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Phil Fullerton, retired lawyer, wrote a fine piece for Saturday's Valley Voices page on the French Foreign Legion, suggesting this might be a solution for America. Foreigners could get a fast-track to citizenship and the military gets a willing labor force. Phil, who lived in France for several years, sent me an e-mail yesterday with a little more detail on that topic.
"A dear friend of ours in Aix was Hugh McCleave who wrote "The Damned Die Hard," the premier English language history of the Legion. Their story is as heroic as it is tragic. They were the first into Dien Bien Phu, Algeria, Narvik in WWII. Their museum in Aubaugne is incredible. Tough guys.
"When you see the French gleefully offering troops, as in Lebanon, you have to pause and ask if it is the Legion. If so, they are not sending their own nationals. Something many politicians are more willing to do; and add that the National Assembly must approve any deployment into a combat zone of conscripted soldiers, and you can see that the Legion is a major factor in French foreign policy."
Nice insights . . . things are never as simple as they seem.
Firsts and lasts. Beginnings and ends.
This is the first year my daughter, 3 1/2, has picked her own Halloween costume. No princess get-up for her -- she wanted to go as Buzz Lightyear, from the Disney Pixar movie "Toy Story." And I have no problem with that. Better an astronaut than a Barbie.
It's also the last year her big brother, Mikel, will be home for Halloween. Next year, hopefully, he'll be off somewhere starting his first year of college.
I thought of this last night as I took pictures of Mikel drawing a face on Katie's pumpkin to be carved for Halloween. She's going to miss him next year, her "Bohku," as she calls him (perhaps her amalgamation of the words brother and Mikel).
But in life, there really are no stopping or starting points. It all just flows together, like an unending river.
To Infinity and Beyond!
A Republican congressional candidate in Indiana has raised the specter of the dreaded homosexual agenda in his tight race against a Democratic opponent. A radio ad by Rep. John Hostettler says that a victory by Brad Ellsworth would help make Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, the new speaker of the House.
"Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda, led by Barney Frank, reprimanded by the House after paying for sex with a man who ran a gay brothel out of Congressman Frank's home," says the ad's narrator.
"Go ahead, vote for Brad Ellsworth. Make Nancy Pelosi's day," the ad concludes.
Not surprisingly, a Pelosi spokeswoman made light of the charge in a San Francisco Chronicle story.
But wait! At long last, a copy of the infamous "homosexual agenda" has surfaced! It's all there in black-and-white for the whole aghast world to read! And it's on the Internet, so it must be true!
There's an interesting story about the Slow Food Movement on the front page of today's San Francisco Chronicle, with a Valley connection.
More than 6,000 people -- small farmers, food processors and chefs from around the world -- gathered in Turin, Italy, to swap ideas and experiences recently, including a strong contingent of Latino, African American and Hmong farmers from the Valley.
The Slow Food Movement seeks to de-industrialize food production, rescuing flavor and small farms alike in the process. That could have profound implications for the Valley, where small farms are under constant pressure and even threat of extinction. The idea is to boost local agriculture by growing and selling fresh produce to local consumers, simultaneously making it possible for locals to eat better and healthier, and allowing more small farms to survive and prosper.
From the story: "The point, said Blong Lee, a representative of the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission, is to get Central Valley farmers thinking about ways they can distinguish themselves and their crops, and to get their products into the local economy instead of the global one."
Delicious idea.
It appears former Fresno County Schools Superintendent Pete Mehas got himself stuck in a box after pulling his endorsement of two Fresno School Board candidates for signing a union pledge. It turns out that Mehas' successor, Larry Powell, also signed the pledge. Mehas had endorsed Powell, who easily won the superintendent's post in June.
This was Mehas' reaction to finding out that Powell had signed the Sevice Employees International Union pledge: "If I would have known at the time, I'd have to reconsider my position," he said in a Bee story Saturday. Mehas also said the union didn't support Powell. "It is obvious they are not going to endorse someone who did not respond positively to the questions they asked," he said.
Mehas' statements raise question about his consistency on this issue. The Two Fresno candidates that he once supported, and then backed away from because of the SEIU pledge, are incumbents Tony Vang and Valerie Davis.
Here's The Bee story on the pledge.
When I grabbed the mail Saturday and glanced at it, I groaned. Bills, of course. One of them from PG&E. Arrggh.
But when I opened the PG&E bill -- what a shock. Here's the operative line from the statement: "Credit balance -- no payment due -- $17.20-"
Well, that's a first.
This month's statement included the "Heat Storm Bill Credit," which knocked me into the black. One less check to write this month, and one tiny victory to savor. Made my weekend -- that and my beloved St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series on Friday. Yes.
Funnyman David Letterman went after Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly on Friday. Who knows why O'Reilly went back on Letterman's "Late Show." The last time O'Reilly showed up on Letterman's turf, the host accused O'Reilly of spewing crap 60% of the time. This time O'Reilly came out with a plastic shield. It didn't help.
They sparred a bit and at one point, O'Reilly accused Letterman of "putting words in my mouth." Letterman responded: "You're putting artificial facts in your head."
Here's the Associated Press' news report on Friday night's confrontation.
Before O'Reilly appeared, Letterman told the audience that he hoped he would have a chance to call O'Reilly a bonehead. Of course, he did.
Christina Vance, The Bee's education reporter, has a story today pointing out that the race for four seats on the Fresno School Board is already the most expensive with more than a week to go until balloting. The race has passed the $338,000 mark.
This is a fundamental electiion for control of the school board. No matter where you stand on the candidates, let your voices be heard on Nov. 7. Here's The Bee's story on the school board campaign.
The Fresno Unified School District is trying to turn around a troubled school system that in the past has been more concerned about serving the adult employees than the students who were failing. That attitude is changing, but the district could return to its tired old ways of doing things if some of the union-backed candidates get elected.
Awhile back I wrote about our friends, Leslie and Doug Reese of Sanger, who are hosting two exchange students. Ines is from Portugal and Monica is from Italy. The Reeses told the girls they were taking them to Disneyland for four days and Monica replied, "What's Disneyland?"
The trip was last weekend. I got this very touching e-mail today from Leslie about the girls' reaction to their first Disneyland trip. It really makes you appreciate where you live.
Well, we survived a trip to Laguna Beach and Disneyland and all four of us returned home safe and sound, albeit totally exhausted. This was certainly not a relaxing vacation but one that I will not soon forget.
After many hours of Mickey, Minnie and the Mad Hatter.....rides of excitement, rides with ghosts and even a ride with Winnie the Pooh, we headed over to California Adventure to see what was going on over there. We walked most of the park and decided on one last ride before heading back to Disneyland for the fireworks show. The last ride was going to be 'Soaring over California,' a nice airplane ride over parts of California, including San Francisco, Yosemite, the high desert, the orange groves, several beaches and of course Los Angeles ending up in Disneyland for the fireworks show.
What could be more perfect! We all took our seats and buckled up for our adventure. As the ride started to lift us up off the ground I got a little 'gasp' from Ines....not unusual..:) We started our flight and as we broke through the clouds over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge and Ines was saying "Oh my gosh Mom, look....look over there, of it's so beautiful" as each scene changed she became more excited.
When we flew over the orange groves she said "Mom, can we see Sanger from here?" At one point when I looked over to her, she was wiping away tears, happy tears, emotional tears. When the journey was over she told us how wonderful it was, how great California was and how she was so thankful to us for bringing her here. At that point we made a mass exodus with 10,000 of our newest close friends to go to Disneyland and watch the spectacular fireworks show. We lined up on main street, cameras at the ready. Well, Dad's camera was at the ready, (the girls cards were full or had dead batteries from all the pictures they had already taken) as we watched the fireworks we heard squeals of excitement from our girls....dad, did you get that one....dad, can you take a movie,,,,oh dad, did you get that one it was so pretty and so close.....WOW!
After the fireworks were over we all moved over to watch Fantasmic with another 10,000 people. Ines asked if I would guide her through the crowd so that she could send a text message on her phone. I asked her if she could do it later, since there were so many people and she said....Mom, I really need to write my dad, in Portugal, and tell him thank you for sending me here....it's the greatest experience of my life. How could I resist leading her through the crowd with blurred vision from my own tears?
One of my favorite Web sites is Snopes.com. Here's a description of the site from Wikipedia:
The Urban Legends Reference Pages, also known as snopes.com, is a Web site dedicated to determining the truth about many urban legends, Internet rumors and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin. Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California couple.
I find it especially useful when you get one of those emails warning of some new horror to watch out for, like the "bonsai kittens" or the drugged travelers who awaken in ice-filled bathtubs only to discover one of their kidneys has been harvested by organ thieves. When ever I get any email that seems the slightest bit hinky, I check snopes first to see if they have already debunked or authenticated it.
These are some of the new entries from this week:
* Pat Tillman's brother Kevin wrote an essay about U.S. policy in Iraq (true).
* Hillary Clinton was named after famed mountain climber Sir Edmund Hillary (false).
* A song appearing on the final Byrds album was sung by a roadie (false).
You can also learn on Snopes about Club 33, the private club housed in Disneyland's New Orleans Square.
If you are worried about the kids taking the car out to the football game tonight, relax. Well, maybe. I'm not sure if it's good news or bad news for parents of teen drivers, but a recent USA Today story by Larry Copeland tells about a new AAA study that shows schoolday afternoons are almost as dangerous for car crashes as the weekend nights. The 3-6 p.m. period has ranked the highest for overall traffic deaths since 1993. They suggest parents impose rules: no cellphones; no teenage passengers for the first three months; and mandatory seat belts. Here are the details: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-24-teen-drivers_x.htm
These days there is a lot of head scratching and hair pulling in the news business -- at least the print side of it -- about the future of news and reporting. We hear all the time about the demise of newspapers, the decline of literacy, of generations both here right now and coming soon that will depend entirely on the Internet for all their news and other information.
So how is it, as Jack Shafer asks in an article on the Internet magazine Slate, that "The current [New York] Times [best-seller] list features four heavily reported and lengthy books about the Iraq adventure: Hubris, by Michael Isikoff and David Corn; Fiasco, by Thomas Ricks; State of Denial, by Bob Woodward; and Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran."
How indeed? Shafer writes about what he calls the "newsbook," a genre that began, mostly, with the Watergate thriller "The Final Days," by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, in 1976.
I've never really shared in the industry's widespread anxieties over the question, "whither newspapers?" Newspapers will change. They are changing; this very blog is minor evidence of that. But in a representative democracy, serious citizens will always want and need sources of accurate, reliable information. There will always be a need for reporters and editors, whatever the medium.
The Internet may be where that happens in the future, though it's not a perfect medium. The absence of rigorous journalistic practices is held up as a virtue by some who despise the traditional journalistic institutions, but that's hogwash. Serious Internet users know that the vast majority of stuff on Web pages is unreliable and untrustworthy. Standards of accuracy and credibility will develop eventually, and my bet is that they will very closely resemble the ideal newspapers have always aspired to achieve -- not always with success, but more often than their competitors.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has been calling himself the mayor of Los Angeles County because the title of supervisor or board chairman isn't good enough. This is how the Los Angeles Daily News once described it: "He's begun changing the lettering on his office door, and has ordered new stationery and business cards saying he's the mayor. It is a post that Antonovich held briefly after the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 vote in October 1996 to rename the chairman of the board as mayor of the county."
So the question now is who will be the first member of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to propose changing the title of board chairman to mayor. I would bet on Supervisor Henry Perea or Supervisor Bob Waterston. I'm leaning toward Waterston.
Just wait until Fresno Mayor Alan Autry hears that Waterston might call himself Fresno County Mayor Bob Waterston.
It's been 25 years since George Henderson -- better known as Krazy George -- introduced The Wave to sports fans at an Oakland A's game. Krazy George fought for years to get credit for the invention, mostly against the University of Washington football fans who claim the Huskies' cheerleaders were the first to initiate the ritual for a sports crowd.
I'm not sure why anyone would work so hard to claim credit for The Wave. It's like fighting to be recognized as the inventor of typhus. But then, anyone named Krazy George might be expected to have some odd priorities.
Officials at U-Dub now acknowledge Krazy George as the inventor, securing his place in history, for what it's worth.
He recently told the Associated Press that "You can start a wave but nobody can stop one. The only way it stops is if something exciting happens on the field" -- which is what I always thought was the reason for being in the stands in the first place. To each his own ...
Is all the ultra-serious and sleazy political rhetoric getting you down? Take a few minutes to have a little bit of fun with it all. There is a very creative political cartoonist from Newsday, Walt Handlesman, who does animated political cartoons. Enjoy.
The Armenian National Committee of America thinks so. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who could be speaker next year if the Democrats take over the House, supports the Armenian Genocide Resolution being pushed by Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. The current speaker, Republican Dennis Hastert, has blocked the genocide resolution in the House. The Armenian National Committee issued this press release today:
NANCY PELOSI PLEDGES TO SUPPORT CONGRESSIONAL ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a longtime supporter of Armenian American issues who is expected to become Speaker if the Democrats win a majority in the House this November, pledged today to support Armenian Genocide legislation next year during in the 110th session of Congress.
In a statement released to Harut Sassounian, Publisher of the California Courier, Congresswoman Pelosi stated that:
"I have supported legislation, including H.Res.316, that would properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It is imperative that the United States recognize this atrocity and move to renew our commitment to eliminate genocide whenever and wherever it exists. This effort enjoys strong bipartisan support in the House, and I will continue to support these efforts in the 110th Congress."
Sassounian's weekly column appears internationally in more than a dozen newspapers, as well as in the widely read Huffington Post.
"Nancy Pelosi's powerful words and principled actions underscore the stark difference between her and Dennis Hastert, who, during his tenure as Speaker has consistently prevented a bipartisan majority from voting in favor of U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.
The ANCA press release continues: Congresswoman Pelosi's statement is consistent with her past record of energetic and principled support for U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide, dating back nearly 20 years. Since her election to the House in 1986, she has worked closely with the Bay Area Armenian National Committee, enjoying warm relations with the Armenian American community in the greater Bay Area.
"The principled stand of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi comes as no surprise, and we're proud that she confirmed it again today," said Bay Area ANC Chairwoman Roxanne Makasdjian. "The Bay Area Armenian community has long known and respected Congresswoman Pelosi's leadership on genocide prevention, from her advocacy of Armenian Genocide recognition, to ending the genocide taking place today in Darfur."
Speaker Hastert (R-IL), despite his pledge in August of 2000 to schedule a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution, pulled the measure from the House floor in October of that year, only moments before it was set to be adopted by a broad, bipartisan majority. He has, in every year since, actively blocked legislation properly commemorating this crime against humanity.
In July of 2004, following Congressman Adam Schiff's (D-CA) successful effort to secure the adoption by the U.S. House of an amendment recognizing the Armenian Genocide, Speaker Hastert joined with other members of the House leadership in vowing to block the final adoption of the measure. In remarks posted at the top of the Speaker's website on the day after the amendment's adoption, the Speaker stated that, "Turkey has been a reliable ally of the United States for decades, and the deep foundation upon which our mutual economic and security relationship rests should not be disrupted by this amendment." He and his leadership colleagues also vowed to
block any future consideration of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by the full House of Representatives.
Speaker Hastert has received an "F" rating from the ANCA, while Minority Leader Pelosi has consistently received "A" grades from the ANCA for her principled support for Armenian American issues.
Speaking at a Capitol Hill observance in April of 2005, the California Congresswoman countered those who have cited Turkey's strategic position as reason to oppose Armenian Genocide legislation, stressing that:
"First at the time of the Iron Curtain, [they cited] the strategic location of Turkey, after that it was the Gulf War and Turkey's strategic location . . . Turkey's strategic location is not a license to kill."
In May of 2001, during her remarks at the ANCA's annual Capitol Hill Armenian Genocide observance, ongresswoman Pelosi noted that:
"The sad thing about that tragedy is that it is a tragedy twice. Once in the course of the Genocide and secondly in the fact that we cannot get the United States to pass a resolution memorializing and acknowledging the terrible things that happened then . . This Armenian Genocide is a challenge to the conscience of our country and the conscience of the world. We will not rest until we have recognition of it."
Speaking on the House floor in April of 2001, she reminded her colleagues that:
"Our alliance with Turkey should not deter us from learning the lessons of past mistakes. If we ignore the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, we are destined to repeat those same mistakes. The horrible conflicts in Sudan, Sierra Leone, and East Timor remind us that we must do more to prevent the systematic slaughter of innocent people. We must learn from the past and never forget the victims of the Armenian genocide."
In April of 1999, in a statement on the House floor, the Congresswoman stressed:
"As we enter the Third Millennium of the Christian Era, it behooves us to remember. If we ignore the lessons of the Armenian Genocide, then we are destined to continue our stumblings through the long, dark tunnel of endless ethnic-cleansings, genocides, and holocausts Let us, then, remember to remember."
In remarks marking the Armenian Genocide on the House floor in April of 1998, she explained that:
"On April 24, 1915, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire set out to annihilate the Armenian minority. Over the course of the next eight years, the Turkish government systematically murdered 1.5 million Armenians and deported 500,000. By the end of 1923, the entire Armenian population of Anatolia and Western Armenia was either murdered or deported . . . While a growing number of Americans come to understand the horror of this episode in history, the
perpetrators continue their denial."
In her April 1997 remarks to her House colleagues, the San Francisco-based legislator reminded Members of Congress that:
"In 1944, noted jurist and scholar, Raphael Lemkin looked to a previous generation when he coined the word `genocide' to describe the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people by the Nazis. Lemkin was thinking of the Turkish attempt in 1915 to extinguish from this earth the ancient community of Armenians living within
the Ottoman Empire. Ironically, Hitler had also referred to the extermination of the Armenians when he spoke of his plans for the Jewish people in 1939: `Who, after all, speaks today of the Armenians,' Hitler said."
In June of 1996, speaking in support of a Congressional measure, authored by Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) to cut aid to Turkey until it ended its denial of the Armenian Genocide, Congresswoman Pelosi argued that:
"Passage of this [Radanovich] amendment will serve to deter the Turkish government from pursuing their unconscionable cover-up of this internationally recognized crime against humanity."
In his most recent column, Sassounian criticized the current Speaker as someone who "not only has broken his pledge repeatedly, but has actively blocked the Armenian Genocide resolution from being brought to a floor vote." He stressed that, "On Nov. 7, members of the Armenian American community should vote for all those [House] candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, who are supportive of Armenian issues. In the case of equally
supportive candidates in a particular race, the preference should be given to the one who is a Democrat in order to secure a Democratic majority in the House, helping make Congresswoman Pelosi the next Speaker, which will enable her to schedule a long overdue vote on the Armenian Genocide resolution."
Danny Tarkanian, the son of former Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, could be Nevada's next secretary of state. Fly into Las Vegas and you see his campaign signs posted everywhere from the airport to the strip. He's also running plenty of television ads. And it seems to be paying off. Tarkanian, a Republican, is leading in the polls against Democrat Ross Miller, son of former Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.
Besides being the son of UNLV's most famous basketball coach, his mother, Lois Tarkanian, is on the Las Vegas City Council. Danny Tarkanian was an assistant coach at Fresno State when his father coached the Bulldogs.
Tarkanian's campaign Web site is full of interesting details, including a roster of his contributors. Fresno developer DeWayne Zinkin is prominently listed.
A key issue in Tarkanian's campaign is fighting voter fraud by requiring voters to show a government-issued identification card when voting.
The recent story on the death of Jane Wyatt,
/> the always good-tempered mother on the TV series "Father Knows Best," brings up lots of memories. The Anderson family stories were a constant thread through my childhood.
"Father Knows Best" was a TV series that was highly popular in my childhood, then it became heavily criticized in my teens and early 20s, as the women's movement heated up. There was a lot of discussion over the roles of women at that time and the TV show became a common ground for discussion. There were many sides to this debate and I'll bet the neighborhood dinner parties were really lively when this topic came up. I remember hearing various sides to this argument:
* The Anderson family should be every family's ideal.
* Margaret Anderson is a shell of a woman, devoid of complexity.
* Every man wants to marry a woman like Margaret Anderson.
* The Anderson family is a plot to subjugate women.
* Margaret Anderson should be every woman's role model.
* Margaret Anderson is a fictional TV character, who cleans up after her three children wearing high heels for Pete's sake. Why are we even talking about her?
The interesting thing is that men didn't seem to compare themselves to Jim Anderson, he of perfect wisdom, patient temperament, steady income and impeccable grooming.
In my childhood, I looked at the Anderson house much as Wyatt herself did -- as the ideal family life. "We all thought it was life -- as we wanted it to be," she said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1986. I was sure that all the other families were like theirs and we were just weird. What a relief to find out years later that real mothers had bad hair days, cleaned house in their jeans, swatted their kids on their butts if they were naughty and had husbands who yelled. And it was definitely very obvious that fathers didn't always know best.
Hanging on the wall in my bedroom is a photo of a wonderful appliqué stitchery by one of my all-time favorite artists and social commentators: Jean Ray Laury. It's in bright yellow, orange and gold, and it says "MOTHER KNOWS BEST." I asked Jean about it yesterday and she said she designed this piece after visiting a farm sale in Sanger. The farmhouse had a primitive, dreadful kitchen -- yet when you walked into the living room, there was a beautiful satin stitchery on the wall that said "Mother." She was struck by the sharp contrast between the status of the mother implied by the elegant stitchery, and the reality of the respect she really was given, starkly reflected in that dreary kitchen. So she went home and stitched her own opinion, with her typical humor and wit.
There's an interesting article by reporter Don Mayhew on today's Life cover about new ways to display photos with the rising popularity of digital cameras.
I got my digital camera while I was pregnant with my baby, four years ago. Although I had once considered photography as a possible career choice, for years I had practically stopped taking pictures, or at least stopped getting film developed. Storing and cataloging all those prints had become such an expense and a chore. Images from probably 15 years of my life were un-scrapbooked, stuffed in boxes, in no kind of order. (Really, that's where all those old photos still are.)
I knew that with a baby -- my first -- I wouldn't be happy with that kind of picture taking.
In the past four years, all of that has changed. I know I'm taking more pictures -- probably more than 4,000 since I got my digital camera. I don't print out all of them, but I do something with the ones I choose to print out. Framed images of our baby and the rest of our family decorate our house and my office, and I've put together several photo albums since I started shooting with enthusiasm again. And if we have company over, it's so quick and easy to show them a quick slideshow of recent photos.
I love that I can delete the really bad or out-of-focus pictures before ever downloading them onto my hard drive. The only cost is that of actually printing the ones I want to print. Since my brother gave me a 1-gig memory card last year for my birthday, my little 3.1-megapixel camera can hold more than 800 images. The only thing holding me back is the life of my batteries. It's not uncommon for me to shoot more than 100 images at an afternoon event.
What do you do with your digital images? Do you print them, display them, carry them on a high-tech key chain? Do you take more or fewer pictures since converting to digital? And are you happier with the images you capture?
There's encouraging news for all women over 30 today. Turns out we're hot stuff (but then we knew that.) More magazine is at the top of Advertising Age's A List of the Top 10 magazines for 2006. Apparently the publishing business has discovered that women over 30 have a lot of money to spend. (Did they actually have to pay someone to tell them that?) Ad Age: "More is breaking through advertisers' irrational obsession with 20-somethings by reaching out not just to women living happily after their 30s, but also to marketers that ought to want to reach them. Then again, smart marketers don't have much choice. As its subscriptions rise, More is also defying newsstand trends." Here's the rest of the top 10: Dwell, Elle, New York, Vogue, People, National Geographic Adventure, Gourmet, Real Simple and In Touch Weekly.
More from the world of sports:
A 40-year-old man in Philadelphia pulled a gun on the coach of his son's 6- and 7-year-old football team after an altercation over the boy's playing time.
And a group of parents in upscale Castro Valley have gone overboard in support of their darling children, raising cain with a girls basketball coach and the school district over what they allege is a lack of "communication" and "utter vindictiveness." Translation: playing time.
It all makes me yearn even more for the lost days of sandlot sports, when children learned to play games and settle disputes without the help of their "mature" mothers and fathers. And had more fun.
This morning, I learned of my early birthday present  from my sister-in-law. We're going to see the Dixie Chicks next month at the Save Mart Center in Fresno!
The country trio sparked controversy with their remarks about President Bush a few years ago. When they postponed a number of concert dates earlier this year, including the originally planned Fresno date, critics said it was because their political views had hurt their popularity.
I care more about their music than their politics. I don't go to a lot of concerts or buy music by many artists these day, but I like the Dixie Chicks.
And the beauty of being an American is the freedom to say what you believe, even if that view is unpopular.
Watching Game 2 of the World Series last night raised a pet peeve of mine: The baseball season goes too long, too late, and ought to be shortened. The arctic temperatures in Detroit may not get that much better when the Series moves to St. Louis tomorrow night.
But there's a reason why these end games are played this time of year, and at night: money. The TV networks that pay a bundle for broadcast rights insist on night games because they reckon they'll get a bigger audience. And the owners and players of Major League Baseball care more about that TV lucre than about their fans.
So we get night games in freezing weather. Little kids can't stay up past their bedtimes, even to watch their favorite teams and athletes, surely a mistake when it comes to building long-term fan loyalty. And they play at night even on weekends because the TV people believe football games are more popular, and therefore more lucrative. And that, plus TV money beyond the dreams of avarice, adds up to a new take on an old baseball tradition: winter ball.
(I used to regard those who like football better than baseball as singularly un-American, until the columnist George Will set me straight on that score several years ago, when he said, "Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings.")
Go Redbirds.
Well, we've heard of children being held back in middle school to improve their performance in high school -- especially in sports -- but now the push for an edge is going all the way down to preschool. The New York Times' Elissa Gootman reports that some parents are keeping their kids out of kindergarten intentionally until they are 6 -- some kindergartners are pushing 7. Conversely, there are also 5-year-olds still in preschool. The parents hope to give their children an advantage in school over their younger classmates. Some say it's a reaction to tougher classwork in kindergarten. Certainly, remaining flexible depending on the child's maturity is a smart strategy -- some children just grow up faster than others. Conversely, making the decision based on sheer competition means it's time for some serious soul-searching. Besides, the research isn't conclusive that kids who start later do better -- some do and some don't.
I'm ready for this election to be over, just so I can stop seeing and hearing the political commercials on TV. But it's only going to get worse between now and Nov. 7, since absentee ballots are now in voters' hands. I wish there were a switch for the television so that once you returned your ballot you could turn off the flow.
The worst are the negative ads, where candidates attack their opponents instead of saying what they will do if elected. And there are definitely some negative ads out there this year.
Which ones bother you the most? And what can we do about them?
There are few things sweeter for a baseball fan than to reach this time of year and have your favorite team still playing. I'm a life-long St. Louis Cardinals fan, and I found it hard to get to sleep last night after the Redbirds' thrilling Game 7 victory over the New York Mets.
And what a finish. The Cards took a 3-1 lead on a 2-run home run by light-hitting catcher Yadier Molina in the top of the ninth inning, then held on through a 2-out, bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the inning. With 56,000 Mets fans going berserk, and Cardinal-killer Carlos Beltran at bat, young Adam Wainwright broke off a beauty of a curve ball -- the yacker, Uncle Charlie, the hook, the ol' deuce -- and Beltran froze in agony as the ball whipped over the plate to end the game and send St. Louis to the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Ahhh, life is good.
The Series will be a renewal of the 1968 matchup, when the portly Mickey Lolich beat St. Louis three times in seven games to lead the Tigers to a victory. That one, back when I was a student at Hoover High, liked to broke my heart. Revenge, as they say, is a dish best tasted cold. I hope.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in an appearance before The Bee's editorial board this afternoon, blamed our military problems in Iraq on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The California Democrat said Rumsfeld should be replaced because of his mishandling of the war effort in Iraq.
Feinstein told Bee editors and reporters that Rumsfeld has many flaws: "He's arrogant, he's stubborn, he doesn't listen, he thinks he has all the answers." Rumsfeld's inability to consider other points of view has resulted in a war strategy that's not working now and has little chance of future success, she said. "Stay the course is not a strategy, not a military strategy."
Feinstein has long been a critic of Rumsfeld and first called for his resignation back in March.
But if Rumsfeld is stubborn, so is President Bush. It's doubtful that the president would remove Rumsfeld unless leaders in his own party demand it. Even then, Bush probably would not give in to pressure to dump Rumsfeld.
If you love tacos, don't miss the story today by The Bee's Joan Obra and Mike Osegueda. They tracked down some of the best spots in the Valley for carne asada tacos -- what Mike calls the "chocolate ice cream" of tacos, a baseline against which others can easily be measured. Not to mention, they're tasty.
Like all such lists, this one is incomplete, as the writers acknowledge. But it's a valuable starting point for individual taco safaris, as well as a chance to get to places in the Valley many of us never see.
There are inevitable differences in taste, but that's not the point. It's possible to eat very well around here -- not just tacos and other Mexican delights, but the whole vast array of ethnic cuisines that are represented in the Valley. Good food is only one of the blessings our extraordinary diversity confers upon us.
I've only been to three of the places Joan and Mike mention in their story, so they've given me an splendid lunch itinerary for the coming weeks and months. What a great public service.
ABC News had a story today about Texas schoolchildren being taught to fight back when faced with a violent shooter in school, rather than cowering under tables and praying for a rescue. The children in Burleson, just south of Fort Worth are taught to use their advantage in numbers to take control. There's some criticism of this approach, but I like the rationale. Kids are being taught to yell, scream, throw books, desks, chairs or pencils -- anything to take control of the situation and take down the gunman.
At the very least, the shooters don't have a clear shot to the had like they do if the victims are just sitting, standing or laying there. There still might be a loss of life, but the shooter will not be in control of the situation and he will at least be forced to rethink his plans. This idea aligns with a self-defense class I took once where the instructor told us that when our lives are in danger, always to fight back with everything we have and never to allow ourselves to be taken to a second location. The second location will only be more to the attacker's advantage.
This change in strategy with the children reminds me of the monumental change that happened in people's minds after 9/11. Prior to the tragedy, the standard procedure for dealing with plane hijackers was to go along with their demands -- most often they wanted to release a comrade from prison or get TV to pay attention to their political grievances -- and probably things would work out OK. Sept. 11 ended all that. If there's a disturbance on a plane right now, you can bet there will be a lot of people piling on that guy. We've learned not to be passive in such situations and some tragedies have been averted because of it. Perhaps the same idea will work with the kids.
I'd like to hear some survivors of violent attacks and some folks in law enforcement giving advice on this. They are the real experts.
We will begin running our Bee Recommends box on Thursday, listing all of our choices in the Nov. 7 election. This will set off a round of calls from critics of The Bee saying we shouldn't be telling people how to vote. During the June primary, I wrote a column explaining why we make candidate recommendations. Here are some excerpts from that column:
"Newspaper endorsements have long played a role in the political process. We aren't telling people how to vote. We are telling them who we think are the best candidates. Voters can follow or reject our suggestions.
"Throughout the year, we offer our opinions in editorials on important public policies, and at election time, it follows that we should be making recommendations on the people who would carry out those policies.
"Our candidate recommendations are one more piece of information that readers can use in deciding which candidates to vote for. Consider us a sounding board for your opinions.
"We spend significant time getting to know candidates' positions on issues and the ideas they want to push if they are elected. We measure candidates against our values -- integrity, honesty, passion to improve life in the Valley and their concern for all of our citizens. Voters should also measure candidates against their own values and opinions.
"We don't have a litmus test on issues. We can disagree with candidates' views on issues such as the death penalty or tax policy, and still support them if they are the best candidates in the race. We look at the totality of their thinking against the backdrop of our values."
Our friends, Doug and Leslie Reese of Sanger, are hosting two exchange students this year, Monica from Italy and Inez from Portugal. They are attending Sanger High School, and they just happen to be having birthdays about this time. The Reeses decided to celebrate by taking them on a four-day trip to Disneyland. Yay, said Inez ; but Monica was not enthused. "Don't you like Disneyland?" Leslie asked her. "What's Disneyland?" was the response.
Wow, what's Disneyland? In all my 26 years of having conversations with teenagers from all over the world, I have never heard this question. This is one of the reasons I so love living in California. When we host international visitors, they get to see some of the very best parts of America. It's so much fun being the one to introduce a teenager to Disneyland. Leslie and Doug tried to explain Disneyland to her, but they concluded that it's just something you have to experience for yourself. Absolutely.
Speaking of Disney, today's New York Times story in The Bee about the company's decision to stop using its characters to sell junk food to kids is a good move. It's also cleaning up its theme park restaurants, changing the default options for side orders from French fries to carrots or applesause. All trans fats are to be eliminated from food at restaurants in Disney's theme parks by 2007 and from licensed food items by 2008. The theme parks,however, are the least of the issue. One day a year eating goodies at Disneyland isn't going to hurt anyone. It's the children's daily diet that is contributing to their weight problems. The consumer advocates say Disney didn't go far enough, that it should also address the TV commercials aimed at children. That's absolutely true, and Disney is in a position to be a leader in this important area. Still, this small first step should be applauded, with parents and consumer activists continuing to apply pressure for more. Disney's mission statement in 1955 was this: "We create happiness." Are unhealthy children happy? Of course not. Let Walt Disney himself be their guide.
I was just over 1 year old when the U.S. population hit 200 million on Nov. 20, 1967. Now, less than a month before my 40th birthday, we have reached a new milestone.
According to an Associated Press article, the nation's population officially hit 300 million at 7:46 a.m. EDT Tuesday, when the Census Bureau's population clock rolled over to the big number.
I wonder what year it will be when we hit 400 million? And what new problems that will bring?
Scott Miller and Blong Xiong are involved in what, by all accounts, may be one of the closest City Council races in years. Both seek to represent Fresno's District 1.
They are the survivors of an impressive field of candidates that met in the June primary. Both are bright and capable, and District 1 should be well represented whoever wins on Nov. 7. (That pleases me, since I live in District 1.)
Today's story in The Bee may reveal an important theme in Miller's candidacy. In at least a couple of cases, Miller's solution to nagging city and neighborhood problems is horticultural. He says the aging District 1 needs closer attention to tree pruning and root trimming, and he thinks the way to beat the blight of graffiti is for the city to "require business owners to line the outside walls of their buildings with shrubs or vines" -- so walls are covered with leaves instead of graffiti.
Well, what should we expect from a fellow who owns two prosperous nurseries in town?
News of the earthquake in Hawaii sent me flying to the telephone this morning. Two former colleagues at The Bee, Scott and Sandi Tompkins, are working as missionairies in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, very near the epicenter of the quake. In fact, their house is actually up on stilts, constructed on the side of a volcano. The volcano goes off about every 200 years, which is due about, um, well, now. People have always told them that the volcano eruption will be preceded by an earthquake. So far, so good -- no sign of a volcano eruption.
Scott and Sandi are visiting family in Sacramento at the moment so the minimal damage to the house, like broken glass and books falling off the shelves etc., will be handled by their housesitters. Scott says the
University of the Nations, where he is working an executive in the communications department, came through just fine, although the library's a mess, as one might expect.
All that earthquake talk is reminding me to get our emergency supplies in order. You just never know.
Sometimes watching international affairs resembles being a spectator at a tennis match. The head swivels rapidly, first to the left, then to the right. That's been the case the past few days as the United Nations wrestled with the idea of sanctions against North Korea.
First the United States sought severe sanctions against the rogue regime after its underground test of a nuclear weapon. China and Russia balked, and a watered down version was ultimately passed by the U.N. Security Council. Then on Saturday, China said it had no intention of actually stopping trucks and ships bound for North Korea.
Japan and Australia, meanwhile, decided to go even farther with sanctions than the U.N. envisioned. And today, China did start inspecting cargo headed across its border.
This is a test for the United Nations -- the latest in a long line. It's critics sneer at its ineffectiveness, often with good reason, and its supporters, often in exasperation, hope for better. The stakes are high this time -- the thought of nuclear weapons in the hands of a megalomaniacal lunatic like North Korea's Kim Jong-il is frightening.
The Bee's editorial board today published its recommendation supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for re-election. Here's today's editorial on the governor's race.
This is a key paragraph from the editorial: "Schwarzenegger understands the need to represent the entire state and has been particularly attentive to the issues of the San Joaquin Valley. One example is the far-reaching California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, which seeks solutions to Valley problems in a thoughtful, comprehensive way."
Interestingly, Schwarzenegger has been backed by most of the state's newspapers. In addition to The Fresno Bee, the governor also picked up the recommendations of the Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times today.
With four seats up on Nov. 7, this is a fundamental election for control of the Fresno Unified School District board. Will the board stay the course toward reforming the troubled school system or will the candidates backed by the teachers union regain control of the board?
In this election, The Bee is supporting two incumbents -- Luisa Medina and Pat Barr -- and two newcomers -- Julie Hornback and Stafford Parker. Here's today's editorial explaining our recommendations.
Saturday's Valley Voices section contains an essay by Joe Hemphill on making the most of life in a wheelchair; Don Blakeley, a professor of philosophy at Fresno State, talks about the importance of reason and Paul Beare of Fresno State implores school districts and faculty associations to encourage the most experienced teachers to work where they are most needed, rather than where they are most comfortable.
Sunday's Vision section contains The Bee's recommendation for governor, and a how-to on voter registration. The cover page features a commentary on nuclear etiquette by Jon B. Wolfsthal, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Will North Korea play by the rules, he wonders. Maureen Dowd is at her snarky finest with a column full of witty instant messages among The Decider; sexylibrarian; DarthV; Rover08 and of course Rumstud74.
Vic Rosenthal is our featured letter writer of the week. He says his political philosophy is to annoy everyone. We have a pro-con debate on Attorney General Bill Lockyer's lawsuit against the carmakers. Victor Davis Hanson analyzes three recent books about Iraq, "Cobra II" "State of Denial" and "Fiasco." He criticizes these works for containing secret, unnamed sources.
The Valley's Top 10 list gives reasons to build housing tracts on farmland. No. 10 is that farmers won't have to worry about that pesky labor problem. "Blogging Across America" contains the winner of redstate.com's contest asking people to answer the question: "Why will you vote Republican in 2006?" in 100 words or less.
Robyn Blumner, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, says the shift in thinking revealed by the Military Commissions Act is an abomination.
Enjoy!
Ever wonder where all the bad press for Friday the 13th came from? Check out this posting at Snopes.
Me, I've never been superstitious. If I see a penny on the ground, I don't pick it up because that'll bring me good luck. I pick it up because it's money. My family used to own black cats, and that never brought us any harm. I've broken mirrors and walked under ladders. No problem.
I will admit to one superstitious crochet, though. Some years back, shortly after I came back to Fresno and went to work for The Bee, I was walking through the newsroom one day, whistling softly as I went. The late Wanda Coyle, a very talented writer and a treasured colleague, jumped up from her desk as I passed and swatted me with a newspaper, like a little puppy being disciplined for some unfortunate deed.
She tersely warned me that whistling in the newsroom would surely bring bad luck down upon my head and everyone else's as well. I didn't say anything; mostly I was too startled to react. But I never whistled in the newsroom again. But that's not superstition. That's just respect for Wanda and her memory. No, really.
Good luck today.
I just got back from a luncheon that honored two public servants for their work on behalf of the Valley. Margaret Foley, a longtime member of the board of directors at Kaweah Delta Hospital, received the ninth annual Rose Ann Vuich Ethical Leadership Award and Sunne Wright McPeak, state secretary of business, transportation and housing, received the Excellence in Public Service Award presented by the Fresno Business Council.
The Vuich award came about after a column I wrote in 1997 suggested that the former state senator should be honored for her example of ethical leadership.
I wrote this about Vuich in a 2001 column: "Vuich. . . was California's first woman state senator, and her reputation was sterling, even after 16 years of serving in a chamber that was often corrupted by special interests. Vuich, who retired in 1992, chaired the Senate's Banking and Commerce Committee, and the corrupters would have loved to get their hooks into her. It never happened."
Today's event was an opportunity to celebrate the good things about public service, especially at a time when we are hearing a lot of bad things about people representing us. Margaret Foley and Sunne Wright McPeak represent the best in public officials.
Here's a side note: Margaret Foley's husband, the late Jim Foley, was The Bee's Tulare County reporter for many years. When I was a young reporter, I served a couple of summers subbing for Jim Foley when he was on vacation. He had the Tulare County courthouse wired and almost daily some public employee would walk into the press room and hand me the big story of the day. It would steam the reporters for the Visalia Times-Delta and Tulare Advance-Register, who shared the courthouse press room. Why was this young kid getting the best stories? Simple. Jim Foley had developed relationships of integrity and trust with courthouse workers, and they were more than happy to help The Bee out because of it.
If satellite TV were really satellite TV, I'd sign up for it. For example, the November issue of Marie Claire magazine has a fascinating piece on Arab women called "The Revolution Will Be Televised" by Carla Power. In it, she says Arab chat shows, the "fluffy precinct of girl talk and pop stars" are changing the way women think in the Middle East. There is an Arab version, for example, of "The View," called Kalam Nawaem, which has four hosts, including a Palestinian actress, a Lebanese TV veteran, an Egyptian self-help columnist like a Muslim Dear Abby, and a Saudi Arabian working on a Ph.D. in American literature. Only one wears a veil, the Saudi.
Power says these shows are reaching women trapped at home, taking the message of personal freedom to places it would ordinarily never reach. There's another program, "Starting Over," based on the American version, where six young women live in a luxury flat outside Beirut. They work with a team of psychologists, career counselors and personal stylists to help reshape their lives. "The Arab woman is thankful to find a voice," says Kalam Nawaem's Rania Bargout. "She's sick and tired of being told what to do. Now she's seeking answers to enable her to move forward."
Not surprisingly, the highest ratings for these TV shows and all-women's channels showing hit American imports like "Oprah" and "Dr. Phil" come from wealthy, conservative Gulf states, where women are more frequently veiled and housebound.
The most distressing sentence in the entire piece is that more than 50% of Arab women are illiterate. That's heartbreaking.
I'd really like to see the satellites beaming both ways, with their talk shows coming to us. Perhaps then we could see that we are much more alike than different. We have much to teach each other and perhaps this common TV format could help us all toward a greater understanding.
I love the Internet. Last night I did a little surfing before going to sleep and learned some things I never knew about Ashtabula, Ohio, a town my family lived in from 1973 to 1978, the longest I'd lived any one place before moving to the Fresno area almost 30 years ago.
The name Ashtabula comes from the Indian word of its original inhabitants meaning "River of Many Fish." The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster, also called the "Ashtabula Horror," was the worst train disaster in American history when it occurred Dec. 29, 1876, according to Wikipedia.com.
The article describes the incident: "As The Pacific Express plowed through the snow and crossed a trestle over the Ashtabula River, about 100 yards from the railroad station at Ashtabula, Ohio, the passengers heard a terrible cracking sound. The trestle fractured and the train plunged 70 feet into a watery abyss. The lead engine made it across the trestle, a second engine, two express cars, and part of the baggage car rested with their weight upon the bridge while 11 railcars fell into a raging fire. The wooden cars were set aflame by kerosene-heating stoves.Of the 159 passengers and crew on the train, 92 were killed and 64 were injured."
The city also contains several former stops on the Underground Railroad which was used to convey African-American slaves to freedom in Canada in the years before the American Civil War. Among the stops is Hubbard House, one of the handful of termination points. Ex-slaves would reside in a basement of the house adjacent to the lake and then leave on the next safe boat across Lake Erie to Canada, gaining their freedom once they arrived in Ontario.
During the 1950s, the area experienced growth with its expanding chemical industry and increasing harbor activity, making Ashtabula one of the most important port cities of the Great Lakes. Interesting historical industries in the area included a Rockwell International plant on Route 20 on the western side of Ashtabula that manufactured brakes for the Space Shuttle program as well as the extrusion of depleted and enriched uranium at the Reactive Metals Extrusion plant on East 21st street, prompting FEMA to, as recently as 1990 (the year the plant ceased operations), place Ashtabula on its list of expected primary nuclear targets for the Soviet Union.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing I learned had less to do with "ancient" history and more to do with the years I lived there, and spent many happy hours with my family playing at Indian Trails Park along the Ashtabula River, which is a significant superfund site due to past industrial abuse of the waterway. Through the late '70s, unregulated discharges and mismanagement of hazardous waste caused the river's sediments to become seriously contaminated, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.
I don't know if the area of the river we played in was part of the contaminated area, but it's disturbing to think that the river called the "River of Many Fish" by the Iroquois Indian inhabitants might now be the "River of Fish with Many Heads and Tadpoles with Two Tails."
Today's childish peeve: Many stores have their cashiers hand you back your change and receipts this way: Receipt, then currency, then coins, in a neat stack in the cashier's palm. That's wrong.
It wasn't always this way, and I'm not quite sure when things changed. Once upon a time, cashiers did it correctly: Hand the customer any coins, then after a moment's pause, any currency. And the receipt goes in the bag. No longer -- but then we have increasingly fewer clerks who know how to make change at all.
It's time to rebel against this travesty. To paraphrase that quaint old 19th century German economist, "Arise, ye prisoners of the service economy! You have nothing to lose but your irritations!"
A few of us met with some retired Bee journalists at lunch today on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of what's called the Bee four case. In 1976, two editors and two reporters from The Bee's staff were jailed for protecting their confidential news sources. Three of them -- Editor George F. Gruner, City Editor James H. Bort Jr. and reporter Joe Rosato -- attended today's lunch. The fourth, reporter William K. Patterson, lives out of the area.
This was a meeting of the Ustabees, the name Bee retirees have given themselves. Several attended, as well as lawyer Phil Fullerton, who was the local counsel for the Bee Four.
It was a delightful session as Gruner, Bort and Rosato recounted the case and their time in custody. Gruner wrote a recent column for us on the case. You can read it here.
Here's an excerpt from his column: "The Fresno case began in January 1975, when The Bee published several articles detailing secret Fresno County grand jury testimony. A City Council member testified he had been hired by a Los Angeles firm seeking to take over garbage collection in Fresno. The council member said he received a retainer of $5,000 and would receive $20,000 more if the proposal passed. He had not made this deal public (he said he did not think he had to).
"When the franchise proposal was scheduled for a council vote, we decided -- I was managing editor at the time -- that voters were entitled to know about the council member's deal and his conflict of interest. (The proposal subsequently was withdrawn and the council member retired at the end of his term.)
"We felt publication was in the public interest, a factor that always should be weighed by news organizations in reports involving confidential sources."
How much our world has changed. 
Before five years ago, one's first thought upon hearing news of an aircraft crashing into a building would most likely be "What a tragic accident."
Today, when we received a news alert a few minutes ago, my mind immediately goes to another place. Are we under attack? Was it deliberate? My heart returns to that horrible Tuesday morning in September. All around the newsroom, reporters are gathered around TV screens, anxious for more information.
It makes me sad.
UPDATE, 1:21 p.m.: The latest Associated Press article said this: The FBI and the Homeland Security Department said there was no evidence it was a terrorist attack. "The initial indication is that there is a terrible accident," Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said. Nevertheless, fighter jets were sent aloft over U.S. cities as a precaution, the Pentagon said.
UPDATE, 1:51 p.m.: A law enforcement official has told The Associated Press that a member of the New York Yankees organization was aboard the plane that crashed into a New York City high-rise. And FAA records show the plane was registered to pitcher Cory Lidle. The New York City medical examiner's office says that two people have died in the Manhattan high-rise plane crash.
Hello? Will the grownups please show up in Washington, D.C.? Now I see from Time magazine that some members of Congress are suggesting that the page program be ended in light of the Mark Foley scandal. I'm trying to follow this logic. These are the men and women who are in charge of setting policies for protecting our nation from all global threats, administering our health care, energizing the economic forces, directing our armed forces. These are our Homeland Security champions who are admitting that they cannot even administer a program involving a couple of dozen honor students?
The list of problems we face in this country is a long one. In no particular order, there are immigration, the war on terror, Iraq, Social Security, concerns about the economy, health care, the environment, energy -- the list goes on.
So it's a little bit amusing -- though hardly unprecedented -- that so much attention should be focused on former Rep. Mark Foley and his predatory practices against congressional pages. The newspapers and TV are full of it, and the Internet is bursting at the seams with blogs, rumors, accusations and a Pacific Ocean's worth of brainless swill.
There are even recent polls that suggest Democrats -- whose hero is Bill Clinton -- are regarded as better protectors of American values that Republicans -- the party that gave us a shredded Constitution and a vigorous defense of the virtues of torture.
It's a dream come true for political junkies. Will the Republicans hold onto control of Congress? Will an angry electorate turn George W. Bush into the lamest of lame ducks for the final two years of his term? Will the fate of the nation be decided on the basis of lurid text messages from a middle-aged man to 16-year-old boys?
And will any of our real problems be addressed in the aftermath? Hope springs eternal.
Jim Boren, the editor of the editorial pages, is a true believer and a purist when it comes to voting. He likes to show up at the polls on Election Day and cast his vote the way God intended. He's been writing politics since he was in preschool, so he knows how wild races can get. What if we find out, say two days before an election, that the guy sends inappropriate e-mails to underage boys? Perhaps you've already voted for the guy by absentee ballot. Not good.
I, on the other hand, love the idea of voting in my jammies. I can spread everything out on the coffee table, debate with my husband over an issue until the last minute and vote at my leisure. The Absentee Ballot is the best thing since fitted sheets. The Permanent Absentee Voter: Oh, my gosh, it's supreme. You don't even have to request your absentee ballot, it just comes automatically in the mail.
So we've got California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson in the office for an editorial board meeting Monday, and Jim asks the loaded question: So you can vote when you're dead? McPherson looked a little bit pale, and then Jim went on to explain that a person could vote by absentee ballot on one day, get hit with the big one the next day and his vote would still be counted weeks later -- despite the fact that he's, um, dead. Right, says Mr. Secretary.
All the more reason why you should vote absentee, I say. Ya just never know.
I couldn't believe some of the responses to my domestic violence column that ran last week.
Here was a comment from one anonymous respondent: "You are so full of **** it streams from your pores. ... A husband and wife are supposed to have a bond that nothing is supposed to come between. ... You people want to think that every woman is blameless, that it is the man's fault, and this is the bull that you perpetuate to society."
Another reader wrote to say that, while he found my column singularly enlightening, "it only presents one side of the story."
If this had been a news article, I would have been more interested in presenting both sides. It wasn't, however, and I'm frankly not interested in telling the abuser's side of the story.
This column wasn't about relationships that "have gone south" or about people who "should never have gotten together in the first place," phrases used by both of the aforementioned readers.
It was about the imbalance of power that exists in some dysfunctional relationships that causes abusers to feel that punching, raping or killing their partner is acceptable. That's the only side of the story I was interested in, and I was trying to let people know some ways they can help friends or loved ones in those relationships.
My Sunday column on the headaches of air travel sure struck a chord with readers. I've received several e-mails from people who have tired of all the hassles that come when they decide to fly to their destinations. If the airlines purposefully set out to drive away their customers, they couldn't have done a better job than the "customer-friendly" business practices they've adopted.
I'm thinking about this travel guideline: If I can drive there within eight hours, I'll take the car. When you add up all the waiting time, it takes that long to fly to most places in California, especially if you have to make a connection.
What do you think? Have your travel plans changed because of airlines practices and the 9/11 security procedures?
If you are keeping up with the search for a cure for mental illness, this video clip from MSNBC is most enlightening. Brenda Leue and Kristen Martinez, co-directors of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Fresno recommended this interview by Dr. Nancy Snyderman. If you're keeping track of who's who in mental health specialties, this is a good assortment of experts from around the country. The most hopeful word I heard used in this clip was "prevention." A cure is quite far off, but treatment is advancing and, through genetic research and screening, there is actually progress in prevention. Here's the link:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=0960dc18-c5ce-4678-a36e-4513fea0f215&f
Eddie Jimenez' column today is about fair food. For many people, that's the best thing about the fair -- all the decadent, fried, on-a-stick goodness that comes around once a year.
Many people this year have been talking about a new concoction -- the Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. I'm partial to the garlic nuggets (chicken nuggets with a garlic-parsley topping) and corn on the cob. My husband goes for the pulled pork sandwich and the cinnamon rolls, WITH sour cream frosting, of course.
What's your favorite fair food?
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