followfreedom's Xanga

Don't know much about geography...

Sat, 10 May 2008 12:10:46 GMT

Maybe being in Oregon will do this to you. Or at least in Portland...

Expelled

Thu, 08 May 2008 15:14:27 GMT

I recently blogged about (and saw) the movie, "Expelled. No Intelligence Allowed."

I'm not a good reviewer simply because I don't see that many movies I'm willing to write about.
(I will say that for sheer entertainment and a huge whiz bang factor, "Ironman" was a heck of a lot of fun.)

But also more than that, I'm simply being lazy today and will refer you to a review here that pretty much sums up my views.

Go see the movie.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:34:15 GMT

I'm changing my profile photo for a couple of days for the sake of my friend Meg. Mostly as a way of getting the picture in the comment section and to make a point.

Sometimes we just need to vent.
God is the obvious first choice here. Believe me, nothing shocks Him.

Heh.

I know this from personal experience.

But it also helps to call together our most flame retardant friends (ones with a little wisdom wouldn't hurt either) and let them have it.
They understand that it's not directed at them and it may just keep you from doing something stupid.

I know that one from experience too.

Friends like that are worth their weight in gold.

By the way a few prayers offered on Megan's behalf wouldn't hurt either for healing of torn hearts.

Just wonderin'

Tue, 06 May 2008 19:50:42 GMT

I'm kind of relaxing on my day off today, reading the excerpts from Michelle Obama's speech.
And then this thought struck me:
I thought Barack was supposed to be some kind of super talented orator.

Hey I've heard the guy speak and under certain conditions he can be mesmerizing. So why is Michelle Obama such a seemingly big part of his campaign strategy? She is at best a wash as far as whether she helps or hinders and has generated her own share of controversy without any help from Rev. Wright.

On the other hand we have a two term president who could have used a Toastmasters membership and and wouldn't know a thesaurus if it hit him in the head.
G.W. Sure could have used the help from Laura who is much more articulate than he.

And I can't remember one campaign speech from Mrs. Bush.

Is it because it may take something more than the ability to turn a phrase?

Just wonderin'.

And this: Are Democrats starting to cannibalize themselves?

Just wonderin'.

Warning: Pride, Compassion, Respect on display here.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:15:15 GMT

"and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds," Hebrews: 10:24

I'm trying to get away from just cut and paste blog entries.

But this is a need to know item and should be filed under "In case you think our youths are going to hell in a handbasket."

For a writer from the NYT to notice anything from the wilds of central Washington (with some help from the Seattle Times) is almost miraculous in itself.
But aside from the fact that I don't think this as uncommon as the writer, George Vecsey does, it does show that maybe there are values that are durable and that do withstand the onslaught of moral decline.
We can hope.

CWU softball players show compassion beyond sportsmanship

By George Vecsey

New York Times

Commentary |

Something remarkable happened in a college softball game Saturday in Ellensburg. At least, I am conditioned to think it was remarkable, since it involved an act of sportsmanship, with two players helping an injured opponent complete the home run she had just slugged.

Why this generous act should seem so unusual probably stems from the normal range of bulked-up baseball players, police-blotter football players, diving soccer and hockey players and other high-profile professionals.

The moment of grace came after Sara Tucholsky, a diminutive senior for Western Oregon, hit what looked like a three-run homer against Central Washington. Never in her 21 years had Tucholsky propelled a ball over a fence, so she did not have her home run trot in order, gazing in awe, missing first base. When she turned back to touch the bag, her right knee buckled, and she went down, crying and crawling back to first base.

Pam Knox, the Western Oregon coach, made sure no teammates touched Tucholsky, which would have automatically made her unable to advance. The umpires ruled that if Tucholsky could not make it around the bases, two runs would score but she would be credited with only a single. ("She'll kill me if I take it away from her," Knox thought.)

Then Mallory Holtman, the powerful first baseman for Central Washington, said words that brought a chill to everybody who heard them:

"Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?"

The umpires huddled and said it would be legal, so Holtman and the Central Washington shortstop, Liz Wallace, lifted Tucholsky, hands crossed under her, and carried her to second base, and gently lowered her so she could touch the base. Then Holtman and Wallace started to giggle, and so did Tucholsky, through her tears, and the three of them continued this odd procession to third base and home to a standing ovation.

"Everybody was crying," Knox recalled Tuesday. "It was an away game, and our four fans were crying. We couldn't hit after that."

The extra run made it easier for Western Oregon to win the second game, 4-2, and sweep the doubleheader. More important, all involved realized they had taken part in an event they would always remember.

The question is, where did it come from, this impulsive gesture by Mallory Holtman?

"She hit it over the fence," Holtman said Tuesday. "She deserved it. Anybody would have done it. I just beat them to it."

She said she had been taught by her coach, Gary Frederick, that "winning is not everything."

Is there something intrinsic to women's sports that caused this generosity? Holtman, nearly 23, did not think so. "Not many people are ever in that position," she said. "I would hope that our baseball players would do it."

Knox, the Western Oregon coach, said the act "came from character."

"They're playing for a coach who instills it," she said.

Knox said she absolutely would not say this demonstrated some major difference between women's and men's sports: "As coaches, we are so competitive, we forget this stuff. By God, I would hope I would have done the same thing."

Would the Oakland A's have carried a sore-legged Kirk Gibson around the bases to complete his two-run homer that gave the Dodgers a 5-4 comeback victory in the opening game of the 1988 World Series? My guess is that if Gibson had crumpled in the dirt, Tony La Russa (or Billy Martin or Leo Durocher or Earl Weaver or just about any manager) would have said, "Let him lie there." But let's grant that those stakes are much higher.

We've all seen sportsmanship at a high level. Golf depends upon personal adherence to the rules. In tennis a player occasionally yields a point — not usually at a crucial moment — producing a sweet little patter of applause.

In 1999, Arsène Wenger, the French coach of Arsenal of the English Premier League, insisted upon a replay of a cup match after a young Arsenal player had unwittingly set up a goal in violation of the unwritten code when an opponent is injured. So maybe sportsmanship is universal, out there, needing to be cultivated.

"It's amazing what they did," Tucholsky said of the Central Washington players Tuesday, while facing what she assumes will be the first surgery of her 21 years for what is suspected to be a torn ligament.

"Mallory didn't know it was my first home run," said Tucholsky, whose college career will end with a .153 batting average and exactly one home run. "It just says a lot about them."

Tucholsky was too immobile to join the handshake line at the end of the game Saturday, but her family has been in touch with Holtman, photographs have been exchanged, the two teams are wrapped in a bond of good feeling we can only wish did not seem so singular, so remarkable.

In case you were wondering....

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 02:08:33 GMT

For those who were thinking that Fred Thompson might be a VP... think again.
Courtesy of The Volokh Conspiracy.

And video here:

Under the radar.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:35:14 GMT

I referenced this back in September just after it happened. This is a continuing story that seems to have far greater implications than what has been reported.

Props to American Thinker for this (still) under reported story.

April 23, 2008

Bombed Syrian Site was Plutonium Reactor

You may recall the pinpoint strike last year by the Israeli Air Force against a building in Syria that no one was willing to go on the record saying what exactly was being built there.

Today, the CIA will go before Congress and reveal the not very well kept secret that the site was a joint Syrian-North Korean nuclear reactor that would have been capable of producing plutonium:

CIA officials will tell Congress on Thursday that North Korea had been helping Syria build a plutonium-based nuclear reactor, a U.S. official said, a disclosure that could touch off new resistance to the administration’s plan to ease sanctions on Pyongyang.

The CIA officials will tell lawmakers that they believe the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons but was destroyed before it could do so, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to a suspicious installation in Syria that was bombed last year by Israeli warplanes.

The CIA officials also will say that though U.S. officials have had concerns for years about ties between North Korea and Syria, it was not until last year that new intelligence convinced them that the suspicious facility under construction in a remote area of Syria was a nuclear reactor, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing plans for the briefing.

By holding closed, classified briefings for members of several congressional committees, the administration will break a long silence on North Korean-Syrian nuclear cooperation and on what it knows about last year’s destruction of the Syrian facility. Nonetheless, it has been widely assumed for months that many in the administration considered the site a nuclear installation.

Just what were the NoKo's up to? It appears that because their plutonium reactor was shut down by agreement with the US and China that they were looking for another site to manufacture their bomb making materials. It is doubtful they would have given Syria any of the plutonium nor helped them build a bomb. But Israel simply couldn't take that risk which is why the site was bombed.

Ed Morrissey:

This answers a question that really hadn’t generated much doubt. Israel doesn’t usually risk air strikes into hostile Arab nations unless the stakes are significant. Even more revealing, Syria didn’t register any strenuous public objections after the clearly provocative attack on its nation. That could only mean that Syria had something so important to hide that it didn’t want international attention drawn to the site. That either meant a nuclear-weapons site or Saddam’s missing WMD. Now we have our answer.

It looks like Israel prevented another Osirak from completion, and with it a deadly shift in the balance of power in the Middle East.

As I stated above, I don't think North Korea would have risked giving Syria anything they could use to build the bomb. But Ed may be right in which case the Israeli strike - brilliantly carried out - was probably necessary.

The stupidest holiday of the year.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:32:26 GMT

If it can be called a "holiday".
Actually I think Earth Day could reasonably be called a holiday. Since the word is derived from Old English hālig dæg : or "holy day" it wouldn't be a huge stretch given the religious like aura surrounding the global warming crowd.
Especially here in the Northwest.
And from where I'm sitting now, what I'm about to do would be tantamount to standing up in church and uttering a string of profanities.

Earth Day has to be the stupidest holiday on well... earth.

No matter where you fall on the whole global warming debate (as I sit in a coffee shop, sheltered from rain, hail and 40 degree temps, not to mention the fact that my son's baseball game got snowed out the other day. In the middle of April. Sheesh!) you have to admit that in this day and age you can't go a day without being confronted with some sort of environmentalist propagan... er...educational efforts whether it's sustainable building practices, recycling efforts, at work, school, on vacation, even on Saturday cartoons...etc. etc.
Pretty pervasive.
Not that I disagree with any of that. Conservation is a virtue and an (dare I say) American value. Ben Franklin's "waste not, want not" and all.
But, if for the sake of argument we assume (and I don't) that having one day called Earth Day has resulted in all of the above, can I say something?

Enough already. We get it.

Honestly, in the current ...um, environment, having a day called Earth Day is like waking up every day of the year to presents and turkey and still having one day a year we call Christmas.
Kind of de-values the day if you ask me.
And some cities observe the whole week. What is this? Environmentalist advent?

Even some environmentalists agree with me.

So, in an effort to balance things out and to be a bit iconoclastic, my observance of "Earth Day" will be driving around more than I usually do, breathing harder to increase my carbon footprint, using double the toilet paper and putting all my incandescent bulbs back in.

Who knows? Maybe in my small way I'll bring some significance back to a stupid holiday.

EDIT: Speaking of holidays, does anyone know what April 19th was? First person wins a free subscription. Lol.

UPDATE: A related article here.
"And frankly, to hear people who are so wealthy that they're clinically obese from excess food and leisure time yammering on about what kind of light-bulbs they use, while other people are literally starving to death... It's beyond bizarre."

Amen.

I need one of these.

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:00:06 GMT

This is called a "Chapman Stick" named after it's creator, Emmett Chapman.
Listen and find out why I was hooked on first listen.

Okay, Okay:
Here's a one take track of my version of Phil Keaggy's "Lovely Jesus". Too compressed and the levels are too low so you may want to use earphones. The playing is decent though. :)
Here it is. (Sorry. No vocals.)

Ben Stein's movie

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:13:12 GMT

"Instead of a cosmic mistake, he says the evidence seems to indicate that we are the product of a higher intelligence."

Only have seen this trailer. But from what I can see this looks worth seeing.

UPDATE: Click here to go to the movie website. The flash intro is pretty amusing with Ben Stein doing his best Angus Young impersonation.