Two Cousins and a Grandfather; Mornings with Addie

This is an email from one of Mary's colleagues at RVA.

Two Cousins and a Grandfather; Mornings with Addie

February 26, 2007

When I walk Ben and Kate to school, we frequently have Addie walk with us. Addie likes to talk to me, and I always look forward to it, because anything goes. The other day she was quite animated:

Addie: This morning when I got up to go potty, I went and went so long I thought I would have to be there ALL DAY.

Me: (With the alarm born of 5 year old twins when they talk of going to the bathroom and imaging having to run for a toilet) Why are you telling me this Addie?

Addie: (Gives me a look that wonders why anyone wouldn't WANT to know her personal habits.)

Friday we were walking and she warmly hugged me and told me:

Addie: I love walking with you and Ben and Katie.

Me: We love walking with you Addie.

Addie: I love it because it reminds me of walking with my cousins and my Grandfather.

And it had started as such a NICE day.

Fortunately, I could take comfort that I was raising the twins RIGHT.

(Katie and Ben and their favorite team)

(My favorite picture in the world)

I've written about it before, but one of my favorite traditions at RVA is the Senior Banquet. The juniors write the play, construct the sets and cook and serve the food to honor the seniors. Last year was exhausting and exciting; this year all JT had to do was pick up his date and enjoy the evening.

The guys pick up the girls at the dorm, and they walk across the campus. JT was pretty relaxed this year, but Nancy told me that when Erin walked out, he just shook his head and said `Wow.' When they got closer to where the dinner was to be held, it looked like this:

There were lanterns that lit the path for the last few hundred yards, and the whole campus stood in line to cheer each couple as their names were announced. It is such a wonderful alternative to limos and all the excesses that seem to go with big events in the states.

(JT and Erin)

The rains have let up, so we have been able to go to the valley more often. There was so much good news this week that it filled a part of me that had been so dry. One of the schools, which had been rated the lowest in its zone, had increased to the named the best school of the year.

(The trophies for being the most highly rated school)

The kids were going after it so hard, and it is amazing the progress they are making. One of the problems with the Kenyan educational system is that it elevates rote memorization above anything else.

So it was so heartening to run over to Kenton and meet Gerald and Grace, the top students at the computer center there. I asked Grace what her favorite part of computer class was, and she had a wonderful answer.

`I like computers because they make me think.'

(Grace and Gerald)

There was a church group from Texas visiting, and I instructed the children to say `We love Texas the most!' I also tried to teach them to feel sorry for people loudly who aren't from Texas, but for some strange reason, they didn't believe me.

You see so much sad stuff in Africa. Sometimes, it just is good to remember that if you plant good seed, sometimes good stuff comes up.

Your pal

Steve and Nancy Peifer

Rift Valley Academy

Website: http://peifer.kijabe.org/index.html?intro.html&1

Foundation: http://www.solutionbeaconfoundation.org/programs.htm

Webcam: http://www.kijabe.org/longocam/

"Just a Cough and a Sore Throat"

In the next preceding post, I mention the Listerine connection to my friend's throat cancer, but there's one more thing. He had a cough and a sore throat for months before he went to an ENT. He had gone to his GP about it, and I do not understand why it took the GP so long to refer him. Persistent cough should be enough to bore into the problem. But that plus a sore throat? Now the tumor is too large to remove by surgery and it must be burned away with radiation. This is not a good story.

No to Listerine

A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with throat cancer, and he now faces a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy, with the chances of success not at all certain. I couldn't figure out why he would get that cancer - he neither smokes nor drinks. Then I learned yesterday - 50 years of gargling Listerine twice a day. It is the high alcohol content that did it, according to his oncologist.

The idea that an alcohol based mouthwash can cause cancer is controversial. For example, Wikipedia assures us that there is no evidence that Listerine causes "mouth cancer", citing the American Dental Associations approval of the product. (When I went to the dentist for a cleaning the other day, his office gave me a "goody bag" that included a small bottle of the stuff.)

Googling the issue turns up this from the University of Maryland Medical School site:

Some studies have shown that mouthwash with alcohol content increases the risk for oral cancer. In addition, other studies have shown that smokers and people who drink alcohol tend to use mouthwash more often, linking all three factors together.


Another site states that

Listerine USED TO be made with over 26% industrial alcohol. Recent studies in USA by the National Cancer Institute of America have found that mouthwashes with an alcohol content of 25% or higher may be responsible for some mouth, tongue and throat cancers. Unfortunately the alcohol can act like a solvent making the gums and mouth tissues more vulnerable to carcinogens. Studies have shown that men had a 60% higher risk and women a 90% higher risk of these cancers compared to those not using mouthwash. Nowadays the alcohol content has been reduced to 21.6% but I would still be rather wary of excessive usage of this product.

There doesn't seem to be much doubt in the mind of my friend's physician. Why take the risk when there are plenty of mouthwashes out there that have no alcohol in them?

Captured!

AidanSurprise
Originally uploaded by citostokes.

The moment Aidan discovered that this weird guy was his grandfather.

Honor Outfits

Some like this look.
Originally uploaded by citostokes.

I prefer this.
Originally uploaded by citostokes.

Cooper's Birthday Present

Carol and I went down to Jane's house last night for a bar-be-que to celebrate Cooper's 50th birthday. They live down in the Redlands section of South Dade, once the rural/farm part of Miami-Dade County, but now being engulfed by development. As we drove into the backyard (They have a BIG piece of land), men and boys were standing around gawking at one of the neatest cars I have ever seen up close, a 2006 Chevy SSR Roadster, Cooper's birthday present. (Actually, he bought it several months ago, but was desperately looking around for a pretext, and his 50th birthday was all he could come up with. But, hey, it worked, Jane didn't kill him.)

Anyone See "300" this Weekend?

A lot of people must have seen it, given the estimated box office take so far. I'm a little hesitant, given that the Sin City crowd made it. Sin City is the only movie in recent times I simply could not see to the end. What, then, did they do to the story behind Gates of Fire. (I did read the graphic novel at Macon's house - it wasn't half bad, although Leonitis seemed a bit crazed: definitely the type you want fighting on your side, however.)

Carol is going to a women's Bible study Tuesday night (aka "Circle"). I thought it would be a sort of ironic balancing strategy for a boys' night out at the flick, watching a movie about Western Civilization getting saved. But who has seen it in the community, and what do you think?

Pascal's Wager

I am having a very careful, but beyond tentative discussion with a Jewish client about the existence (or not) of God and, more specifically, about Christianity. He lives in New England and has invited me to his home to discuss the matter further, although we are getting into this discussion over the telephone about once a week as we discuss a case in which we are intensely involved. I may go visit him at some point.

He is not, as they say, "religious". He says he is an agnositic. He is advanced in years and, as Dr. Kuykendall said of Mary once, "bright as a new penny". He tells me that he was quite religious as a young man, but turned away from the observant form of Judaism in which he was involved. I have run across older men before who were once religious but turned away. They are an odd mix. For one thing, they think they know all about the subject, but I have found their knowledge to be rudimentary, that is immature, sort of like my knowledge of amateur radio - I got away from it in my early twneties and came back to it 30 years later. At least I knew that there had been a lot of fresh insight and was aware of how little advanced I was when I left the hobby. On the other hand, whether or not these men think that they "turned away", it is obvious that the hound of heaven continues to nip at their ankles.

This past week we were on the phone and got into a discussion about whether God exists. He brought up again how he was an agnositic. I told him that since he was an agnostic and not an atheist, he should consider making a decision simply based on practical grounds. I suggested that he go ahead and believe in God. If there is no God, it will make absolutely no difference. If there is a God, then it may make a big difference in the scheme of things. I told him that a philosopher had put forth that proposition, but I could not think of his name.

Of course, the philosopher was Pascal, as I rememered this morning. I found an essay on Pascal's wager at a very interesting site. Christians, please pray for this man. We know that an act of will does not as a matter of necessity bring one into relationship with Christ, but we also have a promise that seeking God with one's whole heart will bring us to him. (For example.)

The Canon A630 as Video Camera

See this post over at Instapundit about one reporter's use of this still, digital camera to shoot videos. Macon and I each have one of these cameras, and Macon has already posted videos taken with it. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I want to post a video of Carol's amazing cook top air vent.

UPDATE: I fixed the link. (Thanks, Kellsey.)
UPDATE AGAIN: The A630. (Thanks, Sean.)

Amen and Amen

To this. (And despite my immediately preceding post.)

"Why Men are Happier"

This is some spam sent me this morning by Austin Carr. Like me, he is supposedly working at his office on Saturday morning. (Not like me, he usually works all day on Saturdays, indicating, of course, that I am a much more efficient and faster worker; I try to leave by noon.) I am, of course, supposed to be working here at the office too, but he insists on sending me this sort of thing when he knows that I am here at my desk trying to support my family.

Why men are happier

Your last name stays put.

The garage is all yours.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack.

You can be President. You can never be pregnant.

You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

Car Mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal.

You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don’t have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character.

Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.

People never stare at your chest when you are talking to them.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don’t cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

One mood all the time.

Phone conservations are over in 30 seconds flat.

You know stuff about tanks.

A 5 day vacation requires only one suitcase.

You can open all of your own jars.

You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack.

Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

You never have strap problems in public.

You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color.

The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe even decades.

You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life.

Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons.

You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.

You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier!

"The Great Warming Swindle"

Review of the recent documentary on British television's Channel Four.

UPDATE: More on this at Channel Four.

WOW!

Important Second Amendment decision out of the DC Court of Appeals. The court overturns the trial court's decision rejecting a citizen challenge of the District of Columbia's anti-gun law. The citizen was the "plaintiff" in the trial court. The Mayor of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia itself were the defendants. A copy of the court's opinion is here.

At the head of the opinion is a list of the amici curiae on each side of the case. Amici curiae ("friends of the court")(singular form is amicus curiae) are persons who present briefs to the appeals court in addition to the ones submitted by the actual parties to the case. There is a list of those who did so on behalf of the citizen who was appealing the decision of the lower court (the person who loses in the trial court is known as the "appellant" in the appeals process) and a list of those who filed briefs on behalf of the defendants who won below and are defending the lower court's decision (known as the "appellees" in the appeals process).

The amicus curiae on behalf of the appellant were various state Attorneys General, including the AGs from Florida and Texas. They also included the NRA and the Congress of Racial Equality ("CORE").

The amicus curiae on behalf of the District of Columbia include AGs of certain other states, the City of New York, and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

(The NC AG did not file a brief on either side. See Revelation 16:3.)

Broadly speaking, the issue presented is whether the Second Amendment is to be read restrictively so that it refers only to the rights of the states to raise militias or whether it is to be read to refer to the rights of an individual to bear arms outside of service in a militia. Specifically, the plaintiff asserted a right to keep an assembled and loaded firearm in his home (in this case a shotgun). He was not challenging in this case the District's denial of the right to carry a concealed weapon outside his home.

Sanibel: As I Remember It

There was an email going around my family today linking to an article that lists the top 10 Shell Collecting Beaches. After so many empty promises of Nigerian riches and HGH-fueled feats, here was an email that delivered the goods. #1 on the list was Sanibel. Though the sands of time have rushed through the hourglass these last 28 years of my life, it was as if a shell disrupted the flow one day years ago when my family decided to take a "day trip" to Sanibel from Miami - and time slowed enough that we could savor each other's company and the delights of Florida's west coast at a snail's pace.

I think it started with Aunt Mary Ann and I conspiring to spend a glorious day gathering shells and sand dollars on the prickly beaches of Sanibel Island. Jeff and Jennifer were game, Macon and Jason had the aerobie ready, and Mary was gnawing on a My Little Pony. The idea was quite disagreeable to Mom and Dad had to work. I told Mom, though, "Make the best of it; life is what you make it." She didn't really appreciate my remark, but she decided to go along with the plan.

We spent what must have been 8 hours making the 3.5 hour trek to Sanibel, but so much the better. We had just enough people to claim every seat-belt in the van, so no one was lonely for any stretch of the time. I thought it might be fun to play a game, but Mom shot that idea down.

When we arrived, we realized that we weren't the only ones who'd had a great idea. Our new friends were jamming the bridge onto the island with all of their cars. Once we got onto Sanibel's streets, we had several go-rounds on the island looking for a parking space. It was like we'd arrived at a surprise party for us that was so packed with well-wishers that we could hardly get through the door.

The next part is a little fuzzy. I think we found a handicap space at a 7-11 where we stopped long enough for Macon and Jason to hop out of the car, find the Gulf of Mexico, and release the Aerobie back into the wild green waters of the sea.

By then the sun had started to set, and, unfortunately, all of the restaurants on the island were only taking reservations for breakfast the next morning - dinner was booked. We did find a gas station in Florida City, though, that had some "pizza" deal where you get 3 slices with a fill-up. It was tasty, and a good excuse for everyone to share with each other. I'm pretty sure Mom wasn't pleased with this solution, but she bought a pack of big league chew and listened to her heavy metal in silence.

Something about the "pizza" must not have agreed with Macon, because he threw it up into the everglades at some point on the way home. We all had a good laugh about that, though. You know that comforting feeling you get after you throw up - we were all having that feeling then.

It was a special time - and I treasure my memory of it.

Hypnosis

From The Gutenberg Galaxy - Marshall McLuhan
"'(quoted)....Thus heat, weight, lengths, and many other things that in ordinary life are apprehended through senses other than vision have become for science matters of visual awareness of the positions of mechanical pointers.' Does this not imply that if we can devise a consistent means of translating all aspects of our world into the language of one sense only, we shall then have a distortion that is scientific because consistent and coherent? Blake thought this had actually occurred in the eighteenth century when he sought liberation 'from single vision and Newton's sleep.' For the dominance of one sense is the formula for hypnosis. And a culture can be locked in the sleep of any one sense. The sleeper awakes when challenged in any other sense."

How insightful - I'll disregard my hearing but respond to music based on a review that I've read. Disregard my feeling but respond to an advertisement for drugs that I've seen. Disregard my judgement but respond to propaganda that I've watched.

A Local Take on Libby

A former US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida practices across the hall from us. I ran into him today and asked him what he thought of the verdict. This gentleman is a staunch Republican. He said, "It's not a good thing to lie to a grand jury."

So we see.

Wilson-Plame Kerfuffle

Quote of the Day, copied from today's WSJ Polictical Diary (third item):

"A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that all of these claims [by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV] were false -- and that Mr. Wilson was recommended for the Niger trip by Ms. Plame, his wife... The [Libby] trial has provided convincing evidence that there was no conspiracy to punish Mr. Wilson by leaking Ms. Plame's identity -- and no evidence that she was, in fact, covert... The former ambassador will be remembered as a blowhard. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were overbearing in their zeal to rebut Mr. Wilson and careless in their handling of classified information. Mr. Libby's subsequent false statements were reprehensible. And Mr. Fitzgerald has shown again why handing a Washington political case to a federal special prosecutor is a prescription for excess. Mr. Fitzgerald was, at least, right about one thing: The Wilson-Plame case, and Mr. Libby's conviction, tell us nothing about the war in Iraq" -- Washington Post editorial.

European Security Levels

A friend of mine sent this hilarious post.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Londoners have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Surrender" and "Collaborate." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability. It's not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose." Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

I certainly hope things are not this bad. The joke is really on us here in America, as most of us can trace our ancestry back not too many generations to one or more of the countries identified. Except, of course, it is not really a very funny joke. The laughter, at the very least, is a bit nervous.

A Magazine Worth Reading

I have had a subscription to World Magazine for many years. Over the last three or four years, I have noticed a very significant improvement in both its coverage and the depth of its analysis. It has become, along with the WSJ, a must-read for me.

I direct your attention to the February 24, 2007, issue as an example. The cover reads, "Into Captivity They Shall Go", Modern-day Slavery on the anniversay of William Wilberforce and abolition. This issue contains a chilling map of the world that shows "Slavery around the World". A magazine subscription will allow you access to the publication's archives, where the articles from this issue now reside, or you may be able to subscribe just to the on-line version. I would recommend the magazine.

By the way, it doesn't take much imagination to link the pornography that is available to anyone with an internet capable computer, man, woman or child, with the slavery in little girls in Cambodia that one of the articles discusses.

The Duke LAX Case

Oh, yeah.

What Should I Expect from my Employer and What do I Owe that Employer?

Sean has a great new job, but takes special note of the terms of his new employment:

This hit home with me [Sean writes on his blog] especially when I got the official offer letter from my new employer that, basically, said 'We make no commitment to you about length of employment and you make no commitment to us.'


He invited comments on this, and the comment I posted was to effect that this is the way it is in the real world. Others commented pretty much along the same lines.

But then, I got to wondering about whether we had pitched that truth a little too harshly (i.e. "this is the way that it is in the real world"), so much so that it may not even be generally true. As I am an employer (my huge operation employs 14, including myself), I got to thinking about whether we have a commitment to our employees about the length of his or her employment, even though there is no written contract that specifies a certain term and even though we are in an "at will situation". That commitment, which is more about loyalty than merely length of employment (because what we are really talking about, I think, is loyalty) includes, but is not certainly not limited to, the following:

1. We have sick days. We commit to employ through illness to a reasonable extent and have made provision for it.

2. Along the same lines, we have health insurance to help the employee keep healthy so the employee can keep working.

3. We have vacation days, so that the employee can rest.

4. We have continuing education seminars, some that even the receptionist will attend. Though this helps the employee help us better, it makes the employee more marketable outside our firm.

5. We cut the employee some slack in extraordinary situations. For example, one of our staff several years ago was in such a nasty divorce that she had to be escorted to the courthouse by a policeman and we were advised by our security consultant to fire her because of the risk that her spouse might come to the office and do damage. We didn't do that, but kept her employed. We paid money for extra security for ourselves and tolerated her skydive in performance, the general firm disruption and additional cost of extra management time. She made it through the divorce and the crisis ended. (Whereupon, she promptly moved out of the state!)

6. We accommodate changes in schedule that our employees require from time to time.

So I think I would define the problem to which Sean's post alludes as the problem of loyalty. Sean should expect some loyalty, despite an "at will" arrangement. And I think that he will get it. As he gets into the job and shows his mettle, he should expect that the extent of his employer's loyalty will increase, in one form or the other. It is reasonable for Sean to have that expectation, and if he doesn't seen that develop in his employer, then it may be time to look for another one.

On the other hand, as an employer I expect some loyalty. We have largely been rewarded but sometimes disappointed. Last year, two fine staff people, into whom we had poured a lot of training, left us for a competitor. They said they left because they would be paid more at the other firm. But they never gave us a chance to respond to the offer they received. (Were we naive in thinking that they, out of some sort of sense of loyalty, would have told us about their dissatisfaction?)

We never had a chance to check the market and find out if, indeed, we were falling behind. (We should have been checking the market, and are trying to do a better job on that now. I concede that a more astute employer would have been checking this all along.) (In the case of the job category of one of them, we were a little behind, which we promptly fixed in the case of those left at the firm. In the case of the other, we were not behind, although she thought we were behind - she apparently had not run the numbers correctly.). Losing these two fine staff caused great disruption, and we still have a sense that we were not appropriately treated by them.

So I don't expect to tell an employee that he or she has a one, two, or three year contract, and I don't expect him or her to commit to one, two or three years. But each side should expect some consideration for the other, consideration that finally boils down to the idea of loyalty. No employer in his right mind will consciously design a job situation that will drive away a good employee. And an employee's promise to remain for a given term will not keep a fine employee there for very long if he or she is not happy. We all know that there are many things that make the employment relationship work, among them are mutual respect, hard work, fair pay, the opportunty to grow, and some "slack" when one side or the other side runs into difficulty. So contract arrangements that do not describe fixed terms of service are probably not very important, after all.

UPDATE: Carol read this post and we discussed the matter of the two staff members who left our firm last year. She observed that a departing employee will sometimes say that he or she is leaving for another job because the other job pays more money when, in fact, the employee has other issues with the present job that are too difficult or personal to discuss. She thinks that this may have been the case with the two people who left our firm. It was simply easier for them to discuss the issue in terms of economics rather than other terms, perhaps in an effort to spare feelings at our firm.

Nifong Responds

Is this the best he can do?

Joined the club yesterday

Snow Patrol
Originally uploaded by Dshot.

The ignominious club of those dragged down the mountain on a sled by the ski patrol.

I hyper-extended my left knee in some fresh powder while snowboarding. Ouch! I didn't need to go to the hospital, but there was no way I was going to be able to board down the rest of the way.

While it is a season-ending injury, it's not a career-ending injury. :-)

Happily, it happend at the end of the day yesterday, and I'd gotten in a fun-filled day of boarding. (Have I mentioned that the Stokes Family South Austin is in CO on vacation? Today's our last day.) This little injury in no way dampens my infatuation with snowboarding. Wow. It is so very much fun!

EDIT 03.03.07: To add, for Walter's sake, that at the moment of impact, I felt a *pop* and *grind* in my knee as I flipped head over heels. Sue was skiing behind me and came up to ask if I was ok. I was too busy gasping in pain and trying to throw the releases on my snowboard to drop the weight from my leg to answer her. Then, board off, now face-up, and while I packed my knee with snow, she asked if I needed her to call the ski patrol. A few moments passed while I weighed the shame of the drag-down with the pain in the leg. "Yes, please call them."

Now that three days have passed, I'm happy to report that my femur must have popped out and then right back into the knee socket, since my leg can bear weight and I'm walking, slowly, on it with minimal pain. I'm up to my fourth joint I've had pop in and out in my life: right elbow, both shoulders, now left knee.

Sean has a new job!

So totally cool! Congratulations, Sean!

Make Way Partners Update

This is an email I received from Milton Smith of Make Way Partners, the organization that helped rescue Mary the Dinka woman. A team from the US traveled to the Sudan to help Kimberly Smith (Milton's wife, I think), the Executive Director of the organization, who is already at a village which is dealing with a meningitis epidemic, and this is a report. (I believe that Mary the Dinka woman is at this place.) I get updates via email from time to time. Let me know if you want to be added to the MWP email list, or you can go to the website and sign up.

Dear Fellow Sojourners:

I just now finished talking with Kimberly. She said the team arrived on Tuesday Sudanese time. All of the team is in good spirits but tired from the long journey.

When the plane landed in Nyamlel, all 400+ of the children of the Make Way Partners compound were there to meet the plane. Not only were the children there from the compound, but many of the villagers were there and they were all singing. They sang Christian songs, about Jesus, and they danced around the arriving guests. They then led the arriving team through the village in parade fashion out to the compound.

Once they arrived at the compound, Kimberly showed them the medical clinic that is being built and the meningitis clinic. The meningitis clinic is separated from the regular clinic in order to quarantine the meningitis patients.

Then, after a period of rest, Kimberly took the team over to Marialbai which is across the river. During the meningitis outbreak, Marialbai has become a portion of our responsibility. As the team got to Marialbai, a little boy was dying of meningitis. He was an orphan from the last attack by the Janjaweed upon his village. During the attack, the boy’s parents were killed. An uncle of the child had been taking care of him since then. The uncle is a guard at the clinic in Marialbai. The team saw the uncle hold the child’s body and he sobbed. The team cried too.

After giving the team some time to process what had taken place, Kimberly called the team together and led the new team in a foot washing of the medical team that has already been on the ground. After the foot washing, they shared the Eucharist together.

Please pray for the team’s effectiveness in this next week and that God will be glorified.

Jesus wept. (John 11:35)

Grace and Peace,

Milton Smith

The Joyce Hatto Scandal

In today's WSJ, an article headlined "Apparent Hoax Shakes Up World of Classical Music" describes the discovery that a series of CD recordings by Joyce Hatto, allegedly made while she was dying of cancer, were copies of recordings by another artist. Joyce Hatto's husband engineered the copies.

A British classical music magazine, Gramophone, initially broke the story. An American CD listener discovered the hoax, and his subsequent probing of the matter led to the Gramophone article. But the Gramophone article does not detail just how the listener first knew something was wrong. The WSJ article does.

When the CD listener inserted the disc into his Apple computer, he "was surprised when . . . iTunes software identified it as a CD by another pianist," Laszlo Simon. The American followed up the anomaly, and that led to the investigation by Gramophone.

The WSJ article explains the iTunes technology that enables it to recognize

a CD by querying a database maintained by a company called Gracenote, of Emeryville, Calif. Gracenote recognizes a CD by the number of tracks it has and the length of each of those tracks; when combined, the two form a mathematical fingerprint that Gracenote says is essentially unique for CDs with more than about five songs.

The Gracenote software was able to recognize the CD of the real pianist, even though the husband of the dying pianist had shrunk or stretched some of the tracks.

There is a lot on the internet about this hoax. You can start here or simply google "hatto simon hoax".

Post-meal Contemplation

Riding the Range at Night

K&K Nightstand

This thread is for questions and discussion of the books sitting on our Nightstand. I made the title of the sidebar segment "K&K Nightstand" link here, so if you see something appear in that space and you want to comment, click on the sidebar title and go for it.

The Sublime Goes Ridiculous

I think I'll pass by this, the "Giant Knife Version 1.0" of the Swiss Army Knife.

Tubing

Stokes & Sewells On Vacation

The view pretty much every morning.

Isn't There a Despair.com Poster On this Subject?

Meetings.

Go Duke!

Succisa virescit!

Another great review of The Unforseen

From SpringBoardMedia blog, the executive director of Renew Media:

Sundance Wrap-Up - Unforseen and GWS
My favorite films at Sundance this year were Laura Dunn’s The Unforseen and Craig Zobel’s Great World of Sound. Both were films that made me glad I attended the festival, and that reminded me why I keep working in the realm of indie film. They are very different films, but similar in one key way – they are both artistic, small films about big ideas, with a lot of heart and apparently little chance of being seen by the masses.

Laura Dunn is one of our Fellows, but I don’t think I need much of a disclaimer – we’ve never met, she received her fellowship before I started working for Renew Media and it was for a different film. So half-hearted disclaimer aside, I think The Unforseen is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen at any festival in at least two years. It helps that it was shot by Lee Daniel, the cinematographer for Rick Linklater among others, and that her graphics (no small part of the movie) were done by Kyle Cooper, who has done the opening credits of Seven and Spider Man. [This is a great compliment to Jef Sewell, who actually did the graphics in the movie. KC did the credits, but that's it. Maybe Jef will get the credit he deserves someday. -- Macon] Daniel’s footage is ethereal - a combination of old super-8 (from the looks of it) and modern footage which is always well-lit, beautifully framed and gorgeous to watch. Laura’s style evokes Terrence Malick, who was an executive producer of the documentary, and leaves you mesmerized – not an easy task for a film about urban sprawl, politics, the environment and a vanishing way of life in the Southwest. This is not a sensibility seen in many docs today, which often eschew visual style and an attention to form to focus solely on interesting subject matter. It’s one of the biggest problems facing documentary today, this lack of attention to form, and Dunn firmly establishes herself as one of the smartest documentary filmmakers precisely because of her attention to it. This film could have easily been much less of a movie, but through her attention to the craft of filmmaking, Dunn has styled an important film about a weighty subject. It is nuanced – you feel real pain for the “big, bad” developer - without striving for some mythical journalistic “balance.” It is important – urban sprawl and its effects on our environment shown for the political choices they are - without putting the weight of the world on your shoulders, like a powerpoint film. It is also beautiful, an aesthetic choice made not to save money and get it done fast, but to do it right. It is also, unfortunately, doubtful to be seen at a theatre near you anytime soon. It’s not easy to market, too long for most and while it has a star (Reford), he’s not the focus of the film. I never thought that the effects of a developer on little Barton Springs in Austin, Texas could have such an affect on me, but Laura Dunn’s treatment of the subject gives me new hope for documentary film.

Clearly, this is a blogger of good taste and discernment.

Nightstand Reading

I added a spot for us to note what Kith&Kin are reading these days. If you send me the names of books you're reading, I'll keep it up to date for us. Email citostokes at gmail. All Kith & Kin readers are welcome to submit! There is no limit to submissions.

The Jarhead Footlocker Principle

My friend and colleague, Juan, is a US Marine. He told me when he was in boot camp, all the men in his unit (platoon?) were housed in one barracks. At the end of the day, the shower room could handle half of them at a time, so one half remained in the barracks while the other half cleaned up.

At the foot of each bed in the barracks sat a Marine's footlocker, housing all the possessions he was allowed to have at the base. The DI said that a Marine must keep his footlocker locked. The DI said that the very first day.

Of course, someone forgot as he went with his group to the shower. When he got back, his footlocker was upended and all of its contents scattered throughout the barracks, courtesy of the DI. I guess it happened just that once.

The point of the rule and the stringent enforcement of the rule was to keep temptation out of the way of the other men in the unit. It's fine to talk about honor and self-enforcing codes and the like. But the DI didn't look at it that way. His view was that each of the men had a responsibility not to put a stumbling block in the way of his comrades.

I have thought about that principle a good bit as I have read what is going on in Durham with the Duke lacrosse team criminal proceedings. Certainly, we can all lament the fraudulent action of the prosecutor, the abandonment of the young men by their professors, and the cynicism of the test-the-wind-first administration, but what about the Jarhead footlocker principle? What responsibility does the Duke lacrosse team bear for making possible the theft of their reputations by the stripper? What responsibility does the Duke community bear for developing and sustaining a culture where off-campus parties like the one involved in this case have been tolerated since I was at Duke? Those who rejoice in their righteous indignation over the miscarriage of justice for the young men should temper themselves a bit and consider who is responsible for setting the stage for the unfortunate, perhaps inevitable drama that ensued.

The South Florida Underground Weirdness Magnet

I say, send it to Austin, to mate with the one there.

Alleged Wikipedia Source Sued for Libel

The Miami Herald has an article this morning about the pro-golfer Fuzzy Zoeller suing a Miami law firm, alleging that the defendant is the source of defamatory material about him posted on Wikipedia. The reporter does a nice job of describing the legal issues involving liability for defamatory information on the internet. Zoeller's attorney, Scott Sheftall, is a Davidson grad and a friend of mine. I don't know anything about the firm that is being sued and have never heard of it.

New Formatting

In case you hadn't noticed.

I'm sorry that we lost the comments, but now I hope that comments will last longer than they used to, and that we might get a bit more functionality out of the comments.

Stay tuned!

It was I.

Fine. I confess, I was the one to wait until the very very very last minute before one year's science fair project.

But, in my defense, let me say, "Hey! Is that Elvis over there?!?"

*runs*

The clash of civilizations Nita, my mom from Atlanta, refers to our new granddaughter, Honor, as Ah-Na. She mentions this to one of her Latin friends. "Oh," her friend remarks, "how nice. The little one is Anna."

Bill Frist. Doing good in rural Kenya.

Dealing with Technology. Glenn Reynolds found this one.

Shotgun Report. I went out to Trail Glades Gun Range again this afternoon. The Trail Skeet and Trap Club had its big tournament today. People from all over the county had registered, but because of some bad weather in the other parts of the country, flights were cancelled and delayed, guns that had been shipped ahead had arrived late, etc. But there were still a good many people there, and there were gunsmiths who had set up to work on guns, do engraving, and that sort of thing. This was the third day of the tournament, and I watched several matches of skeet before I went over to the club house.

At the club house, which reminds me a lot of a fraternity chapter room, were a number of people, mostly men, sitting around talking, working on laptops, and drinking coffee. (No alcohol, of course.) In one group I saw two of the men I met last week, one the president of the club. I greeted him and told him I had checks for the first year dues for Jack and me. He was happy that we were following through, and introduced me to the others.

When they realized I was a beginner, several started offering advice and discussing how to get started. They were quite friendly and helpful and made me feel comfortable. The consensus seemed to be to first acquire a semi-automatic, one that you could take hunting as well as to the skeet range. The Remington 1100 was the favorite, although the equivalent Beretta also made the list. They suggested a 12 gauge. They also suggested Remington ammo, 2 3/4 length, 1290 velocity, 1 oz. shot, 8 shot shotshells.

I would use the Remington 1100 until I determined whether I liked the sport. Should I decide to go to the next level, the idea is that I would purchase a used gun from one of the members, no doubt an "over-under". There is this hand-me-down system, apparently. At the top of the pecking order are guns in the $25,000 range! There are many hand-me-down levels below that, and the next level above the 1100 seems to be in the $2000 category. (Whew!)

One gentlemen suggested getting a good teacher right at the start. They all mentioned someone named Red Hill, who seems to be some sort of legend. Bill, one of the men I met last week and who is in his early fifties, told me that when he was a teenager, Red Hill was the coach of their college skeet team and they went to "nationals" together. He's about 80 years old, lives in Naples, and usually comes over to the Trail Glades Range on Wednesdays. They warned me that Red is a Marine, and I would have to withstand his war stories. They said they get old when he gets to the fiftieth retelling. So I got Red's number and will give him a call.

Jack didn't come with me today, because Asher is in town with his family.

The national organization for skeet is in San Antonio. Its called the National Skeet Shooting Association.

I talked to Macon about this a little on the phone today. He told me how much fun it was to go bird hunting with Scott.

More to come, I think.

Dave Barry on Science Fairs. An oldie but goody.

Skeet. Reading along in Migdalski about shotgunning, I learn that, while the first recorded trap shooting occurred in 1793 in England, Charles Davies of Andover, Massachusetts, invented skeet shooting in the early 1920s. He was dissatisfied with trap shooting because the crossing and incoming shots of bird shooting were absent. His game became so popular that two hunting magazines offered a prize of $100 to the person whose name for the sport was accepted. "The lucky winner was Mrs. Gertrude Hurlbutt of Dayton, Montana. Her offering was 'skeet', an old Scandinavian word meaning 'shoot.'" Hence, when you say "let's go shoot skeet,' you are really saying "let's go shoot shoot.'"

Skeet, you learn so much reading this blog

(The game of hurlbutt will be covered in a later post.)

Spain. Trial of the 3/11 bombers began this week.

Right, Men are from Mars. Happy Valentine's Day Anyway. This morning Carol and I exchanged cards. Her's was beautiful. On the front was a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning about counting the ways Mrs. Browinng loved Mr. Browning. Inside were additional beautiful thoughts, including one about the "many tomorrows" Carol hopes to spend with me, although in my sleepiness I at first read "many tomatoes".

My card for Carol also had a poem:

I'm a little teapot
Short and Stout
Just Tip Me Over

[Open Card]

And Let's Make Out!

Obviously, I am into nuance.

Judy Karpis, We Know You're Out There! Judy is a reporter for the Gazette. My friend Nancy told me that she ran into Judy the other day, and Judy said she had come across our blog. Be nice, Judy, we all are subscribers.

Just because I knew you were all starved for more of Honor, here you go:

Some Great Photos over on Mary's Blog! She's back from Mt. Kenya, safe and sound.

Political Correctness in Shotgun Land. I have already blundered as I contemplate the shotgun sport. I referred to those things that one tries to shoot as "clay pigeons". (Originally, the game had real pigeons. These were released for the shooters from holes in the ground or boxes called "traps".. Thus the name "trap shooting".) One must refer to these objects as "clay targets" out of respect for pigeons and all things living. Thank you.

Unarmed Kenyans. The crime wave in Nairobi and its environs unrelentingly continues. The problem may be the large numbers of unarmed Kenyans there. Of the three classes of people who are involved in the crime wave, the police, the criminals, and the people upon whom the criminals prey, the unarmed ones are, of course, the people upon whom the criminals prey. This has not gone unnoticed. The inverse relationship of an armed populous to the incidence of violent crime has been noted over here.

Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. Describing John in Chapter 3, Luke writes:

A voice of one calling in the desert,
'Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
And all mankind will see God's salvation.'

Here is a description of the topography of the Messiah's coming. There will be flatlands. Like the desert in Gulf War 1 - no impediment to the power of the US armed forces, a broad table on which the Revolutionary Guard is flanked and destroyed. No impediment to the projection of God's power, no obstruction to his line of sight. No crevices or hidden valleys where one can lay low to avoid his judgment. Or his mercy. A great image.

John the Presbyterian. Enough of boom, and back to the voice. In chapter 3 of Luke, John exhorts the people, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." The people are confused by this. After all, it should be enough to be a Jew.

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"

"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.

Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."

It's OK to be rich, but share what you have. It's even OK to be a tax collector. John says be an ethical tax collector. He also doesn't say, "Soldiers are the tools of pagan Rome!". He simply says be an ethical soldier.

John is not a revolutionary as we have come to think of revolutionaries. (80 years ago, the people we call revolutionaries now would have been called anarchists.) In a way, he is very conservative. We are not about class warfare and tearing down social structures, we are about redeeming those structures with repentant, redeemed people. With redeemed people, the social structures will take care of themselves. So like Jesus, don't you think?

More Boom. Jack asked me a few weeks ago if I would be interested in looking into trap and skeet shooting with him. This is the sport where one shoots a shotgun at a "clay pigeon" thrown up in the air by man or machine. I said yes (of course), and yesterday we went to Trail Glades Range, an outdoor shooting range owned by the Metro-Dade Park system out on the Tamiami Trail. There are trap and skit ranges there. The clay pigeons are launched by machines.

I had no idea what "trap and skeet" meant until yesterday. They turn out to be two different ways in which the clay pigeon (the "bird") is launched. Trap is where the bird is thrown up before and roughly away from you. Skeet is where the bird is thrown across, from your left to right or your right to left. These two "games" mimic the way in which wild fowl present themselves to the hunter.

One of the range officers told us that "trap" is easier to learn, but harder to master and that "skeet" is harder to learn but easier to master. It all look pretty hard to me.

The person at the main desk of the range told us that there are two skeet and trap clubs there. There are always two organizations of a kind in Miami-Dade, though less so in the last 15 years, a "Cuban-American" club, for "Cuban-Americans", and the older club (I'll call it "the American club"), which would also be for "Cuban-Americans" and the rest of us too. As the "Cuban-Americans" are now into their third generation here (and becoming more comfortable in English than Spanish), I look forward to getting back to single organizations.

I think it important to note several things about this dualism. First, I learned that the American club, the older club, had built the clubhouse. The other club came later. It was also housed in the American clubhouse, because the American club made it available to them. Second, there was no one there from the CA club, but there were a half dozen or more from the American club. They welcomed us, among them one of the board members. His name was Carlos. May the CA Club soon become part of the history of South Florida, if it is not already so. (And, no, there is absolutely no way I will support Tancredo. I thought I made myself clear on that.)

But the subject is boom and I digress.

The club (I will hereinafter refer to the American club as "the club') has its own trap and skeet range, separate from the ones used by the public. The men we met from the club were using it. They were using it when we walked up, and using it as we left about an hour later. They were doing skeet the entire time. They were good. The range officer we talked to said they were very good. They hit the bird almost every time, where the people we viewed on the public range seemed to hit the birds less than half the time. The men from the club used shotguns that had one barrel on top of the other, "over and unders", and the barrel section of the gun broke open from the stock section for loading. Jack remarked that he liked that part, because you knew that the people walking around with those kinds shotguns were not going to accidentally shoot you, because the practice was to load the guns and snap the barrel to the stock only as it was your turn to shoot. The club men otherwise walked around with the guns broken open and, of course, unloaded. The people on the public ranges had an assortment of types, including semi-automatic and pump types. You would have no idea with these sorts of guns whether they were loaded or unloaded, as far as I could tell.

We also met Bill from the club, he drives from Boca. We met the president, Jerry, he drives from Hollywood. These men must love this sport, and the club must be a good one.

Jerry told me that Homeland Security had just given the county $7 million dollars to upgrade the entire Trail Glades facility, because they want to encourage people to learn how to use guns. That is pretty interesting, but will that point of view change when Hillary is elected?

We didn't do any shooting ourselves, however. One can rent shotguns there, but I was shy of it. I haven't ever fired a shotgun, much less shoot something out of the air which, at first, I had a hard time even seeing. I am going to have to go apart and think about this a little. Meantime, I did what I usually do in these situations. I bought a book.

Thinking about Shotguns. Enough about voices crying in the wilderness, let's talk firearms. Macon is up for going to the SigArm shotgun course in NH this summer. I'm looking into that. But it's BYOSG there, and I don 't have one. So, I'm open to suggestions.

I googled this, this, this, and this.

I've made my choice.

John the Baptist Prepares the Way. We looked at the pericope that begins with the first verse of chapter 3 of Luke, and ends with verse 20. As the announcement of John’s birth begins the nativity stories in chapter 1, so does the story of John’s public ministry introduce Jesus’ public ministry.

It was a sparse, sparse crowd at the men’s Bible study Wednesday night. But as I prepare for and teach this scripture, the more I warm to it, despite having taught Luke many times in my adult life. Some sort of fresh idea always breaks through the familiar scripture - or at least some neglected place in my spirit is nourished by what Luke has to say.

What strikes me about this passage is how the people "came out" (verse 7) to hear John preach. They came out of Jerusalem, they came out of their towns, and their villages, they came out of their routines and their comfort zones, into a rural area to hear a man call them a "brood of vipers", challenge their ideas of tribal salvation, and baptize them with a "baptism of repentance", in preparation for the coming of the Lord.

Why would they do that? Were they so dry, so parched spiritually? Or bored and with time on their hands? How did they find out about John? He was apparently unconnected with any religious institution He had no wealth and lived strangely. Did he remind people of the Old Testament prophets? Did he ring some bell implanted by childhood stores of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the others? We could say that "God was working in their hearts", but to me that is often a pretext for not worrying the scriptures for more particular answers, and is not helpful to a half-believer, of whom there are many in our Bible studies and churches. (I’m often one of those. Half on a good day.) I think they knew they were in trouble, just as all of us do when we are honest with ourselves. God plants that "uh-oh" in us. We know that there is something wrong.

So they came out, and John called upon them to repent. They "came out" of lives that were so full of routine that their cognitive powers were parched and nearly stunted. By "cognitive powers" I refer to the whole menu of ways that we perceive and understand. I think routine is an enemy of our cognitive powers. And routine works in a perverse way, it makes you think that you "know" something because you are familiar with it. Often being "familiar" with something means that you have left off thinking about it any longer. I am certainly "familiar" with Carol. But being satisfied with that could be the death of our romance. As a citizen of Jerusalem, I am familiar with being a Jew; I am familiar with the Messianic scriptures; I am familiar with it all. Boring.

And in a busy life, in between familiarity, we have a lot of stimulus in the urban world, the sort of thing that keeps you pre-occupied and unconnected. I walk across the street plugged into my iPod and don’t see the traffic (which could be of mortal imporance). I take off the iPod, sit at my desk, and see a host of new emails on my computer. The phone starts ringing, people drop in, I drink coffee, go to lunch with the WSJ, the routine starts again back at work - more emails, phones, people, but now I am running out of caffeine or energy or something. I am winding down, getting too tired to think. Etc. Etc.

But if I can "come out" of all of this, maybe there is something God has to say to me. Maybe he is in there underneath all the noise and pre-occupation. I heard about this fellow who sounds like a prophet, out there in the country; let’s put together a hamper of food for lunch and go out there. Let’s get away from this and have some time away, for ourselves. Maybe we can hear something of what the universe has to say to us.

"Repent", as I understand it, means "turn around". We are fixed on our lives by routine and noxious stimuli. We are pinned down, like a butterfly on a specimen board. Here is a call to turn ‘round, turn away, look at what’s behind us, where there is no routine, none of man’s pseudo-creation, where there is . . . what? Do we dare turn around and see?

John called on his listeners, their having come out, to turn around and many apparently did. At least they undertook the ritual, they were baptized. Now what’s next?

John says, Look out! He’s coming! Coming up behind you! Turn around quick! You've never seen anything like this before!

"Slum Tourism". In Kenya.

Sorry. I agree with this. What do you think?

PS: Cellphones next!

"Dementia Tied to Loneliness in the Elderly." This is the headline of a small article tucked away in the fourth section of the WSJ on Tuesday. An accessible description of the study is here.

I see something like this in my practice. I have a client who is profoundly depressed because of loneliness, although the psychiatrist does not think she is demented. But there is a pathology related to loneliness here, I believe, even if it is not dementia. I have another client who was slipping into dementia, but in respect to whom his friends rallied, and put him in a situation where he gets constant friendly and supportive attention. He seems to have stabilized.

But are we surprised? Loneliness is everywhere linked to a pathology of one sort or another. For example, it has been demonstrated that when little babies are not held for significant periods of time, they don't develop "normally". When wives aren't romanced by their husbands, they have difficulty. When husbands are not mothered by their wives, they have difficulty. When I was in college, the book de jur was The Lonely Crowd, by Riesman and others. What distinguishes Christianity from Islam, I think, is relationship. There is no relationship with Allah. He is absolutely transcendent. But with Christianity, despite God's transcendence, there is total intimacy available with with God through Jesus Christ.

We are meant to be in relationship. We struggle against that certainty and the world would prevent relationship in any event. We go nuts without it.