Tom Faranda's Folly

Our Memorial Day morning

As mentioned here (with a nice picture by Tim)  Tom Faranda's Folly: Croton Point on Memorial Day , Brigid, Tim an I went for a walk on Croton point, mostly on the south side beach area.

The tide was out -  

 

The abandoned wine cellars were open!

Here are pictures of the Memorial Day Ceremony at Veteran's Corner. There were 250 to 300 people there. I went up after our morning walk. Very nice ceremony lasting 35 minutes, with a fine brief talk by a retired army major. Very moving.

Absorbing feature on Sen. Kennedy's wife Vicki

While I have no time at all for Ted Kennedy's phony progressive politics, I am sorry that he's now faced with a terrible struggle with brain cancer. And of course it effects his whole family.

The Washington Post has an in-depth feature on his wife Vicki, and their relationship.

The Steadfast Wind In the Senator's Sails - washingtonpost.com

Two weeks ago, when Ted Kennedy fell ill at their Hyannis Port home, Vicki Kennedy knew in a split second that whatever was happening was grave. As the wife of one of the most iconic and admired politicians in modern history, she also knew it would play out in public. Knowing the media would be tipped off in minutes because of the 911 call, Vicki Kennedy worked her cellphone at her husband's side. Before the ambulance pulled up, she had arranged for the senator to be transported from the Cape to Massachusetts General Hospital, called his Senate staff to put in place a crisis management team, summoned family members and notified his closest friends.

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The surviving brother of Camelot had spent most of his adult life beset by expectations and burdened by bad choices and personal misfortunes. He became a surrogate father to both John F. Kennedy's two children and Robert F. Kennedy's 11. A year after Robert Kennedy's assassination, Ted Kennedy drove a car off a bridge to Chappaquiddick Island, causing the death of a young woman riding with him. The accident destroyed his own chances of becoming president, and he dedicated himself to legislating. But his personal life was never-ending fodder for the tabloids: a divorce, a young son's cancer, reports of womanizing and hard drinking, and his painful involvement in nephew William Kennedy Smith's rape trial.

As Kennedy was preparing to testify at the sensational trial in Florida in late 1991, he felt compelled to publicly take stock of his life. His Massachusetts approval ratings were startlingly low, and for the first time in 30 years, he seemed in danger of losing his Senate seat. "I recognize my own shortcomings," Kennedy said in an extraordinary speech at Harvard's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government. "I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."

What went unnoticed that dramatic day was Kennedy's guest: Sitting in the packed audience was 38-year-old Vicki Reggie, a Washington lawyer he had been quietly dating for four months, during a period when daily details emerged about Kennedy's drinking with his son and Smith over that Easter weekend in Palm Beach.

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Their paths crossed several times over the years, but 22 years his junior, Vicki was from another generation. And then, she invited him to a 40th anniversary dinner she was having for her parents. At the time, she was a successful banking lawyer and partner in her firm, a single mother with an active life and many friends.

They soon began dating, and her friends report a very old-fashioned suitor.

"He did a very chivalrous courtship," said friend Barbara Smith. "He called, he always showed up at the door with flowers." And most importantly, friends said, he lavished attention on her two young children by a previous marriage.

The couple married a year later, in July 1992, and they went from their honeymoon straight to the Democratic convention, where Vicki's first act as a political spouse was to greet 500 people at a party the couple hosted for the Massachusetts delegation. She gave up practicing law by 1997, reportedly to ensure that she would never be faced with any conflicts of interest, and advocates for many of the social issues her husband champions, particularly gun control.

Is Al Queda on the ropes?

Here's an article from yesterday's Washington Post suggesting that is the case. There's a good deal more to the article then what I've excerpted.

U.S. Cites Big Gains Against Al-Qaeda - washingtonpost.com

In a strikingly upbeat assessment, the CIA chief cited major gains against al-Qaeda's allies in the Middle East and an increasingly successful campaign to destabilize the group's core leadership.

While cautioning that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat, Hayden said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world and has largely forfeited his ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents. Two years ago, a CIA study concluded that the U.S.-led war had become a propaganda and marketing bonanza for al-Qaeda, generating cash donations and legions of volunteers.

All that has changed, Hayden said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that coincided with the start of his third year at the helm of the CIA. "On balance, we are doing pretty well," he said, ticking down a list of accomplishments: "Near strategic defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qaeda globally -- and here I'm going to use the word 'ideologically' -- as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam," he said.

The sense of shifting tides in the terrorism fight is shared by a number of terrorism experts, though some caution that it is too early to tell whether the gains are permanent. Some credit Hayden and other U.S. intelligence leaders for going on the offensive against al-Qaeda in the area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where the tempo of Predator strikes has dramatically increased from previous years. But analysts say the United States has caught some breaks in the past year, benefiting from improved conditions in Iraq, as well as strategic blunders by al-Qaeda that have cut into its support base.

Assisted Suicide Bill passes California State Assembly

This from the STOPP email newsletter - 

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052901.html
Life Site News
An assisted-suicide bill that allows doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration has barely passed the California State Assembly. AB 2747 would authorize total sedation without nutrition and hydration for depressed and confused patients, whether or not their natural death was imminent. The bill would also allow family members to order the death of a mentally disabled person when a nurse opines they have less than a year to live, similar to Terry Schindler Schiavo's death at the hands of her husband. AB 2747 passed the Democrat-controlled Assembly Wednesday afternoon on a 41-32 vote, a one-vote margin of victory in the 80-member lower house. The vote was virtually party line, Democrats for, Republicans against. AB 2747 is authored by the same Democrats who unsuccessfully carried physician-assisted suicide bills for the last three years. "This deceptive bill will cause death and shorten life, despite its claims," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, a leading California-based pro-life, pro-family organization. "Drying up and shriveling to death through dehydration is a fate worse than lethal injection. By transforming palliative sedation into a vehicle for assisted suicide, AB 2747 would transform doctors and nurses from healers and comforters into killers like Dr. Jack Kevorkian."

This is cool; four members of one family summit Everest

This is the climbing season on Mount Everest - the rest of the year the weather is just too bad. Yesterday was the 55th anniversary of the first summiting of Everest, by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzig Norgay.

A few days ago, a record 75 people reached the top of Everest on the same day. Obviously, it's easier now, with Himalayan guiding companies, fixed lines on the mountain, modern equipment, etc. But still an awesome challenge - and dangerous. one death this year so far.

And here's a brief story about a Canadian family -

 winnipegsun.com - Canada News - Four members of Canadian family reach Mount Everest summit

More on McClellan's book

I have friends who are just ecstatically delirious about McClellan's book. "Bush misled", blah, blah, blah. I suppose if you already are anti-Bush, this is further fuel for the fire, and if you are a supporter, McClellan is simply a traitor looking to make a buck.

But somewhat surprisingly the NY Times had a halfway sensible editorial yesterday. You can find it here, along with good commentary by Ann Althouse.

Althouse: "I Knew It Was a Terrible Mistake, but I Didn’t Mention It Until I Got a Book Contract."

Here's another good piece:

The American Spectator Scott on the Rocks

What's likely is that just as the White House pushed him to make statements he couldn't cobble together on his own, so too did the editor for this book, What Happened.

At least that's what I deduced from Ari Fleischer's Wednesday night interview with CNN's Campbell Brown. Fleischer said that he asked McClellan if he had worked with a ghostwriter on the book. McClellan said no, according to Fleischer, but allowed that his editor had "tweaked" some of his copy.

"Tweaked" probably means massively rewrote. And if so, why should this surprise the White House? Why is the White House surprised that a dullard they manipulated could also be manipulated by a book editor?

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It was funny to watch Chris Matthews on Hardball read McClellan's supposed prose with such solemnity. Suddenly a flack the press considered a buffoon a few years ago has become in their eyes a major thinker, whose words deserve magisterial treatment.

New record for "page views"

I don't have a counter that tells me exactly how many people visit this weblog every day; but typepad keeps a rough count on the number of page views, which is not exaclty the same as the number of visitors. Typepad also says that their count is not necessarily accurate.

Anyway, yesterday I had 359 page views, which is probably 100 over the previous record that I can recall. Coincidentally, I was attacked pretty viciously on the local crotonblog yesterday. I visit the crotonblog every three weeks or so, mainly to see who they are currently slagging. I made the mistake of leaving a brief amusing (I thought) comment, which evidently triggered the wrath of the blog owner. Part of his rant was about my "wheezy" blog, so maybe that triggered some people to come over and have a look. I dunno. 

The UN rushes to the rescue in Myanmar - with condoms.

I violate my normally PG rating system to ask, how stupid is this? See excerpt from Malkin below the link.

Michelle Malkin » U.N. to distribute very special humanitarian aid to Burma cyclone victims

If any one story sums up what the U.N. has become, this is it. It’s at once so clueless and out-of-touch to be darkly comical (Hey, you know these people rebuilding their lives amid the bloated corpses and amoebic dysentery and famine really need? Some condoms!) while at the same time being sinister and malevolent, and redolent of Margaret Sanger’s eugenics movement. Somewhere poor brown people are multiplying, UNFPA notes with alarm, and primly resolve to help them stop.

 

Is Obama ducking meeting with veterans?

Here's an ad by a group I never heard of, Vets for Freedom, that says he is.

According to their email, amongst other things "... on April 8, when two-dozen veterans went to his office for a meeting, Senator Obama was unwilling to meet with them. He was in his office, just wouldn't come out." The just over one minute video says some other things also. Anyone who knows where to get a response from the Senator's office, email it to me or post it as a comment.  

Here's the article about the Scott McClellan book

Commentary on McClellan's book is all over the place on TV and radio today. McClellan was the White House press secretary. The book isn't out for another few days.

Exclusive: McClellan whacks Bush, White House - Mike Allen - Politico.com

Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes in a surprisingly scathing memoir to be published next week that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing at the expense of candor and competence.

Among the most explosive revelations in the 341-page book, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95):

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.” 

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

Here's Karl Rove's response to the above article on Fox news, already up on youtube.

More from Washington Post on childhood obesity

A week ago posted this from the WaPo.Tom Faranda's Folly: Childhood obesity and it's long term implications

The Post editorialized on the issue this past Saturday (is the headline an un-funny pun?).

A Big Problem - washingtonpost.com

OF ALL THE sobering facts in this week's Post series on childhood obesity, this one stood out: "For the first time in history, American children could have a shorter life span than their parents." In just two decades, obesity has become an epidemic touching every stratum of society.

According to acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, the prevalence of obesity has tripled among children ages 6 to 11 since 1980. A 2004 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the average weight for 10-year-old boys and girls is 11 pounds more than it was in 1963. As Post writers Susan Levine and Rob Stein reported, almost a quarter of children through age 17 in Prince George's County and more than a third of 2- to 5-year-olds in Loudoun County are considered obese. In the District, 40 percent of schoolchildren and pre-adolescents are at least overweight.

The extra weight devastates health. Type 2 diabetes has increased tenfold among children and teens, and gallbladder disease has tripled in children ages 6 to 17. That's on top of the increased risk of asthma, high blood pressure and heart disease.

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Without clear and focused leadership -- the kind that turned smoking from chic to undesirable -- rising obesity among America's youth and the health problems that go with it will worsen.

Croton Point on Memorial Day

Yesterday morning Brigid, Tim and I we went for a walk on Croton Point, partially along the south side beach (Joe was overnighting at a friend's house).

Tim took this picture -

I will post more Memorial Day pix tonight.

My brother Jim's trip to Guatemala

Jim was in the Peace Corp in the late 70's in Guatemala. Mostly a place called Quetzaltenango. I had visited him there in 1979, at the same time I was teaching in Jamaica. Went over at the Easter break and had a great time.

He went back for a visit last week - the last time he'd been down was 1998. Of course lots of changes. He said he felt there were "four or five times as many cars," as he'd remembered, "which helps explain the rising price of gasoline." It's happening throughout the developing world.

Guatemala is the only Central American country where more than half the population is still  pure blooded native indian - descendants of the Mayans. When I visited in '79 many of the indians were completely out of the money economy, living on subsistence farming. It's probably still the case, but see the picture Jim sent me - things are changing ...

Mouse on my computer is gone

But I did find this ...

Honesty in politics

This is rich. Congressman (Dem from somewhere or other) "stretched the facts" about Iraq to get elected.

The most visited memorials

AOL has a  nice feature up about the most visited memorials in the U.S.A., from Forbes

Magazine Lists Most Visited Memorials - AOL News

I was surprised that the Vietnam Memorial is only the third most visited. I myself have been to seven out of ten of them - the top four are all in Washington DC and can be visited in one day.

Memorial Day - Croton commemoration is at 11AM at Veteran's Corner (also called five corners)

I liked this drawing, which was up on Michelle Malkin's website, and co-opted it.

Wondering how the price of gas at the pump is determined? So are the dealers.

Peeved at Prices? Don't Blame the Dealer - washingtonpost.com

Daggle, who has been an Exxon dealer for two decades after working his way up from pumping gas, said he has done well. But he still cannot fathom how the oil company can charge him different wholesale gasoline prices for each of the five Northern Virginia stations he owns. The stations all sell the same Exxon-branded gasoline, delivered from the same terminal in Newington, where it arrives via the same pipeline. Sometimes, Daggle said, it's even dropped off by the same truck and driver hours apart on the same day.

The only thing that's different is the price, which can vary by 35 cents per gallon, Daggle said. "If I could have driven a truck to Gainesville and drive the gas from there to Shirlington, I could have made 50 cents a gallon."

On occasion, he said, he has persuaded Exxon to lower his wholesale price to help match price cuts by a station next door in Gainesville.

Historically, gasoline marketing has been a low-margin business. For decades, when oil was plentiful, margins were kept low to move as much crude oil through the system as possible. Now, major companies don't have to fight to move product, but they are still battling for nickels and dimes at the pumps.

Like other parts of the retailing business, gasoline marketing has become more concentrated and high volume than it was in the days when mom-and-pop gas stations lured customers with free drinking glasses.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm, noted in a report that in 1977, the United States had 223,118 gasoline outlets. By 2007, the number of outlets had declined to 164,292 -- even as the amount of gasoline sold increased. The average station now pumps 73 percent more than in 1977. And companies are trying to boost revenues by attaching convenience stores to the stations. In 1977, only 5 percent of gas stations had convenience stores; now, 65 percent do.

"The industry we're part of is an extremely competitive industry," said Exxon's Soraci. He said major oil companies' market share has dropped 20 percent in recent years as mass merchandisers such as

Costco

vie for customers.

Oddly enough, when prices are rising rapidly and consumers are most upset is usually when profit margins are slimmest for station owners. When prices are falling, as they were in September 2006, is usually when jobbers and station owners make the most money.

Guy dies and gets up to the Pearly Gates

And he finds out there are actually two Pearly Gates -

The one on the left says "Line up here if your wife ran your life"

And the one on the right says "Line up here if you ran the life of your wife"

the line on the left is HUGE - hundreds and hundreds of men ...

The line on the right has one guy ...

So he figures, let's try the shorter line.  He heads over, and says to the solitary fellow outside the gate, "why are you standing in this line?"

The guy shrugs his shoulders and says "I dunno. My wife told me to get in this line..."

 

Iron Man (Tony Stark) is #10 on the Forbes richest list

The richest fictional 15, that is.

#1 is Scrooge McDuck. #2 is Ming the Merciless (Remember him? From Flash Gordon? Wasn't he "Emperor of the Universe?" Wow. Scrooge McDuck must really be loaded.).

The list includes Bruce Wayne, Gomez Adams, Jed Clampett ...

Hit the link to see the whole list. Of course Forbes is well-known for their lists of richest people in the real world.

The Forbes Fictional 15 - Forbes.com

By the way, Joe and Tim have both seen Iron Man the movie and liked it. I'll wait for the DVD.

Are polar bears really endangered?

The state of Alaska doesn't think so. They are suing to reverse the ruling.

Endangered Species Today in Investor's Business Daily stock analysis and business news

Environmentalism: Alaska says it will sue to challenge the listing of polar bears as a threatened species. The designation could block vital oil and gas development. But that was the whole point in the first place.

The state's challenge was announced Wednesday by Gov. Sarah Palin. She argues there isn't enough evidence to support such a listing. And there isn't. She also maintains that polar bears are well-managed, noting that their population has increased dramatically in the last 30 years. She's right on that as well.

Fact is, the world polar population is at a modern-day high and growing. Mitch Taylor, a polar bear biologist with Canada's Federal Provincial Polar Bear Technical Committee, puts the current population at about 24,000, up 40% since 1974.

Senator Biden responds to Lieberman's op ed on national security

Yesterday I posted Senator Lieberman's op ed in Wednesday's WSJ Tom Faranda's Folly: Senator Lieberman on the Democratic Party and national security .

This morning the Joseph Biden had a Journal op ed responding to Lieberman. Fair is fair, here it is (remember, you may have to click on the link several times):

Republicans and Our Enemies - WSJ.com

The president had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead – by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan, and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests – Mr. Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.

At the heart of this failure is an obsession with the "war on terrorism" that ignores larger forces shaping the world: the emergence of China, India, Russia and Europe; the spread of lethal weapons and dangerous diseases; uncertain supplies of energy, food and water; the persistence of poverty; ethnic animosities and state failures; a rapidly warming planet; the challenge to nation states from above and below.

I disagree that Bush has ignored the rest of the world while focusing on the war on terror; but if you're a dedicated Democrat you'll love Biden's feature.

Chinese earthquake - wedding pictures as buildings fall

The eight pictures here are remarkable. I posted one below the link.

 Earthquake Rattled Wedding Shoots - AOL News

The Farm Bill: Welfare for the rich

A week ago I put up this posting about absurd farm bill Tom Faranda's Folly: The Farm Bill, the poor, and subsidizing the wealthy and here is more fromthe Wall Street Journal -

Change You Can't Believe In - WSJ.com

President Bush vetoed the $300 billion farm bill yesterday, and a bipartisan throng in the House promptly voted to override. The Senate is expected to follow shortly. Every one of these Congressional worthies purports to be an advocate of "change."

Yet you couldn't write a piece of legislation that more thoroughly represents the Beltway status quo than this one. In every way imaginable, and even a few more, it repeats and compounds the spendthrift errors of previous farm bills.

Since the last farm bill in 2002, the price of cotton is up 105%, soybeans 164%, corn 169% and wheat 256%. Yet when Mr. Bush proposed the genuine change of limiting farm welfare to those earning less than $200,000 a year, he was laughed out of town. The bill purports to limit subsidies to those earning a mere $750,000, but loopholes and spousal qualifications make it closer to $2.5 million. As Barack Obama likes to say, it's time Washington worked for "the middle class," which apparently includes millionaire corn and sugar farmers.

Another purported change is the arrival of "fiscal discipline," in Nancy Pelosi's favorite phrase from the 2006 campaign. Yet it turns out this farm extravaganza may bust federal budget targets even more than we thought a week ago. That's because the new price supports – the guaranteed floor payments farmers receive for their crops – have been raised to match this year's record prices.

The USDA reports that if crop prices fall from these highs to their norm over the next five years, farm payments will surge. For example, if corn prices return to $3.25 a bushel from today's $6, farmers would get $10 billion a year in support payments. If bean prices fall to their norm, they'd get $4 billion. Thus, if farm prices stay high, consumers face higher grocery bills and farmers get rich. If farm prices fall, taxpayers kick in the difference and farmers still get rich.

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To his credit, John McCain opposes the bill, and this week he gave a speech attacking it. Yet he's also missed an opportunity to make his opposition part of a larger case that he represents change from both parties in Washington. He could also turn the tables on Mr. Obama's claim that he better represents middle-class taxpayers. Failing that kind of campaign, the farm bill suggests that the only real change coming to Washington is more of what's in taxpayer pockets.

No You Can't

This is from Rush Limbaugh a few days ago -

 

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: With Obama we started out, we couldn't talk about his big ears 'cause that made him nervous. We've gone from that to this: Not only can we not mention his ears... We can't talk about his mother. We can't talk about his father. We can't talk about his grandmother unless he does, brings her up as a "typical white person." We can't talk about his wife, can't talk about his preacher, can't talk about his terrorist friends, can't talk about his voting record, can't talk about his religion. We can't talk about appeasement. We can't talk about color; we can't talk about lack of color. We can't talk about race. We can't talk about bombers and mobsters who are his friends. We can't talk about schooling. We can't talk about his name, "Hussein." We can't talk about his lack of experience. Can't talk about his income. Can't talk about his flag pin. This started out we can't call him a liberal. It started out we just couldn't talk about his ears. Now we can't say anything about him. END TRANSCRIPT

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on solving the energy crisis

I love this. Very insightful.

 Nancy Pelosi's Message on Democrat Energy Solutions

This is semi-cool; I'm now listed in the top 10,000 among amazon.com reviewers

9,771st to be exact. 52 reviews (mostly book reviews originally done here) with 586 helpful votes. But I haven't done a review since Feb. 3rd.

Amazon.com: Profile for T. Faranda

Senator Lieberman on the Democratic Party and national security

This is a devastatingly accurate portrayal of Obama and the leftists in the Democratic party - from the man who was the Democratic party nominee of vice president in 2000.

 Democrats and Our Enemies - WSJ.com

... If the Democratic Party had stayed where it was in 2000, America could have confronted the terrorists with unity and strength in the years after 9/11.

Instead a debate soon began within the Democratic Party about how to respond to Mr. Bush. I felt strongly that Democrats should embrace the basic framework the president had advanced for the war on terror as our own, because it was our own. But that was not the choice most Democratic leaders made. When total victory did not come quickly in Iraq, the old voices of partisanship and peace at any price saw an opportunity to reassert themselves. By considering centrism to be collaboration with the enemy – not bin Laden, but Mr. Bush – activists have successfully pulled the Democratic Party further to the left than it has been at any point in the last 20 years.

Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.

In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America's friends and America's enemies.

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A great Democratic secretary of state, Dean Acheson, once warned "no people in history have ever survived, who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies." This is a lesson that today's Democratic Party leaders need to relearn.

Senator Kennedy's cancer is a bad one

Here is a pretty comprehensive but short AP article.

A grim diagnosis: Kennedy's brain cancer is worst kind - Yahoo! News

"As a general rule, at 76, without the ability to do a surgical resection, as kind of a ballpark figure you're probably looking at a survival of less than a year," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

On the plus side, scientists are studying new approaches — adding a drug called Avastin to standard treatment, or even brewing up customized vaccines to help the body fight back. While they're still experimental, many glioma experts advise newly diagnosed patients to seek out specialized cancer centers and ask if they're a good candidate for a research study up front.

"Considering how poorly they do despite standard treatment, it is always best to seek a clinical trial," said Dr. Deepa Subramaniam, director of the brain tumor center at Georgetown University's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. "They are not likely to do worse."

And here's a good piece in the Washington Post.

Youngest Brother Enhanced Legacy, and Built His Own - washingtonpost.com

There has never been another American family quite like the Kennedys, who have combined accomplishment, glamour, melodrama, tragedy and mythology in ways almost magical, creating an intense public fascination that has lasted half a century.

In an emergency, are we prepared?

No, we're not. Here's a really good feature from a couple of days ago in the Washington Post, written by a New York City resident. I have to confess, I have been thinking about this issue for a few months.

There are some practical suggestions ...

It's an Emergency. We're Not Prepared. - washingtonpost.com

... most Americans have been watching the devastation in Asia from relative safety and, if I had to guess, with a certain sense of complacency, a feeling that disaster on that scale isn't likely to happen to them. But it could. And if it did, our country might face the same sort of crisis as our Asian cousins. A major reason: The American public isn't prepared.

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To get a more ground-level view, I completed the 11-week, 33-hour training for New York City's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), the civilian auxiliary force that helps the authorities during emergencies. So far, as part of my neighborhood unit, I've responded to the plane crash that killed New York Yankees pitcher cory Lidle near the East River, directed traffic during a power failure, played the role of "Rude Evacuee No. 1" in a city hurricane drill, passed out preparedness guides in 11 languages at subway stations and mixed the hot chocolate at a Red Cross evacuation center.

My immersion has been so deep that last November I was selected "Ready New Yorker of the Month" by the city's Office of Emergency Management.

As I've continued to educate myself, people have asked me whether I feel better or worse. The answer is, both. I feel more prepared and more empowered. I see how much an individual can do and am more confident in people's inherent resilience in emergency situations. But I've also learned that my family's safety and the ability of my community and my nation to respond to major disasters might depend on my fellow citizens' preparedness. It may sound a little dramatic, but if even 93 Americans -- let alone 93 percent of us -- aren't informed and engaged, then none of us fully are.

Sex change operations for seven year olds?

This is crazy. Saw a discussion on TV this morning while I was in the gym.

FOXNews.com - Critics Slam Boston Doctor Who Offers Sex Change Treatment to Kids - Health News | Current Health News | Medica...

Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric specialist at the hospital, has launched a clinic for transgendered kids — boys who feel like girls, girls who want to be boys — and he’s opening his doors to patients as young as 7.

Spack offers his younger patients counseling and drugs that delay the onset of puberty. The drugs stop the natural flood of hormones that would make it difficult to have a sex alteration later in life, allowing patients more time to decide whether they want to make the change.

Spack also offers some teenagers hormone therapy, a drastic step that changes the way they grow and develop. While the effects of drug treatments can be stopped, long-term hormone therapy can be irreversible, causing permanent infertility in both sexes.

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“Treating these children with hormones does considerable harm and it compounds their confusion,” said Dr. Paul McHugh, University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at John Hopkins University. “Trying to delay puberty or change someone’s gender is a rejection of the lawfulness of nature.”

McHugh said gender reassignment for children harkens back to the dark ages, when choir boys were castrated to retain their high-pitched voices. "It’s barbaric,” he said.

Other Democrats comment on Obama plan to negotiate with terrorist states with no pre-conditions: Bad Idea

Cohorts disavow Obama stance - - Breaking News, Political News & National Security News - The Washington Times

Three prominent Democrats yesterday rejected Sen. Barack Obama's position of meeting unconditionally with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and leaders of other American enemies.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, former Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado and former Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. of Tennessee distanced themselves from Mr. Obama's position, each saying that preconditions for any such meeting would be essential.

More absurdity - the UK leading the way in human-animal embryo experiments

It keeps getting grosser and grosser

MPs back creation of human-animal embryos - Times Online

A second amendment, which would have banned the creation of “true hybrids” made by fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or vice-versa, was also defeated yesterday by a majority of 63. Another free vote last night was expected to approve the use of embryo-screening to create “saviour siblings” suitable to donate umbilical cord blood to sick children.

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The amendment to ban all admixed embryos was defeated by 336 votes to 176. The prohibition on true hybrids was defeated by 286 votes to 223.

Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox pitcher in remission from lymphoma, tosses a no-hitter.

This is cool. Lester had anaplastic large cell lymphoma. he was treated in the fall of 2006.

Lester Tosses No-Hitter Against Royals - AOL Sports

Childhood obesity and it's long term implications

This is definitely a concern we have about our youngest boy Tim. His body mass index (BMI) is around the 92nd percentile.

Quote from this Washington Post special: "For the first time in history, American children could have a shorter lifespan than their parents. The cause: obesity." 

How Obesity Harms A Child's Body (washingtonpost.com)

President Bush tells Arab nations to prepare for change

Some very interesting comments by the soon-to-be outgoing President. Bush gave this talk at the World Economic Forum in Egypt on Saturday.

You're running out of oil - Bush - The Scotsman

He told the conference: "The rising price of oil has brought great wealth to some in this region, but the supply of oil is limited, and nations like mine are aggressively developing alternatives to oil.

"Over time, as the world becomes less dependent on oil, nations in the Middle East will have to build more diverse and more dynamic economies."

Mr Bush also used his speech to call for more investment in people and "extending the reach of freedom", as well as urging other nations to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and to isolate Syria.

He particularly mentioned women's rights, saying they were key to building powerful economies. He cited Egypt as a model for the development of professional women, girls going to school in Afghanistan and women joining political parties in Iraq and Kuwait.

In an apparent criticism aimed at Saudi Arabia, he told the forum: "This is a matter of morality and of basic math. No nation that cuts off half its population from opportunities will be as productive or prosperous as it could be. Women are a formidable force, as I have seen in my own family and my own administration. As the nations of the Middle East open up their laws and their societies to women, they are learning the same thing."

Double amputee can try and qualify for the Beijing Olympics

Not the Paralympics. The Olympics. he's a South African

Amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius allowed to compete in Beijing - Times Online

A ban on Pistorius, 21, competing against able-bodied athletes, because it was feared that he might gain an advantage from running on his carbon-fibre blades, was thrown out by an historic legal decision that marked the end of a long quest for acceptance by the South African.

The IAAF, the governing body for world athletics, had even changed the rules last year, producing new competition regulations banning any athlete using “technical devices that incorporate springs or wheels”.

Most athletes would have given up and remained content with performing in the Paralympics. Not Pistorius, who challenged the athletics establishment all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, which yesterday overturned the ban.

Robert Mondavi, California wine maven

Has died at age 94.

Vintner Robert Mondavi Dies at 94 - AOL News

He was 52 and a winemaking veteran in 1966 when he opened the winery that would help turn the Napa Valley into a world center of the industry. Clashes with a brother that included a fistfight led him to break from the family business to carry out his ambitious plans with borrowed money.

At the time, California was still primarily known for cheap jug wines. But he set out to change that, championing use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, all commonplace in the industry today. He introduced blind tastings in Napa Valley, putting his wines up against French vintages, a bold move.

Always convinced that California wines could compete with the European greats, Mondavi engaged in the first French-American wine venture when he formed a limited partnership with the legendary French vintner Baron Philippe de Rothschild to grow and make the ultra-premium Opus One at Oakville. The venture's first vintage was in 1979.

The success of the Mondavi winery allowed him to donate tens of millions of dollars to charity, but a wine glut and intense competition gradually cost his family control of the business. In 2004, the company accepted a buyout worth $1.3 billion from Fairport, N.Y.-based Constellation Brands.

Mondavi was an enthusiastic ambassador for wine -- especially California wine -- and traveled the world into his 90s promoting the health, cultural and social benefits of its moderate consumption.

Rich Fuerst. How DOES he do it?

Brigid suggested two other titles for this picture:

"Guinness is Good for You"

and

"It's All in the Guinness"

Great story about a little girl and a brain tumor - hypothalamic hamartoma

Fascinating and amazing. Print and read the whole thing- it's only a little bit more then three pages.

A Child, a Bizarre Tumor and a Perilous Operation - New York Times

PHOENIX — Three-year-old Grace Webster perches on the operating table, tiny and cold, covered only by a diaper and her sandy-blond Raggedy Ann hair. Her blue eyes gaze warily at the monster-size machines sprouting tube tentacles that encircle her — machines that will guide surgeons four inches into her brain.

Grace had her first menstrual period at 14 months old. Her body is racked more than 10 times a day with seizures, some of them bizarrely mimicking laughter or rage.

The source of her suffering is a hypothalamic hamartoma, or H.H., a tumor on the hypothalamus that strikes only a few thousand people in the world. And while the tumor is not malignant, until five years ago it was considered incurable, even when baffled doctors could diagnose it. Surgery was risky and largely ineffective. Medication seldom helped. Many children were institutionalized.

Now, thanks to an innovative surgical procedure, scores of these children have been cured at two centers that specialize in the disease. One is in Melbourne, Australia; the other is the Barrow Neurological Institute here in Phoenix.

The Farm Bill, the poor, and subsidizing the wealthy

On Wednesday the Congress passed their five year Farm and Agriculture Appropriations Bill. The President had threatened to veto it, but alas, the vote is veto-proof. The Bill combines food relief for the poor with massive government subsidies for rich farmers (agribusiness) who don't need them (and which we, the taxpayers, provide).

The Wall Street Journal had previously editorialized against the bill, and I was glad to see that both the Washington Post and NY Times had editorials this morning attacking it.

Here's the Post editorial, with excerpts below Farm Bill Chestnuts - washingtonpost.com

... about two-thirds of the $289 billion bill will go to nutrition programs for low-income Americans, including about $10 billion in necessary increases. Corporate welfare for agribusiness accounts for less than half the price tag. But where does the Constitution say that Congress has to put aid to the poor in the same bill with tens of billions in aid to the middle class and rich? Congress does it that way so that rural members can get urban and suburban members to sign off on lavish farm subsidies they would otherwise reject.

The farm bill is the epitome of old-style Washington politics. A small number of farm-state senators from both parties demanded its most wasteful provisions, such as guaranteed payments to big cotton and rice growers and "disaster relief" for farmers in arid areas. ... The bill includes only the most tepid reforms, which, though trumpeted by the bill's advocates, deny benefits to only a tiny handful of farms.

While none of the presidential candidates left the campaign trail to vote on the bill, one -- Republican Sen. John McCain -- unequivocally opposed it. It may not be terribly surprising that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) hailed the bill's passage during a campaign swing through South Dakota. It's a bit more disappointing to hear Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), running on a promise to oppose politics as usual, say he applauded the bill. In Iowa last August, Mr. Obama said, "When the farm bill comes up in the Senate, I will be fighting to tell all those agribusiness lobbyists that they won't be able to count on the multimillion-dollar subsidies they always get because we're going to put family farmers first." Yesterday, he said, "With so much at stake, we cannot make the perfect the enemy of the good." On this issue, Mr. McCain, not his likely Democratic opponent, was the apostle of change.

Here's the NYT editorial A Disgraceful Farm Bill - New York Times

Congress has approved a $307 billion farm bill that rewards rich farmers who do not need the help while doing virtually nothing to help the world’s hungry, who need all the help they can get.

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The bill is an inglorious piece of work tailored to the needs of big agriculture and championed by not only the usual bipartisan farm state legislators but also the Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. ...

The bill includes the usual favors like the tax break for racehorse breeders pushed by Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader. But the greater and more embarrassing defect is that the bill perpetuates the old subsidies for agriculture at a time when the prices that farmers are getting for big row crops like corn, soybeans and wheat have never been better. Net farm income is up 50 percent.

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Indeed, even the increases in conservation spending are not nearly as generous as advertised. President Bush asked for $4 billion more than Congress provided. He also complained, rightly, that House and Senate conferees had killed a program to conserve rare prairie grasslands while narrowing two programs that paid farmers to protect wetlands and wildlife habitat.

With few Republicans rushing to the President’s side, the House and Senate both produced what amounted to veto-proof majorities, assuming they hold up. Mr. Bush should veto the bill anyway. Bad legislation is bad legislation.

Congressional business as usual. Too bad. But glad to see McCain opposed it (but unfrotuantely not enough to stop campaigning and get to Washington to vote against it!).

Darfur Update

Another op ed by Mia Farrow

The Way Forward on Darfur - WSJ.com

Next month the United States will assume the presidency of the U.N. Security Council, and not a moment too soon. The Bush administration will have perhaps its final opportunity to address the Darfur genocide, preserving its legacy as an architect of the imperiled U.N. peace agreement for Sudan.

In the past few weeks, the carnage in Darfur has escalated. Government bombing campaigns continue apace, with tens of thousands of terrified survivors joining the more than 2.5 million people already displaced.

Aid workers are being targeted – the director of Save the Children in Chad was shot and killed at the Chad-Darfur border. A primary school in north Darfur was bombed, killing and wounding many children. Countless people in the camps are slowly dying of hunger and disease, yet the World Food Program has been forced to halve food rations due to insecurity. Just this week, the violence spread beyond Darfur to the outskirts of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan itself.

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All 15 member states of the Security Council will visit Khartoum in early June. This is an auspicious opportunity for the U.N. to unify in its commitment to the deployment of the protection force.

China has a significant role to play here. Given its vast oil investments and brisk arms trade, Beijing has unparalleled influence with Sudan. The entry of a full protection force into Darfur would likely give China the international ovation it craves in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

My friend Maria has a birthday today

My friend and hiking buddy Maria Abonnel has a birthday today.

Here are some shots of Maria on a walk we did up to Anthony's Nose last a few months ago. Anthony's Nose overlooks the Bear Mountain Bridge, on the east side of the Hudson.

Hereeee's Maria -

Maria and Tom

And here's Maria with --- Mother Nature!

The Nintendo Wii fitness program

This morning the NY Times had a feature on the game-based Nintendo Wii home-fitness game machine program. It's actually a pretty comprehensive article and I found it quite interesting.

I don't think this is particularly useful for people interested in working out hard, but on the other hand it may benefit many others.   

O.K., Avatar, Work With Me - New York Times

Now Nintendo’s latest brainchild, Wii Fit, could send similar ripples through the home-fitness market. Scheduled to be released in North America next week, Wii Fit is not meant to replace a gym. But in a world of $3,000 elliptical machines and $150-an-hour personal trainers, it has at least a chance of becoming a global, affordable, mass-market interactive home-fitness system. (On its overseas debut last month, it became one of the fastest-selling games ever in Britain.)

Exercising with Wii Fit is like having a Bob Harper or a Denise Austin who talks back — gently cajoling you through exercises, praising, nudging, even reminding you to eat a banana once in a while. It also lets you see how you stack up against friends or family members; each user creates a cartoony avatar called a “Mii.”

The system costs $90, plus $250 for the basic Wii console. It uses a television and a sensitive “balance board” placed on the floor to present a few dozen activities, from push-ups to yoga, to more entertaining challenges like balance games and aerobic contests. Nintendo is not aiming Wii Fit at people with a serious exercise regimen. Rather, it is meant to appeal to the person busy with work and family who just wants to have fun getting a little toned at home.

From the "change is part of life" files - GE to sell off it's appliance unit

Hard to imagine General Electric without thinking "refrigerator" or "clothes washer." It's hard (if you're my age, anyway) to think of them as a media company (NBC) or a financial conglomerate (GE finance) but that's what they are.

In fact the third largest company in the world, with a tax return that runs 24,000 pages (nice if you're their CPA, yuk, yuk, yuk).

Arguably, you could say (I have said it) that buying GE stock is buying a play on the U.S. economy -or in fact the world economy.

GE - "We bring good things to life..."

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

GE, the biggest maker of appliances for new U.S. homes, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to explore options that include a spinoff or auction, according to one of the people, who declined to be identified by name. A sale may bring as much as $8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt, who took over from Jack Welch in 2001 and surprised investors with a decline in profit last quarter, has been paring consumer businesses to cope with a slower U.S. economy. The units he's selling don't expand fast enough to help GE reach its goal of 10 percent annual profit growth. Appliances, which like light bulbs are the GE products most familiar to consumers, were just 4.1 percent of 2007 sales.

``We would positively perceive a more aggressive approach to selling off slow-growth businesses,'' Robert Schenosky, a New York-based analyst with Jefferies & Co. who rates the shares ``hold'' and doesn't own any, said in an interview.

Prices for some appliances haven't increased in more than half a century. In 1953, an 11-cubic-foot refrigerator was advertised for more than $500. Today, an 18.2-cubic-foot GE model lists for as little as $519 on the NexTag.com shopping site.

A short medley of more newsperson blow-ups (In honor of Sue Simmons)

Quick and amusing.  The pomposity and blowhardness of many on-air TV personalities makes politicians look good.

Obama-mania XX - Here's the winner of the moveon.org 30 second obamacam video

Moveon.org of course the big leftist lobbying group. Says he's a veteran and lifelong Republican ...

Einstein - religion is "childish superstition"

I guess this trumps Einstein's famous quote: "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."

Belief in God 'childish,' Jews not chosen people: Einstein letter

The father of relativity, whose previously known views on religion have been more ambivalent and fuelled much discussion, made the comments in response to a philosopher in 1954.

As a Jew himself, Einstein said he had a great affinity with Jewish people but said they "have no different quality for me than all other people".

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.

"No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, ...

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"For me the Jewish religion like all others is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions," he said.

"And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people."

And he added: "As far as my experience goes, they are no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them."

Vatican: It's OK to believe in life on other planets

Actually, this is not new, but it got some headlines today because of an interview given by the head of the Vatican Observatory.

There IS an interesting theological question: did Jesus die to redeem mankind humankind only, or did he die for all sentient life (assuming there is sentient life out there) throughout the universe? The answer seems to be - for humankind.

Vatican Says It's OK to Believe in Aliens - AOL News

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.

The interview, headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.

WNBC news anchor Sue Simmons with a little locker room talk

YIKES!