Nobody 687

Sunday, February 25, 2007
Nobody # 687

Nobody Asked Me But:

"Most of us become parents long before we have stopped being children." Mignon McLaughlin – Journalist.

(But some of us get lucky)

Happy Birthday on Wednesday, Elizabeth! (actually my Leap Year girl has no official birthday this year)<<<

I’ll start today with a provocative statement: Any act, which has at its base genuine empathy, is moral. Agree or prove me wrong.<<<

In the same provocative vein, here’s a bit of dialogue from the latest Jesse Stone novel, “High Profile,” by Robert B. Parker:

Stone – “We are all responsible for what we do. If you don’t believe that, what the hell else is there?”
Jenn – “It’s not always true. We both know that.”

Stone – “But we have to act as if it was true.”

I think Parker is right in both cases. Responsibility is the gravitational core that makes a free society possible. If I cannot help myself because I am a prisoner of my nature and nurture, then anything goes. But because we know that there are degrees of responsibility we temper justice with understanding. However, that lady’s scales must always lean towards the weight of responsibility.<<<

Tim Rutten, in the LA Times last week, told the story about the group of university professors gathered for drinks in the rooms of a distinguished Viennese colleague. In the course of the evening, their talk turns to what each might want, if they could have anything in the world. Their wishes take a variety of forms, until finally the choice comes round to the host, who takes a long pull on his pipe and says, "Well, if I really could have anything I wanted, anything at all, I think I would choose … permanent delusions of grandeur."

“Permanent delusions of grandeur." - That is as good an explanation for Nobody as I can come up with, so I will accept it and write on.<<<

Barb and I are in the process of cleaning out, cleaning up and throwing away some of the excess, both material and creative, which clutters up our home and our lives. Our motto is, if it is hugely valuable scan it or save it. Anything that does not make the “hugely” cut goes. This poem, found scribbled and forgotten, made the cut:

As I think back upon my life
And remember all the fun,
Tempered only slightly by
Some things that I have done.

My real regrets about my life
When I have thought things through, I
s less about the things I’ve done
Than those I didn’t do.<<<

And this small verse as well:

When I encounter things perverse
I take their notice in a verse.
And none so quick to catch my eye
As human dumbness passing by.<<<

In-and-Out, In-and-Out, That’s what a hamburger is all about.<<<

Pop Quiz time, nursery rhyme division:

What did Peter Piper pick?
What did little Jack Horner eat in his corner?
In Hickory, Dickory, Dock, what time was it when the mouse ran up the clock?
How many blackbirds were baked into a pie?
What is Tuesday’s child full of?<<<

WHO AM I? – BASEBALL EDITION:

I played in 14 world Series games (seven in 1960 and seven in 1971)and hit safely in every one of them. And, in my career I had exactly 3,000 hits.

I was the cover boy for the very first edition of Sports Illustrated in 1954. Answers to all next week.<<<

DID YOU KNOW? – TELEVISION DEPARTMENT. I am sure you remember that when Lucille Ball became pregnant on “I Love Lucy” they incorporated her pregnancy into the show. But did you know that network censors refused to allow the word pregnant to be used on the show. Lucy was “expecting.”

On the first “Happy Days” shows in 1974, ABC feared that allowing the Fonz to wear his leather jacket made him look too much like a motorcycle hood, so they banned it except when he was on his cycle. The producer evaded this stupidity by always showing the Fonz on, leaning on or very near to his two-wheeler.<<<

The subject of television also brings us our quote of the week: "When television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland." Newton Minow, Federal Communications Commission chairman, May 9, 1961

I am shocked! I didn’t even know they had reality shows back then.<<<

"Don't cheer, boys. The poor devils are dying." — Capt. John Philip of the USS Texas, to his crew as they watched the Spanish ship Vizcaya burn off Santiago Bay, Cuba, in 1898.

This quote is the best summary of why Clint Eastwood’s “Letters From Iwo Jima” should (but won’t) win him a Best Picture & Best Director award at tonight’s AA. Eastwood brilliantly reminds us that war must be humanized lest it make us inhumane.<<<

Headline last week – actually it could be any day of any week:

Insurgents strike U.S. outpost in Iraq; two troops are killed and 17 wounded in an assault north of Baghdad.

Is there ANY positive news coming out of the tragedy that is Iraq? If so, and I doubt it, it is getting lost in the continual tales of slaughter.<<<

And Why isn’t there more popular outrage over the fact that we have held people prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for almost 6 years now without charging or trying them? The Military Commissions Act, with its denial of habeas corpus is more than unconstitutional. It is an affront to our claim of being a just society. George Bush is a walking insult to the American way.<<<

And Bush piles insult upon insult by comparing his goals to those of George Washington as he did on our first President’s birthday. Actually you can add stupidity to his sins. Washington never “guided the nation's quest to extend freedom beyond its borders.”<<<

It was good last week that a judge blocked the Terminator’s desire to transfer prisoners to a private pen. As I wrote in 686, prisons should not be “for profit” operations.<<<

Arizona cheats!!!!<<< (left)

The quote below is taken from a menu from the Matson Liner on which my wife sailed to Hawaii in 1960:

A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. “Much obliged,” he said, pushing the plate aside. “ I am not accustomed to taking my wine in pills.” – Anthelme Brillant-Savarin (French magistrate and writer of gastronomy. 1755-1826)

Nobody 686

Sunday, February 18, 2007
Nobody # 686

Nobody Asked Me But:

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war." - Molly Ivens, in her final column

"There is no better way to support those who have fought valiantly in Iraq than to guarantee that not one more of them dies in the service of the political miscalculation of their leaders. Not one more soldier. Not one more grave. Not one more day. Bring them home tomorrow. - Anna Quindlen, in Newsweek

Answer of the week: Don’t be ridiculous

Question: Isn’t it rational to vote for a Republican if he is the best candidate?<<<

This I believe:

The U.S. is deliberately trying to provoke a war or something just short of it with Iran. As to the difference of opinion between the White House and Thomas Freedman over the best way to handle that country, confrontation or rapprochement, I don’t know who is right. But I do know that Friedman has a better truth track record.<<<

And still on the subjects of Iran and track records, this NY Times headline caught my attention: Skeptics Doubt U.S. Evidence on Iran Action in Iraq Can you blame them? Fool me once, the president who cried wolf and all that sort of thing.<<<

Same subject – later in the week: But Bush calls it irrelevant that no solid evidence links Iranian officials to alleged weapons aid. Sorry, but I do mean disrespect. Solid evidence is irrelevant – especially in light of the WMD fiasco in Iraq? Our President is nuts.<<<

Bruin Sex

Dr. David Martorano, a former opera singer who did his psychiatric residency at UCLA, is suing his supervisor (Dr. Heather Krell,) and UCLA for sexual harassment. Several questions need to be answered. Did they have sex? (He says they did, she says they didn't) Did it cost him a promotion? (He says yes, she says no) Did he really break into operatic aria at a climatic moment? (He says yes, she says…..no, I won’t go there)

The testimony has been totally juicy, psychiatric residents attending nude jacuzzi parties at professional retreats and Martorano's alleged sexual acts in cars parked on the side of the road. The latter surprises me. I would have thought that since this is coming out of UCLA’s psychiatry department some of it would have taken place in the head.<<<

The latest Republican to declare his candidacy is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Much like Rudy the G., Romney has a history he is trying to make the “Right” people forget that he once favored abortion rights and gay rights.

To accomplish this he claims that he has gone through a transformation and no longer believes in sinful things – something about being struck blind while on the road to Damascus, a highway that seems overcrowded with Republicans lately.<<<

Cartoon of the week (left)

Call me Mr. Lowbrow: For Christmas Barb gave me a most wanted present – tickets to the Ahmanson Theater to see Kathleen Turner in “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf.” I saw the movie many years ago and was totally caught up in it and now a chance to see it live was exciting. We went last Sunday. When three hours and twenty minutes after it went up, the curtain finally went down, we headed for Larchmont and pizza. There we talked about the experience and decided that the pizza was great but the play merely good.

In reviews the next day, both LA papers raved about it, which led us to the conclusion that staged dramas are not for us. To me it seems a paradox. The stage is filled with real people and yet the experience is unreal, while a great film, mere digital images, comes alive.

So we both agreed that we will limit our theater attendance to musicals where unreality is the joy rather than the disappointment.<<<

Since I just wasted my precious time on a truly terrible book, “The Machiavelli Code,” perhaps I should continue my lowbrow ways and buy the new best seller by Pierre Bayard - “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.” That way I could fake it during cocktail parties, I attend so many, or in Nobodies.<<<

FYI: There are on average 27 novels published every day in America, and according to my wife, I buy about 20 of them.<<<

Incredibly stupid comment of the week: In the wake of the resignation of John Edward’s blogmaster, Amanda Marcotte, Brian O’Dwyer, chairman of the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council, had this to say - “The blogger’s continuing hostility to Catholics and other Christians, especially in the centrality of the Virgin birth, is both morally wrong and, for Senator Edwards, politically stupid.”

It is morally wrong to be hostile to a religious doctrine? I don’t think so.<<<

“To you I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition. - Woody Allen<<<

Jack Rothman, 80, a retired social psychologist at UCLA started doing comedy five years ago. He offers kindly looks at people's foibles. Here’s one of his jokes:

I was sittin' on a park bench, and this college-age guy comes over, and he's got all these spikes in his hair — red, orange, green, purple. He sits down, and after a while I say to him, 'Pardon me for staring, sonny, but one wild night years ago, I had sex with a peacock, and I'm wondering if you're my son.' "<<<

I have two words for the media about their over-the-top coverage on Anna Nichole Smith’s after-death drama: WHO CARES!!!

I have three for those people who are interested: GET A LIFE!!!<<<

To Tim Hardaway: Your mistake wasn’t in gay bashing out loud, it was in feeling that way inside.<<<

I am listening to Barack Obama’s current book, “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream,” and find it very interesting, although somewhat general. But he gets it exactly right when he writes that empathy is the very basis of morality. More on this next week.<<<

We usually associate talking heads with Sunday morning news shows, but New Mexico gives the term new meaning. They have added talking urinal-deodorizer cakes to rest rooms across the state reminding men not to drink and drive.

I don’t know about you, but, no matter the message, I wouldn’t want a talking urinal cake anywhere near my privates.<<<

UCLA 81, Arizona 66! (left)

Nobody 685

Sunday, February 11, 2007
Nobody # 685

Nobody Asked Me But:

“A too confident sense of justice always leads to injustice.” - Reinhold Niebuhr

Since Niebuhr is dead, I can’t claim this quote as directly applying to our government’s current infringements on the Bill of Rights, but I can claim his general meaning appropriate to it.<<<

I have a theory that Affirmative Action was actually sanctioned in the Constitution. Am I off the wall? Have I lost it?? Maybe not.

Isn’t the Constitutional make-up of the Senate a type of affirmative action? After all, it clearly guarantees a minority (small states) representation inappropriate with the democratic principle of merit – which is summed up by the idea of one person, one vote? As it now stands, Tom Turner, who lives in sparsely populated Wyoming, has more representation in the Senate than does Jim Turner in California.<<<

Q: What is a signing statement?

A: A statement added by a President to a new law declaring his opinion, support or opposition to it.

Q: Are signing statements new?

A: No. Presidents almost from our country’s beginnings have used them. Q: Then who is afraid of signing statements?

A: Me! Q:

Why? A: Because, as opposed to most past Presidents, Bush is using them to assume both legislative and judicial power and, by so doing, is violating one of the pillars upon which our government stands – separation of powers. If the President does not like a law he has the power to veto. If he signs it or vetoes it and is overridden by Congress, it becomes his responsibility to enforce it. The power to interpret that law rests not with the executive but with the Supreme Court.<<<

Cartoon of the week: (above)

Run, don’t walk, away from your favorite book store. Dinesh D’Souza, the darling of right conservatives has lost it. Gone! Disappeared! Poof.

D’Souza (left) claimed his “right” to fame in 1991 with his book “Illiberal Education,” which I must admit, made some valid points about political correctness on college campuses. Since then he has been slip-sliding away, and with his new book, “The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11,” he has hit the bottom.

This recent publication is a two-fur. For one price you get both his stupidity and his outrageousness.

Let’s start with stupidity. Try to follow this. I dare you. D’Souza’s claims that, 1 - the American left is allied to the Islamic radical movement to undermine the Bush White House and American foreign policy and, 2 - that “the left is the primary reason for Islamic anti-Americanism as well as the anti-Americanism of other traditional cultures around the world” because “liberals defend and promote values that are controversial in America and deeply revolting to people in traditional societies, especially in the Muslim world.” In other words, the left is allied with the Muslim radicals and at the same time is the primary reason that these terrorists hate America. Sorry. Those opposites don’t attract.

I’ll let the NY Times reviewer handle the outrageous:

“This embarrassing volume is an out-and-out partisan screed made up of illogical arguments, distorted and cherry-picked information, ridiculous generalizations and nutty asides. It’s a nasty stewpot of intellectually untenable premises and irresponsible speculation that frequently reads like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ parody of the crackpot right. It gives conservatism a bad name while viciously throwing oil on the partisan fires already burning in red state, blue state America.”<<<

Frankie Laine died last week. But for 93 years “That Lucky Old Sun” warmed his life. He is probably most famous for the impression he did of me singing:

To spend one night with you
In our old rendezvous
And reminisce with you
That's my desire.<<<

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate:

HPV vaccine – who chooses? Should the government or the parent make the decision about whether their daughters will be immunized to prevent cervical cancer? The debate is just beginning. Expect it to intensify.

To simplify the arguments: an editorial in the Washington Post said a mandatory vaccine would save lives, while a Wall Street Journal editorial labeled the proposals coercion.

The ideal situation would be for the individual to make the decision, but because it needs to be made at an age too early for that, I’m a pro- mandatory. If I am a parent who has a chance to save my daughter from cervical cancer and refuses to exercise it, then I am guilty of child abuse, and the government becomes in loco parentis taking that decision out of my hands.<<<

Things that people should not say:

“It's a no-brainer for me." Dick Cheney<<<

Urgent message to the Terminator -Don't outsource prisoners. I am not big on coddling prisoners. I’m for Spartan but humane treatment – the degree of Spartan depending on the crime. But capitalism has no place in any American prison system. For profit prisons do not consider humane in their bottom line.

Actually in California there is a consent law forbidding this practice but Governor “I’m back,” (who was at the Bruin/Trojan basketball game Wednesday) has declared an emergency, which gives him the power to ignore it.

So the President is not the only executive to usurp legislative power. And neither one even makes the trains run on time.<<<

Did you know that in Russia (where they are having the same problem of excessive executive authority) there are more cellphones than people?<<<

Candidates for President - on universal health care:

Obama – inspiring rhetoric but no specific plan. Actually I am currently listening to the Senator’s book and I find the same generalities there. He is still my candidate but he needs to some plans and some stands.

Aside on Obama: the experience issue is totally phony.

Hillary – says she is “not ready to be specific,” and that she wants to “build the consensus first.” Sorry Mrs. C, but you have it backward. If you want my support you must be a leader.<<<

Candidate for President - on abortion:

I have never been a fan of Rudy the G, but his whoring himself to the Right by changing his life-long support of abortion rights disgusts me.<<<

Quote of the week: “Any country that comes into being as a consequence of the pen of a diplomat has never been able to be stable except by (a) an imperial power dominating it, (b) a dictator or strongman, or (c) a federal system.” - Joe Biden<<<

I am not a big Pro Football fan and Tony Dungy seems like a really nice and deserving person, but I can’t help wondering why he would say that it was God’s will that the Colts won the Super Bowl. I mean why would God care – unless, of course, She had some money down on the game.<<<

And did you know that the average American adult drinks 3.16 gallons of wine per year? A year?

Heck, I drink that much in a week.<<<

And did you know that Pinot Noir has become the most sought after red wine? That’s just sick! There is no red wine but Cabernet, and I am its prophet.<<<

Liar, liar, pants on fire quote of the week:

"I haven't really even looked at the standings," Arizona basketball coach Lute Olson.<<<

Bruins 70, USC 65. I love it! I have “hated” Trojans all my life. (below, left - the camoroon connection against U$C)

And with the Bruins 22-2 (all right, 21-3) and on their way to a PAC-10 championship and a deep run in the NCAA Tournament, and the Dodgers getting close to reporting for spring training, life is good.

Nobody 684

Sunday, February 4, 2007
Nobody # 684

Nobody Asked Me But:

"We were up by a lot, and (Howland) was still standing," UCLA guard Darren Collison said. "That shows a lot. That's why we're a good team, because of him. He was trying to tell (walk-on) Matt Lee to jump stop. That shows how he keeps striving for perfection."

The amount of information, past and present, available on the web is deliciously overwhelming. . I could spend every waking hour (except food time) and still not read all that I found interesting.<<<

As the multitude of Democratic candidates are forced to face up to their original positions on going to war in Iraq, it seems to me that they divide into three camps.

1. Against it. This is the best position. It was the wrong war against the wrong enemy at the wrong time.

2. For it and was admits he/she was wrong. Also honorable. Any of us can make a mistake – even a bad one.

3. “If I had known then what I know now.” – Hillary’s less than satisfying position.<<<

Still on Iraq: So the National Intelligence Council acknowledged Friday that “Iraq is spiraling downward.”

Big surprise! Our President has put us into a lose/lose situation. Our presence contributes to the instability. Our withdrawal would contribute to the instability.

I’m for putting our young men and women in a win/win situation by setting a timetable for withdrawal. It is immoral for them to face death for no good reason.<<<

And from our Book Of Answers

Answer: “Ask your father.”

My question: “Mom, why are men such narcissistic pigs?”

Your questions?<<< T

he liberal world lost one of it sharpest and pointedly funny voices this past week when Texas columnist Molly Ivens died from the rare and aggressive form of breast cancer she had been battling since 1999. I remember reading the column the year in which she announced that she was taking a leave of absence to fight this insidious enemy and wondering if this would be her last. It wasn’t. She fought back for 7 years. I am sorry she finally lost – and so did we.

Perhaps the most fitting way to remember her voice is by repeating one of her famous dagger-like lines:

On Patrick Buchanan’s speech at the 1992 Republican Convention in which he pronounced that the U. S. was engaged in a cultural war. Molly wrote that his speech “probably sounded better in the original German.”

Actually, I can’t resist including a second and third.

On one of her favorite targets, her home state of Texas, she wrote: When the Legislature is set to convene, “every village is about to lose its idiot.”

On another texas politician: "If his IQ slips any lower, we'll have to water him twice a day." Thanks, Molly. I will miss you.<<<

Osama blows it. It all started with a dumb but innocent quote from a Speech by Joe Biden. He called Barack O “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

Obama’s first reaction, his instinctive one, was to make nothing out of nothing - “I didn’t take it personally and I don’t think he intended to offend.”

But later, with black pressure mounting, he issued a second statement that approached a condemnation. “I didn’t take Senator Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate.”

Trust your instincts, Barack, and ignore the temptation to be a political kiss-ass.<<<

As for the two black “leaders” who were most vocal in their indignation – Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - one has only to consider the source. They are both political yesterdays who are power dead but won’t admit it.<<<

Harry’s coming, and I can hardly wait.<<<

Israel: A three-judge panel convicted Haim Ramon, a founder of the prime minister's Kadima party and an architect of his ruling coalition, of violating Israel's sexual harassment law by committing an "indecent act" while he was justice minister.

His offense – he kissed a 21-year-old female army first lieutenant without her consent. Oh, for the good old days when that would have gotten him a slap in the face, which would have been the end of it.

Sexual harassment is too serious to be trivialized by something like this.<<<

News item: “Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales provided laugh lines for comedians and fodder for outraged bloggers when he told senators recently that the Constitution does not specifically grant individuals the right to habeas corpus.”

First let’s try follow Alberto’s convoluted logic. Here’s what he said:

"The fact that the Constitution — again, there is no express grant of habeas in the Constitution. There is a prohibition against taking it away."

I know his fallacy is obvious but I will state it anyway. How can there be a prohibition against taking away something we don’t have?

A laughing matter, perhaps but I’m not laughing. We are allowing the administration to violate our Constitutional rights with impunity. The prevailing American attitude seems to be – since I have done nothing wrong, I am not concerned with the government listening to my telephone calls or checking my library records.

What they are forgetting can best be summarized by the famous story of the Protestant minister in Nazi Germany.

First they came for the gypsies. I said nothing because I wasn’t a gypsy.
Then they came for the Jews. I said nothing because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics. I said nothing because I wasn’t a Catholic.
Then they came for me.

As I wrote after our trip, Stonehenge left me with a feeling of awe. So I was especially interested in the discovery last week of a village of small houses that may have sheltered the builders of the mysterious Stonehenge. One thing in particular fascinated me. They found indications of bed frames along the side walls and of a dresser or storage unit of some sort on the wall opposite the door. The latter, I am sure, allowed them to provide some order for their fashion wardrobe – Sunday dress-up hides over here, work skins on the other side and a change of underskins in the top drawer.<<<

Barb ran across this in Linda fairstein’s new book, “Bad Blood,” which she read on our recent trip. Audits from 2000 through March of 2006 found that 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions.

Yes, Dorothy, we are back in OZ again.<<<

Saving the best for last – UCLA

I hate misleading headlines. This morning the Times led their story about the Bruins 82-35 win yesterday over Oregon State with “Bruins Show No Mercy In Blowout.” Of course they showed mercy. Coach Howland took his starters out with 10 ½ minutes left in the game and none of them returned.

I’m wild about this year’s team but will be in Love with next year’s squad - Kevin Love that is. Last night on television we watched Love’s Lake Oswego (Oregon) team play Mater Dei in the latter’s new Orange County gym. Mater Dei is the number one ranked team in California and, in the USA Today poll, number three in the U. S. By the middle of the forth period, Mater Dei had scored 41 points and Love 36. He finished with 36 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Next year, with Kevin at the center position, we should have a much better team than this year’s bunch with their lousy 20-2 record.

Actually, we may be better than great if Aaron Afflalo returns for his senior year. Here’s Aaron’s attitude toward losing:

"We don't accept losing. Losing hurts more than winning feels good."<<<