Reinke Faces Life

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/emptied-north-dakota/bowden-text.html

The Emptied Prairie
North Dakota Ghost Towns Speak Of An Irreversible Decline
by Charles Bowden

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This is the place where American assumptions about the land proved to be wrong. The homesteaders believed rain followed the plow. In the grasslands of western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, they learned better. And so for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October. In most of the United States, abandoned buildings are a sign of change and shifting economic opportunities. On the High Plains, they always mean that something in the earth and the sky mutinied against the settlers.

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How can we say that we have no room for immigration?

I bet some entrepreneurial ethnic group (i.e., Hutus; the Montenyards; the Kurds, the Irish; the Chinese), who are persecuted in their home land, could shoot thru the Golden Door and turn these places into “gold mines”. Liberty does wonders.

But, we’ll never know because we are busy building fences to keep “outsiders” out. (And, “insiders” in?)

Sigh!

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http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2007/12/09/half-an-hour

FOLLOWING UP AN EXCHANGE OF COMMENTS

>local time on the clock is more than just a number.

Hmmm, interesting. So, it makes a difference if lunch is at “noon local” or “1700 GMT”?

>actually influence behaviour and particularly social synchronicity.

I’m hard pressed to see the “synch” impacted by what is essentially a label.

>For example, If the local time was effectively random

But it’s not “random”; it’s a globe-wide universal constant.

>what’s the best time to pull in for lunch?

When you’re hungry?

:-)

Seriously! Isn’t it more likely that figuring out a plane or train connection from afar is complicated by the lack of a universal time constant.

Just working in a two time zone company with Microsoft Outlook screwing up meetings for travelers, I keep coming back to the idea of GMT. Like that proverbially “stopped clock” being right twice a day.

>the trains would run better without any rush hour

I think you still have rush hour, or hours — here in the NYC, but we would just assign another number to label it. NYC 8 to 5 would be GMT13 to GMT20. Maybe Dolly Parton has to redo her hit song, but we’d all profit from the simplification.

>if the clock strikes three it’s time for tea

GMT15?

>

And England will always be the center of the world!

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http://scarletknights.com/basketball-women/news/release.asp?prID=5999

No. 6 Rutgers Rolls Past Temple, 70-34
Scarlet Knights Notch Fourth Straight Victory
Posted on 12/30/2007 4:38:13 PM

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Three players scored in double figures as the No. 6 Rutgers women’s basketball team picked up its fourth straight win, a 70-34 home victory over Atlantic 10 opponent Temple Sunday afternoon at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

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Now, Frau has season tickets to the RU women’s games. She’s a subway alumni.

(No connection to the University. Just live in the neighborhood. We’ve been going since before they went “big time”. Frau played semi-pro and was just born a decade too soon. What could have been? And, she thoughly enjoys the game of basketball and especially when the “girls” — some of them are well past that label — play well. They don’t have to “win”; just play well.)

Now I’ve seen more games than I care to count. And, the other day I was surprised.

(Not Casablanca style shocked, just absolutely surprised.)

Many teams have the routine when the starting line up is announced the started runs over to the opponent’s huddle, and shakes someone’s hand as a sign of something. Usually, some assistant coach, like a George job, steps out and represents the coach.

Now Temple’s coach, Dawn Staley, is something of a celebrity. She’s an icon of women’s basketball. Great career in college. WNBA. College coach. One could imagine that to a current player she represents what they would like to become. So I would imagine that shaking her hand would be something extra ordinary.

So, ready for the surprise?

When the RU starters were announced, who comes out of the Temple huddle to accept their symbolic handshake?

None other than Dawn Staley herself.

I pointed that out to the clique of season ticket holders around me who are like a pseudo family. And, for each of the five players who came to shake her hand, she held it for a second and presumably said something to them. One even got a hug! I could be imagining things but them seem to leave that handshake with just a little more spring in their step. As I say, I’ve seen a lot of these, and this one was exceptional.

That’s an exemplar of what sport’s icons should be.

It would have been easy for her to blow that off. But she didn’t. And, maybe in the grand scheme of things, it’s a small matter than no one will notice. I did, and thought that it should be noted. And immortalized in some small way.

I think how we treat these little opportunities gives us an insight into people’s souls. I’m sure that the Universe has special things in store for a special person like Dawn Staley.

http://owlsports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/staley_dawn00.html

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In just seven seasons at the helm, Dawn Staley is well on her way to shaping the Temple women’s basketball program into the national powerhouse that she promised when taking over on April 12, 2000. The 2004 and 2005 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and 2005 Regional Coach of the Year, Staley has won 151 games, becoming the fastest coach in Temple women’s basketball history to reach 100 wins. She has led the Owls to their first-ever A-10 Tournament titles (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), five NCAA appearances since 2002 and a first-ever Top 25 National Ranking. In 2006, Temple won its third straight Atlantic 10 title, a feat that has been accomplished just one other time in A-10 history. The Owls have won four of the last six Conference titles and are ranked 31st on the nation’s list of most wins over the last seven years. She also helped to produce Temple’s first-ever WNBA First Round Draft Picks, when Candice Dupree (’06) and Kamesha Hairston (’07) were drafted by the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun, respectively. All of this hard work has not gone unnoticed. In the summer of 2007, Philadelphia’s favorite daughter was voted Philadelphia’s “Best College Coach” in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best of Philly” edition.

Most of these accomplishments occurred while Staley maintained her highly publicized “summer job” as an All-Star player for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets. Staley retired from WNBA competition following the 2006 season but not before leaving quite a legacy in the 10-year league. During the 2006 season, she was voted an All-Star for the fifth time, becoming the first player in WNBA history to play for both the East and the West squads. She also edged Katie Douglas, 17-16, to win the WNBA’s first-ever Three Point Challenge. Staley was also honored as a member of the WNBA’s All-Decade team. Chosen from among 30 nominees by fans, a panel of national and WNBA-market media and the league’s current players and coaches, the WNBA All-Decade Team recognized the 10 players who have contributed the most to the overall success of the WNBA. Consideration was given to on-court performance and ability, leadership, sportsmanship and community service, as well as to their contribution to team success and the growth of women’s basketball. As if all of this wasn’t enough, Staley now has an award named in her honor. Beginning in 2007, the WNBA will present the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the community in which she works or lives.

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Sounds like someone who has talent as well as class.

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http://www.intuitive.com/blog/end_of_year_movie_tally_89100.html

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The Shawshank Redemption (#72)

“redemption in prison”

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With all do respect, I think you may have miscategorized or mislabled this gem. Maybe whoever gave you this opinion missed the point. It’s more about liberty. Like Viktor Frankl’s 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning or maybe Robinson Crusoe, it’s more about a man deciding that while one can be in “prison”, you can really be free. And, that once someone makes a decision, they’re no stopping them unless you kill them. As the young elephant is “trained”, so so do we build our own “jails”. Personally, I’d bump this up a few notches on the “2do” list. imho, fjohn

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Gotta Digg

A two minute video that is exceptionally cute. These young ladies were inspiring with the novel message.

–

She’s trying to get to the Super Bowl as talent

http://www.twoweeksforkina.com/Two_Weeks_For_Kina/Welcome.html

http://www.refdesk.com

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: from The Free Dictionary
The “Christmas Truce” of World War I (1914)

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The “Christmas truce” of 1914, which took place between British and German troops stationed on the Western Front of WWI, left a lasting legacy of mutual respect, kindness, and honor. The unofficial cease-fire began after British troops responded to German caroling with Christmas songs of their own.

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Like the End of Prohibition due to Jury Nullification, all we need are a few good men to step up and say “no”. If you read the whole entry, then imho there must be a special place in hell for the “leaders” who prevented Peace from breaking out.

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http://fratres.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/foundation-of-catholic-social-doctrines-by-adrian-calderone

Foundation of Catholic Social Doctrines: By Adrian Calderone
Posted on December 22, 2007 by james mary evans

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Catholic social doctrines are catholic in a double sense. First, they are taught by the Catholic Church. Second, they are catholic, or universal, in scope. They apply to everyone regardless of religion. Catholic social precepts are universal because their foundation is derived from what is common to all human beings. This foundation comprises principles of natural law, human dignity and fellowship.

1. Natural Law

Natural law is the law of nature.1 We can define natural law as the prescriptions for human conduct derived from reason as applied to the nature of things. By “prescriptions for human conduct” I mean what we ought to do or not to do. Reason, of course, is a fundamental basis for any law. There’s the old saying that where reason ends, so ends the law. And by the nature of things we mean reality, the way things act by their nature, and that includes human nature. This definition also presupposes some purpose. The Ten Commandments are a concise statement of natural law principles.

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I found this because the author is a Jasper Chemical Engineer!

Jaspers come out of Manhattan College with more than just a piece of paper in their tech discipline. Everyone gets “eddycated”. Even the “injineering barbarians”.

Interesting that this identifies the basis of all human rights.

Well done, and worth a read.

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FACEBOOK lets FANDANGO report that I bought a movie. Good thing it was NOT “girls gone wild volume 23”! This would seem to be “insecure”. I never said they could!

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Fandango is sending a story to your profile.
John bought National Treasure: Book of Secrets on Fandango.

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Now, I wonder “boozy college broads” dot com reports?

(From my younger days!?)

Could be humorous to catch the politicians and “holier than thou” types.

Sigh!

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan168.html

Solving the Abortion Conundrum
by Gene Callahan

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Is there no way out of this impasse? I suggest there is, and will begin my effort to indicate the direction to head with an analogy. Imagine you are sailing your boat along at sea, minding your own business, when you hear a noise behind you. You turn around and find a bedraggled looking man climbing from out of the waves onto your craft.

“Thank God you happened by!” he says. “My ship sank, and I’ve been clinging to the mast for a day now. I had almost given up hope.”

You nod solemnly at him, walk across the deck, pick him up, and throw him back in the ocean. “You see,” you explain to an imagined audience of shocked onlookers, “he was trespassing. I came out here for some solitude, and the idea that now I’m compelled to accommodate him makes me into kind of a slave, doesn’t it?”

***End Quote***

I like looking a difficult problems thru the lens of humor.

The current “system” is a disaster. Putting the gooferment “in charge” of anything isn’t going to “solve” any problem.

If one is “pro-life”, as I am, you must deal with all the children in the foster care system. If you are “pro-choice”, then you have to deal with the “right to life” enshrined in the Constitution. Regardless of side, I think we can all agree that the gooferment has done a terrible job of whatever the problem is?

Yes?

If “no”, please explain the current mess to me.

So, we have turn down the temperature of the debate. As libertarians, the first principle is non-aggression. So no one will be forced to do anything.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPiDvB2Tcqw q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOv8b438LrQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnR0P9BsN-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDNUGPB6wfs

Absolutely great. He asks Ron Paul tough questions and lets him answer.

Makes sense to me!

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