Tsunami Should Help Sweep U.S. Out of U.N.

Two more reasons to withdraw from the U.N.:

1) It is well-documented that the U.N. is a haven for thieves and inefficient, incompetent bureaucrats. Add to that list ungrateful, misinformed (dangerously so), "administrators", such as Jan Egeland, the head of the U.N. Humanitarian aid department, who ignorantly accused the West of being "stingy".

Despite his withdrawal of his criticism when confronted with the facts, his words will nevertheless ring out and be believed by tens of millions. Our aid will be looked at askance, despite the fact that between governmental and non-governemental aid our largesse will easily exceed a billion dollars before we're through.

By continuing to be a part of the U.N., we lend authority and credence to people like Egeland.

2) France. I never understood how or why a country of cowards and colloborators was given such post-World War II prominence, but the fact that they have a permanent Security Council seat is reason enough to withdraw.

But now reports on the initial aid indicate that in comparison to our $35 million (government) aid, Australia's $26 million, Japan's $30 million, France has offered 100,000 euros which equals.....$135,000.

Talk about stingy. What a disgrace.

(By the way, if you haven't made a donation yet, the American Red Cross has a special fund set up for this disaster-- the link is on the right, below the blog-links. Every little bit helps!)

Gravity Losing Its Pull?

A story out of NASA indicates that there is growing evidence that the theory of gravity may not hold true, that there may, in fact, be other forces at work.

The title of the LA Times story caught my eye, "Gravity May Lose Its Pull", 'cause I've seen no evidence of gravity abating in the area in which my bathroom scale inhabits.

If anything, given the larger number displayed on my scale this year, it appears gravity is increasing in strength.

Increased gravity, yeah, that's it. If only I could get my wife and doctor to buy that theory....

Had a doctor, a client/friend who walked into the examination room. As he stood at the doorway, he looked at me, he looked at his chart, he looked at me, he looked at his chart.

"What's wrong?" I asked, a little nervously.

"I think I'm in the wrong room," he replied, with a straight face.

"Why?"

"'Cause nobody this fat is supposed to be in here! Didn't I tell you to lose some weight?"

I used to blame my penchant for falling off barstools to "gravity storms" (Thank you, Jimmy Buffett). I'm going to add weight gain to the list of the effects of those storms!

Tsunamis & Hurricanes

First, a quick Merry Christmas to all!! Pressed for time today (all week, actually) but our family had a wonderful holiday-- many thanks to all well-wishers.

I was struck by the difference between the tsunami, which hit without warning, and the incredibly accurate and timely warnings we routinely get regarding hurricanes. Had similar notice been issued, many thousands of lives could have been saved.

I have often wondered what it must have been like to live on the Atlantic coast hundreds of years ago, watching a beautiful Summer or Fall day turn bad, a hurricane hitting without notice. It must have felt like the wrath of God.

Merry Christmas To All

Many things to do today.

Packages to wrap.

Shrimp to clean & bread.

Clam sauce to make.

Christmas movies to watch (as background).

A moment to take to remember family & friends gone, a few telephone calls to friends and family still with us, just separated by miles, and a thought for the men & women overseas protecting us today.

Early Mass with wife & daughters, and sister's family, and Mother-in-law.

Off to my brother's house, with seven fish, and much more, to eat and wine to drink with all my family til late tonight.

Then to bed, and my annual attempt to stay awake long enough to hear Santa's reindeer on the roof. Maybe this year....

Merry Christmas to all!!

Cat Cloned, Opportunity Missed

I'm not a cat person. Let me admit that right up front.

A story out of Texas has a woman paying $50,000 to an outfit called, I kid you not, Genetic Savings & Clone.

You can't make this stuff up.

I'm sorry, but I think this is proof that there is simply too much money, and not enough common sense, in the United States (as if the existence of tanning salons and Starbucks wasn't enough proof).

I know the lady who lost her cat is sad. But aren't there a lot of other things she could have done with 50 grand, especially at this time of year, which would have brought her that glow that doing for others brings?

I think it's wrong to tell others how to spend their money. But maybe she didn't realize what that $50,000 could do:

- 1,282 phone cards for the troops

- 1,666 teddy bears for kids in hospitals and hospices

- 25 pediatric wheelchairs

- 10,638 hot meals-on-wheels for shut-in elderly folks in her neighborhood

- 416 goats, to provide milk and meat, for Third World villages

-25 full, two year scholarships for students going to Dallas Community College

How many lives could that $50,000 have helped? How many people would have gone to bed at night thanking that woman for changing their lives?

$50,000. For a cat?

She should have contacted the Dallas animal shelter. Kittens, with spaying/neutering, are $60.00. And that would have left her $49,940 to spare.

Gay Unions

I am in favor of gay unions, and not just because I do a lot of divorce work, and in a twist on the old Woody Allen joke, gay unions increase my employment opportunities.

I support gay unions because I don't think the government has the right to tell anyone whom to love.

I support gay unions because I think society is better off supporting stable, long-lasting relationships, whether homo- or hetero- sexual, and that we all should be looking askance at lifestyles which undermine that goal. Which is why I have little use for serial adulterers, the "flamboyant" gay lifestyle, or the Brittney Spears & Nicky Hiltons of the world who treat marriage as a punchline.

I support gay unions because I believe W either purposefully ducked "the question" during the debate, lied, or hasn't given it much sincere thought. "The question" being "do you believe homosexuality is a choice?" The President answered that he didn't know. Kerry didn't address it (though he went on to drag the Cheneys' daughter into his answer.)

Do you know any gay people? If you do, then you know they are born gay. As my very conservative, very old-fashioned Italian father said to me long before gay rights was an accepted movement: "I don't know why they call it gay-- most homosexuals seem so sad. And they have to born that way-- who would choose to make their lives so difficult?"

I support gay unions because I don't see how that hurts me, a middle-aged, suburban, 25 years-married heterosexual father of two. Will my neighbors pay their taxes, bring in their garbage pails, and keep their house neat? Then what the hell do I care what they do behind closed doors?

I can understand the opposition to marriage, which brings in all kinds of overlays of religion.

I can also understand people's reisitance to being dictated to by radical judges. This is a matter to be decided in the legislature, and at the ballot boxes.

But I can't understand denying the benefits of society to people because of whom they love. I think, over time, most Americans will see the justice in gay unions, as they did in the Civil Rights movement.

I think two things really hurt the gay cause:

1) Outlandish behavior, such as the Halloween Gay Parades, just reinforces every bad notion, and defeats all attempts to cast gay couples as "normal" Americans, save for their partner's gender; and

2) When we see a heterosexual couple, we see them as Dick and Lynn, individual adults who are a couple. We don't think of them as a couple engaging in sex. Think about it-- what if the first thing you thought of when you saw the Cheneys holding hands on a stage was their sexual activities? You'd gag. As you would with just about any couple, other than Jennifer Aniston & Brad Pitt. But when we see gay couples, we are immediately focused on their sexuality, like you would be drawn to the hair of someone wearing a giant orange Afro wig. And it freaks us out.

Gay unions are a fair treatment by the government of its citizens. Conservatives should support the government treating us all fairly, neither granting preferences nor denying benefits to people because of their grouping.

A Fallen Soldier's E-Mail

A breaking story involves a soldier, killed in the line of duty, and his email. Michelle Malkin highlights the story. Basic facts: soldier dies; family wants to access his email, but doesn't have the password; email server refuses to release it, citing privacy.

Michelle agrees with the policy, as a preservation of privacy.

However, at least here in New York, the court-appointed representative of an estate has far-reaching powers, including the right to open the decedent's U.S. mail. It's needed to assure the smooth administration of the estate.

What if there are on-line bank or stock accounts? If bills are sent e-mail? If information about a new Will or codicil is contained in the emails?

I think the issue of privacy, (which we conservatives often argue is not a Constitutional right) is trumped by the estate's need to know. I wonder if Michigan law is the same, and whether any attorney there has stepped up. I know if this involved a New York representative, I would get an administrator/executor appointed, get an order enjoining the destruction of the email account and its contents, and then seek the release of the password.

As for the underlying dispute, I think no one has a reasonable expectation of privacy post-death, (although it is true that attorney-client privilege outlasts a decedent and can't be waived post-death by the estate,)

I think I need to think about it some more. But, I think the legal remedy may be available to the estate of this brave Marine.

O Christmas Tree

Our daughters are now 18 & 14. There are great advantages to the kids becoming more self-sufficient, and, though we try not to let them know it (joke--please don't comment!) we really do like them.

Yet, I miss having little ones in the house at Christmastime. The excitement, the mystery, the shopping at Toys r Us for that special thing that she's wanted ALL-MY-LIFE!!! The waking up at dawn to run down & see if Santa came... nope, it's not the same.

We put up our tree yesterday. I love doing that, and we usually do it earlier, but college-daughter threatened a melt-down if we did it before she came home, so we waited. We weren't going to put up the ornaments, but still...

My wife and I aren't very organized about most things. We are, however, extremely anal about the Christmas decorations, especially the ornaments. I'm glad we are. We take great care each year when we undecorate, putting things away very carefully. And, at my wife's insistence, we have developed a tradition regarding ornaments.

Every year since we were married, we have purchased a "family" ornament. Usually it's during our vacation, or it represents something major that's going on in our lives. We mark it, or the box it came in, with the year. So yesterday, as I was unwrapping the family ornaments, I pulled out, and announced to all, here's the train ornament from the Amish country; here's the adobe ornament from Arizona; here's the patriotic one from 2001; here's Mom & my first ornament from 1979.

This year our major vacation was a cruise with my brother & his family. We found a cruise-ship shaped ornament, and up it went on the tree, with 2004 marked discretely on the bottom of the ship.

With our daughters, we have been doing something more special. Each year, they each pick out an ornament, something based on what's going on in their lives that year. They each have their own box, and they keep a list on the cover of the year and the ornament.

Looking at the ornaments, and the years, is like a little snapshot of their lives. They track their growth, from Baby's First Christmas, through Sesame Street characters, to movies they liked (Little Mermaid, etc.) through sports they played (soccer, basketball) through teddy bears, through their interests as young adults (my eldest was captain of the track team-- we found her a hurdler ornament one year. My youngest is a bit less conventional. While not Goth, she likes to wear black band T-shirts, etc, and she likes to use her very dry wit to shock---last year she picked out a Charles Dicken's figure--the Ghost of Christmas Future!).

This year the elder got a Vanderbilt ornament, and the younger got an electric guitar ornament, both representing major happenings in their lives this year.

The plan is to have the girl's each take their ornaments with them when they start putting up their own tree. It's my wife's idea, and I think it is a great one, but I may have difficulty parting with the ornaments. The girls? They can go. But the ornaments, I think I may want to keep.

A Union School Scandal

Long Island has recently had more than its share of scandals involving Board members and Administrators using District funds for personal use. Now, a state audit reports that the teacher's union in one district has bellied up to the trough.

Leaders of the teachers' union in the Shoreham-Wading River district have "...collected more than $300,000 in overpayments for insurance premiums, and also failed to account for $69,000 spent on parties, meals, resort services and other expenses" according to Newsday.

As Bruce Willis said in "Die Hard", after tossing a bad guy's body out of the Nakatomi Plaza onto Carl-the-cop's police cruiser, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

Once again, honest hard working people get to cringe at the actions of a few. It's nice to see that Board members, Administrators and union leaders have more in common than they thought!

By the way, the history of the Shoreham-Wading River school district is yet another argument in favor of tuition vouchers, or at least equitable school funding.

For years SWR was a sleepy hamlet, little commercial proerty, few houses. Schools were OK, taxes a bit high, but not way out of line. (New York funds its schools primarily through local real estate taxes, with different rates for commercial, residential and utilities.)

Then the Long Island Lighting Company decided to build a nuclear plant in Shoreham. The plant never opened; eventually it was closed at great expense to the taxpayers, without generating a watt of energy.

However, despite the fact the plant hadn't opened, LILCO was taxed as if it were a working facility-- huge real estate taxes, paid for by electricity users throughout Long Island, flooded the District. SWR' s residential and commercial tax rates plummeted, as the District received huge payments for the plant.

SWR went crazy, as people are bound to do when they are spending OPM (other people's money). They built palaces for school buildings; Japanese in Kindergarten; tiny class size; and every "extra" you could think of.

Yet sometimes roosters come home to roost. The nuclear plant closed. LILCO sued, successfully, for tax abatement and received a huge retroactive award-- paid for, you guessed it, by the taxpayers of Long Island, as opposed to SWR. However, SWR had to drastically raise taxes, and programs were slashed, as this District, whose revenues had flown towards the sun on the waxed wings of improper taxation, plummeted from the heat of the new tax base reality.

So, the district has been "tight" lately; I'm sure this is heating up the anger at these union officials.

Friday Quickies

....Osama Bin Laden has taken aim at the Saudi Royals, and I have to tell you, I'm having a hard time figuring out who I'm going to root for right there.

....Jen Martinez asks: "Why do they waste all that money installing 15 checkout lines at the grocery store and then only have one cashier?"

Which reminds me of the old joke: an architect works hard in high school to get into the right college; she spends four years taking architecture courses, studying traffic flow, ingress & egress demands, fire & safety codes, etc; she interns at a large archtectural firm, working her way through the ranks year after year, designing small & medium-size buildings. Her reputation grows.

Finally, after a couple of decades of work, she wins the premium assignment: a skyscraper! She spends more years designing, figuring down to the last square foot everything that's needed in the building.

Ultimately, she decides, after all this training and in her best experitse that the building requires 18 doors to accomodate the people using the building, and so that's what's installed.

And on the second day the building is open, the $6 per hour janitor locks all but 2.

....The MUSC Tiger is written by three Clemson medical students. If you get a chance, pop on over. I can only hope at least one of them comes to Long Island to practice, as they exhibit the kind of humane intelligence and insightful humor you would love to see in your doctor.

....Suffolk County covers the eastern part of Long Island. Its new County Executive, Steve Levy, is a Democrat, and he is taking the point in a charge against illegal immigration.

In the immortal words of Lewis Black, I'll repeat that.

The Democratic County Executive is leading the charge against illegal immigration.

He calls it a "middle course".

Levy acknowledges the non-extremist position:

In the middle are the overwhelming majority of residents who abhor violence against fellow human beings, regardless of race or documented status, yet who are profoundly frustrated by their elected leaders' failure to enforce our laws. Members of this majority are maligned by media that label them xenophobic and fail to acknowledge that one can be pro-immigration, yet remain steadfastly opposed to "illegal" immigration.

Ignoring the growing illegal underground economy has resulted in exploitation of workers, neighborhoods and honest, legitimate businesses. How hypocritical for government to tell businesses to abide by its laws, then allow those who cheat to bankrupt businesses that obtain licenses, pay sales taxes and secure appropriate insurance for employees. Few officials dare address the issue, fearing that action will spark visceral reactions from the media and advocacy groups.

His first step is to detain illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes, and to report their status to the arraigning judge and the feds. In a great letter to the editor, Levy outlines his reasons, and the statistics. Over 4,300 illegals were arrested for crimes in Suffolk-- less than 65 were reported to the feds.

Levy, appropriately, lays the blame for this mess on the feds who won't enforce the law:

The prime failing of the present situation lies with the federal government, which has committed neither the resources nor the will to address the issue. A major breakthrough can be achieved if the federal bureaucrats at Immigration and Customs accept my invitation to work cooperatively with us to issue visas and working papers to immigrants who go through legal channels to come here.

He finishes with :

Taking action to enforce our laws often sparks heated debate. Ultimately, however, Suffolk's quality of life will improve when labor laws and housing codes are enforced and those committing crimes are properly detained. We can accomplish these goals while simultaneously preaching tolerance and filling our labor pool needs in a legal, orderly fashion that benefits immigrants, taxpayers and contractors who follow the rules.

If all local officials would take similar steps, maybe we could start solving this problem, one which W continues to ignore.

....When I took Chemistry at Massapequa High School, my teacher, a crochety old man, told us that every civilization had some kind of alcohol, or "hooch" as he called it. The chapter on fermentation was about the only one I paid any real attention to.

Now scientists have analyzed pottery fragments found in northern China and have made two determinations: First, the pottery is between 8,000 and 9,000 years old. Second, the pottery had held a wine-type drink, made from fermented rice, honey & fruit.

Mr. Cohane was right!!

Bad Puns

Rox Populi says the worst Secret Santa gift she ever got was the complete collection of The Carpenters.

I loved The Carpenters.

So I responded:

We've Only Just Begun in our efforts to uncover the worst Secret Santa present ever, Roxie.

First, did you keep the catalogue Close To You?

I mean, For All We Know, you might like to listen to those wonderful songs on Rainy Days & Mondays, or when you are On Top of The World.

Of course, if you are ever separated from your collection, and A Kind of Hush ever overtakes your life, or you and your significant other find yourselves Hurting Each Other, you could always call out and ask, "Please Mr. Postman, please bring me my collection. I know It's Going to Take Some Time, but Only Yesterday I had it, and I wish it were Yesterday Once More."

Or maybe not.

The Stump Merrill Corollary

Back in 1990, the Yankees hired a career baseball guy, Stump Merrill, as their manager. Stump was known in baseball as a good guy, a "baseball man". He had bounced around as a coach, and as a minor league manager.

Stump was around so long, everybody assumed he knew a lot, and, when he got his chance as the manager of the Yankees, it was expected that the great wealth of baseball knowledge stored in his head would gush forth.

If that great wealth was there, it certainly didn't flow. He was terrible.

And although he has gone on to continue a career as a coach and minor league manager, the bright lights of major league baseball exposed him as someone unable to manage, unable to handle the press, the fans, the pressure. He crashed and burned. It wasn't that he failed as a major league baseball manager; lots of men have done that. It was that by the time the Yankees mercifully fired him, everybody in baseball was scratching their heads, wondering how the hell this guy had ever held any job, even at the minor league level.

That happens to people in "real life" all the time. The famous "Peter Principle" states that organizations promote people upward until they reach a job in which they don't excel--thus leaving you with an organization of people who, while they may have been stellar further down the ladder, are merely mediocre at their current job.

What I have called "The Stump Merrill Corollary to the Peter Principle" takes it one step further-- that there are times when people are thrust so much further ahead of their talents that they aren't merely mediocre, but, rather, they are exposed as incompetent, and moreso, it becomes apparent that, upon reflection, they weren't that great at their old job, either.

Bernie Kerik got great praise for his post-9/11 press conferences. The jets of that event thrust him far beyond where he ever should have traveled. (On which topic, by the way, I was dead wrong.) Now his entire career, as well as his personal life, is being dissected, and he's not looking very well.

Bernie Kerik. Meet Stump Merrill.

Newsweek

Just got the December 20th issue of Newsweek, with the cover story on steroids.

I thought it would have been thicker.

Hot Chocolate & The Leonids

I set the alarm extra-early this morning, in hopes of seeing the Geminid shooting stars, but it is overcast, so I'll let my wife and Daughter #2 sleep. Daughter #1 is still away at college. (Turns out I could have done this at midnight, but for some reason, I thought it was going to be visible later).

Standing on my front lawn, looking up at the clouds, though, I got one of those catches in my throat that people over 40 get from time to time, remembering a precious family moment that I hadn't thought of in a while, a little nugget of gold rolling around in the recesses of my cluttered mind, forgotten until it popped up unexpectedly.

It must have been only 3 or 4 years ago. I had read about the Leonids in the paper--they were supposed to be at peak. (Like the Geminids, the Leonids are shooting stars, actually a meteor shower, that occurs when the Earth passes annually through the tail of a comet or asteroid). I wanted to watch them, so I rallied the troops one cold, November night.

The girls, my two daughters and my wife, were good sports. The best time to see the showers was supposed to be around 4 a.m. They agreed to get up early and take the 15 minute ride to the beach, so we could see the show without the interference of all the light pollution.

We got up early. It was freezing. While they dressed, I went to the shed to get the beach chairs. I pulled the chairs out, turned, and looked up. Standing in the shadow of the house, all the local streetlights, etc., were blocked, and the sky was clear, and crisp, and with that one glance I saw four meteors, and the "show" hadn't even started yet.

Change of plans. No beach needed. I set the chairs up in our backyard.

The Leonids more than lived up to their billing. All told we saw hundreds of streaking meteors, mostly white trails, but occasionally a big, fat bright colored one.

And so, in the shadow of our home, the four of us lay side by side on the beach chairs for a couple of hours, wrapped in blankets, drinking hot chocolate, and watching Nature's fireworks. Oohing and aahing, talking quietly, a little family huddled under the stars.

Chemical Treatments for Challengers

Clearly one of the main differences between the United States & the Ukraine is the chemical treatments received by presidential challengers.

In the Ukraine, a challenger receives dioxin:

In the U.S., he receives botox:

Bernard Kerik-- See Ya!

Three thoughts strike me about Kerik's withdrawal, and the cause for it.

First, who the hell was supposed to vett this guy? Isn't this Staff 101? It isn't like this is the first time this has come up-- see Zoe Baird, Linda Chavez, etc. So who screwed up? Or did Kerik lie to the staffer, in the hopes this would slip by?

Second, who the hell cares? We have literally millions of illegal aliens (I refuse to use the term "undocumented workers, thank you very much). If every person who has hired an illegal alien is automatically ineligible for public service, we have drastically narrowed our talent pool. If we include indirect hiring (for example, I have no actual knowledge as to whether the guys who work for my lawn cutting service are legal, but I have a pretty good guess!) then we are down to 3 or 4 people who can serve, which should make them pretty busy, I imagine.

Finally, is Bernard Kerik the best person for this job, or not? This is about the safety of the country. If there is somebody more capable, then he or she should have gotten the nod. If there are other people, equally qualified, and "stain free", then fine. But if not, have Kerik apologize, pay a fine, pay some employer taxes, and let him work on closing the borders so that others like him don't have illegal aliens to exploit in the future. Sort of a set a thief to catch one kind of a thing.

Friday Quickies

....This whole Rumsfeld/armor controversy is a mess. I don't care if the question was a plant from a reporter: if our soldiers don't have all the armor they need, then shame on W. Rumsfeld's remark that there hasn't been time enough for the suppliers to produce it is nonsense (see Michelle Malkin's report on the armor-gap) --and if the supplier can't make it fast enough, tell Detroit to stop making those gas guzzling/air polluting/road hogging wasteful piece of crap SUV's for a month, and give the men & women what they need to defend themselves. Ahem, we are at war, guys.

But the bigger question is this: What idiot thought it would be a good idea to have Uncle Grumpy play Oprah with the troops? Great morale booster right there: "You go to war with the army you have, not necessarily the army you want." Did Michael Moore write that line for him?

....Great post by The Rooftop on the ten things you should think about before you donate this holiday season. I added an 11th-- see if you can perform an action along with the donation. Donating cash to buy toys for needy kids is wonderful; to then go help hand them out makes the season, for the kids and for you.

....Will spend tomorrow doing community service type-stuff with Daughter #2 (#1 is still away at college.) We'll help sort food for the Christmas food baskets, help out at the local Holiday festival for kids that my Kiwanis sponsors, and chaperone the kids hayride/barnfire/donut fest, also sponsored by Kiwanis. Should be a full day, and lots of laughs.

....My posts on cosmetic neurology & other enhancements in sports have received a fair amount of comments. B After the Fact has some interesting posts on why nobody really cares.

....Katie at The MUSC Tiger, lets us know she's not pregnant, but wants to know if men are liars.

....College professors seem shocked that students would rather research on-line than go find a book. Of course, a question by one college student to his professor "Where would I find a book?", makes me, in the words of the great Lewis Black, weep for my country.

....I read this article in American Heritage in October, but it's just available on-line now, so I held off writing about it. Every year AH lists the most over-rated and the most under-rated in a host of categories: candy bars, Presidents, Robber Baron, cocktail, etc. Fun article.

Example: Candy Bar: Overrated: Hershey chocolate bar. Underrated: Butterfinger.

My category, not included in AH: Fast Food restaurants:

Overrated: Wendy's. I know this is supposed to be a step up on the fast food chain, but I always find the meat dry, the chicken nuggets soft, the potato a glutenous mess. Nope. Not a Wendy's fan.

Underrated: McDonald's. How can the king of fast food be underrated? It is. Look at all the wannabe's-- Burger King, Wendy's etc. They all pale. McD's food is tastier and more consistent, the staff is better trained and friendlier, and the stores are cleaner, no matter where you go.

Better Than 20/20

I recently wrote about the coming wave of "cosmetic neurology", the use of mind-altering drugs to improve concentration, reflexes, etc.

Yesterday I spoke with a friend whose son is a Division I baseball player, highly expected to be drafted this Spring. I asked how he was doing, and was told his batting average is up 30 points since his Lasik surgery.

Why?

Because as part of a clinical trial, he was "adjusted" to 20/10 sight, not 20/20; he claims he is seeing the ball unbelievably.

Ted Williams had 20/10 vision, naturally, and he claimed he could see the spin on the ball the last 20 feet or so. My friend's son is making the same claim.

It seems this is a growing trend-- Tiger Wood's Lasik surgery is said to have tremendously improved his ability to see the cup; some athletes report better than 20/20 vision, post-surgery. It is supposed to be a potential side effect of the surgery, but it appears it may very well become the purpose of the surgery.

Will we see athletes with 20/20 vision having lasik surgery to improve their sight? Absolutely. Athletes' reccomendations inundate the web sites of eye surgeons pushing the surgery. The message is clear-- no matter your current vision, we can make it better.

We can rebuild you-- we have the technology. (Apologies to the $6 Million Dollar Man, and if you are too young to know what I'm talking about, it was a TV show where...ah, forget it. Google Lee Majors.)

Designer steroids; cosmetic neurology; elective eye surgery.

Athletes trying to improve on nature; doctors & pharmaceutical companies trying to make a buck. A dangerous combination.

Where does it end?

Daughter # 2 & the Fruit Homework

Daughter #2 (now 14) was about 5 or 6 years old. At dinner, I asked if she had homework--even then the response was an exasperated, "yeah".

"Go get it."

Ten minutes later, I called for her. "Where are you?"

"In the basement."

"Doing what?"

"Computer"

"Get up here!!" Trudge, trudge, trudge.

"Didn't I tell you to get your homework?"

"Yeah"

"And????"

"I forgot."

"You forgot ...from the table to the stairs?" (About 15 feet)

"I forget fast."

"Go get it!!!" (Trying not to smile)

Trudge, trudge, trudge.

Single piece of paper on the table, scratch scratch, scratch, and off she's flying.

"Wait a second--get back here--let me see it."

My little darling.

On the page were several outlines of different objects, some hastily circled by my daughter's pencil.

At the top of the sheet, where the instructions had said "color the fruit", my angel had crossed out "color", and written in the word "circle", too lazy to go get her crayons.

"Wha-?! You can't change the rules!!!"

"A'course I can, Daddy," with a dismissive little wave at the paper.

Typical #2 story.

See why I drink?

Yet Another Long Island School Scandal

The hits just keep on comin' here on Long Island.

Hempstead, a predominately minority community, has completely screwed up its school district. Literally hundreds of thousands of dollars have been misspent (personal cell phones for board members, limousines, etc.) in a district lacking basic services.

Now, in an effort to look more ridiculous, they are playing games with the Superintendent, Nathaniel Clay. First, they fired him. Then they received word last week that they had terminated him improperly, and thus were ordered to reinstate him by the State Commissioner of Education.

Monday night they followed the Commissioner's dictate by "reinstating" Clay --then promptly, at the same meeting, they suspended him! And then followed the circus up by leaking a confidential memo about Clay that was distributed during executive session (which meetings , by law, are supposed to be confidential).

You can't make this stuff up!

They have hired a woman to replace him, the same woman who has been fired not once, but twice by previous Boards.

Meanwhile, the children of Hempstead have terrible scores, a terrible drop-out rate, and high violence in their poorly maintained schools. Of course they do-- the "adults" running the show are misbehaving idiots.

(And less any non-Long Islanders get any mistaken notions-- Hempstead spends more than $15,000 per year per student. The Superintendent's salary is $240,000 per year. Clearly, financial resources are not the problem.)

The only question I have, though, is this-- the Commissioner stepped into this mess, and appears intent on cleaning house. Yet a few miles to the north, in wealthy, white, Roslyn the school Board stood aside while $8 million dollars was stolen, and Board members who used school funds for personal benefit still sit on the Board, with no intervention by the Commissioner, whatsoever, something I have written about extensively.

Why the double standard? Does the Board in Roslyn get a free pass because their students (the children of mostly professional and highly succesful parents) score well, and get into Ivy League schools? Or, does Roslyn get a pass because of "heavy hitters" who live in Roslyn, white heavy hitters?

Another Stolen Car Magnet

One of my associates just informed me that the pink "Fight Breast Cancer" magnet she had on the back of her car was stolen yesterday. A few months ago, I had one of those yellow "Support the Troops" magnets stolen from my car.

What's going on? Who could possibly be so desparate as to need to steal these $3 magnets? Aren't they afraid of some bad karma? Is there a black market for yellow & pink magnets?

Or is there some guy with 34 abandoned refrigerators planted in his backyard, wandering around in search of magnets to fill all that white space?

I just don't get it.

Bonds & Rose

Just saw Fay Vincent, former Commissioner of Baseball, on the Today Show with Matt Lauer.

Vincent commented on the need for tougher rules on steroids, calling the issue important because those on steroids are "cheaters", and are hurting the game.

But when asked if he thought the steroid cheaters should be kept out of the Hall of Fame, or if their records should be stricken, Vincent, one of the key players in keeping Pete Rose out of the Hall, said no.

Why not?

The point of punishing gamblers is that they attack the very underpinnings of a sport-- that people are watching a fair contest, played with equal rules. Gambling perverts that, as does "fixing" games by players, or umpires. There are laws against "throwing" or influencing the outcome of a game, not only because it's not "right", but also because it can economically destroy an industry.

Steroid use also alters the playing field, putting into question whether the game is being played by all contestants using the same rules. Steroid-bloated players affect games, they affect championships, and they affect records.

Records mean something in baseball, more than just some geeky guys without dates poring over Tommy Heinrich's on base percentage against the Tigers. It means dollars. Fans pack stadiums when records are approached, in the hopes of being there when a record is tied, or broken. It's part of baseball's attraction, much more than in any other sport.

Every person who bought a ticket to watch the McGwire-Sosa steroid-induced home run record chase should receive their money back, with interest. Anybody who paid to see Bonds hit 600, or pass Willie Mays, should receive a refund. (It would be fun to watch NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer attack this industry!)

I don't want to see the Congress get involved, because I always fear unintended consequences when the government tries to "solve" highly publicised issues. But Bud "I Really Don't Have a Clue" Selig should step up, as Bart Giammatti did with Rose. If the collective bargaining agreement prevents on-field suspensions, etc., then at least take the actions he is empowered to do, steps which would help discourage steroid use.

Ban these guys from the Hall of Fame.

And change Barry's name to Bonds**.

Five Chores

I had a real Long Island, New York Saturday chores experience:

1. I went to my tux rental place (I own the tux, I rent the vest & tie, so I can keep mixing it up). The kid that helped me was Hispanic-- from the Dominican;
2. I picked up the paper and some mints (we were going to a formal last night, and I like to have the mints in my pocket). The couple from Pakistan, whose kid is in my youngest daughter's grade, took care of me;
3. I stopped for a slice (of pizza, for you non-New Yorkers). The pizza place is owned by John, a guy about my age, born in Brooklyn, now living the suburban life, and Joe, a 50-something immigrant from Italy who speaks broken English (at best). Joe served me my slice, and we joked about John, which we do both behind his back, and in front of him;
4. I stopped for gas at the station owned and operated by an immigrant Indian family; and
5. I got my haircut at the corner at a place exclusively manned by Russian Jews. Uri, the barber who usually trims the little hair I have, was unusually chatty this morning (the Argentine soccer league game having just ended). He's about 30 or so-- said his parents emigrated from Russia, to London, to the U.S., in the early '80's, to get escape the oppression Jews faced then. Said he was from Uzbekistan, and that times were very tough there for the relatives and friends who stayed. Said he loved Ronald Reagan (which increased his tip, I might add.) Said the Russian community in Brooklyn is very concerned about the Ukraine, but also about the abject poverty throughout the old Soviet Union. And he must have shook his head, with a little smile, and said at least three times how unbelievable it was that the Soviet Union fell.

Friday night, Angela and I had Thai food at a little restaurant owned and operated by an immigrant Thai family. That an ethnic restaurant is run by immigrants is not unexpected.

But yesterday, I wasn't going to any ethnic restaurant. It was just chores. Five stops, five immigrants from five different countries.

I can't imagine how it must be to live in a place where everybody is the same race, the same religion, the same background. Maybe that's one of the reasons that while I vehemently oppose "illegal aliens", I have a deep and abiding respect for legal immigrants. And why things like imposed school prayer make me scratch my head--why would we want everybody to be the same?

Sports, Circuses & Politics

In a comment to my post yesterday, part of which dealt with the growing steroid scandal (sort of a scandal on steroids) (sorry for that) Remay1 decries sports in America: "It’s disgusting really. It’s bread and circuses. Designed to keep the “masses” amused."

Just a thought, but it seems to me the "sports mentality" has, in fact, creeped into our political life to our national detriment.

There are, of course, the metaphors: it's a race, we're in the homestretch, Hail Mary, he knocked him out, he suffered a body blow, it's the bottom of the ninth, she called an end run, etc. I'm sure you can think of more.

We treat elections like sporting events, and, indeed, like an NBA game, most elections "tighten" at the end, to be decided in the last few minutes, or days. Let alone overtime. Maybe our penchant for rooting for the underdog affects voters as they watch the polls.

But, perhaps more problematic is that more and more of us align with our "team", and, in a knee-jerk fashion, root for "our guys", without considering if our guys are right.

During their 4 Stanley Cup in a row dominance of the NHL, the Islanders had a goalie who was sensational, Billy Smith. I rooted for the Islanders. How many times did I find myself defending his refusal to follow the time-honored NHL tradition of shaking hands after a playoff series? How many times did I try to rationalize away his dirty swinging of his stick around the goal? Almost as many times as honorable, good, Democratic family men and women came to the defense of the Clintons.

Why? Well, I root for the Islanders. They are my team. And the Clintons were on their team.

It's not just the Clintons. Republicans should have risen and said to Tom DeLay, hey, too bad you don't like the rules you helped put in; you have to follow them. And Democrats should be saying to Sen. Mark Dayton, the idiot who closed his Washington office in October because it wasn't "safe", but is, according to Powerline, whining that he wasn't included on a trip to Iraq, hey, you have to go. You are embarrassing.

Perhaps if we spent less time cheering for the uniform, and more time making judgments on actual positions and actions, our leaders would be more likely to work together in that ever elusive "bipartisan" way, to effect real change and solve real problems.

Friday Quickies

....So Jason Giambi has admitted steroid use. And like Giambi, Sammy (I Used to Be Able to Hit) Sosa lost a ton of weight/muscle during the off-season before baseball started testing for steroids. A few years back, after breaking Maris' home run record, Mark McGwire resumed an injury-prone career immediately after quitting andro.

And Barry Bonds continues to look more like the Michelin Man than a 40+ year old human.

Take away modern "medicine", and there is only one truly great baseball player. Babe Ruth. While these guys all pumped up together and hit 50+ homeruns at the same time, in 1920, when the Babe hit 54, the next guy only had 19. In '20 & '21, the Babe hit more homers than most teams. You could look it up.

Which makes all of these "records" by Bonds & Sosa & McGwire a joke.

....Bernard Kerik has accepted the postion of Homeland Security Secretary. Good choice. And good move for him-- while the position is a risky, dead-end job for politicians, it makes perfect sense for a law & order guy. I think he's the first choice for the second term who isn't from Texas, or a close buddy of W's. This is a good move for New York, and other true target areas-- maybe now we can get security funding equal to, I don't know, Montana.

....PERC (Property & Environment Research Center), posts an article entitled "The Greening of Home Depot", an interesting analysis of how a Home Depot shifted purchases of lumber away from those using "slash & burn" techniques which are harmful to the environment.

"Even though Home Depot's success has been limited at times, environmentalists are encouraged by the impact of markets in bringing about environmental improvements. It appears that corporations can produce environmental benefits more quickly and effectively than either governmental legislation or the courts."

...A court in New York, working backwards and as a de facto legislature (which is when all truly bad law gets made) determined that the reason New York City schools are so incredibly bad, is that they are only receiving about $14,000 per student. A wasteful, incompetent, grossly over-bureaucratic system, filled with violence, corruption and mismanagement has nothing to do with it of course. It's all about the bucks. So now the City is going to get billions more-- about $5,000 per year per kid (which is more than the entire tuition for much better Catholic schools, by the way). $20,000 per kid, per year.

But without reform, it's like pouring water on sand. As many have said (I just added my voice to it) voucher, vouchers, vouchers. Give every kid in New York a ticket worth $20,000, and private enterprise would deliver palaces, filled with highly paid, well-trained teachers and facilities that would make your mouth drop open. But, instead, we'll overburden New York taxpayers even more, and nothing will change. Nothing.

....An article in Science magazine propounds that the consensus of the scientific community is that we are experiencing human-caused climate change--global warming. I generally lean towards agreement. What struck me most about the article, though, was its frank refusal to be absolute:

"The scientific consensus might, of course, be wrong. If the history of science teaches anything, it is humility, and no one can be faulted for failing to act on what is not known. But our grandchildren will surely blame us if they find that we understood the reality of anthropogenic climate change and failed to do anything about it.

Many details about climate interactions are not well understood, and there are ample grounds for continued research to provide a better basis for understanding climate dynamics. The question of what to do about climate change is also still open. But there is a scientific consensus on the reality of anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists have repeatedly tried to make this clear. It is time for the rest of us to listen."

And time for conservatives to offer our type of solutions: technological research and economic-based models that won't threaten to set us back a hundred years.

....Seems Target may be taking a hit over its Salvation Army ban. With all humility, they should have listened to me. :)

Iranian Nukes

According to Reuters, an Iranian exile group, which has given accurate information before, says that Iran is working on nukes that can strike Europe.

Other than England, my first response is: Who cares? It's their problem. Let them go "negotiate".

My second response is: Has France surrendered yet?

TSA -- Security By Bureaucracy

I had the unhappy duty of driving my eldest to the airport Sunday, so she could wing back to college. I genuinely like the kid, so it's always sad to see her go.

We had the further unpleasant experience of sharing a table with a gaggle of TSA (Transportation Security Administration) employees, while we had a cup of coffee in the airport. Y'know, the people responsible for screening people and baggage at the airports.

Oh. My. God.

The only thing that rang out more clearly than the abject stupidity of these people was their surliness. This group of about 10 TSA workers, on a break but in a public area, sounded like every other unhappy, jaded, don't give a sh-- government employee you've ever known. In fifteen minutes they bitched about their bosses, about the overtime, about the passengers, about working conditions, and about their pay, all in earshot of dozens of holiday travelers, and within 10 inches of my daughter and me. They didn't care.

To think that our safety, that my daughter's safety, depends on the judgment and sensitivity of these morons is unthinkable.

I immediately understood why we continue to hear stories about the screeners that just makes you scratch your head.

Bush was right not to want these people protected by civil service laws. This is a disaster waiting to happen.

Christmas Songs

I was at a Kiwanis holiday function a few years ago, when a Jewish member lamented:

"You Christians have "Silent Night"; we have "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel". You have "White Christmas"; we have "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel". You have Hayden's "Messiah"; we have "Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel".

With the radio & malls filled with song, here are some of my favorites, in no particular order:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas: simple, elegant and easy to sing;

Silent Night: haunting, peaceful;

Frosty: I mean, how much fun is that to sing around a table with some drunk relatives?

The Christmas Song: Nat King Cole makes me buy chestnuts every year, even though I really don't care for them;

The Chipmunk Song: ALVIIIIIN!! If you don't smile, you ain't in the spirit yet!

Let It Snow: Especially when the whether is frightful!

What Child is This?; One of the tunes that stays in my head long after I hear it;

Nothing But A Child: Incredible song by Steve Earle-- catch the lyrics, and the song if you ever get the chance;

I'll Be Home for Christmas: Cause sometimes it feels good to feel sad at the holidays; and

Ave Maria: I love it, but especially the instrumental version played on trumpet-- amazing! Even if you don't believe you have a soul, you can feel it lift and soar!