Tom Faranda's Folly

Brigid's Tellers Point Adventure

Tellers Point is the very end of Croton Point, and holds some fascination for Brigid. It's scenic, the Indians lived there, etc.

So unbeknownst to me, a couple of months ago she booked the cabin that's furthest out on Tellers Point for a week, beginning last Wednesday, June 20th. She did it weveral months ago, and then told me about it after the fact.

I found this puzzling, since this is only about three miles (if that) from our house and it seemed strange to unilaterally make a plan like that. But as I have been telling people lately I don't understand woman anyway.

And of course because of the cub scout trip and Long Island party last week, Brigid only ended up spending four nights in the cabin anyway, and the rest of us only the very last night. This was probably fine with Brigid as she was doing some painting and sketching and didn't need us for that.

So this past Wednesday night we all were in the cabin. No barbecue since it was pouring rain, but it was nice enough. Of course the smoke alarm kept going off as we used the stove grill...

Here are a couple of pictures.

Tim and the last Jean-Jacques fruit pie -

the bicycle comes into the story later -

Here's the kitchen/eating area - it's a nice interior

the front door and one view off the enclosed back porch, where you can barely see how clse the cabin is to the Hudson river.

So we all stayed in the cabin Wednesday, and Thursday morning, Brigid decided to take the van almost to the park entrance and then walk back to the cabin. Since I'd be gone to work, her plan was to bicycle back to pick up the van.

however I drove back to the park after stopping in the office and managed these pictures -

The next two were taken from the moving car - it only looks like I tried to run her down but missed!

Health Update - my appointment with Dr. Klimek

Well, as mentioned yesterday Tom Faranda's Folly: Health Update - seeing the hematologist tomorrow we saw Dr. Virginia Klimek, and as I hoped and expected, she said today was the last time I'd need to see her.

My white blood counts were completely normal today and I guess that kind of settled it. We had brought a box of cookies down with us for Dr. Klimek and her staff as a thank you, and we kibbitzed a bit back and forth after she gave us the good news. While she was giving me the required quick once-over physical exam she looked in my mouth and said with a very straight face "well here's something else I'll have to treat you for." I must have looked startled and she said "oh I'm only kidding."  Brigid GREATLY appreciates it whenever anyone gets anything over on me, so she positively LOVED the little joke - brought it up three times on the drive home! It was kind of amusing.

I told Dr. Klimek we'd love to see her again - but only socially! In fact that's what I have told all the Sloan physicians when I've left their service. They are all top notch people and in a funny way you're sorry you won't be seeing them again.

For the record, my blood pressure was 105/67, my pulse 65, BUT my weight is back up - 161. So basically all the weight I lost during chemotherapy (about ten lbs) is now back, 17 months after chemo. Rats. But I think I can lose four or five pounds. I definitely don't want to weigh over 160.

Next medical appointment is my quarterly date with Dr. Zelenetz, on August 15th.

The Supreme Court decision "Bong Hits..."

I thought the 5-4 decision backing up the school principal for tearing down the sign "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" was very reasonable. It's an absurdity it got to the Supreme Court. Of course not everyone agrees!

Here's a good op ed on the decision from the Wall Street Journal.

Bong Hits 4 Jesus--The Final Episode http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/dhenninger/?id=110010267

You have guessed by now that we are going to discuss the famous case known as "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," a k a Morse v. Frederick, decided by the Supreme Court this past Monday. Juneau, Alaska, high-school principal Deborah Morse defeated high-school troublemaker Joseph Frederick in a split decision, 5-4.

Years back, as the Olympic Torch parade passed by her Alaskan high school, Principal Morse ran across the street from the school's front door and ordered Student Frederick to lower his "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner, judging it a violation of the school district's anti-drug policy. A "bong" is a marijuana water pipe. A "hit" is the extraction of marijuana smoke from the bong. The meaning of "4 Jesus" remains in dispute. Mr. Frederick demanded his constitutional rights. On Monday, the High Court said, not this time.

It is no exaggeration to say the basis for the decision was akin to passing a camel through the eye of a needle. For space reasons, I will briefly "interpret" Chief Justice Roberts's ruling. What he said is that the list of things the Constitution forbids a child to say in our public schools is very short. You can say almost anything. But as of Monday, the list is a little longer: You can't engage in speech "promoting illegal drug use." Hereafter, speech "promoting illegal drug use" may be regarded as "disruptive" to school life, as defined by the Supreme Court in Tinker (1969), Fraser (1986) and Kuhlmeier (1988).

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Here's a final quotation from Monday's "Bong" decision to pass out on street corners: "Students will test the limits of acceptable behavior in myriad ways better known to schoolteachers than to judges; school officials need a degree of flexible authority to respond to disciplinary challenges; and the law has always considered the relationship between teachers and students special. Under these circumstances, the more detailed the Court's supervision becomes, the more likely its law will engender further disputes among teachers and students. Consequently, larger numbers of those disputes will likely make their way from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. Yet no one wishes to substitute courts for school boards, or to turn the judge's chambers into the principal's office." More right-wing rant from Clarence Thomas? Nope, that's liberal Justice Stephen Breyer's concurrence.

Health Update - seeing the hematologist tomorrow

Tomorrow it will be exactly eight weeks since I last saw hematologist Dr. Virginia Klimek. It was the CBC that day that first showed my white blood cell count had reverted to normal, from it's months long period of being too low. This was actually what she predicted when I'd first seen her months earlier.

I'd been having CBC's done every Friday, and was getting shots of neulasta every four to five weeks to boost my white counts. Klimek felt the chronic low counts were an after-effect of the Rituxin medication I had been given three and six months after my chemothrapy ended. So we went into the good old "watchful waiting" mode to see if the counts would revert to normal, and they did.

Anyway, we will have a complete blood count (CBC) tomorrow, and my guess is that if it's normal I won't be seeing Dr. Klimek after tomorrow. She is an extremely nice, woman, and Brigid and I like her a great deal (mind you, that's true of all the physicians we've met on Sloan).

So that's what I think is going to happen. Of course I will continue to see the lymphoma guru, Dr. Zelenetz, on a quarterly basis.

Will post the results of tomorrow's meeting in the evening.

Last day for Croton's Jean-Jacques Patisserie

One of the nice things about Croton is all the little coffee shops/bistros/deli's/markets that are in our quiet little town.

Places like the Black Cow, Zeytinia, Grouchy Gabes, Croton Delicatessan and Pastry, Croton mini-deli, all add to the character of the place.

Now one of the stalwarts is closing after ten years. Jean-Jacques has been in Croton for ten years, sitting across from a 9A exit ramp, near the railway station and Croton Point. Great food and pastries.

But the owners decided to close it, and their outlet in Millwood, and just concentrate on their major place in Pleasantville.

Today is the last day, and the coffee is free.

Too bad. Jean-Jacques the Faranda's will miss you!

Paris Hilton's activities correlate with the rise and fall of stocks!

Sort of. The young woman who is "famous for being famous".

Someone with lots of time on his hands correlated Hilton's antics with the S & P 500.

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid

Wall Street Journal on one facet of immigration reform

the Journal had a good editorial this morning on the political cost to the Republican Party if comprehensive immigration reform fails.

Immigration and the GOP OpinionJournal - Featured Article

We've written often about the merits of immigration reform, and we have our own problems with parts of the Senate bill. But it's worth spending some time on the larger politics of the issue, especially for Republicans. They're caught between a passionate minority of their party--who oppose any reform that allows illegals a path to citizenship--and the larger electorate, which is more moderate and wants to solve the problem. Like Democrats on national security, this is a classic case in which pandering to the base will harm the GOP overall.

Democratic loyalist on "How the GOP Could Win" in 2008

No one can accuse Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen of being anything but a very honest card-carrying Liberal Democrat. But he's worried about the 2008 election.

Richard Cohen - How the GOP Could Win - washingtonpost.com

There are two ways to predict the winner of the 2008 presidential race: Check the polls or read some history. The polls tell you that with George Bush's approval ratings abysmally low; with the war in Iraq becoming increasingly unpopular; with the GOP lacking a dominant candidate; and with the party divided over immigration, social issues and even religion ( Mitt Romney's Mormonism), the next president is bound to be a Democrat. History begs to differ.

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This is where history raises its ugly head. The GOP is adept at painting Democrats as soft on national security. It is equally adept at saying so in the most scurrilous way. And while most Americans would like the war to end, they do not favor a precipitous withdrawal and neither have they forgotten Sept. 11, 2001 -- the entirety of Giuliani's case for the presidency, after all.

Will history trump the polls? It will if, as in the past, the Democratic Party so wounds itself fighting the war against the war, it nominates a candidate beloved by a minority but mistrusted by a majority. It has happened before.

Photos from the weekend, including rafting and a friend's retirement party

Here are some pictures from our cub scout rafting expedition to Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh River valley. Unfortunately the only one showing the rafting is the first one, and that is a picture of the photo we bought, taken by the rafting company. I took a photo of it with the digital camera, and it came out just OK. The rest are in the campsite.

Joe is not on the raft with us, he's in another raft with friends. Brigid is steering the thing (doesn't she look like a Colorado river guide?). Craig Fendrich and I are plugging away on the oars, while Tim and Craig's son Chase are looking in the opposite direction for "targets of opportunity" (other rafts) to throw water on. 

Here are a few pictures from the campsite that evening and the next morning

This is one half of the Powers familiy (there are also three sons) as Mary Beth doles out a small wine libation to a few of the parents, after returning to camp from the rafting. On the far right is John Shanahan, sitting and waiting with baited breath...

One of the cooler tents - complete with awning and not ours, despite Tim's proximity. There were about 30 of us in the cub scout group -

Brigid hanging out in the evening, between Patti Mead on the left talking to her daughter, and Carol McCarroll to her right

The next morning.

As with most camp-outs, there's a certain level of just milling around doing nothing, which is what you're often looking for when camping out.

We headed home Sunday morning, went to Church, and then switched cars and took off for a combination retirment / HS graduation party. My friend Bruce Carusi was retiring, and his youngest daughter Kelly was graduating from high school She's off to La Salle in September, Bruce says he's off to his back porch to drink coffee and read the paper... and then go back in the house to work out.

I met Bruce 25 years ago when I got back from the Caribbean and started playing rugby again with my old club. Bruce was also playing (big guy, very agile and coordinated for his size!) and he and his wife Sue were very supportive when I was having my chemo.

Here's a picture of more milling around, this time on the Carusi back porch -

There were quite a number of our friends at the get-together and about a half dozen of them had either gone to Fordham Prep, or had sons going there. They were all glad to hear that was where Joe was headed, and all wished him well.

Here are two pictures which to an extent capture the personalities of our two boys, as they hang out at the Carusi pool

First Joe working his iPOD

And then Tim being Tim -

So, rafting, camping, and then a great party - the whole thing stretching from Pennsylvania to Long Island in the space of about 38 hours. An excellent time. We were all tired today (except Tim!). I actually came back from my office (not a big deal; only three minutes from the house) for a mid-afternoon nap!

A little Monday morning humor from the ol' email

Sent to me by one of my humor correspondents - and entitled

RUDY'S LAST CHANCE TO SAVE AMERICA

Survived the cub scout rafting trip

We're back. Excellent trip. Will post pictures later.

Off with the scouts for rafting!

In a few minutes we leave for PA and the Lehigh river - rafting with Tim's cub scout group. We'll being camping there and then back on Sunday.

Then out to Long Island for a party Sunday afternoon and evening.

The New York Times is gradually sinking

Like most of the old line newspaper and publishing companies the Times is suffering. The ills that befall all the major newspapers - competition from the internet, new news sources, etc - are compounded by the errors made by the company leadership under Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

American Thinker: The Incredible Shrinking New York Times

Faced with rapidly waning print media revenue and internet revenues which are growing, but not even close to offsetting the decline of print, the strategic plan of Pinch Sulzberger is failing. He had hoped to replace print profits with skyrocketing electronic publishing revenues, but evidently lacked any concrete notion of how to get from here to there, and overpaid for a niche website in a business increasing ruled by ruthless giant players like Microsoft and Google.

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Yesterday, New York Times Company Chief Executive Janet Robinson told investors at a Newspaper Association of America conference in New York that the company would be raising the price of single copy newspapers and home delivery subscriptions. At the same time, the company has suddenly accelerated and apparently made more drastic a previously-announced plan to shrink the physical size of the paper and cut the amount of news provided to readers. It is also speeding the closing of a mammoth Edison, NJ printing plant that was one of Pinch Sulzberger's first strategic moves, opening in 1992, but which, after the decline of metropolitan circulation during the Pinch years, is now surplus capacity, its presses and skilled workers unnecessary burdens.

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In the jargon of strategic consulting, this sort of price increase, asset liquidation and quality cut is known as "milking a cash cow" and indicates that a company is "harvesting" a business - realizing that it has no growth prospects, and that its role is to provide cash to invest in other more promising ventures. How long the business will limp along is anyone's guess. People still buy The Farmer's Almanac today.

This price increase to readers complements the strategy the company has taken toward advertisers in its metropolitan editions: charging them ever-higher rates to reach a declining number of readers. The two price strategies assume that substantial numbers of readers and advertisers are price-insensitive because they perceive no realistic competitive alternatives. While there are indeed readers who cannot imagine the breakfast table or rail commute without an inky newspaper to clutch, these habits of a lifetime are not being reproduced in the younger generation, and those who stop reading with age or death are not replaced. At the same time, thanks to electronic media, alternative sources of news and advertising are proliferating and gaining acceptance.

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At the Incredible Shrinking New York Times, everything is shrinking except the arrogance of the publisher and liberal editorial staff. Unfortunately, that is the one area of the company where less truly would be more.

Man kills bear menacing son; gets given a ticket

The guy threw a log at the bear and hit him in the head. But Georgia authorities said he did a bad job of "securing his camp".

Top News - Father Kills 300-Pound Bear With Log - AOL News

The NY Times on John Edwards use of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations to fund his political ambitions

The Times has a quite amazing article this morning on the brazenness of John Edwards. I am on the boards of several nonprofit organizations and what he's doing violates both the letter and the spirit of the law.

In Aiding Poor, Edwards Built Bridge to 2008 - New York Times

Mr. Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and — unlike a sister charity he created to raise scholarship money for poor students — the main beneficiary of the center’s fund-raising was Mr. Edwards himself, tax filings show.

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But it was his use of a tax-exempt organization to finance his travel and employ people connected to his past and current campaigns that went beyond what most other prospective candidates have done before pursuing national office. And according to experts on nonprofit foundations, Mr. Edwards pushed at the boundaries of how far such organizations can venture into the political realm. Such entities, which are regulated under Section 501C-4 of the tax code, can engage in advocacy but cannot make partisan political activities their primary purpose without risking loss of their tax-exempt status.

Because the organization is not required to disclose its donors — and the campaign declined to do so — it is not clear whether those who gave money to it did so understanding that they were supporting Mr. Edwards’s political viability as much or more than they were giving money to combat poverty.

The money paid Mr. Edwards’s expenses while he walked picket lines and met with Wall Street executives. He gave speeches, hired consultants, attacked the Bush administration and developed an online following. He led minimum-wage initiatives in five states, went frequently to Iowa, and appeared on television programs. He traveled to China, India, Brussels, Uganda and Russia, and met with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain and his likely successor, Gordon Brown, at 10 Downing Street.

“He was not a U.S. senator; he had no office,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political program director at the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. “So he set up a series of entities to finance his travel, to finance a political shop and to finance an issue shop. It all adds up to a remarkable feat of keeping a presidential candidacy alive without any of the traditional bases for it.”

Mr. Edwards depended for his activities in large part on donations from supporters. In addition to the two nonprofit organizations, he created a leadership political action committee and a 527 “soft money” organization that also shared the same name: the OneAmerica Committee. These two committees each allowed donors to give more than the $2,300 per person limit in a presidential primary or general election, and, in some cases, to give in unlimited amounts.

From 2005, when he established them, through 2006, the committee and the soft money organization raised $2.7 million, most of which paid for travel and other activities that helped Mr. Edwards maintain his profile.

“It’s a permanent campaign,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit group based in Washington. “It’s about shaking every money tree possible and finding every means to finance a permanent campaign. It’s like having different checking accounts, with different rules, and the goal of keeping your name and agenda in the public eye.”

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Nonprofit groups can engage in political activities and not endanger their tax-exempt status so long as those activities are not its primary purpose. But the line between a bona fide charity and a political campaign is often fuzzy, said Marcus S. Owens, a Washington lawyer who headed the Internal Revenue Service division that oversees nonprofit agencies.

“I can’t say that what Mr. Edwards did was wrong,” Mr. Owens said. “But he was working right up to the line. Who knows whether he stepped or stumbled over it. But he was close enough that if a wind was blowing hard, he’d fall over it.”

Of the explicitly political entities, Mr. Edwards’ OneAmerica Committee 527 organization allowed donors to give without limitations. The money was transferred to his leadership political action committee. Leadership committees were initially created to allow prominent politicians to raise money for distribution to needy office-seekers. But Mr. Edwards spent the entire $2.7 million he raised for OneAmerica, including $532,000 raised by the 527, on himself, an increasingly common trend among politicians.

A 911 call, and the Virginia Tech shootings

The Washington Post has a feature this morning that is harrowing, horrible, and gripping. I didn't plan on reading it, but then started and couldn't stop. It gives insight into what happened inside one of the classrooms and in the hallways at Virginia Tech, while the gunmen Cho was shooting people.

It seems that the students were almost passive (From terror? Shock at what was happening?) as Cho was on his rampage.  I guess an insight into how people react in a nightmare crisis...

8 Minutes After 911 Call, A Rescue From Madness - washingtonpost.com

They also reveal details about what happened inside Norris as Cho killed 30 people, then himself. Even before he chained the doors at Norris and began his rampage, Cho had reconnoitered the Gothic-style building. The morning of the shootings, he poked his head into several classrooms before the attack. With methodical precision, he moved from room to room along a second-floor hallway and shot anyone who moved with his two handguns. When he was done in each room, he closed the door behind him. Then he went back to rooms where he'd already been, found students who were still alive and executed them at point-blank range. Of the 30 people who died at Norris, 28 of them were shot in the head. Cho shot some four or five times.

Within eight minutes of Haas's call, Blacksburg and Virginia Tech police broke into Norris Hall. They worked frantically to save students clinging to life. Medics performed triage and rushed victims to safety as SWAT teams moved through the building to confirm that Cho had acted alone. In the critical first 20 minutes, when ambulances could not pull close to Norris Hall because they hadn't been given the all-clear by SWAT teams, one officer placed wounded students in his sport-utility vehicle and ferried them over sidewalks and lawns to get to the ambulances, parked blocks away.

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Emily Haas, a French major from Richmond, was lying against a wall, partially behind a desk, in the back of her classroom. With her blue eyes squeezed shut, she held a cellphone to her ear with her right hand. Around her middle finger was the silver "angel band" of her Pi Beta Phi sorority. She was wearing jeans, an old yellow T-shirt of her mother's and a new pair of brown Sperry Top-Siders; a baseball cap covered her blond hair. The smell of burnt gunpowder swirled around her as a silent Cho fired his handguns.

"Try to stay calm," Morgan, 42, a mother with three young children, told Haas. "Ease your breathing."

Two minutes into the call, Morgan asked Haas whether she still heard the gunshots. Yes, Haas said, but they were farther away. The gunman had spent 120 frightening seconds in her classroom, then gone next door.

"Stay under the desk," Morgan said. "Keep talking to me. We're hurrying. They'll be there in a minute."

Health update on Tim's ankle

Tim had an MRI on Monday and the orthopedist' office got the report on Tuesday. The deal from the previous week was the orthopedist was going to call us Tuesday, and probably give us the OK for Tim to go off crutches and wear an aircast.

We didn't get a call Tuesday (we called the office) and when we called again on Wednesday, we were told the Dr. was out until Friday.

So I had the MRI faxed to my office Wednesday and read it over the phone to a radiologist friend of mine. I told him I was inclined to simply have Tim give up the crutches and use the aircast, and he agreed.

And that's what we did. Tim went to a wiffle ball birthday party Wednesday evening, and to school in the aircast Thursday. He seems fine. Saturday he (and the rest of us) will be rafting in Pennsylvania with Tim's cub scout group.

Where do journalists send political contributions?

Here's a feature on msnbc on where journalists send their contributions.

Journalists give campaign cash - Politics - MSNBC.com

It will come as no shock to anyone that by a huge majority, they donate to the Democratic Party and far-left causes.

Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties.

I have lifted the following from opinionjournal.com, James Taranto column -

Redeeming this dog-bites-man story, though is the lengthy sidebar enumerating all the donations and the comments from the donors. A particular standout is Mark Singer, who gave $250 to "Victory Campaign 2004, which supported America Coming Together, which opposed President Bush." He says:

"I believe very much that writers have to be aware of conflicts of interest in all sorts of situations. Probably there should be a rule against it. But there's a rule against murder. If someone had murdered Hitler--a journalist interviewing him had murdered him--the world would be a better place. I only feel good, as a citizen, about getting rid of George Bush, who has been the most destructive president in my lifetime. I certainly don't regret it."

Then there's Randy Cohen, who writes the "Ethicist" column for the New York Times and gave $585 to MoveOn.org, an Angry Left Group":

Cohen said he thought of MoveOn.org as nonpartisan and thought the donation would be allowed even under the strict rule at the Times.

"We admire those colleagues who participate in their communities--help out at the local school, work with Little League, donate to charity," Cohen said in an e-mail. "But no such activity is or can be non-ideological. Few papers would object to a journalist donating to the Boy Scouts or joining the Catholic Church. But the former has an official policy of discriminating against gay children; the latter has views on reproductive rights far more restrictive than those of most Americans. Should reporters be forbidden to support those groups? I'd say not. Unless a group's activities impinge on a reporter's beat, the reporter should be free to donate to a wide range of nonprofits. Make a journalist's charitable giving transparent, and let the readers weigh it as they will.

"Those who do not cover anything, but write a column of opinion should have even more latitude. It is such a writer's job to make his views explicit. Those donations to nonprofits will no doubt reflect the views he or she is hired to express. In evaluating such civic engagement, it is well to remember that to have an opinion is not to have a bias. To conceal one's political opinions is not to be without them."

After MSNBC.com checked the names of Times staff and contributors on this list with a spokesperson for the Times, Cohen sent this addendum:

"That said, Times policy does forbid my making such donations, and I will not do so in the future."

Cohen's effort at self-justification approaches high comedy: If it's OK for his colleagues to make donations to nonpolitical organizations that he finds politically objectionable, it must be OK for him to make donations to political organizations! And anyway, he thinks of MoveOn.org as nonpartisan! We haven't read Cohen's column in ages, but we recall that his guiding principle always seemed to be that the ends justify the means, so long as the ends are liberal.

One could argue that journalists who make political donations are doing the public a service by disclosing their own biases. The reason that many news organizations bar such contributions (though not all do; see this sidebar for the details) is to protect their institutional credibility--that is, the plausibility of the claim to be unbiased.

The Wall Street Journal is frequently viewed as a conservative, Republican-leaning publication. The five employees of the Journal and it's parent company, who were listed by MSNBC all gave to Democrats.

Who is America's most inaccurate pundit?

Obviously, Paul Krugman of the NY Times, their purported economics expert. Inacurate is a bad choice of words. Woeful is more like it.

And of course a lot of it is just his Bush-hatred. Krugman wanted the economy to go south, so Bush would look bad.

This from four years ago today, June 20th, 2003.

The big rise in the stock market is definitely telling us something. Bulls think it says the economy is about to take off. But I think it's a sign that America is still blowing bubbles — that a three-year bear market and the biggest corporate scandals in history haven't cured investors of irrational exuberance yet.

And,

In short, the current surge in stocks looks like another bubble, one that will eventually burst.

Since then the S & P 500 has risen 66%. Ahhh, yes, it must be nice to have a guaranteed paycheck from the NY Times!

With thanks to Donald Luskin for pointing this out --

The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid

Despite efforts, AIDS continues it's march through Africa

A comprehensive article in the Washington Post. The problem is multiple sex partners...

Spread of AIDS in Africa Is Outpacing Treatment - washingtonpost.com

"At the moment, I just see a never-ending sea of disaster," said Venter, 37, the dark-haired, long-limbed president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society.

Underlying his frustration are grim statistics: For every South African who started taking antiretroviral drugs last year, five others contracted HIV, the same ratio as on the continent as a whole, U.N. reports say. A South African turning 15 today has a nearly 50 percent chance of contracting the virus in his or her lifetime, research shows.

The problem is not the medicine, which is among the most powerful in the world. In places such as the United States and Europe, where prevention programs were already succeeding against much smaller epidemics, the arrival of antiretroviral drugs was a turning point in the battle against AIDS.

But in sub-Saharan Africa, prevention programs have mostly failed to curb the behavior -- especially the habit of maintaining several sexual partners at a time -- that drives the epidemic, research indicates.

So while antiretroviral drugs have prolonged and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africans, millions more are being newly infected with a disease that is still incurable and, for most, terminal.

In South Africa, AIDS deaths are projected to increase at least through 2025 despite steadily improving access to antiretrovirals, according to the Actuarial Society of South Africa. The prognosis on the rest of the continent is at least as bleak.

Global health officials and AIDS activists once predicted that expanding treatment would bolster prevention efforts by encouraging more openness about the disease and making it easier to educate people on how to protect themselves from HIV.

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National prevention programs, which have emphasized condom use and HIV testing but rarely featured frank discussions of the dangers of multiple sex partners, have done no better, Venter said. Health officials have also shown little enthusiasm for expanding access to circumcision, despite research showing that it can dramatically slow the pace of new infections.

"South Africa has had huge money poured into it for prevention and done diddly squat," he said.

Moloi had her own frustrations. The roster of orphans whose care she oversaw continued to grow -- it numbers 450 now -- in an indication that AIDS deaths were not slowing. And as orphans reached their mid-teens, Moloi saw them adopting the same sexual behaviors that had led many of their parents to contract HIV.

Boys generally kept several girlfriends, and girls often had two or more boyfriends, she said. They used condoms inconsistently, if at all.

"People are not abstaining. People are not using condoms," Moloi said. "People say it's boring."

She recalled spotting the swollen belly on a petite 16-year-old orphan who only two years earlier had lost her own mother, probably to AIDS. During a visit to the girl's home, Moloi administered a pregnancy test. It was positive. She learned from a neighbor that the girl had two boyfriends.

Moloi urged her to take an HIV test. She refused.

"They are breaking my heart," Moloi said. "I see AIDS. I'm not seeing life."

Breast cancer drug study cancelled

Here's something that's sure to be contentious and can probably be legitimately argued either way.

Breast Cancer Drug Study Canceled - washingtonpost.com

The federal government yesterday canceled a $100 million study designed to test a new generation of drugs to prevent breast cancer in women at risk for the disease.

The National Cancer Institute took the unusual step of terminating the long-planned study, saying the massive project could not be justified amid questions about the study's usefulness and the drugs' safety.

"The numerous scientific concerns . . . are sufficiently formidable that the NCI will not commit to the funding of this particular trial," the agency wrote. "While the . . . study may provide another possible option for women at risk for breast cancer, the dangers of introducing these drugs, with their many known side effects, outweighs their potential until we are better able to determine who will benefit from these interventions and what the longer term effect may be."

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The planned study had divided breast cancer researchers and patient advocates.

About 180,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year and about 40,000 die from it, making it the second most common cancer in women and second leading cause of cancer deaths in women. At least 1 million women are at high risk for the disease because of family history, having a gene that increases their risk or other reasons.

The only drug approved to reduce the risk is tamoxifen, which blocks the hormone estrogen. But because tamoxifen increases the risk for uterine cancer and blood clots, few women take it unless they have already had breast cancer. Another estrogen-blocking drug, called raloxifene, appears equally effective with fewer serious side effects, but it has also not been widely adopted in part because it can cause hot flashes and other symptoms similar to those of menopause.

The study was intended to evaluate a new generation of drugs known as aromatase inhibitors, which appear to be more effective at reducing the risk. The study would have involved giving either raloxifene or the aromatase inhibitor letrozole to 12,800 women at high risk for breast cancer at 500 sites across the United States and Canada and then following them for five years.

After multiple reviews, the cancer institute had initially endorsed the trial. But amid budget concerns, NCI Director John Niederhuber in January called for a new review, citing scientific questions about the project.

A committee Niederhuber appointed decided last week not to endorse the project, citing its cost and the fact that two large studies comparing other aromatase inhibitors with a placebo were underway in the United States and England and would provide answers before the federal trial would be completed. The committee also questioned how many women would use an aromatase inhibitor even if it was shown to be effective. Aromatase inhibitors carry risks, particularly of brittle bones.

Although some breast cancer advocacy groups had endorsed the study, others had lobbied against it, saying more research was needed to better identify women who would benefit most from such drugs, particularly because of the side effects.

An outdoors Icon dies

About four months ago I re-read a classic book about walking, titled The Complete Walker. the author is a Welshman-turned-American by the name of Colin Fletcher. I wrote about it here   Tom Faranda's Folly: Latest Read: The Complete Walker IV  and also posted the review on amazon.

Today a friend of mine, Dennis Cannon, remembering I was a fan of Fletcher's, emailed me his obituary. He died a week ago at the age of 85. Evidently he died of complications of a head injury he received in 2001, when he was hit by a car. He must have been somewhat active since then, since he revised his book, along with a co-author in 2002. He had written quite a few books on his journeys, several of which I read years ago.

Fletcher was a silky writer, with a good sense of humor. He was  character, without being eccentric. The sort of guy I would have enjoyed having a couple of beers with. Here is his obituary from the LA Times, which gives a good insight to the man.

Colin Fletcher, 85; hiking icon's books inspired generations to journey into the wilderness - Los Angeles Times

Colin Fletcher, who was considered the father of modern backpacking for his lyrical and practical writings on hiking, including "The Complete Walker" and "The Man Who Walked Through Time," books that inspired generations to journey into the wilderness, died Tuesday in Monterey, Calif. He was 85.

Fletcher, who was hit by a car as he crossed a rural road near his house in 2001, died at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula of complications related to old age and injuries suffered from that accident, said Chris Cassidy, a business associate.

"He brought this idea that you didn't have to be a nut case to take long solitary walks in the wilderness at a time when a lot of people were really looking for ways to create holistic lives and escape from the craziness of Vietnam and the stresses of the '60s," said Jonathan Dorn, editor in chief of Backpacker magazine.

Bruce Hamilton, deputy executive director of the Sierra Club, said Fletcher had helped start a movement by "speaking as an adventurist who would share his own exploits, then tell you to lighten your load by cutting your toothbrush in half."

"The Complete Walker," first published in 1968, is an exhaustive guide to outdoors travel that is generally regarded as the backpacker's bible. The book brims with advice on gear and frank observations, such as why someone should consider wilderness walking: It "remains a delectable madness, very good for sanity."

Darfur and U.N. excuses

The Secretary General of the UN had an op ed in the Washington Post on Saturday.

According to him, the original cause of ongoing crisis and catastrophe is --- get ready -- CLIMATE CHANGE and GLOBAL WARMING.

Uh huh. How about that for political correctness? How about that for having no shame?

Here's the article.

Ban Ki Moon - A Climate Culprit In Darfur - washingtonpost.com

Meanwhile, today I got an email from savedarfur.org, as they try to raise funds. It had the following picture:

Here's some of the text from the letter -

The devastation in Darfur continues to worsen.

Want proof? Just compare the before and after satellite images of what was once the Bir Kedouas village but is now just a blackened scar in the sandy terrain.  According to the Washington Post, the entire population was either killed or fled.

Unfortunately, Bir Kedouas is just one of hundreds of villages that have been destroyed in the four years since the violence began, erasing the lives of as many as 400,000 people and creating a refugee population of over 2.5 million men, women and children.

Joe graduates from the eighth grade. Look out Fordham Prep!

First, the good news on Joe's honors mathematics final exam. After a bit of a debacle, including getting 24% one week earlier on a quadratic equation test Tom Faranda's Folly: Joe Faranda, math and Fordham Prep he got 93% on the final (thank you Bev Milich). As his math teacher Mrs. Kwan wrote in his yearbook, "You saved the best for last." Of course there are other less delicate ways to express that sentiment...

Thursday evening the school had a very nice "Baccalaureate Mass" and then a dinner just for the students and their parents. That's when they got their yearbooks and at the dinner there was a very good "video yearbook" that was shown. Very amusing and at times touching. Many of the students have been at the school since pre- Kindergarten. Joe was at St. Augustine's for ten years.

Here are a few pictures (actually more then a few) from Thursday evening - some before Mass, and the milling around and picture-taking after Mass and before the dinner. And then some from the graduation on Friday evening.

Well, this one is Joe getting off the bus for the last time Thursday! Brigid took it.

Some of "the lads", outside of the Church -

Here's Joe processing out of Church after Mass. I guess they were told to look serious!

Post - Mass Hen Party!

A few more group photos

Here are many of the students from the two eighth grade classes

this is the Valedictorian - more on her later

And here's the Associate Pastor, in his last act at St. Augustine's, giving the commencement

At the end of the graduation ceremony, both classes assembled on the stage and sang. It was really quite cool -

Here's Joe with Fr. Dunn, who I wrote about here a few days ago - Tom Faranda's Folly: A report on a good priest

Joe and the Valedictorian, who it turns out is a good friend of his! 

and Tim and Joe, outside after the graduation

Typical mug shots for the boys, neither of whom cooperate (esp. Joe!) when it comes time for Dad to take some pictures! By the way, in the middle of my putting up this posting, Joe came into the room, looked at what I was doing and said "Dad, aren't I entitled to a private life?"

John Allen on American Catholic theologians

John Allen is a writer whose weekly column in the National Catholic Reporter is often quite interesting (at least if you're a Catholic, or interested in things Catholic). This week he reports on the annual meeting of the Catholic Theology Society of America (CTSA) - a group that for the past quarter century or so has enjoyed poking it's thumb in the Vatican's eye.

Theologians challenged to set the pace for inclusive conversations | National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe

Finn, of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, invited his colleagues to consider whether the CTSA's high-profile public statements criticizing the Vatican and the bishops over the years have been counter-productive. Those statements have produced a distorted public image of the CTSA, he argued, and they've divided the theological community, driving away conservative theologians who feel "alienated" by declarations that "poke fun at Vatican shortcomings and put the CTSA name on statements they do not endorse."

"The price has been too high compared to what we have gained," Finn said. "I wish we were not facing this trade-off, but I believe we are."

The CTSA, Finn argued, should instead be a common space in which theologians of differing perspectives can come together.

"Our church is wracked by divisions caused by ideological simplicities on all sides, and we need broader dialogue in the church than we have today," Finn said. "In the CTSA, all theologians should feel respected, and a majority should not employ the mechanics of majoritarian democracy to produce statements that the minority would find offensive, and then leave."

This was Finn's last act as president; the office is now in the hands of Margaret O'Gara of the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto.

Finn, it should be said, hardly means to muzzle theological discussion of church teaching or Vatican interventions. He suggested that in the future, statements on those subjects should come from individual theologians, perhaps with others signing on, rather than in the name of the CTSA.

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I was hired by the National Catholic Reporter in 1997, the same year that the CTSA put out a much-discussed statement critical of church teaching on women's ordination. It held that there were "serious doubts regarding the nature of the authority of this teaching, and its grounds in tradition." That declaration built upon earlier CTSA statements on controversial subjects. Two decades before, for example, a CTSA document had argued for the acceptance of homosexual acts within covenanted and committed relationships.

Covering reaction to the 1997 statement was, in some ways, my introduction to the bitterness of much American Catholic debate. Most famously, Cardinal Bernard of Law, then the archbishop of Boston, defined the CTSA as a vast theological "wasteland." Then-Fr. Avery Dulles, now a cardinal, said that the CTSA "constitutes a kind of alternative magisterium for dissatisfied Catholics." Fr. Richard John Neuhaus wrote acerbically that a Lutheran friend goes to CTSA meetings "to stay abreast of liberal Protestant theology."

Over the course of time, the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, founded in 1977, became seen as the "conservative" alternative to the "liberal" CTSA. While a few brave souls attempt to embrace both, they are a distinct minority.

Profile of Billy Graham's wife

Ruth Bell Graham died yesterday at the age of 87. Here is a profile up on the wesite of Christianity Today

Ruth Graham Dies at 87 | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

She was born to missionary parents in Tsingkiang, China, in 1920, where she was raised in staunch Presbyterian piety, with daily doses of private and family devotions and being expected to memorize large portions of the Bible. Her high school years were spent in a boarding school in Pyongyang (now North Korea).

In 1940, at Wheaton College in Illinois, she met a classmate who invited her to a performance of Handel's Messiah. From that first date, the relationship between Ruth Bell and Billy Graham took off. Before they parted for the summer of 1941, Billy asked Ruth to marry him. She didn't say yes immediately, but within a few weeks, she wrote him to say that she believed their relationship was "of the Lord."

Here's a funny video

This was sent to me by a friend of mine in Croton - who I will protect with anonymity.

It's from the White House Correspondents annual dinner in April, 2006. Bush is on the dais with a Bush impersonator (Steve Bridges), who provides the "thoughts" behind what Bush is saying.

It's really funny. 11 and a half minutes long - so watch it when you have the time.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1921276117304287501&q=genre:com

Global Warming update #16 Common sense from the President of the Czech Republic.

Excerpts below, but hit the link and read the entire feature - it's not very long.

FT.com / Home UK / UK - What is at risk is not the climate but freedom

As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.

The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists.

The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: "future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age".

The issue of global warming is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature.

As a witness to today's worldwide debate on climate change, I suggest the following:

*Small climate changes do not demand far-reaching restrictive measures

*Any suppression of freedom and democracy should be avoided

*Instead of organising people from above, let us allow everyone to live as he wants

*Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term "scientific consensus", which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority

*Instead of speaking about "the environment", let us be attentive to it in our personal behaviour

A report on a good priest

Fr. Robert Dunn has been the associate pastor at St. Augustine's in Ossining (where Joe and Tim go to school) for eleven years. He's been a wonderful priest, a fine homilist, and especially popular with the students and parents at the school. Several few years ago, Fr. was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The illness is taking it's toll and Fr. Dunn is leaving St. Augustine's to take a position as chaplain at a nursing home (big change from a parish with a grammar school!) in the Bronx. He will be in residence there, while also receiving therapy. I think Fr. is only about 42.

This past Sunday there was a big reception at the school gym in the early afternoon.  A "thank you Father, and good-bye" reception. there was really quite a huge turnout. Father celebrated the Mass before the reception and it was mobbed - people planning the reception went out to get more food.

It was very emotional, with many of the speakers and presenters barely able to hold back tears.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a very good picture of Father. The camera batteries went dead and the spares were back on the desk (How's that for a rookie mistake?  You'd think I'd know better) so here's the best Icould do -

Here is Father's personal website with some pictures from the day -   Goodbye

Father, thanks for your efforts, you'll be sorely missed!

A new report on ovarian cancer symptoms

The NY Times had a good feature article on identifying potential ovarian cancer symptoms. AOL picked up the article and you should be able to access it without signing in, and for longer then the one week that the NYT allows you without paying.

The New York Times - A Possible Early Check on Ovary Cancer - AOL News

The new advice is the first official recognition that ovarian cancer, long believed to give no warning until it was far advanced, does cause symptoms at earlier stages in many women.

The symptoms to watch out for are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate. A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three weeks is advised to see a gynecologist, especially if the symptoms are new and quite different from her usual state of health.

Doctors say they hope that the recommendations will make patients and doctors aware of early symptoms, lead to earlier diagnosis and, perhaps, save lives, or at least prolong survival.

But it is too soon to tell whether the new measures will work or whether they will lead to a flood of diagnostic tests or even unnecessary operations.

Cancer experts say it is worth trying a more aggressive approach to finding ovarian cancer early. The disease is among the deadlier types of cancer, because most cases are diagnosed late, after the cancer has begun to spread.

This year, 22,430 new cases and 15,280 deaths are expected in the United States.

If the cancer is found and surgically removed early, before it spreads outside the ovary, 93 percent of patients are still alive five years later. Only 19 percent of cases are found that early, and 45 percent of all women with the disease survive at least five years after the diagnosis.

By contrast, among women with breast cancer, 89 percent survive five years or more.

Planned Parenthood's annual report

Here is is.

Planned Parenthood - Annual Report

Donations are down. Taxpayer funding is up. Surplus or assets (called earnings in the for-profit world) is up. Way up.

264,943 abortions. I will pay $50 to anyone who can find anything about adoption.

The Sole Survivor

This morning in the gym I watched a brief interview of Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal who was the only survivor of his four man team that had been on a mission in June, 2005 in Afghanistan. It was quite a interview, even though it was only about seven or eight minutes long.

Monday the Washington Post had a feature story about the incident, which ultimately resulted in the largest loss of life (16 men) for the U.S. in any one firefight in Afghanistan.

Here's a link to the article, which prints out at six and a half pages of text. Absorbing reading. War is Hell, as General Sherman said.

The Sole Survivor - washingtonpost.com

Tim's ankle, Joe's math exam

Saw the orthopedist yesterday - appointment at 11AM, but saw him at 2PM, so pretty much a wasted day.

Tim has to stay on crutches with no weight bearing for another week. MRI is scheduled for Monday and then probably he'll be using an aircast for awhile. Dr. Purcell did allow him to go swimming yesterday, and he should be able to do his cub scout rafting on the Delaware the weekend of June 23-24.

Joe thinks he did well on his exam. Tom Faranda's Folly: Joe Faranda, math and Fordham Prep Finished it in a couple of hours, and then on review re-figured two problems and got them right (he thinks).  I asked him, "do you think you got a 100?" He said "maybe." I rather doubt if he did, but at least all the pain over this past weekend may have paid off. My bet is that he got in the mid-80's. We will see.

UPDATE - Joe arrived home today and said Mrs. Kwan told him he'd gotten a result "in the nineties".

Why Mrs. Clinton is leading in the Democratic race

It's the women's vote (at least among Democrats).

Clinton Owes Lead in Poll To Support From Women - washingtonpost.com

In the most recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, Clinton led Obama by a 2 to 1 margin among female voters. Her 15-point lead in the poll is entirely attributable to that margin. Clinton drew support from 51 percent of the women surveyed, compared with 24 percent who said they supported Obama and 11 percent who said they backed former senator John Edwards of North Carolina.

Clinton is drawing especially strong support from lower-income, lesser-educated women -- voters her campaign strategists describe as "women with needs." Obama, by contrast, is faring better among highly educated women, who his campaign says are interested in elevating the political discourse.

Campaign advisers say they expect Obama to pick up support from all categories of voters once they get to know him better, and that could change the structure of the race. But for now, women appear to be playing an outsized role in shaping it and could tip the scale toward the winner.

In 2004, women made up a majority of the Democratic primary electorate, including between 54 and 59 percent in the early-voting states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

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If Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, however, the general election may be a different story. In a Post-ABC News poll conducted in April, 43 percent of female independents said they definitely will not vote for her if she is the Democratic nominee, compared with 29 percent who said the same about Obama.

Joe Faranda, math and Fordham Prep

It was a tough past weekend, as Dad tried to help Joe with his eighth grade honors mathematics. Quadratic equations. Barrel of laughs.

Panic (or something near to it) was set off last Thursday with a call from Mrs. Kwan (Joe's math teacher) informing me that Joe had managed a 24% on his test the day before, on simultaneous and quadratic equations. She called me on my cell phone at 9:30 in the morning, as I rooted around in the basement to find a bottle of champagne to give to a client celebrating a big birthday.

So we had a lousy several days workin' on math and then I delivered Joe to math tutor extraordinaire Bev Milich today at 4 o'clock, for a last effort.

Bev felt Joe now knew it all and would "get a 100". We'll see. Test is tomorrow (Tuesday).

Then this evening we drove down to Fordham Prep to hear about the athletic programs offered at the Prep (very impressive - and they get to use the University facilities). Joe is interested in running cross country in the fall, and maybe joining the crew in the winter (in keeping with Faranda tradition, as a coxswain; the guy in the back of the racing shell who does all the talking and no rowing).

Will report on how Joe's math results turn out.

Here Joe is about five weeks ago, out with me at a restaurant after we climbed Sugarloaf Mountain Tom Faranda's Folly: Tom and Joe's Sunday climb up Sugarloaf in the Hudson Highlands. He's not too keen on having his picture taken these days!

20 years ago, President Reagan said: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Ronald Reagan spoke this line in a speech at the Berlin Wall Brandenburg Gate on June 12th 1987.  Certainly one of his most famous lines.

But it almost didn't make the speech!

Reagan's famous line nearly clipped from Berlin speech - Nation/Politics - insider.washingtontimes.com

Top administration officials said the speech was all wrong. Too provocative, said the National Security Council. Too tough, said the State Department.
    The president overruled his advisers and, as he rode through the streets of West Berlin on June 12, 1987, he told an aide that his speech at the Brandenburg Gate was simply "the right thing to do."
    Addressing a crowd of thousands as he stood before the Berlin Wall -- the world's most notorious symbol of Soviet tyranny -- President Reagan declared: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

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Yet the speech's most famous phrase nearly didn't make it into the final draft.
    Mr. Robinson, then a 31-year-old in his first full-time job, had been inspired by an earlier visit to West Berlin. There, he met with a group of residents, including Ingeborg Elz, who spoke bitterly of Mr. Gorbachev's promises of "glasnost," or openness, and "perestroika," or reform.
    "If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of glasnost and perestroika, he can prove it," Mrs. Elz told Mr. Robinson. "He can get rid of this wall."
    As he recalled in his 2003 book, "How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life," Mr. Robinson decided to include that demand in the Berlin speech Mr. Reagan was due to deliver in June. The president liked the idea. The State Department and the NSC, however, disapproved.
    Among those who urged Mr. Robinson to omit "tear down this wall" from the speech were Secretary of State George Schultz, White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker, and Colin L. Powell, who was deputy national security adviser at the time. But Mr. Robinson argued in favor of keeping the phrase, and Mr. Reagan agreed.
    "The speech itself is such a great demonstration of presidential leadership," Mr. Coffin said. "President Reagan wasn't afraid to stay committed to what he believed."

John Fund in today's Wall Street Journal makes referenece to the speech in an excellent op ed column.

Hitting the Wall OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

Rip Van Winkle has nothing on Jan Grzebski, a Polish railway worker who just emerged from a coma that began 19 years ago--just prior to the collapse of communism in his country. His take on how the world around him has changed beyond recognition comes at an appropriate time. It was 20 years ago tomorrow that Ronald Reagan electrified millions behind the Iron Curtain by standing in front of the Berlin Wall demanding: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Mr. Grzebski is, of course, thrilled to see the wife who cared for him and the 11 grandchildren he didn't even know he had. But he is also shocked at how his homeland has changed. "When I went into a coma, there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed, and huge gas lines were everywhere," he told Polish TV. "Now I see people on the streets with cell phones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin. What amazes me is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning. I've got nothing to complain about."

Worldwide naked bicycle protest

Yeah right. Protesting damage caused by car dependency. Yawn.

Here's an article:

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Naked riders promote pedal power

And here'e 282 pictures if you care -

Cycling on Yahoo! News Photos

Partially clad demonstrators pause in front of the White House as they ride their bicycles through the streets of Washington, DC as part of the World Naked Bike Ride. Nude cyclists rode through the streets of cities around the world ...

Has the "No Child Left Behind" Act had any effect?

Excellent five paragraph editorial in the Washington Post yesterday -

Measurable Progress in School - washingtonpost.com

HAS STUDENT achievement increased under the No Child Left Behind Act? The answer, according to an objective new report, is a resounding yes. That should give pause to those who seek to derail reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind legislation.

An exhaustive study by the Center on Education Policy showed students scoring higher on state reading and math tests and narrowing the achievement gap between white and minority students. The pace of improvement increased after President Bush signed the legislation in 2002. The report has extra credibility because, as The Post's Amit R. Paley wrote, it was written by a nonpartisan group that has criticized the implementation of No Child Left Behind.

The report is full of caveats about crediting the 2002 federal law for any improvements, and rightly so. Learning depends on many factors. It's clear, though, that many of the elements that lead to student success are in place because of the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Being held accountable for the performance of all students leads schools to pay more attention to black and Hispanic students, children with disabilities and those learning English. The law has spurred schools across the country to focus on the qualifications and training of their teachers, to use data to drive instruction and to emphasize results. Testing students to prove their proficiency and making those results public brought needed accountability to America's classrooms.

Bush is wildly popular - in Albania

Albania, the home of Mother Teresa, and with a large Islamic population.

Top News - Bush Receives Hero's Welcome in Albania - AOL News

Nearing the end of an eight-day trip, Bush got a hero's reception in this desperately poor country, still struggling to recover from being cut off from the rest of the world for four decades under the harsh rule of dictator Enver Hoxha. Hoxha died in 1985, and Albania emerged from isolation in 1990 but still is one of Europe's most impoverished lands.

Cannons boomed salutes from mountains overlooking the capital. Huge banners proclaimed "Proud to be Partners," and billboards read "President Bush in Albania Making History."

At home, Bush's job approval rating stands at its all-time low. But here, Prime Minister Sali Berisha said Bush was Albania's "greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times."

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Albania has eagerly embraced democracy and idolizes the United States. Three stamps have been issued featuring Bush's picture and the Statue of Liberty, and the street in front of parliament has been renamed in his honor.

Washington Post on local city efforts to go "green".

This is a pretty interesting feature article on a variety of cities. I excerpted the NYC stuff.

Cities Take Lead On Environment As Debate Drags At Federal Level - washingtonpost.com

Most taxis here are now roomy-if-gas-guzzling Ford Crown Victorias. But hundreds of boxy hybrid cabs have already hit the roads, gradually altering the autoscape of Manhattan's glittering byways.

"Some people are complaining -- especially the tall ones -- but most are saying, 'Finally, you're doing something for the environment,' " said Benesoczky, a Hungarian émigré and New York City cabbie of two-and-a-half decades. "Look, people will make a little sacrifice if they have to. They already are."

New York is among a faction of U.S. cities from Boston to Portland, Ore., that are racing ahead of the federal government in setting carbon emission targets and developing concrete strategies to deal with climate change. Their solutions are already beginning to alter the fabric of life for millions of urban dwellers.

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Analysts call the plan unveiled by New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (R) last April among the most comprehensive. In addition to the greening of New York's famous yellow cabs, the so-called PlaNYC calls for 127 new projects, including an $8 toll on cars entering Lower Manhattan -- a measure similar to traffic schemes already in effect in London and Singapore, where they have proven effective in reducing congestion, cutting emissions and encouraging the use of rapid transit. New York's plan was recently endorsed by Eliot L. Spitzer, the state's governor, and the Bush administration.

Released amid much fanfare on Earth Day, the plan is projected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars to put in place, much of which would be funded by state and federal grants. City officials calculate, however, that the fully realized effects would cut greenhouse emissions in New York -- which accounts for 1 percent of all U.S. emissions -- by 30 percent over the next quarter-century.

With New York's power grid projected to reach its limit by 2012 as the city adds an additional 1 million residents -- akin to cramming Boston and Miami within its five boroughs -- Bloomberg has pitched the plan as not only green, but essential to the city's sustainability.

When Catholic Bishops warn politicians, are they mixing religion and politics?

Here's an interesting Wall Street Journal  op ed of when the NY Times cheered the excommunication of Catholics for disregarding Church teaching ("We salute the Catholic Archbishop.... He has set an example founded on religious principle and response to the social conscience of our times." - NYT editorial) . I excerpted the first three of the nine paragraph op ed. Hit the link to find out "the rest of the story".

A Liberal Mix of Religion and Politics - When Catholic politicians face excommunication

OpinionJournal - Taste

In a recent issue of the Rhode Island Catholic, a diocesan newspaper, Bishop Thomas Tobin condemned Rudy Giuliani's position on abortion: "As Catholics, we are called, indeed required, to be pro-life, to cherish and protect human life as a precious gift of God from the moment of conception until the time of natural death. As a leader, as a public official, Rudy Giuliani has a special obligation in that regard."

The issue of how the Catholic hierarchy in the U.S. should deal with the problem of pro-choice Catholic politicians came up last during the 2004 presidential election. Some bishops warned Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, that he should not take Communion in their dioceses because of his support for legalized abortion.

But this problem has been discussed for decades. Most bishops have resisted calls to excommunicate such politicians or even to impose lesser sanctions, including denying them Communion. The very idea of these actions appalls most liberals, both inside and outside the Church. They consider ecclesiastical punishment undemocratic, an attack on personal conscience and a violation of the separation of church and state. "I believe the church has a role in guiding parishioners and people in public life, but I don't believe the Church should be using the sacrament of Communion as a political weapon," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), a pro-choice Catholic, recently told the Connecticut Post. There was a time, however, when most liberals applauded the bishops for disciplining Catholics, including politicians, who opposed the Church's teachings.

Health Update

Pretty good news. My blood results last Friday were right in the bullseye - white blood count 5.0 and absolute neutrophils 3.4.

So today Dr. Klimek's office (she's the hematologist I've been seeing at Sloan Kettering) called and said I no longer need the weekly complete blood count. I can skip this week, have the counts done next week, and then am scheduled to see Klimek two weeks after that.

Wall Street Journal op ed on why people oppose comprehensive immigration reform

Daniel Henninger writes a weekly op ed piece in the Journal.  Last week he wrote a column How About Amnesty for the Market?  (which you can read here OpinionJournal - Wonder Land ) on the practical need for immigration reform, taking into account the need for workers, where the most immigrants have gone to in the last ten years, etc. Stuff like that.

Today he wrote about the scorching he took from people criticizing him in letters and emails. And he asks the rhetorical question: what do people opposing comprehensive reform want? It is very interesting. (FULL DISLOSURE - I support comprehensive immigration reform, although I have my doubts about the current bill being debated in the Senate.)

To Be an American - for many illegal workers are a rebuke to dutiful citizenship OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

One of the first of many emails to breach the asbestos shield around our Outlook Inbox stated the author's opinion of my views with unsurpassable democratic eloquence: "I am shocked, shocked that the U.S.'s last great conservative rag would have a blind spot big enough to drive a Mexican truck through when it comes to the issue of immigration!" A reader from Illinois said: "It is not a balance between respect for the law and respect for work as you suggest. It is about fixing broken systems that currently demote both values."

What do these folks want?

They want the borders secured, the laws obeyed, English spoken, taxes paid, costs raised on employers of illegal workers, welfare payments suppressed, enclaved Spanish neighborhoods broken up and a very, very long path to citizenship. In the current debate, these complaints pour forth almost randomly, based on whichever datapoint needs to be refuted.

To those of us on the other side of the argument, a lot of this often seems unsupported, contradictory, impossible to achieve or confused. Wherever the truth lies, whenever a political movement like this erupts and takes root in most regions of the country, some primary American nerve has been touched. What we've hit here is the country's central nervous system--the idea of citizenship.

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The word "citizen" is everywhere in the immigrant discussion, but it blows by as if its full meaning were obvious. But it is not obvious because it's a lot more than just an idea. For many people, being born in the United States is just the beginning of citizenship. Genuine American citizenship is about a lot more than that. It's doing what's required to maintain all the communities, large and small, that constitute the 50 states.

This is what former House Speaker Tip O'Neill really meant when he said "all politics is local." It's about being willing to put in the time to deal with local tax issues, zoning fights, school-board controversies, battles over utility rights of way, traffic lights--all the stuff that runs beneath the Big Media radar but is what really constitutes the bedrock of American politics for most people. This is what citizens do. The problem for many people with the illegal workers, no matter how hard they work, is that they exist entirely outside the complications of civic life for an American citizen. And they appear to do so more or less permanently. For many, this makes the illegal-worker status quo a rebuke to the idea of dutiful citizenship.

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There are at least 12.5 million illegal Hispanic-origin workers in the U.S. now. If the opponents want at least 6 million of them out of the U.S., they should write up legislation that will achieve that goal, tell the American people that this is indeed the explicit purpose and then let voters convey their desires to the Members of Congress.

If expulsion is not the goal but if "unearned" citizenship remains intolerable (and politically, that may well be so), then the one feasible option is for the political system to create a temporary guest-worker program that rises and falls with the tides of the U.S. economy.

There can't be too many people in this debate more upset with the status quo than those who emailed me about last week's column. What galled these readers, often small businesspeople, was the feeling of rank unfairness; they incur costs for liability and workers comp, which they believe the hirers of illegals evade. However angry, most of these Journal readers want to move forward, not back, as summarized here: "By the way, this doesn't make me anti-immigrant or a racist, either. If labor shortages are that big of an issue then lobby to adjust our legal immigration and work visa policies." Agreed.

Washington Post editorial on D-Day, 63 years ago

Today isthe 63rd anniversary of the invasion of France at Normandy by the allies. (I had forgotten.)

Here's a good, brief editorial with a lesson for today.

A Note on D-Day - washingtonpost.com

On the day before the invasion of France, the supreme allied commander, Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote a note to be read in the event of the mission's failure and put it in his wallet. It said simply, "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

That note is, of course, familiar to those of the generation that best remembers D-Day and World War II. But it is about more than warfare; it speaks to the responsibility of all who would order the affairs of others, then and now.

Wall Street Jurnal editorializes on it's possible sale to Rupert Murdoch media empire

Below the link, I have put some excerpts, but the whole editorial is well worth reading. It is on the Journal's free opinionjournal site.

An Independent Newspaper OpinionJournal - Featured Article

"Don't believe the man who tells you there are two sides to every question. There is only one side to the truth."

So wrote William Peter Hamilton, one of the first men to hold the job of editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal, in the early decades of the last century. For editorial writers worth their pay, those are words to live by, and we hope to be living by them for a long time to come.

That's a point worth stressing amid the news that the Bancroft family may soon sell the Journal's parent company to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. or some other bidder. The Bancrofts have been exceptional stewards of this newspaper for more than a century. But capitalism is dynamic, and those of us who extol the virtues of Joseph Schumpeter's "creative destruction" for others can't complain when it sweeps through our own industry. That's what is happening as the Internet breaks up long-time media business models, and Dow Jones is hardly immune. The Bancrofts have every right as owners to sell or not based on their own dictates, and what we say won't matter in any event.

Where we do have a say, however, is on the question of journalistic "independence." There's been a lot of debate lately about what that means. We thought our readers might like to know what it has meant at the Journal, and specifically for these columns, over the decades.

For starters, the Bancrofts are unique in their hands-off ownership. They are often compared as family newspaper proprietors to the Grahams at the Washington Post or the Sulzbergers at the New York Times. But members of those families run those newspapers, exerting influence over the news and opinion operations. In that sense, those newspapers are hardly "independent" of those families.

Everyone knows that the influence of Times Publisher and CEO Arthur Sulzberger Jr. extends to selecting not merely the editorial page editor but columnists, political endorsements and, as far as we can tell, even news coverage priorities. We don't see how this differs from most of what Mr. Murdoch is accused of doing with his newspapers. The same lack of independence also applies to most non-family media companies such as Gannett, a newspaper owner whose make-no-waves corporate ethic turns nearly all of its editorial pages into mush.

By contrast, the Bancrofts have allowed journalists to run the news and editorial shops. That family ethic became a guiding principle under Jessie Bancroft Cox, step-granddaughter of Clarence Barron, and the business leadership of the great Barney Kilgore.

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Perhaps the sternest commercial test has come as we have expanded abroad, especially in Asia. The Journal has been banned or had its circulation restricted in many countries, and a reporter for another Dow Jones publication went to jail in Malaysia. In Singapore, a big market for the Journal, the government made the editorial page the first target of its campaign to curtail Western coverage of its domestic politics in the mid-1980s. While other companies--notably Bloomberg--have surrendered pre-emptively, the Journal has been nearly alone in fighting back. Freedom of the press has improved in Asia as democracy has expanded, and we're proud to continue fighting for freedom and human rights today in China.

We could tell other stories, but the essential point is that our owners have allowed us to speak our mind on behalf of a consistent set of principles. Readers may like, or loathe, those beliefs and our way of defending them. But we like to think this brand of independence is one reason the Journal has attracted such an influential readership. To borrow a phrase from modern business lingo, we hope it is part of our value proposition.

Summerfest in Croton

This past Sunday was the annual Croton Summerfest street fair. It's always a nice event and draws a big crowd, with a parade and lots of vendors. The following pictures were all taken in front of Holy Name of Mary - the Church has a big presence and operation at the Summerfest.

Food is always a big deal of course! Here Ceil Tuman explains it all to the cooks -

But the results are good - big crowd in front of the servers -

Rogues Gallery shots -

Big smile from Anne Marie Moore and goofy look from Tom Moore. Pretty standard according to Tom!

The pastor, Fr. Mike, on the left, with a distinguished mystery guest - his name, anyone?

The big whigs - from left, chief cook and bottle washer Clem Rivera, Fr. Mike, Laurie Vlad, who's in charge of the whole day for HNM, Mike Simmons, and his wife Lorraine. Lorraine is the new President of the Parish Council.

Mary Keon on the left, and my business associate and good friend Judy Anderson on the right. They helped man the Respect Life Society booth, which has been a fixture outside the Church at Summerfest for many years.

The next two pictures were taken by Judy.

Kathy Reynolds with her son Sean and cotton-candied twins Erin and Kaitlin

The Blues Sisters, Marion Costello and Mary Gambino

Yvonne Rivera collects a chance for the baby blanket raffle from the lady in blue, while Donna Moga explains it all to Judy at the Respect Life Society display.

That's Brigid in blue at the Respect Life booth - another picture taken by Judy

New medication for advanced liver cancer

Liver cancer is one of the really tough diseases. The fact that this medication is being spoken of as a "breakthrough" is evidence of that.

'Breakthrough' liver cancer pill boosts survival - Nation/Politics - insider.washingtontimes.com

The results in a multinational study of 602 patients with advanced liver cancer are impressive and likely will change the way patients are treated, say cancer specialists, including the study's authors.
    Patients got either two tablets daily of a drug called sorafenib or dummy pills in the study, which started in March 2005. Some patients are still alive, although on average, sorafenib patients survived 10.7 months versus almost 8 months for those on dummy pills. That's a difference of 44 percent.
    That type of survival advantage "has never happened" with liver cancer "and is a major breakthrough in the management of the disease," said Dr. Josep Llovet, the lead author.
    Less than three months "may not sound like a lot of time," but for liver cancer, "this is actually a quite impressive gain," said Dr. Nancy Davidson of Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. "It is the first effective systemic treatment for liver cancer, which is such a huge problem internationally."

Marine friend gets a homecoming celebration

Theresa Bonopartis is a good friend of ours. Her son Mike was in the Anbar Province in a marine recon unit.

Of course we're all delighted he's back!

Marine gets welcome home in Harrison after tour in Iraq

"It feels good to be home," he said as penne ala vodka wafted through the room. "But this was something I wanted to do, and I'm glad I did it."

His mother, Theresa Bonopartis, invited more than 50 people to the Veterans Memorial Building to thank them for their support.

"I am really proud of him. But I'm so glad he is back home," she said. "People don't realize what families sacrifice and what they go through."

For some guests, it was a first chance to meet Bonopartis in person.

Two Cub Scouts from Carmel, whose Pack 1 had sent Bonopartis and his unit supplies and treats, were thrilled to meet the Marine.

"They were helping our country, and we wanted to help them," said Jonathan French, 10, who helped his mother pick out blankets, hand warmers and scarves to keep the troops warm during a cold February in Iraq. His mother, Marie French, is friendly with the Bonopartis family and helped coordinate the care package.

"It is nice he can come back and he doesn't have to stay there anymore," said Scout Julian Perez, 9.

Walter Bell of Armonk, a Marine during World War II who received two Purple Hearts, heard of Bonopartis through his daughter's friend and wrote to the young Marine.

"I had a feeling for Michael," he said. "Being a combat Marine, I knew it was awful and it would be nice to get a letter from home. I prayed for him and am so thankful he is safe and sound."

Here's a picture Theresa sent us -

Tim's Cub Scout dinner

The Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner was last night, with Tim and his nine buddies "crossing the bridge" from Webelos one to Webelos two.

This coming year will be his last year as a Cub Scout. At the end of the year I do suspect he'll want to go on with Boy Scouts. That's our hope, for sure.

Here's a picture of Tim with his friend Chase -

And here he is checking out his new badges -

Tim has two more scouting events this June. On the weekend of the 23rd he'll be overnighting (we will all be with him) near the Delaware river and then rafting on the Delaware. Then the following weekend will be a Renegades game (Minor League baseball team, class A) and I'll be camping out on the field with him. We hope he'll be off the crutches by the 23rd.

On Thursday he is going to see a pediatric hematologist at Westchester Medical Center to make sure he has no blood disease that caused his bone infarct, and then a week from Tuesday he'll see the orthopod again. We hope at that point the "no weight bearing on left foot" will end and he can discard the crutches.

He says his foot feels good.

A BIG rugby hit

You have to love this, as the French #8 cleans the clock of his opposite number. It's only one minute long.

Click here: YouTube - Chabal's Huge hit on Masoe - New Zealand v France - 02/06/07

Despite the dominating tackle, New Zealand won easily against a weak French team, 42-11.