Read this, you decide if it’s time for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to step down for reasons of insanity.
To clear your head, here’s a great article from William Saletan, Slate’s chief political correspondent and author: Culture Vultures: Terri Schiavo’s persistent legislative state
And, finally, this comment from “KCapitalist”, a Saletan reader:
If Hillary Clinton were in the same condition as Terri Schiavo, Tom Delay and Rick Santorum would have yanked the feeding tube out with their teeth, two elections ago.
Month: March 2005
Liberty: 3; “Christian” Wrong: 0
The darlings of the “Christian” Wrong, including Tom (“anything to distract the public from the Ethics Committee investigation of my campaign improprieties”) DeLay are certainly sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of the Schiavo case, aren’t they?
Math/Science Fair
Before the latest snowstorm started here in Arctic Circle south, I was lucky enough to attend a splendid Math/Science fair at Emmeline’s elementary school.
Cost of the Iraq War
This past Saturday, the second anniversary of the US war in Iraq, 8 year old Emme and I attended a peace rally in Hyannis.
Virtually no major media outlet in the US covered the protests, which happened in some 800 cities.
We’ve heard about the loss of life – over 150,000 including over 1,500 American GI’s – and the staggering financial costs – $210 billion by the US alone.
Child Predators
As regular readers of this blog know, I have 0 tolerance for people who hurt kids.
The latest mockery of our system of laws sits in a Florida jail tonight in the “person” of John Evander Couey, a piece of trash with a 30-year long criminal history ending in the sexual abuse and murder of a 9 year old girl.
The Sanctity of Marriage?
So, the Republican right considers marriage – between a man and a woman – to be the foundation of our society.
Then, why is it that they’ve trashed the wishes of Terri Schaivo’s husband, Michael?
And after some 15 separate state and federal legal actions concerning this woman’s medical care – including an appeal to the Supreme Court, which threw the case out – what is the rationale, aside from political grandstanding, for Congress to get involved?
Burnt Out – Already
You may have read about my BC trip, which ended last Monday around 9:45 PM.
Guess the “wish I were still there” feeling is symptomatic of a good vacation, for which I’m grateful and happy.
But less than a week later, I’m back to the same pre-holiday stress mode.
BC Trip: Last Thoughts
I accomplished my goal of meeting and talking with as many Canadians as possible, something that pleased me a great deal.
With the exception of an old crank on Hornby – a wierd-looking fellow who obviously relishes the role of local eccentric – everyone there was kind and welcoming: the retiree/painter at the Qualicum arts centre, the helpful folks at Enterprise Rentals, the counter-culturalists on Denman, the .NET User Group leader at UVic, Ryan Storgaard the Microsoft Deep Dive speaker, Victoria realtor Mark Meischsner, the young land baron from Hormsby.
And this is not to mention the ladies at the local bank, the A&W and the fish market, the gent at Tim Hortons who on my first morning helped me figure out the currency, the maintenance guys at the resort who alternately kept me from immolating and electrocuting myself, the business manager who took the time to help me understand the RCI point system, the girl at Petro Canada who assured me that we had time to complete an application for a Petro card.
This is to say, I guess, that the people are as memorable as the spectacular scenery. I was treated with immaculate civility and grace.
Which leads me to wonder: how is it that Canada and the US, which were founded by people generally of the same stock, have such different values?
The Canadians I was lucky enough to meet seemed – all of them, regardless of station – well-informed, articulate and, when they had a job to do, wanted to do it to the best of their abilities.
Friends who have seen my photos remark on the same thing: how clean the environment is, how beautiful it looks. Could one say the same for here, even for Cape Cod, which the local Chamber of Commerce tells us is among the top vacation spots in North America?
BC Trip, Part IV: A Seal, A Loon, Denman & Hornby Islands
After much indecision, I made the choice to extend stay, figuring a) the weather was horrible back “home” and a midnight ride in snow would be a grotesque way to end the trip, b) I shouldn’t spend my birthday in transit stress, c) it was supposed to be a beautiful weekend, d) the car and timeshare having been paid for through the 12th, it’d cost me only about C$200 to extend for two more days and e) with all the running around I’d been doing, I was dog-tired.
Seems like at least part of vacation should be, well, vacation.
Plus, the original schedule back would have meant leaving the resort at around 6:30 AM: when I made my flight reservations, I hadn’t factored in the 6 hours needed between there and actual flight time: 1 hour for driving to the ferry to be there half an hour before boarding, 2 hours for the ferry trip, 1 hour from ferry to rental place to airport, and 2 hours lead time at the airport.
Continue reading BC Trip, Part IV: A Seal, A Loon, Denman & Hornby Islands
BC Trip, Part III: Wolf, Bear and Cougar Country
On the first day at the resort, I’d gone on a nature walk led by a member of the staff, the same fellow who maintains the several “water features” on site, including a gigantic aquarium in the restaurant and a tank of Coho salmon, which I got to feed.
It had been pretty good weather – in the fifties – but a little cloudy, so hearing the first prediction of sun, I decided to drive across the island to the West Coast, about a 2 hour trip.
Started in Ucluelet, a pleasant little town with few tourist amenities, but with easy access to the Wild Pacific Trail, where I took some of the nicest photos of the trip.
We’d talked on the nature hike about the tectonic plates to the West and even the East of the island. That week, after years of inactivity, Mt. St. Helens erupted, and there was a report of an active volcano in the ocean off Vancouver Island.
I’d heard stories about the West Coast having some of the most turbulent waters in the world, and on the day of my visit, the waves were particularly high.
I’m glad to have seen it before the whole thing slides back into the sea.
Stopped briefly up the coast in Tofino, then went back to the resort.
I’d stupidly missed visting the Cathedral in the Pines, a grove of 300+ year old, gigantic trees, so the next day, I headed back on Route 4, the road through the mountains between the East and West Coasts.
Travelling through the Pacific Rim National Park on the way to Tofino, I’d listened to the Ranger weather and tide reports on the radio. Their repeated warnings to hikers about encountering wild animals were an ominous recollection as I walked through the woods, which were described as the forest as it was before the arrival of European settlers.
There were very few visitors that day, and even though the entrance is on the highway, after a short walk, I realized that I was far enough away from the parking lot to be completely by myself in what was, in fact, the edge of a wilderness area.
It had rained earlier in the day, and there were fresh prints, not only footprints, but paw prints, and big ones at that, with distinct claws. Not being much of a naturalist, I couldn’t tell if the prints were from a big dog – or something else.
With only a small camera as a weapon of possible intimidation, I got back to the parking lot as fast as I could.