Fox News is reporting that “shock and awe” has begun.
Mar 212003
Mar 212003
Jed Babbin and I have had similar thoughts about the consequences of embedding the press. He writes:
For those of us who wore the uniform in the Vietnam era, the most amazing thing is not the capability of our soldiers, or their equipment, or the level of success so far. It’s not the calm, tough aura around the field grade and senior commanders. That stuff is all the norm. The amazement comes from the attitude of the press embedded with the troops.
During Vietnam, we shunned the press. They were the enemy, almost as much as the North Vietnamese were. They couldn’t be trusted, and deserved the mushroom treatment. The “five o’clock follies” body count briefings were meant to keep them at a distance. But the Newly Embedded Pressies (or “NEPs” if I am permitted to invent an acronym) are learning much in a prolonged lesson denied their predecessors. They are getting to know — and love — the guys on the line. Being there, seeing these young folks, their intelligence, training and enormous capability will implant a respect for the American soldier no other experience can. Big Dog Don Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers have built a bridge to the press that will pay off in fairness and understanding for decades to come.
This change is a Very Good Thing.
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Mar 202003
Peter Saint-Andre has a nice tidbit on political emotivism up on his blog. Based on interviews I’ve seen, a “Boo Bush!” emotivism is indeed the driving motivation of many war protestors. But, as Peter notes, Republicans often suffer a similar knee-jerk reactionism of “Boo Clinton!”
So how about a more general “Boo statist politicians!” instead? 
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Mar 192003
The National Weather Service reports that Sedalia has received 54 inches of snow as of 4:20 pm. And the snow is still falling… but it’s expected to taper off tonight.
Wow.
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Mar 192003
I’m not sure how much snow has fallen as of this morning. My yardstick was nowhere to be found, presumably buried under the snow. (For that matter, so was the Nissan Sentra parked outside.)
It was very difficult to get down to the barn this morning to feed the horses. It’s only about 150 yards, but that’s a long, long way when then snow is up to your waist and higher. On my first attempt, I got about 15 feet before a chilly collapse into the snow. I had rather unpleasant visions of myself stuck in the snow halfway to the barn, cold and exhausted, unable to move. So I headed back to the house, bundled up in long underwear, snow pants, and tightly bound work boots, and headed out again. I managed to get down to the barn using a slightly less deep path, one with snow only to my thighs. Both of the dogs even managed to follow me, although not without a fair amount of struggle.
The horses are pretty much locked into the barn by the snow, although the overhang provides enough of a path to get to the water trough. They were very happy to be fed, so I’m glad that I made the effort to reach them this morning. I only hope that the path I cut this morning isn’t completely obliterated tonight.
I’m sure Paul won’t be coming home tonight. (No other radiologists could make it into Aurora today. While he takes a break this morning, cases are being read remotely from Swedish by two radiologists who live in walking distance of that hospital.) And I’m sure I won’t be going to school on Thursday. (Campus might be closed again… I hope it is.) Our driveway is scheduled to be plowed tomorrow, but that might be difficult, given how heavy the snow is. Frankly, I figure that I’ll be lucky if I leave the house in a week.
As much of a pain as this blizzard is, the precipitation is most welcome, given the drought we’ve been having these past two years. Snow now means fewer fires this summer, after all.
Okay, so here’s the fun part, the pictures. Just remember that the ground is more than 3 feet below the snow level.
This is our house, as seen from down the driveway. The lefthand lump on the right side of the photo is my old Nissan Sentra. You can also see the large overhang of snow from the outside here, shown below too.
So this is the overhang of snow, as seen from the garage. I have to pass underneath it to get to the path to the barn, which worries me greatly. I have no desire for it to fall on me or the doggies, after all.
This is the barn as seen from our covered west porch.
One of our trees.
Another poor tree. Note the top of a 4 foot fencepost to the left of it.
Yet another poor tree.
So, America might have many allies in the war, but I’m feeling pretty darn isolated lately.
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Mar 182003
While snowed in today, I finished a major revision of my paper on false excuses. It’s been restructured, retitled, and reworked. I’m very pleased with the end result, delightfully enough.
I took time off from other work to revise the essay so that I could submit a superdooper good version to the “Jentzsch Prize in Philosophy,” a departmental graduate student essay contest. The deadline was today, so I was working down to the wire… but that’s nothing new.
I’ll be starting the process of journal submission sometime in early April. I’m not sure what my first choice will be, but most likely an applied ethics journal. As always, I’d love comments and feedback on the new version. Since I’m trying to get it published, I won’t be posting it on the web site, but I can e-mail it as an attachment to anyone interested in helping me make it just that much better.
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Mar 182003
When I went to bed last night, about 5 inches of snow lay on the ground. By morning, there was 15 inches. Now my yardstick reads 24 inches, with many more inches on the way. As you might have guessed, I didn’t drive the 60 miles up to Boulder for classes today, although the university is officially open.
9 pm Update: The local news just reported the official snow figures. Sedalia has received 31 inches of snow, which is consistent with my measurements. It is expected to snow all night and tomorrow for another 7-14 inches.
I haven’t found the figures for Boulder yet, but the university has already closed down for Wednesday. Frankly, I wonder how many people showed up a classes today, given the heavy snowfall. I’d probably be stuck sleeping in the cruddy grad lounge in Boulder if I had tried to go to classes today. *shudder*
10 pm Update: Paul won’t be coming home tonight. He is working 3pm-11pm shifts all week long, so instead of driving 2 hours and 30 miles of dangerous roads home from Aurora and then reversing the trip tomorrow afternoon, he’s spending the night at the hospital. (Nearby hotels were booked.) I just hope to see him tomorrow night!
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Mar 172003
Terry wins the prize for the best link request letter ever! It’s pleasant! It’s descriptive! It’s funny! But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself:
Hello Diana,
I’m sure you remember me – my best friend is Jimmy Wales, and I joined you and Paul on my first time ever shooting a hand gun! I’ve done that many times since then, thanks in part to your’s and Paul’s great instruction.
Now, down to the proverbial business. I read the post on your blog about Jimmy not linking to your blog, and his being a blog snob. I got to thinking, maybe Diana will link to *my* blog
I’ll gladly link to your blog in return. Unfortunately, I’m not the most HTML adept individual, as every time I try to put links in the blog template, they never work. Once I have this figured out, I won’t be a blog snob, and I’ll link to you.
I hope things are going well for you and Paul in the great Rocky Mountains. Drop me an e-mail sometime and let me know how life is for you.
Take care,
Terry
Terry’s pictures are awesome! Go check them out!
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Mar 172003
Paul has the latest news on the mysterious and dangerous pneumonia that is spreading rapidly through the world. Unlike other recent disease outbreaks, this is dangerous and deadly to even the strong and healthy. Even worse, no one has recovered from this illness yet. This sounds really bad.
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I’m not much of a fan of Peggy Noonan, but her sympathetic analysis of the deep problems of the Democratic Party is well worth reading. I particularly enjoyed this passage, definitely the most direct and blunt in the essay:
Let me be, admittedly, mean, but to make a point I can’t figure out how to make any other way. Those who oppose the right to keep and bear arms are not as a rule the kind of people who would, or could, take down a nut waving his gun at the kids in a McDonalds. Those who oppose gun rights are more like the kind of people who when the incident was over would write a sensitive essay about how it felt to come face to face with one’s existential powerlessness when faced with the sudden force of a sick man who alas shot two kids right in front of me. You may mean to be helpful in the abstract, but you are not helpful in the particular.
Conservatives are on the side of the citizen who’d protect the kids and takes down the bad guy with the gun. Aren’t you, really? Shouldn’t you be, “for the good of the children”?
