Entries from July 2002 ↓

A really well-done movie/propaganda piece called “Enron 101″. Watch the show, sign the petition — it’s not too late! The unanimously-passed Senate corporate-reform bill is very different from the Republican-sponsored House bill (and there’s a lot of resentment from the Democrats in the House since they were not allowed to be involved at all in the crafting of the bill). I doubt if we’ll see anything meaningful coming out of conference before the August recess.

The Portland Beavers, the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres is sponsoring an “Arthur Andersen Appreciation Night” on Thursday, July 18. There will be free admission to anyone with the first name “Arthur” or last name “Andersen”, and the first person to show up with the name “Arthur Andersen” will receive a prize package which includes an executive-box party for 80 “Accomplices”. There will be shredding stations set up around the park, and

A special clause permits Beavers executives to re-sell their tickets out the back door of the ticket office while fans attending the game are being urged to “hang onto” their tickets and stay the course, despite the potential negative outcome of the game.

I discusssed (at length ) the motto of the US, “In God We Trust” and the addition of “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance in an earlier post. Those are scary, but the Christian Amendment to the Preamble of the US Constitution, first proposed in the 1860s by the National Reform Association is even scarier (the amended text is bolded):

We, the People of the United States recognizing the being and attributes of Almighty God, the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures, the law of God as the paramount rule, and Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior and Lord of all, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America

According to London-based Arab journalist Abdel-Barti Atwan,Bin Laden is wounded but alive. He was wounded in the shoulder in December, but he’s okay now, and he’ll be appearing on video “only after his people attack the Americans again.”

Meanwhile, we can’t find him, even though as many folks have pointed out, including Robin Williams in his HBO special last night, he’s a 6’5″ Arab guy undergoing dialysis — how hard can it be?

In this editorial in the New York Times (registration required), noted historian Arthur Schlesinger reinforces the newness of the Pledge of Allegiance and of the even newer insertion of “under God” into the text. Although the Pledge was first formulated in 1892 for the quadricentennial of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, it wasn’t until 1942 that Congress got involved by officially adding the Pledge to the US Flag Code. It was given the official name of “The Pledge of Allegiance” in 1945, and in 1954, the words “under God” were added.

Reaction to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recent decision of the unconstitutionality of the “under God” phrase has been predictably overblown both by the media and by the religious right. Most American children from the Baby Boom onward have been exposed to this version of the Pledge all their lives, and many assume it has always been this way. (I am sure that most people also do not realize that Francis Bellamy, creator of the Pledge, was also a Christian socialist and a former Baptist minister who, according to his daughter, would not have approved of Congress’s 1954 addition to the Pledge.)

As Schlesinger also points out, the motto of the US, “In God We Trust” did not become the official motto until 1956. Prior to that, it had been commonly accepted that “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) had been the motto. Perhaps Latin was too difficult.

President Teddy Roosevelt in 1907 had removed the then unofficial motto from the new $20 Gold Piece, considering its presence on coins which were used for all manner of irreligious acts to be “dangerously close to sacrilege.” Congress, believing that removing the motto from the coins was dangerously close to sacrilege, passed a law in 1908 mandating that from then on, all US coinage would bear the motto.

It wasn’t until 1955 that the motto was applied to paper money as a reaction to the “scourge of Godless Communism”. The motto would, its supporters claimed, by its mere presence on our greenbacks, “…strengthen the foundations of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and His guidance. As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail.”

Because of the complexities involved in redesigning the currency, it wasn’t until September 1966 that all US currency had been modified to carry the motto.

These are not ancient texts and events, made immutable by the weight of the ages. They are recent changes and surely worthy of questioning.

I have to wonder why, in ,em>Wooley v. Maynard (430 U.S. 705), which the US Supreme Court decided in 1977, the Justices said that requiring a Jehovah’s Witness to advertise New Hampshire’s (much more secular) motto of “Live Free or Die” on his automobile license plate is unconstitutional on First Amendment speech grounds, while specifically exempting consideration of the unconstitutionality of the US motto on coinage, concluding in a footnote that currency “…is generally carried in a purse or pocket and need not be displayed to the public.”

I have to wonder why, in Aronow v. United States (432 F.2d 242) in 1970 and in O’Hair v. Blumenthal (588 F.2d 1144) Circuit Courts “…concluded that the primary purpose of the slogan was secular…”, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of this twisted bit of logic.

I have to wonder why (along with Garrett Moritz‘s excellent gTexts blog), the same people who cheered the recent school vouchers decision, which rested on the intent of the law, not its effect, are not supporting this decision, which relies on the same logic.

According to a survey by Nielsen/Net Ratings, Mac users tend to be better educated and make more money than Windows folks.

The study also said Mac users tend to be more Web savvy, with more than half having been online for at least five years. And the Mac faithful are 58 percent more likely than the overall online population to build their own Web page and also slightly more likely to buy goods online, according to the report.

So that’s why I’m not earning as much as my wife thinks I should!

My brother, Hal, and his wife, Susanna, gave birth this morning at 1:45 am. The twins, Benjamin and Rachel are healthy and happy, as are the new Mom & Dad. The babies were huge for twins: Rachel was 7lbs, 11 oz (3.5 kg) and Benjamin was 6lbs, 14 oz (3.12 kg). And Susanna is only 5′ (1.52 m) tall on her tippytoes. She must’ve been huge! My parents are thrilled, too, since these are their first grandchildren with less than 4 legs. They’re on their way to the babies’ Florida home first thing tomorrow morning.

So, now my niece & nephew count is up to 13: Brendan, Caitlin, Timothy, Emily, Courtney, Lauren, Erin, Kristen, Kelly, Connor, Kevan, Benjamin and Rachel. Plus, there’s one more due in September. Christmas keeps getting more and more expensive!

The Guardian ran an article on Monday describing Felicity Lawrence’s travels in the world of chicken nuggets. Describing the presence of bovine and porcine proteins, pet food remnants and banned-in-Britain antibiotics in the tender pink chunks, she does an awesome job of showing the truth to that “Parts is parts” commercial of some years back.

How do they keep them so juicy, you may wonder. According to Lawrence, they use:

…proteins extracted at high temperatures or by chemical hydrolysis from old animals or parts of animals which are no use for food, such as skin, feathers, hide, bone and ligaments, and rather like cosmetic collagen implants, they make the flesh swell up and retain liquid.

Yummy! Makes me realize that Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation was a little too limited, since it focused exclusively on the US, while this article shows that it is a much more global reality.

… Difference and Repetition by Windsor for the Derby. Acoustic guitars, pianos, muted feedback, subtle melodies, ambient textures. Moody, spacious, wordless. “Shoes McCoat” & “Lost in Cycles” are my favorite tracks.
The Young God Records site says:

Windsor for the Derby stake out their own highly personal and original terrain of organic guitar soundtrack music. Augmented with sensuous analog keys and delicate vocals, the guitars are uneffected and interwoven in complex patterns that shift ineffably over time. The resulting atmosphere is intimate and unpretentious – handmade extended county-folk ballads laced with a gentle sadness, as if Brian Eno had a hand in remixing Harry Smith’s anthology of American folk music.

The list of silenced internet radio broadcasters is expanding. RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter has an updated list, which will probably keep growing unless Congress is persuaded to act, overriding the ridiculous CARP process and either instituting a percentage-of-revenues royalty rate, or determining that there is no difference in the promotional value of internet radio vis-a-vis broadcast radio. Visit SaveInternetRadio.org and let your Congress members know your views.