Bookworm Room

Tweet I couldn’t let Rose Mattus’ death pass unnoticed. Who is she, you ask? Only one of the people who made the world or, at least, my world, a much, much better place: Rose Mattus, who launched Haagen-Dazs ice cream with her husband, peddling the super-premium treat in grocery stores, has died. She was 90. [...]

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Tweet I’ve got actual work I have to do today (how dull), so blogging will be light. However, before I sign off to help support my family, I urge you to take some time to check out Michelle Malkin’s comprehensive summary about what’s going on in the fight between AP and CENTCOM over the legitimacy [...]

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Tweet In the wake of the Michael Richards scandal, Jesse Jackson has thoughtfully stepped forward to announce a new addition to the Orwellian NewSpeak pantheon: the deletion of a word from the English language (and you know which word I mean). I wasn’t really paying attention to this whole thing because (a) I’m bored by [...]

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Tweet My child came home yesterday with yet another spelling worksheet that contained a misspelling. But that’s not why I’m writing. She also came home with a math worksheet containing complicated problems she’d gotten wrong, and it was clear that the teacher had never bothered to enlighten her about the isues in that worksheet (I [...]

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Tweet Do you remember a duo of Gary Larson Far Side cartoons that took on the different way dogs and cats hear? The first cartoon published was entitled (I think) “What dogs hear.” The top panel showed what people say. With a speech balloon coming out of the person’s mouth, it was something along the [...]

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Tweet There’s an article in today’s New York Times exposing (again) one of the problems with affirmative action — it elevates nice, ordinary people to situations where they’re bound to fail. This time the focus is on the nation’s top law firms, where African-Americans consistently fail to last: Thanks to vigorous recruiting and pressure from [...]

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Tweet Here’s a quick chronology, followed by my comments. First, during this summer’s Israeli/Hezbollah War, AP, along with several other news outlets, was shown to have relied upon doctored and staged photographs, and false and/or misleading stories fed to them by local stringers sympathetic to Hezbollah. (You can read all about it here, at LGF.) [...]

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Tweet Many years ago, when I was a naive college student, I got a job in an institution where the head of my department was a lesbian. She was a very nice woman, but I made sure I was never alone in a room with her. She never crossed a line, but she came awfully, [...]

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Tweet Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, impeached as a federal judge in 1989 on corruption charges, dropped his bid under pressure on Tuesday to chair a congressional panel designed to help protect America’s security, a party aide said.Hastings took the action after being told by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, in line to head the U.S. [...]

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Tweet You know how zealously I guard my identity, living as I do in the Bay Area, where conservatives are not welcome. Here’s an example of just how loony these things get. Let’s start with “The Wall,” a moderated internet site set up to be a bulletin board for San Franciscans who wish to comment [...]

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Tweet An NPR story has noted that the Iraq War has now gone on longer than World War II. That’s a fact and an interesting one. Even more interesting, of course, is how NPR spins the story: Monday, Nov. 27, marks the day when the Iraq war becomes longer than the U.S. involvement in World [...]

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Tweet I got this from a friend, and pass it on to those of you in the Sacramento area.  It sounds wonderful: From: Cristo Rey High School & The Concerts of All Hallows Re: “Amahl and the Night Visitors” To: All Parishes of the Diocese Cristo Rey High School and the Concerts of All Hallows [...]

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Tweet There is no doubt that the poor live in bad neighborhoods. If they weren’t poor, they’d move someplace nicer. Neighborhoods that smell bad, are unsafe, have falling down houses and are near industry are invariably going to be more affordable than some nice suburban green stretch. This isn’t some evil capitalist plot against poor [...]

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Tweet ….and this great “Day by Day” panel has a wonderful plug for Flopping Aces: I was especially glad to see that Chris’ cartoon is now entering the old media.  It’s not that I’m an old media fan — as you know — but I do like the idea of his message, especially the one [...]

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Tweet I was walking with my kids to the bus stop this morning.  Suddenly, a whole group of kids took off down the hill, and my older child vanished with them.  My younger child didn’t pick up his pace. “Hey, big guy,” I said.  “Everyone’s going to beat you down the hill.” “Mommy, I don’t [...]

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Tweet My friend Curt, who blogs at Flopping Aces, has made a couple of major news discovery: First, the story about Shiite men burning Sunni men alive is almost certainly untrue. Second, the man the MSM identifies as the source for this story has identified himself as an Iraqi Captain is not who he claims [...]

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Tweet Thank you all so much for your thoughtful, serious and kind comments on God (see the comments to my Thanksgiving post below).  You’ve given me a lot to think about and once again shown the civility and constructive spirit of visitors to the Bookwormroom.   I deeply appreciate you all. P.S.  The doctor tells me the [...]

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Tweet Omeed Aziz Popal, the Fremont, California, man who went on a car fueled rampage in August, during which he killed one man and injured 18 others (including one woman who ended up paralyzed from the neck down) will be tried: Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, faces 18 counts of attempted murder for the Aug. 29 [...]

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Tweet My host during the Thanksgiving break introduced me to a newspaper called Muslim World Today. It’s editor-in-chief is Tashbih Sayyed, who is also the president of the Council for Democracy and Tolerance, which sponsors the paper. The CDT is a grassroots organization which has as its unabashed goal the dethroning of radicalized Islam as [...]

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Tweet I missed the original hoo-ha about Rangel’s new remarks attacking the military. Most commentators are appropriately likening it to Kerry’s recent “joke” about military intelligence. I think there’s more there, though, than just an attack on the intellectual abilities of the average mil guy or gal. Here’s the money quote: I want to make [...]

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Tweet We returned late last night from a trip that saw us surrounded by interesting people, and staying in the gorgeous home of gracious hosts. And yet I’m just so glad to be back. I’m a complete homebody — I like my bed, and my kitchen and my computer. It was also a great relief [...]

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Tweet So Israel has reached a truce in the Gaza without ever getting its soldier back.  Five months of “war” was apparently inadequate to either find and release that soldier or persuade the Palestinians to give him up.  Looks like Israel, like the United States, has gotten into the bad habit of entering “limited” wars [...]

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Tweet In California we have a variety of bond types, but for purposes of this note, we can talk about just two types — local and state-wide.  Local bonds are presented honestly.  A voter who approves a local bond is also explicitly approving a special tax to raise money to repay the bond.  The voter knows who [...]

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Tweet Bookworm is off to spend her holiday with family and my family will be coming to my house for the usual turkey dinner.   But I do want to take a moment to share a few things for which I’m thankful. I’m thankful that I have the best wife in the world, who has brought me [...]

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Tweet I’m hitting the road for the holiday weekend, so my blogging will be intermittent at best.  Don Quixote has hinted, though, that he will do some posts, and those are always some of the most popular reads here.  So, if you’re near a computer, don’t forget to visit occasionally this weekend. And — Happy [...]

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