View From a Height

New House

No, I haven't forgotten, I've just picked most of the local low-hanging fruit. So I'm widening the search to the rest of Colorado.

Here's one.

Summer Sunday in Denver

Estate Sale

The neighbors next door were an older couple. He had had cancer, and when he went a few months ago, it wasn't surprising that she followed quickly. Good people, from my few interactions, and good neighbors.

Their kids, who have had the house for sale for a while now, finally organized an estate sale for all the stuff they didn't want, and since books tend to go cheaply, I wandered over to see what they had. Almost bought the old IBM Selectric for $5.00, but figured the cost of shipping it to Dan Rather or Mary Mapes would be prohibitive.

They were also newspaper-savers, like me. A bunch of Kennedy assassination papers, from both of them. And then, this (click to enlarge):

Nice. The moon landing, and appropriately enough for this weekend, a visit to Los Alamos. But what's missing? This (also click to enlarge):

And here's Page 6, in case you want to read the whole thing.

The paper also carried a little story about Miss Kopchne's time here in Colorado, campaigning for Gov. McNichols, so it probably gave her more ink than the Boston papers did.

Air

So, I'm sitting out here in Cherry Creek North, enjoying the free Wifi thoughtfully provided by the neighborhood business community, getting a little writing done on the finance research. It's lovely weather. The Sunday evening cafe society is alive and well, and the ubiquitous stop signs keep all but the most ambitious motorcycle engines to a purr. And polite dogs are welcome.

Suddenly, as I'm sitting here, I notice that I don't feel the air. At all. There's no breeze, and the temperature has just crossed into the no-man's land between "a little warmer than skin temperature" and "a little cooler than." It's a remarkably - odd - feeling of nothing. You lose yourself, you lose the sensation of having a skin. You lose the sensation of there being any air, although continued breathing is reassuring.

Such moments don't last, obviously. Ah, even now, it's just a little cooler, and that's all it takes to break the spell. But while it lasts, the air is as clear to the touch as it is to sight.

Deconstructing a Sukkah

Ah, at long last, the silence is broken. So, after graduation, I thought, I'll have all this free time! Right. For the moment, that free time is being used catching up on 3 years of neglected household chores. Like finishing the garage (pictures to follow).

And then, there's the beginning of the back yard's Long March back from xeriscaping nightmare to plush green grass & garden. Step 1: clear out all the accumulated detritus so I can actually get to work on it, killing weeds, planting grass, maybe tilling a small area for tomatoes and corn. The first thing is to get rid of an excess wardrobe I had put shelves in and was using as an ersatz toolchest. (Thus the gorilla shelving in the garage.)

The second thing is getting rid of the old solid wood sukkah. Each panel was a 4x8 piece of plywood nailed onto an 8-frame of 2x4s. One of those panels had a swinging door. Before I replaced it with a tarp-and-tube design, it was warm, cheerful, homey, and solid. It also took a three-many crew four hours to put up.

The problem with building something to last is that it takes a professional wrecking crew to break it down. I figured I could just use the hand-held circular saw to cut all the panels in half, and put the stuff out for large-item pickup. Except that, according to the lady on the phone, some contractors had the same idea over the years, and the remnants of brick walls and A-frames had gotten a little too much to handle, so now they aren't taking "building materials."

"But I'm not a contractor."

"They damage our trucks."

"But you'll take a large wooden bureau I'm going to put out."

"Yes."

"And it's wood, too. And the drywall remnants won't damage the truck. They crumble into dust."

"We provide this service as a courtesy..."

"It's not a courtesy. I'm paying for it."

"I'll be happy to give you the names of services to come haul your stuff away."

At least she didn't lecture me about how she lives in Aurora and pays taxes and doesn't even get these services and I'm not the only one who pays taxes and the service is spread all over Denver and I ought to appreciate what I do get. Although she did start down the Dark Path of the Philosophy of Law, and why some bad apples had ruined everything for the rest of us.

Since the last time I had a public servant talk to me as though I were in the 4th grade was when actually was in the 4th grade, I figured that now would be a good time to take up her offer to have the regional supervisor call me so we could get this cleared up.

We'll see. The alternative may be to pry the thing apart piece by piece and start hiding the remnants in the bottom of the large garbage can.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As part of my new What Do I Do With All This Free Time Liberal Arts Self-Education Program (WDIDWATFT LASEP), I've been working through the Teaching Company's Classics of American Literature. You see, in order to get anything out of the course, you actually have to read the books, which presented a problem up until recently.

The second author in the series is Ralph "Don't Ask Where's?" Waldo Emerson. Emerson was a deeply subversive writer, but the lecturer points out that very intelligent, well-educated people often walked out of his lectures not quite sure what he had been talking about. As with certain recent President candidates, this may be more an assumption of intelligence than an actual reflection thereof.

Still, some individual quotes are quite striking:

Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour, and is not reminded of the flux of all things?

Heh. Newton thought of the calculus, which he called "fluxions," while he was trying to solve the problem of calculating the flow of a river around a bend. I have no idea if Emerson was aware of this, but I don't see any reason to assume he wasn't.

Thus architecture is called "frozen music" by De Stael and Goethe. Vitrivius thought an architect should be a musician.

There's an overused quote, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." If the quote really is older than a 1983 interview with Elvis Costello - and there's no a priori reason we should credit him with this original thought - then it probably means something other than the way he used it, that writing about music was absurd. I have my own ideas, but the floor is open for interpretations.

And then, from "The American Scholar," one I like the best.

Thus far, our holiday has been simply a friendly sign of the survival of the love of letters amongst a people too busy to give letters any more. As such, it is precious as the sign of an indestructible instinct. Perhaps the time is already come, when it ought to be, and will be, something else; when the sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close (emphasis added -ed.)

Remember, Emerson was writing only a few years after de Toqueville, when the country was still slightly bewildering to a European for its attention to business and its restlessness. He wasn't arguing that business was bad, only that the country also needed scholarship.

And he certainly wasn't arguing for bookishness. Instead, he was hoping for a peculiarly American type of literature, poetry, and scholarship, informed by but not dependent on (or overly reverent of) our European heritage

That's a hope that one of our main political parties appears to have abandoned.

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

Substitute Ward Churchill, Catherine McKinnon, and Cornell West, and you'd get a fair sense of academia today. Leaving aside the rather dramatic dropoff in the quality of thought, it doesn't appear that academia's defense of its orthodoxies is any different now from then. But if I had to have my child brainwashed, I'd rather it were by Cicero, Locke, and Bacon.

Maxwell Falls

Maxwell Falls is one of those hikes where all of the signatures in the register are from Denver or Evergreen, possibly Conifer. The falls themselves aren't much, but the getting there is a lot of fun. As always, click to enlarge, (although the larger ones are a little over 200K).

While "Colorado" means "red," visitors are always surprised that the state isn't greener. It's amazing what a little rain will do...

It's hard enough being a lab without also be asked to be a llama:

As it turns out, four other large dogs were similarly burdened, so I didn't feel too bad about asking Sage to carry the water. Hey, he's gotta earn his keep somehow.

Colorful Sunset Colorado

Since the Governor of Minnesota and one James Lileks late of that state have taken to ridiculing our new state quarter, as well as the signage reading "Welcome to Colorful Colorado," erected at great taxpayer expense on all roads leading into the state, I thought I'd remind them of why those signs exist. As always, click to enlarge.

Colorful Xeriscape Colorado

Every so often, one of the local papers runs a column about how xeriscaping doesn't mean brown. Over the last couple of years, I've planted a series of xeriscape plants along the front of our lawn, on the Strip The Kills Growing Things (click to enlarge):

It even look as though this year, my favorites, the Hens 'n' Chicks, will have multiple blooms...

Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 7:2

"It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men..."

My father-in-law passed away on Thursday evening. I flew to New York for the funeral on Friday (Jewish law requires that the burial take place as quickly as possible), stayed for Shabbat and the weekend, and am now back in Denver.

In fact, on Sunday, there was a wedding at the shul literally next door to the shiva house, although I don't think many people had a choice about which place to visit.

For all of you who've expressed your concern, thank you. David was a good man, and while I can't believe that his passing was a blessing in any sense, his memory should be.

Children

In his Washington Post column from today, George Will pretty much sums up Europe's Nanny-state infantilization:

It is fine for people who are not French to admire from afar how "civilized" the French are in cherishing their "way of life" -- short workweeks, many weeks of vacation, laws "protecting" labor by making it difficult to fire people. But those laws, by making employers reluctant to hire, help explain France's double-digit unemployment.

Cast a cold eye on this way of life -- this amalgam of desires for increasing affluence and leisure and weight in the world -- and "civilized" looks like a euphemism for "childish." Children are unaware of the costs of things, and the incompatibility of many desires.

Will doesn't say so, but there's no question that 50+ years of living under the American defense umbrella, in a world economy powered by American growth, has reduced the western part of the continent to the emotional stage of teenagers: old enough to operate the toys but not to produce or even understand them.

The EU was the means by which the delinquent French, Germans, and Belgians would entice college-bound New Europe to hang out for the summer rather than working.

The truly sad part is that Europe has entrepreneurial talent out that wazoo - just look at cell phones - but that talent is stifled by a system that resents success, especially new success. America has always benefitted by welcoming such people. Perhaps one of our greatest systemic threats is a China that now also does so, combined with a Democratic party that wants to replicate Europe's political culture here.

This Would Be Really Funny...

...if George Allen were even thinking of defecting on judicial filibusters:

Maguire on Kaus on Limbaugh on Starr on Filibusters

Mickey Kaus is accusing Rush Limbaugh of Dowdifying Ken Starr's position on judicial filibusters. Tom Maguire isn't so sure. (Hat tip: The InstaProf.) Here's the transcript of the whole Nightline segment featuring Starr:

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) And joining me now, Kenneth Starr. He's the dean of the Pepperdine University Law School. He was the independent counsel on the Whitewater investigation of the Clintons, US Solicitor General under the first President Bush and a judge for the US Court of Appeals. Let's talk first of all, Judge, about these assaults, some of them actually physical, most of them these days, though, verbal. I, I noted at the very beginning of the program, going back to the days of, of, of the calls for the impeachment of Judge Warren that it's not new ...

KENNETH STARR, FORMER FEDERAL JUDGE

Right.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) ... to this country to have these kinds of assaults. Nevertheless, it seems to be particularly widespread and vitriolic these days. Your, your response.

KENNETH STARR

Yes, the stakes are very high. Feelings are running extremely high. But you're so right. Chief Justice Warren was the subject of calls for impeachment. William O. Douglas was, as well. But there is, I think, now a more focused set of issues and concerns that are leading a number of our political leaders to be very, very stringent in their comments and, and criticisms. And I think it does raise issues with respect to the independence of the judiciary that we need to be very mindful of.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) Well, let's parse that a little bit. I, I don't think any judge would complain about being criticized. None of us is above criticism. But when the calls come, explicitly or implicitly for impeachment, not because a judge has committed any crime, but because the judge may hold a, a set of views that are, that are inconsistent with those, of those calling for the impeachment, what do you think of that?

KENNETH STARR

I think it's unfortunate. I completely agree that as a coordinate branch of government, the judiciary is appropriately subject to criticism. That's our system. Justice Brennan put it very well in a different context when he said, in a democratic society, debate should be robust, uninhibited, open-ended and it's gonna make us uncomfortable. That is good. But where we do, in fact, step over the line, in my judgment, is when we say, or our political leaders say that we so fervently disagree, that we think that impeachment is appropriate or necessary. When those judges are, whether right or wrong, exercising their independent judgment, under Article Three of the Constitution.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) So, if, if Majority Leader DeLay were to come to you and say, Judge Starr, I've always admired you, you think I need to stifle it for a while? What would you tell him?

KENNETH STARR

I would say, criticize but criticize in the spirit of Justice Brennan. Be robust but don't go all the way over to say that a conscientious judge or justice, exercising his or her judgment, should be impeached or, or to call for impeachment.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera)What ...

KENNETH STARR

-I, I would say moderate the tone a bit.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) When you were quoting Justice Brennan a moment ago, you referred to his admonition that debate should be open-ended. Which, of course, in the framework of the US Senate, is what the filibuster is, is all about. What are you views on the filibuster, as it relates specifically to judicial appointments?

KENNETH STARR

Well, the Senate has the raw power and has, in fact, used it once famously, in the process of considering the proposed elevation of Abe Fortas to the Chief Justice-ship. But I think it's imprudent and unwise for senators to invoke this important device. I think it is more apt, more appropriate for legislation but not for, for judging, I think, or for ruling on judges and voting on judges. I think that does trench on the independence of the judiciary. But even more so, I think that in our system of separated powers, the President does deserve a vote on his nominees, up or down. And especially when we're talking about the courts of appeals. We're not even talking about the United States Supreme Court.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) -Expect, I think we are talking here about the US Supreme Court, aren't we? I mean, it, it is everybody's expectation that everything that is going on right now is just sort of a dry run for what is assumed will happen sometime, if not in the next few months, then certainly in the next year or two. And that is that President Bush will have one, two, possibly three appointments to the Supreme Court. So, what happens in the US Senate now is exceedingly important. Would you go so far as to do away with the filibuster?

KENNETH STARR

I would not do away with the filibuster, in terms of Rule 22. But I would say, be judicious in its application. And I don't think that that's been happening. And I regret that.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) So, you're, you're opposed to the invocation of the filibuster, in this case. But you wouldn't go so far as to get rid of it.

KENNETH STARR

I'd be very cautious about getting rid of it. I think that the filibuster rule's a part of our traditions. But I think it needs to be, like a lot of tools in the tool chest, very cautiously used.

TED KOPPEL

(Off Camera) Judge Starr, always a pleasure, thank you very much for joining us.

KENNETH STARR

My pleasure, Ted.

Koppel clearly doesn't ambush Starr. The conversation starts out discussing the heated rhetoric over judicial decisions, and then moves into the filibuster. But Starr never says it shouldn't be done, only that we should be cautious. He clearly draws a line between using it for judicial nominations and using it over legislation. And when he talks about it being "part of our traditions," he may have in mind its broader use, not this specific application. In fact, he says that it's never been used before in this way, which pretty much rules out judicial filibusters as being "part of our tradition."

I think it's not as clear as Rush would like, but if Starr's actual position is somewhere between where Kaus places it and where Rush puts him, it's much closer to Rush's view.

Politically Tone-Deaf

Byron York previews the hard filibuster negotiations still ahead. He suggests that some Republicans are still more concerned with process rather than result:

"Who cares about these individual nominees?" adds Republican A. "You care about the process going forward. Frist isn't in this to protect Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen. He wants to fix this and have a system that works for both sides going forward."

Republican A is so politically tone-deaf that he shouldn't be allowed to campaign, much less plot strategy. We all know why Justice Brown and Justice Owen and Judge Estrada scared the Democrats the most.

Abandoning them will allow the leftist identity politicians to bang the drum that the Republicans, those racist, sexist pigs, were willing to ditch the girls and the blacks to make sure their white men made it through, conveniently ignoring who it was that opposed them in the first place. Seriously, couldn't you see Bill Clinton getting up in front of a black church political rally and saying that?

Such is the nature of leftist political rhetoric.

Why Change the Rule?

People think "filibuster" and they think senators reading from the phone book. It doesn't work that way now. With the cloture rule, it takes 60 votes to close debate on anything brought under an "open rule," meaning no limit to debate. At the same time, it takes a quorum to conduct business.

This means that the Republicans would need to keep 50 members on the floor at all times, in order to keep debate going, while the Dems would only need to have 1 member present to object and force a cloture vote, which the Republicans can't get 60 votes to pass. There would be no need for the Dems to hold the floor. No Mr. Smith making impassioned pleas, just Republicans praising a candidate, and failing to move the nomination. All the while, those same Republicans wouldn't be able to attend committee hearings.

This morning NPR (don't ask) was reporting that Reid is trying to get the Republicans to drop the nuclear option in return for withdrawing some nominations, which would really screw the separation of powers and give the Dems what they want - a de facto transfer of nomination power from the President to the Senate. My guess is Reid wouldn't even be talking if he thought he had the votes.

I don't think the filibuster rule, as presently constituted, is long for this world. The Dems are almost certainly drawing up battle plans for revoking the thing either piecemeal or in total when they get back into power. Their argument will be that the Republicans wanted to do it, but the Dems held firm against radical judges. Now that you've voted them back into power, they have an obligation, blah blah blah. More than the nuclear option, it's the pre-emptive option. Please let's not call it the pre-emptive nuclear option.

Home Sweet Home

I could never live in New York. The sheer anger required to survive would kill me with a heart attack. New York plays to every bad character trait I've spent the last 8 years trying to change. Being here a couple of days is enough to see that.

I'm here for what I initially feared would be the worst, that is now mercifully receding into the more distant future. Susie's dad was admitted to the hospice, then to the hospital, but has recovered nicely. It's not a long-term recovery, sadly, but later is always better than sooner. Susie will stay behind indefinitely.

I'm staying in Boro Park, Brooklyn, one of the more deservedly maligned boroughs. These people either have tremendous faith or are completely insane, since they continue to lay on the car horn for 30 seconds at a time, despite the fact that I have never seen it have any perceptible effect on the 14-block line of traffic. In Denver, they run red lights. In New York, they double-park to go get a cup of coffee.

I've seen Denver drivers get more aggressive over time, probably as the local culture get swamped by unassimilated immigrants. But nothing like this.

I can't wait to get home, even if it is alone.

In the First Round, the Cardinals Select...

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to become Pope Benedict XVI.

OK, so there was no truth to the rumors that Cardinal Ratzinger's first words as Pope would be "Be afraid, be very afraid."

Speaking as someone who has a very narrow interest in Church doctrine, this strikes me as good for the Jews. Ratzinger understands that the Church does evangelize, but was a moving force behind Pope John Paul II's efforts to stop singling us out for special treatment. The now-unavailable Ratzinger Fan Club Blog (seriously) had a couple of fine posts on this subject, and it seems that Ratzinger went about as far as we could reasonably hope for him to go on this score.

My only real disappointment here is that the cardinals didn't choose someone for whom the Islamic issue is a higher priority. The Wall Street Journal had a fine article yesterday on the Church's falling behind Islam in numbers, and the Islamic beachhead in Spain. Sooner or later, they're going to have to confront the fact that 40 years of accomodation hasn't worked out very well.

Papal Futures

A lot has been made of the possibility of a non-European pope. My guess is that this won't happen this time.

I would point out, though, that it's not just the number of cardinals from a region that matters (a mindset that recalls the UN's dysfunctional regional voting blocs, and one that Catholics might wish to avoid encouraging). One of the recurring themes has been that the cardinals don't know each other very well, since they have few opportunities to meet and are geographically dispersed. Italians are only 21 Cardinals, and while they might not actually carpool, my guess is they've had much better, um, networking opportunities, than the rest of the conclave.

I don't mean to suggest in any way that any untoward politicking went on over the last few years, only that once they get in the room together, the Italians are likely to see friends among the other Italians, while the other cardinals are more likely to see strangers.

One More...

Reed Carefully:

Springtime in the Rockies

Oklahoma

Oh, the cowboy and the farmer should be friends (should be friends).

House Delegation to Rome

According to NRO, Her Royal Highness the Representative from Texas Sheila Jackson-Lee will be going to Rome.

The able-bodied Queen Jackson-Lee, for whom Virginia has almost named a state holiday, is perhaps best-known for throwing fits on airlines and charging her constituents for limo rides from her Capitol Hill row house to...the Capitol.

"Hey, as long as you're not using that sedan chair any more..."

Steyn on Schiavo

Mark Steyn has a typically insightful Spectator column on the Terri Schiavo matter. (The Chicago Sun-Times and Washington Times will carry shorter, edited versions today and tomorrow.) He puts down the larger reaction to apathy and truth-avoidance than to actual malice, although political decisions can get made both ways. In this case, people simply didn't want to put in the effort to see past the comforting medical and legal euphamisms. As is his wont, he also ties in larger demographic trends.

During my orientation Friday, I got into a brief discussion of the matter with the company patent attorney, and I thought it was telling that his greatest personal affront was reserved for the cost of flying in Congress to get involved in the issue. "That's my tax money!" he cried. Well, doing the math, it comes out to at best a dime per taxpayer, and only civility prevented me from offering to cover his share.

One of his other arguments, that the Congress was clearly not representing the public will, given 70% poll approvals of the courts' decisions, seems irrelevant. We have elections. If people are truly upset that Congress got involved, they'll have an opportunity 18 months from now to do something about it.

When I pointed out that the ABC poll was factually flawed, his response was that no poll had shown less than 60% approval. Even if we had government by plebiscite, this would barely be enough to get cloture.

I think lawyers and law professors have had a tendency, since they understand the legal issues better, to excuse the whole matter on those grounds. "Yes, there's a tragedy, but..." The Federal courts don't like being backed into a corner, and the judges probably believed that Congress was trying to dictate procedure. I understand the need for an ordered legal system as much as anyone, but to cavalierly kill someone so you can stick your thumb in Congress's eye over a turf battle strikes me as a case of badly misplaced priorities.

The latest issue of Tradition, published by the Rabbinical Council of America, discusses Orthodoxy in the public square. Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik begins his symposium paper with a story from the Talmud where the rabbis override the clear halacha in the interests of public policy, to avoid a coarsening of society.

They never made a habit of doing so. But if the sign of wisdom is knowing when to go that direction, we have a court system notably lacking in the wisdom we've assumed it's cultivated over time.

Frying Pan to Fire

Having just completed a contract with a natural gas company, I've now begun a new one with a biotech. Perhaps there's a military supplier out there who needs some help.

During the interview, the VP of Discovery asked me what I thought of coming to work for a biotech, a pharmaceutical company. I told him that my grandfather died of a heart attack, that my father had had a couple himself, and that frankly, I was counting on them.

Happy Easter - from Vernal, Utah

Spring is in the Air

There's a moment that usually comes in, oh, late August. You're out walking around, in my case, I'm walking the dog. It's been hot for 2 months. (Here in Colorado, it cools down at night, but we're not talking about then.) The sun is out, but it's early in the day, so it's warm. And you walk under a tree, or into some kind of shade, or a little breeze kicks up, and it's cool. Not just less warm, like it was yesterday, but cool. And then you realize that Labor Day is right around the corner, and in my case, that Rosh Hashanah is right around the next corner.

This morning was the Springtime equivalent. The sun peeks up over a building, and it's warm. Purim, and then Passover, and then Memorial Day. Harbinger of big changes.

Hockeytown USA

Realizing that "triumphalism" is the word-to-be-avoided when blogging, I'll try to gloat ceremoniously. After all, when you're deprived of professional hockey, you need to take what you can get.

DU beat Colorado College 1-0 for the WCHA Championship.

Now, take a close look at that grid. Colorado had all of two teams in the 10-team tournament. Minnesota had, 1, 2, 3, no, four, count 'em, four teams. (Not to mention North Dakota, suburb of Minnesota and home state of both the Rocket and Lileks.) And look at that final matchup, including, hmmmm, two teams from Colorado. Minnesota placed 40% of the teams in the tournament, and none of them even made the Finals? Wow.

So, ah, what did the Alliance bet Fraters this year on the tournament?

Road Trip

Ah, nothing better than a good night's sleep behind me and a ribbon o' road in front of me. Word to the wise: watch the Speed Limit signs going through Empire. No, I didn't get a ticket...

No, the trip isn't the reason for the blogging vacation, and I realize this post is a violation of the self-imposed blogxile, too, but as Tom Lehrer said, "Sharks gotta swim, bats gotta fly..."

Right now, I'm in a very nice little bookstore/coffee shop/wine bar in Steamboat Springs, with the dog enjoying the chilly weather outside, wondering when is he going to come out already. Steamboat's a neat little town, although it's slowly being overrun by development to accomodate people who want a smaller place than Vail.

Enjoy.

Dogs

Condolences to Bob at the Daily Blogster, who lost his beloved springer spaniel Hannah this morning.

If you've lost a pet, you know what it's like. If you haven't, there's no way to describe it without drifting over into being maudlin. You certainly can't analyze it.

A few months ago, my sister lost her dog of 14 years, Muffin. She took it worse than her kids did, who immediately started pressing for a replacement. It really changes the rhythm of a house when a dog dies. A few years ago, friends of mine lost their 18-year-old house dog, Bookshy, and it was years before they could settle on getting another one.

I myself have only lost one dog, a cockapoo named CB, when I was about 11. Dad came upstairs and told us that "the dog had died," figuring that strong medicine is best given straight. CB had had a heart condition for which he took pills, and during the night he just gave out. (Dad claims that late that night, before he put the dog in his basement room, CB came over to him and put his muzzle on his leg, which he never used to do. Did he know?) We buried him (quite illegally, but a cremation for such a fine dog was out of the question) in the back yard, near the electric pylon.

Sage the Lab is starting to show some signs of middle age as he approaches six, and every once in a while I find myself thinking about what it'll be like when he goes. The only possible response to such thoughts, naturally, is denial.

(Click "Continue Reading" for Rudyard Kipling's take on the matter.) To read a number of essays on the subject by someone who really could write, try Thurber's Dogs, which seems to have been reissued as The Dog Department : James Thurber on Hounds, Scotties, and Talking Poodles.

The Power of the Dog

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passsion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair--
But ... you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long--
So why in--Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

-- Rudyard Kipling

Spring Cleaning

Ah, it's the first week in March, which means Cycling Season has arrived in Colorado. People ride their bikes all year round here, but the it's only now that you see people dressed as though their Sunday rides were being sponsored by Cingular.

It's also the time for the state parties to meet to elect their leaderships for the upcoming cycle. In this case, the Democrats have decided to replace Chris Gates with a relative unknown, more acceptable to the lunatic fringe Mike Miles wing of the party.

Under Gates, the party positioned itself and its leadership to the center-left, and retook both houses of the state legislature, a Congressional seat, and a Senate seat. This is a little like firing a coach after his second consecutive Super Bowl win. Gates is resorting to a recent Democratic tactic: accusations of vote fraud. Seriously.

Ethel Merman

For those of you who happened to be listening yesterday, yes, that was me on Hugh's story recounting the story of Donald O'Connor's Merman-induced hearing loss.

Naturally, as soon as I hung up, I remembered that the show was "Call Me Madam," and the look on O'Connor's face as she slams his head down on her shoulder and starts to sing is priceless.

Scandal

I couldn't agree more.

Humor

One of the few advantages of the whole sorry Ward Churchill episode is that it's given me a chance to sneak in a few Stan Freberg lines. Freberg was one of the great comedic radio talents of the 60s. His "Green Christmas" got at last a few DJs fired, but it was iconoclastic, not filthy.

I have to say my humor was really shaped by a generation or two before my own. Aside from Freberg, that Nichols and May sketch still doubles me over.

And I went to go see Victor Borge in concert four separate times. I don't think I heard a single joke he hadn't been telling since 1950, but when you tell a joke for that long, you've pretty much got the timing down.

Bob Newhart's another guy who's still funny, even today. His deadpan came naturally - he started out as an accountant. I once saw him accept a Mark Twain Humorist award at the Kennedy Center, and he had people laughing with an accounting joke.

Dems Fundraising

Earlier in the week, the RNC sent out a fundraising missive aimed at Senate Minoority Leader Harry Reid.

The whole week, probably counting on the laziness of their target audience, the Dems have been sending out fundraising email accusing the Republicans of "personal attacks." Today, Harry Reid himself signs one of these letters:

All this week, you've been hearing about how the Republicans are launching cheap personal attacks against me despite George Bush's hollow promises of bipartisanship. Don't worry about me. In case you didn't know it, I'm a former boxer, and I am prepared to fight back--hard--against the dishonest attacks and stand up for our core Democratic values.

The whole thing is about Reid's voting record, his obstruction of judges, and his public statements not matching with that voting record. Remembering how George Mitchell looked conciliatory while torpedoing Bush 41, this White House seems determined not to let Reid repeat that success.

There is one rather curious paragraph about Reid's fairly well-appointed living quarters, contrasted with his emphasis on his simple rural roots. It seems odd for Republicans to be begrudging a guy his success. But it certainly doesn't come close to the expertise with which the Democrats wield with weapon time after time.

I'm just not sure that harking back to small-town simplicity brings to mind whining about someone publicizing your legislative record. For a boxer, that seems awfully wimpy.

The Old Dominion Moves Forward

The folks over at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and by extension, the self-named Progressives, see a grave threat to our religious liberties in HJ 537. Go read the press release or the reference to it. They're the same. I'll wait.

Scary stuff, huh? Well, now, that's why I linked to the actual bill, rather than to a press release from a activist group. Here's the bill as voted on. The existing Article I Section 16 is in regular text, the proposed insertion is in italics:

That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

To secure further the people’s right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience, neither the Commonwealth nor its political subdivisions shall establish any official religion, but the people’s right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public property, including public schools, shall not be infringed; however, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions, including public school divisions, shall not compose school prayers, nor require any person to join in prayer or other religious activity.

And the General Assembly shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any religious society, or the people of any district within this Commonwealth, to levy on themselves or others, any tax for the erection or repair of any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or ministry; but it shall be left free to every person to select his religious instructor, and to make or his support such private contract as he shall please.

Read that last sentence in the insertion again. Ah, I see where they're coming from. It's plain to see that the next step is to give the Episcopal Bishop of Richmond a seat on the Virginia Supreme Court. Then he'll get to see what Christian forbearance and charity really mean. It takes the skills and subtlety of a post-modern "critic" who doesn't believe that that the actual words in the actual text have any meaning. That's how you see that "not requiring" really means "kick out all the Methodists."

I'm pretty sure that most Christians in this country aren't oppressed - you have to travel to Saudi Arabia or Bethlehem or China for that. Still, it's good to see that public property doesn't have to be atheist property.

For the record, here's the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, drafted by Jefferson, which bears some resemblence to the section in question.

UPDATE: Yes, this piece was edited slightly for style, but not for content.

Sunrises

Yesterday, I got up early to walk the dog. With shul starting at 8:45, although I'm rarely never on time for that, a 45 minute walk, plus time for feeding him, plus a little light breakfast and a scan of the paper means getting up at 7:00 even on a Saturday.

Denver's in a peculiar place, and frequently has morning cloud-cover when the surrounding area is clear, and vice-versa. Yesterday, I could just make out some clear sky over Kansas. And wouldn't you know it, the sun managed to thread the needle just right for about 15 minutes.

With the mountains to the west, all the viewplanes are directed that way, so you pretty much have to find a hill or a 6th-floor apartment or the far side of a lake to get a good sunrise view, but still. Blazing orange, and then ripples of purple and pink all the way west. Still a grey background, but there were enough little tendrils reaching down to catch some sun, too.

As I've said before: you always hear about the sunsets, nobody ever advertises the sunrises.

Attention Intelligent Design Advocates

There's a reason this is funny:

Technology Mismatch

Is there any truth to the rumor that Mac will allow the iPod to simulate the radio experience even more realistically by hooking up with your car's GPS and fading out through underpasses & tunnels?

The WaPo Defends Its Constituency

The Washington Post today editorializes about Civil Service Reform, opposing it. In one breath, they oppose potential "politicization," and in the next breath defend the "mostly Democratic unions."

The irony must have escaped the Post editors.

They also note that

The vast majority of government managers have no experience making more sophisticated evaluations. Training managers will take an enormous amount of time and money, both of which the government is notoriously stingy about committing.

In fact, it's going to take more than that. If managers are simply handed a news system to implement, they'll see it as more paperwork to accomplish the same ends, and it won't change anything at all. Managers need to be trained to understand the system as a whole, a means of aligning systems with strategy and mission. Clearly this big picture has eluded the Post editors.

What is Your Name?

Am I the only one who hears the new TurboTax commercial and is surprised when the next question isn't "What is your quest?"

Week's Best Line Overheard at a Party

"So he has his father's hypochondria and his mother's melodrama."

New House

Less time now to cruise the mean streets, looking for misbegotten homes, but some of the nicer ones are still worthy of comment.