Waaaaaay Too Much Information

You learn the weirdest things when you check your Sitemeter. Apparently I'm the #1 result ( or at least one of my posts is) if you google "american folklore about farting".

Good News, Bad News

The good news:
The Lad was just at the pediatrician's today, and tipped the scales at 9 lbs. 4 oz. Per the doc, we can now let him sleep until he wakes up instead of waking him to eat every 3-4 hours.

The bad news: She's checking his blood for anemia because he continues to have apneas. However, she suspects it's caused by the quick, shallow breaths he makes when he's hungry and isn't even apnea.

The WORSE news:
I am unable to comply with requests for pictures as I have managed to damage our digital video camera (I use it for stills too). I have a service contract for it, so I'm hoping Circuit City can repair it, but for now it means I don't get to play "Papa"-razzi.

Thanks for the Memory to NW Republican.

If you thought that Washington had cornered the market on election corruption in the Pacific Northwest, you thought wrong:

Secretary of State Bill Bradbury was the recipient of thirteen letters from the state GOP detailing alleged election laws violations, including two candidates, Senator Joanne Verger and Senator Laurie Monnes-Anderson, who spent tens of thousands of dollars of in-kind donations not reported until after the election.
Other campaign in - kind donations received by a number of legislators, including Ryan Deckert, also violated election laws, according to the Oregon GOP.
Laundered campaign money was received by Judy Steigler ($12,300) and others.
Representative Chuck Riley neglected to report $2,000 of media buy expenditures.

The same Bill Bradbury (D) who obstructed the efforts to put Nader on Oregon's ballot.

Oh, I'm sure he'll get right on this.

The Consent of the Governed

Thanks for the Memory to a member of my church for forwarding the following link to me.

On the 17th, William Federer presented an excellent essay over at TownHall regarding the Terry Schiavo case. I commend it to you now. Usually I try to avoid Nazi comparisons when discussing politics (I think the rhetorical tendency to equate ones opponents with the Nazis is usually a cop-out), but in this case, I can see the parallels, especially since Federer actually compares the current situation to attitudes in the Pre-Nazi Weimar Republic. He argues, I believe rightly, that the precendent set erodes further our society's belief in the sanctity of life, and esptablishes a precedent by which those in power can determine who should and shouldn't live based on some esoteric scale of their relative worth as a human.

Terry's case isn't about letting someone who is already dead be removed from life support. It isn't about letting a teminal patient "die with dignity". It's about someone deciding she should die because her life isn't "worth living" anymore. And that is a frightening precedent to set. Furthermore, it flies in the face of the philosophy on which our nation is founded:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

(Bold added)

Self-evident.
Equal.
inalienable.

Do these words no longer mean anything to us? If we decide that Terry is better off dead because she has suffered brain damage, because her mental capacity is diminished, we have refuted the "truth" that she is our equal, and that her right to life is inalienable. If we deny these truths in her case, what's to stop us from denying them in other cases? And once we've gone there, how long will it be until these truths are no longer self-evident whatsoever? What protection do any of us have under the law at that point?

Electric Sheep

(A Movie Review -- SPOILER)

TFR and I rented and Watched I, Robot this weekend. I had avoided it because I had heard it plays pretty loose with Aasimov's original story, and assumed this meant it wasn't very good. I tend to be a purist when it comes to such matters (I'm still trying to forgive myself for enjoying LOtR), but I have never actually read the original novel, so I gave in and we watched it.

Altogether a pretty entertaining movie. It's morte of an action flick set in a sci fi background than a true SF movie. The issues raised by the Three Laws are actually, within the context of this movie, little more than a vehicle for delivering the car chases, gun battles, super-gee-wiz FX. The "villain" is supposedly taking over as a logical extension of the Three Laws, yet is blithely violating them in her willingness to eliminate those who stand in her way. And the ending was predictable, since the moment they introduced "VIKI" I knew they'd have to destroy her. There's a fine line between foreshadowing and telegraphic the plot.

All in all, it's a diverting movie and lots of fun to watch, but don't expect it to make you think as much as it tries to.

Not Alone

As luck would have it, I've found another conservative Blogger here in Eugene. He's been kind enough to link me, fair's fair. Go give Gullyborg a read.

My Butt is Sore...

Time to get off the fence.

For some time, I have remained silent regarding the Terri Schiavo situation on this Blog. My reason for doing so was that I knew too little about the specifics of her condition to feel qualified to speak. I am a firm believer in the right to make the NHM decision, to specify that if I am ever brain dead and on a machine, TFR is to make damned sure they unplug that machine, since I'll already be home by then. But over the last few days, reading up on the situation, I have reached the conclusion that Terri is not brain dead, she is not in a coma, she is not on life support -- she is still there, in her body, alive, and it is wrong to kill her. Then I came across this post at the rightwing nuthouse, which, along with several others, convinced me it's time to throw in with Terri's Supporters. I know, I know, that carries as much weght as a pigeon in a tornado, but I believe it's the right thing to do. So I am going to apply to join Blogs for Terri. I encourage my fellow bloggers to do the same.

Quote of the Week

Thanks for the Memory to Darth Apathy.

Also unlike Raines, Rather and Jordan, Gannon has appeared on TV and given a series of creditable interviews in his own defense, proving our gays are more macho than their straights.

-- Ann Coulter

Top Ten List for Thursday, February 23, 2005

Inspired by a comment by my good friend Darth Apathy in response to my post from earlier today. He suggests I should move to Texas. In response, I humbly submit, in pictorial form (except for # 10, it's a hypertext link),

TOP TEN REASONS I AM NOT GOING TO MOVE TO TEXAS:

10.

9.


8.


7.


6.


5.


4.


3.


2.


1.

My Ears Are Bleeding!

Yesterday while staying home with the lad (Who is just fine, by the way. His pediatrician thinks we may have a faulty monitor), I watched the History Channel program Wild West Tech. Yesterday's episode was "Massacre Tech", and covered several famous/infamous massacres in the old west. It was quite interesting.

And then it happened.

David Carradine was talking about a massacre that happened in Hells Canyon, and made reference to it as "Eastern Ora-gone"

*shudder*

I know, I know, that's how it's pronounced on every old western movie. And occasionally in the modern media. But it's not how it's pronounced by those of us who live here. I'm not sure quite how to convey to non-Oregonians how much we hate this pronunciation of our state's name, but I'll try.

Imagine if you will a giant chalkboard laying flat on the ground. Now imagine that Susan Esterich and Alanis Morissette, both wearing ice skates, are having a cat fight in the middle of this chalkboard, as Celine Dion sings and a thousand band saws cut into the edges of the chalkboard.

This scenario is only mildly irritating compared to the average Oregonian's reaction to "Ora-gone". So please, remember: Say it like "organ" or "Orygun".

Ora's still here.

Light Posting Day

This will be my last post for the day. The Lad had five apnea episodes yesterday, so we spent all night in the hospital. I'm taking the day off to rest and help care for him.

A Thrilla of a Grilla, or I've a Beef

Outside of the Larger cities of the Willamette Valley (namely Eugene, Salem, and the Portland Metro Area), Oregon is suprisingly Red State, and culturally closer to the Mountain West than to California. That's reflected in one of the annual promotionals run by Les Schwab Tires, a regional tire store chain. It's Free Beef Time at Les Schwab! A couple of years ago here in Eugene, a local bike shop tried to lampoon it with Fre Tofu Days. It flopped.

So this year, with the tires on the Moronmobile going bald, I decided to buy their replacements at Les Schwab, both because of the free beef and because I like supporting local and regional businesses. But there was a bonus. They're having a drawing to give away a bunch of these:



It's a Traeger Lil' Tex barbecue. It's not gas, it's not charcoal -- it uses wood. Wood pellets, to be precise. They're made right here in Oregon, and apparently they're quite popular even in traditional barbecueing regions. It's a true barbecue, not just a grill -- you can smoke, slow barbecue, or grill on it.

And I want it.

Oxymoron of the Day

'Miss America' May Become Reality Show

...

...

...

I don't even know where to start.

Your Weekly Dose of Baby Stuff

Wow. TFR just called, and in the last 5 days The Lad has gone from 7 lbs. 12 oz. to 8 Lbs 5.8 oz.

That's my lad!

It really is a trip being a father, but it's the coolest trip I could ever take. TFR has been wonderful, taking the graveyard shift feedings so I can sleep, while I take the morning feeding before leaving for work, and the evening feedings (Except the one during which I'm cooking). Teamwork definitely is a must for raising a kid.

He's still not quite getting the hang of nursing, so we are supplementing with a bottle using a mixture of formula and breast milk. Interesting consequence: Family trips are limited to distances with a round trip travel time that fits between scheduled pumpings, unless there is a destination or place to stop which can accomodate said pumping.

The other night, The Lad and His Dad had a moment. He was snigglued in my arms, staring up at me, and the moment seemed to warrant a lullaby. So Dear Old Dad sang to Chay the most beautiful song he could think of on the fly. It's a song he hopes his son grows up to love as dearly. It goes like this:

O! Say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there. O! Say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

That Thumping Sound

Is my head banging against my desk.

Back during the first days after the birth of The Lad, my good friend Vulture 6 exhorted me not to turn Memento Moron into a Daddy Blog. Alas, according to Sobek, I have failed. I suppose Seppuku is in order? Yet not one to wallow in my "sin", I've made an effort to cut through the sleep deprivation fog and blog about other stuff. Yet since I returned to work and to blogging about other issues, my traffic has dropped, my comments have dropped, and at least once a week I get, "So when are you gonna blog about the kid more?"

So howsabout a compromise: I'll post a weekly update on the progress of the Lad, and you folks comment at least once a week on something other than how darn cute he is.

Deal?

S is for Sedition

Thanks for the Memory to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler.

This is truly sad. Apparently a young soldier (the brother of one of Emperor Misha's readers, as it turns out), serving currently in Korea, received apackage of letters from an elementarty school in New York. I've been told there are few things more bolstering to morale than receiving letters from home. Unfortunately, these letters were not all of a supportive nature:

That changed when he opened the envelope and found missives strewn with politically charged rhetoric, vicious accusations and demoralizing predictions that only a handful of soldiers would leave the Iraq war alive.

This is utterly shameful. I know that the left argues repeatedly that they support the troops but oppose the war. And I'm sure there are many who truly believe that. But they need to be made aware of the fact that there is an undercurrent within their political stream that does NOT truly support the troops. Incidents like the harassment of a recruiter at Seattle Community College, the Pearsalls, and this, indicate that there are plenty of people willing to direct their anger and disapproval directly at the troops.

The school from which the letters were sent has tried to distance itself from the controversy:

The JHS 51 teacher, Alex Kunhardt, did not return phone calls, but the school principal, Xavier Costello, responded with a statement:

"While we would never censor anything that our children write, we sincerely apologize for forwarding letters that were in any way inappropriate to Pfc. Jacobs. This assignment was not intended to be insensitive, but to be supportive of the men and women in service to our nation."

This is a cop-out. These are schoolchildren in a classroom, not adults exercizing their free speech. This was an ASSIGNMENT. If the teacher had the authority to assign these children to write the letters, he had the authority to ensure they were appropriate to the stated intent of the assignment. Since he obviously did not, I can only reach one of two conclusions: Either he shirked his duty to review the letters, or he himself approved of their content.

In either case, he's not conveying the kind of message I hope my child learns some day.

Do's and Don'ts

An excellent Blog has come to my attention by merit of the Blogger's comments here. I commend to you The Chairman's Corner. Thanks for the Memory to the Chairman for sharing an excellent editorial written by Charles Colson for Breakpoint, Moral Equivalency: The Religious Left Gets It Wrong.

Colson addresses the Sanctity of Life Vs. Social Justice argument. To explain this argument, Colson makes reference to Jim Wallis, editor of the left-leaning Christian magazine Sojourners:

Wallis’s favorite argument, as reported in the Times and elsewhere, is that the Bible makes more than three thousand references to poverty—far more than abortion or homosexuality—and yet religious conservatives, in his opinion, are obsessed with the abortion issue. So, says Wallis, the religious left is more in tune with the Bible than are conservatives.

Colson's counter-argument is that the issue of abortion has a higher moral priority, and that furthermore, from a Christian viewpoint, support of abortion removes the moral authority from which to speak concerning the poor. It's a well-made and compelling argument, and one with which I am inclined to agree. However, I must admit it is a point I had previously failed to note in my own rationale for becoming a political conservative.

Interesting note: Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, at the time in my life when I was the most active in religious pursuits (I was aspiring to become a missionary, in fact), I was also the furthest to the left politically I've ever been -- for much the same reason as Wallis. I remember marching in an anti-abortion rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1987, piously holding up a sign which read "Totally Pro-Life", proclaiming that I opposed abortion, war, the death penalty, nuclear proliferation, and eating grapes picked by oppressed migrant workers. I read Sojourners and the Door and World Christian, attended Ubana in 1987, and even wrote in Tony Campolo for president in 1992.

So what changed my mind? What led me to the "Dark Side", to reject the liberal emphasis on social programs while still opposing abortion? Unlike Colson, I never thought through the issue of varying degrees of morality between the issues. For me, it had to do with the difference between making people do the right thing and preventing them from doing the wrong thing. I fully believe in helping the poor, and do so actively, to the degree that I am able. But I don't believe it's proper for the government to decide who is or isn't poor enough to merit my help, and I am skeptical regarding the efficacy of their methods of providing that help. That's what I mean by making others do right -- the essence of Socialism. On the other hand, abortion is an active wrong -- one living being killing another living being. I am not making someone extend themselves to do good, I am preventing them from doing bad.

Men's hearts may be dark, and that is their own business. When it becomes my business, nay, our business, is when they try to snuff out another's light.

The DNC: Only MOSTLY Dead

Thanks for the Memory to Wizbang! via the Llama Butchers.

Why, oh WHY am I completely unsurprised that this happened here in Oregon?

Protester Throws Shoe at Richard Perle

Apparently, during a debate in Portland between Howard Dean and Richard Perle, a protestor had to be forcibly removed from the event after throwing a shoe at Perle.

Wizbang has some video footage of the debate, but they're not sure if it contains the shoe incident. However, based on information contained in the AP article, I think I have discovered the identity of the assailant:

Perle had just started his comments Thursday when a protester threw a shoe at him before being dragged away, screaming, "Liar! Liar!"

Hymnal

One of the things I like about the little church TFR and I attend is the fact that the pastor, who also leads worship, likes to mix a few old hymns in with the newer praise and worship tunes. Yesterday, we sang one of my favorites, My Hope is Built. So I decided I'd share a list of my 10 favorite (non-Christmas) hymns, in no particular order:

Doxology (Old Hundred)
All Hail The Power of Jesus Name
A Mighty Fortress
Amazing Grace
Be Still My Soul
O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus
It is Well
The Old Rugged Cross
Standing on the Promises
My Hope is Built

Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Last week I posted a soup recipe which Maximum Leader of Naked Villainy agreed to try and review. I'm hoping he didn't get around to it, since I left out a key ingredient, a can of stewed tomatoes. The recipe has been corrected.