Flypaper

$2.19 a Gallon

2009-10-29T07:50:00.000-07:00

That's what I paid for a gallon of milk at Kroger last week.

And that is very wrong. That's probably the same (maybe less) than what we as Americans were paying in the 1980s.

Have you been paying attention? Do you have any idea what has been going on with the price of milk over the course of the last year or so? The market has crashed and now family farmers across the country are getting burned.

It's a big fat complicated issue and I hope to return to it and fill in the blanks for you, especially since I spent a fair amount of time in August talking to struggling farmers.

Here's a bit more (very basic) information on the matter and what is being done to help farmers.

And yes, they do need a stimulus; we need them to receive some kind of financial help. Maintaining the American agricultural industry should be a priority for all Americans. After all, do you want to be drinking milk from China? Because I can say with absolute certainty that I do not.

Getting All Worked Up ... Over Yard Signs

2009-10-06T11:47:00.000-07:00

This article was originally written in the spring of 2008, just as the presidential primaries were heating up. This article, in print in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer, prompted me to post it. (For some reason, the article seems to be available online only at NKY.com.)
____________________________________________________

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. I think most people would categorize it as an argument.

*Jane* lives down the street from me, on the same cul-de-sac, in a 65-house subdivision within the 275 loop.

Jane shared with me that she and another neighbor had recently had a conversation in which they agreed that they hoped this year the no-political-signs rule would be enforced, because all those signs make the neighborhood look “cluttered and trashy.”

Sigh.

Needless to say, this is a subject on which Jane and I do not share a common opinion.

Yes, I knew there were so-called “protective” covenants when I moved here. And I expressed my concerns to my husband. I believe I said “I hope no one tries to tell me what color I can or cannot paint my front door, ‘cause baby, that ain’t gonna fly.”

What I didn’t know was that I was moving into Stepford.

Proponents of Homeowners Associations (HOAs) say they exist to protect and even increase the property values of all residents. On an intellectual level I sort of get that. But in practice many of the rules seem rather petty. Some seem overly intrusive or invasive. And some seem like they should be illegal.

I should have been able to foresee the unhappiness I, a dyed-in-the-wool, independent-minded, life-long New Yorker, would face living somewhere where the few people who attend the annual HOA meeting work really hard to get a by-law passed that would require all homeowners to purchase identical $400 mailboxes.

I did a little research to see what other people have to say about their associations. Some people love them. Little wonder, others hate them.

Some association covenants forbid satellite TV dishes. Some forbid birdfeeders.

One family I read about was contacted by their HOA and told that their dog’s crate (kept in their house) was not an “approved” crate. If they didn’t get an approved crate, they would be fined $50 each time someone from the HOA saw the crate? So how did the HOA learn of the nonconformance? The family’s neighbors explained that HOA members routinely walk the neighborhood looking into people’s windows.

My friend Marj’s HOA requires that she bring the morning paper (yes, she goes old school, reading her news in print form) in no later than 8 a.m. or face a fine. Always the contrarian, she fought back, albeit in a rather passive-aggressive manner: Marj collected a week’s worth of papers and hung them from the tree in her front yard, fine-be-damned.

And then there are the ever popular anti-clothesline rules, seemingly some of the most common rules out there in association-land.

Last year in my neighborhood, the children of one family planted a few (maybe five?)
stalks of corn in the front yard. I must have walked my dog past that yard 100 times that summer. I thought the corn was cool. So did Tracy, my friend who lived directly across the street from the supposed eyesore. Come time for the annual meeting however and the corn was all the buzz.

One woman, so incensed by such a tacky sight, cited the following rule: “No fence or wall of any kind, specifically including the use of hedge or other growing plants as a fence, shall be erected.”

A fence? Really? Maybe if something else was getting erected at home, she wouldn’t be such a petty bitch.

To this day I find it incredible that someone could get so worked up over … corn.

In another part of the country and during that region’s drought, one village restricted lawn watering. Violators could face a $250 fine issued by the local police department. But residents who abided by the law were issued fines of $100 by their HOA because the lawns were turning an unsightly yellow color. And therefore, I guess, lowering property taxes …

Another “green” issue arose in Scarsdale, NY when a neighborhood group attempted to block the installation of solar panels on a home. The group argued the panels “would clearly be an eyesore in our lovely neighborhood.” The owners won the right to install the panels after they went to court to fight the foolishness.

One home in Virginia had really nice landscaping, so nice it won a citywide home beautification award. A nice plaque touting the accomplishment was given to the winner to display in the yard for 30 days. The homeowners association found a rule that no signs were permitted in the yards except real estate signs. The homeowner was forced to remove the plaque.

Which brings me back to my political-sign discourse. This is what my covenants state: “No sign of any kind shall be displayed to the public view on any lot except one professional sign … advertising the property for sale or rent.”

I yelled at Jane, or so she recalls, arguing that such a rule is unequivocally
illegal. I don’t care about the rules, because the First Amendment, the No. 1 rule in the United States, obviously supersedes our neighborhood rules, I ranted. There have been several lawsuits throughout the country concerning this very issue, one right in Mariemont as a matter of fact, and my right to express myself politically through an 18 inch-by-12 inch sign will win out.

I felt very smug knowing my first amendment law so well.

But then I researched online – I wanted to have all my ducks in a row should I need to wage battle to ensure the freedom to post signs in my yard. And I found out, through firstamendmentcenter.org that the First Amendment “generally protects people only from government interference with speech.”

Apparently, I really did forfeit my rights when I signed on the dotted line.

After thinking long and hard, I cannot fathom that Americans would begrudge their fellow countrymen the right to post a political yard sign. I don’t think it will be enforced in my neighborhood. I’m hoping it won’t be enforced.

And if it is enforced, sure, I’ll push back – it’s in my blood; I can’t help myself.

But first I appeal to everyone out there: Do you really want to be the king of people, the kind of society that would willingly and wantonly prohibit the exercise of free speech, that tenet that out democracy is based upon?

Whatever your reasoning, please think before you answer. You never know when you might need to take a stand.

*Jane is a pseudonym meant to protect me from my friend’s wrath should she stumble upon this article.

Creation Museum: Whole Lot of Hooey Going On or Beacon of Support in Uncertain Times?

2009-09-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Ky., attracts a lot of attention. Some people think it’s all a lot of hooey while others look to it as a beacon of support in uncertain times. I fall firmly into the first group. But still I couldn’t help but wonder, what goes on there, what exactly is the message, and is there anything for me there? So I decided to explore. And while I might not have had any life changing revelations, I might have learned a thing or two …

I really didn’t think I’d ever go to the Creation Museum. In fact, I’d spent the last few years avoiding it, the way I avoid crazy people in public places. But at the same time I was curious. Didn’t I need to know what was going on there? Didn’t I need to know what crazy lies and twisted half truths were being promoted in an effort to discredit the obvious and reasonable truths set forth by science? And with that mentality in hand (it’s the same reasoning I use to justify why I listen to people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on the radio – I like to keep up to date on the idiotic things they say), I set off to visit the roughly two-year-old Evangelical theme park.

What I knew about the center before I got there was fairly limited. I didn’t want any significant research to taint my first impressions. What I did know was that there would be dinosaurs. A lot of dinosaurs. My longtime friend Mike, an atheist of the first degree, had often pontificated on the ridiculousness of museum creator Ken Ham’s insistence that man and dinosaur not only existed together but that man had domesticated and used dinosaurs as beasts of burden. (Ham, an Australian, is also the founder and president of the fundamentalist Christian ministry, Answers in Genesis.) Mike had – more more than once – proclaimed that the strong emphasis on dinosaurs by Ham and company was merely a ruse to engage children in the cult of creationism. Mike was never quite sure if this qualified as a stroke of brilliance or an act of malfeasance.

I also knew that the Creation Museum purported to attract visitors from not only throughout the nation but also throughout the world. How Ham decided on rural Kentucky as the perfect destination for this life affirming center is a mystery to me. Yes, despite living in the Tri-state area for nearly six years, I’ll admit it: I still hold in my mind a somewhat unflattering image of Kentuckians as hillbilly rubes. So, maybe based on that impression, I should be able to understand why Ham chose Kentucky. But logically, Kentucky seems so far from anywhere. Ham explained to an Australian reporter in 2007 that "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really,” he said, “America is." Ham says that two-thirds of the American population live within 600 miles of Petersburg, and I say, really? Are you sure you’re not making that up? And still 600 miles is a pretty long drive – the better part of 10 hours in the car, most likely with tired, cranky children.

Plus, once you get here, what else are you going to do? To my knowledge, there aren’t a great many family-friendly attractions in the area. There are some ramshackle farms and maybe an Amish market or two if you’re willing to look. But I’m guessing visitors to the Creation Museum might not be the types to rush over and spend a day at Kings Island. And anyone moderately well acquainted with the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden knows there’s a pretty solid educational focus on evolution there.

So I guess what I’m saying is that patrons of the Creation Museum have to really want to go there, and I guess what I’m asking is does anyone else, anyone who is a non-believer in what Ham calls “creation science,” have a reason to go?

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, I hopped in the car and made the relatively effortless ride to Petersburg. I was greeted at the entrance to the museum center by a large metal dinosaur mounted to the front gate. Once I parked and headed into the museum – which was rather understated and unpretentious from the outside – I met two more dinosaurs, one of the wire holiday topiary variety (sorry, forgot that here the word “Christmas” is not the taboo it might be elsewhere), resplendent in green twinkly lights, and the other, a gentle giant – a brontosaurus, maybe constructed of concrete, maybe of fiberglass.

I mosey on in and plop down my $22.95 admission, and I quickly think something must be up. The largely volunteer staff must be able to identify the stink of a sinner on me. I mean, the man to my left at the ticket booth is welcomed with a hearty and heartfelt “God bless and have a blessed day,” while my sales clerk merely looks at me with disdain. She literally looks down her nose at me and barely speaks to me. Hmm, I wonder, surely I can’t have offended anyone already. I’m dressed rather conservatively, in jeans and a blouse, and I’m not sporting any tattoos or pentagrams. I choose to chalk it up to the fact that she must be having a bad day.

Oh, and those staffers? Each must supply a written statement of his or her testimony – a statement of what he or she believes regarding creation – and all must sign documents confirming they have read and can sipport the very long Answers in Genesis statement of faith before they can be hired. How's that for pre-employment vetting?

With tickets in hand, guests funnel into the museum by way of a green screen, which I deftly avoid. Had I been in the proper spirit, I could have taken home with me a souvenir photo of myself in the Garden of Eden, frolicking with the dinosaurs. I’m wondering if the Mennonite family in front of me, women in dowdy long dresses and wearing traditional white bonnets, men and boys in more contemporary clothing, are likely to purchase their photos. I also wonder if the pink flip-flops one Mennonite teen wears beneath her floral calico dress are sanctioned.

At last, I enter the museum itself. But am I’m immediately disappointed to learn there are no guides here; touring the Creation Museum is a self-guided experience, which is contrary to my expectations. I was expecting a heavy sell, full of fire-and-brimstone preaching.

Sure, my expectations in that regard turned out to be antithetical to reality. Not antithetical to my expectations, however, was the first exhibit, a scene I am sure I both scoffed and smirked at. For what to my wandering eyes should appear but a model of a small child, clad in animal skins, lying on the edge of a lake and playing with a squirrel under the shadow of not one, but two friendly dinosaurs that seem to watch protectively over him. Um, yeah, not buying it.

Now that the kids are hooked (“Mommy, mommy! Look. At. The. Dinosaurs!”), the next exhibit aims to set up the so-called scientific basis for creationism. The Grand Canyon, the exhibit emphatically promotes, was created in just four hours. Nope, not over the tens of thousands of years mainstream scientists suggest. And the fossils of dinosaurs? About 4,300 years old. They have to be, because the Earth, the moon, the stars, the universe – nothing is older than 4,300 years, and it was all created in just six 24-hour days. The book of Genesis says man and all living creatures of the earth were created by God on the sixth day. So it’s critical the museum takes a strong stance in promoting that man and dinosaurs coexisted.

“We all have the same facts. We just interpret them differently,” says Ham. It's the cruxt of creationism and it’s a point reinforced repeatedly through the museum. Believers believe in a very literal interpretation of the bible. I may have been raised with some foundation of religion in my family life, but I adapted more easily and willingly to a belief system based on science. And I say the belief that the Earth is only 4,300 years old is hooey. Neither do believers in creationism accept that the dozens of species of finches that exist are the result of evolution, nor the hundreds of breeds of dogs. No, God created them all, each and every one. He likes variety. And bacteria and DNA? Too complicated for science to effectively explain. A higher power must have had a hand in it. Also hooey, I say. Fortunately for me, I’m not the only one saying that.

“Faith is one thing,” Mark Terry, a high school science teacher from Seattle and one of 72 paleontologists who visited the museum as a group in May, told the Associated Press. “But when it comes to their science statements, they’re completely off the wall.” Another of the attendees, Derek Briggs, a Yale University paleontologist said “It’s like a theme park, but the problem is it masquerades as truth.”

Generally speaking, the vast majority of scientists accept that Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and that dinosaurs were extinct more than 65 million years before humans as they are known to be in relative “modern times” came to exist.

More than 800 of those scientists, all presiding from universities in the states closest to the museum, have signed a statement debunking the so-called facts sprinkled on signage under the legs of dinosaurs and next to dioramas of Noah’s Ark. “We … are concerned about scientifically inaccurate materials at the Answers in Genesis museum,” the document reads. “Students who accept this material as scientifically valid are unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level. These students will need remedial instruction in the nature of science, as well as in the specific areas of science misrepresented by Answers in Genesis.”

I could go on with additional citations, but instead let’s just concede that within the scientific community there is significant opposition to the teachings of the museum.

As I move into successive rooms and exhibits, the tone begins to change: It becomes noticeably darker. There’s an emphasis on the degeneration of, well, civilization, I guess, as a result of man’s corruption of the word of God. And of course that all begins with the decision by Adam and Eve to forgo God’s word and eat from the tree. Before original sin, there was no aging (I guess without original sin there would be no Olay products?), no carnivores, no disease, no death, no natural catastrophe, no weeds, no burdensome work, no suffering … It does sound nice, idyllic, utopian.

But to show us all just how far man has fallen, the exhibits turn into room after room of wall-sized black and white photos that depict pain, death and suffering. Video shorts show a teenage girl crying on the phone to a Planned Parenthood employee about the results of a recent pregnancy test, a teenage boy partaking in Internet pornography and other youths mocking their church. Signs populate any available wall space in these areas, proclaiming “over 1.1 million marriages end in divorce in the U.S. each year,” “a person’s average first exposure to pornography is at age 11,” and “the average parent spends less than 30 minutes a day with their children.”

And? And I’ll take my faux science with a side of moral proselytizing, please.

I began to wonder, who are all these people here? Can they really all believe what this museum is presenting is the factual, historical truth? I look around. For the most part the people don’t look like freaks or googly-eyed morons. There are, as I mentioned, a good number of Mennonites out and about, sporting their Saturday finest. Several large groups, each sporting matching T-shirts – Mayfield Community Church, Boomerang Bible Camp – “Because the word of God comes back to you.” – move raptly from one exhibit to the next. A lot of people look like, well, me, or maybe my aunt or my neighbor. Everyone looks pretty normal. But yet there is something slightly abnormal about this scene, and it takes me a minute to put my finger on it. Then I figure it out: This is the quietest place on earth.

There’s no ruckus – despite all the children—no calamity, no loud noises or sudden movements. It’s like everyone here is using his or her inside voice – there’s barely a whisper. And when I really get in close and observe, I see people in what looks like deep prayer, silent reverie. One woman stands before a display that recounts all the ways God’s word has triumphed over corruption. Her right arm is folded into her chest; her left hand covers her mouth. She looks as if she is holding back tears, tears for the beauty and truth and reassurance she finds here. Three teens stand before a wall upon which headlines of the day have been pasted: “Just another school shooting,” “The battle over stem cells,” “What is marriage?” They contemplate. One boy turns around. When he sees me he says, “It’s kind of neat, isn’t it?” Two children play in a fountain, while their mothers solemnly read about the “judgment of the whole world.”

As I finish my tour, as I pass through the requisite gift shop and the cleanest, best smelling public restroom I’ve ever encountered, I come to a conclusion. It becomes obvious, in fact: This museum was built with the express purpose of giving creationists ammunition with which to defend their faith (however preposterous some of that ammunition may seem to mainstream America).

And there really is no one else here like me. These people truly are believers. And while all the fancy animatronics and professional quality videos and films were unlikely to sway me, that’s all right, because that is not the intention of the Creation Museum. Turns out it’s neither for nor about me.

The 8th Anniversary -- Share Something Relevant

2009-09-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

I feel I’ve kept this account of September 11, 2001 and my ensuing experiences and feelings fairly unemotional. I’m still afraid to really let go for fear of what doing so could do for my psyche. Tuesday night my husband, Jay, went to bed angry, depressed and grieving after he watched a television documentary about Sept. 11. I felt for him, but I’m, let’s say, very protective of my mental health. I proceeded to block it out by watching meaningless reality (ha!) television. But then, this morning when I realized I’d need to do at least a little bit of research in order to write this, I found tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. Then, tears falling as navigated page after page of timelines on the Internet. I had to step away from the computer. I wiped tears away with the back of my hand. I sniffled, in hopes of holding back the sorrow that still lingers and will live just below the surface of my psyche forever. It didn’t work.

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One of the things that sticks out most in my mind about that day is the sky. I remember thinking I had never seen a sky so blue, so beautiful, so perfect. In fact, it should have been a beautiful day all around. It was one of those crisp but exceptional September days with which New York is occasionally blessed. I think now that somehow it seems terribly wrong that something so horrific, so tragic should happen on a day like this.

The day started off like any other. I was at work early, preparing for the day when shortly before 9 a.m. Jay, somewhat uncharacteristically, called. “Have you heard what's happened?” he said. I asked him to hold on as a colleague was waiting to be let in.

As the front door clattered and clanked its way open, Greg said, “I just heard on the radio; there’s been a plane crash.”

I rushed back to the phone. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, Jay told me. (8:45 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11, departing Boston, bound for Los Angeles)

I had a hard time processing the news – I didn’t understand. I assumed it had been a small plane and that its crash had been an accident. But how could a plane be so off course, I wondered out loud. No, he said, the plane was a jet.

He watched and provided play by play over the phone as the unimaginable happened. “Oh my god,” Jay said. “Another plane just crashed into it,” he said, watching it unfold live on television, narrated by a bewildered Matt Lauer. (9:02 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175, departing Boston, bound for Los Angeles)

The wheels and gears in my brain turned and I began to understand that this was not an accident.

Greg and I ran to a nearby electronics store. We assumed that with a wall full of televisions we’d surely be able to gain a better handle on what was happening. Closed circuit programming, however, meant we left with a poor quality transistor radio in hand.

We tuned into AM radio in time to hear the news that a third plane had crashed, this one into the Pentagon. (9:40 a.m., American Airlines, Flight 77, departing Washington DC, bound for Los Angeles)

Less than 15 minutes later, Tower 2 collapsed (9:59 a.m.).

And chaos ensued. I will never be able to imagine the fear and terror felt by the people who were trapped, those who ran, clawed, tripped, staggered and prayed for their lives as they tried to escape, down narrow, dark, ashy, crowded stairways. (And I know I will never be able to live up to the heroics of those who helped others to escape, those who ran into a dying building to save lives, those who gave up their lives willingly so as to prevent even greater bloodshed.)

In Tower 1 people resorted to leaping to their deaths from the windows of New York’s tallest building, presuming the alternative to be worse fate.

A few short minutes later there was one final plane crash – a plane crashed into a field somewhere in rural Pennsylvania. (10:07 a.m., United Airlines flight 93, departing Newark, bound for San Francisco)

Of course I didn’t know it was the final crash. I feared the attack would be ongoing attack. I didn’t know if it would end.

At 10:10 a.m. part of the Pentagon collapsed, and Tower 1 collapsed at 10:28 a.m.

The Tri-State area – Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Westchester and then some – shut down completely; stores and businesses closed their doors; parents were directed to retrieve their children from school; buses, trains and bridges shut down. Airports had already been evacuated.

And it all happened beneath a beautiful blue sky.

My world was shaken.

From my vantage point 25 miles north of Manhattan the sky remained blue, into the afternoon and then into the evening, making a picture perfect background for the fighter jets that would patrol far above.

When I arrived home around noon, having abandoned the work day, my sister Sonia met me in the backyard. Wordlessly, we hugged each other, tears coming too easily, grateful for our personal safety and the comfort of being able to be with family but still scared and unsure of what was yet to come.

Jay wasn’t home, and I panicked for a moment trying to figure out where he could have gone. When finally he turned up, he said he had given blood. The newscasters, though, said blood probably wouldn’t be in great demand and that potential donors should wait for a formal request. (Estimated units of blood donated to the New York Blood Center: 36,000. Total units of donated blood actually used: 258)

A short time later, when the fighter jets flew overhead with their high-decibel rumble, I was unsure whether I felt any safer, any more secure.

We gathered with friends and neighbors, taking to the streets and looking for reassurance that everything would be OK.

Eventually day turned into night and the taunting blue sky faded to black.

Sonia stayed the night, not wanting to spend it alone in her apartment. The images on the television – we were transfixed – portrayed an event of apocalyptic proportions. Late into the night we watched as New Yorkers escaping the city by foot, over any bridge or road possible, filled the flickering screen. We watched as cameras recorded pictures of dark, dusty streets, streets eerily quiet except for a faint but persistent and overlapping beeping sound.

(I learned weeks later that the beeping came from personal alert safety devices worn by firefighters, devices that sound automatically if a firefighter “ceases to move for more than 30 seconds,” according to MyRescueTeam.com, an online resource for rescue workers.)

The days, weeks and even years that followed passed in a blur for the zombies left in the wake of the tragedy.

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Eight years after Sept. 11, there are many incidents and instances, many people and many statistics that I still recall, that still cross my mind from time to time.

Before Sept. 11, foreign attacks didn’t happen on American soil – the 1993 garage bombing of the WTC was the exception to which we should have paid more attention. Up to that point all I knew about war, about terrorism, came from the nightly news and took place in far off lands. Images of Beirut during Lebanon’s civil war years lingered in my mind. Soon I would see on the cover of every newspaper, tabloid and magazine, and on every single news broadcast, images of America’s greatest city in tatters. My innocence and the inherent security I felt as an American is gone. I knew: It can happen here.

The potential number of casualties was debated repeatedly in the days following the attacks (some debate still remains); many sources estimated numbers greater than 5,000. There was a concern the city would not have enough body bags to accommodate the dead.

Ultimately, almost 3,000 people lost their lives that day. I say almost because to this day the exact number is still uncertain. (Bodies found “intact”: 289; Number of victims positively identified: 1,527)

Posters of the missing clung to any available scaffolding. Memorial candles burned in the streets on the fringes of the financial district. It seemed there were miles and miles of hand and computer made pleadings touting the lost and begging for help in finding them. The news showed mothers, fathers, spouses wandering dazed and confused through the streets hoping to find …? Could they be so hopeful as to believe their loved one was still alive?

By the end of the first week those people who had remained in the city, determined to not “let terrorists win,” sought escape. My sister Jill, a Manhattanite and singer who had performed at the Greatest Bar on Earth, inside Windows on the World, in the hours when Monday, Sept. 10 became Tuesday, Sept. 11, called to ask if she and a friend could come for the weekend. The smell of death, she said, had become too much to bear. Her complaint had been a common one among survivors.

The media shared images of Arabs, dancing in the streets of their native lands, reveling in the destruction of America, pleased that it was our turn to learn what it is like to like in a war zone, that America was not invincible.

And of course, unfortunately, Americans lashed out. Number of hate crimes
reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations nationwide in the year following Sept. 11: 1,714. The man who worked at the gas and convenience mart down the street, Mohammed, I think he was from Pakistan, was sincerely one of the nicest and most caring and soft-spoken people I’d ever had the pleasure to know. The look of pain and sorrow on his face in the weeks after Sept. 11 broke my heart. After Sept. 11 he looked broken, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. I still think of him often.

Dan Rather broke down on the set of David Letterman in front of a live audience and openly wept. Some cheered the moment as a human and patriotic while others thought a man in his position should show complete impartiality always. The incident set off debates about whether it was acceptable for news people to wear the then-popular flag pins. ABC went as far as to forbid their people from wearing the pins. Spokesman Jeffrey Schneider told the Washington Post, "Especially in a time of national crisis, the most patriotic thing journalists can do is to remain as objective as possible ... That does not mean journalists are not patriots. All of us are at a time like this. But we cannot signal how we feel about a cause, even a justified and just cause, through some sort of outward symbol."

And the country was on high alert. In the area I lived in that meant that bridges and parks over and surrounding reservoirs were closed to the public out of fear of possible biological attacks. All cars entering local airports were searched by armed National Guardsmen. And due to the fact that we lived only seven miles from Indian Point nuclear power plant, everyone had an emergency evacuation plan should the plant be targeted. Our plan was to drive east as long and far as we could and hope for the best; driving north would take us closer, and the roads and bridges running south and west would be so clogged in an emergency that surely there would be no realistic chance for escape and survival. An evacuation plan is one thing I haven’t felt I’ve needed since I moved to Ohio in 2003. It’s also one of the reasons I was so quick to accept that impending move.

My husband has a personal policy: He won’t fly on Sept. 11. Not ever. If business demands he be somewhere other than home on Sept. 11, he’ll fly the day before or drive. He doesn’t do this out of fear or superstition. He does it in deference to those who died, a ritual of sorts.

Statistics suggest 20 percent of Americans knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks. My husband and I both went to Pace University in Westchester County, N.Y., well known as a business school, churning out finance professionals by the thousands. We don’t know that we know anyone who died in the attacks. But neither do we know that we don’t. Got it?

The way he handled the days, weeks and months following the attacks made me a Rudy Giuliani fan for life. The man showed grace, class and compassion. In 2001 he attended 200 funerals related to Sept. 11.

The Clear Channel Radio group deemed 150 songs “inappropriate” to play in the days immediately following the attacks. One radio show openly discussed the list. I still have a hard time understanding why Everclear’s “Santa Monica” made that list. Must be just four words from the chorus: “watch the world die.”

In the first year after Sept. 11 more than 422,000 New Yorkers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. An August 2009 USA Today article stated that 10 percent of those people are still suffering.

A photo of United 174 slamming into Tower 2 was everywhere and the video was replayed over and over. In short order, I had had enough. I couldn’t watch it any more. This singular moment in history meant too much to America for the incessant, gratuitous coverage it received and for it to be reduced to an overwrought pop culture clip. I feared, should its exploitation continue, the image would lose its meaning, that we as Americans would become desensitized to its significance. I still fear this, and I still avoid it. I don’t want to be desensitized. It means something to me.

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And here’s where I plead. Because I think maybe, over these eight long years, we have become desensitized.

Sure, the eighth anniversary will make the news. You’ll remember it, you’ll be sad, you’ll be respectful. At least for a few minutes (I hope).

But that’s not enough.

My friend Joe agrees. “I think it sucks that ‘never forget’ has been reduced to 1 day a year,” he said in a recent Facebook post. “I suggest that instead of thinking about that day, we think about the names. I’ll give you three: James ‘J.J.’ Carson, John ‘Ice-man’ Murray, Joshua S. Vitale.

“It ain't just a bumper sticker,” Joe continued. “Honestly, as cool as this Facebook thing is, I don't give a fuck what you had for breakfast. Put the mouse down and get on with your day. You are sitting at Penn Station and need us all to know that you are bored? No. Stop. And you know who you are. Use this medium to share something relevant.”sitting at Penn St. and need us all to know that you are bored? No. Stop. And you know who you are. Use this medium to share something relevant.re sitting at Penn St. and need us all to know that you are bored? No. Stop. And you know who you are. Use this medium to share something relevant.tale. And we all know too many.

Tell me what this day means to you. Tell me what you carry with you. Tell someone else. Tell the world.

Share something relevant.

------------------------------------------------

Take a moment to learn about a few of the people lost to the Sept. 11 terror attacks, like:

Joseph Agnello
Jeannine Marie Damiani-Jones
Jamie Lynn Fallon
Juan Garcia
Rodney Gillis
Stephen G. Hoffman
John Ogonowski
Robert Penninger
Waleska Martinez Rivera
Timothy Ray Ward

More at:

http://www.legacy.com/Sept11/Home.aspx

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/lists/by-name/index.html

Timeline data from http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/timeline/sept11.html
Statistics and figures from http://nymag.com/news/articles/wtc/1year/numbers.htm

Decision to Release Convicted Lockerbie Bomber Is Wrong

2009-08-25T11:22:00.001-07:00

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Nate Beeler - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

Last week Scottish officials released Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on "compassionate grounds." Al-Megrahi, the only person convicted in the 1988 bombing (co-defendant Lamin Khalifah Fhimah was found not guilty), has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has been sent back to his native Libya to live out his final days with his family (90 days, according to Scottish sources).

I've disagreed with the the idea that this man could be released all along. In fact, on Aug. 20 I posted this to my Twitter account:

"Libyan terrorist receives hero's welcome in Tripoli? What the hell were the Scottish thinking? He deserves no compassion."

In response to my tweet, a friend sent me the link to this video:

I think perhaps he thought my tweet expressed that I was unaware of the circumstances of the release. I was not unaware. And while I generally commend persons throughout the world for various acts that demonstrate compassion toward others, even I, a New York liberal at heart, am not that liberal. I find Scotland's decision to be shocking, disappointing and wrong.

270 people lost their lives as a result of the bombing, 180 of them Americans, 35 of them students at Syracuse University.

Mark Caccavo, of New York City, was a student at Syracuse at the time. He knew 23 of the 35 students who died that day, including one he describes as a very close friend and fraternity brother.

"There were 25 people silent around the television, just watching the list of names of people who were checked in on the plane," Caccavo recalled.

Silent that is, until one fraternity brother entered, excited, his spirits high. Turns out he too was returning from a semester abroad in England and was scheduled to fly on Pan Am 103. But he caught an earlier flight in hopes of attending a big party scheduled for that night. His flight landed, he collected his luggage, rented a car and never once turned on the radio. Until he entered the fraternity house, he was completely unaware of the tragedy that had befallen his friends, classmates and so many others.

The days that followed were a blur of tears, prayer and funerals. Caccavo attended as many of the funerals as he could.

"There is nothing more heartbreaking, more heartwrenching than having a parent give a child's eulogy," he said.

Of the decision to release al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, Caccavo said he'd prefer to see him die in jail.

"My friends are all very, very angry, and it's like all the feelings you had on that fateful day were just brought back to the surface,"he said. "The families have had to live with this horrible, horrible timeline -- It took 13 years for them to get any justice, [al-Megrahi's] only been [imprisoned] for seven years, and now he's free. I feel a great anger about that. It's such an injustice."

Caccavo also said he'd like to see [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown renounce the decision or face repercussions for his failure to intervene or influence the Scottish decision.

Unfortunately, that's unlikely. Brown has washed his hands of the matter. He stated publicly that he is "repulsed"by the hero's welcome al-Megrahi received in Libya, but that the decision to release al-Megrahi was that soley of the Scottish government.

Critics, however, counter that Brown is being disingenuous at best and at worst is flat out lying. Critics say the Scottish parliment is not entirely independent of the British parliment and that Brown could have stopped the release.

But what's done is done, and in this case the Scottish have made a decision that will continue to bring pain and outrage to the families, friends and countrymen of those lost in the bombing of Pan Am 103. There truly is no justice here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

*Up next: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi will be staying in the U.S. in September, as he will at that time address the United Nations. It was rumored he would be pitching his tent (Bedouin style) in Englewood, N.J.

It has been confirmed he will not be staying in New Jersey after all. But Qaddafi will still be on American soil, location currently unknown.

It's a shame, really. This would be a fine time for the United States to draw a line in the sand.

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Yaakov Kirschen - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

U.S. Bank to exit the federal student loan business

2009-07-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

In light of the revelation that U.S. Bank will exit the business of federally subsidized student loans, I thought it timely to post two very relevant stories I wrote a while back:

Audit: Fifth Third Violated Federal Loan Laws
Bank denies charges, points to changes in legal interpretation
Kristy Conlin The News Record
Published: Sunday, January 11, 2009

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank is under fire for violating federal laws prohibiting the use of financial incentives to market and secure federal student loans, according to a report that comes as the result of an audit conducted by the U.S. Education Department’s Inspector General.

Representatives for Fifth Third deny any laws were violated and instead insist the transactions in question, which involve student loan originators MSA Solution, Pacific Loan Processing and Law School Financial, were for the transfer of loans, not the marketing or solicitation of loans. According to Fifth Third, the buying and selling of existing loans is a common practice.

The Education Department is recommending disciplinary action against Fifth Third. Such action could include fines, removal of federal guarantees for the loans or removal of Fifth Third from the federal loan program.

(Read the full article here or here.)

Tuition rises, loan limits idle

Kristy Conlin The News Record
Published: Thursday, May 8, 2008

The student loan market is getting harder to navigate, thanks in part to the decision by some lenders to get out of the student loan business in addition to the growth of the alternative loan market.

Alternative loans (sometimes referred to as private loans) have risen in popularity in the last seven years and often come into play when there is a gap between educational costs and traditional financial aid.

The cost of tuition nationwide has increased 30 percent in the last five years, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The limit for freshmen borrowing via federally funded loans, however, is about the same as in the 1980s, according to Connie Williams, director of student financial aid at the University of Cincinnati.

"The lending industry saw a market there," Williams said. "We do have students who have larger loans, especially in their senior year when they've used all their federal grants."

(Read the full article here or here.)

*My take: First of all, I'm surprised this story is about U.S. Bank and not Fifth Third. I think U.S. Bank's explanation, as reported in Cliff Peale's article, is disingenuous at best. Of course they'd prefer to move to the private loan business - what banker truly wouldn't want to? Doing so allows for big interest dollars in the highly lucrative private/alternative student loan business. In any event this is bad news for students, students in the Tri-State area and across the country.

*Note to big time media: This story isn't over. The surface has only been scratched. You all have some digging to do.

Much ado about nothing?

2009-07-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Seems this cartoon is causing a bit of a flap, especially for members and representatives of the National Organization of Women. (Thanks to Daryl Cagle and Rob Tornoe for putting the cartoon, along with commentary, on their Web site. Click here to check it out). The cartoon, by Bill Bramhall, was printed in the New York Daily News (maybe my favorite newspaper ever).

So, as you can likely figure out, the gist of the complaint is that the cartoon is sexist, as it depicts efforts by numerous people to silence Gillibrand using any means possible from corks to socks to gags to "the hook."

Bramhall says the cartoon is an editorial on the predilection of some of our esteemed senators to use more speaking time on the floor than they are are allotted. Plus, Gillibrand has apparently made something of a habit of this practice. Her failure to wrap it up in a timely manner during the Sotomayor hearings ultimately was the genesis, according to Bramhill, for the cartoon.

Marcia Pappas, NOW-NYS president, disagrees. She suggests the cartoon is one more example of a patronizing patriarchy in which women are told to "sit down and shut up."

At this point I think her perspective is a bit over the top. Heartfelt, I'm sure, but a little too politically correct, especially when taken in the context the cartoon's creator describes.

Pappas really loses me though when she goes full on crazy. That's the only way this statement can be explained: “Bramhall’s phallic symbols send a clear message that women are good for only one thing."

Call me crazy, but you have to really be looking for those so-called phallic symbols to see them.

It's not easy for me to say she's wrong about this. But she is.

I admire Pappas' efforts to defend women. I consider myself to be a feminist and I see sexism in a lot of places - women's pay vs. men's and the political status and perception of women are the two areas that cause me the greatest distress. (I'm still not over the GLARING mistreatment Hillary Clinton received during last year's primary campaign). But still ...

Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon.

Hate crimes - more than just semantics

2009-05-05T18:25:00.001-07:00

So, I've heard of holocaust deniers, Armenian genocide deniers, man-landing-on-the-moon deniers, global warming deniers and AIDS deniers, but this week I learned about a new type of denier: those who deny that Matthew Shepard's murder was a hate crime.

I guess I have Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to thank for teaching me something new.

Ultimately, her perspective of Shepard's murder as the byproduct of a drug-induced robbery is not new. The theory has been around since 2004, when ABC News ran a 20/20 feature exploring the concept. But here is what is important about the alternative theory of the crime. It has been debunked. Roundly. And by one of the assailants, who fully and completely confessed he knew Shepard's orientation and intentionally lured him into the situation that resulted in his being beaten, tied to a fence post and left for dead. "Guess what? We're not gay. You're gonna get jacked," said Aaron McKinney, one of two men serving life in prison for the crime, to a police officer. Later jailhouse letters contained additional damning testimony.

But I digress. My main gripe today is with Foxx. "The bill was named after a very unfortunate incident that happened, where a young man was killed, but we know that this young man was killed in the commitment of robbery. It wasn't because he was gay ... it's, it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

One can almost imagine the disgust in her voice.

I'd love the opportunity to share with her my disgust.

Obviously, Foxx was not going to be able to get away with this. With the media breathing down her neck and her own colleagues denouncing her statement ("Matthew Shepard's mother was in the gallery yesterday ... I'm sorry she had to be around to hear it," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn). "And I'd tell [Foxx] that man did land on the moon and the moon wasn't made out of green cheese."). She would indeed issue an apology.

Or would she?

Well, by the letter of the law, yes, I suppose one could say she apologized. Twice even. But you know those backhanded apologies that aren't really apologies but are more like passive-aggressive insults wrapped in insincerity? Yeah, Foxx's apologies were like that.

"I am especially sorry if his grieving family was offended by my statement ... Referencing [the 20/20] media account may have been a mistake, but it was a mistake based on what I believed were reliable accounts," she said.

Wait, does it sound like she is actually sorry she hurt Shepard's family with her words or that she regurgitated an egregious lie in the halls of Congress?

Foxx followed up that non-apology with another non-apology. "Saying that the event was a hoax was a poor choice of words. I've apologized for that," she said.

That’s like when I tell my sister after an argument that I'm sorry she thinks I'm wrong. Yeah, maybe not the most sincere of apologies.

For her part, Judy Shepard is having none of it. She has responded publicly several times over the last week, including Tuesday, May 5, at an appearance at the University of Cincinnati, that she declined to accept the so-called apology. Foxx, Shepard said, was only apologizing for the words she used, not the sentiment behind them. “It was ridiculous and stupid, and she is paying for it,” Judy Shepard said of Foxx's statement.

Despite Foxx's statement, the Matthew Shepard Bill (officially The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, H.R. 1913) passed the House, 249-175. Cincinnati-area Rep. Jean Schmidt voted against the bill, while Steve Driehaus voted for the bill.

I am certain I will never understand the hatred and fear with which some people approach homosexuality.

After all, as Judy Shepard said Tuesday, "We are who we are. We love who we love."

Swine flu renews anti-Hispanic sentiments (at least among idiots)

2009-05-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

I knew this would happen. As soon as the swine flu began to dominate the media, I began to get a sick feeling in my stomach. And no, that bit of nausea wasn't actually related to the flu. It was related to the potential for a renewed and intensified bias against Hispanics and against Mexicans specifically.

I wish I had been wrong, wish I had overreacted.

But I wasn't. And I didn't.

Any nowhere has the rhetoric been more prevalent, stronger or more vile than in the world of talk radio.

Here is just a partial list of the disgusting things that supposedly intelligent, educated, so-called professionals have said concerning the connection between the Mexican population and the spread of the swine flu (which the CDC is now requesting we call the H1N1 flu):

"Make no doubt about it: Illegal aliens are carriers of the new strain ... of flu," said the particularly vile Michael Savage last week. "And it all starts in the restaurants," where he said, you "don't know if they wipe their behinds with their hands."

Really? Wow.

Savage went on to suggest that the new flu strain may be a part of a terrorist attack. “I can't say for sure,” he said too late, as the suggestion is already out there.

(In unrelated news, the BBC is reporting that the U.K. has a list of 16 people who are banned from the country - Savage is one of them. "This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," said Jacqui Smith, Britain's Home Secretary. Smart woman.)

Sean Hannity, during his syndicated radio show, said last week that, of course, the borders should be sealed, and that he finds it "suspicious" that the areas of the U.S. that are experiencing the greatest numbers of swine flu cases, New York, California and Texas, are among those with the highest Hispanic populations in the nation.

Boston talk-show host Jay Severin was suspended after calling Mexican immigrants “criminaliens” and stating that hospital emergency rooms were “essentially condos for Mexicans.”

Bill Cunningham has reportedly made another on-air “dirty Mexicans” comment (and apparently he has a long history of making derogatory comments about Mexicans).

And the list could go on and on (Neal Boortz, Lou Dobbs, Michelle Malkin, Betsy Perry).

And unfortunately, there are entire nations now joining the list of the overreacting and the ignorant.

The deputy Health Minister of Israel has requested that the affliction be renamed the Mexican flu, and the government of Hong Kong has detained and isolated hundreds of Hispanics and the people who have shared either airplanes or hotels with them.

The Cincinnati Enquirer even ran a story about Hispanic children in the area being bullied and teased about having swine flu. Jason Riveiro, of the Ohio League of United Latin American Citizens, reports that multiple parents have contacted him with complaints. The comment count on the story is at 133 and still rising.

In response to all the hatred and filthy language, Liany Arroyo, director of the national Council of La Raza’s Institute for Hispanic Health, points out the obvious.

Some people, Arroyo said, have opted to exploit the virus “as a mechanism to stir fear.”

Carlos Gutierrez, associate professor of Spanish at the University of Cincinnati who teaches a class on Hispanic culture in the United States, concurs with Arroyo.

“Hannity [for example] is just another unmoral, pharisaic voice that takes advantage of the worst weaknesses and fears that people harbor,” Gutierrez said. “The pointing of geographic and ethnic fingers whenever there’s an outbreak of something is an ugly business and a very old game that borders the xenophobic, to say the least.”

A very old game indeed. Gutierrez draws a comparison to the 16th century, when the French called syphilis the “Spanish sickness, while the Spanish and Italians called it the “French evil.” Similar scenarios can be cited throughout the ensuing 500 years of world history.

But what I don’t understand is why, in this day and age, people are still using this type of rhetoric, why they would want to scare the bejeezus out of their countrymen?

It is impossible, realistically, to definitively stem the spread of any epidemic in today’s world, and really, why waste time on assigning blame (although – for another time and another article I suppose – I firmly believe it is the massive factory farming that is to blame for the swine flu) when more efforts should be put into cure and prevention?

Won’t we ever get past this? Or will we just keeping doing the same things, saying the same things, over and over again, all while expecting some different outcome?

I, for one, hope for more.

Cincy Cinco - May 3, 2009

2009-05-04T19:58:00.000-07:00

Photo treats - Here are a couple of my favorite photos from yesterday's Cincy Cinco event at Fountain Square.

Dunking Hannity's head and holding it underwater 6 times a day, every day for a month

2009-04-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

Just feel the urge to share this little gem with y'all ...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I think it speaks for itself.

On a side note, once upon a time, in a land far, far away and sometimes known as New York, I met Sean Hannity. I was working in the book biz and was managing a signing event. The man I met is not the same bombastic idiot who hosts the FOX program and the syndicated radio show. Basically -- act surprised -- it is basically an act. Sort of like I imagine Howard Stern to be.

Hannity was actually very gracious and relatively charming in person.

Go figure.

I guess, though, that he must believe the drivel that comes out of his mouth at least a little bit.

FYI, I'm not especially an Olbermann fan either. I kind of think he is Hannity in some weird alternate universe.

10th anniversary of one of our saddest national tragedies

2009-04-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Miniature crosses are displayed to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings at Clement Park April 20, 2009 in Littleton, Colorado. Columbine was the site of the then deadliest school shooting in modern United States history. (Marc Piscotty, Getty Images)

It’s been ten full years since Columbine High School students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire and murdered 12 students and one teacher and injured 23 more people before taking their own lives.

Ten years and it feels like yesterday.

Ten years and it feels like a lifetime ago.

It’s weird. I still remember that day so clearly. My sister and I were transfixed by the television coverage. It seems like the coverage went on for weeks. Nothing but death, destruction, analysis, experts, victims, rinse, repeat.

The massacre happened, experts said in the weeks that followed April 20, 1999, because the boys were obsessed with violent movies like Natural Born Killers. It happened because the boys played Grand Theft Auto. It happened because the boys had absentee parents, parents so wrapped up in their own lives that they had no idea their boys were collecting guns and ammunition and building bombs in the garage. It happened because the boys were bullied for years and years on end. It happened because the boys, one, maybe both, were crazy, crazy and depressed and suicidal, undiagnosed, overmedicated, under-medicated. They probably listened to Nine Inch Nails. Or maybe Marilyn Manson made them do it.

Every few years the case would hit the news and my senses, my memories of that day would be reawakened.

So naturally I’m kind of surprised I was caught as off guard as I was Monday morning when the deluge of new information, revelations and opinions hit the airwaves, the newspapers and the blogosphere. I had no idea there was a major anniversary coming up.

Ultimately, what’s especially unnerving to me today is that despite the new round of analysis, the new search for reason and meaning, there is nothing new. It seems that many out there are still trying to answer the why, still trying to make sense of it. Many of the old theories have been abandoned, and people are left to blame that most intangible but faithful cause for all the bad things that happen in the world: evil.

Leonard Pitts, for example, is one of those people.

In his column he says there is no reason for the massacre other than the evil of the killers. Klebold and Harris, Pitts says, “unleashed hell … a firestorm.”

Pitts goes on, in essence to say that what Klebold and Harris did was so heinous, the two boys so devoid of any redemptive value, that evil is all that is left.

“I will not begrudge you if you seek the rhyme or reason in what those boys did, but as for me, I will give them not an hour of my one and only life trying to comprehend their incomprehensible deed,” Pitts said.

He uses evil as an excuse to dismiss any discussion that might lead to understanding, that might help us all to help someone else so as to avoid another Columbine.

I know, naïve, right? In light of what happened at Virginia Tech, that one-room school house in Pennsylvania, the immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y. and every other act of seemingly inexplicable violence to have occurred since Columbine and those that have yet to occur but certainly will, it must sound quaint of me.

I’m just not willing to accept that a little red man with horns and a tail and who lives among fire and brimstone made anyone do anything. While I believe there are plenty of acts that are evil, I’m not sure I believe that people are born innately evil.

That, apparently, is what Pitts believes.

To me, intellectually, that doesn't make sense.

But I still need an explanation. I need to know that these people are damaged beyond belief, that they are crazy, out of their minds with depression, pain, mental illness coursing through their veins.

I need for there to be a diagnosis.

I'll even concede that just because we can put a name on it doesn’t mean that we can cure it. And don't get me wrong: It certainly doesn't excuse any behavior.

It just is what it is. And it deserves more of our time, not less.

100 movies to see before you die ...

2009-04-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I just checked out Yahoo's recent list of 100 movies to see before you die.

Yeah, not my usual style for this blog - no taxes, no gloom and doom economy stories. I thought I'd lighten it up a little bit.

Now, I like to consider myself a movie connoisseur, and I like to think I watch more movies than the average person. I also know that I have very specific tastes when it comes to movies. For example, I don't do war or violence, I find most dramas to be *yawn* boring, and I love low-brow comedies (I went into reviewing the list not expecting to find Old School included - drats).

But lately, I've been more open to watching movies I'd normally judge to be outside of my comfort zone - thanks largely to Professor Enrique Giordano and his excellent class on Latin American Film, I have two new favorites to add to my own personal best films list, Machuca, and Amores Perros.

So here goes. I'm highlighting many of the films Yahoo included on the list, and I'm dividing them into groups.

MOVIES I'VE SEEN

Do the Right Thing

I saw Do the Right Thing on the list and gasped; it's one of my all time favorites. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and make it a point. Best viewed on a swelteringly hot day.

Other "I've seen it" highlights:

Blue Velvet
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Die Hard
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Shawshank Redemption
The Usual Suspects
The Wizard of Oz

In total, of the 100, I've only seen ... 28.

MOVIES MOST PEOPLE HAVE SEEN ... BUT NOT ME

Pulp Fiction

Nope, never saw it, not all the way through. I tried several times and fell asleep every single time.

Others I think most people have seen, at least most movie fans:

Alien
Blade Runner
The Godfather (Parts I and II)
Lord of the Rings
Raging Bull
Titanic

MOVIES ON MY LIST TO SEE

All About Eve

I'll try to check these out as soon as I have tons and tons of free time, like when I'm laid up at home or unemployed (maybe sooner than I think if I don't find a job shortly after graduation).

All About Eve is on the list because I have a thing for Bette Davis. The queen of movie mean, no one does it quite like Bette did.

Have you seen any of these?

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
Casablanca
Chinatown
Nosferatu
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

MOVIES I'VE NEVER HEARD OF

Blow-Up

Looks campy, looks like fun. But I've never heard of it.

I've also never heard of:

400 Blows
Grand Illusion
Wild Strawberries
Wings of Desire
The World of Apu

MOVIES I HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN EVER SEEING

Annie Hall

With the exception of Match Point, I HATE Woody Allen movies. Just don't get them, don't find them to be even remotely entertaining.

Many of the other movies in this category are very old, some are movies I don't think will translate well in 2009, some I can't for the life of me figure out why they're on the list, and some just aren't my bag, baby:

Bringing Up Baby
Duck Soup
Gold Finger
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Some Like it Hot (I LOVE Jack Lemmon, but I love him best with Walter Matthau.)
Terminator 2 (2? Why 2?)

And yeah, I think they missed a few, but we'll save that matter for another time.

What about you? Like the list? Abhor it? Where do you weigh in on the titles included? How about those that failed to make the cut?

I have seen the future of newspapers ...

2009-04-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this weekend I went to the Region 4 Society of Professional Journalists Conference in Columbus, OH. (My paper, The News Record, won second place, all-around best non-daily college paper, btw; make sure you check it out here http://www.newsrecord.org/ if you haven't already.) Obviously, there were tons of newspaper people there and talk of the future of newspapers was the constant buzz.

Now, lots of people have lots of ideas. Some think print newspapers will be extinct within 10 years. Some think the government should bail out the industry. Some are working furiously to find just the right formula to satiate both readers and advertisers. But aside from cutting sections or shifting focus, aside from changing formats or emphasizing interactivity, aside from pie-in-the sky (or are they?) print-at-home concepts, not much has changed as far as innovation goes.

But then the managing editor of The Detroit News, Walter Middlebrook, spoke about the changes his paper, along with joint operating agreement partner The Detroit Free Press had just implemented earlier in the week.

You see, those two papers made significant changes to their subscription delivery program by reducing home delivery to just three days a week (I think The Detroit News is delivering, if I remember correctly, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; it is a six-day-a-week publication). The two are the first major metro papers to make such a move.

David Hunke, publisher of the Free Press and CEO of the Detroit Media Partnership, told CNN in December 2008 that the action was in response to the ailing economy and the changing tastes of tech-savvy consumers. He expected the newspapers would face about a 9 percent reduction in their workforces under the plan, but stressed that no layoffs were planned for newsroom staffs.

Basically, readers of these two dailies will have four options on non-delivery days:

Skip the day's newspaper
Buy a copy off newsstands
Get news from the papers' free Web sites
Or, perhaps most intriguingly, subscribe to the e-edition

The e-edition is the new (ish?) wrinkle in all of this. Guaranteed to be in your email box no later than 5:30 a.m., the e-edition is your daily paper in electronic form. It is an assemblance of click and drag PDFs. You can turn the pages using your mouse, and if you want to zoom in and read a particular article, you just roll over it. It is like the very pages my staff and I prepare three nights a week. But instead of sending them to press, they are posted directly online, utilizing a few more bells and whistles intended to improve readability and, presumably, online experience.

As I said, this just launched last week. It's much too early to judge success or failure, but it is fascinating. Will this quell those who can't stand the idea of losing the form of the traditional newspaper? How about those who find many newspaper Web sites to be non-navigable or non-intuitive? You still can't take an e-edition into the bathroom with you, and coffee and the newspaper in bed in the morning won't feel quite the same either.

There is one other option Middlebrook said The News is considering. An device known as the Plastic Logic e-Reader is being bandied about as a potential light-weight, portable, electronic delivery method.

The popular Kindle has been mentioned as a possibility by other newspaper publishers, and sure the field will surely only continue to grow.

I think the idea of the essentially all PDF e-edition is one of the better options I've heard. I'm a purist: I like to hold the paper in in my hands and fold it as I see fit. There is a great amount of intimacy in my personal history with newspapers, dating back all those years ago when I traded sections with my dad over the breakfast table. But I'm in the business and being a part of this business is bigger to me than the paper it is printed on.

Newspapers must adapt. And so must their fans.

What do you think? Will you miss all that paper and ink when it's gone? Would you prefer newspaper get a bailout before GM? Are you happy to see them both go the way of the dodo bird? Are you already online only? What feedback do you want to share with the industry? I'd love to know your thoughts on the matter.

Residents of the state of New York: Congratulations; you just dodged a bullet.

2009-03-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

Photo courtesy of : √oхέƒx™|flickr

Last week, on March 11, New York Governor David Paterson and legislative leaders withdrew plans for a host of controversial and highly unpopular taxes that would have resulted in approximately $1.3 billion in new taxes for the year beginning July 1 .

Paterson suggested the state, which faces a record $14.2 billion deficit, could finally afford to drop the proposed taxes because of money the state will receive as part of the federal stimulus package.

Paterson first presented in December what some people thought is a unique plan to aid in closing the historic state budget gap. Others have called the plan “an attack on personal freedom.”

What the plan proposed was an addition to, or in some cases an expansion of, excise taxes, known popularly as sin taxes.

Paterson wanted the state to increase or add sales taxes to, among other items, sporting event tickets, movie tickets, theater tickets, alcohol (beer, wine and liquor), Internet downloads, taxis, satellite and cable TV, cigars, massages and soft drinks that contain sugar. (See more details of the original tax plan.)

And surprisingly, it’s that last one, sugar-laden soft drinks, that caused the largest outcry among New York’s citizens. San Fransisco considered a similar tax:

The $404 million the soda tax would have raised would be used to fund public health programs, including programs aimed at preventing or reducing the incidence of obesity.

"We are in the midst of a new public health epidemic: childhood obesity," Paterson said in December.

Paterson expected such a tax to reduce the sales of sugar-laden beverages by about 5 percent and the statistics he cited in making his proposal are alarming: One in four children under the age of 18 is obese, and in economically challenged areas, that number may rise to one in three. Only 17 years ago, the obesity rate in New York was about 10 percent -- that's a pretty remarkable jump.

But from the moment the words were out of his mouth, New Yorkers were all over the matter, expressing an almost universal disapproval for what became known as the fat tax.

“Any new tax is a bad tax, particularly in this state where we are taxed to death (highest tax rate in the nation when all taxes are taken into consideration), said Dave Barmen, a small business owner from Upstate New York. “And if you think the revenue from the tax will go to what it's supposedly earmarked for, it's highly unlikely.”

Barmen also attacked the core purpose of the proposed tax – decreasing obesity and related health issues.

“All these laws that restrict personal freedom are antithetical to the whole purpose of this democratic experiment we call the United States,” he said, citing seat belt, helmet, hand-free cell phone and gambling statutes as unfair and unpatriotic. “It's one thing to have laws that protect people from harm inflicted by others ... it's idiotic to have laws that protect us from our own selves.”

And plenty of people agree with Barmen, judging from discourse throughout the blogosphere.

Even people who agree something needs to be done to squelch obesity, and childhood obesity in particular, believe taxing the matter away is neither necessary nor productive.

“Educate children on nutrition. Make home [economics] a mandatory class and make healthy eating the core focus,” one New Yorker suggested. “Because you will not stop people from drinking soda with an 18 percent tax.”

The idea of an 18 percent tax not being enough to deter unwanted behavior is also supported by a sizable segment of the population.

“I think the tax would have to be much higher to have a significant impact,” one blog poster said. “While some may switch to diet, an 18 percent increase is only about a 25 cent increase in total price on a two liter. I think people will pay for it: they are too addicted to their sugar and caffeine not to.”

Beth Walter Honadle is a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati. She specializes in public policy research and says the issue must be looked at from two perspectives.

Excluding tax income as the sole or even primary impetus for the soda tax, that leaves two objectives for the proposed but now aborted implementation: to less the consumption of soft drinks and/or to decrease obesity rates.

Honadle offered as alternatives to taxation educational programs, subsidization of healthier alternatives and on outright ban on the sale of sugared soft drinks.

Although, “We all know how well Prohibition worked out,” she said.

She said that if decreasing obesity is the ultimate goal and government feels it wants or needs to intervene, that intervention could take the form of building more pedestrian-friendly areas, building more bike lanes, requiring more physical education in schools and requiring employers to provide recreational facilities.

But all those things cost money, and doesn’t that just put us right back where we started?

College seniors – are you nervous?

2009-03-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

I think many of us are in the same boat – graduation is just about three months away! Not that I'm counting. (Ok, maybe I am.)

But everyday I read another article about how jobs for college grads will be harder to come by than ever.

So, tell me. Are you job searching yet? How's it going? If you aren't looking yet, why not? Are you willing to compromise your dream job for a job? Are you considering grad school?

Leave me comments, or send me an email:

worldneedsnow@yahoo.com

Story to follow soon ...

Are you a customer of Fifth Third Bank?

2009-03-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

I am working with fellow journalism major Ashley Monk on a story about the unfair and greatly inflated fees that Fifth Third Bank charges their customers and the way the bank manipulates charges and debits in a manner that is perceived to be unethical.

If you are a customer of Fifth Third and would be willing to discuss your experience with us, please email me at:

worldneedsnow@yahoo.com

We are especially interested in talking to residents of the Cincinnati area and UC students in particular.

We expect/hope for a story on this situation to run in The News Record either next week or the first week after Spring Break, the week of April 1st.

Thanks!

Economy hits Spring Break

2009-03-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Maui, Hawaii, Spring Break 2005

Students at the University of Cincinnati and other area schools are saying that, by and large, the shaky U.S. economy will not impact their Spring Break plans, echoing similar attitudes being expressed on college campuses across the country.

“I think that you are only this age in college once and you only have so many opportunities so you might as well take advantage of them while you have the time,” said Alex, a second-year CCM student.

Industry experts also support that perspective, even if doing so is somewhat self-serving.

Resort operator Sandals offers on its Web site a list of 26 tips for affording Spring Break.

Other operators make Spring Break sound both affordable and necessary.

''Typically, the student business is more resilient to the economy because it's like a once-in-a-lifetime trip,'' said Jason Chute, director of operations for StudentCity.com, a travel group that specializes in spring break travel.

That once in a lifetime, got to do it now before I graduate mentality is shared by Denise Lottman.

Lottman, a fourth-year A&S student said she and a group of friends found a good deal on a cruise to Mexico.

“[I] figure this is our senior year, and [I] have never previously done much for spring break,” she said. “I deserve a reward for getting through college.”

But just a bit of economic reality also creeps into Lottman’s thinking.

“A part of me thinks I would probably reconsider the trip had I not arranged to go nearly six months ago,” she said. “I plan on using paychecks and forget parking passes, I'm braving the Clifton streets.”

In addition to giving up luxuries like parking passes, some students are careful to note that they have worked hard to put together the least expensive vacation possible.

Alex will be making the migration to popular Spring Break spot Panama City, Fla.

“There are 15 of us in two six-person lofts,” he said. “Yes, money may be an issue at this time period, but let's be honest: It won't last forever, it will get better and I'll most likely be in college during most of the ‘down’ years.”

Alex estimates his total expenses for the trip will total only about $250: $100 for his share of the loft (for six nights), gas money for the drive (divided among 4 to 5 people per car) and food and drink.

Annie Dietrich, a second-year education major, can relate to Alex. She and 10 of her closet friends will be sharing a two-bedroom condo in Panama City.

But there are plenty of people who will not be traveling this March.

Amanda Turk, a fourth-year French student at Wright State University, will spend this break as she has spent so many others – working, saving up maybe for her next trip to France. That, she says, is more important to her than a week in Florida with thousands of other students.

Sean Peters, a third-year UC journalism major said that in his fantasy world, he’d spend Spring Break traveling through Western Europe.

He said that instead of France, Denmark and the Netherlands, he’d be staying in Cincinnati.

“I'll eat ramen noodles and watch reruns of Sponge Bob Square Pants,” he said.

Lauren Black of Toledo is facing an even more bleak Spring Break.

“I might be getting laid off. Awesome. So on my Spring Break I will be daydreaming of a better life while I search for jobs,” she said. “I guess you could say that a relaxing week at home has been ruined by the economy.”

And while Lottman knows how she’ll both pay for her trip and avoid racking up credit card debt, others will unfortunately, have to rely on credit, at least a little bit.

“I am going thousands of dollars in debt in loans anyway to pay for school, what's an extra couple hundred bucks?” Alex said. “I am paying for it through money I earned [and my] credit card ... quite simply, you have to pay money to experience things.”

Lottman echoed Alex’s sentiments.

“Screw money,” she said. “It controls way too many of our decisions.”

2009-02-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas, part one of my 2008 Spring Break

So, the economy sucks. Work is hard to come by. People are cutting back. No more Starbucks. Or maybe they are eating out less often. Or exchanging name brands for lesser brands.

And all that applies to college students as well. But as another quarter comes to an end, or another semester reaches its midpoint, many students are lamenting that they really, really need a break. But can they afford a vacation?

I, for example, am going on vacation over spring break, a road trip/photojournalism expedition (see, it's a working vacation) to northern Florida, to New Orleans (I've never been!), up through rural Alabama and Mississippi, to Nashville. But notice: I'm driving - no flying out of the nation's most expensive airport for me - I'm cashing out tons of Marriott points, and make no mistake about it - I am definately getting some familial help in financing this trip. If it were all up to me, if I were the only one paying for this trip, I'd be having a staycation.

How about you? How will the bad economy affect your spring break plans? What have you done for spring break in the past? What is your dream spring break?

Death Valley National Park, Part two of my 2008 Spring Break

Zimpher's UC tenure first class

2009-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

And now it is finally official - Nancy Zimpher will leave the University of Cincinnati to become chancellor of the State University of New York system.

After weeks of denying what was strongly suspected, the announcement was finally made. She said at today’s press conference in Albany, N.Y., that “Only the size and scale of the opportunity at the SUNY system” could lure her away from UC.

And anyone would agree with that – Zimpher would have to be crazy not to take a position that puts her in charge of 64 campuses that boast a combined enrollment of more than 500,000 students.And despite what many UC community members are saying now, her legacy is yet to be determined.

The truth is, Zimpher has been a polarizing figure on campus and in the region. It seems people love her or hate her. Some describe her as warm and engaging while others say she comes off a little “frosty.” There seems to be no middle ground: There is no ambivalence when it comes to UC’s president.

Those who love her point to strong leadership and an emphasis on academic achievement as elements that bring her great esteem.

“I’ve really enjoyed having a president who has such an open attitude toward students,” said Frank Bowen, UC dean of students. “I’m hopefully optimistic for the future of UC that we find a president who is as exploratory, optimistic and academically focused as [Zimpher].”

And the love fest doesn’t end there.

Student Government President Ryan Rosensweig commented that the value of a UC degree has increased under Zimpher’s tenure.

And Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory said: “I feel like I’m losing a friend.”

But those who, well let’s just say those who are not big fans of Zimpher seem to be hung up on a few very specific issues: comments she made about the lesser value of the “pre-Zimpher” degree and the firing of beloved basketball coach Bob Huggins in 2004. In fact, there are whole Web sites dedicated to trashing Zimpher in support of Hugs.

“Your attitude toward UC’s pre-Zimpher alumni is atrocious,” one alumnus said.

“Her comments about ‘pre-Zimpher’ alumni have left a bitter taste in my mouth (CCM ‘71). I have not renewed my alumni membership since she fired Huggins. Not because I thought she shouldn’t or couldn’t do it, but because of the way she did it,” said another.

And typical of the Huggins fan is this comment: “Whoever fires Bob Huggins doesn’t deserve to be at UC.”

And really, those are about the only printable comments there are on the subject of the Zimpher-Huggins rivalry.

So what is the truth?

While it is true that no one person is larger than the institution, and despite a few missteps (the closure of grad student housing tops the list), by and large, Zimpher has been good, very good, for the University.

UC’s reputation has improved. Enrollment is up. UC is now considered to be a top-notch research university. And Zimpher has positively impacted the entire region with her involvement in the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Agenda 360 and the CUF Community Council.

She has made UC a university students can be proud to attend.

And to those people who still carry a torch for Huggins? Get over it already.

Around the time Huggins was fired, Zimpher was quoted as saying: “Character counts.”

If all members of the UC community are honest with themselves, they’ll see she was right and that UC athletics are better off now than in the Huggins heyday.

Gone is the questionable recruiting. Gone is the thuggish reputation of the team. And in are the classier, quality athletics programs of today; the UC community should be proud not only of the performances of the baseball, volleyball and football teams (not to mention the basketball team, which is quietly earning its way to an NCAA tournament bid), but also of the academic accomplishments of UC athletes. According to the most recent figures available, 68 percent of athletes graduate while only 52 percent of the general student population graduates.

So while SUNY’s gain is UC’s loss, there are several initiatives she won’t be around to see through, including the semester conversion, performance-based budgeting and the redevelopment of McMillan Park.

“I’ll take a hoe out there myself if it takes [longer than two years],” Zimpher said in January 2008.

Looks like we’ll never get to see that happen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a look at Nancy Zimpher's first visit with a college in the SUNY system, the University of Albany.

Campaign touts 'Buy American'

2009-02-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

With no improvement in sight for the troubled economy, many Americans are renewing the call for a commitment to a “Buy American.”

Jim Berns, shop manager for the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, is leading the charge, emphasizing the everyday benefits of buying American-made goods.

“When you buy from another American, that money can come back to you fairly quickly,” Berns said. “If you buy something from China, you might as well throw that money out the window because they’re going to put it in the bank and they aren’t going to buy anything from you or from me.”

Berns has taken his campaign to both the streets and the airwaves as of late, appearing on local television and radio, as well as area street corners, touting his position with handmade signs while requesting passersby to honk “if you love the U.S.A.”

Beth Walter Honadle, a UC political science professor specializing in policy analysis and evaluation, public finance and economic development, takes issue with the current “Buy American” campaign.

“I expect the ‘Buy American’ policy to be about as effective as President Gerald Ford’s ‘Whip Inflation Now’ campaign was back in 1974,” Honadle said. In that initiative, the president exhorted people to save more and spend less and encouraged the wearing of WIN buttons to ‘whip’ inflation.

“The history lesson is that slogans asking people to behave against their self-interest generally don’t work,” Honadle said.

And indeed, some of Berns’ own students admit that adhering to the call to buy American can be challenging.

Seidi Kenneh and Michelle Olden are two of the students who are working with Berns to make signs and get the word out.

“It’s hard to pick something up, say to myself ‘Wow, I really like this and it’s cheaper [than something made in the United States],’” Kenneh said. “It’s hard for me to say I won’t buy it because it’s not made in the United States.”

“The concept is good as long as there are people behind it and we can really get [the campaign] to go someplace,” Olden said. “It will take a lot of people to change our buying system.”

David Brasington, an economics professor specializing in political economies, said “Buy American” could have some success.

“For goods and services that Americans already make the best and cheapest, it won’t have any effect, because we’re already buying them,” Brasington said. “For goods and services that we’re not best and cheapest at, if people follow the campaign and buy American instead of a cheaper or better foreign good, it will help preserve jobs and profits for those companies that might otherwise continue their slide toward going out of business. And people won’t mind the lower quality or higher prices because they get satisfaction knowing they’re helping American companies.”

But Berns doesn’t want his efforts to be confused with pork barrel spending – he isn’t promoting buying American products for the sake of buying American products if they’re not the best quality or most efficient products available.

And concerning products the United States is not prepared to compete on, like electronics, it’s fine, Berns says, to buy foreign-made item, especially if that other country is a trading partner like Canada or Mexico.

“There is some parity in that balance,” Berns said. “The U.S.-China trade imbalance is huge – the United States purchases about five times more from China than China buys from the United States.”

Honadle warns that a concerted effort by government or citizens to buy only American could prompt a trade war.

Furthermore, “In today’s global economy, with goods being produced with component parts from around the globe, it might be interesting just to see how they will define what an ‘American good’ is these days,” Honadle said.

Brasington agrees.

“Today’s American firms are mostly highly international anyway, so a ‘Buy American’ campaign might actually help preserve some foreigners’ jobs, too. Dell computers may be assembled [in the Philippines]; some Fords are made by Mexicans; some Chevrolet camshafts are made in China,” he said.

“But the ‘Buy American’ campaign, if effective, would still help preserve corporate profits and corporate jobs that Ford still has in the [United States], whether or not these are the types of jobs such a campaign is really thinking of helping.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check you the YouTube video made by some of the students who are working with Jim Berns.
Effective? Do you consider the place of origin of the products you buy? Are you willing to pay more for American made products?

I want porn and pizza ...

2009-02-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: nwistheone/flickr.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwistheone/72190758/

So, I just cannot take it any longer. I feel I need to address the hypocrites and idiots who have found it necessary to comment on the University of Cincinnati's week of "Sexploration."

The event has garnered considerable media attention, especially from the Cincinnati Enquirer, and I'll admit I found it odd that the paper previewed the event on Sunday, Feb. 1. Here's a link to Cliff Peale's article: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090201/NEWS01/902010361.

"Really," I thought at the time. "Is there so little going on in Cincinnati that the Enquirer is now covering benign campus events?"

After all, as a student at a major university, I didn't bat an eye when I first heard about "Sexploration," and I'm fairly certain no I know did either.

But the letters to the Enquirer's editorial page started showing up in print, Archbishop Pilarczyk got involved (http://www.newsrecord.org/sections/news/archbishop_upset_with_sexploration-1.1355050)

and so did Peter Bronson

(http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=blog03&plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3ab0f34581-34e4-4b11-9a69-1df5eb81e786Post%3a84225783-71fe-47f8-b5c0-4d99989cea68&sid=sitelife.cincinnati.com).

"How are events such as "Pizza and Porn" and "Got the Hook Up?" any better than inviting a tobacco company to peddle cigarettes and celebrate the glories of a good smoke?" This is just one of the pearls of wisdom Bronson offers in his "Sexploration" blog post.

For the record, I can't think of I time I ever thought Bronson was right.

Sigh.

So let me first address the idiots (that's you and your ilk, Bronson). If any of these people had gone to, researched, or even called someone involved with the "Pizza and Porn" event, they'd realize the event was not dinner and a movie, but rather a public forum, a discourse, an exploration of people's thoughts and perspectives on pornography.

In other words, "Pizza and Porn" was intended to bring people of differing opinions together to encourage critical thinking concerning a difficult and controversial subject.

Gee, I could have sworn that this is what college is for: to teach people to think both critically and for themselves.

As for the hypocrites, well, I'll start with Pilarczyk. Dude, you are just in no way, shape or form in a position to comment on, well just about anything to do with sex.

"I find the 'Sexploration' program ... to be profoundly disturbing," Pilarczyk said in a statement released by the Archdiocese. "The gross disregard of the moral sensibilities of many in the university community is troubling in the extreme."

What's troubling to me is that a representative of a religion that is wholly and completely out of touch with life in the 21st century (Hello, no birth control? Seriously?) is commenting on the sexual mores of today's college students.

What's troubling to me is that a man who has vowed to live his life as a celibate is commenting on the safety of the sex others engage in.

What's troubling to me is that a man of such high position, so ready to publicly denounce the university and it's Wellness Center, could be completely misinformed as to whether or not taxpayer funds paid for the week's events (they didn't).

What's troubling to me is that after all the charges, convictions, admissions, accusations and payoffs surrounding pedophile clergy (including this: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090117/NEWS01/901170367/-1/today),

Pilarczyk would so willingly and without thinking out the consequences put himself out there in this way, opening himself up to a potential onslaught of criticism and recrimination, ready to make a fool of himself over what is essentially the decision of two consenting adults to participate in safe sex.

Well played, Archbishop. Well played.

Finally, to many, but not all of (some of the comments are very rational and intelligent), the women who post on momslikeme.com: Are you such old farts that you don't remember your college experience? Are you liars or just phonies? Just wondering, because some of you spout such venom towards Pure Romance. Are you denying you had sex in college? Because I'm not falling for that. Just saying.

Whew, I fell better now.

Agree with me? Think I'm a lunatic? Comment away.

Should she stay or should she go?

2009-02-04T11:12:00.001-08:00

UC President Nancy Zimpher
with Thane Maynard (and Lucy the bearcat) of the Cincinnati Zoo,
September 2008, UC Night at the Zoo

I bet you've heard the news already - Nancy Zimpher is poised to leave the University of Cincinnati to become chancellor of the State University of New York system.

Or, at least that what several major media outlets are saying (Hi, New York Times!).

Here at UC, mum is the word. Zimpher admits only that she has been approached about the position. In a statement issued on Monday, she said "It is not uncommon for me to receive such inquiries. I see it as recognition of the progress made by the University of Cincinnati on academic quality and accountability, urban issues, our strong research program and our collaborative endeavors throughout the region and state."

Gee, thanks for addressing the matter directly, Nancy.

UC spokeman Greg Hand and SUNY spokesman David Henahan are also holding the party line, stating no decision has been made.

The SUNY system is comprised of 64 campuses and has more than 500,000 students.

As a former student of a SUNY college (Oneonta!), I think this job would be big. Very big and very prestigious. Zimpher, if offered the position, would have to be crazy to decline it.

But if she were to accept it, UC would be left in the lurch - or would it?

The truth is, Zimpher has been a polarizing figure on campus and in the region. It seems people love her or hate her. I seldom hear of a middle ground; there is no ambivalence when it comes to UC's president.

So I invite you to share your thoughts. Do you love what she's done for academics and research, or are you still holding a torch for Hugs? Will be UC be lost without her or will time move on?

Should she stay or should she go?

(Please feel free to identify yourself in any comments you leave - I may contact you for a future article on this subject.)

Is Jessica Simpson fat? Why do we care? What is all this talk doing to women's self images? And what's it got to do with Barack Obama?

2009-01-30T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's all over the news. It's all over the Internet. Haven't you heard?

Apparently, Jessica Simpson, purveyor of mediocre pop, has gained a few pounds.

There has been much criticism, maybe even more support, and a whole lot of people who suggest she suck it up (but not literally, of course) - the media made her, and now she must pay the piper.

Here is just a sampling:

Needless (I hope) to say, the creator of the first clip is clearly an ass.

And I largely agree with what Ashlee Simpson says in the second clip,although her full MySpace post is fairly ridiculous: "A week after the inauguration and with such a feeling of hope in the air for our country, I find it completely embarrassing and belittling to all women to read about a woman's weight or figure as a headline," she begins. Umm, yeah, whatever.

As for clip three, well, does Drunk Dean has a point? By thrusting themselves so into the media's bright lights, should celebrities just take the accompanying abuse?

And what of the (hopefully) unintentional ramifications of calling someone who is clearly not fat, well, fat? What effect does that have on the average American woman, and does the media hold any resposibility for protecting the psyche of the average woman?

Tell me what YOU think.

Is fat the new smoking?

2009-01-22T14:39:00.000-08:00

Soon-to-be endangered species?

Back in December, the governor of New York, David Paterson, announced a laundry list of some137-plus proposed new or increased taxes. The one that likely received the most publicity is an 18 percent tax on non-diet soft drinks.

"We are in the midst of a new public health epidemic: childhood obesity," Paterson said.

The $404 million the tax would raise would be used to fund public health programs, including programs aimed at preventing or reducing the incidence of obesity.

Paterson also expects such a tax to reduce the sales of sugar-laden beverages by about 5 percent.

The statistics he cites in making his proposal are alarming: One in four children under the age of 18 is obese, and in economically challenged areas, that number may rise to one in three. Only 17 years ago, the obesity rate in New York was about 10 percent -- that's a pretty remarkable jump.

Sure, soda is not of and by itself the cause or even necessarily a cause of obesity, it is a driver of childhood obesity. Furthermore, a recent study by Harvard University researchers (quoted by Paterson in his inital proposal) found that "each additional 12-ounce soft drink consumed per day increases the risk of a child becoming obese by 60 percent. For adults, the association is similar."

But of course New York is certainly not alone in all this bad fat news. A full 30 states can now boast of an obesity rate of 25 percent or higher, and three states -- Mississippi, West Virginia and Alabama -- have obesity rates that weigh in at more than 30 percent.

Ohio, incidentally, places 17th on the 2008 list, an improvent over 2007's 15th place ranking. Colorado, Hawaii and Connecticut are the slimmest states but all still weigh in with obesity rates around 20 percent.

Despite all the studies and statistics, Paterson has been hard pressed to find much support for the so-called fat tax on soda. Quinnipiac University released survey results just a few days ago that indicate 64 percent of registered New Yorkers (1,664 were surveyed) are against the tax, and the plan has been drawing criticism from everywhere from "The Weekly Standard" to the "Daily News" to countless blogs.

But one major source of support comes from Dr. Richard Daines, the state health commissioner for the state of New York. He is widely considered to be the architect of this particular proposal. So passionate is Dr. Daines about the soda issue that he made a YouTube video in support of it.

Yeah, so the video is little dry, but does it make any impact at all?

Here's where I stand on the matter:

I am, at heart, a good little New Yorker. I like a lot of the laws New York has on the books that would cause a great many Ohioans to clasp at their chests while screaming about the infringement upon their right to make (asinine) decisions (i.e. lack of a motorcycle helmet law).

I like that in NY you must wear a helmet while bicycling (and motorcycling). I LOVED living in NY when NY was one of the first states to institute a public smoking ban, and so obviously I strongly approve of the very high cigarette taxes the state has imposed. And I don't disapprove of the transfat ban in NYC. This little bit of legislation, in fact, has changed the way many chain and fast food restaurants operate nationally.

So is obesity the new smoking?

The evidence concerning smoking bans and taxes in undeniable. According to the CDC, smoking rates have dropped from more than 40 percent of the over-18 population in 1965 to approximately 20 percent in 2005, and much of the drop in smoking rates is attributed to increased taxation that began in the late '70s.

So yeah, a fat-tax on soda would okay by me. If it had even a fraction of the impact on obesity that cigarette taxes have had on smoking, I say, "You go for it, Gov. Paterson, New Yorkers will come around." Any maybe, eventually, the rest of the country also.

FYI, Paterson has also proposed taxes (or increased taxes) on downloaded music, movie tickets, beer, wine and cable/satellite television services. I have to admit I would not stop partaking of any of those because of increased taxes.

Crime in the UC area

2009-01-12T19:51:00.000-08:00

It has almost become the punchline to some unfortunate joke -- the frequency with which we all receive crime notifactions via our Blackboard accounts. And indeed, according to Greg Hand, UC director of communications, notifications through November 2008, as compared to the same time period in 2007, were up 300 percent. That's quite a jump.

UCPD will be quick to point out that most of these notifications, as is par for the course, concern crime that occurs off campus, in the CUF (Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview) neighborhoods. And it is not particularly difficult to see how we got to this point; the economy is going to hell, unemployment is high and the city is closing jails due to a lack of funding.

We've all heard the stories. The man who was mugged after he slipped and fell on the ice? He broke his arm and was begging for help when assailants mugged him. Then there is the recent mugging in which one suspect was described by the victim as a four-foot tall 13 year old. What about the young teen boy who allegedly attempted to rob two students at an ATM on Halloween night? Did you hear about that?

Last quarter The News Record staff posted a poll on its Web site that asked readers to rate how safe they felt at and around UC. Overwhelmingly, respondents expressed great concern for their safety.

Now I'd like to take the polling process one step further.

I'd like to know what you think of all this madness. Are you scared? Have you been a crime victim? Do you know someone who has been a victim? What precautions are you taking to protect yourself? Do you have any suggestions for diminishing crime in the area? Or maybe you think all this talk is much ado about nothing.

Comment away. Speak your mind. Tell me everything.