Images - A felt fungus

I saw this mushroom along a greenway near Bond Lake. It looked so soft. (taken 12/23/06)

"Stooop it Daddy"

I've been enjoying my time at home. It is nice to spend time with my wife and boys. I love all of my boys, but I end up posting more about Can because he is still in that period of his life when he does new and funny things. I've noticed that when I'm working on the computer he usually sneaks in about every 10 minutes and climbs up on my lap, sits there for a minute and then wanders off to continue playing. I love that he comes in to check on me. I also love to tickle him during his visit. He giggles in the cutest way and if I tickle him enough I can get him to say, "stooop it daddy," in his own high-pitched bubbly way. It warms my heart. I'll miss this when I'm back at work every day.

I've moved lexicon augmentation to its own blog

I've decided to shift my lexicon augmentation posts to their own blog in order to make this blog less cluttered. The words will be posted in the right column but you will have to click on the word to get the definition.

Can is pitching a fit

The other day Can opened up the fridge and pulled out a jug of eggnog and started chugging. I'm not sure where he got this idea, but I thought it was pretty cute and so I took a picture.


Now he is pitching a fall down on the ground, legs flailing fit because we won't let him drink from the milk jug. Its not as cute, so I didn't take a picture.

Can in his new slippers

Mom asked me to edit her out, but I really wanted to show cute Can and his Lightning McQueen slippers.

Time to make the donuts

The boys after making donuts on the 23rd.

Images - Tall trees

I love to stand and look up at the tops of the tall trees in the forest. They look so majestic way up there. (taken 12/17/06)

What was so bad about 2006?

This morning I heard a radio DJ make a comment that left me shaking my head. I can't remember the exact wording he used, but he was basically saying that he hopes that 2007 isn't as bad as the past year. He didn't specifically name any of the problems that he was bemoaning, but I was left with the impression that he was talking about how bad things are in America with Bush and the Republicans at the helm.

I just don't see why people think that 2006 was such a bad year. The left has everybody brainwashed into thinking that things are really bad in America right now, but I bet if you looked at the lives of most Americans, they are doing pretty well. Overall, the economy is great. We have plenty of food and clothing. More people own homes than ever before. We have access to more electronic gadgets than we could really want and way more than we need. From the world's point of view, life is pretty darn good in America. Sure we are at war but it really doesn't have a very big impact on the lives of most Americans. I bet most people don't really think about it except when the main-stream media throws out another biased report about how bad things are in Iraq. Compare this to other wars that America has faced in the past and you'd hardly know we were at war. Instead of 8000 dead per month, as in WWII, this war averages ~50 deaths per month. I am sorry to see any brave young men give up their lives, and I honor those who put themselves in harms way to keep the war off of our shores. But even with the war, which started long before 2006, life is good in America. I wish that people would stop buying into the left's American sob story and recognize how good we have it.

Update (01/01/07): I just came across a couple of articles (1 and 2)related to this subject. A good line from the first one:

Democrats were more likely than Republicans to have a negative view of the past year, and were less likely to feel optimistic looking forward.

"Looking back on the follies of the year ahead"

Lileks makes some humorous comments about the scary reality we face in the coming year. Here's a sample:

North Korea returned to the negotiating table and announced it wants a Playstation 3 and a ham sandwich. Also a pony. Talks broke up when the Americans refused to supply a Playstation because they bought North Korea an Xbox last time, and it just sat in the closet.

Images - Gone South

As the leaves fall from the trees, the old birds nests in the back forest stand out. (taken 12/17/06)

Lexicon augmentation - disquisition

dis·qui·si·tion /ˌdɪskwəˈzɪʃən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dis-kwuh-zish-uhn]

–noun

a formal discourse or treatise in which a subject is examined and discussed; dissertation.

---

[Origin: 1595–1605; <>disquīsītiōn- (s. of disquīsītiō), equiv. to disquīsīt(us) (ptp. of disquīrere to investigate; dis- dis-¹ + quaerere to seek, ask) + -iōn- -ion]

from dictionary.com

Lexicon augmentation - antediluvian

an·te·di·lu·vi·an /ˌæntidɪˈluviən/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[an-tee-di-loo-vee-uhn]

–adjective

1.	of or belonging to the period before the Flood. Gen. 7, 8.

2.	very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primitive: antediluvian ideas.

–noun

3.	a person who lived before the Flood.

4.	a very old or old-fashioned person or thing.

---

[Origin: 1640–50; ante- + L dīluvi(um) a flood, deluge + -an]

from dictionary.com

Christmas morning part 3

Christmas morning part 3

Christmas morning part 2

Christmas morning part 2

Christmas morning part 1

Christmas morning part 1

Can licking cookie

Just a cute video of Can licking a very big Christmas cookie.

Save me from the madness

A typical night at our house. Poor Mom!

Another great Orson Scott Card article

"As with Rome, the American military has been the wall behind which a system of safe trade has allowed an extraordinary degree of specialization and therefore mutually sustained prosperity."

"Our enemies and most of our "allies" and many of our own citizens are working as hard as possible to bring the whole thing crashing down, though that is not at all what they intend. They just haven't learned the lessons -- the principles -- of how great economic empires are maintained.

They only look at the political dogmas du jour and spout their platitudes. People like me are ridiculed for seeing the big picture and learning the lessons of history."

In this article, Card examines the role of the Roman armies on the fall of Rome and ties this into the US army and its role in maintaining the civilization we know today.

Early Christmas Eve donuts

Since Christmas Eve is on Sunday this year and we've been invited to some friends for dinner, we decided to do the donuts tonight.

Best lights in the neighborhood

Well, almost. We tied for first prize in the neighborhood lighting contest. I think the other guy has more lights, but lots of them are just prefab light sculptures. The crazy part is that I didn't even know we had a neighborhood lighting contest. Danae's holly bushes (to the left and right) were a great touch, but I think that the Dr. Seuss tree brought in the prize. If you saw my first pictures you'll note that the rope lights on the tree were added later. What a stroke of genius. The $25 home depot gift card paid for half of what I spent this year to upgrade to two stories worth of icicle lights.

Lexicon augmentation - valetudinarian

valetudinarian-
1.an invalid.
2.a person who is excessively concerned about his or her poor health or ailments. –adjective
3.in poor health; sickly; invalid.
4.excessively concerned about one's poor health or ailments.
5.of, pertaining to, or characterized by invalidism.

from dictionary.com

Images - Stimulated moss

Moss with fruiting bodies in the backyard forest. (taken 12/17/06)

"Can eat smiley"

Some of the girls from church brough Mom a birthday cake. It was chocolate with "happy birthday" written in green, yellow and blue icing. It also had a smiley face with chocolate chip eyes. Mom put the cake on the counter and then went upstairs to wrap some presents while I ran to the store for a few last minute things. Had to get some eggnog for Santa Claus. Everyone knows how much he likes and needs the stuff. I also needed to get about a gazillion birthday candles for the cake. When I came home, this is what the cake looked like. When I asked what happened I was told that Can said, "Can eat yellow and blue. Can eat smiley."

Cute can video

His brothers do this in your face to be annoying. From him, its just cute

Lexicon augmentation - ersatz

ersatz-
1.serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial.
2.an artificial substance or article used to replace something natural or genuine; a substitute.

from dictionary.com

Peace on earth

Good video. Peace doesn't come cheap or easy and it requires the intervention of angels, both mortal and immortal.

"Romney is different...he’s a profoundly decent man"

Dean Barnett posted a good essay on Hugh Hewitt's blog about Mitt Romney. He used to work for Romney and he discusses the fact that Mitt is a genuinely good and conservative guy. Now facade necessary.

"I knew Romney was special a decade before my brethren in the conservative punditocracy came to the same conclusion. But it is worth noting that I came about the conclusion the same way they have – from first-hand exposure to the guy.
As every reader of this site knows, I don’t find our political class to be particularly impressive. I find them intellectually incurious, pathologically ambitious and morally unmoored. The Democrats are worse than the Republicans, but it’s not a runaway.
But Romney is different. First of all, he’s brilliant. When you spend even a little time with him, you see how his mind attacks a problem from every conceivable angle. This requires an intellectual curiosity and an intellectual industriousness that is foreign to nearly all of our politicians.
Second, he’s a profoundly decent man. All that stuff about what a perfect family he has and how committed he is to it isn’t a crock. And he’s really nice – his affability is no Clintonian act."

He points out that to meet Mitt Romney is to know that he is special. I've seen similar comments before from people who met him in person, like when I went to meet with some Southern Baptists earlier this year. My fellow Latter-day Saints and I would recognize this as the fact that he is worthy of the companionship of the Spirit of God, but others just see that there is something special about him.

Adams-"If all religion and all morality should be over-thrown"

"If [the] empire of superstition and hypocrisy should be overthrown, happy indeed will it be for the world; but if all religion and all morality should be over-thrown with it, what advantage will be gained? The doctrine of human equality is founded entirely in the Christian doctrine that we are all children of the same Father, all accountable to Him for our conduct to one another, all equally bound to respect each other's self love."
John Adams, early 1800's, a comment he made about Mary Wollstonecraft's book "French Revolution" as quoted in "John Adams" by David McCullough, pages 619.

Its too bad the secularists of today feel that they created the doctrine of human equality and therefore we no longer need the "superstition" of religion to support an absolute morality. Like, somehow we can all make up our own relative morality and equality will somehow fall out of the resulting morass of arbitrary value systems. Talk about superstition!

Lexicon augmentation - banal

banal-
devoid of freshness or originality; hackneyed; trite

from dictionary.com

Images - Creeping up

One of the many types of vine I find attempting to take over the forest. (taken 12/17/06)

Why do evolutionists feel so threatened by creationists

A friend, and fellow conservative/Christian/scientist, pointed me to an American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology website, where they have a link for a symposium titled "Teaching the Science of Evolution Under the Threat of Alternative Views". He pointed out the use of the word "Threat" and asked the question of why are alternative views a threat in science. After all, if we as scientists do not allow ourselves to question current theories, we will inevitably theorize ourselves into an erroneous corner from which we cannot escape. The need to think critically about all of the science I encounter was pounded into me while I was in graduate school. After all of science is really just a set of theories that approach fact, but never quite get there. However, most scientists only preach about thinking critically until their favorite theory is questioned and then they turn militant in protecting their intellectual constructions. I can understand people who believe in the creation feeling threatened by evolution because it attacks their faith. I don't quite see why the evolution zealots are so up in arms about people who want to maintain faith in a creation. Is it because science is the only faith they have? I think a big part of the problem is that most scientists are so vain that they cannot stand to have their wisdom placed below a God whom they cannot comprehend. Are we building ourselves a scientific tower of Babel?

Pre-war liberal article on why war with Iraq was justified

I haven't read this article yet, but it sounds like it is worth a read. Hugh Hewitt suggested it as a pre-war article where a liberal details the reasons why we need to go to war with Iraq.

Matt Damon digging holes

Hugh Hewitt blogged on Matt Damon's recent Hardball appearance . It sounds like another case of a famous person selectively editing reality. Kinda like he's making a movie and trashing the facts he doesn't like.

Images - The Christmas oak

Nope, Dec did not take this one. I actually did this one by myself. These leaves are on the oak tree I transplanted from the forest behind my house to my backyard. There are only a few leaves still left on it , but likely not for very much longer. To a Michigander like myself it is very surprising that there are any leaves, considering we have less than a week until Christmas. Speaking of which, these leaves fit right into the holiday color scheme. (taken 12/17/06)

Lexicon augmentation - miasma

miasma-
1.noxious exhalations from putrescent organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere.
2.a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere.

from dictionary.com

"Yellow bus" has now mutated into "white-yellow bus"

Now I know that Can is just messing with me. Mom brought the kids to Chapel Hill last Friday for a departmental Christmas party. While they were here they passed one of the blue and white buses that I ride to the park-and-ride lot and Can got to see it. When I met them coming in from the parking lot he said, "daddy white-blue bus." I grinned and said, "yes, daddy white-blue bus," thinking that I had finally won the argument and he was accepting that I ride a blue bus not a yellow bus on my way to work. This morning, as he was sitting on his mommy's lap trying to return from dreamland to reality, he started mumbling something that I couldn't hear very well. I moved closer to try and catch what he was saying and I heard, "daddy white-yellow bus." Aaargh. "Its not white-yellow bus, it is white-blue bus," I responded. That only got him going and he began chanting, softly at first but then louder and louder, "daddy white-yellow bus, daddy white-yellow bus..." I did the only thing I could, under the circumstances. I grabbed him and gave him a big fuzzy bearded kiss and said, "daddy softy face," before making a break for the front door. As I was closing the door behind me I heard him say, "NO, DADDY POKEY FACE."

Adams-"Go on and improve in everything worthy"

"Oh, that I am always be able to say to my grandsons, ' You have learned much and behave well, my lads. Go on and improve in everything worthy.' Have you considered the meaning of the word "worthy"? Weigh it well... I had rather you should be worthy possessors of one thousand pounds honestly aquired by your own labor and industry, than of ten millions by banks and tricks. I should rather you be worthy shoemakers than secretaries of states or treasury aquired by libels in newspapers. I had rather you should be worthy makers of brooms and baskets than unworthy presidents of the United States procured by intrigue, factious slander and corruption."
John Adams, 1812, an excerpt from a letter to his grandson John Smith quoted in "John Adams" by David McCullough, pages 608-609.

I hope to be able to say similar things to my sons and grandsons someday and I hope that they have similar feelings of what is "worthy".

Lexicon augmentation - dreck

dreck-
1.excrement; dung.
2.worthless trash; junk.
3. merchandise that is shoddy or inferior. [syn: schlock]

from dictionary.com

Images - Remnants of fall

Another of the pictures that 5 year old Dec took in the woods behind our house. (taken 12/17/06)

Lexicon augmentation - hector

hector-
1. to treat with insolence; bully; torment.
2. to act in a blustering, domineering way; be a bully.

from dictionary.com

Al Gore must be right!

It was so warm today that we opened our windows to try and warm up the inside of our house. We went out for a walk and the boys decided to wear shorts and short sleeve T-shirts while riding their bikes. Its gots to be global warming! Somebody save us from all the cows!


After posting this I saw on the news that we had a high of 71 degrees today. This was a new record and beat the old record of 70 degrees. The average temperature for today is 53 degrees. It is predicted to get to 74 degrees tomorrow, but the recored is 77 degrees so we probably won't beat that one.

Images - Dec's Pincone

My five year old Dec took this picture while we were out walking in the woods behind our house. (taken 12/17/06)

Lexicon augmentation - sagacious

sagacious-
1 keen in sense, perception
2 a: of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment : discerning
b: caused by or indicating acute discernment
Synonym - shrewd

from Merriam-Webster

A new greeting

The yellow bus/blue bus exchange between Can and I has developed into something of a greeting. The other day I came home from work and Can was sitting on the potty. He couldn't see me come in the door, but when he heard the door open he yelled out from his place on the porcelain throne, "DADDY YELLOW BUS." I of course responded in kind with a hearty, "NO, DADDY BLUE BUS." Then yesterday morning after he woke up, his mommy was carrying him from his bed. Through bleary eyes, he spied me said, somewhat less enthusiastically, "daddy yellow bus." I kissed him on the head and said, "good morning," to which he responded "daddy pokey face."

Lexicon augmentation - folderol

folderol -
1 : a useless ornament or accessory : trifle
2 : nonsense

from Merriam-Webster

Adams-"Our electioneering racers have started for the prize"

"Our electioneering racers have started for the prize. Such a whipping and spurring and huzzaing! Oh what rare sport it will be! Through thick and thin, through mire and dirt, through bogs and fens and sloughs, dashing and splashing and crying out, the devil take the hindmost."
"How long will it be possible that honor, truth or virtue should be respected among a people who are engaged in such a quick and perpetual succession of such profligate collisions and conflicts?"
John Adams, early 1800's, an excerpt from a letter to Benjamin Rush quoted in "John Adams" by David McCullough

As applicable today as ever. I'm sure most candidates for public office today do not respect honor, truth or virtue in their comments about their opponents.

Lexicon augmentation - vizard

vizard -
1 : a mask for disguise or protection
2 : disguise, guise

from Merriam-Webster

Adams-"Is the present state of the national republic enough?"

"Is the present state of the national republic enough? Is virtue the principle of our government? Is honor? Or is ambition and avarice, adulation, baseness, covetousness, the thrist for riches, indifference concerning the means of rising and enriching, the contempt of principle, the spirit of party and of faction the motive and principle that governs?"
John Adams, February 6, 1805, an excerpt from a letter to Benjamin Rush quoted in "John Adams" by David McCullough

These questions are as applicable today as they were when John Adams asked them in 1805. I have to admit that I often allow the "spirit of party" to influence my own thinking in regards to our nation's government, although, I try to maintain my views based on virtue as a guiding principle. I like to believe that President Bush feels the same way, but I do not have the same view of most of members of the Congress.

Pictures with Santa

Our 2006 Christmas tree

Our beautiful 2006 Christmas tree (don't tell anyone it is the same fake tree as last year).

Lileks makes the Hitler/Ahmadinejad comparison more clear

Its not a completely novel thought, but Lileks states it well.

"It’s interesting: if the Holocaust “conference” decides that the Holocaust didn’t happen, well, then the justification for Israel is specious and founded on lies, and the mullahs are justified in redressing a mistake. I have the awful feeling that terms, conditions and justifications are being set right before our eyes, and the putative leaders seem unwilling to acknowledge what most canny observers infer.

It’ll all make horrible sense. In retrospect."

Why do so many people choose not to see the world situation for what it is? a certain scripture comes to mind.

"And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well..."

Which is right next to this one,

"For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good."

Which explains the left's hatred of many things.

"Holy crap!"

Peter Boyle died last night. That's too bad. My wife and I love to watch "Everybody Loves Raymond," and one my favorite things is how Frank would always say, "Holy crap!"

Aah, return of the bus color exchange

It was nice to return home last night and find Can feeling better and full of his usual cheer.

This morning he and my wife were leaving to take a friend to the airport, so I decided to be preemptive. I asked if he was going to go ride the blue bus. He responded with a well-conditioned, "NO, YELLOW BUS."

"Ooh, pwetty lights"

I put up the Christmas lights on Saturday. We've had a bit of a cold snap (well, cold for NC) and I worried that I had waited too long, but the weather was nice to me. This is the first year I have put lights on the second story, and can I tell you, I don't know how roofers do it. I was scared to death sitting up on that roof. I've been up on a one story house and didn't mind that at all, but I was more than a little nervous on Saturday. I thought for sure that the ladder was going to tip over when I was getting off of it, or that I was going to slide right off the shingles. The scary part is that I have to go back up to take them down in a couple of weeks. This can't be worth it. The things we do for our kids. "And for my next trick, I'm going to lie down in the middle of the road and see how many cars I can get to swerve around me." Well, OK. Its not all for the kids. There is something manly about facing down death by gravity to string up all those wires with lots of little glass-encased electrocution and fire hazards. And hearing Can's reaction made it all worthwhile. "Ooh, pwetty lights."

Poor sick Can

Poor Can is not feeling well today. His coughing kept him, and his Mom, up for much of the night. This morning he looked pretty miserable as he sat in the corner of the couch with his blankie. He didn't want to play his computer game or watch TV. I couldn't even goad him into arguing with me about whether the bus I ride to work is yellow or blue. He has only ever seen the yellow school bus that his brothers ride and I can't seem to convince him that my bus is blue (actually white with blue stripes, but lets not make this complicated). This has turned into a daily farewell exchange, where I put my coat on and he asks, "Daddy yellow bus?" I respond, "No, daddy blue bus!" and he comes back with an emphatic, "NO, DADDY YELLOW BUS!!" I'm sure it doesn't translate well into blog format, but it is amazingly cute to see in person. Alas, this morning the poor boy couldn't even muster up the strength to complain about my pokey-bearded kiss much less argue about the color of mass transit in Chapel Hill.

We've already lost the war

The New York Times has concluded that we are not only losing the war in Iraq, but have lost it.

Articles like this, along with the wonderful Iraq Study Group report and the results of the recent election, are having an effect on the situation in the middle east already. From a recent article in Time:

"Some Iranian leaders and officials, including President Ahmadinejad, also believe that Iran now has the opportunity to deal with Washington from a position of strength, for the first time since the 1979 revolution."

If we have lost the war in Iraq then Iran thinks it has won. Not exactly the results we want to see. Obviously this is only a perceived position of strength, but its not the kind of perception that will help us in Iraq and in the greater war against Islamo-facism. Thank you to the NYT, the fabulous Baker boys and the ever loved Dems. True friends of the U.S.

The wonderful Iraq Study Group report, along with the results of the recent election, are having an effect on the situation in the middle east already. From a recent article in Time:

"Some Iranian leaders and officials, including President Ahmadinejad, also believe that Iran now has the opportunity to deal with Washington from a position of strength, for the first time since the 1979 revolution."

Not exactly the results we want to see. Obviously this is only a perceived position of strength, but its not the kind of perception that will help us in Iraq and in the greater war against Islamo-facism. Thank you fabulous Baker boys and the ever loved Dems.

President Bush makes decisions based on principles

I transcribed this from an interview between President Bush and Foxnews' Brit Hume (actually taken from excerpts that Hugh Hewitt played of the interview).

Bush: I also remind them Brit that, uh, that Laura and I are sustained by the prayers of millions of people. Now that’s hard for some to, you know I guess, cue on.

Hume: You sense it?

Bush: Absolutely, and…

Hume: I know they tell you that when you see them out on the... [garbled]

Bush: I feel it!

Hume: You feel it?

Bush: Yeah.

Hume: How, how much in the terms of your daily…

Bush: I feel as if the load is not heavy, I guess is the best way to describe it. Somebody said to me, “prove it.” I said, “you can’t prove it.” All I can tell you is I feel it. And, um, it’s a remarkable country when millions pray for me and Laura. Therefore, I am able to say to people that this is a joyful experience, not a painful experience. And, yeah it’s tough. But that’s O.K. It’s tough times, and there’s a lot of big issues.

The interview continued with the following.

Hume: What role does your faith play in your good spirits, in the face of all these difficulties.

Bush: I, I, um, I think it, I think that, uh, I think that I know that my relationship with an almighty provides comfort. And strength during difficult times. Just like it provides comfort and strength at difficult times for others, as well. And um, so prayer matters to me, and the prayers of others matter a lot in my life, and um, so to those who worry about me I say, “don’t worry about me.” You know, we’re doing fine.

Hume: One last…

Bush: Yes it’s tough, and it’s tough because there are a group of murderers out there that are, you know. You know, think about this. Think about a world in which a young democracy is trying to get started and people kill innocent life to prevent it from happening. To me that says, we better deal with these folks now before they become even more emboldened, in which to strike out against the greatest defender of freedom on the face of the earth and that’s the United States, which they would like to try to do. And our job is to stop them from doing it, and at the same time lay the foundation for peace. I’m also strengthened by history, by my view of history. I realize there’s a lot of folks who have written off presidencies early in the presidency or before the presidency is over. And when in fact the long reach of history takes over, and people take a look back, they realize that the decisions made ended up making sense. And um, you know, I am, I want, I want people to understand this, when it’s all said and done, I will have made decisions on principles and I’m not changing my principles. And therefore, when I get back to Texas, after the presidency in two years, I’ll be able to look in the mirror and be proud of what I see.

Hume: Mr. President, thank you very much.

I appreciated his comments about how he can feel the strength from people praying for him. This made me feel as though I need to include the President and our government leaders in my prayers more often.

I especially like his statement that he makes decisions based on his principles. What a breath of fresh air in Washington. Someone actually trying to do what they feel is right, and not what they think will help their poll numbers or get them more power. He could be just saying what he thinks people want to hear, but I felt like he was speaking sincerly.

Comments on Casino Royale

The old married man's club (OMMC) convened a meeting last night to see the new James Bond film, Casino Royale. Very exciting movie. Lots of good action. The new bond is a definite improvement over recent actors. He isn't afraid to get banged up a bit or get his tux dirty. Rob came out calling it the BEST OMMC movie yet. It had a lot of what we go for (explosions, fighting, action, nice cars) but two things were conspicuously absent. While there were a couple of nice cars, Bond barely drove them. You had a total of about 10 seconds worth of Bond-esque driving before he totaled his MI6 provided car. The second thing that was missing was very attractive Bond-women. The two that he was attached to in the movie were really quite mediocre. I realized it is difficult to find a truly attractive english woman, but I'm sure they could have done better for Vesper. Overall though, I would say it was an excellent evening with the OMMC.
P.S. Not much in the way of tech-geek toys either.

I need to read this Victor Davis Hanson article later

Hugh Hewitt discussed this Victor Davis Hanson article. It sounded like something I should read later.

"Two quite antithetical views of the war on terror — and indeed, the entire American role in the Middle East — are now crystallizing."

VDH discusses these two views.

Manmade global warming: A case of selective data reporting

Its easy to prove that there is global warming and it is the results of human activity if you only report the data that supports your theory. The following is an excerpt from testimony by David Deming, an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma and an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), to a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

"Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, and distinguished guests, thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am a geologist and geophysicist. I have a bachelor's degree in geology from Indiana University, and a Ph.D in geophysics from the University of Utah. My field of specialization in geophysics is temperature and heat flow. In recent years, I have turned my studies to the history and philosophy of science. In 1995, I published a short paper in the academic journal Science. In that study, I reviewed how borehole temperature data recorded a warming of about one degree Celsius in North America over the last 100 to 150 years. The week the article appeared, I was contacted by a reporter for National Public Radio. He offered to interview me, but only if I would state that the warming was due to human activity. When I refused to do so, he hung up on me.

I had another interesting experience around the time my paper in Science was published. I received an astonishing email from a major researcher in the area of climate change. He said, "We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period."

The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) was a time of unusually warm weather that began around 1000 AD and persisted until a cold period known as the "Little Ice Age" took hold in the 14th century. Warmer climate brought a remarkable flowering of prosperity, knowledge, and art to Europe during the High Middle Ages.

The existence of the MWP had been recognized in the scientific literature for decades. But now it was a major embarrassment to those maintaining that the 20th century warming was truly anomalous. It had to be "gotten rid of."

In 1769, Joseph Priestley warned that scientists overly attached to a favorite hypothesis would not hesitate to "warp the whole course of nature." In 1999, Michael Mann and his colleagues published a reconstruction of past temperature in which the MWP simply vanished. This unique estimate became known as the "hockey stick," because of the shape of the temperature graph.

Normally in science, when you have a novel result that appears to overturn previous work, you have to demonstrate why the earlier work was wrong. But the work of Mann and his colleagues was initially accepted uncritically, even though it contradicted the results of more than 100 previous studies. Other researchers have since reaffirmed that the Medieval Warm Period was both warm and global in its extent.

There is an overwhelming bias today in the media regarding the issue of global warming. In the past two years, this bias has bloomed into an irrational hysteria. Every natural disaster that occurs is now linked with global warming, no matter how tenuous or impossible the connection. As a result, the public has become vastly misinformed on this and other environmental issues.

Earth's climate system is complex and poorly understood. But we do know that throughout human history, warmer temperatures have been associated with more stable climates and increased human health and prosperity. Colder temperatures have been correlated with climatic instability, famine, and increased human mortality.

The amount of climatic warming that has taken place in the past 150 years is poorly constrained, and its cause--human or natural--is unknown. There is no sound scientific basis for predicting future climate change with any degree of certainty. If the climate does warm, it is likely to be beneficial to humanity rather than harmful. In my opinion, it would be foolish to establish national energy policy on the basis of misinformation and irrational hysteria."

Good metaphor for the left's ranting about Bush

I thought the following quote from a Hugh Hewitt blog was rather humorous and to the point.

The Kossacks’ unrelenting hatred for all things Bush reminds me of an old joke:

A guy walks into a psychiatrist’s office and the shrink begins showing him some Rorschach pictures. The first is of a squiggly blob – the guy says it looks like two people making love. The next is a series of geometric shapes – the guy says it looks like two people making love. The last is a series of straight and squiggly lines – the guy says it looks like two people making love.

The psychiatrist says, “I think I’ve diagnosed your problem. You’re obsessed with sex!”

The guy responds, “Me? You’re the guy making all the dirty pictures!”

The term Kossack refers to a blogger at the Daily Kos

Christmas excitement mounts early at the Cheeve household

Much to my chagrin I didn't get the Christmas lights up this weekend while it was 70 degrees outside. I'm sure it will be cold and rainy next weekend when I finally find time to do it. My wife got some indoor decorations up at the end of last week and we will probably put up the fake Christmas tree tonight for our family home evening activity. The five year old, Dec, is really getting excited about Christmas. On Saturday he decided that he had better get some milk and cookies out for Santa. My wife tried to explain that it might be a bit early to do this, but he couldn't be dissuaded so she capitulated and helped him get the goodies together for the jolly old elf. When next I was aware of the scene nothing but crumbs and a few drops of milk remained. I began to wonder if perhaps the computer had ensorcelled me again such that I was held entranced by the ever flowing source of useless information right through December and the Christmas festivities. Dec informed me that he got tired of waiting and decided to let Sul have the cookies while he drank the milk himself. I’m quite sure that Santa was disappointed at not receiving these early treats, but I daresay that he will find another means of maintaining his less-than trim figure until the 25th rolls around.

Now where did I put that bowl of ice cream?

Card's views on Bush largely mirror my own

This essay by Orson Scott Card is a pretty accurate description of my own views on President Bush. I definitely agree with his repudiation of those from the "Smarty-Pants school of political thought" and their many attempts to unjustly demonize the President.

Doonesbury vs. America

By Orson Scott Card November 19, 2006

Does anybody here remember when Doonesbury was funny?

Never mind. It was funny this past Sunday, in a bitter, ironic kind of way.

The comic strip, by Garry Trudeau, shows a professor teaching a class, in which he compares two presidents -- Bush and Clinton. Of Bush he says, "The first president initiates a bloody, costly, unending war on false premises ... and approves covert policies of illegal detentions, kangaroo courts, extraordinary renditions, torture, and warrantless wiretapping of thousands of Americans."

Of Clinton, he says, "The second president lies about hooking up with an intern. Question: Which one should be impeached?"

The only reason Trudeau's little screed is worth answering is because there are a lot of bitter, angry Democrats who feel the same way.

So let's look closely at this point of view.

Bush As LBJ Plus J. Edgar Hoover

First, the description of Bush actually sounds far more like Lyndon Johnson with J. Edgar Hoover's FBI spying on Americans, the IRS being used to issue punitive audits on Johnson's political foes, and our participation in the Vietnam War having been based on the dubious grounds of an attack on U.S. military vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin. The Vietnam War did indeed seem endless, since our enemies had permanent safe sanctuary and infinite resupply.

But Trudeau must be given credit for consistency: He hated Lyndon Johnson, too.

In fact, if you look at what Trudeau says about Bush, you begin to realize that Trudeau needs Bush to look like Johnson, the old enemy of the aging anti-war Leftists of the 1960s.

Trudeau's Claims about the War

What about Trudeau's specific charges against Bush?

"Bloody," he calls the campaign in Iraq. But compared to other wars, involving similar numbers of troops and covering similar amounts of territory during similar amounts of time, this war is astonishingly bloodless, both in military and civilian casualties. It is the cleanest war in history. So it is "bloody" only in the sense that all war is bloody.

"Costly," he calls it. Well, yes. War isn't cheap. But again, "cost" should be measured against the alternative expenses -- what would it cost us not to have fought the war, or not to continue fighting it? I've written about that at great length; I won't repeat myself here.

"Unending," he calls the war. Well, until any war has ended, it is "unending," and then when it does end, it isn't unending anymore. Duh. But what he really means is that we can't announce the date of the end of the war. Again, though, in what war was the ending date announceable in advance? The only way to announce the end of a war is either to choose your own date of surrender (though if you choose that option, you lose the option of negotiating or choosing the terms of your own defeat), or to have the power to annihilate your enemies and announce the date on which you will use that power. I wonder which outcome Trudeau is hoping for?

"On false premises," he says we began this war. But that has not been proven -- weapons of mass destruction did exist in Iraq because Saddam used them, and the fact that we have found no evidence of their destruction and that Saddam refused to allow inspectors to have free access to verify their destruction suggests that wherever those weapons are now (and there is strong evidence suggesting they are in Syria), they definitely did exist.

As for nuclear weapons, we know that Saddam had such a program, and we also know that every other intelligence service was telling us that he was getting dangerously close to success. It turns out that either they were wrong, or Saddam disposed of the evidence of that program as he did his poison gas and biological weapons programs.

But when you lay the charge of "initiating" a war "under false pretenses," the implication is that it was a knowing deception. No one has any evidence that Bush knew or had any reason to know what can still not be proven today -- that Saddam has no nuclear weapons development program. So to imply that Bush knowingly got us into a war on false premises is not just a lie itself, it is a malicious slander.

Notice that what Trudeau doesn't say is that it's a losing war. Because he knows -- we all know -- that we're not losing it. We might be tired of it, but we're not losing it.

And we also know that Trudeau doesn't care about the troops that die in Iraq, because he has spent his career mocking and ridiculing the kind of people who volunteer for military service. Remember, he cut his teeth on opposing a war fought by draftees. But there are no draftees. There are only soldiers who actually believe in America -- and in defending America -- in a way that Trudeau has always sneered at.

Trudeau's Domestic Charges Against Bush

Now we get to the supposed violations of Americans' civil rights. "Approves covert policies of illegal detentions." The question of whether the detentions are illegal is still being debated; the detentions are hardly covert, let alone the policies allowing them. In fact, it's astonishingly open, given that we are in a war.

Unless, of course, Trudeau is referring to rumored detentions (and "extraordinary renditions"), which are apparently "covert" because there is no credible evidence that they have taken place. Since Trudeau has far less evidence of these detentions than Bush had of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one is puzzled about the standard of evidence that should apply. Apparently cartoonists of the Smarty-Pants school of political thought can make slanderous charges without any evidence at all except rumors passed around by his Bush-hating friends, but President Bush is expected to know information that nobody else in the West knew and act accordingly.

"Kangaroo courts." Hmm. Since the complaint of the Left is that the detainees are not being brought to trial, one wonders where and when these kangaroo courts were held? Sounds like more of those wild-eyed rumors to me. But cartoonists can say what they want -- truth is just a joke to them.

"Torture," he charges; but that is a term with actual meaning. If any form of duress during questioning is "torture," it means that having a bright light shine in your face and being kept awake for a long time is the moral equivalent of castration and dismemberment. There are Americans who favor torturing suspected terrorists, but most of them are on 24.

What a strange moral universe Trudeau lives in, in which people who might know vital information about terrorist plots against American citizens cannot be questioned with any kind of pressure at all. Trudeau, apparently, thinks it is better to run the risk of letting ten thousand Americans die rather than cause any detainee any level of discomfort whatsoever. Because terrorists, to him, are simply ordinary criminals entitled to all the protections invented by judges back in the 1960s. War is no different from law enforcement. Terrorists are no different from shoplifters.

"Warrantless wiretappings of thousands of Americans," says Trudeau. Never mind that these were all Americans talking on the telephone with suspected terrorists abroad; never mind that the exposure of the program effectively removed the single most important tool we had to detect terrorist activity in time to prevent it. Never mind that nearly every President in recent years, Democratic or Republican, has done exactly the same thing, within the range of what was technologically possible at the time. Because Bush has done it, then it doesn't matter that it saves American lives. It is an evil crime for which Bush should be impeached.

Trudeau's Depiction of Clinton

And now the other side of his little moral balancing act: "The second president [Clinton] lies about hooking up with an intern."

Aw, yeah, that's nothing. Now, if Clinton had sent her dirty messages by IM or email, then he should have not just been impeached, but convicted and thrown out of office. But actually getting her to perform sexual acts on him, and then lying about it -- heck, who doesn't do that with underage sex partners who are in an almost infinitely subservient relationship with the most powerful man on earth?

And the lying -- never mind that it was under oath in a court proceeding. Never mind that the lie was not to protect national security in any way, but merely to obstruct his opponent in a personal lawsuit based on previous sexual misconduct. It just doesn't matter because it's kind of charming that Clinton's insatiable sexual appetite could not be controlled even when he was in the White House.

Because that just makes him a "babe hound," to quote Trudeau's comic strip. And the Left finds "babe hounds" rather charming. Unless they're Republicans, in which case they must be hounded from office immediately.

This is the moral universe of Garry Trudeau -- and of thousands, perhaps millions of others who subscribe to the Smarty-Pants school of moral reasoning. President Bush, whose actions have obviously been motivated solely by the desire to protect America from a genuine danger from bloodthirsty enemies, is worthy of impeachment for the crimes of (a) not always being right, (b) doing what other presidents have done, and (c) having national media figures hate him so badly that they will happily believe any vile rumor his enemies spread about.

President Bush's Motives

Of course I can hear the Smarty-Pants slander mill howling about my statement in the previous paragraph: "whose actions have obviously been motivated solely by the desire to protect America from a genuine danger."

So let me make that statement crystal clear. The danger was genuine -- the missing World Trade Center and the statements and actions of the terrorists before are proof of that.

As to Bush's motives, what other motive has anyone offered? That Bush started a war to benefit American military contractors? By that reasoning, we should never be able to go to war unless we are buying our weapons from our enemies, just to prove that American defense contractors won't profit.

Get a clue: Our defense industry is vital to -- get this -- our national defense! When we go to war, we buy materiel and contract for services from the corporations that have long been working with the Defense Department to develop precisely the goods and services we will need.

The other motive is, of course, oil. Bush was in the oil business. Because we went to war in an oil-producing country, Bush's oil-business buddies are profiting, say his enemies.

But the war has had no particular effect on oil prices. The rise in prices we had in the past year or so had far more to do with weather than war. Furthermore, since the entirety of Western civilization runs on oil, unfortunate as that fact may be (and I think it's a tragic, stupid mistake on our part), it is still true that there is no economic interest on this planet which would be a stronger motivation for war than to protect the oil supplies of the West.

Indeed, when we go to war with Iran -- and we will, if the ayatollahs continue to rule, whether we do it on the day of our choosing or the day they choose -- it will be, not over their nukes per se, but because of the ability those nukes will give them to hold the world's oil supply hostage.

Nevertheless, we know that oil has no bearing whatsoever on this war because Iraq's oil revenues are not going to Americans; they are not even paying for our effort to protect Iraq's fledgling democracy. They are flowing to the people of the defeated enemy state. If Bush had oil profits as part of his motive for the campaign in Iraq, he certainly bungled that one.

What Does Trudeau Want?

So when Garry Trudeau compares a perjurer for private gain who corrupts his office to have sex with a girl who had infinitely less power than he did, and a President who has taken enormous political heat to run the cleanest war in history against a stateless enemy that puts all existing laws and rules to the test, and claims that the latter is the one who deserves to be impeached, one can only wonder what kind of world Trudeau actually wants to live in.

Is it possible he really wants to live in a world in which terrorists can plot with impunity because government has no power to try to intercept their communications in advance or question anybody who does not already want to tell us information?

And then the terrorists can retire to safe havens with governments that openly promote terrorism yet cannot be touched because America "loves peace"?

And those governments can develop nuclear weapons with impunity because we cannot confirm with absolute proof whether they have such weapons programs unless and until we defeat them?

No, of course Trudeau doesn't want to live in that world. I think.

Trudeau and his Smarty-Pants friends have only one agenda: They hate President Bush and want to hurt him, and they don't care how many Americans they kill in the process.

Kill? They're not killing anybody ... are they?

Words Can Kill

Trudeau and those like him, who scream their hatred of President Bush and do everything they can to try to end this war with our own defeat, and the defeat (and likely deaths) of all those striving and struggling for democracy in the Middle East, are encouraging our enemies to go on fighting, killing American and Iraqi soldiers and civilians.

And now our enemies even have hope that if people like Trudeau once get their hands on power, then President Bush can be investigated by a hostile Congress. All our secrets will be laid bare for them to study and learn how to defeat us. And maybe President Bush will really be impeached. Then no President will dare to stand against our terrorist enemies or the states that support them.

Hey, Mr. Trudeau: These people were killing Americans even back when your beloved "babe hound" was President. Only your "babe hound" was too busy getting it on with Monica to do anything serious about it. And who can blame those who conclude that that's the way you wanted it? Who conclude that you hate America?

It's hard not to think that the Smarty-Pants elitists in Amerca hate what America has long stood for -- the primacy of the common man. They hate having us be a beacon of freedom for people everywhere. They hate having Americans shed their blood to bring freedom from tyranny anywhere on earth.

Because democracy is loathsome to elitists like Trudeau. They sneer at the thought that all those stupid Arabic-speaking people could ever have a working democracy, because they don't even like the working democracy America has. They believe government should be run only by Smarty-Pants like them, not by the unwashed masses who stupidly elect President who don't pronounce "nucular" the way they do.

So Trudeau, and his Smarty-Pants friends in the media, worked hard these past eight years to paint every action of President Bush as evil, to conceal every one of his many accomplishments, to brand as "extremist" every one of his moderate compromises designed to create unified government to work the will of the people. They have demonized him and it seemed to work -- the Democrats were able to squeak through a thin majority in both houses of Congress.

(Though one might point out that many of the freshman Democrats ran on conservative platforms that will make Nancy Pelosi puke if they actually vote that way once they're in office. And one might also point out that this voting shift is just about average for non-Presidential elections in the middle of a President's second term -- war or no war. And that there is still a huge number of Americans who will not tolerate any party that forces us to retire from this war in defeat -- especially if it leads to a triumphal resurgence of Islamicist terrorism worldwide.)

What Will The Democrats Do?

Now the subpoena power is in the hands of the Democratic Party. And even though any investigation of a war in progress is an unthinkably, insanely self-destructive move, destined to cripple our military effort and destroy our self-protective abilities, Trudeau and his friends expect them to do it. They want Congress to bring down this President.

For what crime?

Really, only one: Not being a Smarty-Pants like them.

No, let's be fair. I think there's another possibility: I think that Bush's real crime, in their eyes, is that while on the surface he's definitely not an intellectual as measured by today's elitists, he is in fact far smarter than his critics, and he is a far better President than any of their darlings like the moral cretins and intellectual stumblers that ran against him in 2000 and 2004, or the supposedly brilliant Rhodes Scholar do-nothing who preceded him for eight years of breathtaking incompetence in foreign affairs.

What the elitists can't forgive is that the American people proved the strength of democracy and the American Constitution by electing George W. Bush twice, despite all the slanders of the elitists who think they and they alone should make the decisions in America.

Well, they say, now democracy has spoken and we have the Democratic Party in control of Congress.

Yes. But which Democratic Party? If we count only Democratic candidates who ran as liberals, true to the ideals of, say, Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, then that party does not have a majority in either house -- not even close.

Only if you add in the Democrats who claimed to be Republicans in all by name in order to get elected in conservative districts does the Democratic Party get its majority.

Only if you include Joseph Lieberman, who has apparently forgiven the Democratic Party for abandoning him in Connecticut and running somebody against him, do you get your majority -- and Lieberman supports this war. Lieberman knows what I know and only the Smarty-Pants are incapable of knowing -- that this war will be fought, and it's better to fight it in Iraq and Iran and Syria than in Sudan and India and Armenia, or in France and Germany and Britain, where the bloodshed will inevitably migrate -- and is already migrating.

So the only way President Bush will be impeached is if the Democratic Party reveals that all those conservative-talking candidates were liars.

Indeed, the only way this war will be prematurely ended is if the Democratic Party is able to get all of its members to vote for such a self-destructive course.

It might happen. The Democratic Party in recent years has proven to have iron discipline on too many issues.

But if that happens, then the Democratic Party will stand revealed as the party of deception, for that is not how it got its majorities in the swing districts and states.

We are winning the War against Terror -- or would be, if our enemies did not keep getting such constant encouragement from our deeply stupid and short-sighted "intellectual" elite.

I can't help but wonder. What sort of comic strip would Garry Trudeau be able to write for a newspaper in Tehran?

Well ... actually ... he could write the one he writes right now.

You're getting old when...

I just heard a funny story on my way into the lab this morning. A woman on the elevator was holding a typewriter and I jokingly commented that I couldn't believe people still used those things. One of the professors down the hall, who was also on the elevator, then told us that his son recently came upon their old typewriter. After playing with it for a bit, he turned to his dad and said, "This computer is really cool. When you type on the keyboard it prints out immediately."

Just finished Newt Gingrich's new book "Rediscovering God in America." Nice little tour of the Washington D.C. and the influence that religion has had on the establishment and growth of our nation. I'll try to get back to make more comments later.

Dennis Prager recently had an online debate about the existence of God with a prominent atheist named Sam Harris. Although not likely to change many minds either way, the debate is interesting. What annoyed me was the way that Mr. Harris made a particular point of demeaning the faith of member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, or at least he denigrated an uniformed and warped view of what Latter-day Saints believe. Maybe I'm just overly sensitive to this, but it seems like Latter-day Saints have recently been at the receiving end of an increasing amount of undeserved criticism lately. Christopher Hitchens made some really rude and uncalled for comments about Latter-day Saints on the Hugh Hewitt show. When pressed by Hugh, Mr. Hitchens made a lame attempt to paint all Christians with the same brush, but it was clear that he has a particular beef with Latter-day Saints. Also, Article6blog has recently been covering Andrew Sullivan's mockery of Latter-day Saint beliefs and practices. It is possible that these attacks are all prelude to Mitt Romney's potential run for President on 2008. Hopefully people will think about the Latter-day Saints that they know and recognize this trash-talk for what it is.

Americans got a letter from President Ahmadinejad yesterday.
What has this guy been smoking?
I'm sure the people of Iran would appreciate it if he took his own advice in how to govern:
"It is possible to govern based on an approach that is distinctly different from one of coercion, force and injustice.
It is possible to sincerely serve and promote common human values, and honesty and compassion.
It is possible to provide welfare and prosperity without tension, threats, imposition or war."
Maybe the Iranian religion police could be retrained to act as a "pleasant surprise patrol".
They could use their information gathering skills to discover people who are genuinely kind and charitable and reward them with flowers or a chocolate milkshake or something like that.

First post in a long time (years)!

I'm back, or at least I will be when I have something to say. Cool. Blogger now lets me put pictures in my blog. Here are the resident critters with their Halloween pumpkins.