Author: NewMexiKen

Earthquake in Chile

At 3:34 am local time, today, February 27th, a devastating magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Chile, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. According to Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera, at least 120 people are known to have been killed so far. The earthquake also triggered a Tsunami which is right now propagating across the Pacific Ocean, due to arrive in Hawaii in hours (around 11:00 am local time). The severity of the Tsunami is still not known, but alerts are being issued across the Pacific. As this is a breaking story, I will be adding more photos to this entry, as warranted, throughout the day. (24 photos so far)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

Increasing the odds

You go into a New Mexico Indian casino in 2006 and play a progressive slot machine; one with a very big prize, say $1.6 million dollars. Amazingly, you win.

But the casino says, oh sorry, the slot machine malfunctioned. You only won $400.

You appeal to the tribe’s gaming commission. They deny your claim; the slot machine malfunctioned.

You want “your” $1.6 million, so you file suit in state court. But Indian tribes have sovereign immunity. You can’t sue an Indian tribe. Case dismissed; the court has no jurisdiction.

You appeal to a higher court. In January 2010 the appeals court affirms the lower court’s dismissal. You can’t sue an Indian tribe.

Moral of the story: The house always wins.

The above is a very brief version of a true incident. Meanwhile last July another individual “won” $2.5 million on a slot machine at another New Mexico casino. Guess what? Her slot machine malfunctioned, too.

February 27th

Two oldies, but goodies, and one oldie, but no longer so goody, share this birthday.

Academy Award winning actress Joanne Woodward is 80 today. Miss Woodward won the best actress Oscar for The Three Faces of Eve (1957). She was nominated for best actress three other times.

Two-time Academy Award winning actress Elizabeth Taylor is 78 today. Miss Taylor won best actress Oscars for Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Ralph Nader is 76.

Among others having a birthday today are Chelsea Clinton, 30, and Josh Groban, 29.

“I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build—why, I’ll be there. See?”

Tom Joad, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, born on this date in 1902.

“All I am doing is following what to me is the clear wording of the First Amendment that ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.’ As I have said innumerable times before, I simply believe that ‘no law’ means no law.”

Justice Hugo Black, born on this date in 1886.

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman
Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers,–
Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o’er the ocean
Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pre.

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman’s devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, born on this date in 1807.

Cooper Union

Abraham Lincoln, a one-term former congressman, spoke in at the Cooper Union in New York City on this date in 1860. Many think Lincoln’s “Cooper Union Address” propelled him to the presidency.

American Rhetoric has the speech text, and the audio of a reading in 2004 by Sam Waterston. Lincoln concluded:

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the National Territories, and to overrun us here in these Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored – contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man – such as a policy of “don’t care” on a question about which all true men do care – such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance – such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did.

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

NewMexiKen likes that line — “contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong.”

Best line of the day

“The city was plunged into darkness, but there was a general sense of calm. Within minutes, the traffic signals began to function again and traffic flowed normally. Several people, upon seeing me — a clueless-looking tourist — puzzling over a map, stopped to offer their assistance. One young man simply stopped, put his hand on my shoulder and smiled as he said, in heavily accented English, ‘Welcome to Chile.’ ”

Time Magazine’s Eben Harrell in Santiago

Best line of the day, so far

People thought it was good news a few years back when housing starts – the supply side of the picture – were running about two million annually. But household formations – the demand side – only amounted to about 1.2 million. After a few years of such imbalances, the country unsurprisingly ended up with far too many houses.

There were three ways to cure this overhang: (1) blow up a lot of houses, a tactic similar to the destruction of autos that occurred with the “cash-for-clunkers” program; (2) speed up household formations by, say, encouraging teenagers to cohabitate, a program not likely to suffer from a lack of volunteers or; (3) reduce new housing starts to a number far below the rate of household formations.

Warren Buffet in his annual letter to shareholders as reported at Calculated Risk

Afghanistan

In southern Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, thousands of American, Afghan and British troops entered Marja in the biggest offensive of the war, with the goal of destroying the Taliban’s largest haven and restoring government presence in southern Afghanistan. Resistance was sporadic and fierce as troops seized positions around the area. Stricter combat rules and a concerted effort by the Afghan government and NATO forces were aimed at not only protecting the civilian population, but planning for the aftermath, building infrastructure, support and trust in an area long dominated by the Taliban. Collected here are images of the country and conflict over the past month, part of an ongoing monthly series on Afghanistan. (43 photos total)

The Big Picture – Boston.com

February 26th

Today is the birthday

… of Antoine “Fats” Domino. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is 82.

They call him the Fat Man. With his easy-rolling boogie-woogie piano and smooth rhythm & blues vocals, Antoine “Fats” Domino put a New Orleans-style spin on what came to be known as rock and roll. A pianist, singer, and songwriter who was born in the Crescent City in 1928, Domino sold more records (65 million) than any Fifties-era rocker except Elvis Presley. Between 1950 and 1963, he cracked the pop Top Forty thirty-seven times and the R&B singles chart fifty-nine times. Domino’s biggest songs are as winning as his broad smile. They include “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill,” “I’m Walkin’,” “Blue Monday” and “Walking to New Orleans.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of Mitch Ryder. He’s 65. No report on the ages of the Detroit Wheels.

… of Michael Bolton. The singer is 57. The former Initech computer programmer’s age isn’t known.

Johnny Cash was born on this date in 1932.

“To millions of fans, Johnny Cash is “the Man in Black,” a country music legend who sings in an authoritative baritone about the travails of working men and the downtrodden in this country. Lesser known is the fact that Johnny Cash was present at the birth of rock and roll by virtue of being one of the earliest signees to Sam Phillips’ Sun Records back in 1955. Cash was part of an elite club of rock and roll pioneers at Sun that included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. The four were collectively referred to as “the Million Dollar Quartet” after an impromptu gathering and jam session at the Sun recording studio on December 4, 1956. What Cash and his group, the Tennessee Two, brought to the “Sun Sound” was a spartan mix of guitar, standup bass and vocals that served as an early example of rockabilly. Cash recorded a string of rockabilly hits for Sun that included “Cry, Cry, Cry,” “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.” The latter was first of more than a dozen Number One country hits for Cash and also marked his first appearance on the national pop singles charts.

Straddling the country, folk and rockabilly idioms, Johnny Cash has crafted more than 400 plainspoken story-songs that describe and address the lives of coal miners, sharecroppers, Native Americans, prisoners, cowboys, renegades and family men.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Betty Hutton was born on this date in 1921. She was Annie Oakley in the eponymous 1950 film, and the trapeze artist who saves the circus in The Greatest Show on Earth, still a fun movie to watch.

Jackie Gleason was born in Brooklyn on this date in 1916. One of the greats of early TV, known primarily now for his portrayal of bus driver Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners. He was in a number of films and received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in The Hustler. Gleason also won a Tony Award. “And away we go” was one of Gleason’s stock lines. It is also the inscription at his grave site.

Grover Cleveland Alexander was born on this date in 1887.

Suffering from epilepsy, haunted by his experiences in combat during World War I and shadowed by the dark side of alcoholism, Grover Cleveland Alexander was able to win 373 games during a 20-year major league career, the third highest total in major league history. He led the league in ERA on four occasions, wins in six different seasons, complete games six times and shutouts during seven campaigns. Alexander also won 30 or more games three consecutive seasons.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Alexander was portrayed by Ronald Reagan in the 1952 film “The Winning Team.”

John Harvey Kellogg was born on this date in 1852.

When he became a physician Dr. Kellogg determined to devote himself to the problems of health, and after taking over the sanitarium he put into effect his own ideas. Soon he had developed the sanitarium to an unprecedented degree, and he launched the business of manufacturing health foods. He gained recognition as the originator of health foods and coffee and tea substitutes, ideas which led to the establishment of huge cereal companies besides his own, in which his brother, W. K. Kellogg, produced the cornflakes he invented. His name became a household word.

The New York Times

There might have been something to it. Kellogg lived to be 91.

And William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was born on this date in 1846.

In a life that was part legend and part fabrication, William F. Cody came to embody the spirit of the West for millions, transmuting his own experience into a national myth of frontier life that still endures today.

Finally, in 1867, Cody took up the trade that gave him his nickname, hunting buffalo to feed the construction crews of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. By his own count, he killed 4,280 head of buffalo in seventeen months. He is supposed to have won the name “Buffalo Bill” in an eight-hour shooting match with a hunter named William Comstock, presumably to determine which of the two Buffalo Bill’s deserved the title.

Beginning in 1868, Cody returned to his work for the Army. He was chief of scouts for the Fifth Cavalry and took part in 16 battles, including the Cheyenne defeat at Summit Springs, Colorado, in 1869. For his service over these years, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1872, although this award was revoked in 1916 on the grounds that Cody was not a regular member of the armed forces at the time. (The award was restored posthumously in 1989).

All the while Cody was earning a reputation for skill and bravery in real life, he was also becoming a national folk hero, thanks to the exploits of his alter ego, “Buffalo Bill,” in the dime novels of Ned Buntline (pen name of the writer E. Z. C. Judson). Beginning in 1869, Buntline created a Buffalo Bill who ranked with Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone and Kit Carson in the popular imagination, and who was, like them, a mixture of incredible fact and romantic fiction.

Cody’s own theatrical genius revealed itself in 1883, when he organized Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, an outdoor extravaganza that dramatized some of the most picturesque elements of frontier life: a buffalo hunt with real buffalos, an Indian attack on the Deadwood stage with real Indians, a Pony Express ride, and at the climax, a tableau presentation of Custer’s Last Stand in which some Lakota who had actually fought in the battle played a part. Half circus and half history lesson, mixing sentimentality with sensationalism, the show proved an enormous success, touring the country for three decades and playing to enthusiastic crowds across Europe.

In later years Buffalo Bill’s Wild West would star the sharpshooter Annie Oakley, the first “King of the Cowboys,” Buck Taylor, and for one season, “the slayer of General Custer,” Chief Sitting Bull. Cody even added an international flavor by assembling a “Congress of Rough Riders of the World” that included cossacks, lancers and other Old World cavalrymen along with the vaqueros, cowboys and Indians of the American West.

Above from PBS – THE WEST.

Mount McKinley National Park (Alaska)

… now Denali National Park & Preserve, was established on this date in 1917.

Denali.jpg

It’s more than a mountain. Denali National Park & Preserve features North America’s highest mountain, 20,320-foot tall Mount McKinley. The Alaska Range also includes countless other spectacular mountains and many large glaciers. Denali’s more than 6 million acres also encompass a complete sub-arctic eco-system with large mammals such as grizzly bears, wolves, Dall sheep, and moose.

Lafayette National Park (Maine)

… was designated on this date in 1919. It became Acadia National Park in 1929.

Cadillac Mountain

Located on the rugged coast of Maine, Acadia National Park encompasses over 47,000 acres of granite-domed mountains, woodlands, lakes and ponds, and ocean shoreline. Such diverse habitats create striking scenery and make the park a haven for wildlife and plants.

Entwined with the natural diversity of Acadia is the story of people. Evidence suggests native people first lived here at least 5,000 years ago. Subsequent centuries brought explorers from far lands, settlers of European descent, and, arising directly from the beauty of the landscape, tourism and preservation.

Attracted by the paintings and written works of the “rusticators,” artists who portrayed the beauty of Mount Desert Island in their works, the affluent of the turn of the century flocked to the area. Though they came in search of social and recreational activities, these early conservationists had much to do with preserving the landscape we know today. George B. Dorr, the park’s first superintendent, came from this social strata. He devoted 43 years of his life, energy, and family fortune to preserving the Acadia landscape. Thanks to the foresight of Dorr and others like him, Acadia became the first national park established east of the Mississippi.

Acadia National Park

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)

… was so designated on this date in 1919.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is more than a great chasm carved over millennia through the rocks of the Colorado Plateau. It is more than an awe-inspiring view. It is more than a pleasuring ground for those who explore the roads, hike the trails, or float the currents of the turbulent Colorado River.

This canyon is a gift that transcends what we experience. Its beauty and size humble us. Its timelessness provokes a comparison to our short existence. In its vast spaces we may find solace from our hectic lives. The Grand Canyon we visit today is a gift from past generations.

Grand Canyon National Park

Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)

… was so designated on this date in 1929.

Grand Teton

Located in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park protects spectacular mountain scenery and a diverse collection of wildlife. The central feature of the park — the Teton Range — is a 40-mile-long mountain front rising from the valley floor some 6,000 feet. The towering Tetons were formed from earthquakes that occurred over the past 13 million years along a fault line. The jagged range includes its signature peak — Grand Teton, 13,770 feet (4,198 m) — and at least twelve pinnacles over 12,000 feet (3,658 m). Seven morainal lakes adorn the base of the range, and more than 100 alpine lakes dot the backcountry.

Elk, moose, mule deer, bison and pronghorn, are commonly found in the park. Black bears roam the forests and canyons, while grizzlies range throughout more remote portions of the park. More than 300 species of birds can be observed, including bald eagles, peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans.

Grand Teton National Park

Put down that phone and drive

Currently —

6 states — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington, plus the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands — prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving. All but Washington have primary enforcement.

19 states, the District of Columbia and Guam now ban text messaging by drivers. The 19 are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. All but four — Louisiana, New York, Virginia and Washington — have primary enforcement.

Primary enforcement means the handheld/texting offense is reason alone for a citation. Secondary enforcement means the offense can be cited in conjunction with some other traffic offense.

A statewide ban on handheld cell phones and texting failed in the New Mexico Senate during the recent 30-day legislative session. Both are prohibited in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Gallup, Española and Taos, however.

“[N]o person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call or create, send or read text messages while such vehicle is in motion.” Hands-free phones are exempt. You are presumed guilty of making or receiving a call if the phone is “in the immediate proximity of” your ear.

In Albuquerque it’s $100 the first time; $200 each successive offense. In Santa Fe, $100. If I were a police officer I could pick up an easy $1000 for the city just driving between here and I-25 (six miles) on any given day. Why is this law so cavalierly violated?

‘Kidnapping for Jesus’

Timothy Egan on The Missionary Impulse is worth your time. An excerpt:

At the least, the curious case of Laura Silsby raises questions about cultural imperialism: what makes a scofflaw from nearly all-white Idaho with no experience in adoption or rescue services think she has a right to bring religion and relief to a country with its own cultural, racial and spiritual heritage?

Imagine if a voodoo minister from Haiti had shown up in Boise after an earthquake, looking for children in poor neighborhoods and offering ‘opportunities for adoption’ back to Haiti. He could say, as those who followed Silsby explained on a Web site, that ‘the unsaved world needs to hear’ from the saved.

Who says they are “unsaved?” …

As Egan says, “Blame it on the missionary impulse, a lingering personality disorder of Western culture.”

February 25th

CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer is 73.

Karen Grassle, the mom on Little House on the Prairie, is 66.

Tea Leoni is 44.

Renoir: The Picture Book

John Foster Dulles was born on this date in 1888. Dulles was Secretary of State under Eisenhower from 1953 until April 1959. He is the person for whom Washington Dulles International Airport is named.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on this date in 1841. That’s Renoir’s “The Picture Book.”

Enrico Caruso was born in Naples on this date in 1873. The Writer’s Almanac had this to say about Caruso a few years back:

It’s the birthday of tenor Enrico Caruso, born in Naples, Italy (1873), the eighteenth of twenty-one children and the first to survive past infancy. He was determined to become a singer, but several teachers told him he had neither voice nor talent. He finally persuaded one teacher to let him observe other students’ lessons; eventually he was given his own private classes. Legend has it that when the young tenor was asked to sing as Rodolfo in La Bohème, he first had to get permission from Puccini himself. After listening to Caruso sing a few pages, Puccini allegedly leapt from his chair and cried, “Who sent you to me? God!?!” In 1902, Caruso made his debut in Rigoletto at London’s Covent Garden, and the following year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He was engaged there continually for the next eighteen years. Caruso has often been called the greatest tenor of the twentieth century, known for his brilliant high notes and his dramatic interpretations. He was immensely popular, partly because he was the first major tenor to be recorded on gramophone records.

NewMexiKen had this about Caruso in 2004.

And it’s the birthday of Debby, official younger sister of NewMexiKen. Debby is a librarian, lecturer and author of children’s books. She also gets to play Iraqi-Afghani villager from time-to-time for military exercises. Two years ago when I wrote about her for her birthday, she was a budding cowgirl and school recess wrangler. Who else do you know that’s done all that? Happy birthday Debby.

Last words

I’ll quit writing about this now, but I finished James Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers this morning around 1. The last quarter of the book deals with the bond tour that followed in 1945 for the three flag-raising survivors and their life after the war.

It’s a very, very good book.

I was left as I turned out the light with this haunting line from another Iwo Jima medic who also served in Korea and Vietnam:

“The dreams have lasted for years. At seventy-three I still get ’em. I’ve been in three wars and I haven’t got past Iwo yet.”

Flags of Our Fathers

As I mentioned in a comment to yesterday’s post on the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, I decided to read James Bradley’s Flags of Our Fathers.

I’m about three-quarters of the way through the book — including the flag raising, which was on day five of the 35-day battle. I highly recommend Bradley’s book if you have any interest in this event, the Marines, World War II or military history. Bradley tells the story of the six flag-raisers and the battle. Bradley’s father was one of the six in the photograph, a Navy medic and the longest-surviving of the six, three of whom died later in the battle on Iwo Jima. Altogether 6,821 Americans were killed and another 19,217 wounded.

EIght-four marines were awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. Twenty-seven were for action on Iwo Jima.

Marine Sergeant Bill Genaust had a movie camera that day. This film — and the famous photograph — were taken when the second, a replacement flag was raised. Secretary of Navy James Forrestal (present at the battle) requested the first flag that had been raised 90 minutes earlier to the cheers of the marines on the beaches below. A battalion commander sent up a second, much larger flag. The first was taken down as the second was raised — but the first flag was stored in the battalion safe, not given to Forrestal. It, the significant but less famous flag, is now on display at the Marine Museum. The iconic flag seen here was, according to Bradley, shredded by the wind after a few weeks.

Thanks to Jill for pointing me in the right direction.