Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955, aka The Unseen) features a cast that must initially share major acting time with members of the animal kingdom: a dog named Duke, a cow named Sarah, and a flock various birds, all of which are puppets for an invading intelligence that has its eyes on a bigger prize. Yet, reflective of the plot, they attack and kill humans, which leaves us confused because, as we learn later, this malevolent intelligence is looking for hosts that it can truly use to continue its existence.

So why kill an unsuspecting human just because he’s massaging your udders?

Between sadly oscillating female characters, a guilt-ridden father, a very young Dick Sargent as a somewhat aimless law officer, a voiceless man who makes for a fine ambiguity, and the aforementioned representatives from the animal kingdom, it’s a cast with only a little to recommend it, and the animals are soon knocked off by the humans (presumably they lacked membership in SAG-AFTRA). The plot kept us occupied for some time, but the characters are somewhat random at times, and at others they’re being stampeded by forces beyond their ken, while the dialogue is pedestrian. On the plus side, however, the art during the opening credits was actually rather fascinating, reminding our Arts Editor of the work of the famous surrealist Salvador Dali; the night scenes are well shot; the acting was competent; and there are absolutely no extended death scenes, leaving us to infer and imagine, rather than removing that intellectual pleasure through gouts of bloody gore.

The climactic scene no doubt was trying to convey something to us, but we were unable to understand what appeared to be a muddled point concerning love, eagles, and potentially possessed rodent (which was swiftly eaten by the eagle).

In case you’re interested, here’s a YouTube video of the opening of the movie. The good art starts at about the 51 second mark.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94taCuipmhI

The falls and paths of Gooseberry Falls were gentle and soothing, scattered with weathered trees and their fallen kin.

My Favorite.

Hey, all. While messing about with iNaturalist I ran across a feature which permits connecting a website to iNaturalist in order to show your latest observations, so I added it to UMB. You’ll find them on the right hand side somewhere – I may move them around a bit. Maybe nobody will care, but it was fun. Enjoy!

NewsOK reports that Oklahoma Governor Fallin’s response to depression in the Oklahoma oil industry is … to pray it gets better.

A statewide prayer initiative focusing on the oil fields and beleaguered energy industry will culminate Oct. 13 with an annual breakfast in downtown Oklahoma City.

The Rev. Tom Beddow of Ada, coordinator of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s Oil Patch Chaplains ministry, said he would like to see similar gatherings around the state as people pray for individuals affected by current economic woes, with the energy industry at the center.

“The oil field is hurting right now,” he said.

“We’re asking churches all over Oklahoma to open their doors, put on a pot of coffee and pray for the oil field, and not only for the oil field but the state, because the economy of our state is so connected to the oil field.”

Hubbard, with Oilfield Christian Fellowship- Oklahoma City, agreed.

“We have a saying: The oil field trickles down to everyone,” he said.

Hubbard said Gov. Mary Fallin has proclaimed Oct. 13 as Oilfield Prayer Day to raise awareness about the initiative.

I can’t help but think that perhaps they should be working on diversifying their economic base, not praying that, somehow, their major industry will magically get better. The time to work on that is now. Scout Finch with The Daily Kos points out that some have done very well with the industry – perhaps too well:

The “oil field trickles down to everyone.” Well, Oklahoma’s wealthiest person is Harold Hamm, an oil billionaire with a nearly $15 billion fortune, most of it from shale oil fracking. Yes, the same oil extraction method responsible for at least 90% of the earthquakes in Oklahoma. Maybe Oklahoma could raise his taxes and encourage him to trickle a little bit more down to the oil field workers? Or how about George Kaiser? Forbes Magazine pegs his net worth at nearly $10 billion.

Scott Chamberlain continues covering the FWSO fiasco with an epic takedown of a statement by FWSO management:

… one of these is first among equals: artistic development.  Art is the reason the group exists.  A group isn’t simply raising money, it’s raising money for the art. It isn’t just trying to “right size” the staff, but to build a staff appropriate to do the art.  And so forth. If a group doesn’t keep the art central to its thoughts and actions, why do any of it?

And so looking at Mr. Nurdin’s four pillars, I admit I shudder.  Note that his list starts with “generous benefactors.” In both placement (first on the list) and wording, this is completely wrong.  Perhaps “benefactor” is a non-weighted regionalism in Texas, but to me the word implies a level of ownership. It implies a dominant and submissive role, where a benefactor is a guardian angel with all the resources and power, and the beneficiary is a passive supplicant hoping for favor.  Like the relationship between Miss Havisham and Pip in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations.

For this exact reason, I bristled at the similar views expressed by Karen Cohn, the former board chair of the San Diego Opera.  In particular, I was dismayed by her claim that the board “provided” opera to the city.  My response to her works well in Fort Worth, too:

The wording here deeply disturbs me, implying a clear sense of ownership and entitlement… you state that you provided the Opera to the public. You most certainly did not do so, nor should you have. This was not a private enterprise. You were a key source of support to the Opera so that it could fulfill its mission, but you were hardly the only source of support. Does board giving eclipse ticket sales? Does board giving surpass non-board giving? Board giving without these additional sources of support would not begin to be enough to keep the Opera running, so I find it odd that you feel you were “providing” the Opera to the community.

I figure the FWSO management should tell Scott to put up or shut up – and then hire him as Chairman of the Board, or Executive Director, or whatever position is best fit for cleaning house.

When both parties nominate the same person, it’s either a speck of sanity or brazen primary fraud. Politico reports:

Vermont Rep. Peter Welch is about as liberal a member of Congress as you’ll find. So what’s he doing running for reelection as a Republican?

Fear not, Democrats. It turns out Welch, the Green Mountain State’s lone representative, will be on the ballot this fall as both a Democrat and a Republican. A write-in campaign for the GOP nomination was launched on his behalf without his knowledge, and after coming out on top, Welch accepted.

“Obviously, there’s no secret about where my policies are, where my voting record is,” Welch said in an interview. Without a hint of sarcasm, however, he added: “I’ve accepted the Republican nomination [and] I’m pleased to have it.”

On most issues, Welch is a Bernie Sanders-backing, card-carrying progressive. But Republicans adore the 69-year-old congressman, and he’s actually kinda proud of his cross-party credentials.

Makes me smile. Maybe the Vermonters will be the source of the return of sanity to the GOP. That would be a relief.

Daniel Roth of LinkedIn mentions a report on the television industry:

From Wikimedia

Joel Espelien, a senior analyst at The Diffusion Group, was mulling on this era of abundance recently and wrote a report for clients. The picture he used to highlight his analysis was surprising: a pile of dead fish. Today’s content frenzy, he said, is nothing more than overfishing — and will end just as predictably. As he explained it, the US TV audience is flat or declining, and not as accessible it seems. Adults watch 35-40 hours of TV a week, but probably 80% of this is news, sports and Law & Order reruns (or, as Epstein says, “shows that people already know and enjoy”). That leaves the entertainment world with 7 to 8 hours per week to fight over. And during those hours, consumers will try out only a tiny number of the 100+ new shows being offered this Fall alone. “Throwing this many new TV shows at an audience already saturated with video choices may cause many potential viewers to simply select ‘none of the above’,” he wrote.

I’m trying to understand how this analogy works. Overfishing is, to be technical, the harvesting of a particular species of fish (a fishery) beyond its carrying capacity in anticipation that the market will consume most of the catch. The unintended effect is the damage to, or destruction of, the fishery.

The analogy seems to be quite strained. While I can see a mapping from the catching, or production, of fish to the production of television shows, I don’t see a mapping from the consumption of fish to the consumption of the television shows. The harvest of the fish and the damage to, even destruction of, the fishery is unconnected to the appetite of the market for it, except that the resultant scarcity of the fish in following seasons may drive up the price of the fish – rendering it more valuable.

But the over-production of television shows merely results in overloading the consumer, not in the destructive exhaustion of the resource. Further, postulating that consumers, when faced with a plethora of shows, will simply turn off the TV and move on is a highly speculative assertion. There should be many services which will review these shows and tell the consumer the general content of the show, as well as its quality – and if there aren’t, then there’s a market opportunity.

Granted, I haven’t read the actual report – that costs money and time, neither of which I’m really willing to spend. Maybe I’m way off-base. Anyone see where I’m wrong?

Might be a put-up job…

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TxNrizGdhtY

Iran continues to be stirred up concerning the upcoming American Presidential elections – with no clear conclusion in sight, according to Saeid Jafari in AL Monitor. A number of different opinions are proffered by various Iranians; here’s one:

A friend sends a CNN report concerning the use of the sport of fencing as therapy for young prisoners in Senegal:

Source: CDC.

Senegal is experimenting with a new form of restorative justice where these child prisoners – whose offenses range from violence to theft – are being taught to fence in twice-weekly classes that take place outside of prison walls.

The aim? Teach the kids how to follow rules and regulations once they are released from prison. …

“The weapon, the white attire, the mask, rites and rules, and situations of combat and arbitration. No other sport can bring together all these elements,” said the ASE founder. “The gradual change in behavior of jailed minors in the detention space and during hearings has convinced all prison staff and magistrates of its merits[,” said Nelly Robin, who came up with idea.]

A fascinating project. I hope to hear more about it in the future.

A reader comments on the VP debate:

If this were a real debate, Kaine wiped the floor with Pence. But since it’s an artificial TV spectacle, it was a lot more even. Pence did a good job of making bald-faced lies sound truthy, sounding like an evangelical and paternalistic minister, appealing to the emotions not the brains of the audience. Kaine provided specifics of plans and how they might work. Pence engaged in a load of fake bonhomie and the “I’m an all American red-blooded small town boy so you got to believe this bullshit I’m handing you”. Kaine flubbed some opportunities to pin Pence and Trump to the wall on some obvious lies, but in other cases, did a good job of nailing them on those lies. There was a lack of decorum on both sides, but since it would be tough to win by letting the other guy bullshit at length beyond his time, I guess one is forced to be rude and interrupt.

I about vomited when Pence bragged about the “good” things he’s done in Indiana, when factually he’s fucked the state and its citizens up but good — and along the way, dragged the American taxpayer into the mess. Like the HIV epidemic in southern Indiana due to his screwing over the only health care facilities they had in an anti-abortion attempt, and which grew so large and bad the federal government had to step in and spend millions of dollars. Pence makes my blood boil.

Here are the NPR and The New York Times fact-checks; I find I prefer the Times over NPR, as it seems more definite. With regard to the situation involving abortion and HIV in Indiana, Romper provided coverage just prior to the GOP Convention:

In 2015, Pence declared a public health emergency in Indiana after officials determined that the growing number of cases of HIV caused by needle-sharing among drug addicts in one southern county had reached the scale of an epidemic. But the story doesn’t start there. Pence, whom you may know as the man who last year championed a religious freedom law that critics argued essentially codified discrimination against LGBT people, was involved in the making of the epidemic long before he publicly admitted its existence. Even before he signed into law a measure that restricted abortion access so severely it prompted the #PeriodsForPence campaign during which Indiana women called his office to encourage their governor to stay out of their uteruses by describing their periods to him, Pence’s anti-abortion agenda was setting the stage for a major health crisis.

I had not heard of this, but it sounds like a serious misjudgment and indicative of a lack of deep thinking, much akin to his blunder last year with the anti-LGBT bill that caused such a ruckus. Or is he just the hand-puppet of someone else? I suppose, sans an inside leak, we can never be sure. I’ve noticed the current chatter is that Pence was really making a bid for the 2020 GOP nomination by throwing Donald under the bus, but this early on it’s only rumor. Does he really want to run against Hillary in 2020? Well, his plan might be to assume the economy goes south and the electorate sours on her.

I should be appalled by the number of lies Pence told, bald-faced lies. They should have made me faint from shock. It’s a sad tale of the GOP collapse of responsibility that I didn’t. I did shake my head, though.

galliwasp:

The Jamaica giant galliwasp (Celestus occiduus) is a species of lizard in the Anguidae family. It was endemic to Jamaica. It was last recorded in 1840 and is now extinct, likely exterminated by introduced predators like mongooses. [Wikipedia]

Reference found on Expedia, where their commemorating lost species, via Treehugger.com:

The coldblooded Giant Galliwasp would sun itself in the tropical heat of Jamaica, becoming one of the most iconic animals on the island due to its large size for a reptile – it grew to over 60cm in total length. When settlers arrived, bringing dogs, cats and mongooses, they upset the delicate balance of the island’s ecosystem, causing the death of the species.

On Lawfare Paige Pascarelli gives an overview of the studies of homegrown terrorists such as recent bomber Rahami to Anders Breivik, the Norwegian who killed 77 several years ago, and comes to some tentative conclusions:

The pictures we took of Cascade River falls…

It appears the Turkish military, once a deeply respected institution, is being systematically neutered. The latest move is to remove its military wing and make the civilian medical system responsible for war casualties. Metin Gurcan on AL Monitor describes the situation:

The Turkish government is following through on its radical decision to totally dismantle the military medical network of about 900 doctors and more than 4,000 military nurses and paramedical personnel.

Under the state-of-emergency decree issued July 31, two weeks after an attempted coup, the 125-year-old Gulhane Military Medical Academy (GATA) in Ankara and 33 other military hospitals in different parts of Turkey were transferred to the jurisdiction of the civilian Ministry of Health. The medical needs of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) will be handled by the civilian medical system.

The transfer inevitably created a battlefront of discord between the military high command and civilian politicians, generating angry debates in the public sphere and also between civilian and military elites.

The debate in the public sphere was triggered by reports that a specialist sergeant who had suffered serious burns Sept. 6 had died. The sergeant, part of the Euphrates Shield military intervention against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, was said to have died because he was not evacuated from the Gaziantep Public Hospital to GATA’s highly specialized burn unit. Reports claiming the sergeant had died because of incompetence in the civilian medical system spread like wildfire on social media. The reports added that the civilian system has been experiencing serious problems in prioritizing TSK casualties from clashes with the Kurdistan Workers Party and IS, thus hurting TSK morale and motivation.

According to Minister of Health Recep Akdag, such reports are malicious fabrications.

And even if it’s a true report, would it matter? If public support for the government is as strong as it appears to be, the ideological requirements of Party over the well-being of citizens will over-rule humanitarian and efficiency requirements, until the Party is dispossessed of the government – and that would be a “necessary but not sufficient” requirement. Any replacement government might also be motivated by ideology (either political or religious) and continue to see micro-control as being a necessity.

Metin’s report later speaks of concerns about losing institutional knowledge concerning military-oriented specialties, but I wonder if they are losing institutional knowledge about the political system itself. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the Turkish political system, but I do know that for many years it had stood out for being a secular system that refused to let any particular religious sect take over – as enforced by the military coups. It now appears the military is being co-opted, and the state will fall under the sway of one of the sects. That will place institutions at the whim of ideological purity, and may result in the degradation of the governmental institutions that support society.

Will Turkey turn into Iraq over the next century, with strong-men as leaders and dissenters firing up bombs? The Kurds, who might be best considered as a conquered populace, have of course caused occasional havoc, but now I’m thinking of ethnic Turks who happen to be in religious sects not currently in power.

From a reader…

HOW TO SAVE THE PRINCESS IN 8 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

You need to rescue the princess with code – but sometimes your code doesn’t work and the princess is a dragon and you’re a fish.

Welcome to programming

https://toggl.com/programming-princess

I particularly enjoyed the PHP critique.

Having read and watched the Libertarians struggle with 3rd party status for 20+ years, it’s not surprising that these struggles continue in the wake of the two major parties, even if both seemed to be straining at the seams this year, what with Sanders dragging the Democrats to the left, while the GOP has started hemorrhaging membership because of the erraticism of the Trump campaign. It sometimes has the scent of the eternal about it.

However, for those libertarians who have real ambition to be on the national stage, the recent performance of Presidential nominee Gary Johnson must be especially heart-breaking – because he seems to be promoting a simplistic, isolationist nonsense as a philosophy that will really tar the party & brand for years to come with the epithet of “know-nothings”. A few days ago Johnson drew a blank on the contested city of Aleppo, in Syria; shortly after he couldn’t think of a single foreign leader that he admired, despite prompting. Now consider this report from TPM:

“Five days after the interview Andrea, I still can’t think of a world leader that I respect,” Johnson said. “I mean, having never been involved in politics before, I will tell you I held a lot of people in this country on pedestals thinking that they were role models. I got to meet them up front and personal and found out that they were empty suits.”

“When it comes to talking about a foreign leader that you respect, that you admire, I have a hard time with that one,” he added. “That’s politics. That’s just who I am.”

When Mitchell pressed him further on the issue, reminding him that foreign policy was part of president’s portfolio, Johnson suggested that his lack of knowledge on the topic was actually an asset.

“You know what? The fact that somebody can dot the Is and cross the Ts on a foreign leader or a geographic location, that then allows them to put our military in harm’s way,” Johnson argued.

“We wonder why our men in service and women suffer from PTSD in the first place,” he continued. “We elect people who can dot the Is and cross the Ts on these names and geographic locations as opposed to the underlying philosophy which is, let’s stop getting involved in these regime changes.”

This is a profoundly unserious proposition for an era in which military weaponry can strike from so far away with so much power. Even when cross-bows were the epitome of military power, it was worthwhile for leaders to understand what was going on in the kingdom next door; today, ICBMs make it imperative that we understand what is going on across continents. Does he really reject monitoring the leadership of North Korea as they attempt to build nuclear weaponry that will reach the United States?

At its heart, this is a rejection of knowledge, and I can say with some confidence that this won’t sit at all well with most libertarians. Many software engineers are libertarians, and data, which we gather, shepherd, and interpret, is a close cousin to knowledge. More generally, libertarians rely on the economic research and knowledge of such economists as Hayek to bolster their ideological positions, and so they have to at least pay lip-service to knowledge. Suggesting that knowledge leads to doom should be considered a heretical notion by the rank & file – and I think it will strike many libertarians that way. I no longer monitor the “establishment” libertarians, and I don’t know how easily Johnson obtained the nomination – and if he remains as popular with the base. But I think this reprehensible statement may mark the end of the political career of Johnson, and possibly his running mate, William Weld, as well.

It’s one thing to suggest that perhaps we interfere with other countries too much – I’d even have some sympathy for that position, on a case by case basis – but to suggest ignorance is a virtue is well beyond the pale.

And if you’re still considering a vote for Mr. Johnson, rufe on The Daily Kos has taken the trouble to enumerate the Johnson/Weld ticket’s positions on some issues here. An example:

2. Civil Rights

• Gary Johnson supports the use and expansion of private prisons, which are rarely audited for compliance and create a financial incentive for incarceration

The positions strike me as little more than surface thinking.

Located on the northern shore of Lake Superior, this retired lighthouse is a popular tourist attraction which we visited during our recent vacation trip. The first few pictures are of the interior of the lighthouse itself.

Then a couple of pics of the grounds.

And, finally, a couple of dramatic pics of the lighthouse exterior.

Convinced you have a good grip on reality? Then try these illusions spotted on Discover’s D-brief blog:

With one Facebook post, Japanese psychology professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka has sent the internet into fits.

Look at the image above, and try to see all 12 black dots at once. Good luck. Honest, we aren’t playing tricks on you. Your eyes are literally deceiving you.

Kitaoka posted this image on Sunday, which has since been shared over 10,000 times, and got a further viral boost when video game developer Will Kerslake shared the image on his Twitter page, and it quickly appeared on Reddit. Now, we’re all hopelessly chasing black dots.

And while the point of D-brief and Professor Kitaoka is the inability to see what’s there, I draw a wider point – the problem of seeing reality. This may be where the fissure between scientists and believers begins, because believers often only want to believe what their senses convey to them, with the unspoken assumption that their sensory equipment is excellent and believable.

As this illusion demonstrates, this is simply not true. There are certain configurations of reality which are really difficult to sense, and then to understand. It may be due to our frail sensory apparatus, our weak eyes, our sad little noses, our dull ears. Or it can be simply that we don’t deal well with time, we don’t see hyperobjects because we’re just not constructed to operate on those scales.

Whatever it is, it pays to wonder about one’s perceptions from time to time.

The New York Times publishes a report on Trump’s fiduciary duty:

Simply put, a person who is a fiduciary must act in the best interests of another person, putting that person’s interests ahead of his or her own. But in the context of Mr. Trump’s personal tax returns, legal experts said, the argument that he has a fiduciary duty to others is, well, laughable.

“There is no such thing as a fiduciary duty as a businessman to oneself,” said Richard W. Painter, a professor of corporate law at the University of Minnesota and former chief ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush White House from early 2005 to mid-2007. “That’s called greed. And greed is not a component of the law of fiduciary duty anywhere.”

Then the report connects this to corporate inversions, wherein a company changes its official residence to another country in order to lower its tax rate:

These moves, known as corporate inversions, have become immensely popular in recent years. And when companies make them, their leaders often proclaim that they are doing so out of a responsibility to their shareholders because profits will rise as a result.

This, too, is questionable, and the Obama administration has been working to curtail this type of corporate behavior.

“I’ve never heard a court say that a corporate officer or director has a fiduciary duty to move operations out of the U.S. to reduce taxes for the publicly held company,” Mr. Painter said. “Companies that move overseas saying they had a fiduciary duty to shareholders to do it are just wrong.”

Seems to me that such a move is just one option in the strategy of business, and other components may have a higher priority, such as social stability and resource availability. Sounds to me like these officials are just trying to hide from the criticism which will come their way. It’s not so much a duty as an option for increasing profitability, but one which may bring its own host of problems.

And Trump having a fiduciary duty to himself? Ignorant.

The proposed law to permit suing foreign nations in American courts was, as reported by BloombergPolitics, passed by Congress, vetoed by the Administration, and the veto immediately overridden. And now it’s already in use:

A woman widowed when her husband was killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 sued the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia just two days after Congress enacted legislation allowing Americans to sue foreign governments for allegedly playing a role in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

Stephanie Ross DeSimone alleged the kingdom provided material support to al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, in a complaint filed Friday at a U.S. court in Washington. Her suit is also filed on behalf of the couple’s daughter. DeSimone was pregnant when Navy Commander Patrick Dunn was killed.

Fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked airliners used in the attack were Saudi nationals.

And, as BloombergPolitics reports in another article, now we have buyers’ remorse:

The two top Republicans in Congress said they’re prepared to rewrite legislation allowing victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia — less than 24 hours after Congress took the extraordinary step of overriding President Barack Obama’s veto of the measure to make it law.

Both House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the measure could have unintended consequences — including the fact that it could leave U.S. soldiers open to retaliation by foreign governments.

“I would like to think there’s a way we can fix so that our service members do not have legal problems overseas while still protecting the rights of the 9/11 victims,” Ryan told reporters Thursday, one day after his chamber voted 348-77 to override the veto.

BloombergPolitics further notes Congress had been warned by the President:

Before the vote, senior administration officials warned lawmakers of this exact problem — that weakening the concept of sovereign immunity could backfire if foreign countries tried to do the same for the U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sent House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas a letter saying that could potentially expose Americans to lawsuits and “an intrusive discovery process” even if the U.S. is ultimately found not to be responsible for a particular event.But Republicans said the White House didn’t make a forceful case, putting themselves in the awkward position of blaming the president for a bill they enacted into law over Obama’s veto.

The GOP just looks like a pack of amateurs who act on their feelings – not their heads. They don’t like experts and don’t like being told what might occur. Now they may have put Armed Forces members at risk. And this time at least some of the Democrats may have been part of the mistake.

Remember when Pelosi ran a relatively placid House and Reid kept the Senate together, even in the face of GOP vociferousness? Current Senate leader McConnell carefully does what he’s told, while former Speaker Boehner resigned from the House for being too civilized. I actually miss him. Current Speaker Ryan runs a sloppy ship, from all appearances, and I doubt the GOP does much to help him.

Since neither of the VP candidates ran for the Presidential slot, I didn’t really pay much attention to them prior to tonight’s debate. In order to understand my biases (and to gather some knowledge for myself), here are outtakes and information from Wikipedia, Ballotpedia and On the Issues on both contenders.

Mike Pence

On the Issues graphical depiction of VP Candidate Mike Pence.

Governor Pence is a lawyer (Indiana University) who ran a private practice for a short while, followed by a stint as a talk-radio host (comparing himself to Rush Limbaugh), followed by 12 years in the House of Representatives (during which he was considered to be highly conservative), and then election to the Indiana governorship in 2012. He appears to be a far right conservative. The On The Issues graphical description should be on the right.

Looking through their Vote Quiz, I find very little in common with the guy, from expanding the military even further, invading Iran, to higher taxes on the wealthy; about the best I could say is that he and I might find common ground on “more enforcement of the right to vote”, although there is no elaboration on this point. Steve Benen on Maddowblog points out,

But on a substantive level, we’re talking about a politician whose claim to fame is an anti-LGBT law that did real harm to his state. Pence is a climate denier. He rejects the idea that cigarettes are deadly. He doesn’t believe in evolutionary biology, but he does support “conversation therapy.”

Long after it was obvious Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction, Pence was still insisting that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Soon after, when the Bush/Cheney administration pushed partial privatization of Social Security, the Indiana Republican was outraged – because he said the plan wasn’t nearly right-wing enough. In 2011, just a few months after the GOP took control of the U.S. House, Pence’s big idea, to the annoyance of his party leaders, was to shut down the federal government.

Pence also once accused Disney of hiding political propaganda in an animated film to convince people that women can serve in the military.

By most sensible standards, Mike Pence has earned a reputation as an extremist.

In his own words, he …

… has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” and as “a born-again, evangelical Catholic.”

Tim Kaine

On the Issues graphical depiction of VP Candidate Tim Kaine.

Senator Kaine of Virginia is a lawyer (Harvard Law School), worked for two private law firms over 17 years, taught as an adjunct professor at University of Richmond, and won election to the Richmond City Council on four occasions, twice as mayor. In 2001  he ran for and won the Lieutenant Governorship of Virginia; in 2005 he won the governorship. He was DNC chairman 2009-2011, and won his current position as Senator in the 2012 election. The On The Issues graphical description is on the left.

So he appears to be a mild liberal. Looking at the Vote Quiz, I can mostly live with this guy, although yet again there’s a militarist in the race – but at least he’s not interested in invading Iran. All that said, I still think he looks like a doofus. Sorry, Tim.

How important is this debate? With regard to Senator Kaine, I should like to get a sense of how well he’ll work with Clinton if they win the election, his anticipated responsibilities, and, in the unfortunate event of her death, how well he would perform as a President. The latter I do not believe is likely.

With regard to Governor Pence, his ability to perform as President is the question of the day, as if Trump wins the election, reports seem to indicate that he will have his VP responsible for far more than is traditional in Administrations. We can expect Pence will have more influence than Kaine with regard to policies, while Trump would remain as perhaps the face of the Administration – but not the brain. I also assign a higher possibility of Trump resigning (for either boredom, scandal, or other reasons) and Pence taking the Presidency than I do Clinton leaving the Presidency for any reason.

And now for the delayed live-blog.

[Note that time stamps will be approximate]

8:06 – Kaine leaps right to the campaign message. Can he tie it into the question about Kaine’s leadership? He’s giving it a try, giving an insight into how the Clinton Admin would work. “The thought of Donald Trump as the C-in-C scares us to death.” Has such a blunt assessment of the opposing team ever been voiced before?

8:09 – Pence is a better speaker than his boss.  “He’s a small-town boy” – but spent 12 years in Congress. How is he trying to portray himself? A lifetime of experience – but did he learn from the anti-LGBT experience?

8:13 – Kaine wants to portray Clinton as someone with a lifetime of experience “serving others” – is this an attempt to chisel off some evangelical voters with a phrase which should be very familiar to them? It doesn’t hurt that it seems to be a true description. Contrasts it to Trump’s behavior, then returns to the birther lie.

8:16 – Pence ignores the question and claims the Clinton campaign indulges in insults – does an insult have to be false to be an insult? Kaine should let Pence hang himself, though – suggesting Trump employs thousands of people while forgetting that Trump often stiffs them on pay, an un-American thing to do. Now it’s just each talking, impossible to understand except that Pence thinks Clinton should have “renegotiated” the Iraq treaty that had us leaving – but what if Iraq didn’t care to do so? Pinning leaving Iraq is critical to the meme that Obama/Clinton is responsible for ISIS, but that’s like nailing Jello to a wall – only a fool or a desperate man will try that.

8:18 – Kaine confirms that Iraq wants us out.

8:20 – Ah, Obama’s responsible for the budget. Come on, Pence, you know better. And governors are responsible for employment. Hmmmmm. “War on Coal” is a good thing, actually – AE points out that coal mining is a Virginia industry, so that’s why he’s making these idiotic remarks. Although since Pence doesn’t believe in climate change. But it’s tax reduction, tax reduction, tax reduction. That’s it. Kansas tried that and is now the saddest state in the Union.

8:23 – if you believe in detailed policy, you love Kaine for at least having one, whether or not you like it. Clean energy, infrastructure – common liberal priorities which, in my opinion, are necessities – fixing disasters is far more expensive than doing proper maintenance. BTW, I started a Federal petition asking for a ban on the export of coal. It got 15 signatures nation-wide 🙂

8:25 – off to tax returns. Pence wants to talk about the economy – “we’re in a ditch”, yet unemployment is below 5%. So back to the “disaster meme”. Now to tax returns, Pence says he was going through8 tough times – at a time when the economy was booming, he doesn’t mention. Pence is dancing a fine line. Trump has created thousands of jobs – but how is this experience, true or not, apply to government? It’s an achievement, but it’s not a government achievement. In my opinion, he saves money by stiffing the working guy – who Pence has tried to portray himself as. “Trump will release his tax returns!” Pence is adamant but not really believable.

8:29 – Social Security – Kaine jumps right in with “we’ll protect it”. He justifies it, waves at higher taxes, then refuses to privatize SS. Points out Pence and Trump both want to private SS. Pence “There they go again” – a Reagan reference, AE says. Pence refuses to actually respond it.

8:35 – Police responsibility – Kaine touts his experience reducing homicide rates, boosts community policing. Rejects militarization of the police – I like this. Kaine sounds prepared – close gun control loopholes, community policing, etc. Pence – uncle was a cop. Agrees about community policing, transitions to “law & order”, touts endorsement from police union. Pokes the police in a raw place and blames the people who criticize the police for doing so. So he may solidify some police support – but what about us who see the many, many police shootings and wonder why unarmed people are being shot? Now they talk about Castile, killed just down the street from where I live. Kaine wants to talk about the symptoms, while Pence thinks that’s beyond the pale. The more attention you pay to these shootings, the more you have to wonder if these are isolated bad cops or if it’s a more systemic problem. As Kaine says, you can’t just ignore it.

8:37 – Senator Scott is quoted and Pence asked to react; he skips it. He admits justice reform is necessary. Law enforcement needs more support at the national level? Really? This leaves an opening for Kaine to quote Trump in how he disrespects various elements of the justice system, McCain, and others – the wagon is dumped.

8:42 – Immigration – Pence claims Trump has a plan, but what is it? Build a fantasy wall? Turns into an attack on the Clinton plan. Nevermind illegal immigration is at historic low levels at the moment – a bit of a trumped up issue. Why don’t they talk about improving conditions in the countries which were the homes of these illegal immigrants? Our influence is greater than we think through our food export policies. Oh, dear, Pence is upset about insults again. Grow up, Mike, Trump started this during primary season. Sheesh, I don’t care about insults. What is the Clinton immigration plan? Reform, keep families together, focus on the violent, improve border patrol, path to citizenship. Terribly limited in my view, but I suspect I’m in a very small minority when it comes to placing blame for the poverty and violence south of the border.

8:46 – Pence touts another union endorsement. While Pence demonizes immigrants, I note Kaine looks calm and confident as Pence also demonizes the federal government, while Pence is calm but sometimes defensive. Pence is looking forward to reform, but Kaine wants to pin Trump’s extremist rhetoric on Pence.

8:50 – Terrorism – Kaine touts Obama accomplishments. Suggests only Clinton can continue to reduce terror. Presents a list of priorities. Now critiques Trump – claims he trash talks the military. Brings out the nuclear policy problems of Trump’s rhetoric. Pence is unhappy, but leaps right to scaring the electorate – a lack of leadership. Yet we’re so much better now. Ah, now we’re back to the ISIS scare, as if we had a choice about Iraq. Will the American public believe we should have ignored that treaty and engaged in illegality? And with ISIS in retreat, it’s a little hard to take Pence seriously. Pence hates the Iranian nuclear deal.

8:55 – Pence must defend extreme vetting of immigrants from terror nations. How many do we get, though? Our island status makes us a little safer than Europe. They clash over immigration, but “he’ll put safety first”, but that is not a plan, just a goal.

8:58 – Kaine is asked about intelligence surge, which he explains in a lucid, straightforward manner. Pivots to Trump’s trashing of NATO, then touts Clinton’s experience in alliances. Pence responds as if Donald understands cyberwarfare, then pivots to the Clinton mail server. Kaine notes the FBI disagrees with Pence’s analysis, and Pence doesn’t get to override that analysis. Pence is pissed off.

[Arts Editor exits as this point to “sluice the slime off”, commenting that Pence is more polished than Kaine (I think they’re comparable) and is quite charming and believable, “no matter how unbelievable what comes out of his mouth.” AE grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist family and is now fairly liberal as a consequence.]

9:00 – Syria – Pence thinks we should protect the citizens of Syria. Oh, my, Putin is the small and bullying leader of Russia – I guess this is how to break the Putin/Trump meme. Oh, GOD – smallest Navy since 1916? Are you FUCKING KIDDING? Put the entire 1916 fleet against ONE modern submarine and that sub wouldn’t suffer a scratch, while the fleet would be junk! This is populism at its worst, scaring the citizenry and treating them like children. Will anyone ask Pence how much it would cost to build all those “missing” ships? Enough to break this country is my guess. And how did we get here from Syria? Ah, safe zones. It’s a nice phrase. Now back to Russia, to be met with American strength. And then back to Syria. Confusing – on purpose?9:05

9:03 – Kaine says Clinton can easily stand up to Putin, and then the pivot to Trump’s connections to Putin, including campaign staff. Now back to Trump income taxes, comparing Clinton to Trump. But Syria is a hard question which he’s more or less avoiding. I wouldn’t care to answer it.

9:08 – The moderator wants to know about safe zones, but Pence doesn’t have any real answers, while blaming the Obama Administration for weakness, etc. This is, of course, without mentioning that the GOP has actively worked against our foreign policy – see the Iranian letter (which caused gales of laughter). Blames Obama for Putin aggressiveness. Kaine responds with Reagan’s quote on nuclear proliferation, which horrifies Pence – he projects moral horror at a reasonable question, and Pence doesn’t want to actually answer the question. Back to Iran, which is sort of close to Syria. And now he’s brought up the “ransom payment”, which is rank falsehood – that’s money we owed them for non-delivery of a weapons system.

9:12 – Russia invasion & Syria – Kaine: don’t praise Putin as a “great leader”, pissing off Pence. Says Clinton has gone “toe to toe”, sanctions, etc. Trump wasn’t even aware – said it on TV. Trump made to look ignorant. Pence interrupts and is not happy, although composed. Back to tax returns, as a way to see if he has more connections to Russia. Pence is upset and plays the victim. He must be careful because a lot of this is documented. Pence’s turn is to turn back to the Iranian deal and suggesting Iran and Russia are getting together. Pence is “astonished”, yet he’s back to the ransom note lie. This guy is so smooth – or he’s so taken in that he really believes it. But he’s a lawyer and doesn’t seem stupid. I wouldn’t buy lemonade from this guy.

9:14 – Why will Putin respect Trump? Because we’ll rebuild our military – sheesh. Pence once again puts Putin and Obama down. Kaine quotes Pence to his face, and then reiterates that leadership should not be confused with dictatorship.

9:16 -Kaine says the problem with Russia is Putin, now touts Clinton’s many accomplishments with Putin.

9:18 – North Korea’s nuclear capability – Pence remains convinced our military is in ruins. Wants to use allies to pressure NK to drop nuclear weapons. Hard question, really. But now we pivot to the Clinton Foundation, which has been repeatedly investigated and found to be clean as a whistle. “Foreign countries cannot participate in the American political process”? Bullshit. “Pay to play” is brought up. Kaine responds that CF is highly rated charity, does many good things; Clinton was investigated as Secretary and never did anything inappropriate. Now the Trump Foundation is brought up by Kaine, who notes the contrast – a recent fine – will he also mention the order by New York that TF stop soliciting funds as it lacks the appropriate license? Kaine portray CF as clean as a whistle while TF is shabby and engages in illegalities. Kaine may win this one. But what happened to the hard problem of NK? *Laughter from everyone* Kaine is correcting Pence on his “facts”.

9:23 – hard question on NK launch of nuclear missile – Kaine takes the question but dodges the specific pre-emptive strike question, pivots to China’s action on the Security Council and suggests the Chinese may be nervous about NK as well. Touts Clinton’s experience, then notes Trump owes Chinese banks money. Hey, Pence didn’t get to answer the question! Boo!

9:32 – religion and public policy – Kaine answers by reviewing his personal history, is devout in his personal life, but affirms the secular nature of the USA. Death penalty is his big conflict, being against it in a state with the death penalty. Good delivery and explanation, admits it’s hard to permit death penalties (as VA governor) and explains the traditional view of his is just one religion among many. Pence also reviews his personal history, and on to the sanctity of life – so he’s on the abortion issue. Claims Indiana is pro-adoption – I don’t know. Ah, a pivot to partial birth abortion, so a peaceful question goes nuclear. I do not doubt that both are stressed by abortion, but historically – over centuries, even millenia – abortion has been an option used by women who cannot care for a child. Kaine retorts concerning Trump and women who have abortion. Pence falls back on the assertion that Trump is not a polished politician – which is true in the conventional sense of politics, but false in this new age of speaking in code and rabble rousing – so I tend to think that if something is said, it’s meant. Even walking something back isn’t really valid, although I’ll allow for special circumstances, such as an honest misunderstanding of facts. Pence is off to the religious races – Kaine wants to know why Trump and Pence doesn’t trust women. Pence dodges, but neither really addresses the question of why most homicide is illegal, and then attempted to link that to abortion – or not. Homicide, the taking of human life by another human, induces societal instability because one’s future becomes very uncertain – and the same for one’s family – if it’s not illegal and discouraged. Abortion, the termination of a pregnancy of something that is not yet a part of society, does not appear to fall into that category; however, a treatment of the loss of the potential of such lives should have been part of the discussion (except a 2 minute argument would be a disservice). Without that discussion, anti-abortion arguments, as beautiful as they sound, and as strongly believed as they are by Governor Pence and many other Americans, are inevitably a faith-based argument, and as such should not be part of the American legal system. We are not a theocracy, thank goodness.

9:40 – final question – how to unify the country? Kaine – Clinton is about bringing the country together, Trump is not. Asserts Clinton has great respect across the aisle (but that was 8 years ago and many of those GOP politicians are probably gone or silenced). Kaine asserts both of them know how to work across the aisle. Pence: economy is foundering, scare the citizenry – so let’s change the government in D.C. Rebuild the military and we should be strong. Trump is all about “building”. For those who know, this is a weak answer. But the rest of us, will they realize?

Pence is smooth and knows how to use words to suggest we’re not as great as we were, without really offering a coherent approach to how to get there. The occasional plans we accidentally here from the Trump campaign tend to emphasize increased spending on the military (how do you rebuild, after all) while reducing taxes; they are depending on Laffer curve to save their asses. That’s what Brownback has done in Kansas, and now all of Kansas groans at their misfortune. Will we repeat that experiment in the hopes that it works at the national level?

Kaine has his own smoothness after so many years in politics, and for all that, his (forgive me) “doofus” appearance and even personality actually works for him. They’re both earnest, but Kaine’s is more believable because he speaks not about having plans, but he actually presents them, and like them or not, at least you have something to think about. Pence labors under the problem that Trump’s campaign doesn’t believe they need to produce plans, that voters would be bored by them – I’ve written about that elsewhere. That leaves him with a lot of blank time to cover with goals that lack plans. How to fund military spending? By cutting taxes? So he had to attack the Clinton campaign, and his smooth approach (no doubt developed from years of talk radio) served him well. Will viewers check the facts? My Arts Editor tells me that fact-checking is occurring – I hope viewers will try to do what I do, which is to discard the style of the speaker and hear the assertions, and then check them and the logic connecting them. I heard enough falsehoods from Pence to make me, if I knew nothing else, very suspicious; from Kaine, I hear a doofus with a record of success. How many lies did he tell? Honestly, I didn’t catch any, but what do I know?

OK, stopping now for the night. Further thoughts will be in other blog posts.

When your movie has Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and John Carradine, it should have been better. House of the Long Shadows (1983) had a plot that kept my Arts Editor and I baffled, and the acting from the four names was their usual creepy excellence, but after that, I am doomed to enumerate burdens. The acting of the lead, Desi Arnaz, Jr., was awful. The acting of Sheila Keith had my Arts Editor cheering on the bad guy to catch and kill her. Much of the dialog was awful. Much of the cinematograpy was awful. The audio ranged from mediocre to the classic “speak into this can, sonny!” awful.

The setting, an old English manor in poor upkeep, however, was rather good.

If you’re a fan of any of those four leads, then see this. Otherwise, it’s mostly … awful.

If you’re a fossil fan, this website may help sate your appetite: it’s all about the Burgess Shale.

Source: ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

The Burgess shale is famous for its stunning soft-bodied fossils (mostly animals and algae) which offer a spectacular picture of marine life that populated our planet 500 million years ago. These fossils are of critical importance in understanding the origin of modern life on Earth. (For more information, visit the Science Section).

Using the latest web technology and high-resolution images you will be able to browse through hundreds of images of fossil specimens in the Main Gallery or use the Advanced Search tool, to filter particular types of information. Additionally, because the fossils are usually flattened within the rock layers, the latest in digital animation techniques brings many species to life.

Fascinating videos.