Terri Schiavo-- R.I.P.

File Under --Ummmm Duh!!

You can't make this stuff up.

Newsday reports:

"New Study Shows Sex Work Dangerous"

Apparently somebody spent time, and presumably money, to discover that the world of prostitution, stripping, escort work and dominatrix-for-hire can be a dangerous business, fraught with unscrupulous characters.

In the words of the great Lewis Black, "The mind reels!"

Best quote from the story:

One of the escorts identified as Louise in the survey told Newsday she started sex work in college because it paid more than flipping hamburgers and took less time and energy.

"Sex work is something you can do with far less hours if you have other things to do," said Louise, who works as an escort to supplement her office job.

I'll let you come up with your own punchline.

Sad Watch

Doesn't it feel like the country is on a death watch?

I find myself looking on line, and on the news programs, repeatedly, during the day, checking on the status of Terri Schiavo & the Pope.

I feel a bit ashamed, like when you peek at an accident scene as you pass.

One question I asked as my wife and I watched the news this morning:

Me: How come the Pope gets a feeding tube, and Terri doesn't?

Her: He has better guardians.

"Cold Service" Just Lukewarm

What do you do with a star pitcher who seems to have lost his best stuff, but who is still effective in spots? You can’t cut him, but you can’t rely on him like you used to.

That’s my quandary with Robert B. Parker and his Spenser series.

Like many others, I look forward with great anticipation to each new installment of the series of books that spawned the T.V. series starring the late Robert Ulrich. (Of course, being fairly dense, and having not watched the show, I didn’t realize the two were the same until years after the television program had hit rerun syndication.)

Parker’s latest, "Cold Service", brings us more of the same, only without the punch, without the sharpness and command of the earlier Spensers. Like an old hurler relying on junk and hoping the ump will give him some calls because of who he used to be, Parker seems like he’s struggling through this one.

The regular characters are there, and their appearance is always welcome, old friends back for a visit. The enchanting Susan, the enigmatic Hawk, the cynical but good-hearted cops, turning a blind eye to Spenser’s over the line behavior in the pursuit of justice. Always welcome, though more and more they’re like old friends who tell the same stories over coffee, making more than an annual meeting unnecessary.

Spenser is white. Hawk is black. They are friends because they have an inner code few other than they understand. Got it?

Too bad, because Parker will tell you that at least five times a chapter. Maybe in 1973 this was cutting edge. But today I found myself actually rolling my eyes at times, sighing– please, move on.

We got it. Promise. He’s white; he’s black. They are, amazingly, friends.

What’s next?

Still, there are lines in "Cold Service" with power and insightfulness, like fastballs thrown from an almost forgotten past, lines that remind you of young and fresh bygone days.

"I decided not to turn on the office television. As I matured, my taste for manufactured hysteria was beginning to decline"

"Mortality rested very lightly on him."

"Good place to drink. On the other hand, there were few bad places to drink."

So what do you do with an old pitcher like Parker? You keep throwing him, you keep reading him, on his terms. Maybe the old flash isn’t there anymore, but there is always the hope that the next start will be a return to greatness.

Easter Day Musings

I wound up watching a bit of TV yesterday, in between finishing the Robert B. Parker book.

NCAA basketball delivered, as it usually does. Of course, I was rooting for Wisconsin and Kentucky, and the Vanderbilt women. 0-3, but pretty good games.

Earlier in the day, I watched most of "Meet The Press" (chores of breading broccoli and helping with cookie-making interfered, so I didn't catch all of it.)

What I did see was fascinating, maybe the best discussion of politics & religion I've heard on TV. (Transcript).

Take a couple of minutes, if you have the time. It is very impressive.

The most moving comment, I thought, came from Sen. Joe Lieberman:

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Lieberman, when you hear political leaders, religion leaders say, "America is a Christian nation," as a Jewish American, how do you feel?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I hear it this way, and this may be a companion piece to what Reza has just said. This is a country founded by Christians, a majority of whose citizens are Christians. But going back to the premise I spoke to before, those rights to life, liberty and a pursuit of happiness, which we have as the endowment of our creator, have been given to everybody. So though this is a nation that--the majority of which is Christian, I will say to you as a Jewish American that I believe in the 5,765 years of Jewish history, there has never been a country, other than Israel during certain times of its history, which has given Jews more freedom. The same can now be said of Islam and Buddhism and Hindus, etc., etc., etc. That's the glory of this country and, frankly, the grace and gift of the Christians who founded the country and who continue to be the majority within it.

And incidentally, I think this is an important message for us to convey to the rest of the world, because when--those rights that were in the Declaration of Independent, we didn't say that only Americans got this endowment from our creator. That's a universal declaration of human rights. And the best encouragement to people in the Islamic world outside of America, that we're not about Christianizing the rest of the world, is what's happened here in the United States of America. Everybody's got a right to choose. This is about freedom. And I'm very heartened by what Reza has said, and I do want to say that this war on terrorism, our enemy, which is not Islam--It is extremist Islamic terrorists--we are facing the first theologically based enemy in a long time. This is a theological war by a small group of Muslims, but they are inviting a reaction from the majority of Muslims, who Reza speaks for, and I think in the end, there is great hope in that for all of us."

Friday Quickies

....Japan freed Bobby Fischer, who promptly fled to Iceland.

Question-- was he able to go straight there? Did he have to travel diagonally? Did his plane have to hop two countries forward, then one to the side?

....The D.A. in the Blake case called the jury "stupid", and Blake a "miserable human being". That's a no-no, ethically speaking (none of the California rules make much sense to me, so maybe it's OK there). Here in NY, an officer of the Court is not permitted to cast those kinds of aspersions on jurors, or the system.

But this is symptomatic of a problem coursing this country. I call it the "hitting after the bell" syndrome.

We have to learn when to stop. When to accept a loss. Many people won't do so with Terri Schiavo; some Democrats didn't after the 2000 election, and though fewer, some didn't after this last one.

For our system to survive, we need a number of things. Fairness. Some justice, some mercy. Procedural safeguards. Basic freedoms.

But we also need finality. We need to understand that though a particular circumstance may seem unfair, we have to move on.

People, especially those in the public eye, can't continually throw out unproven, or unproveable, charges of corruption or thievery. Even if not perfect, we need to have a certain stability. The acid of cynicism will do more harm to us as a nation than any one misguided decision, more than any one bomb.

Republicans needed to learn that after the Democrats refused to convict Clinton; Democrats needed to learn that after Florida and Ohio.

And the Blake D.A. needs to learn that now.

.....Cars running on fuel cells of hydrogen, the most plentiful element, instead of gasoline, were hyped during the Presidential campaign as the answer to our energy needs, and the savior of our environment. They don't pollute-- the only by-product is water.

However, a recent article in Mechanical Engineering discussed these vehicles, and the fact that they aren't the panacea that they are marketed as. Popular Science chimes in with 9 myths about the benefits and feasibility of hydrogen-powered cars.

First, the hydrogen used in these vehicles is a storage of energy, not a source of energy. True, when hydrogen joins with oxygen, it gives off energy to power vehicles, and leaves only good old H20. But....

But we have expend energy to extract the hydrogen. And to contain it. And to move it.

How much?

Well, engineers calculated that if every vehicle in England ran on hydrogen, and they wanted to use nuclear power to create the hydrogen, they would require 100 new nuclear plants.

Which means waste from 100 nuclear plants.

What about wind power? Nice and clean wind power?

They'd need 100,000 new tubines. "The researchers said to site 100,000 new wind turbines off-shore would create about a six-mile-wide strip of wind turbines encircling the entire coastline of the British Isles. If on-shore, the area covered by wind turbines would be the size of Wales. "

That would be pretty, no?

We need to do something about our future energy needs, and our current dependence on not-so-friendly foriegn sources of oil. It undoubtedly will take a combination of conservation, more energy-efficient appliances and vehicles, and new sources of energy. But there isn't likely to be an easy fix, no silver bullet.

The question is, will we act based upon our experience and knowledge, or will we require a catastrophe? (See below--I hope this is one of the few times TR is wrong!)

.....A British Parliament committee has released a report recommending that parents be able to choose the sex of their child.

I assume they mean in an embryonic stage.

Otherwise the mohel will have to get paid quite a bit more, I think.

(For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a mohel, pronounced "moil", is the circumscisor of male Jewish babies) (Does that make the joke funnier for you goyim?)(Goyim are non-Jews-- this is getting silly-- I need this tsoris?)

.....Perhaps the legacy of Terri Schiavo will be that more Americans will, to use a quaint old phrase, "put their affairs in order". In olden times (like 35 years ago) that phrase was meant for rich people, and their financial affairs. Modern medicine, with its explosion of new procedures, now requires all of us, rich and poor, to consider how we wish to be dealt with in that land between life and death.

Wills. Living Wills. Health Care Proxies. Today. Not for your sake, but for your family's.

....And finally, a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

Americans learn only from catastrophe
and not from experience.

-Autobiography

Spenser To The Rescue

I consider myself to be a fairly happy person, though I certainly recognize that I can slip into negativity quite easily. It's a family legacy that I and my siblings struggle with, to varying degrees of success.

Lately the news has been upsetting, between Terri Schiavo, the little girl in Florida, the shootings in Minnesota, even the baseball steroids fiasco. Maybe it's all part of the tail of a long, dreary winter.

There is also a lot to be said for a parent being only as happy as his most unhappy child.

My last few posts upset me, a lot of anger and angst. Too much. I mean really, does Barry Bonds really mean that much to me, or was I just venting?

Ah, but last night my wife, the library Board President, came home with a copy of Robert Parker's latest Spenser, Cold Service, released just this month.

Perfect! I dove back into the world of Spenser, Hawk and a comfortable cast of characters that I've been following for, I don't know, a couple of dozen books so far.

I'm halfway done, and halfway back to good spirits.

I'm hoping this holiday weekend, and with it the arrival of my eldest home from college, will complete the job!

Barry Bonds

Growing up, my Dad impressed upon me that you should never root for an athlete to be hurt. Never hope that an opponent would be knocked out of competition because of an injury. Always applaud a hurt player, urging him or her back quickly.

Until now, I have abided by that dictum.

I hope Barry Bonds never steps foot on a field again.

Yesterday he announced he may be out for the season. I hope it's longer.

Everything bad in sports coalesces in Bonds. He is nasty. He is unappreciative. He is a hot dog, a preener who cares only for himself and none at all for his team.

He is a choke artist, failing in every meaningful series (except one).

He is a liar.

He is a cheater.

Mr. Flaxseed Oil should be indicted for perjury. His "records" should be stricken. And he should be held out to America's youth as an example of who not to be.

Terri Schiavo

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men....

I write this as the Court of Appeals is deliberating.

As Terri Schiavo is dieing.

I thought the truth was self-evident, that Life is an unalienable right.

And that we instituted a Government to protect that right.

Maybe not.

F.C.C. & Monday Night Football

Last week, the F.C.C. ruled that the Monday Night Football/Desperate Housewives spot, the one with Terrell Owens & Nicollette Sheridan, was not indecent.

Fine. That's just simply not the point.

It's not whether the spot was inherently offensive, or obscene, or foul. It's context.

To take it to extremes, what we see on the Sopranos is what we expect-- if we turned on Sesame Street and found Miss Piggy doing a striptease while Tony Soprano graphically beat Elmo to death with a pipe, wouldn't we have grounds to object?

The problem with the MNF spot, and many commercials for adult-oriented shows, by the way, is placement.

The FCC rule should be that the commercials and the episode have to match the thematic level of the show-- or in the case of an episode, a warning should be given.

For instance, my kids always liked Will Smith's Fresh Prince of Belair. I watched it a few times with them-- OK by me. Except that, once in a while, the show would center on more adult themes. Again, that's fine. But a warning, please. Simply a warning.

That was the insidiousness of Brittney Spears. She sucked in young kids, and their parents, with the teeney-bopper bubble-gum, then turned hard left into soft porn.

Don't get me wrong. Nothing should be banned. Nothing. There's no reason why Sex and the City couldn't have been on CBS.

Just give us warning.

Freedom City

On Friday, March 18, in the face of death threats, protestors, and cries of damnation, a woman led men and women in prayer in New York City.

Not that big a deal? The woman is Muslim, and this was the first time it's happened in modern history.

Asra Q. Nomani describes the experience in a short op-ed piece she wrote in the New York Daily News. I urge you to read it-- it's very moving.

A couple of points. First, I'm proud that it occurred here in New York. Nomani says: "New York City has been a beacon to the world for its courage after 9/11. Our prayer makes New York a city of light to the Muslim world."

Second, we had a small (couple of dozen people, tops) anti-war protest here on Long Island yesterday. How wrong these people are.

Whether Ronald Reagan had a plan to end communism, or if he was just a right-wing political hack using red-baiting as a way to get votes, the fact is he led us to act, and our actions freed hundreds of millions of Europeans.

Whether George W. Bush had a plan to end Islamic extremism and dictatorships in the Middle East, or if he was acting out of anger in Afghanistan and following through on a family grudge in Iraq, the fact is he led us to act, and our actions are freeing millions of people.

Those brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives will be remembered as freedom fighters. To my liberal friends whose hatred for W clouds their vision, I offer two thoughts:

Consider our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan the equivalent of the National Guard in Alabama and Mississippi in the 50's and 60's. Brave people doing a dangerous job to bring freedom. That the KKK might have ambushed some of the Guard, didn't make the Guard's cause less worthy.

And lastly, free people are less likely to attack others, and when they do they are recognized as criminals. See many terrorists coming out of Belgium (freed in 1944), or the former East Germany (freed in 1990)?

It's always foolhardy to predict how history will look at current events, so I won't. But I like our chances of being looked upon fondly.

Friday Quickies

.....Wasn't that special, watching Mark McGwire stumble his way before Congress? At least the mob guys dragged in front of committees know how to take the 5th-- McGwire was embarrassing.

And Sammy Sosa denied steroid use, under oath, under penalty of perjury? We must not have an extradition treaty with the Dominican.

If we had a Commissioner instead of the idiot Selig, those records would be gone.

I'm just waiting for Bonds to be indicted for perjury to the grand jury in California. I usually don't like "perp walks" but I'd like to see that one.

Still, although as a baseball fan I found the hearing interesting, I question the propriety of Congress using their subpoena power here. And the fact that some of the Congressmen tried to say, with a straight face, that the hearing wasn't just about publicity shows that Sosa wasn't the only person in the room telling a fib.

I mean, if they really care about steroid use, why wasn't anyone from the WWE wrestling/porn troupe called to testify?

.....I've written before about cosmetic neurology, the use of drugs and treatments to enhance a person's abilities, rather than repairing a defect. Example: using Lasix eye treatment to increase eyesight on athletes to 20/10, instead of just 20/20.

The real problem with steroids isn't that they give an unfair advantage to a player. So does good nutrition, available weight training, good coaching, etc.

The problem is that the long-term side effects are so damaging, that many players won't make the trade-off between performance and years off their lives.

But what happens when advancements in the medication reduce or eliminate the side effects? What happens when steroids, or a similar substance, is as safe as Vitamin C?

What will sports look like then?

....The use of a subpoena by Congress to help save Terri Schiavo's life is brilliant. As I understand the case, this poor woman is going to be denied food and water until she dies, based on the testimony of her husband alone-- with no supporting document duly signed by Terri. That's just wrong.

Congress has ordered that she be kept alive until she can be brought in front of it for testimony, a tactic they are using to buy time for further legal proceedings.

Congress should adjourn her appearance until May, 2050. If upheld, that would take care of that.

People should have the right to die with dignity--but only the person should have the right, and it should be enunciated clearly, soberly, and unequivocally.

Not based on the word of a man who wants to get on with his own life.

....Tomorrow is the Kiwanis Easter Egg hunt, and so, for the 12th year in a row, I'll be helping a bunch of little kids chase down jelly bean-filled plastic eggs, on the hunt for the special eggs that win them big chocolate bunnies.

Lots of fun, and a great way to herald in Spring!

.....And, finally, a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer "Present" or "Not guilty."

Teddy Roosevelt

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

As I'm half Irish, I suppose I should be celebrating today. But St. Patty's is only my third favorite Saint's holiday.

Third: St. Patty's Day

Second: St. Anthony's Day (June 13th) A combo of it being my namesake, and the birthday of one of my daughters. (Who was surprised to hear that Saints had days named after them-- I said sure they do-- it's a big deal being named a Saint. You get a day, they retire your number, and you get a lifetime pass to all churches, meaning you never have to contribute to the collection plate again. And you get a widescreen TV. She was impressed.)

First: San Gennaro-- which is more of a week than a day, but which includes food and drink, thus topping St. Patty's.

By the way, my fourth favorite Saint's Day is St. Ivo of Kermartin's Day (May 19). He is the patron Saint of lawyers, judges, orphans and abandoned people.

Further down the list is November 3, which is St. Martin de Porres' Day-- he being the patron saint of public education, and obviously a man with his work cut out for him.

Finally, my wife says my patron Saint should be Expeditus, the patron Saint of procrastination. I told her maybe I would choose Emiliana, the patron Saint of single women. I didn't scare her.

Happy St. Patty's Day-- Be safe!

Put This Guy Back On A Hose

Some dimwit administrator in the NYC Fire Department has decreed that firefighters cannot wear green berets while marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade, something over a thousand of them have been doing for decades.

Full regulation dress uniform, or don't march.

What utter nonsense. These guys have earned, and earn every day, the right to wear the beret. It's a damn parade, not a fire. It's supposed to be fun, to honor those marching and to build comraderie. It doesn't have to resemble Soviet troops marching before the Politburo.

The idiot.

Parenting Goals

American Mom, a funny, insightful mother in Texas, recently posted on the difficulty, and uncertainty, that comes with raising teenagers.

I have two teenage daughters, ages 18 & 14.

Which is why I walk around with a frontal lobotomy look. I say "huh?!?" a lot.

When the children were small my parenting goal was this: I wanted them to get on the bus to college not pregnant.

I figured that encompassed a variety of goals. It had an educational component, a moral component, and the implied thesis that I hadn't killed them, and that I hadn't let my wife kill them, a much more likely prospect.

As they grew, and the effects of our parenting and the unfortunate DNA that we passed onto them became more evident, I altered my goal.

Now it is this:

That they don't go into heavy therapy until they are on their own health plan.

I still think the bar is too high, but any lower and Child Protective Service may take them away. Then again......

Friday Quickies

.... Man, did Lance Armstrong make a 180 degree turn on which city he supports for the Olympics, or what? Think bike-boy heard from his financial advisors after he dissed NYC in favor of that All-American favorite, Paris?

With the wheelie he pulled in that turnabout, he looked more like he was ready for the X-Games, than another Tour-de-France.

....World Champion Garry Kasporov is going to retire from chess.

What?

What do you do when you retire from chess? Only play checkers?

....The Muslim clerics in Spain have issued a fatwa against Osama bin Ladin.

Finally.

I mean, I don't wish a fatwa on anybody, but jeez, it's about time.

Any chance of American Muslims seconding the motion?

....Sara at Somewhat Silent had a disturbing, touching post this week, about the viciousness of some politically-based attacks.

Sara had gone on a conservative site, and was accused of being a hater of America. And it got to her.

She raises an important point. There is a tremendous amount of venom circulating. If it's not us on the right questioning liberals' patriotism, it's liberals attacking us as unfeeling, people-hating, callous...Well, you get the idea.

Perhaps it's unavoidable. Many of us feel passionately about politics. Many of us care deeply about core beliefs, and issues. And I'm not trying to pull a Rodney King here-- maybe we can't all just get along, and maybe we shouldn't.

But we can be more civil. We can try to be less personal.

I often think that sports has so infiltrated our society, that people now associate with political parties and issues like they do with their favorite sports teams-- rooting for them at all costs, regardless of the situation, regardless whether the players deserve to be rooted for-- see Barry Bond and Giants fans.

Still, maybe the old Senate rules, the ones that existed before "respected" Senators saw it as appropriate to throw around the word Nazi on the Senate floor. Maybe those old rules worked. My Honorable colleague. My respected friend.

It softened the argument. It kept it more civil. It kept the door open for some partisan work on future issues.

Maybe it's time for us to all to use those old rules.

As in, "My esteemed friend, Sara. With whom I often disagree, but whose patriotism I would never question."

....And finally a quote from the great Teddy Roosevelt:

Courtesy is as much a mark of a
gentleman as courage.

No Time!

Way too busy to blog-- I refer you to:

The Carnival Of Education

B After the Fact, for a response to one of my prior posts

And a not-so-fond and way too belated farewell to Dan Rather.

A Silent Victory

A recent poll shows New Yorkers are evenly split on the reinstitution of the death penalty here.

That's not the news.

Buried in the story is that only 3% of New Yorkers consider crime to be the most pressing issue facing the State (24% said education).

3%.

The lasting legacy of Rudy Giuliani, and a decades-long effort to strengthen laws, build prisons, support police, etc. has lead to this--crime, while a problem, has faded from our immediate consciousness.

Which is a silent victory. No trumpets, no landing on an aircraft carrier-- it just is.

Of course, that shouldn't make us complacent. It should cause us to redouble our efforts to protect all of us, and to keep our vigilance up.

But it should also give us hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable problems-- it's not as catchy as "we put a man on the moon", but it is closer in time, and more real: "we've made crime less a factor in our lives".

I Believe...Life

Like a scientist searching for a unified theory of physics, one that would account for both very large objects and very small ones, I try to divine unified theories among my beliefs on government, politics, interactions with people, etc.

I think having a core belief aids you in assessing new situations. Hypocrisy, though not one of the seven deadly sins, is high on my list of evils. I search for it in others, and in my own actions and beliefs.

Many of the "hot" issues before us today center around life. When does it begin; when should it end. The Terri Schiavo case is prominent in the news, as are death penalty cases, abortion, etc.

So, for what it's worth, here is what I think.

First, whether divinely inspired, or the result of pure randomness, human life is rare, precious, and worth preserving.

Second, I believe human life begins when a fertilized egg is sustainably joined with a human mother.

Because I believe this, I oppose abortion, except to save the mother's life.

Because I believe this, I favor stem cell research, provided that the egg has never been implanted in a womb, nor been grown for that purpose.

Because I believe this, I favor contraception.

Because I believe this, I think society owes its unborn proper pre-natal care, and protection from drug-abusing mothers.

Third, I believe that suicide is cowardly and wasteful, except when the individual is faced with inevitable, painful death. I believe the right to die in dignity is a fundamental right, one that is reserved exclusively to the individual.

Because I believe this, I support self-decided euthanasia.

Because I believe this, I find suicide reprehensible.

Because I believe this, I would oppose any government-imposed, or family-imposed, euthanasia. The right belongs only to the individual, and if that choice has not, or cannot, be clearly and unequivocally communicated, then we must take all steps to preserve life, in whatever form.

Fourth, I believe that governments should only have the power to take life when it is necessary, and exigent, to save innocent lives or to protect society.

Because I believe this, I oppose the death penalty. Death imposed after apprehension, after the need to protect has passed, goes beyond any power I would give to a government.

Because I believe this, I support the use of necessary force to protect society, including the use of lethal force by police, and war. There are times, like in the use of chemotherapy, when killing is necessary to save life.

When in doubt, I choose life, no matter how inconvenient. I choose life, over death, over anyone else's right to choose, over vengeance.

Boeing President "Resigns"

According to CNN:

Harry Stonecipher was forced to resign as Boeing's CEO because of what the company calls an improper relationship with a female executive.

See the problem? Harry didn't pay attention to the news a few years ago.

Harry's paramour was an executive.

Now, if she had been an intern...

The Right Arabic?

Arabic is Arabic, right? So if we do a version of Radio Free Europe in the Middle East, we do it in Arabic and we're all set, right?

Um, apparently not.

In an interesting article in The New Republic, Joseph Braude details the very short history of "modern" Arabic--and the fact that many in our target audience don't speak it. And since about 25% of the people in the Middle East are illiterate, the spoken word is vital-- and speaking the correct language even moreso.

Hope someone in Washington is listening--in the correct language.

(Braude also maintains a blog, Cordova, in which he utilizes his expertise in Arabic and the area to report on that region from a unique perspective. For instance, this weekend he analyzed how the state-controlled press in the Middle East spun the Iraqi election. Worth checking out.)

Roslyn Sues Board Members

This morning's Newsday reports that the scandal-plagued Roslyn School District has finally instituted suit against two Board members who received tens of thousands of dollars in "perq's". The article details the claims.

Now, this is just a drop in the bucket in the face of an ocean of $11.5 million dollars of outright theft by the former Superintendent, assistant Superintendent, etc.

But the truth is that Roslyn is not a large town-- it is impossible for me to believe that the wild personal spending of the thieves wasn't noticed by the Board members. It's not a huge leap to think that the receipt of illicit items by these two members helped them look the other way, or at least keep their questions to themselves.

By the way, as I questioned the other day, Pat Schlissel (her name & face should become synonymous with arrogant, incompetent Board service) still hasn't resigned-- and the Board is dawdling instead of taking action.

You take the action. Whether it is removing a thief, or a grossly incompetent School Board member, or a teacher you believe is harming children.

You remove them. You keep them from harming children. When you have strong evidence, you take the action, then let the due process of the Courts determine if you were right.

But you don't do nothing. Shame on the thieves. Shame on Schlissel. But shame, too, on the Commissioner of Education, and the present Roslyn School Board, for not acting. As the great Teddy Roosevelt said: “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”

Friday Quickies

....Martha is free!! Let the word go forth, from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that no place setting shall be complete without a spoon beaten into a shiv.

....Sen. Robert Byrd has accused Republicans of Nazi tactics for having the audacity to talk about changing the filibuster-- a tactic Byrd is quite familiar with, he having used it to try to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Over the last several years, Byrd, who seems to get respect he has never earned, has made a number of similarly idiotic statements (who can forget this former KKK Kleagle's use of the term "white nigger" repeatedly on national television--in 2001? Or last year, when he accused W of going to war to "seize a country"?

Yet not once has any Democrat stepped up to the plate and said, Byrd, you are wrong. Trent Lott- gone. But Byrd, who considers Sen. Russell, he who single-handedly held off anti-lynching legislation, a mentor-- Byrd, remains.

But why should we be surprised? Democrats never chide their own.

Byrd's is a career born in racism, steeped in patronage, and addled by a frustration that he just never seems to get it right-- against civil rights at the dawn of civil freedom for black Americans; against Reagan's military build-up which lead to the freedom of millions of Eastern Europeans; against the fight to reform Senate rules, so as to allow votes to occur-- in essence, the freedom of the U.S. Senate; and against military action in the Middle East, which appears ready to bear the fruit of freedom in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

Robert Byrd. The anti-freedom Senator.

....I am a big fan of "The West Wing". I was a huge fan of "Sports Night", a show which was written and directed by the same Aaron Sorkin-led team that started "The West Wing".

It was pretty obvious, at first glance, that the Sorkin team was using actors from "Sports Night" on "The West Wing".

What is amazing is that a quick rundown of the actors on each show reveals that 26 actors have appeared on both. (More amazing is the fact I took the time to research that fact!)

Some have had large parts in both (like Joshua Molina, who played Jeremy on SN and Will Bailey on TWW); others have had a big part in one, small in the other (Felicity Huffman, now on "Desperate Housewives" was a key member of SN, and had a one-show shot on TWW).

But mostly, they have given work on TWW to cast members of SN. Some appear as reporters, or Secret Service Agents, or one shot characters. Big and small. Recognizable, and not.

I like that. It is a show of loyalty that is too often missing. Adam Sandler, Kevin Smith and Woody Allen are three others who come to mind, show business people that seem to take care of their own.

....The Right Thinking Girl had a post on the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court outlawing the death penalty for minors.

And there's the delicious irony of the American Psychological Association filing an amicus brief stating that minors (under 18) do not have brains and mental processes fully formed enough to appreciate the moral consequences of their acts. This is, of course, the same organization that filed an amicus brief stating that minor females were fully capable, and must be allowed to, decide to have abortions without parental consent or notification.

Good point.

.....If I were King (and again, you should all breathe a sigh of relief that that's not gonna happen!), I would change a few things with the Oscars (which sees its ratings dropping annually).

I'd only show the 6 main awards on the main TV show-- Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Actress, and Supporting Actress. All of the others I would give out at another event--tape it, edit it, and show it on Bravo or A&E.

I'd then make Oscar night a true celebration of movies-- old and new. Long clips of the current nominees, their careers, the films. I'd highlight other films of the year, not just the nominees. I'd pick a genre for the year, and celebrate it, with clips and comments-- westerns, or comedies, or silent film, or films made in Chicago, or musicals. Whatever.

The opening montage this year, shown before Chris Rock came out, is the kind of thing I'm talking about. Something that makes you turn to the person you're watching the show with, and go "Yeah, that's 'Unforgiven'--great movie!"

I'm a big fan of the movies. I just wish the Oscars were more about the movies, and less about Italian designers and double-stick tape.

....And, finally, a quote from the great Theodore Roosevelt:

"No man can lead a public career really worth leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character."

An Autobiography, 1913

Roslyn Scandal Widens

This is the scandal that never ends.

What started as a hushed-up theft of $250,000, blossomed to an admitted $1 million--which turned into $4 million, which in turn grew to $8 million.

And the new total is, ding, ding--- $11.5 million.

$11.5 million dollars stolen from one school district of about 3,000 kids. According to Newsday,

Top Roslyn school officials and their friends and family siphoned off more than $11 million of district money in an elaborate scheme involving far more people and far more extravagant spending than had been suspected, a state report has found.

Those implicated allegedly made mortgage payments on six different homes -- including two in Florida -- paid off personal loans, bankrolled vacations to the Caribbean, leased luxury cars and shelled out thousands of dollars at Tiffany's, Nordstrom's, Sharper Image, Coach and Rolex.

I've written about this extensively. Quick snapshot-- the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent & the accounts payable manager of one of Long Island's premiere school districts got caught with their hands in the cookie jar, with literally millions of dollars siphoned from the district over a ten year period. The fallout has included the high school principal, the head of the buildings department, the district's accountants, and on and on.

Two Board members also received special "perqs", including cell phones, computers, reimbursement of questionable expenses, etc.

Of the original 7-person Board, one resigned immediately; one chose not to run for re-election; one was defeated; one of the two with the perqs resigned.

That still leaves three members of the asleep-at-the-switch Board serving this troubled District.

I've asked why the Commissioner of Education hasn't removed them;--not my table was the inane response. Although he takes tough stands with minority districts, the Commissioner has let white, affluent Roslyn alone.

In January, after the Board announced it was receiving a legal opinion about whether they could remove her (something I gave them for free many months ago!), the second perq-member announced she would resign "as soon as her health insurance was in place".

She is apparently still on the Board. How long does it take to get new health insurance, and why is the District waiting?

So, my two questions for this morning:

1-- why hasn't the Board removed Pat Schlissel, the recalcitrant Board member? and

2- why hasn't the DA indicted these two Board members? They took funds to which they were not entitled. If someone took $100 from the cafeteria cash register, you know they'd be arrested. Why not these two?

And the fallout continues. We now have another budget season upon us. The stink of scandal from Roslyn will again undoubtedly affect the school budget votes throughout Long Island, as many honest educators try to fend off cynical voters who assume that if it happened in Roslyn, it must be happening all over.

Summer Reading Follies

It’s snowing and it’s freezing and it’s March–so it’s the perfect time to start thinking about summer reading.

Actually, I’m talking about the assigned summer reading programs many schools have implemented. Given the lead time necessary to effect any change in the public schools, I may already be too late.

My District’s summer reading program has been a disaster. It needs a major overhaul. We have an excellent Superintendent, though, and the head of the department retired last year, so I am hopeful the program is revamped.

Until last year, each grade level was assigned one book to read during the summer, with an essay to be written the first week of school, in class. That’s not one book from a list of books. That’s one book. Period.

A controversy arose regarding one of the books assigned, so, after an extremely personal, ugly and unprofessional response by the Union/English Department (oh, excuse me–it’s no longer English, it’s Language Arts) the District begrudgingly expanded the list to three or four books.

The key, I think, is to break this issue down into three parts. First, what is the purpose of the summer reading program? Second, what books do we want the kids reading to help meet that purpose? And third, how do we make sure the reading is getting done?

There seems to be two reasons to require summer reading– either you want the students to “pre-read” on a substantive issue, to be prepared for a specific educational topic, or you simply want to make sure the kids’ brains don’t atrophy from a summer of sun, water and X-Box.

I think most schools' summer programs arise from the latter. We want the kids to use their brains, at least a little, during the ridiculously long 10 week “break”.

What do we want the kids to read? I think it should be something they want to read. Something entertaining, fun, well-written– something they won’t dread, something that might lead them into reading, oh I don’t know– how about two books during the summer?

Thankfully, the Chair of our department retired this past year. The choices up to now have been, in a word, terrible. Depressing. So not-summer, it made you think she was trying to turn kids, especially boys, away from reading for life.

The book that caused the problem was How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. This was the only choice for incoming 10th graders. The only choice. A parent objected and she was brutally attacked by the Union. You would have thought she was looking to burn Huck Finn at the stake.

I read the book. Oh. My. God. It is unreadable. It is, in parts, graphic. There is a fair argument to be made, as the parent did, that it is not appropriate for 9th graders.

Regardless, if I was a 14 year old boy, I’d sooner drive a red-hot nail through my eye than have to read it.

Other “choices” have included Angela’s Ashes. Great book. But for a summer read? Picture yourself a young person, sitting on the beach– are you going to pull that book out? C’mon.

So there are two issues– number of choices and content.

A neighboring district does it better. Massapequa, the town in which I was raised, gives their students an impressive list from which to choose. It’s not only a list that’s good for students, it’s a list that adults would do well to check out.

Finally, how to make sure the kids actually read a book? My district, as I said above, gives the kids an in-class essay the first week of school.

Sounds good, but it isn’t. Especially with a limited choice of books, there is a run on the book at the public library, and local bookstores, towards the end of summer, which is when most students finally dragged themselves to read whatever death-oriented, depressing dark novel the Chair chose. Or, like my eldest, they read the book early in the summer, then scrambled to recall enough specifics so they could write an essay.

An essay that virtually no teachers read, by the way. Wink, wink. Don’t tell the Chair.

A much better way, suggested by my eldest, is to require a “book report”. Let the kids email ‘em in during the summer, as they finish the book.

Seems to me, the perfect summer reading program lays a buffet table of well written books before the students, enticing them to read and explore and enjoy good books. It should be a program which asks the student to think, to respond, to write a bit– not as an assignment, not as a burden, but as a function of keeping curiosity and some type of intelligence flowing during the long, hot summer.

(This is also my entry to the "Carnival of Education", an assemblage of posts on education from around the country, hosted by The Education Wonks. TEW, led by a classroom teacher, is an old "blogosphere" friend, and is consistently the best site for education news and opinion. I urge you to sample!)

Snowstorm Roundup

Quick trip around some of the posts that caught my eye on this snowy evening:

The MUSC Tiger tipped me off to a first-hand account of an ER physician treating some high profile victims. A bit gruesome, but compelling.

The Italian American Princess gives us a funny tale of her days at Starbucks.

B After the Fact posts his take on The Gates.

Sad to say, the Bull Moose Republicans appear to be dead and gone. I'm not even getting a response to my emails. It was an interesting site, dedicated to the principles of Teddy Roosevelt, and it is missed.

The Unrepentant Individual notes the wave of democratic activity in the Middle East, and opines on the cause. I agree with him, and was going to post on it-- but he gets the point across well.

If you are an educator, or are interested in education The Education Wonk is the place to be. Check out this compilation of stories about parents opting out of testing. Their new feature, "The Carnival of Education" appears each Wednesday. I'll be posting tomorrow about summer reading programs.

Jen Martinez has carved out a niche as a premiere writer on military issues. Tough, straight-talking, take-no-prisoners. A voice for the grunt. Interesting post about a deserving quest for a Medal of Honor.

Somewhat Silent consistently produces insights from a liberal New Yorker's perspective that are intriguing, if at times, exasperating.

Daddypundit is a Christian-based site that I look to for some balance in my intake.

And, finally Vox Baby has an interesting post on Social Security, and a radio show he recently appeared on.

I actually read all of the blogs I list on the right. Some I read every day, but all at least once a week. If I don't read 'em, I don't list 'em. I don't agree with them all-- in fact, I probably don't agree with most of them. I just don't find it very interesting or stimulating reading people who think as I do-- I'd rather be challenged!

(And, small note to Blogger-- your spell check shouldn't really be highlighting the word "blog" for replacement, should it?)