sisu

For fear of offending

"The president of the Public Broadcasting Service on Tuesday rejected criticism by conservatives that public TV is guilty of liberal bias, and she offered a strong defense of PBS' Bill Moyers, a target of right-wing wrath," according to an AP report. Moyers was featured speaker at Sarah's Governor Dummer graduation a few years back (above photo) and roused our own right-wing wrath at that time with a totally predictable anti-American screed.

"I don't think they will come up with anything they don't want to hear," said Thomas Driscoll, Governor Dummer alumnus who carries the torch for those grads and parents -- including three generations of alums in our immediate family, Goomp, Ben, Sarah and Heather -- who are dead set against having their prep school alma mater's name changed by administrators who fear "Dummer" may be a turnoff for prospective students. We blogged about the controversy here and here earlier this year. The 900-pound gorilla in the Commons Room is the fact that the administration is trying to pull a fast one, treating alums and parents like children who must be coddled and lied to because they can't handle the truth. Looking back, we were struck with the resonance of what we said then within the ongoing cultural wars on the world stage:

Which brings us back to the cluelessness -- can you say insensitivity? (probably only if it has to do with PC causes) -- of the proposed jettison of Governor Dummer's name.  We are reminded of the recent controversy re the EU's attempt to erase its Christian history from the new constitution for fear of offending other religions . . . How delicate.  How nuanced. The EU is into erasing history for fear of offending politically correct "victims," while the powers that be at Governor Dummer seem only to be worrying about the bottom line. Either way, dumb and Dummer.

It seems that those who don't study history . . . Well, you know where that leads. Try to erase history at your own risk.  Sooner or later, the dishonored dead will come back to haunt you. Or, in Governor Dummer's case, the dishonored alums and parents.

"Doubt is in. Certainty is out."

"Now I am not much of a believer, but there is something deeply wrong -- indeed, deeply un-American -- about fearing people simply because they believe," writes Charles Krauthammer in Time mag re the latest intellectual fashion among the cognoscenti:

Doubt is in. Certainty is out.

It seems perfectly O.K. for secularists to impose their secular views on America, such as, say, legalized abortion or gay marriage. But when someone takes the contrary view, all of a sudden he is trying to impose his view on you. And if that contrary view happens to be rooted in Scripture or some kind of religious belief system, the very public advocacy of that view becomes a violation of the U.S. constitutional order.

These folk are living in a fear society of their own making, projecting their own hysteria onto the rest of us. Krauthammer continues:

Do you remember 9/11? How you felt? The moral clarity of that day and the days thereafter? Just days after 9/11, on this very page, Lance Morrow wrote a brilliant, searing affirmation of right against wrong, good against evil.

A few years of that near papal certainty is more than any self-respecting intelligentsia can take. The overwhelmingly secular intellectuals are embarrassed that they once nodded in assent to Morrow-like certainty, an affront to their self-flattering pose as skeptics.

We remember reading -- with disbelief -- the obscenely anti-American rantings of the Susan Sontags (RIP) and Noam Chomskys of this world in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 -- Why do they hate us? -- feeling confident their delusions were isolated mind droppings destined for the dustbin of history.  But no. As we ALWAYS say, the forces of darkness -- of whatever feather -- are forever lurking just beyond the campfire. These people and their disciples are not going to go quietly into that dark night.  We can never let down our guard.

"I'm not going out there with that man"

"Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore: The Gores want to step out of the Clintons' shadows," ran the caption of this 2000-campaign-season photo.  Body language says it all.

"You know, people are thinking of Mrs. Clinton's running for president. I think Mrs. Bush ought to run for president," Lynn Cheney told Larry King LIVE! yesterday:

"If we want to have a Bush dynasty, let's get Laura Bush."

The vice president, who again ruled out making his own run for president when Bush's term ends, agreed.

"It's a great idea," Dick Cheney said. "And I think I know who would win too."

Big time. And doesn't it blow out all the cobwebs just to compare the calm and centered majesty of the principled, iron-hand-in-velvet-gloved Laura Bush with the disingenuous, all-over-the-political-field, power-crazed HRC, a fatally flawed if mighty battle-scarred woman warrior who'll say anything to anyone if she thinks it will further her political career? Frightening what some poll or other claimed the other day, that over half the American people would vote for Hillary! for president if the election were held today. It can't be. But on to what the chatterers are chattering about. Drudge mentions the Laura story but scare headlines with a ghastly photograph of the once "hot" Bill Clinton -- never quite up to snuff since heart surgery -- as a ghost of his former self. There's a new book that rehashes -- with intimate details never before revealed! -- the Clinton scandals. Been there, done that. Somehow, our heart just isn't in it any more. Our favorite tidbit from Drudge's exclusive:

Tipper Gore was so disgusted in 2000 with Bill and Hillary that she stayed cloistered in a holding room instead of going to a New York reception with major Democratic fundraisers where the Clintons would be. "No, I'm not doing it," she snapped to an aide. "I'm not going out there with that man."

We always had a good gut feeling about Tipper. Too bad she wasn't more of an influence on her clueless hubby. Our curling toes told us years ago that the Clintons were no damned good. In hindsight, the MSM's embrace of all things Clinton speaks for itself. What's the point of going over it again now?  Good for book sales?  Get it out of the way now to clear the way for Hillary's run?  To us it's of no more interest than whether or not we will be forced to view photographs of Michael Jackson's genitals. And that's even lower than the bottom of the barrel.

The sun comes shining through

"I've got a face for radio," quipped milblogger Blackfive (TV screen shot above), who attempted to pitch some of his favorite milblogs -- including three of our own favorites, Technicalities, Major K and Marine Corps Moms -- on MSNBC's "Connected Coast to Coast" with Monica Crowley and Ron Reagan this afternoon.

"The women who live with you and the men who work with you will judge your personality by the old standards. Live up to them!" instructs "War Department Pamphlet 35-3 May 1945: WAC Life," brought to the blogosphere by Ann Althouse, whose Mom and Dad both served in the Army in WW II:

Keep your hair neat, your make-up fresh, your uniforms tidy. Use deodorant frequently. Check to see whether you have unpleasant breath. Above all, act and think like a person who expects to be liked and admired.  Maintaining your feminine appeal will buck up your morale tremendously. When you're happy about life in general, you'll be happy about your life in the Army.

The specifics re B.O. and halitosis (pardon our French) grate on the contemporary ear, and you'd justifiably never get away with dispensing such advice to women in today's P.C. military, of course. But woman or man, acting and thinking "like a person who expects to be liked and admired" only makes sense, as long as you don't let it go to your head (yes, you, John McCain).  PLUS.  While such things as bodily odors would be off limits in official manuals in this nuanced era, they're still front and center in big-time advertising, one of the few places today -- other than the blogosphere -- where the truth about human nature can still be addressed. As the unspeakable Irish Spring anti-perspirant-soap ads used to say:

Made for a man, but I like it too.

And as for bad breath, even your best friends won't tell you.

Update:  Our first BlackfiveLanche (The "'fly'" mint green shirts on TV" link. No, we don't know what it means either, but this is the military. Don't ask, don't tell. --ed). Always fun to discover these things in a routine obsessive visit to the Site Meter stats.

Girls just wanna have fun

The Cotillion debuts tomorrow.  Watch this space for details.

"Everyone's entitled to our opinions," writes Janette (Hi, My Name Is Janette and I'm A Blogoholic) Stripling of Common Sense Runs Wild, letting a few cats' whiskers out the bag re a project some of our weird blogosisters have been cooking up behind the scenes.  The Cotillion debuts tomorrow at Janette's Common sense Runs Wild, Beth's My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Jody's Steal The BandWagon. They asked us to join their coven, and how could we say no? As Drudge says, developing . . .

Update:  Let's party.

The ones that got away

Baby Cakes checks out the sights and sounds -- and sox (check out our sock-clad foot, left) -- on Goomp's terrace early morning.  At that point, Tiny was surveying the scene from the commanding heights of the Walpole table, just off camera to the right.  Next time we looked out, Babe had commandeered the table, and Tiny was about to jump inside through the Anderson window right here beside the computer. If you're not paying attention, the whole world can pass by your digital camera's eye.

Digital cameras that can upload to your computer moments after you've captured an image are by far the best thing since sliced bread, but even so. It's up to the woman behind the lens to be there and at the ready to capture the telling moments that reveal the deep, dark secrets of the human -- not to mention the feline -- condition.  Two to-die-for shots we missed in the last period of time:

1. Tuck and Ben and Dad (Goomp) mesmerized in front of the TV yesterday afternoon watching the last few laps of the Indy 500.  We had no particular interest other than the possibility of that cute little gal's winning, but the sight of "the boys" rapt -- and bonding -- before the electronic hearth brought tears of joy to our heart. Wish we'd gotten a snapshot to post here.

2. Early this morning, capturing photos of Tiny and Baby taking in the sights and sounds of Camelot-by-the-Sea at dawn, we caught -- out of the corner of our eye -- an astonishing Cartier-Bresson moment where Baby lept into the air going for the gold of a tiny bird that had just emerged from within the dense branches of a Japanese Barberry outside the window where we were blogging. Happily for us and the bird -- and sadly for the Babe -- the bird got away to fly another day.  But what a moment had we captured it on "film."

The ones that got away.

Update:  The Carnival of the Cats #62 is up at dr. fly killa's Ripe Bananas. During this Memorial Day weekend the former fly biologist dedicates the first part of her post to "the memory of my cat Fluffer who passed away 3 years ago and to contributors that have lost their furry companions." Mighty bless.

Swords into plowshares

Close-up-and-personal cropping of what was meant to be a straightforward reportorial shot of yesterday's grill. Once we got the thing up into Photoshop, this de Chiricoesque revelation of the woman behind the curtain emerged (note elegant shadowhands with camera, upper left, and pretty litle sunburst-clad feet lower right).

"Pray and reflect in the morning; fire up the grill in the afternoon. There's room for both," writes blogpal Little Miss Atilla re what we fight for and what this long weekend is really about.  We happened to get it backwards, firing up the grill yesterday afternoon and reflecting this Monday morning. All the more time for blogging today. Lee Atwood's anthem is always a good starting point for the prayer-and-reflection part:

And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I'd gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

Let the festivities begin.

Plus ça change

The view looking Down East from Goomp's terrace just after sunrise this morning

No two moments of the same landscape ever look quite the same, as Monet delighted in showing us with his haystack series. But the relentless journey of the sun from south to north between the winter and summer solstices and then back again is unchanging. In case you missed our June 21 post last year:

As the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year due to the changing orientation of the Earth's tilted rotation axes. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth's equator correspond to the summer solstice and winter solstice, and the dates of zero tilt to the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox.

When the sun finally popped out from behind the low-lying bank of clouds this morning, it was to the south (right in the photo) of the house on Eastern Point.  In about three weeks, on the longest day of the year, it will pop out just north of the house.

"The group will converge toward the 'best' response through this consensus process"

The Delphi Method* makes use of a panel of experts, selected based on the areas of expertise required:

The notion is that well-informed individuals, calling on their insights and experience, are better equipped to predict the future than theoretical approaches or extrapolation of trends. Their responses to a series of questionnaires are anonymous, and they are provided with a summary of opinions before answering the next questionnaire. It is believed that the group will converge toward the "best" response through this consensus process.

Enter Roger L. Simon. Is he into the Delphi Method per se, or is it just a mystery writer's instinct?

A rather overwhelming consensus seems to have emerged that the emphasis at Pajamas Media/Blog News Service should not be on being "fair and balanced" (judged to be inexact terms for a variety of reasons), but to be "honest and transparent." This latter had many interesting and sometimes amusing permutations, but one I liked was that we should imitate Sgt. Joe Friday of the old Dragnet show and seek "Just the facts, ma'am."

So far, so good.  We found ourselves attempting to converge our own "Taking sides is what blogging is all about" response toward Mr. Simon's "best response through this consensus process."  Fascinating.

*Originally developed by the RAND Corporation in 1969 for technological forecasting, the Delphi Method is a group decision process about the likelihood that certain events will occur. Today it is also used for environmental, marketing and sales forecasting.

Cats see things we don't

Not just another pretty face, Tiny is a mindreader. We're loading up the car with Chelsea Baked Beans and baggage for the ride up to Goomp's for Beans 'n' Franks tonight and Memorial Day Cookout tomorrow, and already she's suspicious. Note slightly turned-back left ear and intense inward-focused stare. Cats are hyperattuned to their surroundings, always ready at a moment's notice for fight or flight.

Tiny and Baby despise riding in the car, and whenever they think they might have to, Tiny -- especially -- makes herself scarce. A "sixth sense" always seems to figure it out just before we're about to grab her, so every time we're about to head up to Goomp's, we make a game of trying to outwit the crafty feline, self-consciously acting and talking "normal," even resorting to using hand signals to warn each other that she might be on to us.

Her favorite maneuver is to run upstairs and hide under the master bed, a huge Cottage Style Victorian just wide enough that if a cat huddles right in the middle, neither of us can quite reach her.  So far, we're blogging to try to throw her off the track, and it seems to be working.  We'll post now and report back once we're at Goomp's to report how it went.

Update:  It worked! A Miss Moppet moment as Tiny realized there was no escape.  Now she'll be suspicious every time we approach her for the next period of time. But meanwhile, we're Down East, and Tiny and Baby are taking full advantage of free-range privileges.