It's all good

I've spent the last couple of days in San Antonio with Ron, who's attending the American Library Association Midwinter conference.

Last night we had dinner with a number of Ron's colleagues, including Alice Sneary and Alane Wilson, two of the authors of this blog. Librarianship is a technical subject I know little about beyond a few buzzwords that have filtered into my consciousness--but speaking as a library patron, there's a lot on their blog that makes great sense. Not to mention, of course, that Alane and Alice were delightful dinner companions.

They're in the Series!

Astros earn first ever World Series berth

Best political pun of the year

Deep down among the comments on a Volokh post, someone named Drew opines about whether the president really wants Roe v. Wade overturned: "I think Bush has bigger fish to fry than Roe."

Beyond these things

One of my clients has a joke-latin slogan they want on their business cards. I tried looking it up in the various Latin-to-English dictionaries on the Web, with no success. But while I was there, I thought about an intractable, supposedly Latin phrase that had been bothering me for a long time: the name of the rock group Procol Harum--you know, "A Whiter Shade of Pale"?

Anyway, their press materials used to say the name was a Latin phrase meaning "beyond these things."

It turns out that that's sort of right: Freedict's Latin-to-English dictionary gives "procul" (note the "u") as "far, at, to, from a distance." Used this way, it's an adverb. "Harum" is "of these things." So "procul harum" is probably better translated as "of these faraway things."

If somebody asks you the question in Really Hard Trivia, though, they're looking for "beyond these things". Or else they're wanting to hear that it was the name of Keith Reid's drug dealer's Persian cat. But that's a different story.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

Mark Evanier, who knows more than a little about television, has a few words to say about President Bush's teleconference with soldiers in Iraq:

This 'media event' was carefully rehearsed and loosely-scripted and someone -- maybe the same someone who erred by suggesting the format in the first place -- compounded the disaster. They allowed the media to see and tape the rehearsals where the troops were told what would be discussed in seeming spontaneity. I would love to hear the explanation of why they allowed this to be seen. It made Bush look like a marionette who walks in and does what his own handlers don't trust him to do without careful preparation. We all know that much of what we see on television that's represented as unplanned is meticulously prearranged. Most producers, however, know enough not to show the world just how prearranged.

How awful was it all? I felt sorry for George W. Bush. That's how awful it all was.

Slippery slope? Probably not.

Evan Wolfson, on Freedom To Marry, does everybody a service by clarifying the status of that supposed three-way marriage in the Netherlands:

On an Illinois radio show I did last week -- available on our website or at this link -- one anti-gay caller characteristically avoided offering a reason why the government should continue excluding same-sex couples from marriage and, as usual, went to the 'slippery slope' diversion of 'polygamy.' As new proof that the sky was falling, the caller said that the Netherlands, which has ended the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage, has now also allowed a trio of man and two women to wed. Before yet another right-wing scare tactic gathers traction, please note that this claim -- that the Netherlands registered a multi-partner 'civil union' -- is untrue.

Following the radio interview, we looked into the caller's claim and found an erroneous September 27 report in something called the Brussels Journal -- www.brusselsjournal.com -- misusing the term 'civil union' and talking about something 'registered by a notary.' Once we checked this with a leading Dutch expert who follows legal developments in family law, we learned that the only legally relevant thing that happened was that three people, with the help of a notary, signed a private cohabitation contract -- and did not enter into any kind of legal state-recognized union. Such personal agreements are not registered, and do not have legal implications for third parties. In both these respects, as well with regard to the state's imprimatur, a personal agreement or contract is different from both marriage and registered partnership. (And civil union, as such, is not a legal status in the Netherlands).

Damn. There goes the neighborhood.

I live in Kerrville, the county seat of Kerr County. So I was surprised to see an AP story in the local paper today that Karl Rove officially lives here (the link is to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram because the local paper doesn't carry the story on its web site, even though it's on the front page):

A Kerr County retired nurse is asking the local district attorney to investigate whether it is legal for presidential adviser Karl Rove to vote in Texas while he is living in Washington, D.C.

Rove, it turns out, owns houses in Washington and Florida, but he's registered here, ostensibly living at a bed-and-breakfast somewhere in Kerr County. (This press release says he owns two rental cottages, which might or might not mean the same thing.)

But wait, there's more. The AP also reports that "the Texas Secretary of State has said that Texans who move out of state can still vote in Texas as long as they intend to return to the state." (This is what allowed the first President Bush to vote in Texas while in office; he obviously was living in the White House, but his residence for voting purposes was a suite at a hotel/resort in Houston. And yes, he did move back to Texas.)

But wait, there's more. The AP also reports that Elizabeth Reyes, a lawyer in the Secretary of State's office, was fired after the Washington Post quoted her saying it might be vote fraud to register to vote if you don't live in the place you're registered. Reyes was told she was fired because she'd talked to the media in violation of agency policy. (You partisans can squabble among yourselves about whether that's fishy or not.)

But wait, there's more. The AP also also reports that an entity called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington "filed a complaint about Rove last month, but it was invalid because the complaint must be filed by a registered voter in the same county as the voter in question." The eventual complainant was Frances Lovett of Comfort (right down the road from here), who says CREW didn't contact her; she contacted them.

That's all I have for now; but if I see Rove buying sushi at the H-E-B, I'll be sure to post it.

Calling Ray Harryhausen…

Pythons vs. alligators:

What happens when a 13-foot python with an appetite runs into a 6-foot alligator?Recently, a case of that matchup was discovered in the Florida Everglades. It ended in a tie when the python exploded, leaving both beasts dead.

More on the Oklahoma suicide bomber

Michelle Malkin, whom I admire for her thoroughness if not her politics, has a good round-up on Joel Hinrichs, who blew himself up outside the Oklahoma University football stadium last weekend:

OKLAHOMA BOMBER: DELVING DEEPER

At first I figured Hinrichs was like Charles Whitman, a mentally disturbed misfit with lethal weapons but no real agenda beyond killing others and himself (not like that's not bad enough), but now it's looking like he was a pawn and a dupe of (gasp) radical Islamists.

If that's true, it's sad and horrifying that Hinrichs adopted the terrorist mentality. The cynicism and cowardice of those who engineered his corruption is breathtaking and appalling. Hinrich's story deserves a lot more notice.

Legal community overjoyed

Well, at least somebody thinks Harriet Miers is going to make a good Supreme Court justice. The Dallas Morning News reports:

Word that an esteemed Dallas lawyer and former councilwoman could become the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has stirred Texas pride among her many colleagues and friends.

[....]

"The legal community in Dallas has every right to be overjoyed," said Will Pryor, a mediator in Dallas who worked with Miers at the Dallas Bar Association. "She's a product of our legal community. We are all grinning ear to ear around here. It's a happy and proud moment."

Astros make playoffs again

Yay—my Astros made it to the playoffs again this year. (As usual, by the slimmest of margins.)

Let those of us who've witnessed the boys in playoffs against Philadelphia be grateful that that isn't happening again.

Our new Chief Justice

John Roberts has been confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States today by a margin of 78 votes to 22.

Let me say again that Roberts is clearly well qualified and I expect him to be an excellent justice. I realize that I'm just about alone among liberals, especially gay liberals, in this regard. But I refuse to be a prisoner of ideology.

Vlad the Impaler

My talented, erudite and always-informative partner Ron has been reading a book which has aroused his interest in Vlad the Impaler (generally taken to be the real-life inspiration for the fictional Dracula).

Today he found an entertaining but dubious family tree—apparently it comes from a different novel—which shows that Vlad was married to a Princess Cneajna the Unpronounceable of Transylvania, and that his son Mihnea was known as "the bad." (Considering what Daddy was like, it's a wonder that ordinary badness is even noted.)

There's lots of other colorful information on the wives and children of the family, an ill-fated lot, prone to suicide, early death and various congenital deficiencies.

Vote Against Prop 2

Good news: the generally conservative Houston Chronicle recommends that we Texans vote against Proposition 2, the odious Texas anti-same-sex-marriage constitutional amendment:

This November, Texans will vote on Proposition 2, a proposed constitutional amendment that would silence further reflection on these important issues. The referendum language defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Texas law already outlaws same-sex marriage. Should voters approve this amendment, it would change nothing in the law. It lacks any purpose other than to enshrine bigotry in the Texas Constitution.

But the amendment also bans the state, or any political subdivision, from creating or recognizing any legal status "identical or similar to marriage." Impeding protections for relationships that are even "identical or similar to marriage" is a crude assault on an existing truth. Throughout the state, same-sex couples are thriving, raising children, volunteering in the community and supporting each other financially. Withholding protections for these family units cruelly jeopardizes their ability to take care of themselves and their children.

(Via Charles Kuffner's excellent Off the Kuff.)

Soon to be a minor motion picture

Over the past few days several news items have appeared that sound like movie plots. This SFGate article on Pat Tillman's death brings to mind military cover-up movies like "A Few Good Men" or "Courage Under Fire":

The files [Tillman's] family received from the Army in March are heavily censored, with nearly every page containing blacked-out sections; most names have been deleted.… At least one volume was withheld altogether from the family, and even an Army press release given to the media has deletions.…

A Chronicle review of more than 2,000 pages of testimony, as well as interviews with Pat Tillman's family members and soldiers who served with him, found contradictions, inaccuracies and what appears to be the military's attempt at self-protection.

For example, the documents contain testimony of the first investigating officer alleging that Army officials allowed witnesses to change key details in their sworn statements so his finding that certain soldiers committed gross negligence could be softened.

If that's a little too real for you, you might prefer this article from the Observer:

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

After all that, it seems almost a shame to report that the purported "respected accident investigator" who appears to be the main source for the article is well-regarded among the crop-circles-and-UFOs crowd.

Finally, submarine movie fans can rejoice: there really are giant squid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Andrew Sullivan takes note of an LATimes story:

BUSH VERSUS CONSERVATISM: In general, it's a good idea for the administration not to expand existing entitlements for Katrina victims and to rely on once-only measures. In so far as they are doing that, good for them. Once you create an entitlement, it lives for ever. But this strikes me as bizarre:

Instead of offering $10,000 [rental housing] vouchers, FEMA is paying an average of $16,000 for each trailer in the new parks it is contemplating. Even many Republicans wonder why the government would want to build trailer parks when many evacuees are now living in communities with plenty of vacant, privately owned apartments.

We have a unique chance to fight poverty by dispersing some of New Orleans' underclass across the country in places with empty rental markets. Instead, the Bush administration is creating trailer-ghettoes that cost more. Newt Gingrich is right to be livid. Isn't this a no-brainer?

For once I agree with Gingrich, who is quoted in the story saying "The idea that — in a community where we could place people in the private housing market to reintegrate them into society — we would put them in [trailer] ghettos with no jobs, no community, no future, strikes me as extraordinarily bad public policy, and violates every conservative principle that I'm aware of."

I also object to the obvious poison pill in this aid: the main thing offering subsidized trailer housing in New Orleans does is to provide these poor people a particularly efficient opportunity to lose everything all over again. It would be cynical and churlish of me to infer that FEMA intends to offer less aid for more money. As Napoleon reputedly said, "Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity."

Army Contract Official Critical of Halliburton Pact Is Demoted

The NYTimes reports:

A top Army contracting official who criticized a large, noncompetitive contract with the Halliburton Company for work in Iraq was demoted Saturday for what the Army called poor job performance.

Not exactly a surprise, although when you dig down into the article it becomes a lot of he said, she said:

"[The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse] is being demoted because of her strict adherence to procurement requirements and the Army's preference to sidestep them when it suits their needs," [her lawyer, Michael Kohn] said Sunday in an interview. He also said the Army had violated a commitment to delay Ms. Greenhouse's dismissal until the completion of an inquiry by the Pentagon's inspector general.

Carol Sanders, spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers, said Sunday that the personnel action against Ms. Greenhouse had been approved by the Department of the Army. And in a memorandum dated June 3, 2005, as the demotion was being arranged, the commander of the corps, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, said the administrative record "clearly demonstrates that Ms. Greenhouse's removal from the S.E.S. is based on her performance and not in retaliation for any disclosures of alleged improprieties that she may have made."

Known as a stickler for the rules on competition, Ms. Greenhouse initially received stellar performance ratings, Mr. Kohn said. But her reviews became negative at roughly the time she began objecting to decisions she saw as improperly favoring Kellogg Brown & Root, he said. Often she hand-wrote her concerns on the contract documents, a practice that corps leaders called unprofessional and confusing.

In October 2004, General Strock, citing two consecutive performance reviews that called Ms. Greenhouse an uncooperative manager, informed her that she would be demoted.

A touching concern for patient privacy

Dad's eye doctor just sent a postcard to remind him that it's time to have his eyes examined. The postcard is considerately stamped PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL.

It's a girl!

Ron's niece Ashley and her husband Philip are the happy and proud parents of Dylan Casey (not sure about the spelling yet), 6 pounds 14 oz. Dylan's great-grandma Jenny says she's just beautiful and her head is perfectly shaped.

Haven't seen any pictures yet, but she's only about two hours old.

Truth in advertising?

A semi-local bank is promoting online banking. "So what?" I hear you scoff, "What bank doesn't?"

Surely not; but this bank signs off all of its advertising "Banking the way it used to be." Apparently that's one of those statements that's not meant to be taken literally.