The Better Angels of Our Nature .....

I don't know how others in Midland - especially in the virtual neighborhood - will greet the news of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy's death ... sadness, satisfaction, maybe even celebration?

Me? I'll opt for prayer.

I offer prayers of thanks that he has finally found that ultimate wholeness and healing from a cancerous brain tumor and the accompanying pain, the surgery and a grueling regimen of radiation and chemotherapy.

I ask God to comfort Kennedy's family and friends at this time of their loss, and comfort also the people of Massachusetts who have lost one of their greatest advocates in Washington.

I will not pray for Edward Kennedy's soul, and that it may someday find purification in Purgatory, then peace in Heaven ... not out of vindictiveness or condemnation, mind you, but simply because he and I worshipped God on opposite sides of that door in Wittenburg, where Luther nailed those 95 Theses. Whether we Protestants are better or worse than Catholics when we celebrate one's entry into the Church triumphant at death, I'll leave for you to decide.

I will pray that, in the discussion/debate of Edward Kennedy's legacy, that we might listen to the better angels of our nature. Can we all acknowledge that he had his faults, and that some of them were great? At the same time, can we also acknowledge that he had his virtues, and that some of them were great, as well? I suspect that Kennedy was neither the ultimate saint nor the ultimate sinner ... but somewhere between one and the other ... just like the rest of us.

What do YOU suggest? .....

Blog Action Day 2009 has been set for October 15. This year, they're asking past participants to recommend a topic. Got any suggestions?

Having been a BAD Blogger the past couple of years, I've just gone with the flow, posting on their selected topic for the year ... preparations for but this year's event, under the direction of change.org, will be a little different.

As a first step, the change.org team wants to get past participants' thoughts on the selection of this year's topic, to give our feedback on the topics being considered or suggest our own.

What would YOU suggest? What issue do you want addressed by Blog Action Day 2009?
● Education
● Health
● Internet Freedom
● Climate Change
● Human Rights
● Water and Food Sustainability
● Gay Rights
● Peace and Armed Conflict
● ... or maybe an idea of your own?

Farewell to One of West Texas' Premier Writers .....

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS - Noted Western novelist Elmer Kelton, author of “The Time It Never Rained,” “The Good Old Boys” and “The Man Who Rode Midnight,” died Saturday morning at the age of 83. Funeral services are pending at Johnson’s Funeral Home in San Angelo.
CLICK HERE to read the rest of this story from Bill Modisett of the Odessa American

Kelton's words conveyed a love - a reverence, even - for the land in which he was born, and lived for so much of his life ... the land AND the people he met over a wonderful career. As recently as a few months ago, Kelton was still moving among his public - begrudging the doctor-ordered wheelchair, but still happy to be with people ... he was an avid storyteller, as well as a prolific writer. He was, in all respects, a good ol' boy of the highest caliber ... and he was one of West Texas' premier writers, to be sure!

Vaya con Dios

My Groovy Brother-In-Law .....

Photoblogging from the Woodstock 40th in upstate New York. See more at Just Pictures.

... and While We're on the Subject of Police .....

FOLLOW-UP ... "Google (GOOG) announced this week it will be "rolling out a series of enhancements to AdSense's contextual targeting capabilities, which will more accurately match relevant ads to Web pages." Good! Maybe now we can get past one of the Internet's oldest problems: embarrassing ads placed by contextual targeting."
More on this from The Business Insider, Inc.

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Some unexpected humor from my last post. Those of you who use Blogger are familiar with the "Ads by Google" feature that scans your posts, then displays ads based upon words that appear in said posts. Here's what showed up when I published about the fired Midland County Sheriff's Deputy.

Well, We've Gone National .....

The Tall City has made it onto the AP wires, and is showing up on websites across the nation ... page one, above-the-fold, no less.

"A Texas sheriff fired one deputy and suspended three others without pay after a scantily dressed waitress holding a rifle posed for photographs on the hood of a patrol vehicle."
CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story from the Associated Press

IMHO, Sheriff Painter did the right thing.

Two Words from Terry .....

Not all evidence is created equal ... and while the evidence you bring to a debate may be pursuasive, even seductive, it may not have anything to do with the actual facts of the situation.

Terry Teachout was writing about the debate over shrinking, aging audiences for jazz in America, with this post at About Last Night ... but that post reaches beyond jazz, providing insight into just about any disgreement we might have over just about any topic ... and what we bring to bolster, to 'prove' our side of said disagreement.

For all our powers of observation, and our ability to process what we observe, what we see and hear in the course of our daily lives provides "anecdotal evidence" of what's happening in the world around us ... or, at least, what we think is happening. It may actually be so ... or it may not. THAT is where the need for hard data, gained by means of more thorough, more rigourous analysis comes in. In fact, one has often led to the other ... an observation, no matter how casual (the anecdotal evidence) leading one to wonder, then study, then test, then quantify, then conclude.

Terry's post is short, but spot-on. It's well worth your reading, and your consideration.

Thanks to my e-friend in Philly, Frank at Books, Inq. for the heads-up on Terry's post.

Mark This Day on Your Calendar .....

The Moon is in the Seventh House, Jupiter aligns with Mars, and I'm recommending and linking you to a post on Stewart Doreen's blog!

The Man Behind the Stopwatch .....

Don Hewitt, the CBS Newsman who invented “60 Minutes” and produced the popular newsmagazine for 36 years, died Wednesday. He was 86.

"Hewitt joined CBS News in television’s infancy in 1948, and produced the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. He made his mark in the late 1960s when CBS agreed to try his idea of a one-hour broadcast that mixed hard news and feature stories. The television newsmagazine was born on September 24, 1968, when the '60 Minutes' stopwatch began ticking."
CLICK HERE to read the rest of this report from AP's David Bauder

Producers are among the unsung heroes of television news. While they, themselves, may not step in front of the cameras, you feel their impact in each and every broadcast. News consumers may focus soley upon their point-of-contact, the news anchor or the reporter in front of the camera, in appraising the product, it's success ... and, yes, its failure. One of the greatest benefits I had from working in the business was the chance to be a part of the work behind the camera, and to know and appreciate the wide variety of professionals who contribute to a news broadcast.

Book Time for Burr .....

Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center is inviting us to a special event this weekend. Book some time for Burr.

"At 1.30 p.m. on Saturday August 22nd at the Sibley Nature Center at 1307 E. Wadley in Hogan Park in Midland, Willa Finley and Lashara Nieland will give a talk about wildflowers and sign their book," Burr writes. "Admission is free."

"Teachers with a grand passion are special people. For years I have heard of LaShara Nieland's annual wildflower project for Odessa students, and had met a number of young adults that remembered her with pleasure. Retired now, she joined forces with Willa Finley, a friend from freshman biology at Abilene Christian University and later a fellow teacher in Odessa. Finley worked for years in the Middle East and Africa before returning to the States and teaching. She now lives in Lubbock, working as an agriculture economist with LMC International (based in Oxford, United Kingdom), and also participating in development projects in Africa."

"While teaching together in Odessa, they developed a Powerpoint presentation to share with their students in 1998. Over the years, their presentation evolved into a book, "Lone Star Wildflowers, A Guide to Texas Flowering Plants." It has almost 500 color photographs, grouped according to color and arranged by plant family. An "Exploring Further" section shows details of seedpods, leaves, buds, and fruits. The complete growth cycle of each plant is also covered. Current and historical uses of each species are included, as information on plant toxins and range management practices. All the major book stores carry the book, but they will have it for sale at their program, along with bookmarks and greeting card sets."

See you there?

Health Insurance Reform Reality Check: Reform will stop "rationing" - not increase it .....

From whitehouse.gov ...
"Kavita Patel, who works with Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett and who worked for years before as a physician, debunks the myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies."

'Happy Birthday' to a Texan Who Lived Long and Prospered .....

Screenwriter and producer Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry - the creator of one of America's most popular science fiction franchises, "Star Trek" - was born on this day in 1921.

Roddenberry once said, "No one in his right mind gets up in the morning and says, 'I think I'll create a phenomenon today.'" And in fact, he lived many years, filled with a variety of experiences, before he launched the USS Enterprise. Born in El Paso, Texas, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he studied law enforcement ... then switched to aeronautical engineering, earned his pilot's license, then volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps in the fall of 1941. During the war, his service as a B-17 pilot, flying out of Guadacanal, earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal.

After the war, he was an international pilot for Pan American World Airways, which in those days could be almost as harrowing as military service. He received a Civil Aeronautics Commendation for his efforts during and after a crash in the Syrian desert. Then came his return to law enforcement, as an officer with the LAPD ... and contact with with Jack Webb's "Dragnet" series.

All of this before 1966, and "Star Trek." I was a huge fan of the original series, and was thrilled with the chance of meeting Roddenberry in the early 70s, when he spoke at Wilkes College, in Pennsylvania. He made time for every one of us that wanted to shake his hand, and have a few words with him. When I saw him again - in the late 70s, at the University of New Mexico - it was hard (if not impossible) to get close to the man ... there was such a large crowd, and the setting for his presentation did not encourage close contact between speaker and audience. But still, his personality reached out to us all ... and even those of us in the nosebleed seets found ourselves engaged by the man, by his words, and by the Star Trek 'blooper reel' that he brought with him.

I was a Star Trek fan ... but not a Trekkie. I was not attracted to the Star Trek conventions that became such a staple in the 1980s, I don't speak a word of Klingon, and I am not the least bit tempted to dress-up (someone with my physique would look absolutely ridiculous in one of the early uniforms).

But I still admire the man, and his achievements ... and the encouragement he provided for all of us - in one way or another - to "boldly go where no man has gone before."

Is There a Reality Show for Roofers? .....

If so, I would devote an episode to the crews working on Kelview Baptist Church, on the east side of Big Spring Street, just a few blocks north of downtown Midland. A very large surface, and one of the steeper pitches in the city.

As I drove by yesterday, they were using ladders - laid on the surface - to scale the roof. But they were also employing ropes to get men and materials where they were needed. One man going up on the rope looked more like he was rappelling, rather than roofing.

On big projects or small, it means long days of hard work under a glaring sun, with temperatures hovering just to one side or the other of 100 degrees. Doesn't leave much time and energy for talking ... so maybe it wouldn't make good material for a reality show, where you sometimes get more talking than doing ... but what they're doing is important, nonetheless.

Top Chef's Masterful Spinoff .....

As I noted here, a few weeks back, I've enjoyed a number of cooking shows over the summer. One of my favorites has been Top Chef Masters ... a spinoff of Bravo TV's popular Top Chef series.

It's a variation on a theme with which we've become familiar ... a culinary competition that whittles down a pool of cheftestants through a variety of challenges. In the spinoff, though, the competitors are not up-and-coming young chefs, but established masters in the profession, each with a dossier of culinary awards, successful restaurants, celebrity clients and best-selling cookbooks. Many of them are familiar to regular Top Chef viewers, from their appearance as guest judges on that series.

And, instead of competing for their shot at fame, and a substantial cash award for their personal accounts, contestants in TCM are competing for a substantial cash award to the charity of their choice ... and a chance to work with - and against - their peers.

One of the things I've liked about the spinoff is the lack of character promotion ... and assassination. Maybe it's because each of the TCM contestants has already, successfully demonstrated their kitchen credentials ... some of them for decades. Each seems more comfortable with themselves, and one another ... it shows in the banter around the kitchen during the challenges, the occasional assistance they provide one another in the course of those challenges, and their conversation over drinks once the challenge is finished and the judges are working out their decision in another room.

Sometimes, in the original Top Chef, it's easy to lose sight of the cooking, for all the character being sliced-and-diced and thrown around the kitchen.

It's made for a great summer repast, and the final course will be served-up this Wednesday evening on Bravo (along with the premier episode of Top Chef, Season 6). Who do I think will be the 'master' Top Chef Master? I'm pulling for anthropologist-turned-chef Rick Bayless to win ... though I also wouldn't mind seeing Hubert Keller win. Michael Chiarello? Fuggedaboutit.

And speaking of Top Chef, Season 6 ... Bravo, could you PLEASE get rid of judge Toby Young, and replace him with TCM's Jay Rayner?

Health Insurance Reform Reality Check: Vets' health care is safe and sound .....

From whitehouse.gov ...
"Matt Flavin, Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, explains that nothing in health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget greatly expands coverage for veterans who have been denied access in the past."

A Chil(i) In the Air .....

The aroma that greeted me Saturday morning, as I walked across the parking lot of Midland's H.E.B., told me the supermarket had begun their annual roasting and selling of fresh-picked green chili peppers from Hatch, New Mexico!

Clear some space in your menus ... and some space in your freezers, for the months ahead.

Health Insurance Reform Reality Check: Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform .....

From whitehouse.gov ...
"Robert Kocher of the National Economic Council debunks the myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform would simply eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies."

Some Say Yesterday ... Others Say Today .....

... and mostly, it passed without note. Victory over Japan Day (or VJ Day) recalls the day that Japan accepted terms of surrender, bringing a final end to a war that had raged around the world for nearly five years.

The confusion appears to arise from the fact that it was already August 15 in Japan ... but still August 14 in the U.S. when the surrender was officially announced. So, take your pick.

The day is observed in Japan, by the way ... as a "day for mourning of war dead and praying for peace."

One of the nicer sources for VJ Day information, online (not that there are A LOT), comes from the History Channel's website. There's also the ubiquitous Wikipedia entry which, to give them credit, DOES provide some good international perspective on the day, as well as some links for additional research.

Another reason for marking the day ... it was on VJ Day, in New York City's Times Square, that Alfred Eisenstaedt, one of the world's premier photojournalists of the 20th-century, captured one of the premier images of the war ...

Health Insurance Reform Reality Check: Reforms will benefit small business - not hurt it .....

From whitehouse.gov ...
"Christina Romer, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, debunks the myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average."

SFX-Fest .....

I suspect that those of us who liked the special effects in The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, are going to love 2012. Nothing new about the premise of the story ... ancient prophecies of the world's end at last being realized ... but the visualization of that end, in this cinematic go-around, looks to be unprecedented. Time - and $8 - will tell. 2012 hits theaters November 12.