Octopodial Chrome

Well, that’s the quickest autumn ever: one week. Last Friday it cooled off; yesterday we’d a lot of ice; and today it snows. Damn it, I love autumn: it’s the greatest time of year. And this year, it hardly happened. I want grey; I want clouds; I want to not see the sun, and yes winter offers all that. But I don’t want snow (yet); I want leaves on the ground, not ice. I want the romance of autumn, not the hibernation of winter. I want October back!

According to CNN, toy gun in a bag caused a lock-down of a Capitol office building. How utterly ridiculous! Who cares—so someone had a (toy) pistol. For nearly a century it was common practise for men to carry weapons into the Capitol itself. Andrew Jackson once challenged the entire Senate to a duel. Weapons are only an issue when a few have them, because those few suddenly have a lever on the many. If most men still carried weapons, we’d be safer, but more importantly we’d be freer.

Sean Rushton has written an excellent article on the rampant rudeness and discrimination shown toward Janice Rodgers Brown, Bush’s latest mistreated judicial nominee. He also alludes to racialism, which is to say leftist racism, as a particularly ugly influence.

As I went to sleep last night, the carboy in my closet full of my latest beer was happily bubbling away—quite noisily, actually. Blurp, blurp, blurp, a bit more than once a second. A sweet lullaby to carry me off to dreamland, visions of amber nectar dancing in my head.

Seriously, it was most pleasant. Brewing’s a nice hobby.

It occurred to me recently that we waste an awful lot of space on growing useless plants in our parks. Why plant evergreens when we could plant apples? Why ground cover where mints or herbs could grow?

No, since that land will be used for growing things (an admirable pursuit), it should be used to grow useful things. In this way the poor would be given an additional resource to fall back on, and the well-off would be able to supplement their cookery.

I saw 16 Horsepower play last night (Pinkku, apparently a side project of musicians from several local bands, opened). Lots of fun. The band’s music is kind of an alt-country rock with an eclectic set of instruments: guitar and drums, of course—but also bass cello (or whatever it’s called), banjo and accordion. The lead singer’s grandfather was a so-called Nazarene preacher, and it shows in his songs. The show was a bit pricey for an indie band ($14), but well worth it.

Title IX provides that men and women must have equal access to sports teams at the collegiate level. Since fewer women than men are interested in sports, this has led to the destruction of many men’s athletic teams. But I'm not certain that this is a bad thing. What business does a college have handing out athletic scholarships? How does groping, mashing, running and hitting factor into education? Shouldn’t collegiate funds be spent on something somehow related to improving the minds of students—say, a library, or academic buildings, or (at a private university) a chapel?

I’ve naught against sports in general. Mens sana in corpora sano, after all. But physical fitness is the business of gymnasia, not universities. The university is a temple of thought, of reason, of scholarship—not of pugilism. Informal, student-initiated sports are fine, but the formal, corporate, insane spectacle which college athletics has become should be stopped.

Don’t de-fund men’s teams: de-fund them all.

Deory Morudock has an article on the imprisonment of Tommy Chong and the drug war in general. Apparently even the Drug Czar has admitted that the real debate should be about legalisation of drugs.

Fall has finally arisen. It’s my favourite of the seasons, a time when a man can feel truly alive. Awfully late this year—even into last week we’d weather in the 80s. Pity, too: October is typically my favourite month. Grey, beginning to get cold, the leaves blustering around in the wind: it’s the most romantic time of the year.

Saturday morning we’d the first frost, though, and now it feels as though it’s not likely to warm up again until spring. Life is good!

I’m brewing up a Belgian abbey-style ale right now. Should be tasty, what with amber & light malts; Hallertauer, Goldings and Saaz hops and a Belgian yeast.

I also kegged up my porter from September this week. It’s pretty tasty.

I attended the International Mead Festival yesterday evening. What a blast! I’d some great metheglins (mead with herbs and spices—the root word of our modern word medicine) and melomels (mead with fruit, save apples or grapes). There was even a braggot (mead with malt) and several varieties of tej (Ethiopian mead). Unfortunately, I’d no cyser (mead with apple juice—a kind of mead cider) or pyment (mead with grape juice—mead-wine). There was even a rose mead; it was the only the second time I’ve had such a thing.

For those who’ve not heard of it, mead is fermented honey. It’s widely believed to have been the first alcoholic drink, as it is the most easily produced by accident (water down honey, as if to drink it, but forget to—come back in a few days and you’ll find mead). It has also been considered to have aphrodisiacal properties and to stimulate the production of boys (much as white wine is believed to do the same for girls—something to do with pH, I’m told), which is why it was traditional among our Saxon ancestors to drink it for a month after being married, hence our modern word honeymoon.

Cringely writes on how greatly Microsoft misunderstands the free software movement. A worthy read.

Oceanwave Consulting tried to get support from Microsoft, but no luck, so turned to the Psychic Friends Network. Their results may surprise you.

Passed on by my old man.

Rules to Enter Texas

Applies to each person as they enter Texas. Learn and remember them.

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.
2. Let’s get this straight: it’s called a gravel road. I drive a pickup truck because I need to. No matter how slow you drive, you’re going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.
3. They are pigs, cattle and oil wells. That’s what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don’t like it? I-20 and I-10 go east and west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.
4. So you have a $60,000 dollar car. We’re impressed. We have quarter-million dollar cotton strippers that we drive 3 weeks a year.
5. So every person in every pickup waves. It’s called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.
6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we will shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don’t have it up to your ear at the time.
7. Yeah, we eat catfish and crawdads. You really want sushi and caviar? It’s available at the corner bait shop.
8. The Opener refers to the first day of deer season. It’s a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.
9. We open doors for women. That is applied to everyone, regardless of age.
10. No, there’s no vegetarian special on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef’s Salad and pick off the two pounds of ham & turkey.
11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and Pace Picante Sauce.
12. You bring coke into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring Mary Jane into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.
13. High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.
14. Yeah, we have golf courses. Don’t hit the water hazards—it spooks the fish.
15. Colleges? Try Texas A&M, Baylor and UT. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing  pickups when they come for the holidays.
16. We have more folks in the Navy, Army, Marines, and Air Force than any other state, so Don't Mess with Texas. If you do, it will get your butt  whipped by the best.
17. Always remember what our great president Sam Houston once said: Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States can’t make it  without Texas.

God Bless Texas!

I recently happened upon Unix is a Four-Letter Word. It’s a nice introduction to some of the regions of Unix most useful to the new user. Although I’d recommend emacs over vi any day.

It’s funny: until about a year ago, I don’t believe my parents really realised how absolutely incompetent I have been with the fair sex. When I went to London for a week-and-a-half in early December, they somehow had the idea that I was meeting a girl. What’s odder is that they said naught before I left about it.

I suppose that just as every mother thinks her son handsome, every father thinks him a success with lasses—and if the lad says he’s not, then he’s just being modest.

The alpha version of Tasting Notes is now being worked on. I’ve coded the most essential features: one can see beers, breweries and bars. I have yet to add view-by-style or view-by-food, and editing still must be done from the PostgreSQL listener psql—but the major work is done.

This version should be much faster than Tasting Notes 1, and stabler by far. It uses mod_python to speed up the Python side of things, and PostgreSQL to do a better job on the database side. It’s also written in much more sensible fashion than before. It’s still unattractive, because I have yet to add in all the CSS styles I need to in order to make it pretty; that’ll come last.

I recently realised that all three of the Uhl boys with websites have recipes pages: I have bachelor and mediæval recipes; Thomas has many recipes and John, too, has a recipes page. Although of course mine is the most attractive, which is only natural…

Seriously, it’s odd how much we each like to cook. And of course my buddy Phil is an incredible cook and a confirmed Food Channel (or is it Food Network?) junkie. Pity he hasn’t a page up as well.

Somehow, cooking got the reputation of being woman’s work—naught could be further from the truth, really. It’s very much a man’s kind of thing, I believe, for various philosophical reasons which I shan’t go into here. For centuries, so far as I can tell, it was recognised as such. It’s time we men reclaimed the kitchen!

Scott Andrew is donating the excess over $5/CD for each CD he sells to the P2P Legal Defence Fund. Pity the fellow doesn’t play out this way—anyone willing to do this much deserves to be heard.

I attended the Known World Costume Symposium this past weekend. To my great good fortune, not only was KWCS in Denver, but so too was the Known World Academy of the Rapier—and therefor the attendance was quite phenomenal. The event was an absolute blast!

The moment I strode into the hotel I was hit by a wonderful sensation of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, the building was fairly modern: bright and airy; great atria; glass elevators &c. On the other, it was filled with men, women and children in the clothing of a myriad times & places. Filling those modern hallways and visible in the elevators were folks who could have stepped out of a painting. Lining the balconies overlooking the lobby men & women stood chatting, just as out of a Renascence picture. It was too cool.

I attended several most informative classes on various topics (the importance of primary sources; Elizabethan doublets; Elizabethan cassocks; Renascence gambling; dance) and met some great people. I made some new friends and saw old friends anew.

Saturday evening there was a masque, to which I was able to wear the Venetian mask my dear brother bought for me from a maker which has been in business for several centuries (400?). I was splendidly dashing, I think.

Loads of fun. Those who do not don mediæval clothing on the weekends can only wish they did.

Because a Minnesota school board outlawed the carrying of weapons by students, gun safety classes cannot be properly taught on school property. A bunch of middle schoolers brought their shotguns and rifles to class to learn how to safely handle them, but were forbidden by administrators to carry them into the building. The article features this chilling statement by one Sue Brown, of the school board: Whatever you can do to restrict, restrict. That woman should be disenfranchised.

The trouble with diets is that as one progresses, what had formerly been an excellently low weight becomes an excessively high one. E.g. when I was at 180 it was wonderful to weight in at 172, but now that I’m at 168 I consider 172 painfully high.

An article from 7 January 1946 has such gems as:

…We have swept away Hitlerism, but a great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease.

We’ve lost the peace.

Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American.

Never has American prestige in Europe been lower.

…instead of coming in with a bold plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and apologies.

…some also blame America because they expected so much more from her.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Terra Wind: the luxury motor-home/yacht. Yes, it goes in the water. No, I’ve no idea why you'd want to take it therein.

Please, make the hurting stop.

Israeli intelligence agents cheered and took photos as the World Trade Centre burned. Maybe the loony-bin conspiracy theorists are right after all. Almost certainly not, of course. Still, I’d like to know why our supposedly great friend’s agents found the attack so droll.

The Colorado Libertarian party has issued a press release on the recent insidious spread of smoking bans in our state. It presents the issue quite plainly: it is a matter of individual freedom; nothing more, nothing less. The businessman is free to allow or forbid smoking; the citizen is free to patronise that business or not. There is no place for the State in that equation! Those city councils which pass such ordinances are acting contrary to the ideals upon which this nation was founded; those who support such measures are traitors to the very principles of liberty and freedom.

Michelle Malkin writes on the topic of liberal racism as well. She uses the shameful treatment of Bobby Jindal, Republican candidate for governor in Louisiana and incidentally an Indian, who has been described repeatedly as dark-skinned by leftist journalists.

One notes that in modern America it is we conservatives who are truly colour-blind, wishing for all to having equality of opportunity regardless of the shade of our skins, while it is the leftists who strive mightily to preserve racial discrimination wherever it serves their purposes. The conservative wishes all the races to be equal; the leftist wishes whites (and East Asians) to be subservient to all other races (and men to women, as well).

Walter Williams has a great article about racial censorship, that is, the reporting of supposed racist comments made by conservatives (e.g. Limbaugh’s quite justified statement that the fuss over Donovan McNabb is due to his colour) while actual racist statements made by liberals are ignored. He gives as examples the New York City Councilman who states—in 2002—that he’d like to slap a white man; California Lieutenant Governor and sometime gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante, who used the word nigger in public; Senator Robert Byrd, who did the same in an interview; and a few others. These were all, unlike Limbaugh’s statement, actual, honest-to-goodness racist moments, and the liberal offenders got off quite scot-free. Of course.

I’d an Oktoberfest meal at C.B. & Pott’s today: kraut & wurst with mash & applesauce—sound good, huh? Well, the sausages had been fried (frying bratwurst, of course, imperils one’s immortal soul); the kraut was dry and crispy: it too had been fried, lightly; the mash was, instead, cold, uncooked vaguely-German potato salad; the applesauce was blah and boring and, also, cold. I’ve never had a sadder platter. Until lunchtime today, I would have called the man a lier who claimed that wurst-und-kraut could be ruined. Now, I must sadly admit that said statement is, in fact, the case. How bloody unfortunate. Expensive, too: $11 for culinary enlightenment of the most negative kind.

Friday’s issue of the Rocky Mountain New featured the headline She Said No in reference, of course, to the Kobe Bryant rape trial. Now, I should preface my remarks with a note that IMHO rape is the worst of crimes, worse even than murder, and that it should be a capital offence. But I also hold justice to be among the highest of ideals—and part of justice is the principle that the accused is innocent until proven guilty. In fact, until he has been proven guilty, he is the innocent and therefore his accuser is the guilty party, for his reputation will never recover, no matter what the truth about the crime in question.

Is Kobe Bryant (what sort of name for a man is Kobe, anyway?) an adulterer? Of course. Is Kobe Bryant an overpaid, under-mature athlete? Obviously. Is he a rapist? That remains to be seen. And until it has been demonstrated, or he has admitted it, or an impartial witness can be obtained, then there is no sound basis to claim that his supposed victim said no. It remains, for the moment, simply a matter of he-said, she-said. My own opinion is that is probably was some degree of rape, although almost certainly not the worst kind—but that’s just an opinion; it’s not fact, and Bryant could be quite innocent of all but adultery (which is why he will not get the title Mr. on my blog)—that’s just not how I happen to be betting at the moment.

That’s immaterial, though. Until a jury of his peers has found Bryant guilty of rape, or at least until it has been demonstrated that the woman in question did, indeed, say no, it is irresponsible for a newspaper to state that she, in fact, did so do.

Tried to watch the utterly dreadful Dinotopia. Precious moments of my life which will never return. Atrocious, simply atrocious. Full of all sorts of new-agey crap like vegetarianism and pacifism. Unscientific nonsense like meat-eater and plant-eater areas (in real life, of course, predators are interspersed well among their prey). Foul acting, terrible writing, poor computer graphics—nothing good about it at all.

I turned it off and watched All Creatures Great and Small instead. Superior by far.

I was to have gone hunting today.

I was to have started a 14th century costume for the Known World Academy of the Rapier and Known World Costume Symposium.

I was to have achieved something with my holiday.

Instead, I lay in bed until well past midnight reading a book, then read another until noon because I had a phone call to make at 0845. Then I slept until 1900. A complete waste of a day, a complete waste of my day off. All because I like reading.

Strangely, it’s not at all satisfying.

Francis Ford Coppola was in town last night to receive a lifetime achievement award from our mayor. Before the presentation of the award, he displayed a film of his from 1981 or ’82 entitled One from the Heart which had been shown for but one week before being pulled from distribution. Not a bad film, with some interesting ideas (the main one of which was shooting the entire thing live, which didn't actually end up happening, although much of it is these really long, multi-set takes).

Our mayor is an interesting sort. Of course, Cromwell was a brewer too…

Drove up to Ft. Collins today; did the tours at New Belgium and Odell’s, and had dinner at CooperSmith’s. Jotted down lots of notes which will eventually get added to Tasting Notes (possibly I won’t add ’em until I’ve updated the program entirely). On the way back home, I stopped off at St. James’s, an Orthodox church visible from the highway. At another point in my journey I retrieved a spaghetti pot I had left in a clubhouse in February.

Then I went to work for two hours. All in all a full day.

A sentence for some horrendous crime? A foul mediæval torture? No—Robin Miller willingly subjected himself to Windows for a week. The horror, the horror.

I’m revamping Tasting Notes; it’s a database of my thoughts on various beers I’ve had. The current version is CGI-based and very slow: the new version will use mod_python and should be considerably faster.

For the first time in my life, I’ve plaited my hair; it’s in a single braid running down my neck and between my shoulders. It looks good. I should have grown my hair out years ago.

Ari Armstrong has written on the subject of jury nullification. There’s recently been something of a controversy here in Colorado, where a country treasurer dared make available pamphlets containing the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and other material, including a defence of a juror’s right to ignore the law and find a man innocent.

Those of us who are single have grown to hate the insipidity which seems to infect parents’ brains—that flaw of character which renders them unable to realise that their beloved child is, really, not much more than a per of above-average intelligence. A fellow named Maddox reviews kids’ artwork, as posted by their parents at work.

Actually, I quite like kids. I’m just not labouring under the delusion that they are precious, sweet or any other such thing. They’re human beings, just like anyone else, with their own good and bad qualities.

I’ve recently completed a reworking of the Metropolis of Denver site. It’s not perfect, but is the result of various political compromises—but the main thing is that it’s done, and done far better than the previous site. As bad as the design is in spots, it is universes better than that which preceded it. To tell the truth, I’m actually quite proud of bits and pieces thereof.

Scott Granneman of Security Focus has an article in the Reg arguing that Windows is inherently insecure, and that if some Unix (e.g. Linux or Mac OS) took over the desktop and server markets, we’d not see the sorts of vulnerabilities and worms so prevalent with Windows, Internet Information Server, Outlook, Internet Explorer &c.

I’m not quite certain. It seems to me that as long as there are fools who wish to use computers without knowledge, there will be broken programs which cater to their supposed needs—and that so long as these programs exist, there will be problems.

Christopher Hitchens writes on the topic of Englishness. A wonderful read.

Arnold Rimmer has a website. Or at least Chris Barrie does.

Seems that Bruce Campbell is in as new film, called Bubba Ho-Tep. He plays Elvis, who didn’t die but instead switched places with an impersonator (who went on to die of pills & fatty food). He’s ended up in a nursing home with JFK, who was died black by the CIA after they replaced his brain. And now there’s a mummy stalking the other folks in the retirement home. So odd that I’ve got to see it.

Slashdot has a review which manages to nicely whet my appetite.

Back in August, Dave Barry published the toll-free number of the American Teleservices Association. Thousands of folks called, wasting the ATA’s time (can you imagine that?). It got so bad that the telephone number was disconnected.

Well, he’s now published their new number. It is, at least for the moment, 317-816-9336 (I called it, and the guy at the end said it was the wrong number). So make sure to pick it up and see if they are interested in any of the fabulous offers you no doubt have.

This whole telemarketing business is much like the spam problem. It isn’t free to receive spam (some 1/3 or so of AOL’s) email storage space is spam, pure and simple), and nor is it free to receive a telemarketer’s call. It takes time and effort to answer the phone, time and effort which one would prefer not to expend. The solution, of course, is to waste the telemarketers’ time with phone calls, much as the solution to spam is to fill the mailboxes of spammers with every catalogue, subscription, junk mail &c. one possibly can. It doesn’t so much do good as make one feel good, which is good enough for me.

The Poles have found four French Roland-3 missiles in Iraq. Thy were manufactured in ’03—shortly before we invaded. This should serve as further proof that the real reason the Frogs & Krauts have opposed us is that they made money off of the Hussein régime.

They have since apologised, most likely because they wish to join the New Holy Roman Empire (one would have thought that the Poles would have learnt their lesson with the first one). The French defence—that the missiles haven’t been made in years—strikes me as false: what wouldn’t make sense like continuing to manufacture old-tech weapons to sell to suspect buyers? That way one would always have an advantage, but could still make money.

An animal rights group set loose 10,000 mink—thereby unleashing a frenzy Mink have attacked exotic birds, chickens, fish and even a dog. Those which have been returned have resorted to cannibalism (apparently mink will only leave alone their sibling, and since there’s no way to tell which is which, inevitably the pens have a heterogeneous mixture).

The Fur Commission USA is offering a $100,000 reward information about the crime. Methinks they should offer $1,000,000 for the heads of those responsible. But I’m bloody-minded.

I don’t care about sports (in fact, I consider them akin to short pants: silly in anyone over the age of 13), but the recent furor over Limbaugh’s remark that some quarterback is over-rated because of his colour has reached even me. Allen Barra writes that yes, Limbaugh was right, and further that he didn’t say aught wrong.

They coldcall folks listed in whois. Why am I posting this? Read on for enlightenment.

Reading my brother Thomas’s rant about an article which noted that the name of the Ignobel Prizes is a pun on ignoble reminds me how much we’re alike. I never used to think so; in fact there was a time when I wondered if he might not actually be a changeling (the boy likes sports!). But when he graduated from the US Naval Academy, we went to a party with some of his friends, and they commented that we are incredibly similar. At first we resisted; after all, a large part of our lives has been spent opposing one another in various ways. But eventually we had to admit that it’s true. It’s not so much that we’re alike, as that everyone else is so much different.

What made me realise the truth is that on the drive over we had spent about a quarter hour agreeing that anyone who misuses the apostrophe as in CD’s (it hurts just to write that) should be executed, banished or otherwise dealt with very harshly indeed.

I’ve spent the last two months or so revamping WesternOrthodox.com, the homepage of my parish and an excellent resource regarding Orthodoxy. It’s now all about buzzword compliance: XHTML, CSS, Dublin Core Metadata &c. There’s some really good content therein, and it should be accessible to all, due to my efforts to keep it standards-compliant.

Went small game hunting today up around Georgetown. No luck (my dinner tonight came from the fridge, not the field), but I’d a great time nonetheless. It’s pretty country up there; and the weather was pleasant (overcast, so the sun could not work its evil). I’ve read that half an hour alone in nature can be as rewarding as an hour in psychotherapy; now I’ve experienced it.

Of course, psychotherapy doesn’t give one blisters and sore muscles, but that’s a small price to pay, methinks.

I went to a great concert last night: My Morning Jacket with Patrick Park.

When I write Park opened, I mean it: it was just him, his acoustic guitar, a harmonica and a microphone. A good, earnest musician who obviously enjoys what he’s doing. Keep an eye out for him—he could be big someday. After the show, I bought a CD from him. Unlike the pictures on his website, he’s actually a friendly fellow.

My Morning Jacket were incredibly varied. Their music ranged from country-folk to Skynardesque rock, complete with guitar solo, to Zeppelinnish tunes, to a Grateful Dead-like jam session. The players all have long hair, and for almost the entire evening it covered their faces completely: a nest of hair with a microphone vanishing inside. ’Twas much like being serenaded by Cousin It. The band played for 2¼ hours—about 3 normal-length sets. It was an incredible show.

Lots of pretty girls, but nearly all of them were attached. I managed to speak to almost all the rest, but alas no good news to report on that front. I did manage to get a good conversation going with one girl (on beer, of course: it’s the only thing I know aught about), but just as it was getting interesting the music started.

The Rocky Mountain News, the better of the two local papers, had the temerity to give me a fortnight’s subscription for free. This is not the boon it seems; rather it’s been an horrible nuisance. Every morning, there’s a paper on my step, which I toss in my hall to read in the evening—which of course I never get around to doing, and so the dashed things pile up, mocking me.

Should I ever have an enemy, I shall subscribe him to both papers.

Bruce Bartlett has an informative article about poverty. Of the poor, 91% own colour televisions and 74% own microwave ovens. Correcting for errors in calculations, the poverty rate for last year (officially 12.1%) was actually 7½%. Moreover, over ½ of those classified as poor between 1996 and 1999 met the qualification for less than four months. As Bartlett notes, this sort of income mobility means that our measures of income inequality are also overstated.

Antarctica finally has a church. Concerned with the spiritual condition of those on post there, the Russian Orthodox built a church, disassembled it and are shipping it to King George Island. A Father Georgy will be assigned to the chapel.

Holy Russia used to do this sort of thing all the time, sponsoring chapels in foreign lands for the use of all Orthodox. It’s good to see that this has returned.

Thomas Hibbs has a very interesting review of Lost in Translation. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about it, so perhaps I’ll see it this weekend.

I actually met Bill Murray once in downtown Denver. He was at the Celtic Tavern and so loitered outside until I got the chance to shake his hand. Nice guy—much taller than one might suspect.

Meghan Cox Gurdon continues here excellent Fever Swamp column with a tale of childish birthdays. Quite funny.

That’s one of the nice things about growing up: one can forget about birthday parties and instead go out, have a beer and enjoy oneself.

I recently watched Jane Eyre and Persuasion, both set in about the Regency Period, and suddenly the thought occurred to me that someday the present day will seem as remote and odd as that time does to us now. Very strange idea, that so much which we take for granted and the order things, will one day be regarded as antiquated and odd. Common sense, of course, but still strange.

William J. Federer writes that is religion, and more specifically Christianity, which is the fundamental basis for freedom. Without God, rights spring from the State—and may be removed thereby. Without equality under God, secularists are free to exterminate those races they despise. Without morality, no government can govern—and in the headlong dash to its own destruction, it will be forced to legislate and legislate its citizens into slavery.

According to Suzanne Fields, copyright law was used to silence an article about Hitler. Apparently, Homes & Gardens had published a fawning article about Hitler in ’38, which was recently posted online at the Guardian (a left-wing English newspaper). The article was forced down by the current editor in an attempt to quell his embarrassment.

When will we learn that information wants to be free?

So far as I know, Uhl Studios are owned by a Uhl completely and totally unrelated to myself. And yet they are located in the same town as we are, and I’ve never heard of them until now. Small world, indeed.

The New Yorker discusses the latest Chicago Manual of Style. It makes the excellent point that any manual of style is purely idiosyncratic. I have my own style which I use always; so too every other writer of any taste whatsoever. It’s the small mind which is limited by the vision of others.

The discussion of the supposed horrors of writing the end matter of one’s works made me laugh: I use LaTeX, which is built on a text formatter older, I believe, than myself, and I never had any issues. Of course, anyone foolish enough to use anything so inadequate as Microsoft Word deserves every wasted hour and misery-filled breath. Those of us with wit will have retired to bed long ago, secure in our superiority.

Anyway, the closing paragraph expresses the oh-so-true sentiment: there is, if not a right way, a best way to do every single thing, down to the proverbial dotting of the i. Those who haven’t an opinion on what that best is, aren’t really trying hard enough.

Dennis Prager writes on the absurdity of the leftist position regarding race and two items: a California girl who (apparently innocently) wants a white-kid’s club, there being clubs for every other ethnicity; and a conservative student group which sold cookies at prices dependent on the race and sex of those purchasing, in order to make a point about discrimination (which is termed affirmative action these days).

From Smart Guns/Foolish Legislators:

A real-world example of the statistical evidence found by Lott and Whitley was the incident in Merced, California, in August 2000. There, a pitchfork-wielding man cut the phone lines to a home, then broke in and began attacking the four children, while their parents were not home. The oldest child, fourteen-year-old Jessica Carpenter was unable to retrieve her father's guns from a locked cabinet. She ran to a neighbour’s home, and begged him to use his own gun to confront the attacker. The neighbour did not do so, but 911 was called. By the time the police arrived, Jessica Carpenter’s seven-year-old brother and nine-year-old sister had been murdered. Jessica's fathers guns were locked up in accordance with the California felony CAP law.

A CAP law is a so-called Child Access Prevention law. Had California not had one, it’s likely that the fourteen-year-old could have saved her brother and sister. The legislators who proposed, drafted & approved that law are responsible for those deaths; so too the worm of a governor who failed to veto it, and the thugs of police who enforced it. As for the neighbour, I hope he burns in hell: the whole point of gun-owning is to be able to wield force appropriately. Refusal to do so is a dereliction of duty.

Yesterday I had lunch with the two youngest of my three brothers. Although they’re still quite young (John’s 20 and Stephen’s but 17), it was really nice to be able to sit there and dine with them. I pity the only child, or the child from a small family. Looking back, the trade-off of vacations to Disney World for them was well worth it.

Perhaps inspired by Philip Greenspun’s proposal for free tuition, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created MIT OpenCourseWare, a collection of freely-viewable and somewhat freely-distributable course materials for many fields. This could be a truly Great Thing.