Bush has hit a new low in the Harris poll. He’s very close to Nixon territory, whose low (in the Harris poll) was 26%
Two Years Ago
On May 30, 2005, Vice President Cheney declared that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes” and predicted “the level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline.”
Increased military activity throughout Iraq has pushed U.S. troop deaths to their highest level for any two-month period of the war.
Pentagon records show that 115 troops have been killed so far in May. That raises the total for the past two months to 219, exceeding the 215 who died in April and May of 2004, when U.S. forces fought insurgents in Fallujah.
80th Annual (Not Putnam County) Spelling Bee
Starts today. Semifinals air on ESPN tomorrow from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Final round airs on primetime ABC — 8:00 to 10:00 pm — tomorrow night. If you get a chance to see it — even if it’s for ten minutes — do so. These kids are amazing, and the competition is nail-biting.
Here’s some stats from the Scripps National Spelling Bee website:
Spellers:
286
This is the greatest number of spellers in the history of the event.
Gender:
139 boys (48.6%) and 147 girls (51.4%)
This year’s gender statistics are typical of previous years’ gender statistics.
Age:
11 ten-year-olds (3.84%)
28 eleven-year-olds (9.79%)
66 twelve-year-olds (23.1%)
105 thirteen-year-olds (36.71%)
75 fourteen-year-olds (26.22%)
1 fifteen-year-old (.34%)
This year’s age statistics are typical of previous years’ age statistics.
Grade:
2 fourth graders (.7%)
23 fifth graders (8.04%)
36 sixth graders (12.6%)
88 seventh graders (30.76%)
137 eighth graders (47.9%)
This year’s grade statistics are typical of previous years’ grade statistics.
School Type:
192 public (67.13%)
38 private (13.29%)
36 home (12.59%)
14 parochial (4.9%)
5 charter (1.75%)
1 virtual (.34%)
Of last year’s 274 spellers, 195 were public-schooled, 37 were home-schooled, 26 were private-schooled, 13 were parochial-schooled, and 3 were charter-schooled.
Siblings:
Forty (40) spellers are only children. The remaining 246 spellers have 243 sisters and 254 brothers among them. Spellers 64 and 273 are fraternal twins, and Speller 4 is an identical twin.
This year’s siblings statistics are typical of previous years’ siblings statistics.
Family Ties:
19 spellers have at least one relative (mother, brother, sister, uncle, or cousin) who has competed in previous national finals. They are spellers 7, 17, 84, 87, 90, 96, 121, 122, 126, 134, 145, 153, 197, 199, 206, 225, 226, 240, and 254.
This year’s family ties statistics are typical of previous years’ family ties statistics.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Up until only a few weeks ago, Price Floyd was the media affairs director at the U.S. State Department. Now that he’s left that post, he reflects back on why the United States has failed to convince the world of the virtues of U.S. foreign policy.
It’s not for lack of trying — U.S. state department officials have been on an international P.R. blitz for years. The problem, Floyd writes, is that what the U.S. says it does cannot be reconciled with the shit that it actually, you know, does:
We have eroded not only the good will of the post-9-11 days but also any residual appreciation from the countries we supported during the Cold War. This is due to several actions taken by the Bush administration, including pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol (environment), refusing to take part in the International Criminal Court (rule of law), and pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (arms control). The prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib and the continuing controversy over the detainees in Guantanamo also sullied the image of America.
Collectively, these actions have sent an unequivocal message: The U.S. does not want to be a collaborative partner. That is the policy we have been "selling" through our actions, which speak the loudest of all.
As the director of media affairs at State, this is the conundrum that I faced every day. I tried through the traditional domestic media and, for the first time, through the pan-Arab TV and print media — Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, Al Hayat — to reach people in the U.S. and abroad and to convince them that we should not be judged by our actions, only our words.
I was not a newcomer to these issues. I had served at the State Department for more than 17 years, through the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, numerous episodes of the Middle Eastern peace process and discussions in North Korea on its nuclear programs.
During each of these crises, we at least appeared to be working with others, even if we took actions with which others did not agree. We were talking to our enemies as well as our allies. Our actions and our words were in sync, we were transparent, our agenda was there for all to see, and our actions matched it.
This is not the case today. Much of our audience either doesn’t listen or perceives our efforts to be meaningless U.S. propaganda.
We need a president who will enable the U.S. to return to its rightful place as the "beacon on a hill" — a country that others want to emulate, not hate; a country that proves through words and deeds that it is free, not afraid.
Dr. Pepper Screws With Your DNA?
As does Fanta, Sprite, Coke, and almost all other soft drinks. The real culprit here is sodium benzoate, a natural item found in berries. It’s normally harmless, but when ingested in large quantities, it screws with your mitochondria, the cells that power your DNA.
Sodium benzoate is used in many sodas, as well as pickle juice and sauces.
The problem – more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse – can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
This could be something on the level of the classic saccarine-causes-cancer alarm*, so don’t worry about it yet. Read more here, if interested.
* …if you drink 100 Tabs per day, which you can’t do because they don’t make Tab anymore.
Auspicious Circumlocution Or A Loquacious Lexicon? You Be The Omnipotent Yeoman
The American Heritage Dictionary has just come out with a list of "100 Words That All High School Graduate — And Their Parents — Should Know".
I think I know most of these words, but some of them — well, if I were to ever use those words, or even know them, I’d end up in the Nerd Hall of Fame. I mean, "impeach", "paradigm", "epiphany", "soliloquy" and "hubris" (to name a few) are all fine words. But c’mon — "quotidian"? "abstemious"? "moiety"?
Anyway, here’s the list. How many do you know?
|
abjure
abrogate abstemious acumen antebellum auspicious belie bellicose bowdlerize chicanery chromosome churlish circumlocution circumnavigate deciduous deleterious diffident enervate enfranchise epiphany equinox euro evanescent expurgate facetious fatuous feckless fiduciary filibuster gamete gauche gerrymander hegemony hemoglobin homogeneous hubris hypotenuse impeach incognito incontrovertible inculcate infrastructure interpolate irony jejune kinetic kowtow laissez faire lexicon loquacious |
lugubrious
metamorphosis mitosis moiety nanotechnology nihilism nomenclature nonsectarian notarize obsequious oligarchy omnipotent orthography oxidize parabola paradigm parameter pecuniary photosynthesis plagiarize plasma polymer precipitous quasar quotidian recapitulate reciprocal reparation respiration sanguine soliloquy subjugate suffragist supercilious tautology taxonomy tectonic tempestuous thermodynamics totalitarian unctuous usurp vacuous vehement vortex winnow wrought xenophobe yeoman ziggurat |
Our Xanadu In Baghdad
The $600 million new U.S. “embassy” in Baghdad certainly looks nice:
Yup, that’s a pool, surrounded by palm trees. And those are tennis courts in the background.
It’s going to be the largest embassy on the planet, covering over 104 acres — very swiggity-sweet:
This self-contained compound will include the embassy itself, residences for the ambassador and staff, PX, commissary, cinema, retail and shopping, restaurants, schools, fire station and supporting facilities such as power generation, water purification system, telecommunications, and waste water treatment facilities.
But trouble looms on the horizon:
Admittedly, it may be hard to take that refreshing dip or catch a few sets of tennis in Baghdad’s heat if the present order for all U.S. personnel in the Green Zone to wear flak jackets and helmets at all times remains in effect — or if, as in the present palace/embassy, the pool (and ping-pong tables) are declared, thanks to increasing mortar and missile attacks, temporarily "off limits." In that case, more time will probably be spent in the massive, largely windowless-looking Recreation Center, one of over 20 blast-resistant buildings BDY has planned. Perhaps this will house the promised embassy cinema. (Pirates of the Middle East, anyone?) Perhaps hours will be wiled away in the no less massive-looking, low-slung Post Exchange/Community Center, or in the promised commissary, the "retail and shopping areas," the restaurants, or even, so the BDY website assures us, the "schools" (though it’s a difficult to imagine the State Department allowing children at this particular post).
Ah, the spoils of war….
UPDATE: Think Progress has more, and throws in a little photo-juxtaposin’….
FYI: May, which isn’t over yet, has become the deadliest month of 2007 (so far) for U.S. troops in Iraq. Ten soldiers died ironic deaths on Memorial Day.
Bug — The Movie Review
From Christian Answers:
The movie has no lack of foul language, and the F-word is the most prevalent, being used more than 60 times. There are at least 60 other cuss words as well, including about 20 misuses of God’s name.
The number of minutes spent on real or implied nudity seemed to far outweigh the time spent on horror scenes. The two major scenes of the movie have both the main characters walking around in the buff or having sex. Some of this is implied, but we still see full male and female rear nudity a few times, and a naked couple having sex once. There is also female frontal nudity above the waist and full frontal male nudity. The man’s genital area, however, is obscured by lighting, and what is seen is a silhouette.
The whole premise of “Bug” is about relationships—not little creatures on the skin. As such, its teaching is contrary to what God says we are supposed to be like. The movie seems to say that no one can be trusted. And while it is true that we can’t go beyond reason in regard to trusting other people, there are people who are trustworthy around us. And even more so, there is one we can trust 100% of the time—Jesus Christ.
Noted.
That said, the reviews tend to be positive (with lots of praise for Ashley Judd), especially from those critics who tend to understand that this is not a horror movie per se, but a movie about madness and paranoia, with some offbeat humor.
I have an interest in this film, since I plan to be auditioning for the play in July.
Flypaper Theory Rebuked
In 2003, then-war-supporter Andrew Sullivan wrote:
One of the many layers of the arguments for invading Iraq focused on the difficulties of waging a serious war on terror from a distant remove. Being based in Iraq helpsus notonly because of actual bases; but because the American presence there diverts terrorist attention away from elsewhere. By confronting them directly in Iraq, we get to engage them in a military setting that plays to our strengths rather than to theirs’. Continued conflict in Iraq, in other words, needn’t always be bad news. It may be a sign that we are drawing the terrorists out of the woodwork and tackling them in the open.
This was the essence of the so-called "flypaper theory" — the notion being that if the U.S. had presence in Iraq, all the "bad guys" would flock to Iraq to fight us, and we could fight them there — out in the open. That way, we wouldn’t have to run all around the world fighting the evil-doers.
Turns out, that’s not happening at all. In fact, the opposite is happening. There is an outward flow of jihadists from Iraq into neighboring countries, like Lebanon and Jordan. The New York Times explains:
The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American, European and Middle Eastern government officials and interviews with militant leaders in Lebanon, Jordan and London.
Some of the fighters appear to be leaving as part of the waves of Iraqi refugees crossing borders that government officials acknowledge they struggle to control. But others are dispatched from Iraq for specific missions. In the Jordanian airport plot, the authorities said they believed that the bomb maker flew from Baghdad to prepare the explosives for Mr. Darsi.
Estimating the number of fighters leaving Iraq is at least as difficult as it has been to count foreign militants joining the insurgency. But early signs of an exodus are clear, and officials in the United States and the Middle East say the potential for veterans of the insurgency to spread far beyond Iraq is significant.
I Stand Corrected
My Mom just learned that you "home in" on something, not — as she always believed — "hone in" on something. She’s been saying it wrong all these years.
So have I.
P.S. At least I knew it was a "dog-eat-dog world", not a "doggie dog world".
UPDATE: If you look at the post directly above this one, you’ll see a large quote from the New York Times, which includes this sentence: "The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond…." [Emphasis added]
Memorial Day Rembrances
Powerful and moving stuff from B.U. professor Andrew Bacevich. Bacevich is a vocal opponent of the Iraq War. Earlier this month, his sone was killed in that war:
I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty.
Parents who lose children, whether through accident or illness, inevitably wonder what they could have done to prevent their loss. When my son was killed in Iraq earlier this month at age 27, I found myself pondering my responsibility for his death.
Among the hundreds of messages that my wife and I have received, two bore directly on this question. Both held me personally culpable, insisting that my public opposition to the war had provided aid and comfort to the enemy. Each said that my son’s death came as a direct result of my antiwar writings.
This may seem a vile accusation to lay against a grieving father. But in fact, it has become a staple of American political discourse, repeated endlessly by those keen to allow President Bush a free hand in waging his war. By encouraging "the terrorists," opponents of the Iraq conflict increase the risk to U.S. troops. Although the First Amendment protects antiwar critics from being tried for treason, it provides no protection for the hardly less serious charge of failing to support the troops — today’s civic equivalent of dereliction of duty.
What exactly is a father’s duty when his son is sent into harm’s way?
The rest of the article, and my favorite bit, below the fold….
The Long Weekend & Charles Nelson Reilly
Well, obviously no blogging for a few days there. I had pretty productive weekend. Managed to clean the pool and fill it — almost ready for use! Did some major yardwork. A couple of Full Monty rehearsals. Played an $11-entry-fee online poker tournament and walked away with $2,450.00.
Couldn’t get my new kitchen faucet installed. I tried — I’m just no handyman. Wasn’t able to see Kelly in Open Season. Next weekend, I hope.
I didn’t pay much attention to the news, except to note that Charles Nelson Reilly, who originated the role of Sydney Lipton on Broadway in Neil Simon’s God’s Favorite (a role I just finished up here), died. I mostly know him from Match Game, but he was also a revered acting instructor.