10:51PM - Happy Patriotism Day

True Patriotism: An Independence Day Reflection
Posted July 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Guest Post by Morbo

Some of the sharpest differences between liberals and conservatives relate to patriotism.

Conservatives believe it’s easy to be a patriot; liberals know why it’s sometimes hard. It’s not hard because America is a bad place or because it’s not easy to love one’s country. It’s hard because being a true patriot means we must elevate reason over base emotions, tamp down our worst impulses and always remember that our Constitution is more than mere words on paper.

Conservatives believe all a patriot has to do is wear a flag lapel pin or fly a flag outside. Liberals understand that manipulating a symbol is not the end of patriotism; it’s just the beginning. The hard part is what comes next: honoring and living up to the promises behind the symbol.

As Independence Day approached, I got to thinking about what it means to be a true patriot. I came up with this list. It is by no means exhaustive but could make a good start:

Respecting the rights of others: Being a patriot means listening to those with whom one strongly disagrees and respecting their right to make an argument that may seem ill-considered, simplistic or even offensive. A true patriot seeks open debate on all issues. The true patriot isn’t afraid to speak his or her mind and often does so in impassioned language; the true patriot has strong opinions and is not afraid to defend them — but he or she never backs censorship or says some ideas are so dangerous that they cannot be aired.

Protecting the rights of the accused: Being a patriot means we extend the full protection of the law to those accused of crimes – even when it looks almost certain that they are guilty. A true patriot supports extending this protection even to those who hate our nation and have attacked it. A true patriot does not applaud the imprisonment of people without trial. A true patriot regards habeas corpus as near sacrosanct. A true patriot supports trial by jury and the right to adequate representation. He or she is appalled by vigilantism and trusts our judicial system to do its job. Torture and indefinite detention? Not on the watch of the true patriot.

There's more...

Article continues at The Carpetbagger Report here: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16095.html#more-16095

1:20AM - Trip #78: Bedrock City, Arizona - December 1, 2007

Trip #78 - Bedrock City

South of the Grand Canyon - December 1, 2007

A brief intro and summary: If there's one thing I have discovered, it is that the UNPLANNED stops are often more interesting than the planned ones.

Returning from the Grand Canyon at sunset, about half an hour south of the national park is a crumbling little piece of Americana - Bedrock City! There were two Bedrock City theme parks built back in the early 70's, when the popularity of the cartoon was at its height (the other is in South Dakota), and this tourist trap has been hanging on for 35 years.

Although open year-round, Bedrock City was largely in 'hibernation' this time of the year, since the Grand Canyon traffic has all-but dried up. Still, I was able to pay the small admission fee and quickly walk through the park in the fading sunlight. With the first major winter storm of the season just passing through, the temperatures were right at freezing, and the wind was strong and gusty - very chilly. It was the end of the day and the sun was setting, I was the only person there (except for a few RVs in the park next door) - this is the very-off-season.

The park is a few dozen concrete buildings with a Bedrock City theme, plus a couple of basic amusement park-type attractions (like a car on a track), over a couple of acres behind the ultra-cheesy trinket store and coffee shop. And the park has definitely had better days - over the years it has started to crumble around the edges, patched and repainted multiple times. All the buildings in bright gaudy colors, the interior decorations rudimentary at best, slap-dash paint on rocks. Life-size Flintstones characters standing around the town, with voice activation (turned off for the season). For anyone who loves ultra-cheesy roadside attractions and fading tourist traps, childhood amusement parks from years past, then this place is an absolute MUST.

The Grand Canyon is great -- but Bedrock City should also be added to the must-see list for the kitsch value alone. Pictures taken December 1, 2007.

Now, on to the photos --

Click Here to go to the opening page for my Bedrock City Flickr Photoset. 50 photos total! This link will take you to the intro page, which displays all the photos as tiny little thumbnails. You can then click on set to view them in a series (one after another), or just click on any individual photo for a closer look. Zoom in for larger detail, or leave comments - I always love comments (please!). The photos are arranged sequentially, with a running commentary on the trip throughout the day. Go ahead, take a look!

Or, Click Here to view the photos as an automated slide show! Also part of Flickr -- it will automatically transfer from one photo to the next every few seconds. Click on the center of the picture (when you mouse over the photo a big "I" shows up) to also view the commentary at the same time.

And, for those of ya'll who don't want to take the time to head on over to Flickr, here's just a few of the highlights from the larger photoset:



Coming up next: More in Arizona - Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument outside of Flagstaff, then the weird yard-art of Chloride ghost town, the sad remains of Santa Claus Land, and the Mojave National Preserve.

2:10AM - Trip #77 - Grand Canyon Day Two, December 1, 2007

Trip #77 - Grand Canyon Day Two

Northern Arizona - December 1, 2007

A brief intro and summary: The second day of my trip to the Grand Canyon -- a winter storm was still passing through, which closed the northern rim for the next six months. Below freezing temps, gusting winds, and a few inches of snow made for less-than-optimal vacation travel. But as the storm blew through, most of the fog had lifted, and by the end of the day I was able to get some clear views of the canyon.

This time, I started out the day from the eastern entrance (back door), first stopping at an Indian sales stand and overlook near Little Colorado Gorge. The Little Colorado Gorge is a tributary just east of the Grand Canyon that feeds directly into the Colorado River -- sort of a preview of the main event to come. With snow falling just behind me, rain falling in front of me, and the wind blowing ice-cold droplets sideways over the thousand-foot canyon, I caught a nearly-complete double-rainbow over the canyon. Sights like that only come about once or twice in a lifetime. Absolutely bone-chilling weather, and I had the event all to myself.

Then further up the road to Grand Canyon itself at Desert View Point and The Watchtower. This is the easternmost tourist outpost in the park, and a nice warm waystop to dry out. Then brief stop Indian ruins at Tusayan Village, and a drive to the heart of Grand Canyon itself, over some snow-slick roads (there were dozens of spinouts that morning), which as still mostly deserted due to the nasty weather.

A light dusting of a few inches of snow now on the southern rim of the Grand Canyon, although by now it was mid-afternoon and starting to clear out somewhat. Yet still too cold and wet, so that I decided to pass on any serious hiking down into the canyon itself, and settle for the gobsmackingly beautiful views instead. Tromping through mud in the freezing winds is not my idea of fun, but perhaps someday I may return to give the Bright Angel Trail a try. Pictures taken December 1, 2007.

Now, on to the photos --

Click Here to go to the opening page for my Grand Canyon Day Two Flickr Photoset. 152 photos total! This link will take you to the intro page, which displays all the photos as tiny little thumbnails. You can then click on set to view them in a series (one after another), or just click on any individual photo for a closer look. Zoom in for larger detail, or leave comments - I always love comments (please!). The photos are arranged sequentially, with a running commentary on the trip throughout the day. Go ahead, take a look!

Or, Click Here to view the photos as an automated slide show! Also part of Flickr -- it will automatically transfer from one photo to the next every few seconds. Click on the center of the picture (when you mouse over the photo a big "I" shows up) to also view the commentary at the same time.

And, for those of ya'll who don't want to take the time to head on over to Flickr, here's just a few of the highlights from the larger photoset:



EDIT TO ADD: Oops, forgot to mention that I took two very short videos of the rainbow above Little Colorado Gorge:



Coming up next: Yabba-dabba-doo! It's a quick stop at the fading glory of Bedrock City, Arizona!

8:37PM - VoterMatch Quiz

Haven't done this in a while, but it's a very quick and easy quiz, so I thought I'd give it another whirl:

http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch/senate2006.asp?quiz=2008

Results:

Hillary Clinton - 48% (63% social, 38% economic)
Barack Obama - 48% (43% social, 50% economic)
Ralph Nader - 43% (50% social, 38% economic)
Brian Moore (Socialist) - 40% (50% social, 33% economic)
Gloria La Riva (Socialism and Liberation) - 40% (50% social, 33% economic)
Cynthia McKinney (Green) - 40% (44% social, 38% economic)
John McCain - 38% (44% social, 44% economic)
Bob Barr (Libertarian) - 20% (25% social, 17% economic)
Chuck Baldwin (Constitution) - 18% (19% social, 17% economic)

No surprise - I'm not a good match for *any* candidate on the issues, although I clearly lean more towards the liberal candidates rather than the conservative candidates. Then again, I've never been much of an strictly issues-based voter; I've always considered how well a candidate can think and act in a complicated situation rather than a series of black-and-white checkmarks.

10:48PM - no, no, no, No, No, No, NO, NO, NO, NO!!!!

This is so very, very wrong on so many levels:

Heelarious -- High Heels for Infants!

http://www.heelarious.com/



"Your little one will look fabulous in these soft crib shoes designed to look like high heels! Each pair of heelarious heels is packaged in a darling purse-shaped gift box, complete with a rhinestone closure. Zebra satin heel with hot pink satin lining for infants size 0-6 months."

Excuse me while I insert an ice pick into my skull.

9:20PM - Soda Pop Coke

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/16/sodapopcoke.gif
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

Interesting to see just how geographically distinct the dividing lines are. Also note the two islands of Soda around St. Louis and Milwaukee -- what's up with that. I've used Soda, and I've used Coke, but I've never called it "Pop" - that just sounds silly.

1:48AM - Trip #76: Grand Canyon Day One - November 30, 2007

Trip #76: Grand Canyon Day One

Grand Canyon Village, Arizona - November 30, 2007

A brief intro and summary: The Grand Canyon is often considered the second 'must see' destination in the United States (behind Yellowstone and ahead of Yosemite) -- however, I'm never a big fan assembly-line tourism, and the Grand Canyon gets hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. But in the off-season...it is almost deserted.

On the weekend after Thanksgiving, the Grand Canyon is getting ready to go into hibernation mode for the season. Plus, there was a major winter storm blowing through, dropping temperatures to near freezing, blustery raindrops on the south rim and a light dusting of snow on the north rim, fog and clouds everywhere. Because of the adverse weather conditions, I doubt there were more than several hundred tourists in the entire Grand Canyon that day, which was fine by me -- I got to see the park in a way very few people get to experience.

It was very easy to drive up and around everywhere, open parking in every lot, not a single line. However, the fog and the clouds were thick, so good views of the canyon were hazy and fleeting.

From the Grand Canyon Village, I took the bus shuttle up to the next stop at Trailview Overlook - maybe half a mile west along the canyon. This was not a day for hiking or exploring -- too much rain, too much wind, and quite cold. And not much to see anyway, today turned into more of a scouting expedition for the next day instead. (I figured I would return the next day to take the shuttle bus further along the canyon; little did I know that today was the final day for the shuttle bus until May, and the road would be closed to car traffic due to snow later on. Oh well.) A quick walk back through the nasty weather to Grand Canyon Village to do some shopping for souvenirs.

One thing I found while walking through the near-deserted touristy areas was an old building, just off the rail line in the center of the 'town', near the stables and away from most of the shops. It looks like it was used for some sort of maintenance and storage -- but it also had some really interesting windows and doors -- all broken and mismatched and crumbling.

From here I drove eastward along the road the follows the rim, to catch a few views of the canyon itself before it turned dark. There are several places to stop and park, and by now the weather had lightened up somewhat, with less fog and more dark, heavy stormclouds instead. Colder, blustery weather, but some more opportunities to actually see the colorful canyon below. From here I continued eastward out of the national park as the sunlight faded. But never fear -- I planned to come back anew the next day for a full day of exploration. Pictures taken November 30, 2007.

Now, on to the photos --

Click Here to go to the opening page for my Grand Canyon Day One Flickr Photoset. 60 photos total! This link will take you to the intro page, which displays all the photos as tiny little thumbnails. You can then click on set to view them in a series (one after another), or just click on any individual photo for a closer look. Zoom in for larger detail, or leave comments - I always love comments (please!). The photos are arranged sequentially, with a running commentary on the trip throughout the day. Go ahead, take a look!

,a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthigh/sets/72157604219781408/show/">Or, Click Here to view the photos as an automated slide show!</a> Also part of Flickr -- it will automatically transfer from one photo to the next every few seconds. Click on the center of the picture (when you mouse over the photo a big "I" shows up) to also view the commentary at the same time.

And, for those of ya'll who don't want to take the time to head on over to Flickr, here's just a few of the highlights from the larger photoset:



Plus a short 30-second video clip of some clouds and fog moving through the canyon. Not very exciting, but there you go:


Anyway, sorry for the glacial pace of of these travelogue entries -- here it is in June and I'm just wrapping up the end of last November. I'll try to catch up a little bit faster, although no promises.

Coming up next: Grand Canyon Day Two. Pictures from Day One were a bit of a disappointment, but what can you expect when most of the sky is filled with clouds, eh? However, some of the pics from Day Two are downright spectacular, so stay tuned!

5:03PM - Tim Russert: 1950-2008

For any political junkie, who can forget Tim Russert, several hours into the presidential election coverage, holding up that little white dry-erase board, pointing out it's all "Florida, Florida, Florida"?



Tim Russert passed away today, collapsed while preparing for this week's taping of "Meet the Press".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25145431/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5065400&page=1

2:17PM - SDCC Update: Sold out!

Just an update for anyone who is planning on attending this year's San Diego Comic Con -- they have now officially sold out of all 4-day passes. Single-day passes are still available, but Saturday badges are expected to sell out very shortly. Oh, and there's no on-site registration, either. So if you are planning on attending, better get crackin'.

Many more details here: http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/06/13/san-diego-dreamin-dream-on/

This will be the first year in a long time that I am not attending SDCC. Seventeen years in a row, the first year it was one and a half halls in the then-smaller convention center (there was also a car show taking place under the sails, and some sort of knitting/sewing show in another hall on the same weekend); first year as just a fan, the next sixteen as exhibitor. Much more fun when it was a smaller, more intimate show - today it's just an exhausting slog.

I probably would have stopped going a few years ago, if I didn't have professional obligations to attend. Too much for this old man.

12:33PM - Graph Jam!

New website found via Andrew Sullivan's blog: Graph Jam!

http://www.graphjam.com

Like ICanHasCheezburger, it's user-submitted, but with tongue-in-cheek graphs and charts (mostly song lyric-related), like this:

7:18PM - I'm Voting Republican Because...

An excellent short video of why YOU should vote Republican:



http://www.imvotingrepublican.com

1:37AM - Piraro: A Cartoon We Can Believe In!

Going for that slacker vote:

9:40PM - For Will: It's the Buffy Academic Conference!

Saw this in the newspaper today:

AP article here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-buffy7-2008jun07,0,1085548.story

Scholars buff up on their 'Buffy'

Academic conference discusses the vampire slayer, other Joss Whedon creations.

From the Associated Press
June 7, 2008 LITTLE ROCK, Ark.



Aristotle. Nietzsche. Buffy?

The blond heroine of the campy television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," as well as other works by creator Joss Whedon, are the focus of an academic conference at Henderson State University this weekend. The show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar won cult fame and critical praise during its seven seasons on the WB and UPN networks.

Since it ended, the series has spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a 15-foot-wide bookshelf at the college in Arkadelphia, said Kevin Durand, an associate professor of philosophy.

"It has staying power," Durand said. "It's like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We're not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. 'Buffy,' I think, does that. 'Buffy' never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started."

Durand said more than 90 academic papers would be discussed. He expects about 150 people to attend and discuss the vampire slayer and Whedon's other works, including the television series "Firefly" and "Angel." Another point of discussion will be a lesser-known part of Whedon's work -- his screenplay for the hit animated film "Toy Story."

Among the papers: "Buffy and Feminism," " 'Firefly:' The Illusive Safety of Big Damn Heroes" and a Durand favorite by a British scholar, "Hero's Journey, Heroine's Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth."

"That one just sounds cool," he said.

Durand, who contributed an academic paper at each of the two previous "Buffy" conferences, often focuses on how power plays into the "Buffy" series. He said much of the heroine's strength came from others and her willingness to work with friends in her fight against creatures of the night.

7:36PM - Fly Derrie-Air!

Hey, look -- an all-new airline takes wing!!




More info here: http://flyderrie-air.com/

For more information about the airline and their splash onto the scene in Philly-area newspapers earlier today, check out:

http://www.denverpost.com/watercooler/ci_9502440

(Kinda reminds me of the "Hiney Winery" ads I remember on the radio station back in the eighties, when I was living in Colorado. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/forum/forum_comments/2215/)

5:50PM

2:45PM - Trip #75: Mission San Antonio de Padua, California - November 25, 2007

Trip #75: Mission San Antonio de Padua

Monterey County, California - November 25, 2007

A brief intro and summary: The Mission San Antonio de Padua was the third mission out of 21 that formed the backbone of the Spanish presence in California during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Founded in 1771 by Junipero Serra, right in the middle of the central coast in present-day south Monterey County, this mission thrived for several years until the secularization of the missions in the mid-1800's, when it was abandoned.

Like many of the California missions, it fell into complete disrepair, and was all-but destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. There were several attempts to restore the mission, but work began in earnest in the 1940's with a major grant from the Hearst Foundation (at the time the ruins were on Hearst's land - a mountain-range away from the mansion). Very little of the mission remained, but a very careful and accurate reconstruction was made of the main buildings. The property became part of the army's Fort Hunter-Liggett during World War Two, and the 85 acres that formed the mission proper were set aside for the mission. Because Mission San Antonio is located in the middle of military property, it has avoided encroaching civilization and commercialization, and the surrounding countryside and mountains remain the same today as the monks and friars enjoyed two hundred years ago.

I headed on down for a quick visit on the day after Thanksgiving. Although it was only an hour's drive south from Salinas, the mission is located in one of the most remote and inaccessible corners of the county. Head on down to the south end of the county by King City, turn off Highway 101 along a twisty mountain road for about 20 miles to Jolon. From here, entering the grounds of Fort Hunter-Liggett -- and every car requires a stop at the checkpoint, driver's license, registration and car insurance, and a further drive up to the base of the Santa Lucia mountains (which form the barrier between the Salinas Valley and the Pacific Ocean).

Really - it's way out in the middle of nowhere. Mission San Antonio truly is the most remote of all the missions in California -- and perhaps because of that, it's the best! Few visitors make it out this far, and fewer still willing to deal with the hassles of the military base, so the mission only gets a trickle of visitors. The reconstructed mission grounds and chapel are beautiful, the row houses forming a museum and visitor's center. Despite the remoteness, the church is still active on Sundays. Also, several monks live on the grounds, tending a small garden (with overly friendly cats, whom I'm sure are spoiled rotten!) in the courtyard and going about their monk-ly duties.

Beyond the church proper, there are also several undeveloped ruins - usually no more than lines in the ground or small stubs of eroding adobe. This includes the irrigation ditch, water wheel and mill, row houses and the like. I just wandered around a bit, looking at the religious iconography and paintings in the chapel, the door artwork and trappings, the tranquil garden.

From here, there is a 'back door' exit from the mission, heading west to the coast. It's little more than a forestry road, the only 2-wheel-drive road over the mountains between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. A very twisty mountain road with lots of switchbacks and steep grades, through the Los Padres Forest before emptying out at Highway 1, giving me enough time to just catch the Big Creek Bridge at sunset. Actually takes me far out of the way (slow driving because of the curves in the road), but interesting nonetheless. Also included in this photoset are a few photos of the James Dean Memorial I took a week later, right at sunset in the nearby mountain-pass town of Cholame (population six). James Dean died about a mile from here, in a nasty high-speed car crash at the junctions of Highways 41 and 46. Photos taken on November 25, 2007 (except for the James Dean ones).

Now, on to the photos --

Click Here to go to the opening page for my Mission San Antonio de Padua Flickr Photoset. 103 photos total! This link will take you to the intro page, which displays all the photos as tiny little thumbnails. You can then click on set to view them in a series (one after another), or just click on any individual photo for a closer look. Zoom in for larger detail, or leave comments - I always love comments (please!). The photos are arranged sequentially, with a running commentary on the trip throughout the day. Go ahead, take a look!

Or, Click Here to view the photos as an automated slide show! Also part of Flickr -- it will automatically transfer from one photo to the next every few seconds. Click on the center of the picture (when you mouse over the photo a big "I" shows up) to also view the commentary at the same time.

And, for those of ya'll who don't want to take the time to head on over to Flickr, here's just a few of the highlights from the larger photoset:



Coming up next: It's off to Arizona for the Grand Canyon! Plus the prehistoric village of Bedrock City, Anasazi ruins of Wupatki National Monument, and the dormant volcano of Sunset Crater.

10:51PM - And Yet, I Cannot Look Away!!!!

Yaknow, I don't really get off on watching celebrities spiral down the drain. In fact, I'm not much of a celebrity watcher AT ALL -- I find the whole look-look-wow-wow-hello-kiss-kiss-you're-fabulous-goodbye nonsense somewhat tedious.

And yet, some trainwrecks are so astonishing, I cannot look away.

Guess which 74 24-year-old celebrity this is:



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1023711/Amy-scrubs-Blake-court--hide-shocking-skin.html

Not shown are the scars and open, bleeding sores on her chicken arms. Not to mention the teeth that have literally fallen out of her mouth. If you ever needed a poster child on why you should NOT DO DRUGS, this is it.

Someone close to her - PLEASE - do an intervention now! This is just not funny AT ALL anymore.

EDIT TO ADD: And yet, in the middle of the darkness of meth addiction, it is possible for celebrities to turn back from the brink: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20204474,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines

10:35PM - Adventures in post office land!

For the past three years I've been selling a bunch of books through Amazon. I was interested to find out where all of my packages have gone so far this year. So, I took my shipping log from Endicia, exported it to a text file, imported it into a spreadsheet and sorted by address. Just took about half an hour of scanning through the spreadsheet to work out the stats. This year I have had 843 shipments to date; in January shipping from California, then I moved with no sales in February, picking up slowly in Texas beginning in March.

Out of those 843 shipments, I sent packages to all 50 states plus PR and DC. Also shipped to 21 countries.

Top destination (no surprise) was California with 131 packages, followed a distant second by Texas at 64 packages. Then comes New York at 48, Florida at 39, Illinois at 39, Pennsylvania at 37, Virginia at 25, Washington at 25, Massachusetts at 22, and Ohio at 21. No real shockers -- all of these are states with large populations. Rounding out the top 25 are (in order) NJ, GA, OR, MI, MO, CO, AZ, NM, MN, IN, WI, NC, ID, NV, and MD. Also there were 14 shipments to military addresses (1.7%). Five each for Hawaii and Alaska.

As far as foreign countries go, the top destination was England (9), followed by Canada (8), Australia (6) and Germany (4). Other countries include: Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. International shipments totalled 6.4% of all orders.

Anyway, just some interesting stats. At 843 orders and four months of orders, it's not really a large enough sample to be statistically significant, but interesting nonetheless. When I did this a year or two ago with a few thousand orders, I recall that international shipments were 1 in 8 orders, so that's a big drop (although my earlier stat run also included a large chunk of ebay shipments, so that could account for the difference). I may try this again in a while when I have a larger set of addresses to plow through.

2:33PM - "She Could Accept Losing; She Could Not Accept Quitting"

As they say, hindsight is 20/20 -- and now that everything over except the shouting, bloggers and commentators are ready to whip out their post-mortem analysis of the failed Clinton campaign. Here is the best one that I have seen so far, at the Washington Post by Anne Kornblut and Dan Balz:

Go, read it here! ==> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060404312.html

In a campaign of near-deaths and premature obituaries, the night of May 6 will be remembered inside Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign as the moment it really ended.

The staff had settled into the war room at the campaign's Arlington headquarters. Mexican food, as always, had been ordered. The candidate was in Indianapolis. All anticipated another good night in a campaign that had put together an impressive streak of big-state primary victories in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania over the previous two months.

But whatever slim hopes Clinton had for an improbable comeback died with the disappointing results in the last two big primaries of the campaign -- a narrower-than-hoped-for victory in Indiana and a double-digit loss in North Carolina -- and the commentary that accompanied them. When NBC's Tim Russert flatly declared the Democratic race over around midnight, one adviser recalled, "the air came out of the room."

In subsequent days, a debate that had raged throughout the long nomination battle -- whether to attack Barack Obama or present Clinton positively -- virtually disappeared. What negative ads had been run were removed. The senator from New York, save for two notable slips, stopped criticizing Obama and focused on making the case for herself. Other defeats and other victories, including a win in West Virginia by 41 points, followed.

But there was a sense of resignation within the campaign. She would carry on, but the outcome was inevitable. "She could accept losing," one adviser said. "She could not accept quitting."
....


This pretty much mirrors my observations on the matter. Remember that Obama was not my first choice for a candidate -- he was third on my list (behind Biden and Edwards, just ahead of Clinton). But I think the first major turning point came on Super Tuesday back in February, when it was clear that Obama's star was on the rise, and Clinton remained...static. All through February up to early March, Obama was sprinting ahead, and his nomination when from "unlikely" to "probable" - yet there was always enough of a doubt as the Clinton/Obama battle remained essentially neck-and-neck for months.

However, my fears were quelled for good on that night of May 6th. Would Obama, who had been heavily favored in North Carolina, hang on after weeks of withering attacks? Yes - by a solid 12-point margin. Would be pull out a win in Indiana, which had been leaning towards Clinton for months? Not quite - but it was a squeaker, running late into the night to the very final set of ballot boxes in the final county, losing by a mere 11,000 votes.

After that night, there was an air of inevitability around Obama - he was the one. Everything after that (including the massive Clinton wins in WV and KY) meant very little. On that night, the heavy lever of momentum fell on the Obama side for good, and most everyone could sense it as well. Even inside the Clinton campaign -- that was the final night that Clinton herself and her top surrogates attacked Obama and tried to tear him down. Beginning May 7th, nearly all of the negative campaigning and dirty smears came to an swift end, like someone flipped a switch. Suddenly it was no longer "Obama is an evil, terrible man", the campaign switch to "I'm the better candidate, elect me" mode instead. It was quite obvious that the tone of the Clinton campaign had changed completely.

Yet she could never quit, she could never give up. She could accept that she would lose, but she would never give up on her own. Never, never, never - fight to the end, even if that means losing. Many worry that by dragging the fight for the nomination a full month longer than it should have, that the two sides of the Democratic battle have now hardened, and some pundits worry about lasting, permanent damage as we move forward to November. I'm not too worries about that right now -- it's the heat of the moment, plenty of Clinton supporters are running raw on emotion, and when things calm down in the coming weeks and months we'll see a change in tone. (Remember a few months back all the Republicans who swore up and down that they would never support McCain -- where are they now?) The vast majority of Clinton supporters are smart, they are reasonable, they are realistic, they will support the Democrats in November. I'm not worried.



Anyway, it's over. It's over! Finally!

Well. The first half, anyway. Time to move to the general election. And if you thought the democratic nomination process was nasty, you haven't seen nothing yet. Already the knives are out on the various blogs and message boards, and the Republican haters are on the attack with slimy mischaracterizations, innuendo and flat-out lies. It's going to be a long summer, folks.

6:01PM - "Strengths and Weaknesses" - the new creationism battleground

New York Times has an article about the new fight to push religion into the science classroom. First they failed with creationism, then repackaged it as creation science, and finally intelligent design. All failed.

Now they have a new "code phrase" - Strengths and Weaknesses.

Article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/us/04evolution.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"Starting this summer, the state education board will determine the curriculum for the next decade and decide whether the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution should be taught. The benign-sounding phrase, some argue, is a reasonable effort at balance. But critics say it is a new strategy taking shape across the nation to undermine the teaching of evolution, a way for students to hear religious objections under the heading of scientific discourse.
....
“Very often over the last 10 years, we’ve seen antievolution policies in sheep’s clothing,” said Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education, a group based in Oakland, Calif., that is against teaching creationism. The “strengths and weaknesses” language was slipped into the curriculum standards in Texas to appease creationists when the State Board of Education first mandated the teaching of evolution in the late 1980s. It has had little effect because evolution skeptics have not had enough power on the education board to win the argument that textbooks do not adequately cover the weaknesses of evolution. Yet even as courts steadily prohibited the outright teaching of creationism and intelligent design, creationists on the Texas board grew to a near majority. Seven of 15 members subscribe to the notion of intelligent design, and they have the blessings of Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican.
....
“ ‘Strengths and weaknesses’ are regular words that have now been drafted into the rhetorical arsenal of creationists,” said Kathy Miller, director of the Texas Freedom Network, a group that promotes religious freedom."

Looks like the anti-science crowd has learned that smaller, incremental steps are better than going whole-hog. Try and slip in small, minor changes into the curriculum little by little, and before you know it Christian creationism myth has snuck into the classroom.

Be vigilant.