What's Wrong with this Picture.

I went to the dentist yesterday to get my teeth cleaned. There are three or four dentists there and three or four "hygentists" (Does that mean that the dentists aren't?). I have my dentist (the dentists are all male), but I have formed no attachment to any of the hygenists (hereinafter refered to as "h" in the singular and "h's" collectively)(the h's are all younger and female). I have been going there for several years and so each of the h's has cleaned my teath at one point or another. The h's have one thing in common. They talk a LOT. (It would be fine if they said nothing. Really.)

I had a new one yesterday, and, sure enough, she talked a LOT. She noted right away that I was a lawyer and asked what kind of law I practiced. Then she told me her son was applying to law school and was waiting to hear from them. That's the story I would like to tell, the story about her son as she related it to me. Nothing really earth shaking, but I am taking a break here, you understand, and this is all I've got right now.

(Note to Florida Bar: she did not engage me as her attorney, and there is no attorney-client privilege involved.)

Her son graduated a year ago from a FL school that is in the Final Four. He had a double major in Business Admin and Engineering, graduating in five years. I say more power to him, because the Lizard school has a great reputation in each of those areas. But after a year as an engineer, he decided he didn't like it and applied to law school. He quit his well paying engineering job and went to work for Legal Aid earning next to nothing, while he did his law school applications and waited to hear from them. (At this point, my right eyebrow shoots up, but she is working on my upper right molars and does not notice.)

He applied to (1) the Lizard Law School, which I consider the top one in FL, (2) the law school of the Florida Native Americans who, among other things, wrestle FL Lizards for big tourist bucks but, as far as I know, do not populate the student body in any appreciable number, and (3) the Ibis Law School, which, of the three is probably the least in terms of reputation. Not a bad law school, mind you, but I rank it number three. State resident tuition is about $7000 per year to the two state law schools and $30,000+ to UM.

For a reason which was explained to me by h at great length but which I will not detail here (I've already lost half of my readership by now to Sean's blog), he will miss admission to FL for this fall, but could get in for next fall, if he waited. That leaves UM and FSU. He wants to go to UM. (My other eyebrow shoots up, but she's on the left, lower molars by now.)

Why?

His girl friend lives here.

He wants to go to law school NOW.

Let's see here. $21,000 for a state school versus nearly $100,000 for mediocre UM.

I took that sucking thing out of my mouth and said something like, "He could fly her up every weekend for the difference!" H said, "Yeah, that's what I told him". I mumbled something, and she said, "He's really very bright and was at the top of his class at UF", etc.

Maybe its a Florida Lizard thing, but would someone help me here? This guy is going to become a lawyer with this sort of judgment? (Well, maybe he'll go into politics.)

On top of that, this family does not have the money. He will borrow this money. H said that they could probably handle the FSU tuition, but not the UM tuition. So he graduates from law school with a $100,000 debt. Nice way to start life, especially since you don't have to start that way, especially when you are getting less value for your money at UM than at FSU or Florida.

Maybe someone will explain this to me. Is he so head over heals with this girl that he is afraid to leave her alone in Miami? Does he really think he'll have all that much time to check up on her during his first year of law school even if he is in Miami? Do you think this is a genetic thing and I should ask for another h next time?

April 15 is coming. Don't be a Moran. (Actually, its April 17 this year.) Or maybe you can get someone to do it for you. (Caution: the last link is a little risque.)

Dalrymple on D.H. Lawrence and "Lady Chatterley's Lover".

"[L]iteral-mindedness is not honesty or fidelity to truth - far from it. For it is the whole experience of mankind that sexual life is always, and must always be, hidden by veils of varying degrees of opacity, if it is to be humanized into something beyond a mere animal function. What is inherently secretive, that is to say self-conscious and human, cannot be spoken of directly: the attempt leads only to crudity, not to truth. Bawdy is the tribute that our instinct pays to secrecy. If you go beyond bawdy and tear all the veils away, you get pornography and nothing else. In essence, therefore, Lawrence was a pornographer, though a dull one even in that dull genre."

-from Our Culture, What's Left of It: the Mandarins and the Masses.

Lawrence was big in the Duke English department 1964 - 1968, as Playboy was in the men's dorms. Is he of any moment now?

"I Survived 'Right to Choose'." Bumper sticker seen at the Hialeah MetroRail Station parking lot this morning.

Metonymy. The NET Bible is a load. Not counting the cover, the book is nearly 1 and 3/4 inches thick. Not counting the satellite pictures of the Holy Land, there are 2,543 pages. It does not fit neatly into my back pocket. It does not fit into any pocket. So it is my Sunday morning Bible, and the center aisle of our church is wide enough for the dolly.

What makes the thing so big are the footnotes. For most of the pages, I would say that the footnotes take up at least one half, if not two-thirds, of the page. For a lawyer, this is like candyland. We live for footnotes.

There is enough space in our worship service to do a little multi-tasking, using the NET Bible as one's screen. For the past several weeks, in addition to following the minister as he moves through Acts during his sermons, I have been looking at other passages that are suggested by his remarks, diving down into the footnotes for as long as I can stay down there without having to come back up to the verse for my breath. This morning I decided not only to follow the Acts passages, but also to start reading the psalms during the services. So I started at the First Psalm and blew all the way through to nearly the fourth verse of Chapter 1.

The first verse of Psalm 1 reads "How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the assembly of scoffers." This verse has 9 footnotes. The footnotes are so thick on the page where Psalm 1 begins that the scripture text only gets as far as the beginning of verse 4.

The first footnote is at the end of the phrase "How blessed", and I want to talk about that, but let me say something about how fresh is the NET Bible text. There is nothing contrived about the translation, and contrivance really puts me off. (I hate to admit this, but I just cannot relate to "the Message", as great a scholar as Peterson is.) I find the NET translation crystal clear thus far, and there is a sort of pleasure in reading how the translators express anew passages with which I have been familiar nearly all of my life.

The footnote that follows "How blessed" states: "The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce . . . "

"Refers metonymically". This is a new adverb for me. Lawyers do not think that way nor write that way. I had to go look that word up. The noun form is "metonymy" and, according to Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition (1938 - If I were a pagan I would worship this book!), it is a rhetorical device that means

"The use of one word for another that it suggests, as the effect for the cause, the cause for the effect, the sign for the thing signified, the container for the contained, etc. (darkness was the saving of us, for the cause of saving ; a man keeps a good table , instead of good food ; we read Virgil , that is, his poems; a man has a warm heart , that is, warm affections)."

(As a synonym for metonymy, the dictionary gives synecdoche, and that certainly clears things up for me.)

But back to metonymy and Psalm 1.

Look at verse 2 of your NIV. The NET Bible translates the first part of verse 2 as "Instead, he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord's commands". Appended to "instead" is footnote 11. The footnote states that the literal translation of this part is "his delight [is] in the law of the Lord", which, to one who first memorized Psalm 1 in the KJV, is the more familiar translation. The footnote indicates that the translator went directly to the idea to which the literal Hebrew metonymically refers:

"In light of the following line ['he meditates on his commands day and night'], which focuses on studying the Lord's law, one might translate, 'he finds pleasure in studying the Lord's commands.' However, even if one translates the line this way, it is important to recognize that mere study and intellectual awareness are not ultimately what bring divine favor. Study of the law is metonymic here for the correct attitudes and behavior that should result from an awareness of and commitment to God's moral will; thus 'obeying' has been used in the translation rather than 'studying'."

I think what I like about the NET Bible is that the reader is simply not patronized, neither in the text translation nor in the annotations. The reader is treated like a grown-up.

Remind me of this and take away my keys when the time comes.

"Motorists 85 and older now surpass 16 year olds in frequency of fatalities per mile driven, and nearly match teenagers in rates of insurance claims for property damage, according to statistics from the insurance industry and the federal government. Drivers 65 and older are more likely than teens to have fatal multivehicle crashes at intersections, the data show."

-- Today's WSJ

The forecast.
There's a 90% chance that I'll be teaching here in the next school year.

Jesus Unempowered. Last night at our Bible study at TWT we looked at Mark 6:1-12. There are two sections to this passage, and the first part, the part dealing with Jesus returning to his home town of Nazareth, raises the question (at least in my mind) of the extent to which or the way in which one's will participates in God's redemptive work.

The townspeople reject Jesus. Really, they go beyond that. Their remarks imply that his power is not from God but from Satan, that, if we take away these evil powers from Jesus, what we have left is a mere laborer and, actually, worse than that, we have the son of a fornicator. Pretty nasty stuff.

In this passage, Jesus "could not do any miracles there [in his home town], except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them." Jesus apparent inability to perform miracles is clearly linked to the lack of faith of the townspeople. "And he was amazed by their lack of faith".

The only other part of the Gospels where Jesus is described as being "amazed" is in Matthew 8, where Jesus is amazed at the greatness of the faith of the Roman centurion. That faith is connected with Jesus healing the Roman's servant from a distance.

There are many places where faith is linked to God's intervention and great works.

Maybe this is a lot simpler than I think it is. But sometimes I read theology that seems bent on banishing the significance of one's works from the most profound questions of a person's relationship with God. So the idea of "faith" (which is a kind of work, is it not?) having such a profound influence on the working of God's will seems new and surprising.

But, of course, there is a sort of Catch 22 here. The counterargument seems to go like this. One has this "saving faith" only because the Holy Spirit is working in one's heart. Grace is, finally, irresistible. So, really, we do not have an individual "work" of one's will. We have a work of God. Hmmmm. Not a completely satisfying argument. This is why I don't make my living as a theologian.

The Human Heart.

Gradually it was disclosed to me [in the Gulag] that the line separating good from evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts.

Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago, as quoted by Dalrymple in Our Culture, What's Left of It.

Bearing Arms
Glenn Reynolds writes over at the UK's Guardian:

. . . this led me to speculate a few years ago that the right of people to be armed to resist genocide should perhaps be regarded as the next international human right.

An article forthcoming in the Notre Dame Law Review takes a much deeper look (pdf) at that very question, with particular emphasis on Darfur, and notes that the victims of the genocide are effectively disarmed by law and international embargo while the perpetrating janjaweed militias are armed and financed (as is common in genocides) by the Sudanese government. For the people of Darfur, relying on the government to protect them is absurd, as the government is behind their murder. Relying on the international community, on the other hand, is absurd because the international community is - at the most charitable - absurd. In fact, as is also the case with most genocides, much of the international community is complicit, at least to the extent of turning a blind eye to conduct that would otherwise imperil important government contracts, or oil ventures.

Given that this sort of behaviour is par for the course when genocides occur, who would dare to say that the inhabitants of Darfur do not have a right to arm themselves and resist their killers with force?

This makes me think even more seriously about exercising my own 2nd amendment right.

Cultural Winds
From an article by Frederica Mathewes-Green

The influence of the culture on all those individuals, including Christians, is less like that of a formal institution and more like the weather. We can observe that, under current conditions, it's cloudy with a chance of cynicism. Crudity is up, nudity is holding steady, and there is a 60 percent chance that any recent movie will include a shot of a man urinating. Large fluffy clouds of sentimental spirituality are increasing on the horizon, but we have yet to see whether they will blow toward or away from Christian truth. Stay tuned for further developments.

As Mark Twain famously remarked, everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. I think much of our frustration is due to trying to steer the weather, rather than trying to reach individuals caught up in the storm.

J. Long used culture as weather imagery way back when he first wrote Emerging Hope. I find it to be quite an apt & useful metaphor.

. . . when Christians gather, there's less talk about humility, patience, and the struggle against sin. Instead, there's near-obsessive emphasis on the need for a silver-bullet media product that will magically open the nation to faith in Jesus Christ. Usually, the product they crave is a movie. Now, I'm delighted that Christians are working in Hollywood; we should be salt and light in every community that exists, and so powerful a medium clearly merits our powerful stories. But it's telling that the media extravaganza so eagerly awaited is not a novel or a song, something an individual might undertake, but a movie: something that will require enormous physical and professional resources, millions of dollars, and, basically, be done by somebody else.

This focus on an external, public signal is contrary to the embodied mission of the church. Christ planned to attract people to himself through the transformed lives of his people. It's understandable that we feel chafed by what media giants say about us and the things we care about, and that we crave the chance to tell our own side of the story. It's as if the world's ballpark is ringed with billboards, and we rankle because we should have a billboard too. But if someone should actually see our billboard, and be intrigued, and walk in the door of a church, he would find that he had joined a community that was just creating another billboard.

Ouch. That nicely puts language around on of my greatest fears in creating culturally relevant evangelism &/or worship services. Not that this isn't a good project, just that this is clearly one of the occupation hazzards of the project.

One excellent way to see how much our culture's passing weather patterns have influenced us is to read old books. If you receive all your information from contemporary writers, Christian or secular, you will never perceive whole concepts that people in other generations could see. Every Christian should always have at his bedside at least one book that is at least fifty years old-the older the better. C.S. Lewis has a wonderful passage on this phenomenon in his introduction to St. Athanasius' "On the Incarnation":"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books."

The "old books" can help us discern the prevailing assumptions of our cultural moment, not only concerning the content of our discussions, but their style.

Here at K&K we never pass up an opportunity to broadcast the signal: You Should Be Reading More & Deeper!

Night Stand
What texts are moving through the MLS queue.

Recently exiting:
The First World War, John Keegan. Excellent & Educational. I'm looking forward to reading his books on WWII.
Ghost Bridades, John Scalzi. A kind of sequal to Old Man's War, but you needn't have read the latter to enjoy the former. A quick read, but very fun.
Moneyball, Michael Lewis. Recommended by many, but put in my hands last week by Joel Bush. I can see what the fuss was about: a great & heretical view of the business of baseball. I never want to be in that business, but it was very interesting to read about. Many non-baseball insights in that book.

Now entering:
An Army Of Davids, Glenn Reynolds. Indeed.
The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker. Recommended by Jef Sewell. He said, "I recommend this book to everyone, but nobody ever reads it." How could I not read it with a challenge like that?
The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn. A birthday gift from Walter & Morgan. The kind of birthday gift that says, "Here's a little two year project for you."

Running in queue:
Getting Things Done, David Allen
Ready For Anything, David Allen
Concerning The Inner Life, Evelyn Underhill.

Stalled in queue:
Essential McLuhan, Marshall McLuhan, Eric McLuhan. I think I would have been better off reading one of Marshall's actual books to begin with, rather than an anthology. But I will finish this and move to one of those.
One Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse. Recommended by a neighbor, but I have trouble staying engaged with Marxist rhetoric. Slow going. I much prefer Capitalist rhetoric.

What's going through your reading queues?

Surprise Ice
I'm cleaning up the kitchen after Kellsey & I had a neighbor over for a delightful dinner. There's all kinds of commotion in Austin, between SXSW & a March Madness with UT at the dance. But I'm taking my time washing dishes, sipping my left-over wine from dinner, and listening to the Kings of Convenience's latest album, Riot On An Empty Street, play on the stereo.

Kells & I both highly recommend the album. They're a kind of a 21st Century Simon & Garfunkel. (In fact, they explictly state that they love S&G and model themselves after them.)

What struck me tonight was their lyric in "Suprise Ice":

Love comes like surprise ice on the water.




Lots of falling-in-love imagery stress the suddeness of it, but don't take into account other aspects of falling in love. This lyric feels like a better metaphor to me because love often happens in a context conducive to love. But just because you have a conducive environment, doesn't necessitate falling in love.

So you have a cold cold day, but no ice. And it stays cold. No ice. Then, suddenly one morning there's ice on the water. It isn't that you can't look back and see the set-up for it, but you never can predict when the gestalt moment will happen.

"Mr. Jordan" and Small People. Could be our genes, Aidan, but its way too early to tell. "Mr. Jordan" was small. He was your great, great-grandfather on my mother's mother's mother's side, and married Della Lanford, daughter of Malmouth Lanford. He was a fine businessman in Atlanta. He was always referred to as "Mr. Jordan" by everyone else in the family, a sign of deep respect. I never met him. He died before I was born. But his widow came down to see us every year. When she was here, she worked around the house all of the time, never letting up. She was a small person, and she was of absolutely sterling character. Good genes come in small packages.

(By the way, Jordan is pronounced "Jer-den".)

'Nita and Names. I picked up my mother from the hospital this morning and brought her home to Epworth. She was in great spirits and in good shape. (On the way down in the hospital elevator, she "hit" on a young intern who had been in to see her the day before. He said "I'm married".) Whatever her affliction on Wednesday, it passed on by fairly quickly. (I think it was gone by the time I reached the ER.) I spoke to Steve Fields this morning, and he said that nothing showed up on the tests and he has perscribed no medication. (Thank you, Steve.) She definitely has these "spells" and, maybe, one day one of those spells will send her on to Glory. But for now, she's back. I'm glad.

Which is the occasion for reflecting on how she talks, especially names, since we had some (mostly negative) interest in the first name of my children's great-great-grandfather's Malmouth Lanford. The following is a table showing how a given name in our family is spelled and how it is pronounced if you are from deep, deep East Point, Georgia.

Malmouth is "Mammoth"

Paul is "Paw-uhl"

Walter is "Wuh-all-tuh"

Carlos is "Call-us"

Juanita is "Wuh-oo-nee-tuh". That "Wuh-oo" part takes so long in rolling off the tongue that the name is usually shortened to "'Nita".

Ken is "Kee-un"

Tim is "Tee-um"

Francis is "Fray-in-sus"

Hemperley (my mother's maiden name) is "Hemp-lee"

There are more, but they don't come to mind right now. Maybe you have some to add.

Malmuth Lanford. My mom (Juanita) had what we can only describe as a "spell" yesterday and made her way to the nurses' station at Epworth. They were alarmed, called 911, and she's in the hospital. I saw her in the ER last night and she was better, but they admitted her. I spoke to her this morning and she had already seen Dr. Steve Fields, the son of the doctor who took care of me as I was growing up and for whom I baby-sitted (baby-sat?) a couple of times. (Steve's parents remain friends of ours and are clients. Steve takes care of Nancy Jones' mother too. Nancy is my paralegal. Who said you can't have deep and complex relationships in South Florida?) Mom said that Steve doesn't believe its her heart, but she will stay at least one more night and see a cardiologist today. We can't figure out what happens to her. Something definitely does happen to her, however. About six months ago we were checking this out with assorted specialists, and Mother, while being examined by one of these high-powered people, had a "spell". He was impressed but had no idea. I think its some sort of mini-stroke, but what do I know. The physicians have no idea at this point and are not treating what they don't know, which is honest at least. Anyway, I hope to bail her out tomorrow.

All of that is by way of introduction, because while speaking to her on the phone this morning she talked about her great-grandfather, Malmuth Lanford, whom she dearly loved. We got into "Greatgrandpa Lanford" (herein "GGPL") because we were talking about how old she and I are, which amazes the two of us. She is 85 and I am 60 this year. She brought up GGPL because "he lived until he was 90", describing it in a manner that implied living this long was an achievement as I think it was.

GGPL was a farmer who lived outside of Stone Mountain Georgia, and Juanita spent a few weeks each summer on the farm when she was a little girl. His family farmed there during the Civil War, but Juanita is careful to say that "they had no slaves". GGPL was a little boy when Sherman's army came through, Sherman having beat Atlanta to a pulp and heading for "the Sea". There was a great crop of corn standing in the fields, and the Yankees burned it. It created an indelible family memory, and I never hear about GGPL without being told that story. It made living through the winter without starving a matter of some doubt, but obviously GGP got through it.

GGPL was a Christian, and Juanita went to Corinth Church in Stone Mountain with him and her great-grandmother when she visited. It was a "Missionary Baptist" church, a precursor, I think, to the Southern Baptists. They were "Missionary" so as to distinguish themselves from "Hardshell" or "Primitive" Baptists who did not believe in missions and felt that salvation or not was predestined, so why bother. Juanita said that when GGPL prayed, he got down on his knees.

I told Juanita that despite her admiration for GGPL living to 90, I am holding out for 100 for her.

Aidan at 17 months. What a guy!

Will Williams. In the current issue, FT publishes a letter from this DC graduate ("a proud alumnus") who lives in Waco. In response to Terry Eastland's "God and Man at Davidson" in the January issue, Will writes in part:

To drop the requirement that all trustees be active members of a Presbyterian, or indeed any, church and then to represent that act as truer fidelity to Davidson's Reformed tradition is redolent of subterfuge and far from the instruction of John Calvin or the Scriptures he prized.

Right on, Will!

"The Two-Hundred-Year War". The April 2006 issue of First Things arrived yesterday. They seem to come so quickly, and its very difficult to keep up with them. On the other hand, I have discovered what the annual vacation is for: catching up on all the unread articles in the First Things issues of the prior year.

In the meanwhile, then (who was it who said that we "live in the meanwhile"; probably Fr. Neuhaus), I cherry pick. I look at the front cover, which really has a useful design and lays out all the innards of that issue, and see what interests me immediately. Often its what Fr. Neuhaus is writing about in his column "The Public Square".

On the train this morning, I read his post on the issue of whether the West is at war with Islam. For one thing, the post has a short bibliography of titles that treat this issue, a biblio that would be a useful way to move into this subject. But the post is mainly a review of a new book by Mary Halbeck of Johns Hopkins, entitled Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror.

I would like to read all of those books! But I can't even get through the FT articles. Maybe that's part of what you do in heaven. Like my vacation, you spend part of eternity catching up on your reading. Heaven will be a happy place.

New William Sean McClintock pics.

All right!! Dolphins get Daunte!

Right on, McCain! The senator does Streisand.
(Transcript here.)

SouthBySmallWorld
This morning, Aidan and I ran into Doc Searls at our Starbucks. Clearly a man of good taste, he discovered the seat with the best view of the sunrise. I hope the Sbux staff cleaned it from yesterday morning, otherwise I'm afraid the "lens flare" error he got on his camera might have been caused by "Aidan Drool" left over from Aidan smearing his face across that window as per usual.

I saw Doc yesterday in this panel at SXSWi. As I told him this morning, I really enjoyed that panel. It's just so fun to hear the continued conversation around the idea that "markets are conversations." (I like to think that what we're doing with The Company is a small part of that.) It seems to me that what they were talking about in the above panel is part of the 21st century continuation of the Great Conversation. Which, as Kith&Kinners know, makes it intrinsically interesting.

On a side note, I haven't posted about Aidan & I at Sbux lately, but I have been thinking about it. Seeing Doc there triggered it again. Sbux is definitely not Keep Austin Weird (tm). When we first moved here, that was almost enough to keep us from going. But wanting to stroller to coffee won out over wanting to be cool, so Sbux it was. And we have found that the staff there are delightful and the other regulars are just as interesting as most everyone else we meet in Austin. Some mornings I think, "Maybe we should go to Jo's Coffee today." But that would mean missing out on seeing our friends at Sbux!

So we come back every morning and drool on the window. Sorry Doc!

K2 Update. UPS delivered to the office on Friday the box with the kit in it, a box packed within a box, and I opened it yesterday. I was amazed at how small the box that held the kit was. But, then, the unit when built will be only 3 inches high, 7.9 inches wide, and 8.3 inches deep, not including the plugs and things that stick out some from the back.

The kit box contained a very nice, plastic spiral bound "owners manual" that, mainly, lists the inventory and then tells you how to put the thing together. It leads the builder step by step through what appears to be a well considered process.

The parts are in various plastic bags that correspond to various phases of construction. There are also small envelopes with parts in them. Finally, there are the case materials, five pieces that will, somehow, fit together to make a enclosure.

But the first thing to do is to inventory the parts, and that's what I've been doing this weekend. (If anything is missing, then one emails the company and it sends the missing part or parts.) During the inventory process I sort out the various components, and group similar components in small zip lock bags in which I put a little note showing the part number and the value of the part. For example, a particular resistor with a value of, say, 100 ohms, would have a note in the zip lock bag that would say "R1 [if that's the part number] and 100".

The parts are very small, and their identifying information usually consists of tiny letters and numbers or color codes printed on the part. To see this information, I use a lamp that has a fluorescent bulb wrapped around a big magnifying glass. The lamp/magnifier is affixed to the end of an articulated arm clamped to my work table.

The resistors are among the tiny parts that are color coded. This is a problem because I am color blind. So I make a guess on the colors and then check my guess with a digital volt-ohm multitester ("DVM"), another Christmas gift.

There are 869 pieces to the kit, most of which need to be soldered in at least two places. Over the last several years, I have been making do with a cheap, 20 watt soldering iron from Radio Shack. But the Elecraft people urge the builder to use a "soldering station". This is a soldering device that allows the user to control the temperature and to change soldering tips as necessary. So I have ordered one of the soldering stations that Elecraft recommends.

Great care is to be taken in the choice of solder. There are many kinds and they come in numerous diameters. But only certain "rosin-core" solder types will do, and the diameter must be within certain limits. (I have to use the magnifier to do the soldering.)

On Elecraft's website there is some good help for builders, including photographs and a "reflector" where builders can exchange information on their projects and get help from engineers at the company.

Joy! The K2 kit arrived today.

Why the Aging Baby Boomers will not Bankrupt the Next Generation. Today I had a client conference with a fellow, early baby boomer (like me, born in 1946). His daughter was with him and she is a medical student. At a point toward the end of the conference, he brought up the subject of the huge cohort of baby boomers who are soon retiring and would put a terrible demand on medical services, etc. His daughter laughed and said that her professors at medical school say "not to worry". The boomers, they said, are all so overweight that they will die off much sooner than anybody anticipates. (Here, have a Coke.)

Donum Vitae. One of our readers, who commented on our post on Pregnancy and Moral Labor and whose nom de net is "Daughter of St. John", has pointed me to this publication of the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith. The following is from the introduction to that document, which is entitled "Donum Vitae" and well worth reading:

The exposition [of Donum Vitae]is arranged as follows: an introduction will recall the fundamental principles, of an anthropological and moral character, which are necessary for a proper evaluation of the problems [to which artificial procreation and related matters give rise] and for working out replies to those questions; the first part will have as its subject respect for the human being from the first moment of his or her existence; the second part will deal with the moral questions raised by technical interventions on human procreation; the third part will offer some orientations on the relationships between moral law and civil law in terms of the respect due to human embryos and fetuses and as regards the legitimacy of techniques of artificial procreation.

But what is the "Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith"? I emailed my friend and former law partner, John Immer, who is heavy, heavy, into Catholic matters and my local authority on the Catholic Church, "John, is this the Magisterium?" His reply:

"You betcha! Actually, it interprets the tenets of the Catholic
Faith, i.e. the Magisterium. Incidentially, the head of the Congregation
is an American Archbishop from San Francisco who was just made a
cardinal (Leveda). Theoretically, he is second in command to the Pope."

Now it would certainly be nice to have a "Congregation" of well educated, experienced Christians, carefully chosen and full of wisdom, thinking, studying, and praying these questions through and, finally, making a decision. (Provided, of course, that they agreed with you.) Among the things that was so attractive about Jesus was that he "spoke with authority". E.g. Matthew 7:29.

Work Fun
I'm going to SXSWinteractive this Saturday - Tuesday! Very, very fun. I'll get to be in the same room as the folks who started Technorati, Threadless, Adaptive Path and other very interesting webfolks, like Jason Kottke. The goal is to get new business for The Company. I'll let you know how it turns out.

It's the student, after all. Or, more precisely, the student's family. Carol pointed out this article from USA Today on student culpability in the falling performance of the American middle class student. Dalrymple makes a similar point in Life at the Bottom, where he notes the marked difference in the success of Indian students in the "underclass" section of London, where he served as a physician, from that of the children from "native" London families (if we can describe the shifting aggregations among those "native" people he describes as "families".) Dalrymple observes that the Indian children, raised in coherant families where the parents worked hard and were loyal to each other, were quite often able to study and work their way out of those neighborhoods, although some would be caught by the corrosive values of the larger culture that was doing great damage to the other young people Dalrymple saw. Dalrymple also observes that the testing standards that the government schools in England uses are very watered down versions of what went before, designed to make the English students, and therefore the educational bureaucrats, look more successful than they really are. At least in the US, we have a movement afoot, however awkward and annoying, to test government school students using national standards that are more than simply enabling window-dressing. (At least I hope they are. What do you think, Mary?)

The Mission Begins.

At last, I have reached the point of ordering a K2, the fabled transceiver kit manufactured by an actual US company, Elecraft. Elecraft is one of only two US electronics manufacturers still in the amateur radio transceiver business. (Thanks to all of you who have contributed to the "Radio Fund" over the last several Christmases and birthdays. Your generosity has helped make this momentous event possible.)

Here is what I will build, d.v.:




As I progess with this project, I will give you updates, because I am sure you share my excitement.

UPDATE: Scheduled delivery date 03/06/2006!

Sola Scriptura II.

The infallible rule of intepretation of Scripture, is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture (which is not manifold, but one), it may be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.

From Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession.

Wherefore we do not despise the interpretations of the holy Greek and Latin fathers, nor reject their disputations and treatises concerning sacred matters as far as they agree with the Scriptures; but we modestly dissent from them when they are found to set down things differing from, or altogether contrary to, the Scriptures. Neither do we think that we do them any wrong in this matter; seeing that they all, with one consent, will not have their writings equated with the canonical Scriptures, but command us to prove how far they agree or disgree with them, and to accept what is in agreement and to reject what is in disagreement.

And in the same order also we place the decrees and canons of councils.

Wherefore we do not permit ourselves, in controversies about religion or matters of faith, to urge our case with only the opinions of the fathers or decrees of councils; much less by received customs, or by the large number of those who share the same opinion or by the prescription of a long time. Therefore, we do not admit any other judge than God himself, who proclaims by the Holy Scriptures what is true, what is false, what is to be followed, or what to be avoided.

From Chapter II of the Second Helvetic Confession

Be your own Beacon. I have previously posted about beacons, those radio stations around the world that transmit from various places at various frequencies and let you know how the propagation is working. I have learned that one can be his own beacon. You need to have an Amateur Radio Service license, but that's a small thing. Here's a link to a site by an Ogden Utah ham, Jim Southwick, N7JS, who describes his 10 meter beacon transceiver, which he put together himself. I am inspired. This goes on my project list immediately.

I read about Jim's project in the February 2006 issue of CQ magazine. A copy of the article is available at Jim's website, to which I link above, in PDF format.

Jim's article mentions a website by a British amateur that has "a very good list of beacons worldwide".

You don't need to be a ham to listen to these beacons. You need some sort of Short Wave radio. They are pretty inexpensive at Radio Shack. If you listen to a beacon and send the beacon guy an email telling him where and when you heard his signal, you will get a card from him, called a QSL card, and you will make him very happy.

No Girly-Men! From Harvard, of all places, a call for manliness. Also see here.

Sola Scriptura? Into chapter 3 of Catholic Matters: "The Authority in Question" Of course, Neuhaus and I are arguing, but he makes some telling points.

[Regarding the matter of authority, t]he dispute [between Protestants and Catholics] is usually framed as the authority of the Bible vs. the authority of the Church, or the authority of the Bible vs. the authority of "tradition". But that way of framing the question is, I believe, deeply incoherent. . . . The promise of Jesus that he would send the Holy Spirit to guide his disciples into all truth is a promise made to the Church [as opposed to individuals? I think that would be his position]. That promise is fulfilled, in part in the Spirit-inspired writing of the New Testament. But the guidance of the Spirit did not end there. The promise is that the Spirit would guide the Church to the end of time. The Spirit aided the Church in the writing of the inspired texts [we must agree]; guided the Church in recognizing which texts, of the many claiming inspiration at the time, were truly inspired [we must agree]; guided the Church in determining what would be the canon of the New Testament [yes, yes]; and guided the Church in declaring the unique authority of the canonical texts for all time [yes]. In sum, it is the Spirit guiding the Church from beginning to end, and the end is not yet [gee, you mean it didn't end with the Westminster Confession?].

Believe!
Alex and I are having a discussion about Group-Think as it relates to Faith over at Piebald Life. (This is the first post on the matter.) As usual, I have a stone-cold lock on the facts of the matter. That's what the voices in my head keep telling me, at any rate.

Yo Soy Catolico?

Fr. Neuhaus writes in the first chapter of Catholic Matters, the chapter entitled "The Church We Mean When We Say 'The Church':"

"The [Second Vatican] Council's document on Christian unity, Unitatis Redintegratio, says that all Christians who are baptized and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour are 'in a certain but imperfect communion' with the Catholic Church. . . . Other Christians [that is, non-Catholic Christians] may bridle at this. They don't take kindly to the Catholic Church's assumption that they really are Catholics, although imperfectly so."

I don't take unkindly to this proposition.

Fr. Neuhaus dedicates his new book to Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. "friend and mentor". It turns out that Cardinal Dulles was a Presbyterian before he moved away from imperfection and toward perfection. (Fr. Neuhaus doesn't like the word "convert" to describe a Catholic like himself, like Carinal Dulles, who was formally a non-Catholic Christian.)

What I Have Learned In 15 Years

Another really good article linked on Instapundit.

(Also posted by Carol)

Greatest Show on Earth.

The Return of Patriarchy

This is the title of an article by Philip Longman in Foreign Policy. This was linked today in Instapundit. Here is the introduction to the article:

Across the globe, people are choosing to have fewer children or none at all. Governments are desperate to halt the trend, but their influence seems to stop at the bedroom door. Are some societies destined to become extinct? Hardly. It’s more likely that conservatives will inherit the Earth. Like it or not, a growing proportion of the next generation will be born into families who believe that father knows best.

One of the observations he makes is that fertility rates are 12% higher in the states that voted for Bush in 2004 than in the states that voted for Kerry. His thesis has some interesting implications for the world and for the U.S. James Taranto has written often of a somewhat related phenomenon he calls The Roe Effect. I think this article is worth reading.

(This post is by Carol. I think it will say it's by Paul.)

Awaited with some eagerness, it arrives. Catholic Matters. I'll let you know.

Beach Breakfast.

On Presidents' Day the office was closed, so Carol and I decided to go to Crandon Park, a Miami-Dade County Park on Key Biscayne, and cook breakfast. Key Biscayne is one of the islands of a chain that hangs from a point about a mile east of Downtown Miami and dangles into the Florida Straits. Key Biscayne, then, is one of the Florida Keys and can be reached via a beautiful causeway that begins not far from our office. Crandon Park is on a beach that stretches about 3 miles along the Atlantic. I've been going there since I was about Aidan's age. It's a very popular place for those few of us in South Florida who don't have our own condo on the beach.

Our plan was to take our camp stove and the fixin's for bacon and pancakes.

We arrived there about 8AM, and there were few human beings to be seen. As we walked toward the beach from the parking lot and approached the picnic area, we saw hundreds of birds.


They were already having breakfast, feasting on the left overs of the mobs of beachgoers who had covered the place the day before. The weather was beautiful, about 70 degrees, and the morning was bright.

Carol went right to work.



I kept a sharp eye out for Seminole scouting parties.



About that time, the park work crew began its own clean up efforts. They had cleverly waited while the birds did the first sweep of the place. The crew then followed in three phases: two guys with sacks and sharp sticks approached first, and they picked up stuff that didn't get into one of the many, many trash containers; then a fellow driving a big front-end loader followed, accompanied by two more foot-troops who dumped the trash containers into the loader bucket, which, when filled, was emptied into a large dump truck that waited along a narrow strip of pavement that bisected the picnic area; and then a solitary trash picker, with pointed stick and sack, came along to pick up any thing left behind.

I can tell you that after watching this, I was ravenous, and tore into the whole-wheat pancakes and turkey-bacon that Carol had prepared. Hmmm, turkey-bacon. I recalled that among the birds doing the clean-up I had seen several turkey-buzzards chewing away. Gave me a sort of warm feeling.

After breakfast we cleaned up and drove back to our office in Downtown Miami (that trip took 10 minutes). We worked until lunch time. Then we had another picnic right there in the kitchen, feasting on the bag lunches we had brought with us. Then we went home.

It was a great Presidents' Day, folks. I can tell you one thing. I know how to show the little lady how to do a holiday.

Probate Lawyer's Nightmare.

"In Moral Labor" This is the title of an opinion piece by Agnes R. Howard in the March 2006 issue of First Things. It is a wonderfully written essay describing a sort of theology of pregnancy. I would be glad to mail a copy of the article to anyone who asks. (Actually, I can ask FT to send you a trial copy of the entire issue.)

Here is the final paragraph from the article.

At a time when biotechnology explores ways to enhance, produce, and destroy embryos, it may seem unnecessary to focus on ordinary pregnancy. But it is in this ordinary process, in practicing habits of nurture and hope on behalf of another, that virtue is developed. It is through doing well with the day-to-day care of new life that we grow prepared to meet extraordinary situations when they come. Reproductive technologies already abound at conception and delivery but as yet leave the span in between largely free. Pregnancy is an area in which we may still admit technology into our lives rather than the other way around. We should admit it in a way that honors the special work we undertake with the Creator.

Carol's pregnancy with our first child was the only time we had with this little one. We remember it with such clarity and with such mournful joy. Whatever virtue I may have, the experience of that hidden life added more to it than any other event I have yet experienced.

Tim Keller and Redeemer PC, NY; an interesting article here.

Has anyone read Decision Making and the Will of God ? A friend recommended it and I wondered what you all thought.

Minimum Wage
Some thoughts on the law of unintended consequences as it relates to raising the minimum wage over at The Entrepreneurial Mind, a blog by a Business professor at Belmont University.

Announcing: Amplifier's new website! Jef just put it up last night. He says it's only 90% done. I say it's 100% pure awesomeness. And let me go ahead and mention here, Jef Sewell is a genius. Just wanted to register that now, so that in 20 years when the Sewell Brothers Documentary is made, and everyone is saying, "We always knew they were great!" I'll be able to point to our archives and say, "You heard it here first!"

gDiapers

I know, i know, many of you are saying, "g-what?" (or if you're a beets, "g-whaaaaaaaaaat?") Do they have something to do with gmail or google? No, they do not. They are the next step for people who are environmentally conscious but who don't want to deal with cloth diapers. How could this be, you ask? Well, it's simple. You simply flush these diapers down the toilet.

If you're interested: g-what?

I first discovered these on the blog of a friend of mine from high school--Jana, a.k.a., Sweetpea. I admit that at first sight I was intrigued. Now, having caved into excellent marketing, I have bought and sampled the goods.

I cannot say enough about how fantastic this experience was as a consumer. First of all, their website is well-arranged and easy to navigate. Secondly, I ordered this on Tuesday evening and received it on Thursday morning (after having been told it would take 3 to 5 business days to arrive once it had actually shipped). Thirdly, the packaging is just awesome! Form and function, together: I love it. The box comes with a cardboard sleeve of sorts that comes off and then folds like an accordion. On the outside are cute pics of babies in gdiapers, on the inside are instructions for the use of the product. I like the multi-purposeness (is that even a word?) of said sleeve. Fourth, the product is extremely easy to use. And, finally, Aidan looks SO DARN cute in his little gdiaper.

There will be naysayers out there:

"what about use with low-flow toilets? These couldn't possibly work with low-flow toilets." Oh, yes, yes, they do. I have low-flow toilets. The first few times I used the swish stick, you know, just to be sure everything was broken up. However, the last time I threw caution to the wind and I flushed without swishing. No problemo, dude. I mean, this stuff breaks up in the toilet better than toilet paper. (and, in the category of TMI, Macon and I have had ....well, let's just say that we're more likely to clog up the toilet than this "flushable" is).

"it is not as environmentally friendly as cloth."Well, that depends. If you're interested, check out this, this, and just for kicks: a comparison with disposables. I need to admit at this point that there are several mommies out there who do not use disposables because of the absorbent crystals in them. There is the question as to whether or not these are toxic and whether or not we should be using them in diapers at all. Gdiapers would say it's not a problem, others say it is. I will not attempt to address this issue here.

So, what about the theory that children in cloth will potty train up to a year sooner than children in disposables? That is around 1000 diaper changes, folks. So, for me and mine, we'll be using cloth as a mainstay. However, I think we'll be using the gdiapers instead of pampers/luvs/huggies/etc for things like going out and travel. Furthermore, I think it may be worth using these on baby number 2 (no, we're not pregnant) for the first 4 to 6 months before we start solids. All Liquid "bizness" (a.k.a. "poopie") all the time sounds like a great candidate for flushing, and potty training will not be an issue that is even on the horizon at that point.

The really exciting part is that there is a great option available for people who don't want to do cloth, but who do want to be better stewards of the earth. 90% to 95% of the market uses disposables and then they sit in a landfill for 500 years. If some of that market share switched to gdiapers, it would make a HUGE difference in our landfill problems (as diapers account for a ginormous amount of trash in the landfill system).

Another thing that has impressed me has been the patience and kindness of the founders of gdiapers. I have read many a webpage with either glowing or glowering reports about gdiapers, and for all those glowerers the founders have responded to their posts with patient and kind comments either explaining away misconceptions or gently pointing out mistakes. This makes me like them even more. They not only have a great product and provide a fantastic consumer experience, but they are also humble when they could be arrogant.

Having tested said goods, if you have any questions for me, feel free to post them. I will do my best to respond. (Man, I feel like a gdiapers evangelist...what has become of me? I never imagined I could get so excited about diapers...and for those of you out there who don't have kids, just wait. You, too, will find yourself here. When you do, look me up. You know where to find me.)


...did I mention how darn cute these things are?

**NEW INFO:
I forgot to say two very important things:
1-these cost about 5 to 7 cents more per diaper than your typical pampers (but it's like buying organic milk, if you do it and others do it, then the price will come down--in the meantime, it's worth the extra money to not be adding to the landfills).
2-The "g-pants" (the outside cloth covers) velcro in the back instead of in the front. This is fantastic! I was able to let Aidan run around in just his diaper all afternoon and not once did he take it off. (one of the issues with cloth diapers and maybe disposables, too, is how they fasten in the front and so babies figure out how to take them off.) In fact, this cloth diaper cover is the best fitting of any I have tried. I am probably not through trying, but for now that is saying quite a bit.

Other Slightly Informative Kith & Kin Subtitles

anything that stokes kith & kin find interesting

Where Parental Wisdom And Postmodern Snarkiness Go Hand-In-Hand: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together!

Cuban Exile flavored Scots-Irish French Hugenots and their ilk: fleeing from more countries than you've visited.

please wear protective goggles while conducting thought experiments

from the sublime to the banal in 3 easy steps

Pedants Rejoice!

You've got a good point there, but your hair covers it

ideas may expire without warning

where irony is our piano, not our forte

where spellcheck is a community action!

caveat annotator

words without thoughts never to heaven go

where irony is a literary device, not a way of life

bloggin from the city where the heat is on, all night every day till the break of dawn

bloggin from another city where not only is the heat is on, but it's set around 105 Degrees Fahrenheit

we're eclectic, in a non-standard way

where Africa puts you in perspective

Blogging with Honor

we're not all stoked, but some of us are

apparently, we like vegetables.

prying ice cream from your cold, sticky hands

tactical parenting: dynamic, flexible, ballistic, realist

where we aim to please

where subtitles often start with where

that's Dr. Kith and Kin to you.

Cancer Prognosis - from today's WSJ (requires subscription). Here are excerpts:

It didn't attract a lot of media fanfare, but two weeks ago the National Center for Health Statistics announced some spectacular news. The number of Americans dying from cancer fell for the first time in decades. This achievement against one of mankind's most dreaded diseases is the medical equivalent of putting a man on the moon.

Especially stunning is that fatalities are falling even though Americans are living longer. Cancer is a degenerative disease, meaning that the likelihood of contracting one of its multiple forms rises exponentially with age. So when statisticians age-adjust the death rate data -- and ask the question: What is the likelihood of an American dying from cancer at any given age? -- they find that cancer deaths have been falling by 1% per year since 1991. If that trend continues, our children will face a 25% lower risk of dying from cancer (at any given age) than we do today.

Other points made: Socialized medicine does not incent aggressive treatment, which saves governments money but at a high human cost. Also, the article cites studies that suggest that only 2% of cancer diagnoses result from enviornmental pollutants, challenging the myth that our industrial society is "pumping poisons into the air and water that put us at ever greater risk of cancer."

Lord willing, all forms of this disease will be eradicated and happy to hear that progress is being made.

Does the Future Hold a Grandson Name of Beets?

Who knows, but look at this funny site that Lindsay noted on her blog.

Update on Pollo Tropical. The Miami Herald reports that the Stokes family's favorite fast food is on the move again and coming to a neighborhood near you (if you're lucky). Vamos a comer!

WWI British Infantry
At Walter's suggestion, I'm reading The First World War, by John Keegan. I'm really enjoying it, though it's quite a sad read. One interesting thing about the set-up to WWI is all of the interconnectedness, market-wise, education-wise and family-wise between the warring parties. All of the connectivity failed to prevent the war. I haven't gotten to thinking about whether this has anything to do with Mr. Barnett's theory of Core/Gap, but I might think about it and post on it later. But that's not why I'm writing today!

As you will recall, earlier I posted about the value the British Infantry had in the Napoleonic Era: alone among all other armies at the time, they practiced with live ammunition. This made them deadly and was, in large part, why they were able to defeat Napoleon. As it turns out, the Brits didn't lose this value during the time between Napoleon and the Kaiser. Keegan writes about Germany's first strike at France through Belgium, where a British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was part of the defensive line:

The British, if only for a moment, were to be cast into the role of opposing both the concept and the substance of the [entire German offensive plan]. . . .The BEF was equal to the task. Alone among those of Europe, the British army was an all-regular force, composed of professional soldiers whom the small wars of empire had hardened to the realities of combat. . . .The British Lee-Enfield rifle, with its ten-round magazine, was a superior weapon to the German Mauser, and the British soldier a superior shot. "Fifteen rounds a minute" has become a catchphrase, but it was the standard most British infantrymen met, encouraged by extra pay for marksmanship and an issue of free ammunition to win the badge in their spare time.

Later, Keegan describes the BEF's work as they stop the final German offensive before equilibrium is established at the Western Front.

. . . on 20 October . . . a general German offensive began. . . . The real contest was between fourteen German infantry divisions against seven British [divisions] . . . . The line was held by the superiority of the British in rapid rifle fire. In artillery they were outgunned more than two to one, and in heavy artillery ten to one. In machine guns, two per battalion, they were equal to the enemy. In musketry, still quaintly so called in the BEF [though they were really firing rifles], they consistently prevailed. Trained to fire fifteen aimed rounds a minute, the British riflemen . . . easily overcame the counter-fire of the attacking Germans who, coming forward in closely ranked masses, presented unmissable targets. . . . In the absence of strong physical barriers to hold the enemy at a distance, it was the curtain of rifle bullets, crashing out in a density the Germans often mistook for machine-gun fire, that broke up attacks and drove the survivors of an assault to ground or sent them crawling back to cover on their start lines.

It's striking to me how much Keegan's description of events mirrors the descriptions of British battles in the Napoleonic Wars. Seeing this pop up in a description of WWI again makes me wonder: What was it about the British culture that gave them this particular value when it came to warfare? Why did they alone practice with live ammunition in the Napoleonic Era, and why did that same value carry through to giving away ammunition and incenting target practice at the turn of the 20th century? Finally, I wonder: Do the Brits still have it, or did it disappear in a post-Christian, post-Modern malaise? (I ask this without any snark.)

For the protection of the involved parties, certain posts have been removed from this blog. Updates to follow.

The Geezer Gets Around.

I was on 20 meter CW this evening. Worked Bill, KY8W, in Paw Paw, MI. He said the weather was sunny but the temperature was 29. He also said that the ice fishing wasn't very good this winter. I told him it wasn't very good down here either. Bill is 69 years old.

Then I worked Larry, KA8HFN, who lives in Wapakoneta, OH. It was much warmer there; 30 degrees he said. Larry was into his second week of retirement. He's only 60. That made my day.

Reading Matters. "The top presidential (sic) biographies" from Robert Dallek on Opinion Journal.

Greens and the Federal Judiciary: a Bad Mix.

How the Greens, aided and abetted by a non-elected Federal judge, may have destroyed New Orleans. "Non-elected Federal judge" is a bit redundant. All of them are "non-elected".

Careful, Poets, the "Net" Knows. If you google Mary's full name, you will find your way quickly to this blog.

D.C. Personal Protection Act.

"Since 1977, the District [of Columbia] has banned the possession of all handguns not acquired and registered before that year. D.C. law also prohibits keeping an assembled rifle or shotgun in the home, effectively outlawing the use of firearms for lawful self-defense. And despite these Draconian gun control laws, Washington, D.C., consistently has one of the highest homicide rates in the nation."

This from the political action arm of the NRA, which is promoting remedial legislation (see below) for the District. I wonder whether the anti-gun folks really want to see what would happen with murder rates over the next 30 years if people in the District were allowed to protect themselves with firearms. See the NRA's post
here.

By the way, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas is the Senate sponsor of the bill. The other TX senator, John Cornyn, is a co-sponsor. Both NC Senators are co-sponsors of the Senate bill, as well as Mel Martinez of Florida (but not Bill Nelson, our other Senator). There are many other co-sponsors in the Senate. In the House, our representative, Mario Diaz-Balart, is a co-sponsor. Also a co-sponsor of the House version is the much but unfairly defamed Katherine Harris, who will run against Bill Nelson for the Senate seat Nelson now occupies. (The NRA post links to a list of all the cosponsors, both in the Senate and in the House.)

At dinner Thursday night, conversation somehow turned to the peculiar Christmas traditions of the Catalan region in Spain. It's time for the kith and kin to understand these things as well. Given the recent, rather low-brow commentary on razors and guns, I think the waters are sufficiently muddied for such a subject.

For those who don't know, I spent a most wonderful semester in Barcelona in the fall of 2001. It's a fabulous city--beautiful, very livable and walkable. One of the more interesting cultural phenomenon, though, is a preoccupation with the scatological. I'm not sure from whence this comes--perhaps from an orginally agricultural society, perhaps from the fact that there's really no green space in the city and the dogs just do their business on the sidewalk so that you have to always look down while you're walking, perhaps because this subject is somehow more accetable when one is speaking about it in Catalan. Whatever the case, the preocuupation becomes especially evident during the Christmas season in two ways:

Exhibit 1. The Caganer.

Exhibit 2. The Tio de Nadal.

If you don't believe the wikipedia or me, I can appeal to Mom and Dad, who joined me in BCA for Christmas, for the truth of what I have just presented.

**Update: Exhibit 3. See a selection of caganers for sale here.

Bryant Gumbel goes over the top on the lilly-white Winter Olympics. Or does he?

Fighting back against the new union "Wal-Mart" laws. Retailers unite in opposing Maryland's new anti-WM law. Regardless of one's personal views of WM, I think it pretty obvious that these laws are discrimnatory and anti-competitive. (Tear me up, Sean :) )

I'm Sorry, Mr. Vice-President, I Just Can't Help Myself Department.

On Guns and Hunting. I've never gone hunting, but it is an activity I would like to enjoy before this life is over. And I'm looking into it.

In the meanwhile, there is Cheney's unhappy experience. Inevitably the bumper stickers emerge. This one I just recently saw: "I would rather hunt with Dick Cheney than ride with Ted Kennedy."

Finally, here is a site with some interesting quotes on the matter of guns, both for personal protection and hunting. (My favorite is the quote attributed to Chris Rock.)

Mach3 Power Update. On the economics/being-well-turned-out front, I am going on two weeks using the same "cartridge" (blade). I initially addressed the important matter of the right razor here and later noted that the "cartridges" turn out to cost $3 apiece. The orange stripe on the current installed cartridge is disappearing but is not quite gone. There is slightly more "burn" to the shave, but its entirely acceptable. And I obtain a shave that is still quite good. At 14 days, that would be about $.22 per shave. That does not count a proration of the cost of the single, AAA battery that powers this elegant invention. (I have been on the same battery for at least a month.) Nor does it count the cost of the device that holds the cartridge, contains the little motor that vibrates the head, contains the battery, and has a manly heft and feel. (The initial package cost about $11.00.) That cost will reduce to about nothing per day over the life of the instrument, provided I don't throw it away and buy the Fusion. And remember, the intial package that contained the instrument also came with a $3.00 cartridge included in the price.

Jews vs. Muslim Nobel Prize Winners. What do you think of this presentation that's been floating around cyberpace.

"Executive Power on steroids". That's the title of an essay by Richard A. Epstein of the University of Chicago Law School, in which he makes a persuasive argument that the President has gone beyond his constitutional powers in ignoring FISA in the conduct of the domestic surveillance program.

"[I]t would take a certain kind of intelligence, available only to those who have undergone a lot of formal education, not to be able to work it out."

-Theodore Dalrymple, on understanding why there is so much youth unemployment in France. He discusses this issue in the context of addressing the question "Is Old Europe Doomed?".

A slightly updated image from the 60s.



Peace, y'all.

Dalrymple, Theodore. Our Culture, What's Left of It. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2005. ISBN 1-56663-643-4.

[I copied this from John Walker's blog, Fourmilog: None Dare Call it Reason. John is an American living in Europe who apparently reads a lot.]

Theodore Dalrymple is the nom de plume of Anthony Daniels, a British physician and psychiatrist who, until his recent retirement, practiced in a prison medical ward and public hospital in Birmingham, England. In his early career, he travelled widely, visiting such earthly paradises as North Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba, Zimbabwe (when it was still Rhodesia), and Tanzania, where he acquired an acute sense of the social prerequisites for the individual disempowerment which characterises the third world. This experience superbly equipped him to diagnose the same maladies in the city centres of contemporary Britain; he is arguably the most perceptive and certainly among the most eloquent contemporary observers of that society.
This book is a collection of his columns from City Journal, most dating from 2001 through 2004, about equally divided between “Arts and Letters” and “Society and Politics”. There are gems in both sections: you'll want to re-read Macbeth after reading Dalrymple on the nature of evil and need for boundaries if humans are not to act inhumanly. Among the chapters of social commentary is a prophetic essay which almost precisely forecast the recent violence in France three years before it happened, one of the clearest statements of the inherent problems of Islam in adapting to modernity, and a persuasive argument against drug legalisation by somebody who spent almost his entire career treating the victims of both illegal drugs and the drug war. Dalrymple has decided to conclude his medical career in down-spiralling urban Britain for a life in rural France where, notwithstanding problems, people still know how to live. Thankfully, he will continue his writing.

Many of these essays can be found on-line at the City Journal site; I've linked to those I cited in the last paragraph. I find that writing this fine is best enjoyed away from the computer, as ink on paper in a serene time, but it's great that one can now read material on-line to decide whether it's worth springing for the book.

"Life at the Bottom" This is the title of a book by Theodore Dalrymple, a wonderfully literate British physician who is fast assuming a position in my personal Pantheon alongside, for example, Fr. Neuhaus. The book has a series of essays on the people he has dealt with in his medical practice at a large hospital in one of London's poor districts and at a prison where he treats the inmates. He refers to these people as members of the "underclass". Look at this:

That the heart wants contradictory, incompatible things; that social conventions arose to resolve some of the conflicts of our own impulses; that eternal frustration is an inescapable concomitant of civilization, as Freud had observed - all these recalcitrant truths fell beneath the notice of the proponents of sexual liberation, dooming their revolution to ultimate failure.

The failure hit the underclass hardest. Not for a moment did the sexual liberators stop to consider the effects upon the poor of the destruction of the strong family ties alone that made emergence from poverty possible for large numbers of people. They were concerned only with the petty dramas of their own lives and dissatisfactions. But by obstinately overlooking the most obvious features of reality, as did my seventeen-year-old patient who thought that men's superior physical strength was a socially constructed sexist myth, their efforts contributed in no small part to the intractability of poverty in modern cities, despite vast increases in the general wealth: for the sexual revolution has turned the poor from a class into a caste, from which escape is barred so long as that revolution continues.

Concerning Saints
I've been thinking about Saints lately. Maybe it's the logical conclusion of a season dominated by Saint Nick and the upcoming ones with Saint Valentine, Saint Patrick and Saint Easter Bunny.

Seems to me that with the whole, "Hey, we're all 'saints'," that came with the Reformation, and which permeates Evangelicaldom, we (speaking as an evangelical) lost a bit of spiritual tutelage. Perhaps what's gotten us into trouble is the combination of the correct Reformation rejection of the view of Saints as alternate intercessors and the American ideal of equality. There's something comforting to me in my spiritual mediocrity when I can reject what "Saints" have to say, even though they've experienced a more intimate relationship with the Lord than I can even imagine, with the thought, "There's nothing special about being a 'Saint,' since we're all saints, according to the Good Book."

Actually, I've discovered that there are, in fact, people who have more intimate relationships with the Lord than I do. (This is not a recent discovery, for those keeping score at home.) It makes sense to me that there ought to be a special place in Christendom reserved for those who in the course of their life reach a level of spiritual rapport with the Lord that is rare and to be treasured. Capital-S Saints seems as good a word as any for these folks.

Perhaps part of the issue is that "Saint" is kind of a vague word, kind of like "bald". When does someone with a full head of hair move to being bald? One less hair? Ten less hairs? When does one cross the line? Well, there is no line per-se, but when someone is truly bald, it's easy to see. Before employing "Saint," we'd like to know the bright line between not-Saint and Saint. But there are plenty of folks in Christendom who are Saints, even though we might not be able to say, "On this day," or, "with this act, Larry became a Saint." (Good job, Larry!)

Being a Saint, too, is a place distinct from those simply exhibiting the Spectacular gifts of the Spirit and those who are devoutly pious. Of course, many Saints exhibit both, but doing one or the other doesn't make one a Saint. I'd say it's the difference between an 18 year-old Marine recruit using his M-16 effectively, a Military bureaucrat wearing his Dress Uniform, and a weathered, wizened, and war-wise Master Sergeant who looks sharp in his uniform, can hit a bulls-eye at 200 meters, but has in his core the warrior spirit. It isn't that the first two can't become the latter, but at the moment they certainly are not the latter. (This is an illustration I should have used in explaining my earlier thinking on the relationship between piety & holiness.)

In truth, my Saintly thinking is brought on by reading Evelyn Underhill's Concerning The Inner Life

The question of the proper feeding of our own devotional life must, of course, include the rightful use of spiritual reading. And with spiritual reading we may include formal or informal meditation upon Scripture or religious truth: the brooding consideration, the savouring - as it were the chewing of the cud - in which we digest that which we have absorbed, and apply it to our own needs. Spiritual reading is, or at least it can be, second only to prayer as a developer and support of the inner life. In it we have access to all the hoarded supernatural treasure of the race: all that is has found out about God. It should not be confined to Scripture, but should also include at least the lives and the writing of the cannonized and uncannonized saints: for in religion variety of nourishment is far better than a dyspeptic or fastidious monotony of diet. If we do it properly, such reading is a truly social act. It gives to us not only information, but communion; real intercourse with the great souls of the past, who are the pride and glory of the Christian family. Studying their lives and work slowly and with sympathy; reading the family history, the family letters;p trying to grasp the family point of view, we gradually discover these people to be in origin though not in achievement very much like ourselves. They are people who are devoted to the same service, handicapped often by the very same difficulties; and yet whose victories and insights humble and convict us, and who can tell us more and more, as we learn to love more and more, of the relation of the soul to Reality. . . . It is one of the ways in which the communion of saints can be most directly felt by us.

We all know what a help it is to live among, and be intimate with, keen Christians; how much we owe in our own lives to contact with them, and how hard it is to struggle on alone in a preponderantly non-Christian atmosphere. In the saints we always have the bracing society of keen Christians. We are always in touch with the classic standard. Their personal influence still radiates, centuries after they have left the earth, reminding us of the infinite variety of ways in which the Spirit of God acts on people through people, and reminding us too of our own awful personal responsibility in this matter. The saints are the great experimental Christians, who, because of their unreserved self-dedication, have made the great discoveries about God; and, as we read their lives and works, they will impart to us just so much of these discoveries as we are able to bear. Indeed, as we grow more and more, the saints tell us more and more: disclosing at each fresh reading secrets that we did not suspect. Their books are the works of specialists, from whom we can humbly learn more of God and of our own souls.

Dhimmitude. Good stuff from Diana West. And this too from a FrontPage Magazine symposium.

Well, duh!

Mark Noll is leaving Wheaton for guess where. Notre Dame!

Justice Ginsburg's problem with "tolerance".

This makes me praise the Lord for the Roberts and Alito appointments.

Not tending to one's own business, I think. The WSJ reports today that

Bush faces opposition from 85 evangelical Christian leaders to his rejection of curbs on emissions of carbon dioxide blamed for global warming.

Not that I believe that Bush is necessarily right on this. But what are "evangelical Christian leaders" doing in this fight?

For a contrary view to mine, here's a link.

Some sensible comments on the Muslim-Cartoon matter. The writer points out that several of the cartoons that are causing such an uproar were not even published in the Danish press but were added by the Muslim group that first circulated them in an effort to incite their co-religionists. It worked.

Whose Rules?

There are many things that need to be said about the Muslim reaction to those cartoons in the Danish newspaper, and yesterday in this space Joseph Bottum said some of them very well. They need to be said because the most frontal challenge imaginable has been put to the West. It is a challenge that may soon be backed up by a nuclear threat from Iran.

The challenge is simply this: A very large sector of the Islamic world is now demanding that the West live by Islamic rules. The challenge is issued not just by radical jihadists but by governments such as Syria where “spontaneous” demonstrations are orchestrated by the state.

Read the rest of the post (it's short).

I agree with Fr. Neuhaus here, and the rest of his insights.

Morgan's first post

[she doesn't want to say anything about this link to Bono's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. She thinks it speaks for itself. But she's interested in what you think.]

The Father of FM

In honor of our technological fathers - Ken and dad

I just finished a biography on Major Edwin H. Armstrong, the inventor of the regenerative circuit and frequency modulation.

I recommend the following bibliography:

Lawrence Lessing, Man of High fidelity: Edwin Howard Armstrong, Philadelphia, J.B. Lipncott Company, 1956

They were for it before they were against it.

"The President has enhanced responsibility to resist unconstitutional provisions that encroach upon the constitutional powers of the Presidency."

That sure sounds like it could have been written by John Ashcroft. Or Alberto Gonzales. Or one of the many Bush-administration officials vigorously defending the NSA's warrantless monitoring of enemy communications into and out of the homeland. After all, it succinctly states the best explanation for why President Bush was empowered to go beyond the strictures of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and create a terrorist-surveillance program, designed to prevent a reprise of 9/11 ... or worse.

But the assertion does not come from the Bush administration at all. Nor from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, National Review, or any of the other precincts limned by today's American Left as megaphones for the president's dreaded "domestic spying program."

No, for this clear statement of principle, we have the Clinton administration to thank. Specifically, then-Attorney General Janet Reno's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) — the Justice Department's elite unit of lawyers for the lawyers. It was chiseled into a formal 1994 OLC opinion, aptly entitled "The President's Authority to Decline to Execute Unconstitutional Statutes," by then-Assistant Attorney General Walter Dellinger, OLC's top gun.

From at article at National Review.

Oscar Anyone?

Morgan Stokes: internet phenomenon!

Check out her acting debut at Despair.com.

She's currently taking applications for members of her entourage.

An Open Letter to Tom Oster

Dear Tom,
I've been thinking about you lately. Actually, it would be more accurate to say, "I've been thinking about your early-ly." When Aidan gets up at 5am, Kellsey and I start the day, too. It's been this way since he was born, and I wouldn't be able to keep this up except for drugs. My drug of choice: caffeine.

I have imbibed all kinds of caffeine-delivery-systems in the last 15 months: coke, hot tea, cold tea, sweet tea, latte, cappuccino, misto, frappuccino, mocha, macchiato, espresso, americano, drip coffee, and french press coffee. I drink it all: from the generic coffee served on an airplane, to the fresh-ground fresh-made drip at work, to fresh-ground french press at home, to Sbux espresso.

From the sheer volume, I discover that I can now tell the difference between coffees. I understand now that they actually taste different, depending upon the roast, or brewing process, or freshness of the bean. I've also moved from drinking Caramel Macchiatos through all the intermediate steps to drinking double espressos with one sugar. I'm thinking this is only one step away from drinking the essence of coffee: plain espresso.

If I had my preferences, I'd only drink fresh ground, french press coffee, or espresso. I'm not snotty about it: I drink it all, since it is fundamentally about the drug. But, when I can, I bring my own coffee, grinder, and press.

As I've been thinking about you, I recall some of our conversations about your coffee drinking. In particular we talked about it at a team meeting during my intern year at Brad's parent's place in Wintergreen. In my mind's eye, I can see us looking out over the valley, you with a steaming cup of coffee in your hand, and me holding forth on the unhealthy nature of coffee and caffeine. You also came in for some good-natured teasing about bringing your own grinder and fresh bags of coffee to team meetings.

As I prepare and drink my own coffee now, I often have this thought, "Oh my, I have become Tom Oster." Then I grin and drink deep of the coffee ambrosia. Unfortunately, none of the other admirable Tom Oster traits have taken hold.

I thought you'd like to know.

Caffienatedly,
Macon