Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub

Barack Obama came to Duncanville today. Bill Clinton was two miles away, at Mountain View Community College, yesterday. Texas hasn’t seen this level of attention from presidential candidates since we’ve been in the state (since 1987).

I had tickets to see Obama, but we had a called faculty meeting that ran long; they gave away my seat!

We’ll have to await reports from younger son James, who will be voting for his first time in the primary.

Older son Kenny, and Kathryn, caught Obama downtown, last week.

I think I’m the only one in the family who hasn’t committed to Obama. It’s a phenomenal campaign. More observations later tonight, I hope — off to symphony rehearsal.

Current issue of On Earth (Winter 2008), an article by Kim Larsen about fighting malaria in Africa, “Bad Blood”:

DDT can interfere with the feedback loop in the pituitary gland, which releases the milk-producing hormone prolactin. Studies show that exposure to DDT at critical points in pregnancy or just after childbirth can reduce the output of breast milk, or even dry it up. In such instances the mother will turn to formula, which is expensive. And in Africa formula feeding often leads to another death sentence for babies: diarrhea (infants have no immunity to the microbes that abound in contaminated drinking water throughout much of the continent). Here, then, exposure to DDT may cause as swift and bleak an outcome as exposure to a mosquito.

On Earth is a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Image: Battle of Vera Cruz, artist unknown by me.

U.S. Rep. Abraham Lincoln, Whig-Ill., speaking on the floor of the House of Representatives, January 12, 1848:

If the prossecution of the war has, in expenses, already equalled the better half of the country, how long it’s future prosecution, will be in equalling, the less valuable half, is not a speculative, but a practical question, pressing closely upon us. And yet it is a question which the President seems to never have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the war, and securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefinite. First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prossecution of the war in the vital parts of the enemies country; and, after apparently, talking himself tired, on this point, the President drops down into a half despairing tone, and tells us that “with a people distracted and divided by contending factions, and a government subject to constant changes, by successive revolutions, the continued success of our arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace[.]” Then he suggests the propriety of wheedling the Mexican people to desert the counsels of their own leaders, and trusting in our protection, to set up a government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace; telling us, that “this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace.” But soon he falls into doubt of this too; and then drops back on to the already half abandoned ground of “more vigorous prossecution.[”] All this shows that the President is, in no wise, satisfied with his own positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to argue us into it, he argues himself out of it; then seizes another, and goes through the same process; and then, confused at being able to think of nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some time before cast off. His mind, tasked beyond it’s power, is running hither and thither, like some tortured creature, on a burning surface, finding no position, on which it can settle down, and be at ease.

Again, it is a singular omission in this message, that it, no where intimates when the President expects the war to terminate. At it’s beginning, Genl. Scott was, by this same President, driven into disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be conquered in less than three or four months. But now, at the end of about twenty months, during which time our arms have given us the most splendid successes–every department, and every part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever before been thought men could not do,–after all this, this same President gives us a long message, without showing us, that, as to the end, he himself, has, even an imaginary conception. As I have before said, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show, there is not something about his conscious, more painful than all his mental perplexity!

I was one of Bae’s kids, too.

Sad note from the Hinckley Institute of Politics (note the funeral is today, for those in Salt Lake City):

The former, present, and future interns, staff, faculty, and family of the Hinckley Institute of Politics mourn the passing of former Hinckley Institute Assistant Director, Bae B. Gardner. I first walked in the door of the Hinckley Institute in the fall of 1988. It immediately felt like a second home and the main reason was Bae. I am proudly one of “Bae’s kids.” Unless you share that distinction, it is impossible to fully convey the loss we feel today with Bae’s passing. Bae was not just an administrator to her “kids.” She was a mother, friend, cheerleader, mentor, and confidant. Indeed, she supported and sustained me from that first day as an inquiring student through the present as the Hinckley Institute’s director. Bae had the unique talent of making students feel that they had unlimited potential and the tireless ability to provide them with life-changing opportunities. The Hinckley Institute and I will forever be grateful for the legacy she established and the love she exhibited during her incredible years of service at the Hinckley Institute.

Kirk L. Jowers
Director, Hinckley Institute of Politics

Viewing and Funeral Service
Saturday, February 23rd
Viewing: 11:00 am. Service: 1:00 pm.

Foothill LDS 7^th Ward Chapel
2215 E. Roosevelt Avenue
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108

In lieu of flowers, the Gardner family has suggested that donations may be made to the Bae B. Gardner Internship in Public Policy scholarship fund administered by the Hinckley Institute of Politics. Donations can be made online or by calling the University of Utah Development Office at 801.581.6825. Donations can also be mailed to the Hinckley Institute at 260 S. Central Campus Dr. Rm. 253. Salt Lake City, UT 84112. For more information call the Hinckley Institute of Politics at 801.581.8501.

I had applied for an internship with the National Wildlife Federation. Bae thought I had a chance at a different internship, so she copied the form and sent it to the Secretary of the Senate. I lost the NWF internship on a .01 gradepoint difference. I got the internship at the Senate, and it changed my life.

Of course, I was on the road debating when the word came through that they wanted me in Washington. Bae called me late at night at home, minutes before my acceptance would have been overdue. Four days later I was working in the Capitol.  Whenever I meet with other Hinckley Interns, I learn she did more for everyone else.

My first real office was a few feet from the Senate Chamber, with a view down the mall to the Washington Monument, and a chandalier 8 feet across. I got floor privileges to the Senate, and with Mike Mansfield’s name on my ID card, I had access to the White House and almost any other government building in town.

That sort of education is priceless. Thanks to Bae Gardner.

Bae should be remembered as a hero for education, a champion for college kids, and one who played a role in more good public policy decisions than few others in history, by promoting good kids to good experience that they applied later in public service.

I wish the service were streamed on the web somewhere. I’ll bet it’ll be something to see and hear.

E-mail from the Dallas Fed:

The deadline for entries for this year’s Essay Contest, “Economics in Motion Pictures,” is almost here. To ensure that your students’ entries arrive in time to be eligible for the contest, the essays must be postmarked by March 7.

Please remind students to review the rules of entry carefully. For details, visit http://dallasfed.org/educate/essay/index.html

If you have any questions, please contact Heather McDonald at heather.mcdonald@dal.frb.orgblockquote>

Barbara Jordan would have been 72 today.

Thanks to Pam for alerting me to the anniversary.

In her stirring keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, held in New York City in Madison Square Garden, Jordan said:

A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

In this election year we must define the common good and begin again to shape a common good and begin again to shape a common future. Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.

I covered that convention as a stringer for a western television station. I recall the spirit in the hall when Jordan spoke, and the great spirit that enveloped the entire convention and the City of New York. After the convention every night the cops would stop taxis so delegates could ride. I remember watching two cops help a woman out of a wheel chair and into a cab, and the cabbie saying that the cops had never done that before — and he liked it. Jimmy Carter came out of that convention, and won the election, defeating Gerald Ford.

32 years ago. Barbara Jordan didn’t live to see her party come up with a woman and an African American man as the top two candidates for the nomination. That’s too bad. She could have given a great, appropriate speech. Maybe the Dems oughtta just run a film of Jordan from 1976.

Also:

• Barbara Jordan and Lyndon Johnson: An oral history
• When things get tough, the patriotic listen to Barbara Jordan
• Barbara Jordan

Time flies, people sometimes don’t.  I’m in O’Hare, now with a few hours to spend because, for the third time today, fifth flight, a flight I was booked on was canceled due to weather.

Above, the neck of American Airlines’ Concourse H and K, in Terminal 3; picture is many months old, but I like it because it contains many hours of my sweat in hammering out the lease agreements.  The photo is from a Chicago limousine service.

The trip to DFW Airport that I used to make a couple of times a week minimum in about 25 minutes took nearly an hour today — the roads are wider, but the traffic is much heavier.  The trip from the curb to the gate that I used to sprint now takes 40 minutes, and I have to get undressed.

And then the flight to St. Louis was cancelled.  And then the flight from St. Louis to Bart Simpson’s Springfield was cancelled . . . I tried a back door, to Chicago and then on United back to Springfield (Illinois — isn’t every Springfield Bart’s hometown?).  The hop from O’Hare was cancelled.  I’ll miss the 3:00 p.m. seminar start.

It’s been more than 15 years since I actually got stuck on a weather delay.  Airlines fly very well, most of the time.  I also fly about 99.7% less than I used to fly.

It’s a lot of trouble.  It’s a good cause.  The Bill of Rights Institute and the Liberty Fund teamed up for a seminar on presidents and the Constitution, focusing on Lincoln, in Springfield.  I always get material that sparks classroom discussion and great learning experiences for students.

Our department chair told me that our district won’t consider this as part of my required in-service training, however.  Go figure.  I can sit through hours of people who don’t know Excel as well as I do and be counted as learning; but when I get great sessions with hard reading requirements and outstanding discussion with great experts, zip.  Quality in education?  What?

Blogging light the next couple of days.

Photograph of ex-President John Quincy Adams; found at LawBuzz

Have you signed up to support Science Debate 2008?

Science policy has been critical to our nation’s defense and economic health and development from the founding. Historian Hunter Dupree presented 90 minutes of discussion on John Quincy Adams’ role as advisor in science to the founders, in 1989.

You can listen to the entire remarkable story at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Public Affairs website, or download it for your iPod/MP3 player.

Any connections?  Any correlations?

On February 21, 1848, Rep. John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He died on February 23.  Adams is the only ex-president to have returned to elective office after his presidency.

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally in New York City.

Last year I stumbled onto information about a film on the readjustment problems of Army Reservists after their return from service in Iraq and Afganistan — well, Iraq is the focus of the film.

Update from Mr. Christensen:

A couple of weeks ago I attended the screening for the documentary. Just a refresher - it follows four vets from Iraq & their difficulties in readjusting to society. I think it will be a real eye opener for civilians. It will be aired on PBS this fall. Hop over to my blog - http://jbchristensen.wordpress.com for my post regarding the screening.

I missed the news: Gus Arriola died on February 4, in Carmel, California. He was 90.

Heck, I’ve missed his strip, Gordo, for years. One of a kind — Arriola’s work alone was worth the price of any newspaper that carried it.

It wasn’t until I was in college that I realized the strip was a real ground breaker, a vanguard of Mexican-Americans in daily newspapers.

Really good strips are just really good strips.

So long, Gus.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Baldo’s Tia Carmen, for the news.

Copyright © 2008 Universal Press Syndicate

Here’s a video from the guys at Fast Draw, about economic stimulation, offered first on CBS Sunday Morning on February 17. Great stuff for a high school economics course.

Will CBS make this available for teachers?

There is a commercial you gotta view for 15 seconds prior to the video — my apologies.

from www.cbsnews.com posted with vodpod

*

Write or call CBS Sunday Morning to plead for released copies:
ADDRESS:
CBS News Sunday Morning
Box O (for Osgood)
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com

TAPES: Log on to the CBS Store or call 1-800-542-5621.

TRANSCRIPTS: 1-800-777-TEXT

We owe a great debt to newspapers, especially those shunned by bloggers as MSM (”mainstream media”). This article in the Austin American-Statesman is a key exhibit.

While the minions and poobahs at the Texas Education Agency work to frustrate the teaching of evolution in science classes, real Texas scientists practicing real Texas science dig away at the Gault Site, an archaeological dig that recently has yielded 1.5 million artifacts from ancient Texans, Clovis Man, living 13,500 years ago.

So far nothing indicates any of these ancient people were Baptist or creationist. Surprisingly, perhaps, they didn’t play football, either.

Pamela LeBlanc, a digger at the site wrote the article in first person.

The pasture, named for the Gault family who once farmed the land, made its debut into professional archaeology in 1929 when J.E. Pearce, founder of the UT archaeology department, excavated here. Over the years, visitors could pay a fee to dig at the farm, hauling off what they found and leaving behind shallow craters.

Today, it’s considered the most prolific site of its kind. Gault has generated more than half of the excavated artifacts from the Clovis people, long considered the first human culture in America. Until recently, most archaeologists believed the Clovis came from Asia across the Bering Strait land bridge at the end of the last ice age about 13,500 years ago, walked down the ice-free corridor of Western Canada and slowly spread across the Americas.

Collins and others believe people arrived in the Americas much earlier, probably by boat along the North Atlantic and North Pacific shores. And they believe this site will help prove it. “What we’re trying to do here is expand on our knowledge of the peopling of the Americas,” Collins says.

Even better, you can volunteer to help out at the site, to dig for prehistoric information.

To volunteer at the Gault site, contact Cinda Timperley at ctimperley@austin.rr.com. Membership in the Gault School of Archaeological Research is not required to volunteer, but members have priority. Membership is $10 for students; $45 for adults; and $65 for families. The school also needs non-monetary donations of everything from equipment to electrical work. For more information, call 471-5982.

Not only does the Austin paper print news that sticks in the craw of Don McLeroy, they give details on how you can participate in making such news.

Newspapers. Gotta love ‘em.

Tip of the old scrub brush to Remote Central.

Also see Pamela LeBlanc’s earlier story about Lucy in Houson.

Texas A&M undergraduate diggers at Gault site, earlier; Texas Archaeological Society photo.

Oh, remember to check out the latest 4 Stone Hearth.  This carnival of archaeology was posted at Our Cultural World last week, its 34th outing.

John Hawks has a post featured about Neandertal’s roaming habits, all determined from a tooth.  Interesting archaeology, interesting anthropology, and just how can they tell all that from one tooth? Hawks’ blog has articles I’ll use in U.S. history, world history, psychology, and maybe economics.  One of the best things about 4 Stone Hearth is the way it points to outstanding sources.

Got a tagger in your classroom?  He (rarely a she) may be interested in ancient taggers — if we may call them that.

If you live on the Pacific coast, or in the Caribbean, should you worry about your local volcano?  A Very Remote Period Indeed pointed to a paper that suggests the hominids found at Dmanisi were a family killed by a volcanic eruption — perhaps your local volcano can help you become immortal, after a fashion?

Also featured is an article about language development at a blog I only recently discovered, Not Exactly Rocket Science.  It’s another blog worth watching.

I love irony.

Henry VIII devised a novel way to save money. He ordered coins be minted containing silver, as during the reign of Henry VII, but he ordered that the purity of the silver be reduced. Edward VI continued the policy so that, by the time of the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, royal advisor and financier Sir Thomas Gresham observed that most of the old, high-silver content coins were out of circulation, hoarded by people against future inflation, allowing the lesser-valued money to circulate. Gresham told Elizabeth the bad money drove out the good money.

The principle had been observed earlier by Aristophanes and others. It is known in modern economics as Gresham’s Law, since 1858 when British economist Henry Dunning McLeod decided to honor Gresham by naming the rule after him.

The bad drives out the good, the cheap drives out the more expensive, gossip drives out good information – the principle is widely observed in areas beyond economics.

And so it is that with regard to DDT, the good information about the dangers of DDT and the benefits of restricting use of the chemical has been driven out of the marketplace by bad information claiming DDT is safe, and ignoring the significant benefits reaped when massive use of DDT was stopped.

And here’s the irony: DDT-happy critics of good environmental policy now claim to be the good information driven out by the “bad” information of DDT’s harms. No kidding. A columnist named Natalie Sirkin, in a column delivering almost nothing but bad, vile information, says bad information drives out the good, never once noting the irony.

The defense of DDT was, from the beginning, a lost cause. A few of us vainly hoped that science would prevail. We soon found that Gresham ’s Law, which states that bad currency drives out good currency, applies to science as well as to economics.

No kidding it applies. Do a Google search for “DDT” today and you’ll find all over the internet the disinformation of Gordon Edwards’ ghost and junk science purveyor Steven Milloy. You will have a difficult time finding any solid study showing how DDT nearly killed off the American bald eagle, however, and you’ll have to do a targeted search to learn of any dangers of DDT — information on human toxicity is almost impossible to find, though it’s easy to find many recountings of Gordon Edwards’ bold drinking of a teaspoon of DDT before lectures.

(Natalie and Gerald Sirkin write for the American Spectator; at this writing, Google features warnings on all of their material at the time of this writing, saying the site host may try to insert “malicious software” on your computer — so I have not linked there. This problem should sort itself out, I hope.)

(The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works to get a history of the agency up on the ‘net; a lot from the DDT ban era is now available at the EPA site for scholars; Milloy will not be happy to have factual rebuttal officially and easily available.)

Below the fold, I’ll offer a point-by-point rebuttal of the bizarre claims in favor of DDT and against the noble public officials who worked to restrict its use.

Read the rest of this entry »