Campanastan

Best Cat Video (Film Noir) Ever: Henri 2, Paw de Deux

This is wonderful - thanks to Shelia David.

Henri has his own WWW site - mais oui!

 

"Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose." - Garrison Keillor

'If It Fits, Here I Sits' - Part 2

More animals just sitting/sleeping...

Infographic: Should I Go To Grad School?

From the folks at Grad School Hub.

View the original here. You can also enlarge by clicking once, then a second time.

I have not vetted these figures, but some numbers don't seem realistic. We'll need > 50,000 new lawyers and 1,000 - 4, 999 new law professors in the next 10 years? English language and literature professors 10,000 - 49,999? But 0 - 999 environmental science professors?

I would take this with grain (or kilo) of salt.

"The reason in America it's very important what ten books freshmen will have to read is because everybody knows they'll never read another book afterwards." -- a French academic at a Sorbonne seminar on "political correctness"

Does Ford Eat Cadillac's Lunch? And Like It?

From Mark Boslough.

First the Caddy ad:

 

Now the Ford ad:

 

Neither car does very much for me. Just give me a 5-speed with three pedals on the floor.

But I'll take the Ford ad.

"No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." -- H.L. Mencken

'If It Fits, Here I Sits' - Part 1

Infographic: Internet Consumption Around the World

From the folks at International Business Degree Guide. The original is here.

Click to enlarge.

"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" - George W. Bush

Infographic: Contraception Changes Everything

From the good folks at PSI. Here is the original.

Click to enlarge.

 

"The Roman Catholic church... carries the immense power of very directly affecting women's lives everywhere by its stand against birth control and abortion." - Robin Morgan

Anthony Weiner: Back on Twitter As Denver TV Station Airs Weenie

Oh, that Anthony Weiner - what a card! Seems a Denver TV station accidentally showed a picture of a weenie during a news video. Looks like they had the camera on someone's Twitter feed. See a video of 'it' on Deadspin. Weiner's claiming credit for it.

What a guy! Always trying to get more exposure for himself. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

And how about a shout-out to Fox 31 KDVR in Denver! Way to go, guys! 

“And of course I want to express my gratitude to my family; to my mother and father who instilled in me the values that carried me this far.” – Anthony Weiner’s resignation

 

Et Tu? An Ides of March Blast from the Past: It's The Ides of March!

One-hit wonders and Blood, Sweat & Tears knockoff The Ides of March hit it big (well, sort of) 44 years ago with Vehicle.

Friend, former colleague and geochemist extraordinaire Laura Crossey, a Chicago native, reminded me about these guys, who hailed from Chicagoland - Berwyn, IL. So I fished out my lone Ides of March record - still nestled in its dust jacket - and posted a photo here. 

And here is the real deal:

 

I recall getting more than a few requests for this tune during my last days (kind of like Caesar) at WCWM-FM. 

The band is back together and still touring. Here's a picture of the them in Dickinson, ND, in 2008:

Love to see ol' guys still going strong - or even just 'going'!

Hey, well I'm the friendly stranger
In the black sedan
Oh won't you hop inside my car?
I got pictures, got candy, I am a lovable man
I'd like to take you to the nearest star
I'm your vehicle baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go
I'm your vehicle woman
By now I'm sure you know
That I love ya (love you)
Need ya (need you)
I want to, got to have you child
Great God in heaven, you know I love you."
     -- Vehicle, words and music by Jim Peterik

For Pi Day: A Dismal Pie Chart

The distribution of the USA's 2.4 million prisoners (click to enlarge or go here).

Read the entire article here from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Courtesy of The Week. 

"Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former." - Horace Mann

NFL Language Police: R-Word Okay, N-Word - Well, Maybe Not So Much

Okay - here we go: a 65-year-old white guy opining about racial epithets. And lest you have been under a rock, the 'N-word' is the politically correct version of 'nigger'.  

We know that the National Football League thinks the reprehensible term 'redskin' - as in 'Washington Redskins' - is okay and not a derogatory term for Native Americans. On the other hand, it does seem to feel that the word 'nigger' is a terrible word and should not be used. I agree. But it is proposing to impose 15-yard penalties on teams whose players use it on the field, even when used between teammates. 

Huh? WTF?

To be fair, the league seems to be backing off from that position.

'Nigger' is a terribly racist term - as an OWG (old white guy) I know that. I suspect African-Americans of my generation would say the same. In the early 1970s I remember watching a football game with an older (c. 50) white Southern man. As an African-American running back took the ball and streaked toward the end zone, my friend exclaimed, 'Look at that nigger run!'. I was stunned, but no apology was forthcoming; that was just how he referred to African-Americans. I suspect he felt it was 'natural' to call African-Americans 'niggers' or 'nigras'. But if he or I had called any African-American that word to his/her face, we would have fully expected to receive a knuckle sandwich, or worse, in return. And it would have been deserved.

Back to the NFL. 

There does seem to be a difference of opinion about the wisdom of the NFL's proposed action. According to some, there is a difference between 'nigger' and 'nigga'. The former is a derogatory term, the latter term is apparently used among young African-American men (mainly) as a synonym for 'man' or 'bro', as in 'Hey, nigga, how you doing?' I suspect this is like one Italian-American man saying to another, 'Hey, wop, how you doing?' But an non-Italian should not try it, just like a white guy should not say, 'Hey, nigga, whassup?' to an African-American. A former white NFL quarterback, Kerry Collins, tried this a number of years ago and it ended badly.

I recall Michael Wilbon, a well-respected African-American sports journalist who is 55, explain this fact to his incredulous white colleague Tony Kornheiser, who is my age and a fellow Long Islander. But Jason Whitlock, another African-American sports journalist who is 46, disagrees with Wilbon.

Richard Sherman, a young African-American star cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks, and Jason McCourty, who occupies the same position for the Tennessee Titans, were both quoted in a great column by Peter King: 

“It’s an atrocious idea,” said Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman. “It’s almost racist, to me. It’s weird they’re targeting one specific word. Why wouldn’t all curse words be banned then?” 

“It’s a common word in so many players’ everyday lives,” said Tennessee cornerback Jason McCourty. “Among African-American players and people, it’s used among friends all the time. It seems like a bit much for the NFL to try to get rid of it. It’s a pretty common word in the locker room, like ‘man,’ ‘bro,’ ‘nigga.’ But once a white person says it, it’s a derogatory term.”

Sherman emphasized that the n-word ending in “-er” is racist, but the n-word ending in “-a” is not, when used among African-American players.

“It’s in the locker room and on the field at all times,” Sherman said. “I hear it almost every series out there on the field.” 

But another player said this:

Free agent linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said, “Ultimately, if the NFL can get it done, it’s great for our game. But I think refs have a hard enough time officiating the game now. Now they’d be asked to police language?”

King's column also has the opinions of older African-American former players who don't feel the way that that Sherman and McCourty do.

My take? I don't really have a dog in this show. But I like the way that Herm Edwards, former NFL coach and player, feels: let the players do it.

'70% of the players in the National Football League are black. They can clean it up.'

View his entire 'rant'. You, go, bro!

"We're male by birth, men by choice." - Herm Edwards

Europeans Imagine An American Breakfast

Well, someone might try to steal it!

"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun from stealing your breakfast is to offer to share it with him." - Unknown, presumed dead

Campanastan Confessions: The Road to Shambala Led to Reno Tonight

And here is what was at the end of that road....

Three Dog Night? WTF? A canineophile? No, a rock band whose heyday was from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. Four of the seven original members are still performing: singers Cory Wells and Danny Hutton; guitarist Mike Allsup; and keyboardist Jimmy Greenspoon.

Excellent show - almost 75 minutes, with all their many hits and some new material as well. They did two great versions of Mama Told Me (Not To Come): the usual, and then a hilarious rap version.

We missed Eli's Coming but heard my favorite, Shambala.

Dinner at the Steakhouse Grill, great music, old and new friends....hard to beat - only possible if Mary Frances had been there!

Picture taken by Lisa Sehlke - Greg Weinbender, Ken Reid, Dick Engberg, yours truly, and Jerry Sehlke:

Wash away my troubles, wash away my pain
With the rain in Shambala
Wash away my sorrow, wash away my shame
With the rain in Shambala

Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind
On the road to Shambala
Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind
On the road to Shambala
         --- words and music by Daniel Moore

Republicans Contract Cat Scratch Fever, Seek to Expand Base with Ted Nugent

Of course the Republicans are wearing a Ted Nugent hat - they are courtng the gun-toting, crossbow-shooting moron vote.

Ted, you've come a long way since Journey to the Center of the Mind, (good song, actually)! But it looks like the Cat Scratch Fever has finally taken hold!

By Randall Enos, from The Week.

 “Anybody that wants to disarm me can drop dead. Anybody that wants to make me unarmed and helpless, we’re gonna literally create the proven places that where more innocents are killed called ‘gun-free zones,’ we’re gonna beat you. We’re gonna vote you out of office, or suck on my machine gun, you can take it whichever way you want.” - Ted Nugent, interview with Piers Morgan

Hey, Idaho! Want Guns in the Classroom? Read This.

Idaho is considering a bill to allow guns on its university and college campuses (like my state, Oregon, already does). It has passed a House committee with a recommendation (11 - 3) for passage. 

Here is a NYT Op-Ed by Boise State University professor Greg Hampikian, 'When May I Shoot a Student?' Very good - required reading, in fact.

But the best argument against this measure came from someone I know who teaches in Idaho. He put it on his Facebook page a few days ago. I won't identify him to protect his privacy. 

I enjoy guns as much as the next person... in Idaho, that is. But guns do not belong in the college classrooms in which I teach. My classrooms are safe spaces for open-minds and a diversity of thoughts, experiences, and worldviews. Key words here: safe spaces. A student or even a faculty member who carries a gun into a classroom destroys this safe space by creating a unnecessary power dynamic and promoting a culture of fighting violence with violence. Please consider helping to keep guns out of my classrooms.

Safe space - I like that.

At times like this I think of Wayne LaPierre's memorable quote, 'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.' The only thing wrong with that approach is how can you reliably discern the good guys from the bad guys? Two 'good guys' might mistake each other for 'bad guys' and shoot it out on the Quad.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - 21st century version ......Can't wait.

"I want to applaud the Legislature’s courage. On a final note: I hope its members will consider my amendment for bulletproof office windows and faculty body armor in Boise State blue and orange."  - Greg Hampikian