Archive for February, 2007
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
ME v. Rocky (Day 3)
You’re gonna need a bigger boat. – Police Chief Brody (Jaws, 1975)
Or, in this case, a bigger raccoon trap.
On the last two nights, Rocky has sprung the trap and escaped. He is one bad raccoon.
This morning, the trap was missing and I thought at first that Animal Control had already removed it and Rocky [...]
16 Comments » - Posted in raccoons by ME
Wednesday, February 28th, 2007
Casus Belli?
One of the most disconcerting things I find about many of the political blogs I read, both conservative and liberal, is their alarmist nature.
Some days, I feel as if they are telling me that everyone and everything in the world is a threat to me or somebody else.
This is probably why I can’t make up [...]
26 Comments » - Posted in Iran, Middle East, diplomacy, proliferation by ME
Monday, February 26th, 2007
ME v. Rocky (Day 1)
A few weeks ago, I saw a raccoon in our backyard that was about the size of a Volkswagen.
If it’s the same raccoon that I saw in one of our trees last spring, this is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a pet. I’ve decided to call him “Rocky” and he [...]
12 Comments » - Posted in raccoons by ME
Monday, February 26th, 2007
Report From the Ivory Tower
Several months ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a survey of the international relations faculty of American colleges and universities conducted by the College of William and Mary.
The complete results of the survey can be found here and have been summarized in the March/April, 2007 edition of Foreign Policy magazine.
The survey includes responses [...]
37 Comments » - Posted in academia, foreign policy, international relations, surveys by ME
Saturday, February 24th, 2007
This Week’s Sign of the Impending Apocalypse (#68)
The citizens of Yaohnanen, Vanuatu worship 85-year old Prince Phillip, the husband of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, as a god.
It is believed that their veneration of Prince Phillip developed out of a “cargo cult”, a practice popular with natives of New Guinea and the Melanesians in the South Pacific. Cargo cults developed during [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in the Apocalypse by ME
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Caption This Friday
My students are enjoying a much-deserved day off from classes today. Well, from my classes anyway.
I’ve declared this vacation day to be in celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the certification of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
That’s the one that clarifies the provisions in the Constitution concerning succession to the Presidency, presidential disabilities [...]
12 Comments » - Posted in anniversaries, caption this by ME
Friday, February 23rd, 2007
Vox Bloguli
A weekly round-up of what’s happening on a few of the other blogs I read.
Life of the Mind: Baseball 101 — J. Beauchamp is in the mood for… baseball spring training.
John Brummett: Houston Nutt and George Bush — Separated at birth?
GKB: The Church of Christ’s “Identity Crisis”.
Arkansas Times: It’s back to Iraq for Arkansas’s citizen [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in blogging, vox bloguli by ME
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007
The Searcy Police Log
Searcy, Arkansas is a town where “thousands live like millions wish they could.” Unfortunately, a few of our citizens occasionally have to make a police report. These are their stories.
Reports filed with the Searcy Police Department from February 2, 2007, include the following:
Fight In progress; woman stated there were several subjects fighting in a restaurant [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Searcy, crime by ME
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
Congressman Elrod’s Proposed Constitutional Amendment
Mrs. Speaker, I rise today to offer the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States:
The First Amendment is hereby amended to state that no TV news network may ever use the phrase “BREAKING NEWS” in reference to an event that includes any of the following:
A court hearing concerning the corpse of any [...]
11 Comments » - Posted in constitution, media by ME
Wednesday, February 21st, 2007
Yorktown II
Congratulations to Great Britain and Tony Blair for finding a way to extricate themselves from the quagmire that many of us call “the civil war in Iraq.”
News sources report that 1,500 British troops will be withdrawn from southern Iraq in the next few months and another 1,500 will be out by Christmas. There currently [...]
