Archive | May 2008

Celebrate the Day: May 31

May30

Anniversary of the Johnstown Flood.

Birthday of poet Walt Whitman:

THERE was a child went forth every day;
And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became;
And that object became part of him for the day, or a certain part of the day, or for many years, or stretching cycles of years.

The early lilacs became part of this child,
And grass, and white and red morning-glories, and white and red clover, and the song of the phoebe-bird,
And the Third-month lambs, and the sow’s pink-faint litter, and the mare’s foal, and the cow’s calf,
And the noisy brood of the barn-yard, or by the mire of the pond-side,
And the fish suspending themselves so curiously below there and the beautiful curious liquid,
And the water-plants with their graceful flat heads–all became part of him.

The field-sprouts of Fourth-month and Fifth-month became part of him;
Winter-grain sprouts, and those of the light-yellow corn, and the esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover’d with blossoms, and the fruit afterward, and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road;
And the old drunkard staggering home from the out-house of the tavern, whence he had lately risen,
And the school-mistress that pass’d on her way to the school,
And the friendly boys that pass’d and the quarrelsome boys,
And the tidy and fresh-cheek’d girls–and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
And all the changes of city and country, wherever he went.

His own parents,
He that had father’d him, and she that had conceiv’d him in her womb, and birth’d him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that;
They gave him afterward every day–they became part of him.

Read the rest of the poem.

Celebrate The Day: May 30th

May30

The Semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee air live on ESPN from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET. The Championship Finals air live on ABC May 30 between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. ET.

Today is the Feast Day of St. Joan of Arc.

It’s also the birthdate of authors Cornelia Otis Skinner (b.1901) and Julian Symonds (b.1912.).

LOST: Live Updates

May29

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I wrote a birthday post about Jeremy Bentham and his utilitarianism here. Little did I know that he would show up in a coffin on LOST.

It’s nice to see Walt again. My, that boy’s grown.

So Jeremy Bentham is really . . . who? And Hurley’s playing chess with Eko. Cool!

Sun’s going to work with Widmore? Not cool.

“Whoever moves the island can never come back.”

I think Ben is Jeremy Bentham.

And Sawyer and Juliette are going to console one another?

Sayid wants to take Hurley someplace “safe.” I’m not buying if I’m Hurley. Even though I still like Sayid.

So what’s going to happen to Frank Lapidus and to Desmond and Penny. I’m theorizing that Penny and Desmond are in hiding. Where’s Frank?

“All of you have to go back.”

So Ben isn’t in the coffin. Then who? Oh . . .

Added on Friday after a bad night’s sleep and further reflection:

Everybody’s wondering about Claire. If Charlie had to die so that Claire could get on the helicopter, why wasn’t Claire on the helicopter? And why is she so adamant that Kate NOT take Aaron back to the island?

I looked up a little more about Jeremy Bentham:

Bentham dismissed all notions of “natural rights” or “social contracts” as enshrined in Blackstone’s Commentaries and political documents such as the 1776 American Declaration of Independence and the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man. He also dismissed all “ipsedixitisms”, i.e. moral judgments based on criteria such as “sympathy” or “intentions”. For Bentham, only consequences mattered. Actions are to be judged strictly on the basis of how their outcomes affect general utility.

And philosopher John Locke:

Locke exercised a profound influence on philosophy and politics, in particular on liberalism. Most modern libertarians claim him as an influence. He was a strong influence on Voltaire, while his arguments concerning liberty and the social contract later influenced the written works of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and other Founding Fathers of the United States. In addition, Locke’s views influenced the American and French Revolutions.

So is Locke/Bentham dealing with some kind of split personality? Was he a freedom-loving, natural law believing, liberal when he got to the island? And now has he become, or disguised himself as, a utilitarian whose only concern is the “greatest good for the greatest number”? These two namesake philosophers were diametrically opposed to one another in their ideas, as far as I can tell. What that says about John Jeremy, I’m not sure. But I hope he stays dead. Have you noticed that everyone was sad when Charlie the selfish drug addict child endangerer died last season? And I read of people crying their eyes out when Jin the Korean mafia hit man died on the boat. But the death of Locke, who in pre-island life was a fairly good guy, mostly a victim, provokes no grief in anyone on the show or in the audience. Why not? I think it’s because he was always a self-righteous pain who, even when he made mistakes, thought his failures were better than everyone else’s best decisions, especially Jack’s.

Which reminds me. Locke tells Jack he will have to lie when he leaves the island. Jack comes to believe that he and the others of the Oceanic Six must lie to protect the people left on the island. But what was that dig about Jack lying to himself so well? About what? About miracles? O.K., so Jack’s not willing to admit that the island works miracles, but he surely knows about the healing that has taken place. So, how is lying to himself about the existence of miracles supposed to help Jack lie to the world about where they’ve been?

Where is Sayid taking Hurley? To Ben? Is Ben still working his plan, the Man Behind the Curtain, in all of this?

There’s no place like home. Where is home for the LOST survivors? For the Oceanic Six? Except for Kate who’s found one and Aaron who’s with her, all four of the others seem to have lost their homes. Sayid’s a wandering assassin. Jack’s living in a trashed apartment, strung out on drugs, and trying to crash again. Sun’s looking for revenge or justice or something instead of mothering her child. Do they all need to go “home” to the island? And Richard’s words to Locke when he came to the Others Group were, “Welcome home.” Is Locke’s home on the island, leading the Others? If so, then, why does he leave to become Jeremy Bentham?

What’s up with Charlotte S. Lewis? And my new favorite, Mr. Daniel Faraday? And Miles? Could Charlotte have been born on the island? Is Miles a creep, or just sort of creepy because he hears dead people? Of course, half the people have seen or heard from dead people, so Miles is in good company. Did the little boat get taken away with the island? I sure hope so. Faraday and Charlotte are obviously a couple, or at least could be.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to make us wait for more developments until next January. People have short attention spans.

Celebrate the Day: May 29th

May29

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Today is the birthday of G.K. Chesterton (b.1874), U.S. president John F. Kennedy (b.1917), Virginia patriot Patrick Henry (b.1736), and authors Andrew Clements (b.1949), Brock Cole (b. 1938), T.H. White (b.1906), Max Brand (b.1892).

Andrew Clements is a prolific author of middle grade fiction and a former school teacher. You can read fifth grader Karate Kid’s review of No Talking by Andrew Clements here. Karate Kid and Betsy-Bee are both reading Frindle by the same author this summer.
Andrew Clements’s website.

Brock Cole is a writer of young adult novels and an illustrator and author of children’s fiction and picture books. Several of the picture books are derived from classic folk tales, such as The King at the Door (out of print, unfortunately), in which a ragged old beggar at the village inn says that he is really the king, but no one believes him except for a servant. My pastor used this story as a sermon illustration one time, and it worked quite well. Picture books should be used in sermons more often, imho.

Terence Hanbury White is most famous for his Arthurian novel, The Once and Future King. The first part of this novel, called The Sword in the Stone, was Disney-fied into an animated movie, and the latter parts were the basis for the Broadway and the movie musicalCamelot. Camelot, the movie, is on my list of 107 Best Movies Ever. But I still refuse to link Camelot with the Kennedys, even if Mr. White and JFK were born on the same day of the year.

More May Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays

Booklists, Yet Again

May28

The Telegraph lists their 110 Best Books: The Perfect Library.

I’m a sucker for booklists.

Josh Sowin at Fire and Knowledge links to his own list of favorites in the following categories: Literature, Reading/Literary Criticism, Biography and Autobiograpy, Cultural Studies, Art and Aesthetics, Food and Agriculture, Science and History, Economics, Finances, Writing, Education, Humor and Satire, Marketing, Web Design, Music, and Other. I’m impressed that he’s actually read good (recommended) books in all these categories. I’m a little weak on the marketing, food and agriculture, and web design myself.

The Telegraph also lists 50 “Cult Books”. I remember jumping on a few of these bandwagons: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Dune by Frank Herbert . . . Ahhh, yes, those were the days, my friend.

What is a cult book? We tried and failed to arrive at a definition: books often found in the pockets of murderers; books that you take very seriously when you are 17; books whose readers can be identified to all with the formula “ whacko”; books our children just won’t get…

Three manly guys make a list of The Essential Man’s Library: 100 Must-Read Books. Far be it from me, being of the female persuasion, to even comment on their list, except to say that it looks like a good start on a library for persons of either gender.

Have you seen any good booklists lately?

Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi

May26

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi.

Recommended by Laura at Musings: “In 1972, Moroccan defense minister General Mohamed Oufkir staged a failed coup d’etat against King Hassan II. Oufkir was reported to have committed suicide, but was found with five bullet wounds. In retaliation for the coup, his entire family was imprisoned: Oufkir’s wife, Fatima, and his children Malika, Raouf, Soukaina, Maria, Myriam, and Abdellatif. A cousin, Achoura, and a close family friend, Halima, joined them. Malika Oufkir was 17 years old; her brother Abdellatif was only 3.”

This nonfiction account of a family kept in cruel and unusual confinement in the desert of Morocco reminded me of nothing so much as Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Oufkir family were so badly treated and so cut off from the world for so very long that they, like the fictional Dr. Manette, were impaired in body, mind and soul when they were finally freed from the prisons of King Hassan II.

Malika Oufkir’s story is that of the spoiled rich girl brought low by injustice and subsequently redeemed through suffering and finally freed to appreciate a new life and love. It’s a classic plot, and the fact that it’s a true story, as trustworthy as memoirs can be these days, makes it all the more compelling. Some parts of the story are difficult to believe: Malika says that as a nineteen year old, educated and well-travelled, she had no idea that her father was a murderer and a tyrant. Perhaps not, but then again, maybe she chose her own blind spots. She also describes scenes of treatment so horrendous during the twenty years of her imprisonment that I would choose to disbelieve her testimony if I could, not wanting to believe that man can be so cruel to his fellowman. Western law embodies the principle that no person’s family should be punished for that person’s crimes. Malika, her mother, and her five brothers and sisters are cruelly punished for the crimes of Malika’s father, a fate that Ms. Oufkir says was not uncommon in Morocco under Hassan II.

An amazing story human resilience and courage. Read it and weep.

When Men Become Gods by Stephen Singular

May25

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and The Women Who Fought Back by Stephen Singular.

If ever a book were “overtaken by events” this expose by Stephen Singular was overtaken and made both relevant, as background to the raid last month at the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and irrelevant, as those who were interested learned more about the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints than anyone needed to know and more even than Mr. Singular, after a year of research, knew when he wrote his book. In fact, although the book gives the reader a lot of information on the history of the FLDS, it’s obvious that very little, if any, of Mr. Singular’s information came from actual, current FLDS members. Probably that’s not his fault, since I’m sure they refused to speak to him. Still, he had to get his information from law enforcement officers, social workers, and disgruntled ex-members. None of those groups could be expected to give an unbiased report on the FLDS, and they don’t. Mr. Singular’s picture of life inside the FLDS is unrelentingly negative. Reading about it feels like reading about life under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

However, the difference between Afghanistan and Short Creek is night and day. It truly is possible to leave the FLDS; many men and women and teenagers have done so. Although “prophet” Warren Jeffs probably is a power-hungry cult leader with sadistic tendencies, no one is forced by law to obey him or even listen to his dictates. Mr. Singular writes about girls and women “forced into marriage” and about men who “lost their families” when Mr. Jeffs excommunicated them from the FLDS. However, no adult woman had to marry anyone, and those families chose to disown their excommunicated loved ones. Many of the situations Mr. Singular describes constitute a tragedy, to be sure, but the participants in those tragedies for the most part chose to obey Mr. Jeffs as consenting adults. The crime for which Mr. Jeffs is now in prison, participation in the forced marriage of a fourteen year girl, is an exception to that rule of adult willingness to obey Warren Jeffs, and Mr. Jeffs is rightly serving time for his disregard for the wishes of the (minor) girl involved.

There are lots of allegations of child abuse and spiritual abuse and under-age marriage and polygamy in this book, but Mr. Singular never explains why, if these crimes were being committed, no one was ever charged or prosecuted. He implies that this lack of prosecution is due to a lack of willing witnesses, a common problem in cases of spousal abuse and child abuse. Nevertheless, anyone can write a book and allege all sorts of crimes, but unless some proof is offered that will pass the standards required in a court, the accused are considered innocent in the eyes of the law.

Because Elissa Walls was willing to testify against Warren Jeffs, he is in prison. Because the Texas DFPS had no solid evidence to back up their allegations of physical and sexual abuse at YFZ Ranch, the FLDS children should be returning to their parents very soon. (I hope.) And that’s all as it should be.

When Men Become Gods was published “sooner than planned” according to Mr. Singular’s website “because of recent events.” The book has no index, maybe because of its rushed publication, a serious drawback since I wanted to give a few specifics here but I was unable to find some of the incidents and events I wanted to discuss. It’s also NOT about YFZ Ranch, but rather centers on the FLDS community at Short Creek on the Urah/Arizona border and on the rise and fall of leader and prophet Warren Jeffs. It’s a fascinating read, and it’s obvious that Mr. Singular and Texas law enforcement and CPS officials were getting their information about FLDS beliefs and practices and crimes from many of the same sources.

If you would like more information about the raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado and subsequent events, check out the coverage at The Common Room or at Grits for Breakfast. Either blogger has much more, and more accurate, information posted on this CPS power grab than can be found anywhere in the mainstream media.

Friday’s Center of the Blogosphere

May23

May is Get Caught Reading Month. Doesn’t he (yes, it’s a boy) look as if he’s excited about his reading choices?

Et Tu? on God and the tow truck driver: “Eventually I realized that what it means to accept I am part of God’s story is to ask in every moment not ‘What is God trying to tell me with this situation?’ but rather, ‘How can I better know, love and serve God through this situation?’ It is to stop reading tea leaves to see what God thinks of all my great, important plans and to realize that my plans are neither great nor important in the grand scheme of things.”

Alan Noble at Christ and Pop Culture has a brilliant discussion of Aslan as presented in the movie version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe versus C.S. Lewis’s Aslan: “For Lewis, this experience was central to any Biblical understanding of God, and so when he created Aslan as a Christ-figure, it was fitting that he should have the other characters of his books respond with awe-ful fear to Aslan. He was the God of Narnia, and just like the God of this world, any real encounter with him is bound to be marked by reverent fear and wonder. In the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the numinous quality of Aslan’s character all but disappears, and with it Lewis’ conception of God.”
I think Mr. Noble is absolutely right, but the contrast may have been unavoidable, given the limitations of the film medium. How can anyone portray a truly God-like lion using costumes, actors, and video technology? In this instance, words and the imagination are much better tools.

If you like words, you’ll enjoy this essay by Joseph Bottom from The Weekly Standard: “Thwart. Yes, thwart is a good word. Thwarted. Athwart. A kind of satisfaction lives in such words–a unity, a completion. Teach them to a child, and you’ll see what I mean: skirt, scalp, drab, buckle, sneaker, twist, jumble. Squeamish, for that matter. They taste good in the mouth, and they seem to resound with their own verbal truthfulness.”

A husband, father, deacon and grad student confesses: he loves chick flicks: “Sure they’re often shallow and clichéd, but these stories always center on people who go out of their way to make each other feel special and loved, and I for one can never be reminded of that too often.”

A Ray of Sanity and a Troubling Future

May22

Via The Headmistress, Zookeeper at The Common Room:

AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) — The Third Court of Appeals has ruled that Child Protective Services did not have the right to remove children from the Yearning for Zion ranch last month.

The ruling comes as a result of a document filed by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid last month. The TRLA is the largest provider of legal aid in Texas, on behalf of 48 FLDS mothers that TRLA is representing in their child custody cases.

I’ve been following the case of the FLDS families whose children, as far as I’m concerned, were kidnapped by the State of Texas and DFPS. Thanks, Headmistress, for keeping me and many other concerned citizens updated on what’s happening with the child custody cases for these families.

In addition to being concerned about the 400+ children of the FLDS families who were forcibly removed from their homes and then separated from their fathers, then mothers, then siblings, and transported all across the state of Texas to children’s homes that were admittedly unprepared to care for them, I’ve been quite concerned about the future ramifications of this raid and power grab by CPS. When analyzing court decisions and law enforcement actions, some people are quite fond of talking about how this or that decision can have a “chilling effect” on the free exercise of some right or privilege, i.e. the arrest and prosecution of child pornographers might have a chilling effect on the exercise of free speech.

Well, I think the Yearning For Zion Raid and Kidnapping of 2008 will have a chilling effect on a lot of things that we as free citizens might not want to have chilled. First of all, the leadership of the FLDS was already somewhat anti-government and privacy-obsessed, having already experienced a similar raid and prosecution in the 1950’s in their community along the Arizona/Utah border. The entire community, Short Creek, was taken into custody, including 236 children. Most of the parents were released when no case of having committed any crime could be made against them, and most of the children were returned . . two years later. (Read more here.) Anyway, FLDS leaders and educators have kept the memory of the Short Creek Raid alive and have basically warned the FLDS flock that the same thing was likely to happen again, that they could expect persecution for their faith. Now, they’ve been confirmed in their image of themselves as a persecuted faithful minority, and they will be much less likely to talk to outsiders, ask for help in coming out of the group, or do or say anything that might be construed to be in any way questioning of FLDS doctrine or teaching. As the Headmistress says, “Imagine somebody is abused and would like to ask for help. Having seen how CPS has acted on the basis of one lying phone call from somebody who doesn’t even know the community, chances are good that some victims of abuse will decide the slash and burn response of CPS and the attempted destruction of their entire community is not worth it, and they will sacrifice themselves on the altar and keep quiet for the sake of their friends and neighbors.”

However, it’s not only the FLDS who are being “chilled.” In the past ten years I have seen and talked to several families who decided not to take a child to the doctor for a minor injury because they were afraid that the doctor would question them about how the injury took place and then report them to CPS. They had valid fears even though none of them had done anything wrong. I have also seen CPS workers abuse the mother of a child who drowned in a tragic backyard swimming pool accident by telling her that she must be an unfit mother and asking her repeatedly if she ever drank alcohol to excess or took drugs because she was so tired from parenting all those children, implying that she was drunk or drugged when her child drowned. I am close to two other cases in which CPS took the word of a disgruntled informant and almost removed children from loving, non-abusive homes where there was absolutely no evidence of physical abuse. The parents in both of those cases had to take parenting classes and become CPS yes-men in order to keep their children in their own homes.

I am saying that this case, in which there may have been a minority of people participating in illegal acts (sex with a minor), will have a chilling effect on the investigation of all possible child abuse cases and will have a chilling effect on law-abiding parents who want to seek medical care for their children. I am hesitant to take my child to a doctor I don’t know for an emergency in which the injury might be misconstrued as child abuse and in which there were no witnesses aside from immediate family. If my child really needed medical care and our family doctor who knows us was unavailable, I would swallow my fears and go in prayer. However, if the decision was borderline/iffy . . .

THe Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has made a mess of this entire situation, and the sooner the children are returned to their homes, the better. Maybe, in another fifty years parents and children in Texas will forget to be afraid of DFPS and look to them to protect children and families. I doubt the FLDS children will ever forget April, 2008.

Lobelisms

May22

Today, May 22, is the birthday of author and illustrator Arnold Lobel. He wrote the Frog and Toad books and the Mouse books and Owl at Home and many others. Perhaps you don’t use Lobelisms in your home, but we certainly do.

“Let us eat one very last cookie and then we will stop.”

“Will power is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do.”

“We have lots and lots of will power.
You may keep it all, Frog. I am going home now to bake a cake.”

“What will I do without my list? Running after my list is not one of the things that I wrote on my list of things to do!”

“Tonight I will make tear-water tea.”

“The whole world is covered with buttons, and NOT ONE OF THEM IS MINE!” (Substitute any lost item for “button” and you have the problem with the universe in a nutshell.)

“Winter may be beautiful, but bed is much better.”

“I am laughing at you, Toad,” said Frog, “because you do look funny in your bathing suit.” “Of course I do,” said Toad. Then he picked up his clothes and went home.

Writer 2b celebrates Arnold Lobel.

More May Celebrations, Links, and Birthdays.