Carl's Maundering Blog

Michelle Obama visited my teenage daughter's high school yesterday. When I dropped her off at school in the morning, I told her how nice it was to have the historic opportunity to see and/or hear the spouse of a presidential candidate in her own school.

I was wrong. She wasn't allowed anywhere near the event. Apparently, to Ms. Obama and her husband's campaign, my daugher and her fellow students are annoyances that need to be kept away from the "important" people and events. I guess I should have expected this. If the caricature of Senator Obama as an elitist seeking to be "snob-in-chief" of the United States of America is an exaggeration, it's a slight one.

Here's an illustration of why that is so: The most fun you can havce without being Tasered.

I'll blog about this topic more later.

The best analysis and exposition I have read so far regarding the skirmishes between Israel and Hizballah is this column by Orson Scott Card.

I took care to frame the battles as "Israel versus Hizballah," not "Israel versus Lebanon." Those claiming that Israel is playing the role of terrorist and Lebanon as victim are sadly incorrect. The Lebanese government has demonstrated that it isn't capable of restraining Hizballah's terrorism against Israel, so it's a good thing that Israel will.

The current series of posts and photographs at Little Green Footballs of pro-Hizballah protesters around the world is also enlightening.

So is this Alan Dershowitz quote at Brutally Honest.

Several weeks ago I plated four tomato plants in a raised bed garden, beside a perennial (chives) that has been in that raised bed since I constructed it four or five (I think) years ago.

Two of them have died, and I thought the other two would perish as well, but they have grown back and are beginning to thrive. I don't know what stressed them. Transplant shock? A pest? And why did the two closest to the chives (about three feet away away) perish for good, while the other two (each about five feet away) survived?

Hopefully we'll get a harvest this time, and the squirrels won't pilfer the fruit. But at least the purple chive blossoms are pretty and tasty.

I actually received the movie less than 3 days after I ordered it. I was not disappointed; it's a great independent film, very enjoyable, and is true to the spirit evoked by the short story source material. The dialogue was a little difficult to hear and understand in one or two scenes. I'm not sure whether it was the actor's thick accent, a poor microphone on the set, or the cheap speakers attached to my DVD player.

I have read and enjoyed many of A. E. Van Vogt's short stories. I just learned about one of them adapted to short film, A Can Of Paint. The film is available, not too expensive, on DVD media. If I can remember the right hoops to jump through for PayPal, I think I might just order it. I'm very curious to see it.

To raise funds, the church's scout troop offered to place a flag in my front yard this morning at dawn, so I signed up. It's beautiful. They'll take it down again at dusk, and then also perform the same service on Flag Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. The Boy Scouts of America is a wonderful enterprise; the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005 definitely has my support.

It's a great time to be a fan of the Denver Pioneers Hockey program. They defeated the North Dakota Fighting Sioux 4-1 on Saturday, April 9, 2005, in Columbus Ohio to win the Frozen Four tournament and the NCAA Division 1 title.

I had a great time taking four of my children to see the game on the big projector television in the Driscoll Center Ballroom on the DU campus. Each got a free thunder stick (inflatable hockey-stick shaped balloon). We watched some of the first period in the Ballroom, then we went to eat at a great greasy spoon called Mustard's Last Stand, where we watched the second period on a small TV with scrolling closed captions. After dinner we returned to the ballroom for the third period and loud cheering.

This was their second National Championship in two years. Last year they defeated Maine 1-0 in the title game in Boston Massachusetts. I took one of my children to see that game on the "jumbotron" screen at Magness Arena, the campus ice rink. Unfortunately, the arena was already booked for another engagement this year. I liked watching the game in the ballroom better than the ice arena anyway.