The Deity is My Offensive Coordinator

BrooklynDodger always feared the Deity was a Yankee and Dallas Cowboy fan. How else could you explain their domination? As with intelligent design, the questions is whether the Deity set a machine in motion - hiring a good general manager, buying Babe Ruth's contract - or whether the Deity intervenes on a season by season, game by game or even play by play basis.

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Increasingly, Football's Playbooks Call for Prayer

By JOE DRAPE

Published: October 30, 2005

Every preseason for 30 years, Coach Bobby Bowden has taken his Florida State football players to a church in a white community and a church in a black community in the Tallahassee area in an effort, he said, to build camaraderie. He writes to their parents in advance, explaining that the trips are voluntary, and that if they object, their sons can stay home without fear of retaliation. He remembers only one or two players ever skipping the outing.

...

Butting Out

The Detroit News auto insider comes up with some great inside stuff. The special place for Harvard in this article warms the heart, especially because auto industry insularity limits Harvies to the legal department, except for execs who’ve been through short courses at the Business school.

The 24 minute break in each half shift will certainly be a target for cost cutting. It sounds like this is a tag relief plant rather than a mass relief plant. The Dodger doubts it’s spent mostly in the crapper. Probably the increased time – if there is increased time - is a product of the Wayne County no-smoking at work rule. It takes longer to get where the smokers can smoke.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005
Ford cracks down on rest room breaks
Some workers spend more than 48 minutes away from the line at Wayne truck plant, slowing production of SUVs.
By Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News
In a memo that was distributed Tuesday to workers at Ford's Michigan Truck plant in Wayne, plant managers said too many of the factory's 3,500 hourly workers are spending more than the 48 minutes allotted per shift to use the bathroom. The extra-long breaks are slowing production of the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicles that are built there, the company said.

…

Bathroom monitoring is just one of a number of "incredibly stupid ideas" being floated by automakers, said Sandy Munro, CEO of Munro & Associates, a manufacturing consulting firm in Troy. Munro said a number of suppliers have told him that Ford and General Motors Corp., which is also trying to battle back from deep losses, are beginning to explore small ways to save money.
"It's a giant throwback to the bad old days of the '70s and '80s, when you squeezed the guy at the bottom of the heap any way you could," Munro said. "That only causes lots of discontent, and only someone from Harvard could think of something as stupid as monitoring bathroom time."
Ford spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said the 48-minute bathroom break limit is spelled out in the UAW contract that covers local plant rules.

What's the Score in the College Bowl: Girls 57, Boys 43

USA Today lead with this article on gender gap, above the fold on the front page. Males are falling behind.

Several years ago, there was a boomlet of concern for young black males failing in the education system. Detroit started all male academies, which, given the DPS composition, were basically black. The ACLU (?) challenged the all male schools, the city polity complained about suburbanites invading their turf, and the Dodger can’t remember how it came out. Maybe open enrollment but no girls felt welcomed.

Maybe it was the song of the canary – an unknown adverse societal effect hit the most vulnerable first…

The table at the bottom of this post, which probably won’t survive formatting, shows the interaction of class and race.

Among blacks, the male fraction in the lowest income stratum went from 32% to 36% from ’96 to ’04. In the upper income stratum the male fraction went from 41% to 48%.

Among whites, the male fraction in the lowest stratum declined from 46% to 42% over the same period, while in the upper stratum it drifted from 52% to 49%.

Among all races, low income appears toxic to males. The racial gap is small in the high income stratum. Even there, men are the minority, except for asians. The black-white gap is most pronounced in the lowest income stratum.

Having never known this gender-class-race interaction, the Dodger has no theory for why. Since the ‘90’s there has been something of a societal effort on behalf of girls. There’s been a lesser effort concerned with black male youth. Both have improved their population fraction in college over that period.

The Dodger could imagine than lower income is confounded with single parent [woman headed] households. Maybe that has something to do with the gender impact at low income.

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College gender gap widens: 57% are women
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY…
There are more men than women ages 18-24 in the USA — 15 million vs. 14.2 million, according to a Census Bureau estimate last year. But nationally, the male/female ratio on campus today is 43/57, a reversal from the late 1960s and well beyond the nearly even splits of the mid-1970s….
There has been no outcry, for example, on the scale of a highly publicized 1992 report by the American Association of University Women, How Schools Short-Change Girls, which compiled reams of research on gender inequities.
That study "really ... got people to focus on girls ... (but) there is no big network that protects the needs of boys," says family therapist Michael Gurian, author of the just-published The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life, which argues that elementary and secondary schools aren't meeting the developmental needs of boys.
…. There's still a pay gap. According to the Census Bureau, women on average earned 77 cents to each dollar paid to male counterparts in 2004.
…UCLA higher education professor Linda Sax says such a discussion should address what effect, if any, the gender composition of a college has on men and women. To find out, she examined data from more than 17,000 students at 204 four-year colleges.
Preliminary results show that on campuses that were predominantly female, both men and women got higher grades. Predominantly female campuses also led to a "significant increase" in men's commitment to promoting racial understanding and led males to more liberal views on abortion, homosexuality and other social issues, her research found.
(
About 9.9 million women (57.4%) and 7.4 million men (42.6%) were enrolled in colleges eligible for federal student aid in 2003-04. The percentage of undergrads (18-24) who are male, by race and income:
Low-income (Less than $30,000) Middle-income ($30,000 to $69,999) Upper Income ($70,000 or more)
1995-96 1999-00 2003-04 1995-96 1999-00 2003-04 1995-96 1999-00 2003-04
White 46 42 42 50 46 43 52 48 49
Black 32 36 36 48 42 42 41 48 48
Hispanic 43 43 39 46 51 42 50 52 49
Asian 53 51 47 57 48 50 52 54 51
All 44 42 40 50 47 44 51 48 49
Data: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies, 1995-96, 1999-2000, 2003-04
Income ranges adjusted for inflation to 1995-96 dollars; Source: ACE Center for Policy Analysis

Gender Posting [up and dunking]

Sports talk radio was all gender all the time this afternoon, even crowding Joey Harrington off the airways as a subject of discussion. Callers are not the most articulate when it comes to the theology, biology, and sociology of sexual preference.

Other than one transgendered person, no females called in. Several dads, including a host [I can't remember any of their names] talked about having to keep close watch on daughters who wanted to play basketball, for fear of picking up another lifestyle.

Another host came pretty close to endorsing civil unions.

Most of the guys said it was no big deal for a WNBA star to come out, but if it were NBA or NFL, it might shake their world.


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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/basketball/nba/10/26/swoopes.ap/index.html?cnn=yes


Silent no more
WNBA MVP Swoopes opens up about lesbianism
...Despite fears that her revelation will hurt her public standing, Sheryl Swoopes was tired of hiding the fact that she is gay.

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

NEW YORK (AP) -- Houston Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes is opening up about being a lesbian, telling a magazine that she's "tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about

Miller Time Again - That's Judy

Dems are on pins and needles today, waiting to see whether Santa Clause will bring them indictments against Libby and Rove.

A neo-conservative is a liberal who thinks he or she lost a promotion because of affirmative action. Among Jews, the Palestinian terror campaign after the failure of Clinton’s last ditch Camp David negotiations was another left unturning event.

The latter may stay democrats, the former realign as Republicans. The former swallow the other swill of the Bush Administration
Tom Friedman is a prime catch for the neo-cons cheating the Republicans of their dues.
Now comes Judy Miller. BrooklynDodger believes it’s clear that Miller lied about her Scooter Libby tete-a-tetes [or maybe other parts]. Without other head trauma, her amnesia is incredible. In addition to lying, the question is whether Judy and Scooter were planning a media compaign to discredit Joe Wilson, anticipating Wilson’s public criticism. Was she a tool, a willing accomplice, or a co-conspirator?

Miller was a “victim” of a phony anthrax attack. BrooklynDodger wonders whether this phony attack was a worldview changing event, or a staged publicity stunt?
Below a note from Wikipedia, which supplies considerable other information on Miller.

1. “October 12: The New York Times briefly closes its offices after Judith Miller, a reporter who coauthored "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War", receives an envelope postmarked October 5 from St. Petersburg, Florida containing a white, sweet-smelling powder. The letter was addressed with crude handwritten block letters, with no return address. She opens it at 9:15 a.m. EDT and the powder coats her face and hands. It is later found not to contain anthrax. 32 employees were tested, and none was found to have been exposed to anthrax. “

Culture Wars in Washington Suburbs

WaPo local news sometimes gives us a window on culture wars. You have a reasonably cosmopolitan urban culture layered over seething Southern land [don’t forget, Maryland was a slave state] leavened with right wing military and defense employees.

The freaky aspect of this story is that it reads like the letter to the editor was a joke, the school was so spooked it bent over.

What does it mean to be a “Christian?”

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'Devil' Cast Out of Pr. William
Hylton High Band Pulls Song Over Resident's Letter
By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, October 16, 2005; Page C01
After the devil went down to Georgia, it seems, he got censored in Prince William County.
In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the marching band at C.D. Hylton High School had a logical and seemingly innocuous idea: play a Georgia-themed song. They decided on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.
But early this month, a local newspaper, the Potomac News, published a letter by a Woodbridge resident who, after having seen the C.D. Hylton Bulldawg Marching Band perform the country-western hit at a football game, wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state.
Fearing bad public reaction, Hylton's longtime band director, Dennis Brown, pulled the song from the playlist.
even Charlie Daniels has weighed in.

"I am a Christian, and I don't write pro-devil songs. Most people seem to get it. It's a fun little song," Daniels said Friday in a telephone interview from Mokena, Ill.…

Daniels's song, which won a Grammy Award in 1979, is a tongue-in-cheek, tale about a devil heading down to Georgia and challenging a young man named Johnny to a fiddling duel. The stakes are high: If the devil plays a better tune, then he gets to keep Johnny's soul. But Johnny is too talented and beats the devil, winning a golden fiddle, and making Daniels's song a metaphor for the triumph of good over evil.…

As for that nettlesome letter writer, Robert McLean? The defense contractor, whose children are home-schooled, said he went to Hylton's football game just because he enjoys the sport. His letter, he said, was meant to start a philosophical debate, not to wreck any student's marching band experience. Besides, he said, he loves "Devil."

"It was one of the first 45s I had as a kid," he said.

Roots for in Baseball

ESPN polled viewers. 95,000 punched in. 54% were “rooting” for Houston over Chicago. Texas was 87% Astros, Illinois only 79% White Sox. No undecided votes were counted. Illinois and Texas had roughly equal voting rates. White Sox support was limited to the Midwest.

What’s up with that?

BrooklynDodger is behind the White Sox, even though the Dodger is typically a national league fan in the WS.

GW owned the Texas Rangers [were they the second Washington Senators] but all Texas teams should lose all the time in every sport except as below.

The Dodger’s favorite team in baseball is whomever is playing the Yankees, followed by whomever is playing the Los Angeles Dodgers. NYY v. LAD’s, it’s the D’s. [Maybe waver toward the D’s v. Atlanta or a Texas team.] Next are the Mets, then the Tigers [who did best against the NYY in the old days, remember Frank Lary the Yankee Killer?] When it’s Mets v. Tigers in interleague, the Dodger goes with the Mets.

When the NY Giants, hated, moved to San Francisco, they became a favorite [go figure, it was the Giants moving which gave Walter O’Malley a partner on the west coast and cost Brooklyn its Dodgers.] The Red Sox get the Dodger’s support against anyone but the Tigers, unless the Tigers are no where and the Red Sox can keep the Yankees out of the playoffs by beating the Tigers.

Whomever’s playing the Braves is the Dodger’s favorite – usually root for North v. South except for the Yankees and LAD. Generally the National League team is preferred in interleague. St. Louis is ok for red uniforms and beating the Yankees in an old World Series; Cincinnati is not ok for red uniforms because of old Red Sox defeat, except they often kept the LAD’s from post season.

Coyotes in Urban Setting: Mating with Dogs, Not Sleeping With Wolves

[Livonia couple show picture of a cat that a coyote ate]

BrooklynDodger saw an animal early in the morning in the warehouse district near the Detroit River, which on further review was probably a coyote. Another example of urban areas returning to wilderness? Apparently not; you can imagine that an urban landscape would have lot more food for wild beasts than the forest, just as it does for people.

BrooklynDodger is somewhat pleased that coyotes reduce the pet population.

BrooklynDodger was not aware that coyotes can mate with domestic dogs.

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More wily coyotes call suburbs home
By George Hunter / The Detroit News

About the animals:
 The animals are found throughout Michigan and are most abundant in the Upper and northern Lower Peninsulas. Their population, however, is growing in southern Michigan.
 Coyotes are members of the dog family and can be difficult to distinguish from a medium-sized German shepherd. The predators range in weight from 20-45 pounds. Coyotes have erect and pointed ears. They have bush tails, and body color ranges from yellow to gray to light brown.
 Coyotes can run almost 40 mph.
 Primarily nocturnal, coyotes usually shun humans. Their intelligence and adaptiveness allow them to coexist in suburbs. They originally ranged in the West, but sightings now are common across the United States. A pair was even found in New York City.
 Coyotes usually feed on small animals and fruit, but also eat sheep, dogs and cats. Attacks on small fawns occur, too.
 Coyotes mate for life, parenting two to 12 cubs each year. Only half survive.

What can you do:
 While there have been no reported coyote attacks on humans, state officials urge citizens to use common sense if they live in a coyote area. Coyotes are instinctively afraid of people.
 Never approach or touch a coyote.
 Never intentionally feed one.
 Don't allow pets or small children to roam free when coyotes are present.
 Put garbage out the morning of pickup day.
 Eliminate all outside food sources, including pet food.
 Clear wood and brush piles, which are good habitats for rats and mice, which attract coyotes.
 Spay or neuter dogs. Coyotes are attracted to and can mate with unspayed or unneutered domestic dogs.



FARMINGTON -- Nancy Maitre was sipping coffee on her back porch one morning when she saw a coyote run through her yard carrying her cat Ike in its mouth…
Maitre is among a growing number of Metro Detroiters who report seeing wild animals like coyotes that are traditionally associated with rural areas. As subdivisions and strip malls replace the meadows and woods the coyotes once called home, they are increasingly finding homes in neighborhoods.
…
Coyotes are more prevalent in the suburbs than most other wild animals because they easily adapt to different environments, Bostick said.

"That translates into their populations doing well, which is why we're seeing more of them coming into suburbia," Bostick said…

Coyotes aren't the only animals that are being pushed into Metro Detroit, Bostick said. Development is also forcing raccoons, deer, skunks and hawks out of their natural habitats.

"A few weeks ago, a huge hawk swooped down into our front yard and carried off a wild rabbit in its claws," Maitre said. "This hawk was huge, and it occurred to us that it could have easily taken (our cat) Ivan away. It's a good thing we keep him in the house.

…
"There have been a few isolated cases in California of coyotes attacking people, but as far as I know, it's never happened in Michigan," Bostick said.
…
The state has put together coyote facts on its Web site, . ...

Judith Miller and Tom Friedman - An Axis of Evil

Two leading shills for the Iraq war at the Times were Judy Miller and Tom Friedman.

Miller is more in the news lately, and may be in more trouble. But Friedman shouldn't get off. Friedman even recently wrote about Bush and Chaney "These guys know how to pull the trigger." Friedman wrote that it was important for the US to show the Islamic world that the US would go to war, and crush some government or other. And that Afganistan was too small a target to teach the lesson.

When Bush said that Iraq was a threat to its neighbors, it was a code for American Jews that Iraq was a threat to Isreal. Isreal supported the war for that reason, and so did Tom Friedman.

It now appears that Judy Miller actually went to jail to protect "Scooter" Libby and Chaney. You can deduce she was lying about the Valerie Flame and Victoria Plame notes...Other than a recent stroke, there's no way a reporter would forget where those names in her own notes came from, especially after 85 days in jail to think about it.

Now's the problem with Libby leaking classified information. Miller made up this story about security clearance to cover up for Libby. She also concocted a "nom de leak" source [former capital staffer] to cover up for Libby.

BrooklynDodger wonders whether Miller was just a "sniffer at the hemline of power" or whether another feature went higher up.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Officials unaware of reporter's special status

NY Times' Miller wrote she had 'security clearance' for Iraq WMD reporting


By Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 4:24 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2005


Jim Miklaszewski
Correspondent

WASHINGTON — Officials from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon say they have no idea what New York Times reporter Judith Miller was talking about when she claimed to have been given a "security clearance" while she was embedded with a U.S. Army unit in Iraq in 2003.

In a first-person account of her recent testimony before a federal grand jury, published in the newspaper on Sunday, Miller wrote the Pentagon had given her "clearance to see secret information as part of my assignment 'embedded' with a special military unit hunting for unconventional weapons."

Throw the rest of them under the bus

The Detroit News cyber poll again shows that people without benefits and job or income security don't care for the loss of these among people who do.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Close out jobs bank?
With thousands of laid off autoworkers costing the auto industry hundreds of millions of dollars for their jobs banks, is it time the auto industry shed itself of this program?
Yes
87.64%
No
12.36%

Throwing Retirees Under the Bus

Jay Gould said he could pay one half of the working class to shoot the other half. The majority of Detroit News cyber pollers prove Jay’s claim. Conservatives generally believe in enforcing contracts. They changed the bankruptcy law to make it harder to get out of paying debts, which is to say fulfilling contracts. Nevertheless, when it comes to retired workers, the majority say throw them under the bus.

[PS: Bob from Detroit might want to use spell check, or at least proofread before posting. But, BrooklynDodger has made similar mistakes in the past.

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Is it fair that some UAW retirees are asked to pay more for healthcare as the company faces hard financial times?
Yes 55.09%
No 44.91%

Click here to comment on this topic

Posted: Tue. 10/11/05 09:05 AMFrom: BobCity: Detroit, MI USASubject: Rising_costs_for_retireesComments: Join the real world. When times are tough the rest of us in the real world face cuts. Just because the UAW has been able to avoid that in the past doesnt mean they should be immume to it at any time for all reasons... Join the real world, and help your former employer stay in business. Woudlnt you rather have a bit less in benifits, than NO benifits.

The Script is In - Iraqi Votes Already Counted

BrooklynDodger doesn’t doubt the constitutional referendum votes have already been counted. George Bush won.

The Army Times clarifies the Potemkin press conference by the Army guys occupying Tikrit. The Defense Department picked the group. Somehow, the questions were known in advance by the Tikrit group, the answers and who would make the answer were rehearsed among the group the night before, and then with a deputy assistant secretary before show time.

It’s not a conversation if it’s rehearsed.

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http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1174866.php
October 14, 2005

Soldiers say talk with Bush wasn’t a stunt
Administration critics blast rehearsed ‘conversation’ via satellite from Iraq

By Gina Cavallaro Times staff writer

When the White House and the Defense Department said they needed a group of soldiers for a chat on live TV with their commander in chief, the soldiers were carefully chosen.

The five officers, five noncommissioned officers and one Iraqi soldier sat in three neat rows before a camera at one of Saddam Hussein’s old palace compounds in Tikrit, 85 miles north of Baghdad.

The 10 Americans were identified as experts on the three topics the president wanted to talk about Oct. 13: security in Iraq, security for the weekend referendum there and the training of Iraqi troops.

To White House watchdogs, it was a transparent attempt at bolstering the president’s sagging poll numbers….

But what was billed as a conversation between President Bush and the Task Force Liberty troops may have backfired for the administration, as some say it was a scripted publicity stunt and that the soldiers’ answers were choreographed to match the president’s goals for the war in Iraq and the Oct. 15 referendum there.

Some of that criticism is based on outtakes of comments Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, made to soldiers before they went on the air with the president.
…
“OK, so let’s just walk through this,” Barber said. “Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?”

“Captain Smith,” Kennedy said.

“Captain Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?” she asked.

“Captain Kennedy,” the soldier replied.

And so it went.

“If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?” Barber asked.

“That’s going to go to Captain Pratt,” one of the soldiers said.

“And then if we’re going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit — the hometown — and how they’re handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?” she asked.
…
The night before the TV event, she recalled, the group sat down and brainstormed about who should address what areas. Some made notes for themselves in case they had time to ask the president other questions.
…
“I guess it didn’t come to anyone’s mind to tell the president that the food sucks in the [chow hall], because it doesn’t, but I don’t think it crossed anybody’s mind to tell him that if they felt that way. But we could have.”

On Further Review - Big 10 Football

BrooklynDodger brings this up because the MSU-UoM game nearly turned on this exact play.  Chad Henne, UoM quarterback, was hit while throwing, it was called a fumble, MSU ran it back for a touch, leading eventually to overtime, in which UoM eventually prevailed.

There was a long replay interval, in which the TV guys never mentioned the tuck rule.  The play was even more clearly under the tuck rule than the instance described below, because Henne did not touch the ball with his non-throwing hand.  It was an incomplete pass.  But the officials ruled a fumble.

BrooklynDodger concedes not to know the NCAA interpretation of this rule.

As BD confessed previously, the Dodger was leaning to MSU in that game because of Big 10 prospects, but came out of it with thoughts that maybe UoM had a shot.  No longer.

Now Penn State comes to Ann Arbor.  PSU has a very good shot based on record, although the offense is pretty lame.  

Penn State graduates 82% of its students overall, 68% of its football players, and 70% of its black football players.  For UoM it’s 84%, 68% overall football but only 47% of black football players [and 100% of the whites].  The UoM numbers are discrepant enough to warrant further review.  However, based on the graduation rates, BD would have to go with PSU today.

[Minnesota graduates in the 50% range overall, 38% for football.  Ohio State numbers]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Tuck Rule Hard to Grasp
By Mark Maske
Washington Post Staff WriterSaturday, October 15, 2005; Page E01
…
The 63 words that comprise the tuck rule may be the trickiest in the NFL rule book. They hardly rival Shakespeare and yet, syllable for syllable, they nearly match the Bard for tragedy.
Rule 3, Section 21, Article 2, Note 2 carries the nugget:
"When a Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his hand starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble."
…
…
Under the rule, a quarterback's throwing motion begins when he raises the ball in his hand and begins to move his arm forward; that motion doesn't end until the quarterback tucks the ball back against his body, making him a runner. If the ball comes loose any time in between, it's an incomplete pass, not a fumble. Only if the quarterback reloads -- and raises the ball again to start a new throwing motion -- can he fumble, as long as the ball is knocked loose before his arm begins to move forward again.
The furor over the Brady play in the AFC title game in 2002 led the NFL competition committee to consider changing the tuck rule, but it never happened. Brady lost the ball on a hit by blitzing Raiders cornerback Charles Woodson with less than two minutes remaining and the Patriots trailing, 13-10. The Raiders recovered the fumble. But an instant-replay review showed that, while Brady had brought the ball back to chest level and was touching it with both hands, he hadn't tucked the ball back into his body. Referee Walt Coleman called an incomplete pass and gave possession to the Patriots, who tied the game in regulation on kicker Adam Vinatieri's 45-yard field goal and won it in overtime on another Vinatieri kick.

Factions and Fundamentalism

 BrooklynDodger remembers the old joke about law school:  Why bother studying, the answer is “the Bank always wins.”  To which the Dodger’s law student roommate replied, “Everybody knows that, the problem is, which bank?”

So now we have the sex ed curriculum for Montgomery County – not exactly backwoods country – being re-written by fundamentalist Christians.  Having given in to religious thugs, the school system has to figure out which thugs, and apparently has to decide on one or the other.

BrooklynDodger wonders where peer review comes into this process?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Montgomery Sex-Ed Troubles Continue
Community Groups, School Board Scrap Over Advisory Panel Procedures
By Lori Aratani
Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, October 12, 2005; Page B08
Two community organizations that sued the Montgomery County public school system over its sex education curriculum are embroiled in another dispute, this time over who gets to serve on a citizen advisory panel.
The groups had both argued that changes once approved by the school board showed insufficient respect for some parents' values. Now the board is at odds with the two groups over procedures for picking members of the panel that would advise on a new curriculum…
 

Science Journalism - An Ethnic Joke

BrooklynDodger posts this only because it had a decent cadence to the comparisons. The Dodger doubts there are objective observable individual characteristics, validated for inter rater variability, to match the characteristics below.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Science gets the last laugh on ethnic jokes
Study shows that real personalities don’t match national stereotypes

By Kathleen Wren
Science
Updated: 2:07 p.m. ET Oct. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - “Heaven is where the police are English, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and everything is organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians.”

Germans Drinking Beer - What Will Happen Next?

The headline is a little shady – it should have been wife of the incoming chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG fined for beer bash. Otherwise it’s not news. Teenagers getting ripped and driving is a bad deal. Question is, whether a 21 year drinking age etc is the way to stop it.

BrooklynDodger thinks the drinking age should be 18, and that punishment for party parents should be the same as dram shop operators. Other accounts of this incident note that the drinking age for beer in Germany is 16.

[lThe caption puts Zetsche in the middle of this bibulous trio at the Concouse D'Elegance, but BD from other evidence thinks it's the lady on the right. Nobody with a hat like that would ever be convicted.]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Host of teen beer bash to be fined
DCX exec's wife threw June party
October 4, 2005
BY ALEX P. KELLOGG and FRANK WITSIL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

A judge is expected to give Gisela Zetsche, the wife of the incoming chairman of DaimlerChrysler AG, a slap on the wrist Wednesday for holding what police say was a loud, late-night party in June at her Bloomfield Township home, where rowdy teens chugged beer, liquor and threw things at passing cars.

However, critics and parents say, Zetsche's sentence -- a fine of $500 or less -- is too lenient.

Had Bloomfield Township police taken the case to Oakland County prosecutors, Zetsche could have been arrested and charged with providing alcohol to a minor, a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and as many as 60 days in jail, said Jim Halushka, director of warrants and investigations for the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office

In Which BrooklynDodger Attempts Classical Music Criticism

Sometimes the logic of a program seems really cute. Saturday at the DSO was like that.

First we have Bach, rearranged by Stokowski for a full symphony orchestra. Very pleasant, except that all those forces were not appropriate to Bach, so it was ponderous.

Then, a concerto for piano and winds with no strings. Then a concerto for piano with a baroque orchestra, so no winds. Small forces, with lots of clarity as a result.

Finally, Mozart with a Mozart sized orchestra.

The orchestra was up and down all night, with some players getting the night off after the opening.

Are Bach and Mozart the roots music for the classical repertoire?


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Mozart’s Final Masterpiece

Saturday, October 1 at 8:30 PM

Peter Serkin, called “one of the supreme musicians of our time” by New York Magazine, performs delightfully contrasting works by Bach and Stravinsky. The concert concludes with Mozart’s final and greatest symphony.
ArtistsPaul Mägi, conductorPeter Serkin , piano

Program
Bach
Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Stravinsky
Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Bach
Concerto No. 5 in F minor for Clavier and String Orchestra, BWV 1056
Mozart
Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551, "Jupiter"

Choosing the Team for Whom to Root

BrooklynDodger started off last week's U of M - MSU game leaning to MSU. U of M was going nowhere, MSU looked hot and a possibility to keep the Big 10 championship from Ohio State. But U of M was going nowhere because Michael Hart wasn't playing; Hart busted out for 200 yards. MSU might still be hot, but in the end, the Dodger was ok with U of M.

Actually, Wisconsin is the Dodger's second choice in Big 10; and, if it were a playoff for championship, the Dodger might go for Wisconsin. [A winning tradition in football is a bad thing for a university, just look at Princeton.]

Then, the Dodger looked at 6-year football graduation rates, on the NCAA site.

MSU graduates 43% of white footballers, 27% of blacks in 6 years.
U of M it's 100% and 44%.
Wisconsin it's 73% and 22%.

[The Dodger is not clear on the differences between cohort rates and 4 class averages. The 4 class average seems to regress the mean, given that 100% for U of M whites seems unlikely. The Dodger apologizes for formatting below. The Dodger encourages the reader to check it out http://www.ncaa.org/grad_rates/. ]

Racism in athletics is the most obvious conclusion. Given the racism, the Dodger should continue to prefer U of M to either of the others, and the preference to Wisconsin is suspect.



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATES All Students Student-Athletes #
1997-98 Graduation Rate 69% 70%
Four-Class Average 68% 66%

-------- FOOTBALL --------- -
FRESHMAN RATE TRANSFER
97-98 4-CLASS 4-CLASS
MEN % N % %
Am. Indian/AN - - -
Asian/PI - - 0-a
Black 27-c 34-e 14-b
Hispanic - - -
White 43-b 48-e -
N-R Alien - - - -
Other - - -
Total 33-d 41-e 13-b

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATES All Students Student-Athletes #
1997-98 Graduation Rate 85% 73%
Four-Class Average 84% 74%

-------- FOOTBALL --------- --
FRESHMAN RATE TRANSFER
97-98 4-CLASS 4-CLASS
MEN % N % %
Am. Indian/AN - 100-a -
Asian/PI - - -
Black 44-b 47-e 0-a
Hispanic - - - - - -
White 100-b 70-e 100-a
N-R Alien - - -
Other 0-a 0-a -
Total 68-d 57-e 50-a

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATES All Students Student-Athletes #
1997-98 Graduation Rate 76% 68%
Four-Class Average 76% 71%
-------- FOOTBALL ---------
FRESHMAN RATE TRANSFER
97-98 4-CLASS 4-CLASS
MEN % N % %
Am. Indian/AN - - -
Asian/PI - - -
Black 22-b 45-e -
Hispanic - - -
White 73-c 65-e 100-a
N-R Alien - - - -
Other - - 100-a
Total 50-d 56-e 100-a

Brain Death Rattle - Tell the Local Schools Not to Open too Early

BrooklynDodger is having a hard time with opportunism.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
STARTING SCHOOL AFTER LABOR DAY:

More time to have fun Law giving kids extra week of summer break is victory for tourism industry September 30, 2005
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

For almost 20 years, the crusade by tourism interests to make all Michigan schools open after Labor Day was the political engine that could, chugging and getting nowhere against powerful opposition from teachers unions and local school boards.

The campaign finally chugged over the hill Thursday. Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a bill to require all public schools in the state to start after Labor Day.It was a victory for tourism, a defeat for school lobbyists and apparently good news for many parents. Polls show that a majority of voters prefer an extra week of summer vacation in August with their kids.


Still, more than half of Michigan school districts start classes before then, according to the Michigan Association of School Boards.Yencich said -- and others involved in the debate confirmed -- that two factors swayed lawmakers and Granholm to start school after Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer....Second, two years ago, the state changed a law that required schools to offer at least 180 days of instruction. Instead, schools must offer at least 1,098 hours of instruction. It's up to school boards to decide how many days that takes....

Margaret Trimer-Hartley, spokeswoman for the Michigan Education Association, said the union opposes the change because it promotes "a lousy culture of education" that makes tourism more important than schools. ..."It's a no-brainer for the state," he said.

The bill passed the House and Senate with largely Republican support.

Ford kind of gets it half right

Ford kind of gets it right. Deming says having a small number suppliers with long term relationships builds quality. BrooklynDodger agrees it’s the next best thing to insourcing.

Yet, the restructuring ideas intensify the problem Ford, and GM [and Chrysler too] have: they can’t bring a car to market that people will buy at a price they can make money on. That’s a quality problem in the salaried ranks. Yet, the solution is to cut the salaried worse.


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ford to slash supplier ranks
Automaker adopts Toyota purchasing model: friendlier, long-term relationships
By Christine Tierney and Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News

Without mentioning Toyota Motor Corp. publicly, Ford Motor Co. is adopting key elements of the Japanese automaker's supplier strategy as part of an effort to cut costs, improve quality and accelerate vehicle development.
"We have a problem in terms of the business model in this industry -- it's not working effectively for our suppliers, and it's not working effectively for us," said Ford's top purchasing manager, Tony Brown, as he outlined an overhaul of the Dearborn automaker's $90 billion annual purchasing program.
…


Side bar:
Restructuring moves
Ford took another step to restore profits Thursday by revamping the way it purchases parts. Other recent cost-cutting moves:
• Cut nearly 3,000 white-collar jobs in North America.
• Eliminate 10 percent of contract employees.
• Sell Hertz rental car unit for $5.6 billion.
• Eliminate 2005 bonuses for salaried management employees worldwide.
• Suspend the company's 401(k) matching grant for salaried employees

Ken Starr Backs Minors Buying Wine Illegally

Ken Starr is back for Michigan bibulophiles.  

Some Michigan consumers sued to overturn the law preventing out of state wineries from shipping to Michigan addresses.  Violates the interstate commerce clause they said.  The US Supreme Court agreed, and overturned states rights to regulate alcohol sales.  

Some Michigan politicians objected to new wine in new bottles coming in, on the basis that minors could order wine by mail.  These Michigan politicians apparently forgot that Michigan wineries were allowed to ship a likely inferior product to the same minors.  The Michigan legislature, consumed with preventing school boards from setting the starting date of the school year, hasn’t gotten around to fixing Michigan’s illegal law on way or the other.

So, Cox, the Republican attorney general, went to Federal court asking an order banning Michigan wineries from shipping, same as the California wineries.  Now comes Ken Starr, whose firm is from California, representing the Michigan wineries, opposing this order.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Cox urges ban on Michigan wine shipments until law is fixed

By David Shepardson / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox proposes temporarily banning the state's 43 wineries from making shipments across the state until the Legislature decides how to fix what he says is a flawed law that prohibits out-of-state wineries from selling directly to consumers.
"For the time being, the only responsible course of action is to ban all direct sales and shipments," according to a legal filing Cox's office made Thursday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
But Cox's proposal asking a federal judge to temporarily ban Michigan wineries from shipping within the state could cause them severe economic harm, according to a legal brief filed by Kenneth Starr, an attorney representing the trade group WineMichigan. Starr, a California-based lawyer, is best known as the independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton's dalliance with a White House intern.
"By prohibiting all direct shipment of wine within Michigan's borders, this court could cripple Michigan's growing wine industry," Starr wrote.
Since May, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared both Michigan and New York's wine laws unconstitutional, Michigan has been grappling with how to fix its law.
About 600,000 people visit Michigan wineries annually in what has become a $75 million industry that's "one of the state's fastest-growing industries," Starr wrote.
Today, 32 states allow consumers to receive some form of direct shipments of wine from out-state wineries, up from 26 in May. New York, Connecticut, Ohio and Texas have lifted their bans in recent months.
In 1985 Michigan amended its alcohol laws to allow in-state wineries to mail wine to residents, but barred out-state wineries from doing the same. The Supreme Court, in declaring Michigan's law unconstitutional, said the state must treat in- and out-state wineries the same -- either ban all from shipping wine or allow all to do it.
The Michigan Legislature is considering a number of proposals to change the law, including one that would allow all wineries to ship up to 500 cases of wine a year, but would also bar in-state wineries from directly selling wine to local restaurants.

ID and Pandas

BrooklynDodger sometimes thinks that leaving Intelligent Design alone might be the best way for progressives to spend their energy. Since 2/3 of Americans don’t believe in evolution by natural selection, suppressing ID is not a popular issue. And, it really is the imposition of the values of a social elite on the majority, telling the majority what it can and can’t teach in the schools the majority pays for [BD is trying to avoid unclear pronouns.]

On the other hand, the standard of scientific publication is peer review. Would a biology textbook advancing ID pass peer review? In this case the peers would be exactly that social elite which is imposing its views.

Of Pandas and People is being advanced as the ID friendly “scientific text,” which that Pennsylvania school board wants in the curriculum. Since BD doesn’t actually read any books any more, BD looked up a summary on the internet. Miraculous to report, BD found a summary statement of ID straight from the author’s mouths:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://www.kcfs.org/pandas.html

on pages 99-100 the authors of Pandas have written:
"Intelligent design means that various forms of life began abruptly through an intelligent agency, with their distinctive features already intact - fish with fins and scales, birds with feathers, beaks, and wings, etc. Some scientists have arrived at this view since fossil forms first appear in the rock record with their distinctive features intact, rather than gradually developing. "
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

In other words, one day the Deity woke up and decided to make the rat; on another day, the AIDS virus…

Sometimes ID opponents blather that ID “is not science” based on a Karl Popper paraphrase about scientific work being “falsifiable.” [BD hasn’t actually read any Karl Popper either, but BD did look some stuff up on the internet.]

At first, BD thought the Panda paragraph presents a testable hypothesis. Actually, paleobiologists present many fossil forms which appear more likely than not to be these transitional forms. Ancestor fossils for modern fishes, modern birds, modern whales have been proposed. Certainly there are detailed transitional forms for people, which is actually what this is all about anyway.

But then, each transitional form could be presented as a first appearance. It could be “turtles, all the way down.”

Overt Propaganda - which newspaper do you read?

This was originally a post on based on the WaPo account of the GAO report on the Bush Administration buying news and covering it up. [Out of laziness, or not wanting to throw away work, that comment is below.] Then, the Dodger saw the contrasting headline in the NYT print addition.

The Dodger leaves media criticism to other blogs. But this is just too much. The WaPo makes a split decision out of an event the NYT says is a slam dunk.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The arrogance of the Administration was dramatic in propagandizing its agenda. There are three things wrong with the Education Department's scam. One is
outsourcing the work which should be done by the agencies themselves in
explaining policies. Two is the agencies promoting the policies rather than
explaining the policies. Third is rewarding the conservative media lickspittles
with sweetheart deals.

BrooklynDodger would have to concede that contracting with someone to
write a speech for an agency official is different from contracting to give the
speech. Nevertheless, conflicts should be disclosed by all journalists,
including the speaking fees for government and trade associations.

[PS: why is it “speak” and
“speech” rather than “speek” and “speech?”]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/politics/01educ.html

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: October 1, 2005

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.



GAO Issues Mixed Ruling on Payments to Columnists
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff WriterSaturday, October 1, 2005; Page A10
The Government Accountability Office said yesterday that federal payments to commentator Armstrong Williams to promote President Bush's education law were illegal but that a contract with syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher for work on the administration's marriage initiative was not.
The columnists and the Cabinet departments that hired them came under intense criticism earlier this year after disclosures that Williams was paid by the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act and that Gallagher was paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to work on Bush's marriage initiative. Williams received $186,000 and Gallagher got $21,500, the GAO said. Critics said the administration was pushing its agenda under the guise of independent commentary.
The GAO said the Education Department violated a ban on covert propaganda in 2003 by hiring Williams to endorse the education law in his newspaper columns and in television appearances, and by failing to require him to disclose the arrangement to his audiences.

Oppression in California

BrooklynDodger keeps returning to cyber polls as a limited touch on the pulse of Detroiters. This comes from Click on Detroit, which you do only for the most parochial of news – if it causes a traffic jam it leads.

So, 1/3 of pollees say it’s right to kick the student out because her parents are lesbians. The Dodger is struck by the school policy that “at least one parent” be clean. Is that parents living together or apart?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Did this school do the right thing by expelling the girl because her parents were homosexual?
4196 Votes

Yes 1433 34%
No 2763 66%

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Christian School Expels Girl Because Parents Are Lesbians
POSTED: 6:58 am EDT September 23, 2005

ONTARIO, Calif. -- A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter.
Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday.

"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother.

Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," The Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's edition.
…