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This is a VP Contender?
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 05:30 pm
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Is there a bigger horse's ass in the political world today than Mike Huckabee?
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Quote of the Day
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 11:14 am
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Peggy Noonan in today's WSJ:
"This was a real wakeup call for us," someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. "We can't let the Democrats take our issues." And those issues would be? "We can't let them pretend to be conservatives," he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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What IS Marriage, Anyway?
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May. 16th, 2008 @ 08:53 am
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Well, I see where the California Supreme Court on a 4-3 vote just overturned six thousand or more years of common definition of the institution of marriage, which is stylish of them.
Now I happen to believe in the federal system and if another state wants to define the terms of intercourse (I'm using this in its broadest meaning) between its citizens, who am I to comment? Of course, in this case 61% of the voters of the state already defined marriage as quite the opposite of what the court just determined.
What I do have a huge objection to is judges who believe they, and they alone, have the right to turn the commonly held meaning of constitutions topsy-turvy and find that in 2008 it means something completely different from when it was adopted. When constitutional rights can be redefined at whim, then they mean nothing at all, and the risk of tyranny by robe becomes very great indeed. This is the second state court to reach the same conclusion (many others did not), and both by 4-3 votes.
*******
I do prefer, however, that both judges and politicians be straight (I'm using this in its broadest meaning) about what they are saying and doing, and to that extent at least the California court puts all the marbles on the table instead of that wishy-washy "civil union" "compromise" imposed in Vermont and discussed elsewhere. What kind of gobbledy-gook is that?
After all, what is a civil marriage if not a "civil union", that is, a relationship between two people solely defined by the state with provisions for a beginning, a middle and an end. In most states civil matrimony involves a whole lot less than the traditional notions of permanent families. So if you're going to toy with the notion of civil unions, then call it what it really is, civil matrimony with such meaning as the state defines, the lowest common denominator of the understanding of human relationships.
**********
I often hear conservatives and others freak out when things like this happen, blaming the "gay lobby" and the "gay agenda".
I don't see it that way.
If the definition of marriage is getting fuzzy, it isn't because of some interest group or other. WE have made the meaning of marriage obscure by our own actions as a society over the last . . . well, my lifetime.
When I was in elementary school, I only remember two of my friends having divorced parents, and those were whispered about in shocked disbelief. It didn't affect our relationship with the kids, they were still our friends. We just felt terrible for them. One of them, raised by his father, pretended his mother was dead. He kept that up for years, even though here in small town America we all knew the truth. We were deep into high school when one day, out of the blue, he said to me, "My mother's not dead, you know."
"Yeah, I know." And that was that.
The old social norm of saving yourself for marriage, even if honored as much in the breech as in the observance, went out the window completely with the dawn of The Pill and the coming of the drug era. We once used pejorative terms like "shacking up" and "playing house", activities which later became recognized by the federal government as "POSSLQ", Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters, which prompted Charles Osgood to write his famous poem, - There's nothing that I wouldn't do
- If you would be my POSSLQ
- You live with me and I with you,
- And you will be my POSSLQ.
- I'll be your friend and so much more;
- That's what a POSSLQ is for.
Matrimony, which used to be the sacrosanct institution for the unifying spiritual power of sexual relations and the procreation and raising of children in a harmonious unit has become totally cheapened by the customs of the day. Sex is for the moment, children a commodity that can be accepted, rejected or tossed in a bin behind the abortuary.
If people of the gay persuasion look at the way we have dumbed down marriage to a simple piece of paper defining the property interests of the parties, who can blame them when they say, "Well, why can't we have that, too?"
Perhaps if we had a better idea of what matrimony is, or should be, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Job Opening
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May. 14th, 2008 @ 08:57 pm
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Dear Mr. President:
I see where the Solicitor General of the United States Paul Clement is stepping down, and he's the guy in your justice department who handles the cases before the Supreme Court. I think it was pretty mean of him to quit just when you and Laura were all excited about the big wedding. (BTW, may your first grandchild be a masculine child!).
I know what you're thinking: who the heck am I gonna get to fill this job what with the administration coming to an end and all. Like, who's gonna drop everything just so he can tell his grandkids, "Hey, guess what? I was Solicitor General for six whole months" (or whatever).
Well, it just so happens Mr. President that through a peculiar combination of circumstances I am available and willing. Oh, sure, I realize that I've been holding out for one of those Supreme Court vacancies, or even AG, but you know, I've been thinking it over and figure that Solicitor General would be ok for now if my country really needs me, and God knows they do. (See, in one small way I'm like that Obama guy: I'm ready to do God's work when called, and btw my number's in the book; which reminds me, did you know God's direct line is et cum spiri-2-2-0? That's an old altar boy joke you can ask Benedict about next time you see him and I'm sure he'll chuckle, especially if you follow it up with the "Dominick go frisk 'em" one which always gets a belly laugh at the communion breakfasts, at least it did before 1965).
So how about it? I'm sure I wouldn't embarrass you, like that would make a difference at this point, and the arguments in the Supreme Court are pretty much all done now until October, and I'm sure we could ask the CJ to postpone any appearance of mine until after the November election and after that, if I screw up, who's gonna give a crap anyway?
Not that it matters, because I'm doing this to serve my country, but does this job come with health insurance and/or a limo?
Yours in strict-construction-originalist mode,
Robert N. Going
PS I have Scotusblog on my LiveJournal Friends Page, so I'm up to date with the current cases and I'm perfectly willing to take either your side or Cheney's on the DC gun issue should it come up again, whichever way you guys decide. I also have friended ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) meep and theevilhalf so I'm pretty confident I have all the angles covered.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Drama Club Farewell
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May. 14th, 2008 @ 09:10 am
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At the annual Drama Club banquet at Amsterdam High School last night, our down-the-hill neighbor Director Bill Nelson paid tribute to the graduating seniors, including our Louisa. In the process he placed her on a continuum of dedicated members of her family and left her parents wiping their eyes.
********
And then poor Mr. Nelson had to say goodbye to his own daughter Jessica.
Who told them they could grow up?
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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McCain the Warm Monger
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May. 12th, 2008 @ 07:57 pm
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Much as I would like to take credit, once again the great Mark Steyn has created a memorable phrase: "warm monger".
Now that John McCain has bought into this global warming baloney hook, line and sinker (just when scientists are saying uh, well, you see, it turns out that the world hasn't gotten any warmer in the last decade) and now has a plan to bankrupt the world economy in order to be stylish, he'd better hope that he can come up with some reason for folks like me to vote for him just before November. Personally I'm getting a little tired of his constant reminders of why he shouldn't be president.
Because of his personal history, and good positions on some things that matter to me, I am willing to forgive much. But the pile of much is getting higher and higher.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Vultures! Vultures everywhere!
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May. 11th, 2008 @ 09:21 am
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As the latest sign of the importance of my neighborhood in the world's ecological system, for the past several days we have been visited by a flock of turkey vultures.
The turkey vulture is a most impressive, if somewhat vile (it feeds almost exclusively on carrion and defecates on its feet to control body temperature) bird, with a wingspan of six feet. We got a closeup look this morning as one perched on the porch just off our bedroom window.
This is the first time I've seen one in the twenty-seven years we've lived here. Yesterday's display impressed the most when fully twenty of them perched in the locust trees in back of our pool, mostly on the stumps of branches we had cut back last fall. It was positively Hitchcockian. Anna, Laura and I stood on our stair landing with the huge window overlooking the back yard. Occasionally one would fly right towards us, then swoop up and over the house.
It is, I believe, the first time our crows appeared humbled.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Treasure Chest
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May. 7th, 2008 @ 06:43 pm
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Growing up Catholic pre-Vatican II we had a multitude of learning aids at our disposal (though the "cheat cards" for the Latin responses at Mass were never to be used by altar boys except in case of dire emergency).
One of the most wonderful for the middle grades was a comic book called Treasure Chest which educated us twice monthly on the finer points of the Catholic religion, its history and tradition, and the application of the principles thereof to the modern world.
Happily a great many years of this magazine are now on-line and I was able today to relive some of those long-forgotten gems. The home page is here.
One of the recurring features concerned the fictional Chuck White and his friends. At random I came across this episode which would drive the eco-nuts crazy today. Take a glimpse back to the not so distant past when ridding the land of swamps and mosquitoes and disease seemed more important than "protecting our wetlands". I have renamed it Chuck White Fails to File an Environmental Impact Statement.
And, at random, an episode of This Godless Communism.
Those were the days, by God.
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Sync or Swim
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May. 5th, 2008 @ 03:33 pm
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With the completion of the railroad and the death of the Western movie genre, unemployed cowboys desperate for work turn to Professional Synchronized Swimming.
Inspiration courtesy of Fra. Alessandro
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Jindal
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May. 5th, 2008 @ 03:24 pm
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The boomlet for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for Vice President obviously got a big boost from his National Press Club appearance last week, where he came off as serious (though not without wit), thoughtful and fully in command of his subject matter, and evinced a maturity way beyond his 36 years. Roughly half the age of McCain, he would provide the GOP presidential candidate with not only youth, but a thoroughly acceptable conservative for his running mate.
But much as I would like to see such talent rewarded and placed on the fast track for greatness, I am opposed.
Look, in general we don't do too badly electing conservatives, at least for most of the last forty years. It's getting them to GOVERN as conservatives that is the problem. We have conservative think tanks, conservative scholars, conservative columnists and talk show hosts espousing conservative positions and conservative ideology, and yet finding actual conservative policies implemented without having been compromised beyond all recognition is rare indeed.
Bobby Jindal has been handed the most exciting laboratory for conservative governance that we are likely to see in our lifetimes. The opportunity to rebuild a state, and particularly the city of New Orleans, will give him a chance to do everything right with essentially a clean slate and a political mandate that will help handcuff many of the special interests. The people are demanding action, and he has the strength, the wisdom, the brains, the character and the philosophy to make it happen.
Give that man eight years and I predict that he will go all the way, the first transforming politician of this century.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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The Derby
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May. 4th, 2008 @ 07:50 am
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I guess Hillary's advice to bet the filly now has some ominous foreshadowing overtones.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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My Conservative Manifesto VII
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May. 2nd, 2008 @ 12:58 am
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1964
It's July 15, 1964 and I'm completely oblivious to the fact that I'm sitting way too close to Aunt Marie's flash as she takes this shot on the occasion of my grandmother's 64th birthday. Great Aunt Gertie Goodison, Gramma's sister, is on the far right. Next to her, speaking in Italian sign language, is Mom, then 39. Completely engrossed in the television are my 42 year old Dad and me, two weeks past my thirteenth birthday (I recall saying, just once, "I'm a teenager now; I can do whatever I want"). We were glued to the set because it was not only Gramma's birthday, it was Wednesday evening and the Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco was about to nominate Barry M. Goldwater for President of the United States.
***********
If the modern conservative movement took its first breath with the founding of National Review (a Journal of Fact and Opinion) in 1955, and toddled along through the founding of the Conservative Party in New York in 1962, it burst forth fully grown in 1964 with the Draft Goldwater campaign that wrested control of the Republican Party from the old liberal establishment and placed it firmly in the hands of a new and different breed, personified by a quintessential westerner with a face chiseled out of the Rocky Mountains who flew planes, took magnificent photographs, used his ham radio to patch through thousands of phone calls from servicemen overseas to their relatives back home, and who, as the Junior Senator from Arizona, preached the gospel of freedom far and wide.
He made the party stand for something, that which it had not done for decades. No big government program was off limits to his axe, no sacred cows worshiped in his cathedral. Federalism. Originilist judges. Small government at home, big stick abroad. A foreign policy that would not seek accommodation with communism, but a roll back of the soviet occupation of eastern Europe. In military matters you don't commit to war unless you intend to win it, and use every means at your disposal to do it.
The old guard liberals did not go down without a fight. The coalition of Governors Romney, Scranton and Rockefeller formed a Stop Goldwater movement that went all the way to the convention. They pulled platform fights designed to embarrass Goldwater, including trying to insert a plank condemning "extremism", specifically condemning "The Communist Party, the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society."
Now the first two were certainly worthy of this distinction, and had been responsible for violence and murder and all kinds of nasty things. But the John Birch Society was back then just a fringe anti-communist group who sought to persuade through things like books and newsletters and discussion groups. They may have gone over the top with some of their conclusions, but they were no threat to the Republic. Many of their members supported Goldwater, and certainly most loathed Nelson Rockefeller.
The liberals called themselves "moderates" (Buckley once asked, "If a liberal Catholic is dying, does he ask his priest for Moderate Unction?"). They were probably a little startled to hear Goldwater tell the convention, "Let me remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The convention went wild, Dad chuckled heartily, Bill Scranton and Ken Keating walked out and Barry probably threw away a few more votes.
There is a story, which I have been unable to document, that former president Eisenhower was really miffed about it and demanded that Goldwater explain himself when the nominee paid a courtesy call at Gettysburg.
"What exactly did you mean when you said, 'Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice?'"
Barry leans over and says, "I was talking about what you did at Normandy, General."
Whereupon Ike tilts his head, flashes that boyish grin, and mutters, "What do you know? I'm an extremist!"
*******
It was a glorious ride speeding down the mountain, the purity of the message only tempered slightly by the knowledge that we were fast approaching the cliff.
In October the old gang of Dad, Bill Smith and Ed Bablin organized a caravan, a Goldwater Victory Parade starting at the Auriesville Shrine and winding our way through Montgomery County. It was on that day that I met the Bablin kids, the lovely daughters and the oldest son Mark who would become a life-long friend through many a political battle as we caught the torch from the failing hands of our fathers.
And then, almost when it was too late, we all got on the telephone and told everyone to watch the television that night. An important speech was being given on behalf of Barry Goldwater.
That was the night I learned of the existence of a guy named Ronald Reagan.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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My Conservative Mainifesto VI
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May. 1st, 2008 @ 04:52 pm
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The Economics of ENERGY
Some truths are so fundamental that it amazes me that virtually no politicians mention them. Better to bamboozle an economically illiterate electorate than bother to take the time to explain things and do what's right.
For example, whenever the government uses its power to violate the laws of supply and demand, bad things happen. Like, every time. Oh, a favored few may come out ahead, but the public in general and many people in particular will suffer.
I don't even know where to start with the current ethanol boondoggle, so I'll begin with an anecdote.
In the latter quarter of the 19th century, America (and much of the world) faced an energy crisis of awful proportions: there was a world-wide shortage of oil.
Whale oil.
Those daring lads from Nantucket who provided the world with the means to light their lamps had reached a crisis point: not enough whales were available to meet the demand.
The government immediately sprang into action, providing a special whale depletion allowance, setting up a new department of whale development, spending billions on research to find more efficient means to bring alternative sources to market (the New Hampshire and Maine beeswax farmers especially benefited) and Congressional Committees spent endless hours investigating the whaling industry, resulting in anti-gouging laws and price controls that were upheld by the Supreme Court in Ahab v. U.S.
Not.
Actually, the government did absolutely nothing.
In western Pennsylvania and elsewhere young dreamers realized that distillation of petroleum could now be profitable. Not only did kerosene help light and heat our homes, but miracle fuels led to the development of the internal combustion engine, making horseless carriages practical. Eventually a couple of lads in Dayton, Ohio realized that an internal combustion engine could be attached to a glider.
Meanwhile, in Menlo Park, New Jersey another kid from Ohio found that beeswax and whale oil could be supplanted by a flip of a switch.
Other dreamers found that combustible gas could be released in the coal-burning process, and gasification plants sprang up along the railroads and provided cooking and lighting directly into the households of cities big and small. Then we needed more oil, kept digging, and built pipelines to bring oil and its pal natural gas across the country. We harnessed the power of coal and falling water to make electricity.
The end of the road came, of course, when Edison's Direct Current proved impractical at bringing electricity over distances.
Except that Westinghouse developed Alternating Current, except it couldn't run motors.
Until a Balkan immigrant named Nicola Tesla figured it all out in his head one day.
And on and on. Not one dime of government money. Not one iota of government interference.
***********
We now know all about nuclear energy, but the government won't let anyone build nuclear plants. We are sitting on billions of barrels of oil in a mosquito-infested small corner of Alaska, and the government prevents it from being drilled. Every promising new technology finds some reason for it to be blocked: wind turbines wreck the view; hydro dams need to be taken down to restore the natural flow of rivers; coal is too dirty, no matter what; shale oil development would doubtless ruin the Marlboro Man.
How about something simple, and fundamentally conservative:
Try FREEDOM.
Let supply and demand encourage the dreamers and risk-takers. Get out of the way and see what happens.
It's always worked before.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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A Word from John Adams
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Apr. 28th, 2008 @ 11:04 am
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I have been engrossed in a recent collection of the letters between John and Abigail Adams entitled My Dearest Friend, edited by Margaret A. Hogan and C. James Taylor.
Much I had read before, but to be able to spy on the daily thoughts and intimacies of this fascinating couple across better than two centuries is sheer joy. Happy for us that they were apart so much as they sacrificed their own happiness for the good of their country and future generations. John is by no means alone in his dedication to the cause of freedom. As the fateful hour approaches in Philadelphia, delayed by long debate, conflict and wishful thinking, Abigail spurs him on by concluding her letter thusly:
"There is a tide in the affairs of Men
which taken, at the flood leads on to fortune;
omitted, all the voyage of their life
is bound to shallows and to miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves.
or lose our ventures.'
Shakespear
Comes a point in May of 1776 where John Adams becomes a proto-blogger. After many exchanges of letters, he finally begins to recognize the historical significance of this correspondence and purchases a copy book, so that a record may be maintained even if the letters themselves are waylaid, which sometimes happened. I noticed a marked change in style from that point forward, as he carefully began weighing his words. It came just in time for his justly famous thoughts on the adoption of the resolution declaring independence.
There is so much heartache in these exchanges. The long absences left Abigail alone to face the death of her mother and so many of her family and friends. A brief two month return home resulted in a sixth pregnancy, cautiously discussed in their letters by every available euphemism of the times. She stops in the middle of one missive because of labor pains, picks up her pen again and continues as though nothing had happened.
The baby girl is still-born and the grief that cries out from both directions over the many miles is nearly unbearable, even for the modern reader.
John continuously longs to be relieved of public duty and return to his farm. Each time he is thwarted and the long months of separation begin turning into years. And, of course, their sacrifices are very little appreciated by their contemporaries, many of whom lash out against John in a manner very typical of politics of all times.
In the back of my mind I was musing about how wonderful it would be to have John Adams around today to talk to us.
And then I came upon this passage:
Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good Use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.
-John Adams to Abigail Adams , Saturday Evening 26 April 1777
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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None Dare Call It Nepotism
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Apr. 28th, 2008 @ 07:36 am
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Politics was a much simpler matter in the old days in the old country. In addition to electing a series of Mayors of the surname Going in Clonmel, it seems some of my distant relatives had Cashel in County Tipperary wrapped up as well:
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:16:27 +0100
From: "Mary Heaphy" <tipwex@eircom.net>
Subject: [COTIPPERARY] 2-11-1833 The Cashel Corporation-A Family
Party.
To: "Tipperary" <cotipperary@rootsweb.com>, "Tipperary IRL"
<IRL-TIPPERARY-L@rootsweb.com>
2-11-1833
The Cashel Corporation-A Family Party.
Sir John Judkin Fitzgerald, the Mayor of Cashel, and a son of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald of flogging celebrity, made the following disclosure in the course of his examination before the Commissioners, Messrs Hanna and King:--
The Board of Aldermen are the ruling body of the corporation; that board consists of the Mayor and Aldermen; the late Mr. Richard Pennefather had considerable influence in the appointment of Aldermen, witness thinks that no person would be elected an Alderman or Mayor, contrary to his wishes, witness never knew his recommendation of Aldermen refused.
Mr. O'Brien;-Mr. Commissioner, it will save a great deal of time, if you ask, was Mr. Richard Pennefather the sole appointee of the Aldermen---it is a matter of public notoriety.
Mr. Hanna--Give me a list of the Aldermen.
Mr. Roe here handed in a list.
Mr. Hanna;-What relation are you to the late Mr. Pennefather.? I am his son-in-law; and if you are satisfied with that, the list of Aldermen, which is correct, and is now handed in, shows that all the Aldermen are of the Pennefather family.
Mr. Hanna;-Rev. John Pennefather;-is brother to the late Mr. Pennefather, and an Alderman also.
Mr. Hanna;-William Pennefather of Cork, is his brother also, and an Alderman.
Mr. Hanna;--Matthew Pennefather, is his son.
Mr. Hanna, William Pennefather of Lakefield, is his son.
Mr. Hanna, Ambrose Going is married to his daughter.
Mr. Hanna;- Owen Lloyd is married to another of his daughters.
Mr. Hanna;-William Lloyd, is his grandson.
Mr. Hanna;-Kingsmill Pennefather, is his nephew,
Mr. Hanna;-Nicholas Mansergh is his nephew.
Mr. Hanna;-Daniel Connor is his nephew.
Mr. Hanna;--Richard Connor is his nephew.
Mr. Hanna;--William Pennefather of Annesfort?. Second Cousin.?--his cousin, that's all I can say, (Laughter).
Mr. Hanna;-Thomas Pennefather, Third cousin.
Mr. King;-except in Corporation matters, we don't go further than second cousins. (Laughter).
Mr. Hanna;;-Edward Pennefather, the same.
Mr. Hanna, Matthew Jacob, is first cousin to the late Mrs Pennefather.
Mr. Hanna;-Thomas Bourke, is married to his niece
Sir John Fitzgerald;--All the above mentioned are Aldermen, and are related, as above mentioned, to the said Richard Pennefather, now deceased. None of
these persons, I think, were elected contrary to the wishes of the late Mr. Pennefather, or his son.
Mr. T. Pennefather--A great many of them were elected before his son had any influence.
Witness believes that Mr. Matthew Pennefather possesses considerable influence in the corporation;-believes that the recorder is first cousin to the late Mr. Pennefather. Thomas Pennefather, Deputy Recorder is one of the Aldermen above mentioned. Matthew Pennefather is also one of the above mentioned.
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Embattled Farmers
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Apr. 19th, 2008 @ 07:32 pm
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Concord Hymn | Ralph Waldo Emerson
| | Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, April 19, 1836 |
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| BY the rude bridge that arched the flood, | | | Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, | | | Here once the embattled farmers stood, | | | And fired the shot heard round the world. | | | | | The foe long since in silence slept; | 5 | | Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; | | | And Time the ruined bridge has swept | | | Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. | | | | | On this green bank, by this soft stream, | | | We set to-day a votive stone; | 10 | | That memory may their deed redeem, | | | When, like our sires, our sons are gone. | | | | | Spirit, that made those heroes dare | | | To die, and leave their children free, | | | Bid Time and Nature gently spare | 15 | | The shaft we raise to them and thee. | | |
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The Pope in New York
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Apr. 19th, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
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On his first evening in New York City, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI received a special nighttime tour of the New Yankee Stadium, now under construction adjacent to the site of the House that Ruth built (that's Babe, not the Jewish Matriarch).
He was personally greeted by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who attempted to slip the Pope a pair of 2008 World Series tickets in hopes of obtaining a Plenary Indulgence at the moment of death. Instead, he received a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and a chuckle.
Pope Benedict, sometimes affectionately called "Big Papi", then dug a hole in the turf beneath the future third base and placed a small object therein before covering it and extending what was believed to be a special Papal Blessing.
When asked what exactly he had left behind, the Pope simply replied, "All things shall be revealed in the fullness of time," with a decided twinkle in his eye.
*********
UPDATE: COINCIDENCE????
(YAHOO SPORTS 4/21/08)
A much-needed win for the New York Yankees was tarnished by the loss of Alex Rodriguez, who can only hope a leg injury won't force him out of the starting lineup for the first time this season.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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Home Again
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Apr. 18th, 2008 @ 01:05 pm
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Louisa has returned from her globe-trotting high school trip that took her to Madrid (just visiting), Assisi, Firenze, Roma and New York City.
She's quite the artist. She made some sketches along the way, including this one, which I believe is the New Yankee Stadium:
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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5.15 Miles on the Erie Canal
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Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 02:20 pm
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As part of my continuing physical therapy I took a long walk this morning on one of Amsterdam's forgotten treasures: the towpath of the old Erie Canal, the original (well, widened and deepened in 1835) Clinton's Ditch which made New York "The Empire State" by linking New York City with the granaries of the old Northwest Territories, abandoned now nearly a hundred years.
Not too many people use the old towpath in the section that runs for a couple of miles through the city between the ditch and the Mohawk River and extends onward to the old Yankee Hill Lock site, above (from there it is well-maintained for an additional 2.3 miles to the Schoharie Crossing in Fort Hunter). Still, despite some long-ago industrial dumping at the eastern end, it is a pleasant walk, especially on a gorgeous spring day, and the frustrated archaeologist, historian and civil engineer in me took no time in linking fancy unto fancy as I cruised along.
My father-in-law, Herb Thackrah, was born in 1902 and could remember back when the canal was still in use. It ran through Amsterdam's south side, with a large parking pond where the South Side Veterans' Park now stands. In the winter the frozen canal became a long and narrow skating rink. When he was twelve or thirteen Herb skated with the twin Shuttleworth girls (daughters of the owner of Mohawk Carpets) through this same section I was now walking, all the way to Fort Hunter, nearly five miles distant.
This took the better part of the afternoon, and as twilight approached the local constabulary were called out to investigate the possible kidnapping. Herb chuckled a lot telling me that story 65 years later. He had, in fact, been named for the first Herbert Shuttleworth, the rug-making king and a poker-playing buddy of Mary's grandfather.
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At the city end, the old canal was partly filled in by the dumping of coal ashes (coal being the principal fuel for early central heating), and nature has reclaimed a good part of the rest in the ninety years since the final abandonment. No parts of it maintain anything close to the 1835 seven foot depth, and most, if not all, of the cut limestone embankments seem to have been requisitioned for other purposes. Still, some fairly long stretches contain enough water to be navigable by canoe or kayak, provided some mighty big trees both standing and fallen are removed.
In other places, dikes were built long ago to re-divert several small feeder streams to their natural outlet, the Mohawk River. But it doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to picture modern excavation equipment and a few chain saws relinking and reopening the whole canal from the Schoharie to the South Chuctanunda, a five mile glorious water passage through old woods and time.
For now, it would be nice to clean it up a bit, get rid of the old tires and junk that mar the view, trim the scrub bushes back some, organize the deadfall.
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The towpath runs parallel and slightly downhill from the Montgomery County Bike Path, which follows the bed of the old West Shore Railroad. That path is well-used, and I ran into quite a few people as I took that route back to Amsterdam. But on the much prettier and softer towpath I saw not a soul.
Halfway through the first half of my walk I came upon the Lock 11 dam on the Mohawk River/ Barge Canal, located adjacent to colonial Guy Park Manor, built by Sir William Johnson for his nephew (and son-in-law) Guy Johnson. During my time in City Hall I tried to develop some interest in using the existing superstructure for a pedestrian bridge that would link the west end of Amsterdam with the towpath and bike path. The Canal Corporation engineers assured us it could be done, for a price (one that would be enormously cheaper than the $16.5 million dollar pedestrian bridge planned for a mile or so downstream).
A lovely greenway along the Mohawk River, accessible by bike, by kayak, by a pleasant footpath, adjacent on the north side to a pedestrian boulevard along the river, like in Paris, linking Guy Park Manor with the Riverlink Park performing arts center-- what a beautiful waterfront I would build! A small hydro-generation plant at the dam would provide green power to light the way. Footbridges to the river islands. Maybe even gondolas.
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It will never happen, of course.
Read and comment on my novel The Evil Has Landed. Free!
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What's Happening?
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Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 07:33 am
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Anyone care to explain the sudden world-wide spike in my readership? I assume someone new is linking.
UPDATE: WELCOME SOUTH PARK INTERNET ADDICTS!
This is not The Drudge Report. However, I do maintain an eclectic blog dedicated to all manner of stuff and nonsense. Feel free to browse, including the "BEST OF" links in the navigation bar at left. Also, enjoy the pictures of my granddaughter and other family members, my insightful comments on the presidential campaign, my fierce devotion to the Boston Red Sox and great entries like Sister Anna Roberta's Latin Declension Song which will never leave your head.
-The Judge
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