brainstorming

Presto: Instant Photographer

OK. I have to explain something. I am not the picture person in the family. Nosirreee Bob. I'm not the one that you trust with the family photos. Never shown any talent for it. Have never been one to carry a camera. I generally walk around oblivious to my surroundings. Trust me on this. "Walking around with your head in the clouds" is a phrase I heard at least once a week growing up.

But, I have taken the majority of the pictures on this blog, (I think all of them with the exception of these birds.), including three now, count them, three, sunsets. (Click photos for larger images.)

(BTW. Are there any birders out there who can identify this heron type bird for my curiosities sake?)

So what is up with stuff like this?

There are two things to which I attribute these strange goings on. You'll be relieved, I know, to hear that neither has anything to do with Karl Rove.

First, the digital camera. Let's face it. I'm not patient or organized enough to handle film that requires developing. Then, if you get it developed, you have to get a disk and mess around with that. But, with the digital camera you slip out the memory card, plug it into the cable already attached to the back of my system, and Presto: Instant Photographer.

Second, when I started to blog, I grabbed the digital and dropped it into my purse, (OK some might call it luggage, but that's another conversation altogether), just in case I were to pass by something interesting while out and about, (well at least something I found interesting anyway.) I'm thinking it's probably making me take a closer look at my surroundings.

Exhibit B. Nature Girl is not a name that anyone would ever consider suitable to describe me. You have my solemn word on that.

I'm also compelled to explain the sunset thing. I could probably count on one hand the number of sunsets I've noticed in the last year. So how do I now have pictures of three of them in less than a month? You have The Girl and The Boy to thank for that, I'm afraid. All three were taken when I was in transit from point A to point B, C,D,E, etc. while transporting them to and from various activities.

By the way, none of the photos are retouched in any way. (Maybe that was already obvious....lol.) The sky was literally pink all the way to the horizon this night, for all of about 2 minutes, when I happened to be on the road into town.

The Family is starting to get used to me suddenly pulling over to the side of the road while simultaneously digging through my purse to grab the camera. Whether anyone else is enjoying the shots or not, I'm thinking it's an OK thing for me to notice what's going on past my windshield occasionally.

DC

The Forgotten Diversity

"All Hail Diversity" Such is the battle cry of the left.

In fact, the Supreme Court found that "diversity" is a "compelling state interest" in its recent ruling on Grutter and Gratz, the Michigan law school admission case. Peter Wood in his National Review editorial after the ruling, points out that this elevation of diversity comes at the expense of individual rights, the very foundation of our Constitution.

Repeat: Diversity is a compelling state interest. In these mild words the Supreme Court has effectively amended the U.S. Constitution. We now live in a nation where the highest court has endorsed the principle of group rights. The "diversity" in question is the idea that Americans are properly seen in relation to each other as members of racial and ethnic groups, and not as individuals who have equal rights before the law.

Since diversity is now a "compelling state interest" we are pursuing and encouraging it in every aspect of our institutions of higher learning, right?

Unless of course, the subject is diversity of thought among the faculty and students.

I refer you to the editorial in the New York Times, Sept. 27, entitled "Lonely Campus Voices", by David Brooks, (registration required.)

"Most good universities have at least one conservative professor on campus. When, for example, some group at Harvard wants to hold a panel discussion on some political matter, it can bring out the political theorist Harvey Mansfield to hold up the rightward end. At Princeton it's Robert George. At Yale it's Donald Kagan."

Ahhh. The "token" conservative.

"Here's what I'm thinking when an outstanding kid comes in," says George, of Princeton. "If the kid applies to one of the top graduate schools, he's likely to be not admitted. Say he gets past that first screen. He's going to face pressure to conform, or he'll be the victim of discrimination. It's a lot harder to hide then than it was as an undergrad.

"But say he gets through. He's going to run into intense discrimination trying to find a job. But say he lands a tenure-track job. He'll run into even more intense discrimination because the establishment gets more concerned the closer you get to the golden ring. By the time you come up for tenure, you're in your mid-30's with a spouse and a couple of kids. It's the worst time to be uncertain about your career. Can I really take the responsibility of advising a kid to take these kinds of risks?"

The most common advice conservative students get is to keep their views in the closet. Will Inboden was working on a master's degree in U.S. history at Yale when a liberal professor pulled him aside after class and said: "You're one of the best students I've got, and you could have an outstanding career. But I have to caution you: hiring committees are loath to hire political conservatives. You've got to be really quiet."

"Intense discrimination." Where is the outrage? This is a prime example of the hypocrisy of the liberal elite in America today. We will value you, love you, embrace you, protect you, as long as you THINK like we do.

Take the examples of Clarence Thomas, Miguel Estrada, or Condeleeza Rice. All are examples of minorities with great achievements in their fields. Naturally, they're esteemed by the same establishment for whom diversity is a core value to be protected and cherished, right?

Of course not. All are pilloried by the same liberal elites for not towing the party line when it comes to how they THINK.

How bad is it in our colleges and universities today?

Check out the Executive Summary of a report on "Political Bias in the Administrations and Faculties of 32 Elite Colleges and Universities" by David Horowitz and Eli Lehrer at Students for Academic Freedom.

In our examinations of over 150 departments and upper-level administrations at 32 elite colleges and universities, the Center found the following:

- The overall ratio of Democrats to Republicans we were able to identify at the 32 schools was more than 10 to 1 (1397 Democrats, 134 Republicans).

- Although in the nation at large registered Democrats and Republicans are roughly equal in number, not a single department at a single one of the 32 schools managed to achieve a reasonable parity between the two. The closest any school came to parity was Northwestern University where 80% of the faculty members we identified were registered Democrats who outnumbered registered Republicans by a ratio of 4-1.

Once again we find there is a "hostile environment" for conservatives in academia:

Without further investigation it is not possible to establish with any degree of certainty why this state of affairs has come into existence, but there are many obvious factors that may be said to have contributed to it. Among them is the very exclusion of conservatives from faculty and administrative positions itself. This in itself creates a hostile environment for conservative students contemplating an academic career. This core hostility is amplified by practices that have been incorporated into academic life in the last several decades, including campus speech codes and politicized classrooms – both which represent radical departures from the pre-Sixties academic environment. A comprehensive study by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (available at www.speechcodes.org ) found that over 90 percent of well-known college campuses have speech codes intended to ban and punish politically incorrect, almost always conservative, speech. (Cases available at www.thefire.org.) Student testimonies about in-classroom political indoctrination are available at www.noindoctrination.org.

I don't know about you, but I'm not too excited to send my kids to college and pay for them to be discriminated against, at best, for their conservative views, or indoctrinated, at worst. I'm deadly serious here. I refuse to pay for my kids to be fed a load of liberal bias.

Thankfully, we have a few years to fight back before I face that decision. Students for Academic Freedom has drafted an Academic Bill of Rights they are working to have adopted.

Also, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, (FIRE) has student guides available to inform students of their rights on campus.

We've let the bias in our universities go on too long. Time to stand up for the forgotten diversity, diversity of thought.

DC

Update: Mike Adams at Town Hall apparently had the same thing on his mind today, here. (Satire alert.)

Also, fixed up some stuff from when I was in a rush earlier. :)

Update: Daniel Drezner has a round up of links discussing the Brooks editorial in his post, The Oxymoron of Conservative Academics. (I'm trying to trackback to his post. Apologies in advance if it doesn't work.)

Do Your Part

Very strange goings on in this neck of the woods.

First, the Hubby and I decided on a whim to go out last night. That in itself is strange. Enough so that we had to look at each other and say, "Well where would we go?" (The options are somewhat limited in this neck of the woods with the sidewalks rolled up early, especially on a Sunday night. Heaven forbid a body should want to eat or something after 9:00 PM.)

Then, on the way home we pass the bank clock in a small town and see, 33 degrees. 33 DEGREES?????:

"No Way!" I protested.

After all, we had just walked to the car and I did have a lightweight jacket on, but it sure didn't feel like 33 degrees out.

The trusty van has an outside temp. display so we checked that. It read, N 31 degrees, (OK it had the degree sign but I'm too lazy to look it up right now.)

Still didn't feel that it could be that cold.

But, the final straw was ice in the dog's bowl this morning, confirming our worst suspicions.

Yes people, global warming has not yet conquered the midwest. *&#@^$)*@

Get with the program. We need more aerosols. Drive your car to the corner store instead of walking. Forego public transportation. Turn up the thermostat a few degrees.

You have your marching orders.

I expect the first freeze next year to at least be in October. OK?

DC

She Who Will Be Obeyed

The incredible Beth, formerly of Argghhh!!, has new Movable Type digs over at She Who Will Be Obeyed.

I like her. She even talks to the lonely blogger, (cue violins)........lol.

So go say Hi!

DC

P.S. Of course, we don't want to forget John, still at Argghhh!! right now. He has cool weapons. But I think a new MT home is under construction for him too.

Steve Harrigan on FOX - US Media Is Not Reporting the Positive

I happened to have FOX and Friends on this morning, when they interviewed Steve Harrigan, Mid-East Correspondent, who recently returned from Iraq. His theme was the U.S. media is not reporting any good news from Iraq, which is the exact reason for the new site Frontlinevoices.org. I grabbed the remote, backed up to the start of the story, and started recording on our PVR, (personal video recorder, like TIVO, except from DISH.) So, here is my first media report for Frontlinevoices.org.

Steve Harrigan: "You can sit in your hotel and report, you know, one U.S. soldier wounded every day just by reading on your laptop. But, we went out, we tried to see how 24,990,000 Iraqis, who aren't picking up a gun, are actually living."

The report went on to show an Iraqi who works in a cigarette factory. Harrigan rode the bus with him to his job, and reported he used to steal cigarettes from the factory to sell on the streets. Now he is paid four times more, but the factory is like an old Soviet factory, so the future is uncertain.

Speaking of the factory worker, Harrigan continues:

"Well he feels like, imagine if you turned on the TV every day and all you saw was Brian's face, (ed. note: Brian Kilmeade, FOX and Friends co-host), morning, noon, and night for 30 years. You turned on your laptop, Brian's face came up. Thirty years of pressure, you know. So, he's going to work today, like Monday morning. He's a happy factory worker. This is over. This incredible mental stress gone. You know, he was really happy and that's what you don't get over here.

I come back here. I was out in the boat last weekend in Tennessee, and some guy said to me, "They hate us over there, right? They want to kill us." That's the picture I think that everyone has over here and that's what they're talking about. You don't see a happy Iraqi. I've never seen one on TV."

The next segment was on an Iraqi bride. Weddings in Iraq have increased since the war. Previously you had to get approval from the Baathe party to get married. The bride ends with, "The future? Only my God knows."

Harrigan: "You know she's worried about what's going to happen. They do have things to worry about. They're worried about security. They're worried about what's going to come next. But, she said. "It's not going to stop us. We're going to keep getting married. Keep going out there.""

Steve Doocy, F&F co-host: "Is your message that if you watch a lot of television here in the United States, you see the bombing, you see the shooting, which is kind of like a spot news story here in the United States, but on the ground there life is chugging back to life?"

Harrigan: "You know, this has really made me think about how we do our job and are we giving the good picture or not, because I've seen it before in other countries, you know, how it's happened. But, this has happened to my own country now. I really think that we're giving the wrong picture, maybe because it's sexy to show a bombing, or maybe because it's laziness on the reporters part. We're missing it. We're missing it."

E.D. Hill , F&F co-host: "Why? You see them. You see them. Well, I think some people will look at your reports and will say, "FOX sent Harrigan out there just to show a rosy picture because they wanted to. Why aren't any other journalists seeing the picture you're seeing?"

Harrigan: "That is the thing I'm thinking about. I mean, there's a Gallup poll out now that says two-thirds of Iraqis think things are going to be better, almost 70%, in the next five years things are going to be better. They want U.S. troops to be there. That's what the majority says."

Kilmeade: "Unfortunately for the governing council, they lost their best advocate. She passed away this morning. Her quote was, "We will not let America lose. We know what they did for us.", which is so sad."

Harrigan: "It's tough but, the media's just killing this war."

Doocy: "Is it because the media are ganging up on Bush? They want to paint Bush to be a cowboy who's lost it?"

Harrigan: "I don't have the answer to why it's going that way. But, being over there, living there, sitting around eating kabob with a family for five hours, hearing what they're saying about Americans, and then coming over here, there's a huge gap in the two pictures."

Kilmeade: "On the good side, they're picking up garbage for the first time ever. There's local town councils just about everywhere. Ninety percent of schools are up, painted and rehabilitated. The teachers are back to work. The people are getting paid. There's no humanitarian crisis. It's the triangle."

Harrigan: "Do you want to see a report about somebody painting a school or do you want to see a bus bombing?"

Kilmeade: That's what America's used to seeing, the bus bombing.

Hill: "I want to see them both, but unfortunately you don't get that."

Harrigan: "Britt Hume. Tonight, 6:00. You'll see one more."

Hill: "We'll see both. We'll see both sides. Get the whole picture. What a rarity."

So, there it is folks. Even the media is saying the story is one sided. Harrigan will be reporting more of the other side of the story on Britt Hume's Special Report on FOX at 6:00 tonight.

DC

Announcing Frontlinevoices.org - Hearing BOTH Sides of Iraq and Afghanistan

If you've been watching for stories from our service people from Iraq, you will notice a theme. Many of them express disappointment that the media in the U.S. is only reporting the negative. Our military is over there literally birthing a new nation, but the only news we hear about is the latest attack, or the latest demonstration.

We hear over and over on the news, and from our politicians that the mission is a "failure". (I swear Nancy Pelosi on Bill Maher's show last Friday almost made me gag.) There's no regard for the realities of the difficulty of nation building, the time involved, and no one in the mainstream media is making the effort to report on the positives. (See my previous post here with concern about the bias from members of congress upon return from a visit to Iraq. See the report of the Gallup Poll here that says two thirds of Iraqis say freedom was worth it, (NYT registration required.)

Imagine how frustrating it would be to be over there helping people, getting schools open, repairing the neglected infrastructure, and no one will report it.

It really shouldn't surprise us. Look at your local evening news. If you were to judge your city based on their reporting you would think the only thing that ever happened in your city was criminal.

Let me finally get to the point.

Frank J. of IMAO came up with a great idea. One of the things bloggers do well is to follow the news. What if we make it our mission to tell the positive side of what our military is doing in an organized way, AND pursue the U.S. media to report the positive along with the negative?

This could be the beginning of something great. I really believe there's enough people who care and who have the motivation and skill to make a difference. Could this be the beginning of blogs having a more direct impact on what we see on the news?

You can find the original posts detailing what we want to accomplish here, here, here, and here.

The site to post verified, first hand accounts from people in Iraq or Afghanistan will be Frontlinevoices.org. Bookmark it and get the word out.

The site that's been set up to organize the project is now here. If you have a blog, publicize it. If you have time to help, ideas on how to proceed, contacts in the media, etc., this is the place to coordinate our efforts, to volunteer to help.

Let's support our troops by telling both sides of what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

DC

P.S. See my next post for an example of POSITIVE reporting. Does FOX read blogs?

Introducing..........The Puppy

Did I mention it's windy outside?

Here's a tip. Never, never, never, go to look at a puppy, unless you've already made a firm decision that you are bringing home a dependent. A dependent that will destroy your property, drag you outside in the worst blizzards and rainstorms, throw up at the most inconvenient times, (is there ever a convenient time?), leave disgusting surprises on your carpet. Did I miss anything?

Oh, I did. Never, never, never, believe your children when they swear upon their own lives that they will care for the dependent, notice if the dependent is starving or dying of thirst, promise they will get up at the crack of dawn to take it outside.

They're lying. Lying through their teeth. You have been warned!

Oh, and this picture is just to prove the Puppy has eyes.

He's two years old. How long will he be my Puppy? For life.

DC

Outside my window

Just thought I'd share the sunset with you, taken in my back yard a few minutes ago. (You know the drill. Click the picture for larger image.)

Two sunsets. No sunrises. Has anyone picked up on the idea that I'm not a morning person yet?

DC

It's Carnival Time!!!

Let's skip the clowns, OK? Clowns are scary. Like James Carville and Alan Colmes scary, (cue Twilight Zone music.)

Pathetic Earthlings is hosting the 53rd celebration of the Carnival of the Vanities.

Folks, there's enough there to blog-read for a week straight and it's very nicely categorized and summarized for your perusal.

Even better, admission is free! So get over there already.

DC

"I'm afraid it is killing our troops"

Congressman Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) writes in an editorial in The Atlantic Journal-Constitution about a congressional trip to Iraq:

On Sept. 14, I flew from Baghdad to Kuwait with Sgt. Trevor A. Blumberg from Dearborn, Mich. He was in a body bag. He'd been ambushed and killed that afternoon. Sitting in the cargo bay of a C 130E, I found myself wondering whether the news media were somehow complicit in his death.

News media reports about our progress in Iraq have been bleak since shortly after the president's premature declaration of victory. These reports contrast sharply with reports of hope and progress presented to Congress by Department of Defense representatives -- a real disconnect, Vietnam déja vu. So I went to Iraq with six other members of Congress to see for myself.

He goes on to report on all the good that is being done that the media is not reporting and more importantly makes the point that,

"The falsely bleak picture weakens our national resolve, discourages Iraqi cooperation and emboldens our enemy. "

I could not agree more. Please pass it on to all 10 democratic presidential candidates.

As they say read the whole thing..

Instapundit adds that more democratic members of congress are calling press coverage of Iraq unduly negative. He also has more, including some history of past post war transitions, in his Glenn Reynolds column on MSNBC. (How does the guy do it?)

DC