August 2008 Archives
David Freddoso on The Great Lie on National Review Online
A critical review of the oracles of the Obamacropolis: "Obama notes that his opponent, Senator John McCain, voted with President Bush 90 percent of the time. Obama sides with Mayor Richard M. Daley 100 percent of the time, whether in regards to [Cook County Commission President Todd] Stroger's election or anything else that helps keep Chicago politics dirty. That is the real Barack Obama -- not the smooth-talking Greek god who plays a reformer on television, but the man who has never met a Daley-backed Chicago pol he could not support. He doesn't work against politicians for whom Tony Rezko raises money."
What are your favorite tea getaways?
"JadeKitsune" lists favorite places for tea in Tulsa, including Thai Chef, Shishkabob's, In the Raw, and Shades of Brown.
First BOK Center Concert has come and gone | My Tulsa World Blog
Wanted to be at the first concert? Too late, dude.
toledoblade.com -- 'Basic Instinct' author writes book about faith
Once a writer of screenplays that explored the dark side of humanity and afflicted with throat cancer, Joe Eszterhas experienced a "Damascus Road" conversion and a miraculous healing. The Toledo Blade does a fine job telling the story. His latest work is Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith. (Via Get Religion.)
The New Republic: Trading Places
"In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be 'demographic inversion.' Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city--Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center--some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white--are those who can afford to do so....
"[T]he deindustrialization of the central city, for all the tragic human dislocations it caused, has eliminated many of the things that made affluent people want to move away from it. Nothing much is manufactured downtown anymore (or anywhere near it), and that means that the noise and grime that prevailed for most of the twentieth century have gone away....
"This is the generation that grew up watching 'Seinfeld,' 'Friends,' and 'Sex and the City,' mostly from the comfort of suburban sofas. We have gone from a sitcom world defined by 'Leave It to Beaver' and 'Father Knows Best' to one that offers a whole range of urban experiences and enticements."
IMAO: In My World: Filling That Experience Gap
A FrankJ fictional account: Joe Biden thinks he'll make a great running mate for that "Turok Osama."
Star-Tribune humor columnist James Lileks is covering the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
WebGuy's Blog: Why won't Jim Inhofe stop spamming me?
"Inhofe's campaign is spamming one email address that was only used to order pizza from Papa John's Pizza. When I ordered the pizza I do not remember seeing an optional checkbox to receive Inhofe spam next to the checkboxes for pepperoni, Italian sausage, onions and anchovies. There was no fine print that stated my email address would be signed up 'as a volunteer' for the Inhofe campaign. Nevertheless, I am getting spam after spam thanking me for 'being a volunteer' for the Inhofe campaign. Why? While I am a registered Republican, that status is soon to change. I cannot and will not be a member of a party that thinks spamming people is OK." Via Politics and Technology, which says, "Don't email-append voterfile lists. You're just sending email to people who don't want it."
Washington Times - DEMING: Fluorescent bulb follies
OU associate professor David Deming points out the flaws with the 2012 ban on incandescent light bulbs: "For a compact fluorescent bulb to achieve the claimed efficiency, it has to be burned continuously for long periods. If a CFL is left on for only 5-minute periods, it will burn out just as fast as an incandescent bulb. To avoid short cycling, the U.S. Energy Star program advises consumers to leave compact fluorescents on for at least 15 minutes.... [CFLs] contain toxic mercury and cannot be thrown into the trash, but have to be recycled. CFLs become dimmer as they age, and thus again will not perform as advertised. The quality of light from fluorescent bulbs is inferior to incandescent. Standard CFLs won't operate at low temperatures and are thus unsuitable for many outdoor applications." (All Oklahoma Republican congressmen and senators voted against the ban. Democratic Congressman Dan Boren voted in favor.)
Obama vs. Baldilocks - LA Weekly
Conservative blogger Juliette Ochieng's dad came from Kenya to America on the same plane as Barack Obama, Sr. Today, Ochieng is working to raise $10,000 for the Senator Obama Kogelo Secondary School, a school in Kogelo, Kenya, that Sen. Obama had promised to help.
Brit Gal' in the USA: Lake Vincent reveals...
In Ellis County, draining a lake for cleaning and restocking reveals rusted 50-year old cars lined up along the dam. Good news: They make Tulsa's Belvedere look sparkly.
Drawing a Blank Downtown - TIME
From 1983, but still relevant 25 years later: "Although the tide has turned and bankers and developers are again investing in downtown, the shiny new megastructures of the '70s and '80s are often still as destructive of its 'remarkable intricacy and liveliness' as the bulldozers of the '50s and '60s.... As Whyte's photos make clear, the worst offenders are convention centers, like the one in the Seattle Sheraton Hotel, and the new megastructure office, hotel and shopping centers, such as the Bonaventure Hotel and Atlantic Richfield Plaza in Los Angeles, the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco and Omni International in Atlanta. Architecturally, these structures often have an awesome and arrogant beauty. Socially, they set themselves deliberately and offensively apart from the city around them."
Hulu - Allyson Felix Sprints for Glory: NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
"Even in my running, my purpose is to bring glory to God." (Via Pyromaniacs.)
2blowhards.com: David Sucher, Day Two
Part two of the interview with the author of City Comforts: "We've associated high-density cities with public transportation -- trains, a subway. Somehow we think: oh, we've got trains, so now we'll have an interesting high-density neighborhood. No, wrong. That's not the way it happens. Density is a byproduct. For example: people flock to places that are interesting. You don't have to encourage them."
2blowhards.com: David Sucher, Day One
An interview with the author of City Comforts: "What's missing from the general discussion about buildings and cities and towns?" "At the moment there's just not enough at it. If people were doing more of it, they'd get more skilled. People don't notice. I have discussions with people, and they let their mental images of something triumph over what's actually there.... I guess one thing that's missing is people actually experiencing stuff. They have images in their minds, but I don't think they go out and get a lot of ground truth."
No, the plural of rhinoceros is rhinocerotes, and the plural of octopus is not octopi but octopodes. One apparatus, two apparatus, but if there's more than one, and you're being excruciatingly correct, you should pronounce it appara-toose, to reflect the lengthened u in the Latin 4th declension plural. More than you wanted to know about the formation of plurals for words of Latin and Greek origin.
Paul Greenberg :: Townhall.com :: Modals and Me
"One of the great advantages of a regional dialect is that it's rooted in real life and real distinctions, like the one between 'I could' and 'I might could,' each with a different degree of probability. To sacrifice such shades of meaning for no better reason than a false respectability is to lose sight of what language ought to be about: conveying meaning precisely, even about imprecision."
Greenberg quotes a linguist: "The use of double modals in Southern American English fills a gap in Standard English grammar, namely the loss of inflectional distinction in English between indicative and subjunctive modals. Dialect or regional forms are often more progressive in gap-filling than is a standard language." Greenberg cites the distinction between "you" and "y'all" as another example of the greater precision of the Suthuhn tongue.
Roger L. Simon » Bob Costas' rug and other Olympic observations
NBC mixes Bush Derangement Syndrome in with its coverage, while giving ChiCom oppression and cheating a pass. From "Lightnin' Hopkins" in the comments: "What is it with sports anchors and writers who gain some popularity and then become insufferable 'progressive' jackasses? I mean in the media in general, only even moreso? Olby and the Napoleonic Mitch Albom... come to mind immediately. Yeah yeah, I get it, you hate Bush. How about giving us the scores, Chomsky?"
Childhood's End by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Summer 2008
"A system of perverse incentives in a culture of undiscriminating materialism, where the main freedom is freedom from legal, financial, ethical, or social consequences, makes childhood in Britain a torment both for many of those who live it and those who observe it. Yet the British government will do anything but address the problem, or that part of the problem that is its duty to address: the state-encouraged breakdown of the family. If one were a Marxist, one might see in this refusal the self-interest of the state-employee class: social problems, after all, are their raison d'être."
Urban Review STL: Visiting the Parents & Grandparents
Steve Patterson returns to a small Mennonite cemetery near Corn, Oklahoma, where his grandparents are buried, and reflects on the changes in lifestyle since their time: "In our era of agribusiness we've lost so much -- namely the ability to sustain ourselves individually and as a community. My grandparent's generation lived longer lives than their kids largely, I think, because their diet wasn't composed of overly processed and packaged food. Their diet was mostly organic produce & meats. They didn't call it organic, it just was."
The 20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1
Oats and eggs lead off this list of cheap foods high in nutrients. (Via Evangelical Outpost.)
Genius Junk Food: 6 Snacks That Are Actually Good For You
Pork rinds, coconut, chocolate bars, beef jerky, sour cream, and alcohol. All in moderation, of course. (Via Evangelical Outpost.)
internetmonk.com: Baptist Holy Days of (Guilt and) Obligation
A comprehensive list including Mother's Day, the opening Sunday of a revival, church potlucks, VBS programs, Promise Keepers rallies, and the Olin Mills Church Directory photoshoot. (But he omitted any reference to church camp, including the binding obligation on Oklahoma Baptists to make pilgrimage to Falls Creek.)
Dutch, Reformed: Jesus Loves Me, This I Know
"'Who has chest pains?' he asked. 'Stand up.'
"I was somewhat taken aback, yet I stood up because, indeed, for about a week I had been having some pain on the right side of my chest, the cause of which was unclear to me. Since the pain wasn't severe, I had pretty much dismissed it as a nagging inconvenience that would go away soon enough. It certainly hadn't been on my mind during the service. But as I stood there, this man, his face and his voice exuding genuine compassion, said to me something altogether unexpected: 'Don't worry. You'll be able to get all your work done.'
"Until that moment, it hadn't even remotely occurred to me that stress and worry could be the source of the pain, but in an instant it became clear. Then began to wash over me an overwhelming realization that God really does love me and is intensely concerned with my well-being. Even amid my disobedience ('Be anxious for nothing'), here was Almighty God--who was, after all, quite busy running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments--taking the time and the initiative to attend to one redeemed sinner in Nowata, Oklahoma."
HackLawyer.net: Don Helms, last surviving sideman for Hank Williams, dead at 81
"His steel guitar provided an aching, visceral tone of grief to Williams' music and hence, its very identity.... As a boy, he fell in love with the music of our own Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and in particular, with the steel guitar music of Leon McAuliffe. He got his first steel guitar from his grandmother when he was 15 and at the tender age of 18, began to play with Williams around the joints in Alabama. After Williams' death, Helms joined the Ray Price band and was a key part of that singer's success in the 1950s."
macosxhints.com - A 'perfect' iTunes equalizer setting
Scroll down to "Wrong approach for audiophiles" to find a subtractive-filtering approach to the same effect: "Equalizers in both the analog and digital realm do subtractive filtering far better than additive filtering. When pulling the EQ down you are not creating the additive comb-filtering necessary to boost frequencies that do not already exist, so using this kind of approach is leaves more of the original audio intact and does not add as many artifacts to the signal."
The Bill Kumpe Blog: They might kill fewer Jews ....
Bill Kumpe doesn't think Republicans should tolerate an abortion supporter on their party's ticket:
"Hitler's and to a lesser extent Mussolini's treatment of Jews should have been a warning that something was terribly wrong. Officially tolerated injustice is a cancer on nation's soul that will kill it if it is not removed. But, like a miner who doesn't pay attention to the canary that quits singing, the Germans and Italians, happy with their jobs, their improved economy and their restored world position, decided that the deaths of a few socially unacceptable people was small price to pay for what they were receiving in return. And, it worked for a little less than a decade. But, by the middle of the second decade, Germany and Italy lay in smoking ruins.
"Voting for John McCain ticket [with a pro-choice VP] on the grounds that he might reduce the number of abortions with his judicial picks is political naivety of the first order. The majority justices who decided Roe v. Wade and every crazy abortion decision since were GOP nominees. If allowed to serve in the in White House, McCain will do exactly what he is doing right now ... ignoring the better moral lights of his nation and doing precisely what he has to to stay in power. It is a morally contradictory position that can do nothing but move the agenda of both parties farther and farther away from principled leadership. Voting for a moderately pro-choice or mixed pro-choice ticket today is the moral equivalent of a 1930's German voting for a moderate Nazi ticket because, if elected, they might kill fewer Jews."
The story of the Ernie Ball family and their guitars, interwoven with the story of the southern California music scene and names like the Beach Boys, Leo Fender, and Albert Lee. (Ernie Ball played steel guitar for Tommy Duncan's band.) "One of the great things we did back then was drive to the northern border of the San Fernando Valley and go to a place called the Sundance Saloon. They had a Tuesday night Jam hosted by Don Everly. The band was Buddy Emmons, Byron Berline, and just about every legend at the time even Glen Campbell..everyone. I wasnt old enough but sometimes I would sit out front and sometimes they would let me in. I remember sitting outside one night and the kid next to me was a guitar from Oklahoma named Vince....Vince Gill."
Brit Gal' in the USA: Baptism of fire!
Murphy's Law reigns supreme on the first day back for a small-town Oklahoma elementary school. "But we survived, we were all still pretty cheery if weary at the end of the day and surely things can only go uphill from here?!"
Alicia Sacramone - Stan Geiger
"I'm sure she wanted to just go off somewhere and cry. But she didn't; she couldn't. The heart of a warrior won't allow such things. She got back on the beam and finished her routine. And then, fighting the tears, she did her floor routine.... From my perspective, however, it is silliness to call going up against the best gymnasts in the world and coming away with a silver medal a loss---especially when the team had injury problems and your primary competitor cheated. The team did a great job."
The Atlantic: The Front-Runner's Fall
An analysis of memos and emails from the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign suggests that the protracted campaign may serve a useful purpose after all: "Clinton ran on the basis of managerial competence--on her capacity, as she liked to put it, to 'do the job from Day One.' In fact, she never behaved like a chief executive, and her own staff proved to be her Achilles' heel. What is clear from the internal documents is that Clinton's loss derived not from any specific decision she made but rather from the preponderance of the many she did not make. Her hesitancy and habit of avoiding hard choices exacted a price that eventually sank her chances at the presidency."
The manager of the 1980 Tulsa Drillers is now a coach for the Ft. Worth Cats, in his 60th year in professional baseball as a player, manager, or coach. As an 80-year-old in 2005, he led the Cats to a league pennant. His website includes a page devoted to the many ways box-score editors abbreviated his 11-letter last name.
My Hard Drive Died | Scott A. Moulton
How a hard drive works, how it can fail, and what can be done (in some cases) to recover the data.
Mandible Games: How I recovered my hard drive by double-boiling it
Really. With photos.
The Corner on National Review Online: 25 Hints You're Not Voting for Obama
"If you're an independent, moderate or conservative on the fence about whether to vote for McCain or Obama, here's a helpful guide...."
Parchment and Pen » The Theology Program Online Classes Begins August 26
Not free, but inexpensive -- $100 each for a variety of eight-week online theology courses from Reclaiming the Mind ministries.
Koinonia: Hermeneutics and Children's Curriculum by John Walton
Walton says that children are being taught, by example through most Sunday School curricula, faulty Biblical interpretation and application. Walton identifies five common errors which distract students from the heart of the Biblical text. For example: "Illegitimate extrapolation: The lesson is improperly expanded from a specific situation to all general situations.... Reading Between the Lines: This occurs when teachers or students are asked to analyze what the characters are thinking, speculate on their motives, or fill in details of the plot that the story does not give.... "
A GOP Choice: Tom Coburn or Ted Stevens - WSJ.com
"Mr. Stevens was a big reason the earmark culture had such a grip on Senate Republicans: Few dared risk his wrath.... In the House, GOP Rep. Don Young of Alaska -- the former Transportation Committee chair who stuffed the last highway bill with over 6,000 earmarks -- played a similar intimidation game.... Now Mr. Stevens is almost certain to lose his Senate seat -- either through defeat or conviction on felony charges. And Mr. Young is trailing in Alaska's August 26 primary.... They may not like it, but Mr. Coburn is showing Republicans how the GOP can return to its small government roots."
Proper Box Set: Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: Take Me Back to Tulsa
Discography for Proper's excellent 4 disc set, covering the years 1934-1950.
Bob Wills Discography -- Joe Sixpack's Guide To Hick Music
Handy (but incomplete) summary of compilations, transcriptions, and reissues by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, plus albums by the other Wills brothers and Tommy Duncan.
A 'perfect' iTunes equalizer setting @ AMERICAN DIGEST
It is pretty amazing.
Don LaFontaine - Push Creative
"King of Voice-overs" tells all! "Given the amount of microphone time that I have been afforded, I had better be pretty good at what I do - but I think my reputation is based upon my longevity in the business as much as it is on talent. That, and the stark, unreasoning fear that I engender in my enemies.''
No Blog of Significance: Just Too Weird
Animal bakery? Click to see a strange photo from small-town Oklahoma.
88 Days Later!!!!!!!!! « Rock Cafe on Route 66
Three months after the fire, reconstruction is about to begin with a permanent inside frame to replace the temporary supports for the rock walls.
This is too, too funny, particularly for any parent of small children.
MyITkb.net : open Excel 2007 spreadsheets in different windows on XP
Dealing with a major Excel annoyance.
The Judge Report - A Summer Night
A College League baseball game in a restored 1920s ballpark in New York's Mohawk Valley: "Games, food, silliness, mascot, prizes, color, lights, cheers, jeers. It's everything that home town baseball should be, and it doesn't hurt that the team has been winning. In the seventh inning everyone stood and sang along with Kate Smith and God Bless America, sights aimed at the flagpole behind center field, 408 feet from home plate, following that with a rousing Take Me out to the Ball Game, now celebrating its 100th year."
Pulpit Magazine: Christians and the Sabbath
Sabbath still binding on Christians? Calvin says no.
The Periodic Table of Videos - University of Nottingham
From hydrogen to ununoctium, a periodic table of elements, with each cell linked to a short video about that element by a professor with stereotypical mad-scientist hair. (Via Club for Growth.)
Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win - WSJ.com
The nation's largest private employer warns its managers and department heads that a Democratic administration would pass "card check" legislation replacing a secret ballot to organize a union with signed cards collected by union organizers.
languagehat.com: If you don't help, it's a shande.
The Jewish Institute of Religion is researching the extent of Yiddish language influence on American speech. Help out by taking this survey. You may be surprised by the number of Yiddish words and turns of phrase that you know and use.
He ventured forth to bring light to the world | Gerard Baker - Times Online
An article of Biblical proportions -- a hilarious sendup of Obama's 1st Missionary Journey visit to Europe
