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Yup.. already setting up the childcare..

Here are the top 10 movies I’m looking forward to most this summer

UPDATE: All the movie titles are clickable and bring you to the movie trailer!! 1) Spider Man 3 2) Transformers 3) Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix 4) Die hard 4 5) Shrek the Third 6) Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End 7) The Bourne Ultimatum 8) Evan Almighty 9) Ocean’s 13 10) The Simpsons Movie

Outside nods for: The Simpsons Movie, I now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry, and Halloween.

I’m sure many of you have already caught it. There is a flu variant — a virus — sweeping the nation right now, with symptoms of a high fever, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, occasionally with a racking cough. My doctor has treated dozens of cases in just the past week, and I’m hearing reports from newscasters about them having to take a day off or two due to it as well.

It’s profoundly unpleasant to have, and to clean up after.

Anyway, 3 of our kids got it, and so did I. I had the presence of mind to basically live on Pepto-Bismol for three days, so I avoided the most disgusting side-effects, but I still got the hacking cough. So did my son, Zack.

Well, he didn’t get better. In fact, he seemed to get worse after the gastrointestinal side-effects wore off, with a temperature of just over 103 degrees and lethargy, along with night sweats and lack of appetite. Last night, he complained of intense pain in his right side beneath his armpit. We took him to the doctor today, of course. Emergency room care, for anything other than imminent death, has always proven worse for my family than waiting for daylight to see our family practitioner… but that’s another story which involves scary, ancient abortion doctors willing to work Sundays, a miscarriage, and massive hemorrhaging during Choir Practice.

Anyway, he seemed fine to our doctor, and other than not being quite his usual peppy self, OK to us too. He didn’t hear anything unusual in his lungs, and the sensitivity Zack complained about earlier seemed to be mostly gone. Regardless, he suggested we take an X-Ray to be sure…

…and found that Zack’s right lung was heavily consolidated from pneumonia.

Anyway, after hours of tests, forms, talking, buying lunch at Arby’s, more forms, more blood samples, and an IV drip of antibiotic, we finally got back home and I could head off to work. He’ll be heading into the hospital for the next two days, and then will have a follow-up with our doctor on Friday to make sure it’s clearing up, when he will received a prescription for a second type of antibiotic for the next week or so. We’ll also know the results of the tuberculosis test at that point. Although rare in the US, the number of drug-resistant strains of TB are rising, as are the number of infections as a result.

Public-health education played a large part in reducing infection rates from tuberculosis in the 1800s. If a new drug-resistant strain of TB became widespread in the US as it has in some other countries, I wonder how we’d respond?

Think you’ve had a bad time on eBay? Try dealing with this guy’s feedback. Most excellent, nice to see a sense of humor on eBay!

Check out his general replies to feedback as well. I wonder how many sellers bother to read? I laughed hard at them!

Some of you may not be fans, but for those of us muggles who are.. here is the NEW international trailer for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (aka HP 5).

It looks AWESOME!

Click HERE to view the Rebellion!

(note: it may take a moment to load)

The more I think about it, the more certain it is: Alberto Gonzales is playing his role as the fall guy for the Bush administration.

For those of you who have been stuck under a rock, or who don’t pay attention to US politics, Alberto Gonzales is the US Attorney General. Several US Attorneys under his command were improperly fired, and then their replacements put in place without Senate confirmation hearings. Gonzalez’s former aid, Kyle Sampson, was interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee some time ago, and it appeared that the firings were motivated by purely political — not performance — reasons.

After the Attorney General’s performance this week, there is little doubt left in my mind. He knows he’s the fall guy for the Bush administration. It’s clear that he received marching orders to fire those attorneys, and being a yes-man, he followed them even though he found them distasteful, and possibly illegal. Those marching orders came from Karl Rove, with the full backing of the President of the United States.

The marching orders were designed to exploit a loophole created by the PATRIOT act, which allowed US attorneys to be appointed without Senate confirmation hearings in certain emergency conditions. Gonzalez reassured the Senate on December 15 that they had no plans to install the new attorneys without confirmation, but reversed himself on December 19 when he installed the new attorneys using emergency procedures… exactly as they had been spelled out in a memo now made available to Congress. This memo had been made back in October prior to elections, and seemed aimed deliberately at replacing lawyers who were not representing Republican interests. He repeated that he “didn’t like it” and “didn’t want to do it”… but did it anyway. I doubt he’d have taken that tack if those firing orders had simply been compiled by subordinates. No, it came from his boss, whom he’s protecting with his testimony.

Why is this important? The main reason is because several of those attorneys were involved in prosecuting criminal cases against Republican office-holders. Others, despite instructions coming from Rove to investigate Democratic candidates or their offices in order to create a scandal, did not find sufficient evidence to bring a case. And those attorneys who were on the list who found convenient Democratic scapegoats to lay charges against immediately prior to the November elections — thus creating scandals — managed to keep their jobs despite being on “the list”.

There’s a name for some of this kind of behavior, and it’s called “obstruction of justice”. Being convicted of this charge results in jail time. It’s the reason Martha Stewart was jailed — for preventing investigation into someone else’s trades — even though her particular trades didn’t qualify as insider trading. Imprisoning someone without sufficient evidence is also unethical, and there are documented cases where this has happened when Democratic functionaries were targetted.

While I believe the calls for Gonzales to give up his job were warranted in light of this scandal, he’s not the man to blame for this egregious behavior. He’s just the lackey who went along with it, and was appointed to the position based on his reputation as a yes-man for right-wing interests and his tolerance of abuses of the Bill of Rights. I’m pretty certain that I know, based on those areas where the Attorney General danced to avoid the questions, who’s holding the reins on this scandal. Most people won’t lie and risk their own jobs to protect subordinates.

It’s just sad. This is what a one-party-controlled White House and Congress gave us. I’m glad we restored some balance in the most recent election, but I fear that in 2008, we’re going to end up electing an all-Democratic House, Senate, and White House… resulting in a stage set for abuses all over again, just by the “other guys” this time.

In light of the focus education has received on the blog this week, I was interested to find a new resource on the Web. It’s called the “Underground History of American Education“.

The book reaffirms several suspicions I’ve developed over the past twenty years:

• Public education’s purpose is not so much to educate, but to build a controllable population.
• Children thrive best when given real responsibility for educating themselves out of necessity, not when chained to a desk doing busy-work with no real repercussions.
• Parents are coerced to put their children into school. This has been mitigated somewhat over the past twenty years by the home-schooling revolution, but nevertheless you must school your child according to State standards or face jail time.
• Independent thinkers and skeptics are not well-tolerated in the byzantine bureaucracy that is the public school.
• US school systems are hopelessly anglo-centric, with only a polite nod to the rich history of Native Americans who were displaced by European immigrants or the other immigrant cultures… including Hispanic, which accounts for a huge minority of Americans.
• Modern school systems are a breeding ground for pathological behavior.
• Schools teach false dependency on arbitrary authority figures for actions which are normally an act of one’s own volition. Such as an outside authority being responsible for the timing of one’s toilet duties.
• Our schools end up teaching that self-esteem isn’t something you acquire for yourself; it is granted by authority figures or by one’s peers. This builds a lifetime dependency on other people for one’s own self-esteem.

On the plus side, the author has provided the entire text online if you’re a cheapskate like me and prefer not to pay for your non-fiction 🙂 I’m only part-way through it, and other than a tendency for the author to see conspiracy where I see bureaucracy, it’s a reasonable read for a history book.

Ever heard something absolutely funny, cute, or disgusting said by someone near you who probably doesn’t realize the humor of what was just said? Yeah, me too, all the time. Like this gem:

Five-year-old: I’m taking a break. Young librarian: What are you taking a break from? Five-year-old: … The world.

Sure, it’s kind of lame. But this one’s funnier:

Receptionist: Thank you for calling ABC Company*. How may I assist you? Caller: Is Bob, Tom, or Larry available? Receptionist: Yes, sir, all three are available. Do you have a preference? Caller: Sexual? Receptionist: [Long, awkward silence.] No, sir, I meant do you have a preference for who you’d like to speak to? Caller: Um… Just pick whoever’s cutest and makes more money. Receptionist: Ummm… Okay… It’s a pleasure to connect you…

Here’s one of my faves, because it involves the affectionate, insulting nickname of a friend of mine:

Woman: …And I love him. But last night I was so embarrased — I farted while we were making love. Girl: Ew! That’s so gross, you did not fart. Woman: What the hell do you mean? Girl: You queefed, okay?

More entertainment…

Girl: So, I’m really scared because I got jury duty. I don’t want to be in the same room as a criminal. Paralegal: Well, maybe they’re not a criminal. That’s the point of jury duty. Girl: But… aren’t they guilty if they were arrested? I mean, the police don’t just go around arresting people if they’re innocent.

Dad’s friend: So, your daughter turns 34 tomorrow? Dad: Yeah, I sent her a card. Dad’s friend: What does it say? Dad: ‘Happy Birthday, Sweetie. You’ve finally grown into your bra size.’

They’re Still Working Out the Details at Homeland Security…

Jeff: Liz, can you come here? Liz: Are you going to fire me? Jeff: I can’t — you’re my supervisor. Liz: What? No, I’m not. You’re my supervisor. Jeff: …But if I’m your supervisor, and you’re my supervisor, which one of us is really in charge? Liz: That depends… If it’s you, are you going to fire me? Jeff: No. Liz: Then it’s you. Jeff: Awesome.

There’s a good reason, I’m sure… I just don’t know what it is…

Female customer #1: They have lotion in the women’s bathroom that is phenomenal. Female customer #2: There was a line for the women’s room, so the owner let me use the men’s room when nobody was in it. They didn’t have any lotion in there. Man: There’s probably a good reason for that.

That’s a good business plan

CFO: Our budget has been balanced the last few years because of unpaid maternity leaves, and we are working that into our models for coming years. Committee member: So our financial solvency is based on people in the company having sex? CFO: Basically.

You can find these gems and more over at Overheard In the Office. I can’t believe I’ve gone my whole life without seeing this site before.

Then again, you can get through much of the good stuff in about 20 minutes.

WARNING: Safe for work, but does contain some vulgar references and occasional swearing. Just like my office.

The Daylight Saving Time change claims another victim:

A fifteen-year old boy in America was incarcerated for twelve days, wrongly accused of making a hoax bomb threat – because his school had forgotten that the clocks had gone forward.

Twelve days in a lockup because they got the wrong guy. That is 10 days longer than the usual length of sentences handed down for DUI in Utah… if it ever even comes to trial.

What would you do if you were incarcerated due to administrative incompetence regarding evidence?

(Please give me a few moments as I wipe the tears away.)

There were a lot of talk-radio-heads yesterday and today stating that the Virginia Tech Massacre is the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history”. Admittedly, it is horrific. In particular, the methodical way in which Cho Seung-Hui went about chaining all the doors shut during class in order to prevent escape is chilling. I cannot conceive how one person can be capable of such monumental evil.

I do not wish to trivialize the awful experience there, but the distinction of the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history” does not belong to yesterday’s incident. The worst civilian mass-shooting in US history belongs to the Mountain Meadows Massacre here in Utah.

On the morning of September 11, 1857, the 137 members of the Fancher party, enroute to California from Arkansas, were detained by a lage party of local Mormon men and a handful of local Paiute Indians. The local militia leader, John D. Lee, explained that the local Mormons had arranged a treaty between the Paiutes and the Fancher party in exchange for the party giving up their guns and livestock to the Indians. There had been some conflict between these groups before resulting in injury to quite a few members of the party, and the Fancher party acquiesced to a request to surrender their arms and be escorted to the nearest town.

A mile from their campsite, the shouted order “Do your duty!” was called, and every male member of the Fancher party was executed by his accompanying Mormon escort. The remaining party members were summarily hunted down and shot by the attending Paiutes, all save seventeen children under the age of 8 who were spared. Their several hundred cattle and other possessions were taken and distributed to locals as booty from the “siege of Sebastopol”. Some surviving children later recounted that locals were seen wearing clothing from their dead parents.

Admittedly, this act was not as random as the Virginia Tech shooting. Tensions had been running high between the Utah Territory and the Federal Government. The governor, Brigham Young, had declared a state of emergency and asked the Saints to protect the Territory from invaders. Additionally, apostle Orson Pratt had recently been killed in Arkansas by the estranged husband of his most recent plural wife, and the Fancher party was rumored to be harboring the killer.

Regardless, 120 people were murdered in cold blood — by a gun (though some were bludgeoned to death rather than shot) — that September dawn. And knowing this fact causes me to shake my head and sigh at the posturing of US politicians arguing for or against gun control and other issues unrelated to this tragedy.

Gun violence, as demonstrated by the story above, has been with us our entire national history. Just four short years after the Mountain Meadows Massacre, we started fighting among ourselves with an ultimate body count of nearly 1 million people. We are capable of terrific cruelty to one another, made even worse when we think we are doing the right thing.

I’m not saying nothing should be done to prevent these kinds of tragedies, but pundits are missing the target. After the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Territorial government realized that a position of aggressive defense would lead to more tragedy and death of this sort, and adopted a conciliatory stance in order to eventually progress toward statehood.

Similarly, some measures should be taken to directly address the risk of a lone madman going on a shooting spree in a school. But a widespread curtailing of the liberties of citizens, or expanding gun availability, is a stupid off-topic response. It’s colored by a political agenda which does nothing to solve the problem, but a lot to inflate the rhetoric surrounding this event.