Recent Articles from Bearing Drift: free speech, marijuana, & domestic spying

As many readers know already, I am a contributor to Bearing Drift, which uses the tagline "Virginia's Conservative Voice."  When I appear on Coy Barefoot's radio show on WCHV-FM, he identifies me as a writer for Bearing Drift as well as for this web site.

I have not previously done a round-up of my Bearing Drift articles but, seeing how I have done the same for Examiner.com, it may be worthwhile to start doing that periodically.

Here are my recent contributions to Bearing Drift, in reverse chronological order, dating to December 2014, with brief excerpts from each.


In Virginia, what's the difference between a barber and a rent-a-cop? (April 30, 2015)

Virginia lawmakers and regulators should be embarrassed.

According to a 2012 report from the Arlington County-based Institute for Justice,

Virginia is the 11th most broadly and onerously licensed state. It has the eighth most burdensome licensing laws, requiring aspiring practitioners to pay $153 in fees, lose 462 days — more than 15 months — to education and experience and take one exam. Sixteen of the 46 low- to moderate-income occupations Virginia licenses are commercial construction contractors and account for much of the state’s ranking.

A 2015 study from the liberal Brookings Institution notes that more than 20 percent of Virginia jobs require either licenses or certifications by the state...

24th annual Jefferson Muzzle Awards announced tonight (April 20, 2015)

We all recall Thomas Jefferson’s quip: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” No doubt, if Jefferson were alive today, he would include blogs as well as newspapers — and perhaps even cheekily elevate blogs above newspapers.

Each year the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression celebrates its namesake’s birthday by awarding the Jefferson Muzzles to malevolent or stupid government officials or agencies that violate the spirit and the letter of the First Amendment by preventing or punishing speech.

Conservative movement co-founder Stan Evans passes away (March 3, 2015)

M. Stanton Evans, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement, has died at 80. Evans was a Loudoun County resident but was better known for his involvement in national politics than Virginia affairs.

Evans graduated from college in 1955, after helping organize what became known as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, still the largest conservative organization serving university students with intellectual ammunition.

For 60 years, Evans worked alongside William F. Buckley, Jr., Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and others in building the conservative movement and giving it its strength and character. He was “present at the creation” by drafting the Sharon Statement, which was the founding document of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and animated the conservative movement for 40 years or longer.

NPR interviews Del. Rich Anderson about privacy concerns (February 23, 2015)

Anderson explained his concerns about how police are able to take “thousands and thousands of photographs” of license plates “every hour.” By piecing that information together, he said, “they are certainly able to determine the whereabouts, the habit patterns, the associations, the interests, and all those sorts of personal things that, I think, most American citizens would rather be protected.”

He said the use of license plate readers “creates an ill-at-ease sort of response among the many citizens with whom I have spoken. It’s just an inherently American quality that we have an expectation of privacy.”

Anderson noted that he had patroned a bill this year that limits the period of time law enforcement can keep the data collected by license plate readers.

Poll shows majority of Virginians favor marijuana law reform (January 28, 2015)

It’s noteworthy that even “self-identified conservatives and Republicans” support legalizing medical marijuana. Question 23 of the survey, which asks about decriminalization in general, shows that 54 percent of conservatives and 52 percent of Republicans support the idea.

Four years ago, former Delegate Harvey Morgan (R-Gloucester), a retired pharmacist, introduced legislation similar to Ebbin’s bill. The effort failed but Morgan told me at the time that “almost everyone thinks it’s the right thing to do. Many people say legalize it and tax it” in addition to decriminalizing it. He added that he foresaw wider support emerging because “the cost — not only to the individual but the cost to our court system — is unbelievable with marijuana enforcement.”

Two years ago, while he was running for governor, former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli also expressed interest in the federalism implications of states’ decriminalization efforts.

Jim Gilmore for President? (January 25, 2015)

Former U.S. Senator Jim Webb is not the only Virginia politician exploring a possible presidential bid in 2016. Former Governor and Attorney General Jim Gilmore (also a U.S. Senate candidate in 2008) was in Iowa this weekend doing all that one expects from a potential candidate — especially seeking out opportunities to talk to national news media.

Governor McAuliffe's voting machine proposal needs rethinking (December 22, 2014)

Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch carried an op-ed piece of mine in which I take issue with Governor Terry McAuliffe’s recent proposal to provide $28 million in funding to Virginia counties and cities to buy new, up-to-date voting equipment — on the condition that all the localities buy the same hardware and software.

I argue that election security and protection against fraud is better served when each locality can purchase its own equipment, based on its own assessment of the needs of its voters and the capabilities of its election officials. A variety of voting systems is a deterrent against those who seek to alter the results of elections by hacking into the machines.

Congress votes to expand domestic spying powers (December 11, 2014)

Only two members of Virginia’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against the Intelligence Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, which includes a provision to expand the executive branch’s authority to spy on American citizens and to monitor our communications.

The two Virginia representatives who voted to protect citizens’ privacy were Dave Brat (R-VA7), the state’s newest Member of Congress, and Morgan Griffith (R-VA9, in photo).

The provision to expand communications surveillance authority was inserted by Senate Democrats and discovered at the eleventh hour through the due diligence of Representative Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who warned his colleagues about it in a letter circulated shortly before the bill came to a vote.

For frequent updates from Bearing Drift, check out its Facebook page, here.

Remembering Adolph Green at 100

A report from NPR's Jeff Lunden today on "All Things Considered" recalls that today marks the 100th birthday of Broadway lyricist and Hollywood screenwriter Adolph Green, whose works include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Bells Are Ringing, Singing in the Rain, The Bandwagon, and about half of the 1954 version of Peter Pan.  That last show will be presented on NBC-TV this coming Thursday as Peter Pan Live!

The 1954 Peter Pan had one set of songs by composer Mark Charlap and lyricist Carolyn Leigh, which included "I've Got to Crow," "I'm Flying," and "I Won't Grow Up," among others.  (The use of first-person nominative in those song titles must indicate something about the character of Peter Pan's embedded egoism.)

Along with his lyric-writing partner, Betty Comden, and composer Jule Styne, Green contributed a number of songs to Peter Pan, including "Wendy," "Ugg-a-Wugg," "Distant Melody," and the haunting "Neverland," sung in the clip below by Mary Martin in a kinescope of the 1955 live NBC-TV production.  (Kathleen Nolan appears as Wendy Darling in this production, which was directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins.)

In the rare clip below, from a 1957 broadcast on the Dumont network of Art Ford's Greenwich Village Party, Comden and Green sing their duet from On the Town, "I Get Carried Away." Art Ford reminds his viewers that Comden and Green had worked with Judy Holliday in a nightclub act in the 1940s called The Revuers, which led to their collaboration with Leonard Bernstein on On the Town, and that Holliday was then starring in their latest collaboration (with Jule Styne), Bells Are Ringing.

After Green sets up the number, it begins at the 3:30 mark on the video.

Another snippet of Comden and Green and performers can be seen in this compilation of songs from the 1985 Follies in Concert.  They sing "Rain on the Roof" beginning at 2:00 (and, sadly, ending at 2:10).  The video clip also includes the late Elaine Stritch singing "Broadway Baby" and Adolph Green's wife, Phyllis Newman, as part of the ensemble on "Who's That Woman?" as well as Carol Burnett proclaiming "I'm Still Here" -- along with leading players Barbara Cook, George Hearn, Mandy Patinkin, and Lee Remick.

A look at Adolph Green's credits on IBDB shows how prolific an artist he was. In addition to the shows already mentioned, he contributed either book or lyrics (or, sometimes, both) to Billion Dollar Baby, with David Burns and Helen Gallagher (1945), Two on the Aisle, with Bert Lahr and Dolores Gray (1951), Say, Darling (1958), A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green (1958 and 1977), Do Re Mi, with Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker (1960), Subways Are for Sleeping, with Carol Lawrence and Sydney Chaplin (1961), Fade Out-Fade In, with Carol Burnett and Jack Cassidy (1964), Hallelujah, Baby!, with Leslie Uggams (1967), Applause, with Lauren Bacall and Len Cariou (1970), Lorelei, with Carol Channing (1974), On the Twentieth Century, with Imogene Coca, John Cullum, Madeline Kahn, and Kevin Kline (1978), A Doll's Life, with what seems like the cast of Sweeney Todd -- George Hearn, Betsy Joslyn, and Edmund Lyndeck (1982), and The Will Rogers Follies, with Keith Carradine, Dee Hoty, and the voice of Gregory Peck (1991).

The list of Adolph Green's collaborators could itself be a book about the history of the musical theatre:  George Abbott, Lee Adams, Richard Bissell, Abe Burrows, Jerome Chodorov, Cy Coleman, William and Jean Eckart, Lehman Engel, Ron Field, Joseph A. Fields, Bob Fosse, Paul Gemignani, Garson Kanin, Michael Kidd, Arthur Laurents, David Merrick, Harold Prince, Burt Shevelove, Irene Sharaff, Oliver Smith, Peter Stone, Charles Strouse, Tommy Tune, Robin Wagner, and Freddie Wittop -- to name just a few.

Considering that Peter Pan Live! goes on the air this week, that there is a current revival of On the Town on Broadway, and the first full Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century opens early next year, Adolph Green is having a pretty good season for a centenarian who has been dead for twelve years.

Why Can't I Stop Laughing?

This afternoon I was listening to Science Friday on NPR, which was featuring its annual April Fools' Day jokes show.  A good number of the jokes were amusing enough to make me smile, but I keep thinking about this one and laugh out loud each time I remember it:

Schrödinger is driving with Heisenberg in a car when Heisenberg says, "I think we just ran over a cat."

"Is it dead?" asks Schrödinger.

Heisenberg replies: "I can't be certain."

Why does that make me LOL so much? Even as I typed it, I had to stifle a chuckle.

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Governor Gary Johnson Plays 'Not My Job' on NPR

Gary Johnson in Charlottesville

"Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!" is a weekly quiz show on NPR stations, usually broadcast on Saturdays or Sundays.  The show is recorded on Thursdays.  It's normal home is in Chicago, but sometimes it goes on the road.  A few years ago, I attended a taping at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Each week features a segment called "Not My Job," in which a celebrity -- actor, singer, author, race-car driver, computer guru -- has to answer three questions on an obscure topic.  The point is that the questions are about things the contestant knows nothing about.

This week's "Not My Job" contestant was former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, a candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.  In the introduction, "Wait, Wait" host Peter Sagal (author of The Book of Vice:  Very Naughty Things [and How to Do Them]) reviewed Governor Johnson's qualifications for high office:

Gary Johnson built a construction business from nothing; then became a two-term Republican governor of a Democratic-leaning state, New Mexico. He cut taxes and put the budget in surplus. He has competed in triathlons and climbed Everest. He lives in a house he built himself. And he once put our a forest fire with his feet.

During the pre-quiz interview, Sagal noted:

We looked you up and we were amazed. You are like - if we had like a campaign consultant draw up the ideal candidate, it would be you. You are fiscally conservative, which is absolutely essential these days. You cut taxes in New Mexico. You vetoed all these budget - I mean you actually held the record for vetoes nationally, right, during your two terms?

When Johnson replied that he had vetoed more bills than the other 49 governors combined, Sagal quipped:

Right. And Republicans love that. They love people who hate laws.

Later, the host recounted some of Johnson's additional accomplishments, and how they might prepare him for the presidency:

I just want to say, I mean one of the things you hear a lot about in presidential primaries is toughness, how tough is he. And you've got this locked. You've done four or fire Hawaii Ironman Triathlons. That's the two mile swim, the hundred mile bike ride, the marathon....

You've climbed Mount Everest, plus three other of the tallest mountains on the various continents. Don't you think after all that the Oval Office would be dull?

Johnson's response says a lot about his character:

From a personal standpoint, I think this is really one of life's great adventures, and I'm really thrilled to be a part of it. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't think I could do the job. I wouldn't be doing this is I didn't think I could do a good job at doing the job. But thirdly, that personal notion of this really, I think, is right up there with regard to adventure and maybe one of the great adventures of humankind.

Sagal went on to point out that while a lot of Republicans "pick and choose" when it comes to small government, Johnson is a libertarian through and through. That leads to a discussion of traffic signals and speed limits.

At the end of the interview -- just before the three quiz questions about sex tapes and viral videos involving Paris Hilton, Rebecca Black, and Sandra Bullock's ex, Jesse James -- Sagal asked Johnson a general question about the other GOP presidential candidates. Johnson's off-the-cuff response is priceless. Here's the partial transcript:

SAGAL: Do you ever look around at the other candidates on the dais with you or on the trail with you and say "oh I wish I had that"? Is there any characteristic of any other Republican candidate that you wish you had?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Gov.JOHNSON: Or, do I look around and go, you know I got the best of all of that stuff?

(Soundbite of laughter)

(Soundbite of applause)

I have to say, it's nice to hear my favorite presidential candidate on my favorite public radio program.

If you like this blog post, you might also like:

Sagal and Ferguson on the 'Real America'
Gary Johnson on WINA's 'The Schilling Show'
RLC Videos: Peter Schiff and Gary Johnson
"Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me"
Is There a Litmus Test for Conservative Republicans?

And on Examiner.com, you'll find:

At the 9/12 March on Washington: Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson aims 'to put a voice to the outrage'
Gary Johnson wins RLC straw poll, places third in CPAC poll
Gary Johnson reflects on his first visit to Jefferson's Monticello

You can hear Gary Johnson's interview and find out how well he did on the "Not My Job Quiz" by listening here. To listen to the complete program, click here.

Update:  The Johnson for President campaign has put the full interview and "Not My Job" quiz on YouTube.

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Sagal and Ferguson on the 'Real America'

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's weekly quiz show, Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, was a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS-TV on its Friday the 13th episode. During the interview, both Ferguson and Sagal had good things to say about my hometown, Milwaukee, and about the Midwest in general. The sequence began with Ferguson asking Sagal about the home base for Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, the City That Ferris Bueller Made Famous:

FERGUSON: But you like Chicago?

SAGAL: Oh, I love Chicago. Illinois is fabulous.

FERGUSON: Do you ever go north?

SAGAL: (startled) To Wisconsin?....

FERGUSON: Do you ever go up to Milwaukee, for example?

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great town.

FERGUSON: I like that city.

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great city, very good for sausages and beer,

(audience titters)

SAGAL: It's true.

(audience titters)

SAGAL: They'll laugh at anything.

FERGUSON: That's why they're here; that's what they're paid for....

SAGAL: Milwaukee's a great town. As you know (leaning in), because you're an American, that the Midwest is America. This is where America is -- processed meats, tasteless beer. This is where it comes from.

FERGUSON: I don't know. There are other parts of America, like New Orleans is America, the Pacific Northwest. Where's not America, clearly, is Los Angeles.

At the end of the interview, Ferguson and Sagal agreed to "trade places, like The Prince and the Pauper," with each hosting the other's show.

While the suggestion may have been made in jest, as it was sealed with a handshake, I would not be surprised to see, sometime in the not-too-distant future, Peter Sagal sitting behind Craig Ferguson's desk one night and Ferguson standing at Sagal's podium at the Chase Auditorium, posing questions to panelists like Mo Rocca, Amy Dickinson, and Paula Poundstone.

Will NPR and CBS accede to the experiment? Stay tuned.




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Saintly Mishegoss

On this weekend's edition of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, the humorous news quiz show on National Public Radio, the "Not My Job" guest was Susie Essman, who plays the furious, foul-mouthed Susie Greene on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Essman, a Jewish comedienne from New York, had to answer questions about a topic she was unlikely to know anything about.

The producers chose to quiz her about odd-but-true facts about three Catholic saints: St. Simeon Stylites, St. Joseph of Cupertino, and St. Clare of Assisi.

What were the odd facts? Did Essman answer correctly? Did she win a prize for a listener?

You'll have to listen for yourself:

Note: My spelling of "mishegoss" is the one approved by the late William Safire. It has alternative spellings, as well as an interesting etymology.

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'Chris and Don: A Love Story'

Those of you who are literarily or theatrically inclined may be most interested in this information, but there is plenty to chew on if politics and society are your topics.

Thanks to a segment on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I have learned of a new documentary about writer Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy, who had a 33-year relationship that began when Bachardy was 18 and Isherwood was 49, ending only with Isherwood's death in 1986. Later, Bachardy began a 10-year relationship with a man 26 years his junior, but now is in a relationship ("for the first time in my life," he says) with a man almost precisely his own age. (Bachardy was born in 1934, the same year as my father.) The documentary film is called Chris and Don: A Love Story.

The summary of the interview on NPR's web site notes:

Bachardy speaks with Terry Gross about his career as an artist and his relationship with Isherwood, who penned the Berlin Stories, which served as the basis for the musical and film Cabaret.

Bachardy and Isherwood collaborated on a number of projects, and Bachardy's illustrations often appeared in Isherwood's work.

As an artist, Bachardy achieved recognition outside of his relationship with Isherwood, creating portraits of such celebrities and notables as Jack Nicholson, Mia Farrow and Dorothy Parker. His book Stars in My Eyes describes the subjects of his works and was a best-seller in Los Angeles.

The interview is wide-ranging, touching on what it was like to be openly gay in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s, how the age difference affected (or failed to affect) the Isherwood-Bachardy partnership, how Isherwood felt compelled to adopt Bachardy legally late in life (in the absence of legal gay marriage), and Bachardy's techniques as a portrait painter. (Gross asks a lengthy series of questions about the drawings Bachardy made of Isherwood on his deathbed, and of Isherwood's corpse on the day he died. Bachardy's answers are direct but no less emotional for that.)

There is also a discussion about same-sex marriage and a brief conversational sequence about Isherwood and Bachardy's friend, actor Anthony Perkins, who rebelled against his homosexuality and who, despite years of therapy, was never able to escape it. (For his part, Bachardy says "everything wonderful in my life is the result of my being queer.")

The Fresh Air interview with Don Bachardy -- who sounds much older than someone of 73 or 74, but perhaps his voice has had these qualities for many years -- can be found here, at the NPR web site.

I recommend listening to the whole thing. There's not a dull moment anywhere in the piece. (Theatre buffs may be surprised at how negative was Isherwood's reaction to Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles in the film version of Cabaret.)

IMDB has information about the new documentary film. This is a film I definitely plan to see, and I hope I can see it on a big screen rather than on television via DVD.

The "cast list" of the documentary (directed by Tina Mascara and Guido Santi, who are unknown to me) is remarkable itself, as it includes Gloria Stuart, Michael York, Leslie Caron, Jack Larson ("Jimmy Olsen" from TV's Superman), and Liza, as well as Isherwood and Bachardy.

Fresh Air also reran an interview today, originally from 1988, with the late Thomas Disch, a gay science-fiction writer who is perhaps best known for the children's story, The Brave Little Toaster. That archival interview can be found here.

(To tell the truth, I had never heard of Thomas Disch until he died. I'm sure the science-fiction aficionados among my readers will berate me for that.)

All in all, Fresh Air had a gay hour today.

Update: I have discovered that Chris and Don: A Love Story has an official web site, which includes two video extracts from the film as well as photographs and background information about Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, and the filmmakers.

Ahead of the Curve

NPR listeners had the opportunity, earlier this morning, to hear filmmaker Nick Broomfield talk about his "new" movie, Battle for Haditha. Broomfield and one of his non-professional actors, Marine veteran Elliot Ruiz, spoke with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday. As the NPR web site explains:

Filmmaker Nick Broomfield has made a dramatic movie about the 2005 massacre in the farming town of Haditha, Iraq. The soldiers in the film are played by Iraq war veterans and Iraqi refugees living in Jordan play the parts of Iraqi civilians and insurgents.

Battle for Haditha is opening in New York this coming week and it will be in cinemas nationwide later in the month. For participants in the Virginia Film Festival, however, this is all old news. Broomfield brought Battle for Haditha to Charlottesville last November, where he discussed his film in a Q&A session with audience members. (Including those, like me, who had been shooed away from a screening of Tamara Jenkins' The Savages by security guards hired to prevent anyone with a cell phone or camera from entering the Paramount Theatre.)

Seeing Battle of Haditha turned out to be the better choice, however, because Broomfield's film was one of the best offerings of the festival. Whether his will turn out to be the first movie about the Iraq War to make money as well as garner critical praise remains to be seen. It surely deserves both.

I posted video of Broomfield's post-screening discussion a couple of hours after it ended; here it is again.

Part I:




Part II:

I recommend Battle for Haditha. See it if it comes to a cinema near you.

There's a Huckster Born Every Minute

A 21st-century equivalent of the Cardiff Giant is set to open this week in Kentucky.

Back in the 1860s, an intricately carved gypsum statue of a large human was planted on a farm near Cardiff, New York. When it was dug up by unsuspecting workmen (who had been directed by the spot to dig a well by the people who planted the fake), it became an immediate sensation. Thousands of people traveled to see the "giant" and paid as much as a dollar a head to see it (an extraordinary amount for the average person in 1869).

When P. T. Barnum asserted (correctly, it turned out) that the giant was a "fake" -- he was displaying his own phony giant, asserting that it was real -- one of his competitors told a newspaper that "there's a sucker born every minute." That phrase has, ever since, been inaccurately attributed to Barnum himself, even to the point that it became the theme of a song in the Broadway musical, Barnum, almost three decades ago.

What has this got to do with Kentucky in 2007? One of the reasons the Cardiff Giant was such a successful hoax in the 1860s was that, as HistoryBuff.com notes, "many an evangelist at the time had been preaching that there were giants in the earth." People were inclined to believe in the hoax because people they would otherwise trust planted a suggestion in their minds that it might be true, just as huckster George Hull could plant the fake giant and wait for the right moment to bring it out of the ground.

Now, according to Sunday's Washington Post, a group of extreme anti-intellectuals from the evangelical movement are set to open a "Creation Museum," in Petersburg, Kentucky (near Cincinnati), which cost $27 million to build, a "museum" that is every bit as much a hoax today as the Cardiff Giant was in its time:

The Creation Museum, a project of the socially conservative religious organization Answers in Genesis, mocks evolutionary science and invites visitors to find faith and truth in God. It welcomes its first paying guests -- $19.95 for adults, $9.95 for children, not counting discounts for joining a mailing list -- just weeks after three Republican presidential candidates said they do not believe in evolution.

Opinion polls suggest that about half of Americans agree. They dismiss the scientific theory that all beings have a common ancestor, believing instead that God created humans in one glorious stroke. Similar numbers say the world's age should be counted in the thousands of years, not billions, as established science would have it....

The Creation Museum is located for easy access near an interstate and an airport on 49 acres of rolling hills where woolly mammoth roamed until about 10,000 years ago. Designed to inspire Christian belief, the facility was largely built with contributions of $100 or less, although three families gave at least $1 million each, said Mark Looy, an Answers in Genesis co-founder.

To put together a museum with pizzazz, the planners recruited Patrick Marsh, the designer who created the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at Universal Studios in Florida. The exhibits, backed by dozens of professionally produced videos, keep the action lively, and the content coming -- "to create something of a 'Wow!' factor," said Looy, who expects 250,000 visitors the first year.

Set aside for a moment the shocking statistic that millions of Americans are either willfully or unsuspectingly ignorant enough to think that the universe is only a few thousand years old. The blame for that should most likely be laid at the feet of the government schools. (Though that does not fully explain those otherwise intelligent politicians who wish to lead our country, but whose egos are bigger than their brains.)

Fortunately, there are some distinguished scientists ready to speak out against this fraud. Physicist Lawrence Krauss pulled no punches in a commentary during Friday's edition of the National Public Radio program, Marketplace:

... if you want to renounce modern science as flawed, then an intellectually honest approach would be to also renounce technologies such as airplanes, cars and even radios that work using precisely the same scientific principles that tell us the earth is well over 6,000 years old.

But that's not the approach the Creation Museum takes. It renounces knowledge, but has spent lavishly on creating the illusion of science.

So, they've created a museum that appears scientific, but that simply lies about the science instead.

Krauss, who teaches at Case Western Reserve University, concludes, rightly in my view (as I have written elsewhere):

Religion doesn't have to be bad science. And, similarly, bad science shouldn't be defended simply because it might have a religious basis.

While religious tolerance is important, there should be little tolerance for promoting or consuming such religiously motivated scientific fraud.

He also laments, however, that

Alas, such scientific fraud is not subject to legal intervention unless there is a financially injured party.

But what of the intellectual injury to thousands of young children who might visit the museum — built to be within a day's drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population — and who come out confused about science, the very thing that can give them a competitive edge in the modern world.

I think Dr. Krauss concedes too much when he says this fraud "is not subject to legal intervention."

At $19.95 a pop for adults and $9.95 for children, with an expected quarter-million visitors in its first year, surely we can find some intelligent tourist willing to plop down a couple of Hamiltons or a Jackson to tour the exhibits, only to emerge disillusioned and disappointed at the lies told to him, with a willingness to pursue a class-action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all the thousands of others who were subject to the high-tech Answers in Genesis con game.

Anyone heading to Petersburg, Kentucky, this summer? If so, I might be able to find you a good plaintiff's lawyer.

Tintinnitus

It was only a few weeks ago that a New York state senator proposed legislation that would have prohibited pedestrians in New York City and Buffalo from talking on their cell phones while crossing the street.

So it was not hard to believe a story on NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday" that reported how a New York city council member is proposing that all cellphone ringtones, except for four approved by the government, would be banned in an attempt to prevent "ring rage" -- that is, people getting into fights because of obnoxious or loud cellphone rings.

I was listening to the report in the car on my way to church and was particularly struck by this soundbite from Councilor David Yassky, responding to New Yorkers who called the proposal "ridiculous," which encapsulates so perfectly the road from compassion to totalitarianism:

David Yassky: Well, look, Liane, you can always find people that complain about any change but you know, first of all, it's not just the noise pollution. This is very costly to our economy. We estimate that distracting ringtones in the workplace and then the arguments and joking that goes along with that cost our economy more than $1.2 billion a year.

And, you know, when we did the pooper-scooper law, we did the smoking ban, we banned trans fats, first, you know, people objected but then they realized just how valuable these laws can be.

Liane Hansen: So you don't think it's too extreme?

Yassky: Not at all. I think New York will prove to be a model. Once we do this, I think you'll see this in cities across the country.

That's exactly the sort of crypto-socialist, nanny-state claptrap that one has come to expect from New York politicians. So who could blame me for being suckered by a National Public Radio April Fools' prank?

It turns out that NPR has a history of playing effective April Fools' jokes on its listeners. In an Arts section article on Sunday, Washington Post radio beat reporter Marc Fisher notes:

NPR producers have a knack for finding phony stories that sneak right up to the edge of credibility. In 1994, "All Things Considered" reported on teenagers who agreed to tattoo their ears with corporate advertising in exchange for a lifelong 10 percent discount on the company's products. NPR has presented April 1 reports on dog-bark translation software, the abuse of performance-enhancing steroids by classical violinists and a U.S. Postal Service program that would allow Americans to take their Zip code with them when they moved....

NPR's gags tend to take listeners to remote corners to visit unusual characters. But in 1992, "Talk of the Nation" host John Hockenberry reported that Richard Nixon was coming out of retirement to run for president. The report included audio of Nixon defiantly averring that "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." NPR included comments on the surprise announcement by Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe and Newsweek reporter Howard Fineman. Callers jammed the show's phone lines to deliver themselves of their outrage that the disgraced ex-president would consider such a comeback. Hockenberry waited until the show's second hour to reveal that what the Nixon listeners had heard was actually impressionist Rich Little.

I didn't know any of this history at the time I turned off the radio, before the music bumper of Kander and Ebb's "New York, New York" (done in a comical style) would have revealed to me that I had been had. It wasn't until I looked it up on NPR's web site -- with the intention of blogging about the latest legislative outrage from New York -- that I found out the truth of the prank.

Good job, NPR! If nothing else, it shows that the line between reality and satire is very thin, indeed.

Language and Assimilation, Then and Now

The fuss over the Spanish-language version of the "Star Spangled Banner," which I wrote about earlier, continues and may even be picking up pace.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday:

After an emotional debate fraught with symbolism, the Senate yesterday voted to make English the "national language" of the United States, declaring that no one has a right to federal communications or services in a language other than English except for those already guaranteed by law.

The measure, approved 63 to 34, directs the government to "preserve and enhance" the role of English, without altering current laws that require some government documents and services be provided in other languages. Opponents, however, said it could negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress.

According to a public-opinion survey released on March 30 by the Pew Research Center on the People and the Press,

One of the continuing sources of conflict over the assimilation of immigrants is language, as seen in recurring battles over English-only policies and statutes. A sizable majority of the survey's respondents (58%) said they believe that most recent immigrants do not learn English within a reasonable amount of time; slightly more than a third (35%) say that they do.

Within the case study communities, the belief that immigrants lag behind in the adoption of English ranged from a high of 66% in Phoenix and Las Vegas to 51% in the Washington metro area.

As linguist Geoff Nunberg said on "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" this week:

What's the Spanish for "poppycock"?

The fact is that the vast majority of Hispanics in America already speak English, and the rest are learning it much faster than the Germans, Italians, or those Norwegian bachelor farmers did a century ago.

Back then, after all, the economic incentives for learning English were nowhere near as great as they are now. Most immigrants lived in isolated rural areas or urban ethnic enclaves, and a lot of cities had separate public school systems for immigrants -- not like today's transitional bilingual programs, but schools where all the instruction was carried out in German or other languages.

According to demographers, the average immigrant family in 1900 took more than three generations to make the complete transition to English dominance. Now it takes just over two. By the third or fourth generation, in fact, most Hispanics are as depressingly monolingual in English as any other American group.

Nunberg's fact-based analysis seems to be reflected instinctively by the majority of respondents to the Pew poll, who think independently of those who are demagoguing the immigration debate:

Most people nationwide (61%) who say they have contact with immigrants who speak little or no English say it does not bother them; 38% say they are bothered by this experience. While people in Phoenix and Las Vegas report more contact with immigrants who do not speak English well, majorities in both cities say they are not bothered by this (58% in Phoenix, 56% in Las Vegas).

My own mother was one of those third-generation descendants of immigrants who became monolingual in English only after an early childhood that was monolingual in another language (in this case, Polish). She decided to speak English exclusively at the age of six when kids on the playground made fun of her accent; she spent the rest of her life able to understand spoken Polish, but unable to read it, write it, or speak it herself. (My grandparents, on the other hand, remained bilingual throughout their lives, while my great-grandparents lost the ability to speak or understand English toward the end of their very long lives -- likely more a consequence of senility than a lack of commitment toward American culture and values.)

Nunberg mentions in his "Fresh Air" commentary an article by Ann Powers in the Los Angeles Times, which reports that one of the most popular songs among the pro-immigrant demonstrators is Neil Diamond's tribute to his (East European, Jewish) grandparents, "(They're Coming to) America":

Amid the mariachi music, socially conscious corridos and civil rights hymns at last week's immigration-rights rallies, a surprising voice arose — a strong Jewish baritone usually favored by middle-aged women and retro-hip college kids. It was Neil Diamond, singing his own exodus anthem: "America," from the pop elder statesman's 1980 remake of America's first talkie, "The Jazz Singer."

The recording opened and closed the May 1 speakers' program at City Hall. It's made its way into reports of rallies in Dallas, Kansas City and Milwaukee. Although hardly the official anthem of La Raza, "America's" portrait of travelers "traveling light … in the eye of a storm" is outdoing more standard fare such as "If I Had a Hammer," giving Diamond something like the role Bob Dylan played during the civil rights era of the 1960s. . . .

"It's the immigrant anthem," said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). "Every time I've been at different activities over time, you'll have the Neil Diamond song. It speaks to the experience."

The song is built like a footpath up a monument, the melody swooping downward to rise up again, its key changes and call-and-response elements ("They're coming to America!" "Today!") forcing the tension. Rooted in the Yiddish music of Diamond's Brooklyn youth, the song moves on to Broadway and the Borscht Belt and lands on the edge of disco — a border-crossing trek unto itself. This intentional hugeness, this insistence on being an anthem, makes "America" easy to mock but also impossible to resist.

I find it intriguing, but not incredible, that today's Hispanic immigrants learn English at a faster rate than the immigrants who arrived at about the same time as Neil Diamond's grandparents and my great-grandparents. To learn it tells me that it is never a good idea to simply accept conventional wisdom, but better to explore the facts and use those as a basis for public policy.

'Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me'

Funny thing -- in all the years I've lived and worked in Washington, D.C., I never attended an event at Lisner Auditorium, one of the area's biggest performance venues. Until tonight.

Funny thing -- in all the years that I have listened to radio programs, been a guest on radio programs, and even (on one rather unmemorable midnight-to-dawn shift) co-hosted a radio program, I never saw a radio program performed. Until tonight.

Tonight I attended a taping of the National Public Radio news quiz show, Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me. WWDTM is one of my favorite weekend listening habits. I used to listen on Saturdays on WMRA out of Harrisonburg, but that station no longer carries it. Even when WMRA broadcast the program, I also listened a second time each Sunday on WVTF out of Roanoke. The problem is, WVTF plays the show at 10:00 a.m., when I need to be getting ready to go to church. So I often find myself simply listening on line at the Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me web site. (In the D.C. broadcast area, WAMU-FM carries the show at 11:00 a.m. on Saturdays. WAMU was a cosponsor of tonight's taping.)

As I suspected, the hour-long program takes longer than that to record. Tonight's performance lasted about 90 minutes, which included some "re-dos" that provided a surreal, disjointed quality to the end of the evening.

The panel tonight consisted of regulars Charlie Pierce, Roxanne Roberts of the Washington Post (the hometown favorite), and Tom Bodett (who did not tell us "we'll leave the light on for you.").

Of course, Chicago Public Radio's Peter Sagal was the host and compere while NPR Morning Edition's venerable Carl Kasell was announcer, official judge, and scorekeeper.

The "Not My Job" segment guest was -- as I might have predicted -- D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, who arrived wearing a Nationals' baseball cap, which he had to remove when he donned his headphones. Williams was quizzed on odd facts concerning the president of Turkmenistan.

Why would WWDTM visit Washington when it could just as easily tape the show back home in Chicago? Peter Sagal said that, when coming to Washington every two years, as they try to do, "we feel like big bacon fans do when they get to visit a swine farm." "We take so much from Washington" in the form of material for questions and jokes, Sagal said, "we feel we should give something back."

Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me claims to have about 2 million weekly listeners. (Most of them, said host Sagal, "socially unsuccessful in high school.") If tonight's audience is evidence, that claim is true -- the part about 2 million, not the nerd factor. Lisner Auditorium was stuffed to the gills with fans of all ages, from grammar-school kids to their grandparents. And the audience was enthusiastic, engaged, and happy, too. (The person sitting next to me, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune Washington bureau, said that a friend of his calls Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me "Hollywood Squares for smart people." How true.)

I'll be writing a full-length article on the show for The Metro Herald next week. I just wanted to get the basics down on pixels before driving home to Charlottesville. I'm looking forward to listening this weekend to see how the edited version of Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me differs from the live performance. (I can think of a few hilarious off-color remarks that won't make the final cut ... but beyond that?)

I have to add that it seems odd, in answer to the question, "What were you doing tonight?", to say, "I was watching a radio program." Odd, but oddly satisfactory.

Update, May 5 @ 3:47 p.m.: "Galileo" has a LiveJournal entry on the same performance I saw, with the amusing title "Bong Hits for Jesus." (I have to go back to my notes, but I know that was the punchline to one of the jokes last night.)

There Is Nothing Like a Dane

Everyone -- that is, everyone who hasn't been living under a rock -- is aware of the controversy that has developed from the printing, way back in September, of several editorial cartoons in a Danish newspaper, cartoons that some Muslims have found so offensive that they have become violent.

For instance, the Washington Post reported today:

Thousands of Muslim protesters enraged over the publication of caricatures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad set ablaze the Danish Embassy on Sunday and rampaged through a predominantly Christian neighborhood, dangerously escalating sectarian tensions in a country whose mélange of faiths can sometimes serve as a microcosm of the world's religious divide.

In another article in the same paper, this report from Syria and Palestine:

Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday _ the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags. Protesters smashed the windows of the German cultural center and threw stones at the European Commission building, police said.

The controversy illustrates the wide cultural, political, and philosophical divide between the liberal democratic West and the theocratically-inclined, illiberal Muslim East. Another article in the Washington Post notes:

"It's interesting how our ambassadors in Europe see this issue so differently than ambassadors in Islamic countries," said a European diplomat in Turkey, where reaction to the cartoon flap has been relatively muted. "Those in Europe see it as a free speech issue," he said, while diplomats in Muslim countries are agitated.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to share confidential diplomatic traffic. The diplomat quoted a cable from his country's Cairo embassy that read: "I can't de-escalate. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are not something I can sell here if it is in conflict with Islam."

The Danish prime minister, to his credit, has refused to buckle under the violence and threat of continuing violence. He argues that his government does not control the press and that freedom of the press includes allowing the press to say things that some people might not like.

Other world leaders are not so principled. The Washington Times reports that

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued through a spokesman that press freedom "should always be exercised in a way that fully respects the religious beliefs and tenets of all religions."

And the Vatican, says the Washington Post,

added its voice to Western governments condemning publication of the images. "The right to freedom of thought and expression . . . cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers."

One must ask the Secretary-General, as a black African, whether his warning applies to literature that does not "fully respect" the religious beliefs of the Aryan Nations, originally known as the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. What are these religious beliefs, which, according to Kofi Annan, must be fully respected?

Members of Aryan Nations believe that they are the true chosen people of Israel, and that they are working towards the gathering of their "true" people for Jesus Christ. They feel that they are under an obligation to preserve their race as the one, true race of the world (Aryan Nations: 1). They feel that Adam was of the white race, and that not everyone descended from him, and therefore not everyone is of the true race. The Bible is used to enforce many of the Aryan Nations beliefs, such as that the Bible was written for Abraham and his family. They believe that this relates back to Adam, and in turn, back to them. People of other races are descendants from Cain, who is really a descendant of Satan. They believe Eve seduced Satan, and this resulted in the birth of Cain (Aryan Nations: 2). Wesley Swift and Richard Butler both began to include racism and anti-semitism in their doctrines, and this is still a prominent belief today. The Jews are of a lower class and stem from Eve's original sin, as do all non-white races.

Inter-racial marriage is clearly unacceptable. Coming soon for these people is the end of the race war (Aryan Nations: 2). This is the war that will eventually leave the white race on top. They feel that Christ's Kingdom will eventually be established here on earth, and will throw out all other races who are not worthy of God's love. This group feels that their beliefs all stem from love. This is the force behind their beliefs, and even though to others it seems to be hate-based, they proclaim again and again that it is their love for their race and nation that backs these beliefs. One of their goals is to teach every child of this race who they really are, and to help unite the people of Anglo-Saxon descent in this "race war."

Or let's ask the Vatican if it would be wrong to offend the believers of Tony Alamo, whose Tony Alamo Christian Ministries web site (and countless pieces of printed literature) says things like:

The Vatican is posing as Snow White, but the Bible says that she is a prostitute, “the great whore,” a cult (Rev. 19:2).1 She uses government agency branches in every country, including the United States, as her vicious little dwarfs. The more power and control she gets in government, the more she will fade away into the background in her “Snow White” disguise so that government will be used and blamed for all her evil deeds.

REASON: To enforce laws that harass, malign, destroy, and censor everyone and every idea that is not Roman Catholic so she can sit as the satanic queen (the big whore).

These people hold these religious beliefs sincerely and fervently, but these same beliefs manifest themselves as anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and racist. Are we to refrain from criticizing them because they might offend "religious believers"? Or do the Vatican and Kofi Annan make exceptions for misguided or cultish "believers"? Their statements, as reported, are general and do not seem to allow for such exceptions. They are non-discriminating and, consequently, foolish.

One day in 1993, I was leafing through my recently-acquired copy of the hardbound edition of Peter McWilliams book, Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do. I had to do a double-take when I saw this quotation, on page 36:

In a free society, standards of public morality can be measured only by whether physical coercion -- violence against persons or property -- occurs. There is no right not to be offended by words, actions, or symbols.

I was taken aback because the quotation was attributed to me. Although it was something that I would say, I did not remember saying it. (Months later, I traced the quotation to a letter to the editor that I had written to the Washington Times sometime earlier, in reaction to (of all things!) the arrest of actor Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) in an adult movie theatre in Florida.

I stand by those words today, and I am particularly proud of the Danish government and Danish people, for staying firm in defense of liberal values against the barbarians who would destroy them. (Those other European and American newspapers that have reprinted the "offending" cartoons deserve praise and support, as well.)

The story is well-known that the Danes, even under Nazi occupation in the 1940s, stood up for liberal values by doing what they could, in the form of civil disobedience, to protect the country's Jewish minority. When the Jews were ordered to wear an identifying yellow Star of David on their clothing, the rest of the Danish people did the same -- even the king and royal family. Through this strategy of assimilative confusion, the Danes saved thousands of Jews from torture and death.

A Danish movie that I saw a quarter-century ago expresses well the sense of solidarity that the Danes have engraved on their souls. It is called "You Are Not Alone" (Du Er Ikke Allene), and I recall one of the subplots interwoven into the story was about how the students at a boarding school rebelled against censorship imposed by the school's rather authoritarian adminstrators. Some reviewers at the time suggested that "You Are Not Alone" was a political allegory. Perhaps it is even more clearly such today.

Not only did the Danes protect the Jews during World War II, they have been pro-active in promoting equality and justice for other minorities, as well. In 1989, Denmark became the first Western country to grant the equivalent of marriage rights to gay couples and their families. To be sure, the domestic partnership law was not passed without opposition, but in the 16 years since it took effect, gay couples have become integrated fully into the institutions of society without any evidence of social degradation.

Moreover, although America has many friends around the world, Denmark is the only country that has a celebration on the Fourth of July specifically to mark the Independence Day holiday of the United States. The Rebild Celebrations, as they are known, date back to 1912.

Throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, there are calls to boycott Danish products. To do my small part to counteract this irrationality, I went shopping today at Foods of All Nations in Charlottesville. I bought a six-pack of Carlsberg beer, a package of Denmark's Finest baby havarti cheese, and a very expensive stick of imported Lurpak butter. I only spent about $15.00, but there weren't a lot of Danish products from which to choose. I did what I could.

By the way, if you want to see the cartoons that started the violence, you can find them at a blog called "Face of Muhammed" (scroll down to the February 1 entry). And if you'd like historical evidence that the prohibition on artistic portrayals of the Prophet Mohammed is recent and not deeply embedded in Muslim culture, check out the Mohammed Image Archive, which notes:

While the debate rages, an important point has been overlooked: despite the Islamic prohibition against depicting Mohammed under any circumstances, hundreds of paintings, drawings and other images of Mohammed have been created over the centuries, with nary a word of complaint from the Muslim world. The recent cartoons in Jyllands-Posten are nothing new; it's just that no other images of Mohammed have ever been so widely publicized.

Confirming this, Muslim scholar Reza Aslan, author of the book No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, said on NPR's "All Things Considered" on Friday:

You do see a number of cases, both in South Asian art and in Sufi art and in Shia art, of depictions of Mohammed. In fact, you can go to any market in Tehran and find paintings of the Prophet Mohammed to buy.

I'm not recommending that you go to a Tehran bazaar to buy a painting of Mohammed. I do recommend that you go to your local supermarket or furniture store and buy something -- anything -- imported from Denmark. (Let me be cheeky and suggest that the first thing you buy be a Danish ham or bacon.)

And if you see a Dane on the street, shake his hand. Give him a hug. Kiss him. He and his countrymen deserve it.

UPDATE, February 8: There are some tips for buying Danish products at George Mason University's History News Network and at the aptly named Buy Danish Campaign. Banners and logos that can be used on websites can be found at SupportDenmark.com.

A Hero Is Coming

It may be hard to believe, but more than 50 years after the war ended, the President of the United States yesterday presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to a hero of the Korean War, Tibor Rubin -- who is also a Holocaust survivor.

The Washington Post reports in this morning's editions:

Rubin was 15 when U.S. soldiers opened the camp at Mauthausen, Austria, and he recalled yesterday that his 14 months there ended with a solemn promise: "I was going to go to the U.S. and join the U.S. Army to show my appreciation. . . . It was my wish to fight alongside them."

More than half a century later, President Bush yesterday bestowed the nation's highest military honor on Rubin, who not only joined the U.S. Army but also saved the lives of dozens of fellow American soldiers during the Korean War. Rubin used his survival skills from the brutal concentration camp to help nurture his U.S. comrades in a communist prisoner-of-war camp in the early 1950s, the White House said, giving hope and sustenance to soldiers who otherwise would likely have died in the custody of Chinese troops.

Yesterday, NPR's "All Things Considered" carried an interview with Rubin -- with warnings of graphic language -- that suggests Rubin's story is worthy of a screenplay, if not a cable-TV miniseries.

Describing his life in a Chinese-run prisoner-of-war camp, NPR's Michele Norris reported:

Food was so scarce that Rubin began to sneak out at night to steal whatever he could find -- barley, millet, animal feed.

Rubin had picked up essential survival skills in the concentration camps. The most important of those lessons, he said, was that the mind could prevail even as the body suffered. He kept his fellow soldiers going through pep talks.

"You just cannot give up," Rubin says he told them. "I don't think the Lord is going to help you; he's only going to help you if you help yourself. You have to try and you have to get home somehow."

More than 1,600 POWs died that winter at Camp 5 in Korea. Rubin's fellow detainees say his actions kept at least 40 prisoners alive. Over the next decades Rubin was nominated several times for service medals, including the Medal of Honor.

But there were always problems with the paperwork. The Pentagon now says that someone in his chain of command may have stymied the process because Rubin was a Hungarian Jew.

But he says that "after 55 years, I never figured I'm going to get it, so I'm very happy."

The Post concludes its report:

Rubin said that he stole food from his captors to feed his sick friends, and that he nurtured the weak through the hardest times. He said he knew that survival was mostly mind over matter, and that he tried to get his fellow soldiers to think positively.

"I tried to brainwash them, telling them they had to stay strong, not to forget their parents, that they have to get home and to not give up," Rubin said. "It wasn't easy on them. For someone that young, it's a nightmare. But I had been through it once, and that's why I came through and helped them.

"My mother used to tell us that we're all brothers and sisters, and in the Jewish religion, if you do a mitzvah -- nothing but a good deed -- that's better than if you go to temple and beat your head and ask the Lord to help you," he said. "I helped people because I could."