Returning calls important

From the Los Angeles Times

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark on Monday accepted a minor endorsement that was as much a dig at Dean as it was support for Clark.

Vermont’s Abenaki Nation Indian tribe — which clashed with the former governor over official state recognition — announced its support of Clark at an event in Concord, N.H. The 6,000-member tribe tossed its endorsement to Clark because he isn’t Dean, tribal leaders said, and because the Clark campaign was the only one to return their calls and messages.

Endangered places

The National Parks Conservation Association today named 10 parks particularly threatened by air pollution, development, insufficient funding and Administration policies.

Parks on this year’s list, in alphabetical order with their biggest threats, are:

  • Big Thicket National Preserve (Texas): Sale of private lands and increased efforts to drill for oil and gas could fragment and destroy wildlife habitat by promoting haphazard development along park borders; dam proposals could alter much of the preserve’s unique wildlife habitat;
  • Biscayne National Park (Florida): Important fish and coral populations are threatened by overfishing, destructive use, and pollution; sensitive coastline slated for wetlands restoration is being developed, impeding the restoration of the fresh water flows necessary to restore the estuary;
  • Everglades National Park (Florida): Failure to emphasize ecological recovery in the restoration plan guidelines, a lack of action to acquire a critical portion of wetland, and insufficient funding threaten this park;
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina/Tennessee): Pollution from coal-fired power plants threatens the health of park visitors, plants, and wildlife and diminishes scenic views; administration rollbacks of clean-air protections compounds threats;
  • Joshua Tree National Park (California): Development along park borders threatens to fragment critical wildlife corridors, degrade already poor air quality, and deplete critical aquifers;
  • Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (Arizona): Insufficient funding leaves the Park Service unable to address extensive damage to the border park’s extraordinary array of Sonoran Desert plants and wildlife;
  • Shenandoah National Park (Virginia): Pollution endangers plants, animals, and scenic vistas; non-native invasive plants and insects damage native vegetation, and insufficient funding undermines the park;
  • Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program (26 states and Washington, D.C.): Without adequate funding, the program is losing the opportunity and ability to create a comprehensive collection of sites, stories, and artifacts, depriving future generations of perhaps the best illustrations of an important aspect of American history;
  • Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Alaska): Irresponsible ATV use is scarring the park; a harmful administration policy could allow more than 1,700 miles of proposed roads through the park; and
  • Yellowstone National Park (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming): Ongoing pressure to continue snowmobile use that Park Service studies have determined threatens the health and enjoyment of visitors and staff, diminishes air quality, and jeopardizes wildlife; inadequate funding for day-to-day needs cripples Park Service capabilities; and the park’s iconic bison are harassed by snowmobiles and killed by Montana officials when the animals wander off parklands in search of food.

The Meek Finally Inherit Something

Easterblogg on the Bush immigration plan.

Whatever else you think of the George W. Bush immigration plan, just focus on this: It will make life better for millions of the disadvantaged. How often does any government action achieve this? And shouldn’t a better life for the needy be among the first goals of government policy? Surely it should be among the first goals of liberal government policy. That a conservative president has done something to help millions of people with money problems, little power and an anxiety-filled life–the meek, in New Testament terms–seems such a departure from the script that the anti-poverty aspects of the Bush initiative are simply being ignored.

High Plains Drifter

Reviewer Terry Castle is enamored with the new Edith Grossman translation of Don Quixote.

So the best thing to say up front, perhaps, is get hold of Don Quixote and make time for it. It will be worth the television sitcoms you skip, the thirty or so quiet evenings you spend on it. Edith Grossman actually makes it easy for you, O frazzled reader, because she has produced the most agreeable Don Quixote ever. Don’t be put off by Harold Bloom’s introduction (major windbag alert in effect); go right to the thing itself. Don Quixote, famously, is the first major work of Western literature to take ordinary human life for its subject—specifically, a life that is replete with accidents, fiascoes, and indignities—and make it over into something luminous with meaning. It does so without pomp or sententiousness—it’s the friendliest and least formal of all the Great Books—yet will overwhelm you, in the end, with its moral and imaginative splendor….

I confess that I wasn’t especially looking forward to my second reading of the work—so shopworn, at this point, was much of my existing mental Quixote imagery (think cheap Picasso posters, Man of La Mancha, a groggy Frank Sinatra singing “The Impossible Dream”). But the book quite staggered me with its charm, beauty, and profundity. Once you enter (or re-enter) its expansive, ruminative, deeply nourishing world, the literary equivalent of eating “slow food,” it’s hard not to become a bit of a bore about how stupendous it is.

Al Franken Was Right

Also from Primary Sources in the January/February issue of The Atlantic

“After discovering that Saddam Hussein was both actively supporting Al Qaeda and deploying WMDs, the United States, with the full support of the international community, invaded Iraq in March, 2003.” This largely inaccurate statement was not torn from a premature draft of the official Bush history of the Iraq War. Rather, it was what roughly 60 percent of Americans believed—in sum or in part—in the aftermath of the war. According to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland, during and immediately following the Iraq War more than half of Americans believed that Saddam was a major supporter of al-Qaeda. Roughly a third believed that Iraq had deployable or deployed WMD and that most of the world supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The first and the third statements are known to be false; the second is widely accepted to be. So how did so many people get so much wrong? Part of the answer, obviously, is politics: Bush backers, according to the study, were much more likely to believe at least one of the three points than Bush bashers. But the media—and in particular one well-known “fair and balanced” news outlet—seem to have played a part in promoting false beliefs. Whereas only 23 percent of those who relied on NPR or PBS for information about public affairs believed one or more of the propositions, 55 percent of those who relied on CNN did—and 80 percent of those who relied on Fox News did. One might speculate that Bush supporters are more likely to watch (and believe) Rupert Murdoch’s news outlets than either Ted Turner’s or public broadcasting’s. But viewers’ preconceived political notions are clearly not the whole story: the Maryland researchers found that whereas 78 percent of Bush supporters who watched Fox were misinformed, only 50 percent of Bush supporters who got their news from PBS and NPR were.

“Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War,” Program on International Policy Attitudes/Knowledge Networks

Hell Is for Other People

From Primary Sources in the January/February issue of The Atlantic

Americans mix belief in spiritualism and reincarnation with traditional Christian teachings about the afterlife, according to a new survey from the Barna Research Group. The survey finds that nearly 20 percent of Americans (including 10 percent of “born-again Christians”) believe that people are reincarnated after death, and 34 percent think that it’s possible to communicate, Crossing Over-style, with the recently departed. But doctrines of a more traditional nature still have widespread appeal: 76 percent of those polled stated that heaven exists, and nearly as many (71 percent) expressed a belief in hell. Hell isn’t necessarily perceived as teeming with fire and brimstone—in fact, only 32 percent of adults called it “an actual place of torment and suffering,” whereas 40 percent called it “a state of eternal separation from God’s presence.” Either way, though, if Americans are right, the Inferno’s population growth will be slow: 64 percent confidently predict that they themselves will find their way to paradise, whereas only .005 percent expect that they will be sent to hell.

“Americans Describe Their Views About Life After Death,” Barna Research Group

Who was illegal here?

NewMexiKen has been mulling the so-called “illegal” alien situation since the President announced his proposed “reform.”

In the mid-19th Century the United States used its superior military to take from the Republic of Mexico more than half its land. While some could argue that Anglos had settled east Texas, that claim could not be made for New Mexico, Arizona and California (the other area was unsettled). This was aggression pure and simple.

Now suppose that Mexico had retained its land. Suppose that Mexico controlled the California gold and Nevada silver. Suppose that Mexico controlled the west Texas and California oil reserves. Suppose that Mexico controlled the Pacific ports directly between the United States and Asia. Suppose that Mexico controlled the great valley of California, the world’s greatest agricultural land. Suppose that Mexico controlled the great ski slopes of the Rockies and Sierra. Just suppose.

Don’t we owe the people of Mexico something?

‘I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor; Believe me, honey, rich is better.’

Sophia Kalish was born at a farm house along the road in Russia as her mother was emigrating to America on this date in 1884. As Sophie Tucker she was one of the great stars of vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies and early movies. In the 1930s she brought elements of nostalgia for the early years of 20th century into her show. She was billed as “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.” Her hearty sexual appetite was a frequent subject of her songs, unusual for female performers of the era.

In addition to her performing, Sophie Tucker was active in efforts to unionize professional actors, and was elected president of the American Federation of Actors in 1938.

From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash.

Sophie Tucker

Interesting coincidence

On this date in 1966, Robert C. Weaver became Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the first black cabinet member. And on this date in 1990, Douglas Wilder took the oath in Richmond to became the nation’s first elected black governor.

Horatio Alger, Jr….

was born on this date in 1832.

The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans provides this background.

Horatio Alger, Jr. was the author of over one hundred books that inspired young people from the post-Civil War era through end of the nineteenth century. His novels of courage, faith, and hard, honest work captured the imagination of generations of young Americans and gave them a model of hope and promise in the face of hardships.

Born in Revere, Massachusetts, on January 13, 1832, he was the son of a Unitarian church pastor who instilled a strong religious belief in his son. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard, Horatio Alger, Jr., studied under Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and had intended to become a poet. Alger worked at one time as a teacher and a newspaper correspondent for the Boston Transcript and the New York Sun. Affected by asthma, Alger was rejected by the Union Army and eventually became a minister on Cape Cod.

Horatio Alger, Jr., wrote more than 120 books with the inspiring theme of onward and upward. He began writing his rags-to-riches tales just after the Civil War. He patterned the hero of his book, Ragged Dick, after the homeless newsboys and bootblacks he observed in his neighborhoods in New York. The heroes of his books almost always had the same qualities-moral, brave, generous, kind, diligent, industrious, and persevering. His novels told everyone, no matter how poor, orphaned or powerless, that if they persevere, if they do their best, if they always try to do the right thing, they can succeed. Success was earned by hard work and right action. Alger trumpeted the doctrine of achieving success through self-reliance, self-discipline, decency, and honesty. His books were always best sellers and almost every home, school, and church library in America boasted a large collection of his works. Horatio Alger, Jr. died in 1899 of lung and heart ailments at the age of 67. More than 250 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. Through his body of work, Horatio Alger, Jr., captured the spirit of a nation and helped to clarify that spirit.

MPR’s The Writer’s Almanac adds this to the story.

His career as a minister ended when he was accused of molesting two boys in his parish. He left New England, vowed to redeem himself by helping the poor, and set about writing novels about the homeless children who lived in the streets of New York City. His first novel, Ragged Dick; or Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks, was serialized in a magazine, where it picked up more readers with every issue. When it was published in book form in 1867, it became an instant bestseller. Groucho Marx once said, “Horatio Alger’s books conveyed a powerful message to me and many of my young friends—that if you worked hard at your trade, the big chance would eventually come. As a child I didn’t regard it as a myth, and as an old man I think of it as the story of my life.”

Keeping the metaphor alive

TMQ writes:

Many readers, including Mary Ellen A. of Charlotte, N.C. and Aaron L. of Washington, D.C., supposed that since TMQ called Steve Spurrier Dobby the Elf, I must now refer to Joe Gibbs as Professor Dumbledore. For those whose kids do not compel them to follow the Harry Potter saga, Dobby the Elf is a sniveling, wretched creature — and somehow Spurrier seemed to get smaller each week on the sidelines, in another year he might have become an elf — while Dumbledore is an all-knowing good wizard.

Ye gods!

Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Ye gods, ay caramba, Jiminy Cricket was that ever a good weekend of football?! Often the divisionals round is a letdown, as bye teams that have been resting in hot tubs blow out tired visitors. Instead, four consecutive playoff games went down to the final snap. That’s the best four consecutive football games Tuesday Morning Quarterback has ever watched.

Time for a change

Can’t decide whether or how to do NewMexiKen differently — or whether to continue doing it at all.

Perhaps it’s just necessary to take a week or two break every 2-3 months. I don’t know.

But until the muse returns, NewMexiKen will be on sabbatical.

Suggestions, ideas, etc. all welcome.

Mental movies

Renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has an essay in the current The New York Review of Books entitled In the River of Consciousness. As NewMexiKen understood the piece, our senses operate in much the same manner a movie works; that is, as a series of stills. To me this was a new and rather fascinating concept.

Ever seen the spokes of a wheel appear to move backwards when watching a western movie? We understand that is because the frames of the film catch the spokes at various positions and not continuously. Sacks notes that he can sometimes see this same phenomenon with the blades of his ceiling fan (as can most of us). Our mind works much like the frames of a motion picture.

NewMexiKen must stop before he further corrupts your understanding of consciousness. Check out the essay.

The Amish paradox

From the Los Angeles Times

Call it the Amish paradox. An exercise science professor has discovered that a pocket of Old Order Amish folks in Ontario, Canada, has stunningly low obesity levels, despite a diet high in fat, calories and refined sugar — exactly the stuff doctors tell us not to eat.

They’re at a paltry 4% obesity rate, compared to a whopping 31% in the general U.S. population, which, as we all know, is getting fatter by the minute. This group of Amish manages to keep its overweight levels low despite a diet that includes meat, potatoes, gravy, cakes, pies and eggs. So what’s their secret? Exercise, people. Exercise.