Mullings and Observations on a Semi-Normal Life

A Night for Wing Nuts

2008-01-03T20:50:00.000-05:00

Even though it's been 11 years since I lived in Iowa, I will always be an Iowan. As such, it's incumbent upon me to mullserve on the big caucus night. These are my mullservations in real time:

1. CNN has the best coverage. Yes. Hawkeyegirl gives the night to the Communist News Network.

2. All the pundits can really say about the Republican caucus process is it's "much simpler" than the Democratic process. Like anyone is surprised.

3. Where did all the evangelicals in Iowa come from? I can't name one person back home who's a self-described evangelical. Weird. But then again, I'm Catholic. I don't run in that crowd. I keep Jesus to myself.

4. It's a "clash of generations of epic proportions" according to CNN's Bill Schneider. Hillary gets all the old lady votes and Obama gets all the youngins.

5. CUSS WORDS. CNN is calling it for Huckabee. Grrrrrr. Hawkeyegirl's prediction: He can't win nationwide (I know - I'm not really going out on a limb with that one). A former Baptist preacher? Not gonna' happen. Welcome to my nightmare. Iowa Republicans now look like a bunch of wing nuts. But maybe this is good for McCain in New Hampshire and beyond. It could very likely end up a Huckabee vs. McCain match up in South Carolina. But don't forget about Giuliani who gave Iowa the hand and has been working Florida, Michigan and the other later primary states.

6. My family is not to blame.

7. Huckabee got 58% in Sioux County and 45% in Story County. Sioux I can understand. But Story County? Well wait, Iowa State is a more genteel university town.

8. Just a few months ago Senator Grassley accidentally referred to him as "Huckleberry" during a media interview.

9. Younger Iowa women are giving HRC the hand and are instead siding with the former state senator from Illinois.

10. The results are absolutely consistent with what would be expected. The caucuses are a function of the political parties and as such, the most politically active, informed and entrenched activists are the ones who turn out. Therefore, the most conservative and the most liberal candidates prevail. In other words, the wing nuts win.

11. With the three Democratic frontrunners, you get the same thing just in different packages. Clinton, Obama and Edwards are all big government liberals. On the GOP side you get Baptist preacher Huckabee, flip flopping conservaberal Romney, liberative McCain, good old boy Fred and give 'em hell Giuliani.

12. Now they're calling it for Obama. That really should put to rest some criticism of (and I quote) "lily white Iowa."

13. Chuck Norris was at the Fort Dodge Republican caucus. My mom met him and took several pictures. She didn't vote for his candidate of course, but she got "a big bang out of it." And "he's really small!" Apparently his wife is "really pretty." These are the important things everyone expects to learn at a caucus.

14. The pundits keep talking about the huge Democratic turn out. Well, let me be the first to report that navy blue Fort Dodge had a much larger than expected GOP turnout at Fort Dodge Senior High, site of the city-wide caucus. They expected only about 1500 but there was well in excess of 2000. They ran out of ballots and had to use makeshift ballots from Congressman Latham's notepad.

15. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) spoke for McCain at the Fort Dodge caucus. He's an Iowan you know. Grew up and graduated from high school down in Washington County. His dad was a GOP Congressman from southern Iowa.

16. Mom says the undercurrent at the FD GOP caucus was "anyone but Hillary." That's expected, but it's also not good. It reminds me too much of the "anyone but Bush" crowd on the other side of the fence.

17. I don't necessarily buy the line that Huckabee won on the back of evangelical Christians. There's way more to it. I don't get it, but there's definitely more to it.

18. The big winner tonight: The democratic process. Despite the outcome, all I can say is "Way to go, Iowa. You make me proud."

19. I think I'll close up shop and put in a movie. I'm in a "Rudy" mood.

Webster County Republicans
Huckabee: 37%
Romney: 22%
Thompson: 15%
McCain: 15%
Paul: 6%
Giuliani: 4%
Hunter: 1%

Webster County Democrats
Obama: 34%
Edwards: 31%
Clinton: 30%
Richardson: 5%

Grace

2007-10-14T16:04:00.001-04:00

www.masonleach.blogspot.com

2007-10-09T00:13:00.000-04:00

I've been bogged down lately and am writing from San Antonio. More prayers are needed for the family I wrote about a few weeks ago. Please keep them in your thoughts.

All That's Left is the Light Fixture!

2007-09-22T17:46:00.000-04:00

The kitchen is about 95% complete! The main piece left is installing the light fixture. It arrived this week (see last picture), but my contractor hasn't been able to get over here for a few days. He stopped by today and measured a few things, so I'm hoping the light will go up Monday. Let me know what you think! Oh, and the floors in the living and dining room are done, too. I had them refinished. It's like having a whole new floor. Woo hoo!

Unacceptable, Unnecessary, Unbelievable

2007-09-15T20:44:00.000-04:00

It's a sad day for Hawkeyegirl. The shame, humiliation and frustration of losing the annual football game against the junior college across the state is virtually unberable. It's made all the more frustrating by our coach's poor record against the Cyclowns from Cow Pie High: 3-6.

I love coach, don't get me wrong, but he makes $2.7 million a year. He's the highest paid state employee! He makes more than the governor, but that's okay because the governor is a buffoon. Without belaboring the issue, Iowa should always win this game. That's all I can say about this subject. I'm crushed.

Tomorrow is another day, and it's the birthday of a special little boy I know. Thanks to the Faithful for praying for the little guy.

Say A Little Prayer

2007-09-11T21:16:00.000-04:00

Please pray for a lovely family I know. Your prayers are needed and appreciated.

Almost Done!

2007-09-06T23:19:00.000-04:00

Well folks, the kitchen is almost done! I'm down to just some punch list items, such as the cabinet hardware, the light fixture (it's on back order and should arrive near the end of the month), and a couple other items. I decided that since things are already pretty dirty around here that I'd go ahead and have my hardwood floors refinished, too. They're pretty scuffed up and worn, so a nice sanding and finish will do the trick. Take a look and let me know what you think!

FD Flood

2007-08-23T21:33:00.001-04:00

A storm front over Highway 20 between Fort Dodge and Webster City.

So close, but...

2007-08-21T19:39:00.000-04:00

It's really moving along, now. The floor and backsplash are in (no grout yet) and most of the cabinets are in. See for yourself!

The Perfect Post

2007-08-17T15:05:00.000-04:00

Occasionally I like to post an article that really resonates. I love baseball, adore baseball movies, revere President Reagan and am enthralled by a good come back story. This one has it all.

In the movie The Natural, Rob Hobbs is traveling to Chicago to try out for the Chicago Cubs when he is felled by The Lady In Black. So the guy in this article is a Cardinal; not every great story is made in Hollywood (not even most). Enjoy.

August 17, 2007

The Natural Returns to St. Louis

By Charles Krauthammer

In the fable, the farm boy phenom makes his way to the big city to amaze the world with his arm. At a stop at a fair on the train ride to Chicago, he strikes out the Babe Ruth of his time on three blazing pitches. Enter the Dark Lady. Before he can reach the stadium for his tryout, she shoots him and leaves him for dead.

It is 16 years later and Roy Hobbs returns, but now as a hitter and outfielder. (He can never pitch again because of the wound.) He leads his team to improbable glory, ending the tale with a titanic home run that, in the now-iconic movie image, explodes the stadium lights in a dazzling cascade of white.

In real life, the kid doesn't look like Robert Redford, but he throws like Roy Hobbs: unhittable, unstoppable. In his rookie year, appropriately the millennial year 2000, he throws it by everyone. He pitches the St. Louis Cardinals to a division title, playing so well that his manager anoints him starter for the opening game of the playoffs, a position of honor and -- for 21-year-old Rick Ankiel -- fatal exposure.

His collapse is epic. He can't find the plate. In the third inning he walks four batters and throws five wild pitches (something not seen since 1890) before Manager Tony La Russa mercifully takes him out of the game.

The kid is never the same. He never recovers his control. Five miserable years in the minors trying to come back. Injuries. Operations. In 2005, he gives up pitching forever.

Then last week, on Aug. 9, he is called up from Triple-A. Same team. Same manager. Rick Ankiel is introduced to a roaring Busch Stadium crowd as the Cardinals' starting right fielder.
In the seventh inning, with two outs, he hits a three-run home run to seal the game for the Cardinals. Two days later, he hits two home runs and makes one of the great catches of the year -- over the shoulder, back to the plate, full speed.

But the play is more than spectacular. It is poignant. It was an amateur's catch. Ankiel ran a slightly incorrect route to the ball. A veteran outfielder would have seen the ball tailing to the right. But pitchers aren't trained to track down screaming line drives over their heads. Ankiel was running away from home plate but slightly to his left. Realizing at the last second that he had run up the wrong prong of a Y, he veered sharply to the right, falling and sliding into the wall as he reached for the ball over the wrong shoulder.

He made the catch. The crowd, already delirious over the two home runs, came to its feet. If this had been a fable, Ankiel would have picked himself up and walked out of the stadium into the waiting arms of the lady in white -- Glenn Close in a halo of light -- never to return.

But this is real life. Ankiel is only 28 and will continue to play. The magic cannot continue. If he is lucky, he'll have the career of an average right fielder. But it doesn't matter. His return after seven years -- if only three days long -- is the stuff of legend. Made even more perfect by the timing: Just two days after Barry Bonds sets a synthetic home run record in San Francisco, the Natural returns to St. Louis.

Right after that first game, La Russa called Ankiel's return the Cardinals' greatest joy in baseball "short of winning the World Series." This, from a manager (as chronicled in George Will's classic "Men at Work") not given to happy talk. La Russa is the ultimate baseball logician, driven by numbers and stats. He may be more machine than man, but he confessed at the postgame news conference: "I'm fighting my butt off to keep it together."

Translation: I'm trying like hell to keep from bursting into tears at the resurrection of a young man who seven years ago dissolved in front of my eyes. La Russa was required to "keep it together" because, as codified most succinctly by Tom Hanks (in "A League of Their Own"), "There's no crying in baseball."

But there can be redemption. And a touch of glory.

Ronald Reagan, I was once told, said he liked "The Natural" except that he didn't understand why the Dark Lady shoots Roy Hobbs. Reagan, the preternatural optimist, may have had difficulty fathoming tragedy, but no one knows why Hobbs is shot. It is fate, destiny, nemesis. Perhaps the dawning of knowledge, the coming of sin. Or more prosaically, the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a single false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter. Every life has such a moment. What distinguishes us is whether -- and how -- we ever come back.

letters@charleskrauthammer.com

More Kitchen Updates

2007-08-16T22:28:00.000-04:00

I know this isn't nearly as fun as Mullphotos, my shrewd and clever commentary on the lesser issues of the day, or my rants on things that really chap my hide, but it's all consuming right now. I think The Faithful Three are interested in the progress, with one in Iowa being particularly concerned about the legal status of my workers (today I had two lovely Korean men working on the countertop), and Mr. Anonymous Who's Not Really Anonymous wondering what part of the renovation I'm doing myself. That's easy to answer: the check writing.

View from the dining room.

Countertop with inset cooktop.

The sink is installed!

Close up on the sink.

Another view of the cooktop and countertop.

An Oldie But a Goodie

2007-08-16T09:51:00.001-04:00

Dust, Paint & Chaos, OH MY!

2007-08-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

Slowly but surely the kitchen renovation moves forward. I selected a color for the one wall that needs paint. I know it's shocking but I selected (drum roll please)... the same red that's on the walls in my dining room. TA DA! I think it will flow nicely and so does my design/construction guru, Jeremy.

The first couple pictures give a broader view of what I'm living with. It really doesn't bother me, but I post them as a warning to others who might have grand ideas for renovations. It's a lot of grime to live with for weeks on end. But I'm keeping my eye on the prize and getting more and more excited to see my vision come to fruition!

My Living Room

My Dining Room

Cabinets Taking Shape

The Red on the Wall

Note the black tiles on the floor -
Planning a black and white checkerboard floor with
a diamond pattern

Kitchen Renovation

2007-08-07T21:51:00.000-04:00

She Who Leans to the Left reports a litter-free yard. I await confirmation of consecutive litter-free days before declaring the issue with the dreaded Washington Examiner successfully resolved and closed.

To change things up a bit and take a break from ranting, raving, griping, complaining and making sarcastic observations about the serious issues of the day, I'm sharing pictures of my current kitchen renovation. I'm two weeks into it and have approximately three weeks to go...so I'm told. I don't believe it. Ugh, my pessimism rears its ugly head again. Enjoy!

Kitchen Entrance Before Demolition
Another Kitchen View Before Demolition

Pre-Demolition
Entrance View Post-Demolition

Ceiling View Post-Demolition

Door to Patio Post-Demolition

Call Me Andy Part II: A Conversation with the Publisher

2007-07-31T09:36:00.000-04:00

An update from “Andy” – who admittedly suffers a far more minor trouble than the persecution that too many face in trying to faithfully practice their religion. I’ll be thinking of the folks in China this week, and of the sick and wounded soldiers who are missing out on the ministry of Catholic and Jewish chaplains because of one man’s judgment and hate. (He clearly missed the “open hearts, open minds” class back in Methodist seminary!)

Okay…so my rant, Part II:
True to my promise, I called the city police today. The officer was very nice, but didn’t think it was a matter for them to handle. (I like our city police in general and he reinforced that stance.) He referred me to code enforcement. Code enforcement told me that they don’t consider a newspaper litter. That’s just because it’s not in THEIR yard.

Mr. Friendly Police Officer suggested I call the “head honcho over at that paper.” Since he was the most helpful person I dealt with today, I took his advice. I called the publisher and (glory of glories) his secretary actually let me talk to him, so that was surprising. He assured me it would stop. If it does, that will REALLY be surprising.

Next stop, city hall. If the codes people don’t think it’s litter to get the equivalent of junk mail dropped in my yard, maybe they should. Next week, we write our council.

Keep the faith.

Our Friends the Chinese

2007-07-30T17:15:00.000-04:00

Report: China Detains 4 Priests
The Associated PressSunday, July 29, 2007; 12:58 AM

BEIJING -- Four priests from China's underground Roman Catholic church were detained by police, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Sunday.

Three priests were detained Tuesday in the northern region of Inner Mongolia after fleeing their hometown to avoid arrest for refusing to join the state-sanctioned church, the Cardinal Kung Foundation announced. It said the fourth priest was detained in early July in the northern province of Hebei following a motorcycle accident. It gave no details of what charges the priests might face.

China's Catholics are permitted to worship only in churches run by a government-monitored group with no ties to the Vatican. But millions who remain loyal to the pope worship in secret "house churches."

The priests detained in Inner Mongolia's Xilin Gol League region were identified as Liang Aijun, 35, Wang Zhong, 41, and Gao Jinbao, 34. All were from Hebei, according to the Kung Foundation, which is headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

Officers who answered the phone at police headquarters in the cities of Xilinhot and Erlianhot in Xilin Gol said they had no information on the cases. They all refused to give their names.
The fourth priest was Cui Tai, 50, of Hebei's Zhuolu county, the group said.

The Kung Foundation says five bishops and 15 priests or lay people from the underground Catholic church are in jail, while others are under house arrest or police surveillance.
"We urge the Chinese government to take steps immediately to stop all persecution throughout China and release all Roman Catholic bishops and clergy together with those faithful of other faith from prisons," the group's president, Joseph Kung, said in the statement.

The group is named for the late Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pinmei of Shanghai, who spent 30 years in Chinese prisons and died in the United States in 2000 at age 98.

Guest Mull: Call Me Andy

2007-07-28T09:51:00.000-04:00

Hawkeyegirl welcomes Mullings and Observations on a Semi-Normal Life's first Guest Mull. Our favorite lefty, The Faithful One Who Leans to the Left, shares a rant on her nemesis, The Washington Examiner. Take it away, Lefty!

In the 1998 movie “Funny Farm” the lead character Andy, played by Chevy Chase, became increasingly distracted – some might say obsessed – with getting his “maniacal” mailman to stop at his house. His efforts became increasingly more desperate and bizarre, until the comedy of it started to make me uncomfortable. Well, that was before the Washington Examiner entered my life.

Hi. You might as well call me Andy.

When my then fiancé and I bought our house we thought the previous owner forgot to cancel their paper subscription. No biggie, we thought, they’ll stop coming when the bills stop getting paid. Silly us; the paper is FREE.

So, I asked a neighbor how to stop the daily delivery of a paper I don’t subscribe to and I don’t want. His response, verbatim: “Good luck.”

And so began my odyssey.

It took me a while to get around to that first call to circulation, but I did call in the spring. The flowers and grass were coming in and the ugly, unwanted paper really stood out each morning. A cheerful and helpful customer service rep answered the phone and told me the delivery would stop within the next five days. Naïve and optimistic, I’ve always been dreamy this way – ask Hawkeyegirl, I’m the hopeful “Lefty” of which she often speaks. (Hawkeyegirl editorial comment: Those wacky lefties. They need pessimistic and realistic friends like Hawkeyegirl to make it in this world!)

Alas, a week later, I was still getting the paper. ("Curse words!" as my friend would say.)

So I called back. This time a nice lady stayed on the phone with me and walked me through the process. She said the delivery person made a mistake. She made a note in the computer and the paper, miraculously, stopped for almost two months. And then, one hot summer morning, it was back. Coiled in its plastic wrapper at the end of the drive, the dreaded Washington Examiner waited for its daily toss in the recycle bin with taunting air. I was almost afraid to pick it up.

I called again. More direct this time. “What do I have to do to get you to stop littering my yard with that thing?” The apologies were profuse…and empty. Like the paper boy in “Better Off Dead” the paper still stalks me with dogged determination.

Yesterday, in a fit of frustration, I started looking for alternative outlets to release my frustrations upon. I googled “Stop Examiner Delivery” and found – with little surprise and dwindling hope of a solution – that I am not alone. The Baltimore Sun and City Paper have a series of articles on frustrated consumers desperate to stop delivery of this menace. (The Balt Sun page is down, but it is referenced in these links.)

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=12692

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=12887

http://penpressclub.org/2006/11/court-to-rule-on-examiner-distribution#links

Here’s the deal. The examiner delivers free to “affluent” neighborhoods (although that must be loosely defined given that I’m receiving it!) and then reports circulation numbers to its advertisers that include these free deliveries. The advertisers, one must assume, think they have one heck of a deal, with circulation so high in these desirable neighborhoods. In return, the Examiner pays a bunch of folks to deliver the paper every morning – since every house in the stated areas are unofficially subscribers, and none have actually asked for the paper, there is absolutely no incentive for the driver to check the opt outs as he goes. Just drive and toss – he’ll get paid no matter what.

So who wins? The advertiser certainly doesn’t. Check my neighborhood on trash day and you’ll see the bins full of unwrapped Examiners – many waiting to add to the trash heaps of local landfills. I mean really, who’s going to open, layout and bind for recycling a paper they didn’t even ask to receive?!

The consumer doesn’t. They have litter in their yards five days a week and no recourse to stop the onslaught.

The environment doesn’t. (Hey, I acknowledged being a lefty.) These people are killing trees and littering my yard with them. It makes me sad. (Hawkeyegirl editorial comment: I'm not a lefty and I recycle. It's the right thing to do.)

That leaves the Examiner and its drivers. Yeah, I guess they win. But I am trying to stop that – starting right now.

I have written a letter to the advertising department, VP of circulation and editor. I gave notice that, starting Monday, I’m contacting all their advertisers to complain and urge them to disassociate with this disreputable business practice. I plan to alert my homeowners association and see if we can start some sort of petition to boycott the advertisers. I wrote to stopexaminer@yahoo.com and asked for advice on my campaign. I tried to find Joel Levin to see if his restraining order gambit worked. (I can’t find him, if any of our lawyers friends know how to track him down, let Hawkeyegirl know.) I sent letters to two different web sites that are covering the Examiner and their delivery issues, hoping a kindred spirit will know of some tricks to help me.

And if I get a paper on Tuesday, I’m also calling the city police and reporting them for littering. Hey, it might not work. But then again, I’m desperate.

Call me Andy.

It Happens More Often Than You Think

2007-07-27T12:05:00.000-04:00

Congressmen Seek Chaplain Probe

By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 27, 2007; 11:02 AM

A bipartisan group of House members is trying to force Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to order an inspector general's investigation into allegations of religious bias and mismanagement at the spiritual ministry department in the nation's largest clinical research hospital.

The spiritual ministry office, whose chaplains tend to the spiritual needs of thousands of patients at the National Institutes of Health's clinical center in Bethesda, has been the target of complaints by current and former chaplains about religious intolerance and poor leadership.
Two chaplains filed complaints with the Equal Opportunity Commission, and a third is suing HHS, all alleging that NIH officials retaliated against them when they spoke up, inventing reasons to terminate them.

This month, HHS brought in outside experts to conduct a review of the department. But, in a letter this month to Leavitt, 14 House members rejected that probe as inadequate, saying that they had not received assurances from NIH that it would look into the conduct of the former head of the spiritual ministry department, the Rev. O. Ray Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald was demoted in April after the EEOC ordered the hospital to reinstate the Rev. Henry Heffernan, a Catholic chaplain who had been fired after accusing Fitzgerald of anti-Catholic bias. The EEOC ruled that Heffernan was the target of "discriminatory and retaliatory animus."

Rabbi Reeve Brenner, a chaplain who was fired after supporting Heffernan in his case against NIH, recently settled his complaint with the EEOC. Brenner declined to reveal the terms, but in a statement yesterday, HHS said that the case has been settled "to the mutual benefit of the parties" and that Brenner is no longer employed at NIH.

A third chaplain, Greek Orthodox lay minister Edar Rogler, has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Maryland, alleging that she was also ousted after testifying to the EEOC that Fitzgerald made anti-Catholic comments to her and referred to Brenner by an anti-Semitic slur.

Rep. Steven R. Rothman (D-N.J.), who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, has inserted language into the Department of Labor-HHS appropriations bill, which was approved last week by the full House, authorizing an investigation of the department by the inspector general.

"I have no confidence in their internal review," Rothman said this week. "It is just outrageous that the NIH could be tolerant of this kind of bigotry in its own ranks and in its own building."
In its statement, HHS defended its investigation, saying that a working group of the NIH Advisory Board for Clinical Research conducted a detailed and independent review of the spiritual ministry department, including its management and oversight. The group's draft report is due in September, the statement said.

But a particular focus of House members' ire is Fitzgerald, a Methodist minister who remains on the staff of the chaplain's department. Fitzgerald did not return calls for comment.

"While Rev. Fitzgerald has been replaced as Director of the Spiritual Ministry Department, we were distressed to learn that he is still employed by NIH as a chaplain," said the letter to Leavitt, dated July 9. It was signed by Rothman and, among others, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "We do not believe that the NIH management has acted sufficiently to remedy this serious matter," the letter said.

Rothman also questioned why Fitzgerald had a prominent role at an NIH ceremony last week honoring U.S. Public Health Service employees. Fitzgerald gave the invocation and the benediction, according to the program and NIH employees who were present.

"It is outrageous, and, to me, it indicates to me a monumental lack of judgment on the part of the people at the NIH . . . and a slap in the face to Congress," Rothman said.

Pearl Harbor

2007-07-24T19:58:00.000-04:00

The Battleship Missouri

Pearl Harbor
July 7, 2007

Flag Over the Arizona Memorial

July 7, 2007

I thought I'd share a few more pictures from Hawaii. Visiting Pearl Harbor was one of the highlights of the trip. I think I'll use the list technique again to share my observations:

1. Two quarts of oil leak from the USS Arizona per day. Sixty six years after it sank into the harbor, it forms a small, filmy rainbow of colors on the surface of the water. Some environmentalists say it should be cleaned up and the nearly 500,000 gallons of oil remaining below removed. But veterans sharply disagree, saying the oil is like a living reminder of the souls forever entombed in the ship; it's their tears floating to the surface. I'm not going to argue with them.

2. By far Japanese tourists made up the largest group of visitors. It's a very interesting experience to watch our Japanese friends tour the museum, listen to the audio tour narrated by World War II veteran (and Oscar winning actor - those were the days! Actors serving their country!) Ernest Borgnine, view the 25 minute historical film visitors see before boarding the boat out to the memorial, and respectfully tread the hallowed space above the USS Arizona.

3. My friend Ashley is married to an Air Force officer, so we had access to all the military bases on Oahu. As we drove through the restricted areas of Pearl Harbor, I noted two ships docked in the harbor. One was a Japanese ship with a giant rising sun flag flying high. Having just left the memorial, it was a stunning sight! I wonder if any American (or Japanese for that matter) on December 8, 1941, would have believed that our two countries would one day, in the not too distant future, be the strongest of allies? Think of it this way: Do you think in 60 years ANY middle eastern country will be one of our strongest allies? If you are an optimist, please share.

4. At the far end of the USS Arizona Memorial is a wall with the names of all 1,177 men who died and are forever entombed in the USS Arizona. It's a moving sight. They were so young and full of life and hope. Off to the side is a list of Arizona survivors who, upon passing, requested that their ashes be interred inside the barbette of gun turret four.

5. The night before the attack, on December 6, there was a competition between the bands of the different ships and armed forces branches stationed on Oahu. The USS Arizona band won the competition and was scheduled to compete in the next part of the competition on December 20. All 21 members of the USS Arizona band died on December 7. The trophy was posthumously awarded to the Arizona band by members of the other bands. The trophy sits in a case at the museum.

Enjoy today and take time to think of the men who died that warm, sunny morning on an island in paradise.

A Talking Snowman, 2 Rednecks and a Woman in the John

2007-07-23T22:27:00.000-04:00

The fodder for my visceral and sarcastic commentary runs rampant this evening. But I'm trying to turn over a new leaf - be a better, less bitter and negative person - so I won't be commenting on the CNN/YouTube Democrat presidential debate. YouTube?! Pandering to the high school, college and communist set I see. Consider this description of the event from a major internet news site: "A talking snowman, two rednecks and a woman speaking from her bathroom were among the odd, Internet-age twists to the oldest forum in politics — a debate."

Oh, and this...can't...stop...laughing: During the debate, Clinton refused to call herself a liberal. "I prefer the word progressive, which has a real American meaning ...," she said. Huh? I'll tell you what has a real American meaning: Kiss My Grits. Flo was so much more entertaining that Alice or Vera. She had moxie.

Moving on, I read this great little ditty in The Politico this morning. I sent it to a few people, but am pasting it in on M&O for my legions of readers to enjoy.

Can the butter cow save Obama?
By: Roger Simon July 18, 2007 07:21 PM EST
The Politico

I know what you are asking: Is the Barack Obama campaign really over? Answer: Maybe.

He made a cataclysmic mistake this week, a rookie mistake, a mistake that will test his mettle as a candidate. In a story published Wednesday in USA Today, reporter Jill Lawrence revealed that Obama recently urged a small-town crowd to grow their own fuel "right here in Illinois." He was in Iowa. But that was not the mistake. Presidential candidates often do not know where they are. This is why they have drivers.

The real mistake came in a later exchange with Lawrence, in which Obama had a chance to get his bearings and recover. Instead, he blew it. Here is how the exchange went: Lawrence: "Is Iowa like Southern Illinois?" Obama: "That's exactly right." I know what you are asking: Isn't Iowa exactly like Southern Illinois? No. And a presidential candidate should never, ever say one part of the country is "exactly" like another part of the country. It invites resentment from both places.

People in Golconda and Metropolis and Mounds are probably saying right now, "Does Obama really think we are exactly like a bunch of Iowans?" And people in Clarinda and Decorah and Algona are probably saying, "Does Obama really think we are exactly like a bunch of Little Egyptians?" (Little Egypt is what Southern Illinois is called by people who know the difference between Southern Illinois and Iowa.)

I know what you are asking: What should Obama have said? Here is how the exchange should have gone: Lawrence: "Is Iowa like Southern Illinois?" Obama: "Ha, ha, Jill, very funny. As you know, Jill, each place in America is unique with uniquely wonderful people. Iowa is unique and wonderful, and Southern Illinois is unique and wonderful. They are two different places, but each is unique. And wonderful." Lawrence: "Have you been drinking ethanol?"

I know what you are asking: How can Obama recover? He can go to the Iowa State Fair and eat stuff. Lots of stuff. While the press has been going nuts over the Republican straw poll to be held in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, the far more significant political event is the Iowa State Fair, to be held Aug. 9-19 in Des Moines. The straw poll will attract 50,000 people at most, and they will show up only if bribed by the candidates with free food, drink, entertainment and tattoos.

The state fair will attract around a million people, and nobody has to bribe them to attend. And while the Ames straw poll has been held only four times in the past 30 years, this will be the 153rd year of the state fair. At the state fair, candidates from both parties wander freely, talk to people, watch the hog calling, admire the needlepoint competition and, of course, view the Butter Cow.

I know what you are asking: What is the Butter Cow? The Butter Cow is a cow carved out of 550 pounds of butter and kept in a refrigerated, glass-enclosed room in the Agriculture Building on the state fair grounds. Long lines form to get in. In the past, there has also been a Butter Elvis and a Butter John Wayne. In 1999, I stood in line to see the Butter Last Supper, which, though featuring only eight of the 12 Apostles, was still pretty extraordinary. The Butter Cow remains the gold standard of dairy sculpture in America, however.

I know what you are asking: What is the significance of the Butter Cow? To me, the Butter Cow is a metaphor for politics itself. It is symbolic, yet concrete. It is glorious, yet down-to-earth. It is inspirational, yet … buttery. And what Barack Obama needs to do is go to the Iowa State Fair and say, "This is a unique and wonderful Butter Cow. And I am pleased to be here in Iowa, which is nothing like Southern Illinois. Though both places are unique. And wonderful." Then he should eat something.

I know what you are asking: What should he eat? Anything on a stick. When George Pataki, who was then the governor of New York, visited the Iowa State Fair last year, he said: "We have a great state fair in New York, but we don't have pork on a stick."

I know what you are asking: What else can I get on a stick in Iowa? I know a straight line when I hear it, but food on a stick is no laughing matter in Iowa. So at the Iowa State Fair, Sen. Obama will be able to sample such stick delicacies as corn dogs, Cajun chicken, caramel apples, chili dogs, cotton candy, turkey drumsticks, nutty bars, chocolate cheesecake, hot bologna, chocolate-covered bananas, taffy, deep-fried pickles, deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried Snickers, meatballs, Ho Hos and fudge puppies.

I know what you are asking: Deep-fried Twinkies? What should they do, poach them? When Joe Lieberman went to the state fair, he avoided the many pork products because he is an Orthodox Jew, but he bought a fried Twinkie on a stick for $3 after his state director assured him it was kosher. "Delicious," Lieberman said after consuming it. If he also ate a deep-fried Snickers and a deep-fried pickle, history does not record it.

I know what you are asking: Is there anything in Iowa they won't deep fry? Not really. At the Iowa State Fair, if it doesn't move, they will deep fry it. So final state fair advice for Obama and the other presidential candidates: Keep walking!

A Hawaiian Apology

2007-07-20T23:40:00.000-04:00

Scenic Point Near The Blowhole

Sunrise in Hawaii
July 9, 2007

Work, work, work. Ultimate Frisbee. Vacation! Laziness. These are my excuses for being the worst pseudo blogger in the blogosphere. To begin to make up for it, I will mull my vacation to Hawaii. Form of a list!

1. When you're in Hawaii (I was on the island of Oahu), it's easy to forget you're still in the United States. It's tropical, the streets and highways are named for island kings and queens, and vowels dominate the language. That is until you see Ron Paul For President '08 signs. Everywhere. Random. If you know who Ron Paul is, drink one mai tai and proceed to the next sentence. If you know where Ron Paul is from, I won't mess with you.

2. To correctly pronounce Hawaiian words, you need to pronounce every vowel. By the end of my trip I was getting pretty good. Hey, if I can pick up Hawaiian in just 6 or 7 days, think how quickly I could slide back into French. I mean, I took 4 1/2 years of French back in the day. So I'm in the car with my friend Ashley and I see a sign on a store. I proudly pronounce the name of the store in my best Hawaiian, turning a one syllable word into a multiple syllabic song. Ashely says, "Yah, that's pronounced Frame Shop."

3. When palm trees blow in the wind, it sounds like rain. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why when I heard it raining in the middle of the night, it was so dry in the morning.

4. Hawaii has malls just like we do. But when you look up, you see sky.

5. I climbed all the way to the top of Diamond Head and all I got were sunburned calves.

6. Fitzarita: One bottle Corona. One can 7-Up. One can frozen LimeAid. Half LimeAid can's worth of tequilla. Stir. Pour over ice. Consume.

7. Boogie boarding. The sand! The sand! It ended up...everywhere.

8. We went into a surf shop on the North Shore. As Ashley perused some snorkeling items, I wandered around looking at the boards, swimsuits, flip flops, etc. Then I saw a glass case. In the glass case were the most beautiful blown glass objects - they looked like little pipes or mini horns. "Huh," I thought, "I wonder what the surfers use those for. They're pretty delicate, but maybe they attach them to the boards like we attached friendship beads to our shoes when I was in the fifth grade." Then Ashley finished her purchase and we left. I didn't think about it again until a recent conversation with someone from Florida. Bongs. They were bongs.

9. I developed an itchy, red rash on my feet. Stopped at a drugstore for Benadryl. I woke up one morning with a terrible toothache. Spent two hours at Ashley's dentist. After $187, he couldn't find anything wrong. It eventually went away. But geez, she has a gorgeous dentist. I might get a toothache next time I visit so I can see Dr. Hannah again. I fried the front of my legs my last morning on the beach. I flew out that evening and everyone stared at me in the terminal. My lobster legs were the source of great pain and sympathetic looks.

10. My last morning on the beach at Bellows Air Force Station the lifeguard cleared the entire shoreline of swimmers because he saw a hammerhead shark. How the hell did he see a shark from his David Hasselhoff-like post I will never know, but he jumped on his four wheeler and drove up and down with a megaphone yelling, "Out of the water now! Shark sighting!" Ashley emailed me today that a 36 year old man was attacked by a shark on that same beach! Crazy.

11. I saw a girl with an Iowa State shirt. I was disgusted.

12. I saw a kid with a University of Iowa shirt at Pearl Harbor. I was enchanted.

Other things I loved: Shave Ice, plate meals of shrimp and rice, fresh fish tacos, Shark Bite!, donning David's flight suit and Shaka helmet and quoting Top Gun, turtles bobbing up and down at dawn, Pearl Harbor, and spending time with a longtime and dear friend. I hope this helps make up for my laziness. No Randy, it wasn't you!

Mahalo. Aloha.

Run Fred, Run!

2007-06-04T12:53:00.000-04:00

Do it, Fred. Be my guy. Be my president!

My Girls

2007-05-10T23:07:00.000-04:00

BentPinky Photos of the Day

My Niece - Miss Kate

My Niece - Miss Mary

It was Kate's big day on Sunday and she enjoyed every minute of it. It was tough for little Mary, but she got a new dress, shoes and a rosary bracelet, so things could have been worse. I told her it would be her turn in just two years. When we left the church Monsignor Chiodo asked her if she was next. "In two years, Father," she said. Priceless.

Hello Again

2007-05-09T12:55:00.000-04:00

I've been swamped - figuratively and literally - and apologize for my long absence. I appreciate all the ideas generated from my request for ideas.

I was in Iowa last weekend and feel like I'm still drying out. It is a W-E-T spring back home. The fields, at least in my neck of the woods, are saturated. The ditches are more like moats. It's almost reminiscent of 1993, but not quite.

While home I read in the paper that Sen. Barak Hussein Obama took a jab at Senator Grassley while stumping in Waterloo. How bush league can this guy get? I could write a lot about this subject, but I have to run. Will be back with more thoughts.

Inspire Me

2007-04-23T22:19:00.000-04:00

I can't think of anything to Mullserve. I know! I'm at a complete loss. So let's try something new: Submit some topics - keeping in mind the Lloyd Dobler Effect - and I'll see if I can muster up some Mullservations. Inspire me.

That's SOME Hair!

2007-04-19T09:24:00.000-04:00

This cracks me up, especially since one of the Faithful Two is from DeWitt.

Quad City barbers call Edwards' $400 haircut 'impossible'
By Bill Wundram Thursday, April 19, 2007
Quad City Times

Quad-City barbers put down their shears and sputtered words like “preposterous” and “impossible” Wednesday when they heard of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards spending $400 for a haircut. In the Quad-Cities, $10 or $12 is about average.
“If I charged $400 for a haircut, they’d come after me with white coats,” said Leo Fier, who has been cutting hair for 49 years at his shop in DeWitt, Iowa.

Edwards’ campaign committee filed a financial report with the Federal Election Commission noting that the White House hopeful paid $400 for haircuts in California and New Hampshire, and $248 for salon services in Dubuque, Iowa.

“That’s impossible, $400,” said Don “Dutchman” Braafhart, who runs Dutchman’s Barbershop in Davenport.

Next time he’s in town, Edwards would get a real bargain at Davenport Barber College, where supervised student barbers charge only $7.50.Even some Quad-Citians who allow their locks to grow long are shocked by a $400 haircut.

“My Santa Claus long hair is my trademark,” said Terry Lunardi, Davenport restaurateur. “I just had my hair cut Monday for $10. And I have a lot of hair to cut.”

Kurt Ullrich, a Scott County deputy auditor whose hair runs long, said, “Edwards and I are of a similar age and I took note of his hair when I visited briefly with him in Davenport. His hair is thick, full and beautifully coiffed, whereas mine is counter-culture long. Sixteen dollars is the most I’ve ever paid for a haircut.”

There are a few Quad-City shops that rise above the $10 average. A man’s haircut may range from $18 to $42 at some specialty salons. Operators at two of those shops said they would welcome Edwards, and not charge his campaign $400.A barbaric price for cutting hair may not be unusual. Jay Ledford, who runs Cut Rite, Moline, with his dad, Jay Sr., insists that a number of years ago, President Clinton had his hair cut in Davenport. “I can’t remember the barber, but he only charged him $150,” Ledford said.

The Fourth State of Matter

2007-04-17T09:38:00.000-04:00

I was a sophomore at the University of Iowa on November 1, 1991. It was a cold, gray Friday. I remember sleet, then soft snow. It was All Saint's Day. My last class concluded at 3:30. Mass wasn't until 5:00, so I trudged home to find a few minutes of warmth and rest. Past Van Allen Hall, around the corner and past Phillips Hall, then north up Clinton Street to number 521. And the snow kept falling.

On that day at 3:42 p.m., Gang Lu, a graduate student in physics, shot and killed 5 people, including 4 faculty members of the U of I Department of Physics.

I've always admired an essay written by Jo An Beard called The Fourth State of Matter in which she shares her personal loss and recollection of the day.

The Lloyd Dobler Effect

2007-04-10T22:14:00.000-04:00

Lloyd Dobler knew exactly what he didn't want to do with his life. He didn't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. He didn't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, he didn't want to do that.

Despite the pressure of dating a pretty, overachieving, fellowship winning, speechifying valedictorian with a disapproving father, he held steady and set his sights on what he excelled at: spending time with Diane, the speechifying valedictorian, and kick boxing. I loved that about Lloyd.

Here's where I'm going with this: "I'm not going to form an opinion on every mind numbing event and issue covered by the mind numbing American media machine. I don't want to write, talk or speculate on them. I don't want to write about what someone else has written. I don't want to talk about topics discussed on talk radio and I don't want to speculate on what people mean when they write and talk about mind numbing events and issues. You know, as an amateurish amateur blogger and a regular person, I don't want to do that."

So here's a list of topics that I'm not going to write, talk or speculate on:

1. Don Imus and the general question of what constitutes an acceptable apology or act of contrition these days.

2. Sanjaya: His hair, singing ability, conspiracies, teeny boppers, and the general media obsession with the kid and his potential to bring down American Idol. Oh, and I'm not going to write about all the brain power, time and manpower that has been devoted to covering the "story" that is Sanjaya.

3. The religious right evangelical crazies and how they've co-opted Christianity (hat tip The Tontine's Des Moines Outpost) and the party of Lincoln and Reagan. I'm bothered, but I'm waiting for my personal savior to fill me with the spirit. Get your blood going with that one? Good. Now you know how I feel.

4. The never ending search for a new University of Iowa president.

5. The fact that it took the University of Iowa less than a week to find a new men's basketball coach, but six months later there's still no University president.

I'm tired and more than a little cynical this evening, so it's probably best that I wrap it up before I write or speculate on something I don't care about.

Iowan Masters Augusta!

2007-04-08T21:05:00.000-04:00

Iowa's Johnson wins Masters!

Augusta, Ga. — Iowa’s Zach Johnson stunned the golf world today by winning the Masters.J ohnson, the ex-Drake golfer from Cedar Rapids, tamed Augusta National Golf Club with a birdie binge on the final six holes to finish at 1-over for the tournament.

On CBS, Johnson was fitted for the fabled green jacket by 2006 champion Phil Mickelson in legendary Butler Cabin. "I can't put it into words," Johnson said.

Johnson said with a cracking voice as he talked with CBS near the 18th green that the victory meant even more on Easter, as he credited Jesus and his late grandfather for helping him steel nerves. "I'm (just) a Midwest guy from Iowa," Johnson said during the Butler Cabin interview on TV. CBS announcer Jim Nantz responded: "You made Iowa proud today — that's for sure."

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T20:53:00.000-04:00

Bentpinky Photo of the Day

Jack's Easter Mittens

(Hat tip: Tontine's Des Moines Outpost)

Investigating Nonprofit Hospitals

2007-04-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

"We need to get a better handle on how nonprofit hospitals are fulfilling their requirement to serve the community in exchange for the generous tax breaks they receive. This is especially important as policymakers talk about helping the uninsured." So says the senior senator from Iowa in the article embedded below.

Talk. That's all policymakers seem to do when it comes to "helping the uninsured." Meanwhile it's the hospitals - the nonprofit hospitals - that actually confront the issue on a day-to-day basis. So yes, please expend taxpayers dollars to investigate those sketchy nonprofit hospitals and make sure the people are getting their money's worth. OR, actually spend some time in a hospital and see how the people's government fails nonprofit hospitals - and the American taxpayer - time and time again. How? Allow me to share a few examples:

1. Medicaid: The federal government cedes to the states all responsibility for setting Medicaid reimbursement rates. No guidelines, not even broad ones, from a federal government that in FY 2006 spent $180.6 billion in taxpayer dollars on the program. Why is this a problem? Medicaid reimbursement rates fall far below Medicare rates. As a national average, Medicaid pays only 69% of what Medicare pays for the same service. Even with add-ons such as Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments, which Congress is always trying to revoke, reduce or repurpose, Medicaid still fails to cover costs. Where's the accountability? Where's the federal oversight?

Do you know what happens when Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low that it becomes cost-prohibitive for physicians to participate in the program? Reduced access to care. Know what happens next? Here's an example: A 12 year old boy from Prince George's County, Maryland, died in February from a brain infection caused by an abscessed tooth. From a homeless family on Medicaid, he didn't have timely access to a dentist.

2. EMTALA: The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Originally promulgated to combat the discriminatory practice of some hospitals transferring, discharging or refusing to treat indigent patients coming to the emergency department, it is an important and necessary law. However, the Emergency Department is now the primary care provider for the indigent and uninsured...and undocumented. Because the federal government fails to secure the borders, hospitals are bending under the weight of caring for the influx of illegal aliens. Who pays? Well, either the American taxpayer or the hospital. Charity care is a requirement of tax exempt status. From my perspective, however, it is not the hospital's responsibility to provide free care to illegal aliens on the backs of the American taxpayer.

3. Cost Shifting: It's the American taxpayer who ultimately suffers when the federal government shirks its responsibility for enforcing current law and appropriately managing the health care programs it created. So Medicaid reimbursement rates are low. Don't hospitals just negotiate higher reimbursement rates with private third party payers to make up the difference? Of course! And who pays? Yep. You got it. The American taxpayer...but not in taxes. In earned income! Private health insurance deductibles and copayments increase...I call it the Water Balloon Effect. When one side is squeezed, the other side expands.

I'm not naive enough to believe that there aren't hospitals out there that deserve intense scrutiny. Tax exempt status is a privilege to be earned, not a right to be abused. Hospitals are only as good as the people who work in them and the leadership that guides them. The same is true of our government. So where's the scrutiny? It's a lot easier to point a finger. The thing is, when you point a finger, there are three fingers pointing right back at you.

Gra_ _ley: Investigate Nonprofit Hospitals
By TONY LEYS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
April 6, 2007

Add comment
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Gra_ _ley wants federal investigators to find out whether nonprofit hospitals deserve the billions of dollars they receive in tax exemptions.

The Iowa Republican sent a letter Thursday to the Government Accountability Office, asking for a broad investigation into the issue. "We need to get a better handle on how nonprofit hospitals are fulfilling their requirement to serve the community in exchange for the generous tax breaks they receive," Gra_ _ley said in a news release. "This is especially important as policymakers talk about helping the uninsured."

Many hospitals, including almost all in Iowa, are defined as charities. They are exempt from most taxes on property and income. Critics say many hospitals fail to earn those exemptions. Hospital supporters say they provide many benefits, including billions of dollars of charity care and care for patients on Medicaid, which does not cover all costs. In Des Moines and some other parts of Iowa, hospitals recently sweetened their charity-care policies and vowed to ensure all patients know about aid programs.

Alicia Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the American Hospital Association, said her group supports standardizing community-benefits reports so the public could compare hospitals against each other. "Hospitals have good stories to share about the benefits they provide to the community," she said. Gra_ _ley noted in his request that the Internal Revenue Service used to have specific charity-care requirements, but he said those were abolished in 1969. The senator also asked the GAO to investigate compensation of executives and board members at nonprofit hospitals. I n 2005, he wrote to 10 major nonprofit hospitals around the country, asking for justification of their tax-exempt status. None of those hospitals was in Iowa.

Gra_ _ley is the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees health care issues and taxation.

Madam Syriana

2007-04-03T18:11:00.000-04:00

Bentpinky Photo of the Day

"I hope the Syrians like me. I'm sure they'll at least
respect me for being such a powerful and important woman."

See Ya' in the Cheap Seats

2007-03-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

Bentpinky Photo of the Day
We all have those kind of days, Mattie.

Going on hiatus for a while. The campaign wore me out and I'm gearing up for baseball season. April 1 is Opening Day! Maybe I'll find that peace I lack on a perfect spring afternoon in my shirtsleeves along the first base line. See you in the cheap seats.

"Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom... It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." -Terrence Mann, Field of Dreams

DAY EIGHT: The Results Show

2007-03-27T17:32:00.000-04:00

The votes are counted. My mind is made up. The Results: Who Really Cares?

Who really cares if a couple anonymous people know who I am? What are they going to do? Run amok with the power derived from such knowledge? Prevent me from making Seinfeldian observations on the trivial nuances of everyday life that do in fact, from time to time, matter? Expose me to the three people who don't know who I am? Oh the humanity of it all.

So, Mullings and Observations on a Semi-Normal Life will stay right where it is at www.bentpinky.blogspot.com. I'll continue to periodically entertain The Faithful 2 and The Loyal Anonymous with odds and ends and occasionally post The Mullings Photo of the Day. I think I'll rename it, too - maybe Bentpinky Photo of the Day. Hey! When you have a harmless genetic anomoly, make it work for you.

Until I post again, I remain...someone with a fat girl's name. Go figure it out.

DAY SEVEN: Can Hillary Buy Your Trust?

2007-03-26T16:11:00.000-04:00

I've lost track of days, so I'm declaring this DAY SEVEN in the countdown to possible shut down. I'm holding steady at four votes to retain the site, but there's still a full 24 hours left. Exciting, eh? It's like the last 24 hour push after months and months of campaigning...but not really.

The New York Post reports Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton raised nearly $10 million this last week in her quest to become Supreme Ruleress of the United States. It's not surprising a big chunk of the money was raised in California (where's the earthquake when we need it?), and apparently she's off to Florida next week for an event with hip hop producer Timbaland.

Timbaland. Now how's that going to go down? A few weeks ago she morphed into a pseudo-southern alter ego while campaigning in Selma. What was that? Were it not for technical difficulties I'd link to the YouTube posting so you could view and hear her contrived accent. In case you've forgotten where she's originally from, allow me to remind you: Park Ridge, Illinois.

Back to Timbaland. Maybe she'll bust out some krumping and snap dance moves at the event. You go Hil - get down with your bad self.

As she flies back and forth from left coast to left coast raising big blue cash, I can't help but wonder if all that money will buy her a new, trusting image and ultimately a seat in the oval office. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the individual and collective memory of the American voter is short and narrow. With a pinch of Madison Avenue, a sprinkle of well-crafted bipartisan initiatives to "improve the lives of working families," and a whole lotta' concealer and pandering (ahem - fake accents and hip hop fundraisers), the fine gauge wool she's knitting may slip unnoticed over your eyes.

DAY SIX: Cornfed.

2007-03-24T10:23:00.000-04:00

Mullings Photo of the Day

My little buddy Robby. Cornfed.

Insomniac Update: From Alford to a Pearl?

2007-03-23T00:46:00.000-04:00

I can't sleep so decided to peruse the Daily Worker - I mean the Des Moines Register. So Steve Alford is leaving the University of Iowa for New Mexico. No need to elaborate. It's not like the Hawkeye Nation didn't see it coming. Of course this is the question everyone is asking: "Who will replace Alford?" I'm going out on a limb and say...

Bruce Pearl

We shall see. Glad I got that out there. Now maybe I can sleep. Until DAY FIVE...

DAY FOUR: A Mere Name Change?

2007-03-22T21:52:00.000-04:00

Mullings Photo of the Day
"Grandpa seems to know what he's doing. But I'm not sure..."

It's DAY FOUR in the countdown to possible shut down. The new vote count is 3 save, 0 shut down and one abstention. The campaign continues even as the votes keep rollin' in.

It's a completely self serving Mullings Photo of the Day today. My nephew's tummy is just too cute not to share. Since my identity has been compromised, I can post some personal photos. Maybe full disclosure has some benefits.

One of the Faithful 2 (a married couple that counts as one) submitted some novel options should I chose to rename Mullings. It's an idea that has merit. People would still know who I am, but the blog would be reinvented under a new brand. Afterall, when you get this big, it's all about brand management and reinventing yourself.

On a side note, Mullings would be remiss if the loyal anonymous readers weren't recognized for their faith in the current format and the nice comments. There's a special place in this blogger's heart for the Loyal Anonymous.

And so I share the submissions from the Faithful. I have such creative Faithfuls.

Hawkeye Themes with overall moniker: "It's Black and Gold and Read All Over"
1. Herky Groupie
2. Tiger Hawk - the only true HAWK!
3. Black and Gold Patriot
4. Cy Sux
5. Annually dreading the beginning of Big Ten basketball conference play

Iowa Themes
1. Knee High by the 4th of July
2. Corngrowers Association of the Blogsphere
3. More Blogs Than People
4. The Heavenly Blogger
5. Ethanol Queen: Cleaner Emissions for Your Blogs
6. The Potato Eyes All (Wait, that's Idaho. Sorry.)

Political Themes
1. The Not-so-Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
2. Thoughts on Being Red, and by "Red" I Don't Mean Being a Pinko Commie Bastard

Others
1. The Girls and Me
2. My Parents Went to Maui for Vacation and All I got Was This Stupid Blog
3. I_love_iowa_so_much_that_i_would_marry_chuck_long_
even_though_he_had_an_afro_or_mullet_or_whatever.com
4. The Margarine of Blogs -- Where Meat Helmets Are All The Rage
5. Chloe, the Web-toed Dutchwoman
6. Fort Dodge High School Football Rules!

Maybe tomorrow the focus should be observing. I feel like I'm neglecting that side of the blog. Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE: Mulling Mullet

2007-03-21T16:31:00.000-04:00

It's DAY THREE in the eight day countdown to possible shut down. I've received two votes to retain Mullings and Observations, one from one of The Faithful 2 and one from an anonymous reader (hmmmm, so curious...), and one "Huh? What?" So by my count that's 2-0-1, the one being an abstention.

As the countdown continues and the votes keep rolling in, today I inaugurate the Mullings Photo of the Day. Today's photo comes to us from www.mulletjunkie.com. Always an entertaining site. I wonder what our subject is mulling over. Perhaps he's thinking, "Life is highway, man, I want to drive it all night long."

Until DAY FOUR, keep mulling.

Day Two

2007-03-20T09:16:00.000-04:00

It's Day Two in the eight day countdown to possible shut down, but the campaign must continue even as the votes are being counted. This little ditty comes my way via The Wee One (aka The Little Brother):

The New York Times
March 20, 2007
G.O.P. Candidates Confront Immigration Politics

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
DES MOINES, March 17 — Immigration, an issue that has divided Republicans in Washington, is reverberating across the party’s presidential campaign field, causing particular complications for Senator John McCain of Arizona.

The topic came up repeatedly in recent campaign swings through Iowa by Mr. McCain and Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, another Republican who, like Mr. McCain, supports giving some illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, a position that puts them at odds with many other conservatives. Both candidates faced intensive questioning from voters on the issue, which has become more prominent in the state as immigrants are playing a larger and increasingly visible role in the economy and society.

“Immigration is probably a more powerful issue here than almost anyplace that I’ve been,” Mr. McCain said after a stop in Cedar Falls.

As he left Iowa, Mr. McCain said he was reconsidering his views on how the immigration law might be changed. He said he was open to legislation that would require people who came to the United States illegally to return home before applying for citizenship, a measure proposed by Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana. Mr. McCain has previously favored legislation that would allow most illegal immigrants to become citizens without leaving the country.

Beyond whatever influence it has as the state whose caucuses kick off the presidential nominating contest, Iowa has become something of a laboratory for the politics of immigration. Not only is it a place where industries like meatpacking rely heavily on immigrant workers and where a once relatively homogenous population is confronting an influx of Hispanic residents, but the presidential candidates who are criss-crossing the state are also providing forums for Iowans to express their views and influence national policy.

On Saturday morning in Des Moines, Mr. Brownback stood for 30 minutes at a breakfast with Republicans as question after question — without exception — was directed at an immigration system that Iowans denounced as failing. “These people are stealing from us,” said Larry Smith, a factory owner from Truro and a member of the central committee of the state Republican Party.

Finally, Mr. Brownback, with a slight smile, inquired, “Any other topics that people want to talk about?”

“What are you going to do with illegal immigrants who come here and become criminals?” demanded Jodi Wohlenhaus, a Republican homemaker who lives outside Des Moines.
The debate on the campaign trail is both reflecting and feeding the politics of the issue in Washington. President Bush and the two parties in Congress have been engaged in a three-way negotiation that has pitted demands from many conservatives to concentrate first on improving border security against Mr. Bush’s call, backed by many Democrats, for a guest worker program that could include a right for some illegal workers to eventually get legal status.

The issue has become much more complicated as the presidential campaign has gotten under way, exposing the Republicans in particular to voters who are angry about what they see as porous borders, growing demands from immigrants on the social welfare and education systems and job losses that they link at least in part to a low-wage labor force coming over the border.
Mr. McCain, for example, appeared to distance himself from Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat with whom he formed an alliance last year on an immigration bill that stalled in Congress.

“What I’ve tried to point out is we couldn’t pass the legislation,” Mr. McCain said. “So we have to change the legislation so it can pass. And I’ve been working with Senator Kennedy, but we’ve also been working with additional senators, additional House members.”

Mr. McCain focused instead on the proposal by Mr. Pence, a conservative. “Pence has this touchback proposal,” Mr. McCain said at a news conference. “I said hey, let’s consider that if that’s a way we can get some stuff.”

Mr. McCain’s aides said his identification with Mr. Kennedy accounted for much of his political problem on the issue with conservatives. One of his rivals for the nomination, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, has taken to attacking what he calls the McCain-Kennedy bill.
Mr. McCain has found himself particularly identified with this battle in no small part because he is from a border state that is deeply divided over immigration. The issue is not likely to recede, regardless of the outcome of the debate in Washington: The Republican field of presidential candidates includes Representative Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who has based his campaign on an anti-immigration message and who will almost certainly participate in Republican presidential debates starting this spring.

In a speech to conservatives in Washington two weeks ago, Mr. Romney said: “The current system is a virtual concrete wall against those who have skill and education, but it’s a wide open walk across the border for those that have neither. And McCain-Kennedy isn’t the answer.”
Mr. Romney did not always take that position. He was quoted in The Boston Globe in November 2005 describing Mr. McCain’s immigration initiatives as “reasonable proposals,” though he stopped short of endorsing them, the newspaper said.

A third major Republican contender, Rudolph W. Giuliani, former mayor of New York, has supported measures similar to the one Mr. McCain is pressing. Mr. Giuliani has yet to campaign in Iowa and has not been pressed on his views on immigration; he is scheduled to spend a week in Iowa at the beginning of April.

Mr. McCain’s aides said they were confident that he could overcome concerns among Iowa voters if he pointed to the enforcement mechanisms he supports, arguing that only about one-third of Republican primary voters have strong-line views on immigration. “How are we dealing with it?” said John Weaver, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain. “We’re facing it head-on. John’s position — and the president’s position — is widely supported by a vast majority of primary and caucus voters.”

Republicans have a tougher view than the general population on whether illegal immigrants should be deported, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted this month. In that poll, 49 percent of Republican respondents said illegal immigrants who had lived in the United States for at least two years should be given a chance to keep their jobs and eventually apply for citizenship; 45 percent said they should be deported immediately. By contrast, among the general electorate, 59 percent said they should be allowed to apply for legal status, compared with 36 percent who said they should be deported.

The poll found that 31 percent of Republicans said immigration into the United States should be kept at its current level, 14 percent said it should be increased and a majority, 51 percent, said immigration should be decreased. Those figures were similar to the finding among the general population.

Other Republicans said they thought Mr. McCain’s identification with the push for easing immigration laws could prove to be among his greatest vulnerabilities. “Senator McCain will be hurt badly if he continues to support a bill like last time,” said Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama. “I think he’ll have a hard time defending that piece of legislation. I think it would be important for him to demonstrate that his position on immigration is not defined by the bill that he introduced last time.”

Nowhere does that appear to be more the case than here, a state crucial to Mr. McCain’s hopes of winning his party’s nomination. A front-page article in The Des Moines Register after the first day of Mr. McCain’s bus trip here focused on his defending his efforts on changing immigration laws.

Mr. Smith, the Republican Party central committee member, said Mr. McCain’s views on immigration had eliminated him as a contender in the view of many state Republicans.
“I have a hard time appreciating McCain’s position at all on this issue,” Mr. Smith said. “I feel he’s been extremely weak.”

“When I go county to county visiting 29 counties in my area, I believe almost without exception that immigration is that issue that puts fire in their eyes,” he said. “They just really are livid that we have allowed this to happen to the point it has.”

Mr. Brownback was reminded of that throughout the day on Saturday, including during his march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Locust Avenue in Des Moines. “We need to build a fence,” Mike Clark, 38, a pig farmer, told Mr. Brownback as he walked alongside him. “We need to get them stopped.”

Mr. McCain’s suggestion that he might be open to Mr. Pence’s legislation requiring most workers to return home risks alienating business, a powerful constituency in the Republican Party.

“The business community has always been skeptical about any requirement to make workers leave the U.S. to obtain legal status,” said Laura Reiff, of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents service industries. “We haven’t ruled a Pence-like touchback completely out of the question, but it would need to be an efficient, functional process.”
Rachel Swarns contributed reporting from Washington.

EIGHT DAYS

2007-03-19T15:27:00.000-04:00

It seems that my 'cover' is blown. Unless persuaded otherwise in the next EIGHT DAYS (eight is my favorite number - no other reason), Mullings and Observations will shut down and be reinvented under a new and clever moniker. I know the Faithful 2 will be disappointed, but you'll survive. You may miss the intellectual stimulation that comes from discussing pant lengths, mullets, shoe styles and the general failure of the United States to secure the borders, but I know you'll muddle through. I have faith in you.

Keep on mullin...

Too Legit To Quit...But I Did

2007-03-12T22:55:00.000-04:00

Another failed attempt at clothes shopping this evening and the overwhelming response from the Faithful Two and a Half (Yes! I've added a half person to account for the occasionals who pop in and out) to yesterday's posting requires an encore. I even received a phone call from someone in Kansas City. I'll refer to her as "The Blond Haired Blue Eyed Midwesterner Who Gets A Tribal Check" or "Feels My Pain" for short.

Anyway, Feels My Pain is going to the same conference I'm attending later this week. In a strange yet predictable coincidence, she too spent Sunday scouring the stores for appropriate "business casual" apparel. Guess what? She came up with the big donut hole, too! She even had trouble finding shoes, to which I ask, "Were you really trying? You couldn't find anything but the $350 Prada mules? C'mon, Feels My Pain, I know you can do better than that. I believe in you.

Tonight I shopped the following stores: Ann Taylor (too bland, too fancy), J-Crew (too teeny bopper), Banana Republic (too...narrow), Macy's (Yes I tried again - different mall), Nordstrom (too too) and I even broke down and set foot in The Gap (too nothing). At Ann Taylor, no one offered to help me because they were too busy stocking the shelves with boring cream colored blazers and skirts with sequins. So practical for March. At J-Crew I overheard this conversation:

Waif-like 13 year old sucking on a Venti Starbucks Frappucuinno: "Like, I tried that dress on and I looked like a picnic table."

Suck up friend: "No! No way - it's like, so totally cute I could die. I'm sure you looked completely amazing."

Waif-like 13 year old sucking on a Venti Starbucks Frappucinno: "Well, maybe, but I'm in love with this jacket. I need to call my mom. She'll so get it for me."

And at that point I left because I was jealous that the waif probably could pull off the table cloth dress and I couldn't call my mom to buy me anything.

Banana had a cute skirt on sale, but when the light in the dressing room hit it, I noticed it had a copper-like metallic sheen. Fabrics with a sheen. Why?

Macy's was just plain low-rent. I can't talk about it. I almost broke down and bought a sweater from the Jones New York Casuals line. In case you aren't familiar, that is as close as you can get to St. John's Knits without the price tag. Ugh.

I'm really not that hard to please (Hey - Faithful Two reader who leans to the left - stop rolling your eyes). I'm not! But alas there was nothing for me in all of that gigantic mall. And so I must pack tomorrow evening for a three day stint in San Francisco. But I'll make due with the "wide leg" pants, the weird Peter Pan-like jacket I found at Lord & Taylor and a black crochet skirt I bought two months ago but haven't worn because I don't have anything to go with it. Sadly, my fabulous patten leather shoes don't go with any of these options. But I'll bring them anyway. I like to look at them.

Legitimate Middle Thirties Complaint

2007-03-11T21:20:00.000-04:00

I forced myself to go shopping today. What used to be fun is now just plain depressing. I've discussed this before in one of my non-political observations (reprieves for one of the Faithful Two who walks on the left side), but what is the deal with "business casual" and "weekend wear" clothes marketed to women my age? Clingy, formless knits? Sleeveless, flowy, rayon/silk blend tops that show more cleavage than, well, I'm comfortable with. And c'mon, who doesn't think a lot of these tops look like maternity wear? Maybe I'm just bitter because I can't wear them.

Now - the pants. They're either peg straight a la Audrey Hepburn (of course they looked fabulous on her - she was a waif), or something reminiscent of palazzo pants. Palazzo pants! Pants that look like a floor length skirt! Who can pull off all that fabric? Oh, and this is the last time I'll mention them, but walking shorts? WALKING SHORTS? Any "normal" pants I found were either sold out in my size or they were cheaply made (read: no lining and heinous side pockets sewn on the hip. Just what I need - more flare on the hip).

I caved and bought a pair of "wide leg" pants, but I couldn't find a top. I thought this jacket might look good with the pants and even with jeans. Bought it but may take it back.

I did, of course, stumble upon a great pair of patten leather shoes. They fit like a glove. I think that's why we girls love shoes so much - size is constant.

After today's foray, I've decided to do more online shopping. No three way mirrors and I'll save on gas money.

A boring post, I know, but if anyone has any store recommendations, send them my way! I need more options!

P.S. My crazy neighbor above me just called his live-in girlfriend an "asshole." Look in the mirror jackass.

At A Loss...

2007-03-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

50 percent of pregnancies in the District of Columbia among females aged 15 – 19 end in abortion.

Guttmacher Institute, U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity.

Don't Call It A Comeback

2007-02-28T22:37:00.001-05:00

Hormones are back in alignment and pitiful mood has been destroyed. Back to normal tightly wound and retentive self. Most awesome.

Am heartened by evening's discussion with Democratic colleagues from Connecticut and Illinois who agree Obama is somewhat of flash in the pan. Could also be described as "all show and no go."

All agree that Billary and Obama "aka B. Hussein" could easily sap energy from Democratic base and their constant public appearances could result in new Dem rising to the top. Edwards should hang tight and wait. In the case of presidential candidates, not all publicity is good. Voter fatigue is real. But since none of these candidates fits my bill, what do I care?

Who will Grassley support at summer's end??? I firmly believe that CEG should shout from the mountain tops, or in the case of Iowa the fruited plains, that Republicans should STOP looking for a candidate that meets every single conservative criteria and instead identify the VIABLE candidate who meets the most important and immediate needs of the country. No one person can be all things to all people. Find the one who meets the most critical needs and in him you will find a winner. If you're a social conservative, ANY Republican will be better than what the Democrats have to offer. If you are concerned about national security, McCain and Giuliani are so much more credible than Hillary, Obama or Edwards.

P.S. I saw Secretary Rice at Kinkeads tonight. Simply awesome. A bunch of us were speculating what her secret service name is. I said "Wicked Awesome" (ahem - I had three glasses of Cabernet- what do you expect) or Steinway (she's a phenomenal pianist). Sharon said Fashionista. No one else had any ideas or didn't care. Hey Faithful Two (due to my lack of postings, I've lost a faithful follower) - what do you think?

And It Begins

2007-01-25T18:28:00.000-05:00

And it begins. She's running, and she and her minions are decending on my lovely home state. I can't fully explain why I loathe her so. Perhaps it's that persistent "cat that ate the canary" expression on her face. It could be the shrill, grating tone of her voice. More than likely it's her position on issues such as health care, national defense, taxes, embryonic stem cell research and abortion to name just a few.

I wish Americans' memories were as long as our butts are wide. Did 1992-2000 really happen, including the proposal to turn over health care to the government, or did the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy make it all up? She's not the right person for the job. Period.

From the Washington Post Blog "The Fix"
Posted at 06:19 PM ET, 01/25/2007

Clinton in Iowa: Setting Expectations
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) makes her first trip to Iowa in more than three years this weekend, traveling to that most influential of states when it comes to presidential politics.
A schedule sent out by her campaign earlier today shows a total of five events during the visit -- two "house-party style" events, a town hall meeting, a meeting of the Iowa Democratic Party Central Committee and a press availability.

So what should we expect out of this visit? Not all that much.

Clinton's people are purposely -- and smartly -- limiting the media throng so that she can have some semblance of a normal conversation with Iowa voters. Only her town hall meeting and the press availability are open to all members of the media; the house parties and the Iowa Democratic Party gathering will be covered pool-style -- one national and one local reporter will be allowed into the room and they will be tasked with filing a report about what Clinton said.

One of Clinton's primary tasks in Iowa and elsewhere is to reintroduce herself to voters who may know of her but don't really know her. She can't do that while being trailed by 200 (or more) reporters. Clinton won't ever lack for press coverage, so restricting the size of the press pack strikes The Fix as smart.

The other goal for Clinton during her Iowa visit is to begin building momentum in the state. Multiple polls have shown Clinton running behind former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), who placed second in the Iowa caucuses in 2004. But Clinton's advisers have insisted that her poll standing has much more to do with the fact that she has not been a regular visitor to the state while Edwards has made it his home away from home.

After a few visits, Clinton needs to see some jump in her poll numbers; she doesn't need to leapfrog Edwards, but she does need to show movement. She's already made one very sound move in the state -- signing up JoDee Winterhof as her Iowa state director; Winterhof formerly served as chief of staff to Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

A Few Days Off

2007-01-16T22:42:00.000-05:00

A former colleague and friend of mine died over the weekend. I went to the hospital Sunday morning with a friend to visit and found the room empty. A nurses aid came around the corner and upon seeing us standing there looking lost told us she died a few hours earlier.

I'm taking a break from bentpinky.com for a few more days. Between this and the busy season at work, I'm not inspired to mull, observe or even rant...and I love ranting. If I were to rant today, I'd go to town on The Honorable Barbara Boxer and her condemnation of Secretary of State Rice for being a single woman with no children. Bitch.

I'll be back.

A Good Mull

2007-01-06T12:32:00.000-05:00

My brother sent this to me. It's a good mull.

Denver Post: This text is from a county emergency manager out in the central part of Colorado after today's snowstorm.

WEATHER BULLETIN: Up here, in the Northern Plains, we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:
George Bush did not come.
FEMA did nothing.
No one howled for the government.
No one blamed the government.
No one even uttered an expletive on TV.
Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.
Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.
Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.
CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm.
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.
No one looted. Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.
Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.
No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.
No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.
The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.
Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families. Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.
We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.
We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die."
We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.
Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate." It does seem that way, at least to me. I hope this gets passed on. Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

I Love It!

2007-01-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

Iowa is ranked No. 5 in the Intermat college wrestling rankings that were released 1/03/07. What would Zabel say? I love it, I love it, I love it!

Team rankings includes first-place votes, record, vote totals and previous ranking.

1. Missouri (12) 4-0 480 1
2. Minnesota 7-1 463 2
3. Hofstra 7-0 457 3
4. Oklahoma State 4-1 438 4
5. Iowa 5-0 430 5
6. Iowa State 4-1 422 7
7. Oklahoma 3-2 398 6
8. Northwestern 8-0 395 9
9. Central Michigan 5-1 383 10
10. Penn State 4-2 377 9
11. Michigan 1-1 356 11
12. Edinboro 8-1 345 12
13. Cornell 0-1 341 13
14. Penn 2-2 314 15
15. Illinois 2-0 309 16
16. Indiana 8-0 297 17
17. Nebraska 6-0 278 18
18. UT-Chattanooga 5-0 272 18
19. Wisconsin 1-2 271 20
20. Ohio State 10-0 255 19
21. Cal Poly 2-2 225 21
22. Michigan State 0-3 212 22
23. Lehigh 4-4 175 23
24. West Virginia 4-2 106 24
25. Pittsburgh 1-0 105 25
Others receiving votes: Northern Iowa, Navy, Oregon State, America, UC-Davis, Harvard.

Mullings & Observations at Bentpinky.blogspot.com will return to its regualar programming of opinions and rants in the near future. After a tough football season, some reveling in the success of other Hawkeye athletic programs was needed. Thank you for your patience.

Hooked

2006-12-30T22:31:00.000-05:00

It's over. RIP 2006 Iowa football season. You gave it the old college try with that last one versus Texas. Despite coming up a little short, you made us proud.

Hey Drew, I wrote this because I don't have anything else to do in my free time as there aren't any professional sports teams in Iowa and I heard the farm report earlier today. In case you're curious, beans are holding steady and pork bellies are up.

Back From Iowa - With Cheer

2006-12-29T20:00:00.000-05:00

I'm back from the Holy Land, aka Iowa, where I did some very important and meaningful mulling and observing. Returning home is always a melancholy experience for me - I find meaning and memory at every turn and in the simplest of places. The public swimming pool where I worked for four summers teaching tiny tot swimming lessons and selling Laffey Taffey; the park behind my house where I spent countless hours playing with my brothers and my beloved dog Flanders; the middle school where I made lifelong friends; the cemetary where my maternal and paternal grandparents rest. It is the place and the people who shaped me more than any other place I have lived or will ever live. I know this to be absolutely true.

Needing to purchase a few more presents, I borrowed my parents mini van and dashed out to the Crossroads Mall to see what Younkers department store had to offer. As I was about to leave, I glanced across the store and saw a man standing alone by a display of scarves. I stopped. He looked up at me. "Mr. Lee?" It was my high school calculus teacher. His eyes brightened with recognition.

Now I was a terrible math student, so all I could think was, "Ugh. I bet he's thinking, 'It's that Hawkeyegirl. Not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.'" We shook hands. He seemed genuinely happy to see me. We briefly chatted about our families and all the wonderful trips he's taken since retiring. But the 'dim light bulb' thought kept nagging at me, so I said jokingly, "Well, I'm still really bad at math!" He chuckled, then said with such sincerity that I felt my throat tighten with emotion, "You know what I always admired about you? You struggled with math, but you persevered because you told me you wanted a well-rounded education. Yes, I found that very admirable."

I graduated from high school nearly 17 years ago and this wonderful man remembered something personal about me - one student among thousands in his career. Thanks, Mr. Lee. I was such a lucky girl to have a teacher like you.

Besides seeing my family and old friends, one of the best things about going home to Fort Dodge (The Phat Dawg, Ft. Lauderdodge or Ft. Fun to the uneducated) is reading the Fort Dodge Messenger.

Fort Dodge is the county seat of Webster County, a navy blue county in a sea of red and pink. Webster County lies the farthest west in Iowa of any blue county. On the Communist News Network map it looks white because Kerry won the county by slightly more than 500 votes (don't ask me for the exact number - I'm bad at math, remember?). That in and of itself speaks to his weakness as a candidate. No respectable Democrat should win Webster County by such a paltry margin. But he's old news and so is Iowa as a red state, so let's move on.

I love The Messenger because it is what it is - a hometown newspaper. World and National news often take a back seat to the heroics of local high school football and basketball teams or the generosity of locals to their less fortunate neighbors. I don't say this to belittle the paper's relevance, but rather to compare the focus to what Tip O'Neil said of politics - it's all local. Report on what you know best, focus on what matters most to your readers and do it well. If you do, they'll stick with you. Again, I'm not saying that folks back home don't care or pay attention to world or national news - quite the contrary - but they can get that from the television, radio, magazines and The Daily Worker (aka the Des Moines Register).

By now The Faithful Three are wondering, "Where is she going with this?" Hold yer horses, friends, I'm getting there.

So here I've described a simple, locally-focused hometown paper in a deep blue town. But here's the oddity: the editorial page. The editorial page - that delicious page in every paper where opinion has a proper place - a home. The Messenger editorial page holds a dear place in my heart because as often as I read it, I never cease to be surprised. Such objectivity! Let me share one:

‘Blind sheik’ does well in prison
Americans sometimes are told that our government’s policies are to blame, in part, for terrorist attacks. But a warning issued by the FBI puts the difference between U.S. government policies and those of Islamic extremists in perspective.

Terrorist leader Omar Abdel-Rahman has been imprisoned in the United States since he was found guilty in a trial of being involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Six people were killed; more than 1,000 were injured.

But Rahman, familiar to many as the “blind sheik,” suffers from severe health problems.

His ailments were the subject of a recent FBI warning, reminding national security officials that the al-Qaida organization has called for terrorist attacks if Rahman dies while in U.S. custody. The “blind sheik’s” last will and testament in fact demands that terrorists “extract the most violent revenge” if he dies in prison.

But that may not happen as soon as al-Qaida leaders would like — simply because Americans treat prisoners much differently than do many Islamic terrorist organizations.

Their captives often are beheaded.Rahman, in contrast, has received excellent medical care, most recently for a tumor on his liver. According to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, “his condition has improved.”

Yes, there indeed is a difference between policies followed by Islamic extremists and those supported by Americans. Sometimes it really does pay to be aware of them.

Now that's an editorial. All those folks slummin' it at the Washington Post could learn a lesson or two from the Fort Dodge Messenger.

Since Christmas Eve landed on a Sunday this year, I attended regular Sunday mass with my family at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in Moorland, a tiny farming community about 15 minutes outside of Fort Dodge. Because I'm easily distracted, I didn't notice that I'd left my purse behind at the church until we'd already pulled into my folks' driveway.

Mom and I turned around and drove back to the church, but it was already locked. Knowing our good family friends have a key to the church, we drove the short gravel road to their home to pick it up. My purse was right where I left it under the pew. We dropped the key back with our friends and were given a lovely loaf of homemade pumpkin bread in return. "In case you run short with all your family home," they said as my mom protested the gift.

The next morning - a bright, crisp, sunny Christmas morning - I read the following editorial in The Messenger. I was reminded of the blessing of good friends, simple kindnesses and the importance of staying close and true to those that have helped you along your journey.

Christmas cheer to one and all
In these days of affluence, enlightenment and rising expectations, has our supply of good cheer been diminished? That is a concern that comes to mind as we ponder the observance of another Christmas.

In at least some sophisticated circles today, even the cheer of Christmas is said to be unfashionable. It is considered square or naive to be caught up in the joy and happiness of the season. It is true that for many — those brave men and women in our nation’s uniform and their concerned families — there could be reason to ask what there is to celebrate in a world where peace remains elusive and repressive regimes make a mockery of human rights. And we know that in all too many parts of our world, poverty and hunger grip millions of people.

There has never been a perfect time for Christmas. But there certainly have been worse times to observe the birthday of Christ than this year of 2006. We have made enormous social and technical advances over the past several decades. The world is appreciably better than most of us knew in our childhood.

If it is good cheer that one seeks, you had better seek it in yourself, for you will never find it in progress — neither in laws and movements which invariably stop short of achieving the miracles hoped for, nor in new political heroes whose feet invariably turn out to be made of clay. The good cheer of Christmas is extremely personal, a flickering but ancient hope in the heart of man that has nothing to do with commerce or social progress or politics. There are so many cheap curtain-raisers, but they cannot compare with this season of love, goodness and holiness.

Christmas Day evokes — as does no other time — the memory of simpler days, when it was easy to believe what one was told — when the people in the beautiful old Christmas story seemed as real as the children next door, and no wide-eyed youngster could doubt that some day a star of wonder would come to lead him to a perfect light.

No Christmas is ever passed without making this a better universe, at least for a time. So cheer up this day when Christendom pauses to celebrate the birth of Christ — God’s gift to men and the cause for all of today’s giving. A very Merry Christmas to all.

Indeed.

Home to Iowa

2006-12-19T21:00:00.000-05:00

I'm flying home to Iowa on Friday. It's not the most direct flight: Reagan National to Kansas City...to Milwaukee...to Des Moines. Awesome, eh? It's my Christmas tour of the Midwest. I'm hoping to peruse and purchase some nice Greenbay Packers merchandise at the Milwaukee airport. I think, as the owner of one share in the team, I should get a discount on all Packer gear. Ownership should have its privileges.

I love Christmas, but I treasure Christmas in Iowa. My parents still live in the house I grew up in. They've lived in the same house since about 1968. I still have "my room." The dresses I wore to homecoming, prom and senior dinner dance still hang in the closet. The top drawer in my bureau is filled with dried coursages, track medals, yearbooks and sorority pictures. My nieces play with my barbies, doll house and tea set. My baton twirling trohpies line the attic wall.

The ornaments on the tree are the same ones I grew up with and each one brings back memories. When I was seven, my brother Patrick ("Pesty Pat") wrapped my gift in a giant box and put it under the tree at least four weeks before Christmas. I was tortured by the sheer size of this gift. Nightly I would sit by the tree, shake the present and throw guesses at him. "Five dolls?" "Barbie Dream Cottage?" "An entire set of Care Bears?" Like I said, this went on for weeks.

When Christmas morning arrived, it was the first gift I opened...and opened...and opened...and opened. He had wrapped a box inside a box inside a box. The last box I opened held a little ceramic Woodstock ornament. You know, the little yellow bird from Charlie Brown? I was crushed. I looked over at my brother who, with his fire engine red hair, was laughing his ass off. He got me. He got me good.

Last Christmas, when my niece Katherine was 6, she pointed to the Woodstock ornament on grandma and grandpa's tree and said, "Aunt Hawkeyegirl, that's the ornament my daddy got you when you were little, right? Remember how he wrapped it in a big box to tease you?" I love that ornament. I can't wait to go home.

A Picture Says It All

2006-12-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

The bleeding hearts back in Iowa are working themselves into a tizzy over the recent raid by federal immigrantion officials on the Swift plant in Marshalltown. Finally the feds are cracking down on illegal aliens and the companies that employ them.

While the Des Moines Register has yet to write an objective piece (read unbiased) on the event, the comments posted to their site are nearly unanimous: "Enjoy your free trip home." And that's putting it nicely. There is little sympathy for the lawbreakers, nor do I think there should be. Could the last straw have been this picture, which was featured on the Register's Web site? How do you really feel about the United States of America and our laws? How unfortnate for you. Feliz Navidad.

All I Hate At Christmas

2006-12-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

Apologies to the Faithful Three for letting several weeks pass without posting. It's a busy time and honestly, I haven't had much to mull and observe. Okay, I take that back. I've mulled a lot and observed some interesting things, I just haven't had the energy to compose anything of substance.

In the spirit of Christmas, I've decided to list all the things I hate about December in America in the 21st century.

1. I hate holiday trees. I grew up with a Christmas tree in my house every December. There was always a huge Christmas tree on the town square. The mall had several Christmas trees. What is a "holiday" tree? I mean, what "holiday" do people think it represents?

2. I hate it when people are offended by the phrase "Merry Christmas." In fact, I hate it when people believe they have a constitutional right not to be offended. Who gets offended by a Christmas tree? They're pretty and smell good.

3. I hate the Kay Jeweler commercials. "Every kiss begins with Kay"? And Zales, too. Oh, and Lexus commercials. Pretty much all "holiday shopping" commercials. Oh geez, I just saw a Kay Jewelers ad on ABC. Diamond earings for $149.99. Awesome.

4. I hate Christmas songs that are perverted to sell either a product or a store. Take for instance the ads for overstock.com. "O, o, o. O, o, o. Overstock.com" to the tune of Jingle Bells.

5. I hate having to buy white elephant and gag gifts to exchange at parties. It all adds up and before you know it, you've spent $50-$75 on crap and paper/bows to wrap up the crap.

6. I hate nuts in cookies, breads and candies. They ruin good Christmas goodies. Especially those nasty black walnuts. My dad had a patient years ago who always made him the most decadent fudge as a Christmas gift. But she put black walnuts in it. Ruined.

7. I hate "holiday" TV specials featuring mediocre singers and cheesey staging. It's particularly off-putting when the mediocre singer decimates a traditional Christmas song with a "new interpretation." If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

8. I hate the term "Chrismukkah." I do, however, like Festivus.

9. I hate it when Salvation Army bell ringers don't ring the bell. I stood in the freezing cold outside K-Mart two years in a row and rang the hell out of that bell. I worked hard for the money. Ring the damn bell!

I'll end with 9. It would seem grinchy to go all the way to 10.

Now go sing traditional songs around your beautiful Christmas tree while enjoying nut-free treats. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Kay Jewelers-free night!

Yes Virginia, You Put Him In Office

2006-11-30T13:38:00.000-05:00

Thanks a lot, Virginia.

November 30, 2006

Webb Offends Bush & the English Language

By George Will

WASHINGTON -- That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur and an abuser of the English language before actually becoming a senator.

Wednesday's Washington Post reported that at a White House reception for newly elected members of Congress, Webb "tried to avoid President Bush,'' refusing to pass through the reception line or have his picture taken with the president. When Bush asked Webb, whose son is a Marine in Iraq, "How's your boy?'' Webb replied, "I'd like to get them (sic) out of Iraq.'' When the president again asked, "How's your boy?'' Webb replied, "That's between me and my boy.'' Webb told the Post:

"I'm not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall. No offense to the institution of the presidency, and I'm certainly looking forward to working with him and his administration. (But) leaders do some symbolic things to try to convey who they are and what the message is.''

Webb certainly has conveyed what he is: a boor. Never mind the patent disrespect for the presidency. Webb's more gross offense was calculated rudeness toward another human being -- one who, disregarding many hard things Webb had said about him during the campaign, asked a civil and caring question, as one parent to another. When -- if ever -- Webb grows weary of admiring his new grandeur as a "leader'' who carefully calibrates the "symbolic things'' he does to convey messages, he might consider this: In a republic, people decline to be led by leaders who are insufferably full of themselves.

Even before Webb's studied truculence in response to the president's hospitality, Webb was going out of his way to make waves. A week after the election, he published a column in The Wall Street Journal that began this way:

"The most important -- and unfortunately the least debated -- issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country.''

Well.

In his novels and his political commentary, Webb has been a writer of genuine distinction, using language with care and precision. But just days after winning an election, he was turning out slapdash prose that would be rejected by a reasonably demanding high school teacher.
Never mind Webb's careless and absurd assertion that the nation's incessantly discussed wealth gap is "the least debated'' issue in American politics.

And never mind his use of the word "literally,'' although even with private schools and a large share of the nation's wealth, the "top tier'' -- whatever cohort he intends to denote by that phrase; he is suddenly too inflamed by social injustice to tarry over the task of defining his terms -- does not "literally'' live in another country.

And never mind the cavalier historical judgments -- although is he sure that America is less egalitarian today than it was, say, 50 years ago, when only about 7 percent of American adults had college degrees? (Twenty-eight percent do today.) Or 80 years ago, when more than 80 percent of American adults did not have high school diplomas (85 percent have them today), and only about 46 percent owned their own homes, compared with 69 percent today?

But notice, in the second sentence of Webb's column, the word "infinitely.'' Earth to Webb: Words have meanings that not even senators can alter. And he has been elected to be a senator, not Humpty Dumpty in "Through the Looking Glass.'' (When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.) America's national economic statistics are excellent; Webb could actually tell us howmuch richer the "top tier'' has become, relative to other cohorts, over a particular span. But that would require him to actually say who he is talking about, and that takes time and effort, and senators -- Webb is a natural -- often are too busy for accuracy.

Based on Webb's behavior before being sworn in, one shudders to think what he will be like after that. He already has become what Washington did not need another of, a subtraction from the city's civility and clear speaking.
georgewill@washpost.com

Praying or Terrorism? Mull It

2006-11-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

How the imams terrorized an airliner
By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published November 28, 2006

Muslim religious leaders removed from a Minneapolis flight last week exhibited behavior associated with a security probe by terrorists and were not merely engaged in prayers, according to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials.

Witnesses said three of the imams were praying loudly in the concourse and repeatedly shouted "Allah" when passengers were called for boarding US Airways Flight 300 to Phoenix. "I was suspicious by the way they were praying very loud," the gate agent told the Minneapolis Police Department.

Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.

"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."

A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."

But the imams who were escorted off the flight in handcuffs say they were merely praying before the 6:30 p.m. flight on Nov. 20, and yesterday led a protest by prayer with other religious leaders at the airline's ticket counter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, called removing the imams an act of Islamophobia and compared it to racism against blacks.

"It's a shame that as an African-American and a Muslim I have the double whammy of having to worry about driving while black and flying while Muslim," Mr. Bray said.

The protesters also called on Congress to pass legislation to outlaw passenger profiling.

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Texas Democrat, said the September 11 terrorist attacks "cannot be permitted to be used to justify racial profiling, harassment and discrimination of Muslim and Arab Americans."

"Understandably, the imams felt profiled, humiliated, and discriminated against by their treatment," she said.

According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.

Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she "found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting." Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.

The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

The imams who claimed two first-class seats said their tickets were upgraded. The gate agent told police that when the imams asked to be upgraded, they were told no such seats were available. Nevertheless, the two men were seated in first class when removed.

A flight attendant said one of the men made two trips to the rear of the plane to talk to the imam during boarding, and again when the flight was delayed because of their behavior. Aviation officials, including air marshals and pilots, said these actions alone would not warrant a second look, but the combination is suspicious.

"That's like shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater. You just can't do that anymore," said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal.

"They should have been denied boarding and been investigated," Mr. MacLean said. "It looks like they are trying to create public sympathy or maybe setting someone up for a lawsuit."

The pilot with another airline who talked to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity, said he would have made the same call as the US Airways pilot.

"If any group of passengers is commingling in the terminal and didn't sit in their assigned seats or with each other, I would stop everything and investigate until they could provide me with a reason they did not sit in their assigned seats."

One of the passengers, Omar Shahin, told Newsweek the group did everything it could to avoid suspicion by wearing Western clothes, speaking English and booking seats so they were not together. He said they conducted prayers quietly and separately to avoid attention.

The imams had attended a conference sponsored by the North American Imam Federation in Minneapolis and were returning to Phoenix. Mr. Shahin, who is president of the federation, said on his Web site that none of the passengers made pro-Saddam or anti-American statements.

The pilot said the airlines are not "secretly prejudiced against any nationality, religion or culture," and that the only target of profiling is passenger behavior.

"There are certain behaviors that raise the bar, and not sitting in your assigned seat raises the bar substantially," the pilot said. "Especially since we know that this behavior has been evident in suspicious probes in the past."

"Someone at US Airways made a notably good decision," said a second pilot, who also does not work for US Airways.

A spokeswoman for US Airways declined to discuss the incident. Aviation security officials said thousands of Muslims fly every day and conduct prayers in airports in a quiet and private manner without creating incidents.

A few thoughts to share after mulling this over a bit. I'm still a little too fired up to pull it all together, but here goes:

1. Good for US Airways. Give thosse folks a medal.
2. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. She's in the majority now. I shudder.
3. Outlaw passenger profiling? It wasn't a bunch of Catholics with rosaries in their hands that murdered 3,000 people on September 11. If it had been, then profile me baby. Bring it on!
4. Who is this Mr. Bray fellow and why does he chose to live in a country that oppresses him so? If he doesn't like it here he can leave. It's a free country...for everyone. '
5. If you behave suspiciously, people will regard you with suspicion. Pretty basic stuff here.

Watch this Michelle Malkin Vent for more on the "pray in" at Reagan National.

Remember the Alamo!

2006-11-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

My Iowa mole reports, and I've confirmed with sources at the Des Moines Register, that the University of Iowa Hawkeye football team has accepted an invitation to play in the December 30 Alamo Bowl. What does this mean? Drew Tate gets to play his final college football game in his home state. What else does this mean? This most painful of seasons is being dragged out even longer...and I'm being dragged along with it.

It also means a chance for redemption. And who doesn't love redemption?

Keep checking back for updates. In the meantime, well, just try not to think about it.

It's official: Iowa to play in Alamo Bowl

ANDREW LOGUEREGISTER STAFF WRITER
November 21, 2006

Iowa has accepted an invitation to play in the Alamo Bowl, Dec. 30 in San Antonio, Texas, officials announced this afternoon. The Hawkeyes (6-6) were given the nod over Minnesota, another 6-6 team that beat Iowa 34-24 on Saturday in Minneapolis.

Iowa lost five of its last six games. It’s the sixth consecutive bowl for the Hawkeyes, who last played in the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29, 2001 — a 19-16 victory against Texas Tech.

Iowa has made three other Alamo Bowl appearances. The Hawkeyes lost to California 37-3 in the inaugural bowl game in 1993 and beat Texas Tech 27-0 in 1996.

A Lot of Nothing

2006-11-20T22:09:00.000-05:00

Why do the world leaders who attend the annual APEC Summit have to pose for a picture in the host country's native attire? Look at President Bush. He looks so awkward and weird. Putin looks worse. It's actually kind of funny...but still weird. Apparently next year it's "down under" in Australia. Any thoughts on the outfit choice?

The bishop is transferring one of our priests to a parish in Falls Church. I was at mass when it was announced. Everyone's pretty down (Heather - it's not Kleinmann) and trying to be charitable about it. But for now I'm going to be selfish and bitter. Maybe tomorrow I'll think about the needs of others. Everyone thinks the world of him and will miss him greatly. But isn't it great to know there are young priests out there who make a difference in the lives of their parishoners - both young and old alike? Awesome. (I'm not a religious nut)

I think it's okay to NOT want to go to work sometimes. I really like my job, but I really don't want to be there this week. I need a little time away. Christmas. I'm going home to Iowa for about 6 days over Christmas. Looking forward to seeing friends and spending time with family. I hope I return refreshed and not 5 pounds heavier.

Why is Jessica Simpson famous? She's an awful singer. Truly.

I still don't like that "Studio 60" show. I'm still trying to watch it because it follows "Heroes" on NBC Mondays. SAVE THE CHEERLEADER SAVE THE WORLD. I have some serious science fiction geek potential going on. Love it.

I saved at least 10 minutes on the commute home by taking the worm hole off Maine Avenue and 395 South. I LOVE IT!

I changed vets not for medical purposes but because my friends said the new one is good looking. And let me tell you something, Faithful Three, they're right! Woo hoo! Hello doctor!

Ab Absurdo

2006-11-14T19:44:00.000-05:00

Let Us Read

Building U.S.-Mexican fence shortsighted, Vatican cardinal says
By Cindy Wooden10/30/2006
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border is a shortsighted move that may hurt the U.S. economy and shows a serious lack of respect for the dignity of Mexican workers, said a Vatican official.

"This wall, together with the fact that this border is patrolled by thousands of armed men ready to shoot on sight those who try to cross it, certainly is not respectful of the dignity of the human person," said Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan.

The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, spoke about the fence in an Oct. 29 interview with Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily newspaper.

President George W. Bush signed a bill Oct. 26 authorizing construction of the fence along a total of 700 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border.

Cardinal Lozano told Avvenire the bill's passage and signing were a sign of a "lack of intelligence" in U.S. efforts to find solutions to its border problems as well as a lack of political courage to take a moral stand just before the November elections.

He said the fence is unlikely to stop illegal entry into the United States, but is likely to lead people "to try to cross the border in increasingly risky ways or by putting themselves into the hands of unscrupulous traffickers."

In addition, the cardinal said, "from an economic point of view, it does not seem to me to be a very farsighted choice."

The millions of dollars that Mexicans working in the United States send home to their families is essential for their survival and for the Mexican economy, he said.

And if they can afford to send so much home, "how much greater is the profit earned by their bosses" in the United States? the cardinal asked.

"Does it make sense for the United States to kill this goose that lays golden eggs, which objectively is what the phenomenon of immigration is doing?" he asked.

Cardinal Lozano told Avvenire that Pope Benedict XVI had spoken on other occasions about the need to build bridges, not walls.

Walls and fences, he said, are not the solution, "not along the border between Mexico and the United States, not in the Holy Land, not anywhere. Let us hope that they meet the same end as the Berlin Wall did."

Let Us Discuss

Forgive me Father, for I’m about to sin. But you, dear servant of our Lord, provide a fatally flawed argument. Let’s break this article down:

1. “Building a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border is a shortsighted move that may hurt the U.S. economy and shows a serious lack of respect for the dignity of Mexican workers, said a Vatican official.”

Thank you, Father, for your concern for our economy, but you have it all wrong. You fail to recognize the strain illegal immigrants place on our health care system, public schools, prisons and law enforcement - all of which are supported by taxpayer dollars. Illegal immigrants, dear Father, do not pay taxes. American taxpayers are shouldering the burden.

As to your criticism of the “lack of respect” shown to the “Mexican worker”, do you have nothing to say about the lack of respect the “Mexican worker” shows for the laws of the United States of America?

2. “The fence is unlikely to stop illegal entry into the United States, but is likely to lead people to try to cross the border in increasingly risky ways or by putting themselves into the hands of unscrupulous traffickers." And “the millions of dollars that Mexicans working in the United States send home to their families is essential for their survival and for the Mexican economy.”

Father, a fence does not lead people to cross the border in risky ways and it is not the responsibility of the United States to ensure the stability and viability of the Mexican economy. It is a corrupt and unscrupulous Mexican government whose policies keep more than 50% of its citizens living in poverty that drives these poor people to make such difficult choices.

Please refer below to Chapter Six from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church:

Employment problems challenge the responsibility of the State, whose duty it is to promote active employment policies, that is, policies that will encourage the creation of employment opportunities within the national territory, providing the production sector with incentives to this end. The duty of the State does not consist so much in directly guaranteeing the right to work of every citizen, making the whole of economic life very rigid and restricting individual free initiative, as much as in the duty to “sustain business activities by creating conditions which will ensure job opportunities, by stimulating those activities where they are lacking or by supporting them in moments of crisis”.

3. Walls and fences, he said, are not the solution, "not along the border between Mexico and the United States, not in the Holy Land, not anywhere. Let us hope that they meet the same end as the Berlin Wall did."

Shame on you, Father! Do you dare to compare a fence along the southern U.S. border with the Berlin Wall? If so, let me point out a fundamental flaw in your comparison: The Berlin Wall was an oppressive and deadly tool used to keep people in. We merely want to keep people out. You, for instance, may come and go as you please...just do it according to the laws and regulations of the United States of America.

Dòminus vobìscum. Vade In Pace.

35

2006-11-11T00:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to Me.
Happy Birthday to Me.
Happy Birthday dear Hawkeyegirl.
Happy Birthday to Me.

Today I'm grateful for many things, especially my nieces, Mary and Kate, and my nephews Mark and Matthew.

I'm blessed with an urban tribe that looks out for me. Thanks guys.

Every day a blessing...even when the Republicans get spanked and humiliated. There's more in this world. Family.

Mull The Mullet

2006-11-09T11:21:00.000-05:00

As promised (and because I don't want to talk about the midterm elections - although the shellacking was well-deserved ... except for Jim Leach, Mike DeWine, Anne Northup, Jim Ryun and Jim Talent.. oh and Michael Steele), it's time to Mull the Mullet.

For those uneducated in the unisex hairstyle culture of rural America, I will refer to the Wikipedia definition of mullet:

"A mullet is a haircut that is short in the front, on the top, and on the sides, but long in the back. Mullets have been worn by males and females of all ages, but they have traditionally been most popular with younger men. A slogan or motto often associated with people who wear mullets is: "Business up front, party in the back!"

For your visual reference, see inserted photo of David Spade playing the title character in the movie Joe Dirt. Note the classic mullet assessories: pedophile 'stache, porkchop burns and an emerging goatee. Great Mullet Movie Quotes:

"God Almighty, mana from inbred heaven. Hey freak
boy: 1976 called, it wants its hairstyle back." - Zander Kelly in
Joe Dirt

"What's the deal with your hair? You doing stunt
work for Billy Ray Cyrus?" - Zander Kelly in Joe Dirt.

I grew up in Iowa with a lot of mullets - camaromullets, femmullets, wrastlermullets and farmullets to name just a few. I even had a partial mullet in my family. My brother Patrick made the entire family proud his senior year in high school (1987) when he created his very own hair style. In the front he butt parted his straight hair and feathered the sides. The back, which was longer - hocky hair length - was then permed. Yes, I said permed. Did I mention he has red hair? Awesomely cool, Pat. Damn I wish I had a picture to post.

Now to be fair, I had a permed mullette in 7th grade. But I was in the 7th grade. Nobody is cute or makes good fashion choices in the 7th grade. I was growing my hair out into a bob. You know, straight hair cut in one length usually between the chin and shoulders. I was on my way to making a good style choice, but was momentarily diverted along the way. Damn I'm glad there's no photo evidence.

Mullets provide a wealth of fodder for ridicule, study, discussion and observation. A mullet is afterall more than a hairstyle, it's a lifestyle.

Favorite mullet links for endless jocularity.

http://www.mulletjunky.com

http://www.mulletsgalore.com

http://www.mulletmadness.com

Happy mullet watching.

The Land

2006-11-06T19:38:00.000-05:00

To prepare for tomorrow's election, in my mind I'm heading for The Land. A few of my brothers and a couple of their friends purchased 73 acres of land in Dallas County a few years back. They use it for hunting and riding motorcycles and ATVs. I really need a quiet place, so like James Taylor, in my mind I'm goin' to The Land. I'll see you when it's over.

Chet

2006-11-02T16:25:00.000-05:00

I'm mulling Chet Culver as the next governor of Iowa. The image that comes to mind is of Wyatt's jerkwad older brother Chet (Bill Paxton) in the eighties flick "Weird Science." Lisa turns him into a Jabba-the-hut look alike who eats flies.

Tight Pants and the Uneducated

2006-11-01T12:43:00.000-05:00

To the Faithful Three - apologies for the lag in posting. Hawkeyegirl has been busy mourning the demise of this year's Hawkeye football season (um...Indiana??), bridesmaiding, working and being lazy.

What I've observed lately is that my pants are getting tighter as my Midwestern body begins to crave carbohydrates and retain girth around the waistline in anticipation of a harsh winter. But there's no harsh winter! If there's even a forecast of snow out here, the schools close, the federal government invokes the "liberal leave" policy and 30 minutes are automatically added to the commute. So not only do I get fat for no reason (is there ever a reason?), I get bitter and self-righteous, too. I am a Midwesterner and I know how to drive in every kind of weather Mother Nature throws out. Who are these white knucklers on the road with me? "Scum, scum, scum, go back to where you're from!" Be the first to name that movie quote and win a mullicious mention on bentpinky.com.

Now, let's mull John Kerry. I know, I know! I thought we were done with that yahoo. But thanks to the good people of Taxachusetts, he'll be on the scene for many years to come. I know you know what I'm going mull - his "joke gone wrong" statement about our uneducated military. What to say...what to say...Oh I know! "Scum, scum, scum, go back to where you're from!" Stick to what you know, Jahnny Boy: windsurfing, waxing non-poetic on the Senate floor and walking in the large shadow of Teddy.

As my brothers would say, it's time to get back to 'the rock.' Growing up in a gypsum mill town, that refers to work. I'm thinking my next mull may be about mullets. Good times.

Mulling For Your Mullitudes

2006-10-11T15:23:00.000-04:00

Read this in today's Post and thought it was worthy of mulling. Mull what it means to desire freedom and liberty; mull persistence, patience and hope in the face of crushing autocracies; mull your feelings about the U.S. role in spreading democracy and freedom - is it our responsibility? What are your mullitudes on these mullings?

Support Freedom in the Arab World

By Radwan A. Masmoudi and Amr Hamzawy
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; A19
Washington Post

As Arab and Muslim intellectuals and activists concerned about the promotion of democracy in our region, we call on America and its president to reaffirm -- in words and actions -- its commitment to sustained democratic reform in the Arab world.

We have been heartened by the strong commitment to liberty that President Bush expressed in his November 2003 speech at the National Endowment for Democracy and then in his second inaugural address, when he said: "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."

Despite some initial skepticism, those statements nurtured hope in our region. We realize that democracy is not easily attained and must ultimately come from within. But it can receive encouragement and support, both of which it badly needs today in Arab countries.

We know that some in the United States, worried by recent Islamist gains among voters in Palestine and Egypt, are having doubts about the wisdom of pushing for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. These worries are exploited by despots in the region to perpetuate the untenable status quo. But there is no way to advance liberty without inclusion of all elements that are willing to abide by democratic rules and reject violence.

Democratic participation is the only way to combat extremism and pressure all groups, including Islamists, to moderate their stance in order to maximize their share of the vote. The United States should continue to press for an end to repression by governing regimes of democratically minded liberal and Islamist groups, and it should emphatically distance itself from such repression and condemn it in the strongest terms whenever and wherever it occurs. We are confident that if Arab citizens are able to have their choice, they will choose democracy, freedom, peace and progress.

Perhaps emboldened by the impression that America is wavering in its support for democracy, some autocrats have recently intensified repression. This makes the need for sustained U.S. and international support and pressure more urgent than ever. The region needs to hear again that the course of freedom and democracy is the only course that America, guided by both interest and principle, will support.

To mention but one case where U.S. influence might do much good: Egypt has experienced a regime crackdown lately on opposition activists. In February the government postponed municipal elections and renewed the emergency law. The regime has not even spared Egypt's venerable judiciary, which has steadfastly proclaimed its independence in recent months. And liberal opposition politician Ayman Nour, who was allowed to run in last year's presidential election and won 8 percent of the popular vote, behind only President Hosni Mubarak, was arrested and sentenced in a murky process to five years in jail.

The health of Ayman Nour, a dear friend and colleague of many of us, continues to deteriorate. We pray that President Bush will take Nour's case to heart and tell the Egyptian regime of his concerns. Hundreds of other activists (including doctors, university professors, journalists and those in civil society) whose only crime was to express their desire for freedom continue to languish in jail and suffer torture and police brutality.

We entreat America to do all it can to ensure that a small number of authoritarian rulers will not control the future of more than 300 million Arabs, more than half of whom are not yet 20 years old. Freedom and democracy are the only ways to build a world where violence is replaced by peaceful public debate and political participation, and despair is replaced by hope, tolerance and dignity.

This article is adapted from an open letter to President Bush signed by 103 other Arab and Muslim activists and thinkers in Arab countries, Europe, the United States and elsewhere who have worked in support of democracy (see www.islam-democracy.org).

Back To The Basics - Mullin' and Observin'

2006-10-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

I've mulled Mississippi and decided to keep my thoughts to myself. Shocking I know. But I have multitudes of mullings on other items to entertain and irritate the masses of people who visit bentpinky.com on a daily basis. I think I'm averaging 3 visits a day.

Bentpinky Observations

1. There's something to be said for spending time in a news-free environment. In Mississippi, all I did was go to mass, work on the house for 10 hours, eat a little something and hit the hay. I didn't know about the shootings at the Amish school house or the Mark Foley scandal until I was in the Memphis airport on Wednesday, Oct. 4. Observation: Self-induced ignorance is bliss.

2. That new television show Studio 60 is just a reincarnation of the West Wing (aka Left Wing) on the Left Coast. Same "snappy" and annoying dialogue, same leftist self-righteousness, same blah, blah, blah. Observation: Uhhhhhhhhhhh...yah, I got nothin'. I just don't like the show.

3. Yesterday as I was getting ready for work I swore I heard an animal in my house. Now I have two cats. I know every sound they make. They don't make the sound I heard. So, of course, I slammed my bathroom door so "it" couldn't get me. My only exit was out the bathroom window, so of course that's what I did...in my pajamas...my ugly, cutoff sweatpant shorts and grungy, green Iowa State t-shirt. At this point I recognize loyal readers will question my state of mind. I mean, wearing an Iowa State t-shirt?

Anyway, I proceed to knock on my neighbors' doors to see if I can use their phone to call animal control (for the animal I only heard...I did not see it). Luckily my upstairs neighbor was getting home from the night shift as a Capitol police officer just as I was knocking on his door. He crawled through my bathroom window, searched the place and unlocked the front door for me. No animal. After work I had my friend Sharon's husband do a thorough search. No animal. What the hell did I hear? Observation: I can't believe my neighbor saw me wearing an Iowa State t-shirt. Ugh. The horror.

4. In 2004 I shook Mark Foley's hand as I entered the Capitol rotunda to pay my respects to President Reagan as he laid in state. It was just past 1 a.m. and Foley was there as Chair of the House Aministration Committee (I think) to greet visitors. He was all smiley and saying "God bless" and such. Observation: I thought he was creepy then. I know he's creepy now. Yuck.

Bentpinky Mullings

1. I wonder what kind of product Kim Jong-Il uses in his hair to get it so high and fluffy. Hair products must not be on the international sanction list.

2. Is the number of perverts in Congress proportional to the number of perverts in the general public? It's a fair question. Mull it.

3. Who besides emaciated models do skinny pants look good on and why are eighties styles - namely walking shorts with tights - back in vogue? WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? I distinctly remember watching an episode of What Not To Wear last year in which they mercilessly ridiculed a woman for wearing walking shorts and tights. Who drives seasonal trends?

4. One of the priests at my parish is my age. So I'm calling one of my peers "Father." This is new.

5. I just saw an ad for Mexico. The slogan was "It's beyond your expectations." If half the country's population is fleeing over its northern border to find a better life...mull it.

Thanks to the three loyal readers. Keep on mullin'.

Citgo Can Go...

2006-10-10T11:32:00.000-04:00

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com
________________________________________
Alaskan villages defend Bush, reject Chavez's fuel
Published October 10, 2006
________________________________________
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- A few of Alaska's native villages are refusing free heating oil from the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, based on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil."
"As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us," said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon.
"Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make," said Mr. Gunderson, whose village on the Bering Sea can dip to temperatures of minus-15.
While scores of Alaska's Eskimo and Indian villages, where many are poor, say they have no choice but to accept heating-oil money from Citgo, Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, said taking the aid would be "compromising ourselves."
"I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," said Mr. Philemonof, whose nonprofit organization would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George.
The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association rejected the offer because Mr. Chavez has repeatedly denigrated Mr. Bush, calling him "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last month and referring to him as a terrorist.
About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo, the Venezuelan government's Texas-based oil subsidiary. The oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about $5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of more than 12,000 households.
"When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn't matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from," said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community.
The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise awash in oil -- and oil profits.
For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.
An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News criticized the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alaskans with home heating costs.
"It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift," the editorial stated.
John Manly, a spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, said the governorthought Mr. Chavez's donation was a ploy to undermine Americans' faith in their government. But he said it was up to each village to make its own decision.
Over the past two years, Citgo has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several states and cities -- including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts -- in what is widely seen as an effort by Mr. Chavez to embarrass and irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good.

Mississippi Briefly

2006-10-06T20:58:00.000-04:00

I don't think I'm ready to talk about Biloxi, MS. It was a meaningful trip - a profoundly meaningful trip. I need to mull it over some more. So much to mull on what it means to be a good neighbor, and how sometimes you have to travel 1500 miles to meet the people who live across the hall.

"In the quiet of the American conscience, we know that deep persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation's promise. Whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault... Where there is suffering, there is duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems, but priorities, and all of us are diminished when any are hopeless. Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools. Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government. Some needs and hurts are so deep they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws. Many in our country do not know the pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do. I can pledge our nation to a goal, "When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side."

- George W. Bush, January 20, 2001

P.S. I watched the Iowa vs. Ohio State game while in Mississippi. Kinnick looked FANtastic - I nearly wept at the site of it dressed in gold for all the football-loving U.S. to see. Congratulations, Iowa fans, you did us all proud. I know! I know! I'm a complete sap, but that's how I mull. On Iowa!

The Mississippi-Iowa Connection

2006-09-28T22:22:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow at this time I'll be in Mississippi. I'm really looking forward to the trip. My parish is sponsoring a house in Biloxi through Habitat for Humanity. I'll be wearing an Iowa t-shirt every day...even if we lose to Ohio State...which is a real possibility. Hey, hey, hey! I'm just being realistic. It doesn't mean I don't have faith in the team - that's not the case at all. In Drew We Trust...The Great Drewdini...I believe.

I remember October 19, 1985. #1 Iowa vs. #2 Michigan...Iowa wins 12-10 in a last second kick by Rob Houghtlin. Even though I was only 13 at the time, I remember it vividly. So I'm a little off topic. Cut me some slack - I love my Hawkeyes.

So on to Mississippi. I'll be out of pocket for a while, so no mullings or observations until the 5th.

(Go Hawks)

Do you forget people jumping off the 80th floor?

2006-09-27T20:23:00.000-04:00

I'm always a day late and a dollar short, but I still seem to beat the major cable networks (except Fox News) in "reporting" on significant stories concerning the war on Islamofascism. On Tuesday, Jennifer Loven, that bastion of journalistic integrity and neutrality from the Associated Press, asked Afghanistan's President Karzai this question (cock it and pull it, Jennifer):

"Thank you, sir. Even after hearing that one of the major conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate in April was that the Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world, why have you continued to say that the Iraq war has made this country safer?"

The story is not her question, but President Karzai's eloquent response. Follow the link to http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/26/must-see-video-karzai-responds-to-reporters-question-about-terrorism/ and watch. His answer is at the end of the clip, but the entire clip is excellent. Ahhhhh, eloquence and sense. God keep him safe. A man of reason and sense in a region of irrationality and chaos.

Before I leave to watch it again, I have to send this question out into the void, "Why did I have to read about this in an obscure blog?"

Classic

2006-09-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

My friend's colleague ran into Clinton Kelly from TLC's "What Not To Wear" in an Adams' Morgan bar this week. Apparently she was pretty tipsy and was really chatting him up. But her friend had a little bit more to drink and in a burst of excitment walked up to him and asked, "How do I look?" For the non-style mavens out there, that's the name of a different style show on a different network. Classic.

More Material From Heather

2006-09-19T22:27:00.000-04:00

Once again, great material passed along from Heather. Quote of the Day from the Wall Street Journal's Political Diary - and it's from the Washington Post. Who knew?

"[N]othing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it's time that it should... [I]f stray comments by Western leaders -- not to mention Western films, books, cartoons, traditions and values -- are going to inspire regular violence, I don't feel that it's asking too much for the West to quit saying sorry and unite, occasionally, in its own defense. The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don't see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech, too" -- Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum.

A Religion of Peace

2006-09-18T18:29:00.000-04:00

The irrational Muslim fanatics across the globe are STILL rioting about Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Turkish emperor who made what the modern day PC police would consider "insensitive remarks" about Islam. But now they're saying he should DIE. Die? Yes, die. They're burning his image in the streets in Pakistan, they're reconsidering allowing him to visit Turkey next month. Hmmm. What was that quote again? Let's revisit:

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”’

If their threatening response wasn't so real and filled with sincere vitriol, it would be absolutely hysterical. No! No! Islam isn't a violent religion. What ever would give one that idea? It's clearly a religion of peace.

A sampling of articles from various media outlets highlights the gravity of the situation:

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran’s supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff’s remarks on Islam. Protests broke out in South Asia and Indonesia, with angry Muslims saying Benedict’s statement of regret a day earlier did not go far enough. In southern Iraq, demonstrators carrying black flags burned an effigy of the pope.

London,UK - A notorious Muslim extremist told a demonstration in London yesterday that the Pope should face execution.

Anjem Choudary said those who insulted Islam would be "subject to capital punishment".
His remarks came during a protest outside Westminster Cathedral on a day that worldwide anger among Muslim hardliners towards Pope Benedict XVI appeared to deepen.

The section highlighted in bold represents the first time I've seen the current war characterized by Muslim fanatics as a "war against Christianity." Does that now give us license to call this war what it really is and put the politically correct language on the burn pile? It is not a war on terror. Terrorism is a tactic used in the war. We're in a war against Muslim fanatics - or Islamofascists as the President said a few weeks ago (and as talk radio has been saying for more than a year.) Like Billy Joel says, "We didn't start the fire."

http://www.evilconservativeblog.com/

The Pope, Gremlins, Forests and Iran

2006-09-15T09:35:00.000-04:00

I was going to write about the whiners in the Muslim world who take offense at the Pope quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor. “The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the pope said. “He said, I quote, ’Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”’

I was going to write about how some whack job Turkish leader is now comparing our Pope to Hitler and Mussolini. “Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words,” he said. “He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as (Adolf) Hitler and (Benito) Mussolini.” But I'm tired of people clamoring for apologies from this leader and that leader for saying this wrong thing and that wrong thing. This kind of rhetoric, and its perpetuation and distortion in the Muslim and western media, ignites the jihadists and as my friend Kristin would say, "makes them multiply like water on gremlins."

But I'm not going to write about that. Thanks to Heather for bringing another brilliant Charles Krauthammer column to my attention. It is, as Heather pointed out, sobering. We are living, as the president has said but not enough people take seriously, at a defining moment in the history of not only our country, but of the world. Set aside politics and ideology for just a moment. Accept it in the spirit in which it is offered - not to fearmonger but as preparation for what is to come. The scourge of radical Islam threatens to destroy all of civilization, let alone western civilization. I think what worries me more - what really keeps me up at night - is the fear that we are destroying ourselves. United we stand. Divided we fall. See the trees? Look again. It's a forest.

www. realclearpolitics.com
September 15, 2006
The Tehran Calculus
By Charles Krauthammer

WASHINGTON -- In his televised 9/11 address, President Bush said that we must not "leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.'' There's only one such current candidate: Iran.

The next day, he responded thus (as reported by Rich Lowry and Kate O'Beirne of National Review) to a question on Iran: "It's very important for the American people to see the president try to solve problems diplomatically before resorting to military force.''

"Before'' implies that the one follows the other. The signal is unmistakable. An aerial attack on Iran's nuclear facilities lies just beyond the horizon of diplomacy. With the crisis advancing and the moment of truth approaching, it is important to begin looking now with unflinching honesty at the military option.

The costs will be terrible:

Economic. An attack on Iran will likely send oil prices overnight to $100 or even to $150. That will cause a worldwide recession perhaps as deep as the one triggered by the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Iran might suspend its own 2.5 million barrels a day of oil exports, and might even be joined by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, asserting primacy as the world's leading anti-imperialist. But even more effectively, Iran will shock the oil markets by closing the Strait of Hormuz through which 40 percent of the world's exports flow every day.

Iran could do this by attacking ships in the Strait, scuttling its own ships, laying mines or just threatening to launch Silkworm anti-ship missiles at any passing tanker.

The U.S. Navy will be forced to break the blockade. We will succeed but at considerable cost. And it will take time -- during which time the world economy will be in a deep spiral.

Military. Iran will activate its proxies in Iraq, most notably, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. Sadr is already wreaking havoc with sectarian attacks on Sunni civilians. Iran could order the Mahdi Army and its other agents within the police and armed forces to take up arms against the institutions of the central government itself, threatening the very anchor of the new Iraq. Many Mahdi will die, but they live to die. Many Iraqis and coalition soldiers are likely to die as well.

Among the lesser military dangers, Iran might activate terrorist cells around the world, although without nuclear capability that threat is hardly strategic. It will also be very difficult to unleash its proxy Hezbollah, now chastened by the destruction it brought upon Lebanon in the latest round with Israel and deterred by the presence of Europeans in the south Lebanon buffer zone.

Diplomatic. There will be massive criticism of America from around the world. Much of it is to be discounted. The Muslim street will come out again for a few days, having replenished its supply of flammable American flags most recently exhausted during the cartoon riots. Their governments will express solidarity with a fellow Muslim state, but this will be entirely hypocritical. The Arabs are terrified about the rise of a nuclear Iran and would privately rejoice in its defanging.

The Europeans will be less hypocritical because their visceral anti-Americanism trumps rational calculation. We will have done them an enormous favor by sparing them the threat of Iranian nukes, but they will vilify us nonetheless.

These are the costs. There is no denying them. However, equally undeniable is the cost of doing nothing.

In the region, Persian Iran will immediately become the hegemonic power in the Arab Middle East. Today it is deterred from overt aggression against its neighbors by the threat of conventional retaliation. Against a nuclear Iran, such deterrence becomes far less credible. As its weak, non-nuclear Persian Gulf neighbors accommodate to it, jihadist Iran will gain control of the most strategic region on the globe.

Then there is the larger danger of permitting nuclear weapons to be acquired by religious fanatics seized with an eschatological belief in the imminent apocalypse and in their own divine duty to hasten the End of Days. The mullahs are infinitely more likely to use these weapons than anyone in the history of the nuclear age. Every city in the civilized world will live under the specter of instant annihilation delivered either by missile or by terrorist. This from a country that has an official Death to America Day and has declared since Ayatollah Khomeini's ascension that Israel must be wiped off the map.

Against millenarian fanaticism glorying in a cult of death, deterrence is a mere wish. Is the West prepared to wager its cities with their millions of inhabitants on that feeble gamble?

These are the questions. These are the calculations. The decision is no more than a year away.

Commuting Humor

2006-09-12T23:29:00.000-04:00

Every day on my way to work I sit at a stoplight at the intersection of North Capitol and K Street NW. It's a busy intersection with a lot of eccelctic pedestrian traffic. Today a man strolled past my car eating a bag of microwave popcorn.

About two months ago I was stuck in the 3rd St. tunnel behind a sewage truck. I couldn't help but think if a terrorist blew up the tunnel while I was sitting there, I wouldn't just die. I'd die covered in crap. Then I noticed the slogan on the back of the truck. "We're Number 1 in a Number 2 Business."

I'm sure there will be more. At least I hope so. When it takes at least 45 minutes to travel 9.8 miles, humor is a necessity.

Go Stuff Yourself

2006-09-11T21:33:00.000-04:00

I remember nearly every moment of that day. What’s so strange is how clearly I remember leaving my house for work. I remember opening the door and walking out to the stoop. I stopped and took a deep breath, looked up to the sky and smiled. Fall had arrived. The sky was the bluest I’d ever seen. It’s something that everyone who remembers that day says, “The sky was so blue.” But it really was remarkable, like no other blue I’d ever seen – or have seen since. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Summer’s humidity was finally gone and the air was crisp and clean. I even remember the lilt in my step as I walked to the car. It was one of those days that make you stop and consider, just for a second, playing hookey from work.

There’s no need to go into the details of my experience in the intervening hours between when I left for work that morning and finally found a few hours of sleep in the early morning hours of the next day. Five years to the day later, I’m incredulous how quickly people forget. I’m still angry. I haven’t forgiven. “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Shouldn’t that be the example I should follow? The problem is that they knew exactly what they were doing.

Today I read an article in the Washington Post about a Michigan mother’s quest to speak to the mother of the terrorist who murdered her son on September 11. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001186.html). It’s a fascinating account of her efforts and I was captivated. And then I read it – it was inevitable. She put together a PowerPoint presentation on what the White House knew before Sept. 11. “Information," she concludes, "was there." She slapped an anti-Bush bumper sticker on her car. Later in the article she concludes “her own nation is not blameless.” The criticisms some Muslims have of American society are well-founded, she argues, "the conspicuous consumption, trash TV, too much drinking and drugs."

So these American transgressions against the world justify murdering nearly 3000 civilians in cold blood? Trash TV too much for you? Turn it off. Too much drinking? Have ya' been to Ireland? Drugs – can you say poppies in Afghanistan? Cocaine in Columbia? My sympathy for this woman is gone. My rage, anger and disgust with the “Blame America First” crowd nears that for the Islamist terrorists who perpetrate the crimes against all of humanity. Don’t like America? Get in your Volvo and drive north...or south. It's a free country.

So to commemorate this day, I observed a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. on my way to work. At the same time, a jet flew low overhead out of Reagan National Airport above the 14th Street bridge. I indulged in a decadent meal of linguini in vodka sauce, drank too much wine and ate too much ice cream. I watched some trash TV. God bless America.

The following is the transcript from the President 9/11 5th anniversary address to the nation. I can't believe this is the world we live in.

A text of President Bush's address Monday evening, as provided by the White House:
Bush: Good evening. Five years ago, this date _ September the 11th _ was seared into America/s memory. Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history. They murdered people of all colors, creeds, and nationalities _ and made war upon the entire free world. Since that day, America and her allies have taken the offensive in a war unlike any we have fought before. Today, we are safer, but we are not yet safe. On this solemn night, I have asked for some of your time to discuss the nature of the threat still before us, what we are doing to protect our nation ... and the building of a more hopeful Middle East that holds the key to peace for America and the world.

On 9/11, our nation saw the face of evil. Yet on that awful day, we also witnessed something distinctly American: ordinary citizens rising to the occasion, and responding with extraordinary acts of courage. We saw courage in office workers who were trapped on the high floors of burning skyscrapers _ and called home so that their last words to their families would be of comfort and love. We saw courage in passengers aboard Flight 93, who recited the 23rd Psalm _ and then charged the cockpit. And we saw courage in the Pentagon staff who made it out of the flames and smoke _ and ran back in to answer cries for help. On this day, we remember the innocent who lost their lives _ and we pay tribute to those who gave their lives so that others might live.

For many of our citizens, the wounds of that morning are still fresh. I have met firefighters and police officers who choke up at the memory of fallen comrades. I have stood with families gathered on a grassy field in Pennsylvania, who take bittersweet pride in loved ones who refused to be victims _ and gave America our first victory in the war on terror. And I have sat beside young mothers with children who are now five-years-old _ and still long for the daddies who will never cradle them in their arms. Out of this suffering, we resolve to honor every man and woman lost. And we seek their lasting memorial in a safer and more hopeful world.

Since the horror of 9/11, we have learned a great deal about the enemy. We have learned that they are evil and kill without mercy _ but not without purpose. We have learned that they form a global network of extremists who are driven by a perverted vision of Islam _ a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises all dissent. And we have learned that their goal is to build a radical Islamic empire where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings, and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations. The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation.

Our nation is being tested in a way that we have not been since the start of the Cold War. We saw what a handful of our enemies can do with box-cutters and plane tickets. We hear their threats to launch even more terrible attacks on our people. And we know that if they were able to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, they would use them against us. We face an enemy determined to bring death and suffering into our homes. America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I. But the war is not over _ and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious. If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons. We are in a war that will set the course for this new century _ and determine the destiny of millions across the world.
For America, 9/11 was more than a tragedy _ it changed the way we look at the world. On September the 11th, we resolved that we would go on the offense against our enemies _ and we would not distinguish between the terrorists and those who harbor or support them. So we helped drive the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. We put al-Qaida on the run, and killed or captured most of those who planned the 9/11 attacks _ including the man believed to be the mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He and other suspected terrorists have been questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency _ and they have provided valuable information that has helped stop attacks in America and across the world. Now these men have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, so they can be held to account for their actions. Osama bin Laden and other terrorists are still in hiding. Our message to them is clear: No matter how long it takes, America will find you, and we will bring you to justice.

On September the 11th, we learned that America must confront threats before they reach our shores _ whether those threats come from terrorist networks or terrorist states. I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat. My administration, the Congress and the United Nations saw the threat _ and after 9/11, Saddam's regime posed a risk that the world could not afford to take. The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. And now the challenge is to help the Iraqi people build a democracy that fulfills the dreams of the nearly 12 million Iraqis who came out to vote in free elections last December.

Al-Qaida and other extremists from across the world have come to Iraq to stop the rise of a free society in the heart of the Middle East. They have joined the remnants of Saddam's regime and other armed groups to foment sectarian violence and drive us out. Our enemies in Iraq are tough and they are committed _ but so are Iraqi and coalition forces. We are adapting to stay ahead of the enemy _ and we are carrying out a clear plan to ensure that a democratic Iraq succeeds.

We are training Iraqi troops so they can defend their nation. We are helping Iraq's unity government grow in strength and serve its people. We will not leave until this work is done. Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad. Osama bin Laden calls this fight "the third world war" _ and he says that victory for the terrorists in Iraq will mean America's "defeat and disgrace forever."

If we yield Iraq to men like Bin Laden, our enemies will be emboldened ... they will gain a new safe haven ... and they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement. We will not allow this to happen. America will stay in the fight. Iraq will be a free nation, and a strong ally in the war on terror.

We can be confident that our coalition will succeed _ because the Iraqi people have been steadfast in the face of unspeakable violence. And we can be confident in victory _ because of the skill and resolve of America's armed forces. Every one of our troops is a volunteer, and since the attacks of September the 11th, more than 1.6 million Americans have stepped forward to put on our nation's uniform. In Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terror, the men and women of our military are making great sacrifices to keep us safe. Some have suffered terrible injuries _ and nearly 3,000 have given their lives. America cherishes their memory. We pray for their families. And we will never back down from the work they have begun.

We also honor those who toil day and night to keep our homeland safe _ and we are giving them the tools they need to protect our people. We have created the Department of Homeland Security. We have torn down the wall that kept law enforcement and intelligence from sharing information ... we have tightened security at our airports, seaports, and borders ... and we have created new programs to monitor enemy bank records and phone calls. Thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement and intelligence professionals, we have broken up terrorist cells in our midst and saved American lives.

Five years after 9/11, our enemies have not succeeded in launching another attack on our soil _ but they have not been idle. Al-Qaida and those inspired by its hateful ideology have carried out terrorist attacks in more than two dozen nations. And just last month, they were foiled in a plot to blow up passenger planes headed for the United States. They remain determined to attack America and kill our citizens _ and we are determined to stop them. We will continue to give the men and women who protect us every resource and legal authority they need to do their jobs.

In the first days after the 9/11 attacks, I promised to use every element of national power to fight the terrorists wherever we find them. One of the strongest weapons in our arsenal is the power of freedom. The terrorists fear freedom as much as they do our firepower. They are thrown into panic at the sight of an old man pulling the election lever, of girls enrolling in school or families worshipping God in their own traditions. They know that given a choice, people will choose freedom over their extremist ideology. So their answer is to deny people this choice by raging against the forces of freedom and moderation. This struggle has been called a clash of civilizations. In truth, it is a struggle for civilization. We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations. And we are fighting for the possibility that good and decent people across the Middle East can raise up societies based on freedom, and tolerance, and personal dignity.

We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom. Amid the violence, some question whether the people of the Middle East want their freedom _ and whether the forces of moderation can prevail. For 60 years, these doubts guided our policies in the Middle East. And then, on a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage. Years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither. So we changed our policies, and committed America's influence in the world to advancing freedom and democracy as the great alternatives to repression and radicalism.

With our help, the people of the Middle East are now stepping forward to claim their freedom. From Kabul to Baghdad to Beirut, there are brave men and women risking their lives each day for the same freedoms that we enjoy. And they have one question for us: Do we have the confidence to do in the Middle East what our fathers and grandfathers accomplished in Europe and Asia? By standing with democratic leaders and reformers, by giving voice to the hopes of decent men and women, we are offering a path away from radicalism. And we are enlisting the most powerful force for peace and moderation in the Middle East: the desire of millions to be free.

Across the broader Middle East, the extremists are fighting to prevent such a future. Yet America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it _ sometimes at the cost of thousands of good men in a single battle. When Franklin Roosevelt vowed to defeat two enemies across two oceans, he could not have foreseen D-Day and Iwo Jima _ but he would not have been surprised at the outcome. When Harry Truman promised American support for free peoples resisting Soviet aggression, he could not have foreseen the rise of the Berlin Wall _ but he would not have been surprised to see it brought down. Throughout our history, America has seen liberty challenged _ and every time, we have seen liberty triumph with sacrifice and determination.

At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile gardens of liberty _ and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and prosperity. We look to the day when the nations of that region recognize that their greatest resource is not the oil in the ground _ but the talent and creativity of their people. We look to the day when moms and dads throughout the Middle East see a future of hope and opportunity for their children. And when that good day comes, the clouds of war will part the appeal of radicalism will decline ... and we will leave our children with a better and safer world. On this solemn anniversary, we rededicate ourselves to this cause. Our nation has endured trials _ and we face a difficult road ahead. Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country. And we must put aside our differences, and work together to meet the test that history has given us. We will defeat our enemies we will protect our people ... and we will lead the 21st century into a shining age of human liberty.

Earlier this year, I traveled to the United States Military Academy. I was there to deliver the commencement address to the first class to arrive at West Point after the attacks of September the 11th. That day I met a proud mom named RoseEllen Dowdell. She was there to watch her son Patrick accept his commission in the finest Army the world has ever known. A few weeks earlier, RoseEllen had watched her other son, James, graduate from the Fire Academy in New York City. On both these days, her thoughts turned to someone who was not there to share the moment: her husband, Kevin Dowdell. Kevin was one of the 343 firefighters who rushed to the burning towers of the World Trade Center on September the 11th _ and never came home. His sons lost their father that day _ but not the passion for service he instilled in them. Here is what RoseEllen says about her boys, "As a mother, I cross my fingers and pray all the time for their safety _ but as worried as I am, I am also proud _ and I know their dad would be too."

Our nation is blessed to have young Americans like these _ and we will need them. Dangerous enemies have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. They are not the first to try _ and their fate will be the same as those who tried before _ 9/11 showed us why. The attacks were meant to bring us to our knees, and they did _ but not in the way the terrorists intended. Americans united in prayer ... came to the aid of neighbors in need ... and resolved that our enemies would not have the last word. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. And we go forward with trust in that spirit, confidence in our purpose _ and faith in a loving God who made us to be free.

Thank you, and may God bless you.

Boobs

2006-09-08T23:37:00.000-04:00

I had my first bra fitting today. I'm 34. It was easily the single most humiliating experience of my life. A young, waifish French woman - approximately a size 0 with probably an A cup - measured me. She took one look at me and headed to the big girl section of the store. I don't want to talk about it beyond that, so I'd like to conclude with this one statement: Women who get breast implants are deranged.

More Top News

2006-09-07T20:23:00.000-04:00

ABC's upcoming miniseries "The Path to 9/11" is generating a firestorm among members of the Clinton administration, who claim the two-part, made-for-TV film is filled with factual errors and lies.

Observation: Hmmm. Hmmmm. Farenheit 9-11.

MILWAUKEE - An 11-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by as many as 20 boys as a 16-year-old girl watched and told her what sex acts to perform, authorities say in the latest mob attack to rock Milwaukee and set off another round of civic soul-searching.

Observation: I banish Milwaukee from the Midwest.

A majority of Canadians believe U.S. foreign policy was one of the root causes that led to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and Quebecers are quicker to criticize the U.S. administration for its international actions than other Canadians, a recent poll suggests.

Observation: Sometimes I get so pissed that my mind won't work. I get this hot flash and then my brain gets hazy...fuzzy. There is so much fodder in that one sentence. Quebecers...French...cheese eating surrender monkeys. I recall Canada recently arrested a load of home-grown terrorists who were planning a domestic attack. I'm sure that's our fault, too. Think! Use your brains! Wake up and smell the muslim fanatics!!!!

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Officials are considering an unprecedented proposal to ban women from performing the five Muslim prayers in the immediate vicinity of Islam’s most sacred shrine in Mecca.

Observation: I better not hear anything more about Catholics not letting women be priests.

Headline Observations

2006-09-06T21:28:00.000-04:00

News from September 6, 2006

President George W. Bush acknowledged on Wednesday the CIA had interrogated dozens of terrorism suspects at secret overseas locations and said 14 of those held had been sent to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

My Observation:: Well I should sure hope so. Geez.

Islamic Republic News Agency reports that Ahmadinejad intends to travel to NYC, hopes to speak at UN on Sept. 19 at 7 PM; same day as Bush [whose speech is set for 11:30 AM] and day before Hugo Chavez... Both Ahmadinejad and Chavez will fly from Havana where they will see Castro... Earlier, Ahmadinejad said he was ready for debate with Bush at UN General Assembly...

My Observation: Isn't that just spit-on-your-neck-kick-you-in-the-crotch fantastic?

The sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 49 people near the Lexington airport last week told family members from his hospital bed, “Why did God do this to me?” but he hasn’t mentioned the crash, a close family friend said Wednesday.

My Observation: Jesus.

In case anyone needed proof, a new study supports the widely held perception: Celebrities are more in love with themselves than the average person.

My Observation:: Why is this news? We're at war. They can't find one "good news" story to report about the war, but they sure find space to print some dumbass USC "study" about mindless celebrities.

Fall enrollment at the University of Iowa went up slightly compared to last year, while there were small declines at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa, the universities reported today.

My Observation: ISU aka Agricultural Extension College.

Did those conveniently timed cover stories proclaiming Jessica Simpson "head over heels" in love with John Mayer exaggerate the seriousness of their dating status just a wee bit? That's the word from the dizzy blond, who played down romantic rumblings about the floppyhaired crooner during Rosie O'Donnell's much-hyped co-host debut on "The View" Tuesday.

My Observation: And I was really looking forward to Simpsayer. Phooey.

Can't Sleep

2006-09-04T23:56:00.000-04:00

I can't sleep. Part of the reason I can't sleep is because I desperately want to sleep. This happens to me every time I plan to arrive at work early. I just took a sleeping pill at 11:50 p.m., so now I'll eventually get to sleep but won't be able to wake up in the morning.

I decided to list all the crazy things churning through my head in the hopes that they will go away.

1. Jason Johansen. Why in the world did his name pop into my head? I went to school with Jason from 2nd grade through high school. I haven't thought about him in years. Last I knew he was living in Omaha and had a good job. He was always really good with numbers.

2. I need to fix my upstairs bath tub. It's not draining properly. And the toilet won't stop running...so I just shut off the water. Now I have to run downstairs everytime I have "to go." I'm lazy so I sometimes just hold it to avoid having to run downstairs. I'm sure this will cause some type of weird gyno thing and force me to see Dr. G. I like Dr. G very much, but I don't like to see her. Once a year is plenty for me. Geez - now that I talked about having to go I gotta' "go." If I don't think about it maybe it will go away.

3. When I think about work, I throw up a little bit in my mouth. I'm a little stressed out...what if I get fired? What if everyone thinks I suck? I have so much work to do. I need to get organized. But I hate working on the weekends. But the weekends are the only time to get organized.

4. I could really use a back massage. Even when I lay down to sleep my shoulders are scrunched up by my ears. But what if the masseuse has rough hands with callouses? That would be gross.

5. My cats are sound asleep. Salinger keeps making noises. I wonder if cats dream. What would Salinger dream about? Does he have nightmares of me picking him up like he's still a baby and giving him kisses on his head? From his perspective I must be a giant - like the Jolly Green Giant is to the little peapod kid in those old commercials. Boy, that would freak me out, too. Poor Sal.

6. I think it's going to rain during the baseball game tomorrow. What the heck am I going to wear? I need to pack my clothes and take them to work...change at work and leave by 5:05 so I can pick Andrew up by 5:45. Will it look bad that I'm leaving that early? That's why I need to get to work early. But my boss gave me the tickets... Must buy something and get one of the Cardinals to autograph for Mark.

7. I'm going to be 35. How in the hell did that happen?

8. I bought some Pepto Bismol colored pajama bottoms with scottie dogs all over them at Old Navy today. I threw away a pair I'd had since 2000. It was time. As I walked into the store and perused the fall selections I couldn't help but ask myself, "Am I too old to shop at Old Navy?" By the looks of things, yes. I also couldn't find anything at TJ MAXX. I think it may be time to limit my shopping to specialty stores and department stores. I am,m afterall, going to be 35.

9. I talked to a really nice guy at Kathy's party over the weekend. Hadn't seen him in a long time. Turns out he visited the hospital for work about a month ago. He'd never been there before - didn't even know it existed. It was a public service project for work. He's with the media. Small world.

10. I need to make an appointment with my orthodontist. It's been way too long since I was last there. I hope he's still alive. I wonder if I need to start paying again because it's been so long. I mean, I paid it all off years ago. Is there a statute of limitations on "payment in full?"

Okay, hopefully this has helped clear my head and I can sail off to Nevernever Land. It's 12:17 a.m. Just 6 hours and my alarm will go off to WTOP and tomorrow's headlines. Please God, give us a little happy news. Amen.

Gotta' go...literally.

Mississippi On My Mind

2006-08-29T22:21:00.000-04:00

Sunday I volunteered at a community immunization event. The event was held on Mississippi Avenue SE, a part of town that I've visited perhaps three times in the 10 years I've lived here, and the previous times were only because I made a wrong turn.

I helped process the preschool age children, pulling their immunization records and getting them lined up by a mobile vaccination unit. At one point I found a two year old boy wandering around the parking lot. I asked him where his mommy and daddy were, but he said his mommy wasn't there. "My daddy left." That couldn’t be true, so I held his hand until he was comfortable, and then picked him up. I walked around asking people, "Does he belong to you?" No takers. I carried him for about 10 minutes when a little girl says to me, "Um, that's my brother." She had a five year old boy with her who I assumed was another brother. I finally figured out there was yet another child and that dad was probably with that child in the outpatient center at the other end of the parking lot getting his vaccinations.

The four of us walked to the outpatient center and just as we entered the dad was walking out of the exam room with his son. He looked at me and asked innocently if there was a problem. My brain was saying, "The problem is you left three children unattended to roam around a parking lot in the scorching sun (the oldest was at the most seven years old.)" I was incredulous, but gently handed the little one to dad and walked back outside.

I later saw him walking away with the four children. He looked up at me as I passed, fatigue in his posture, and thanked me. "That's quite a clan you have there!" I said. He smiled and turned to head home. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge. He was doing the best he could. Isn't that all we can expect of one another?

The day was full of memorable conversations with strangers, like the lovely lady who recently moved here from Riverside, GA. “What a blessing, what a blessing this is,” she said to me of the free immunizations. Having recently moved to the area, she couldn’t get her children in to the doctor’s office for vaccinations until the end of September. The children can’t start school if their vaccinations aren’t up to date. She didn’t know what she was going to do. “Then I heard an announcement for this event on the radio,” she said. “What a blessing.”

I sat and talked to her for at least a half hour. I told her all about my girlfriends from Georgia. “Georgia peaches, that’s what they are!” she exclaimed as I told her about their obsession with the University of Georgia (naturally) and their kind hearts.

At Mass on Sunday I heard something, or felt something, I'm not quite sure. Either way, I’m heading to the Mississippi gulf coast next month to help build a house for a Vietnamese family of five who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina. My parish is sponsoring the project. When the hurricane hit, the dad was at work. Mom and the three kids, one of which was 2 days old, survived by living in the attic for two days.

Mississippi. Who knew?

Gump Brain Fart

2006-08-22T22:12:00.000-04:00

There was something really funny I was going to comment on, but I forgot what it is. That's all I have to say about that.

Mind Boggling

2006-08-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

Mullings and observations on mind boggling and other random things:

1. An illegal immigrant is holed up in a Chicagoland Methodist church seeking "sanctuary" with her 7 year old child who is an American citizen. The pastor supports her. The MAYOR supports her. There is no law in the U.S. that says a church is a sanctuary FROM THE LAW. What is so difficult to understand: Enter the country illegally? Be deported legally. Feel sorry for her child? Blame her. She's the one who put him in the situation.

2. The ACLU. No need for elaboration.

3. Paris Hilton had a four minute spot on the Today Show this morning. Why is she famous?

4. North Korea is preparing a nuclear bomb test.

5. Hezbollah is paying to build new homes for people in Lebanon affected by the recent war with Isreal. Hezbollah started the war. Hezbollah used residential areas as targets for Israel. Now the Lebanese are praising Hezbollah for their generosity and naming their newborn children after the terrorist organization. Do I really live on the same planet as these people? Oh, and by the way, the war was the fault of the U.S. Of course.

6.A federal judge ruled that the U.S. government's domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately. Guess who brought that suit. See #2 above.

7. Haley Joel Osment caught driving drunk with marajuana in his car. Now who didn't see that coming?

8. This is worth the read...all the way through: http://news.bostonherald.com/editorial/view.bg?articleid=153289&format=text

9. The new season of The Office premiers September 21. Good stuff.

10. I got up at 5:45 this morning to work out. Mind boggling.

Hey Tommy, I Remember

2006-08-14T22:57:00.000-04:00

I watched a documentary about 9/11 on the History Channel Sunday night. I expect there will be more like it as the fifth anniversary draws near. Five years later and it’s as if it were yesterday.

There’s a show on FX called Rescue Me starring Denis Leary. Leary plays an alcoholic New York firefighter named Tommy Gavin who is occasionally visited by the ghost of his cousin who died in the twin towers. Leary’s life is a mess. His only son was hit by a car and killed, he’s separated from his wife, and now his brother is having sex with his ex and she’s pregnant.

On a particularly bad day, he wanders into a bar and asks for eight fingers of their best Irish whiskey. After chugging the $125 shot, he tells the young bartender he has only $2.25 in his pocket. Before the bartender can kick him out, he yells, “I’m FDNY!! I’m FDNY” hoping he’ll get cut some slack. As the whiskey takes effect, he yells out to everyone in the bar, “I bet every single one of you can name five American Idol finalists, but how many of you can name five of the 300+ firefighters who died on 9-11? Who can name one?” Silence. The bartender let him finish off the rest of the whiskey.

I recalled the one name I remember from that day, Father Mychal Judge, the FDNY chaplain. Here’s his story so that if you’re ever asked, you’ll know a name and his story.

THE DEATH OF FATHER MYCHAL JUDGE
Condensed from "The Fireman's Friar"
by Jennifer Senior; New York Magazine, Nov. 12, 2001.

Perhaps the first wisp of real poetry to emerge from the devastation of the World Trade Center was the tale of Mychal Judge's death. Within hours of the collapse, a story began circulating that he'd been hit by falling debris when he took his helmet off to give last rites to a firefighter, a man who himself had been crushed by someone who'd jumped from Tower One.

Seven weeks later, it seems that the story is at least partly myth, though perhaps a myth necessary to the demands of the day. For one thing, Judge's body was found in the lobby of Tower One, not on the sidewalk outside. For another, one of the firefighters who carried Judge out of the building, Christian Waugh, says he saw the chaplain standing upright by the emergency command post just seconds before they and scores of others got caught in a monsoon of rubble. "I'm assuming he gave last rites to the guy in Company 216 and then ran into the lobby," says Waugh. "Because I was with him in that lobby. He was standing right there, a few feet away from me."
But it's understandable how the myth bloomed. Those who knew Judge -- and he knew hundreds, if not thousands, of people -- wanted him to die gorgeously and aptly, in a way that expressed the depth of his faith. It was how they imagined him. Such a death suited a legend.

As it happens, the unembellished story of Mychal Judge's death is just as moving -- and an even more telling tribute to the chaplain, as well as to the men he served.

Bill Cosgrove, a lieutenant in the Manhattan Traffic Task Force, was in a car on West Broadway when he heard on his radio about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. He raced to Tower One to help guide rescuers in and out of the area. Later, inside the building, he found a group of firemen, including Christian Waugh, clustered around a granite desk at the tower's emergency command post. "I was just about to tell them which way to drive," says Cosgrove. "That's when the whole building shook. The lights went out. And there was this giant vacuum sound." Waugh dropped to the ground. Others, including Cosgrove, ducked into the nearby stairwell. "We thought it was our building that was collapsing," says Cosgrove. "It wasn't." He's now pretty sure it was Tower Two. "The pressure was sucking the windows out of Tower One."

The men waited in total darkness. Abruptly, they were enveloped in plumes of smoke, fireproofing, and pulverized cement. "You couldn't breathe," says Cosgrove. "You couldn't see. It was totally dark. Someone shouted, 'Everybody hold hands!' "
Gasping, their eyes stinging, the men reached out for one another and started a slow, awkward march out of the stairwell and back through the lobby. They had proceeded no more than twenty paces when it happened. Cosgrove tripped over something. A body.

Everyone stopped. One of the firefighters aimed his flashlight low across the ground. A halo of light framed a man's face. Everyone saw it. "Oh, my God," they began to shout. "It's Father Mike."

He wasn't buried under much rubble; his body, even his face, was still perfectly intact. They took his pulse. Nothing. "I took an arm," says Cosgrove. "Someone else took an arm. Two other guys took his ankles." Waugh grabbed him by the waist, and together the men carried him out of the building. They found a bunch of broken chairs on an outdoor plaza and nestled Judge in one of them, so that they could carry him down a staircase to the street.

That was the moment a Reuters photographer, Shannon Stapleton, snapped the picture that Christopher Keenan, one of Judge's closest friends at the friary, now calls "a modern Pietà."

As the first tower continued to burn, Waugh, Cosgrove, and the others carried Judge over to the corner of Church and Vesey and laid him out on the sidewalk. An EMT pronounced him dead. Cosgrove, pulsing with adrenaline, began to shout at the top of his lungs. "Somebody get this man a priest! This man is a priest!" The firemen ran back to the scene.

At that very moment, José Alfonso Rodriguez, a 28-year-old third-year cop on the downtown beat, was rounding the corner. "I know where there's a church," he told Cosgrove.

So off he went -- up to Church and Barclay Streets, and then into the 163-year-old St. Peter's. A woman inside was tearing up sheets, handing them to people who needed something to cover their mouths. "I need a priest to give someone last rites," he panted.

"They're all out," she said. "Are you Catholic?"

"Yes."

"You're allowed to give someone last rites."

Cosgrove had laid Judge's black fireman's jacket neatly over his head. Rodriguez reappeared and grabbed the lieutenant by the arms. "All the priests are gone," he shouted. "But the lady told me that if you're Catholic, you can do this. Are you Catholic?"

"Yes."

"Me too."

The men looked at each other for a split second. They were both wheezing, covered in ash, and trying desperately to see through the smoke. Tower One was minutes away from collapse.

They knelt down on the sidewalk.

Rodriguez gingerly grasped Judge's hand. Cosgrove laid his hands on Judge's head. Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven . . .

Somehow, Judge's body got from the sidewalk at Church and Vesey to St. Peter's. When Christian Waugh went back to look for him, he found Judge lying regally on the altar, his helmet and badge perched in mute tribute on his chest. Tom Ryan found him there, too. "I walked into this church," he says. "And in a world that was gray and dark, there was color, and laying on the altar was the body of Mychal Judge. In a horrendous moment, it was a beautiful sight."

The pastor at the church called the cardinal's office. The cardinal's office called the friary. An ambulance picked Judge up. He was slipped into a body bag and brought back to Engine 1-Ladder 24.

The firefighters placed their chaplain on a cot in the back of the station. Then they cordoned off the area with a clothesline and some sheets, creating a small, private shrine. The men formed a circle around him, got down on their knees, and started to cry.

Keenan sat with Judge until he was taken to the morgue. His death certificate bears the number 00001 -- the first official casualty of the World Trade Center.

Perfect Fall Saturday in August

2006-08-12T22:28:00.000-04:00

What a gorgeous Saturday. The weather was perfect - just like a mid-September football Saturday. Hit the gym this morning. When I was young my dad was like a broken record when it came to my exercise of choice: running. "You'll need knee replacements by the time you're 40." I'd shrug, afix my headphones and hit the concrete. Now when I walk down the stairs, sometimes my knees give out. I'm only 34. I might beat dad's prediction.

Two more great activites rounded out my day. I went to Georgetown and saw a terrific movie with my friend Chris (aka "Body By Jake"). "Little Miss Sunshine" is a great movie about...I don't feel like explaining it. But it's a "must see" in my book.

Then I visited the shrine to all that is beautiful or wants to be: Sephora (cue allelujah chorus). Bought a Smashbox eyeshadow trio and some tinted lip gloss. Then off to The GAP to make my first fall wardrobe purchase of 2006, a pair of straight leg "boyfriend" jeans. Whatever.

Why does my IPOD keep losing battery juice? How come it didn't come with any instructions? Every time I plug it in to my computer to charge it, it cautions "Do Not Disconnect." Is it charging? Am I shutting it off correctly? I would know if it came with instructions.

My niece is 5 1/2 and weighs 30 pounds. She's fully caught on to the fact that she was born premature and is now using it as a martyr tactic. When she feels she's being asked to do too much, she yells, "But I'm a premie!"

Why is Nicole Ritchie famous?

Hair: Diversion From Reality

2006-08-11T21:07:00.000-04:00

August 11, 2006

A quiet but busy work week in August culminated in an early Friday departure to make a 4:30 appointment with my stylist. Not nearly as pretentious as it sounds, it's a guilty pleasure I've enjoyed since I was eight years old. With all the money I've spent on my hair, I could easily have made a down payment on a single family home in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country...and have a BMW idling in the garage. But instead I invest in cut, color, blow out and volumizing products in a futile attempt to improve what cannot be changed: fine, flat, mousy brown hair.

In the fifth grade, I instructed Romaine, my stylist at the time, to cut off my shoulder length hair and, in keeping with the latest trends, perm it. And so my hair went from long and stringy to short and curly. I can still see my mother's face when she walked into the salon, which by the way, was housed in my neighbor's converted garage. She took one look and cupped her hand over her mouth in an effort to suppress the gasp. Mom managed to sputter out an "I love it," but bless her heart the damage was done. I made a poor choice and this was only the beginning of the fallout.

Even then I knew the importance of product, so I left Romaine's with two cans of mousse: one vanilla scented to highlight the "blonde" strands and one chocolate scented to accentuate the "brunette." Armed with my products, I headed home to face the ultimate judgement: my dad and five brothers. I still can't remember their reactions. The brain is an incredible organ with it's ability to block out memories involving shock, trauma and humiliation. What I do remember, however, is walking into my fifth grade classroom and one boy pointing at me and yelling, "Hey, it's Annie! Annie! Annie!" Unfortunately for me, "Annie" had recently been made into a major motion picture starring Aileen Quinn, Carol Burnett and Burnadette Peters. And so my first "bad hair day" left an indelible mark. And yet, there would be more perms in my future. Those who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.

But back to today. Within the last year I started coloring the mousy brown hair. It's straight now - haven't had a perm since college. But the new color, a deep, rich brown (so adventurous), conjures up another cinematic icon - Sally Field in "Steel Magnolias." Her daughter, played by Julia Roberts (ick), says it's not hard to fix her hair, "Just tease it and make it look like a brown football helmet." Yep. That's pretty much my hair. But mine isn't big. Instead it resembles the leather football helmets of the 1920's.

I could go on and on about the many adventures I've had with my hair. From the seventh grade mullet to the eighth grade bob to the uneven "mod do" in the later high school years. But I won't. However before I conclude my first posting I must make one final hair point: I never had big, teased up, AquaNet fire hazard hair. Never.

And so I'll conclude this mindless post. But I desperately needed some mindless mullings today. I live in a world where Islamofascists want to destroy everything and everyone that doesn't conform to their world view. Thank God for the Brits. They uncovered a terrorist (Muslim) plan to blow up airplanes traveling from London to the U.S. as they flew over the Atlantic Ocean. The plan was to be carried out next week. The rage and hate I feel are frightening. My four year old nephew once admonished me after I proclaimed my hatred for snakes. "Aunt XXX," he said, "we don't hate." I know baby. I know.