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A holiday wish: Don't forget New Orleans

I think we need to take some time away from preparing for whatever holiday we may celebrate to reconsider the greatest American tragedy in a century, the displacement of thousands of people from the wonderful, historic city of New Orleans. Though less than four months have passed since the devastating impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the catastrophe is already moving away from the front pages of newspapers and out of our thoughts. Yes, there is breaking news that deserves our attention. The Bush administration's domestic spying on American citizens without court approval is the issue of the moment, and a very serious one. But, we must be able to consider more than one important issue at a time to understand the complex world we live in.

The editorial board of the New York Times recently said what needs to be said about rebuilding New Orleans.

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.

We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.

There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.

At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a death warrant requiring no signature.

The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where they landed.

The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.

Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?

Losing a major American city.

Losing an American city. We are told to believe the risk of losing an American city is so great that the U.S. must engage in torture of innocent people whisked off to foreign soil, and, illegal spying on its own citizens, to prevent the loss from occurring. But, at the same time, an American city can be lost to a natural disaster and disinterest. Cognitive dissonance is nothing new in American politics. However, this situation is worse than most because a clock is ticking. If the former residents of New Orleans are not provided with a viable plan for rebuilding their home city soon, they will have no reason to return. Currently, thousands of them remain housed in hotels throughout the country at government expense. Most of these people had both employment and houses they owned before being forced to flee. All along, the better option for them has been to return to where they have roots, not to be scattered to the winds.

As the editorial board of at the NYT said, now is the time for Congress to act, but it is continuing to drag its heels. The most meaningful gift many of us can give this year is an email or letter to our Congressmen and Congresswomen saying we believe the reconstruction of New Orleans to be the highest national priority. At most, giving that gift will cost you fifteen minutes and a postage stamp. Please do it.

What's the art?

The fleur de lys has long been considered a symbol of New Orleans.

News: 'Gay chat mayor' Jim West recalled

It will not be official until the election results are certified, but Jim West of Spokane lost the title of mayor today. He gained notoriety in May as a resolutely Right Wing politician who trolled the Internet for barely legal male sexual partners. The scandal culminated in the recall election that ended at 8 p.m. Throughout the saga, West claimed that he had done nothing to warrant losing his job and that he was being pilloried for behavior that was purely personal.

The Spokesman-Review has the story.

Spokane voters ousted Mayor Jim West today.

Preliminary results in the all-mail special election have 65 percent of the ballots marked in favor of the recall, and 35 percent against.

The 59,501 ballots counted represent 54 percent of the 110,589 sent to voters nearly three weeks ago. Ballots will continue to arrive at the elections office for the next several days, but the margin of support for the recall makes it mathematically unlikely that West can reverse the results.

The charge on the ballot, based on reports in The Spokesman-Review, said West should be removed for using "his office for personal benefit." In his ballot response, West denied using his office for personal gain, said he had helped move the city forward by solving long-standing problems and better management practices, and apologized for "errors in my private life."

Under state law, West will officially be removed from office on Dec. 16, the day the election results are certified. Council President Dennis Hession will become the mayor pro tem until the council selects a replacement to serve the remaining two years of West's term.

West's problems with sexual misconduct may have begun decades ago, but the momentum for a recall election began when The Spokesman-Review published a long article reporting allegations that he may have molested boys while serving as a deputy sheriff, solicited teenagers for sex and offered city positions to young men as part of seduction attempts. Controversy arose over the newspaper's use of a computer technician posing as a high school senior at Gay.com, an Internet site where homosexual men socialize, to confirm West's identity and behavior. The computer technician mimicked the conduct of a teen who reported meeting West there, being courted, and ultimately having sex with the mayor in his car.

Both the public and some journalists questioned the ethics of the The Spokesman-Review using a hired hand to elicit information from West. The ruse ended after West appeared at a designated place for a sexual rendevous with the person he believed to be a high school senior.

I have never accepted West's claim that his behavior was solely personal. There are too many indicia connecting his secret personal life and his public life as a powerful politician. He used his position as mayor to impress would-be conquests. His city-owned computer was sometimes used for visiting Gay.com and similar sites. Some of those visits occurred during working hours. West downloaded thousands of pictures of men, some of them nude, others engaged in sex acts, to the computer. In addition, he is alleged to have offered a human resources position to a young man he was trying to date. Another young man says he was appointed to the city's human rights commission after West made bumbling attempts to attract his sexual interest on line. The unwanted advances continued until the he resigned his position and ended contact with West. There is additional evidence, but I think this information sufficient to establish that West's private and public lives had merged, with his apparent obsession with seeking out young males for sex getting the upper hand.

Some people are particularly offended by West's opposition to gay rights legislation as a state legislator, majority leader and mayor. They say that his role of closeted gay nemesis of homosexuals was particularly reprehensible. There is irony in that. But, I don't believe that West's homosexuality, which he denied until the scandal, is the key to the situation. A heterosexual politician who sought out girls and young women for sex, using city resources, and offering them paid or unpaid positions in the city bureaucracy, would be just as much in the wrong.

Citizens of Spokane have appeared reluctant to confront a politician with a reputation for playing hard ball until now. The recall campaign was led by a couple of people with no political experience or financial clout. It was underfunded, and, poorly publicized except for newspaper coverage. Though they gradually withdrew tacit support for him, business and most political leaders did not directly admonish West. Religious leaders were silent. The big picture that emerged was of a city in which people are reluctant to challenge the powerful. The secrecy of the ballot process seems to have given the city its voice. That voice has said 'No' to Jim West.

Internet: What's wrong with Wikipedia

Pajamas Media recently published comments from several bloggers about the Internet's foremost free, 'independent' encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a collection of material, some quite good, some godawful, contributed by volunteers. Unfortunately, the inability to distinguish fact from opinion is rampant, particularly on the Internet. Facts are, of course, provable, or, at least, the information closest to being confirmable. Opinion is whatever someone thinks, whether he has a rational basis for those thoughts or not. A roll-your-own encyclopedia encourages the distribution of opinion masquerading as fact.

My most recent bout with Wikipedia occurred after fact-based information emerged about New Orleans during the tragic first week following Hurricane Katrina. By the time that information became available there were already entries about the situation at Wikipedia. They embraced the sensationalist claim that thousands of people were rioting and looting, and that numerous assaults, rapes and murders had occurred. It was said that prisoners had been released from penal facilities and were running amok. As you know, only a handful of violent crimes occurred among the estimated 30,000 people who were stranded in the Superdome and civic center for as many as five days. Claims of looting were also exaggerated and there weren't any riots. Prisoners were either moved to higher levels of facilities or transported out of the area. They were not released.

I edited a couple of Wikipedia entries to replace the conjecture and wild speculation with the newly established factual information. For example, once the coroner confirmed the number of deaths in the Superdome and civic center, I posted those figures. Each time, for about a month, the editing I had done was replaced by people who took the entry back to the scenario of violent blacks rampaging. One would not have guessed that there was actually nominal violence or that there were issues of significant economic, social and political substance involved. After all, we are talking about the greatest natural disaster in the history of the country leading to the largest migration of American citizens ever. Eventually, I stopped editing the entries, allowing them to revert to 'the savages ransacked New Orleans.' The tenacity with which that viewpoint was being pushed confirmed that on an 'independent' encyclopedia opinion will often silence fact.

Letting anyone contribute to the site guarantees that result. Consider an excerpt from a Wikipedia entry about the League of the South, a hate group that promotes white supremacy.

The League of the South is a nationalist and secessionist organization headquartered in the Southern United States with chapters and members in a majority of states nationwide. Its leader is Michael Hill. It advocates for the South and Southern heritage in the realms of political and social discourse and over time the League hopes to achieve greater autonomy for the South either within a revived constitutional federalism in the United States or as an independent nation. Secession is openly discussed as leverage in order to secure many of the same rights Quebec has won through its own secession movement in the federation of Canada.

Politically, the League of the South defies normal definitions of Left and Right, being further right than Edmund Burke and further left than Karl Marx. Despite this paradox, it may be best characterized as Southern traditionalist, advocating both for greater political and cultural autonomy for the South against the dual onslaught of centralized government and global capitalism. The League proposes to build a new society on a foundation of government centered in communities, accountable to the people, and with an economy of self-sufficient farms and small businesses.

Read the rest of the entry and you will discover it continues in the same vein. An uninformed reader might think that the LOS is a group seeking a bucolic, agrarian future. There are only hints that the LOS seeks to divorce the South from the rest of America so that a white, Christian theocracy can be established. In that new nation women, nonwhites, and non-Christians would be deprived of civil and political rights. Considering that the League is one of the largest hate groups in the country, one would expect a more objective description. Instead, Wikipedia readers are treated to an entry written by Michael Hill, the president of the League of the South.

Wikipedia can be considered an acceptable source for basic information. I would trust it to tell me the difference between Fahrenheit and centigrade or to explain the metric system. But, a reader would be foolish to take a source with no safeguards to prevent bias seriously in regard to complex topics. Nor is the quality of much of the writing at Wikipedia equal to even the eigth-grade education standard of most newspapers. Reasonably priced encyclopedia software is available for both Windows and Macintosh computers. Encyclopedias also offer some access online, as do most mainstream newspapers and magazines. If you care about the accuracy of the information you disseminate, those fact-checked, usually reliable sources should be first among non-equals.

Reasonably related

This entry is not an endorsement of Pajamas Media. I believe it is intended to be another source for disseminating Right Wing opinion on the Internet.

Commentary: Bordens sought sameness

I have driven through Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. It is a semi-rural, sometimes sylvan area of dairy farms and modest businesses. The Amish provide local color. Lititz is best known for its chocolate factory, Wilbur Chocolate Company, as is Hershey. There are also some mock Bavarian buildings that draw attention. It took centuries for the population of Lititz to grow to its current 9,000 or so. Michael and Cathryn Borden, the couple apparently slain by their young daughter Kara's boyfriend, David Ludwig, last Sunday, relocated from South Carolina to Lititz seven to ten years ago. (Accounts differ.) Why would people move there? Most people wouldn't. Jobs are relatively scarce and often involve commutes to cities 30 minutes to an hour away. There's little in the way of cultural attractions. Still, there are reasons for a certain type of people to want to live in Lititz. What type? People who seek sameness. Census data explain.

As of the of 2000, there are 9,029 people, 3,732 households, and 2,407 families residing in the borough. The population density is 1,502.6/km² (3,884.0/mi²). There are 3,827 housing units at an average density of 636.9/km² (1,646.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough is 97.23% White, 0.44% African American, 0.09% Native American, 0.87% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.50% from other races, and 0.83% from two or more races. 1.52% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median income for a household in the borough is $40,417, and the median income for a family is $52,028. Males have a median income of $36,126 versus $25,997 for females. The per capita income for the borough is $20,601. 4.1% of the population and 2.6% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 3.9% of those under the age of 18 and 8.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

People who want everyone in their environment to look like them would probably find a town like Lititz reassuring. Philadelphia is only 60 miles away, but it might as well be on Mars for families who have opted out of the diversity of urban America. If you read between the lines, the data on gender and income is also telling. Women who work in Lititz earn only two-thirds of the income men do.

There is another reason why a couple like the Bordens would seek out Lititz. It is a haven for white fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, many of whom homeschool. And estimated one in ten children in Lancaster County is schooled at home.

A network of homeschool organizations has sprung up to provide support to the families in the form of tutoring, field trips for children and social gatherings. Most exclude non-Christian home schoolers. Some groups require that people sign agreements supporting their specific religious beliefs in order to participate. The groups are an alternative to allowing homeschooled children to mingle with those who participate in the public school system, which many Christian homeschoolers view with skepticism, if not contempt. A new state law that will allow homeschooled children to participate in extracurricular activities with public school pupils has met with ambivalence.

Parent Suzanne Ritchey is “torn.”

Ritchey lives just outside Neffsville and homeschools her four children.

On one hand, her family pays taxes, and her boys might want to play baseball for Manheim Township School District when they outgrow the recreation commission.

On the other hand, “Our family believes it’s best to rely solely on God and not usurp authority to the public school system,” Ritchey said.

The Bordens, members of a small reactionary sect known as the Plymouth Brethren, would have been particularly susceptible to such rigidity. The sect, founded in Ireland and England, is focused on strict adherence to 19th century tenets of Christianity and has an apocalyptic outlook. It does not recognize clergy, treating middle-aged and older men as leaders. Women are discouraged from playing an active role in worship and from working outside of the home.

Coverage of the Borden murders and ensuing investigation are rife with locals who declare the Bordens and Ludwig's the 'right kind of children'-- conservative and Christian.

"They were good kids and they were brought up very well. What I see is, they just made some bad choices," said Vera Zimmerman, 50, who has known the Bordens for seven years and is acquainted with Ludwig's mother.

Kara has been described by neighbors and friends as a bubbly, outgoing girl who occasionally baby-sat younger children in her neighborhood and liked to play soccer. She regularly attended youth group meetings and got along well with her sister, said Kevin Eshleman, executive pastor of Ephrata Community Church.

"In my mind, that generally indicates that things are going OK at home," Eshleman said.

Of course, the details emerging contradict the claim that all is well among the Christian homeschooling community there. At least one young teen who apparently stayed out all night with a man. A cache of 54 weapons in the Ludwig home. Video of another planned home invasion. Rumors that Kara Borden is at least the second girl that Ludwig has run off with. A conspiracy among homeschooled teens to keep information about the relationship between Kara Borden and Ludwig secret from adults.

The Bordens achieved their goal of living in a place where most people looked like them and thought like them. A large minority joined them in eschewing public and private education for their children, considering homeschooling superior because of its insular nature. But, they were not saved by sameness. Victims of violent crime usually know the offender -- a family member, friend or acquaintance. However, for some reason, perhaps cognitive dissonance, many people believe that trouble usually comes from outsiders. Cleave to sameness and shut out the Other, and you will be safe, they think. In Lititz, trouble has come from deep within.

What's the art?

A picture of Lititz Springs Park and Visitors Center.

News: David Ludwig reveals dark side of homeschooling

The homeschooling movement usually gets good press. That's partly because of demographics and organization. Homeschool parents are usually white, middle-class and articulate. The teaching parent, most often a stay at home mother, will present herself and her well-scrubbed brood as a slice of the supposedly idylic American past, circa 1950 or so. The fact that many homeschoolers are fundamentalist Christians helps, too. The fundamentalist and evangelistic sects are the strongest they've been in decades, deciding elections and influencing public policy. But, occasionally, a crack appears in the scrupulously maintained homeschooling facade. That has occurred this week with the flight to avoid prosecution, capture and charging of David Ludwig of picturesque Lititz, Pennsylvania. The homeschooled youth appears to have murdered his girlfriend's parents when they objected to an adult dating a child who would have been in junior high -- if she attended school. Yesterday, the revelations became even more disturbing. We learned investigators had discovered an arsenal in Ludwig's home.

CNN has the story.

LITITZ, Pa. (Nov. 17) - Police seized 54 guns from the home of an 18-year-old man charged with killing his girlfriend's parents and fleeing the state with her, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Warwick Township police removed the weapons, which included an array of rifles, shotguns, handguns and ammunition, on Sunday afternoon from the home where suspect David Ludwig lived with his parents. The search occurred as police were still trying to find him and 14-year-old Kara Beth Borden.

David Ludwig is being held without bail on murder and kidnapping charges after being flown back to Lancaster County on Tuesday from Indiana, where police captured him following a chase.

Police allege Ludwig shot Michael and Cathryn Borden shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday at their home in Lititz following an argument over his relationship with Kara. The two had been dating, apparently secretly, friends and witnesses said.

Ludwig is reportedly a hunter, but that does not explain the possession of such a large collection of weapons. (It may explain why the Bordens were killed with single, clean shots to the head. But, let's not rush to judgment. The suspect is innocent until proven guilty.)

The house full of guns was yesterday's news. Today's news is just as frightening. The Associated Press reports.

LITITZ, Pa. (AP) - An 18-year-old man accused of killing his girlfriend's parents and kidnapping her was videotaped discussing plans to conduct an armed raid on another family's home and kill people inside, according to court documents released Friday.

Police said another teen in the 18-minute video told them that the aborted break-in was among several such ``late night armed 'plans of forcible entry''' that he and David Ludwig conducted.

Ludwig and Samuel P. Lohr, 19, are shown in the video taking guns from Ludwig's house to a home and discussing using them to ``shoot and kill family members inside of the residence,'' according to a search warrant issued Thursday to Warwick Township police.

It's not known whose house was targeted, but it was not the home of Michael and Cathryn Borden, who were gunned down Sunday, investigators said.

The excuse that would have been offered -- that David Ludwig is a lone loon -- has been undermined before the home schooling movement could present it. The problems in Lititz are not about one or two home schoolees. As the investigation expands, other children and young adults who were aware of Ludwig's activities are likely to be implicated.

The arsenal and alleged plots offer clues to the dark side of the homeschooling movement. Though many home schooling parents may be merely separatists when it comes to allowing their children to interact with people who do not share their views, some are something worse than that. A deep strain of far Right beliefs runs through the homeschooling movement. Those beliefs include apocalyptic views based in religion, survivalist inclinations including caching weapons and ammunition, and patriarchal dispositions regarding the treatment of women. Homeschooling is common among adherents to the 'patriot movement', Christian Identity and white supremacist groups.

I have no objection to educational aspect of homeschooling. If a parent is qualified to teach a child better than the public or private schools, fine. After all, many parents tutor their schooled children. My qualms arise because of two non-educational aspects of the homeschooling movement: elitism and segregation. The message many homeschoolers are sending, usually politely, is: My children are better than yours. Expand that. They're saying their children are too good to be exposed to most of their peers. As a result of that attitude, homeschooled children are segregated from the norm. Not only do they not attend school, they are encouraged to associate only with other home schoolees. The result is a very heterogeneous, cult-like environment that doesn't prepare children for the heterogeneity of contemporary American life. It is a fecund environment for extremist views to take root. We are getting a glimpse into a homeschool community because of the Borden murders. Much of what we are seeing is evidence of what is wrong with the homeschooling movement.

Reasonably related

The Washington Post says David Ludwig's lawyer is trying to portray him sympathetically. The remarks were made before the news of the arsenal and alleged plans to commit home invasions were released.

Media: Ted Koppel leaving with lament

Ted Koppel definitely has a place on my list of most admired people. He is one of the newsmen and women who inspired me to become a journalist. One of the things I learned after achieving that goal is that most reporters are run-of-the-mill, seat warmers seeking a sinecure. Still, both broadcast news and print media sometimes exceed our expectations in providing insight into the issues and events of our times. Koppel is one of the minority of well-known journalists who make that happen. True to form, Koppel is taking the opportunity of his retirement from Nightline to take journalism to task for not doing enough.

The Washington Post recently discussed his semi-retirement with him.

Television executives, Koppel says, "live under the misapprehension that Americans don't care about foreign news. They don't care about boring news. If you present it in a boring fashion, then they don't care about foreign news. What really dictates here is the cost of foreign news. At a time that we really have to worry about what's going on in the rest of the world, what people in other countries think of us, we are less well informed by television news than we have been in many years.

"If the only time you cover foreign news is when you send someone, every foreign story is going to cost you a lot of money when you do it and likely to be less well informed than in the days when you had people who lived in the country for two, three, five, 10 years and understand the culture."

When I was in college, one of the words aspiring journalists learned was "Afghanistanism." The word meant a reference to a place so distant, and so irrelevant, that no one cared about it. Now, years later, we've learned that even Afghanistan is not the backwater we thought it was, that, indeed, it can be among the most newsworthy places on Earth. Though the word "Afghanistanism" has fallen into disuse, the attitudes of Westerners, including broadcast and print media executives, are still stuck in the past to an extent. It is doubtful that many of them will respond to Koppel's challenge that they spend more time and money on international news.

Fishbowl D.C. has also been giving some thought to Ted Koppel's departure.

Beginning the first of what we assume will be many a piece celebrating the end of the Ted Koppel's quarter century on the only late-night news show, Howard Kurtz looks at the legacy of the Nightline host as he prepares to step down later this month to pursue his own documentary projects:

Telling a story about Koppel's feelings on the war on Iraq, Kurtz opines, "It is classic Koppel: tough-minded, eloquent, focused on world affairs and sometimes, it seems, conducting his own foreign policy. As he prepares to relinquish the helm of the ABC program he launched 26 years ago, when his focus was entirely on Iran and the Americans held hostage there, it is hard to avoid the end-of-an-era language that followed the departures of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather and the death of Peter Jennings."

Koppel's last show (just before Thanksgiving) will focus on Morrie Schwarz and the author of Tuesdays with Morrie, which Koppel told Washingtonian was his favorite interview from a career with many possibilities.

Koppel's Nightline would be a hard act for anyone to follow. It is disheartening that the ensemble that will be taking over the show includes a person known for melodramatic entertainment interviews, Martin Bashir. We can only hope that the name of one of the finest broadcast news shows ever will not be tarnished.

Politics: Roy Moore will run for Ala. gov

The Montgomery Advertiser has state news of national consequence. A matter that should elicit yawns by now -- the separation of church and state -- can still be used to roil the waters and rile the masses. An Alabaman has decided to use fundamentalist fervor in much the same way another leader there used segregation de jure to his political advantage.

It's official.

Ousted Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is running for governor in 2006.

Moore, on Monday, announced his candidacy for the state's highest executive office. Montgomery resident Frank Hardy, a long-time Moore supporter and Republican, praised the former jurist for throwing his hat into the election ring.

"This country was founded on Christian principles, and I haven't seen anyone yet who will do the work that (former) Judge Moore will do," Hardy said. "I believe that he is the man for the job."

Local resident Jon Broadway had a different reaction.

"Oh, dear!" he said immediately after hearing about the announcement. "I can say safely that it would be the most tragic thing I can see for the state, to have him represent this state. It would make (former Gov.) George Wallace look like a distinguished gentlemen."

Moore likely will face incumbent Gov. Bob Riley, who is expected to announce whether he will run this weekend in the Republican primary next June.

The most irritating aspect is that Moore, a real life version of Sinclair Lewis' charismatic religious demagogue in the novel Elmer Gantry, has a real chance of winning. Not only have evangelical Christians urged him to seek higher office, some, including nationally recognized names such as Alan Keyes, have suggested a bid for the presidency. From Moore's perspective, the governorship of his state may appear to be small potatoes.

So, how did it happen? Some people would say that the current situation is based on Moore's imposition of a 5,000 pound granite monument on the Alabama judicial building after he was elected chief justice. That publicity stunt resulted in his being removed from office for violating the federal constitution in 2003. However, the roots of the evangelical fervor that leads some people to believe the country should be a Christian theocracy run deeper than that. The movement achieved significant strength in the 1920s. A consequence was passage of laws forbidding the teaching of evolution in about half the states. Such statutes were not deemed unconstitutional until 1968, when the Supreme Court of the United States heard Epperson v. Arkansas. The state supreme court had sidestepped the issue when a ruling allowing the teaching of evolution in public schools was appealed to it.

. . .Upon the principal issue, that of constitutionality, the court holds that Initiated Measure No. 1 of 1928, Ark.Stat.Ann. s 80-1627 and s 80--1628 (Repl. 1960), is a valid exercise of the state's power to specify the curriculum in its public schools. The court expresses no opinion on the question whether the Act prohibits any explanation of the theory of evolution or merely prohibits teaching that the theory is true; the answer not being necessary to a decision in the case, and the issue not having been raised.

SCOTUS reversed, rejecting the statutes because of their religious basis. It ruled that Arkansas was violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Government in our democracy, state and national, must be neutral in matters of religious theory, doctrine, and practice. It may not be hostile to any religion or to the advocacy of noreligion; and it may not aid, foster, or promote one religion or religious theory against another or even against the militant opposite. The First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.

. . .In the present case, there can be no doubt that Arkansas has sought to prevent its teachers from discussing the theory of evolution because it is contrary to the belief of some that the Book of Genesis must be the exclusive source of doctrine as to the origin of man. No suggestion has been made that Arkansas' law may be justified by considerations of state policy other than the religious views of some of its citizens. It is clear that fundamentalist sectarian conviction was and is the law's reason for existence.

Its antecedent, Tennessee's 'monkey law,' candidly stated its purpose: to make it unlawful 'to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.' Perhaps the sensational publicity attendant upon the Scopes trial induced Arkansas to adopt less explicit language. It eliminated Tennessee's reference to 'the story of the Divine Creation of man' as taught in the Bible, but there is no doubt that the motivation for the law was the same: to suppress the teaching of a theory which, it was thought, 'denied' the divine creation of man.

Arkansas' law cannot be defended as an act of religious neutrality. Arkansas did not seek to excise from the curricula of its schools and universities all discussion of the origin of man. The law's effort was confined to an attempt to blot out a particular theory because of its supposed conflict with the Biblical account, literally read. Plainly, the law is contrary to the mandate of the First, and in violation of the Fourteenth, Amendment to the Constitution.

After being removed from the court, Moore made a career of lecturing and touring with the Ten Commandments monument, called "Roy's Rock." He set up a political apparatus for himself that has resulted in incredible popularity throughout the South. His patronage also was a determining factor in his former aide, Tom Potter, being elected to the Supreme Court he had been ejected from.

If Moore is successful in achieving gubernatorial office in Alabama, the nation will be treated to historical deja vu. The situation that the Scopes trial was supposedly the death knell to, and that Epperson made officially verboten, will have reoccurred. There will be a state government that seeks to use religion as the foundation for its laws. Moore's popularity, and, the possibility that he can achieve this goal, reminds us that, for many Americans, an evolution in thinking about the roles of science and religion has not occurred.

News: Why Paris is burning

Now in their second week, the riots in France are no longer dismissible as an oddity. Sparked by the accidental deaths of two young teens who believed they were fleeing the police, the disorders have resulted in extensive damage to vehicles and property. Today, the New York Times reported a man was beaten to death after trying to put out a fire set by protesters. It is imperative that we consider why immigrant youths there are so angry. We must ask:

What happens to a dream deferred?

The unrest in France has given us an answer to that question as Arab and African youths, children of mainly Muslim immigrants, act out their disdain for a society they believe discriminates against and rejects them.

I think major media has done an effective job of covering the unrest -- reporting what is happening, and also reporting why.

The Associated Press has been covering the continuing violence.

The unrest is forcing France to confront long-simmering anger in poor suburbs ringing the big cities which are mainly populated by immigrants and their French-born families, often from Muslim North Africa. They are marked by high unemployment, discrimination and despair - fertile terrain for crime of all sorts and Muslim extremists offering frustrated youths a way out.

Government officials have held a series of meetings with Muslim religious leaders, local officials and youths from poor suburbs to try to calm the violence.

The director of the Great Mosque of Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, one of the country's leading Muslim figures, met Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Saturday and urged the government to choose its words carefully and send a message of peace.

``In such difficult circumstances, every word counts,'' Boubakeur said.

. . .Most of the overnight arrests were near Paris. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy warned that those convicted could face severe sentences for burning cars.

"Violence penalizes those who live in the toughest conditions,'' he said after a government crisis meeting.

Sarkozy also has inflamed passions by referring to troublemakers as ``scum.''

The Wall Street Journal has also offered balanced reportage (subscription required.)

The violence spread to other cities that have concentrations of Arab and African Muslim immigrants, including Strasbourg in eastern France and Cannes and Nice in the south. It also penetrated the previously untouched rich center of Paris, when two dozen cars were burned in the capital's historic Third Arrondissement and other areas. Authorities said Sunday that 1,295 cars were burned Saturday night around France, the highest toll since the riots began Oct. 27. Police made 186 arrests, bringing the total to more than 800 since the riots started. Dozens more public buildings were vandalized over the weekend. Bands of youths burned a nursery school, torched an ambulance and stoned medical workers coming to the aid of a sick person.

. . .Mr. [President Jacques] Chirac's team has so far failed to get a grip on the mobs -- and is being accused by many of making things worse. The unrest quickly spread from Clichy-sous-Bois to other Paris suburbs after Interior Minister and presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy called the rioters "thugs" and "scum" in an appearance on television news.

Despite the harsh words he aimed at rioters, Mr. Sarkozy is one of France's few mainstream politicians who champion greater rights for immigrants. He recently stirred controversy in his own center-right ruling party by proposing to let immigrants vote in local elections. He also was one of the first French politicians to call for affirmative action to help immigrants gain a role alongside France's all-white elite.

In France, frank public discussion of the plight of minorities is made difficult by the state's republican ideology. In official French thinking, the only thing that matters is whether a resident is a French citizen or not. The French census doesn't tally people by creed or ethnic background.

In reality, minority groups suffer much greater rates of joblessness than the white majority, and France has no national political leaders of Arab or African origin. A few businesses and schools have only just begun experimenting, cautiously, with small affirmative action programs.

The Washington Post also realizes that events have causes.

While French politicians say the violence now circling and even entering the capital of France and spreading to towns across the country is the work of organized criminal gangs, the residents of Le Blanc-Mesnil know better. Many of the rioters grew up playing soccer on [Mohammed] Rezzoug's field. They are the children of baggage handlers at nearby Charles de Gaulle International Airport and cleaners at the local schools.

"It's not a political revolution or a Muslim revolution," said Rezzoug. "There's a lot of rage. Through this burning, they're saying, 'I exist, I'm here.' "

Such a dramatic demand for recognition underscores the chasm between the fastest growing segment of France's population and the staid political hierarchy that has been inept at responding to societal shifts. The youths rampaging through France's poorest neighborhoods are the French-born children of African and Arab immigrants, the most neglected of the country's citizens. A large percentage are members of the Muslim community that accounts for about 10 percent of France's 60 million people.

Unfortunately, the Right Wing dominated blogosphere is largely missing the point of the riots in France. As is typical of white conservatives, these bloggers view the situation through a lens distorted by religious bigotry and racism. Many of them blame the violence on the 'nature' of blacks and Muslims. Don Surber's entry is rather typical.

My take is this is inevitable, more like the French Revolution than the Watts Riots. The possibility of my being wrong is 40% or better. But between European socialism and its inability to assimilate its immigrants, Europe is pretty screwed. Add on top of it a continent that has been inventing PC "rights" instead of political solutions, and well, you have the tinder for a revolution.

For those of us who grew up in big cities in the 1960s, the situation is eerily familiar.

I am curious to see how the various nations of Europe handle this inevitable confrontation. I wonder at what point they will publicly admit what is now coming clear: Giving aid and comfort to Palestinian terrorists eventually comes home to roost; the wolf eventually devours all the lambs.

WaPo's Molly Moore has a frontline report that consists of one man basically denying this is a Muslim thing. It just happens to be that all the rioters are Muslime (sic). (Eyeroll.)

Surber is referring to the same article I cited above. Moore reported that the immigrants and their French children are treated as second-class citizens, disproportionately poor, unemployed and disenfranchised. According to Surber that is irrelevant. Indeed, you will find no mention of the conditions immigrants live in his remarks. All we need to know about the angry youths in Paris is their race and religion, he would have us believe. The bigotry and sloppy thinking of persons like him notwithstanding, neither race nor religion explain the unrest in France. The circumstances of the French born youths are key to understanding why they have resorted to violence -- why a raisin in the sun explodes.

Reasonably related

The poem ""Montage of a Dream Deferred" was written by Langston Hughes (1902-1967).

Technology: Wi-Fi firms seek to Unwire Portland

Portland, Oregon joined the far flung constellation of American cities seeking to offer low price wireless connections throughout their areas yesterday. A half-dozen Wi-Fi providers submitted bids for the city's contract. Two of the biggest names that had expressed interest, local wired line provider Qwest Communications International Inc. and Hewlett Packard Co., dropped out of the process. That left an 800-pound gorilla and some chimpanzees. The Oregonian has been following the plan for the network for a couple years. It reported who the actual contenders are.

Five small companies and one giant applied Monday to take Portland wireless.

Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. is the biggest name in the bunch, joined by wireless companies from around the country and one from Portland. All are vying to build a network that would jointly serve the city and its residents, making high-speed, wireless Internet access available practically anywhere people have computers.

Monday afternoon was the deadline for companies to submit proposals for the Unwire Portland project. Plans tentatively call for the city to pick a winner by year-end and begin negotiating contract specifics. Portland hopes parts of the network will be online early in 2006, though it could take years to build out the entire project.

Details of each proposal will remain under wraps until the city picks a favorite, but bidders themselves have volunteered some details:

EarthLink, VeriLAN Inc. and MobilePro Corp. all indicated they expect wireless access would cost around $20 a month. That's on par with introductory rates for DSL service.

Bidders seem inclined to accept Portland's request that the network be open to competitors. Most proposals would allow rival Internet companies wholesale access to the Portland network, so they could use the network to serve their own customers.

. . .Bidders will be evaluated based on the "public benefit" their work would provide, the technology they plan to use, their proposed fees, business plans and ability to follow through.

The other competitors are said to be MetroFi Inc., of Silicon Valley, Cal., U.S. Internet Corp. of Minneapolis and Winfield Wireless of Vancouver. Estimated cost of building the city-wide network is $15 to $30 million. The expense will be eased by use of city-owned buildings and power poles for transmitters and other gear.

Qwest, which is saddled with debt, reportedly did not believe it would be able to build and operate the wireless network at a profit. HP recently failed to win a contract for a similar project in Philadelphia. Earthlink prevailed there.

Currently, plans for broad wireless networks subsidized by cities are mainly pie in the sky. Wi-Fi access is available through relatively expensive ancillary providers such as Tmobile, Wayport and Boingo Wireless. Combined with bills from cable modem or DSL service, as well as land lines and cell phones, they can result in communications costs of hundreds of dollars per month per household. A goal of wireless network projects is to reduce the cost of being online to a modest fee that even the low-income can afford. It is hoped that the Digital Divide -- the tendency of the affluent to be more likely to have home Internet service and better, faster forms of it -- will be ameliorated by citywide networks. Another hope is that the availability of omnipresent access will make communication within government more efficient.

Reasonably related

Learn the details of Portland's wireless network plan, including maps of the initial zones to be included, at Daily Wireless.

News: Dallas rejects New Orleans cop-outs

They probably thought it would be easy. Keep a low profile during the first week of turmoil after Hurricane Katrina. Then reappear at roll call claiming to have been incapacitated during those days. While taking advantage of the New Orleans Police Department's payroll and free vacation for its police officers, apply to cop shops in other cities. Perhaps you drove to Dallas, Charlotte or Memphis during your AWOL, maybe even in a stolen Cadillac, so you already have the lay of the land there. It is the kind of plan a sneaky person would be proud of. But, it didn't work for some NOPD cops.

The Clarion-Ledger has the story.

As many as 10 New Orleans police officers suspected of desertion during Hurricane Katrina have been rejected for employment by the Dallas Police Department.

Dallas Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson said his department's screening process for new applicants exposed about 10 New Orleans officers who vanished during the storm.

"When you are ready and take an oath of office and you do not fulfill that office, that's an issue for us and it should be an issue for law enforcement in general," Simpson said.

Capt. Marlon Defillo, a New Orleans police spokesman, said an investigation into "a small segment" of officers who failed to report to duty is under way. Defillo said the number of suspected deserters is far smaller than the original estimate of 250.

So far, no officers have been fired or suspended from the New Orleans department for leaving their posts. New Orleans police said it is possible some of the officers who applied for positions outside of the department may have resigned.

Typically for an outfit known for callousness, chicanery and corruption, the NOPD is trying to minimize the current scandals, including the leave or let go exit of the former police commissioner, the theft of hundreds of vehicles from a dealership, allegedly by cops, and the desertions. It is amazing that nearly two months later, not even one cop has been held accountable for being absent without leave. There have been reports of cops being in Baton Rouge and other cities, sometimes driving Cadillacs, during the time when they should have been serving the desperate citizens of the Big Easy. Nor is Defillo's claim that only a few cops deserted believable. No factual basis for reducing earlier estimates has been offered. A substantial number of the 1,700 member force was missing in action for at least a week after Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, the NOPD may never take action to discipline the cops who failed the citizenry so miserably. It is a relief to see someone taking the matter seriously, even if it is a deputy police chief in a city hundreds of miles away.

Reasonably related

In an investigative article, the Dallas Morning News concludes that the New Orleans Police Department has virtually no reputation left to protect.

NEW ORLEANS – The question worries even staunch law enforcement supporters: How can exhausted police in a city notorious for corruption and violent crime reassure citizens that it is safe to return and rebuild after Hurricane Katrina?

"Any city's foundation has to be built on public safety," said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans. "This morning, one of my first phone calls was from Houston – someone wanting to know if it was safe to come back to town with their kids. . . .Every mother and every father out there is wondering the same thing."

Their concern has grown as images of unruly police have been broadcast worldwide in the weeks since the hurricane, when some officers were accused of deserting the city and others of looting it.

. . .In the most recent incident, on Oct. 8, three cops beat a retired six-grade teacher in the French Quarter while a fourth manhandled a television producer covering the melee.

New Orleans has so much rebuilding to do that it is mind-boggling to even consider the tasks ahead. One of its most daunting challenges will be to build, possibly for the first time, a reasonably honest police department. That task should begin now.

News: Ad exec says women workers inferior

One sees over and over again that beneath the easygoing veneer of 'things are just fine the way they are,' a great deal of hard work goes on to maintain a status quo that is unfair to much of the population. Hurrricane Katrina exposed the disproportionate poverty low-income African-Americans are still subjected to. 'Morals' guru William Bennett revealed the racism lurking behind many a conservative's bonhomie. Now, Neil French, a very successful advertising executive, has dismissed women as fit to don a French maid's outfit and serve him drinks, but not to succeed in the business. It is true that much discrimination today is systemic, but it takes individual bigots to maintain even systemic discrimination. They are the most active in convincing people that failures of the system are because of the shortcomings of the people harmed, not because of inequities built into it. As long as such men dominate corporate Anerica and the government, efforts to achieve diversity will be stifled.

The Associated Press reports French is out of a job himself.

LONDON - One of the world's most flamboyant advertising gurus has left his job after reportedly telling an audience that women made poor executives because motherhood made them "wimp out."

Marketing giant WPP Group PLC said Friday it had accepted the resignation of Neil French — a one-time debt collector, trainee matador and rock-band agent who served as the group's worldwide creative director.

The firm, which is based in London and New York, told Britain's Press Association news agency that French had offered his resignation, and it had been accepted. WPP could not immediately be reached for comment by the Associated Press.

. . .French made the contentious remarks during an industry discussion in Toronto on Oct. 6. According to a report in the city's Globe and Mail newspaper, French said women did not make it to the top because "they're crap."

Nancy Vonk, a Toronto-based creative director at WPP subsidiary Ogilvy & Mather who attended the event, said French described women as "a group that will inevitably wimp out and go 'suckle something.

French's resignation should not be interpreted to mean he regrets his intemperate remarks. Like Bennett, French (pictured) steadfastly defends his belief that his views are accurate and acceptable.

Reasonably related

Blogger S. at The Accidental Runner, is more than passingly familiar with Neil French. She says better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

Politics: Gun law is security blanket for industry

The Congress of the United States has once again proven its capacity for cronyism and its inability to grasp reality. The reality it fails to grasp is that Americans are dying needlessly. By succumbing to the gun manufacturers' long courtship with legislation that protects the industry, Congress has sold out the people who elected it. Every year thousands of those citizens die because of gunshots, often by their own hands. Though you will never see it mentioned in a National Rifle Association ad, apocryphal claims of using guns for defense notwithstanding, suicide is the most common use a gun owner makes of his weapon. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that 67 percent of more than 16,000 homicides in 2003, the most recent data available, were committed with handguns.

The only ray of light in regard to this profoundly depressing decision is that there is a test case of the proposed security blanket for the gun industry awaiting the finalization of the law. The District of Columbia has a statute that will be in direct conflict with the law shielding manufacturers of guns from liability.

The Washington Post reports.

The House yesterday voted to shield companies that make and sell firearms from lawsuits by the victims of shootings, sending the legislation to the White House and handing the nation's gun lobby a paramount victory it has sought for years.

The House's 283 to 144 vote, less than three months after the Senate approved identical legislation, delighted President Bush, who portrayed it as part of the administration's drive to "stem frivolous lawsuits" and said he will sign it into law. Leading proponents of gun control immediately vowed to challenge the law's constitutionality.

Congress's decision has particular relevance for the District, the only place in the country with a law that explicitly allows victims of crimes involving semiautomatic weapons to bring legal claims. In April, the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the city's 15-year-old law, and the Supreme Court this month declined to hear the case.

Supporters and opponents of the legislation said the law would halt pending District government litigation trying to win compensation from gun manufacturers for medical costs and other expenses associated with shootings and several claims by local victims and their families. The pending suits include a federal lawsuit brought against Bushmaster Firearms Inc. by the relatives of Pascal Charlot, a victim of the 2002 rash of local sniper shootings.

The legislation is intended to cut off an avenue that gun-control advocates have used in recent years to exert leverage on the firearms industry, trying to curb the sale of weapons to criminals by holding it financially responsible for crimes. The National Rifle Association and other gun enthusiasts have complained that the expense of fighting lawsuits put manufacturers and gun stores on shaky financial ground, regardless of who wins the cases.

The Charlot case is about the weapon used by John Muhammad and his teenaged accomplice in the notorious D.C. area shootings. The gun seller had a lengthy record of weapons 'lost' from his store, but had never been held accountable by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms., which has had its enforcement authority weakened under the Bush administration. The plaintiffs seek to hold the manufacturer responsible for making the inherently dangerous semi-automatic weapon, and the gun shop's former owner responsible for 'losing' it. The situation highlights just who would be protected by the new law (Bushmaster and the gun seller), and who would be left without relief (the survivors of a man who died partly because of the easy availability of lethal weapons).

The passage of this legislation is also one of those times when one is reminded Democratic politicians care more about a potential backlash that might effect their electability than they do about standing firm for what is best for the citizenry. Fifty-nine Democratic representatives voted in favor of the bill.

News: Intelligent design defense fails

Several recent articles have captured the reasons why intelligent design, a 'scientific' dust cover for creationism, fails the smell test for anyone with a human nose, an imperfect organ certainly. But before we consider a couple of them, let's revisit the definition of creationism. The defense in the Scopes II trial would like us to conveniently forget that creatonism is the issue, claiming intelligent design is something else. However, the claim does not hold water much better than the human bladder.

creationism |krēˈā sh əˌnizəm|

noun

The belief that the universe and living organisms originate from specific acts of divine creation, as in the biblical account, rather than by natural processes such as evolution.

• another term for creation science.

Note that creationism has also been presented as 'science,' just as intelligent design is by its advocates currently. But calling a belief system, the most charitable term for creationism and intelligent design, 'science,' does not make it science. To be a science, a field must rely on analysis of the natural world by observation and experimentation. When one relies on some other type of analysis, one is no longer practicing science.

Observing the trial for Slate, Hanna Rosin has a seat for a shock and awe defense. The dispenser of both is Martin Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, and the star of the intelligent design movement. Behe, bespectacled because of faulty eyesight, one presumes, has attempted to convince the judge presiding over the trial that when he spoke of belief in God as an integral part of intelligent design in the past, he was speaking as a philosopher.

Just over a year ago, the Dover [Pa.] school board voted to require ninth-grade biology teachers to tell students about "problems in Darwin's theory" and to mention intelligent design as an alternative theory of evolution. Eleven parents sued the district in federal court. The case has played out like an adult education class; the plaintiffs have called to the witness stand biologists, paleontologists, textbook writers, and science historians. All have reiterated the plaintiffs' main point: Intelligent design is just creationism hiding behind a lab coat, Genesis posing as science, a Trojan horse of the religious right. But it's obvious from Monday's testimony that this is an oversimplification. Perhaps the old creationists and the ID people share a common ancestor, but the ID folks have undergone so many stages of evolution that they are now a barely recognizable subspecies.

...Thank God for cross-examination. In 1987, the Supreme Court ruled that states can not require schools to teach creationism alongside evolution. So, the plaintiffs are intent on proving ID is just another form of creationism. To do that, Eric Rothschild, the sharp ACLU attorney, does the courtroom equivalent of "This Is Your Life," trotting out all of Behe's more embarrassing friends and relations. To give students a fuller understanding of ID, Dover's ninth-grade biology teachers are now required to read in class a statement referring them to a textbook called Of Pandas and People, which the schools will keep in their libraries. Behe wrote sections of the textbook and has called it an "excellent reference for students." But the book is not nearly as careful as Behe is to avoid the old creationist lingo: "Intelligent Design means that various forms of life began abruptly with distinguishing features already intact: fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks and wings, etc," Rothschild reads out loud from the book. Behe can manage a defense of why that statement is still consistent with certain well-accepted evolutionary principles, but it's a stretch. The passage sounds an awful lot like Genesis.

Rothschild then points to some of Behe's own writing in a magazine called "Biology and Philosophy," where Behe mused about the identity of the Great Designer. What if the existence of God is denied at the outset? he asks himself in an article. Well, yes, he admits, for those who deny God's existence, ID is much less plausible. Finally, he gets to what so far counts as the smoking gun in this trial: a 1999 article in "the Wedge," a publication of the Discovery Institute (the main outlet for ID research), where Behe is a fellow. In it, ID theorists plot their "five-year strategic plan" with Behe as the crucial tool to "reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview, and to replace it with a science consonant with Christian and theistic convictions."

The creationist movement decided to drop 'creation science' in favor of 'intelligent design' as part of a longterm strategy after efforts to convince courts creationism is science failed. Other than the name, the only other distinguishing feature between the two terms is that, of late, inteligent design advocates are not supposed to explicitly say the designer of the natural world they have in mind is God. However, as the plaintiffs' attorneys have demonstrated in Scopes II, the effort to cover up the obvious is so new that even the star witness for the movement has been explicit about the designer being a Christian God relatively recently.

The York Daily Record/Sunday News examined another attempt to present intelligent design as a science that will merely balance another science -- evolution.

HARRISBURG — Michael Behe testified on Tuesday that he considers God the intelligent designer, but that the scientific concept he supports doesn’t require the designer’s identification.

The distinction made by Behe, a biochemistry professor at Lehigh University, is a significant point of contention between plaintiffs and defendants in the First Amendment case in U.S. Middle District Court.

Several supporters of intelligent design, including two court spectators, Alina Kline and the Rev. Jim Grove, agree with Behe that the concept is scientifically based, and that the designer is a Christian God. Supporters of the statement say it does not violate the Constitution’s establishment clause because the designer doesn’t have to be a religious figure.

But, implying that there is a God responsible for the creation of life is the raison d'etre for intelligent design. Without the appeal to the supernatural, the religious, intelligent design lacks any reason to be at all. We have a fairly plausible theory to explain the development of the natural world -- evolution. Only if one is seeking something different does a need for creationism or intelligent design arise. Nor does the 'silent' designer pretext convince. It closely resembles 'silent' prayer, the practice in which a moment of silence replaces overt prayer. The courts have held that silent prayer cannot be used to evade the constitutional barrier to practicing religion in public schools.

Last, but not least, as you may have gathered, I'm far from impressed by intelligent design's emphasis on the perfection of the natural world. It makes me wonder if the advocates pay attention to their own bodies. If they did, there would be no doubt in their minds that though the human body is mostly functional, it is not the work of a perfectionistic designer.

Reasonably related

The Washington Post is also covering the intelligent design trial. In its coverage, Behe disputes the theory of natural selection.

Technology: There's more to Apple than polishing

Jack Shafer at the Internet magazine Slate is in curmudgeon mode. He is beside himself because of the latest news from Apple Computer Inc. Shafer believes the company, progenitor of the increasingly ubiquitous iPod, gets too much good press. He describes reporters who write about it as "Apple polishers." The occasion for Shafer's tech temper tantrum is the announcement of Apple's new Video iPod and an accompanying deal to sell videos of the most popular new television shows at the iTunes Music Store. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the latest Apple events Wednesday.

The pairing of the V-iPod announcement with news that the iTunes store will sell Desperate Housewives and other ABC fare drove the story to Page One of USA Today and onto the biz fronts of the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. Among American newspapers, the New York Times is easily the most enamored of things iPod, having run 63 stories with the word "iPod" in the headline in the last 12 months. That's almost as many as the Post and the Los Angeles Times combined.

. . .Apple manipulates several narratives to continue to make its products interesting fodder for journalists. One is the never-ending story of mad genius Steve Jobs, who would be great copy if he were only the night manager of a Domino's pizza joint. The next is Apple's perpetual role as scrappy underdog—reporters love cheerleading for the underdog without ever pausing to explore why it isn't the overdog. (This is why the Brooklyn Dodgers will always rate higher in the minds of writers than the superior New York Yankees.) Apple incites fanaticism about its products via ad campaigns and evangelist outreach programs designed to make its customers feel as though they're part of a privileged and enlightened elite. One unnamed loser at Slate says today's V-iPod news made her want to rush out and buy one, even though she already owns two iPods, one of which she bought three weeks ago.

The problem with Shafer's argument is that he lacks much good ammunition. A person can bemoan Steve Jobs' charisma hours on end, but it is the success or failure of the products his companies produce that really matters. Contrary to what Shafer implies, there have not been that many Apple failures. More often than not, the tendency to upgrade tech products in two or three years explains the demise of past Apple computers. The only relatively recent computer to be dropped from the line because of poor sells was the Macintosh G4 Cube in 2001. It retains a community of admirers, as does Apple's Newton, an early personal digital assistant, discontinued in 1998. Shafer's claim that the iPod Photo was scrapped is false and suggests he should have done more research before penning his piece. The iPod Photo is simply the first color screen iteration of today's full-size iPod. Once Apple decided to add color screens to all of the model, the name became obsolete. Everyone who owns a current a full-size iPod owns what was formerly called an iPod Photo.

A more legitimate criticism of Apple is that it should have maintained more of its market share, about 12 percent in the 1991, than it has. The current American market share of at least 6.6 percent (online sales excluded) is an increase from a low of less than three percent in 2000. However, one should include in the analysis the fact that Apple's goal is be a successful boutique computer maker, not to unseat rival Microsoft, which has most of the market share, but not Apple's reputation for innovation. Arguably, a reasonable share of the market for Apple as a computer maker would be 8 to 10 percent.

Is it true that the media trumpets Jobs' teeth cleanings and praises every Apple product to the heavens? No. Apple's high visibility wins it negative as well as positive press. When environmentalists were looking for a computer company to scold over insufficient recycling of components earlier this year they chose Apple because of of its reputation for 'thinking different.' Even small flaws in Apple products are spotlighted because of that visibility. Apple is now the only manufacturer of MP3 players that will replace the battery and recycle the discarded devices partly because of unfavorable publicity in the media. Recently, use of flawed glass in a relative handful of the recently released iPod nanos resulted in a flurry of articles in the press and a web page hosted by an upset purchaser. Soon after, Apple promised to replace the small number of nanos with screens that cracked easily.

Shafer's tantrum may have felt good, but he has not supported it with proof of his hypotheses. He offered no proof that Apple's products are sows' ears being sold as silk purses. Apple's popularity with the press is not monolithic. Not only is Apple sometimes criticized, the business press keeps a wary eye on whether it can maintain its 74 percent of the portable music player marker. Furthermore, Shafer has said nothing to disprove the widespread belief that Apple's innovation in design is good for the tech world in general. That alone would be reason enough for the media to pay attention to the company.

Reasonably related

The Washington Post reports on Apple's newest products. Rob Pegoraro considers the pros and cons of purchasing a Video iPod.

Opinion: Miers' support for civil rights not enough

I recalled a quotation that applied to Harriet Miers' situation soon after President George W. Bush nominated her to fill the remaining open seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. I located the prescient remark yesterday.

"Even if [Judge Carswell] is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they -- a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Cardozos, and Frankfurters, and stuff like that there." Sen. Roman Hruska (R-Nebraska), defending, in 1970, failed Nixon-nominee, Judge G. Harold Carswell, against criticism that he was "mediocre."

Though he had spent most of his career as a jurist, Judge Carswell's nomination to SCOTUS was not confirmed, mainly because of his white supremacist views. He was again the focus of controversy in 1976 when he was accused of soliciting sex from another man in a public restroom in Atlanta.

I can't for a moment deny that many lawyers, perhaps most, are mediocre. But, I don't believe that is a reason to elevate mediocre legal professionals to important judgeships. The most recent confirmation of a Supreme Court nominee without of a record of analytical thinking, and, with a career of being a token and yes man, has proven that mediocrity matters. Clarence Thomas has made no meaningful contribution to American jurisprudence, even while warming a seat on SCOTUS.

President Bush's nomination of Miers is an symptom of his psychology. He is a person who trusts mostly those he considers his friends. That singular attribute, 'my gal Harriet,' is reason enough for him to have nominated a woman with even less of a history of making difficult decisions than the recently displaced former chief of FEMA, Michael Brown, another mediocre lawyer. Though collegiality is appreciated on the Court, its business is analysis of the most significant issues of our times. Miers' largely blank paper trail provides little evidence that she has the ability to do the work expected of a justice on the Supreme Court.

A correspondent e-mailed me news of Miers supporting a civil rights challenge in Dallas, and, supposing divestment from corporations that supported the South African government during apartheid. He wondered if the evidence of her concern about racism, an issue I care about deeply, would sway me. The article from the Chicago Tribune (registration required) is revealing.

WASHINGTON -- In what appear to be some of her only public statements about a constitutional issue, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers testified in a 1990 voting rights lawsuit that the Dallas City Council had too few black and Hispanic members, and that increasing minority representation should be a goal of any change in the city's political structure.

In the same testimony, Miers, then a member of the council, said she believed the city should divest its South African financial holdings and work to boost economic development in poor and minority areas.

Miers' thoughts about racial diversity placed her squarely on the progressive side of the 1990 suit, which was pivotal in shifting power in Dallas politics to groups outside the traditional, mostly white establishment.

Some constitutional scholars say that if Miers were to embrace the same views as a high court justice, she would fall more in line with the court's pragmatic, moderate wing than with its doctrinaire extremes.

"There's an acknowledgement in her comments that race matters and is relevant, and from a fairness standpoint, we should acknowledge the impact of a particular political structure on voters of color," said George Washington University law professor Spencer Overton, a voting rights expert. "It's not unlike something you could see Justice Sandra Day O'Connor saying. A rigid quota system may be bad, but diversity is a compelling interest, and we want institutions to reflect society as a whole."

Though these instances of Miers actually opening her mouth and saying things that mattered occurred 15 years ago, they may indeed be signifiers that she is not one of those people who insist that race is no longer an issue in determining how Americans live. I was pleased to be informed of her willingness to confront the powers that be in Dallas, which had a minority population of 40 percent, but next to no black or Hispanic public officials at the time. But, this evidence of good works must be considered with the rest of her record. Because of the paucity of evidence of much of anything in that record, I must agree with the general consensus. Miers is too much of an unknown to elevate to the highest court in the land.

Reasonably related

~ Washington Post editorial writer Eugene Robinson says he is bewildered by the Miers nomination.

~ Robinson's colleague Richard Cohen thinks the president is sending us a message about abortion, using a peculiar code.

Commentary: Jurors key to DeLay's fate

Some friends are disappointed that I don't respond in kind to their glee about the indictments of until recently House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sweetwater, Texas). It is not that I don't believe that DeLay is as crooked as the day is long. I do. But, an indictment is an indictment and a conviction is a conviction. Travis County Prosecutor Ronnie Earle's indictments of DeLay will not necessarily result in convictions. I say that based on my take on what a powerful Republican like DeLay can expect from a Republican jury in his neck of the woods. If the cases even make it to trial, DeLay will be judged by the people who have sent him to Congress time and again. The people who applaud his manipulation of redistricting to increase the number of Republicans from Texas there. The people who recall him fondly as "Hot Tub Tom," a happy-go-lucky Everyman that Middle America can relate to.

Nor to do I see the evidence as slam dunk. I can envision a simple scenario that would result in acquittals. All it would take is a few simpletons on the jury. As you know, the facts of the case turn on the providence of a check for $190,000 written in 2002. DeLay's political action committee sent the check, which was backed by corporate donations, to the Republican National Committee. Under election law, the funds could not be spent on or by Texas Republicans. Almost simultaneously with the donation of the check for $190,000 to the RNC, several GOP candidates from Texas received donations from the RNC that happened to amount to, you guessed it, $190,000.

The Washington Post has reported the specifics.

Former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) met for at least 30 minutes with the top fundraiser of his Texas political action committee on Oct. 2, 2002, the same day that the Republican National Committee in Washington set in motion a series of financial transactions at the heart of the money-laundering and conspiracy case against DeLay.

During the meeting at his Capitol office, DeLay conferred with James W. Ellis, the head of his principal fundraising committee in Washington and his chief fundraiser in Texas. Ellis had earlier given the Republican National Committee a check for $190,000 drawn mostly from corporate contributions. The same day as the meeting, the RNC ordered $190,000 worth of checks sent to seven Republican legislative candidates in Texas.

In the past two weeks, two separate Texas grand juries have returned indictments against DeLay, Ellis and a political associate alleging that these transactions amounted to money laundering intended to circumvent a Texas campaign law barring the use of corporate funds for state election purposes. The aim of the alleged scheme was to ensure that Republicans gain control of the Texas House, and thus reorder the state's congressional districts in a manner favoring the election of more Republicans to Congress.

Back to our hypothetical jury. Let's cut to the chase. The jurors are convened. They have transcripts of testimony, bank records and printouts of telephone conversations among DeLay and his associates before them. But, that is not what is being discussed. Three stubborn jurors are taking turns making the same point over and over again. The money sent to the candidates for the GOP was not the same money as the check for $190,000, they say. It was different money, so DeLay and the other defendants engaged in no wrongdoing. Nothing the other jurors say can sway them. They are confused by the breaking down of the sum into separate checks of varying amounts. (But totaling $190,000.) The only way they would convict is if the check returned to Texas was for $190,000. That's stupid, you say. I agree. But, many a criminal case turns on convincing simpleton jurors despite the difficulty they have grasping simple facts.

In novelist Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the hero, defense attorney Atticus Finch, says in summation:

I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and in the jury system -- that is no ideal to me, it is a living, working reality. Gentlemen, a court is no better than each man of you sitting before me on this jury. A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up.

I hope that Earle's prosecution is successful, or, second best, acquittals occur for reasons less puerile than the scenario I've described. But, the limitations of jurors, and thus courts, may allow Tom DeLay to walk away from prosecution with his reputation under his other nickname, "Teflon Tom," intact.

News: New woes for hurricane survivors

There is a tendency in the blogosphere to move on to the news du jour. I had prepared an entry about stealth U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriett Miers. But, I think that the consequences of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are just as newsworthy as who sits on SCOTUS. There is much happening to survivors and evacuees that we still need to be concerned about.

~Gone, but not forgotten

Scout, at Scout Prime has learned that some areas of New Orleans twice deluged Ninth Ward have not been searched for bodies, despite the official end of the body retrieval program. Survivors told CNN that searchers have ignored about 150 homes in their neighborhood. They believe there are bodies in those homes.

Five weeks after Katrina, New Orleans is calling off the house-to-house search for bodies. Teams have pulled 964 corpses from storm-ravaged areas across southeastern Louisiana. Authorities admit more bodies are probably out there. They'll be handled on a case-by-case basis. The count is far short of the 10,000 dead once predicted by New Orleans mayor. As of today, the death toll from Hurricane Katrina stands at just under 1,200.

Searchers and residents insist there are still plenty of dead to find in New Orleans.

Scout believes that the decision to end the official search just when the Ninth Ward became searchable is a judgment about the worth of the lives lost there.

As we ponder William Bennett's racist comment the evidence of American racism is going almost un-noticed in NO. Tell me if this was a white neighborhood that those homes would go unsearched. We went to great pains to recover every little bit of human remains at Ground Zero but in Black America we won't even bother to pick up bodies. This is an outrage. That practically no one is saying so is even more outrageous. How quickly we forget. Let's not forget these people's dignity. Again.

I foresee quite significant discrepancies between the number of people reported dead in New Orleans and the number of bodies retrieved. Sadly, I also foresee that the survivors' concern will be cavalierly dismissed.

~Don't let the door knob hit you

The people more or less imprisoned in the fetid purgatory that the Convention Center and Superdome in New Orleans became probably would have given a not particularly useful body part for a clean hotel room. But, only a few weeks later, some hotels are ordering Hurricane Katrina evacuees to move out. The San Jose Mercury News reports.

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. - At least one hotel chain has asked some Hurricane Katrina evacuees to check out so it can honor the reservations of incoming guests. Hilton Hotels, the parent company of Hampton Inn and other brands, is trying to find other rooms for the evacuees but said they were warned when they checked in that their stays would be limited by room availability, said Hilton spokeswoman Kathy Shepard.

"We're doing our very best to accommodate these people," she said.

It's an uncomfortable situation for the hotel industry: risk bad publicity for kicking out hurricane evacuees, or anger big-spending repeat customers who travel for business.

Hurricane evacuees - often several family members packed into a single hotel room - can be a burden on hotel staff. They also use more water and electricity, and do not spend much on food and incidentals.

They "could be occupying a room that could otherwise be occupied by a higher-paying guest who's spending lots of money on telephone, food and beverage," said Bjorn Hanson, a hotel industry analyst with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in New York.

The 'business necessity' argument does not really hold up, in my opinion. There has been adequate time to inform people that reservations made weeks or months ago cannot be honored. After all, those would-be guests can either pay for other lodging or reschedule their meetings and conventions. The evacuees, however, may be rendered homeless after being forced out.

A Lousisiana evacuee says that she was more or less kicked to the curb. Her disabled, elderly parents barely escaped the same fate.

A Hampton Inn in Brookhaven, about two hours north of where Katrina struck, asked Barbara Perry of Folsom, La., to move out last week. She was living in the hotel with her parents and her three young children, and she was driving almost 90 miles a day to work.

"They told me if I didn't pick my clothes up, they were going to call the police," Perry said.

Her mother, who uses a wheelchair, and her father, who is blind, were also told to check out, but they were granted an extension after a Red Cross volunteer intervened, said Perry's mother, Betty Myers.

I guess charity, even when it is being paid for, does not begin at Hilton Hotels.

~Keeping the home fires white

To have the bodies of one's loved ones ignored by FEMA and other agencies must hurt. To be evicted from one's temporary home in a hotel despite having donenothing to deserve it must be disheartening. But, to learn that a shelter will not be approved by a zoning commission because residents of an area claim, without proof, evacuees would be a danger to them, is outrageous. Anyone who doubts that irresponsible behavior like Bill Bennett's contributes to racism need look no farther than what is happening in northwest Ohio, to confirm it does.

RIDGEVILLE CORNERS, Ohio - After an emotional public hearing last night in this Henry County rural community, the welcome mat was pulled from a temporary housing project for hurricane evacuees.

Opponents of plans to convert portions of Christ Community Church raised concerns and questions during the session attended by about 150 residents in the fire hall in Ridgeville Corners. Following a closed-door executive session, the Ridgeville Township board of zoning appeals unanimously rejected the church's request for a conditional use permit that was needed to allow the relief project to move forward.

Work on the renovation of the second floor of the church, begun a few weeks ago, was halted after Don Barnett, pastor, and his wife, Carol, assistant pastor, learned that zoning and building permits would be needed before they could proceed.

. . .Mr. Barnett said that the media has portrayed the hurricane victims as "angry blacks" who have a welfare mentality, and who have been in the welfare system for a long time. "It does not take a rocket scientist to look around and see that there are no black people among us," he said, adding that "there is a lot of racial prejudice in northwest Ohio, in this area."

He further said that blacks are not here "because they are not welcomed here."

The minister had offered to pay for background checks to be conducted on evacuees who moved into his facility, quite a compromise when one considers that most people have no criminal background information on their neighbors. There is no evidence that evacuees commit crimes at a rate any higher than other Americans.

Kudos to the Toledo Blade for following this story through several zoning meetings. But for the newspaper's attention, racial discrimination would have been under rug swept.

We are a society with a short attention span. Already, attention is shifting away from the survivors and evacuees to the Miers situation and a likely groundless terrorism alert. But, the difficulties facing hurricane these people will be present for weeks, months and years to come. Since they are largely defenseless, it is our voices that must state their case. We must call or email FEMA and the governor of Louisiana in regard to sloppy body recovery procedures, Hilton Hotels about evicting the already traumatized evacuees, and the decisionmakers in Ohio who paraded their bigotry. (The inspector who led the charade is Ed Nagel.) If Americans who care about the survivors and evacuees are not vigilant, the victims will be further abused.