Abulafia






						n J U N E 1 5 , 2 0 0 3 Ohio Turnpike Reconstruction is poorly planned, poorly designated, and cost us a miserable two extra hours (and we had to pay for the privelege). I tried very hard not to be rude to the tollbooth attendant, but he started out by asking me (rhetorically, of course), how I was. He didn't want to know, and knowing that he wasn't responsible, I didn't really want to tell him. It took a lot of willpower not to answer, and Amy wasn't convinced that I succeeded in not being rude. From there, we had a pleasant (self-designed) detour on US 20, through among other small towns, Bellevue, which was celebrating a sesquicentennial with fireworks. We watched what appeared to be the finale, and then, I suppose, the encore? To Akron Quick boat ride Before taking leave of the north Out past Coats' Point, back in through Marquette Bay and Wilderness Bay; there is a strong breeze blowing, but out from the shore so that there is little roughness out on the big lake, and very little swell near in the Les Cheneaux entrance Drove the boat in close to what I think was the Seiberlings place on Long Island -- the boathouses are huge, complete with fireplaces, but currently in some little state of disrepair Hamburgers For noon dinner s J U N E 1 4 , 2 0 0 3 Canoe by sunset After-dinner canoe down to the public docks and back Beautiful, simple sunset, orange and magenta Pork chops For dinner Snow in Summer Is a different ground cover from Snow on the Mountain -- there is more of the latter in Columbus, more of the former in Hessel The Village Idiom A new (used) bookstore in the garage of a house above Hessel, just in from the blinker. Some good stuff -- I picked up several old Nero Wolfe mysteries (none more than 25¢ each, though they are unlikely to last through more than one reading in one piece), and a Kahlil Gibran collection. Lilac festival We decided to forego this year's festival on Mackinac Island, though the lilacs in Hessel are in full bloom, very beautiful, very fragrant Boat ride to Government Island Charlie got to ride sans lifejacket -- he seemed to enjoy the ride (and displayed no predeliction toward jumping out) We stopped off at Government Island, beaching the boat so that he could get cooled off in the water. He was less enthusiastic about swimming than expected, but certainly got cooled off -- he shivered for ahile afterward, even wrapped tightly in a towel. In the boat (and in the car) he likes to climb into the driver's seat and curl up. We had to stop and get gas at Mertaugh's before heading out -- Charlie barked at the woman pumping gas quite a bit f J U N E 1 3 , 2 0 0 3 Pizza For dinner Cedarville.net May be able to supply internet access to the newly installed Mac G3. Dialup only. A Year in the Maine Woods Bernd Heinrich Took out the Starcraft Tried rowing it out the channel, to get to deep enough water to put the engine down, but we were foiled by a strong crosswind So I pushed and pulled the boat, from the water, and hung on until it started Charlie looked quite nautical in his lifejacket ("Outward Hound") Down Snow's Channel, past Cedarville, took a turn around Government Bay and back -- the water was incredibly calm and glassy Towed the boat back to the dock Took out the canoe Rowed down to the Mill Pond -- where we heard much splashing -- We rowed closer, straining to see -- maybe muskrats? -- But they were huge carp, rolling and splashing and wallowing in the shallow water and mud They made a lot of noise, and occassionally came close enough to knock into the canoe Big and fat, they didn't seem mind to sometimes coming to rest with their backs sticking out of the water, three or four abreast r J U N E 1 2 , 2 0 0 3 Steak on the grill For dinner Charlie and Rascal are still not friends Though Charlie just doesn't understand why not Boats make noise: and every one going past out in the bay elicits fresh challenges from Charlie Panelled ceilings In the back bedrooms, look great Pictures from Hessel Aesque To Hessel w J U N E 1 1, 2 0 0 3 To Akron Wrapup So much to take care of before heading north Get the paper out, bring the computer, monitor, modem (2 -- we'll see if either works), phone cord, power cords, keyboard, mouse, pick the ripe strawberries from the garden, did up some lilly of the valley, bring the mail from Bexley, and hope I didn't forget to pack too many things t J U N E 1 0 , 2 0 0 3 Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Washington DC's very own Enrons Washington Post The current imbroglio only covers the Freddie Mac incident -- and Fannie Mae is taking advantage to say "no comment -- we're not involved." But they are. Both companies are in that grey area where they can claim to be "congressionally-chartered" and thus not subject to standard oversight agencies, and at the same time claim to be private companies and thus not subject to congressional or executive oversight. Couple that with their long-standing practice of monumental campaign donations to ensure a lack of congressional inquisitiveness and you have the recipe for disaster. Contrary to the uncredited assertion in the lede of this story, ("Monday's management shake-up at Freddie Mac was a surprise to many financial experts"), Washington has known for a decade that these institutions were a growing problem. And has done nothing. I particularily enjoyed the assertion of their "special relationship" with the federal government. That would be the one whereby they are guaranteed that not even Arthur Andersen could inspect their books? Will the whole thing now unravel? Or can it be swept under the rug until it is an even bigger problem? Sit back and watch. Maybe deposing Saddam Hussein is enough Terrorism proliferates where there are oppressive regimes. Terrorism cannot be linked to poverty or or lack of education. Chronicle of Higher Education The New Republic Via Instapundit Well, I guess we can call the troops home now. (Do we still have any over there?). Curtailing free speech The American way --the RAVE act brings financial pressure to bear agaainst unwanted free speech Don Watkins You had eight years ... The Bush administration is moving military bases and rethinking defense needs around around the world. "Some of the changes make an enormous amount of sense. But what they don't recognize is forward bases and presence are extraordinarily sensitive diplomatically. You just can't throw the dice like this without an enormous amount of pre-planning, most of which has not been done." -- Kurt Campbell, a senior defense official in the Clinton administration True. Let's ignore reality some more, and see how much longer we can go without accepting that the cold war is over. Washington Post No No! It wasn't the art, it was the Oil! ... Now that we have established that fewer than 30 of the Iraq museum's priceless treasures were looted (and we're all clear that 170,000 represents the total number of treasures the museum had, not the number looted, as frequently reported), it's time to move on and blame the Americans for not guarding the oil facilities. NYT Thought for the day Carlo Wolff reviewing Our Own Devices, by Edward Tenner: Tomorrow's designers must create devices that are user-friendly and user-challenging, like the piano keyboard, "rightly celebrated as an interface manageable for the novice and inexhaustible for the expert." The lesson Tenner transmits so cogently, unpredictably, and delightfully is that in the best designs ease and complexity cohabit, furthering and reflecting evolution itself. Christian Science Monitor Shopping at City Center and Lowe's Unsuccessful all around First time I've been inside Kaufmann's m J U N E 9 , 2 0 0 3 Church council meeting Turns out it was a 7:30 start, not 7 Probably the last time I'll be early Joe is willing to help out with the communications committee, but hopes he won't be asked to attend meetings -- I'll see if I can't accomodate that Legal Resource Included an article on porn spam Which Doug wanted illustrated A feat not easily accomplished in a family newspaper Solved by a collage of clip art of people looking shocked n J U N E 8 , 2 0 0 3 Portal Park weeding Squeezed in an hour of weeding before dark -- and after the latest thunderstorm We should enjoy the rain while it's here -- this being Central Ohio, I expect it to stop raining in mid-June and not start again until September. Maybe we need to start talking about a rainy season and a dry season, like Indonesia. Amy to Akron River in Judea Anthem at 8:30 service Pentecost -- though we got in our Pentecost service (the Jazz Service) a couple of weeks ago Which left Pentecost even more of a forgotten festival service this year s J U N E 7 , 2 0 0 3 More cookout David and Yury (with Mark from down the street -- who is moving to Israel and thus his house is for sale -- & others) were cooking porkchops on the not entirely cold coals Ice cream And/or sherbet From German Village Arts Festival Finished up viewing the rest, even the ones on Second St. (better to believe the street signs than the hastily drawn map -- which wanted us to believe it was Civic Center) (Charlie got to stay home this trip) Cookout With Mike & Jen, Allison & Anneliese, and Amy's mother Bratwurst, carrots & celery & cucumber, potato salad, &c. And a few fresh strawberries from the garden, which were popular Allsion and Anneliese enjoyed running through the house and running through the garden and bringing us buckyballs one or two at a time (though a couple of times Allison brought coreopsis buds or allisum -- at least it was always bits of plentiful specimens). We at outside on under the arbor. Butterflies At Franklin Park Conservatory The big blue ones were loafers -- and very unafraid of people -- they happily sat for long periods of time on shoudlers, backs, ... The conservatory finally seems to growing into its 1992 expansion. Not since the palm room was the dominant space (and every nook and cranny had something tucked into it), have the plants been more central than the space around them. I suppose when you have to rely on plants to fill a new territory it has to be expected that it will take some time. f J U N E 6 , 2 0 0 3 Pizza for dinner "Take and bake" From (very) North High St. Arts Festival We weren't going to bring Charlie, but he looked so sad He won, as usual, and enjoyed the walk (and the attention) Lunch at O'Shaugnessey's With Amy, Kevlin, Robin, Dominic, Don Kevlin and Amy got a tour of the new office r J U N E 5 , 2 0 0 3 Amy to Columbus HomeFront Completed almost all of the layout, so that Friday I would have time to enjoy lunch and maybe even leave a little early w J U N E 4 , 2 0 0 3 Polybag week I almost forgot -- and so did Margie and Cindy who had their coats on and were ready to leave Lunch at Gordon Biersch With Rick Talked about Point Click and Drag Talked for a long time -- an hour and a half is a very long time on a deadline day Saw an old ad rep from Business First -- he's now the ad manager for WSYX 6. t J U N E 3 , 2 0 0 3 Dinner at Easy Street With Bill Shaffer and Lynn OTENA Trustees meeting Organizational with the newly-elected trustees Lasted until 10 m J U N E 2 , 2 0 0 3 Probably unnecessary comments But I'll make them anyway Penn Traffic, the parent company of Big Bear, files for bankruptcy yet again. Big Bear was a very profitable locally-based company until Penn Traffic came along, finally convinced some hapless bank to finance a highly (highly) leveraged hostile buyout (very popular and hip thing to do at the time), and plunged deeply into a debt that they were never able to recover from. The incompetent chairman of the company, although adept at convincing banks to give him money that they would never see repaid, was unfortunately not remotely capable of running a supermarket. And so now, thanks to some long-ago departed idiot financiers, Columbus may very well lose many if not most of the stores (that constitute the principal competition to Kroger's) from what was once an excellent company. Business First "Majority Republicans in the [Ohio] Senate continued to talk with Democrats Monday to gain support for a $49.2 billion two-year budget, Senate President Doug White said. "The parties were trying to reach agreement on a plan 'whether it takes 10 minutes or 10 hours,' White said." 10 whole hours! To settle a $49.2 billion budget! Oh, spare me the pain! NBC4 The FCC probably counts this as "news" Headlined "Schools say they'd be hurt by tax changes to help industry," the story does not say what those changes are. The only source cited is a "consultant." Does he constitute "schools?" The story reads "The leader of the Senate Finance Committee says senators might alter or remove three proposed tax reforms now that educators say the changes could cost local schools hundreds of millions yearly." The story does not say who the "leader of the Senate Finance Committee" is, nor does it have anything to say about who may have suggested and supported such unspecified tax changes without bothering to determine what the effect might be on Ohio schools. Or cities, counties, and townships. When seems to be covered. Where seems adequately irrelevant. Who, what, how, and why, at least, appear to me to be essentially absent. WBNS 10TV "My friend Panama ... said '[A] shotgun can't hurt you as long as it doesn't hit you.' "Panama decided this one afternoon when he became involved in a dispute at a construction site on 138th Street, a short walk from Yankee Stadium. "In an effort to end the dispute, somebody produced a shotgun. Panama departed. He returned well after the police had both arrived and left. 'There is nothing to be afraid of as long as you're not there,' he said that day." [P. 103-104, The World According to Breslin, Jimmy Breslin] Lalisa Gemechu was not up on this lesson NBC4 Garden Club At the community garden Unsurprisingly there was more weeding to do Ron agreed to rototill some more of the strip outside the fence so that I could more easily transplant some more daylillies Christ Church archives Looked through the filing cabinet with Keri at lunch n J U N E 1 , 2 0 0 3 Open wide the windows Aired out the house, moved the houseplants to the patio, ... Spring cleaning again. Two quotes from Kennan That struck me today "I have never taken offense at the thesis of the Roman Church that many men require a spiritual as well as profane framework of law: a moral order, founded on an appreciation of the dilemmas of birth and death and of the requirements of social living -- together, a moral order drawn up by those who are wiser and more experienced than the great masses of humanity and are capable of channeling into the body of spiritual law the ponderous experience of millenia of human progress. For many people it is always better that there should be some moral law, even an imperfect or entirely arbitrary one, than that there should be none at all; for one human being who recognizes no moral restrictions and has no sense of humility is worse than the foulest and most savage beast." [P. 137, Sketches from a Life, George F. Kennan] "I view the United States of these last years of the twentieth century as essentially a tragic country, endowed with magnificent natural resources which it is rapidly wasting and exhausting, and with an intellectual and artistic intelligentsia of great talent and originality. For this intelligentsia the dominant political forces of the country have little understanding or regard. Its voice is normally silenced or outshouted by the commercial media. It is probably condemned to remain indefinitely, like the Russian intelligentsia in the nineteenth century, a helpless spectator of the disturbing course of a nation's life. [P.363-4] Speaking of "wasting and exhausting" natural resources China doesn't want to be left out. Washington Post ... And of the commercial media ... Or rather, I believe medium is the singular form ... Washington Post The FCC is set to turn over the nation's media to Clear Channel, AOL Time Warner Et Cetera And So Forth, and Rupert Murdoch. Local news in most cities already comes from only one source: the monopoly daily newspaper. Local television news is largely incoherent, and Clear Channel appears intent on eliminating any such thing as a local news bureau, preferring to package the same news and playlists from coast to shining coast. (I think they still make an exception for local advertising). Martin Kaplin thinks the FCC ought at least to have done some research before making their decision ... Christian Science Monitor Oh, well. Maybe later. Let the monopolizing begin ... This is a bad thing. On political orientation Via Instapundit "[T]his [anti-rave] law, a gift to the nation from Joe Biden and Pat Leahy, is the sort of thing that explains why libertarians who engage in politics lean toward the Republican party. We all know the problems of the social right, but Democrats are largely useless, and often awful, on the issues where their supposed respect for tolerance and civil liberties might make a difference." -- Virginia Postrel Total information awareness Via Instapundit Be careful what you write ... the FBI (or Almost FBI) may be reading ... Durham Independent And don't even think of hiding ... Austin American-Statesman Via Talking Points Memo Athens Amy enjoyed her weekend at OU. Though the bunnies running rampant through her garden have her picturing them in a viewpoint similar to Anya's, late of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Church news Elected to Council to chair the Communications Committee. News that isn't WBNS 10TV "15,000 people visited the [Jack Nicklaus] museum this year. That's below projections of up to 20,000 guests." "Hines says the goal is to attract 200,000 people annually." The story does not elaborate. Nor does it offer any further information beyond the following on museum funding: "The $2 million to open the museum was diverted five years ago from a $6 million state grant for a center that helps fledgling science and technology companies. "Center directors say it's still hurting from the lack of state support for expansion." So as I understand it, after diverting $2 million in state grants intended to foster science and technology companies, the Jack Nicklaus Museum reports that they have used that money to entertain (presumably) 15,000 visitors, hilariously below their goal of 200,000 annually. And they complain that it's all the fault of the state for not giving them more money! (It doesn't appear to me (from the story) that the state ever intended to give them any money). Perhaps some numbers were transcribed incorrectly and some simple explanations omitted from the story. Otherwise I think the lede is so grossly buried that it's missed entirely. News that might be (One would like to have a little more confidence in the nation's foremost news source) NYT "Nation-building, scorned by George Bush the presidential candidate, has now become the avowed obligation of George Bush the global liberator. The problem is that nations, like so many Humpty Dumpties, are troublesome to put back together again. The challenge -- whether in Afghanistan or Iraq -- is more than brick and mortar, more than airwaves and phone lines; this is not the kind of carpentry required after a hurricane. "Afghanistan has been in atrophy for a generation, with institutions in decay, educations in eclipse, the entire society tossing and turning in a benumbing nightmare. Like so many of its people, the nation is missing limbs. There is an overabundance of guns but only the beginnings of a national army and a police force. Elections are scheduled for next year, but there are no voter-registration rolls, nor is there even a working constitution. Entrepreneurs want to think big, but there are no commercial banks to make loans. Much of the land is fertile, but the only major export is the raw opium used in the criminal drug trade. Civil servants have again begun to collect salaries, but pay remains a mere $30 to $40 a month, and many workers rely on tolerated corruption to feed their families." NB: the Bush administration did not request any money in next year's budget for rebuilding Afghanistan. On to Iraq! (or Iran, or Syria ...) > MAY 02
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