…and some landmarks in a life highlight how much things can change.

Cross-posted to Random Fate. At The Kudzu Files, hboswell has written about a situation that could have been presented as a hypothetical case in arguments over life and death. A woman in need of a liver transplant has a close relative on death row in Indiana who has offered to donate, but the procedure that will be used to execute the inmate will essentially poison the liver, rendering it unfit to transplant. Apparently, the Indiana Department of Corrections is not being very cooperative. Go...

With the recent string of exposures of outright inaccurate reporting due to insufficient sourcing, checking, and re-checking, not limited to the recent Newsweek Periscope retraction or the Dan Rather/forged memo imbroglio, is it reasonable to say that journalism “ain’t what it used to be”? Joe Gandelman, the proprietor of this weblog, writes in his recent commentary on reporting: Indeed, Newsweek — like Dan Rather in the memos scandal — seems to have been caught...

Unfortunately, time-consuming problems related to a dying computer prevented me from posting much here or on my own weblog, Random Fate, the past several days, so I have not been as responsible a guest-poster as I would have liked to have been here. I extend my apologies to both Joe and the audience here. Perhaps the missive I have posted today on the recent Newsweek misreporting problem can help make amends. There is more to this imbroglio than first appears, when you look at the fundamentals. UPDATE:...

…this certainly didn’t take very long: Swastika drawn on new Holocaust memorial Vandalism came shortly after Germany dedicated site The Associated Press Updated: 5:03 p.m. ET May 13, 2005 BERLIN – Within hours of the opening of Germany’s national Holocaust memorial to the public, a vandal scratched a swastika into one of the 2,711 gray slabs, a spokesman for the memorial said Friday. The small swastika was spotted by security guards and quickly removed, though the vandal...

The Bull Moose questions the current priorities in Washington, especially regarding judicial nominations: Under any circumstances, this partisan confrontation would be annoying and unnecessary. But, it is particularly distressing that our political leaders could not find a way to resolve their differences while the nation is at war. We have returned to a pre-9/11 politics with a vengeance. Forget about national unity, partisan advantage is job #1. If we had a President who was truly “a uniter...

Cross-posted at Random Fate under “Letters from Europe“. GRENOBLE, France - The Real ID Act was passed today by the United States Senate as an amendment of a spending bill on the war in Iraq. While I am too much a cynic (in the Shaw definition of the term) to truly be surprised by this development, I am still disheartened. I despise hyperbole when used in political discussions because it weakens arguments and causes a loss of credibility when the fine line between spicing up the writing...

The Real ID Act, attached as an amendment to another bill in the Senate, has potential far-ranging consequences and will likely result in effectively creating a national ID card. Unfortunately, this issue is flying under the radar and the bill has not even been debated on the Senate floor, despite the likely consequences that will arise if this bill becomes law. You can find out more about the Real ID Act and my perception of other troubling trends in restricting liberty by following the links...

For those who want a bit of additional information regarding the recent history of judicial nominations, along with a bit of intemperate, immoderate, and possibly injudicious commentary, then go read this: For those complaining about the Democrats blocking 10 judicial nominations… Don’t say you weren’t warned.

…then I have two questions I need answered at Random Fate.

Pennywit follows up his original post with a response to Media Girl, who disagreed. Interestingly enough, they are both towards the left side of the political axis. More recommended reading if you are interested in the friction between blogging and the mainstream media.

There is a new Letter from Europe posted at my weblog, Random Fate: The forgetting will be their second death

Pennywit has some thoughts on the conflict between some bloggers and some members of the mainstream media. If you are interested in blogging at all I highly recommend reading what he has to say.

Interesting news from the Tri-Cities area of Washington state (the heart of a region that produces some mighty fine wines, by the way): Dead rattler may have legs This story was published Friday, May 6th, 2005 By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer Nancy McLeod of West Richland knew she had snakes in her back yard, but she had no idea one of them was a biped. The 2-foot-long reptile, which McLeod believes is a rattler, was discovered Thursday morning on her Red Mountain Road property as a friend was...

…how will the heirs to Jonathan Swift even be recognized?

Cross-posted at Random Fate. GRENOBLE, France - Over a week ago, I wrote here at The Moderate Voice on the television appearance by French President Jacques Chirac to promote a “oui” vote on the EU Constitution. I concluded with the following: So, in the end, even though the polls look like Chirac had no effect on public opinion after his televised discussion of the EU constitution, don’t be surprised if another razor-thin victory is pulled out by the government in favor of the...

Are the origins of the likely rejection due to effects of the industrial revolution?

…but it proves yet again the validity of Einstein’s theories: Near Perfect “Einstein Ring” Discovered Summary – (Apr 29, 2005) Gravitational lensing happens when the gravity of a relatively close galaxy acts as a telescope lens to focus the light from a more distant galaxy. It allows astronomers to see distant objects they could never have a hope of observing with current instruments, essentially looking back to moments after the Big Bang (cosmically speaking). The galaxies...

Have the innocent, fun bikini-suicide-frisbee days of blogging passed?

How did we go from the certainties of World War II to the so-called age of irony we now endure with men proclaiming they are both moral and “did nothing illegal”? Some thoughts on the fifty year wound of the Cold War are expressed at Random Fate.