didionville

lots going on over here, and as usual, the blog suffers … but if you think sir charles has got problems, check this out: poor little didion was super-duper uncomfortable yesterday. the best we could diagnose was a really bad episode of gas and constipation. the last time we saw him so uncomfortable and upset was when he ate jalapeno-flavored breastmilk (my bad). we finally got him calmed down last night, but the intermittent sobbing was long lasting and absolutely heart wrenching …

beyond our decidedly inexpert diagnosis, i also think we are — finally — seeing teeth in his bottom gum. just now i saw two tiny white circles. his teething episodes really have never staved, but the teeth have been slow to show. let’s hope that we have breakthrough soon. i suspect that tummy discomfort and general displeasure are more than loosely related to those damn teeth.

poor little guy.

in the meantime, our new hero, ames, has a great write up about yesterday’s ruling by the california supreme court on the legality of gay marriage. at first i thought, “crap! the timing is horrible! why couldn’t they wait until AFTER the election to bring this up!” i was sure the evangelicals would finally circle their wagons around mccain, assuming mccain adopted the same scare tactics karl rove so very much favored in 2004, but like me, ames is surprised and heartened (???) by mccain’s subdued response to the ruling.

so as i am posting video and pictures of didion and marveling about what an amazing adventure life is, steven and i are watching bill moyers’ journal (episode airing friday, may 9, 2008). bill moyers and phillipe sands are discussing sands’ most recent book (Torture Team: Rumsfeld’s Memo and the Betrayal of American Values).

one of sands’ points is how incredulous he is that lawyers with all of their training and education and their duty to uphold constitutional protections have been able to rationalize extreme methods of interrogation as acceptable and lawful and well within the rights of the executive branch of our government to authorize. unsurprising, he discusses the deep involvement of dick cheney’s attorney, david addington, in crafting the argument rationalizing torture of prisoners at guantanamo and other sunny locales in the war on terror. (remember: attorneys represent the interests of their clients.)

sands also talks about the rebellions within the military, launched by officers who are adamantly opposed to harsh interrogation techniques: they don’t work; they endanger american military personnel worldwide; they deeply undermine american values and law.

speaking of military officers fighting most ferociously on the front lines against the bush administration to protect the rights of prisoners, i want to direct you to the story of matthew diaz, a distinguished naval officer who released the names of all of the detainees at guantanamo when it became clear the bush administration had no intention of doing same in spite of a court order requiring it. diaz got in a lot of trouble doing the right thing, but he also was awarded the 2008 ridenhour truth-telling prize. (i want to advise you, reader, against holding your breath that bush will offer a last-minute pardon to diaz.)

interestingly, bill moyers won the 2008 ridenhour courage prize, thus bringing this post full circle.

one more point: the world is a better place for people like philippe sands and bill moyers and matthew diaz. i am sorry that they are currently having to use their talents to bring to light critical issues that threaten to indelibly stain the american character, but thank god they are.

Last weekend, I bought some new seed for the bird feeder. (It was a long winter’s drought for the poor birds.) Since spring arrived, though, we have seen quite an array of birds around the neighborhood: robins, cardinals, mourning doves, various finches, starlings. Ergo, it was time to fill the feeders. All weekend, I watched. And waited. And watched some more … And nothing. Zip. Nary a bird in sight. Then tonight, Didion and I saw a cardinal couple eating and scaring off the other birds. (Cardinals are not as friendly as gold finches.) We managed to get this picture from inside the house:

We decided we needed some better shots, so we sat on the porch, but, sadly, the birds deserted us. I did manage to get this excellent shot of Didion:

And now for some photos worth looking at….

An ingenious astronaut figured out how to build a camera that could take sharp nighttime photos from the International Space Station — a mean feat considering the long exposure times required, the speed the space station travels, and the fact that he supposedly did this from “spare parts” he found lying around the station. The story, some great photos, and a neat video are here. Seriously, read the article; watch the video. The guy controls the camera’s movement with a cordless drill (!!!).

Something telling: The Las Vegas Strip is the brightest spot on earth. Says a lot about what is important.

The federal No Child Left Behind act is based on the Texas version, so Rice University (w00t! go Owls!) studied the “success” of the Texas program. Extrapolate what you will. Here are a few excerpts (Of course, you might as well read the whole thing, as much as I have excerpted):

***

“No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), directly contributes to lower graduation rates.”

“60 percent of African-American students, 75 percent of Latino students and 80 percent of ESL students did not graduate within five years.”

“The study shows as schools came under the accountability system, which uses student test scores to rate schools and reward or discipline principals, massive numbers of students left the school system. The exit of low-achieving students created the appearance of rising test scores and of a narrowing of the achievement gap between white and minority students, thus increasing the schools’ ratings.”

“The higher the stakes and the longer such an accountability system governs schools, the more school personnel view students not as children to educate but as potential liabilities or assets for their school’s performance indicators, their own careers or their school’s funding.”

“The study shows a strong relationship between the increasing number of dropouts and school’s rising accountability ratings.”

“The discrepancy between the official dropout rates, in the 2 to 3 percent range, and the actual rates can be attributed to the state’s method of counting, which does not include students who drop out of school for reasons such as pregnancy or incarceration or declare intent to take the GED sometime in the future.”

***

Wow. Kind of speaks for itself. Taking this to absurd conclusions, the goal of NCLB might as well be “one high-performing white kid per school with the rest of the ’students’ at home prepping for the GED.”

(Recently, the White House agreed to lessen some of the punitive measures of NCLB. Who knows to what end.)

so a local chickadee was arrested last thursday in connection with the federal bust of the prostitution ring that is currently giving spitzer a major headache. (rhinebeck is about 15 miles north of poughkeepsie. apparently, ms. hollander was some sort of scheduler, and face it, any respectable sex biz is going to need competent administrative support.)

i saw the headline in our paper on friday and scanned the article with a chuckle. little did i know …

BUT all of this has reminded me that i meant to write a post about fleisher’s (a butcher in rhinebeck and kingston) that supplies fantastic grass-fed, organic meat from sustainable local farms.

earlier this week, d-man and i cruised up there and purchased the most beautiful n.y. strip steak. its marbling was mesmerizing.

i cooked it using my fool-proof, high-heat, cast-iron-skillet, mega-hot-oven method, and steven and i had one heckuva yummy dinner.

since i am writing about rhinebeck goings-on, i ought to also mention the beekman arms, a charming inn (reportedly the oldest in america) that has a quite nice restaurant with super-tasty meatloaf, among other treats. i also completely enjoy the paper trail, a stationer with a terrific selection of truly beautiful papers.

so i suppose, while rhinebeck might get some buzz currently for its indirect connection to a certain governor’s ridiculous indiscretion, i want to toot the horns of some of the local biz.

i had a milk break and some time for further rumination on the spitzer fiasco …

he’s gotta go. he has zero credibility. the people of new york are too busy, work too hard, and have too many needs to have to babysit a governor who collapses in the clutch … and in a presidential election year, the democratic party certainly doesn’t need him.

he said in his statement he needs time to reflect, to mend his family and re-earn their trust.

i say, take all the time you need.

mommy is teaching me about my body parts. right now, i am very fond of my toes. she is teaching me about my body parts so that in the event i am governor of a state (or otherwise entrusted by the public to provide leadership) i will know, for instance, where my pee-pee is AT ALL TIMES.

later my mommy is going to teach me about having priorities and a sense of responsibility. she is also going to teach me about humility and integrity. i’ll know all about these things so that, again, if i am in one of those leadership positions, i will know what decision to make when i am tempted to call an escort service and, perhaps, lose track of my aforementioned pee-pee.

shame, shame, shame.

and sad, sad, sad for his family and — in many ways — more importantly, for state of new york.