Our Dumb Blog

Yesterday morning we woke up early (7 o’clock or so, which constitutes “sleeping in” for Berck, who usually rises between 4:30 and 5). “What do you want to do today?” asked Berck, who had gotten out of working because of unfavorable winds. I suggested we could go on a hike. The sky was mostly overcast, and Berck suggested the weather might be against us.

A little later we looked out the window again. The air was full of thick, white flakes! It snowed and snowed for a few hours, sticking to everything except the roads. “If this keeps up,” exclaimed Berck, “I can test out my new snow tires!” We had just picked them up from the shop the evening before.

But the snow stopped. And even though everything was covered with snow, when the sun came out, it all melted almost immediately. The afternoon ended up being sunny and warmish.

Actual Fact: The word “decimation” comes from the Latin word meaning “removal of a tenth,” describing a Roman army practice to punish mutinous or cowardly troops. The doomed were put in groups of ten, and then each group drew lots. The one loser out of the ten was slain by the other nine.

Linda Wertheimer: Now the Gallop Poll shows that, even though conservative groups led the charge against the Miers nomination, more liberals were actually happy about her withdrawal than conservatives were. 57% of liberals said they were glad about it. Only 34% of conservatives were. How could that be?

Nina Totenberg: I think a lot of evangelicals don’t and didn’t agree with their leadership. I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh Show a couple of days ago … yes, I do that…

Linda Wertheimer: Okaaaay…

St. Dymphna – the mentally ill (Her father went mad with grief when her mother died, and his advisors told him to marry his daughter. When she refused, he sliced off her head with his sword.)

St. Joseph of Cupertino – pilots (His levitational ability caused enmity with his fellow monks.)

St. Agatha – bellmakers (No one knows why.)

St. Ambrose – beekeepers

St. Januarius – bloodbanks (A vial of abrout 30 ml the martyred saint’s clotted blood is kept in a locked vault in the Cathedral of Naples. When the vial is handled during a ceremony honoring the saint, the blood liquifies and appears to boil and froth. The Catholic Church has never officially declared this a miracle, leaving scientists to explain the phenomenon.)

St. Fiacre – cab drivers (French cabs are called fiacres because the first establishment to let coaches on hire was near the hotel Saint-Fiacre in Paris)

St. Venantius – falling

St. Bona – flight attendants

St. Martin de Porres – hairdressers (He was the barber in his friary.)

St. Rita of Cascia – lost causes (Though she wanted to become a nun, her parents insisted that she married at age 12. After her husband and both sons died, she tried unsuccessfully to enter the Augustinians. They required all sisters to be virgins. Finally, the order gave her entry.)

St. Sebastian – archers

St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars – senior citizens (She was canonized in 1974. I don’t know what seniors did before that.)

St. Cassian of Imola – shorthand writers (A teacher arrested for being a Christian, his students were invited to hack him to death. His martyrdom was lengthy, since his students could not wield mortal blows.)

St. Bernard of Montjoux – skiers

St. Stephen – stone masons (Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death)

St. Apollonia – toothaches (She had her teeth knocked out by a persecutor.)

St. Dismas – undertakers (Crucified with Jesus, he was the thief who believed.)

St. Philip of Agirone – US Special Forces

I could possibly have some respect for differing views if they were, at the very least, consistent. “Conservative” as I understand it, supposedly means minimal government involvement. Yet the current “conservative” regime has gotten government more involved in just about everything than any group to come before. Federal spending is at an all-time high. Clinton managed a balanced budget, and what did W do with it? “Conservative” now seems to be synonymous with state-supported religion, governmental restriction of women’s rights, and federal restriction of gays’ rights. Not to mention a tax policy intended to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Doesn’t sound like keeping the government out of people’s lives to me.

Conservatives are against public broadcasting, primarily NPR, ostensibly because it’s “federally funded” and “liberally biased.” I’m not going to address the liberal bias claim, because it’s silly. Most NPR listeners complain that it’s too right-leaning. I’m not sure how it’s federally funded, since NPR gets 1-2% of their funding from competitive grants from CPB, NEA, and the NSF. Member stations (which is the primary support for NPR) get a whopping 13% of their budget from the CPB. So, say, at MOST, the government contributes 15% of NPR and its member stations funding. Woot. Pennies.

The total allocation for CPB is currently $390 million. Most of that goes to television and PBS programming. A whopping $30 million goes to radio. Congress recently decided to cut CPB’s funding to about $300 million. The cuts are presumably necessary because we have to protect ourselves from Iraq. Included in the cuts were ~$40 million slated to go toward upgrading to digital television, since the FCC is going to stop allowing analog TV transmission in 2009.

So, keep in mind, this $390 million that conservatives think is just bad, though a whopping $30 million goes to evil, liberal NPR.

Now here’s where it gets sick. The Senate has approved $3 BILLION to subsidize the purchase of conversion boxes to allow Americans with older TV sets to watch new, digital television. Because by 2009 they won’t be able to watch television. (Keep in mind this only applies to over-the-air television.) But could someone please tell me how watching television is a right? A necessity? That we need to think about these poor Americans who won’t be able to watch new, digital TV without a $50 box? Maybe we should instead spend that money on education so they can get jobs and buy their own conversion boxes.

So think about this: we can give $3 billion to poor Americans so they can keep watching corporate, advertising-laden TV, but we can’t give $40 million to the corporation for public broadcasting to upgrade THEIR equipment??

This is one of my favorite pictures of Berck.