South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson heckled the president during the president’s speech?
South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson at the president's speech - New York Times photo by Doug Mills
I wonder what those people seated around Wilson felt, and did, immediately after.
Wilson’s opponent got a huge boost in fund raising. Plus, it provided the president’s speech with a res ipsa loquitur moment.
Share this with Miss Manners, and your friends:
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Ethics, Politics | Tagged: Ethics, Politics | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Santayana’s Ghost notes there’s an 1852 Whiggy smell about the Republican Party these days.
Thomas L. Friedman writes at the New York Times:
The G.O.P. used to be the party of business. Well, to compete and win in a globalized world, no one needs the burden of health insurance shifted from business to government more than American business. No one needs immigration reform — so the world’s best brainpower can come here without restrictions — more than American business. No one needs a push for clean-tech — the world’s next great global manufacturing industry — more than American business. Yet the G.O.P. today resists national health care, immigration reform and wants to just drill, baby, drill.
“Globalization has neutered the Republican Party, leaving it to represent not the have-nots of the recession but the have-nots of globalized America, the people who have been left behind either in reality or in their fears,” said Edward Goldberg, a global trade consultant who teaches at Baruch College. “The need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the multinational corporate manager, the eastern financier and the technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”
Drum up some business:
1 Comment | air pollution, Business, Business Ethics, Clean Air Act, Climate change, Economics, Global warming, Globalization, Health care, History, Lessons of history, Politics, Santayana's ghost | Tagged: air pollution, Business, Business Ethics, Climate change, Economics, Global warming, Globalization, Health Care Reform, History, Politics, Santayana's ghost | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
1 Comment | Creationism, Evolution, Humor, Rampant stupidity, Science, War on Science | Tagged: Creationism, Evolution, P. Z. Myers, Rampant stupidity, Science, War on Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A friend notes:
We made [our daughter]l watch it at home, because her school — a Lutheran/Missouri Synod school — wouldn’t show it. (Of course.)
She has always LOVED President Obama for very eight year old reasons. He has two little girls. His wife is pretty. He bought his daughters a puppy.
Well, after hearing him say “do your homework”…”try again”…”obey your parents and teachers”…”work hard”…”never stop trying”…etc…
She said…
“Daddy, I wish Bush was President again.“
Now just sit back and let that sink in.
Leave a Comment » | Education, History, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Education, Education Speech, History, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
On September 7th, 2009 Misfit4Peace says:I was listening to some talk radio show tonight when I had to run to the store for a few things…So Im sitting in the parking lot..and this guy calls in…talks about his wife being a teacher…and the meno she got about Obamass visiting schools…
It seems the schools..some by force if they dont want a major budget cut..are making the kids write letters to Obamass telling him how proud they are of him..how they hope healt care is past so they will be able to go to good doctors..and how they all promise to serve him.
The kids are all made to learn the history of Obamass with of course all the lies and bs that goes with it…Songs where..it seems..written about him and the children will be singing them before and after the broadcast.
The older students…age 12 and up..will be ask to (forced really or face a bad grade and God knows what else) to sign a pledge to his new government!…
I just sat there for a moment….glad my daughter was out of school and my g/son isnt in yet.Freedom is another way to God…A corrupt government is a straight way to hell.
How you can tell this is a hoax:
Freedom? This guy surrendered his freedom to inanity long ago. Reality isn’t even a memory to these people.
It gets worse. There’s the guy who complains that Obama shouldn’t be urging his kindergartener to stay in school — oh, the pressure! There’s the guy who looks at Obama’s line about how policemen and soldiers need to have a good education, and complains,
One of them, I consider to be a hired murderer, and another to be a paid bully. But he calls them “good” jobs.
Cops and soldiers, he considers to be bullies and murderers?
We need a lot of healing. The critics need a lot of healing. Not Obama’s speech, not Obama’s policies, nothing Obama ever did opened these wounds.
1 Comment | Dissent, Education, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Dissent, Education, Hate, Politics, President Obama, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I know, I’m over a week late. But happy fourth birthday to Halfway There, anyway. (Hey. I’ve been busy.)
It’s a great math blog, a great teachers’ blog — and I love the Running Guy with Briefcase in the header.
Plus, at least once a year I get to spring Zeno’s Paradox on some unsuspecting young student who makes some silly claim about the superiority of logic to evidence. And then I send the student packing to Halfway There for serious understanding. (Anyone who knows there are more than one size of infinity must be a fan of George Gamow, I figure.)
1 Comment | Education, Mathematics, Reason, Teaching | Tagged: blogging, Education, Halfway There, Reason, Teaching, Zeno's Paradox | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Unedited, direct from the White House website:
Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School EventArlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
THE PRESIDENT’S BACK-TO-SCHOOL MESSAGE TO AMERICA’S STUDENTS
Help get America’s students engaged! On Tuesday, September 8 — the first day of school for many students — the President will talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed. We want to make sure that as many schools and classrooms nationwide can participate in this special opportunity, so we are making the President’s address and all the information that comes with it available as widely as possible. Whether you are a teacher, a school board member, or a member of the media, find information below to help you watch and be engaged with the President in welcoming our students back to school.
The President’s Message
- We have posted the President’s prepared remarks, read his message encouraging students to take personal responsibility for their educations.
When
- Tuesday, September 8th, at 12:00 PM (EDT)
How to Watch
- The President’s message will be streamed live on WhiteHouse.gov/live, and broadcast live on C-Span
- Downloadable video of the speech will be made available on this page later that day as it becomes available
- For school districts hoping to access the satellite feed, it will be available beginning at 11:00 AM (EDT) using the following coordinates:
* Galaxy 28/Transponder 17, Slot C (9 MHz)
* Uplink Frequency 14344.5 Horizontal
* Downlink Frequency 12044.5 VerticalClassroom Engagement Resources
- Menu of classroom activities for students in grades preK-6 to stimulate discussion on the importance of education in students’ lives
- Menu of classroom activities for students in grades 7-12 to stimulate discussion on the importance of education in students’ lives
- A video contest for students will be launched soon – details will be available at http://www.ed.gov
Spread the knowledge:
2 Comments | Accuracy, DBQ sources, Dropouts, Education, Politics, President Obama | Tagged: Accuracy, DBQ sources, Dropouts, Education, Politics, President Obama | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Labor Day, 2009
Fly your U.S. flag today. This is one of the dates designated in law as a permanent date for flag flying.
Miners and their children celebrate Labor Day, Littleton, Colorado, 1940 – Library of CongressHere are some past posts on labor, and Labor Day:
History-minded people may want to look at the history of the holiday, such as the history told at the Department of Labor’s website.
The First Labor Day
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.
Or this history at the more academic Library of Congress site:
On September 5, 1882, some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America’s first Labor Day parade. After marching from City Hall to Union Square, the workers and their families gathered in Reservoir Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was initiated by Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader who a year earlier cofounded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a precursor of the American Federation of Labor.
McGuire had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring American workers at a labor meeting in early 1882. New York’s Central Labor Union quickly approved his proposal and began planning events for the second Tuesday in September. McGuire had suggested a September date in order to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. While the first Labor Day was held on a Tuesday, the holiday was soon moved to the first Monday in September, the date we continue to honor.
What do the unions say? Among other parts of history, the AFL-CIO site has a biography of Walter Reuther, the legendary organizer of automobile factory workers — September 1 is the anniversary of Reuther’s birthday (he died in an airplane crash on the way to a union training site, May 10, 1970).
We’re glad to have the day off. Working people made this nation, and this world, what it is today. We should honor them every day — take a few minutes today, give honor to workers. Tomorrow, it’s back to work.
Resources:
5 Comments | Current History, Education, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Labor and unions, Politics | Tagged: Fly your flag today, History, labor, Labor Day, Politics, unions | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Just learned of the passing of an old friend last December, Jim Riley. Jim was a Ph.D. student and one of the assistant debate coaches of the great University of Utah debate teams of the middle 1970s.
He was also the guy who taught me how to properly light and smoke a cigar after we nearly won the Western Speech Association Debate Tournament at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque (1974?). Lighting a cigar properly is a skill every gentleman should have, even those who do not smoke. He was a great friend, a wonderful life advisor, and a normal guy in a time and place when normalcy was a rare virtue.
Riley invented the famous Riley Extension as a debater for Washburn University. The Riley Extension is an argument towards significance of an affirmative case, usually, and is boiled down to two simple questions: “So what? Who cares?”
The Riley Extension is now a featured piece of analysis in many Advanced Placement courses in social studies, especially history where the answering of the two questions tends to make for much better essay answers.
Here’s the memoriam note from Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. Jim retired from Northwest in 2005, and held the position Emeritus Professor:
Jim Riley
August 18, 1943 — December 26, 2008
James Whitcomb Riley Jr., 65, died Friday, Dec. 26, in Wellington, Kans.
Services were held Friday, Jan. 2, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. in the Nelson Performing Arts Auditorium at Northwest College.
Jim Riley, 1943-2008
James W. Riley Jr. was born Aug. 18, 1943, the son of Dr. James Whitcomb Riley Sr. and Carolyn Crenshaw Riley in Oklahoma City, Okla. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Washburn University in Topeka, Kans. He attended three years of Law School at Washburn before being drafted into the U.S. Army. He served as a military policeman in Germany and Vietnam.
Jim returned to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, to earn his Master’s degree in Speech Communication where he also taught and coached forensics. Jim furthered his education at the University of Utah while continuing to coach. Jim later taught and coached forensics and debate at the University of Nevada Reno and Boise State University. In 1977, Jim began teaching at Northwest College in Powell.
On May 4, 1991, he was united in marriage with Laura (Barker) Hagerman. Jim retired from teaching at Northwest College in 2005 and later received the status of Professor Emeritus in the spring of 2008.
Jim was an avid outdoorsman. He had a passion for hunting, camping, cutting firewood and river rafting. His fondest outdoor adventure took him down the Grand Canyon with friends, family, and colleagues. Jim also enjoyed teaching, reading and spending time with family, friends and the family’s two dogs.
Surviving to honor his memory are his father, Dr. James W. Riley Sr. of Wellington, Kans.; wife, Laura Riley of Powell; daughter, Mallory Riley of Powell; sons Daniel Hagerman and his wife Abbey Hagerman of Laramie, Jeremy Hagerman and his wife Kelly Shriver of Olympia, Wash., Nathan Hagerman and his wife Melissa Hagerman of Anchorage, Alaska, and Taylor Riley of Powell; and three grandchildren, Mikayla Hagerman, Natalie Hagerman and Collin Poe.
Preceding him in death was his mother, Carolyn Crenshaw Riley, on Jan. 2, 2006.
In Jim’s honor, the James W. Riley Communications Scholarship fund was established to help provide quality, affordable education for students majoring in Communications at Northwest College. Applicants must have a minimum 3.5 high school GPA and must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA while attending NWC. Donations to the James W. Riley Scholarship can be made here .
6 Comments | College, Education, Forensics, Higher education, Life, Rhetoric, Speech | Tagged: Debate, Education, Forensics, Higher education, James Whitcomb Riley, Jim Riley, Northwest College, Rhetoric, University of Utah | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The snark snipers are winning. Dallas’s CBS affiliate, Channel 11, has a poll on whether students ought to pay attention to Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday.
Do you think North Texas schools should have their students watch president Obama’s speech directed to children?
“No, it might get political” is winning right now.
The correct answer would be “Duh! Yes.” Kids who can resist “Just Say No” sex education can resist Obama’s plea to them to study hard and not dropout, as the conservatives appear to want them to, in the conservative War on Education.
Go vote in the poll as long as it’s there.
Urge others to vote, too:
3 Comments | Barack Obama, Dropouts, Education, Polling and Public Opinion, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Tagged: Education, Poll, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sophia Dembling wrote about it in today’s Dallas Morning News: The Owl Burger, from the Owl Café — this one in San Antonio, New Mexico.
It’s the best burger in the world, I think. It reminds me, and it’s a painful memory.
Back in better younger days, before I’d left American Airlines, Kathryn and I made one last run to Salt Lake City to retrieve the last of the stuff in storage. It was a motley combination of stuff, mostly hers, that we couldn’t fit into our apartments on Capitol Hill in Washington, and then that we just didn’t need during law school. The monthly storage bill finally got to be a burr after we’d settled in Dallas, and we had room for the stuff in the house.
We gave the kids a vacation with Grandma and Grandpa, flew to Salt Lake, rented a much-too-large truck (the smaller one we reserved wasn’t in), loaded up and headed out.
A drive from Salt Lake to Dallas can be dull as dishwater, but we worked to add some spice. “Adventure in Moving,” the old U-Haul slogan ran — and one usually works to avoid such adventures at all costs. But this was different. This was planned adventure. We took the Xtreme Scenic Route™, through Southwestern landscapes that squeeze the creationism out of the most fundamentalist Christians.
The first night we camped in Torrey, Utah, at the edge of Capitol Reef National Park. Someone recommended a local Mexican restaurant in an old farmhouse, a place that was really top notch, as demonstrated by the autographed photo in thanks from Robert Redford behind the cash register. Redford knows almost all of the great places to eat, and stop and look, in Utah and much of the Four Corners area (ask me about Redford and Dick Cavett in Farmington, New Mexico, sometime). Great dinner in a great place.
(Can I remember the name of the restaurant more than 20 years later? Not at all. I could drive to it . . . if it’s still there. Perhaps this is its successor. If so, it’s gotten a lot fancier, and to me, less charming. You don’t expect such fine dining in such a small town.)
Coyotes started to howl about 2:00 a.m. We hadn’t bothered to pitch a tent, the weather being what it almost always is in Utah in the summer. I don’t know how long I sat up, looked at the stars and listened to the coyotes all around the canyon, next to Kathryn as she slept. It was one of those nights you remember for the rest of your life.
Coyotes sang til dawn.
Capitol Reef N.P. demands more than one night’s stay — we had both been there before, though, and our task was moving furniture. From Torrey we drove through Capitol Reef and on to the Moqui Dugway, about an 1,100-foot drop down off the Mogollon Rim, on the way to Monument Valley.
Moqui Dugway, from the rim — see the road at the bottom, in the middle of the picture. The sign reads “Mokee Dugway Elev. 6,425 Ft. – 1,100 Ft Drop Next 3 Miles”
Remember, this was a big truck. It was over 20 feet long, but just how much over I don’t remember. I do remember that when we stopped at the overlook at the top, some guy on a Harley came over to ask if we were going to “try to drive down,” and when we said yes, he said he was betting we would make it, and he had some good money riding on it. He wished us luck.
A note in the visitor center at Natural Bridges National Monument explains, now:
MOKEE (MOKI, MOQUI) DUGWAY
SAN JUAN COUNTY, UT.
The Mokee Dugway is located on Utah Route 261 just north of Mexican Hat, UT. It was constructed in 1958 by Texas Zinc, a mining company, to transport uranium ore from the “Happy Jack” mine in Fry Canyon, UT. to the processing mill in Mexican Hat. The three miles of unpaved, but well graded, switchbacks descend 1100 feet from the top of Cedar Mesa (on which you are now standing). The State of Utah recommends that only vehicles less than 28 feet in length and 10,000 pounds in weight attempt to negotiate this steep (10% grade), narrow and winding road.
Here’s the Moqui Dugway (or Moki, depending on how much paint the sign maker has):
The Moqui Dugway — no place for too-big trucks, or trailers – photo from Craig Holl at Midwestroads.com
We waited until there was no traffic coming from the bottom for several miles, and started down. About six switchbacks down we encountered a long, crew-cabbed duelly pickup towing about a 30-foot cabin cruiser boat. Fortunately we found a wide spot so he could get by, though it took him what seemed like a half-hour to make one turn in the road, and I swear he had wheels spinning in air at one point.
If the motorcycleman did indeed wager on us, he won.
The Mittens, sandstone formations in Monument Valley, Navajoland – Wikipedia image
We camped again at the Monument Valley Tribal Park, on the Navajo Nation. The Mittens dominated the skyline; I remember the frustration at being unable to capture the beauty of the place through the lens of a 35-mm SLR on any film. Images could not be big enough, exposures could not do justice to the color and natural beauty of the place. In some SUVs and RVs in the campground, people retired to watch television in their vehicles. They were probably the same ones who pulled out at 6:00 a.m., unable to wait to watch the sunrise complete its glorious stretch across the desert.
The third day we planned to stop and see my widowed Aunt Fay in Farmington, New Mexico. For a couple of years in college I had the pleasure of doing air pollution research in and around Farmington after the Four Corners Power Plant was in operation, and before the San Juan Power Station came on line. Uncle Harry Stewart, my mother’s brother, lived there and worked with El Paso Natural Gas. Weekends I spent with Harry and Fay and their friends the Woodburys. Harry died a few years earlier — I hadn’t seen Fay in 15 years at least.
But first, I got us stuck in the sand about 50 miles west of Farmington. We pulled off the road to check the map — off the road meant “into the sand,” though it looked firm from the highway. Tow trucks were 80 miles away. A passing woman drove me 40 miles to the home of a Navajo Tribal Policeman, and back; by the time we got back a passing couple from Tucson, Arizona, and a couple of local guys with shovels had dug away feet of sand to hard soil and stone; we gunned it out of the barrow and onto the road. (How it works today, with cell phones and satellite phones — I hope it works better.)
We had a nice visit with Aunt Fay.
Owl Cafe at night, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Owl Cafe image
There is no way to avoid scenery between Farmington and Albuquerque. We pulled into the intersection of Interstates 25 and 40 in Albuquerque near 8:00 p.m., found a hotel, and were happy to find a decent-looking café nearby, with an odd, 50-foot owl at one end. The Owl Cafe.
Who possibly could have guessed?
We seemed to be among the last people there. It was not crowded. I probably had a beer. And I ordered a burger. “Owl burger?” the waitress asked. “Made from owls?” I asked back.
She explained it had a touch of a green chile sauce on it. Sounded good.
She came back. “I mean, it’s hot. You’re not from New Mexico, right?” I stuck with it.
Wow.
I mean, WOW! It’s made from sirloin — moist and tender, not overcooked. The bun is fresh, heavy and yeasty. And I think it was the green chile stuff — heaven! I told Kathryn I thought it might be the best burger anywhere.
Now, I’ve had some good burgers at roadhouses and fancy restaurants. I’ve had burgers in the burger outlets near the stockyards of Greeley, Colorado, Fort Worth, Kansas City and Chicago. I’ve had aged and marinated burgers at little joints around the Saranac Lakes of New York. I’ve had burgers at restaurants overlooking the cities of Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, Indianapolis, New York and Denver.
And if I’ve eaten one Big H from Hires Drive-in in Salt Lake City, I’ve had a hundred (and would like a hundred more). I used to argue that the Big H was the El Supremo of burgers.
The Owl Burger topped them all.
When I finished the Owl Burger, I ordered apple pie, and I wondered out loud if I should just have another burger instead.
In the morning, we found the place open for breakfast. I joked about having another Owl Burger for breakfast — and it was on the menu. But I didn’t. I had some great egg dish.
Before we got out of Albuquerque, I regretted not having another Owl Burger. All day long as we drove to Dallas I thought about that burger I didn’t have.
I’ve thought about that burger now for the better part of two decades. The closest I’ve come to the Owl Café is a couple of passes through Albuquerque’s airport on the way to other places.
I opened the paper this morning, and there was that burger!
Owl Burger, from the Owl Cafe in San Antonio, New Mexico (photo from ABQStyle.com — not from the online DMN)
Alas, according to Dembling in the DMN, management of the Albuquerque Owl Café differs now from the San Antonio Owl Café — can the burger recipes be the same? Do we now have to make the drive to San Antonio (New Mexico)?
•Owl Bar & Café, State Highway 1 and U.S. Highway 380, San Antonio, N.M.; 575-835-9946. There’s an Owl Café in Albuquerque, but it isn’t under the same management.
The San Antonio site has some history related to development of the atomic bomb and the nearby Trinity bomb site. One could study history, and have an historic burger at the same time. I’ve wondered: If the Germans had had Owl Burgers, would they have gotten the A-bomb first? It’s that good.
[I did get excited three years ago to read that another Owl was open in San Antonio, Texas — but reading the article, I discerned that the author was unaware of a San Antonio in the Land of Enchantment. Geographical error, gustatory disappointment. If any of my students are reading this, that’s why you have to know geography — so you don’t drive to San Antonio, Texas, and find yourself 542 miles off target (thanks to Geobytes for the distance calculation).]
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8 Comments | Family, Food history, Geography - Physical, History, Travel | Tagged: Albuquerque, Best Burger, Capitol Reef, food, Green Chile Burger, Monument Valley, Moqui Dugway, New Mexico, Owl Cafe, San Antonio, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Van Jones’s advantages, added together, summed too closely to the detrimental sum of having him as an advisor in the executive branch, I think.
But Glenn Beck’s unprincipled attack on Jones as a “9/11 truther” brought up issues that were not among the baggage Jones carried. Little Green Footballs explained that Jones’s statement that he didn’t call for an investigation of George Bush seems to be accurate. LGF has no authors who trend to the liberal side (are there even any Dems there?).
With such a target-rich guy as Jones, why does Beck go with the least credible evidence possible? When the facts flow your way, why make stuff up? Beck’s bizarre claims about DDT offer more evidence the guy has just floated around the bend in the reality and ethical river. More on that later.
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub said Little Green Footballs was right? Better spread that news!
2 Comments | Accuracy, Cost of Green, Environmental protection, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Politics | Tagged: Accuracy, Cost of Green, Glenn Beck, Green Politics, Hoaxes, Politics, President Obama, Van Jones | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
If you do not read Robert Park regularly, you should. His weekly missive on September 4 succinctly deals with the two big climate change stories of the week, with vim and vigor:
1. CLIMATE CHANGE: HOTTEST ARCTIC SUMMER IN 2,000 YEARS.
A major study published in today’s Science marks a seminal advance in Sediments from Arctic lakes were used to compile proxy for the last 2000 years. Arctic summer temperature declined for thousands of years due to a shift in Earth’s orbit. Although the orbital shift has been going on for 8000 years and will continue, an increase in greenhouse gases produced by the overpowered the cooling trend. The warming has been more rapid since about 1950. Moreover, thawing permafrost will release methane into the atmosphere, accelerating warming. The latest study comes just months after scientists at NOAA warned that within the next 30 years Arctic sea ice could vanish completely during the summer; that will further accelerate warming due to decline in reflective ice cover.2. CLIMATE SOLUTIONS: IN THE LONG RUN, THERE IS ONLY ONE.
Even as the study on Arctic warming was making its way into print, a group at the controversial Center proposed a quick geo-engineered solution to. The group is headed by statistician Bjorn Lomborg, a follower of the late Julian Simon, the libertarian economist at the University of Maryland, who believed there are no limits. Lomborg proposes puffing lots of white clouds into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. It would be the perfect job for Lomborg, who has been puffing clouds of obscurantism since he wrote
(Cambridge, 2001). Presumably we should just keep puffing out bigger white clouds to compensate for the ever growing population.
White clouds of vapor indeed. Park is a great fog-cutter.
For example, there is this note from his August 28 edition:
3. SCOPES REDUX: LOBBYISTS MAY BE NOSTALGIC FOR DAYTON.
Newspapers around the country have carried the story of the US Chamber of Commerce, the top US lobbying group, calling for the EPA to hold a Scopes- like hearing on the evidence that climate change is man-made. The EPA dismisses such a stunt as a “waste of time,” but that’s the least of its problems. Having lost the contest over scientific peer review of journal articles, the global warming deniers are accused have cooked up a Hollywood stunt.
Global warming deniers are steamed, and may just stew.
More:
Leave a Comment » | air pollution, Climate change, denialism, Economics, Global warming, Green Politics, History, Physics, Science | Tagged: air pollution, Climage Change, denialism, Economics, Global warming, Green Politics, History, Physics, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
While we’re at it, note that Cornelius Hunter is both a propagandist, and a bit of a coward. Truth wins in a fair fight, so Hunter can’t afford to allow a fair fight to break out in the comments section of his blog.
I don’t know what his readership is, but were he to open his blog to comments, he could learn a lot. As it is, he’s spreading false information a lot. Let’s hope his readership is small, as are his arguments against science.
Seriously: Does he really believe in point #1 that DNA does not demonstrate family relationships? Or is this just his subtle way of saying no one is legitimate, trying desperately to avoid the “b” word?
The blog is an embarrassment to Christians.
Oh, but now I see why. He’s a fellow at Discovery Institute. It’s normal for those who can’t be embarrassed by their own errors.
4 Comments | Creationism, Evolution, Hoaxes, Voodoo science | Tagged: Cornelius Hunter, Creationism, Darwin, Discovery Institute, Evolution, Hoaxes, Intelligent Design, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Looney Tunes should sue to get back the good name of “looney.”
1. Neil Simpson at Eternity Matters continues to court anti-socialism. No, not “contrary to socialism”, but “anti-social” raised to the maximum. Now Simpson disavows education quality and Boy Scout-style citizenship, all in a whiny complaint about President Obama’s actually paying attention to school kids. Simpson’s complaints in Texas are highly ironic, considering that conservatives in the Texas legislature demand that Texas kids participate in exactly the kind of discussions that the Department of Education now urges.
According to the U.S. Department of Education:
During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.
“Oh, noes!” we might hear Simpson say. We can’t have our nation’s youth “persisting and succeeding in school.” Can’t have them “work hard,” and “take responsibility for their learning.”
One more deeply hypocritical demonstration that, for Simpson and his colleagues in whine, it’s all about being a sore loser and a carbuncle on the derriere of America, and not about policy at all.
Obama might be expected to plug charter schools again, a position Simpson would find good if Simpson had a reasoning cell left in his body. Not that Obama’s support of charter schools is a good idea, just that Simpson previously has expressed similar views, which he now would have to eschew, since Obama adopted them. Of course, it’s not about Obama. Right.
The Department of Education release has other details you should check out, if you’re interested:
The U.S. Department of Education encourages students of all ages, teachers, and administrators to participate in this historic moment by watching the president deliver the address, which will be broadcast live on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/) and on C-SPAN at 12:00 p.m., ET. We also encourage educators to use this moment to help students get focused and inspired to begin the new academic year. The Department of Education offers educators a menu of classroom activities—created by its teachers-in-residence, the Teaching Ambassador Fellows—to help engage students in the address and stimulate classroom discussions about the importance of education.
To learn more, please see the following:
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Classroom Activities (Pre-K – 6)
PDF (115K) | MS Word (119K)
- Classroom Activities (7 – 12)
That is, if you agree that education is important. (Oh, don’t even go to the post where Simpson starts arguing that “survival of the fittest” is tantamount to killing everybody else. Doesn’t this guy ever think?)
2. Making the case for Birther Control once more, Orly Taitz managed to get in front of a judge in some Texas court with her inane claims about Obama’s birth certificate. She’s not a Texas lawyer, she didn’t bother to get a Texas lawyer to sign in with her, she broke almost every rule possible, but the judge bent over backwards to be nice to her — and she still whines. Read the events at Dispatches from the the Culture Wars. You can almost decipher it at Orly Taitz’s blog, but she doesn’t even allow friendly posts without editing there. Get the facts from Brayton.
3. Meanwhile, riding the crest of the idiocy wave generated by inanities like Taitz’s and Simpson’s, these guys are gearing up for a violent confrontation with an evil, militant force, that isn’t even under discussion (if you read their links). Go read it. It’s the seedbed of homegrown terrorism.
4. GOP candidate for governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell repudiated the masters thesis he wrote for Pat Robertson’s Regent University. One by one, he disavows each of the offensive things he wrote then, claiming that he’s healed, or something, since then.
After McDonnell repudiates the education he got at Regent U, do you think the school will use him as an example of a graduate success in recruiting?
Already-elected GOP governors aren’t doing too well, either.
5. The Sedalia, Missouri band t-shirt flap keeps some people in stitches. I’m not sure whether it’s encouraging so many cross-stitchers show sanity on the issue, or discouraging that a few still remain deeply mired in darkness, claiming evolution is a problem. (See earlier post here.)
Sure, it’s all sign of apocalypse, but not the apocalypse most people worry about.
30 Comments | Birth Certificate, children, Citizenship, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Government, Higher education, History, Politics, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Birth Certificate, Birthers, Education, Higher education, Politics, President Obama, Rampant stupidity, University Recruiting | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
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Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
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