Tom Faranda's Folly

Edwards supports raising taxes - and gets standing ovation from Democratic Party faithful in California

Here's a possible look into the future as Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards proposes a return to the nineties.

Edwards pitches Clinton-era taxes - Nation/Politics - insider.washingtontimes.com

SAN DIEGO -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday raising taxes for higher-income families back to their levels under the Clinton administration is a floor, not a ceiling, and he would consider even higher tax increases.
    "What I believe is the starting place is to go back to the Clinton levels," Mr. Edwards told reporters after addressing the 2,000 delegates to California's state Democratic Party convention.

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But Mr. Edwards said (the budget deficit) that's not his top priority .
    "I believe it is more important to bring about the transformation," he said, pointing to his universal health care plan, achieving independence from foreign energy and reducing global warming emissions. "Some people believe it's more important to push those things off and reduce the deficit -- the deficit's the priority."

Grandma has a birthday

My mother Jeanne turned 81 yesterday. Phil and Jim both visited her over the weekend and she came to our house for her birthday. Here she is with two of her eight grandchildren.

At the beginning of June she'll be going to her 60th college reunion at Mt. St. Vincent's, with her roommate Dolores Cammarata, who is my Godmother.

NY Times feature article on "chemotherapy fog" - the effects of chemotherapy on cognitive function

The Times had a fairly long feature today on the link between chemotherapy and cognitive problems like memory loss and the ability to concentrate.

Unfortunately the prima donnas at the Times only allow their articles to be accessed for free online for one week following publication (unless you're an NYT subscriber or have a Times Select online subscription). However if you come across this posting too late to access the article online, email me and I will email you a copy.

I must say, I don't believe I exhibited any of the difficulties mentioned in this article during my five months of chemotherapy (of course, there was the time I brushed my teeth with Preparation H... related here Tom Faranda's Folly: Midday of RICE, day 2.  ) but there's now lots of evidence that at least short term cognitive impariment effects many people during and after their chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy Fog Is No Longer Ignored as Illusion - New York Times

But attitudes are changing as a result of a flurry of research and new attention to the after-effects of life-saving treatment. There is now widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not imagining things, and a growing number of oncologists are rushing to offer remedies, including stimulants commonly used for attention-deficit disorder and acupuncture.

“Until recently, oncologists would discount it, trivialize it, make patients feel it was all in their heads,” said Dr. Daniel Silverman, a cancer researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies the cognitive side effects of chemotherapy. “Now there’s enough literature, even if it’s controversial, that not mentioning it as a possibility is either ignorant or an evasion of professional duty.”

That shift matters to patients.

“Chemo brain is part of the language now, and just to have it acknowledged makes a difference,” said Anne Grant, 57, who owns a picture-framing business in New York City. Ms. Grant, who had high-dose chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in 1995, said she could not concentrate well enough to read, garbled her sentences and struggled with simple decisions like which socks to wear.

Virtually all cancer survivors who have had toxic treatments like chemotherapy experience short-term memory loss and difficulty concentrating during and shortly afterward, experts say. But a vast majority improve. About 15 percent, or roughly 360,000 of the nation’s 2.4 million female breast cancer survivors, the group that has dominated research on cognitive side effects, remain distracted years later, according to some experts. And nobody knows what distinguishes this 15 percent.

Medivac units in Iraq

The Washington Times had a relatively short, very fascinating article on the helicopter evacuation ambulances, and their work saving soldiers - American and Iraqi - as well as civilians wounded by terror bombers in Iraq. Well worth hitting the link and reading the whole thing.

'They know they are getting out' - World - insider.washingtontimes.com

Suddenly, the phone rang. The team was on its feet and in the headquarters office within seconds. Two Iraqi army injured, came the message. In Amariyah, western Baghdad.
    Less than 10 minutes later, the pilot, co-pilot, medic and crew chief had on their body armor and the helicopter was taking off. It was 11:32 a.m.
    Flying fast over date palm farms and rivers, it took just a few minutes more to reach western Baghdad; Sgt. Kimbriel had pulled on latex gloves and was readying himself to pick up the patients. Sgt. Orange, his roommate and friend, was right behind, flying "chase" in a second helicopter.
    Sgt. Kimbriel jumped out into the dust cloud raised by the rotor blades as the first Blackhawk touched down at an Iraqi army post in the middle of a Sunni insurgent area.
    Moments later, he returned leading a group of Iraqis with a soldier who had suffered a partial amputation of his right leg. By the time the helicopter lifted off, Sgt. Kimbriel was cutting off the man's shirt.
    He leaned over, looked the man in the eyes as he started to shake on the metal litter, and held up a forefinger to reassure him: "One minute" until they would reach the U.S. hospital inside the walled Green Zone, he said.
    During that minute, Sgt. Kimbriel removed the rest of the man's shirt, checked his entire body for other injuries, found some perforations on his right side, checked his blood oxygen levels, and wrote up a report.
    It was 11:54 a.m. -- just 22 minutes after lifting off from the medevac helicopter flight-line -- when the Blackhawk pilot set down softly outside the hospital, where doctors, nurses and interpreters were waiting.
    A half hour later, the crew had flown back over Baghdad, banking hard right and left to evade any ground fire, refueled and landed back in the parking lot of the camp.
    The speed and proficiency of the four-man team has saved the lives of hundreds of people, ranging from U.S. soldiers wounded by roadside bombs to small children caught in the crossfire.
    Since Sept. 16, 2006, this medevac company has flown 1,786 missions and cared for 2,806 patients. Of those missions, 275 victims have been "roadsides" -- U.S. soldiers or Iraqis wounded by roadside bombs.

Health - blood counts

The numbers came in almost identical to last week's counts. WBC is 2.2 (2.0 last week) and the key component number, the absolute neut's. is 0.8 (last week 0.9). So no neulasta shot this week, and I see the hematologist next Friday.

Timely Washington Post editorial "Food for the World"

This Sunday is "Bread for the World" Sunday, where participating Churches urge their members to do some lobbying of Congress by mail, post card, fax, etc, on hunger issues.

Whether by plan or coincidence, the Washington Post has an editorial on the subject, addressing some deficiencies in how the U.S. distributes food aid where and when needed:

Food for the World - washingtonpost.com

THE UNITED States is, by far, the largest donor of food in the world. But the U.S. Agency for International Development might feed many more people if it didn't have to comply with several troublesome congressional mandates.

USAID must buy only American-grown foodstuffs and cover the cost of transporting them abroad. Even worse, three-quarters of food aid must be transported by American carriers...

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To address these deficiencies, President Bush has proposed giving USAID the authority to disburse up to a quarter of its Food for Peace budget to buy staples from foreign producers close to food emergencies. Mr. Bush's proposal would allow USAID to respond more nimbly to famines and other disasters and enhance the program's efficiency. The agency has calculated that it could save tens of thousands of lives during crises if the measure passed. If in some instances local purchasing would not result in lives and money saved or might negatively distort certain foreign markets, USAID could simply choose not to exercise its authority to make purchases locally.

If this reform sounds like a no-brainer, it is. It's been embraced not just by the Bush administration but by former president Bill Clinton and liberal Democrats such as Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank. Catholic Relief Services has endorsed the plan. Yet Congress has rejected it twice.

Health update

I am off to Sloan Kettering for the weekly blood count in a few minutes. Will probably have the results by the mid-afternoon.

Meanwhile, my cough is back.

Out with the old car and in with the new

Well, our three year lease on the Mercury Mountaineer runs out this coming Monday, so yesterday we turned it in, for a Ford Edge.

I must say, I loved the Mountaineer. Loved the all wheel drive, the elevated view from the front seats, and all the room. I didn't even mind the truck-like suspension and ride. The Mountaineer has probably been my all time favorite vehicle (except maybe for the Dodge that I drove in the mid seventies. Had a gear shift on the column).

Here's the Mountaineer (by the way, the Mountaineer is the Mercury version of the Ford Explorer) at a luncheon picnic stop on our way to Hershey, PA last summer.

 

And here's Tim a few days ago when we were looking at the Croton Dam, popping through the moon roof.

But we realized that we rarely used all the space in the Mountaineer, rarely had anyone, even kids, in the third row, and the lease cost for a new Mountaineer has gone up. And of course gas mileage averaged only about 17 mpg.

So after a careful look we violated the rule about not buying a newly introduced model, and got the Ford Edge. We got interested in the Edge because last weekend we were out with our friends the Novotny's in their Nissan Murano, and liked it a lot. And the Edge is designed to compete directly with the Murano - they look very similar. We actually considered quite a few vehicles, from the Mercury Milan to the Subaru Outback, but when we priced everything and looked at the features, the Edge was the clear winner. We did not get a premium model - no moon roof, no climate control, but nowadays even the basic models are packed with features.

The Edge got a big thumbs up from the boys. Tim insisted Brigid drive him around in it, and Joe spent most of the afternoon reading the manual.

Here's what it looks like:

Here's Joe, who doesn't like his picture taken these days - he was going over the features ("Dad, the CD player holds and plays 6 CD's". So glad he discovered that one!)

So the Edge (on a three year lease, and hopefully averaging around 21 mpg) joins our second-hand 2000 Dodge Caravan (which is really starting to look long in the tooth) in the driveway.

But I will miss the Mountaineer.

Cancer and political candidates

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting editorial this morning (free access to this one) on political candidates and the necessity of them to fully disclose any health issues.

Cancer and the Candidates  OpinionJournal - Featured Article

Mr. Thompson has indolent lymphoma, a historically incurable but often symptom-free and highly treatable form of cancer, so based on his doctor's advice he was able to predict that he is likely to live a normal life. But that's not the only reason why, just a couple of weeks after his health news, we could read a news report about a possible Thompson candidacy that didn't even mention cancer until relatively late in the story. Times have changed, both for cancer prognoses and the way we look at the disease.

Ask two other Republican hopefuls, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani, both of whom have had cancer--as have John Kerry and a host of politicians around the country. They, along with people like Lance Armstrong, are only the famous faces among millions of Americans who have benefited from advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment. The disease remains a cruel killer in too many cases. What almost everybody now knows, however, is that it is not an automatic death sentence, and increasingly can be subdued or managed.

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No one who has had a serious health problem can know for sure what will happen in the future. Yet precisely because Americans are more and more willing to hope for the best, candidates have a special responsibility to speak truthfully about their health.

By being open about his cancer, Fred Thompson seems to be keeping up his end of a tentative deal with voters that says: If you tell us what's going on, we won't automatically assume you're not fit for office. But the emerging bargain is still a fragile one. Anything less than candor from a candidate, and it may be broken beyond repair.

The stock market rise

Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial average blew through the 13,000 mark - up 136 points to 13,085. The S & P 500 and NASDAQ indexes are also up, although not to record levels. And the Dow Jones is an index of only 30 stocks - not as accurate an index to follow if you want to know what the "average" stock is doing.

Nevertheless it's significant.

Almost exactly two months ago - February 27th - I wrote about the sudden drop in stock prices. (If you read the banner at the top of this weblog, you'll see I am a financial advisor, although I VERY rarely write about this aspect of my life.)

Here's the posting, which now appears prescient (patting myself on the back as I type this). I suggest you read (or re-read) the whole thing, and I've taken the liberty of quoting myself below.

Tom Faranda's Folly: The stock market drop

Three, it's very likely that this is a buying opportunity. If you have cash reserves that's you've been holding onto, hoping to buy some individual stocks or mutual funds, now's a good time to start buying.

Newspaper readership continues to dwindle

Competition from other outlets, and especially the internet, is slowly killing newspapers.

FAS-FAX Preview: Circ Numbers To Take Another Big Hit

According to industry sources, overall daily circulation for the six months ending March 2007 is expected to sink approximately 2.5% while Sunday will drop around 3.0%.

Yet again, major metro papers are bearing the brunt of the responsibility for the declines. Papers that are showing daily drops of 5% or more, according to circulation sources, include: The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J., The Orange County (Calif.) Register, The Austin American-Statesman, the San Jose Mercury News, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

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At the big three national papers, The Wall Street Journal reported that daily circulation rose 0.6% to 2,062,000. USA Today is expected to show gains, according to sources.

The New York Times, however, will most likely be flat to down according to comments made by executives during a Q1 earnings call last week. "We are expecting circulation declines at our properties, slight declines to mid-single digits," said New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson during the call. She attributed the drops to the trimming of third-party circulation -- part of the other-paid category, which also includes employee, hotel, and Newspapers in Education copies -- and a focus on individually paid categories.

Rudy Giuliani comments in Manchester, New Hampshire yesterday.

I am not a Giuliani supporter but he's 100% right on this... I guess he agrees with McCain and Lieberman (and Faranda).  Ohhh, and Bush.

Wishful thinking won't get us very far.

GIULIANI:  This war ends when they stop planning to come here and kill us, but until then, if I have anything to say about it, the lesson that I learned coming out of September 11, 2001, is: never, ever again will this country be on defense waiting for them to attack us. (applause) The United States of America will be on offense (applause) and make no mistake about it, the Democrats want to put us back on defense.

GIULIANI:  The Democrats -- and I could make a lot of other points about this -- do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorists' war against us.  But I listened a little bit to the Democratic debates and I think I could be slightly wrong about this, but I think this is almost correct.  If one of them gets elected it's almost like we're going on defense, where we've got a timetable for withdrawal of Iraq. We're going to wave the white flag there. We're going to try to cut back on the Patriot Act. We're going to cut back on electronic surveillance. We're going to cut back on interrogation. We're going to cut back, cut back, cut back -- and we'll be back in our pre-September 11 mentality of being on defense.

GIULIANI:  The question is going to be, "How long does it take, and how many losses do we have along the way?"  And I truly believe if we go back on defense for a period of time, we can ultimately have more losses and it's going to go on much longer.  The power of our ideas is so great we'll eventually prevail.  The real question is, "How do we get there?"  Do we get there in a way in which it is as expeditious as possible and with as little loss of life as possible, or do we get there in some circuitous fashion.

GIULIANI:  They hate us, not because of anything bad we've done.  This has nothing to do with any aggression on the part of the United States of America. It has nothing to do with anything America is taking from anyone. It has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine.  They hate us for the freedoms that we have and the freedoms that we want to share with the world, because the freedoms that we have and the freedoms that we want to share with the world are in conflict with their perverted interpretation of their religion, their maniacal, violent, and perverted interpretation of their religion in which they train their young people to be suicide bombers, and they train them to hate you and despise you, and they train them to hate your religion, and to not allow you to have religion of your own, or anyone else.  They hate us for the reasons that are the best about us, because we have freedom of religion, because we have freedom for women, because women are allowed to participate in society, because we have elections, because we have a free economy.  Well, we're not giving that up, and you're not going to come and take it from us.

Two liner

This baby seal walks into a bar and the bartender says, "What'll ya have?"

The seal says, "Anything but a Canadian Club."

New roadside sobriety test?

A juggler, driving to his next performance, is stopped
by the police.

"What are those machetes doing in your car?" asks the
cop.

"I juggle them in my act."

"Oh, yeah? says the doubtful cop. "Let's see you do
it."

The juggler gets out and starts tossing and catching
the knives. Another man driving by slows down to watch.

"Wow, "says the passer-by. "I'm glad I quit drinking.
Look at the test they're giving now!

NY Post editorial on Senator Harry Reid's blathering mouth

I agree with most of what the Post has to say.

It's interesting that many friends of mine involved in the Save Darfur effort - an effort to stop terrible bloodshed that's cost hundreds of thousands of lives - can't figure out that a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would likely lead to bloodshed on an even bigger scale.

REID'S BLOODY HANDS - Editorials - New York Post Online Edition

And there's the real problem: From the start, Reid and the Democrats have seen the war in Iraq as a partisan opportunity.

They refuse to present a unified front to the rest of the world - especially to America's enemies - because, in their pinched view, to do so would be to weaken their own prospects for retaking the White House in 2008.

No, Reid didn't repeat his declaration of defeat during yesterday's speech from the Senate floor.

It probably has dawned on him just how big a political blunder he committed - witness Sen. Chuck Schumer's gentle contradiction of the majority leader over the weekend, insisting that "the war is not lost."

Then again, Reid didn't have to repeat his original remarks - because the imposed timetable he announced, if enacted, would bring about precisely the same result.

That is, a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from the region - if Reid thinks the bug-out would stop at Iraq, he's dumber than he sounds - followed by:

* A rapid, al Qaeda/Iranian-driven descent into regional chaos.

* Most likely, a general war.

* And, almost certainly, a Mideast nuclear-arms race as Saudi Arabia, Eygpt and (probably) Turkey rush to arm themselves in anticipation of an Iranian bomb.

At the very least, Reid has to understand that his rhetoric can only encourage short-run insurgent attacks on Americans in Iraq.

Their blood stands to be on his hands.

Man beats bookmakers; lives to 100 and collects $50,000

Story about a guy who at age ninety made a bet with a bookmaker he'd make it to 100. And he won. Those English are eccentric!

Top News- Man Wins Cash Bet for Making It to 100 - AOL News

Just in from a reliable source - military prepares for Democratic Party cutbacks

This person - a woman deep in the know - has passed on these training photos

I'm on the radio tomorrow morning

Around 10:20 I'll be on Sirius satellite radio, channel 159. That's the Catholic channel - Sue and Dave Konig's show - and I'll be interviewed along with a woman comedienne who has breast cancer.

The topic is coping with cancer, the role of faith, stuff like that.

If you go tothe Sirius website you can get a three day "free pass" and  listen in on your computer.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio - The Best Radio On Radio

Yankee Woes

tim gets his cast off this Monday, and as soon as he does, the Yanks should draft him.

The Yanks have scored lots of runs (eight tonite, but Tampa Bay scored ten)The Official Site of The New York Yankees: Homepage

But with half the starters on injured reserve, the Yankees are starting minor league pitchers and they are getting blasted. And it hurts that Mariano blew two saves in a row (when was the last time that happened?). I mean to have two outs in the bottom of the ninth against the Indians, have no Indian on base and a two run lead, and then lose the game?  YIKES.

But A-Rod is a treat. He tied the record for most home runs in April tonite, and still has six games to add to his total.

When the pitchers are back, the Yanks will be OK.

Croton Dam and River, five days later

Late Saturday morning I went back to look at the situation - five days after I'd taken these pictures -

Tom Faranda's Folly: Nor'easter results in spectacle at Croton Dam and on the Croton river

The water flow is still very high, but much lower and calmer then it was this past Monday. Here's the dam and river pictures from the small bridge in front of the dam. Compare with Monday!

Here's the view further downstream. The white car (VW golf?) has been moved - no longer has water up to it's windows - and I would guess the water level has dropped four to five feet.

Old joke; still funny

Two casino dealers are waiting at the crap table. A very attractive blonde woman from South Alabama arrived and bet twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) on a single roll of the dice.

She said, "I hope you don't mind, but I feel much luckier when I play topless."

With that, she stripped to the waist; rolled the dice; and yelled, "Come on, Southern Girl needs new clothes!"

As the dice bounced and came to a stop, she jumped up-and-down and squealed "YES! YES! I WON! I WON!"

She hugged each of the dealers...and then picked up her winnings, and her clothes, and quickly departed.

The dealers stared at each other dumfounded. Finally, one of them asked, "What did she roll?"

The other answered, "I don't know... I thought you were watching."

Guy and girlfriend take off on 1,000 day cruise

This looks like fun.

Top News- New York Duo Sets Sail on 1,000-Day Cruise - AOL News

The sailor, Reid Stowe is 55 years old. He and his 23 year old girlfriend plan on going around the world three times, without ever making a port of call.

They set out yesterday from NY harbor. Here's their website, with a link to their blog:

Reid Stowe - 1000 Days at Sea

He actually did a 200 day similar cruise in 1999 with his (now ex) wife. So will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Health update

Had my CBC today, and the pattern remains the same. My overall white count is 2.0 (down from 2.5), and the key abs. neut. # is 0.9 (down from a low normal of 1.8). So really no change in my general trend - I get a shot of neulasta (last one 23 days ago) and my white counts rise, and then sink down to below normal three to four weeks later. I see the hematologist Dr. Klimek in two weeks.

My infection and cough have almost completely cleared up after my trip to Sloan Urgent Care with a fever last Saturday. I suppose the zithromax antibiotic is doing it's job, and I've discovered claritin, which really helps with the itchy throat. Seems better then benadryl.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time since last Saturday, and will go again tomorrow. Was going to go this evening but instead wasted two and a half hours watching some dumb sci fi movie on the boob tube with Joe.

Are baby boomers more healthy than their parents?

According to this interesting article in the Washington Post, the answer appears to be NO!

Baby Boomers Appear to Be Less Healthy Than Parents - washingtonpost.com

As the first wave of baby boomers edges toward retirement, a growing body of evidence suggests that they may be the first generation to enter their golden years in worse health than their parents. While not definitive, the data sketch a startlingly different picture than the popular image of health-obsessed workout fanatics who know their antioxidants from their trans fats and look 10 years younger than their age.

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"We're seeing some very powerful evidence all pointing to parallel findings," said Mark D. Hayward, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin. "The trend seems to be that people are not as healthy as they approach retirement as they were in older generations. It's very disturbing."

While cautioning that the data are just starting to emerge, researchers say the findings track with several unhealthy trends, notably the obesity epidemic. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those extra pounds make joints wear out more quickly, boost cholesterol and blood pressure, and raise the risk of a host of debilitating health problems. And despite all those gym memberships, baby boomers tend to be less physically active than their parents and grandparents, their daily routines often dominated by desk jobs and the drive to and from work.

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In fact, boomers tend to report more stress than earlier generations -- from their jobs, their commutes, taking care of their parents and their kids -- all of which can take a physical toll, which is compounded by having less support from extended families and communities, experts say.

"People are working two jobs. They are not sleeping as much. They're experiencing more job insecurity. They have less time to take care of themselves. They are more socially isolated," said Lisa Berkman of the Harvard School of Public Health. "This all could add up to a huge crisis and really calls for us to examine the things that perhaps we're not doing so well."

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The findings are consistent with a number of studies, including one last year that found American adults have poorer health than their British counterparts, and a preliminary analysis of data collected between 1972 and 2003 for the National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative survey of more than 100,000 Americans.

"Overall it looks like there's been some recent declines in overall health among younger adults compared to the cohorts of previous decades," said Robert Hummer, a sociologist at the University of Texas, who conducted that analysis. "It's worrisome."

How Cho Seung Hui got his guns

Pathetic.

Here's the Washington Post editorial

Guns for the Asking - washingtonpost.com

IT NOW APPEARS that Cho Seung Hui was able to buy the handguns he used in his murderous rampage Monday because Virginia failed to comply with its own procedures. The state has a policy of submitting mental health information to the federal background checks system, which should have flagged Mr. Cho as ineligible to purchase firearms based on a state magistrate's finding in December 2005 that he posed a threat to himself. But for reasons that remain obscure, the state apparently exempted records such as the magistrate's determination. That was a tragic mistake.

Virginia is among the nation's most gun-friendly states, and it would be nice to think that the massacre in Blacksburg might jar legislators from their complacent romance with firearms. Just this year, a bill in the legislature to prohibit people from carrying guns into day-care facilities died quietly in a Senate committee. And legislation to ban the purchase of guns from unlicensed dealers at gun shows -- with no background checks of any kind -- is defeated perennially.

The problem is not just Virginia. A majority of states have a similar gun-show loophole. Overall, an estimated 40 percent of guns that change hands in this country are bought and sold privately -- face to face, through classified ads and at gun shows. A determined purchaser need not buy from a gun store. ...

Leukemia and Lymphoma Cure-A-Thon running on Rush Limbaugh radio show

Turned on the radio on the way back to the office and Rush is doing his 17th annual "Cure-a-Thon" to fight leukemia and lymphoma.

He just talked about adult stem cell transplants. I emailed his website with a note that I'd love to talk to him about my transplant. I presume it's highly unlikely they'll call.

RushLimbaugh.com Home

Discovery channel - Green: the New Red, White and Blue

The Discovery channel (channel 27 on my cable system) is showing a special on Saturday, April 21st. with the above interesting title. They are running quite a few ads on their family of stations, but don't seem to have much online information on their website. The show will be hosted by the only columnist at the NY Times who is worth reading (mu opinion), Tom Friedman. 

He recently wrote a NY Times Magazine piece on the topic (I haven't had time to read it yet), and here is another weblog discussing it:

Weblogg-ed » Green is the New Red, White and Blue

The station will no doubt repeat it many times over the next couple of weeks.

Green: The New, Red, White and Blue

TV-G

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman travels the globe to unravel the tangled web of where we get our energy, and what we can do about the carbon footprint producing and consuming that energy. He visits the front lines of a revolution taking shape.

Nor'easter results in spectacle at Croton Dam and on the Croton river

The Croton dam is far and away the most impressive feature of my town of Croton-on-Hudson. Built at the end of the 19th century, it is the second largest hand hewn masonry structure in the world. Go here for the history and to see what the dam usually looks like:

New Croton Dam - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rain Sunday and Monday resulted in a spectacular show of nature for anyone who thought to check out the dam, and the usually slow moving Croton river. Here are some pictures, taken Monday between 5 and 7 o'clock in the evening.

Here's the whole dam Monday, with the spillway in the foreground

Compare this view of the spillway, with the view at the wikipedia link, above

Meanwhile, here's the view from the top, looking west - that's the Croton River, with the Croton Gorge Park to the left

Here's the other side of the dam - the reservoir completely filled and overflow heading to the spillway -

Sarah Costa and Kathleen Gagnon were also on top of the dam. They'd scootered over when I left a voice mail at Kathleen's house that the dam was worth a visit. The girls are looking damp!

From the small bridge over the Croton river, looking east at the spillway -

And west down the river. The trees are usually not in the water!

Brigid took this picture of Tim and I -

as we approached the river to take a few shots. The water was really thundering. Had to be going 15 to 20 mph.

a few hundred yards further downstream, things were bad -

Here is my favorite picture of the day, and my business associate Judy Anderson also liked it. As did Brigid! So ... a trifecta. Taken from the north side of the little bridge over the Croton river.

Sue Konig continues her media rise

My neighbor, radio host and author Sue Konig, continues her meteoric rise in the media firmament, with an appearance on Neil Cavuto's television program on FOX yesterday.

Here's the clip -

Family Security Matters

She did an excellent job and I'm sure will be invited back. Sue recently ran for office in Croton and is now a Village Trustee.

Good news if you haven't been born yet

The Supreme Court finally - by a slim 5-4 vote - ruled that partial birth abortion is a bad idea. And in fact upheld the federal ban.

LifeNet: Partial Birth Abortion ban upheld by Supreme Court

Heroism in the face of Horror

This is from the Jerusalem Post -

Israeli professor killed in US attack | Jerusalem Post

As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 33 dead and over two dozen wounded.

Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he had blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said Librescu's son, Joe.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Librescu was a Holocaust survivor who escaped communist Romania for Israel in 1978 and moved to Virginia in 1986. He was murdered on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

A breakthrough in getting peacekeepers into Darfur

The Sudan has decided to allow about 3,000 UN peacekeepers into Darfur. A good step. But there are strings attached.

Sudan To Allow U.N. Force In Darfur - washingtonpost.com

UNITED NATIONS, April 16 -- Sudan agreed on Monday to allow more than 3,000 heavily armed U.N. and African peacekeepers in Darfur to reinforce a beleaguered African Union force of 7,000 that has struggled to prevent the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians during the past four years. But U.N. officials said it could be more than six months before foreign troops land in the region.

Still, the agreement marked a critical new phase in a plan to gradually expand the United Nations' presence and power in Darfur, where government-backed militia stand accused of killing 200,000 to 400,000 civilians and driving more than 2.5 million from their homes. The United Nations ultimately hopes to oversee a joint force with the African Union with more than 20,000 troops, police and civil servants.

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U.N. officials said the announcement would shift attention from Khartoum to the U.N. effort to assemble a peacekeeping force. Jean-Marie Guehenno, the top U.N. peacekeeping official, will meet Thursday with representatives of governments considering sending troops to Darfur. So far, the United Nations has faced resistance from potential contributing countries who are loath to have their troops serve under the African Union. U.N. military planners are also awaiting the arrival of about 1,500 African Union troops to Darfur to provide additional security for the new force.

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Khartoum, meanwhile, continued to voice concern about the role of the United Nations, saying it expected the African Union to lead the mission. The groups reached a compromise that provides for U.N. command of the overall U.N. mission in Sudan, with the African Union commanding operations in Darfur.

And here's the coverage in the Washington Times:

Deal allows U.N. forces to enter Darfur - World - insider.washingtontimes.com

Sudan agreed yesterday to allow the deployment of U.N. attack helicopters and 3,000 peacekeepers to its Darfur region, but the United States criticized the decision for allowing limits on the number of non-African troops in the U.N. force.
    After refusing for months to accept the helicopters, the Sudan government told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that it would do so, expressing "sincere hope" that "implementation of the heavy support package would proceed expeditiously."

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But in Washington, the State Department rejected Mr. Akol's claim that all issues have been resolved, saying Sudan has selected the parts of the U.N. plan it likes -- with conditions -- and ignored the parts it does not like.
    "While it is a partial step forward, it certainly does not meet all the requirements," said department spokesman Sean McCormack. "There are still elements and other caveats that remain in place."
    Some of the outstanding issues include the command-and-control structure of the hybrid United Nations-African Union (AU) force and the participation of non-African troops in the operation, on which Khartoum wants to put strict limits.
    Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, who visited Sudan yesterday, said the U.N. Security Council members agreed that most troops in the force, as well as its commander, will be African.
    He insisted, however, that the force must have "a single unified chain of command that conforms to U.N. standards and practices."
    For four months, Sudan has resisted the implementation of the U.N. plan, which envisions more than 20,000 peacekeepers in Darfur by its third and final stage. It wants to limit the U.N. role to support and logistics for the AU force because of fears that the U.N. troops would arrest Sudanese officials suspected of war crimes.

Small businesses: 50% of the economy

This from a short column in USA Today:

New study: Small firms are 50% of economy - Small Biz - USATODAY.com

"This study confirms just how important small business is to our economic growth and prosperity. It makes clear that economic policy needs to take into account the needs of small businesses, because those businesses drive our economy," Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the SBA's Office of Advocacy, said in a statement.

However as a percentage of GDP, small businesses actually contribute less to the economy then they did in the 1950's.

SBA: Office of Advocacy - Small Business, Big Contribution - Small Business Continues To Generate 50 Percent Of Private Nonfa...

Over the seven-year period studied, the small business share of GDP held steady at around 50 percent. However, there has been a long-tern decline from the late 1950s when the small business share of GDP was approximately 58 percent.

Global Warming Update #12 - An Inconvenient Truth

We finally got to watch former Vice-President Gore's "documentary" on global warming - saw it on DVD last week.

Certainly, if you like Al Gore you will LOVE this movie. Between a third and 40% of it is about him, with the rest dedicated to the topic. This biographical and promotional material is spread throughout the movie

You learn all about Al Gore. All about his childhood, his father's farm (his father was also a Senator from Tennessee),the sister who died of lung cancer, his son who was badly injured when hit by a car, and his early career.

There's a section of the film devoted to the contested 2000 Presidential election where he lost to Bush, with the disputed vote count in Florida, despite winning the national popular vote.

And you get to see a couple of dozen close-ups of Al Gore. Mostly thinking deep thoughts. Head shots with him looking pensive, or meditative, or deep in thought. Or hustling through an airport to get where he has to get to give his Global Warming slide show (Gore states in the film that he's given it over a thousand times, throughout the U.S. and many other countries.)

He is presented as an early apostle/prophet of enviornmentalism and Saving the Planet from Global Warming.

The non-Gore promotional sections of the movie is a well-done presentation by Gore of what he calls his "slide show" (actually a powerpoint presentation). This portion of An Inconvenient Truth starts with and has as it's foundation the presumption that Global Warming is real AND it is unquestionably caused by carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere, due to human activity. This is not proven by any means in the documentary; it is simply presumed, as if any other explanation(s) simply aren't credible.

In marketing, this approach is referred to as "the assumed sale."

No question, there are some powerful images - for my money the most powerful being the pictures of glaciers fifty or one hundred years ago, (for example on Mount Killimanjaro) and the same glaciers today, in some cases showing retreats of miles.

There are also interesting graphs aiming to show a relationship between the rise in carbon dioxide levels and a rise in temperature.

But much of the science is scatty and goes way over the top. For example Gore states that a rise of 5 degrees in the future (he doesn't exactly specify the time frame) is on the low end of scientific estimates.  Wrong! the recently released UN report on climate change says that if things continue as they are, by 2100 the temperature will have risen about 1 degree centigrade (or 2.1 degrees fahrenheit). Tom Faranda's Folly: Global Warming Update #7 - the UN report

Mr. Gore warns that there is an imminent danger of a 20 foot rise in sea levels; he shows aerial pictures of lower Manhattan and then does some computer-generated modelling to show how the World Trade Center site will be underwater. But the UN report (you really should hit the link above and then read the report!) suggests a rise of only 17 inches by the year 2100.

Other pending calamities: a reversal of several of the great ocean currents - an increase in the number and severity of hurricanes - catastrophic changes in rainfall patterns ... Could go on but you get the point.

At the end of An Inconvenient Truth Mr. Gore makes an impassioned call to action to his audience (the mostly adoring people at the slide show). "you can make a difference... you can turn this around..." etc, etc. 

but as has been revealed recently by several newspaper investigations, Mr. Gore talks the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. He leads a life of opulent energy consumption while living in a mansion that would be the envy of Louis XIV. If you want to read about it, go here.Tom Faranda's Folly: Global Warming Update #10

So for myself, you'll just have to label me a carbon dioxide "skeptic." I love the outdoors and nature, we re-cycle and pay a bit more for our electricity by being in the con ed water power and wind power program, and we generally live pretty modestly.

But the world has more important concerns then whether the Greenland glaciers will melt by the end of the third millenium (it's in the UN report- Tom Faranda's Folly: Global Warming Update #7 - the UN report )

Aid to Darfur

The following is an excerpt from a hedge fund email newsletter I get (unsolicited by me) a couple of times a week. Last week's newsletter began with the following on Darfur, including a way to help. I have no idea who the groups mentioned are; so if you are interested, check them out. I am really posting this to show that some people are making extraordinary efforts to get aid to the refugee camps.

But first, let's deal with something far more serious than the economy, and that is the terrible situation in Darfur, where government sanctioned violence and murder is literally meaning that hundreds of thousands are starving to death.

The conflict in Darfur, a region of Sudan located in the north eastern part of Africa, has been rising for the past 3 years. It is estimated that 450,000 civilians, (men, women and children) have been killed and approximately 2 million people who fled the fighting are now displaced, homeless, starving, and still being persecuted. Many are living in refugee camps but as the violence escalates and the camps are being attacked, aid workers are being evacuated leaving the people of Darfur with no where to go.... and NO hope of survival.

The international community acknowledges the desperate nature of the situation. The United Nations Security Council has passed resolutions to send a UN peacekeeping force to supplement the ill-equipped and under funded 7,000 troops African Union peacekeepers. However, the Sudanese government sees UN troops as foreign invaders. Aside from NGO's (non government organizations) Darfur has received little help from the international community, because politics has become an insurmountable obstacle.

I often write about my friends at Knightsbridge International who go into areas bringing food and medicine where it is usually considered too dangerous for aid groups to go. They were working in Afghanistan in 1995 and again in 2002 before our troops went in. Rwanda, Chechnya, Burma, Cambodia and Sri Lanka (after the tsunami and into rebel held territory where no one else was going) are just a few of the vacation spots they have brought aid to. They are slightly crazy, as they like to get an adrenaline rush along with their good works. But they deliver the goods directly to those in need, and 100% of the money donated goes to the work, as they assume their own overhead. These are really the good guys. The CBS early show just did a story on them, and three of the knights are the subject of a documentary that you may have seen on PBS (Adrian Belic's award winning "Beyond the Call"). Here is a link to the CBS piece:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/10/earlyshow/main2666759.shtml

Two LA based ladies have created a web site to help raise $1,000,000 for medicine and supplies that Ed Artis, Dr. James Laws and others will personally deliver to the camps in the region that are the most needy. I know these guys well and vouch for them. They are the good guys. You can go to the web site www.onedollar4darfur.com and donate with your credit card or send a check to: Knightsbridge International, PO Box 4394, West Hills, CA 91308-4394. Your dollars, euros and pounds will go directly to help save the lives of kids. (And if you are crazy and want to go with these guys on a mission, let me know and I will put you in touch.)

Last night's trip to Sloan Kettering

I left a note here last night that I was off to Sloan Kettering Urgent Care, since my temperature was above 100.5 (actually reached 101.9) and I had some bad chills.

Despite my call to the hematologist on duty last night (Dr. Apollo) who told me to go to Urgent Care, they didn't know I was coming in. She hadn't called them. But I guess that's not unusual, since they simply went through there normal protocol. Bloodwork, blood cultures, chest x-ray. My temperature by the time we got to Sloan had come down to 99.7, but I was still feeling knocked out.

The physician on duty, a Dr. Johnson, ultimately gave me a dose of the antibiotic zithromax, and sent me home with a prescription for it. We arrived at Urgent Care at 9:30, and left at 11:15, which was much faster then my two previous trips there.

One interesting point - my white blood count was 2.5 and my abs. neut number was 1.8, much lower then the numbers from just 36 hours earlier, when I'd had my regular Friday complete count. But I don't know what it means and the physician wasn't concerned, since the absolute nuet. number was still within normal range.

Today, Brigid feels ill - she has a bad throat, her ears are ringing, and she's knocked out. She told me this morning that she felt a bad throat coming on as we drove to Sloan. And, this morning Joe also felt rough. So the only OK person right now is Tim (he probably contaminated us last week with his bad cough!) and he's still got his ankle in a cast.

We're a sorry lot right now!

Update on this morning's health update.

Bummer. The cold, sinus whatever thing I mentioned this morning has sent me temperature up this evening. It's 101.9

So I am off to Sloan "Urgent Care" in a few minutes, where they'll run some tests, and hopefully send me home with antibiotics.

The whole scenario is very similar to my trip to Urgent Care on March 28th, 18 days ago.

Former Senator Fred Thompson

It looks like actor and former senator Fred Thompson is gearing up to run for the Republican Presidential nomination. I guess his current gig is as a lawyer on the TV show Law and Order. He recently disclosed that he has an indolent form of lymphoma (he was treated with Rituxan). Supposedly he made the disclosure so it wouldn't come up as an issue if he does start a campaign for the nomination.

Thompson wants to take on the mantle of being the true "Reagan Republican". He had an op ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning on taxes.  He's against them (haha).

Case Closed. Tax cuts mean growth OpinionJournal - Featured Article

The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.

In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.

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Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before.

The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.

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Now, as before, politicians are itching to fund their pet projects with the short-term revenue increases that come from tax hikes, ignoring the long-term pain they always cause. Unfortunately, the tax cuts that have produced our record-breaking government revenues and personal incomes will expire soon. Because Congress has failed to make them permanent, we are facing the worst tax hike in our history. Already, worried investors are trying to figure out what the financial landscape will look like in 2011 and beyond.

This issue is particularly important now because massive, unfunded entitlements are coming due as the baby-boom generation retires. We simply cannot afford higher taxes if we want an economy able to bear up under the strain of those obligations. And beyond the issue of our annual federal budget is the nearly $9 trillion national debt that we have not even begun to pay off.

Thompson finishes withthe rhetorical question "Are you really interested in tax rates that benefit the economy and raise revenue--or are you interested in redistributing income for political reasons?"

My letter to the Gazette

The Gazette is the local weekly for Croton on hudson. I confess that up until very recently I never read it. then I got a call from one of their advertising firms, took out an ad, and started receiving it gratis.

Anyway, the letter is about the recent election and campaign in Croton. I wrote about it on a number of occasions on this weblog, for example here Tom Faranda's Folly: Voting today for my Village Board and here Tom Faranda's Folly: Waste transfer, local politics, and organized crime

While in the past I'd never paid much attention to local issues I always voted - for mayor or trustees - essentially based on whether I knew the persons. However the recent controversy about how to deal with a waste transfer station wanting to locate in Croton changed all that. And I was motivated by the particular obnoxiousness of one partisan with a blog.

To read my letter click "continue reading"

Health update

Had my weekly blood test today, 17 days after the last shot of the white blood cell booster, neulasta.

Last Friday my white count was 4.7, and today it is 4.2. My abs. neut. # last week was 3.6 and this week 3.2.

So those numbers are ok - the abs. neut. number is in the middle of the normal range. The big test will be the next two Fridays, when the effects of the neulasta wear off. Will my counts stay in a decent range?  Stay tuned.

My appointment with the hematologist, Dr. Klimek has been postponed from next Wednesday, the 18th to Friday, May 4th.

Meanwhile, I think I developed a small cold yesterday - probably from Tim. We'll see if it turns into yet another sinus infection. I feel better today, but a little run down so didn't go to the gym.

Men: Soon to be more irrelevant then ever?

I recently made the comment to Brigid that more and more I am coming to the conclusion that God only created men to serve as sperm donors. She didn't disagree. My friend and assistant Judy also agreed with that assessment.

Now it turns out we soon won't even be needed for that!

The prospect of all-female conception - Independent Online Edition > Science & Technology

Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.

Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.

The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.

But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only conception a step closer.

"Theoretically is it possible," Professor Nayernia said. "The problem is whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don't think there is an ethical barrier, so long as it's safe. We are in the process of applying for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle. We need permission from the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the hospital itself."

Kurt Vonnegut dies. So it goes.

An important literary figure from the late 60's and 70's. I still recall Slaughterhouse Five.

Entertainment News- Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at Age 84 - AOL News

Ann Althouse has a good post.

Althouse: Kurt Vonnegut.

A day of dread - the day I do my taxes

Yes, I hate doing taxes. Hate it, hate it, hate it, with a passion.

"So why not shell out a few bucks and have a professional do them for you?" you ask.

Because doing my own is the best way to keep up on the tax code and tax changes for small business owners - a major constituency of my business practice. Or at least that's my thinking.

But, I do hate it.

Benedict XVI - "Jesus of Nazareth" soon available

This is the description on Amazon.com of Benedict XVI's book, which will be out officially on April 15th. However the English language version will probably not be available until May 15th.

Book Description

“This book is… my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’” —Benedict XVI

In this bold, momentous work, the pope—in his first book written as Benedict XVI—seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent “popular” depictions and to restore Jesus’ true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and incites us to encounter, face-to-face, the central figure of the Christian faith.

From Jesus of Nazareth… “the great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: But what has Jesus really brought, then, if he has not brought world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who once gradually unveiled his countenance first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in the wisdom literature—the God who showed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love.”

El Greco's vision of the Resurrection

One of my favorite painters. A long time ago Brigid and I saw much of his work in Toledo, Spain. He was originally from Greece (hence the name "El Greco") but spent most of his adult life in Toledo.

Easter at the Gagnon's

After the very crowded 10:45 Mass this morning, we spent most of the rest of today with Damian and Jeanne Marie Gagnon.  As well as two of their four children, Philip (plus Philip's friend Sarah) and Kathleen, and my mother.

With the exception of last Easter, we've spent the prior several Easter's at their house, which is about ten minutes away.

The day starts with an Easter Egg hunt. To make things fair, in light of Tim's being on crutches with a broken ankle, Joe and Kathleen had their leg tied up and also had to use crutches.

But after awhile, since Tim was doing really well in egg hunting! - the handicaps came off -

Then the main event - a gigantic meal. That's lamb under the aluminum foil - cooked on the barbecue by Damian.

That's Damien carvin' the ham, and Philip, Sarah, and half my mother on the right.

Here's Tom in Heaven. Two Gagnon women and an excellent cabernet!

Here's the dessert table. If you look closely you can see the white rabbit cake that Kathleen made and is doling out. And that I liked a lot!

A-Rod rescues Yanks - hope he keeps it up!

Alex Rodriquez hit a dramatic walk off grand slam homer this afternoon (the Stadium went nuts!!!) with two out in the bottom of the ninth, and the Yanks win, 10-7.

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Game Wrapup

I was lucky. Flicked on the boob tube around 4 o'clock whilst having some soup, and there's Jeter up with a Cano on first. He gets walked, Abreu is hit by a pitch and A-Rod comes up with the bases loaded. With two strikes, he hits a huge fly ball into the black bleacher section in center field - had to be a 430 footer. The crowd, and the Yanks and Rodriquez go crazy. It was his second homer of the game.

The Yanks have opened the season at 2-2, and their starting pitching has stunk the place up.

This should have been my April Fool's posting

Here I* am after one of my workouts at New York Sports Club:

Yeah that's me all right. It's actually Daniel Carter, a New Zealand rugby super-star, who is doing ads for Jockey. He'll be up on billboards...

Health Update

Had my weekly CBC this morning. Got through in record-breaking time. Walked into the Sloan Sleepy Hollow office and 9:59, and out at 10:11.

I won't have the blood results until Monday, but I am sure the numbers will be way up, what with my neulasta injection last Wednesday.

I feel good. Finished the seven days of the antibiotic Lavaquin on Tuesday, and have been having good gym sessions. I will be heading over there now.

Brigid and I went to the 3 o'clock Good Friday liturgy today, "The Celebration of the Lord's Passion". I did the second reading and the service was well attended. However  for the veneration of the cross - decided kissing the cross would be a good way to pick up someone else's germs, so I just gave a deep bow!

Wall Street Journal and Washington Post on Democratic Party Shuttle Diplomacy

Neither of these newspapers were too impressed with Ms. Pelosi's trip to Syria.

Here's yesterday's editorial from the Post, a newspaper with strong Democratic Party leanings:

Pratfall in Damascus - washingtonpost.com

"We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," Ms. Pelosi grandly declared.

Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president. Two weeks ago Ms. Pelosi rammed legislation through the House of Representatives that would strip Mr. Bush of his authority as commander in chief to manage troop movements in Iraq. Now she is attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president. We have found much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy. But Ms. Pelosi's attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish.

And the Journal today:

Democrats at War  OpinionJournal - Featured Article

So this is Democratic foreign policy: Assure our enemies that they can ignore a President who still has 21 months to serve; and wash their hands of Baghdad and of their own guilt for voting to let Mr. Bush go to war. No doubt Democrats think the President's low job approval, and public unhappiness with the war, gives them a kind of political immunity. But we wonder.

Once we leave Iraq, America's enemies will still reside in the Mideast; and they will be stronger if we leave behind a failed government and bloodbath in Iraq. Mr. Bush's successor will have to contain the damage, and that person could even be a Democrat. But by reverting to their Vietnam message of retreat and by blaming Mr. Bush for all the world's ills, Democrats on Capitol Hill may once again convince voters that they can't be trusted with the White House in a dangerous world.