Humpback Whale Designs

The Christian Science Monitor reported Thursday on a nature-inspired development.

When biologist Frank Fish spied a figurine of a humpback whale in a Boston gift shop and noticed the pointy bumps along its fins, he said, "That has to be wrong."

Photo credit: WhalePower

But when the shop manager produced a photograph that showed the leading edge of the long fins was indeed serrated like the teeth on a saw, Dr. Fish was intrigued and decided to investigate.

He discovered that these bumps, called tubercles, are this creature's secret weapon, allowing a whale the size of a school bus to make tight turns and capture prey with astonishing agility.

Fish, a biology professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, is now using this technology perfected by nature to produce fans with serrated blades that use 20 percent less electricity than traditional models. This finding contradicts conventional designs that strive for the smoothest possible edges.

Photo credit: WhalePower

Fish teamed up with a Canadian businessman to form WhalePower, a Toronto-based company that markets the technology. Envira-North Systems, Canada's largest supplier of industrial ceiling fans, with 75 percent of the market, recently licensed the design for a new line of fans that measure up to 24 feet in diameter.

"There was a 20 percent drop in energy use, a significant drop in noise decibels, and overall distribution of air was more even," says Envira-North CEO Monica Bowden. The increased efficiency also means the new fans will have five blades instead of 10, making them cheaper to manufacture.

I love stuff like this. The only bad part is that we have to wait until we can buy whale fans of our own.

Great Dane and Baby Deer

It's really hard to follow yesterday's Quote of the Day with a post complaining about the world. That sort of thing would say, "Failure!" I just can't do it. Yet. So I'll put a nice post in between as a buffer against blame.

Photo credit: Richard Austin

The Telegraph (UK) reported May 11, 2008, on an unusual adoption.

Doe-eyed Cindy would have been left all alone in the world were it not for the strong paternal instincts of the Great Dane, who is as protective of her as he is his puppies.

Staff at the Secret World Animal Rescue Centre in Highbridge, Somerset, have been caring for Cindy since she was found close to death when she was days old.

The 9st [126 lb.] dog towers over his spotted companion, who he gently nuzzles and accompanies on daily walks, ever watchful.

The two-week-old fawn returns the affection by rushing over to her trusted friend whenever she is in need of reassurance.

Come this autumn however, carers hope Cindy will be confident enough to leave her companion and join a herd of roe deer in the wild.

There's another great photo of Cindy and Rocky, the Great Dane, in the Telegraph article. What a dog!

Quote of the Day

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

-- John Burroughs

Enviro-Nazis Win

Pardon my language, but we're totally screwed.

The AP reported today that the polar bear has been officially listed as "threatened" by declining Arctic ice.

I've been following the story on Hugh Hewitt's blog over the past couple months, and his post today had the updated news that I linked above. Hugh is a law professor and an attorney who specializes in Endangered Species Act litigation on the side of the victims of ESA lawsuits (property owners who can't build a house on their land, because some endangered bug crawls across a corner of it), so he knows the ramifications of listing a species as threatened. Here's his summary:

The Endangered Species Act operates in a very unaccountable fashion, and if the polar bear is listed as a "threatened" species, every federal action --the grant of a permit, the award of a grant-- that leads even indirectly to the emission of greenhouse gases will come under at least the theoretical review of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service pursuant to Section 7 of the ESA. MSM continues to report the controversy as though its impact will be limited to the arctic region, when in fact it is as likely to delay or destroy economic activity in any part of the lower 48 as it is in Alaska. (emphasis added)

This means that if an oil company wants to build a new refinery, which would bring down the price of gasoline, they may be stopped by the Fish & Wildlife Service, because the greenhouse gases would melt the Arctic ice and endanger the polar bears. New electric power plants could be stopped. New housing developments could be prevented. There could even come a time when increases to dairy and beef-cattle herds could be stopped. All to save the polar bear from getting wet when the ice melts. (Did you know they're good swimmers? No? Didn't the enviros tell you?)

But the kicker is that this decision only affects the US. If Canada wants to build a new refinery, and that refinery would threaten the polar bear's ice, no big deal. It's only American companies that will be shackled and bound. It's only American jobs that will be lost.

The environmental extremists are out to destroy our economy by shoving the Kyoto Protocol through the back door, and the door they've chosen is the polar bear.

Hugh Hewitt lists two of his columns that provide more back ground on the topic:

First column.

Second column.

In the first, he quotes the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs calling for the listing of the polar bear:

"Even more critically, because it is illegal to harm threatened species or jeopardize their survival, the polar bear listing could mean that all U.S. industries emitting large quantities of greenhouse gases — and requiring a federal permit to do so — will come under the purview of the Endangered Species Act. From polluting power plants in the Midwest to auto manufacturers, a vast array of industries may have to clean up their acts to give the polar bear a chance to survive.”

That's what they want. The economy is barely hanging on by its fingernails, so this is an especially bad time for this ruling, but the zealots don't care. Now the lawsuits will start slugging unsuspecting industries and their employees upside the head. Watch out!

Update:

Michelle Malkin is also covering the story.

Making Humans Extinct

WorldNetDaily reported Sunday on an environmental movement.

"May we live long and die out" is the unofficial motto of a movement that seeks to improve the Earth's ecosystem by ensuring that the human species does not survive.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, or VHEMT, consists of volunteers who have made active life decisions to remain childless for the benefit of the Earth, thereby preventing the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals.

While no one person takes credit for being the founder, Les U. Knight created its name and is the spokesperson for the movement.

"We've already exceeded Earth's carrying capacity for humans by quite a bit," Knight told WND.

"We are using up our resources. The best way to stop it is by not breeding. It's really the best way because the people we don't create don't exist, and so there's no impact on them."

VHEMT activists believe a smaller population will benefit the Earth by reducing human and environmental catastrophe.

The nice thing about the VHEMT folks is their desire to reduce the human population to extinction gradually. They're happy to have people choose not to reproduce.

Not like some, who advocate the destruction of existing people.

I'm not sure I get what VHEMT wants. I mean, I understand the words they're using, but I don't see the point. What will it matter how clean the earth is, if there's nobody around to appreciate it?

And who will feed the dogs and cats and the cows and horses? If we leave our pets and all the rest of the animals to their own devices, it's not going to be pretty. There's a reason the literal translation of the French term for "wildlife" is, "savage animals." Mother Nature is a savage, and the destruction of animal life that will follow human extinction will only prove it (except that there will be nobody around to say, "See? I told you so!").

The extinction of animal species was happening long before mankind showed up on the scene, and it will continue long after we're gone (provided we decide to go away). VHEMT won't change that. All their plan will do is make the earth just one more rotating ball of rock and gas among billions of others. And the universe will lose music and art and beauty, love and wonder and joy.

It's a bad trade. I'm against it.

Obama Discovers New States

The Los Angeles Times blog has this video of Senator Barack Obama's discovery of eight to ten new states:



What a busy man! Between campaigning, digging his feet out of his mouth over the bitter small-town Americans, disowning (or not) his pastor, and conducting Senate business, he's still found time to go exploring.

Obama doesn't mention what he's decided to name the new states.

When It Rains, It Pours

I applied at my old company for a job with my first boss there, who manages a different group now. That was a couple weeks ago, and I hadn't heard anything. So I called her Friday to find out if they'd made a decision yet or not.

When she called me back, she said HR would be calling me sometime, then she told me about another opening with someone else I knew in the company. That person had been in charge of the group that my group interfaced with.

I called the second person and had a good conversation with her. She told me about the job and gave me the right number for the position opening so I could apply online. But before I applied, I decided to have lunch with someone who used to do that job and grill her on what skills were needed and what was fun and frustrating about the work that was required. That lunch was yesterday.

But right before I left for lunch, I finally got a call from HR to arrange an interview with my old boss, and we scheduled it for this morning.

Yesterday's lunch went well, and I decided the work would be a stretch for me, but in a good way, so I came home and submitted my application.

This morning was my interview with my old boss, and the work started sounding more fun than it seemed when I was thinking about taking the "stretch" job. But they still have more people to interview, and I won't hear anything until next week. So I've still got my irons in both fires, which should pay about the same salary.

Then tonight I got a call from a contracting agency, and there's an opening I qualify for. It would be a 4 - 6 month contract paying double what the other two jobs would offer, and it would be 10 miles farther from my house (about 20 - 30 minutes farther).

So many decisions, after so long with no options!

Stay tuned...

Black Widows

There's no way I'm going to post a picture of a black widow spider. I saw more than enough today.

A little over a week ago, I received a notice telling me I had two weeks to mow my weeds or I'd be fined (I have more weeds than grass). I hate mowing so much that I always wait until I get the notice before I do it again.

Mowing means that I have to get the weed-eater out of the shed, where spiders live unmolested much of the time. One time a year or two ago, I opened the shed doors and saw two black widows hanging on a web slung between the shed wall and my bicycle tire. Yuck! I went in the house and grabbed the Raid, but when I came back, one of the spiders had disappeared, so I doused the other one until it stopped moving.

Today when I opened the shed, I saw a suspiciously similar-looking web from the bicycle tire to the shed. But the spider on it was a daddy long-legs. Harmless. I did my usual routine of swinging the broom all around the inside of the shed to knock down any stealth spiderwebs, as well as the un-stealth webs. Then I noticed a small, round beige thing on the daddy long-legs web that could have been a seed pod but might have been an egg sac for spiders, so I hooked it on the broom and smashed it to bits on the cement.

The birthday present my daughter gave me last year (which I couldn't hang on the wall while my house was for sale--no personal items on display) was in the shed, protected by an old mattress pad. I picked it up by the mattress pad and pulled it out, leaning it against the shed, when I noticed a fat, shiny black widow sitting on the bottom part of the mattress pad. I stomped on it and left a brown smudge of spider guts on the white pad. Shudder! The mattress pad went in the trash.

Next was the weed-eater. I got it out and swept off the base, which had a couple webs on it. With it lying on its side, I swept out the underneath side as well, then swept the broom around on the cement to get off as many of the spiderwebs as I could. That's when another black widow came crawling out of the underside of the weed-eater--where I was about to stick my hands to pull out some of the string!

I stomped on that one too.

After that it went well, spider-wise. I weed-eatered, stopping frequently to pull out more string, because it was near the end, and the line was wrapped all over itself in the spool. I went off to Home Depot to get a replacement spool, and after I put it in, I could do the bump-button method of letting out more string. Perfect!

Until I bumped for more string and the shaft of the weed-eater broke in two. With at least a third of the yard still to go.

But right at that time, the maintenance guy was going by, so I asked him if he could finish the job--for a fee, of course. He doesn't speak much English, so we had a bit of a time making sure we understood each other. He swept his arm around toward all the weeds and said, "¿Todos?"

I said yes and showed him the little bit around the back corner of the house. He said he couldn't get to it until Saturday--"Mucho trabajo." I even knew what he meant.

So that was that. I pulled out my almost-new spool of string and threw the rest of the weed-eater in the trash, then put everything away--in the shed--until I need it again the next time they leave me the "Mow your weeds" memo.

Tonight I went off to a meeting, and when I was pulling back into my driveway afterwards, I saw a dark shape where I usually don't see one. I had seen something like it a night or two ago, but there wasn't anything there today when I was doing all the yard work. So I backed up until the headlights lit it up, and it was a spiderweb with a shiny, dark spot in the middle.

I parked, went in the house for the can of Raid and the broom, and came back out armed for trouble. I sprayed the spider until it was in a puddle of poison, writhing in agony. Then I came back in the house and locked the door. Just in case.

At the Mall

Not being much of a shopper, I don't go to the mall very often. But I went today for the leather goods store.

Yesterday my purse, which has two straps, broke where one of the straps attaches to the purse, leaving that strap dangling and me looking silly because of it. I didn't want to have to buy a new purse, so I figured the leather store was a good starting place for getting mine repaired or finding out who could do the job.

Naturally I don't have the mall memorized, so I checked the directory and went to the store. It was closed up. I asked about it next door at the boot store, and they said the leather shop closed two weeks ago. Not deterred, I asked the boot people if they knew where I could get my purse fixed, and they told me about a shoe repair place near Target.

I didn't go straight there, but wandered around the mall a bit. Quite a few women had bags from Bath & Body Works, but I didn't go there. I saw a place that sells accessories, including (for the summer, I suppose) some flip-flop-style of sandals. One pair in particular caught my eye.

What's wrong with this picture?


Yes, those are mirrors.

Everybody knows that perverts and some idiot high school boys might try to stick a mirror on top of their shoes and stand close enough to give them a peek up some girl's dress. It's a disgusting practice. For the life of me, I can't figure out why a shoe manufacturer would produce shoes that make this even easier--and why a store would sell them. I took the picture and left.

Then I noticed See's Candies and went in there to get a couple pieces of chocolate. The ladies were really nice, and the store got crowded, although I'm not sure where everybody came from, because the rest of the mall was pretty deserted. There must be something going on, like maybe Mother's Day, to make See's and Bath & Body Works busy.

When I left See's, my innate sense of disorientation kicked in. I looked around and didn't recognize any of the stores I could see. I didn't remember which direction I had been going, so I didn't know which way to turn. Even chocolate couldn't solve that problem.

A lady was at the embroidery cart in the middle of the floor, so I asked her which way Victoria's Secret was, since that's the store by the entrance I came in, and she pointed in the opposite direction I would have gone. But before I could go that way, I spotted some pretty blue outfits in a store downstairs--not that I could afford to actually buy any of them--so I went there and talked to the sales girl about fashions and why the blue clothes don't have any sleeves.

Then I found the mall exit I needed (without asking again!) and went over to the shoe repair shop, where he fixed my purse for a pittance, and now I don't feel silly when I carry my purse.

It was a good morning of pleasant conversation with nice people and (except for the mirror shoes) some good window shopping. And the chocolates were fabulous.

May Day Wrap Up in Pictures

These photos are brought to you courtesy of the Reuters top photos of the last 24 hours.

People carry a giant flag with a photograph of Cuba's retired leader Fidel Castro during the May Day parade on Havana's Revolution Square May 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Stringer

Swiss riot police officers help an elderly man who was injured during May Day protests in Zurich May 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

An International Workers' Day rally is reflected in an advertising billboard in Kiev, Ukraine, May 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Konstantin Chernichkin

Riot police try to detain a demonstrator during May Day rallies in Santiago, Chile, May 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Love those May Day celebrations!

There were other celebrations going on as well that happened to take place yesterday, according to the Reuters photos. A "demonstration" with burning cars in Germany. A donkey festival in Mexico. A People's Liberation Army Camp Open Day in Hong Kong.

And finally, a water buffalo:

A local artist takes part in a water buffalo painting competition at the Binatbatan Festival in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, north of Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2008.

REUTERS/Stringer

Between my birthday and all the celebrations, May Day was one busy day.

It's My Birthday

And I have plans.

This is a good birthday cake. Chocolate. Notice the lack of nasty walnuts, which would have ruined it.

Photo source: http://www.spartium.com/birthday-gift-baskets.htm

This is not a good cake.

Photo source: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/gallery/v/worst_ever/BDayCake.jpg.html

Neither one of these is mine, and that's just fine with me.

Have a great day!

We're Not in a Recession

The AP reported today on the latest economic news.

The bruised economy limped through the first quarter of this year at only 0.6% as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.

The country's economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

The statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if modestly. (emphasis added)

It may not be pretty (and it's sure not), but it ain't a recession. The next time you read or watch the major news outlets reporting on the "recession" we're in, you'll know they're lying--because their lips are moving.

On the Pier

One of the temp agencies I'm registered at called me this morning just after 8:00. They said there's an admin job in the area, and would it be OK if they sent my resume to the company? I said, "Sure!" Then I hung around the house, in case they called to arrange an interview.

By 3:00, I got tired of waiting and left for my usual spot at the beach. The watched pot and all...

The marine layer had moved in by the time I got there, blocking the sun and preventing a good sunset, so I sat on some rocks and read, in between people-watching. Up the coast, the Oceanside pier called to me, with its Ruby's diner at the end, so I drove over to the pier, dropped some coins in the meter, and started walking.

About halfway out the pier, I spotted this seagull and noticed only one leg. I changed my angle of view, in case the second leg was hidden by the first, but it wasn't, so I pulled my little camera from my purse and took this picture.

There was a guy near me, looking in that general direction, and I said something clever to him like, "You don't see too many one-legged seagulls." He agreed, speculating that the bird may have tucked one leg up where we couldn't see it. But then the seagull flew away and confirmed that there was no second leg hiding anywhere.

I said something else equally clever to the guy, and he said something about being from out of town. But when I asked where he was from, he said, "Somewhere east." Like an old co-worker of mine who moved to California from Arizona and always said she was from "Back East." East of Oceanside could be anywhere.

We chatted a bit more, about why I took the picture (for my blog) and about San Diego's un-prime time to visit (June), and I got the impression that he viewed me with great suspicion.

It was a strange reaction. I usually don't get that.

So I left him and went to Ruby's, where the waiter treated me like a sane person, and I got a Black Forest milkshake. When I finished it, I suddenly remembered that my car was parked at a meter, and I had only five minutes to get back there. I paid, went back to the table to leave my tip, then walked as quickly as I could in sandals over a worn-wood surface the third-mile length of the pier and a couple blocks over to my car.

The meter was expired, I was starting to feel queasy from exercising on a full stomach, but there wasn't a ticket on my windshield, and that's what mattered. I got out of there before the parking cops could find me.

Back at home, my answering machine had nothing new to report.

Obamas in Trouble

It's easy to mock a cover story like this when it's in the Globe. The Globe is almost as bad as the now-defunct Weekly World News, which printed such newsworthy items as, "Invisible Aliens Live Among Us," "Abraham Lincoln Was A Woman!" and "Iraqi Submarine Spotted in Great Lakes." This last one was during the buildup to the Iraq War and had Saddam himself manning the secret submarine.

In fact, it was the Globe that reported the imminent breakup of George and Laura Bush's marriage, and then late last year said the marriage has been mended.

This time, though, the marriage explosion is being reported by the National Enquirer, which has been somewhat reputable ever since Carol Burnett sued them and won.

The last thing Barack Obama needs this week, after the media blitz of his former pastor and mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is another scandal.

Oh, and if I find a spare $500,000 lying around, could I get a total body makeover that makes me look as good as Demi Moore?

Responding to Wright

I took the time to read the full transcript of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's speech yesterday to the National Press Club, and quite a bit of it was cause for concern, starting with this:

Maybe now, as an honest dialogue about race in this country begins...

Was all the dialogue about race that we've had before now dishonest?

Maybe this dialogue on race -- an honest dialogue that does not engage in denial or superficial platitudes -- maybe this dialogue on race can move the people of faith in this country from various stages of alienation and marginalization to the exciting possibility of reconciliation.

How are we supposed to reconcile white people with Rev. Wright, after Wright's denunciations from the pulpit of white people themselves? Much of the "denial and superficial platitudes" have been coming out of Wright's mouth.

Liberation theology started in and started from a different place. It started from the vantage point of the oppressed.

OK. That makes sense.

I take and trace the theology of the black church back to the prophets in the Hebrew bible and to its last prophet, in my tradition, the one we call Jesus of Nazareth.

Wright sees Jesus as nothing more than the last prophet? What's the deal?

This statement prompted me to look for the statement of faith of the United Church of Christ denomination (not to be confused with the Churches of Christ). Then I compared it to the Nicene Creed, and the UCC was less definite about the divinity of Jesus. This is a concern for me.

Back to Jeremiah Wright:

The prophetic tradition of the black church has its roots in Isaiah, the 61st chapter, where God says the prophet is to preach the gospel to the poor and to set at liberty those who are held captive....

It was preached to set African-Americans free from the notion of second-class citizenship, which was the law of the land. And it was practiced to set free misguided and miseducated Americans from the notion that they were actually superior to other Americans based on the color of their skin.

He's got a point about the release of captives bringing freedom to both sides of the equation.

Isaiah 61:5 says, "Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards." I'm not sure what we're supposed to do about that verse.

When you read the entire passage from either Isaiah 61 or Luke 4, and do not try to understand the passage or the content of the passage in the context of a sound bite, what you see is God's desire for a radical change in a social order that has gone sour....

God's desire is for positive change, transformation; real change, not cosmetic change, transformation; radical change or a change that makes a permanent difference, transformation. God's desire is for transformation, changed lives, changed minds, changed laws, changed social orders and changed hearts in a changed world. This principle of transformation is at the heart of the prophetic theology of the black church.

I don't agree that Jesus, in Luke 4:18 - 19, proclaimed a desire for "radical change in a social order that has gone sour." Taken in the context of His ministry, His proclamation was for individuals' freedom from slavery to sin. Jesus preached--and delivered through His death and resurrection--changed lives, changed minds and changed hearts. He did not preach changed laws or changed social orders.

The social orders that were changed in the name of Christ were those that were made by individuals whose lives were transformed by the overwhelming love and the salvation of our Lord Jesus. Case in point: William Wilberforce, whose fight to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain was depicted in the movie Amazing Grace.

These two foci of liberation and transformation have been at the very core of the United Church of Christ since its predecessor denomination, the Congregational Church of New England came to the moral defense and paid for the legal defense of the Mende people aboard the slave ship Amistad.

Interesting. I have that movie, but I didn't remember what church supported the Africans.

God does not desire for us, as children of God, to be at war with each other, to see each other as superior or inferior, to hate each other, abuse each other, misuse each other, define each other or put each other down.

True. So how does he defend his anti-white statements in his sermons? He doesn't even preach what he preaches, let alone practice it.

Wright explains that the way people see God determines the way they see people. His example that follows is not his view but that of a hypothetical presumably white person.

If I see God as male; if I see God as white male; if I see God as superior, as God over us and not Immanuel, which means God with us; if I see God as mean, vengeful, authoritarian, sexist or misogynist, then I see humans through that lens.

My theological lens shapes my anthropological lens. And as a result, white males are superior; all others are inferior. And I order my society where I can worship God on Sunday morning, wearing a black clergy robe, and kill others on Sunday evening, wearing a white Klan robe.

Whoa. Is this a historical example, or does Wright believe this is the perspective of the white church today? He doesn't say.

To say, I am a Christian, is not enough. Why? Because the Christianity of the slaveholder is not the Christianity of the slave....

And what we both mean when we say, I am a Christian, is not the same thing. The prophetic theology of the black church has always seen and still sees all of God's children as sisters and brothers, equals who need reconciliation, who need to be reconciled as equals, in order for us to walk together into the future which God has prepared for us.

I don't quite get this. At least, I don't get that he's making a contrast between the black church, which believe this about reconciliation among equals, and the non-black church, which believes... what? Does he believe that I, as a white person, don't want reconciliation, that I don't see equality among all of God's children?

For a man who wants us all to get along, he sure is doing a good job of offending whites.

Then it was time for the Q & A, and some of those were doozies. Wright doubled-down on some of the things that were quoted "out of context" from his sermons, the things he complained were just snippets, looped over and over.

Jesus said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you. Those are biblical principles, not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles....

He really does believe that America engages in terrorism. That apparently wasn't taken out of context.

[Farrakhan] is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. I said, as I said on Bill Moyers, when Louis Farrakhan speaks it's like E.F. Hutton speaks. All black America listens. Whether they agree with him or not, they listen....

Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color.

Nobody put Wright in chains. Nobody put Wright in slavery. But is God Wright's enemy for making him "this color"? I don't get that statement either.

God doesn't bless everything. God condemns something. And D-E-M-N, demn, is where we get the word damn. God damns some practices.

And there is no excuse for the things that the government, not the American people, have done. That doesn't make me not like America, or unpatriotic.

Of course not.

What I said about and what I think about and what -- again until I can't -- until racism and slavery are confessed and asked for -- we asked the Japanese to forgive us. We have never as a country -- in fact, Clinton almost got in trouble because he almost apologized at Goree Island.

We have never apologized as a country. Britain has apologized to Africans. But this country's leaders have refused to apologize. So until that apology comes, I'm not going to keep stepping on your foot and asking you, does this hurt do you forgive me for stepping on your foot, if I'm still stepping on your foot. Understand that? Capisce?

Britain had a lot to apologize for in Africa. They owned much of Africa for a long time--as did Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.

Did the Civil War, the abolishment of slavery in America, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, and the Civil Rights Acts (1957 & 1964) count for nothing in terms of apologizing for slavery and setting things right?

MS. LEINWAND: In your sermon, you said the government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. So I ask you: Do you honestly believe your statement and those words?

REV. WRIGHT: Have you read Horowitz's book "Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola"? Whoever wrote that question, have you read "Medical Apartheid"? You've read it?

I read different things. As I said to my members, if you haven't read things, then you can't -- and based on the Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything.

I'll let that one stand on its own.

My position on Israel is that Israel has a right to exist; that Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconciled one to another. Have you read The Link? Do you read The Link -- Americans for Middle Eastern Understanding, where Palestinians and Israelis need to sit down and talk to each other and work out a solution where their children can grow in a world together and not be talking about killing each other; that that is not God's will.

So my position is that Israel and the people of Israel be the people of God who are worrying about reconciliation and who are trying to do what God wants for God's people, which is reconciliation.

He puts the full burden of reconciliation on the shoulders of Israel and none on the Palestinians.

In biblical history, there's not one word written in the Bible, between Genesis and Revelation, that was not written under one of six different kinds of oppression: Egyptian oppression, Assyrian oppression, Persian oppression, Greek oppression, Roman oppression, Babylonian oppression.

The Roman oppression is the period in which Jesus was born. And comparing imperialism that was going on in Luke, imperialism was going on when Caesar Augustus sent out a degree that the whole world should be taxed -- they were in charge of the world; sounds like some other governments I know -- that yes, I can compare that. We have troops stationed all over the world, just like Rome had troops stationed all over the world, because we run the world. That notion of imperialism is not the message of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace nor God, who loves the world.

The first paragraph here is one big fat lie of biblical proportions. Unless Wright is saying that the writing of it happened under one of those "oppressions." But even that isn't true, because both King David and King Solomon ruled over Israel and wrote Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon during times when the people of God were not oppressed. Unless the mere existence of an empire somewhere else qualifies in Wright's eyes as "oppression." For a preacher, Wright doesn't know his Bible that well.

Well, there are many white churches and white persons who are members of churches and clergy and denominations who have already taken great steps in terms of reconciliation. In the Underground Railroad, it was the white church that played the largest role in getting Africans out of slavery, in setting up almost all 40 of the HBCUs. It was the white church that sent missionaries into the South.

I'm glad he made a point of this.

MS. LEINWAND: Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but through me." Do you believe this?And do you think Islam is a way to salvation?

REV. WRIGHT: Jesus also said, "Other sheep have I who are not of this fold."

Scary.

That's it for Reverend Wright's time at the National Press Club.

Barack Obama, however, reacted to Wright's latest public appearance by throwing his pastor and mentor of the last 20 years under the bus.

Finally!

Numbering Things

I noticed something when I was in Texas with my mom and my sister and we would go to Wal-Mart in Eastland or Abilene. My sister especially, but my mom too, would take note of which row number we parked in before we went into the store.

That never occurred to me. When I go to Wal-Mart (preferrably Target, but it's on the south end of town and I'm on the north end of town, and there's a Wal-Mart really close to me, so I go there for emergency shopping), I try to park in the row that's straight out from the main doors. If I end up in another row, I take note of the landmark (like the Coke machine, or the word "Pharmacy" on the wall) at the end of my row, so I can find my car when I'm ready to leave.

It wasn't until we finished our trip and I got back home that I realized the Wal-Marts around here don't number the rows in the parking lots. Not even the new one with the angled parking rows that make it hard to find landmarks. The entire eastern half of the United States has numbered rows at Wal-Mart, as near as I can tell from the ones we saw on our trip. But Southern California doesn't believe in numbering things.



This is a typical freeway sign around here. OK, it's farther north, but it has the same look as ours. The only things with numbers are the actual numbered-highway or interstate symbols. Our exits aren't numbered. They're just named.

People who commute into Orange County know that you come to the Jeffrey exit, then Culver, then Jamboree, then MacArthur, then the 55 freeway. So, depending on which exit you take for work, you start moving over when one of the earlier exits shows up.

And nobody can remember whether Oso Parkway comes before or after Avery Parkway, because that's in the middle of the commute when you're not paying attention and you're driving 80 mph anyway.

My point is that we do very nicely without any exit numbers on our freeway signs. It's our way of life, and it's different from the rest of the country, where all the directions in the RV Park directory (and even from helpful people on the phone) give an exit number as the most crucial piece of information. But I didn't care about that. I wanted to be sure I was on the right street.

Then I noticed in the last month or so (it may have been there longer, but I just noticed) that they're putting exit numbers on our freeway signs. This sign is one that I drive under on a regular basis. Notice the Mickey-Mouse, pasted-on exit number in the upper right corner.

Photo source (both): www.teresco.org/pics/signs/

That's new. And I don't like it. It's dehumanizing.

Next thing you know, all the Wal-Marts around here will number their parking rows, and the deli counter at Albertsons will install one of those Take-A-Number gadgets like in the Northeast where people aren't polite enough to wait their turn and have to be forced into civility.

No, numbering is a bad thing, a sign of the decline of civilization. I may not be able to stop it, but I can (and do) protest it.

Geese

A couple of Canada Geese accompany their newly hatched goslings through a shopping center parking lot in Sterling, Virginia, April 25, 2008. Canada Geese, famous for their life-long mating, live throughout most of North America.

REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang

This photo is from Reuters' top photos of the last 24 hours, and I'm pleased to see the accuracy in their reporting. Too many times people call them "Canadian Geese," as though the geese were Canadian citizens. Drives me nuts.

They're Canada Geese. It's their name. Don't get it wrong.

But aren't they CUTE?!!!

Bad Cat!

I have three garbage cans by my back door. About a year ago a possum caught himself in one of them.

Yesterday evening, when I came home from an errand, I noticed that the middle can was tilted at an angle--not an easy thing to do--so I straightened it up and moved the first one against it to prevent anymore unexplained movement.

When I did that, I noticed a small gray bird (probably a house sparrow) in the bottom of the empty middle can, and he was breathing. I didn't know if he was dying or resting (strange place for either one). I just left him there, because there didn't seem to be anything else to do. Later, when I was locking the doors for the night, I checked the bird again. Still breathing.

This morning I went to get my clothes out of the dryer, by the back door, and when I glanced out the window in the door, there was a gray and white cat sitting on the welcome mat as though he belonged there. He made no move to leave, so I opened the back door, and he ran away.

Then I peeked into the middle can, but it was empty. And my other garbage can, the one with trash in it, was tipped over.

The evidence isn't irrefutable, but I blame the cat, who has never darkened my doorstep before. Bad bird-killing, garbage-can-knocking cat!

Update (Friday afternoon):

When I got home from having a reunion lunch with a bunch of people I worked with when I first started at my last job, I didn't see the cat. But I heard a fluttering sound in the back garbage can, where I have some cardboard boxes. I couldn't see anything, but the fluttering would come and go, so I pulled out the top box and put it in the empty trash can. That's when I noticed some bird doodee on a couple of the boxes.

The bird was under an upended box, and when I lifted the box, the bird started flying, but his wings kept hitting the side of the garbage can, and he couldn't get out. So I took out the rest of the boxes and gently tipped over the garbage can.

The bird flew out of the box in such obvious panic that he ran into the wall of the house next door and dropped into their grass. He flew away a couple minutes later, and I expect he's now safe from the evil cat.

All's well that ends well...

The Latest on Zimbabwe

Photo credit: Themba Hadebe/The Associated Press

I've been following the news out of Zimbabwe since they held their national elections in March. It's not good.

The International Herald Tribune reported Monday on the flood of people escaping Zimbabwe into neighboring countries.

Sarah Ngewerume was driven to the river by despair.

She said she had seen gangs loyal to Zimbabwe's longtime president, Robert Mugabe, beating people — some to death — in the dusty roads of her village. She said Mugabe loyalists were sweeping the countryside with chunks of wood in their hands, demanding to see party identification cards and methodically hunting down opposition supporters.

"It was terrifying," said Ngewerume, a 49-year-old former shopkeeper.

Last week she waded across the Limpopo River, bribed a man fixing a border fence on the other side and slipped into a nearby South African farm.

She was among the latest desperate arrivals in what South Africa's biggest daily newspaper is calling "Mugabe's Tsunami," a wave of more than 1,000 people every day who are fleeing Zimbabwe across the Limpopo to escape into South Africa.

The elections were held March 29, and the preliminary results showed Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party defeated. This was good news and bad news at the same time. The good news was that Mugabe and his party were repudiated by an oppressed populace. The bad news was that there was no way Mugabe would accept the results.

The top US envoy to Africa has called for Mugabe to step down, but that hasn't happened. Instead, Zimbabwe ordered arms from China.

Zimbabwean blogger Izzy Mutanhaurwa, who fled to the UK, has this to say about the China arms deal:

The people of Zimbabwe would like to thank to the workers of the world who through their affiliated trade unions united in preventing guns earmarked for Mugabe's violent retribution against the people of Zimbabwe that voted him and his party out of power to be offloaded at an bay in Southern Africa. The ill-fated ship that has not been seen and is being forced to return to China and diplomatic offensive is on rise to extend Europe's arms embargo on Zimbabwe to the United Nations which would make China's arms trade with Zimbabwe illegal. What is puzzling about this whole situation is the deal to buy arms was done on the 1st of April, 2 days after the polls closed in Zimbabwe. It reveals the sinister motives of Mugabe who is killing innocent people to sustain his grip on Zimbabwe and continue to drag Zimbabwe into oblivion. What was so urgent that we needed arms weighing 77 tons and worth US$1.245 million just two days after the harmonized elections that Mugabe realized had lost? (emphasis added)

Here is the AP report about the inability of China to deliver the weapons to Zimbabwe.

Izzy has a couple good questions about Mugabe's--and China's--priorities.

Why is China not sending food that Zimbabweans need with 6.5 million facing famine, it would have been a good gesture from the Chinese to feed the hungry? Also what needs to be ascertained is where did Mugabe, Zimbabwe being broke as it find US$1.245 million to buy guns with?

The AP reported April 18, 2008, on a speech Mugabe gave commemorating Zimbabwe's Independence Day.

President Robert Mugabe belittled his political opponents as puppets of Britain, saying during independence celebrations Friday that the former colonial ruler wants Zimbabwe back.

Mugabe accused the opposition of wanting Zimbabwe to "go back to white people, to the British, the country we died for. It will never happen."


Izzy Mutanhaurwa has a slightly different take on Zimbabwe's independence:

Yesterday marked our independence from colonial rule which we achieved 28 years ago, but we are neither free nor are we independent having escaped the frying pan of from minority white rule for us to fall into the fire of the Mugabe's black on black brutality. What is happening in Zimbabwe today is a shameful betrayal of the reason why the real gallant heroes of Zimbabwe such as Tongogara took up arms to fight white minority rule that denied the majority black population the right to vote, they fought for one man one vote, they fought for self determination, they fought for the ability of every Zimbabwean to vote for a government of his choice.

But today 28 years later their sole objective for taking up arms is an illusion for the people of Zimbabwe, the economy of Zimbabwe has collapsed unable to bear the weight of the world's highest inflation which experts put at 300000% and will reach half a million percent before July, the health sector has collapsed people of Zimbabwe are dying of curable diseases, the education system has collapsed, just about 1 million people in Zimbabwe are in formal employment, 4 million have fled the dictator's regime to seek political and economic refuge mostly in South Africa and the UK including this writer. 6.5 million people face starvation, 3000 people die in Zimbabwe every week of HIV and AIDS the life expectancy has been reduced to 35 for men and 34 for women.

It's been nearly a month since the election, and no results have been officially released. The ruling party called for recounts.

Agence France-Presse reported yesterday that the first of the 23 hand-picked constituency recounts has been completed, and (Surprise!) ZANU-PF won.

And in a display of chutzpah, or maybe serious delusion, Mulindwa Muwange, a ZANU-PF supporter, places the blame for Zimbabwe's woes on anybody but Mugabe:

Today we are witnessing another... whom the 'white man' is trying to force to commit suicide.

This is Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe. Mugabe has been judged as a person who has messed up Zimbabwe's political and economic affairs.

Today's political chaos in Africa can be fairly blamed on the infiltration of neo-colonialists. Any African leader who falls out of favour with the West is undermined and his people are influenced to turn against him. Some of the opposition politicians are also agents of Western powers.

And some African governments are stooges; they blindly implement neo-colonialist policies in order to appease the West so that they retain their presidency.

The neo-colonialists have been organising a coup d'etat through the flawed elections! Unfortunately, Mugabe's advisers were not sharp enough to detect these tricks. Mugabe is accused of grabbing land from white farmers and re-distributing it to blacks.

Western media have made several attempts to portray Mugabe as the loser in the recent elections in which the winner is yet to be known.

As Mugabe demanded a re-count, Morgan Tsvirangai, the opposition leaders who is backed by the West, was appealing to Western powers, mainly Britain and the United States, to mount pressure.

Yes, Zimbabwe has become a living hell, but it has nothing to do with Robert Mugabe. It's the white man's fault, naturally.

And sometime soon, when Mugabe has finished "recounting" the votes, the official results will show that the country's people want Mugabe to stay in power. Of course he'll oblige them and shove Zimbabwe into deeper and deeper levels of hell.

Wesley Snipes Gets 3 Years on Tax Evasion

CNN reported today on the sentencing of Wesley Snipes.

Actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison and fined up to $5 million Thursday for failing to file federal tax returns.

It was the maximim sentence possible under federal sentencing guidelines.

Prosecutors last week urged U.S. District Judge William Hodges in Ocala, Florida, to sentence Snipes to the maximum penalty to demonstrate to taxpayers that refusal to pay income taxes carries severe penalties.

"The law is very clear: People must pay their taxes," Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman said. "There is no secret formula that eliminates a person's tax obligations."

Of course, the IRS calls our tax system "voluntary."

Yes indeed. We can volunteer to pay taxes, or we can volunteer to go to prison. Right, Wesley?