Nielsen's ra(n)tings

Politics, guns, homeschooling for the gifted, scuba, hunting, farming and somewhat coherent occasional ranting from your average Buckeye State journalist/dad/farmer/actor.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

A busier summer

I haven’t even started rehearsals yet, and I’ve already been bumped up the cast list for The Fantasticks at the Ashtabula Arts Center’s Straw Hat Theater. I was going to play the part of the Guy who Dies…a funny, smallish role. I found out yesterday I will be playing the part of the father of the boy, a main role in the small cast, meaning I’ve got at least eight songs to learn.

It should be a fun show to do as I know, like and respect the director and all the other actors. Stay tuned.

*****

Guitar update: It’s going well. Doc-wife has joined me in my quest to be a jukebox hero, and now we play our Fender Stratocasters (mine Ice Blue, hers Midnight Wine) for an hour or more every day. We can give a recognizable chords-only rendition of quite a few songs that use the 15-20 chords we know…we were working on “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd this morning.

The Freebird video (not us) is here.

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Bring me the head of F-250 engineer!

I would like someone to bring me the head of the Ford engineer who decided to design the F-250 Heavy Duty Crew Cab diesel so that the oil pan can only be changed by REMOVING THE FRIGGIN’ ENGINE FROM THE TRUCK! That would be the same oil pan that has a habit of RUSTING THROUGH in salty climes, or so the service advisory says!

I noticed some oil leaking from the truck at Wal Mart yesterday…about a cup or so ran out while we were in the store for about an hour. Called the Ford place up the hill…was told to bring it in that afternoon. Cool. He called me back in a couple hours…hole in the oil pan…also checked out that diesel smell I’d been smelling…fuel bowl leaking…sweet. Easy fixes, right?

Then came the bad news:

He: The bad news is we have to pull the engine out of the truck and turn it over to change the oil pan.
Me: WTF!?!?!@? Hahahaha! I thought you said you had to pull the engine out of the truck…funny, huh?!
He: Yeah…so you’re looking at about $2,300. And just for the record, we have no sense of humor.

TO CHANGE A FREAKIN’ OIL PAN!?!

I read on the internet some guys have tried to do it by jacking up the body and loosening the transmission to get enough clearance, but they always end up with an oil leak. So now I’m stuck with no recourse. I just want to find that Ford engineering wunderkind who committed that little whoopsie and carve $2,300 worth of lead out of his worthless ass with a rusty grapefruit spoon.

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Saturday, March 24, 2007

Update: Oz, Fantasticks

I went to callbacks today for The Wizard of Oz at the Ashtabula Arts Center so the director could take a look at the potential Dorothies, Auntie Ems and Wicked Witches. My ears are still ringing from the characteristic cackling of the witches and I was happy to see terrific people there auditioning for the parts. It was a riot to hear the witches cut loose for the first time (of course, then I couldn’t hear anything.) Question: Should there be blood flowing from my ears and “ahhh-hahahaha!” reverberating in my head?

Several of the Dorothy candidates are taking part in the “Kids Sing Broadway” production this weekend at AAC…we saw it last night and it was terrific. Such singers…I’ll have to scrape the rust off my own pipes to keep up. The talent bodes well for a good show this summer.

And speaking of summer, I also learned I will be playing the part of Mortimer, The Guy Who Dies in “The Fantasticks”. I’m not really familiar with the part, but from a quick Googling, it looks like it should be fun. I’ll be playing another Indian…this time with a Cockney accent…I KNEW I was going to be typecast after “Cuckoo’s Nest!”

*****

I’ll write more interesting stuff tomorrow when I have more time…I promise!

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Friday, March 23, 2007

Best wishes for Elizabeth Edwards

I heard with real sorrow yesterday that cancer has reappeared in Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Democratic 2008 Presidential candidate John Edwards. Cancer has been detected in Mrs. Edwards’ bones and there are indications it may also have spread to her lungs, according to published reports.

At a press conference yesterday, the condition was characterized as incurable, but treatable. That means they can slow it down, but they can’t eliminate it. Barring the intervention of some accident or other disease process, it will probably kill her. The timing will become more apparent as the disease progresses and the effects of various chemo- and hormone-therapy strategies are assessed. I hope they're able to slow the cancer to a crawl.

Both have vowed to stay in the race for the 2008 White House. It’s not the decision I would have made, but, to be fair, the couple is not in a position in which I would ever find myself. I haven’t decided whether I think it’s a cynical attempt to use the emotions of the electorate or a sad commentary on what has become important to our career politicians.

By anyone’s standards, John Edwards is a rich man. He doesn’t need to work. He’s in an uphill battle for the nomination in which Democratic front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have a commanding lead. He’s pursuing an impossible quest for a thankless job, spending precious hours and days playing the political game while his wife’s candle burns ever shorter. If politics is the couple’s favorite pastime, something they would pursue above all other activities, then I have no problem with the decision to stay in the campaign (though I question their priorities.) If Edwards is staying in the race because he hopes to get a “sympathy bounce” in the polling…I have no words...cynical just doesn’t cut it.

I like the sentiments of country singer Tim McGraw in his Live Like You Were Dying:

…I went sky diving
I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu
and I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter
and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying
and he said someday I hope you get the chance
to live like you were dying.

I hope the campaign doesn’t rob the couple of too much precious time; it would be a shame to waste it on something as meaningless as politics.

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Going to Oz this summer

The first audition results are in: the Rantmeister Clan will be traveling to the land of Oz this summer in the Ashtabula Arts Center’s Straw Hat Theater production of “The Wizard of Oz.” I will play the Tin Woodsman, Doc-wife will be the munchkin coroner and the blog-daughter will have an as-yet-unspecified part. I will actually begin work on the show Saturday at a call-back audition as the director tries to see which aspiring Dorothy will work best with the the actors she’s picked as the other principals.

No word yet on The Fantasticks or Moby Dick: The Musical.

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

14th birthday...how'd that happen?

Son and Heir turns 14 today.

It just doesn’t seem possible that 14 years ago, a Monday, we made the drive to Bethesda North Hospital in Cincinnati for the delivery of our first child. Stubborn, he was reluctant to make his appearance; strong, he stood in the doctor’s lap upon his arrival; and loud, we could hear him squalling 200 yards away and through 5-6 closed hospital doors in the nursery. They had to bring him to our room because he was keeping all the other quiet little babies awake.

I can still remember loading Doc-wife and our new baby into our blue Eddie Bauer Ford Aerostar van to come home, wondering when security people were going to stop us from leaving because we had absolutely NO IDEA how to raise a child. We were still looking for flashing lights and sirens as we pulled out of the driveway, both concerned and relieved that we were allowed to go.

He was a near-8-pound hard, rubbery chunk then…he’s considerably bigger now, but still built like a linebacker. What he will be at adulthood is anyone’s guess, but we’re liking the indications so far. He thinks well, knows right from wrong, can recite dialogue from Monte Python’s The Holy Grail, and sometimes his socks match…it could be much worse.

He has asked to skip school today to shop for his present (we’re helping him buy a computer by supplementing the allowance money he’s saved) and we have acquiesced…he never misses school otherwise. He wants pizza for his birthday meal – a predictable choice.

He’s a young man now, and I can finally envision a time when he’s out on his own, living his life, perhaps getting married and deciding to start a family. There may come a time when, after witnessing the birth of his child, he’s waiting at the pickup doors of the hospital for his wife and new child and having no idea what to do next.

My advice: Enjoy the moment, treasure your family and relax…if we could get it right 14 years ago, it should be a snap for everyone else.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sci Fi's terrifying reality

I was reading some news this morning and came across an article where some researchers are postulating it may be possible to chemically scrub away bad memories. Why does this sound like the first step on the slippery slope to a truly terrifying science fiction novel?

From the story:

"There are several major concerns" about creating these kinds of drugs, said Felicia Cohn, a medical ethicist at University of California at Irvine's School of Medicine. "Is the act of altering memories even an appropriate medical intervention?" she asked.


Another set of "issues is related to consequences. What are the effects of altering a particular person's memory but not changing the context the person is living in. We might erase a young girl's memory of a rape, but people around her will still know and inadvertently remind her," Cohn said.


"It becomes a genie in the bottle question. Once a drug is available for use, it gets used appropriately and inappropriately. People could start going to physicians to forget they love chocolate. … Is it just for post-traumatic stress disorder and rape victims? Where do we draw the line? Who gets to decide what is horrific enough?"

I happen to believe we are the sum of our memories, good and bad, and anything that eliminates those memories steals part of us. In the end, the only things we can really claim to own during our lifetime are memories – anything else can be taken away.

I empathize with the people who have had horrific occurrences in their past, but hasn’t that molded their current self? If you take away those memories and experiences, don’t you, in effect, erase that person?

Those are just a couple of the ethical concerns with the intended uses of such a drug. Thinking about possible misuses of such a drug is enough to promote nightmares on its own.

My conclusion: Just because we can doesn’t always mean we should.

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Open season on paparazzi

You know, I have a little trouble conjuring up any sympathy at all for the paparazzo Keanu Reeves apparently clipped with his Porsche on Monday.

From the story:

The photographer fell to the ground and paramedics were called after Reeves' car allegedly struck the man at 7:30 p.m. Monday, said Deputy Ed Hernandez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.


"He grazed a paparazzi standing in front of his Porsche and the man fell to the ground," Hernandez said. It wasn't known how fast the Porsche was traveling.


Reeves was leaving a parking space in the Avenida Tranquila residential area near Los Verdes County Golf Course about 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, he said.

As a matter of fact, I have a lot of trouble feeling sympathy for paparazzi beset by any number of work-related mishaps: they are scum-weasels, human energy-sucking remoras clinging to the celebrity teat and abusing privacy in the name of the “People’s Right To Know.” I’m only sorry Keanu wasn’t borrowing one of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s legion of Hummers at the time…now THAT would have resulted in more than a graze.

Law enforcement needs to crack down on the harassment commonly practiced by these packs of ravening idiots, shielded as they are by celebrities’ generally-acknowledged reduced right to privacy. Either that or give Sean Penn, Lindsay Lohan, Reeves et al a free rein to respond to the public harrying with anything short of lethal force.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Protesting the protesters

I was just reading Tantor’s account of the Gathering of Eagles counter-protest march in Washington, D.C. over the weekend. There’s a lot of material there that will never be covered by the friend-of-the-peace-marcher mainstream media.

My favorite bit:

Before the march started, some of the vets found a stash of ANSWER propaganda, six boxes of it, stashed under a tall evergreen tree next to the bridge. They pissed on it. ANSWER posted a guard on it after the fact. Quite frankly, I lost my confidence in the ANSWER commies competence to rule the world when they can't even keep their propaganda dry.

The era of old media’s stranglehold on information is at an end when citizen-reporters like Tantor give an event more balanced coverage, free and without commercial interruption, than the so-called professionals.

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Auditions over...now the wait

We had auditions yesterday at the Ashtabula Arts Center for this summer’s Straw Hat Theater season. Son-and-heir opted out, but Doc-wife, the blog-daughter and I were on hand to sing our little hearts out and do a monologue for the assembled directors.

BD picked a compilation of Jayne’s monologues from Joss Whedon’s late “Firefly” television series. She said one of the directors actually looked ill when she got to the part about the crazed Reavers, who “rape (people) to death, eat your flesh and sew your skin to their clothing…and if you’re real, real lucky, they do it in that order.” Of course, another of the directors (The Fantasticks) actually recognized the source of the monologue – major geek bonus points for that!

The shows we are interested in include “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Fantasticks” and “Moby Dick-The Musical.” Straw Hat will also present “Sideshow” this summer, but it sounded a little depressing and I’m not ready for that yet after “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” plus I don’t want to be a role hog. The director of Sideshow sounded hurt that I wasn’t auditioning for that show. When asked for preferences, I told them I’d like to be the Tin Woodsman in the Wizard of Oz and Doc-wife expressed a longing to be the munchkin coroner in the same show.

Doc wife sang “Les Poissons” from “The Little Mermaid,” but in the interest of brevity they cut her off before she could whip out her little plastic lobster prop. I sang “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” and the blog-daughter sang “Steppin’ Out With My Baby” from “Easter Parade.” The songs were not rendered in a stellar manner as it was difficult to keep pace with the erratic young accompanist. All in all, though, things could have been much worse.

There were at least 50 people signed up for yesterday’s three-hour cattle call audition, mostly junior high and early high school girls. I assume they had a similar-or-better turnout at Saturday’s auditions. Hopefully, they had a more diverse age group at Saturday’s tryouts.

Casting is expected to be announced within a couple weeks.

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It ain't Carter in the White House, Mahmoud!

So Iranian military officers are getting captured in Iraq or defecting and we’re not giving them back, prompting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to flap his gums about kidnapping Americans or Israelis in retaliation.

From a Times Online story:

“We’ve got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks,” he said. “Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis.”


The first sign of a possible campaign against high-ranking Iranian officers emerged earlier this month with the discovery that Ali Reza Asgari, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force in Lebanon and deputy defence minister, had vanished, apparently during a trip to Istanbul.


Asgari’s disappearance shocked the Iranian regime as he is believed to possess some of its most closely guarded secrets. The Quds Force is responsible for operations outside Iran.

I’m not even going to touch that thing about feeding officers to fighting cocks…not gonna touch it.

Slim Pickens riding the bomb...Yeee, haw!

The thing Mr. Ahm-a-dinner-jacket needs to remember is this is not 1979 and Jimmy “Give Peace a Chance” Carter is not sitting in the White House harboring lust in his heart for all the D.C. hotties. Nope, the one with his finger poised longingly over The Button is none other than Chimpy McBushitler, the raving lunatic christofascist, imperialistic, war-mongering soul brother to Yosemite Sam who is the nightmare of every far-left loony and dictator out there. To them, he’s like Slim Pickens in Dr. Strangelove, just waiting for a chance to drop a nuke and ride it all the way to its target.

Go ahead, Mahmoud, make his day.

For one, I’m happy to see that we are finally taking this shadowy proxy war in a minor way to the Iranians – they’ve gotten a free pass by operating in the shadows for far too long.

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Friday, March 16, 2007

Eat an Animal for PETA

Kitten burrito...fresh, tender, fuzzy!

I didn’t get the memo on yesterday’s fifth annual Eat an Animal for PETA Day, so I thought I’d show solidarity with my fellow carnivores by chomping on a quick breakfast burrito this morning. Mmmmm…kitten…the other cute meat!

*Note: No cute, fuzzy, five-day old kittens were hurt during the snapping of this picture.

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Web censorship spreads

So you say the United Nations should be responsible for control of the internet? That would be the same UN which includes countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Iran?

Oh wait…those countries (and a host of others) already censor the internet, don’t they?

A recent study by Harvard Law et al has found that many countries, including the above UN members, already practice web censorship. And guess what? The practice is growing. From the story:

A recent six-month investigation into whether 40 countries use censorship shows the practice is spreading, with new countries learning from experienced practitioners such as China and benefiting from technological improvements.


OpenNet Initiative, a project by Harvard Law School and the universities of Toronto, Cambridge and Oxford, repeatedly tried to call up specific websites from 1,000 international news and other sites in the countries concerned, and a selection of local-language sites.


The research found a trend towards censorship or, as John Palfrey, executive director of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, said, “a big trend in the reverse direction”, with many countries recently starting to adopt forms of online censorship.

Drudge is also reporting today that Russia’s Vladimir Putin just signed a decree to create a “super agency to regulate media and the Internet, sparking fears among Russian journalists of a bid to extend tight publishing controls to the relatively free Web.”

I just don’t see turning the keys to free internet expression over to a group numbering heavy practitioners of censorship among its members. Talk about turning the fox loose in the henhouse…

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

Reflections on NYC shootings

So a guy puts on a fake beard, goes into a New York City pizza joint, pulls a gun in this supposedly-gun-free NYC establishment, and proceeds to empty the clip into the back of his waiter. He then exits the eatery.

During his fleeing and eluding, he comes across a couple of unarmed (and apparently non-kevlared) volunteer police officers responding to the scene of the shooting. He caps them both. Some ARMED officers then cornered the guy and said perp then went down in a hail of bullets from NYCs finest, some of whom were apparently injured in the exchange. That makes four dead including the perp, the waiter and the two unarmed auxiliary cops.

Mayor Mike “Gonna Grab Your Gun” Bloomberg had these comments:

Bloomberg lamented the loss of two volunteer police officers.


"Since I became mayor, not even one auxiliary police officer has been lost," he said.


"Tonight was a horrible night for the New York Police Department and for our city."

Bloomberg said Marshalik, an immigrant from Russia and New York University student, was two weeks away from his 20th birthday.


Pekearo, he said, lived nearby in Greenwich Village and had served as an auxiliary officer since June 2003.


"It could have been a lot worse," Bloomberg said. "Without the actions of our brave officers most likely it would have been."

You know, a few things stand out here.

*First: This shooting screams “domestic incident” or “execution” of some type. A guy disguises himself, which is either to fool the intended victim or aid his getaway. He empties his magazine into the back of one victim, not indiscriminately spraying fire, and then flees. Fifteen shots into the same victim either expresses extreme anger or the desire to send a message.

*Second: What were UNARMED VOLUNTEER OFFICERS doing responding to a shooting? The first thing I learned in karate and handgun classes is that you just don’t go into a gunfight unarmed or with an inferior weapon. Going to a gun crime wearing a uniform makes you a priority target. Making yourself a defenseless target is not helping anyone, despite Bloomberg’s platitudes to the contrary.

*Third: How could this happen in a city with such draconian gun laws? Could it be that the perp was not obeying those gun laws? And what might have transpired had this happened somewhere where concealed carry is legal and widespread…perhaps something like this? Or this?

*****

Rantmeister Axioms of the Day: 1. People do some crazy sh*t and you better be prepared to ensure your own safety. 2. Don’t go unarmed and/or unarmored into a gun fight.

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Raising reading machines

I turned Son-and-Heir, nearly 14, loose this morning with military sci-fi dean Gordon Dickson’s book “Necromancer,” the “gateway book” into Dickson’s famed Dorsai series. I’ve read each of the books so many times over the years, I can quote passages.

I think his conclusive work, “The Final Encyclopedia,” belongs in the top 10 of any list of the best science fiction ever written, right there alongside Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot,” Ray Bradbury’s “R is for Rocket” collection and Frank Herbert’s “Dune” (though not all the subsequent books in the series.)

As my children have aged, they have turned into little reading machines; skin-covered literary Terminators whose sole purpose seems to be to devour every book ever written. They’re currently reading 3-4 adult novels per week. Son-and-Heir plowed through most of Orson Scott Card’s “Ender” books in about two weeks and the Blog-daughter, recently turned 12, has been ripping through Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz at a furious pace.

I had to laugh the other day when the school sent home a paper for us to sign affirming that we were trying to get the kids to read at least 15 minutes per day…yeah, like THAT’S a problem. It’s more like “it’s midnight…if you don’t turn those light off and go to sleep NOW, there’ll be no more reading for a WEEK!”

It has also been nice that their reading tastes have been maturing of late…they’ve both been reading a lot of my favorite literature and giving me their take on it. I remember long conversations with my mother about the books we’d read and those we hoped the authors would eventually write. We both had a particular liking for the Dorsai books – she for “Soldier, Ask Not” and me for “Tactics Of Mistake.” We fought for reading rights to the household’s sole copy of Bradbury’s “Something Wicked This Way Comes.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Now I’m fighting with my own kids for some reading time with Koontz’s “Strange Highways.” As a parent, I can think of a lot worse problems.

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Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Pump up that brain!

Just back from a trip to the gym today, the Rantmeister saw word of a study that shows exercise can add brain cells in the areas of the brain involved in memory, an area that typically begins to decline as adults reach age 30.

This was good news to the Rantmeister, a casual workout buff who’s already somewhat past age 30. Did I tell you I saw a study about how exercise grows brain cells? I did?

From the story:

Tests on mice showed they grew new brain cells in a brain region called the dentate gyrus, a part of the hippocampus that is known to be affected in the age-related memory decline that begins around age 30 for most humans.


The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging scans to help document the process in mice — and then used MRIs to look at the brains of people before and after exercise.


They found the same patterns, which suggests that people also grow new brain cells when they exercise.

Thirty five minutes on the Stairmaster, then free weights and Nautilus for another 40 minutes a few times a week and you, too, can have a properly pumped up brain!

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Rockin' and rantin'


The Rantmeister, long a dedicated Walter Mitty-esque hard classic rocker, and Doc-wife have begun a dedicated guitar-learning blitzkrieg. So every day for the last week, Fender Stratocaster and Fender accoustic, respectively, in hand, we play until our fingers will take no more (about 30-35 minutes so far – the ends of my fingers are still numb from this afternoon’s session.) We’re making progress on various chords, scales and strumming…following one of the free lesson plans which abound on the internet. Eventually, we’ll move on to individual instruction at one of the local arts centers.

I’m not sure what we’re hoping to get from this latest endeavor…opening for the Rolling Stones at some point is probably out of the realm of possibilities. Maybe we could front for them when they open their 2017 tour of America nursing homes..."crank up your hearing aids, folks, it's the Rolling Stones!" Maybe we should just give Weird Al Yankovic a call?

We had to go pick up Son-and-Heir after school last week…the day the used Stratocaster arrived in the mail. As we were coming down our road, it occurred to me that the Blog-Daughter had already arrived home on the bus. I started offering odds to the other members of the Rantmeister clan in the van as to what BD would be doing when we got home.

We had our answer before we even walked in the door…she was rockin’. She had the guitar out of its case, plugged in and was making some noise, ala Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. She’s got the attitude…she’s got the look…she’s got the desire…and now she’s got access to the guitar.

Look out world!

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Don't chain my V-Dub!

Now they’ve gone and done it…human-caused global warming disciples have turned their attention to Europe, are dipping their paint brushes in black paint and getting all set to put up some speed limit signs on Germany’s famous autobahn.

From the AP:

"There are so many areas in which we waste energy in a completely senseless way and burden the climate," Dimas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper."A simple measure in Germany could be a general speed limit on highways," he added, according to the newspaper. "Speed limits make a lot of sense for many reasons and are completely normal in most EU states, as in the U.S.A. — only in Germany, strangely, is it controversial."

The reaction was predictable:

Dimas' comments drew a slew of largely negative responses Sunday on the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Internet site. One respondent described the debate as a "farce" and questioned the environmental record of Dimas' native Greece. Another demanded "free driving for free citizens" — quoting one of Germany's most popular and well-known slogans.

My take : Germans like their fast cars and like to be able to unwind them on the autobahn. I don’t see them easing up on the accelerator any time soon – speed limits or no speed limits.

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Kucinich the voice of reason!?!

From the Department of “Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Weirder:”

Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis (I put the ‘K’ in Krazy, man!) Kucinich came out over the weekend against the Dem candidates and their nutroots minions who worked to pull their candidates out of a planned Fox News Channel debate in Nevada.

From the Kucinich website:

“If you want to be the President of the United States, you can’t be afraid to deal with people with whom you disagree politically,” Kucinich said. “No one is further removed from Fox’s political philosophy than I am, but fear should not dictate decisions that affect hundreds of millions of Americans and billions of others around the world who are starving for real leadership.”

Kucinich said “the public deserves honest, open, and fair public debate, and the media have a responsibility to demand that candidates come forward now, before the next war vote in Congress, to explain themselves.”

“I’m prepared to discuss the war, health care, trade, or any other issue anytime, anywhere, with any audience, answering any question from any media. And any candidate who won’t shouldn’t be President of the United States.”

It’s a telling commentary when Kucinich is the voice of reason within his party - that’s like Captain Ahab calling for reason among his fellow whalers. Of course, Kucinich makes a valid and oft-overlooked point – any President of the United States IS accountable to all voters, not just those who put him/her in office. The president is expected to grow past the petty political jealousies and intrigues and represent the best interest of all Americans, even if they are the red sort who watch Fox News.

Kudos, Dennis, for pointing that out,

Lest you think I’m signing up for Kucinich ’08, here’s a video gem showing Dennis at his full loony best:


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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Mrs. Cox: My ears and daughter thank you

The blog-daughter has been flitting around the house the last couple days, belting out “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood” from Camelot. It’s her intention to sing the number at auditions Sunday, March 18 for the Ashtabula Arts Center’s summer Straw Hat Theater productions.

This year it has actually been kind of nice to listen to her. Previous year’s audition practice has been kind of hit-and-miss with the blog-daughter: to quote a line from a child's book, “when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.” A year in the middle school chorus, though, has made a tremendous difference. Now, she almost always hits the right notes with clarity and good support…when she gets more confidence, she’ll be unstoppable. Her middle school chorus teacher, Mrs. Cox (a newly-minted educator and terrific addition to the schools), has offered to help BD prepare for the auditions by working with her after school during the next week. My daughter is also currently in rehearsals at the AAC for the musical “Pocahontas,” which runs March 30-April 1.

BD is interested in auditioning for “Moby Dick: The Musical,” “Sideshow” and “The Wizard of Oz.” In addition to those shows, the AAC will also produce “The Fantasticks” this summer. Doc-wife and I (perhaps even son-and-heir) will also audition, though we haven’t yet settled on the music we’ll use.

We’ve decided, for the first time since our return to Ohio, to forego auditions this summer at our most-local theater…as I noted here, there is just nothing on their slate of shows that sound appealing this year.

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Friday, March 09, 2007

Build. The. Fence. Now.

From the Washington Times, U.S. border patrol agents are outgunned by Mexican drug gangs and the Mexican government shows little ability to rein them in. From the story:
"Last month, Mexican military officials in Matamoros, just south of Brownsville, Texas, stopped a tractor-trailer containing weapons and ammunition, along with a pickup truck fitted with armor and bulletproof glass.
"The weapons included 18 M-16 assault rifles, one equipped with an M-203 40mm grenade launcher. Also seized were several M-4 carbines, 17 handguns of various calibers, 200 magazines for different weapons, 8,000 rounds of ammunition, assault vests and other military accessories. "

M-16s? Those are fully automatic and at least $2,000 a pop - if you can find them. That's not the stuff used by a drug gang...it's stuff used by someone who's trying to build their own private army.
Build. The. Border. Fence. Now.

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Newsflash: Gates, Jobs agree

There must be something about computers and logic…

This week, Microsoft’s Bill Gates came out and said we need to facilitate the immigration of skilled people to this country to ensure our long-term technological competitiveness on the world stage. A couple weeks ago, it was Apple’s Steve Jobs pointing out that the National Education Association has put roadblocks in the way of improving education by making it difficult to purge bad teachers. Both men were right and both were actually addressing different facets of the same problem: how do we ensure the future competitive wellbeing of this country?

Gates’ comments advocated continuing to make ourselves a Mecca for the best and brightest while Jobs tackled the problems inherent in home-growing our own whiz kids through the public schools. I think we need to take a hard look at the way we currently do things and must follow the advice of both men. Feel-good phrases and platitudes aren’t going to cut it…we need to look at what’s best for the future and let the chips fall where they may.

Gates’ call to ease restrictions on immigration of skilled people addresses an action long overdue. I’ll take it a step farther: Let’s fling wide the doors to this country to anyone who wants to come.

Aha! The Rantmeister, fierce opponent of illegal immigration, has gone soft! Not so fast, hemp-wearing forces of a globalized, no-borders, Age of Aquarius world – there needs to be a caveat on that blanket invitation. The caveat would go something like this: You’re welcome, as long as you can prove there’s something in it for me, and we’re not talking cheap grunt labor to dig my ditches and pick my tomatoes “at the height of flavor” either – we’re talking E=MC2, Yao Ming in the paint, Manhattan Project, “my God, that Pavarotti can really sing” contributions. Call me elitist, but I think new immigrants should bring something of value to this country, not just a demonstrated willingness to break the law and some impending anchor babies.

The US has historically been a magnet for the world’s high achievers. I think it’s also in the country’s best interest to continue that trend - we need to preserve our advantage by ensuring our supply of highly skilled people to power and grow our technological edge.

Jobs is covering the other side of the equation: we must also do a better job of preparing our home-grown talent so they have an equal footing from which to compete with the newcomers. Based on my experience with exchange students, this is not happening. Perhaps we should include teaching among the professions eagerly sought from abroad – bring in teachers who know what it takes, and are willing, to get the most from their students?

The NEA makes it tough to get rid of the bad apples now and ties the hands of administrators when demanding more from teachers. I’m not letting administrators off the hook either – they often seem to be more interested in erecting shiny new buildings, teaching the standardized tests to ensure good scores and soothing ruffled feathers than worrying about the quality of education their students actually receive. I think as a society we must also cut through all the bullsh*t and admit that not all students are cut out for higher learning, and we should prioritize our limited educational resources accordingly.

I was reading some comments on a blog critical of Jobs’ take on education (no link, I can’t remember which blog) where the writer said Jobs can’t treat education and the schools like a business. My question was…why not? Privatization would solve a host of those problems, not the least of which is stranglehold by the NEA. Why can’t the taxpayers expect tangible, non-superficial, results for their dollars? And if those results are not forthcoming, why can’t the parent take their business elsewhere?

It’s essential that people like Gates and Jobs are turning their eyes to the future and loudly sharing their concerns about education, immigration and, ultimately, America’s preeminence in innovation. There’s almost always a better way to do things when you finally have the fortitude to look.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

On Coulter, Obama, identity groups and maniacs

Some political Rant-Nuggetts pulled from the headlines:

*****

Ann Coulter used a conservative convention over the weekend to say she’d like to call John Edwards a faggot, but then she’d be sent off to re-education camp by the PC police. The comment’s provocative, as is her meme, but is also stupid, juvenile and unfunny, which is usually not her MO. The tempest in a teacup it produced provided invaluable publicity for Ms. Coulter, though it also cost her some advertisers.

File under “there’s no such thing as bad publicity…”

*****

The NYT has an article today following some of Barack Obama’s suspicious financial dealings. What will be next, the Times running a story on how it has information about a secret government national security program, but has decided NOT to run with it in the best interest of the country?

There is a lot of time until next year’s primaries…a lot of time for the airing of dirty laundry, smears and faux-outraged condemnations. If anyone makes it to primary season with an unsullied reputation, it will be a miracle (or a candidate who stands ZERO chance of being elected.) I think the people who are clearly interested in running in 2008 but have not yet declared are following the smart route…avoiding the inevitable bloodbath until the last possible instant.

*****

I’ve decided I resent being lumped in with an identity group…perhaps it’s arrogance on my part…but it ticks me off that politicians candidly talk about tailoring their positions for various groups.

I’m fiscally conservative, but am not in lockstep with others who describe themselves so; I’m somewhat socially liberal, though I regularly condemn many positions held by the left; I’m a strong environmentalist who questions the science behind the ‘man is causing global warming’ crowd. With apologies to Winston Churchill, I must be “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma…”

That’s why I hope for a little honesty and plain-speaking in politics (if wishes were fishes…). Forgo the carefully crafted speeches to appeal to each identity group at each separate venue – they don’t apply to me. Tell me who you are and what you stand for in no uncertain terms and THEN I can make an informed decision when I cast my vote. Today’s drift in politics seems to be to try to blur the line between all candidates so everyone seems to stand for everything for everyone, with name recognition and mudslinging as the only deciding factors.

*****

I wish we had the technology they used in The Fifth Element to reconstruct a living person from the few living cells they could find after a crash. If we had such science, I would use it to resurrect this piece of sh*t so I could kill him over and over again, ad infinitum, in ever more painful ways. It’s bad enough that he threw a temper tantrum and tried to bump off his mother in law by crashing a plane into her house, but I just don’t see how anyone could willingly and maliciously take the life of their child.

It almost makes me wish I believed there was a Hell, because I’d like to think this guy was spending the rest of eternity in soul-rending agony in its deepest pits.

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Better, stronger, faster Zumbo

Former Outdoor Life writer and current uber pariah Jim Zumbo has a letter on a thread in RKBA today which he should have written two weeks ago. He has apparently come to his senses in the wake of his very-public scourging by the gun community (more here and here) and has dedicated himself to defense of the Second Amendment.

I’ll echo the thoughts of one RKBA commenter who said, “Good on ya, Zumbo!”

From the letter:

“I’ve studied up on legislation now in Congress that would renew and dangerously expand a ban on many types of firearms. The bill, HR 1022 sponsored by New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, is written so broadly that it would outlaw numerous firearms and accessories, including a folding stock for a Ruger rifle. I understand that some of the language could ultimately take away my timeworn and cherished hunting rifles and shotguns as well as those of all American hunters.

"The extremist supporters of HR 1022 don’t want to stop criminals. They want to invent new ones out of people like you and me with the simple stroke of a pen. They will do anything they can to make it impossible for more and more American citizens to legally own any firearm.

"Realizing that what I wrote catered to this insidious attack on fellow gun owners has, one might say, “awakened a sleeping giant within me, and filled him with a terrible resolve.

"I made a mistake. But those who would use my remarks to further their despicable political agenda have made a bigger one. I hope to become their worst nightmare. I admit I was wrong. They insist they are right.”

I think Zumbo’s words are sincere and I’m grudgingly willing to forgive and forget…ardent Second Amendment supporters are always welcomed by the Rantmeister. I hope others are as willing to give him another chance.

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Monday, March 05, 2007

No Child Left Behind? Hardly.

I’m very worried that many school systems, including the Rantmeister’s own Madison Local School District, have decided to make sure that ‘no child is left behind’ by never even getting into the car.

Watered-down curricula, inflated GPAs and declining standardized test scores have been in the news the last few weeks. From The Washington Post:

“The mismatch between stronger transcripts and weak test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation's report card, resonated in the Washington area and elsewhere. Some seized upon the findings as evidence of grade inflation and the dumbing-down of courses. The findings also prompted renewed calls for tough national standards and the expansion of the federal No Child Left Behind law.”

We’ve seen somewhat-impartial evidence of this phenomenon through hosting 13 exchange students…the students uniformly have said the American schools are easy compared to schools in their homelands and note that their fellow students have nowhere near the body of knowledge (related post here) about core subjects which they possess.

We’ve heard that:

*U.S. students know nothing about geography, languages or other countries.
*The U.S. schools are terrific because they grade on a curve, have minimal homework and offer interesting subject matter removed from the core subjects.
*Madison’s four-block scheduling system results in a lot of wasted/homework time at the end of the extended class period.
*Watching a lot of movies in class is entertaining, but not necessarily educationally valuable. (Current student just watched The Bourne Supremacy in German class…presumably because there is some German and Russian dialogue included.)
*The U.S. schools are a breeze, with one notable exception - Mrs. Kilpatrick’s American Literature class at Madison elicits the most groans and complaints that the course is too demanding. This, in my mind, shows she is pushing the students to put forth their best work.

NCLB efforts have focused on testing at both the state and national levels to assure some level of achievement. Now, much of the school year is expended in preparing for these tests, teaching the test materials to the exclusion of other material and further eroding the body of knowledge imparted to our kids.

It’s understandable…teachers and school districts are rated based on how their students achieve on these tests. The community wants to be able to trumpet its pride in an “excellent” rated district, attracting new business and residents.

But all of this is smoke and mirrors where it really counts – in the real world competition with students from other countries. The fact is that students from the United States, our future, are lagging behind students from other developed countries. I do not say they have inferior potential or capabilities…merely that they have not been educated to the same level as other developed countries.

I blame a host of factors for this problem, including:

*NCLB – As not all children are created equal, in order for no child to be left behind, those children who learn at a faster rate must necessarily be restrained or ignored, unless separate educational facilities are maintained.
*NEA – Makes it difficult to fire inferior teachers, insists that teachers be rewarded for longevity as well as achievement. Has also made it difficult for non-teaching degreed people, who have achieved success in various fields outside the classroom, from returning to the schools as instructors.
*Must have good grades for good college – This pressures teachers to demand less work and massage grades to provide a nice Bell Curve of grading distribution to protect them from criticism by school administration and parents. There is little support from parents for the ‘tough teacher’ who demands high quality work and is stingy or uncompromising in awarding grades.
*The best and brightest students have not, historically, gravitated to teaching. They’ve gone into the more financially rewarding areas of engineering, medicine, law and business. How can teachers be expected to motivate, challenge and demand the best from students when the students’ capability may be a standard deviation or two above their own?
* School administration – Superintendents and principals, of necessity, are political beasts unlikely to buck the system by unilaterally instituting higher standards for teachers and students. Their livelihood depends on tangible results…and plummeting GPAs are unlikely to win them any friends.

The solution? I don’t know…perhaps privatized schools or vouchers would diminish the NEA’s power and less reliance on high school GPA as a college entrance requirement would remove one of the barriers to tougher standards. Ironically, less standard testing would probably be a boon to higher-achieving schools, which could then concentrate on teaching students rather than teaching the tests.

No child left behind? Hardly. We need to find a better solution soon or it will be our nation’s future which is left behind.

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'Stranger Than Fiction' rings true


I watched “Stranger Than Fiction” last night and was blown away.

From its perfect cast, especially Will Ferrell as Harold Crick and Emma Thompson as writer Karen Eiffel, to its low key and near-surreal poignant tone, the film hit all the right notes. It's understated, articulate and unique – in execution and tone if not in plot.

Ferrell plays Crick, an IRS auditor, with a low-key, guarded earnestness that emphasizes Crick’s extreme awkwardness and loneliness. He discovers while brushing his teeth one morning that someone is narrating his life. That someone is Eiffel, a reclusive writer of tragedies who hasn’t published a book in a decade.

Thompson’s portrayal of Eiffel’s eccentric desperation to find the right ending for the near-completed book stands in stark contrast to Ferrell’s Crick, who spends his days obsessively counting time, steps and numbers. Crick is shaken from his routine by discovery of this literary choreography of his life and, in the process, comes in contact with feisty baker Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhaal). In Eiffel’s masterwork, the glimmer of hope provided in Crick’s life by the arrival of Pascal will serve to accentuate the tragedy of his impending death.

And as if the gods of casting had not been kind enough to the production, Dustin Hoffman appears as a professor of literature who helps Crick track down the identity of his life’s narrator. Queen Latifah also turns in a well-crafted, low-key performance as an assistant sent out by the publisher to ensure Eiffel’s book stays on track.

There are moments in this movie that ring true and unimpeachable in their capture of the human condition. Crick’s shy but earnest guitar and vocal rendition of The Monkees’ “I'd Go the Whole Wide World" is powerful. Likewise, his awkward gift of flowers (in reality, small bags of various flours with different colored tape closures) to baker Ana is perfect. The humor is subtle and clever.

The movie sated my appetite for intelligent language, my penchant for the offbeat and resonated with the shy and supremely awkward nerd who still resides within me.

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

An act you'll never see on MTV

The Teapacks are an Israeli group, kinda Weird Al Yankovick meets MC Hammer with a little Devo thrown in (BAM!) just to spice things up. I can't decide whether they are too weird or too cool to be believed.
You decide. Watch.

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