The Working File

Not surprisingly, the Anchoress gets it right, but I want to add one other observation. Many people argue that if the technology gives us the power to get calls right, to fix wrongs, we have an obligation to use it.

In my universe, watching the implementation of replay review in football and hockey, the technology gives us no such power. Here is the result of replay reviews in my world:
20% fix a bad call
20% confirm the call was already right.
20% confirm the call was wrong but it doesn’t get fixed because the ref says “inconclusive”
20% generates disagreement and controversy among fans and announcers as to whether the call should be overturned
20% the review ref makes a decision that is universally thought to be wrong

How is this better, especially with the wasted time?
Really, is your experience different? Why do people imagine we can just fix the bad ones?

That’s all.

We’ll provide a few services, and use the lion’s share of revenues to pay the bribes.
More than providing services to ‘em, taking people’s money is what makes organizations real. Be they formal, informal, or temporary.

Mayor E.B. Farnum as depicted in the Series Deadwood, episode “No Other Sons or Daughters”

Norman Borlaug passed away yesterday. He most likely did more for humanity than anyone in history. Most of the people whose lives he saved were extremely poor, in Mexico, Pakistan and India. Despite a boatload of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, nearly nobody know who he was. He deserves, but likely will not get, the media attention and elaborate memorials given to politicians who did far less public good, and much more public evil. R.I.P.

It is very likely he saved on billion lives.

Willy DeVille, who brought street elegance and soul to New York’s punk scene in the late ‘70s, died yesterday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 58.

Tall, thin and debonair with almond-shaped eyes, DeVille was an anomaly on the punk scene centered at CBGBs on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He could sing in a smooth style reminiscent of the great Atlantic Records balladeers and craft a mean pop tune; in time, he co-wrote several songs with Doc Pomus, an influence. During his three-decade long career, he covered a vast musical terrain –- soul, R&B and blues — and scored an international hit with a Cajun-flavored rendition of “Hey Joe.” His song “Storybook Love,” which appeared in the film “The Princess Bride,” was nominated for an Oscar.

DeVille is survived by his wife Nina and son Sean.

Willy DeVille Dies at 58 – Speakeasy – WSJ.

Hey you/ I remember/ ’cause the empty streets, fill me now / Gone away, but not forever… Is it over now?

1953-2009.
And this is just damn beautiful.
Willy DeVille Mixed Up Shook Up Girl 1994

Willy Deville at Amazon

My favorite part is the bag at the end.  My only disappointment is they missed the opportunity to use the line, “Those jobs weren’t even on the table.”

George Tiller did evil things, but so do all of us.  His life was precious, and Rober P George pretty much covers it:

For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller’s life was precious.

via The Corner on National Review Online.

I see no reason to improve on last year’s Memorial Day entry, so I’m repeating it in full below. All of the links have been updated with new information since last year.

In addition to you fun with friends and family, and catching up on your chores, please spend some time this weekend to commemorate Memorial Day.

First, you might want to educate your self a bit. I learned a lot by reading though some of the links below:

Here is a good source of information on Medal of Honor recipients in the War on Terror. Scroll down to read about them all. Next, I would suggest visiting milblogger Blackfive and his Fallen But Never Forgotten Series. While there, you might also read through the Someone You Should Know series.

Then, please do something to help our current service members. This should mean more than thinking “I support the troops,” or supporting politicians who favor some course of action, whether it be supporting the war, ending the war, etc. A good place to start is, of course, the USO. If you want to get beyond the mainstream, Blackfive, again, has some great ideas.

Finally, if you set aside some time this weekend for worship, please pray: for our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, for their soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, for non-combatants, for the innocent, for the not-so-innocent, and for an end to the circumstances that sometimes require war.

Richard Stith has a fantastic short post over at Mirror of Justice, with the best single line about current abortion dialogue I have seen in some time:

Reducing the numbers of those who need protection is no substitute for protecting those who need protection

Mirror of Justice: on abortion reduction as common ground.