<:>i n t e r a l i a <:> 2006 archive

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:> 2006

This is an archive of all issues of <:>i n t e r a l i a<:> for 2006.
Immediately below are links to successive 2006 issues.
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11January2006
24January2006
07February2006
03March2006
15March2006
28March2006
21April2006
26May2006
26May2006
05June2006
13June2006
21June2006
27June2006
11July2006
25July2006
10August2006
26September2006
21November2006
18December2006

= = = = =
11January2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
11 January 2006

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
TELL A FRIEND ABOUT <:>i n t e r a l i a<:>
http://lhostelaw.com/iaad/ia_ad.htm

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- fussbudget
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Thomas Lux
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A) Ugly Phrase; B) Lightning Rods; C) Ruling Class Warriors
6. Weird News - Not quite the dog ate homework defense
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
fussbudget (FUS-buj-it) noun

One who is fussy about unimportant things.

[From fuss + budget, from Middle English, from Old French bougette,
diminutive of bouge (bag), from Latin bulga (bag). Ultimately from
Indo-European root bhelgh- (to swell) that is also the source of
bulge, bellows, billow, belly, and bolster.]

A synonym of this word is fusspot. Usually we dislike fusspots and
fussbudgets but sometimes we wish there were fussbudgets among our
elected leaders who cared enough to fuss about the budget of this
country.

The word budget is a marvelous example of how the language goes
around. French bougette (little bag) came to English, developed a new
sense: budget (a financial estimate), and then went back to French in
its new avatar. Most living languages are mongrels and that's what
makes them richer. Why fuss about keeping them "pure"?

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"[Nathan Lane] has shone in period pieces and as Bette Midler's
fussbudget husband in Isn't She Great." Ryan Gilbey; 'I Don't Know
What Goes on in Their Heads Out in Hollywood'; The Guardian (London,
UK); Dec 15, 2005.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Audubon Oak
http://djlphoto.com/0512/0512oak.htm

Sidewalk Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0512/sidewalktree.htm

Tree Damage
http://djlphoto.com/0512/treedamage.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Jessica and Olivia (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0512/oj4a.htm

Table for Two
http://djlphoto.com/0510/tablefortwo.htm

The Mask
http://djlphoto.com/0510/mask.htm

American Art
http://djlphoto.com/0510/americanart.htm

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks (seven images)
http://djlphoto.com/0512/bbwd1.htm

which he must
cross, by swimming, for fruits and nuts,
to help him
I sit with my rifle on a platform
high in a tree, same side of the river
as the hungry monkey. How does this assist
him? When he swims for it
I look first upriver: predators move faster with
the current than against it.
If a crocodile is aimed from upriver to eat the monkey
and an anaconda from downriver burns
with the same ambition, I do
the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey,
croc- and snake-speed, and if, if
it looks as though the anaconda or the croc
will reach the monkey
before he attains the rivers far bank,
I raise my rifle and fire
one, two, three, even four times into the river
just behind the monkey
to hurry him up a little.
Shoot the snake, the crocodile?
Theyre just doing their jobs,
but the monkey, the monkey
has little hands like a childs,
and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile.

From The Cradle Place
Houghton Mifflin, 2004

Copyright 2004 Thomas Lux.
All rights reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
American Journeys
contains more than 18,000 pages of eyewitness
accounts of North American exploration, from
the sagas of Vikings in Canada in AD1000 to
the diaries of mountain men in the Rockies
800 years later.
<http://www.americanjourneys.org/>

USGS - thousands and thousands of useful and informative pages from the
Unites States Geological Survey:
http://ask.usgs.gov/

Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
==A.==

Ugly phrase conceals an uglier truth January 10, 2006

by Salman Rushdie.

BEYOND any shadow of a doubt, the ugliest phrase to enter the English
language last year was "extraordinary rendition". To those of us who
love words, this phrase's brutalisation of meaning is an infallible
signal of its intent to deceive.

"Extraordinary" is an ordinary enough adjective, but its sense is
being stretched here to include more sinister meanings that your
dictionary will not provide: secret; ruthless; and extrajudicial.

As for "rendition", the English language permits four meanings: a
performance; a translation; a surrender - this meaning is now
considered archaic; or an "act of rendering"; which leads us to the
verb "to render" among whose 17 possible meanings you will not find
"to kidnap and covertly deliver an individual or individuals for
interrogation to an undisclosed address in an unspecified country
where torture is permitted".

Language, too, has laws, and those laws tell us this new American
usage is improper - a crime against the word. Every so often the
habitual newspeak of politics throws up a term whose calculated
blandness makes us shiver with fear - yes, and loathing.

"Clean words can mask dirty deeds," The New York Times columnist
William Safire wrote in 1993, in response to the arrival of another
such phrase, "ethnic cleansing".

"Final solution" is a further, even more horrible locution of this
Orwellian, double-plus-ungood type. "Mortality response", a euphemism
for death by killing that I first heard during the Vietnam War, is
another. This is not a pedigree of which any newborn usage should be
proud.

People use such phrases to avoid using others whose meaning would be
problematically over-apparent. "Ethnic cleansing" and "final solution"
were ways of avoiding the word "genocide", and to say "extraordinary
rendition" is to reveal one's squeamishness about saying "the export
of torture". However, as Cecily remarks in Oscar Wilde's The
Importance of Being Earnest, "When I see a spade, I call it a spade",
and what we have here is not simply a spade, it's a shovel - and it's
shovelling a good deal of ordure.

Now that Senator John McCain has forced upon a reluctant White House
his amendment putting the internationally accepted description of
torture - "cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment" - into American
law, in spite of energetic attempts by the Vice-President, Dick
Cheney, to defeat it, the growing belief that the Bush Administration
could be trying to get around the McCain amendment by the "rendition"
of persons adjudged torture-worthy to less-delicately inclined
countries merits closer scrutiny.

We are beginning to hear the names and stories of men seized and
transported in this fashion: Maher Arar, a Canadian-Syrian, was
captured by the CIA on his way to the US and taken via Jordan to Syria
where, says his lawyer, he was "brutally physically tortured".

Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Kuwaiti-Lebanese origin, was
kidnapped in Macedonia and taken for interrogation to Afghanistan,
where he says he was repeatedly beaten. The Syrian-born Mohammed
Haydar Zammar says he was grabbed in Morocco and then spent four years
in a Syrian dungeon.

Lawsuits are under way. Lawyers for the plaintiffs suggest their
clients were only a few of the victims, that in Afghanistan, Egypt,
Syria and perhaps elsewhere the larger pattern of the extraordinary-
rendition project is yet to be uncovered. Inquiries are under way in
Canada, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

The CIA's internal inquiry admits to "under 10" such cases, which to
many ears sounds like another bit of double-talk. Tools are created to
be used and it seems improbable, to say the least, that so politically
risky and morally dubious a system would be set up and then barely
employed.

The US authorities have been taking a characteristically robust line
on this issue. On her recent European trip, the Secretary of State,
Condoleezza Rice, more or less told European governments to back off
the issue - which they duly, and tamely, did, claiming to have been
satisfied by her assurances.

At the end of December, the German Government ordered the closing of
an Islamic centre near Munich after finding documents encouraging
suicide attacks in Iraq. This is a club which, we are told, Khaled al-
Masri often visited before being extraordinarily rendered to
Afghanistan. "Aha!" we are encouraged to think. "Obvious bad guy.
Render his sorry butt anywhere you like."

What is wrong with this kind of thinking is that, as Isabel Hilton of
The Guardian wrote last July, "The delusion that officeholders know
better than the law is an occupational hazard of the powerful and one
to which those of an imperial cast of mind are especially prone & When
disappearance became state practice across Latin America in the '70s
it aroused revulsion in democratic countries, where it is a
fundamental tenet of legitimate government that no state actor may
detain - or kill - another human being without having to answer to the
law."

In other words, the question isn't whether or not a given individual
is "good" or "bad." The question is whether or not we are - whether or
not our governments have dragged us into immorality by discarding due
process of law, which is generally accorded to be second only to
individual rights as the most important pillar of a free society.

The White House, however, plainly believes that it has public opinion
behind it in this and other contentious matters such as secret
wiretapping. Cheney recently told reporters, "When the American people
look at this, they will understand and appreciate what we're doing and
why we're doing it."

He may be right for the moment, though the controversy shows no signs
of dying. It remains to be seen how long Americans are prepared to go
on accepting that the end justifies practically any means Cheney cares
to employ.

In the beginning is the word. Where one begins by corrupting language,
worse corruptions swiftly follow. Sitting as the Supreme Court to rule
on torture last month, Britain's law lords spoke to the world in words
that were simple and clear. "The torturer is abhorred not because the
information he produces may be unreliable," Lord Rodger of Earlsferry
said, "but because of the barbaric means he uses to extract it."

"Torture is an unqualified evil," Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood
added. "It can never be justified. Rather, it must always be
punished."

The dreadful probability is that the US outsourcing of torture will
allow it to escape punishment. It will not allow it to escape moral
obloquy.

==B.==

Benjamin Franklins 1762 design for the lightning
rod remains the basis for all modern lightning
protection codes in the world today.

Fullstory:
<http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-59/iss-1/p42.html>

==C.==

Ruling Class Warriors

Many Americans spent the week before Christmas thinking about their
neediest fellow citizens. But in Washington this year, something
rather different took place. In the middle of the night on December
19, members of the House of Representatives were presented with a 774-
page budget reconciliation bill, written behind closed doors by
Republicans, less than five hours before they had to vote on it. The
legislation, which passed the House by 212 to 206 and the Senate by 51
to 50 (Vice President Dick Cheney rushed back from Pakistan to break
the tie), includes $40 billion in reductions to various domestic
programs over the next five years, ostensibly to balance the budget
but in reality to make way for yet another round of tax cuts for the
rich.

Who will have to suffer? Medicaid recipients, to begin with, since the
budget allows states to impose premiums and increase co-payments--as
high as 10 percent of the cost of a medical service--on low-income
Americans. For a $1,000 hospital stay, this could mean $100 in out-of-
pocket costs, a change that may sound minor but is sure to be
profound. In 2003, when Oregon began charging slightly higher co-
payments ($5 a doctor's visit) and premiums for Medicaid recipients,
40,000 swiftly dropped out of the program. "We thought the premiums
were relatively small," a state official told the New York Times, "but
for people with very low incomes, they proved to be significant."

Congress could instead have reduced the amount Medicaid pays
pharmaceutical companies for prescription drugs, as an earlier Senate
version actually did, which would have saved $10.5 billion over ten
years. Billions more could have been saved by eliminating a wasteful
fund that encourages managed care companies to participate in
Medicare. Neither measure was included in the reconciliation bill.

Full story:
<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060123/press>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Guilty Despite Deformity: In November, engineering student Mischa Beutling,
22, became the most recent rape defendant to profess innocence by
impossibility, arguing that his member is simply too large to have committed
the crime. Beutling, who stands 6-7 and weighs 240 pounds, called a
urologist to the stand in Newmarket, Ontario, to testify that Beutling's is
8 1/2 inches long "semi-relaxed" and 6 1/2 inches in circumference and that
a woman who has not given birth could not accommodate it without serious
injury. (In December, a judge named Margaret Eberhard found Beutling
guilty.) [Toronto Sun, 10-29-05, 12-3-05]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
24January2006

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  24 January 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
TELL A FRIEND ABOUT <:>i n t e r a l i a<:>
http://lhostelaw.com/iaad/ia_ad.htm

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- fustilugs
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- by Paul Lake
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - (A) Bush's growing disregard for law (B) EPA to allow pesticide testing on
                 humans. (C) Hardwired to seek beauty
6. Weird News - New Orleans mayor sorry for 'chocolate' remark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
fustilugs (FUS-ti-lugs) noun

A fat and slovenly person.

[From Middle English fusty (smelly, moldy) + lug
(to carry something heavy).]

"'Come on, you old fustilugs,' he called, for she
wheezed and blew and mounted with difficulty."
-- Julian Rathbone; Joseph; Little Brown; 2001.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

White on Red -- Red on Red (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/whiteonred.htm

Golden Leaves (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/goldenleaves.htm

Cortona Hillside
http://djlphoto.com/0601/cortonahillside.htm

LAST ISSUE:
Audubon Oak
http://djlphoto.com/0512/0512oak.htm

Sidewalk Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0512/sidewalktree.htm

Tree Damage
http://djlphoto.com/0512/treedamage.htm
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day --
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Blue Jay

A sound like a rusty pump beneath our window
Woke us at dawn. Drawing the curtains back,
We saw—through milky light, above the doghouse—
A blue jay lecturing a neighbor's cat
So fiercely that, at first, it seemed to wonder
When birds forgot the diplomacy of flight
And met, instead, each charge with a wild swoop,
Metallic cry, and angry thrust of beak.

Later, we found the reason. Near the fence
Among the flowerless stalks of daffodils,
A weak piping of feathers. Too late now to go back
To nest again among the sheltering leaves.
And so, harrying the dog, routing the cat,
And taking sole possession of the yard,
The mother swooped all morning.

I found her there
Still fluttering round my head, still scattering
The troops of blackbirds, head cocked toward my car
As if it were some lurid animal,
When I returned from work. Still keeping faith.
As if what I had found by afternoon
Silent and still and hidden in tall grass
Might rise again above the fallen world;
As if the dead were not past mothering.

Paul Lake

From Another Kind of Travel,
The University of Chicago Press, © 1988.
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4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
New Orleans News
< http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=new+orleans&btnG=Search+News >

Exploratorium - the museum of science, art and human perception
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

The History Net
http://historynet.com/index.html

HealthFinder
http://www.healthfinder.gov/

DealTime (compare prices)
http://www.dealtime.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
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== A ==
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Editorial: Ominous sign / The president's growing disregard for the law

Friday, January 20, 2006

President Bush's latest tool for disrespecting the Constitution, Congress
and the American people, used more than a hundred times so far, is the
presidential signing statement.

That statement is normally a few words that a president says when he signs
a bill passed by Congress. In the past it was an occasion for the president
to congratulate legislators who had been particularly active in passing the
bill and to praise the new legislation generously, even if he himself had
been unsympathetic to it.

There is no mention of the statement in the Constitution, nor does it have
any role in how laws are passed and put into effect.

Yet Mr. Bush has taken the presidential signing statement as another means
of asserting his will over and above the country's laws, whatever they may
say. In effect, he is trying to establish that whatever he says when he
signs the bill overrides whatever the legislation itself may stipulate.
Historians and presidential scholars, among others, find it alarming.

This is nothing new for Mr. Bush. He began disregarding the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in 2002 when he authorized
wiretapping of foreigners and Americans' telephone calls and e-mails by the
National Security Agency without first obtaining a warrant from the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court. The practice continues today.

His new use of the presidential signing statement turned up egregiously
when after signing the bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain to ban the
torture of prisoners in American custody, Mr. Bush issued a statement Dec.
30 that in effect said he would enforce the new law only as he saw fit.

We repeat -- there is nothing in the Constitution that says he can do that.
To the degree that the American system functions, Congress passes laws that
put into effect the will of the people.

Mr. Bush's subversion of the process is particularly ironic since the laws
passed by Congress that he chooses not to carry out are the product of a
legislature controlled by his own political party. Unfortunately, that is
also a prime reason that Congress is not in open revolt over the
president's disregard for its work.

Everyone loses when a president chooses to carry out only the laws that he
wants to, as he wants to. Fundamental governance of the United States
through the rule of law is sabotaged by this practice. We'll see what
happens when Mr. Bush's ability to do so is challenged by a court --
assuming there will still be independent courts after he succeeds in
stocking them with acquiescent appointees.

Mr. Bush's presidential signing statements are a practice designed to paint
the Constitution, Congress and the American people into a shrinking corner.
If Congress can't pass a law and expect the president to respect it, where
exactly is this nation left?

Original: < http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06020/641039.stm>
----------------------------------------------------

== B ==
EPA to accept pesticide tests on humans
By John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency for the
first time is establishing criteria for tests by pesticide makers
on human subjects.

Full story:
< http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-01-23-human-testing_x.htm >
-------------------------------------------

== C ==
Hardwired to seek beauty
by Dennis Dutton

THROUGHOUT history and across cultures, the arts of homo sapiens have
demonstrated universal features. These aesthetic inclinations and
patterns have evolved as part of our hardwired psychological nature,
ingrained in the human species over the 80,000 generations lived out
by our ancestors in the 1.6 million years of the Pleistocene.

The existence of a universal aesthetic psychology has been suggested,
not only experimentally, but by the fact that the arts travel outside
their local contexts so easily: Beethoven is loved in Japan,
Aboriginal art in Paris, Korean ceramics in Brazil, and Hollywood
movies all over the globe.

Our aesthetic psychology has remained unchanged since the building of
cities and the advent of writing some 10,000 years ago, which explains
why The Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer, and the Epic of Gilgamesh,
remain good reading today.

Full story:
< http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17805214%255E16947,00.html >

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

New Orleans mayor sorry for 'chocolate' remark
By Ellen Wulfhorst Wed Jan 18, 10:56 AM ET

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The mayor of New Orleans apologized Tuesday for
saying the hurricane-ravaged city would be rebuilt as a "chocolate" city
and for blaming the storm on the wrath of God over U.S. involvement in
Iraq.

The "chocolate" remark, which Mayor Ray Nagin made in a speech Monday,
struck a nerve, as racial tensions and concerns loom over proposed plans to
rebuild New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.

Several of the hardest-hit neighborhoods were mostly black, and many
residents have expressed fears that those areas will not be rebuilt while
those with more white residents may be. Before the August 29 storm, New
Orleans was about 70 percent black.

"If I offended anyone, I sincerely apologize," the mayor, who is black,
said Tuesday. "I need to be more sensitive and more aware of what I'm
saying.

"I want everybody to be welcome in New Orleans -- black, white, Hispanic,
Asian -- because that's the kind of city that we deserve going forward," he
said. "I was trying to, and didn't do it very well, to deal with this whole
notion, the undercurrent what's being talked about, and what's being talked
about is who is going to come back to New Orleans at the end of the day."

In his speech Monday, marking the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Nagin
said: "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God
wants it to be. .... This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."

Other black leaders in New Orleans said they were taken aback by Nagin's
remarks.

"Everybody's jaws are dropping right now," City Councilman Oliver Thomas
told The Times-Picayune newspaper. "Even if you believe some of that crazy
stuff, that is not the type of image we need to present to the nation."

In his speech, Nagin also said a wrathful God sent the hurricanes.

"Surely God is mad at America," he said. "Surely he's not approving of us
being in Iraq under false pretense. But surely he's upset at black America
also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

In his apology, Nagin said: "I said some things that were totally
inappropriate. I shouldn't have made any references to God as it relates to
this city. In the moment I got caught up, and it shouldn't have happened."

Nagin also said he has made the "chocolate" reference several times before,
including before Congress.

From Yahoo's Oddly Enough:
< http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index&cid=573&/>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
07February2006

TOP

             <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  17 February 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

TELL A FRIEND ABOUT <:>i n t e r a l i a<:>
http://lhostelaw.com/iaad/ia_ad.htm

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- rident
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Dick Cheney
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Listing of those who quit their government posts in protest
or were ridiculed, defamed, threatened, fired, forced out, demoted, or driven
to retire by Bush administration.
6. Weird News - Harper's Index - January 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````

rident (RYD-uhnt) adjective

Laughing; cheerful.

[From Latin ridere (to laugh) which is also the source of ridiculous,
deride, and risible.]

"Mamma was gracious and happy. Hetty was radiant and rident."
William Makepeace Thackeray; The Virginians; 1859.

--
>From A Word A Day:http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Buick, Truckdoor, and Rust (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/buick.htm

Understory
http://djlphoto.com/0601/understory.htm

Cactus
http://djlphoto.com/0601/cactus.htm

LAST ISSUE:

White on Red -- Red on Red (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/whiteonred.htm

Golden Leaves (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/goldenleaves.htm

Cortona Hillside
http://djlphoto.com/0601/cortonahillside.htm
--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day --
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now
has weapons of mass destruction.
- Dick Cheney, Speech to VFW National Convention, August 26, 2002

We believe [Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.
- Dick Cheney, NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

Cheney handling softballs from Brit Hume:

Q Now, it strikes me that you must have known that this was
going to be a national story --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, sure.

Q -- and it does raise the question of whether you couldn't have
headed off this beltway firestorm if you had put out the word to the
national media, as well as to the local newspaper so that it could post
it on its website. I mean, in retrospect, wouldn't that have been the
wise course --

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, who is going to do that? Are they going
to take my word for what happened? There is obviously --

Q Well, obviously, you could have put the statement out in the
name of whoever you wanted. You could put it out in the name of Mrs.
Armstrong, if you wanted to. Obviously, that's -- she's the one who
made the statement.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Exactly. That's what we did. We went with
Mrs. Armstrong. We had -- she's the one who put out the statement. And
she was the most credible one to do it because she was a witness. It
wasn't me in terms of saying, here's what happened, it was --

Q Right, understood. Now, the suspicion grows in some quarters
that you -- that this was an attempt to minimize it, by having it first
appear in a little paper and appear like a little hunting incident down
in a remote corner of Texas.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: There wasn't any way this was going to be
minimized, Brit; but it was important that it be accurate. I do think
what I've experienced over the years here in Washington is as the media
outlets have proliferated, speed has become sort of a driving force,
lots of time at the expense of accuracy. And I wanted to make sure we
got it as accurate as possible, and I think Katherine was an excellent
choice. I don't know who you could get better as the basic source for
the story than the witness who saw the whole thing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
NY Times Newsroom Navigator (bigger and better than ever)
< http://tech.nytimes.com/top/news/technology/cybertimesnavigator/index.html >

Your ideal PC
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,116993,00.asp

CIA World Factbook - updated 2005 version
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Fallen Legion Casualties of the Bush Administration By Nick Turse

In late August 2005, after twenty years of service in the field of military
procurement, Bunnatine ("Bunny") Greenhouse, the top official at the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers in charge of awarding government contracts for the
reconstruction of Iraq, was demoted. For years, Greenhouse received stellar
evaluations from superiors -- until she raised objections about secret, no-
bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) -- a subsidiary of
Halliburton, the mega-corporation Vice President Dick Cheney once presided
over. After telling congress that one Halliburton deal was "the most
blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of
my professional career," she was reassigned from "the elite Senior
Executive Service... to a lesser job in the civil works division of the
corps."

When Greenhouse was busted down, she became just another of the casualties
of the Bush administration -- not the countless (or rather uncounted)
Iraqis, or the ever-growing list of American troops, killed, maimed, or
mutilated in the administration's war of convenience-- but the seemingly
endless and ever-growing list of beleaguered administrators, managers, and
career civil servants who quit their posts in protest or were defamed,
threatened, fired, forced out, demoted, or driven to retire by Bush
administration strong-arming. Often, this has been due to revulsion at the
President's policies -- from the invasion of Iraq and negotiations with
North Korea to the flattening of FEMA and the slashing of environmental
standards -- which these women and men found to be beyond the pale.

Since almost the day he assumed power, George W. Bush has left a trail of
broken careers in his wake. Below is a listing of but a handful of the most
familiar names on the rolls of the fallen:

Richard Clarke: Perhaps the most well-known of the Bush administration's
casualties, Clarke spent thirty years in the government, serving under
every president from Ronald Reagan on. He was the second-ranking
intelligence officer in the State Department under Reagan and then served
in the administration of George H.W. Bush. Under Presidents Bill Clinton
and George W. Bush, he held the position of the president's chief adviser
on terrorism on the National Security Council -- a Cabinet-level post.
Clarke became disillusioned with the "terrible job" of fighting terrorism
exhibited by the second president Bush -- namely, ignoring evidence of an
impending al-Qaeda attack and putting the pressure on to produce a non-
existent link between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. (His memo explaining
that there was no connection, said Clarke, "got bounced and sent back
saying, ‘Wrong answer. Do it again.'") After 9/11, Clarke asked for a
transfer from his job to a National Security Council office concerned with
cyber-terrorism. (The administration later claimed it was a demotion).
Quit, January 2003.

Paul O'Neill: A top official at the Office of Management and Budget under
Presidents Nixon and Ford (and later chairman of aluminum-giant Alcoa),
O'Neill served nearly two years in George W. Bush's cabinet as Secretary of
the Treasury before being asked to resign after opposing the president's
tax cuts. He, like Clarke, recalled Bush's Iraq fixation. "From the very
beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and
that he needed to go," said O'Neill, a permanent member of the National
Security Council. "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the
tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this.'" Fired,
December 6, 2002.

Flynt Leverett, Ben Miller and Hillary Mann: A Senior Director for Middle
East Affairs on President Bush's National Security Council (NSC), a CIA
staffer and Iraq expert with the NSC, and a foreign service officer on
detail to the NSC as the Director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs,
respectively, they were all reportedly forced out by Elliott Abrams, Bush's
NSC Advisor on Middle East Affairs, when they disagreed with policy toward
Israel. Said Leverett, "There was a decision made… basically to renege on
the commitments we had made to various European and Arab partners of the
United States. I personally disagreed with that decision." He also noted,
"[Richard] Clarke's critique of administration decision-making and how it
did not balance the imperative of finishing the job against al Qaeda versus
what they wanted to do in Iraq is absolutely on the money… We took the
people out [of Afghanistan in 2002 to begin preparing for the war in Iraq]
who could have caught" al Qaeda leaders like Osama bin Laden and Ayman
Zawahiri. According to Josef Bodansky, the director of the Congressional
Task Force on Terror and Unconventional Warfare, Abrams "led Miller to an
open window and told him to jump." He also stated that Mann and Leverett
had been told to leave. Resigned/Fired, 2003.

Larry Lindsey: A "top economic adviser" to Bush who was ousted when he
revealed to a newspaper that a war with Iraq could cost $200 billion.
Fired, December 2002.

Ann Wright: A career diplomat in the Foreign Service and a colonel in the
Army Reserves resigned on the day the U.S. launched the Iraq War. In her
letter of resignation, Wright told then-Secretary of State Colin Powell: "I
believe the Administration's policies are making the world a more
dangerous, not a safer, place. I feel obligated morally and professionally
to set out my very deep and firm concerns on these policies and to resign
from government service as I cannot defend or implement them." Resigned,
March 19, 2003.

John Brady Kiesling: A career diplomat who served four presidents over a
twenty year span, he tendered his letter of resignation from his post as
Political Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece on the eve of the
invasion of Iraq. He wrote:

"…until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by
upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests
of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer. The policies
we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values
but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is
driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's
most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow
Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of
international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course
will bring instability and danger, not security."

Resigned, February 27, 2003.

John Brown: After nearly 25-years, this veteran of the Foreign Service, who
served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev and Belgrade, resigned from his
post. In his letter of resignation, he wrote: "I cannot in good conscience
support President Bush's war plans against Iraq. The president has failed
to: explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready
to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time; to lay out the full
ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian
casualties; to specify the economic costs of the war for the ordinary
Americans; to clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror; [and]
to take international public opinion against the war into serious
consideration." Resigned, March 10, 2003.

Rand Beers: When Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for
combating terrorism, resigned he declined to comment, but one former
intelligence official noted, "Hardly a surprise. We have sacrificed a war
on terror for a war with Iraq. I don't blame Randy at all. This just
reflects the widespread thought that the war on terror is being set aside
for the war with Iraq at the expense of our military and intel[ligence]
resources and the relationships with our allies." Beers later admitted,
"The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on
terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure… As an insider, I
saw the things that weren't being done. And the longer I sat and watched,
the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out." Resigned,
March 2003.

Anthony Zinni: A soldier and diplomat for 40 years, Zinni served from 1997
to 2000 as commander-in-chief of the United States Central Command in the
Middle East. The retired Marine Corps general was then called back to
service by the Bush administration to assume one of the highest diplomatic
posts, special envoy to the Middle East (from November 2002 to March 2003),
but his disagreement with Bush's plans to go to war and public comments
that foretold of a prolonged and problematical aftermath to such a war led
to his ouster. "In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw
at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse,
lying, incompetence and corruption," said Zinni. Failed to be reappointed,
March 2003.

Eric Shinseki: After General Shinseki, the Army's chief of staff, told
Congress that the occupation of Iraq could require "several hundred
thousand troops," he was derided by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz. Then, wrote the Houston Chronicle, Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld "took the unusual step of announcing that Gen. Eric Shinseki would
be leaving when his term as Army chief of staff end[ed]." Retired, June
2003.

Karen Kwiatkowski: A Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force who served in the
Department of Defense's Near East and South Asia (NESA) Bureau in the year
before the invasion of Iraq, she wrote in her letter of resignation:

"…[W]hile working from May 2002 through February 2003 in the office of the
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Near East South Asia and Special
Plans (USDP/NESA and SP) in the Pentagon, I observed the environment in
which decisions about post-war Iraq were made… What I saw was aberrant,
pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline. If one is seeking the
answers to why peculiar bits of ‘intelligence' found sanctity in a
presidential speech, or why the post-Hussein occupation has been
distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than
the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense."

Retired, July 2003.

Charles "Jack" Pritchard: A retired U.S. Army colonel and a 28-year veteran
of the military, the State Department, and the National Security Council,
who served as the State Department's senior expert on North Korea and as
the special envoy for negotiations with that country, resigned (according
to the Los Angeles Times) because the "administration's refusal to engage
directly with the country made it almost impossible to stop Pyongyang from
going ahead with its plans to build, test and deploy nuclear weapons."
Resigned, August 2003.

Major (then Captain) John Carr and Major Robert Preston: Air Force
prosecutors, they quit their posts in 2004 rather than take part in trials
under the military commission system President Bush created in 2001 which
they considered "rigged against alleged terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba." Requested and granted reassignment, 2004.

Captain Carrie Wolf: A U.S. Air Force officer, she also asked to leave the
Office of Military Commissions due to concerns that the Bush-created
commissions for trying prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were unjust. Requested
and granted reassignment, 2004.

Colonel Douglas Macgregor: He retired from the U.S. Army and stated: "I
love the army and I was sorry to leave it. But I saw no possibility of
fundamentally positive reform and reorgani[z]ation of the force for the
current strategic environment or the future… It's a very sycophantic
culture. The biggest problem we have inside the… Department of Defense at
the senior level, but also within the officer corps -- is that there are no
arguments. Arguments are [seen as] a sign of dissent. Dissent equates to
disloyalty." Retired, June 2004.

Paul Redmond: After a long career at the CIA, Redmond became the Assistant
Secretary for Information Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security.
When, according to Notra Trulock of Accuracy in Media, he reported, at a
congressional hearing in June 2003, "that he didn't have enough analysts to
do the job… [and] his office still lacked the secure communications
capability to receive classified reports from the intelligence community…
[t]hat kind of candor was not appreciated by his bosses and, consequently,
he had to go." Resigned, June 2003.

John W. Carlin: According to the Washington Post, Carlin, the "Archivist of
the United States was pushed by the White House… to submit his resignation
without being given any reason, Senate Democrats disclosed… at a hearing to
consider President Bush's nomination of his successor." "I asked why, and
there was no reason given," said Carlin, but the Post reported that some
had "suggested Bush may have wanted a new archivist to help keep his or his
father's sensitive presidential records under wraps." Although he had
stated his wish to serve until the end of his 10-year term, and 65th
birthday in 2005, Carlin surrendered to Bush administration pressure.
Resigned, December 19, 2003.

Susan Wood and Frank Davidoff: Wood was the Food and Drug Administration's
Assistant Commissioner for Women's Health and Director of the Office of
Women's Health; Davidoff was the editor emeritus of the journal Annals of
Internal Medicine and an internal medicine specialist on the FDA's
Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee. Wood resigned in protest over the
FDA's decision to delay yet again, due to pressure from the Bush
administration, a final ruling on whether the "morning-after pill" should
be made more easily accessible -- despite a 23-4 vote, back in December
2003, by a panel of experts to recommend non-prescription sale of the
contraceptive, called Plan B. In an email to colleagues, Wood, the top FDA
official in charge of women's health issues, wrote, "I can no longer serve
as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and
recommended for approval by the professional staff here, has been
overruled." Days later, Davidoff quit over the same issue and wrote in his
resignation letter, "I can no longer associate myself with an organization
that is capable of making such an important decision so flagrantly on the
basis of political influence, rather than the scientific and clinical
evidence." Wood: Resigned, August 31, 2005. Davidoff: Resigned, September,
2005.

Thomas E. Novotny: A deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health
and Human Services and the chief official working on an international
treaty to reduce cigarette smoking around the world, Novotny "stepped
down," claimed Bush administration officials, "for personal reasons
unrelated to the negotiations"; but the Washington Post reported that
"three people who ha[d] spoken with Novotny… said he had privately
expressed frustration over the administration's decision to soften the U.S.
positions on key issues, including restrictions on secondhand smoke and the
advertising and marketing of cigarettes." Resigned, August 1, 2001.

Joanne Wilson: The commissioner of the Department of Education's
Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), she quit, according to the
Washington Post, "in protest of what she said were the administration's
largely unnoticed efforts to gut the office's funding and staffing" and
attempts to dismantle programs "critical to helping the blind, deaf and
otherwise disabled find jobs." On February 7, 2005 the Bush administration
announced that it would close all RSA regional offices and cut personnel in
half. Quit, February 8, 2005.

James Zahn: According to an article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in the Nation
magazine, Zahn, a "nationally respected microbiologist with the Agriculture
Department's research service," stated that "his supervisor at the USDA,
under pressure from the hog industry, had ordered him not to publish his
study," which "identified bacteria that can make people sick -- and that
are resistant to antibiotics -- in the air surrounding industrial-style hog
farms"; and that "he had been forced to cancel more than a dozen public
appearances at local planning boards and county health commissions seeking
information about health impacts of industry mega-farms." As a result,
"Zahn resigned from the government in disgust." Resigned, May 2002.

Tony Oppegard and Jack Spadaro: Oppegard and Spadaro were members of a
"team of federal geodesic engineers selected to investigate the collapse of
barriers that held back a coal slurry pond in Kentucky containing toxic
wastes from mountaintop strip-mining." According to the Environmental
Protection Agency, this had been "the greatest environmental catastrophe in
the history of the Eastern United States." Oppegard, who headed the team,
"was fired on the day Bush was inaugurated… All eight members of the team
except Spadaro signed off on a whitewashed investigation report. Spadaro,
like the others, was harassed but flat-out refused to sign. In April of
2001 Spadaro resigned from the team and filed a complaint with the
Inspector General of the Labor Department… he was placed on administrative
leave--a prelude to getting fired." Two months before his 28th anniversary
as a federal employee, and after years of harassment due to his stance,
Spadaro resigned. "I'm just very tired of fighting," he said. "I've been
fighting this administration since early 2001. I want a little peace for a
while." Oppegrad: Fired, January 20, 2001. Spaddaro: Resigned, October 1,
2003.

Teresa Chambers: After speaking with reporters and congressional staffers
about budget problems in her organization, the U.S. Park Police Chief was
placed on administrative leave. Then, according to CNN, just "two and half
hours after her attorneys filed a demand for immediate reinstatement
through the Merit Systems Protection Board, an independent agency that
ensures federal employees are protected from management abuses," Chambers
was fired. "The American people should be afraid of this kind of silencing
of professionals in any field," said Chambers. "We should be very concerned
as American citizens that people who are experts in their field either
can't speak up, or, as we're seeing now in the parks service, won't speak
up." Fired, July 2004.

Martha Hahn: The state director for the Bureau of Land Management,
"responsible for 12 million acres in Idaho, almost one-quarter of the
state" for seven years, Hahn found her authority drastically curtailed
after the Bush administration took office. She watched as the
administration blocked public comment on mining initiatives and opened up
previously protected areas to environmental degradation. After she locked
horns with cattle interests over grazing rights, she received a letter
stating she was being transferred from her beloved Rocky Mountain West to
"a previously nonexistent job in New York City." "It's been a shock," she
said. "I'm going through mental anguish right now. I felt like I was at the
prime of my career." Hahn was told to accept the involuntary reassignment
or resign. Resigned, March 6, 2002.

Andrew Eller: Eller "spent many of his 17 years with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service protecting the [Florida] panther. But when his research
didn't jibe with a huge airport project slated for the cat's habitat -- and
Eller refused to play along--he was given the boot," wrote the Tucson
Weekly. "I was fired three days after President Bush was re-elected," said
Eller. "It was obviously reprisal for holding different views than [U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service] management on whether or not the panther was in
jeopardy, and pointing out that they were using flawed science to support
their view." Fired, November 2004.

Mike Dombeck: The chief of the Forest Service resigned after a 23-year
government career. In his resignation letter, the pro-conservation Dombeck
stated, "It was made clear in no uncertain terms that the [Bush]
administration wants to take the Forest Service in another direction ...."
Resigned, March 27, 2001.

James Furnish: A political conservative, evangelical Christian, and
Republican who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 as well as the former
Deputy Chief of the U.S. Forest Service (who spent 30 years, across 8
presidential administrations working for that agency), Furnish resigned in
2002 due to policy differences with the Bush administration. "I just viewed
[the administration's] actions as being regressive," said Furnish. In
acting according to his conscience, instead of waiting a year longer to
maximize retirement benefits, Furnish lost out on about $10,000 a year for
the rest of his life. Resigned, 2002.

Mike Parker: In early 2002, Parker, the director of the Army Corps of
Engineers testified before Congress that Bush-mandated budget cuts would
have a "negative impact" on the Corps. He also admitted to holding no "warm
and fuzzy" feelings toward the Bush administration. "Soon after," reported
the Christian Science Monitor, "he was given 30 minutes to resign or be
fired." In the wake of the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, Parker's clashes with Mitch Daniels, former director of the Office of
Management and Budget, can be seen as prophetic. Parker remembered one such
incident in which he brought Daniels, the Bush administration's budget
guru, a piece of steel from a Mississippi canal lock that "was completely
corroded and falling apart because of a lack of funding," and said, "Mitch,
it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the lock up or if it falls down
because it disintegrates -- either way it's the same effect, and if we let
it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame." He recalled of the
incident, "It made no impact on him whatsoever." Resigned, March 6, 2002.

Sylvia K. Lowrance: A top Environmental Protection Agency official who
served the agency for over 20 years, including as Assistant Administrator
of its Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance for the first 18
months of the Bush administration, Lowrance retired, stating, "We will see
more resignations in the future as the administration fails to enforce
environmental laws." she said, "This Administration has pulled cases and
put investigations on ice. They sent every signal they can to staff to back
off." Retired, August 2002.

Bruce Boler: An EPA scientist who resigned from his post because, he said,
"Wetlands are often referred to as nature's kidneys. Most self-respecting
scientists will tell you that, and yet [private] developers and officials
[at the Army Corps of Engineers] wanted me to support their position that
wetlands are, literally, a pollution source." Resigned, October 23, 2003.

Eric Schaeffer: After twelve years of service, including the last five as
Director of the Office of Regulatory Enforcement, at the Environmental
Protection Agency, Schaeffer submitted a letter of resignation over the
Bush administration's non-enforcement of the Clean Air Act. He later
explained:

"In a matter of weeks, the Bush administration was able to undo the
environmental progress we had worked years to secure. Millions of tons of
unnecessary pollution continue to pour from these power plants each year as
a result. Adding insult to injury, the White House sought to slash the
EPA's enforcement budget, making it harder for us to pursue cases we'd
already launched against other polluters that had run afoul of the law,
from auto manufacturers to refineries, large industrial hog feedlots, and
paper companies. It became clear that Bush had little regard for the
environment--and even less for enforcing the laws that protect it. So last
spring, after 12 years at the agency, I resigned, stating my reasons in a
very public letter to Administrator [Christine Todd] Whitman."

Resigned, February 27, 2002.

Bruce Buckheit: A 30-year veteran of government service, Buckheit retired
in frustration over Bush administration efforts to weaken environmental
regulations. When asked by NBC reporter Stone Phillips, "What's the biggest
enforcement challenge right now when it comes to air pollution?," the
former Senior Counsel with the Environmental Enforcement Section of the
U.S. Department of Justice, and then Director of EPA's Air Enforcement
Division, was unequivocal: "The Bush Administration." He went on to note
that "this administration has decided to put the economic interests of the
coal fired power plants ahead of the public interests in reducing air
pollution." Resigned, November 2003.

Rich Biondi: A 32-year EPA employee, Biondi retired from his post as
Associate Director of the Air Enforcement Division of the Environmental
Protection Agency. He stated, "We weren't given the latitude we had been,
and the Bush administration was interfering more and more with the ability
to get the job done. There were indications things were going to be
reviewed a lot more carefully, and we needed a lot more justification to
bring lawsuits." Retired, December 2004.

Martin E. Sullivan, Richard S. Lanier and Gary Vikan: Three members of the
White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee, they all resigned from
their posts to protest the looting of Baghdad's National Museum of
Antiquities. In his letter of resignation, Sullivan, the Committee's
chairman, wrote, "The tragedy was not prevented, due to our nation's
inaction," while Lanier castigated "the administration's total lack of
sensitivity and forethought regarding the Iraq invasion and the loss of
cultural treasures." Resigned, April 14, 2003.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, eyes began to focus on the Federal
Emergency Management Agency and the political appointees running it. What
had happened to the professionals who once staffed FEMA? In 2004, Pleasant
Mann, a 17-year FEMA veteran who heads the agency's government employee
union told Indyweek:

"Since last year, so many people have left who had developed most of our
basic programs. A lot of the institutional knowledge is gone. Everyone who
was able to retire has left, and then a lot of people have moved to other
agencies."

Disillusionment with the current state of affairs at FEMA was cited as the
major cause for the mass defections. In fact, a February 2004 survey by the
American Federation of Government Employees found that 80% of a sample of
remaining employees said FEMA had become "a poorer agency" since being
shifted into the Bush-created Department of Homeland Security. What
happened to FEMA has happened, in ways large and small, to many other
federal agencies. In an article by Amanda Griscom in Grist magazine, Jeff
Ruch, the executive director of Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility, made reference to the "unusually high" rate of replacement
of scientists in government agencies during the Bush administration. "If
the scientist gives the inconvenient answer they commit career suicide," he
said.

However defined, the casualties of the Bush administration are legion. The
numbers of government careers wrecked, disrupted, adversely affected, or
tossed into turmoil as a result of this administration's wars, budgets,
policies, and programs is impossible to determine. Although every
administration leaves bodies strewn in its wake, none in recent memory has
come close to the Bush administration in producing so many public
statements of resignation, dissatisfaction, or anger over treatment or
policies. The aforementioned list of casualties includes among the best
known of those who have resigned or left the administration under pressure
(although not necessarily those who have suffered most from their acts).
Perhaps no one knows exactly how many government workers, at all levels,
have fallen in the face of the Bush administration. Those mentioned above
are just a few of the highest profile members of this as yet uncounted
legion, just a few of the names we know.

[NOTE: If you know of others, or are one of the "fallen legion" yourself,
please send the information (and whatever supporting material you would
care to supply) to fallenlegionwall@yahoo.com with the subject heading:
"fallen legion" to add another name to the "wall." This is a subject
TomDispatch would like to return to in the future.]

[Special thanks to Rebecca Solnit for providing the idea for this piece,
and so "commissioning" it.]

Nick Turse works in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University
and as the Associate Editor and Research Director at TomDispatch.com. He
writes for the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Village
Voice, and regularly for Tomdispatch on the military-corporate complex, the
homeland security state, and various other topics.

Fallen Legion (Part II)
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=39653

Fallen Legion (Part III)
< http://www.mojones.com/commentary/columns/2006/02/guerrilla_warfare_in_washington.html >
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
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6. Weird News - Harper's Index
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Harper's Index for January 2006 Posted on Monday, February 6, 2006.
Originally from January 2006. Sources

Percentage of Americans who said in November that the Valerie Plame leak
scandal was of “great importance”: 51[CBS News (N.Y.C.)]

Percentage who said, two months before President Nixon resigned, that
Watergate was “very serious”: 49[The Gallup Organization (Princeton, N.J.)]

Percentage who said it was “just politics”: 42[The Gallup Organization
(Princeton, N.J.)]

Years since a White House official as senior as I. Lewis Libby had been
indicted while in office: 130[American Council of Learned Societies
(N.Y.C.)]

Percentage approval rating of Bill Clinton the day after impeachment and
George W. Bush in November, respectively: 73, 37[The Gallup Organization
(Princeton, N.J.)]

Percentage of Russians today who approve of the direction their country
took under Stalin: 37[VCIOM (Moscow)]

Number of U.S. prisoners serving life sentences with no parole for crimes
they committed while juveniles: 2,225[Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.)]

Number of prisoners serving such sentences in all other countries
worldwide: 12[Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C.) ]

Estimated number of Americans who make fake Indian arrowheads: 5,000[John
Whittaker, Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa)]

Number of arrowheads they produce each year: 1,500,000[John Whittaker,
Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa)]

Total service charges collected by U.S. banks in 2004:
$32,000,000,000[Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (Washington)]

Factor by which this exceeds the total from 1994: 2[Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (Washington)]

Number of small businesses that applied for U.S. disaster loans after last
fall’s hurricanes: 244,602[U.S. Small Business Administration]

Percentage that had been approved as of mid-November: 3[U.S. Small Business
Administration ]

Tons of hurricane-related waste still waiting to be hauled away in
Louisiana: 22,000,000[Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (Baton
Rouge)]

Tons of waste produced by New York City each year: 8,500,000[New York City
Department of Sanitation]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
03March2006

TOP

  <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  03 March 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

TELL A FRIEND ABOUT <:>i n t e r a l i a<:>
http://lhostelaw.com/iaad/ia_ad.htm

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- accismus
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Rhina P. Espaillat
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Politicizing science
6. Weird News - Aha! So this explains why we still have the current administration.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
accismus (ak-SIZ-muhs) noun

Feigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it.

[From Greek akkismos (coyness or affectation).]

If you've ever uttered something resembling any of these expressions,
you've practiced the fine art of accismus:

"Oh, you shouldn't have done it." or "Thank you, but I'm not worthy of
such an honor."

Accismus is showing disinterest in something while secretly wanting
it. It's a form of irony where one pretends indifference and refuses
something while actually wanting it. In Aesop's fable, the fox
pretends he doesn't care for the grapes. Caesar, in Shakespeare's
Julius Caesar, is reported as not accepting the crown.

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"A woman uses no figure of eloquence -- her own, at most, excepted --
so often as that of accismus." Jean Paul Richter; Levana
(translation); 1889. (Cited in the OED)
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Deadwood and Bamboo Macros (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/deadwood.htm

Orange Rose (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/orangerose.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Buick, Truckdoor, and Rust (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0601/buick.htm

Understory
http://djlphoto.com/0601/understory.htm

Cactus
http://djlphoto.com/0601/cactus.htm

The trouble with the dead is how we need them
to play themselves for us, to keep us warm
in the curve of their being, as if they shared
the sun with us, wore our seasons like gloves.

Aching with absence, we tug at their deaths
to hold them: how one bright old man forgot
our names, but quavered Puccini; another
dwindled between the sheets to sixty pounds
of paper bones and nerves and skin like glass;
and one bought roadside fruit for a sick friend
until a downhill truck with failed brakes found
her, dragged her spinning from the axle,
scattering peaches.

But they need to step
clear of us now; they send out mosses
and lichens to cover their human names,
they untangle themselves from our hunger,
our lame grief. We bring them children, poems,
but nothing ever lures them back into their
gestures, the flesh we remember.

Rhina P. Espaillat

From Landscapes with Women: Four American Poets,
Singular Speech Press, © 1999; first published in Poetry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
WebMuseum: Famous Artworks Exhibition
http://www.ibiblio.org/louvre/paint/

National Geographic Map Machine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/

Historical Hurricane Tracks
http://hurricane.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Bush administration undermines scientific integrity

By FRANCESCA GRIFO Scripps Howard News Service 27-FEB-06

In a recent commentary, Scripps Howard columnist Jay Ambrose not only
misrepresented the history and positions of the Union of Concerned
Scientists (UCS), he also ignored the real news story: the Bush
administration's continued attacks on the science that informs
policies that affect our health, safety, and environment.

UCS was formed in 1969 to address the misuse of science and technology
and to direct scientific research towards pressing global security and
environmental problems. For more than thirty-five years, UCS has
worked with the world's leading scientists to find solutions to
problems ranging from oil dependency to the spread of nuclear weapons
to global warming.

UCS has been successful because independent science guides our work.
We do not take positions on issues for which we do not have scientific
expertise, such as stem cell research _ as Ambrose's column stated _
or the Iraq war or social security reform.

Here are the facts: The Bush administration has regularly censored
federal scientists, altered government scientific documents, and
misrepresented scientific findings that contradict their predetermined
policy decisions. Science has been manipulated on subjects as diverse
as childhood lead poisoning, toxic mercury emissions, breast cancer,
workplace safety, and nuclear weapons.

Two years ago, 62 leading scientists _ including science advisors to
Republican and Democratic administrations dating back to Eisenhower's
_ issued a statement denouncing this unprecedented level of political
interference in science and called for concrete reforms to end these
practices.

Since then, almost 9,000 additional scientists, including 49 Nobel
laureates, have joined their colleagues in this protest. Leading
scientific societies have dedicated major symposia to this problem and
have issued strong statements reaffirming the critical role of
independent science in policy making.

The most egregious example of abuse concerns global warming. In
September 2002, the Bush administration removed a section on global
warming from the Environmental Protection Agency's annual air
pollution report, even though the issue had been a part of the report
since 1997. In June 2003, the administration demanded such extensive
changes in a global warming section of an EPA report that EPA
ultimately removed the whole section rather than make changes that
would undermine the science.

And last summer, it became public that the White House altered
scientific documents to add uncertainty to well founded scientific
conclusions about global warming. With this backdrop, the public
learned in January that government officials had been limiting media
access to senior scientists at multiple government agencies, including
James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies,
because their understanding of the science behind global warming is
inconsistent with the administration's global warming policies.

Despite Ambrose's intimations to the contrary, using independent
science to inform public policy is a non-partisan issue. While
policymakers make decisions based on factors other than science, we
can all agree that nobody should interfere with the science behind
those decisions.

UCS works in a bipartisan fashion to advance common sense solutions.
We believe that American ingenuity and new technologies are able now
to solve many of the challenges we face. What we need is the political
will to put that ingenuity and innovation to work.

(Francesca Grifo is senior scientist and director of the scientific
integrity program at the Union of Concerned Scientists,
www.ucsusa.org, in Washington, D.C.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com)

Thu Mar 2, 8:40 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Most Americans have an easier time naming members
of the cartoon Simpson family than listing the five freedoms granted
by the nation's founders, a survey by a museum released on Wednesday
said.

Here's a hint: one of them is not the right to own and raise pets, an
error committed by one in five respondents.

Half of 1,000 Americans randomly surveyed by the McCormick Tribune
Freedom Museum could name at least two of the five members of Fox
Television's Simpson family, the stars of the network's long-running
show.

But just 28 percent of respondents could name more than one of the
five freedoms listed in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment --
about the same proportion that could name all five Simpson family
members or could recall the three judges on Fox TV's top-rated
"American Idol."

Just 8 percent could recall three First Amendment freedoms.

Two-thirds of respondents did remember freedom of speech as one of
five rights in the First Amendment, but just one person accurately
named all five.

"These survey results clearly demonstrate that many Americans don't
have an understanding of the freedoms they regularly enjoy," said
executive director Dave Anderson of the museum, which opens on April
11 in Chicago.

Freedom of religion was recalled by 24 percent, freedom of the press
by 11 percent, freedom of assembly by 10 percent, and freedom to
petition for redress of grievances (right to a day in court) by 1
percent.

Some participants displayed comical ignorance such as the 38 percent
who believed the right not to incriminate yourself -- "taking the 5th"
in lawyer lingo -- was granted by the First Amendment rather than the
Fifth.

Among other rights not mentioned in the Constitution but listed by
some respondents was the right to drive and the right to have pets.

The survey, conducted January 20-22, had an error margin of plus or
minus 3 percentage points.

In case you forgot, the Simpson clan's names are Homer (owner of that
exclamation of ignorance, "D'oh"), Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
15March2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  15 March 2006
           Beware the ides of March

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm

TELL A FRIEND ABOUT <:>i n t e r a l i a<:>
http://lhostelaw.com/iaad/ia_ad.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- clerisy
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Rhina P. Espaillat
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Internationalist or isolationist
6. Weird News - Hot and Cold Running Beer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
clerisy (KLER-i-see) noun

The well-educated class; the literati; the intelligentsia.

[From German Klerisei (clergy), from Medieval Latin clericia, from
Late Latin clericus (cleric), from Greek klerikos (belonging to the
clergy), from Greek kleros (inheritance).]

Ironically, clerisy and clerk have branched out from the same root,
that is also the source for clergy and cleric.

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus:
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=clerisy

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"The artist, the scholar, and, in general, the clerisy wins its way up
into these places, and gets represented here, somewhat on this footing
of conquest." Ralph Waldo Emerson; Manners; 1844.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Mardi Gras 2006 (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/closeorder.htm

Metairie Cemetery (seven images)
http://djlphoto.com/0603/tombcolor.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Deadwood and Bamboo Macros (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/deadwood.htm

Orange Rose (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/orangerose.htm

Family faces modulate
like variations on a theme,
so that in chordal passages
the decades shift without a seam,

the living echoing the dead
to dress themselves in borrowed grace.
I like to find my father's look
safe in my son's unwounded face.

Such grave harmonics lend us back
the only paradise we know;
an idle game with time, but still,
not bad, as resurrections go.

Rhina P. Espaillat

From Landscapes with Women: Four
American Poets, Singular Speech Press,
© 1999.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Internet Scout Project
http://scout.wisc.edu/index.php

Today's Best Cartoons
http://cagle.msnbc.com/politicalcartoons/

Fark.com (Whacky Web News)
http://www.fark.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Internationalist or isolationist

Molly Ivins - Creators Syndicate

03.14.06 - AUSTIN, Texas -- It's hard to keep up with George W. Bush's
shuttles between internationalism and isolationism. You may recall he
first ran for office declaring he was against nation- building and
other such effete, peacekeeping efforts. None of that do- gooder,
building-a-better-world stuff for him -- he couldn't even be bothered
to learn the names of the Grecians and Kosovians.

Until Sept. 11, except for staring deep into Vlad Putin's ice-blue
eyes and concluding the old KGB shark had soul, Bush evinced little
interest in foreign affairs.

Then he literally became an internationalist with a vengeance.
Absolutely everybody signed up to help go after al- Qaida in
Afghanistan -- offers of help gushed in. Next came the campaign to
bring down Saddam Hussein because he had weapons of mass destruction,
including a nuclear weapons program. Unfortunately, most of the rest
of the world didn't think Iraq had much in the way of WMD, or at least
felt the United Nations inspectors should be given more time to see if
they were there.

The unseemly haste with which Bush pushed toward an unnecessary war
alienated many of our closest allies, and the Bush team could not have
made their contempt for those allies and the United Nations more
clear.

So for a while we were the new imperialists and disdained the rest of
the world. We didn't need anyone -- we would go our own way, and good
riddance to the United Nations, what a bunch of wusses they were. It
was the season of hubris, arrogance and rudeness.

In the ultimate "up yours," Bush named John Bolton ambassador to the
United Nations. Bolton is a man so undiplomatic, not to mention so
anti-U.N., that half the administration was appalled by the idea.
These were the days when mental pygmies outside the administration
were dismissed as the "reality-based community." The senior Bush
adviser famously quoted by Ron Suskind explained, "We are an empire
now, and when we act, we create our own reality." Gosh, that was an
exciting time.

Unfortunately, reality uncharitably refused to conform to the Bush
administration's demands -- in fact, reality kept blowing up in our
faces. In Afghanistan and particularly in Iraq, reality turned out to
be downright ugly about not obliging our blithe president.

Several months after our invasion of Iraq, it turned out we had
actually invaded in order to bring democracy to that lucky little
country. In the odd, dreamlike way that Bush policy morphs, all the
conservatives began to pretend we had always gone in to create
democracy and anyone who suggested otherwise was misremembering that
pesky reality.

Indeed, so dedicated were we to the promotion of democracy around the
world that it was the very first principle of our foreign policy. And
if we still aren't too keen on nation-building -- well, we'll just
outsource it to Halliburton and let them worry about it. And what a
fine job they're doing.

So here we are, internationalists again, and Bush sets off for India,
where he promptly reversed decades of American foreign policy to
exempt India from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. It had been
our policy since Nixon was president to refuse to share nuclear energy
technology with nations unwilling to agree to the nonproliferation
regime. Both India and its mortal enemy, Pakistan, became nuclear-
armed powers in 1998, leading to the truly horrific possibility of a
nuclear arms race on the subcontinent.

Having made this lamentable deal, Bush then proceeded to Pakistan,
which naturally feels insulted and slighted at not getting the same
deal. This is particularly unfortunate, as President Pervez Musharraf
of Pakistan is critical to the control and capture of al-Qaida.

Bush, who dropped the entire subject of Osama bin Laden like a hot
rock in 2003, is now back to saying we want to capture him. Having
offended Pakistan, our critical ally, Bush then returned triumphantly
to -- ta-da! -- send exactly the wrong message to Iran. Just in time,
showing the Iranians that if they persist in developing nuclear
weapons, they, too, will eventually be rewarded like India. Naturally,
this in turn strengthens the hard-liners in Tehran and undercuts the
pro- Western reformers. What were they thinking? Does anybody here
know how to play this game?

So far, it looks as though Bush does better on foreign policy when
he's being an isolationist. Maybe he should just stay home and cut
taxes for the rich some more, or go expose some CIA agent for
political payback against her husband, or just spy on a lot of
American pacifists.

When I heard him deploring xenophobia (that's fear of foreigners) on
the Dubai Ports deal, I did a double- take. Michael Chertoff of
Homeland Security again has said the trouble with homeland security is
that it threatens trade -- all important, all sacred trade, profits
above all. For the umpteenth time, it is not only possible, but smart
to insist on adjusting free trade for labor standards, for
environmental standards and even so your ports don't get blown up.

URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=20478
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Hot and Cold Running Beer
Mon Mar 13, 8:35 AM ET

OSLO (Reuters) - A woman thought she was in heaven when beer instead
of water flowed from the taps in her apartment in west Norway.

"I turned on the tap to clean some knives and forks and beer came
out," Haldis Gundersen told Reuters from her home in Kristiansund,
west Norway. "We thought we were in heaven."

Beer in Norway is among the most expensive in the world with a 0.4
liter (0.7 pint) costing about 50 crowns ($7.48) in a bar.

Gundersen said she tried the beer but that it tasted a bit odd and was
not fizzy.

It turned out that a worker in a bar two floors below had mixed up the
pipes on Saturday evening, wrongly connecting a new barrel to a water
pipe leading to Gundersen's flat. The bar got water in its beer taps.

"If it happens again I'm going to order Baileys (coffee liqueur)," she
said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
28March2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  28 March 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- casus belli
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- John Keats
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - The White House that Cried Wolf
6. Weird News - Death by quagmire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````

casus belli (KAY-suhs BEL-i, rhymes with eye, BEL-ee) noun
plural casus belli

An action or event that causes or is used to justify
starting
a war.

[From New Latin casus belli, from Latin casus (occasion), belli,
genitive of bellum (war).]

"Education, both secondary and tertiary, remains a
battleground,
   though the casus belli seems to be more about funding than
   egalitarianism."
   Stan Heyl; Class War - The Struggle Goes On; The
Independent
   (London, UK); May 19, 2001.

--
>From A Word A Day: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Seen Around Town (eight images):

940 Burgundy
http://djlphoto.com/0603/940.htm

Painted Hydrant and Green Wall
http://djlphoto.com/0603/hydrantcolor.htm

Letter Slot
http://djlphoto.com/0603/letterslot.htm

Shadow Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0603/shadowtree.htm

Ochre House and Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0603/ochrehouse.htm

Minerva Tomb Detail
http://djlphoto.com/0603/minervatomb.htm

Lock
http://djlphoto.com/0603/lock.htm

Flower Bike
http://djlphoto.com/0603/flowerbike.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Mardi Gras 2006 (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0602/closeorder.htm

Metairie Cemetery (seven images)
http://djlphoto.com/0603/tombcolor.htm

--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day --
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
When I have fears that I may cease to be
  Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
  Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
  Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
  Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
  That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
  Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

-- John Keats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Elegant Universe
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/

Quotations and Proverbs Search
http://www.faganfinder.com/quotes/

Color Matters
http://www.colormatters.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The White House that Cried Wolf
Posted on Mar. 27, 2006

By Molly Ivins

The Pentagon has once again investigated itself! And—have a seat, get
the smelling salts, hold all hats—the Pentagon has once again
concluded the Pentagon did absolutely nothing wrong and will continue
to do so.

In this particularly fascinating case, the Pentagon investigated its
own habit of paying people to make up lies about how well the war in
Iraq is going, and then paying other people to put those lies in the
Iraqi media, thus fooling the Iraqis into thinking everything in their
country is tickety-boo. Well, if we can’t fool them, whom can we fool?

The case revolves around a contract worth several million dollars
given by the U.S. military command in Baghdad to the Lincoln Group, a
public relations outfit started by two young entrepreneurs, one
British, one American, in 2003 in Iraq. Articles were written by
American military personnel from the American point of view about the
war, to wit, it’s going well. Lincoln Group in turn paid Iraqi
journalists, some “on retainer,” to print the articles without
revealing the source.

Amusingly enough, through other programs, the U.S. government is also
spending money trying to teach Iraqis about the importance of a free
press in a democracy. According to the Pentagon’s investigation of
itself, none of the Lincoln Group’s actions violate military policies
because the Pentagon is just trying to counter the vast amount of
anti-American propaganda carried in Middle Eastern papers.

While I think this is the best Pentagon-investigating-itself case of
the week, I have to admit it’s like the Oscars—these investigations
are so hard to compare to comedy and tragedy, documentary and animated
shorts. Also featured this week is the case of the Abu Ghraib dog
handler, a 24-year-old sergeant who was convicted for tormenting
detainees. The dog was not convicted, on the theory that it was just
acting on orders.

Despite the huge international outcry over torture, so far the heavy-
hitters in the plot receiving real red, white and blue justice are
Lynndie England, a 5-foot-tall, 23-year-old woman with learning
disabilities and other non-commissioned officers. They were clearly
the mastermind behind the entire international stink fest, from Gitmo
to Afghanistan. England was put in prison for three years. Her baby
boy will be walking and talking by the time Ms. England finishes doing
her time, but no one in the upper ranks is responsible for anything
that’s happened.

In the unfortunate case of the Black Room reported in The New York
Times, we taxpayers seem to have been charged with the cost of
refurbishing one of Saddam Hussein’s military bases into “a top secret
detention center.” One former torture chamber is now an “interrogation
cell” used by Special Operations forces. “In the windowless, jet-black
garage-sized room, some soldiers beat prisoners with rifle butts,
yelled and spit in their faces and, in a nearby area, used detainees
for target practice in a game of jailer paintball.” I say, this time,
let’s indict the dogs.

Of course, there is always the same depressing coda to new accounts of
torture and mistreatment of prisoners by American troops—no useful
information was acquired.

With all these horrifying details surfacing ("No Blood, No Foul” was
the slogan at the Special Operations forces’ Camp Nama), you may
wonder why I return to the case of the chipper newspaper articles. I
find them deeply symbolic, certainly paradigmatic and possibly even
plangent, a word that’s hard to work into a newspaper column. Quite
some time after we had invaded Iraq, our government informed us we had
done so in order to bring democracy to their nation. Originally, we
were told we had to invade their country because there were tons of
weapons of mass destruction therein, but they turned out not to be
there. So, through a process of masterly media manipulation, we went
from Saddam’s nuclear program to democracy. It seems to me this is how
George W. Bush and Co. govern, period. It’s a Karl Rove thing. When
reality is unsatisfactory, just manipulate the media.

You can’t deny that the process has excellent results. It wins
elections, for one thing. It confuses our critics and turns debate
away from what we might loosely call “the truth” and into pointless
fistfights about whether Iraq has descended, is descending or might
descend into civil war.

"HOW DARE YOU CALL IT A CIVIL WAR—YOU’RE JUST LENDING COMFORT TO OUR
ENEMIES.”
“LOOKS LIKE A CIVIL WAR TO ME.”
“DOES NOT—WHERE’S LEE, WHERE’S GRANT?”
“DOES SO!"

This is not helpful dialogue—remember the fight over whether there was
an “insurgency” in Iraq or the Mission was still Accomplished, it was
just “remnant Baathists and foreign terrorists”? That was a mirror of
the arguments we had at home over whether President Bush could be
described as a “friend” of Ken Lay’s or whether he is “close” to Tom
DeLay or “knows” Jack Abramoff. Likewise, entire policy discussions
would get subsumed by furious debate over whether Bush’s proposals
meant “privatization” of Social Security or were merely “personal
accounts.”

Grabbing reality by the throat and forcing it into a form you find
more pleasing than reality itself is not only a great election
strategy, it works for a lot of people on a lot of levels in
life—denial is a good game while it lasts.

But as we can all attest, if you ignore reality, sooner or later it
will bite you in the ass. I suspect the “tough-minded” (they pride
themselves on being tough-minded) members of the Bush administration
think they are not ignoring reality, but just persuading other people
to ignore it long enough to allow them to change it. This is not an
original thought. Many of the great thumb-suckers of D.C. have come to
the same conclusion and pondered deeply on the “fatal hubris” of this
administration. Fatal jackasses are what we have.

Faced with the unappetizing reality of Iraq, Bush and Rove are relying
on that grand old reliable strategy—attack the media. It doesn’t play
as well as it used to. Everyone who wants an alternative reality is
already watching Fox News. The rest of the country is worried.

Let me hasten to admit that I have no solution—I have tried to be
constructive over the course of this war, but I’m flat out of ideas. I
haven’t an earthly clue whether it would be better if we up and left
or if we sat and stayed. What I am sure of is that none of us will
figure that out until we stop pretending, until we take a long, cold
hard look at the reality on the ground. Then someone needs to level
with us about what it will cost to stay, in lives and dollars and, God
help us, goodwill.

In a Washington Monthly book review, I found a suggestion that we copy
Cold War tactics on terrorism and practice “containment” rather than
this War of Good vs. Evil, Battlestar Galactica bull. But that
requires someone who will level with the people. And the more this
administration plays games with definitions of democracy and weasel
wording about torture, the less they can be believed about anything.
Like the boy who cried wolf, someday they’re going to tell the truth,
and no one will believe them.

Meantime, let us all enjoy the game of Pentagon-investigates-itself.

Just remember, sooner or later, we’ll have to indict the dogs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
(March 21, 2006)--A man chased into an open field on foot by sheriff's
deputies early Tuesday sank into a quagmire and died after deputies were
unable to rescue him.

The incident happened before dawn in southeastern Dallas County
near the town of Combine.

County sheriff's Sgt. Don Peritz says deputies had stopped the man in
his vehicle for having an outdated registration sticker.

They say the man fled into a nearby field after deputies learned
he'd identified himself falsely.

According to the spokesman, deputies searched for about an hour
before they found the man sunk up to his waist in a quagmire.

They tried repeatedly over several hours to pull him out, but they, too, called
for help after they began sinking into the cold mud.

The man eventually died before he could be removed.

Peritz says it's not known why the man died, and an autopsy is
planned, but he says the man, who hasn't been identified, told his
would-be rescuers that he had a medical condition.

He also says the weather in the open field was cold and windy with
temperatures in the upper 30s.
< http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/2498371.html>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
21April2006

TOP

  <:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  21 April 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- Parthian shot
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- A. E. Stallings
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A. Enemy of the Planet -B. Halliburton's Detention Centers
6. Weird News - Return of the house call
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
Parthian shot (PAR-thee-uhn shot) noun

A hostile remark made in departing.

[After the natives of Parthia, an ancient country in southwest Asia.]

Parthians were expert archers. Their specialty was shooting arrows
while in (or pretending to be in) retreat which disrupted the enemy
forces. The more descriptive term "parting shot" is a synonym.

-Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org)

"'One other thing, Lestrade,' [Sherlock Holmes] added, turning round
at the door: 'Rache,' is the German for 'revenge'; so don't lose your
time looking for Miss Rachel.' With which Parthian shot he walked
away, leaving the two rivals open-mouthed behind him." Arthur Conan
Doyle; A Study In Scarlet; 1886.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

First Dance
http://djlphoto.com/0604/firstdance.htm

Copper Top
http://djlphoto.com/0603/coppertop.htm

Dead Palm
http://djlphoto.com/0603/deadpalm.htm

Purple Tulips
http://djlphoto.com/0603/purpletulips2.htm

Per-dawn in Alta, Utah
http://djlphoto.com/06alta/alta.htm

Snow-laden Trees
http://djlphoto.com/06alta/alta2.htm

Moving Snow
http://djlphoto.com/06alta/alta3.htm

LAST ISSUE:
Seen Around Town (eight images):

940 Burgundy
http://djlphoto.com/0603/940.htm

Painted Hydrant and Green Wall
http://djlphoto.com/0603/hydrantcolor.htm

Letter Slot
http://djlphoto.com/0603/letterslot.htm

Shadow Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0603/shadowtree.htm

Ochre House and Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0603/ochrehouse.htm

Minerva Tomb Detail
http://djlphoto.com/0603/minervatomb.htm

Lock
http://djlphoto.com/0603/lock.htm

Flower Bike
http://djlphoto.com/0603/flowerbike.htm

Degas, National Gallery of Scotland

It seems familiar somehow, though it's set
In a parlor in New Orleans — another age.
It's summer — the furniture is draped in white.
A shadowed man looks up from the piano.
Two women are rehearsing a duet —
One is striding down an imagined stage
In full-throated aria, the other,
Turning her face away, holds up her right
Hand against the blast of shrill soprano.

But reading the little plaque, I understand —
The casual scene from life begins to change
To genre. The woman with the lifted hand,
Turning away, as if half-terrified,
With loose, high-waisted skirt, will be a mother.
The singer bearing down on her, mouth wide,
Is the angel trumpeting the news so strange,
So ordinary, it's difficult to believe —
And greater than anything she could conceive.

A. E. Stallings
Hapax
TriQuarterly Books
Northwestern University Press
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Avalon Project - U.S. History in documents - from Yale Law School
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/chrono.htm

Bartleby,com
http://www.bartleby.com/ - Uber reference site

NEW ORLEANS
http://nutrias.org/links/nolinks/nolinks.htm
http://gatewayno.com/history/history.html
http://www.madere.com/history.html
< http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Louisiana/New_Orleans/home.html >
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Enemy of the Planet
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Lee Raymond, the former chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was paid $686
million over 13 years. But that's not a reason to single him out for
special excoriation. Executive compensation is out of control in
corporate America as a whole, and unlike other grossly overpaid
business leaders, Mr. Raymond can at least claim to have made money
for his stockholders.

There's a better reason to excoriate Mr. Raymond: for the sake of his
company's bottom line, and perhaps his own personal enrichment, he
turned Exxon Mobil into an enemy of the planet.

To understand why Exxon Mobil is a worse environmental villain than
other big oil companies, you need to know a bit about how the science
and politics of climate change have shifted over the years.

Global warming emerged as a major public issue in the late 1980's. But
at first there was considerable scientific uncertainty.

Over time, the accumulation of evidence removed much of that
uncertainty. Climate experts still aren't sure how much hotter the
world will get, and how fast. But there's now an overwhelming
scientific consensus that the world is getting warmer, and that human
activity is the cause. In 2004, an article in the journal Science that
surveyed 928 papers on climate change published in peer-reviewed
scientific journals found that "none of the papers disagreed with the
consensus position."

To dismiss this consensus, you have to believe in a vast conspiracy to
misinform the public that somehow embraces thousands of scientists
around the world. That sort of thing is the stuff of bad novels. Sure
enough, the novelist Michael Crichton, whose past work includes
warnings about the imminent Japanese takeover of the world economy and
murderous talking apes inhabiting the lost city of Zinj, has become
perhaps the most prominent global-warming skeptic. (Mr. Crichton was
invited to the White House to brief President Bush.)

So how have corporate interests responded? In the early years, when
the science was still somewhat in doubt, many companies from the oil
industry, the auto industry and other sectors were members of a group
called the Global Climate Coalition, whose de facto purpose was to
oppose curbs on greenhouse gases. But as the scientific evidence
became clearer, many members — including oil companies like BP and
Shell — left the organization and conceded the need to do something
about global warming.

Exxon, headed by Mr. Raymond, chose a different course of action: it
decided to fight the science.

A leaked memo from a 1998 meeting at the American Petroleum Institute,
in which Exxon (which hadn't yet merged with Mobil) was a participant,
describes a strategy of providing "logistical and moral support" to
climate change dissenters, "thereby raising questions about and
undercutting the 'prevailing scientific wisdom.' " And that's just
what Exxon Mobil has done: lavish grants have supported a sort of
alternative intellectual universe of global warming skeptics.

The people and institutions Exxon Mobil supports aren't actually
engaged in climate research. They're the real-world equivalents of the
Academy of Tobacco Studies in the movie "Thank You for Smoking," whose
purpose is to fail to find evidence of harmful effects.

But the fake research works for its sponsors, partly because it gets
picked up by right-wing pundits, but mainly because it plays perfectly
into the he-said-she-said conventions of "balanced" journalism. A 2003
study, by Maxwell Boykoff and Jules Boykoff, of reporting on global
warming in major newspapers found that a majority of reports gave the
skeptics — a few dozen people, many if not most receiving direct or
indirect financial support from Exxon Mobil — roughly the same amount
of attention as the scientific consensus, supported by thousands of
independent researchers.

Has Exxon Mobil's war on climate science actually changed policy for
the worse? Maybe not. Although most governments have done little to
curb greenhouse gases, and the Bush administration has done nothing,
it's not clear that policies would have been any better even if Exxon
Mobil had acted more responsibly.

But the fact is that whatever small chance there was of action to
limit global warming became even smaller because Exxon Mobil chose to
protect its profits by trashing good science. And that, not the
paycheck, is the real scandal of Mr. Raymond's reign as Exxon Mobil's
chief executive.

==

Halliburton's Detention Centers
http://progressive.org/mag_rcb041706

Thu Apr 20, 11:40 AM ET

A 76-year-old man claiming to be a doctor went door-to-door in a
Florida neighborhood offering free br east exams, and was charged with
sexually assaulting two women who accepted the offer, police said on
Thursday.

One woman became suspicious after the man asked her to remove all her
clothes and began conducting a purported ge nital exam without donning
rubber gloves, investigators said.

The woman then phoned the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the
suspect fled. He was arrested at another woman's apartment in the same
Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood on Wednesday, a sheriff's spokesman
said.

The white-haired suspect, Philip Winikoff, carried a black bag and
claimed to be visiting on behalf of a local hospital.

"He told the woman that he was in the neighborhood offering free
br east exams," sheriff's spokesman Hugh Graf said in a statement.

At least two women, both in their 30s, let him into their homes and he
fondled and sexually assaulted them, the investigators said.

Winikoff was not a doctor, Graf said. He worked as a shuttle driver
for an auto dealership.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
26May2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  26 May 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- harridan
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Gail White
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A Test of Our Character
6. By the Numbers - Harper's Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
harridan (HAR-i-dn) noun

An ill-tempered, scolding woman.

[Perhaps from French haridelle (worn-out horse, gaunt woman).]

"For us, the most revealing of the remarks attributed to the Heritage
harridan were these: `I will beat you and nothing will happen. You can
go to court, all the judges know Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of the (army)
commander. The judges will do nothing.'" 'All judges know Jocelyn
Chiwenga'; Zimbabwe Independent (Harare); Mar 28, 2003.

"A harridan committee chairwoman, Libby Hauser, acted sneeringly by
Dana Ivey, all but tosses bubbly, babbling Elle out of a hearing
room." Malcolm Johnson; `Blonde 2' Is Blithely Bubbly; Hartford
Courant (Connecticut); Jul 2, 2003.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Tomatoes
http://djlphoto.com/0605/tomatoes.htm

Abstracts (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0604/xx.htm

Dickcissel
http://djlphoto.com/0605/dickcissel.htm

Flowers in the Wind (five images)
http://djlphoto.com/0604/wf.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Sunflower (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/sunflower.htm

Orange Street Wharf Fire (eight images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/wharffire6.htm

Moonset on Holly Beach
http://djlphoto.com/0605/moonset.htm

Skulls on Seaweed
http://djlphoto.com/0605/skullsbeach.htm

Discarded Crayfish
http://djlphoto.com/0605/crayfish.htm

For cats who have a sense of worth,
There is no higher form of birth.
We rather may anticipate
To reach the nobler feline state,
Superior to common things—
To purr on popes and shed on kings.

Gail White

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Knots on the Web
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/knotlink.htm

History Channel - Memorial Day
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/memorial/index.jsp

Fishes
http://www.fishbase.org/home.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
A Test of Our Character
By PAUL KRUGMAN

In his new movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore suggests that there
are three reasons it's hard to get action on global warming. The first
is boiled-frog syndrome: because the effects of greenhouse gases build
up gradually, at any given moment it's easier to do nothing. The
second is the perception, nurtured by a careful disinformation
campaign, that there's still a lot of uncertainty about whether man-
made global warming is a serious problem. The third is the belief,
again fostered by disinformation, that trying to curb global warming
would have devastating economic effects.

I'd add a fourth reason, which I'll talk about in a minute. But first,
let's notice that Mr. Gore couldn't have asked for a better
illustration of disinformation campaigns than the reaction of energy-
industry lobbyists and right-wing media organizations to his film.

The cover story in the current issue of National Review is titled
"Scare of the Century." As evidence that global warming isn't really
happening, it offers the fact that some Antarctic ice sheets are
getting thicker — a point also emphasized in a TV ad by the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, which is partly financed by large
oil companies, whose interests it reliably represents.

Curt Davis, a scientist whose work is cited both by the institute and
by National Review, has already protested. "These television ads," he
declared in a press release, "are a deliberate effort to confuse and
mislead the public about the global warming debate." He points out
that an initial increase in the thickness of Antarctica's interior ice
sheets is a predicted consequence of a warming planet, so that his
results actually support global warming rather than refuting it.

Even as the usual suspects describe well-founded concerns about global
warming as hysteria, they issue hysterical warnings about the economic
consequences of environmentalism. "Al Gore's global warming movie:
could it destroy the economy?" Fox News asked.

Well, no, it couldn't. There's some dispute among economists over how
forcefully we should act to curb greenhouse gases, but there's broad
consensus that even a very strong program to reduce emissions would
have only modest effects on economic growth. At worst, G.D.P. growth
might be, say, one-tenth or two-tenths of a percentage point lower
over the next 20 years. And while some industries would lose jobs,
others would gain.

Actually, the right's panicky response to Mr. Gore's film is probably
a good thing, because it reveals for all to see the dishonesty and
fear-mongering on which the opposition to doing something about
climate change rests.

But "An Inconvenient Truth" isn't just about global warming, of
course. It's also about Mr. Gore. And it is, implicitly, a cautionary
tale about what's been wrong with our politics.

Why, after all, was Mr. Gore's popular-vote margin in the 2000
election narrow enough that he could be denied the White House? Any
account that neglects the determination of some journalists to make
him a figure of ridicule misses a key part of the story. Why were
those journalists so determined to jeer Mr. Gore? Because of the very
qualities that allowed him to realize the importance of global
warming, many years before any other major political figure: his
earnestness, and his genuine interest in facts, numbers and serious
analysis.

And so the 2000 campaign ended up being about the candidates'
clothing, their mannerisms, anything but the issues, on which Mr. Gore
had a clear advantage (and about which his opponent was clearly both
ill informed and dishonest).

I won't join the sudden surge of speculation about whether "An
Inconvenient Truth" will make Mr. Gore a presidential contender. But
the film does make a powerful case that Mr. Gore is the sort of person
who ought to be running the country.

Since 2000, we've seen what happens when people who aren't interested
in the facts, who believe what they want to believe, sit in the White
House. Osama bin Laden is still at large, Iraq is a mess, New Orleans
is a wreck. And, of course, we've done nothing about global warming.

But can the sort of person who would act on global warming get
elected? Are we — by which I mean both the public and the press —
ready for political leaders who don't pander, who are willing to talk
about complicated issues and call for responsible policies? That's a
test of national character. I wonder whether we'll pass.

The New York Times
May 26, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. By the Numbers -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Harper's Index for March 2006 [sources]

Number of U.S. counties where more than a fifth of “residents” are
prison inmates: 21 [Prison Policy Initiative (Northampton, Mass.)]

Number of these that are in Texas: 10 [Prison Policy Initiative
(Northampton, Mass.)]

Portion of New York Senate districts that would not meet the minimum
population level without their inmates: 1/9 [Prison Policy Initiative
(Northampton, Mass.)]

Percentage of Democrats and Republicans, respectively, who say the
Iraq war was “worth fighting”: 4, 84 [M.I.T. Public Opinion Research
Training Lab (Cambridge, Mass.)]

Total projected cost of the war per U.S. household, based on a January
estimate: $19,600 [Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University (N.Y.C.)]

Amount that one of Saddam Hussein’s military uniforms sold for at
auction in December: $16,000 [Manion's International Auction
House(Kansas City, Kans.) ]

Monthly fee that Court TV is charging for live Internet coverage of
his trial: $5.95 [Court TV (N.Y.C.)]

Number of suicide bombings known to have been carried out by Iranians:
0 [Robert Pape, University of Chicago]

Minimum number of times that Frederick Douglass was beaten in what is
now Donald Rumsfeld’s vacation home: 25 [Harper's research]

Percentage of African-American families that have zero or negative net
worth: 31 [Edward N. Wolff, New York University]

Chance that the family of an African-American child is too poor to
qualify for the full U.S. child tax credit: 1 in 2 [Tax Policy
Center(Washington)]

Percentage change in the amount of housework done by women after they
marry for the first time: +17
[Sanjiv Gupta, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)]

Percentage change in the amount done by men: -33
[Sanjiv Gupta,University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
05June2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  05 June 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day --

pettifogger

2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Dick Allen
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Shameless in the Senate
6. Weird News - Betting on the Hurricane
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````

pettifogger (PET-ee-foguhr, -fo-guhr) noun

1. A petty, quibbling, unscrupulous lawyer.

2. One who quibbles over trivia.

[Probably petty + obsolete fogger, pettifogger.]

"The nitpickers, the whiners, the pettifoggers
are everywhere. And they are so numerous and so
noisy that they threaten to block our view of and
drown out the clarion call of the squirrels."
Bill Kraus, Without Health Care Reform,
Forget It, Capital Times,15 Dec 1993.

--
>From A Word A Day: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Post-Katrina Remnants of Camps and Piers on Lake Pontchartrain (nine images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605haynes/lw2.htm

Dead Wasp
http://djlphoto.com/0606/deadwasp.htm

Radishes
http://djlphoto.com/0605/radishes.htm

Tulips (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/tulips.htm

LAST ISSUE:
Tomatoes
http://djlphoto.com/0605/tomatoes.htm

Abstracts (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0604/xx.htm

Dickcissel
http://djlphoto.com/0605/dickcissel.htm

Flowers in the Wind (five images)
http://djlphoto.com/0604/wf.htm

    Suspense seldom kills, but too often
    stretched between the hooks, the cloth
    drying in the sun so its weave might be straightened
    rips in one section and the whole taut fabric,
    so like a riveted drumskin or the canvas of a trampoline,
    goes slack, its practical use over —
    that anxiety which kept us searching the heavens,
    wringing our hands, wiping our brows,
    questioning the outcome,
    only a matter of tension: that intangible
    way of holding things we'd just as soon let go.

    Dick Allen
    The New Criterion
    May 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
New Orleans Public Library / City Archives / Special Collection
http://nutrias.org/~nopl/spec/speclist.htm

Ashes and Snow (beautiful presentation of beautiful images)
http://www.ashesandsnow.org/

Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Shameless in the Senate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
June 5, 2006

The Senate almost voted to repeal the estate tax last fall, but
Republican leaders postponed the vote after Hurricane Katrina. It's
easy to see why: the public might have made the connection between
scenes of Americans abandoned in the Superdome and scenes of well-
heeled senators voting huge tax breaks for their even wealthier
campaign contributors.

But memories of Katrina have faded, and they're about to try again.
The Senate will probably vote this week. So it's important to realize
that there's still a clear connection between tax breaks for the rich
and failure to help Americans in need.

Any senator who votes to repeal the estate tax, or votes for a
"compromise" that goes most of the way toward repeal, is in effect
saying that increasing the wealth of people who are already in line to
inherit millions or tens of millions is more important than taking
care of fellow citizens who need a helping hand.

To understand this point, we need to look at what Congress has been
doing lately in the name of deficit reduction.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which was signed in February,
consists mainly of cuts to spending on Medicare, Medicaid and
education. The Medicaid cuts will have the largest human impact: the
Congressional Budget Office estimates that they will cause 65,000
people, mainly children, to lose health insurance, and lead many
people who retain insurance to skip needed medical care because they
can't afford increased co-payments.

Congressional leaders justified these harsh measures by saying that we
have to reduce the budget deficit, and there's no way to do that
without inflicting pain.

But those same leaders now propose making the deficit worse by
repealing the estate tax. Apparently deficits aren't such a big
problem after all, as long as we're running up debts to provide bigger
inheritances to wealthy heirs rather than to provide medical care to
children.

And the cost of tax cuts is far larger than the savings from benefit
cuts. Under current law — what I once called the Throw Mama From the
Train Act of 2001 — the estate tax is scheduled to be phased out in
2010, but return in 2011. According to the Joint Committee on
Taxation, making repeal permanent would cost more than $280 billion
from 2011 to 2015. That's more than four times the savings from the
Deficit Reduction Act over the same period.

Who would benefit from this largess? The estate tax is overwhelmingly
a tax on the very, very wealthy; only about one estate in 200 pays any
tax at all. The campaign for estate tax repeal has largely been
financed by just 18 powerful business dynasties, including the family
that owns Wal-Mart.

You may have heard tales of family farms and small businesses broken
up to pay taxes, but those stories are pure propaganda without any
basis in fact. In particular, advocates of estate tax repeal have
never been able to provide a single real example of a family farm sold
to pay estate taxes.

Nonetheless, the estate tax is up for a vote this week. First,
Republicans will try to repeal the estate tax altogether. If that
fails, they'll offer a compromise that isn't really a compromise, like
a plan suggested by Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, that would
cost almost as much as full repeal, or a plan suggested by Senator Max
Baucus, Democrat of Montana, that is only slightly cheaper.

In each case, the crucial vote will be procedural: if 60 senators vote
to close off debate, estate tax repeal or something close to it will
surely pass. Any senator who votes for cloture but against estate tax
repeal — which I'm told is what John McCain may do — is simply a
hypocrite, trying to have it both ways.

But will the Senate vote for cloture? The answer depends on two groups
of senators: Democrats like Mr. Baucus who habitually stake out
"centrist" positions that give Republicans almost everything they
want, and moderate Republicans like Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island who
consistently cave in to their party's right wing. Will these senators
show more spine than they have in the past?

In the interest of stiffening those spines, let me remind senators
that this isn't just a fiscal issue, it's also a moral issue. Congress
has already declared that the budget deficit is serious enough to
warrant depriving children of health care; how can it now say that
it's worth enlarging the deficit to give Paris Hilton a tax break?

The New York Times Company
http://www.nytco.com/

By Michael ChristieFri
Jun 2

If he believed the smart money, online gambling commentator
Christopher Costigan would move out of his oceanfront pad on Miami
Beach right now.

According to the odds given by the multibillion-dollar Internet
betting industry, it's almost a dead certainty that Florida will be
struck by a big hurricane during the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season,
which officially opened on Thursday.

But Costigan says he is staying put. "I will be betting on the reverse
... I'm looking right at the ocean," he said.

The intensity of the last two Atlantic hurricane seasons has triggered
a mini-frenzy this year of storm-related bets online, where gamblers
can make so-called "proposition wagers" on anything ranging from "will
life be found on Mars?" to "who will win the next presidential
election?"

"Betting is funny," said WagerWeb.com chief executive Dave Johnson.
"If there's enough things in the news, people want to bet on them.

If you want to win big money, Costigan said, you should bet on the
United States escaping a major hurricane strike over the next six
months after two ferocious seasons that saw eight hurricanes lash
Florida and Hurricane Katrina devastate New Orleans and kill 1,300
people.

"In terms of will a Category 3 (hurricane) not hit the U.S., actually
there's some great value in those odds," Costigan said, referring to
the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity.

"Six hundred was the last I saw, 6 to 1 odds or $6 paid for every
dollar bet. Those are actually great odds considering the fact that in
the last 16 years, there's only been six years in which a Category 3
or higher has hit the United States," said Costigan, of the
Gambling911.com Web site, which reports on the online betting
business.

Some U.S. media commentators have slammed the industry for
insensitivity -- about 1,300 Americans died and tens of thousands of
lost their homes when Katrina swamped New Orleans and shattered the
Mississippi coastline last August.

Thousands more in Florida, Texas, Alabama, Mexico and Central America
suffered as 2006 spawned a record 28 tropical storms, of which 15
became hurricanes.

The online gambling industry says betting on the weather is as
legitimate as betting on a baseball game. None, however, are offering
odds on death tolls or home destruction.

"I'm not looking to profit off destruction, believe me," said Mickey
Richardson, chief executive of Costa Rica-based BetCris.com. "I guess
there's a thin line between what's appropriate and what's not and I'm
trying to stay in that gray area without offending people."

The Web sites base their odds on predictions by expert forecasters,
statistics of past seasons and to a lesser extent on how their
customers bet.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S.
government's climate agency, forecasts up to 16 tropical storms, of
which up to 10 will become hurricanes.

NOAA expects four to six of the hurricanes to be Category 3 storms or
above, so-called "major" hurricanes. The long-term average is for just
under 10 storms per season, of which six become hurricanes.

Costa Rica-based WagerWeb.com puts the chances of more than 21
tropical storms this year at plus 130, meaning if you bet $100 you
could win $130 if you're right. The odds of there being less than 21
storms are minus 160, which means you have to bet $160 to win $100.

According to BetCris.com, the greatest likelihood is for three major
hurricanes to strike the United States. The odds on that are at plus
165. By contrast, the odds on just one major hurricane striking the
United States are plus 400 -- a long shot.

Whether the popularity of hurricane bets continues depends on, well,
the weather. "If this year comes out and it's a very inactive season
and people lose interest in it ... I don't think there's going to be
as much talk about it next year," Johnson said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
13June2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  13 June 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- ebrious
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Seamus Heaney
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Durst Humor: Impeachment? No. Impalement!
6. Weird News - Coulter calls 9/11 widows "witches"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
ebrious (EE-bree-uhs) adjective

1. Inclined to excessive drinking.

2. Tipsy.

[From Latin ebrius (drunk). Two cousins of this
word are inebriated and sobriety.]

"One seminal figure, Thompson, was a 'dissolute,
ebrious, profane,lascivious English-Dutchman'."
Nicholas Phillipson; Political Discourse in Early
Modern Britain;Cambridge University Press; 1993.

"Yet far more terrible the line that flows
From ebrious passion to supine remorse."
Richard Monckton Milnes (1809-1885);
The Fall of Alipius.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Peppers (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/peppers3.htm

Dead Gardenias (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/dg1.htm

Sunlight and Clouds (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/sunclouds.htm

Lake Pilings (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/pilings.htm

LAST ISSUE:

Post-Katrina Remnants of Camps and Piers on Lake Pontchartrain (nine images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605haynes/lw2.htm

Dead Wasp
http://djlphoto.com/0606/deadwasp.htm

Radishes
http://djlphoto.com/0605/radishes.htm

Tulips (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/tulips.htm

--
GOTD Archives:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_graphics.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3. Quote of the Day --
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Postscript

And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightening of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully-grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you'll park or capture it
More thoroughly. You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open

Seamus Heaney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Reference, Verse, Fiction Mega-site:
http://www.bartleby.com/

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Collection
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Identity Theft
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Impeachment? No. Impalement!
By Will Durst
June 2006

I don’t know about you guys, but I am so sick and tired of these
lying, thieving, holier-than-thou, rightwing, cruel, crude, rude,
gauche, coarse, crass, cocky, corrupt, dishonest, debauched,
degenerate, dissolute, swaggering, lawyer shooting, bullhorn shouting,
infra-structure destroying, buck passing, hysterical, criminal,
history defying, finger pointing, puppy stomping, roommate appointing,
pretzel choking, collateral damaging, aspersion casting, wedding party
bombing, clearcutting, torturing, jobs outsourcing, torture out-
sourcing, election fixing, women’s rights eradicating, Medicare
cutting, uncouth, spiteful, boorish, vengeful, jingoistic, homophobic,
xenophobic, xylophonic, racist, sexist, ageist, fascist, cashist,
audaciously stupid, brazenly selfish, lethally ignorant, journalist
purchasing, genocide ignoring, corporation kissing, poverty inducing,
crooked, coercive, autocratic, primitive, uppity, high-handed,
domineering, arrogant, inhuman, inhumane, inbred, inept, insipid,
incapable, incompetent, ineffectual, insolent, insincere, know-it-all,
snotty, pompous, contemptuous, supercilious, gutless, spineless,
shameless, avaricious, noxious, poisonous, imperious, merciless,
graceless, tactless, brutish, brutal, Karl Roving, backward thinking,
persistent vegetative state grandstanding, nuclear option threatening,
evolution denying, irony deprived, consciously depraved, conceited,
perverted, peremptory invading, thirty-five day vacation taking, bribe
soliciting, hellish, smarty pants, loudmouth, bullying, swell headed,
ethics eluding, domestic spying, medical marijuana busting,
Halliburtoning, narcissistic, undiplomatic, blustering, malevolent,
demonizing, Duke Cunninghamming, hectoring, dry drunk, Muslim baiting,
hurricane disregarding, oil company hugging, judge packing, science
disputing, faith based advocating, armament selling, nonsense spewing,
education ravaging, whiny, insane, unscrupulous, lily livered, greedy
(exponential factor fifteen), fraudulent, delusional, CIA outing,
redistricting, anybody who disagrees with them slandering, fact
twisting, ally alienating, betraying, chickenhawk, sell out, quisling,
god and flag waving, scare mongering, Cindy Sheehan libeling,
smirking, bastardly, voting machine tampering, sociopathic, cowardly,
treasonous, Constitution shredding, oppressive, vulgar, antagonistic,
trust funding, nontipping, tyrannizing, peace hating, water and air
and ground and media polluting (which is pretty much all the polluting
you can get), deadly, traitorous, con man, swindling, pernicious,
lethal, illegal, haughty, venomous, virulent, mephitic, egotistic,
bloodthirsty, yellowbelly, hypocritical, Oedipal, did I say evil, I’m
not sure if I said evil, because I want to make sure I say evil . . .
EVIL, cretinous, slime buckets in the Bush Administration that I could
just spit. Impeachment? Hell no. Impalement. Upon the sharp and
righteous sword of the people’s justice. Make it a curtain rod.
Because it would hurt more.

[Yes, political comic, writer, actor, radio talk show host Will Durst
received a thesaurus for his birthday, but he didn’t need it.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Anti-liberal US writer calls 9/11 widows "witches"

By Claudia Parsons
Jun 8

Conservative author Ann Coulter sparked a storm on Wednesday after
describing a group of September 11 widows who backed the Democratic
Party as millionaire "witches" reveling in their status as
celebrities.

"I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' deaths so much,"
Coulter writes in her book "Godless: The Church of Liberalism,"
published on Tuesday, referring to four women who headed a campaign
that resulted in the creation of the September 11 Commission that
investigated the hijacked plane attacks.

Coulter wrote that the women were millionaires as a result of
compensation settlements and were "reveling in their status as
celebrities and stalked by grief-arazzis."

The four, Kristen Breitweiser, Patty Casazza, Mindy Kleinberg and
Lorie Van Auken, declined to discuss the book in detail but issued a
statement saying they had been slandered.

"There was no joy in watching men that we loved burn alive. There was
no happiness in telling our children that their fathers were never
coming home again," said the statement signed by the four, along with
a fifth woman, Monica Gabrielle.

The four women, who live in or around East Brunswick, New Jersey,
became friends after September 11 and formed a group that agitated for
the investigation. "Our only motivation ever was to make our nation
safer," they said.

Coulter, whose books include the bestseller "How to talk to a Liberal
(If You Must)," argues in the new book the women she dubs "the Witches
of East Brunswick" wanted to blame President George W. Bush for not
preventing the attacks.

She criticized them for making a campaign advertisement for Democratic
presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry in 2004, and added: "By the
way, how do we know their husbands weren't planning to divorce these
harpies? Now that their shelf life is dwindling, they'd better hurry
up and appear in Playboy."

PERSONAL ATTACKS

Asked by Reuters why she made such personal comments, Coulter said by
email: "I am tired of victims being used as billboards for untenable
liberal political beliefs."

"A lot of Americans have been seething over the inanities of these
professional victims for some time," she added.

The New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News. Corp., on Wednesday
slammed the comments in an article headlined "Righty writer Coulter
hurls nasty gibes at 9/11 gals."

Coulter, a regular television commentator and figurehead for some
conservatives, was challenged on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday over
what host Matt Lauer called "dramatic" remarks, prompting her to say
"You are getting testy with me."

Coulter is known for a combative column after September 11 saying: "We
should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity." In one book, she wrote: "Even Islamic terrorists don't
hate America like liberals do."

Her latest comments were quoted on radio stations in New York on
Wednesday and the book was the subject of debate on Web sites such as
www.salon.com. The Daily News newspaper's front-page headline was
"Coulter the Cruel."

The controversy appeared to be doing no harm to sales of Coulter's
latest book, which was listed as the fourth best seller of the day at
online retailer Amazon.com on Wednesday.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
21June2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  21 June 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- potvaliant
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Seamus Heaney
4. HotSites - Global Warming
5. Reading List - Congress and Judges Gagged, by Nat Hentoff
6. Humor - The mind of Stephen Wright
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
potvaliant (POT-val-iant) adjective, also pot-valiant

Showing courage under the influence of drink. Such courage is also
known as Dutch courage.

[From pot (a drinking vessel) + valiant (courageous).]

"Russian generals and Russia's unstable, potvaliant president are
turning Chechen children into bleeding carcasses, food for stray
dogs." Jeff Jacoby; Chechnya: the Fruits of US Silence; Boston Globe;
Jan 19, 1995.

"One night when I was potvaliant, I wagered everything on the turn."
Newport Daily News (Rhode Island); Aug 27, 1957.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : : : : : : THIS ISSUE : : : : : : : :

Cow Skulls (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/cowskull.htm

Magnolia Pistils (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/magnolia.htm

Cypress Fruit - partially eaten by squirrel
http://djlphoto.com/0606/cypressfruit.htm

Lagoon Reflection With Duckweed
http://djlphoto.com/0606/duckweed.htm

Poolhouse Reflections
http://djlphoto.com/0606/poolhouse.htm

Dragon
http://djlphoto.com/0606/dragon.htm

New Orleans Ballet Theater 2006 (33 images)
http://djlphoto.com/nobt06/d1.htm

: : : : : : : : LAST ISSUE : : : : : : : :

Peppers (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/peppers3.htm

Dead Gardenias (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/dg1.htm

Sunlight and Clouds (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/sunclouds.htm

Lake Pilings (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/pilings.htm

An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
At the headrig, with a single pluck

Of reins, the sweating team turned round
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.

I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.

I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow around the farm.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.

Seamus Heaney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Global Warming
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
From National Resources Defense Council)
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/default.asp

Interactive Site from Time.com
http://www.time.com/time/2001/globalwarming/splash.html

Global Warming HotSpots
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Congress and Judges Gagged

Arlen Specter and a CIA torture victim know: Only the Oval Office
decides what the law is

by Nat Hentoff June 19th, 2006

Arlen Specter, a Republican and an unusually independent chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been publicly and insistently
charging that the president violated the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act by authorizing the National Security Agency's secret,
warrantless eavesdropping on our phone calls and e-mails. The
administration's answer, however, was underlined on May 8 by John
Negroponte, chief of all the intelligence agencies:

This government, he said, is "absolutely not" engaging in warrantless
monitoring of domestic calls. Negroponte ignored, as does the
president, the further revelation that AT&T and Verizon are
collaborating with the NSA to collect millions, actually, trillions,
of our phone records (the numbers we call and those who call us)—which
are then also linked to FBI, CIA, and other agencies' databases.

Despite the concerted opposition of Dick Cheney (who is in charge of
the administration's "dark arts," as he calls them), Chairman Specter
wants to subpoena AT&T and Verizon to find out who in the
administration told them that their complicity—absent any judicial
supervision—with the lawless NSA is legal.

Even if Specter issues those subpoenas, he appears resigned to the
blank wall he'll find, since he says the telephone companies will
refer to the "state secrets" privilege and refuse to answer any of his
questions that have to do with the NSA. And Dick Cheney has ordered
them not to testify.

So, once again, as USA Today noted in a May 18 editorial, "Congress
may as well be deaf and blind." Arlen Specter has been the only
congressional chairman who keeps trying to investigate these felonies
committed by the president and NSA. Now he has been blocked by the
administration's escape from accountability through "state secrets."
(In most of these dismissals, the lawyers for the plaintiffs are not
even told what "the secrets" are.)

But what of the independent judiciary in our constitutional separation
of powers? On May 12, Federal District Judge T.S. Ellis III in
Virginia killed a suit by Khaled el-Masri—Khaled el-Masri v. George
Tenet, et. al—whose kidnapping and "rendition" by the CIA to be
tortured has been repeatedly reported—in detail—in this country and
around the world, including the Voice.

A broken man because of his ordeal, el-Masri seeks a mere $75,000 in
compensation from our government for five months of torture, beginning
in December 2003. Moreover, this German citizen was kidnapped by
mistake. The agent in charge of the Al Qaeda division of the
Counterterrorist Center screwed up because el-Masri has the same name
as a person suspected of links to terrorism.

"The government is moving to dismiss this case at the outset on the
basis of a fiction that discussion in this courtroom of the very same
facts being discussed throughout the world will harm [this] nation."
If the ruling is upheld on appeal—and it very likely will be, given
the two justices Bush has placed on the Supreme Court—the total
disappearance of Khaled el-Masri v. Tenet will, as the ACLU's Ben
Wizner says, "give a broad immunity to the government to shield even
the most egregious activities."

Judge Ellis's 17-page ruling is dramatically unusual in showing his
discomfort at being shackled by the precedent of previous judges
allowing the government to whisper to them, "state secrets" and usurp
their roles as judges of the facts and the law.

As if to expiate his surrendering of his independence to the
administration, Ellis gives a lot of space to el-Masri's claims. He
calls them allegations, but they strike me as weighing on his
conscience.

For example, says Judge Ellis, a "blindfolded" El-Masri—after first
having been snatched to Macedonia—"was led to a building where he was
beaten, stripped of his clothing, and sodomized with a foreign object
[and] dragged naked to a corner of the room [where] he claims he saw
seven or eight men dressed in black and wearing black ski masks.

"[El-Masri] contends that these men were members of a CIA 'black
renditions' team, operating pursuant to unlawful CIA policies at the
direction of defendant [then CIA director George] Tenet."

The judge continues: "After being dressed in a diaper . . . shackled
and dragged to an airplane . . . his captors injected him with a
sedative," and he wound up in the notorious CIA interrogation
facility, the "Salt Pit," an abandoned brick factory in Afghanistan.
For the next four months, "in a small, cold cell," he was repeatedly
(and forcibly) interrogated. His hunger strike was broken—like those
of the prisoners in Guantánamo—by force-feeding. (This brutal
practice, as I have written in previous columns, locks the prisoner in
a metal chair where, while being "fed" through a tube, he urinates and
defecates on himself.)

At last, the CIA, knowing it had the wrong man, flew el-Masri,
blindfolded, to Albania where he was dumped on the side of an
abandoned road. Albanian authorities got him back to Germany where he
found his wife and four children had gone to Lebanon because his wife
thought he had abandoned them.

Says Judge Ellis: "El-Masri asserts he remains deeply traumatized." He
hasn't been able to work. One of his children is frightened if his
father goes out alone.

At the end of his decision, Judge Ellis, somewhat traumatized himself,
writes: "Putting aside all the legal issues, if el-Masri's allegations
are true or essentially true, then all fair-minded people, including
those who believe . . . that this lawsuit cannot proceed [because it
involves "state secrets"] must also agree that El-Masri has suffered
injuries as a result of our country's mistake and deserves a remedy."
(Emphasis added.)

The judge continued: "Yet . . . the only sources of that remedy must
be the Executive Branch or the Legislative Branch, not the Judicial
Branch."

But the executive branch, brandishing "state secrets," has forced this
judge to dismiss the case! And the legislative branch has repeatedly
refused to conduct an investigation into these "renditions" that
kidnap suspects to be tortured—as has been verified in meticulously
documented reports by Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Amnesty
International, and NYU's Center on Law and Security.

So there is no remedy for Khaled el-Masri in this country which holds
its "values" and rule of law as a model to the world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Humor: Stephen Wright Quotes -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

OK, so what's the speed of dark?

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked
something.

When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!

What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7th of your life.

The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.

A fool and his money are soon partying.

Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Half the people you know are below average.

99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Someone sent me a postcard picture of the earth. On the back it said,
"Wish you were here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
27June2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  27 June 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- excerebrose
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Louis Simpson
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Yea, Bush!
6. Weird News - Drunk Pelicans
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
excerebrose (eks-SER-ee-bros) adjective

Brainless.

[From Latin ex- (out of) + cerebrum (brain).]

"(Dvija Michael) Bertish, in a vituperative March letter that
virtually demands the presence of an unabridged dictionary, complained
that 'The excerebrose followers of Pastor White, many of whom are
convicted felons...'" Scott Hewitt; 'Spiritual Warfare' in Rosemere;
The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington); May 18, 2003.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : : : THIS ISSUE: : : : : :

Rust (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/rust1.htm

Agave (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/agave1.htm

Beach Rock
http://djlphoto.com/0606/rock.htm

: : : : : LAST ISSUE: : : : : :
Cow Skulls (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/cowskull.htm

Magnolia Pistils (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/magnolia.htm

Cypress Fruit - partially eaten by squirrel
http://djlphoto.com/0606/cypressfruit.htm

Lagoon Reflection With Duckweed
http://djlphoto.com/0606/duckweed.htm

Poolhouse Reflections
http://djlphoto.com/0606/poolhouse.htm

Dragon
http://djlphoto.com/0606/dragon.htm

New Orleans Ballet Theater 2006 (33 images)
http://djlphoto.com/nobt06/d1.htm

    The truck came at me,
    I swerved
    but I got a dent.

    The car insurance woman
    informs me that my policy
    has been cancelled.

    I say, "You can't do that."
    She gives me a little smile
    and goes back to her nails.

    Lately have you noticed
    how aggressively people drive?
    A whoosh! and whatever.

    Some people are suddenly
    very rich, and as many
    suddenly very poor.

    As for the war, don't get me started.
    We were too busy watching
    the ball game to see

    that the things we care about
    are suddenly disappearing,
    and that they always were.

    Louis Simpson
    The New Criterion
    November 2005
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
10 x 10 - words and pictures that define the times
http://www.tenbyten.org/

Yahoo Answers - ask and they will answer
http://answers.yahoo.com/

All About Birds
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Yea, Bush!
by Molly Ivins

JUNE 22, 2006

AUSTIN, Texas -- Yea, Bush! Way to go! I realize this is last week's
news, but I'm a great believer in giving credit where credit is due.
By designating the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national
monument, Bush has put one more level of federal protection around a
vast spread of islands and irreplaceable marine life.

As he rather touchingly insisted, this IS a big deal -- 140,000 square
miles of water that contains more than 7,000 rare species. Word is the
president decided to declare the area a marine sanctuary after
watching a documentary by Jean-Michel Cousteau. The thought that it
might be possible to move George W. Bush to action by something as
simple as watching a movie came as a new thought to many who are dying
to try it on other issues.

But the environment is an area in which a simple plea often moves
Bush. For example, Ol' Ernie Angelo, who used to be mayor of Midland
and represent Texas on the Republican National Committee, sent a note
to Karl Rove in 2002 complaining about an Environmental Protection
Agency rule designed to keep groundwater around oil drilling sites
clean.

Well, you can imagine Angelo, an oilman, was not happy about this
sucker. In fact, he informed Rove, the rule was causing many in the
oil industry "to openly express doubt as to the merit of electing
Republicans when we wind up with this type of stupidity."

Rove forwarded the note to the White House environmental advisers,
demanding a "response ASAP." So the rule finally took effect this
month, but after intense industry pressure, court battles and behind-
the-scenes lobbying at the agency and in Congress, it's more hole than
rule. And guess what? It has no teeth in it.

Yep, Ernie and oil industry got what they wanted: the end of the
Clinton-era proposal to require special EPA permits for construction
sites smaller than 5 acres as a way to keep groundwater clean. Imagine
the immense burden that would put on the oil companies. Really, unless
the Bush administration took this kind of special care, Exxon might
suffer a drop in profits.

Next, we find the EPA has decided not to release information on 140
Superfund sites -- these are toxic waste sites that present risk of
exposure to those nearby, as the exposure remains uncontrolled. You
might, if you hadn't been paying attention, assume information
collected by the government and paid for by the citizens would be, uh,
public.

"This isn't a question of left or right," said California Sen. Barbara
Boxer. "This is a question of right and wrong." According to the Los
Angeles Times, "The EPA said that it had blocked only information
related to law enforcement and that the public had access to all
relevant health-risk data for the sites."

That's the kind of sentence reporters write with a straight face.
Actually, what the EPA is keeping secret is how much money and time it
will take to clean up the Superfund sites. Why? "Republicans said
Democrats want to manufacture a political issue, and noted that Senate
tradition had long prevented the release of sensitive information,"
said the Times. What political issue? The reinstatement of a
"controversial tax" -- i.e., the Superfund tax on chemical, oil and
other polluting companies.

In case you haven't been following this, the Superfund is broke and
has been largely inactive for four years. The fund was allowed to run
dry when Congress failed to renew the tax on polluters. You may not
believe this, but the oil and chemical companies complained mightily
about being asked to pay for the cleanup of messes they had created.
What a concept.

Other environmental controversies continue to simmer all the time --
out of sight, out of mind. Just one more regulation chopped here, just
one more law changed there, just a little information hidden.

But do be sure to give Bush credit for declaring the already protected
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument. That's a good
thing. Is there an election any time soon?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Pelicans held on suspicion of being drunk

Mon Jun 26, 8:46 AM ET

Four pelicans suspected of being drunk on sea algae were being tested
at a Southern California wildlife center Saturday after one of them
crashed headlong into a car.

Three of the California brown pelicans were found wandering dazed in
the streets of Laguna Beach after another pelican struck a vehicle's
windshield on a nearby coast road.

It suffered internal injuries and a long gash in its pouch and was
undergoing toxicology tests.

Officials at the Wildlife Care Center said the seabirds may have been
under the influence of algae in the ocean that can produce domoic acid
poisoning when eaten.

The other pelicans were rounded up after assistant wildlife director
Lisa Birkle warned the public to be on the lookout for birds acting
"drunk," disoriented or being in an unusual place.

Shellfish tainted with domoic acid was thought to be the culprit
behind a 1961 attack of seabirds on people and cars in the oceanside
California town of Capitola that inspired Alfred Hitchcock's horror
movie "The Birds."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
11July2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  11 July 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- bedizen
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Dana Gioia
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - A. Can't Win the War? Bomb the Press!
                         B. Times revealed little that Bush hadn’t told us
6. Weird News - Mouse potatoes and himbos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
bedizen • \bih-DYE-zen\ verb : to dress or adorn gaudily

Example sentence: "Adorned by minarets and spires and bedizened by
more than a million lights, Coney Island embodied what has been called
the 'architecture of exhilaration.'" (Blaine Harden, New York Times,
August 28, 1999)

Did you know? "Bedizen" doesn't have the flashy history you might
expect—its roots lie in the rather quiet art of spinning thread. In
times past, the spinning process began with the placement of fibers
(such as flax) on an implement called a "distaff"; the fibers were
then drawn out from the distaff and twisted into thread. "Bedizen"
descends from the verb "disen," which meant "to dress a distaff with
flax" and which came to English by way of Middle Dutch. The spelling
of "disen" eventually became "dizen," and its meaning expanded to
cover the "dressing up" of things other than distaffs. In the mid-17th
century, English speakers began using "bedizen" with the same meaning.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : : : THIS ISSUE : : : : : :

Carmel - images from Monterey County and the central California coast:
http://djlphoto.com/carmel/

: : : : : LAST ISSUE : : : : : :

Rust (six images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/rust1.htm

Agave (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0606/agave1.htm

Beach Rock
http://djlphoto.com/0606/rock.htm

Now you hear what the house has to say.
Pipes clanking, water running in the dark,
the mortgaged walls shifting in discomfort,
and voices mounting in an endless drone
of small complaints like the sounds of a family
that year by year you've learned how to ignore.

But now you must listen to the things you own,
all that you've worked for these past years,
the murmur of property, of things in disrepair,
the moving parts about to come undone,
and twisting in the sheets remember all
the faces you could not bring yourself to love.

How many voices have escaped you until now,
the venting furnace, the floorboards underfoot,
the steady accusations of the clock
numbering the minutes no one will mark.
The terrible clarity this moment brings,
the useless insight, the unbroken dark.

Dana Gioia

From Daily Horoscope, Graywolf Press,
© 1986
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
CBS News Disaster Links
http://www.cbsnews.com/digitaldan/disaster/disasters.shtml

Supervolcano - Yellowstone NP
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/supervolcano/index.shtml

Hurricane Preparedness
http://www.lii.org/search?query=hurricane+preparedness
http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/disaster_prevention.shtml

OLD GLORY lost today,'' Bill Frist declaimed last week when his second
attempt to rewrite the Constitution in a single month went the way of
his happy prognosis for Terri Schiavo. Of course it isn't Old Glory
that lost when the flag-burning amendment flamed out. The flag always
survives the politicians who wrap themselves in it. What really
provoked Mr. Frist's crocodile tears was the foiling of yet another
ruse to distract Americans from the wreckage in Iraq. He and his
party, eager to change the subject in an election year, just can't let
go of their scapegoat strategy. It's illegal Hispanic immigrants, gay
couples seeking marital rights, cut-and-run Democrats and rampaging
flag burners who have betrayed America's values, not those who bungled
a war.

No sooner were the flag burners hustled offstage than a new traitor
was unveiled for the Fourth: the press. Public enemy No. 1 is The New
York Times, which was accused of a ''disgraceful'' compromise of
national security (by President Bush) and treason (by Representative
Peter King of New York and the Coulter amen chorus). The Times's
offense was to publish a front-page article about a comprehensive
American effort to track terrorists with the aid of a Belgian
consortium, Swift, which serves as a clearinghouse for some 7,800
financial institutions in 200 countries.

It was a solid piece of journalism. But if you want to learn the truly
dirty secrets of how our government prosecutes this war, the story of
how it vilified The Times is more damning than anything in the article
that caused the uproar.

The history of that scapegoating begins on the Friday morning, June
23, that The Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal
all published accounts of the Swift program first posted on the Web
the night before. In his press briefing that morning, Tony Snow
fielded many questions about the program's legality. But revealingly,
for all his opportunities, he never attacked the news media.

Far from Swift-boating the Swift reportage, he offered tentative
praise. ''It's interesting,'' he said, ''because I think there's a
fair amount of balance in the story in that you do have concrete
benefits and you do have the kind of abstract harms that were
mentioned in there.'' He noted that there had been ''no allegation of
illegality'' in the Times article.

This was accurate. The story was balanced, just as Mr. Snow said. And
it was no cause for a national-security alarm for the simple reason
that since 9/11, our government has repeatedly advertised that it is
following the terrorists' money trail, a tactic enhanced by the broad
new powers over financial institutions that Mr. Bush sought and
received. In November 2002, he and the Treasury secretary at the time,
Paul O'Neill, even held a televised event promoting their Foreign
Terrorist Asset Tracking Center, established expressly, in the
president's words, to ''investigate the financial infrastructure of
the international terrorist networks.'' As for Swift, Dan Froomkin of
washingtonpost.com points out that it can't resist bragging on its own
Web site that it ''has a history of cooperating in good faith with
authorities,'' including treasury departments and law enforcement
agencies, in trying ''to combat abuse of the financial system for
illegal activities.''

Only a terrorist who couldn't shoot straight would assume that Swift
was not part of the American effort to stalk terrorist transactions;
that's tantamount to assuming that cops would track down license plate
numbers without enlisting the Department of Motor Vehicles. But,
unfortunately for us, terrorists are not so stupid: it's been reported
as far back as 2003 (in The Washington Post) and as recently as this
month (in Ron Suskind's must-read best seller, ''The One Percent
Doctrine'') that our enemies long ago took Mr. Bush at his word and
abandoned banks for couriers, money brokers, front companies and
suitcases stuffed with cash and gold. Tom Brokaw summarized the
consensus of terrorism experts last week when he told Chris Matthews
of MSNBC: ''I don't know anyone who believes that the terrorist
network said, 'Oh my God, they're tracing our financial transactions?
What a surprise.' Of course, they knew that they were doing that.''

The real news conveyed by The Times and its competitors was not the
huge program to track terrorist finances, but that per usual from the
administration that gave us Gitmo, the program was conducted with
little oversight from the other two branches of government. Even so,
the reporting on the pros and cons of that approach was, as Mr. Snow
said, balanced.

Or so he said Friday morning, June 23. By Monday, the president had
entered the fray and Mr. Snow was accusing The Times of putting the
''public's right to know'' over ''somebody's right to live.'' What had
happened over the weekend to prompt this escalation of hysteria? The
same stuff that always happens when the White House scapegoats the
press (or anyone else): bad and embarrassing news that the White House
wants to drown out.

One such looming embarrassment was that breathless arrest in Miami of
what federal authorities billed as a ''homegrown terrorist cell.''
This amazing feat of derring-do had all the melodramatic trappings of
a carefully staged administration P.R. extravaganza. On June 22, the
F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller, just happened to be on ''Larry King
Live'' speaking about his concerns about ''homegrown terrorists''
when, by a remarkable coincidence, Larry King announced a ''report
just in'' from a Miami station on a federal terrorism investigation.
The next day -- the same day the Swift story was published -- brought
the full-dress dog-and-pony show by the intrepid attorney general,
Alberto Gonzales.

But rain soon started to fall on this parade. The seven men accused of
plotting to take down the Sears Tower in Chicago and collaborate with
Al Qaeda on a ''full ground war'' turned out to have neither weapons
nor explosives nor links to Al Qaeda; both the F.B.I. and the Chicago
police said there was no operational threat. By Saturday the
administration's overhyped victory against terrorists was already
deflating into a national punch line, a nostalgic remembrance of John
Ashcroft orange terror alerts past.

Sunday brought another unwanted revelation (from Michael R. Gordon of
The Times): Gen. George Casey Jr., the commander in Iraq, was drafting
a plan for sharp troop reductions there, some of them to precede this
year's election. Inconveniently enough, the Casey approach was a
virtual double for the phased withdrawals advocated by Senate
Democrats days earlier and incessantly slurred as ''cut-and-run''
defeatism by Republicans.

By the time of the Bush-Snow eruption on Monday, the Democrats were
holding hearings on the Hill about prewar intelligence. It was better
that Americans hear tirades about traitors in the press than be
tempted to listen to the testimony of Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin
Powell's former chief of staff, who described Mr. Powell's February
2003 United Nations presentation on Iraq's W.M.D. as ''the
perpetuation of a hoax.''

It's not only the White House that has a vested political interest in
concocting a smoke screen by demonizing the fourth estate as a fifth
column. The Democrats were holding their hearing because Pat Roberts,
the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, has for two years
been stalling his panel's promised investigation into how the
administration used intelligence before the war. Hoping that we'd
forget about that continuing cover-up, Mr. Roberts last week made a
big show of calling for an investigation into the Swift story's
supposed damage to national security.

Representative King, so eager to label others treasonous, has
humiliating headlines of his own to counteract: he's the chairman of
the House Homeland Security Committee who has so little clout and
bureaucratic aptitude that he couldn't stop the government led by his
own party from stripping New York City, in his home state, of 40
percent of its counterterrorism funding. If there's another terrorist
attack, he may be the last person in New York who should accuse
others, as he did The Times on the House floor on Thursday, of having
blood ''on their hands.''

Such ravings make it hard not to think of the official assault on The
Times and The Washington Post over the Pentagon Papers. In 1972, on
the first anniversary of the publication of that classified Pentagon
history of the Vietnam War, The Times's managing editor then, A. M.
Rosenthal, reminisced in print about the hyperbolic predictions that
had been made by the Nixon White House and its supporters: ''Codes
would be broken. Military security endangered. Foreign governments
would be afraid to deal with us. There would be nothing secret left.''
None of that happened. What did happen was that Americans learned
''how secrecy had become a way of life'' for a government whose
clandestine policy decisions had fomented a disaster.

The assault on a free press during our own wartime should be
recognized for what it is: another desperate ploy by officials trying
to hide their own lethal mistakes in the shadows. It's the antithesis
of everything we celebrate with the blazing lights of Independence
Day.

= = =
Also see:

Times revealed little that Bush hadn’t told us
by Gene Lyons
http://moose-and-squirrel.com/gene/gene.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Mouse potatoes, himbos and googling go mainstream

By Jill SerjeantFri Jul 7, 9:14 AM ET

Mouse potatoes joined couch potatoes, google officially became a verb
and drama queens finally found the limelight on Thursday when they
crossed over from popular culture to mainstream English language.

The mouse potato (who spends as much time on the computer as his/her
1990s counterpart did on the couch), the himbo (attractive, vacuous --
and male) and the excessively emotional drama queen were among 100 new
words added to the 2006 update of America's best-selling dictionary,
the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary.

The Internet search engine Google also found its way into the
dictionary for the first time as a verb, meaning to find information
quickly on the world wide web.

New words and phrases from the fields of science, technology, pop
culture and industry are chosen each year by Merriam-Webster's team of
editors after months of poring over books, magazines and even food
labels.

"They are not tracking verbal language. They are looking for evidence
that words have become assimilated into the written English language,"
said Arthur Bicknell, senior publicist with Merriam-Webster.

"Unfortunately with slang words by the time it has become assimilated
it probably isn't cool anymore. If the grown-ups are using it, forget
it!," Bicknell said.

Other words making their debut this year were soul patch (a small
growth of beard under a man's lower lip), unibrow (two eyebrows
joining together) and supersize -- the fast food industry phrase for
extra large meals.

The technology world contributed ringtones (changeable incoming
cellphone call signals) and spyware (software installed in a computer
to surreptiously track a user's activities) while biodiesel and avian
influenza came from the world of science.

America's first dictionary -- Noah Webster's A Compendious Dictionary
of the English Language -- was published 200 years ago and also
introduced a crop of fresh words that have now become familiar.

Those "new" words in 1806 included slang, surf, psychology and,
naturally, Americanize.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
25July2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  25 July 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- recusant
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day --   Bob Hicok
4. HotSites - Katrina Photos by NOAA
5. Reading List - The theocrats thrive
6. By the Numbers - Harper's Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
recusant (REK-yu-zant, ri-KYOO-) adjective

Refusing to submit to authority; dissenting.

noun

1. One who refuses to obey authority.

2. One of the Roman Catholics during 16th and 18th century who refused
to attend services of the Church of England and were punished for it.

[From Latin recusant-, stem of recusans, present participle of
recusare (to recuse or object).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus:
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=recusant

"The 'recusant Republican senators' who defied their party and 'tipped
the balance in favor of Johnson' won praise from Rehnquist for putting
principle above politics." Gaylord Shaw; Portrait of a Trial, Newsday
(New York); Jan 5, 1999.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : : : THIS ISSUE : : : : :

Bronzed Cowbird Egg
http://djlphoto.com/0607/broc_egg.htm

Dead Amaryllis
http://djlphoto.com/0606/amaryllis.htm

Cypress Knees
http://djlphoto.com/0605haynes/cypressknees.htm

Sun and Water (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/sunandwater.htm

: : : : : LAST ISSUE : : : : :

Carmel - images from Monterey County and the central California coast:
http://djlphoto.com/carmel/

The high acres belong to grass, the farmer
wearing blond straw hat and earplugs
mows twice a year and pulls a bailer
across the severed blades until the field
is dotted with circles the size
of wishing wells. These dry
through July and August, by September
they'll line his rusted fence, the barbed
and broken wire tufted here and there
where the coarse hair of a deer
has snagged, sometimes their back legs
catch though they continue in flight.

This winter, starting with the silver maple
sapling, a one on the left, hay bales
are six zeroes to the right, I see the number
one million as I walk down the mountain, asleep
under snow, to the flat spot where water pools
before it falls through rock to the river
that will dream it slowly and with luck
to the Gulf. At the ravine beyond the pool,
I often think of the math of the place,
lethargic subtraction by wind and raindrop,
I taste earth in the runoff, bits of rock,
and can only guess how long this cut has been
in the making, a million years is a second
to the earth, it begins narrow, no more
than a wedge you might force with your boot,
but ends fifty feet deep and lined with shale,
which juts and breaks in browns and tans, colors
of dried leaves and Moroccan skin, which falls
and piles like a jigsaw dumped on a table
late at night, when sleepless, you heal
pieces together into beauty, some lilacs
by a painter going blind or a cathedral
built over centuries for a God of patience.
An oak grows sideways from the wall of this
small canyon, the roots push out from shale
and turn ninety degrees like plumbing, like an elbow
toward sky, the oak grows as persistence
given form, given leaves and chlorophyll
to drink the sun, or fate, the tree will fail
sooner here than elsewhere, shale is a kind
of sand, the ravine a place of appetite
in the land, it opens and eats itself
to open more, will spread over time
into the shape of nothing, a node of vanishing
that will swallow the tree and feed it
to the tender hooks of water.

Weeks ago, on the low branches of this improbable
life, I found offal, intestines and stomach
of a possum or raccoon, I looked up
into a sunrise of strange and glistening jewels,
still wet, steaming from the body
that had kept their secrets, probably I'd spooked
a crow eating another few weeks of song,
if the grinding of crows can be flattered a tune.
Most of the works of the animal are gone, just
a piece now on the ground, a dark and blood brown
nubbin, and every day I think of the hard fruit
from one of those awful cakes we send at Christmas,
for a decade I mailed the same one back and forth
with my brother until he took it outside
and shot it with a twelve gauge. And every day
I expect the matting of leaves and twigs
to be free of this snatch of spleen,
this snack of colon, that a night critter
has trotted it away in its mouth, and every day
it's nearly where it was, a little darker perhaps
today, a bit more flecked with dirt, but it persists
and I know something must come of it, not even waste
goes to waste, that spring will drag it under
on its drenched tongue and one April day
of sun I'll stand in this spot and a flower
of flesh, of tiny hairs and teeth,
of feral sound will look up at me and blink,
or just a snowdrop, the white bell of it
ringing.

Bob Hicok
The Southern Review
Volume 42, Number 2
Spring 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Katrina
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Katrina Photos by NOAA:
Flood Maps
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/maps/maps.html
Louisiana
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/helicopter/helicopter-3.html
Mississippi
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/helicopter/helicopter.html
Satellite
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/satellite/satellite.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The theocrats thrive

Cynthia Tucker - Universal Press Syndicate

07.24.06 - Religious extremists have powerful political allies Last
week, Ralph Reed, once the golden boy of hard-core religious
conservatives, was defeated in Georgia's Republican primary for
lieutenant governor, his first attempt at elective office. Because he
rose to prominence as the cherubic face of the Christian Coalition,
his political remains have been autopsied by pundits nationwide, some
of whom are speculating that the cause of death was the more general
demise of America's theocrats.

But they're wrong. Reed lost because his hypocrisy on the issue of
gambling became too glaring for his ultraconservative constituents to
ignore. While he was recruited by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to
work against gambling initiatives in Alabama, the project was largely
funded by the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, which wanted to protect
its casinos from competition.

His defeat, however, by no means suggests a loss of power for a small
group of vocal activists who wish to force all Americans to live
according to their benighted religious views. They still have an
extraordinary ally in the Oval Office. A day after Reed's loss,
President Bush vetoed a bill supporting federal funding for a
broadened program of embryonic stem cell research. The president used
his first veto in six years in office to strike down a proposal
supported by nearly 70 percent of the country, including many
conservatives who oppose abortion.

The president's veto means that federal funding will not be available
to support research on embryos left over from fertilization
procedures, even if parents are willing to donate them for that
purpose. Hundreds of thousands of such embryos are stored in fertility
clinics around the country; the vast majority of them will eventually
be discarded as medical waste. (Apparently, the discarding of those
embryos doesn't bother the president nearly as much as using them to
find cures for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's would.)

The theocrats thrive. Though they represent only a fraction of the
country's voters -- indeed, a minority of GOP voters -- they are a
powerful force in GOP politics, especially in the Deep South.
Desperate for their support in his anticipated bid for the presidency,
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has kissed the ring -- metaphorically -- of
an icon among the theocrats, Jerry Falwell; in May, McCain gave a
speech at Falwell's Liberty University. Six years ago, McCain had
rightly pegged Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance."

Though they have not yet succeeded in remaking the federal courts in
their own image (that could still happen), this small group of
extremists has enjoyed significant victories over the last six years.
Even as U.S. diplomats and public officials battle the notion that
this country is at war with Islam, right-wing fundamentalists in
uniform intend to turn the armed forces into a haven for
proselytizing. Last year, congressional hearings were held after
students at the Air Force Academy complained about overt religious
discrimination; the Air Force issued regulations emphasizing
"tolerance" and religious freedom.

But Focus on the Family, headed by Christianist James Dobson, quietly
lobbied the Air Force to weaken its regulations. Officers are once
again free to pressure cadets about their religious beliefs.

The theocrats have also intimidated scientists, stalled over-the-
counter sales of an emergency contraceptive called Plan B, and used
their political connections to get federal funds for their so-called
pregnancy resource centers, where they wrongly inform pregnant women
that abortions are linked to breast cancer and infertility. Several
family planning experts say that same group of rigid
ultraconservatives is now working to limit access to contraceptives.

They "are increasingly trying to portray contraceptives as ineffective
and trying to redefine some of the most popular and effective methods
as abortion -- such as birth control pills and emergency
contraception," said Cynthia Dailard, senior public policy analyst for
the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which advocates family planning.

If these Christianists were genuinely interested in curbing abortions,
they'd support the use of contraceptives. But their goal is to turn
back the clock, to bring back the days when women had no control over
reproduction. Like right-wing Muslims, they rage against modernity
itself.

Don't be fooled by Reed's defeat. The extremists are still winning.

URL: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=21132
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6.By the Numbers -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Harper's Index for June 2006
Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006.

Year that a signboard tallying the U.S. national debt was erected near
Times Square: 1989[Douglas Durst (N.Y.C.)]

Year in which it is expected to run out of digits: 2007[Douglas Durst
(N.Y.C.)]

Percentage change in U.S. discretionary spending during the first five
years of George W. Bush's presidency: +35[Véronique de Rugy, American
Enterprise Institute (Washington)]

Percentage change during Lyndon Johnson's and Bill Clinton's first
five years, respectively: +25, -8[Véronique de Rugy, American
Enterprise Institute (Washington)]

Estimated number of illegal Irish immigrants in the United States:
25,000[Consulate General of Ireland (N.Y.C.)]

Average number of calories of oil that are used to make each calorie
of food Americans eat: 7[University of Michigan Center for Sustainable
Systems (Ann Arbor)]

Percentage change since 1960 in the per-capita U.S. consumption of
fresh potatoes: -43[U.S. Department of Agriculture]

Percentage change in per-capita consumption of processed potatoes:
+247[U.S. Department of Agriculture]

Length, in miles, of a barrier that Saudi Arabia has proposed to build
in order to seal its border with Iraq: 560[Middle East Economic Digest
(London)]

Number of electronically controlled gates that would be placed along
its length: 135[Middle East Economic Digest (London)]

Minimum number of Iraqis displaced by sectarian violence since
February: 65,000[Ministry of Displacement and Migration (Baghdad)]

Days after her coronation in April that an Iraqi beauty queen
resigned, citing death threats: 4[Talat Model Management (Baghdad)]

Factor by which the number of Iraqis imprisoned now exceeds the number
at the time of the Abu Ghraib scandal: 2[Task Force 134, Multi-
National Force-Iraq (Baghdad)]

Percentage change since 1990 in the number of Americans who describe
themselves as “nonreligious”: +106[The Graduate Center of the City
University of New York]

Percentage of U.S. abortions in 1973 and 2002, respectively, that took
place in the first trimester: 38, 61[Guttmacher Institute (N.Y.C)]

Estimated percentage of women in U.S. prisons or jails who are single
mothers: 77[U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics]

Number of state laws enacted since September 2001 that restrict access
to information: 616[Associated Press (N.Y.C.)]

Number that broaden access: 284[Associated Press (N.Y.C.)]

Number of CIA employees that the Chicago Tribune was able to identify
in March through online databases: 2,653[John Crewdson, Chicago
Tribune (Washington)]

Number of CIA workplaces it located: 24[John Crewdson, Chicago Tribune
(Washington)]

Chance that an American says he or she views France as a U.S. ally: 1
in 6[Rasmussen Reports (Ocean Grove, N.J.)]

Permanent URL http://harpers.org/HarpersIndex2006-06.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
10August2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  10 August 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- dehisce
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Galway Kinnell
4. HotSites - WEIRD Web Sites
5. Reading List - A. Reign of Terror (Krugman); B. We've Been Here Before (Quindlen)
6. By the Numbers - 1906
7. Humor - video: The Fighting Fighty Fighters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
dehisce (di-HIS) verb intr.

1. To burst open, as the pod of a plant.

2. To gape.

[When a peapod is ripe after a long wait and bursts open, it's
yawning, etymologically speaking. The term dehisce comes from Latin
dehiscere (to split open), from hiscere (to gape, yawn), from Latin
hiare (to yawn). Another term that derives from the same root is
hiatus.]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus:
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=dehisce

-Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org)

"Garrison Keillor: Rhubarb is a vegetable, no matter what the
government says: a member of the buckwheat family of herbaceous plants
including buckwheat, dock and smartweed, which are characterized by
having swollen joints, simple leaves, small petalless flowers and
small, dry, indehiscent fruit. Indehiscent means 'not dehiscent,' not
opening at maturity to release the seed. So "indehiscent" means 'hard,
dry, holding onto the seed,' which actually describes Norwegians quite
well. Most Norwegians consider dehiscence to be indecent. They hold
the seed in. But rhubarb pie comes along in the spring, when we're
half crazed from five months of winter -- it's the first fresh
vegetable we get, and it makes us dehisce." Carol Stocker;
Rediscovering Rhubarb; Boston Globe; May 16, 1996.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : : : THIS ISSUE : : : : :

Cicada (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0608/cicada.htm

Waterbug? (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0608/jesswater_ia.htm

Golden Dawn
http://djlphoto.com/0608/goldendawn.htm

Failed Diplomacy
http://djlphoto.com/0608/nodiplomat.htm

: : : : : LAST ISSUE : : : : :

Bronzed Cowbird Egg
http://djlphoto.com/0607/broc_egg.htm

Dead Amaryllis
http://djlphoto.com/0606/amaryllis.htm

Cypress Knees
http://djlphoto.com/0605haynes/cypressknees.htm

Sun and Water (two images)
http://djlphoto.com/0605/sunandwater.htm

1
In late winter
I sometimes glimpse bits of steam
coming up from
some fault in the old snow
and bend close and see it is lung-colored
and put down my nose
and know
the chilly, enduring odor of bear.

2
I take a wolf's rib and whittle
it sharp at both ends
and coil it up
and freeze it in blubber and place it out
on the fairway of the bears.

And when it has vanished
I move out on the bear tracks,
roaming in circles
until I come to the first, tentative, dark
splash on the earth.

And I set out
running, following the splashes
of blood wandering over the world.
At the cut, gashed resting places
I stop and rest,
at the crawl-marks
where he lay out on his belly
to overpass some stretch of bauchy ice
I lie out
dragging myself forward with bear-knives in my fists.

3
On the third day I begin to starve,
at nightfall I bend down as I knew I would
at a turd sopped in blood,
and hesitate, and pick it up,
and thrust it in my mouth, and gnash it down,
and rise
and go on running.

4
On the seventh day,
living by now on bear blood alone,
I can see his upturned carcass far out ahead, a scraggled,
steamy hulk,
the heavy fur riffling in the wind.

I come up to him
and stare at the narrow-spaced, petty eyes,
the dismayed
face laid back on the shoulder, the nostrils
flared, catching
perhaps the first taint of me as he
died.

I hack
a ravine in his thigh, and eat and drink,
and tear him down his whole length
and open him and climb in
and close him up after me, against the wind,
and sleep.

5
And dream
of lumbering flatfooted
over the tundra,
stabbed twice from within,
splattering a trail behind me,
splattering it out no matter which way I lurch,
no matter which parabola of bear-transcendence,
which dance of solitude I attempt,
which gravity-clutched leap,
which trudge, which groan.

6
Until one day I totter and fall --
fall on this
stomach that has tried so hard to keep up,
to digest the blood as it leaked in,
to break up
and digest the bone itself: and now the breeze
blows over me, blows off
the hideous belches of ill-digested bear blood
and rotted stomach
and the ordinary, wretched odor of bear,

blows across
my sore, lolled tongue a song
or screech, until I think I must rise up
and dance. And I lie still.

7
I awaken I think. Marshlights
reappear, geese
come trailing again up the flyway.
In her ravine under old snow the dam-bear
lies, licking
lumps of smeared fur
and drizzly eyes into shapes
with her tongue. And one
hairy-soled trudge stuck out before me,
the next groaned out,
the next,
the next,
the rest of my days I spend
wandering: wondering
what, anyway,
was that sticky infusion, that rank flavor of blood, that
poetry, by which I lived?

from Body Rags, Galway Kinnell (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - WEIRD Web Sites
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You need a tin foil hat for this one:
http://watchman888.land.ru/

Corpses for Sale
http://distefano.com/index.htm

Weird Fortune Cookies
http://www.weirdfortunecookies.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Reign of Terror - Paul Krugman - 28 July 2006
http://djlphoto.com/blog/060728krugman.htm

We've Been Here Before - Anna Quindlen - 31 Oct. 2005
http://lhostelaw.com/blog/2006/08/quindlen.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. By the Numbers - 1906
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
(I received this as an email. Don't know the accuracy of the source, but I researched
average wage, population of states, Eiffel Tower, and life expectancy and all were
correct.)

** THE YEAR 1906 **

      What a difference a century makes!
      Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the
      Year 1906 :
     ************************************

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was
47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had
a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York
City cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S. , and
only 144 miles of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10
mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee
were each more heavily populated than California .

With a mere 1.4 million people, California
was only the 21st most populous state in the Union .

The tallest structure in the world was the
Eiffel Tower !

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per
hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and
$400 per year .

A competent accountant could expect to earn
$2000 per year,a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian
between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical
engineer about $5,000 per year.

More than 95 percent of all births in the
U.S. took place at HOME .

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO
COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended
so-called medical schools, many of which
were condemned in the press AND the
government as "substandard."

Sugar cost four cents a pound.
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a
month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor
people from entering into their country
for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S.
were:
      1. Pneumonia and influenza
      2. Tuberculosis
      3. Diarrhea
      4. Heart disease
      5. Stroke

  The American flag had 45 stars.
  Arizona , Oklahoma , New Mexico , Hawaii , and
  Alaska hadn't been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas , Nevada , was
only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea
hadn't been invented yet.

There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn't read
or write.

Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated
from high school.

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S.
had at least
one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the
ENTIRE U.S.A. !

Now I forwarded this from someone else
without typing
it myself, and sent it to you and others all
over the United States ,
possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another
100 years.

(Submitted by subscriber Randy L'Hoste.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
7. Humor - video: The Fighting Fighty Fighters
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````

The Fighting Fighty Fighters play Win, Lose or Withdraw:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/40109/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
26September2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
                  26 September 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- tarantism
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Harp
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Bush Is Trashing Our National Parks
6. By the Numbers - Harper's Index
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
tarantism (TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm) noun

An uncontrollable urge to dance.

[After Taranto, a town in southern Italy where this phenomenon was experienced
during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the symptom
of a spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to dodge a
prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the spider
tarantula are both derived from the same place.]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=tarantism

-Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org)

  "The director is in a wild delirium, spinning in circles as though stricken
   with tarantism, his whirring camera held at arm's length, panning,
   tilting, arcing and oscillating and making other moves that have no name."
   Caelum Vatnsdal; Kino Delirium: The Films of Guy Maddin; Arbeiter Ring
   Publishing; 2000.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Grand Teton National Park - August 2006
http://djlphoto.com/teton

LAST ISSUE:

Cicada (four images)
http://djlphoto.com/0608/cicada.htm

Waterbug? (three images)
http://djlphoto.com/0608/jesswater_ia.htm

Golden Dawn
http://djlphoto.com/0608/goldendawn.htm

Failed Diplomacy
http://djlphoto.com/0608/nodiplomat.htm

    Nothing's low to begin with.
    Even the hectic scatter of
    larvae in a Bennigan's trash bin,

    bulbous molds incorporating the dying
    rust red of the apple they're eating
    or a fleet of centipedes clattering

    beneath 57th Street like the N train:
    all these humbles-all these bitty
    decumbent groundlings-they lift

    with the pressure of purpose.
    Let what goes up be our glee
    in love, the in-flight moves

    our limbs propose, the ahems
    that ascend before kisses,
    the trampoline leap

    of the secret admirer,
    our arms arcing like catapults
    to high the five,

    to trace and wake the sky.
    The air's not meant
    for throttling through,

but for breathing in.

    Nicholas Harp
    Boston Review
    July/August 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm

Internet FAQ Archives
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/

American Field Guide
http://www.pbs.org/americanfieldguide/

September 26, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/42121/

It seems to me that George W. missed his true calling. I think he has
long harbored a secret desire to be a thespian, for he's a man who
clearly loves to dress up in costumes.

There's his famous Top Gun outfit, for example, which he strapped on
back in 2003, strutting around vampishly to declare "mission
accomplished" in Iraq. Also, every few weeks, George likes to reprise
his abolish this magnificent system, and failing our children and all
future generations who should receive America's public-park heritage
in even better shape than it came to us. They diminish our country by
shortchanging the rich culture, history, science, and natural life
that spring from these unique places. For a nation of incredible
wealth, this political failure is a damning stain on our professed
ideals of the common goodand of good stewardship.

The politicos don't seem to get it that parks are beloved, even by
people who don't like much of anything else that government does. In a
Harris Poll last December, people ranked the Park Service as the most
popular government program of all. With 85% support (including 83% of
Republicans!), parks even outpaced such programs as crime fighting,
Medicare and Social Security.

There are 388 of these public spaces, and they are widely used,
especially by middle-class and lower-income families who count on them
for recreation, vacation, education, and more. An astonishing 280
million visitors a year find their way to these forests, scenic
rivers, historic sites, mountains, seashores, canyons, volcanos,
monuments, islands, artifacts, glaciers, and other wonders -- more
people than attend all football, baseball, and other professional
sports events combined. For these millions, the park system is a
tangible and highly valued benefit, firsthand evidence of what
government is doing for ordinary folks.

The problem for park whackers is that this is one place where their
whacks show. The years of budget shortfalls have taken an obvious toll
on a park system that the general public considers its own. Visitors
arrive to find such unpleasant surprises as reduced hours,
discontinued tours andtalks, closed trails, unrepaired storm damage,
boarded-up historic structures, leaky lodges, shuttered visitor
centers, curtailed education programs, crumbling boardwalks, neglected
campgrounds, dilapidated bridges, eroded roads -- and, of course,
ever-rising fees. Here is a sampling of the deterioration, as
documented in reports by such watchdog groups as The Coalition of
National Park Service Retirees (motto: "Green Blood Still Runs Deep"),
National Parks Conservation Association, and Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER):

* When Bush held his 2000 photo op to castigate Clinton for the
system's maintenance backlog, he singled out a leaky roof at
Gettysburg National Military Park. Six years later, that roof still
leaked.

* The visitor center at the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Hawaii is
sinking.

* Bridges in Mount Rainier National Park are in such disrepair that
they are unsafe, so hikers cannot get to the park's backcountry
cabins.

* Traffic jams are notorious in many parks because there has been
inadequate expansion of roads and parking lots to keep up with the
increase in visitors. For example, an 11 mile ride on the single-lane
road to the peaks of Great Smoky Mountains National Park takes up to
four hours in the summer and fall leaf season, and an average of 6,000
cars a day try to enter the main visitors' area of the Grand Canyon,
which has only 2,400 parking spaces.

* Staff cuts at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore mean that a fourth of
the school kids who want to participate in the park's education
program must be turned away.

* The 3.4 million acre Death Valley National Park has 15 rangers to
watch visitors where temperatures can exceed 120 degrees -- it says it
needs 45. Of course, there's no unpleasant reality that the Bushites
won't try to deny or paper over. During the 2004 election battle, for
example, each of the park superintendents received an internal memo
dictated by Bush political appointees. It instructed these civil
servants to teach their park rangers and other staffers to use
politically correct language for the '04 season. Employees were
forbidden to use the term "budget cuts" to explain to visitors why the
parks were in such bad shape -- instead, they were to refer gaily to
"service level adjustments." In addition, they were told to assure all
visitors,"This administration is very committed to preserving the
resources of the national parks."

This year, the superintendents got yet another memo from on high.
Labeled "talking points," it told NPS professionals to answer
questions about Bush's proposed 30% budget cut with this soothing
line: "The National Park Service,like most agencies, is tightening its
belt as our nation rebuilds from Katrina, continues the war on
terrorism,and strives to reduce the deficit." This from the White
House gang that totally botched the response to Katrina, that has
America mired in a $300 billion war of lies, and that is the worst
deficit bloater in history!

The Bush agenda

In fairness, it should be noted that the Bushites have added to the
park system as well as subtracted. While visitors find poorer
conditions and reduced services, they are just as amazed to find that
Bush & Company has brought its own particular agenda into our public
parks, adding three new dimensions that Teddy Roosevelt probably never
thought of: commercialization, privatization, and Christianization.

COMMERCIALIZATION. For the laissez-faire extremists around Bush (and
for many of his corporate backers), having millions of acres of
natural splendor and quietude in the public domain is not a blessing,
but an unmitigated waste -- a missed opportunity for commercial
exploitation. So, Bush has filled key government positions with
ideologues and corporate servants.

Their major effort was an attempt literally to rewrite the historic
mission of NPS. They proposed to weaken the original purpose -- the
preservation of America's natural wonders for future generations -- by
coupling it with a new purpose of equal weight -- providing access to
interests that want to use the parks for their own gain. The good news
is that park employee groups and conservation activists, along with
allies in Congress, have just recently defeated this grand plan. The
bad news is that many elements of their plan have already been
implemented.

One backward step has been the acceptance of corporate advertising in
these public areas. This is being rationalized as a necessary step to
"help" the parks by getting corporate ad money to cover some of their
budget shortfalls. You can see the cynical game they're playing--
intentionally slash public funding (Bush proposes a cut of $100
million from the NPS's 2007 annual budget), then call in corporations
to be white-hat rescuers.

Their initial ads-in-the-park plan would've sold naming rights to
rooms and other park facilities, let corporate donors put their logos
on park vehicles, and generally would've Disneyfied the places.
However, another howl of public protest forced the NPS brass to back
off, so the latest "donations and fundraising" policy leaves the Park
Service merely a little bit pregnant. Donor plaques in the park, web
and video links, ad tie-ins, and such will be available to what they
call "Proud Partner" arrangements, which already include Coca Cola and
Ford.

Lest you think they'll stop there, look at NPS's sister agency, the
Forest Service. This keeper of America's magnificent national forests
acted in March to liberalize "sponsor recognition rules." For the
first time, corporations can sponsor special events on forest lands,
allowing them to plaster their ads on trails and roads, inside lodges,
on ski gondolas, and elsewhere. Moreover, the FS's new rule pre-empts
state restrictions governing ads for tobacco, alcohol, and gambling.

Jeff Ruch of PEER says, "Under this plan, every tacky commercial
promotion will be welcomed. Vistas of our national forests may soon
include giant inflatable beer bottles, banners for chewing tobacco,
and snack food kiosks."

While the Park Service has not yet succumbed to full-tilt, eyesore ad
fever, it has quietly saturated even the nation's most isolated and
serene parks with something quite noisy: cell phones. They have
blanketed some of our country's oldest and wildest parks, including
Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Everglades, Mojave, Big Cypress,
Mammoth Cave, and many more. This is, as one observer said in dismay,
"the death of solitude." The ring of the cell phone intrudes even in
remote backcountry, and the new call of the wild is a human voice
shouting, "Can you hear me now?"

Thanks to Bush and Congress, Mother Nature must also compete with the
ubiquitous, metallic towers of telecom giants. Take the cell phone
tower at Old Faithful… please! Yes, nothing is sacred to these
commercializers. A stark, 80-foot tower, topped with three antennas,
now looms over this famous geyser (an American icon in Yellowstone
National Park). In all, five towers have invaded Yellowstone, with
more in the works. There are so many towers in the national system
that NPS doesn't know the total number or where they are. That's
because the policy -- written behind closed doors by park officials
and such corporations as Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, and Quest --
essentially allows the corporations to work out deals with individual
parks on the number of towers, their location, and size.

All of this has been done without the required public notice and with
no national debate. It's the telecom takeover not only of our parks,
but of our democratic process.

PRIVATIZATION. Let's hear from Dick Cheney, speaking in April 2001: "We
believe in the [NPS] and its values -- values which are, of course,
all gathered together in the person of the park ranger."

Who doesn't love park rangers, probably the most admired of all
federal employees? Well, Bush and Cheney, to name two nonfans of these
public employees. Sweet rhetoric aside, the Bushites have been working
steadily behind the scenes to replace real rangers with low-wage rent-
a-rangers employed by private subcontractors.

A White House privatization plan in 2003 called for transferring more
than half of NPS's jobs (rangers, firefighters, archeologists,
curators, biologists, and others) to low-bid contractors (I think I
smell Halliburton here!). Congress temporarily stalled this, but Bush
continues to push, requiring the parks to study and test his
privatization scheme. In an agency that already is cash strapped
andunderstaffed, NPS must hire a bevy of consultants, frittering away
millions of dollars that it needs for real work.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is compelling the Forest Service to
consider privatizing more than two-thirds of its employees. Its fire-
fighting jobs are being reviewed for outplacement, along with half of
its law-enforcement officers and rangers, all of its geologists, and
3,000 foresters and conservationists. In 2003, the service spent some
$100 million on privatization studies, but found no identifiable
savings.

On the other side of the ledger, not only are both of these park
agencies wasting scarce funds on useless studies, but you can also
imagine how much good this is doing for employee morale. Working with
either the NPS or FS has long been considered more than a job -- it's
a calling. The low bidder is never going to bring this invaluable
intangible to the task.

CHRISTIANIZATION. People think of many of America's parks as awesome
"cathedrals" of solitude. But the Bushites are saying, hey, let's
bring some real "church" to Momma Nature -- in particular, let's toss
a sop to our extremist Christian constituency by converting to a
system of faith-based park management (non-Christians need not apply).

Thus, while taking in the grandeur of the Grand Canyon from the
popular viewing area on the south rim, your eyes can also behold three
bronze plaques bearing Bible verses, put there by the Evangelical
Sisterhood of Mary. When the park superintendent had them removed on
constitutional grounds, a top Bush appointee at NPS headquarters
overruled him, and the plaques are still there.

In 2003, this same park began selling Grand Canyon: A Different View.
It is a Christian creationist tome asserting that the canyon is not
the product of geological forces but instead was created by Noah's
flood and is only 6,000 years old. Again, the park superintendent
balked, and again he was overruled by Bush political appointees, who
ordered hundreds more copies of the book to sell. An NPS spokeswoman
said flatly, "We don't want to remove it" -- and they haven't.

The Bush regime also gave rapid response to a right-wing Christian
demand that history be rewritten at the Lincoln Memorial. An
eightminute video shown there portrays many of the historic marches
and events that have taken place at the memorial. Christian "purists,"
however, screeched that the video's showing of antiwar, pro-choice,
and gay-rights demonstrations must be excised, claiming that the
inclusion of such footage implied that Lincoln himself embraced these
causes.

Bush appointees promptly spent more than $200,000 to edit the video so
it includes footage of such other events as pro-Gulf War
demonstrations and the Christian "Promise Keepers" rally -- even
though these did not take place at the Lincoln Memorial. The
Christianized version still has not made its public debut, however,
thanks to the vigilance of several groups that have exposed and
opposed this political cleansing of history.

The Commons

Our parks are us. The American ideal -- and the source of our strength
as a people, a society, and a nation -- centers on the unifying belief
that we truly are "all in this together." This essential democratic
notion has taken a severe pounding from the Powers That Be during the
past decade or so. For example, on the sharing of America's fabulous
economic gains, on the sharing of the horrific price for Bush's war in
Iraq, on the sharing of the universal need for good health coverage --
we clearly are no longer in it together.

A place to start putting The Commons back together -- both
symbolically and tangibly -- could be in our parks. These gems of
shared ground link us spiritually and physically with each other, with
our past and future, and with our natural world. By letting them be
tarnished, our leaders have tarnished America itself. It's up to us,
using our grassroots strength, to make these gems gleam again.

From The Hightower Lowdown, edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip
Frazer, September 2006. Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
writer, public speaker, and author of "Thieves In High Places: They've
Stolen Our Country And It's Time to Take It Back." © 2006 Independent
Media Institute. All rights reserved. View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/42121/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. By the Numbers -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Harper's Index for August 2006
Posted on Monday, September 4, 2006.
[sources]

Total number of days that the 2005-6 House of Representatives is
scheduled to have met by the end of its term: 241 [Résumé of
Congressional Activity (Washington)/Office of the House Majority Whip
(Washington)]

Last two-year term whose House met for fewer days: 1955-56[Résumé of
Congressional Activity (Washington)]

Number of days that 1947-8’s famous “Do-Nothing Congress” met:
254[Résumé of Congressional Activity (Washington)]

Minimum value of free, privately sponsored trips taken since 2000 by
members of Congress and their staffs: $49,000,000[Center for Public
Integrity (Washington)]

Ratio of the estimated U.S. cost of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to
the cost of the Iraq war so far: 1:1[David Sandalow, Brookings
Institution (Washington)/Scott Wallsten, American Enterprise Institute
(Washington)]

Estimated amount the U.S. military has spent since 1994 to replace
service members discharged for being gay: $364,000,000[ Center for the
Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (Santa Barbara, Calif.)]

Number of officers whose resignations the U.S. Army Reserve has
refused since December 2004: 426[U.S. Army Reserve (Fort McPherson,
Ga.)]

Number of AK-47s that have gone missing after being sent by the
Pentagon to Iraq last summer: 26,000[Amnesty International (London)]

Percentage of Americans in May who believed that democracy would take
hold in Iraq: 54[Pew Global Attitudes Project (Washington)]

Number of the fourteen other nations surveyed where a majority
believed this: 3[Pew Global Attitudes Project (Washington)]

Number of new skin-whitening products that have been introduced to
Asian and Pacific markets since 2002: 189[Datamonitor (London)]

Number of films since 1960 that feature an evil albino: 55[Vail Reese
(San Francisco)]

Year that Israel passed a “temporary” law barring Palestinians who
marry Israelis from gaining citizenship: 2003[Supreme Court of Israel
(Jerusalem)]

Vote by which its Supreme Court upheld the law this May: 6-5[Supreme
Court of Israel (Jerusalem)]

Average amount Israel has paid to relocate each settler from the Gaza
Strip: $250,000[Embassy of Israel (Washington)]

Amount of casino profits that the Pechanga, a California tribe, paid
out last year to each of its adults: $290,000 (see page 74)[Harper’s
research]

Portion of the tribe that is being expelled or has been expelled since
2004 over allegations of insufficient heritage: 1/4[Harper’s research]

Years that Missouri has allowed gambling addicts to bar themselves for
life from riverboat casinos: 10[Missouri Gaming Commission (Jefferson
City) ]

Number who have signed up so far: 10,119[Missouri Gaming Commission
(Jefferson City)]

Percentage of Americans living in hurricane-prone areas who had done
nothing by May to prepare for this year’s storms: 73[The National
Hurricane Survival Initiative (Miami)]

Number of single-family homes sold in the New Orleans area during the
first quarter of 2006: 3,659[New Orleans Metropolitan Association of
Realtors (Metairie, La.)]

Percentage by which this exceeds the number sold during the first
quarter of 2005: 28[New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors
(Metairie, La.)]

Average percentage by which the price of these homes has increased:
20[New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors (Metairie, La.)]

Number of African giant pouched rats that Belgian researchers have
trained to sniff out explosives: 36[ Apopo (Antwerp, Belgium)]

Price, from a North Carolina company, for a charcoal-filled seat
cushion that absorbs the odor of flatulence: $21.95[Dairiair, LLC
(Greenville, N.C.)]

Percentage of the odor that the cushion absorbs, according to an
outside study: 20[Michael Levitt, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
(Minneapolis)]

Percentage absorbed by the company’s $64.99 carbon-fiber underwear:
99[Michael Levitt, Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Minneapolis)]

This is Harper's Index for August 2006, a Harper's Index, originally from
August 2006, published Monday, September 4, 2006. It is part of
Harper's Index for 2006, which is part of The Harper's Index, which is
part of Harpers.org.

Navigate by Hierarchy Prev: Harper's Index for July 2006 Next: [Last
in section] Up: Harper's Index for 2006

Navigate by Time of Publication Prev: A Cartoon Next: Old News from
New Hampshire

Permanent URL http://harpers.org/HarpersIndex2006-08.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
21November2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
               21 November 2006

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
An archive of past issues of <:>inter alia<:> is
online, with issues dating back to April 1998:
http://lhostelaw.com/iaa/ia_archive.htm
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- pertinacious
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Mark Strand
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - Hersh and Rich
6. Weird News - Fish taco cola!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
pertinacious (pur-tin-AY-shuhs) adjective

1. Holding resolutely to a purpose, belief, or opinion.

2. Stubbornly unyielding.

[From Latin pertinac- pertinax, per- (thoroughly) + tenax (tenacious),
from tenere (to hold).]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus:
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=pertinacious

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

"A man is pertinacious when he defends his folly and trusts too
greatly in his own wit." Geoffrey Chaucer; Canterbury Tales: Explicit
Secunda Pars Penitentie; 1387-1400 (Translation: Walter W. Skeat).
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THIS ISSUE:

Eggplant
http://djlphoto.com/0607/eggplant.htm

Vine on Wet Sand
http://djlphoto.com/0608/vinesand.htm

Mimosa
http://djlphoto.com/0608/mimosa.htm

Paris 2006
http://djlphoto.com/paris/

LAST ISSUE:

Grand Teton National Park - August 2006
http://djlphoto.com/teton

    Once when the lawn was a golden green
    and the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials
    in the scented air, and the whole countryside pulsed
    with the chirr and murmur of insects, I lay in the grass,
    feeling the great distances open above me, and wondered
    what I would become and where I would find myself,
    and though I barely existed, I felt for an instant
    that the vast star-clustered sky was mine, and I heard
    my name as if for the first time, heard it the way
    one hears the wind or the rain, but faint and far off
    as though it belonged not to me but to the silence
    from which it had come and to which it would go.

    Mark Strand
    Man and Camel
    Alfred A. Knopf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Hubble Telescope Gallery
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/

American Rhetoric
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

American Council of Exercise
http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/freeexercise.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
THE NEXT ACT
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Is a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more?
Issue of 2006-11-27
Posted 2006-11-20

. . . many in the White House and the Pentagon insist that getting tough
with Iran is the only way to salvage Iraq. “It’s a classic case of
‘failure forward,’” a Pentagon consultant said. “They believe that by
tipping over Iran they would recover their losses in Iraq—like
doubling your bet. It would be an attempt to revive the concept of
spreading democracy in the Middle East by creating one new model
state.”
From The New Yorker: < http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061127fa_fact>

= = = = = =

It's Not the Democrats Who Are Divided
    By Frank Rich
    The New York Times
    Sunday 19 November 2006

The Washington story that will matter most going forward
is the fate of the divided Republicans. Only if they
heroically come together can the country be saved from
a president who, for all his professed pipe dreams about
democracy in the Middle East, refuses to surrender to
democracy's verdict at home.
From The New York Times: < http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111906C.shtml>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
6. Weird News -
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
SEATTLE (Reuters) - After introducing the world to new soda flavors
like fish taco and salmon, Seattle specialty beverage maker Jones Soda
Co. is offering a new flavor: Green pea.

Green pea, along with other unusual sodas such as turkey and gravy,
dinner roll, sweet potato and antacid flavor, will be part of the
company's $10 to $15 "holiday pack" of bottled drinks available
nationwide.

Peter van Stolk, chief executive of Jones Soda, said on Monday the
collection of strange-flavored sodas usually sells out quickly, even
though he can not stomach the drinks. Past flavors included broccoli
casserole, corn on the cob and Brussel sprout.

"Why people buy it is beyond me. I can't drink a bottle of this
stuff," said van Stolk.

Jones Soda, which sells traditional sodas alongside more exotic
flavors like fufu berry and green apple, first introduced the holiday
soda pack in 2003, gaining notoriety for its turkey and gravy flavor
soda.

"We have the market share leader in turkey-flavored beverages," said
van Stolk. "We know we can't compete with Coke or Pepsi by playing
their game, but we know they're not going to come out with a turkey
flavor or antacid flavor."

Asked if there were any flavors that were off limits, van Stolk said
he put his foot down when it came to curried chicken flavor.

"Fish taco was just nasty and we tried curried chicken. That was just
wrong," he said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~

= = = = =
18December2006

TOP

<:> i n t e r a l i a <:>
18 December 2006

In Today's Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
1. A Word A Day -- prise
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
3. Quote of the Day -- Eleanor Stanford
4. HotSites - Miscellany
5. Reading List - YouTube vs. Boob Tube, 'Tis the Season to be Tacky, and Grading Wikipedia
6. Weird News - Macaca, you're doing a heck of a job!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
`````````````````
1. A Word A Day
`````````````````
prise (pryz) verb tr.

1. To force open or part something with a lever.

2. To extract information from someone with difficulty.

noun

A lever.

[From Old French prise, from Latin prehendere (to seize). Ultimately
from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- that is also the source of
pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, and get.]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=prise

-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)

  "Using three tyre levers, [Jessica] Jonsson worked her way round the
   rim prising the tyre loose."
   Kristin Edge; The Spannergirl; The Daily Post (Rotorua, New Zealand);
   Nov 15, 2006.
--
>From A Word A Day:
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
2. Graphics of the Day -- by David J. L'Hoste
``````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
: : : THIS ISSUE : : :

Audubon Park Oak in Fog
http://djlphoto.com/0612/oakfog.htm

Audubon Park Oaks in Fog
http://djlphoto.com/0612/oaks.htm

Audubon Park Peristyle and Tree
http://djlphoto.com/0612/peristyle.htm

Audubon Park Peristyle
http://djlphoto.com/0612/peristyle2.htm

Under the Oaks
http://djlphoto.com/0612/underoak.htm

Audubon Park Oak at Night
http://djlphoto.com/0612/tree_backlit.htm

Shelter No. 10
http://djlphoto.com/0612/shelter.htm

City Park Pond
http://djlphoto.com/0612/pond.htm

City Park Pond II
http://djlphoto.com/0612/pond2.htm

City Park Pond III
http://djlphoto.com/0612/pond3.htm

City Park Oak at Night
http://djlphoto.com/0612/tree_silhouette.htm

: : : LAST ISSUE : : :

Eggplant
http://djlphoto.com/0607/eggplant.htm

Vine on Wet Sand
http://djlphoto.com/0608/vinesand.htm

Mimosa
http://djlphoto.com/0608/mimosa.htm

Paris 2006
http://djlphoto.com/paris/

    While the President is speaking about security,
    I am straining peas through the food mill, splattering
    the kitchen counter with green specks. The radio is on
    at a low volume, so I will be less tempted
    to throw things at it, but instead I just grind harder,
    until my fingers are pressed against
    the metal holes, threatening to grate the skin
    from my knuckles. If this were another country, somewhere
    in Latin America, say, or Eastern Europe, I could write lines like,
    My country, take care of your light!, as Neruda did,
    I could write, I am begging you the way a child
    begs its mother, as he did, staring out his window
    at the ocean tiresomely reiterating on the black rocks.
    Oh, to live among those writers
    who make unabashed use of vodka
    and exclamation marks! Except in such a place
    I would probably be the one lost in the steam
    of a pot of boiling cabbage, I would be the one
    with a baby tied to her back and her hands
    busy on the tortilla board, flattening anger
    into perfect floured circles. As here in my kitchen full
    of modern appliances, I push my anger through
    the metal strainer, and prepare to feed it by small spoonfuls,
    mixed with rice cereal and breastmilk, to the baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
4. HotSites - Miscellany
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
The Iraq Study Group Report
<http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/index.html>

Star Date Online - Moon Phases, Sunrise/Sunset, Constellations, Meteor Showers, and much more.
<http://stardate.org/>

Audubon's Birds of America
<http://www.audubon.org/bird/BoA/BOA_index.html>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ia~~~~~~
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
5. Reading List
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
'Tis the season to be tacky
by Michael White
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml;jsessionid=DESNJZWY52ALTQFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/arts/2006/12/10/svtacky110.xml&site=6&page=0>

YouTube vs. Boob Tube
by Bob Garfield
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/youtube_pr.html>

Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?
by Brock Read
<http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?%20id=z6xht2rj60kqmsl8tlq5ltqcshc5y93y>

"Macaca" you are number one.

The word "macaca," used by outgoing Republican Sen. George Allen
(news, bio, voting record) of Virginia to describe a Democratic
activist of Indian descent who was trailing his campaign, was named
the most politically incorrect word of the year on Friday by Global
Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage.

"The word might have changed the political balance of the U.S. Senate,
since Allen's utterance (an offensive slang term for Indians from the
Sub-continent) surely impacted his election bid," said the group's
head, Paul JJ Payack.

Allen narrowly lost to Democrat James Webb in November, helping make
it possible for the Democrats to capture control of the Senate.

In second place on this year's list was "Global Warming Denier," for
someone who believes that climate change has moved from scientific
theory to dogma.

"There are now proposals that 'global warming deniers' be treated the
same as 'Holocaust deniers: professional ostracism, belittlement,
ridicule and, even, jail," Payack said.

In third was "Herstory" substituting for "History." Payack said there
are nearly 900,000 Google citations for "Herstory," all based on a
mistaken assumption that "history" is a sexist word.

"When Herodotus wrote the first history, the word meant simply an
'inquiry,'" he said.

In August, Global Language Monitor picked "truthiness" and "Wikiality"
-- two words popularized by political satirist Stephen Colbert on his
TV show "The Colbert Report"-- as the top television buzzwords of the
year.

The group defined "truthiness" as used by Colbert as meaning "truth
unencumbered by the facts." "Wikiality," derived from the user-
compiled Wikipedia information Web site, was defined as "reality as
determined by majority vote."

Last year, it dubbed "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," as U.S.
President George W. Bush's most memorable phrase of 2005.

Bush made the comment to Michael Brown, the former head of Federal
Emergency Management Agency, before Brown resigned over the
administration's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.