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2017 USBC - Richmond, Virginia
An event designed to put the RIGHT players in front of the RIGHT college coaches while maintaining a competitive national championship format. Coaches are guaranteed to be in attendance. In 2016 over 50 colleges coaches and professional scouts checked in for the event.
Where: Richmond, Virginia - Virginia Sports Complex, University of Richmond, RF&P Stadium, Randolph Macon College and more.
When: Underclass July 19 - July 24; Upperclass July 25 - July 30
Divisions: Upperclass (2017 & 2018 graduates) & Underclass (2019 Graduates)
Format: 5 game guarantee with single elimination play off.
Special Events: Team Exposure Workouts for all position players. & Coaches Networking Night. Guaranteed College CoachesTeam
Entry Fee: $2200
Organizations and teams may attend on an invitation basis. If your team in interested in attending the event in 2017 or 2018 please contact email@example.com.


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I was just reading a post at MalwareBytes Labs titled Cross-platform Malware Adwind Infects Mac by Thomas Reed about the Adwind Remore Access Tool (RAT) which reminded me I had wanted to remove JAVA from my Mac as it represents a security risk. A quick DuckDuckGo search led me to How to uninstall Java in Mac OS X at dotTech which offered concise instructions for how to remove both the runtime and the jdk.
Go ahead. Do it. You'll feel smart after using the Terminal.

subset: commoncrawl


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I found this great vintage coffee pot at my local junk shop. I love the mustard color and am SO tempted to keep it but, I have way to much stuff so it's for sale in my vintage shop, Two Hand Too.
The ceramic bird was purchased from Etsy shop Mungo and Midge and flew all the way to me from Ireland.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Vintage Find
Posted by Two Hand Design No comments:
Labels: bird, ceramics, collecting, Color Inspiration, enamel ware, pottery bird, vintage, vintage finds
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Refinement, an exclusive style, attentive and accurate service, attention to every detail, sophisticated materials perfectly used in order to create private, elegant and colourful atmospheres with delicate lights and colours: this is the Hotel Stendhal, a structure with new solutions of furniture and design, which enjoys a unique situation among the centres of the power of the capital – Palazzo Chigi and the Camera dei Deputati, as well as the Quirinale – the most beautiful shopping streets and the most famous monuments that make Rome the big and unique Eternal City.
The use of the materials creates elegant and refined effects, unforgettable also for those who don't notice this sort of thing: natural stone, marble in the lining, stone in the reception, refined boiseries in the tea room, in the reading room and internet point. Here all is used with care, with the best woods, paintings and beautiful sculptures. Don't be afraid: you can live in a very natural way our refined and sophisticated ambiences, because the structure is characterized by a sober elegance.
This is what you can find in the private ambience of your room, where the same care and attention to the detail is guaranteed, in order to give you an attentive and comfortable welcome, for every kind of travel that here become a unique and unforgettable experience.
For business men the meeting room of the hotel, always in stone and precious wood, offers all the modern technologies in order to meet your requirements. Moreover, we assure you the Wi-Fi internet connection in all the common areas.
In the morning, a rich buffet breakfast is the best way to start your day, while for your relaxing moments; the lounge library is the perfect place, where you can sip an aperitif in a tranquil ambience, being immersed in the reading or surfing the net.
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Google+ launched brand pages six months ago, introducing new social nomenclatures like "circles," "hangouts," and "+1s." But it appears that anticipated ballooning of interest in "+1s" has been burst by the "pins" of Pinterest. And although Google continues to invest in products and marketing, the consensus among digital marketers seems to be that Google+ is where folks go to set up a profile, but seldom return.
In fairness, many brands have created pages, but have not posted anything since, which is a very real and fundamental problem for brands. It calls into agonizingly clear focus the problem that brands entering the digital space face every single day: Now that brands know what they can do, they remain unsure of exactly what they should do to create a truly strategic digital plan that will provide real engagement and/or return on investments.
A new study -- the Digital Platform Engagement Index, a national study of 49,000 consumers looking at 83 categories and 600 brands -- demonstrates unequivocally that not only does digital platform engagement differ by category, but when it comes to digital marketing, one size does not fit all. Sure, there's a widely held notion that Google+ users skew male and are tech-savvy, but that's just more demos and segments, and figuring out how to locate the right consumer is pretty much the last thing that brand marketers struggle with today.
Brands can optimize their digital investments and answer the following questions:
The latest official report from Google is that more than 100 million people have been active on Google+ in the past month. But that number includes people who have set up Google+ accounts and then visited other "socially enhanced" parts of Google, like search or YouTube.
All categories move at the speed of the consumer, so the 2012 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, conducted in January, shows that platforms like Pinterest were not on the radar screen. But at that moment in time, here's how social networking sites ranked:
More digital options are to come. In the meantime it's worth remembering that the Internet's strength was supposed to have been its ability to help the consumer find the right needle in the digital haystack.
The results of the Engagement Index will help brands understand what leads to consumer engagement on these digital platforms, helping them to find the right haystack in which to build their digital nests.


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Off-Campus Housing Information
Many upperclassmen choose to live in one of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods surrounding Duquesne's campus. Students find that living on their own comes with newly found opportunities and responsibilities. We remind students to always be responsible neighbors within their communities and to meet the Expectations of a Duquesne Student.
Campus Residency Policy
Students may start living off-campus beginning in their junior year. Per the Campus Residency Policy, students in their freshman or sophomore year are required to live on campus or at home with their parent/guardian.
City of Pittsburgh Code
Students who live off campus should be advised that according to City of Pittsburgh Code, no more than three unrelated individuals are permitted to reside together in one rental housing unit.
Updating Your Local Address
If you plan on living off-campus at a location different from your permanent residence, you must provide a local address to Duquesne University.
To update your local address log into DORI and then click on Self-Service Banner. Once in Self-Service Banner, click on "Personal Information" and then "Update Addresses and Phones."
Additional Resources
If you're living off-campus--or thinking about making the move--and have questions about landlords, leases, roommates, neighbors and neighborhoods, satefy, moving and more, we are here to help. See the articles on our Resources page, check out our Off-Campus Housing Guides, or reach out to our office.


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40+ Star Wars, Disney, Mickey Mouse, Batman Pumpkin Carvings – Simple Guide – In the tradition of trick or treating, no real injury or harm was ever done by people to each other while scaring. The children or people who follow trick or treating knock on the doors of their neighbors, and yell trick or treat. Then the neighbors gladly respond to them mostly by offering candies. This makes kids very happy. If candies are not available at the neighbor's place, they offer fruits or baked goods to the children.
Also Read: Pumpkin Carving Stencils Free Printable
Related Content: Scary Pumpkin Carving Face Patterns & Face Designs
Also Read: Funny Halloween Quotes 2018 To Share With Family, Friends via Whatsapp, Facebook
Pumpkin Carving Star Wars
Star Wars Pumpkin Carvings – The festival called Samhain was celebrated by the Celts in honor of souls of dead. After Roman empire won and took over the Celts, they started to follow some of the traditions of Celts people. Halloween is one of the traditions. This tradition is being followed by people in the United States and some other Western countries ever since. As Halloween involves going around the neighborhood for trick or treating, the possibility of children being in an accident is almost twice as of the normal days.
Also Read: Happy Halloween Images, HD Clipart Free Download For Facebook
Pumpkin Carving Star Wars Patterns
Pumpkin Carving Star Wars Designs
Pumpkin Carving Star Wars Ideas
Pumpkin Carving Star Wars Stencils
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse – On the occasion of Halloween, there is a traditional Halloween parade in every city or locality. The greatest Halloween parade in the United States has to be The Village Halloween parade in New York City. There are 50,000 participants in the parade and over 2 million people come to watch this parade and share the happiness of Halloween. Painting nails with drawings like witches and scary shadows, dressing up as scary characters and putting on scary makeup is popular among youngsters.
Also Read: Harry Potter Pumpkin Carving Ideas, Patterns and Templates
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse Patterns
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse Templates
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse Designs
Pumpkin Carving Mickey Mouse Stencils
Pumpkin Carving Disney
Disney Pumpkin Carving – People celebrate Halloween with a great enthusiasm. There is a tradition of carving pumpkins on Halloween. In some cities or areas of cities, people arrange competitions of carving the pumpkins. Here, the parameter as the base of competition is speed. The participant who carves the pumpkin fastest wins. The previous record was of world's fastest pumpkin carver Stephen Clarke was 54.72 seconds. He broke his own record with only 24.03 seconds.
Also Read: Creative Designs Ideas for Halloween Pumpkin Carving 2018
Pumpkin Carving Disney Designs
Pumpkin Carving Disney Patterns
Pumpkin Carving Disney Easy
Pumpkin Carving Disney Templates
Pumpkin Carving Batman
Batman Pumpkin Carving – On Halloween, people gather and party with friends and family. For entertainment, people arrange competitions. One of the competition is carving a pumpkin.The pumpkins must be carved in a traditional way, which includes carving the nose, eyes, mouth, and ears. And also, the pumpkin must not weigh more than 24-25 pounds. There is a world record by a man named Norm Craven who grew the largest pumpkin ever. In 1993, he grew a pumpkin that weighed 836 pounds.
Also Read: Pumpkin Carving Stencils Free Printable Minions, Bat, Scary Cat Faces
Pumpkin Carving Batman Designs
Pumpkin Carving Batman Template
Pumpkin Carving Batman Pattern
Pumpkin Carving Batman Symbol


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The Cupertino-based smartphone maker has also partnered with Noida-based RMSI, a leading IT services player that offers GIS, analytics and software services, which is likely to aid Apple in developing local maps.
"Apple is focused on making the best products and services in the world and we are thrilled to open this new office in Hyderabad which will focus on Maps development," Apple CEO Tim Cook said. Cook has been in India since Tuesday night and is going to inaugurate this centre within the hour.
"The talent here in the local area is incredible and we are looking forward to expanding our relationships and introducing more universities and partners to our platforms as we scale our operations," Cook added.
The iPhone maker did not specify the direct investment into this project, but ET has earlier reported that the centre in the city's IT corridor, will see Apple putting in around $25 million (Rs 170 crore).
The new facility, located in Tishman Speyer's Waverock campus, and spread over 2.5 lakh sq ft, will provide a world-class, LEED-certified home for the expanding Maps team. Across India, Apple supports over 640,000 iOS app developer jobs and other positions related to the iOS ecosystem.
"We are honored Apple chose Hyderabad as a home for its Maps development office," said Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao. "This will create thousands of jobs here and is a testament to our proactive approach, quality infrastructure and the excellent talent base we have in the region," he added.
Also read: 10 new announcements from Google I/O 2016
Apple has previously faced issues with its own maps but has been updating and adding new features to the service, including 3D views, the Flyover feature and tools to help customers find convenient places to shop, eat and explore nearby areas.
With iOS 9, Apple added Transit, offering a combination of trains, subways, buses and walking, which is already available for more than 300 cities around the world.
"Apple is one of the most innovative companies in the world and we are very proud they chose us to partner with for this important project," said Anup Jindal, RMSI's CEO.
The company which is an expert in geospatial data, will be hiring thousands of people from the local area.


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When the invite to attend the Gin Festival popped up in my inbox, and I was asked the question "Do you like Gin?", I had to confess that – ehhh, not really, kinda, still new to trying gin. But what I did know is that if I was going to find a gin that would suit my taste buds it would be at the Gin Festival, so I happily accepted the invite, hoping to find the gin for me. I was allowed to bring a friend, so took one of my besties Abi, a recent Gin convert with me.
The Gin Festival has been around for a little while now, it tours almost weekly across the country and I've admired the event from afar from some of my friends in Nottingham and Leicester. But this was it's first visit to Peterborough, in a rather wonderful location too, Peterborough Cathedral. I must admit, something felt a little bizarre drinking underneath a hanging Christ (not in the sense that he was hungover), but the atmosphere of the Cathedral was lovely and cosy on a busy and bustling Saturday evening.
On arrival you're welcomed with a Gin glass to take around with you (and you get to take it home), this is a genius idea as it cuts down on the need to have staff constantly cleaning up in a very busy environment. Inside the glass is also a Gin Guide which describes the hundred gins available, I referred to it throughout the night as the Gin Bible and I've kept it handy with the corners folded down of the ones I tried, and might want to get myself a bottle of in future.
The Gin Bible was split up into four different sections, each section had a theme, so from UK exclusives to Deyhydrated Fruit. Each section was assigned a different bar A-D so you knew where to hunt out the 25 or so Gins available on each. Each gin single was £5, double/gin cocktail £10. The system operated on a cashless system, so every atendee has a wristband with a chip which you top up with credit, which means you can move around the venue and swipe your wrist when ordering which helped keep the queues moving as there was no one rustling for money in their purse.
The layout for the cathedral being long and narrow really didn't make the best space for queuing, with queues for the bars winding around each other and we were having to walk around figuring out where one line ended and where the next one began. The main bars were located at the front part of the cathedral where they had a live music playing from a couple of different bands which only added to the friendly, jovial atmosphere and had quite a few people having a dance after they were a gin or two down.
Towards the back of the cathedral there were a few different Gin sampling stations which were free and included a shot or two of different gins and a talk through the gins with owners/employees of local distilleries. Our favourites were probably Two Birds Distillery, which is local to us and has grown a lot in the past few years – and the Black Tomato gin was quite an entertaining piece of showmanship!
Tucked around the side was the street food, which we didn't know was there, I think we both might have regretted eating quite a hefty amount of pizza before we left Abi's house, they had selections from Salt and Pepper Fries to Gyozas. Either way everything smelt delicious and it was a mistake having a walk through to see what they had!
What I quickly learnt at the festival was that it wasn't that I didn't love Gin, but infact I don't like tonic – I find it a very overpowering flavour and detracts a lot from the gin itself. All tonics and accompaniments were provided free of charge by Fever Tree, alongside the tonics they had a few other options including Lemonade – which I loved as it wasn't as sweet as normal lemonade, but didn't have the bitterness of tonic, so it allowed me to taste the gin flavour without being overpowered. They also had an Elderflower and a Ginger Ale also which I'll be trying more of in future.
My favourite Gins on the night was a lilac coloured Sweet Violet gin from Zymurgorium. It had the taste of parma violet sweets (turns out I think a lot of other countries don't have parma violets it's a very distinct tasting sherbet sweet). As well as another gin called Cornish Cup that was very pimms like. What I also found was that a lot of the time the fruits added to the gin can really enhance the taste and make a lot bigger impact.
I can officially walk away from the Gin Festival as a convert, I hope to see the Gin Festival return to Peterborough in future, but I may have to go check in to other local ones in Leicester and Nottingham. There's a big wide world of gin out their to discover, and I think it's going to be my tipple of choice over Christmas. I think lots of people presume, like I did, that they don't like Gin – but I'd encourage you to try with something else other than tonic, step away from the dry gins and ease yourself in, as I think personally, there's a gin for everybody.
Are you a gin fan?
* Ticket entry and drinks provided in exchange for a review of our experience.
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A little bit about myself, Crystal Faith
After making beauty & lifestyle videos on Youtube for the past six years, I decided to switch over to a new platform and create this blog. I have developed a huge love for beauty and improving my lifestyle. Not just makeup and fashion, but real beauty and real positive life changes.
I have spent majority of my life dealing with troubled skin, and not just your average acne spot here and there. I have gone to hell and back multiple times, from having rosacea to severe cystic acne. It definitely has not been easy, and I'm still battling with it, finding confidence in myself everyday.
I've created this blog to share my personal experience with acne, different skin conditions, and my plans for the future. Skincare has become such a huge and important thing in my life, that I've decided to focus my education and career around it to help as many people as I can who are going through the same struggles I have.
Not only do I love my skincare but a few of my favorite things are journaling, sunny days, a good cup of coffee or tea, being in nature, and tattoos (I have a few). I also love a nice deep meaningful conversation, and happy tunes like some good reggae or indie jams.
My overall goal is to make this a positive place to visit that's relatable, yet inspiring. So thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read and learn a little more about me!
For Business Inquiries Only Email : email@example.com


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Sunday, December 31, 2006
The End of Monument Avenue
True to statue convention, his horse has one foot up to signify his mortal wound in battle (Yellow Tavern), and he's facing north, as are all the statues of those who died during the war. One of the things we did on our usually drunken underground tour of Richmond in the 60s was to get the new guy to get out of the car, cross the road and try to pull out one of the swords from the scabbard on the fence around the statue. Some guys actually tried to pull for a few seconds.
John Edwards Embraces Global Warming
On the other hand, one should never underestimate the seductiveness of complacency. If you happened to catch John Edwards, the hair-today-gone-tomorrow pretty boy of the 2004 campaign, re-emerging in the artfully positioned debris of New Orleans last week, it was hard not to be impressed: An empty suit had somehow managed to get emptier. He's running for president on five big priorities: ''guaranteeing health care,'' ''leading the fight against global warming,'' ''strengthening our middle class and ending the shame of poverty,'' and by then my fingers were too comatose to write down the fifth theme but, if memory serves, it was guaranteeing to lead the fight to strengthen ending the shame of platitudinous campaign rhetoric.
I told you you didn't want to get on the wrong side of Steyn.
Here is the 5 part platform of the former loser of a Democrat Vice President candidate in 2004:
Changing our country means:
- Providing moral leadership in the world -- starting with Iraq, where we should begin drawing down troops, not escalating the war.
- Strengthening our middle class and ending the shame of poverty.
- Guaranteeing health care for every single American.
- Leading the fight against global warming.
- Getting America and the world to break our addiction to oil.
Global warming? You're kidding me, right?
After a relatively mild Fall in parts, Winter has come to much of the United States with a vengeance. Just like it's supposed to. In an earlier post, I noted that man-made carbon dioxide is such a tiny part of the atmosphere that to think we humans could change the weather patterns for the much worse is hubris on stilts and steroids. Yet the Democrats and the others of this year's Chicken Little prediction's moving force want to treat carbon dioxide like Zyklon B and seriously hurt business here in America as a sacrifice to the unseen Weather God to stave off future only imagined changes. They are just like the Mayan (and Aztec) priests in the15th Century cutting the hearts out of the citizens of those civilizations in an effort to stave off a drought or plague.
Indeed, the droughts in southwest America and in Mesoamerica at that time were almost certainly the result of the end of the Medieval Warm Period (formerly known as the Little Optimum) which was a naturally occurring warming of the Earth and which helped some areas (like Greenland) and hurt others (like the Four Corners). None of the believers in man made Global Warming (the Warmies) seems willing to discuss or actually to believe in the Medieval Warm Period, as its very existence refutes the idea that temperatures are rising now (if they are) solely because of man made CO2 and it reveals the out and out scientific fraud of a one to one correlation between CO2 and warming over the past 100,000 years--taken as fact by the Warmies, the new Mayan Priests, when it is pure fiction.
Glancing at the Carwreck
I have no idea what effect, if any, this will have on the situation in Iraq we all despair about, but I like to see justice done and I feel it was done here, although really to do justice here you would have to be able to magically revive Saddam and hang him at least 400,000 more times, one for each of his murder victims which we know about.
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Steven Wright
Friday, December 29, 2006
I Know the Secret of Ethiopia's Success in Somalia
The Ethiopians are superb warriors. Ethiopia is one of the countries that should be on the "Never Invade These" list given to the new president just after inauguration. The British and the Egyptians had the devil of a time with them last century. Despite huge differences in technologies, they kicked Italian ass in the mid 1890s and again in the mid 30s (although they lost that last one). They had the very best service record of any country in the UN effort in Korea in the early 50s. They fought a tough civil war for years after Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974. The Ethiopians fought a war and lost to Eritria in the late 1990s after that former part of Ethiopia (and apparently just as tough in war) seceded and succeeded. They also had another one sided fight against Somalia as late as 1997. They have a big army and they're just good.
This Day in American History
There is an excellent account of the battle in the Patrick O'Brien 'Aubrey-Maturin' novel The Fortunes of War.
Thought of the Day
Carl von Clausewitz
Thursday, December 28, 2006
The North Carolina Bar Strikes Back
In the first of what I predict will be at least three complaints, the North Carolina State Bar has brought an ethics complaint against Durham DA Mike Nifong. You can read the complaint at the Smoking Gun blog. It's 17 pages long. It's all about statements, either inflammatory or purposefully misleading (both unethical activities almost everywhere) Nifong made to the press last Spring. I think this will be the least of his problems--he will almost certainly face complaints for failure to turn over exculpatory DNA evidence and lying to the judge about his failure to turn over exculpatory DNA evidence, which are, in my opinion, much more substantial and serious complaints. He may face a complaint for allegedly directing the police to change the way photo line ups were usually run and put no fillers in a line up of nothing but the white Duke lacrosse players, which last line up contained many photos already shown the 'exotic' dancer (at least two of the photos in the earlier ones were of the currently accused) and in which earlier photo arrays she had failed to pick anyone as her attacker. I won't absolutely predict that last action will result in an ethics complaint, though.
If the truth be known, DAs are constantly violating, here and there, the general gag order they have in the ethics rules which prohibit them from lying, purposefully stirring up the populace against the accused, commenting on their personal feeling about, for example, the truth of the charges, the reliability of a witness, or the guilt of the accused. I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to talk about the accused's refusal to talk to police or co-operate with the investigation either. The complaint has about 50 statements which the Note Kay-o-lina Bah says Nifong said and which violated the rules. It is a bad sign for Nifong that they are coming after him for the statements. If he gets a hefty censure or sanction for these, he's toast from the ones that are coming.
Powerline reported that the Complaint concerned the "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation" in connection with the exculpatory DNA evidence that [Nifong] apparently tried to conceal." It did not. But one will in the near future.
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Francois de la Rouchefoucald
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Echoes of Apartheid
Former President Carter has called what's going on in the West Bank semi-no-man's-land as apartheid, and I had rejected that out of hand. He meant that the Jews treat the Palestinians like the Boers treated the blacks (or 'blecks' to use the vernacular that Pesci made so funny in Lethal Weapon 2). But if it's the Palestinians acting like the ruling whites saying, no Jews can live in this part of the world, just as the Boers said no blacks could live in their all white cities, maybe Carter has a point after all.
OK, to recap, the Palestinians have said that no Jews can live on the land Israel conquered fair and square from Jordan and then gave back for a local Arab homeland, and we're down with that blatant racism?
Rare Sports Post
The Nougats snagged Alan Iverson from Philadelphia (and believe me that does not begin to start to think about repaying Philadelphia for taking Forsberg from us). I asked guys who actually watch the NBA if Denver's coach is renowned for taming troubled players and making them great. They all just laughed. Iverson's been playing pretty well though, I hear.
Finally, I watched the relatively healthy and rested Avalanche lose to a seriously injury depleted and just played last night Dallas Stars, 5-4. Remember when I wrote that the Avs were ready to surge into the new year and peak at just the right time. Never mind. Goalie of the future Jose Theodore had to be pulled in the third. Man, was that loss a bitter little pill to swallow.
Solving the Mystery of the Rashomon Gate
However, let's stick with Rashomon, which has become an icon not only of movies but of popular culture because of its four part retelling of a story, each from a different perspective and each version quite different from the other. Generally after first viewing, you are thinking which of the four versions was the 'correct' one. I urge you not to think along those lines, because after about my 5th viewing I think I have come up with a reality test for the competing versions, with which you can piece together a viable composit. Some say key on the woman's dagger, a beautiful Aikuchi Tanto. But I say concentrate on the man's Japanese sword, the Katana. Here's why.
There is a real time, actual happening part of the movie, the part in the rain under the eves of the partially wrecked gate, when the priest and woodcutter muse on the testimony they heard at the prison, and retell it to the wet newcomer, the unconvincingly laughing man. I also think the woodcutter's initial testimony and the priest's, of course, are reliable. The rest is very suspect. OK, cutting to the chase, follow what happens to the Japanese sword (not Mifune's 'Korean' sword). If the version of the story doesn't have it going off, in its case, with Mifune after the rape murder, then there could be something wrong with that version.
Of course, Mifune has it on his back when he drinks from the stream and then doesn't have it when he's captured because stomach distress from the stream has felled him. Did he also drink up the proceeds of the sold sword between the time he drank from the stream and the time he falls from his horse in dire straits? That's what he said he did. Is he believable on that?
The priest is very strong on the medium's version of the story, asking why would a dead man lie? but I would remind you that there are no true spirit mediums and no way to contact the dead. They're gone--silence only follows from the dead--so there is no version from the husband.
Final question--what is the weird smile on the face of the woodcutter as he leaves with the baby? I don't want to even think about what that means.
This Day in History
Thought of the Day
Gilbert K. Chesterton
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Insomnia Theater--Putting the Tit Back in Titania
Ian Holm is the best Puck I've seen, and the two Athenian youths, Lysander and Demetrius are played well (if not a little flat) by David Warner and Michael Jayston. Oberon and Bottom are superb, as well.
I was not getting the miniskirts, though. They might have thought that through better. As flawed as it is in production values, nothing since has touched it for shear quality of acting--the Brits make it seem effortless. Realy quite a good show.
Paul Campos Can't Keep It Up For The Entire Column
Like most people who went to college in the 1980s or 1990s, I was exposed to significant amounts of what came to be known as "politically correct" nonsense, in the form of shamelessly dishonest affirmative action policies, loathsome hate-speech codes, and various forms of left-wing ideology masquerading as scholarship.
And, like a lot of other people who possessed any contrarian impulses or a thimbleful of common sense, I was revolted by this stuff. When I joined a university faculty a few years later, my feelings were if anything intensified. There were days when I felt that if I heard one more sanctimonious speech about "diversity" or the unholy trinity of racism-sexism-homophobia I would go on a tri-state shooting spree...
Good stuff, except for wanting to shoot people with guns, and there's more:
Intellectually, I was impressed by various conservative critiques of the failings of post-New Deal liberalism, especially in regard to the legal system. It seemed obvious to me that something like the imposition of a nationally uniform system of very liberal abortion laws through lawsuits was an example of judges imposing their political preferences on everybody else, while fooling themselves into believing that they were merely doing what the Constitution required.
Indeed, I still can't read the Supreme Court's plurality opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which Justices Kennedy, O'Connor and Souter call upon the American people to stop arguing about abortion because the court has "resolved" the issue, without feeling somewhat nauseated.
Whoa Nelly, this guy is coming around to good sense and a conservative view.
Then it all goes horribly wrong. First Campos complains that he, with all these apparently secretly held views, is pegged by conservatives as just another liberal professor. I've read the professor for two years straight now and when he is not stridently liberal in his published opinions, he is an apolitical yawn. There is no way one could fail to peg him as just another liberal professor from what he has written. He's complaining that we've taken him at his word. What a little baby.
Here's his close, where he proves yet again he is just another liberal professor, with my comments thereon interspersed in purple:
For many years, conservative critics made the valid point that academia had too many people in it who were willing to accuse anyone who opposed affirmative action or hate-speech codes of "racism." Excellent point, thanks for noticing how the charge or racism is used by the left to stop debate, not further it.
Unfortunately, post-Clinton Republican political dominance and post-9/11 anxieties about foreigners OK, I'm getting a little nervous here, taking rational steps to protect this country from attack by Jihadists is going to be lumped with irrational hate of a race of people? have combined with a generation's worth of often-warranted disgust about irresponsible charges of racism to create an atmosphere Whoa Whoa Whoa--a reaction to false charges of racism by lefties is causing actual racism in right wingers--this is stupid pop psychology, at best, more likely pure nonsense in which actual racism is making a very public comeback. Where? Like the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in lefty dominated France and Belgium? Does he have a scintilla of factual support for that bold but very questionable statement? See below that he doesn't.
Consider the comments of Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, part of whose extended family I have know for 40 years who in a letter to his constituents one constituent last week called for "strict immigration policies" in order to keep Muslims from being elected to public office. I don't call that a fair restatement of the Goode letter (read it for yourself) Goode was reacting to the election of a Muslim, Keith Ellison, to Congress. More precisely Rep. Goode was reacting to a constituent's letter reacting negatively to Ellison's wanting to swear his oath of office on the Quran rather than on the Bible Ellison was born in Detroit, but to read Goode's letter is to realize that people like Goode find it difficult to imagine that Muslims can actually be loyal Americans. Campos is going too far here--we are at war with Muslim extremists; of course that creates a rational suspicion which is wholly unrelated to anti-Semitism (not racism--how did we get to anti-Semitism as an example of open racism?) This is just another false charge by a lefty of racism to shut up and/or punish a conservative with whom the accuser (here Campos) disagrees. Is there any quote from the letter other than "strict immigration policies"? No, there isn't, because there are no quotes from the letter which support the racism charge.
Goode is being lambasted (though not by any prominent Republicans) Yeah, he's being called a racist by lefties--that's the status quo ante of the past 30 years not because his letter was "politically incorrect," but because it was bigoted. How? Where? Too many people can no longer tell the difference. Yeah, specifically Paul Campos.
Welcome Back, Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Irving Kristol
Monday, December 25, 2006
This Day in Ancient History
Thought of the Day
George F. Handel (quoting Isaiah 9:6) (thanks 'jim')
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Antipenultimate Post on the Duke Non-Rape Debacle
Having read through the NY Times account of their interview with DA Mike Nifong, I Boldly Predict that Mr. Nifong is planning to drop the remaining charges against the Duke Three at the Feb 5 hearing, or before.
Funny I get absolutely the opposite prediction. Maguire points to this part of the NYT report for his optimism that justice will prevail soon:
...in a three-hour interview on Thursday, Mr. Nifong said he would not hesitate to drop all the charges if the accuser expressed doubt about the identity of the men she has accused when she sees all three defendants at a pretrial hearing set for February
"If she came in and said she could not identify her assailants, then we don't have a case," Mr. Nifong said. On the other hand, he continued, "If she says, yes, it's them, or one or two of them, I have an obligation to put that to a jury."
Let me explain the source of my cynicism. The accuser has failed to identify anyone in a convincing way (she said, for example, one guy was definitely there who definitely wasn't, failed to pick any of the current accused who were in the first photo line up, and said one of her attackers had a moustache when he never did). However, when she got the can't-pick-wrong third photo line up, she had tears in her eyes when she picked (apparently at random) the three now charged and said she was sure or pretty sure all three of them raped her (now she doesn't recall if she was actually, well, raped-- is this girl a dream witness for the prosecution or what?)
If she now drops one or two of them, she has again changed her story (and I've lost count of the number of substantial changes in her story). What Nifong seems to be incapable of is using his required discretion (a new oxymoron) to judge the credibility of now his only witness. For example, if a woman says three white guys kidnapped and raped her and then says later, no it was just two white guys, the third person was a space alien with green skin, you don't go forward with the case against the two men, you drop the whole case. It's not exactly rocket science. An unbelievable witness cannot get you a conviction and the case must be dropped. Immediately.
Maguire has more about how much trouble Nifong is in for what looks an awful lot like lying to a judge about the DNA results he apparently conspired to keep from the defense. It's never good to lie to a judge. Money quotes there.
On Thursday, Mr. Nifong acknowledged knowing about those [DNA] test results before any players were indicted last spring. He also acknowledged that the results were relevant and "potentially exculpatory," and he said he should have given the results to the defense before May 18, the day he signed a filing that said "the state is not aware of any additional material or information which may be exculpatory in nature."
As Mr. Meehan and Mr. Nifong now agree, the two discussed all of DNA Security's main findings, including those that were omitted from the final report, during two meetings in April.
Defense lawyers point to court hearings in which they repeatedly pressed Mr. Nifong to reveal all the evidence he discussed with Mr. Meehan during those two meetings.
According to transcripts of those hearings, Mr. Nifong repeatedly told Judge Smith that there was no evidence discussed during those meetings other than the test results reflected in the DNA Security summary report.
On June 22, when questioned by Brad Bannon--the discovery expert on the defense team-- Mr. Nifong denied that Mr. Meehan and he had talked about anything else he had to disclose to the defense.
"The report itself they have," Mr. Nifong told Judge Smith.
At a hearing on Sept. 22, Judge Smith asked: "So you represent there are no other statements from Dr. Meehan?"
"No other statements," Mr. Nifong said. "No other statements made to me."
Defense lawyers also point to a court filing Mr. Nifong signed on May 18, when he gave the defense some 1,200 pages of evidence records, including DNA Security's 10-page report. "The state is not aware of any additional material or information which may be exculpatory in nature with respect to the defendant"...
I truly believe Nifong has destroyed himself and damaged his office (and DAs everywhere) by sticking with this case when a competent prosecutor would have punted long ago. His apparent ethical violations may well strip away the immunity DAs should and do enjoy. Maguire closes with something I do agree with:
Nifong is going down - the question is, how far?
This Day in American History
It was shown as a heroic force for good in the 1915 D. W. Griffith movie The Birth of a Nation, which nearly ruins the otherwise first great epic movie. I like to point out that its members have been, if not exclusively Democrat, overwhelmingly Democrat. The soon to be President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Robert Byrd (D-WV) was a leader in the Klan in his youth. Yet black Americans vote overwhelmingly for Democrats and think the party specifically organized for the abolition of slavery, the GOP, are the racists. Some mysteries absolutely defy explanation.
Thought of the Day
Roger Fraley
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Good News From Basra, Iraq
God speed.
This Day in Hollywood History
Thought of the Day
Horace Walpole
Friday, December 22, 2006
Cracks in the Facade of the Duke Lacrosse Never Was Rape Case
Here's what I do know. Ever since the accuser's fellow 'exotic dancer' declined to support any of the rape, kidnapping or sexual assault accusations, and the DNA analysis absolutely ruled out any of the 3 having had intimate, penetrating contact with the accuser, the only evidence to support any charges against the Duke 3 was the testimony of the accuser. Unfortunately for DA Nifong, the accuser has given substantially different versions of the alleged events that night, which different versions now number in double digits; with one more version revealed today as she has changed her story yet again.
Now, DAs have extra ethical duties concomitant to the power of the office. You don't just get to cover your eyes and become agnostic about your only witness's credibility. Nor do you get to pick the version of events you think will be easiest to sell to a jury. If there are even two substantially different versions, you have to make a good faith evaluation of what effect changing the story even once will have on the credibility of the only witness. If you come to the conclusion that the credibility is seriously damaged, then it is probable that you can not obtain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt and you must dismiss all the charges. This is not discretionary--this is an ethical requirement. See DR 7-103 of the ABA Code of Professional Responsibility. North Carolina may have different ethical rules for lawyers and DAs but I assure you they will be similar to this one
Given the ever changing stories told by the accuser here, I can't see how any reasonable prosecutor could conclude other than that her credibility is not just damaged but in absolute tatters. Given that Nifong apparently ordered the investigating police to conduct a second photo line-up, which had only team players in it but did not contain any fillers--so the accuser would necessarily pick a Duke lacrosse player if she picked anyone at all, and given that he did not promptly turn over the exonerating DNA analysis and may well have conspired to keep it from the defense counsel (also a violation of DR 7-103), I am incapable of calling him a reasonable prosecutor. Indeed I am open not only to an ethics investigation of Nifong, but also a Justice Department investigation to see if criminal charges should be brought against the DA for conspiring to violate the civil rights of the 3 Defendants. I hope Durham county (where Nifong's judicial district is), and Mike Nifong personally, get million dollar judgments against them in the Section 1986 civil suits to follow --and I'm usually a big fan of prosecutorial immunity. The man has disgraced himself and his office and has caused good citizens to doubt the honesty and integrity of North Carolina's criminal justice system. And there is little he can do to fix things.
Dropping all the charges against the Duke 3 immediately is now the only ethical choice he has. Maybe he'll surprise us.
Developing a Movie Star Crush
She has this incredible voice, you see, which I just find so sexy and although I only remember her doing an English accent, I bet she actually has a Scotish accent which I just love. And she can sing too. She was terribly misused in two of the Harry Potter movies where she's Moaning Myrtle and over the top awful. She has been lately the doomed, dowdy, mousy girlfriend/abandoned wife on Who and on Nova. So the performance that is knocking me out is in Topsy Turvy, which shows the genesis of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado and in which Henderson plays Leonora Braham who plays the 13 year old Yum-Yum and pulls it off because she looks so young, is 5 foot nothing tall, and is girlish slight of build. Other highlights in her good but less than steller career are Trainspotting, 24 Hour Party People, Tristam Shandy and I hear Wonderland is good but I've never seen it. You can now, alas, see the wear of age on her face so that she can no longer play 13 year olds. I still like her. A lot.
Timberlake Shoots and Scores
This is the edited version but I've seen the one where they actually say "dick" each time and it's no funnier. Although hilarious, this is proof positive that American pop music completely sucks, and is only decent when it makes fun of itself.
More Bad About Carter
Carter's response? I'm not sure, but it could be something along the lines of "Rachel Ehrenfeld? That sounds like a Jew name."
I hope Dershowitz gets a chance to take Carter apart in a debate. The Nobel Peace Prize has never looked cheaper or more tarnished than when hanging around Carter's neck, except perhaps around Arafat's.
The Last Shoe Drops
Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, 42, of Rangely, Colo., was charged with failing to accurately report and thoroughly investigate a possible violation and dereliction of duty. He could face dismissal and up to two years in prison.
Besides Chessani, officers charged in connection with how the incident was investigated or reported included 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, 25; Capt. Lucas McConnell, 31, of Napa, Calif., and Capt. Randy W. Stone, 34, a military attorney.
It is disturbing that the Marines initially pretended that some of the civilians killed were victims of the IED which started the whole ball rolling. If it was by the book, then why lie about it?
As partially reported yesterday here: Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, was charged with the unpremeditated murder of 12 people, and the murder of six others by ordering Marines about to enter a house to "shoot first and ask questions later," according to court papers released by his attorney, Neal Puckett. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
Wuterich was also charged with making a false official statement and soliciting another sergeant to make false official statements.
Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, 24, of Chicago, was accused of the unpremeditated murders of five people and making a false official statement with intent to deceive.
Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 22, of Canonsburg, Pa., was accused of the unpremeditated murder of three Iraqis. Lance Cpl. Stephen B. Tatum, 25, of Edmund, Okla., was charged with the unpremeditated murders of two Iraqis, negligent homicide of four Iraqi civilians and a charge of assault upon two Iraqis.I'm a little troubled by the concept of negligent homicide during a fire fight but we'll see how that turns out. At least the Corp admitted that the IED explosion was followed by shots being fired at the Marines. (The Marine Corps said again Thursday that insurgents fired guns after the blast). This does not appear to be a case, as the rapidly becoming irrelevant Jack Murtha stated, of Marines just shooting everyone nearby in retaliation for the IED; there was a fire fight going on, the details of which we need to know more about, before we can begin to judge whether the Marines are guilty of murder, et al.
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Wilfred Owen
Thursday, December 21, 2006
The Penultimate Shoe Drops
There are five others who are under investigation so they could face murder charges as well. I continue to hope these guys are innocent and had a tough fight where lots of civilians, alas, were killed. Of the three other cases, I've given up on the rapists who then killed the girl and her family and burned the bodies. Execute them soon. I need more information on the other two, but my memory is one case is not looking good for the American soldiers involved.
I Actually Agree With a NYT Editorial
When high school students engage in consensual sexual activity, that is not the same as an adult molesting a teenager or a teenager molesting a child.
The Georgia state legislators had ironically created a misdemeanor exception for intercourse between kids that age and have since changed this rather Draconian law, but Genarlow, having done two years, is in prison for the next 8 years at least. Any sort of consensual sex with a 15 year old (I think) when the partner is no more than 4 years older here in Colorado is no crime at all. Doesn't Georgia have a juvenile justice system? Sheesh!
This especially hits home because all through High School, I was going down on girls as young as 15 (and I started when I was 14). I was never in love with BJs (I considered it time and effort, etc., taken away from intercourse) and my sexual practices are about the same now, so I guess that makes me a good boyfriend. Hard to believe I could have been looking at prison time in Virginia had I been caught in flagrante delicto. Sorry if this was too much information.
I too hope they let the boy out soon.
Selling Ronald Reagan Republican Ideals Out
I'm OK with paying the rent of the country, each person's fair share of the necessary expenses it takes to run the federal (and state and then local) government. Taking more than that from any single citizen is bad. If we took the same percentage from each citizen (so that the deserving poor paid less than their fair share but the same percentage as the rich, who would of course pay more because they make more) that would be nearly acceptable. But to charge the real go getters, who studied hard, worked hard, and took reasonable chances that paid off, a higher percentage of their income, that is government theft, that is a crime in my lexicon. The only justifications for taxing the successful at a higher rate I hear are variations on the theme of "because we can--they have more to send in to the IRS." Say it ain't so, George.
This Day in the History of Natural History
He was best known for his long-term field observations of the social patterns, courtship, mating and feeding behavior of seagulls. He was an early half-hearted adherent to sociobiology and was particularly interested in animal aggression. He interpreted the results of his elegant field experiments to explain, for example, that human violence is rooted in an animal instinct for survival. Though gulls were his first and encompassing interest, he also studied sand wasps and stickleback fish (the latter were where his theories on aggression came from).
He was the primary discoverer of super optimal releasers of animal behavior, the most famous of which was the red spot all gulls have near the tip of their bills. Their chicks peck at the red spot and are rewarded for hitting it with regurgitated fish. Where a gull chick would hit the red spot on a perfect replica of an adult gull head, let's say, 100 times an hour, the same gull chick would peck at a red knitting needle, with two thin white stripes for contrast, 150 times per hour. The exaggerated essence of the bill was a super optimal releaser for gull chick peck/begging behavior.
The only one of those I can think of for human behavior is refined sugar. 250 years ago each American consumed barely 5 pounds of sugar per year and few people were obese. Now we consume at least 135 pounds of sugar each year and obesity is a huge problem.
Thought of the Day
Albert Einstein
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
U2 to Cover Rolling Stones Tune
So on their next album, I predict, U2 will do an incredibly lame cover of You Can't Always Get What You Want. Listen.
Snow Day
So I'm snug at home with hot chocolate and biscotti hoping I'll be able to fly out to Florida tomorrow late afternoon. We'll see. I guess I could finish the ISG report but it has already dropped off the radar so I guess I'll just read around and then maybe take a nap. Snow days are not so bad, even for us old guys.
UPDATE: OK, enough already. Two feet is enough, thank you very much.
This Day in Late 12th Century History
Thought of the Day
John Stossel
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
A Painless Execution
Here they are:
- Hanging--If the body drops eight or ten feet before the noose, properly snugged up above the Adams apple, draws taught, then the first and second cervical vertebrae (Atlas and Axis) are displaced and the big nob on the Axis piths the guy's spinal cord pretty high up so that no pain travels from the body to the brain and no signal to breath travels from the brain stem to the diaphragm. That's pretty painless. I don't see a flaw other than doing it poorly and strangling the struggling guy for 30 seconds or so. Cutting off the blood supply up the carotid to the brain by the tightness of the rope on the side of the neck will cause unconsciousness and death well before the rope's tightness on the windpipe causes asphyxiation.
- Guillotine--Again, the broad knife blade severs the spinal cord high up and there is no pain. The head stays alive for a few seconds, or so the French revolutionaries tell us. The down side is that it's too French and reminds us of the head chopping Jihadists whom we detest even more than the French.
- Double tap to the brain stem--Put the condemned on his knees and shoot him twice quickly in the back of the head so that the bullets sever the brain stem above the previously mentioned vertebrae. No pain, no breathing, no consciousness. The down side is that it might be tough on the shooter and I guess it's possible to miss.
That's all I can think of. This is not as easy as it sounds. Having the government put someone to death is itself pretty cruel and we hope it's unusual. I mean you wouldn't call execution a friendly act.
This Day in Mid 19th Century History
Thought of the Day
Ian Fleming
Monday, December 18, 2006
Bankrupt in More Ways Than One
What the abject failure of Air America proves, though, is that conservatives are right about the state of the media in this country. There is zero demand in America for liberal talk radio because liberals have no need of an alternative media. America already has NPR, not to mention pretty much every major media outlet all of which lean to the left. Rush Limbaugh, who may as well be mainstream now, and Fox News became popular because they fed a demand for media with a right wing slant. Air America has failed because it tried to feed an appetite for liberal media that has already been well sated by the New York Times, CNN, NBC, CBS, etc.
It was pretty obvious to me from the git go.
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Diversa ab illis virtute valemus.
We are strong because our skill differs from theirs.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Steyn on Christmas Buzzkillers
Now it's true there are Jews who don't dig Christmas. There was some story out of Seattle the other day about a rabbi who objected to the "holiday trees" at the airport and threatened a lawsuit unless they also put up an eight-foot menorah. So the airport goes, "Oh, dear, you're threatening a lawsuit? OK, we'll take down the trees." And in an instant the trees were history. Not "history" in the sense of a time-honored tradition legitimized by its very antiquity. But "history" in the sense of the contemporary American formulation of something you toss in the landfill in the interests of "diversity."
So then the rabbi and his lawyer are reeling under a barrage of negative publicity and suddenly it's their chestnuts being roasted on the open fire. "Whoa," they say. "Why are we the bad guys? We love Christmas trees. What made you think we had anything against Christmas trees? Just cuz we threatened to launch a gazillion-dollar lawsuit? What could be more American than that?" In Newsweek, Rabbi Marc Gellman managed to miss the point and deplored the "cowardly response" of the airport. But what "cowardly response"? Instead of going to court and almost certainly losing, they raised the stakes, put the plaintiffs on the defensive and forced them to call off the dogs. The "holiday trees" are now back.
Everyone who knows Rabbi Bogomilsky says he's an affable fellow, he doesn't want to Scrooge up anybody's Christmas, he's an all-around swell guy. No doubt. But in the week when the president of Iran hosts an international (and well-attended) Holocaust Denial Convention (which simultaneously denies the last Holocaust while gleefully anticipating the next one), this rabbi thinks it's in the interests of the Jewish people to take legal action against "holiday" decorations at Seattle Airport? Sorry, it's not the airport but the plaintiff who's out of his tree. An ability to prioritize is an indispensable quality of adulthood, and a sense of proportion is a crucial ingredient of a mature society.
This isn't about religion. Jesus is doing just fine in the United States. Forty years of ACLU efforts to eliminate God from the public square have led to a resurgent, evangelical and politicized American Christianity unique in the Western world. What the rabbi in Seattle and the cops in Riverside are doing is colluding in an assault on something more basic: They're denying the possibility of any common culture. America is not a stamp collection with one of each. It's an overwhelmingly Christian country with freedom of religion for those who aren't. But it's quite an expansion of "freedom of religion" to argue that "those who aren't" are entitled to forbid any public expression of America's Christian inheritance except as part of an all-U-can-eat interfaith salad bar. In their initial reaction, Seattle Airport got it right: To be forced to have one of everything is, ultimately, the same as having nothing. So you might as well cut to the chase.
I think I could survive a diatribe against me by Ann Coulter, but I'd hate any of my silliness to come to the attention of the Canadian-American with the British accent.
This Day in American History
Thought of the Day
Frank Lloyd Wright
Saturday, December 16, 2006
This Day in American History
On this day in 1944, beginning at 5:30 am, three German Armies attack American lines in the Ardennes, near the German border with Belgium and break through creating the bulge in the line for which the month long battle is popularly named. The Germans had kept radio silence during their preparation for the attack which cut off our access to the Enigma code (which we had cracked) so our intelligence was totally clueless (sound familiar?) . Eisenhower's best countermove is to place the 101st at Bastogne and the 82nd at St. Vith. These paratrooper divisions hold up Sepp Dietrich's near fanatical and well equipped 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, and von Manteufel's 5th Panzer-Armee long enough to destroy the critical timing of the plan.
For the Americans, it is a monumental defeat with 81,000 casualties (19,000 dead, 24,000 captured and the rest wounded). However, the Germans get only half as far as they needed, end up with 84,000 casualties--15,000 dead, 23,000 captured--and have nothing left by the end of January, 1945 to stop our steady advance or the Russians from the East. A very risky gamble by Hitler who needed four things to go just right and only got two and a half.
Thought of the Day
Thomas Jonathan Jackson
Friday, December 15, 2006
If Only Life Were Like the Movies
That last change added an impact to the film too. You couldn't really figure out what these different wise guys were doing (particularly the 'cop' and the guy going up endless flights of stairs with roses in a box) and then it became clear in a crescendo of violence. Very nice.
And the Corleone family was safe with a new, strong, steady leader, just when it appeared that they would be beaten down by Don Barzini and the other families.
Would that President Bush could engineer a surprise set of interconnected actions that 'whack' our more visible enemies and brush back the Jihadis from the plate, metaphorically speaking, for a while. He should do it about this time in 2007, roughly a year before he leaves office. If only life were like the movies.
Box Office Report
Failure to Turn Over Exculpatory Evidence
Brian Meehan, director of DNA Security of Burlington, said his lab found DNA from unidentified men in the underwear, pubic hair and rectum of the woman who said she was gang-raped at a lacrosse party in March. Nurses at Duke Hospital collected the samples a few hours after the alleged assault. Meehan said the DNA did not come from Reade Seligmann, David Evans, or Collin Finnerty, who have been charged with rape and sexual assault in the case.
Meehan struggled to say why he didn't include the favorable evidence in a report dated May 12, almost a month after Seligmann and Finnerty had been indicted. He cited concerns about the privacy of the lacrosse players, his discussions at several meetings with Nifong, and the fact that he didn't know whose DNA it was.
Under questioning by Jim Cooney, a defense attorney for Seligmann, Meehan admitted that his report violated his laboratory's standards by not reporting results of all tests.
Did Nifong and his investigators know the results of all the DNA tests? Cooney asked.
"I believe so," Meehan said.
"Did they know the test results excluded Reade Seligmann?" Cooney asked.
"I believe so," Meehan said.
Was the failure to report these results the intentional decision of you and the district attorney? Cooney asked.
"Yes," Meehan replied.
Good examination by Mr. Cooney, but as I recently opined, the defense attorneys know now, so Nifong's defense is 'no harm--no foul.' I can't see this getting this all but certainly bogus case dismissed.
UPDATE: The 'money' motion for dismissal is the motion to suppress the tainted 'can't-pick-wrong' photo line up Nifong made the police investigators use to get someone to prosecute. If the ID by the accuser is suppressed, because her ID procedure was so unfair as to violate due process and the taint cannot be removed now, then the case is over because there is no other evidence besides the victim's protean allegations.
Thursday's 43-page motion recounts the day-by-day progress of the investigation and police efforts to get a reliable identification from the accuser, an escort service worker who said she was raped by three men at a March lacrosse team party.
"Putting to one side the substantial evidence that no sexual assault ever occurred at 610 N. Buchanan, there is quite simply no evidence that any of the accuser's identifications or descriptions of her alleged attackers are in any way reliable," the motion says. "Rather the State is left with an incoherent mass of contradiction and error, one which not only raises the issue of a 'substantial likelihood of misidentification,' but which establishes that the accuser has in fact misidentified the Defendants."
UPDATE II: Betsy Newmark, a North Carolina teacher with a great blog, catches a detail I missed; apparently Nifong told the judge he had no idea there was exculpatory evidence at the lab, then the lab man testified that Nifong did know and he and Nifong conspired not to turn over the exculpatory evidence. It's never good to lie to the judge.
She asks: Don't they disbar attorneys who lie to judges?
And opines: I think it's disbarrment time for Mike Nifong. If this were a movie or a novel, no one would believe that a district attorney could be both so dishonest and so incompetent.
These are the Best of Times
OK, OK, maybe a couple of years in the Bloomsbury area of London between 1901 and 1915, but only if I could scrape together 1000 5 Pound notes with the appropriate dates on them. But I'd want to carry back some penicillin.
This Day in History
Thought of the Day
G. K. Chesterton
Thursday, December 14, 2006
This Day in Exploring History
Thought of the Day
Dorothy Parker
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
What Could be the Best Video of the 80s
Duke Lacrosse Debacle Update
DNA testing conducted by a private lab in the Duke lacrosse rape case found genetic material from several males in the accuser's body and her underwear _ but none from any team member, including the three charged with rape, according to a defense motion filed Wednesday.
[That's not news, apparently the accuser was having a lot of sex, but none with any of the accused].
The motion, signed by attorneys for defendants Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, complained that the information was not disclosed in a report on the testing prosecutors provided earlier this year to the defense.
That's the twist--prosecutorial misconduct (or, more precisely, more prosecutorial misconduct after the 'can't-pick-wrong lineups). You can't keep back test results which tend to exonerate the accused. Huge No-No and only scummy prosecutors do it. If it's discovered after the case has gone to the jury, it generally results in a dismissal of the charges. Tougher to call where it is discovered in plenty of time before the trial.
On a similar plane, La Shawn Barber reports that Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) has asked the Justice Department to investigate the civil rights violations of the three accused by Democrat DA Mike Nifong. The always on top of this story Mr. K C Johnson explores helpful federal statutes somewhat unnecessarily.
Our Prayers for Senator Tim Johnson
The political upshot is that if he is unable to return to the Senate, the Republican Governor in South Dakota can name his successor and will undoubtably name a fellow Republican which will switch expected control of the Senate in January back to the Republicans, although only because VP Dick Cheney can vote to break any tie.
UPDATE: Now some of the news services are reporting that Senator Johnson only had stroke like symptoms (so not a real stroke). I hope that's true.
I have to admit I'm getting a little of hospitals and doctors myself, although I really like my South African doctor, Mervyn Lifschitz.
UPDATE: Now Fox News is reporting that Johnson had neither a stroke nor a heart attack. Whew!
Ward Churchill Apologizes for his Viet Nam Service
What is he apologizing for, failing to insert the film strip the right way up? Although Churchill had bragged about his stirring faux exploits in Viet Nam, he was never in combat. Denver's own "Gunny" Bob Newman (on KOA radio) last year tracked down Churchill's military records. Key paragraphs:
Using his own sources and calling upon the investigative skills of FOX News Channel's Rita Cosby, Mr. Newman was able to verify that Professor Churchill, despite his public claim (in a 1987 Denver Post interview) of having been a paratrooper (Airborne qualified) who conducted long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs; extremely dangerous missions conducted by some of the most elite soldiers in the US Army) hunting North Vietnamese in Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive of 1968, and despite his claim that he was a point man in an infantry combat unit, was in fact trained only as a jeep driver and projectionist (he was trained to operate film-strip machines and movie projectors), according to official documentation from the National Personnel Records Center, the US repository for military records.
Denver attorneys Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman, both colleagues of Mr. Newman at Clear Channel Colorado, then acquired Professor Churchill's original resume that resulted in his being hired by the University of Colorado. That resume matched exactly the resume Gunny Bob had acquired from his confidential source. On that resume, Professor Churchill cited no combat experience whatsoever, no Airborne training, no infantry training or experience and no winning of the Combat Infantry Badge. Instead, it said his experience in Vietnam consisted of his duties as a "Public Information Specialist," as which he "wrote and edited the battalion newsletter and wrote news releases."
Why is this guy still a CU professor?
Even Actions in Self Defense are Horrible
I think I went to bed thinking of self defense vis a vis Israel. Ahmedinejad has told the Israelis yet again that he is going to wipe their country out. The Israelis are completely justified now in taking out any military instillation in Iran, like nuclear weapon component fabrication sites. We should help them. Soon.
This Day in American History
(misspelling of Marye's Heights corrected thanks to Doug Sundseth).
Thought of the Day
George Gordon, Lord Byron
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
My 2 Cents on Sad, Old Jimmy Carter
Lowery gems:
The book marks Carter's further disgraceful descent from ineffectual president and international do-gooder to apologist for the worst Arab tendencies. "It is imperative," Carter writes, "that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel." In the meantime, presumably, the slaughter of Jews can continue.
Incredibly, given his media presence, Carter thinks that he is being silenced by shadowy forces. He makes this bizarre claim: "My most troubling experience has been the rejection of my offers to speak, for free, about the book on university campuses with high Jewish enrollment." Does Carter keep track of which schools have lots of Jews? And who does he think is keeping him from speaking at them?
Just as creepy is a passage in the book about Christians in Galilee who "complained to us that their holy sites and culture were not being respected by Israeli authorities -- the same complaint heard by Jesus and his disciples almost 2,000 years earlier." As New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg notes, "There are, of course, no references to 'Israeli authorities' in the Christian Bible. Only a man who sees Israel as a lineal descendent of the Pharisees could write such a sentence."
Kinsley's main point:
But in other ways, the implied comparison is backward. To start with, no one has yet thought to accuse Israel of creating a phony country in finally acquiescing to the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestine is no Bantustan. Or if it is, it is the creation of Arabs, not Jews. Furthermore, Israel has always had Arab citizens. They are a bit on display, like black conservatives at a Republican convention. No doubt they suffer discrimination. Nevertheless, they are citizens with the right to vote and so on.
There used to be Jews living in Arab nations, but they also fled, in 1948 and subsequent years -- in numbers roughly equivalent to the Arabs who fled Israel. Now there are virtually no Jews in Arab countries -- even in a moderate Arab country such as Jordan. How many Jews do you think there will be in the new state of Palestine when its flag flies over a sovereign nation?
And the most tragic difference: Apartheid ended peacefully. This is largely thanks to Nelson Mandela, who turned out to be miraculously forgiving. If Israel is white South Africa and the Palestinians are supposed to be the blacks, where is their Mandela?
This Day in American History
On this day in 1937, on the eve of the rape of Nanking, Japanese aircraft strafe and sink the flat bottomed U.S. gunboat Panay and its three oil tenders on the Yangtze River in China, killing two sailors and the captain of one of the oil tenders. Japan later apologized and eventually paid $2.2 million in reparations, but we never really believed they didn't know it was a flotilla of American ships.
That's the Panay above, not the butchest of warships, by my way of thinking.
Thought of the Day
Robert J. Sawyer
Monday, December 11, 2006
An 80s Standard Dedicated to Kofi Annan
Not the best of the 80s, but a solid song, whose lyrics fit with the (Thank God) imminent departure of Secretary General of the
He goes out trashing the United States. What a non-Mensch!
Reckless Bravery in Iran
Students from a Teheran university cut off Ahmadinejad as he addressed the conference, shouting slurs like "corrupt," "liar," and "death to the dictator."The interruptions came in response to the intensified surveillance at the universities since Ahmadinejad came to power.The Iranian president responded by accusing the hecklers of being "American."
God spare the students.
This Day in History
Thought of the Day
G.K. Chesterton
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Steyn Weighs in on the ISG Report
Oh, but lest you think there are no minimum admission criteria to James Baker's "Support Group," relax, it's a very restricted membership: Arabs, Persians, Chinese commies, French obstructionists, Russian assassination squads. But no Jews. Even though Israel is the only country to be required to make specific concessions -- return the Golan Heights, etc. Indeed, insofar as this document has any novelty value, it's in the Frankenstein-meets-the-Wolfman sense of a boffo convergence of hit franchises: a Vietnam bug-out, but with the Jews as the designated fall guys. Wow. That's what Hollywood would call "high concept."
My two cents is never give up the Golan, never, never, never, never. First to prevent Syria from a topographical advantage in any future war and second to honor the nearly superhuman courage and skill of the IDF soldiers (and there weren't very many of them) who stormed the heights and took it from the Syrians on June 9-10, 1967. You might as well ask us to give back Ohio to the Chippewa and Kickapoo Indians.
This Day in History
In the photo above, the Prince of Wales is left front and the Repulse, smoking, and also sunk in the attack, is behind.
Thought of the Day
Clarence Thomas
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Friday Movie Review ( late)
It is my opinion that the Mayans were less cruel but more violently depraved than is shown in the movie. Let me be more specific. I don't believe the bad guys would have used the captives as target practice for various long range weapons, bow and arrow, atlatl aided light spear, staff-sling. I also don't believe they would just let the bodies of the sacrificed rot in big piles. It was much worse than that.
The Asian cavemen who entered North America at Alaska and spread rapidly down to Tierra del Fuego, approximately 10,000 years ago (after the ice fields had melted again in the north and the short faced bear went extinct) killed nearly every animal that could have been domesticated, especially in Mesoamerica. Two exceptions were the turkey and the dog. The dog, which is a carnivore, is a competitor, neither a proper prey nor herd animal. And we all know how quickly one gets tired of turkey. So the only meat really available, that didn't have to be hunted, was what used to be called long pig in Melanesia, that is, humans. There is no doubt that the Aztecs practiced a government run program of cannibalism during their empire and little doubt (to me) that in the very late part of the post classical period, the Mayans did too. Here is tepid support for my belief from two articles. There was a drought going on too; people starving to death often go cannibal to avoid it.
The main bad guy is named Zero Wolf; think about that for a few seconds. No really, you need to think about that name more. I'll get back to it. Almost all the actors are unknown or little known and most of them are just terrific. The hero of the piece, Jaguar Paw, could have won an Oscar if Mel hadn't driven drunk earlier this year. He really is that good. OK back to the main bad guy's name--zero is a mathematical concept, a space keeper in number writing that neither the Romans nor Greeks at the heights of their civilizations came up with. It was probably an Indian concept which reached the West through Arabia and was attributed to the Arab messengers. The Chinese claim to have invented it too, but I digress. If the guy really is named Zero, that means that, before there was any contact between the West and the Mayans, which was in 1517 for the Yucatan area, the Mayans came up with the concept of zero independently. Mind-blowing.
Were there wolves in the jungle? Tougher to call but probably (there were wolves in the Indian rain forest--who do you think raised Mowgli?). The actor, Raoul Trujillo, who plays this interestingly named character has been in a lot of movies and was memorable in the harrowing Black Robe a few years back and more recently in the little seen The New World. Mel's not in this one either. There are white guys in the movie though--for about 10 seconds.
Some people seem to doubt the heart cutting out part. They seem to think obsidian is not sharper than steel or that the ribs are too tough to reach through (you cut below the ribs and up through the diaphragm--or at least we do that with elk and deer we shoot--it's easy to get the heart out). I personally think it would be difficult to yank one out, but completely believe that it would still be beating if you could.
The film is beautiful and has an exhausting but measured pace that keeps you on the edge of your seat once the bad stuff starts happening. As the captives leave the rain forest and enter the civilization, the place gets a lot uglier. A rain forest without trees is pretty much a damp nothing. They are felling the trees to cook the limestone rocks they surface mine to make the quicklime coating for the buildings. You have to deforest in order for the civilization to fall, or so I'm told, but I always thought the forest was cleared for corn and beans, etc. Who knew about the quicklime?
The Mayans in the film have piercings everywhere, and tattoos and ritual scars and stones attached to their bodies, their faces and ears and teeth. The whole of the Mayan upper crust has a few pounds of jade pebbles affixed somehow to their faces, and more hairstyles than most heterosexuals could ever imagine. It really is disconcerting, indeed the whole journey to the city is as disorienting as some science fiction films, which in a way it resembles.
Some people have compared this film to Mad Max II, known here as The Road Warrior, but it resembles that little beauty of a film (a through the looking glass synthesis of the Iliad and the Aeneid's parts about Troy) not in the slightest. Well, maybe the lone hero 'running' and the bad guys chasing but the Cornel Wilde film is the perfect model for that.
This is one of the few modern movies where the Spanish conquistadors are a force for good, indeed their very presence is life saving. That might be the jack-Catholic in Mel Gibson, making it clear to us that the region before the arrival of at least semi enlightened European Christians was more like hell than paradise. There doesn't appear to be much of a theme other than that (although I'm thinking about the story the one armed guy tells and about the prophesy of the diseased girl (smallpox? that would put it after 1517 then) who foretells what will happen to the mean guys so clearly). But who needs a theme? It is a rough movie, not for the feint of heart and a rousing good action flick that takes us to a place none of us has ever seen, no matter how often we have visited the Yucatan. Not quite a masterpiece but a very good try.


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