Seventy-nine-year-old Marvel Kunkle is going to court, and she's not happy about it.
Kunkle, a self-described "cradle Catholic," has attended St. Peter Catholic Church in west Eugene for 40 years. Because she's among the 390,000 Catholics who live in Western Oregon, she's also a defendant in the Archdiocese of Portland's bankruptcy case.
In a legal maneuver, the archdiocese in July listed all 390,000 parishioners as class-action defendants in the bankruptcy filing, made last year as the church struggled to respond to more than 200 claims of sexual abuse by priests.
Kunkle and every other local Catholic has until Monday to formally "opt out" of the class action. But few have, in part because of a Catch-22: Attorneys for alleged abuse victims have said they probably will name any parishioner who opts out as an individual defendant.
Friday, September 30, 2005
We're Raising a Generation of Mentally Retarded Children
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. --As Daria Caruso's high school seniors watched the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock film "North by Northwest" in an advanced English class, one scene, in particular, puzzled them. On the screen was a paper note, a message handwritten in cursive script.
The message was pivotal to the plot, but, for many of the students, it might as well have been written in a foreign language.
"They couldn't read the message," said Caruso, a teacher at West Hartford's Conard High School. "I had to back up the (film) and read it to them."
Relying more and more on e-mail, blogs, Web sites, instant messaging and other electronic forms of communication, students at all levels are forgetting the fine art of handwriting, educators say. Cursive script, the graceful looping style that connects one letter to another, might be going the way of the inkwell and the fountain pen.
When students do write by hand, many resort to printing, educators say.
The message was pivotal to the plot, but, for many of the students, it might as well have been written in a foreign language.
"They couldn't read the message," said Caruso, a teacher at West Hartford's Conard High School. "I had to back up the (film) and read it to them."
Relying more and more on e-mail, blogs, Web sites, instant messaging and other electronic forms of communication, students at all levels are forgetting the fine art of handwriting, educators say. Cursive script, the graceful looping style that connects one letter to another, might be going the way of the inkwell and the fountain pen.
When students do write by hand, many resort to printing, educators say.
No Justice, No Peace
RIALTO, Calif. (AP) - Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police led to deadly riots in 1992, was arrested after he allegedly threatened his daughter and ex-girlfriend, police said.
King, 40, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was being held on $25,000 bail.
He was accused of threatening to kill his 23-year-old daughter, Candace, and her mother, Carmen Simpson, after the two got in a fight with King's current girlfriend, Dawn Jean. All three women live in King's home.
King, 40, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was being held on $25,000 bail.
He was accused of threatening to kill his 23-year-old daughter, Candace, and her mother, Carmen Simpson, after the two got in a fight with King's current girlfriend, Dawn Jean. All three women live in King's home.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
That's What You Get For Hiring A Professor From Boston
IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A University of Iowa law professor said the school is promoting homophobia and will challenge whether Iowa is violating NCAA rules by painting a visitors' locker room pink.
Erin Buzuvis moved to Iowa from Boston in the fall and discovered the visiting team's locker room at Kinnick Stadium was pink -- something she said promotes sexism and homophobia.
But officials with the school's sports department said they won't change the pink walls, which is a long-time facet in Kinnick Stadium.
The color was introduced decades ago by former Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry to soften opponents. But recent stadium renovations added more pink items to the locker room, including lockers, sinks and urinals.
Buzuvis plans to speak with a school committee compiling a report on Iowa's compliance with NCAA regulations.
The report is conducted every five years and does not yet address the pink locker room.
Maybe I think it's stereotypical to associate the color pink with homosexuality.
Erin Buzuvis moved to Iowa from Boston in the fall and discovered the visiting team's locker room at Kinnick Stadium was pink -- something she said promotes sexism and homophobia.
But officials with the school's sports department said they won't change the pink walls, which is a long-time facet in Kinnick Stadium.
The color was introduced decades ago by former Hawkeye coach Hayden Fry to soften opponents. But recent stadium renovations added more pink items to the locker room, including lockers, sinks and urinals.
Buzuvis plans to speak with a school committee compiling a report on Iowa's compliance with NCAA regulations.
The report is conducted every five years and does not yet address the pink locker room.
Maybe I think it's stereotypical to associate the color pink with homosexuality.
Shouldn't UK Football Be Better
This is pretty strong support for such a miserable program:
- 1998 - 57,737 (#26 in the nation)
- 1999 - 67,756 (21)
- 2000 - 65,462 (22)
- 2001 - 63,480 (23)
- 2002 - 64,155 (24)
- 2003 - 64,922 (24)
- 2004 - 62,334 (28)
Christopher Hitchens on the Goons
To be against war and militarism, in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is one thing. But to have a record of consistent support for war and militarism, from the Red Army in Eastern Europe to the Serbian ethnic cleansers and the Taliban, is quite another. It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side.
Good News, Bad News
First, the good:
Word in legal circles is that Priscilla Owen is set to become the next justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
Now, the bad:
Unfortunately, I have received reliable information late this afternoon that Karl Rove, among others, is making a last minute push for the President to consider Alberto Gonzales, despite previous assurances from inside the White House, Justice Department, and Senate that Gonzales was not being considered.
Word in legal circles is that Priscilla Owen is set to become the next justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
Now, the bad:
Unfortunately, I have received reliable information late this afternoon that Karl Rove, among others, is making a last minute push for the President to consider Alberto Gonzales, despite previous assurances from inside the White House, Justice Department, and Senate that Gonzales was not being considered.
The Gay Vatican
Steven Clemons notes:
"I visited the Vatican in early August and met a person who is deeply 'embedded' in the world of those who run Vatican City and who govern the global machinery of the Catholic Church. According to this person's estimation, he guesses that a "conservative estimate" of those cardinals and senior church officials who are gay is about 50 percent. Practicing, as opposed to just flirtatious, homosexuals at the highest levels of the church are probably about 30 percent. When I asked whether homosexuals would be better served under Pope Benedict XVI than under John Paul II, he responded, 'Don't think that we will be any better served under a gay pope than a straight one.'"
"I visited the Vatican in early August and met a person who is deeply 'embedded' in the world of those who run Vatican City and who govern the global machinery of the Catholic Church. According to this person's estimation, he guesses that a "conservative estimate" of those cardinals and senior church officials who are gay is about 50 percent. Practicing, as opposed to just flirtatious, homosexuals at the highest levels of the church are probably about 30 percent. When I asked whether homosexuals would be better served under Pope Benedict XVI than under John Paul II, he responded, 'Don't think that we will be any better served under a gay pope than a straight one.'"
Even the WaPo Gets It
The state's representatives have come up with a request for $250 billion in federal reconstruction funds for Louisiana alone -- more than $50,000 per person in the state. This money would come on top of payouts from businesses, national charities and insurers. And it would come on top of the $62.3 billion that Congress has already appropriated for emergency relief.
Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully. . . . The Louisiana delegation has apparently devoted little thought to the root causes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans was flooded not because the Army Corps of Engineers had insufficient money to build flood protections, but because its money was allocated by a system of political patronage.
Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully. . . . The Louisiana delegation has apparently devoted little thought to the root causes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. New Orleans was flooded not because the Army Corps of Engineers had insufficient money to build flood protections, but because its money was allocated by a system of political patronage.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Arthur C. Clarke Says Yes...
...to the space elevator:
In 1969, the giant multistage rocket, discarded piecemeal after a single mission, was the only way of doing the job. That the job should be done was a political decision, made by a handful of men. (I have only recently learnt that Wernher von Braun used my The Exploration of Space (1952) to convince President Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon.) As William Sims Bainbridge pointed out, space travel is a technological mutation that should not really have arrived until the 21st century. But thanks to the ambition and genius of von Braun and Sergei Korolev, and their influence upon individuals as disparate as Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Moon — like the South Pole — was reached half a century ahead of time.
If Nasa resumes lunar missions by 2018, that timing would be just about right: it will be only a year short of the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step”. But banking on solid rocket boosters to escape from Earth, as being planned, will not represent a big technological advance over the Apollo missions. Even if the spacecraft are reusable, it will still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch every kilogram into space. I think the rocket has as much future in space as dog sleds in serious Antarctic exploration. Of course, it is the only thing we have at the moment, so we must make the best use of it.
But I would urge Nasa to keep investing at least a small proportion of its substantial budget in supporting the research and development of alternatives to rockets. There is at least one idea that may ultimately make space transport cheap and affordable to ordinary people: the space elevator. . . .
As its most enthusiastic promoter, I am often asked when I think the first space elevator might be built. My answer has always been: about 50 years after everyone has stopped laughing. Maybe I should now revise it to 25 years.
In 1969, the giant multistage rocket, discarded piecemeal after a single mission, was the only way of doing the job. That the job should be done was a political decision, made by a handful of men. (I have only recently learnt that Wernher von Braun used my The Exploration of Space (1952) to convince President Kennedy that it was possible to go to the Moon.) As William Sims Bainbridge pointed out, space travel is a technological mutation that should not really have arrived until the 21st century. But thanks to the ambition and genius of von Braun and Sergei Korolev, and their influence upon individuals as disparate as Kennedy and Khrushchev, the Moon — like the South Pole — was reached half a century ahead of time.
If Nasa resumes lunar missions by 2018, that timing would be just about right: it will be only a year short of the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step”. But banking on solid rocket boosters to escape from Earth, as being planned, will not represent a big technological advance over the Apollo missions. Even if the spacecraft are reusable, it will still cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch every kilogram into space. I think the rocket has as much future in space as dog sleds in serious Antarctic exploration. Of course, it is the only thing we have at the moment, so we must make the best use of it.
But I would urge Nasa to keep investing at least a small proportion of its substantial budget in supporting the research and development of alternatives to rockets. There is at least one idea that may ultimately make space transport cheap and affordable to ordinary people: the space elevator. . . .
As its most enthusiastic promoter, I am often asked when I think the first space elevator might be built. My answer has always been: about 50 years after everyone has stopped laughing. Maybe I should now revise it to 25 years.
Interesting
135 women are graduating from college for every 100 men. The U.S. Department of Education projects that the gap will grow in coming years. Some sobering facts: The unemployment rate for men between the ages of 20 and 24 is 10.1%, or twice the national average. There are almost as many men in jail, on probation, and on parole (5,000,000) as there are men in college (7,300,000). Men with college educations earn an average of $47,000 per year; those whose education ended at the high school diploma earn an average of $30,000. What's happening to young men's prospects in this country is devastating. . . .
The question of why there are so few women in the hard sciences draws impassioned debate, urgent calls for equity, and lots and lots of money. But the question of why young men are disappearing from campus is not even being widely asked.
The question of why there are so few women in the hard sciences draws impassioned debate, urgent calls for equity, and lots and lots of money. But the question of why young men are disappearing from campus is not even being widely asked.
W's - and the Republican's - Problem
Per Mark Steyn:
"American politics seems to have dwindled down to a choice between a big government party and a big permanently-out-of-government party. . . . Big-time Republicans tell me Bush's profligacy is doing a great job of neutralizing the Dem advantage in the spending-is-caring stakes. This may have been true initially -- in the same sense as undercover cops neutralize a massive heroin-smuggling operation by infiltrating it. But, if they're still running the heroin operation five years later, it looks less like neutralization and more like a change of management."
"American politics seems to have dwindled down to a choice between a big government party and a big permanently-out-of-government party. . . . Big-time Republicans tell me Bush's profligacy is doing a great job of neutralizing the Dem advantage in the spending-is-caring stakes. This may have been true initially -- in the same sense as undercover cops neutralize a massive heroin-smuggling operation by infiltrating it. But, if they're still running the heroin operation five years later, it looks less like neutralization and more like a change of management."
Who Dey?
Hear that Bengal growlin' mean and angry
Here he comes a prowlin' lean and hungry
An offensive brute
Run, pass or boot
And defensively he's rough, tough
Cincinnati Bengals
That's the team we're going to cheer to victory
Touchdown Bengals get some points upon that board
And win a game for Cincinnati
Here he comes a prowlin' lean and hungry
An offensive brute
Run, pass or boot
And defensively he's rough, tough
Cincinnati Bengals
That's the team we're going to cheer to victory
Touchdown Bengals get some points upon that board
And win a game for Cincinnati
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