What an ass

Excerpt from an editorial in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Argus Leader:

Political correctness can go too far. We’ve all seen it.

But racist bigotry still is easy to spot – as it was in a Rush Limbaugh broadcast last week.

Limbaugh was commenting on Tim Giago’s decision to drop out of the U.S. Senate race after a meeting with Minority Leader Tom Daschle. The decision was worthy of comment and brings up all sorts of questions that many of us would like to have answered.

But Limbaugh went too far:

“I predicted that Tim Giago – South Dakota Native American activist – would be scalped politically. … Last week, Daschle and Giago had a powwow. What happened in the tepee is unknown, but when the smoke signals cleared, Giago was Home on the Range. … As for Giago, since he’s back on the reservation … .”

Just in case your news didn’t mention it

Eleven American military personnel were killed in action in Iraq Sunday.

Six U.S. service members were killed and another 30 were wounded in a mortar attack near the western city of Ramadi.

The city is about 60 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah. A military spokeswoman gave no further details and did not say whether the victims were Marines or Army soldiers, but most Americans stationed there are Marines.

Another U.S. soldier was killed and 10 were wounded in a bomb and small arms attack on a coalition base near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Overnight, Shiite militiamen attacked a U.S. convoy with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades near the southern city of Amarah, 180 miles south of Baghdad. Two soldiers were killed, the military said. Through the night and into Sunday morning, Iraqis set fire to the long line of abandoned vehicles, jumping on the hoods and beating them with sticks.

An attack in northwest Baghdad killed two other soldiers and wounded two Iraqi security officers and another American, the military said.

Source: Associated Press

More Scott Ostler

“Ratings for the first day of ESPN’s NFL Draft telecast were up 11 percent over last year. That’s understandable. Interest was sky-high because many viewers thought it was a military draft.”

New Raiders are caught in arrested development

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, takes a look at the new Raiders:

You have to admire the Raiders for their core belief that a productive football career and a life of crime aren’t mutually exclusive. And that every young man deserves several second chances.

The Raiders drafted three players with police records, which gives new meaning to the term “starting lineup.” The three players have a cumulative eight significant legal/academic mishaps on their records.

Give the Raiders credit. They didn’t just draft a bunch of random guys; they drafted a self-contained support group.

Keeping Hispanic culture alive

Ask many native Santa Feans about themselves and they’ll tell you something like this:

“I am a life-long resident of Santa Fe. My mother, Vivian Romero Naranjo, was from Taos. My father, Gaspar O. Naranjo, was from Chimayó. I was born in Río Arriba County. My family moved to Santa Fe and to this location on July 9, 1946, on my first birthday. I have lived in this home for 57-plus years. Our home is on Staab Street, three blocks northwest of the Plaza. My mom and dad built this house in 1940 … .”

Just like María Encarnación Naranjo, a La Herencia reader and contributor who sprinkles her sing-song English with phrases in Spanish, la herencia (heritage) plays a central role in the lives of New Mexico’s Hispanics.

The Santa Fe New Mexican tells us about La Herencia magazine:

What makes the magazine special, says Pacheco, is that it is an authentic record of the local community “before it was Disneyized — the real deal.”

Historian With a History

Historian Jon Wiener comments in the Los Angeles Times on the nomination of a new Archivist of the U.S.:

Go ahead, try. Name the archivist of the United States.

It’s a pretty fair bet you failed. The archivist, former Kansas Gov. John Carlin, oversees the nation’s most important documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. The position has traditionally been one of the lower-profile jobs in the federal hierarchy, but, as its website notes, the National Archives is not simply “a dusty hoard of ancient history. It is a public trust on which our democracy depends. It enables people to inspect for themselves the record of what government has done.”

The archives collects and preserves the records of government, including many presidential papers and documents from hearings such as those conducted last month by the 9/11 commission. In the next year, the archives will be preparing the release of papers from President George H.W. Bush’s term in office.
…

The White House nominee has a controversial history involving charges of excessive secrecy and of ethical violations. Almost two dozen organizations of archivists and historians have expressed concern about his nomination, and will almost certainly speak against it at Senate hearings later this year.

The charges against Weinstein center on ethical issues involving access to research materials he used in writing two books. Other historians have not been permitted to see his documents and interviews, which violates the standards of the American Historical Assn. and the Society of American Archivists.

Professor Wiener continues.

It isn’t guns that shoot people, it’s bullets

This isn’t funny I suppose, but…

A federal drug agent shot himself in the leg during a gun safety presentation to children in what police describe as an accident. His bosses, however, are still investigating the incident.

The Drug Enforcement Administration agent, whose name was not released, was speaking April 9 to about 50 adults and students organized by the Orlando Minority Youth Golf Association, witnesses and police said.

He drew his .40-caliber duty weapon and removed the magazine, according to the police report. He then pulled back the slide and asked an audience member to look inside the gun and confirm it wasn’t loaded.

Witnesses said when the agent released the slide, one shot fired into the top of his left thigh. The gun was pointed at the floor.

The agent was treated at Orlando Regional Medical Center and returned to work, a DEA official said.

From CNN.com

Shhh!

From Thursday’s Washington Post:

The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI’s methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now.

The lawsuit was filed April 6 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, but the case was kept under seal to avoid violating secrecy rules contained in the USA Patriot Act, the ACLU said. The group was allowed to release a redacted version of the lawsuit after weeks of negotiations with the government.

“It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court,” Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s associate legal director, said in a statement. “President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it.”

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the case.

Darwin-Free Fun for Creationists

From The New York Times:

PENSACOLA, Fla., April 29 — Robert and Schön Passmore took their children to Disney World last fall and left bitterly disappointed. As Christians who reject evolutionary theory, the family scoffed at the park’s dinosaur attractions, which date the apatosaurus, brachiosaurus and the like to prehistoric times.

“My kids kept recognizing flaws in the presentation,” said Mrs. Passmore, of Jackson, Ala. “You know — the whole `millions of years ago dinosaurs ruled the earth’ thing.”

So this week, the Passmores sought out a lower-profile Florida attraction: Dinosaur Adventure Land, a creationist theme park and museum here that beckons children to “find out the truth about dinosaurs” with games that roll science and religion into one big funfest with the message that Genesis, not science, tells the real story of the creation.

Continue reading from The New York Times.

Factoid from article: “God made dinosaurs on Day 6 of the creation as described in Genesis.”

Marketing factoid from article: “You’re missing 98 percent of the population if you only go the intellectual route.”

Drought Settles In, Lake Shrinks and West’s Worries Grow

From The New York Times:

PAGE, Ariz. — At five years and counting, the drought that has parched much of the West is getting much harder to shrug off as a blip.

Those who worry most about the future of the West — politicians, scientists, business leaders, city planners and environmentalists — are increasingly realizing that a world of eternally blue skies and meager mountain snowpacks may not be a passing phenomenon but rather the return of a harsh climatic norm.

Continuing research into drought cycles over the last 800 years bears this out, strongly suggesting that the relatively wet weather across much of the West during the 20th century was a fluke. In other words, scientists who study tree rings and ocean temperatures say, the development of the modern urbanized West — one of the biggest growth spurts in the nation’s history — may have been based on a colossal miscalculation.

Continue reading from The New York Times.

Factoid from the article: “The period since 1999 is now officially the driest in the 98 years of recorded history of the Colorado River, according to the United States Geological Survey.”

It’s not just 8 acres

The Albuquerque City Council votes Monday on whether to extend a major thoroughfare through a national monument. This report is from The Albuquerque Tribune.

Like most islands, the hotly contested patch of the Petroglyph National Monument is never free of what surrounds it.

Though birdsong is audible and jack rabbits flit between shrubs, the sounds and sights of New Mexico’s biggest city are never far away.

The rooftops of Ventana Ranch, advancing closer every day, are to the northwest.

To the northeast are the top windows of houses in Paradise Hills.

Off the escarpment, commuters motor on Golf Course Road, some turning in to Petroglyph Plaza for coffee, groceries or gasoline. If it’s rush hour, they might need all three before committing to the stop-and-go drive they’ll confront.

But in the midst of all this, directly underfoot, are barely-visible etchings, scratched there by American Indians, the National Park Service says. About 50 previously unknown works were found on the site in early April.

It’s just 8 acres. Federal legislation pushed by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, an Albuquerque Republican, carved it out of the 7,244-acre park to make way for extending Paseo del Norte to the west.

It’s a great place for a walk, maybe to explore the fingerprints of a long-gone people.

It’s a great place to put a road, cresting the hill before sweeping down to Albuquerque’s East Side.

Giddyup

From Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times:

Local broadcaster Alan Massengale, tongue planted firmly in cheek, on why the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority wanted to prevent jockeys from putting advertisements on their riding pants:

“Such offensive ads could ruin the mood at the Crown Royal Derby party attended by Ford Motor Company executives, the official car of the Kentucky Derby, the first jewel of the Visa Triple Crown.”

Calamity Jane

According to her very brief autobiography, Martha Jane Canary was born in Princeton, Missouri, on this date in 1852. That may or may not be any more truthful than the rest of that short work. A decent brief biography is found at the Adams Museum & House web site.

What’s unbelievable is to watch the wonderful portrayal of Jane by Robin Weigert on Deadwood, and then think that Calamity Jane was played by Doris Day in the movie Calamity Jane (1953) and Jane Alexander in the made-for-TV movie Calamity Jane (1984).

“Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

Mary Harris Jones was born on this date in 1830 (or, more likely, 1837). She is better known to us as Mother Jones. The magazine named after her has a nice biographical essay that begins:

Upton Sinclair knew Mother Jones. The author of the best-selling exposé of the meatpacking industry, The Jungle, even made her a character in one of his novels, a lightly fictionalized work called The Coal War, which chronicled the bloody Colorado coal strike of 1913-14: “There broke out a storm of applause which swelled into a tumult as a little woman came forward on the platform. She was wrinkled and old, dressed in black, looking like somebody’s grandmother; she was, in truth, the grandmother of hundreds of thousands of miners.”

Stories, Sinclair wrote, were Mother Jones’ weapons, stories “about strikes she had led and speeches she had made; about interviews with presidents and governors and captains of industry; about jails and convict camps.” She berated the miners for their cowardice, telling them if they were afraid to fight, then she would continue on alone. “All over the country she had roamed,” Sinclair concluded, “and wherever she went, the flame of protest had leaped up in the hearts of men; her story was a veritable Odyssey of revolt.”

NewMexiKen has known about Mother Jones since the eponymous magazine first came out in 1976. What amazes me is that I had no knowledge of her before that, despite majoring in American history, and even though “For a quarter of a century, she roamed America, the Johnny Appleseed of activists.”

The essay is well worth reading.

Both Sides Now

Judy Collins is 65 today. Ms. Collins won a Grammy in 1968 for “Both Sides Now.” “Send in the Clowns” isn’t bad either. And best of all, “Amazing Grace,” for which I just paid 99 cents at iTunes.

We all have our baggage

Anyone seen the show Airline on A&E?

Each week, this fast-paced series showcases the real life thrills, chills and spills behind the scenes of Southwest Airlines. Each and every day, Southwest Airlines pilots, flight attendants, and airport employees interact with a gaggle of harried executives, howling children, inebriated adults, tall passengers hoping for a little legroom and every other breed of weary sojourner. A&E Network goes behind the counter, into the cockpit and beyond the tarmac for this new real life series.

NewMexiKen’s April

The statistics for April are nearly complete and I thought some of NewMexiKen’s readers would be interested.

  • Number of visits: 3,272
  • Unique visitors: 1,588
  • Most visits one day: 162 (April 27)
  • Biggest user of bandwidth: Google
  • Added to Bookmarks (Favorites): 51 (estimate)
  • Blogs linking to NewMexiKen: 7 (that I know of)

Visitors were from these countries:

Continue reading NewMexiKen’s April

Amazon

You know that little Amazon button somewhere down the right-hand sidebar? Please don’t forget about it. Amazon.com is actually crediting me with a few dollars this quarter.

This blog is a full time job. I love doing it (addiction, I believe it is called), but a little external recognition is necessary too, be that your comments, or a few dollars from Amazon every quarter as a result of using that button.

NewMexiKen thanks you for your support.

We can’t have all this independent thinking

Good article from The New York Times on the reaction to The Da Vinci Code.

Fearing that the best-selling novel “The Da Vinci Code” may be sowing doubt about basic Christian beliefs, a host of Christian churches, clergy members and Bible scholars are rushing to rebut it.

In 13 months, readers have bought more than six million copies of the book, a historical thriller that claims Christianity was founded on a cover-up — that the church has conspired for centuries to hide evidence that Jesus was a mere mortal, married Mary Magdalene and had children whose descendants live in France.

Word that the director Ron Howard is making a movie based on the book has intensified the critics’ urgency. More than 10 books are being released, most in April and May, with titles that promise to break, crack, unlock or decode “The Da Vinci Code.” Churches are offering pamphlets and study guides for readers who may have been prompted by the novel to question their faith. Large audiences are showing up for Da Vinci Code lectures and sermons.

Continue reading from The New York Times.

Spam begone

NewMexiKen installed Thunderbird last week; it’s the free email program from Mozilla.org. It took a little time to understand and configure, but I’m liking it better and better. Its spam controls are easy — and fun. If you enable the junk mail feature, when spam gets through you just click the Junk icon and the the program is trained to recognize that type of message as junk — and the message is deleted — all in one click.

Importing an address book from Outlook Express was fairly straightforward as well.

Mozilla Thunderbird for Windows or Mac OS X.

By the way, as reported earlier, Mozilla Firefox is an excellent browser. No pop ups. Tabbed browsing. NewMexiKen only uses Internet Explorer when necessary to see these pages as 75% of you see them — with a bug-ridden browser. Firefox is also free, as is Mozilla 1.6.