didionville

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.

lordy, do we love us some scott adams over here. his seemingly limitless ability to identify and isolate the inanity of bureaucracy and corporate operations is truly a gift to anyone living in a post-industrial world. when i saw today’s strip, i thought, “yep. that’s how it is.” but then i also had the jarring realization that dilbert’s new m.o. is exactly what dick cheney has operationalized effortlessly and unfailingly in the bush administration for the last eight years …

it’s simple. you really can make your own truth. and then you can expand deficit spending by several orders of magnitude … and launch wars that are fun for your business friends to play … and ignore with hatred and disgust any living organism that dares disagree with you …

(if this site actually got any traffic, i would likely get in trouble for posting today’s dilbert without permission. you can visit scott adams and his pantheon here; though, we at didionville sure are unhappy with the dilbert site’s new interface.)

a kid … i say that because he is, like, 24 (???) or certainly not much older … has an amazing, amazing, amazing blog … (click on image) …

he’s an nyu law student and — as we found out on facebook — a rice alum (go owls) … his intelligence and analytical skills and writing style are all impressive … grandpas jer and chuck, i think, will really appreciate ames‘ writing. apparently, he just started the blog — seriously, like in late april — and already he is tackling the big philosophical, political, and legal issues that mainstream media won’t dare blink at …

i only hope he is able to keep up with the blog. i can’t imagine he doesn’t have a lot on his plate. in fact, i’ll be surprised if we don’t see a lot more of him in the future in non-blog arenas … he has “going places” written all over him.

Someone needs to figure out how to automate this so we can see it in real time for all politicians.

We are watching tonight’s basketball game (WVU vs. Xavier — now in OT), and we just saw a new Mercedes commercial: “300 horsepower is fast; 400 horsepower will take your breath away ….” My immediate thought in response — 100 horsepower will get you where you need to go with decent gas mileage and help keep Antarctica from melting into nothingness. (More here. And here.)

Ummmm, surprise, people: Inflation does NOT affect your engine-power needs.

My 1976 BMW 2002 had 100 horsepower and was considered a fast, sporty car 30+ years ago. Now we have more crowded roads, higher gas prices, and conclusive evidence of human-caused global warming, and still we need 451 hp?

Think about this: If all of the manpower, intelligence, ingenuity, and desire that has gone into designing higher powered engines had actually gone into designing AND MARKETING higher fuel efficiency, think about what a better place we would be in not just environmentally, but also geopolitically … Osama bin Laden, anyone? 9/11, anyone? Dick Cheney, anyone? Iraq, anyone?

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.)

today wasn’t a good day. it wasn’t a bad day, either … just kinda blah.

mommy’s feeling very peevish … the economy is a mess … we are getting another rainy, sleety storm tomorrow … she keeps seeing stories about tibet and clashes between buddhist monks and the chinese military … and then there are the old standbys for generating angst and grumpiness: afghanistan and iraq …

BUT there were some high points today … mommy finished two more pairs of booties, so now i have THREE pairs to choose from … i am quite the well-shod modern man …

AND mommy and i caught the last half or so of david paterson’s swearing-in speech … he’s our new governor, and mommy was particularly impressed with the way he delivered his speech … his tone sounded sincere. his words were clear and concise. he emanated understanding and compassion. he dropped a couple of very funny jokes with a warm delivery. mommy is feeling very hopeful … what a change from the vitriol and frenetic bickering that has characterized politics, not just in albany, but also in dutchess county and even in the piddling poughkeepsie city government …

it was a real pleasure to listen to paterson speak.

mommy couldn’t find a transcript of his speech; admittedly, she didn’t look very hard, but here is an article about him (that she hasn’t yet read) in the new york times.

tomorrow morning we will go for our walk … the rain isn’t supposed to get here until mid afternoon … i should probably start thinking about which pair of booties i want to wear tomorrow … an embarrassment of riches, i tell you!

Didion and I were watching the Yankees last night* and Joe Girardi took part in a long interview. He was interesting, engaging, entertaining. Most of all, he really inspired hope, confidence and excitement about the upcoming season. It sure reminded us of another product of Illinois — Barack Obama. Could Joe Girardi be the Barack of baseball? Young, fresh, inspirational and ready to lead us out of a long drought. Notably, the Yankees’ last World Series title was in 2000, the same year as W’s “election.”

Calling Joe Girardi the Barack Obama of baseball might be unfair to Joe Torre. (Comparing Joe Torre to W is certainly unfair and isn’t what I want to do.) Joe T. was an unquestionably great manager, but his time with the Yankees had passed. I cannot even remotely be as complimentary about the man Barack hopes to replace. Barack replacing W is like leaving the Dark Ages and going straight to the Age of Enlightenment. The Yankees’ transition is a quite a bit more moderate, but welcome nonetheless.

And we got a hint of how Joe Girardi will perform under pressure. He kept his cool during today’s skirmish, just like Barack would do if the red phone rang at 3AM.

Here’s to looking forward to two upcoming, great late-fall events — the election of Barack and the Yankees’ 27th World Championship.

*It was the encore presentation. Being a true fan, Didion had, of course, watched it live during the day, but was nice enough to watch it again with me later.

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.