Ask President Bush

NewMexiKen readers who just spent time near Traverse City, Michigan (you know who you are), might find this editorial from the Traverse City Record Eagle particularly interesting.

An open letter to President George W. Bush

Welcome to Traverse City. Hopefully you got a glimpse of Grand Traverse Bay on your flight in and the beautiful landscape that makes this such a special place to live.

Since this is a campaign stop, it is appropriate to address issues that residents of this area find important and would like to see addressed in this election year:

– Air quality. Frankfort, a village of about 1,500 located right on Lake Michigan, has an ozone reading comparable to urban areas and is just one step away from being forced to adopt curbs on auto emissions.

Obviously, that pollution isn’t coming from Frankfort; it’s coming from coal-fired power plants in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin that have been exempted from tougher pollution standards by your administration. When will it stop?

– Taxes. Residents here would love to jump on the tax cut bandwagon, but don’t make enough money. Only 1 person in 55 in our region made $125,000 or more a year in 2002, just over half of what it took to qualify for the highest tax cuts.

The Congressional Budget Office says those in the top 1 percent of income – $1.2 million a year – got a break of about $78,000. Those making $57,000 a year got about $1,100. When do the rest of us get our turn?

– Great Lakes. Biologists warn the Lakes are just one foreign species predator away from seeing the charter boat and commercial fishing industries wiped out. And yet the U.S. Coast Guard refuses to enforce existing rules against dumping ballast water. Why?

– National parks. As home to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, park policy matters here. The National Geographic Society and the General Accounting office say the parks are facing a $600 million shortfall in operating funds. Deferred maintenence has hit $5 billion. Wasn’t there room in the $400 billion-plus deficit for our parks?

– The economy. No rebound here. Regional unemployment was 6.9 percent in June, and most new jobs are low-pay service industry positions that don’t include benefits. Can they expect some help?

– National forests. A 2001 rule aimed at keeping roadless national forests closed to logging is being dismantled. It would allow states to decide if forest land should be opened to logging. So whose forests are these, anyway?

– Iraq. Families across northern Michigan worry every day about a loved one in Iraq. What do you tell them when they ask why we’re there? No weapons of mass destruction, no al-Qaida links, no “imminent” threat to the United States all equal no justification. But nearly 1,000 Americans are dead, more than 6,000 have been wounded. And we’re not out yet. Why?

These are things that are important to northern Michigan, Mr. President, and we hope you give them your attention.

May your stay with us be a pleasant one.

Link via First Draft.

Koko must have dental insurance

Remember Koko, the gorilla who can use sign language? Well, as CNN reports, she had a toothache:

When Koko the gorilla used the American Sign Language gesture for pain and pointed to her mouth, 12 specialists, including three dentists, sprang into action.

The result? Her first full medical examination in about 20 years, an extracted tooth and a clean bill of health.

Koko is 33.

On the case

From Wired News —

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the “I” in internet.

At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.

True believers are fond of capitalizing words, whether they be marketers or political junkies or, in this case, techies. If It’s Capitalized, It Must Be Important. In German, where all nouns are capitalized, it makes sense. It makes no sense in English. So until we become Die Wired Nachrichten, we’ll just follow customary English-language usage. (Web will continue to be capitalized when part of the more official entity, World Wide Web.)

Works for NewMexiKen.

Robert De Niro …

is 61 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Do you know the role and film? Do you know who also won an Oscar for playing the same character?

Update: Garth has ably supplied the correct answers in Comments, so make your guesses before you click.

Bible recipes

From AP via KTVU.com:

An 8-year-old girl who has a rare digestive disorder and cannot consume wheat has had her first Communion declared invalid because the wafer contained none.

Now, Haley Waldman’s mother is pushing the Diocese of Trenton and the Vatican to make an exception, saying the sacrament should be changed to accommodate the girl’s condition.

Roman Catholic doctrine holds that communion wafers must have at least some unleavened wheat, as did the bread served at the Last Supper of Jesus Christ before his crucifixion.

In May, the girl received her her first Holy Communion from a priest who offered her a wheat-free host. But last month, the diocese told the priest that Waldman’s sacrament would not be validated by the church because of the substitute wafer.

Link via Jesus’ General, who has written The Most Reverend John M. Smith, Bishop of Trenton.

This seems important

From report in The New York Times:

The first national comparison of test scores among children in charter schools and regular public schools shows charter school students often doing worse than comparable students in regular public schools.

The findings, buried in mountains of data the Education Department released without public announcement, dealt a blow to supporters of the charter school movement, including the Bush administration. …

They looked at low-income children in both settings, and broke down the results by race and ethnicity as well. In virtually all instances, the charter students did worse than their counterparts in regular public schools.

Robert Johnson

A commenter below asked who Robert Johnson was (he died on this date in 1938).

According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

Robert Johnson stands at the crossroads of American music, much as a popular folk legend has it he once stood at Mississippi crossroads and sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar-playing prowess. He became the first modern bluesman, linking the country blues of the Mississippi Delta with the city blues of the post-World War II era. Johnson was a songwriter of searing depth and a guitar player with a commanding ability that inspired no less an admirer than Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones to exclaim, “When I first heard [him], I was hearing two guitars, and it took me a long time to realize he was actually doing it all by himself.

According to Eric Clapton, “Robert Johnson to me is the most important blues musician who ever lived….I have never found anything more deeply soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice.”

American Indian or Native American?

The Executive Editor of Indian Country Today answers the question.

While it is true that the term “Indian” does not accurately describe the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, its usage, particularly when incorporated into the term “American Indian” has been largely (although not universally) accepted by most tribal officials. Also, as a matter of style usage the term “American Indian” seems to be gaining favor over the term “Native American,” since it carries with it a more specific identification. For example, anyone born in the United States could technically call themselves “native Americans,” but cannot identify themselves as “American Indians.” Our newspaper prefers the term “American Indian,” and we will often use the single word “Indian” for subsequent references within a story. Although language evolves through time and usage I would suggest that the term “American Indian” will likely become more commonplace nationally and internationally. One factor is because national publications such as ours, Indian Country Today, have made it our style choice. Other factors include its use in nationally and internationally renowned organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and the National Congress of American Indians, etc.

Doctor, heal thyself

A Pennsylvania man who answered honestly when his doctor asked if he drank alcohol—six to ten beers a day, replied Keith Emerich—had his driver’s license suspended when the doctor reported him to the Department of Transportation. Emerich, 44, argued that he doesn’t drink and drive, and said that at 250 pounds he can drink six beers in two hours and maintain a legal blood-alcohol level. “I’m just a regular Joe Six-pack,” he said.

Source: The Week Newsletter

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone …

is 46 today.

At the All Music Guide Stephen Thomas Erlewine begins his discussion of Madonna with:

After a star reaches a certain point, it’s easy to forget what they became famous for and concentrate solely on their persona. Madonna is such a star. Madonna rocketed to stardom so quickly in 1984 that it obscured most of her musical virtues. Appreciating her music became even more difficult as the decade wore on, as discussing her lifestyle became more common than discussing her music. However, one of Madonna’s greatest achievements is how she manipulated the media and the public with her music, her videos, her publicity, and her sexuality. Arguably, Madonna was the first female pop star to have complete control of her music and image.

It’s still making them think

The uproar for Fahrenheit 9/11 has pretty much settled down, so NewMexiKen was somewhat surprised today when a stranger — a woman who made it clear that both she and her husband were long-time Republicans — said she’d seen the film. What was unusual was that she just could not stop talking about it, even well after it was inappropriate for the situation. It had surely unsettled her world.

Golf

NewMexiKen has learned what a truly great hobby golf is. I mean, it can take up so much of your time. It’s multi-faceted.

You play golf.
You practice golf.
You read about golf.
You go to the store and buy golf stuff.
And, of course, mostly, you spend time lamenting golf.

Not that long ago

Honored yesterday at the College Football Hall of Fame were Hayden Fry and Jerry LeVias. LeVias was the first black player in the Southwest Conference and, according to AP, “faced death threats, isolation, and verbal and physical assaults just to play football for Southern Methodist in 1966,” where Fry coached.

When S.M.U. offered him the coaching job, Fry, then a 33-year-old Arkansas assistant, made one demand. “I told them I wouldn’t accept the job unless I could have black players,” he said.

After almost a month, the administration relented and said he could have one black player, but insisted on strenuous standards – including a 1000 SAT score – on his admission. White players had to score only 750.