Friday, December 31, 2004

Stingy, Part Two

Via Dean, comes a link to Chuck Simmins’ post that lists corporate America’s stinginess. And then Chuck inserts this gem.

By my count, that right there is $107,000,000 U.S. dollars. From private sources. Don’t forget, the people of the United States are the most generous people in the world. We don’t expect our Government to spend our money for us. We take care of that ourselves.

His post goes on to list additional companies that are lending aid for the tsunami victims, including the band Linkin Park who donated $100,000.

The list goes on and on. We don’t need the Government of the United States to take our money and give it away. We are perfectly capable of taking care of our charitable choices ourselves.

So as Americans give from their hearts, in the hundreds of millions of dollars, don’t call us stingy. We are not. And don’t tell us we don’t care. We do.

BTW, the above looks like over $127 million dollars U.S. Not too shabby, huh?

Not too. I would add that our government cares as well - it’s not everyday the President orders an aircraft carrier and Marines to go to a natural disaster area to provide help. And yet he has done just that.

A U.S. Air Force plane arrived in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, bringing 26 medical specialists from the Army, Marines and Air Force. American planes have delivered 1,400 body bags to southern islands in Thailand.

Up to 1,000 U.S. military personnel are likely to arrive in Thailand in the next week, Lt. Col. Scott Elder said. A U.S. Navy aircraft-carrier battle group is heading from Hong Kong to the shores of Sumatra. And the first of many Air Force C-130 cargo planes has landed in Indonesia with blankets, plastic sheeting and medicines.

We care and we’re helping as we can.

I don’t know why I’m still amazed at the folks who think that just throwing money at something is helpful. You have to have a plan for that money otherwise it will just get picked off. This is why Americans prefer to give to the charities and organizations who specialize in this kind of thing. They already have the infrastructure to handle the cash resources that are pouring in. The red tape and bureaucracy involved with government money means that it’s less effective. Where our government works best is by providing more tangible things - aircraft, supplies, manpower - that’s the best use of government money in these initial stages.

You who criticize America’s response can quote all the statistics you want. It’s not about percentages. It’s not about how much our government gives in cash. Americans are a generous people - we will give from our own pockets freely and that money will be much more effectively used. And that’s why we do the things the way that we do them.

We’ve had plenty of our own disasters here and we don’t go to the world looking for aid - we take care of our own quite nicely, thankyouverymuch. And we manage to provide a lot of help around the world at the same time. So do not criticize us, please. When you’re constantly holding out your hand for gimmes, it might get smacked back at some point. A little gratitude would be appreciated.

Posted by at 09:33 AM
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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Reason 3,285,394 Why I Won’t Live In Cali

Parents of teenagers beware!

Responding to efforts around the state to protect parents’ rights, California’s top attorney has determined that schools are not required to tell parents when a student leaves school to obtain “confidential medical services,” such as an abortion.

However, pro-life groups and even school district representatives say Attorney General Bill Lockyer is misconstruing a state law.

At issue is a statute that says school districts may release students for confidential medical purposes without parental consent.

Lockyer contends the policy is a requirement that prohibits schools from obtaining parental consent before students can be released.

[...]

Earlier this year the Attorney General’s office contacted the Pacific Justice Institute to solicit their opinion on the issue. The legal foundation disagrees with Lockyer’s analysis.

PJI maintains that California law allows school districts to determine whether they will permit students to leave campus without parental permission, but school districts may choose to adopt a policy requiring it.

“Not only do we strongly disagree with Mr. Lockyer’s opinion, but we want to remind school districts that his opinion is in no way legally binding on any school district,” said Brad Dacus, PJI’s President.

“In fact, we pledge to defend in court any school district with a policy requiring parental consent or prior notice before their child is allowed to leave campus,” Dacus said.

First, as long a child is a minor, then the parents have total control over their kids. That is the law and it trumps any school policy, imho.

Second, schools have a responsibility to inform parents whenever their children leave the campus. Parents have put their children into the care of the school temporarily each day, but the parent is still the final authority of the child’s welfare.

Third, it’s ridiculous that school nurses are unable to administer Tylenol or apirin without a parent’s consent. But to deliver these same kids to a clinic for a surgical procedure without notifying parents is somehow OK? No, not really.

What’s encouraging is that many school districts are ignoring the directive of the Attorney General in California and notifying parents anyway. It’s good to know that there’s a little common sense and decency at work here.

Posted by at 04:29 PM
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Americans Stingy or Generous. Discuss.

Some idiot at the NYT thinks we are stingy.

President Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly about the devastation of Sunday’s tsunamis in Asia. He also hurried to put as much distance as possible between himself and America’s initial measly aid offer of $15 million, and he took issue with an earlier statement by the United Nations’ emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations “stingy.” “The person who made that statement was very misguided and ill informed,” the president said.

We beg to differ. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world’s poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world’s richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That’s less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.

The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35 million, and we applaud Mr. Bush’s turnaround. But $35 million remains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid. According to a poll, most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent.

By the way, that’s President Bush, not Mister. And your information is not quite correct. That $35M pledged is just the beginning of aid our government will provide for years to come. For have no doubt that the United States will be involved in the rebuilding efforts in those poor and needy nations long after this initial rush to assist. It’s what we do.

Meanwhile, the WaPo reports that Americans are giving generously, mainly via the internet.

Faced with searing images of suffering and grief in South Asia, Americans are finding an instantaneous way to reach out to tsunami victims: on their home computers.

[...]

At Amazon.com alone, more than 53,000 people had donated more than $3 million by yesterday evening after the company made an urgent appeal on its home page. Catholic Relief Services was so overwhelmed with Web traffic that its site crashed. Online donations to the Red Cross outstripped traditional phone banks by more than 2 to 1.

Hmmm. Methinks that Americans are generous, except when it comes to tax dollars our government has already taken from our wallets. I think that most of us believe that the money we give directly to charities and organizations whose mission is exactly this kind of aid is put to better use than any money our government will provide. More practical is for our government to offer other resources than cash. But what do I know?

[via otb]

Posted by at 02:52 PM
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Topping Six Figures and Growing

As of this writing, the death count resulting from Sunday’s tsumanis is over 100,000. There are about a half million reported as injured and countless more still missing, including up to 3000 Americans. This before disease begins to take its toll as well. This is a disaster beyond fathoming.

I tried to put it into perspective yesterday. I lived in Manchester, NH, where the population in 2000 was calculated to be 107,006 for the City of Manchester. Add the surrounding communities that also count as Manchester and the figure was 198,378. I lived within the city limits, technically.

I have a hard time imagining a whole city population gone in the blink of an eye (or the crash of a wave, as it were). Yet that is essentially what happened on Sunday morning for the unfortunate souls in southeast Asia. Dear Lord, help them. Help us to help them more effectively.

Posted by at 12:49 PM
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HIV = AIDS?

Dean Esmay has a thought-provoking, skeptical post about the correlation between HIV and AIDS. He asks questions that I’ve had about both diseases, especially as we have had some HIV+ folks live for 20 years with no apparent symptoms of AIDS and having never taken AZT.

Posted by at 12:37 PM
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Wednesday, December 29, 2004

TAR6 Leg 7 Quiz Up

Because of the TAR6 clip show last night, there was no quiz. I’ve emailed/posted the next quiz.

A couple notes from the clip show:

1. Jonathan is such an idiot in addition to being a class-A jerk. I’ve never seen anyone so completely self-centered outside of infants, who don’t know any better. Even toddlers are more aware of others than this guy. Oy!

2. Adam is such an idiot in addition to being a girly-man. And I’m not using that phrase to be funny, although it is funny in a sad way. Fortunately Rebecca seems to have been hit by the clue bat and is realizing the error of her romantic ways where he’s concerned.

3. I love Kris and Jon. They are the best Racers ever, not so much because they’re killing the others teams in the competitions, but because of their attitudes toward each other and the Race in general. They are so fun to watch - I’m hoping that we’ll actually get to see more of them as other teams are Philiminated. Yes, I think they’ll be in the top 3-4.

I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, when things pick up from where they left off before Christmas.

Posted by at 04:43 PM
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Death of a Candalabra

Actor Jerry Orbach has died. He was best known as Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order, but he was also the voice of Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast.

He will be missed.

Posted by at 03:05 PM
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Slow Loading

I don’t know what is causing my page to load so slowly these days. I thought maybe it was a script that I added around Thanksgiving, but I removed it and it’s still loading slowly.

Anyone have any ideas?

Posted by at 02:21 PM
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Closing Out Early

So I’ve been planning to close the December books today, which is a day early. I mentioned that to my boss last week before he left for his long vacation - we talked about a few issues and that was that.

This morning I checked my voice mail to find a frantic call from my boss - apparently we were supposed to close out yesterday. But because I’m not officially the finance officer, just the acting finance officer, I’m not on the email list and I never got that word. Nice.

So instead of a leisurely close out today, I need to have it done yesterday. Not nice.

The one thing that has always driven me completely nuts about my bosses is the lack of communication. This one is usually better, but he forgets to tell me stuff or forward emails all the time still. It’s maddening to have to pick up the pieces when he “forgets.”

LATER: I finished close-out about an hour ago and the reports were printing when my printer just stopped. Turns out the black toner was empty. The good news is that the toner lasted a year. The bad news is that we didn’t have a replacement cartridge. So I just got back from Staples where I purchased two toner carts. Upon replacement of the toner, the printer cranked up and printed a beautiful test page. But alas, my reports were eliminated from the print queue and I am unable to reprint them until tomorrow because close out locks us out of the system for a day. *sigh*

Posted by at 12:20 PM
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Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Lemony Snicket

I, along with the Cooties, went to see Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events this afternoon. We all agreed that it was very good, but we thought Finding Neverland was better. Of course, you can’t really compare these movies with each other because they’re very different unless you consider that children and fantasy are featured prominently. Oh, and Dustin Hoffman makes an appearance in both.

I’m intrigued enough that I’m considering reading the books upon which the movie is based. The tale was clever and well told. The cast of characters were entertaining - Jim Carrey was very good as his character - he was sinister and campy without being completely over the top (read: annoying). This was no Ace Ventura performance. And the children were lovable protagonists (I especially liked Klaus, played by Liam Aiken, whom I remembered as the young son in Stepmom and also from Road to Perdition).

The visuals were as dazzling as they were in Neverland, although much darker - a child’s imaginary world with exaggerated scenery more from bad dreams and reality than the fantasy we remember fondly. I liked the juxtaposition of older seeming things (like the clothes and manner of speech) to modern things (like the techie gadgets and slang). It had an old world feel, but the inclusion of the modern made it interesting.

I can recommend this movie, but with reservations for younger kids who might find the sinister tone a little scary. This one gets 3 out of 5 stars.

Posted by at 11:48 PM
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Lemon-Mustard Chicken

The Cooties came to my home for dinner last night, bringing only CootieBoy with them. CootieGirl was left for some concentrated Marmie & Pop time. My sister is a somewhat finicky eater, although not as bad as she used to be before she married an excellent cook. Love for her husband has made her a little more food adventurous.

Anyway, I made my no-fail lemon-mustard chicken with couscous and broccoli & cauliflower. I forgot to write down the recipe for the chicken for Denis, so I thought I’d post it here for him (and you).

Lemon-Mustard Chicken
serves 4-6

6 skinless/boneless chicken breasts and/or thighs
1/4 cup melted butter
3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1-2 tsp dried tarragon
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the chicken in a large casserole or baking dish and season with salt and pepper. Mix the butter, mustard, lemon juice, and tarragon in a small bowl until well blended. Spoon the sauce over the chicken breasts liberally. Bake for 45 minutes (or until the chicken is cooked through), basting the chicken with the sauce periodically.

I serve it with rice or couscous and a veggie with crusty rolls. It’s definitely no fail; all who have eaten it have loved it. It can sit in the oven for longer (at a reduced heat) if it needs to - the sauce and juices from the chicken keep it moist, just cover it with foil to keep the tops of the chicken from over-baking. Posted by at 01:11 PM
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Tsunami Aftermath

I haven’t known what to say about the devastation in southeast Asia from the tsunami that hit that area on Sunday. There are no words to express my horror at the loss of life that is still being counted. It may be months before we know the full magnitude of the losses. As of this writing, the death toll is 40,000.

40,000 men, women, and children who were swept to their deaths by the ocean. Thinkling Shrode made the comparison to the 3000 who died on 9/11; his point being that there is no comparison, really. Although I’m thinking that there are several thousand American families who can relate better than any of us to what the families in Asia, Europe, and here are struggling with now - the fear, the uncertainty, the grief. That there are millions of people now in the struggle to merely survive the aftermath is truly incomprehensible.

For all who have been impacted by this event, my prayers are lifted for you.

LATER: To read more about the relief efforts and learn how to provide help, see the The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog.

Posted by at 01:01 PM
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Finding Neverland

We went to see Finding Neverland this afternoon. After The Passion of the Christ this is my favorite movie of 2004.

The story of J.M. Barrie’s friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan.

That’s the gist of the story, but the movie is so much more than a mere biography.

First, Johnny Depp is wonderful as the Scottish Barrie. His brogue was consistent and good. He’s a very good character actor - his range is so good. To go from something like Captain Jack Sparrow, which is pure camp, to James Barrie, who is whimsical yet deep, shows great talent as an actor. I can’t remember if he got nominated for a Golden Globe for this role or not, but he should have been.

Second, the children are adorable, especially little Peter. His big blue eyes just sucked me in. Kate Winslet as the kids’ mother is very good, but I’ve always liked her.

Third, the cinematography and editing were lovely. The way they cut the scenes between reality and fantasy was very effective. I felt that I was in Neverland in those scenes. If that was how Barrie truly imagined his Neverland world to be, I would have wanted to live there as well.

I highly recommend this movie to all. It’s not one that kids will enjoy, mostly because it’s not Peter Pan itself. There was a toddler in our showing that was not very happy - parental research was badly needed there. But it’s “safe” for kids in the sense that there isn’t any profanity, no violence, and no sexuality; it’s just written more for adults. That said, I think there’s enough of the visuals of the fantasy worlds to keep the interest of younger kids.

I give this one 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted by at 12:32 AM
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Monday, December 27, 2004

Must. Watch. The. 3rd. Precioussssss

I’m listening to the ROTK soundtrack here in my office and I really, really want to go home and watch the extended DVD right now.

I am leaving in a few minutes to go home and do a little cleaning and prepping before the Cooties come over for dinner at my new home. I don’t know how long they’ll hang, but maybe we can watch a movie, too, although I doubt it’ll be ROTK. Denis is sort of anti.

Posted by at 03:53 PM
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Wow, What a Weekend!

Christmas was great and I made the conscious decision to be blog-free, although I had meant to post something on Christmas day. I just never got to it. I hope ya’ll had a wonderful Christmas weekend.

I spent the weekend at my parents’ house. I headed over there on Friday afternoon where we had an early dinner and then went to the last Christmas Eve service at our new church, which was wonderful. They opened the service with a very cool video that I can’t really describe (it won’t convey). We sang Christmas carols and then the message was preceded by another video - this one was a “man on the street” interview kind where folks who were out Christmas shopping were asked to tell the true Christmas story. Man, was that sad and hilarious all at once. So many of the folks didn’t even mention the birth of Jesus - one started to recite “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” two thought they were being asked about A Christmas Story. There was one, though, who captured the true meaning of Christmas beautifully - he explained about God’s love for mankind and how His son was born to pay the penalty for man’s sin. It was the perfect Gospel message. What made it even more special was that this guy was a dead ringer for Santa Claus, with a white beard, glasses, and a festive red sweater. He even wore the hat! The video closed with a shot of “Santa” walking away from the interviewer and as he moved into a wider shot, we saw that he was wearing khaki shorts with that red sweater - very amusing.

Christmas morning was pure joy - we adults watched CootieGirl open all of her presents before we even thought of opening our own. Her enthusiasm for each gift was fun to watch - and there was equal enthusiasm for all gifts. She got several puzzles and a cleaning set. Mom and Dad trumped my cleaning set (broom, mop, etc) with a child-sized Dirt Devil™ vacuum that makes authentic sounds. When Dad was vacuuming later that afternoon, she followed him with her own - so cute.

The cutest moment from CootieGirl (there were many) was during brunch on Christmas Day - we have a tradition of holding hands when we say the blessing before we eat. At some point after we had already started eating, she held out her hands to be held and bowed her head. So we prayed again and all said “Amen!” together, to which she said, “May-men!” and clapped. She did that several times during the other meals we ate together, too. Needless to say, our meals were well blessed.

Now on to the loot! I got some cool things. The best was the mini-frig for my home in the basement - now I don’t have to trudge upstairs to refill my Vanilla Diet Coke! I also got the ROTK: EE DVD as well as the soundtrack for that movie. I started to watch the extras yesterday and there’s some very cool stuff there - just the opening background info about Tolkien was fun. I loved that they talked about his faith and the influence of it in his writings. Also the information about his love for his wife made me teary.

I also got Seabiscuit and The Passion of the Christ DVDs and the soundtrack to The Passion..., too.

The tradition of odd dolls continued this year with the talking George W. Bush doll from my brother-in-law. The challenge is on for me to find something equally fun for him in 2005. I also got a page-a-day calendar of Bushisms - the good ones will get posted at the blog and there are many good ones.

Oh my! There’s a Turkey Dinner George W. Bush doll! Too funny.

I ended up spending Saturday night over there as well because we were all exhausted by the time the festivities ended in the evening. We went to church yesterday morning and then I headed home where I crashed in my cushy chair and watched the Redskins lose to Dallas in the closing seconds of the game. *sigh*

On a sad note, I got word yesterday that one of our deputies and his wife were killed in a car accident on the 23rd. He was due to retire on January 3rd. Please pray for their family - I can’t imagine the grief of losing family just days before Christmas and having to deal with the details of two funerals at this time of year.

Posted by at 12:17 PM
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