of adding the phrase 'in bed' to any fortune you receive:

The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well - in bed.

Bigotry And Campaigning

The recent controversy regarding Ann Coulter's 'faggot' remarks concerning John Edwards provides a useful counterpoint to the other controversy last month regarding the two bloggers hired by John Edwards, and their remarks that could be interpreted as anti-Catholic bigotry. Ann Coulter has been defended by some who claim that liberals also use the word 'faggot', even in a derogatory way, and that it is hypocrisy to complain about it.

I think that there are two angles here. The first is, were the remarks taken out-of-context in some manner? Some have argued that the comments of the two bloggers were isolated from their context and were not as extreme as they seemed. Ann Coulter has argued that she was taking aim at the (sometimes objectionable) practice of political correctness and not at John Edwards in particular. In neither case do I think the defenses are warranted. Bigot is as bigot does.

The second angle is the fora in which the bigotry was unleashed. With the two bloggers, the comments were made on personal web logs, or on small group web logs. As such, the fora were fairly small, and it wasn't until the bloggers were hired by Edwards, and the possibility emerged that the anti-Catholic bigotry might be imputed to the candidate, that the controversy arose. It was appropriate that Edwards keep the bloggers on, since the comments had not been made under his auspices. Nevertheless, once it became clear the bloggers would continue their anti-Catholic rhetoric even given their new status, it was necessary for the bloggers to resign, as they did.

Coulter made her remarks as an invited featured speaker to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after a long career of making incendiary remarks of this sort. Her remarks thus could be imputed to all the identified Republican presidential candidates, since all the identified Republican presidential candidates were in attendance (even as they tried to distance themselves after-the-fact), as well as many politically-active conservatives. Thus, her remarks caused greater harm.

Bigotry is not illegal, even as it is objectionable. Bigotry has been used as a political tool to slime one's opponents since time began, and it is terrible when it succeeds. Gutter sniping in particular has a long, illustrious history in American presidential politics. Nevertheless, it's important to keep track of who is doing the sniping, who is hurt, and who benefits, and keep a running tally in as detached a manner as possible, because it reveals the true character of our leaders, the ones for whom it is all done.

Three Erupting Volcanoes On Io!

Wow! This is the best picture ever of Jupiter's moon! Captured by the Pluto-bound 'New Horizons' spacecraft as it whipped past Jupiter seeking a gravity-assisted velocity increase. Partial caption:

This processed image provides the best view yet of the enormous 290-kilometer (180-mile) high plume from the volcano Tvashtar, in the 11 o'clock direction near Io's north pole. The plume was first seen by the Hubble Space Telescope two weeks ago and then by New Horizons on February 26; this image is clearer than the February 26 image because Io was closer to the spacecraft, the plume was more backlit by the Sun, and a longer exposure time (75 milliseconds versus 20 milliseconds) was used. Io's dayside was deliberately overexposed in this picture to image the faint plumes, and the long exposure also provided an excellent view of Io's night side, illuminated by Jupiter. The remarkable filamentary structure in the Tvashtar plume is similar to details glimpsed faintly in 1979 Voyager images of a similar plume produced by Io's volcano Pele. However, no previous image by any spacecraft has shown these mysterious structures so clearly.

The image also shows the much smaller symmetrical fountain of the plume, about 60 kilometers (or 40 miles) high, from the Prometheus volcano in the 9 o'clock direction. The top of a third volcanic plume, from the volcano Masubi, erupts high enough to catch the setting Sun on the night side near the bottom of the image, appearing as an irregular bright patch against Io's Jupiter-lit surface. Several Everest-sized mountains are highlighted by the setting Sun along the terminator, the line between day and night.

Double-Barreled Cyclone Attack

The northern coast of West Australia is a mess, with first Cyclone George pounding the Port Hedland and Pilbara coast, and with Cyclone Jacob fast approaching the same coastlines.

Meanwhile, in drought-stricken east and SE Australia, places that could benefit from a cyclone attack, the weather is clear, warm and pleasant....

New Species Of Venemous Australian Snake

As if Australia didn't have enough old species of venemous snakes:

Similar to the western brown snake, the still unnamed species was discovered during an expedition to a remote region about 200km northwest of Uluru in September last year.

The Cow And The Chicken

Why can't they just be friends?:

When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighborhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.

... "Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

... "The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.

Stephanie Skewes In "Wild Hogs"


Left: Louise Bigelow (Stephanie Skewes) and Carnival Barker (Marc Valdez).


Courtesy of Andy Sullivan, news that Fresno's Stephanie Skewes is in the new John Travolta, Tim Allen, and William Macy movie "Wild Hogs", which was filmed in New Mexico and which my sister Michelle just saw and says is great. Here's Stephanie on William Macy:

"He was my favorite," Skewes says of Macy. "He is more down-to-earth than many of my acting friends. I learned so much."

Stephanie was always so organized and serious and talented - you just knew she would go places!

Here are some photos (by Dannette Vassar) of DMTC's dress rehearsal for "Carousel", on November 5, 2002, featuring Stephanie Skewes.

Louise Bigelow (Stephanie Skewes).

Enoch Snow (Matt Dunn), Carrie Pipperidge (Andrea St. Clair), Louise Bigelow (Stephanie Skewes), and Enoch Snow, Jr. (David "Turtle" Akona).

Pictures In The Gloaming

Albuquerque's South Valley, with the Rio Grande River on the left, Interstate 25 on the right, and a high mesa near San Ysidro in the background. The flight headed SW from the airport, and south along the Rio Grande Valley, rather than the usual west.

The Rio Salado, flowing from the west (top) to the east (bottom), just west of Interstate 25. The Rio Salado empties into the Rio Grande about 25 miles north of Socorro.

Mesa, AZ, and the East Valley, at night.

Jiggly picture of jiggly place - The Las Vegas Strip at night.

Falling Into The Void In Phoenix

The walkway is ending! Please, watch your step!
The
Walk
The walk
alk
The
Th
Walkway
The walkway is ending! Please, watch your step!

Just add some drum 'n bass to the stuttering walkway PSAs, and you'd get electronica!

Plane was TWO freakin' hours late leaving Phoenix for Sacramento! Something about a broken air conditioner on the flight in from Cancun this afternoon....

San Juan - Chama Diversion Project

A year later, and just as mysterious as ever!

Visiting With Dad

In the afternoons, my Dad seems to prefer watching "Laura - Sin Censura" on the Spanish-language network, Telemundo. The TV show is something like Jerry Springer on crack. First, they introduce the arrogant cad to the studio audience, then the censorious mother-in-law, who attacks and insults the cad, then the wife, who defends the cad, then the girlfriend, who attacks the wife as the surprised wife attacks the cad, then the second girl friend, whom no one but the cad (and the show's secret camera) knew about. Then everyone attacks the cad, then the sudden revelation everyone has AIDS, then the cad is thrown out of the studio to the chants of the outraged studio audience. It's all close-captioned by a hopelessly ill-equipped typist, who can't possibly keep up with all the shouting. As a retirement distraction, it beats golf. That, and Judge Joe Brown.

Scooter Libby Verdict

Yay! Justice begins to get served!

Corrales And North Valley Sojourn

Left: I grew up in this house, but the people who bought it in 1990 did so much work on it, it is now unrecognizable to me!

Corrales Rd., Corrales.

This is one of the oldest buildings in Corrales. My sister took ballet lessons here, when it was the Litka School, when she was a little girl. Interestingly, under different management, it is still a dance school.

Horse statue and Rio Grande cottonwood tree, along Rio Grande Blvd., NW.

Slacking Off At UNM

Left: "Fiesa" - "Jarabe", Luis Jimenez, 91-96, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.


The university area was reassuringly familiar, for the most part, but some new buildings are going up, and there is some new statuary.

Downtown Albuquerque.

Kimo Theater - downtown Albuquerque.

My sister Michelle samples the delicacies (e.g., huevos rancheros) at the Frontier Restaurant, near the UNM campus.

"Frozen Lightning"

As a kind gift, my sister wanted to get me a hagiographic account of Governor Bill Richardson's inevitable march through New Mexico politics, and irresistable rise into national politics.

Instead, she obtained a compendium of the political misdeeds of an egotistical monster of Brobdignagian proportions.

Offhand, it doesn't look like a conservative hit job; more like someone got burned.

Some stuff is a little clunky. For example, the picture of the dancing girls doesn't make me think of political corruption. Instead, it makes me want to join the dancing chorus.

I partly blame Richardson for the Wen Ho Lee affair - a disaster spawned by the anti-Clinton hate machine and the national media, together with the help of Richardson. Anything to prove national security credentials, no matter how false.

"Frozen Lightning" looks like an interesting read - turning over the rock of State of New Mexico politics.

Trapped On The Tarmac

Left: People spring up to exit America West Flight 212 at 2:23 a.m. in Albuquerque - and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait!

The flight in from Las Vegas/Sacramento was uneventful. There was a baby crying inconsolably. Weather was nice, traffic was light, but we were still not immune to screwups.

Apparently we were supposed to exit at Gate A4. We came in at Gate B3. The jetway operator apparently oversteered the jetway and broke it, incidentally also plunging us for a full minute into a onboard power failure. And there were no tug operators to tow us to another gate at that hour - all the Albuquerque Sunport airport workers had apparently gone to bed. So, we waited for a full hour before deplaning!

The only good part was the inconsolable baby was finally happy, once the plane stopped moving. The passengers were peeved, and the flight crew seemed pretty grim. The woman next to me repeated over and over, "I'll never fly America West again! I'll never fly America West again!"

Weekend Of "Camelot" - Combustible Trucks

Left: Davis firefighters inspect the truck that erupted in flame during "Camelot" Sunday afternoon (apparently an alternator was to blame).

Audiences were larger this weekend. Second Friday went reasonably well. Jon Jackson has been ill and so 'Fie On Goodness' felt strange, being slightly different than practiced in rehearsal: Leighton Worthey was called to carry a bit more of the singing duties, trading off with Jon. Saturday also went well. Sunday was a bit odd. We traded a rent-a-settee for the Evita love couch because it looked like the one we had was going to break on stage - something that might surprise and alarm actors and audience alike.

Sunday afternoon at DMTC was more exciting than usual. At the start of "Camelot's" 'What Do The Simple Folk Do?' Kat Holder came back stage in a flustered state, asking where the fire extinguisher was: a pickup truck had caught fire in front of the theater. I thought we had a fire extinguisher back stage, but when suddenly pressed to produce it, I couldn't remember where it was. The fire extinguisher was right there on the wall, just a few feet away, but there were set pieces partly obscuring the view, and the lights were low because of the show, which also served to hide the extinguisher's location, so I blanked.

The song sequence of 'What Do The Simple Folk Do?' is quite long, and the hall began to fill with smoke drifting in from outside as the scene progressed. If the fire had been in the theater, neither I or anyone would have hesitated to stop the show immediately, but since the fire was outside, the audience was still safe. Nevertheless, people could rely on their senses, onstage cast and audience alike, and they KNEW that not all was right (particularly when sirens could be heard approaching from the distance).

There was the distinct possibility the audience might leave on their own, or even panic. I remember once, in 1999, when I saw "Peony Pavilion", a modern Chinese opera at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, I nearly fled across the stage in mid-performance, in front of an audience of thousands, because I smelled smoke (from a match used to light incense). I was in the first row, and I would have preferred interrupting the show rather than having to fight with thousands over the narrow exits. Here, the smoke was much thicker, and it wasn't a match and it wasn't incense!

So, the ensuing delicate diplomatic dilemma:

Do you stop a show to inform the audience that, contrary to all they can sense, that they are still safe? And what to do about players (like Morgan La Fey - Anne Marie Trout), who are in inconvenient places to be quickly informed?

Because Kat had come back stage, most of the actors were quickly informed regarding what was going on, but there were three exceptions: Gil Sebastian and Marguerite Morris, performing on stage, and Anne Marie Trout, who had already climbed into position on an darkened, elevated platform for her upcoming scene. Her location was awkward: she was in view of the audience, she could not leave her post without assistance and she could not easily communicate with others. As smoke drifted in, she tried to signal other actors, to give warning and also to try to fathom what was going on. In the dark, she surreptitiously waved at Jon Mounts, across stage in the wings. Jon saw her wave, and gave a jolly wave in return. So much for communication!

Towards the end of the song, Lisa Holder, Kat's mom, and the lightboard operator, finally stopped the show, announcing the outside fire and also announcing that everyone was safe. I heard words of relief from Marguerite: the actors had been growing increasingly anxious. I popped onstage and Lisa asked me to summon Steve Isaacson. Steve came onstage (Steve, Dannette, and others had been out front dealing with the fire with two fire extinguishers kept under the side stairs in the lobby) and announced that a blue pickup truck had caught fire, and (to some laughter) inquired if anyone had parked out in front of the theater in a blue pickup truck. The audience remained mostly in place, the side rollup door was opened, as well as some of the other side doors, in order to increase ventilation. Then, to what would have normally been unacceptable levels of wing illumination, we continued with the rest of the show. Marguerite and Gil performed 'What Do The Simple Folk Do?' once again. The rollup door was partially-closed for the subsequent Morgan La Fey scene. And we finished the show, about twenty minutes later than usual.

Brief Hiatus - Trip to New Mexico

I'll be back on Thursday!

Exciting afternoon at DMTC. A pickup truck caught fire in front of the theater, and the hall began to fill with smoke at the start of "Camelot's" 'What Do The Simple Folk Do?' So, the ensuing delicate diplomatic dilemma:

Do you stop a show to inform the audience that, contrary to all they can sense, that they are still safe? And what to do about players (like Morgan La Fey - Anne Marie Trout), who are in inconvenient places to be quickly informed?

I'll elaborate in a few days!

Dave Cargo Makes A Funny

Cargo was not the most effective Governor in New Mexico's history, but he was always the funniest:

"If I was Heather Wilson, I'd be thinking about taking a long trip to Baghdad, where the conditions are a little more subdued."
--former New Mexico Gov. Dave Cargo, a Republican, on the fallout from the U.S. attorney purges

Advice From Pepper

I had a harder time than usual in Pepper Von's aerobics class this week - the joint to my left big toe hurt and I was out of shape from skipping class last week for "Camelot" tech week. So, after class, when we started chit-chatting, I wasn't surprised when he began asking some gentle questions, but I became curious when he began asking about my diet: cereal in the late morning, Subway sandwich in the late afternoon, frozen dinner in the wee hours, with assorted cookies and crackers. I was especially surprised by his recommendation:

I think you need to eat more calories.

That made my outer Fat Boy wake right up! Pepper said it's hard to keep up the high-energy activity if there isn't enough of an energy reserve already available, so he also recommended front-loading the calories in the morning, rather than backloading them late at night like I do now.

Changing my caloric intake timing, I get. That's a good idea. Increasing overall calorie intake: I don't know - given my restful desk job, that might be a major mistake. In any event, Pepper sure knows how to grab your attention if he wants to!

Tom Friedman's "The World Is Flat"

Thank God for blogs. You discover all kinds of wonders!

Here are selections from one of the funniest book reviews ever, of Tom Friedman's "The World Is Flat", by Matt Taibbi:

Thomas Friedman does not get these things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse, incapable of rendering even the smallest details without genius. The difference between Friedman and an ordinary bad writer is that an ordinary bad writer will, say, call some businessman a shark and have him say some tired, uninspired piece of dialogue: Friedman will have him spout it. And that's guaranteed, every single time. He never misses.

...The significance of Columbus's discovery was that on a round earth, humanity is more interconnected than on a flat one. On a round earth, the two most distant points are closer together than they are on a flat earth. But Friedman is going to spend the next 470 pages turning the "flat world" into a metaphor for global interconnectedness. Furthermore, he is specifically going to use the word round to describe the old, geographically isolated, unconnected world.

... Predictably, Friedman spends the rest of his huge book piling one insane image on top of the other, so that by the end—and I'm not joking here—we are meant to understand that the flat world is a giant ice-cream sundae that is more beef than sizzle, in which everyone can fit his hose into his fire hydrant, and in which most but not all of us are covered with a mostly good special sauce.

... Let's speak Friedmanese for a moment and examine just a few of the notches on these antlers (Friedman, incidentally, measures the flattening of the world in notches, i.e. "The flattening process had to go another notch"; I'm not sure where the notches go in the flat plane, but there they are.) Flattener #1 is actually two flatteners, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the spread of the Windows operating system. In a Friedman book, the reader naturally seizes up in dread the instant a suggestive word like "Windows" is introduced; you wince, knowing what's coming, the same way you do when Leslie Nielsen orders a Black Russian. And Friedman doesn't disappoint. His description of the early 90s:

The walls had fallen down and the Windows had opened, making the world much flatter than it had ever been—but the age of seamless global communication had not yet dawned.

How the fuck do you open a window in a fallen wall? More to the point, why would you open a window in a fallen wall? Or did the walls somehow fall in such a way that they left the windows floating in place to be opened?

Four hundred and 73 pages of this, folks. Is there no God?

Bev Sykes' Review Of "Camelot"

Everyone experienced this moment at least once:

Up to this point it has been a delightful first scene. As the royal couple exited, the curtains closed and Lancelot du Lac (Tae Kim) appeared in a spotlight. When Kim opened his mouth to sing, everybody in the near-capacity audience sat up straighter. We all experienced a stunning moment together. Kim, a medical student newly moved to the Davis area, is, amazingly, making his very first theatrical appearance--ever, yet he has the confidence of a seasoned professional and a voice worthy of any professional production. He lifted the production to a higher level.

Mysterious Hominid

Me no Tarzan, me no Jane, who am me?:

It wasn't exactly a Bigfoot sighting, but motorists reported seeing someone wearing a gorilla suit in the center divide of Interstate 280 on the Peninsula at the start of this evening's rush hour, the California Highway Patrol said.

National Scandal, New Mexico Angle

From Josh Marshall:

So there it is. Former US Attorney David Iglesias has now all but named Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) as the two members of Congress who pressured him to indict a New Mexico Democrat before the November election. He didn't use their names. But he said they were "two members of the New Mexico delegation." The other three have each categorically denied it was them.

The Virus Is Deep

Associated Press goes cold turkey about mentioning Paris Hilton at all, and ends up going rabid after a week.

Flippant Tony Snow

I was disturbed by the flip attitude expressed by White House Press Secretary Tony Snow regarding the level of training new U.S. 'surge' troops will get before going to Iraq:

White House press secretary Tony Snow on reports that two U.S. combat brigades will "surge" into Iraq without undergoing the usual counterinsurgency training in California's Mojave Desert first: "Well, but they can get desert training elsewhere, like in Iraq."

There was a big article last year in the New York Times regarding this kind of training. Even though it occurs at Ft. Irwin in the Mojave Desert, it is not desert training. They've set up a mock Iraqi town, and soldiers learn vital skills, like how to hold a town full of civilians without compromising basic security by trusting the wrong people. They also teach soldiers urban street fighting, with particular focus on Iraqi conditions. Without this focused training, 'surge' soldiers will be painfully underequipped for the chaotic realities of Iraq - sitting ducks, really. Training saves lives. For Snow to gloss over that is shameful.

Horse's Head In The Bed?

Interesting suggestion that the suicide bomber who attacked the gate at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan when Dick Cheney was there may have been delivering an unmistakable message from Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to ditch the idea of pressuring Musharraf about his current appeasement policy regarding the Taliban. The fact the bomber hit when Cheney was there suggests a security breach (presumably the Pakistanis knew where Cheney was going), yet the fact the base wasn't hit harder suggests no assassination attempt. Just - a message.

Australian Weather Forecasts Diverge Over The Next Week

The NOGAPS synoptic forecast model, the one I trust most, suggests that a tropical storm will soon develop off the coast of Queensland and be in a position, on Monday and Tuesday, to cause some rainfall in the Brisbane area as it passes southward offshore. Although the model doesn't suggest the rains will penetrate that far inland, it may be in a position to help Lake Wivenhoe a little (this morning at 19.41% storage).

The Queensland office of the Australia Bureau of Meteorology is taking this development seriously.

Nevertheless, there is an interesting divergence of opinions about Australian weather over the next week.

NOGAPS also suggests that the tropical low now over Arnhem land in the Northern Territories will blossom into a major tropical cyclone, and perhaps menace the West Australia coast in 10 days or so.

The Darwin office of the Australia Bureau of Meteorology is currently dismissive of the chances of that tropical low developing.

I've noticed that NOGAPS tends to overestimate the chances of tropical cyclones developing, in general, so maybe the Darwin office has reason to be complacent, but it will be interesting to watch and see who is right.

Can't Remember The Details

Nominated to an ambassadorship, a major contributor to the Swift Boats Veterans has to testify directly to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry about his role.

When Reporters Talk To Meteorologists

When tech talk raised its ugly head, tribune shrugged shoulders and said:

Weatherwatch spokesman Anthony Cornelius said cooler air in the upper levels across southern Australia had led to higher storm activity than usual because rising hot air was hitting a cold level, leading to heavy rainfall.

No Snow

Tokyo fails to get snow in the December-February period for the first time in 130 years, since 1876.

The Enabler Speaks

Bob Woodward, who has done more than almost anyone to propel Bush Administration lies in the press, with his celebrity books and failures to report on news in a timely fashion, now worries about his handiwork. Typically, he casts blame on unrealistic deadlines, but the fault is not being able to recognize when he is being used.

The celebrated Washington Post reporter said the media should have done more to verify whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had secret weapons as alleged by US President George W. Bush as a reason to go to war.

"We should have been much more aggressive," Woodward told a conference in Tokyo.

"I've thought what I could have done," he said. "The only way to find out if (weapons of mass destruction) really existed is to get on the ground."

But he said the round-the-clock deadlines of the modern media were hampering investigative journalism.

"It's a crazy media environment. We need to slow it down. We need weeks, months or even years to work on stories," Woodward said.

... "The real impulse is to make the government accountable so we do not get a secret government," Woodward said.

"The nightmare is that the president gets so closed off, so secretive, so convinced they are doing the right thing or just unable to face the possibility that they've made a very, very serious mistake," he said.

Too late, Bob! Just take a look at Dick Cheney - if you can find him! And the nightmare applies to the press, too. After all, you had a significant piece of the Plame puzzle (the identity of Richard Armitage as the prime leaker) in your hands, for years, and didn't report on it because it seemed like such a nothing, and so contrary to the interests of the Bush Administration, and maybe useful in a future book. Thanks a lot, Bob, for the 'closed off, so secretive, so convinced they are doing the right thing' press! How people like you are going to make the government accountable, when they are busy doing the government favors, is beyond me!

Intriguing Memo

Excerpts from Pentagon #2 Gordon England's memo regarding Pentagon goals over the next year reads like so much clunky government-speak, but it also suggests that liberals are right to complain that the Global War on Terror is just a Republican partisan project.

So "to ensure that warfighters and taxpayers receive maximum benefit from on-going initiatives," England suggested, "it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008."

Just in time for the election! Victory in the Global War on Terror will likely be proclaimed in October, 2008, just like Vietnam's 'Peace Is At Hand' was proclaimed by Kissinger and Nixon in October, 1972. And Al Qaeda? Who cares about those folks! This war was never about them anyway.

"Camelot" - First Weekend

Left: Seen from behind and below - Anne Marie Trout as Morgan Le Fey.

Gil Sebastian as King Arthur, Paul Fearn as Pellinor, and Adam Sartain as Dinadan.

Jon Jackson as Mordred, and Anne Marie Trout as Morgan Le Fey.

Anne Marie Trout as Morgan Le Fey.

Left: The enchantment of Merlin. Left: Meg King as Nimue Dancer and Paul Fearn as Merlin. Above, Bridget Maguire as Nimue Singer.

Left: Gil Sebastian as King Arthur.

Should The Democrats Get Involved?

I'm of two minds about this:

National Democrats on Tuesday urged Republican Party chairman Mel Martinez to stop the independent College Republicans from holding "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" events around the country.

... "These despicable tactics have no place in our public discourse or on our college campuses," the letter said.

The game is a variation of hide and seek, with one player posing as an illegal immigrant and everyone else trying to find the person. The winner usually gets a prize.

Tracy Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said "we find these activities both egregious and offensive and condemn them wholeheartedly." But she noted the College Republicans are independent of the RNC: "We do not control their activities."

Independent my ass, but that's another argument. This game sounds offensive enough, and worth complaining about, but it also sounds like it's designed to bait Democrats into a whiny, politically-correct protest. Why not let the Republicans alienate people with their little game? Give 'em rope, I say. Just show up with a bunch of video cameras and get material for TV ads aimed at the Hispanic market during campaign season.

Breeding Ground For Australian Cyclones

It's been a pretty dreadful summer 'rainy' season Down Under, at least in the Brisbane area, where Lake Wivenhoe continues to drain away, but up along the northern coast, they've been getting lots of rain, and now that the cyclone season is in full swing, they likely will get even more.

The cyclone likely kicking up this week will germinate in the Gulf of Carpentaria, but will be raised in the warm, sheltered Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, which looks like the perfect breeding ground for tropical storms. From there, they spring westwards across the Indian Ocean, where they soon recurve upon meeting the mid-latitude westerlies and come crashing into more-populated coastal areas down south, towards Perth.

"Smokey Joe's Cafe" - RSP

Opens this weekend! The one week offset from DMTC's "Camelot" means I'll at least have a chance of seeing it!

"It's About Time" St. Patrick's Day Concert At Davis High School

Plans for Saturday evening, St. Patrick's Day, look too tame? Andy Sullivan suggests:

[T]he jazz band that I play in is doing a benefit concert to support the Davis Unified Junior High School Music departments on March 17th at 7 PM. It will be a fun evening of great music. The show will open with the big band from Emerson Junior High School, followed up by the small group jazz stylings of the Holmes Junior High School jazz combos. After a short intermission the It's About Time Band will come to knock your socks off. Tickets are $10 and all of the proceeds go to the Junior High Music departments at Emerson, Harper, and Holmes Junior High Schools. You can find all of the information about this concert (and the It's About Time Band) at http://www.itsabouttimeband.com/.

This looks like an excellent joint concert, to help out all the Davis junior high music departments! Lots of good dancing opportunities!

Sparky, Get Your Ass On That Moon!

So, she likes dogs too!:

Kylie Minogue may have dumped Olivier Martinez, but she is still in love with his dog.

The 'Spinning Around' singer, who ended her four-year relationship with the 41-year-old French actor earlier this month, can't give up her ex-lover's pet pooch Sheba.

During a recent trip to Paris for a cancer check-up at the Institute Gustave Roussy Kylie stayed at Olivier's apartment and took Sheba out for a walk.

Scissor Sisters singer Jake Shears, who is good friends with Kylie, told Britain's Grazia magazine: "Kylie loves that dog. I'm sure she'll still see her whenever she likes."

Darwin Candidate Goes High Tech

Some activities do not mix:

A 28-year-old Chico man was killed Monday after he lost control of his car while working on his laptop computer while driving, according to the California Highway Patrol.

"We have reason to believe he was operating his laptop because it was still on and plugged into the cigarette lighter," said CHP Cmdr. Scott Silsbee.

It's Hard To Kill Zombies

Witness:

Cheney OK after Afghan blast; 23 killed

Robbie Waters Campaign Funds

Looks like Robbie Waters doesn't understand the concept of CORRUPTION!:

City Councilman Robbie Waters' campaign finance records show he's paid himself $500 each month since July 2004 to house a district office for constituents in his framing shop in south Sacramento -- a potential violation of state law.

...Asked where the 7th District office is in the Rush River Drive store, Waters explained that it is hidden behind a partition -- and that the public can't go in it because of liability issues.

And just who decides what the rent is, Robbie? Who? Who? Who? And can I rent some space there too? I don't want to actually house anything there, understand I just want to spend $10,000 a month renting the space - because you are such a nice guy, and we see eye-to-eye!

Campaign finance experts, however, suggest that paying himself $6,000 a year from his campaign funds for a district office may not be a "legitimate expenditure," regardless of whether he set up the office in the leased framing shop.

State Government Code 89517 prohibits using campaign funds to purchase real property, or to lease property controlled by a candidate, a candidate's family member or a campaign member with authority to approve committee expenditures, according to Fair Political Practices Commission documents.

Robert Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, drafted the state's Political Reform Act. "The bottom line is, you shouldn't be enriching yourself with campaign funds," Stern said.

This is a penny ante version of the same practice that got John Doolittle into so much trouble in his last campaign.

Elected to the City Council in 1994, Waters said he has been using campaign funds to pay for his district office for years and that nothing in the city codes prohibits it.

"I'm very comfortable that what I'm doing is not a violation of the city law," Waters said. "If it is a violation of state law, I'd certainly take a look at it."

Of the mayor and eight council members, Waters is the only one who paid himself from campaign funds to maintain a district office in the past three years.

Campaign records show that from July 2004 through December 2006, Waters paid his framing business $12,400 in rent for a district office. Waters would not disclose the store's monthly lease payment, saying the amount is immaterial.

In addition to the office rent, Waters paid his son, Dan Waters, $2,000 for consulting work and the councilman spent nearly $4,000 for phones, a computer, construction work and other expenses for the framing shop's district office, the records show.

Dumb, dumber, dummier....

JoAnn Fuller, executive director of California Common Cause, said Waters' expenditures offer a good reason the city of Sacramento should have an ethics commission to monitor how campaign funds are spent.

"The law prohibits these arrangements because they effectively funnel dollars from campaign donors directly into the pocket of an elected official," Fuller said. "The risk of self-dealing is compounded when the funds are not even spent on legitimate campaign purposes."

Last week, the City Council voted 5-4 to form a task force to examine creating an ethics commission or an ethics officer post, charged with investigating contributions and possible campaign violations. Waters was among those who voted no.

Vote bought and paid for? Hard to tell!

The council also approved closing some loopholes in its matching funds program for candidates accepting public money. One of the fixes bars those candidates from giving public funds to their own business or to a family member.

However, this restriction applies only to those taking matching funds -- it's not likely to include incumbents, such as Waters, or other well-funded politicians. Waters voted no on the amendment changes.

Waters said he sees a difference between what the council voted to prohibit and his own campaign expenditures. "They're using public money, I'm not," Waters said.

Campaign funds are not public money, but they aren't private money either, they are campaign money, the most radioactive kind of money. Ask yourself, Robbie, would this money be coming to you if you weren't in public office? The answer is "NO!" and hence you must NOT enrich yourself with it, or APPEAR to be enriching yourself with it, or your family members, or close associates.

Councilwoman Lauren Hammond, who heads the council's Law and Legislation Committee that reviewed the proposed amendments to the city's campaign finance code, pushed for the restriction.

Before last week's vote, she said she believed that spending campaign funds on a candidate's own business, or giving it to family members, was a conflict of interest. "People shouldn't be making money off their candidacy, with or without public funds," Hammond said.

Hammond is absolutely correct here!

TV Weather Forecasts

Apparently local meteorologists bobble the forecast quite often. As an air quality meteorologist, I sympathize very much. After all (casting blame elsewhere) the dearth of temperature soundings over the nearby Pacific Ocean practically guarantees bad forecasts (although this weakness can be mitigated by carefully reading the satellite pictures).

In New Mexico, my Dad had an explanation for the bad forecasts. "Marc, they lie," as he used to say. "No, they don't," I used to reply, "they use the very best information they can get their hands on, it's just sometimes not enough." He responded, "liars, liars, liars!"

The New Mexico solution, as elsewhere, is to put a good gladhander up on the tube. KOAT-TV had Howard Morgan doing the weather for years, and KOB-TV pulled science whiz-bang George Fischbeck off of educational KNME-TV to do their weather for awhile, until George went to LA and became a local star there. These days, Joe Diaz rules KOAT-TV, because it's easier to stomach the lies, or whatever they are, from an amiable person named Diaz, than for any other particular reason.

"Camelot" - Saturday And Sunday

We got a little more sure-footed over the rest of weekend. The Saturday audience was quite small (it was raining, but Lauren and MikeMac came out), but the Sunday audience was quite large.

Still having trouble with the set change going into "Guenevere": on Sunday, I didn't get the back curtain open when it should have (I was worried about Gil's footing).

Get well soon, Alex!

Lieberman's Op-Ed

In today's Wall Street Journal, Joe Lieberman appeals to all of us Iraq naysayers to just shut up until summer. I would if he would, and he won't, so I won't:

Two months into the 110th Congress, Washington has never been more bitterly divided over our mission in Iraq.

This is the natural consequence of having committed hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives over four years, and having almost nothing to show for it.

Congress thus faces a choice in the weeks and months ahead. Will we allow our actions to be driven by the changing conditions on the ground in Iraq--or by the unchanging political and ideological positions long ago staked out in Washington? What ultimately matters more to us: the real fight over there, or the political fight over here?

No political position has been more fixed and more bloodthirsty, or so little affected by the "real fight over there," than Lieberman's.

For the first time in the Iraqi capital, the focus of the U.S. military is not just training indigenous forces or chasing down insurgents, but ensuring basic security--meaning an end, at last, to the large-scale sectarian slaughter and ethnic cleansing that has paralyzed Iraq for the past year.

If only it would end, Mr. Lieberman. Unrealistic, pollyannish hopes hardly seem appropriate at this time, particularly since the U.S. seems to be in retreat to Baghdad.

Al Qaeda's stated strategy in Iraq has been to provoke a Sunni-Shiite civil war, precisely because they recognize that it is their best chance to radicalize the country's politics, derail any hope of democracy in the Middle East, and drive the U.S. to despair and retreat. It also takes advantage of what has been the single greatest American weakness in Iraq: the absence of sufficient troops to protect ordinary Iraqis from violence and terrorism.

And yet, the U.S. Administration has never made averting a Civil War a priority, because it never understood that it was a possibility until far too late, nor supported placing sufficient troops in Iraq, because it did understand just how unpopular a move that would be at home. The Administration still doesn't understand how ineffective English-speaking U.S. troops are at securing basic security in a hostile foreign setting, but that will come soon enough (previous historic culture-clashing examples include the failed Napoleonic French occupation of Spain). It's sad how easily we play into Al Qaeda's hands....

The new strategy at last begins to tackle these problems. Where previously there weren't enough soldiers to hold key neighborhoods after they had been cleared of extremists and militias, now more U.S. and Iraqi forces are either in place or on the way. Where previously American forces were based on the outskirts of Baghdad, unable to help secure the city, now they are living and working side-by-side with their Iraqi counterparts on small bases being set up throughout the capital.

And so what happens in the outskirts of Baghdad now? Politics abhors a vacuum, after all!

At least four of these new joint bases have already been established in the Sunni neighborhoods in west Baghdad--the same neighborhoods where, just a few weeks ago, jihadists and death squads held sway. In the Shiite neighborhoods of east Baghdad, American troops are also moving in--and Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi army are moving out.

Hmmmm..... I'm unconvinced. It's not as if the Mahdi army is an occupier - east Baghdad is it's home turf. The only way the U.S. can 'secure' these neighborhoods is by either killing everyone there, or chasing everybody away.

But the fact is that we are in a different place in Iraq today from even just a month ago--with a new strategy, a new commander, and more troops on the ground. We are now in a stronger position to ensure basic security--and with that, we are in a stronger position to marginalize the extremists and strengthen the moderates; a stronger position to foster the economic activity that will drain the insurgency and militias of public support; and a stronger position to press the Iraqi government to make the tough decisions that everyone acknowledges are necessary for progress.

A change of strategy is not a stronger position. The strategy is changing because the position is extremely weak. Will alone is insufficient against bullets and bombs.

Unfortunately, for many congressional opponents of the war, none of this seems to matter. As the battle of Baghdad just gets underway, they have already made up their minds about America's cause in Iraq, declaring their intention to put an end to the mission before we have had the time to see whether our new plan will work.

Four years, buster! Four years! How many times do we have to go down this same lethal road?

There is of course a direct and straightforward way that Congress could end the war, consistent with its authority under the Constitution: by cutting off funds. Yet this option is not being proposed. Critics of the war instead are planning to constrain and squeeze the current strategy and troops by a thousand cuts and conditions.

Whatever works!

In fact, halting the current security operation at midpoint, as virtually all of the congressional proposals seek to do, would have devastating consequences. It would put thousands of American troops already deployed in the heart of Baghdad in even greater danger--forced to choose between trying to hold their position without the required reinforcements or, more likely, abandoning them outright. A precipitous pullout would leave a gaping security vacuum in its wake, which terrorists, insurgents, militias and Iran would rush to fill--probably resulting in a spiral of ethnic cleansing and slaughter on a scale as yet unseen in Iraq.

The lesson of Vietnam - the lesson of the Cambodian incursion - is that the longer we stay, the more likely the worst-case outcome will be. If we had not invaded Cambodia, it would not have been drawn into that war and there would not have been a genocide. The longer we persist in Iraq, the more likely we will indirectly get tens of thousands killed, and maybe many more, by pressing on and on, harder and harder, perhaps by invading Iran as well, until we trigger truly calamitous disaster....

Gen. Petraeus says he will be able to see whether progress is occurring by the end of the summer, so let us declare a truce in the Washington political war over Iraq until then.

Are you kidding? And let you creeps throw more lives into the bonfire unopposed?

We are at a critical moment in Iraq--at the beginning of a key battle, in the midst of a war that is irretrievably bound up in an even bigger, global struggle against the totalitarian ideology of radical Islamism.

Fantasy. Delusion. Madness.

Is It The Chicken, Or The Egg?

Men who take lots of common painkillers are more likely to have high blood pressure, but is it because of the painkillers and their effects, or is it that men who need lots of painkillers are in poorer health to begin with? I'm so confused!

Popular painkillers such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen can raise blood pressure and thus the risk of heart disease among men, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Men who took such drugs for most days in a week were about one-third more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than men not taking them, the researchers found.

Sparky's Heart Medicine

My dog Sparky has been taking this medication for a year, but this is the first time I've checked to see what it actually does. It makes for interesting reading:

BRAND NAME: ENACARD OR VASOTEC

BACKGROUND
Enalapril is an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, also called an ACE inhibitor, or simply an ACEI. In order to understand what this means, it is important to have some understanding of the body’s renin-angiotensin system, an important hormonal mechanism used in times of blood pressure drop.

The kidney is a uniquely well perfused organ, receiving approximately 25% of the blood pumped by the heart directly. Given this fact, it is not surprising that the kidney would possess special areas for the sensing blood pressure changes. In the event of a drop in blood pressure, as might occur with a significant bleed or in heart failure, the kidney’s sensors perceive this drop and release a special hormone called renin.

The healthy liver normally produces a substance called angiotensinogen that innocuously floats around in the blood in case of a blood pressure emergency. Should angiotensinogen meet up with renin, an activation reaction occurs leading to the production of angiotensin I. As angiotensin I in the blood circulates eventually into the lungs where an enzyme called angiotensin converting enzyme converts angiotensin I into angiotensin II.

Angiotensin II acts as the superhero in this time of need. It is probably the most powerful constrictor of blood vessels known. This helps re-route circulation so as to preserve blood flow to the most important organs: the brain, heart and kidney.

As you might guess, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor curtails the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II. Why would we want to reduce levels of a life-saving protein like angiotensin II?

One must remember that the above system evolved to protect us from blood loss due to injury as might occur in an attack from an enemy or predator. It was not designed to protect us from a more chronic blood pressure drop such as progressive heart failure. The re-routing of circulation produced by angiotensin II leads to more blood returning to the heart and more blood for the heart to pump forward. The failing heart cannot handle this extra work and will fail more rapidly.

Enalapril effectively acts as a dilator of blood vessels. This effect opens up circulation peripherally. (If one thinks of the circulation as a roadway system, this is analogous to achieving less highway congestion by opening more side streets.) Blood pressure drops and the heart has less work.