Have At You! Gesundheit!

Patrick Agin's photograph that reflects his extracurricular activities will be published in his high school yearbook after all. It only took a lawsuit to get the Rhode Island education commissioner himself to intervene. So Agin will get to pose in full chain mail while carrying a sword.

Portsmouth High School authorities can regulate editorial content in the yearbook, but they acted unreasonably by rejecting Patrick Agin's photo, hearing officer Paul Pontarelli wrote in a ruling approved by Education Commissioner Peter McWalters.

Agin, a 17-year-old fan of the Middle Ages, wore chain mail and slung a prop sword over his shoulder for his senior portrait at Portsmouth High School. School officials said the picture violated a zero-tolerance policy on weapons and rejected the picture for the yearbook.

What was missing from the original reporting on this controversy was this little tidbit: the school offered to let Agin publish the picture if he did so in a paid advertisement.

In the ruling, state education officials wrote that school officials offered to publish Agin's photo if it was part of a paid yearbook advertisement.

"Tolerance for weapons can be purchased," Pontarelli wrote. "This is illogical."

Illogical to the point of bringing the competence of the high school's administration into question. This is an extreme case of PC gone completely mad.

A New Low In American Jurisprudence

"The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse," wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.

So, US law is no longer satisfied with looking to "International Law" or "Higher Law" for inspiration. We now have at least one Federal Judge who apparently considers John Ford to be the very Moses of law concerning the slaughter of horses. One assumes John Wayne is also properly deified. Judge Benavides was appointed the bench in 1994 by William Jefferson Clinton. The law of the West, as filmed by Hollywood, now stands as the law of the land in the United States. Paging Eugene Volokh.

HOUSTON - A federal appeals court says slaughtering horses for meat is illegal in Texas, where the animals symbolize the Old West and where two of the nation's three processing plants are located.

The decision, issued Friday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, overturns a lower court's ruling last year on a 1949 Texas law that banned horse slaughter for the purpose of selling the meat for food.

The lower court said the Texas law was invalid because it had been repealed by another statute and was pre-empted by federal law.

However, a panel of three judges on the 5th Circuit disagreed, saying the law still stood and was still enforceable.

The 5th Circuit decision also cited more than the law.

"The lone cowboy riding his horse on a Texas trail is a cinematic icon. Not once in memory did the cowboy eat his horse," wrote Judge Fortunato Benavides.

The ruling involves the Dallas Crown Inc. slaughter mill in Kaufman and Beltex Corp. in nearby Forth Worth. The nation's third plant is in Illinois, run by Cavel International Inc. at DeKalb. All three operations are foreign-owned.

A bill pending before Congress would shutter all three operations.

The plants ship the meat overseas, since it is considered a delicacy in parts of Europe and Asia.

Contrary to Judge Benavides' sanitized Hollywood version of history, there are many, many, many examples of people in the old West eating their horses when necessity arose. Say here, here, here and an example of native Americans doing so (a common practice) Here; all found in about three seconds on Google. But it is instructive to search the phrase "eat their horses" and see what comes up on the first page. The top ones would be, shall we say, left-leaning blogs.

And now judges who use Hollywood movies as a basis for American law. 

Zeus: He’s Back

A group of self-styled Zeus worshipers have decided to revive the worship of the ancient Greek gods. They are demanding access to the ruins of the temple of Olympian Zeus for their rites. Never mind that the religion and the original rites have pretty much been forgotten. The practitioners have also already won a court decision in Greece forcing the government to recognize them as legitimate.

ATHENS, Greece - After all these centuries, Zeus may have a few thunderbolts left. A tiny group of worshippers plans a rare ceremony Sunday to honor the ancient Greek gods, at Athens' 1,800-year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus. Greece's Culture Ministry has declared the central Athens site off-limits, but worshippers say they will defy the decision.

"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion.

"Of course we will go ahead with the event … we will enter the site legally," said Peppa, who calls herself a high priestess of the revived faith. "We will issue a call for peace, who can be opposed to that?"

Peppa said the ceremony will be held in honor of Zeus, king of the ancient gods, but did not give other details. The daily Ethnos newspaper, citing the group's application to the Culture Ministry to use the site, said the 90-minute event would include hymns, dancers, torchbearers, and worshippers in ancient costumes.

Greece's archaic religion is believed to have several hundred official followers, mainly middle-aged and elderly academics, lawyers and other professionals. They typically share a keen interest in ancient history and a dislike for the Greek Orthodox Church.

Ancient rituals are re-enacted every two years at Olympia, in southern Greece, where the flame lighting ceremony is held for the summer and winter Olympic games. But the event is not regarded as a religious ceremony and actresses are used to pose as high priestesses.

Peppa's position is absurd. The temples are not "theirs" because they claim them. The religion died out; they revived their concept of what the religion was. They are free to form their own traditions and establish their own religious places, but they have no legal right to claim the ancient ruins. But heck, we want in on it, too if that's all it takes. Accordingly, we here at Blue Crab Boulevard officially lay claim to a very important historical site: Outhenge.

Chavez Admits Obvious

(T)Hugo Chavez "admits" Fidel Castro is in a battle for his life. The BBC makes it sound like a huge revelation, which it really shouldn't be to anyone with one or two synapses in functional condition. But, nonetheless, it is the first time the Cuban dictator's understudy has said anything that resembles a true statement about Castro since he disappeared from view. Up until now it has been one cheerful pronouncement after another.

Mr Chavez, a close friend of Cuba's left-wing leader, said he hoped Mr Castro would recover but admitted he faced a hard struggle.

Mr Castro, 80, has not been seen in public since undergoing surgery in July and handing over political power.

Mr Chavez spoke at the Latin American summit in Brazil in a rare admission of the state of Mr Castro's health.

Chavez hopeful

Venezuela's president said he spoke to the Cuban leader by telephone for half an hour several days ago.

"He is going through a difficult situation but just like he says, the machine that they have to fix is 80 years old," Mr Chavez told the Mercosur trade summit.

"I cannot give details [of his health] because I am not his doctor, and even if I was I would not give them to you.

"He's back in the Sierra Maestra and locked in a battle for his life," Mr Chavez said.

I think that last bit may be symbolic. Castro is about ready to die, if he hasn't already. They'll want to use that as a symbol - him back where the revolution started when he dies.

Zombie Ducks In Florida

The Animal Uprising™, which has been very persistent in following its zombie animal program (ZAP), has perfected the zombie duck. The unclean feathered beast arose from a refrigerator where it had been kept for two days after being shot and killed. The people at the animal sanctuary think it is actually alive, being unfamiliar with the zombie program, apparently.

The man's wife "was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her," said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital. "She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there."

The 1-pound female ring-neck ended up at Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it has been treated since Tuesday for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it has about a 75 percent chance of survival, but probably won't ever be well enough to be released back into the wild.

The animal warlords are giving Baron Samedi a real workout. Now we all know from watching zombie movies that the only way to kill a zombie is to remove its head. We happen to know just the people to handle this task. I'm sure the folks from the C&Y Chinese Restaurant will make a house call.

How The Surge Is Happening

Greyhawk has a breakdown of how the so-called surge is being accomplished. For those readers who are not really all that familiar with the military, it is a good primer on how these things are done. For regular readers, you already know about some people "staying late".

And there you have it. Some troops already tapped to deploy will now go a few months early. Some troops in country will stay late. No troops will move into Iraq who weren't already scheduled to go to Iraq.

So is "The Surge" a simple numbers game, a bit of sleight of hand to make it appear we're doing something that we aren't? No - there will be a real increase in troop numbers in Iraq - especially combat troops and especially in Baghdad - until such time as the units currently in Iraq (and extended as part of the surge) start coming home.

And that is "The Surge". While naming it provides something "tangible" to oppose, if there was some way to "stop it" - short of withdrawing immediately from Iraq - the same troops would go to Iraq,

…just on their normal schedule and in time to hive-five the folks they will replace instead of reinforce. Those newly arrived troops will be completely up shit creek, of course, as no one in Iraq is going to take them at all seriously.

That's assuming not too much damage has already been done with the political grandstanding of the past week. Meanwhile, lost amid the hoopla surrounding those press conferences scheduled at half-hour intervals…..

Our politicians are not doing the country or the troops any good with their grandstanding show of internal political disarray. In fact they are doing harm to both.

Another Plot Executed Flawlessly

The warlords of the Animal Uprising™ are learning from past mistakes. When their original plot to stop trains in India did not work out  the figured out it was because the elephants looked too threatening. So they have revised their plan in England using a substitute that appeals more to the populace.

Swans.

Rush-hour travellers making their way home between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare were, perhaps, not surprised when their train ground to a halt at Nailsea. But when the conductor announced the delay was due to a pair of swans who were refusing to move off the tracks outside Worle station, near Weston, they were amazed.

Vanessa Pele, 33, of Weston, said: "The general consensus was that we've all heard some excuses in our time but that this one took the biscuit. But the conductor insisted it was true."

First Great Western called in the RSPB and two officers arrived to retrieve the large birds.

What the unfortunate commuters do not realize is that while the train was stopped, the rats swarmed aboard. There has, of course, been a huge increase in the number of rats in Britain as the Animal Uprising™ gears up for their themed assaults next year when the Year of the Rat arrives. Those rats need something to do in the meantime. So why not put them on the trains to steal what they can and bite the occasional passenger? We strongly recommend that passengers on the Bristol to Weston-super-Mare run beat their seats with a cricket bat before sitting down. That's what we do. We've only been arrested once.

Oklahoma Perfects New Sport

There is a brand new sport in Oklahoma. You've heard of hockey. You've also heard of air hockey. But now comes the newest rage of all: Deer Hockey!

Leagues are forming soon.

No Takers

The University of Wisconsin - Madison was unable to get any bidders on its latest surplus auction item. It seems nobody wanted to buy a spool of 99.999 percent pure gold thread.

A Thursday night deadline passed with nobody bidding the minimum $8,500 for the shiny glob of pure gold leftover from equipment University of Wisconsin scientists made that traveled into space in 2005.

The school's Space Science and Engineering Center is auctioning off 12.5 troy ounces of 99.999 percent pure gold on a Web site where the university's surplus property — everything from dorm refrigerators to computers — is sold to the highest bidder.

Mark Mulligan, a project manager at the space center, said the $8,500 asking price, which reflects the going rate for gold, was probably too high. He said he would lower the price and put the gold back up for bid early next week.

Mulligan said he's convinced the gold will eventually sell. A handful of people inquired but were scared away by the price, he said.

We here at Blue Crab Boulevard, being always on the lookout for ways to help, are quite willing to take the gold off the University's hands if they are unable to sell it. We're really nice that way.

Here's the UW-M SWAP website, in case you're in the market for any used material or equipment. There is actually quite a lot of stuff for sale or up for auction.

Hillary Makes It Official

Hillary Clinton has just made it official. She will seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. An announcement on her website simply says she is in, and in to win.

Clinton's announcement, days after Sen. Barack Obama shook up the contest race with his bid to become the first black president, establishes the most diverse political field ever.

I rather doubt anyone doubted she was going to go.

UPDATE: NYT Coverage here. Others blogging: Outside The Beltway, Patrick Ruffini, PoliBlog, A Blog For All, PoliPundit, QandO, Redstate, Blog PI, Liberal Values, Riehl World View, The Political Pit Bull, Captain's Quarters, Power Line, Blogs of War, Scared Monkeys,

UPDATE: Doug Ross is in the running for the first post on the Hillary blog! (Of course, he might be running from "villagers" with pitchforks….)

The Left Laments

There is an op-ed in today's Washington Post that tends to confirm the belief held by many people that the left of today is studiously living in the 1960s. John McMillian, who is a lecturer at Harvard and is quite obviously enamored of the 1960s ideals of radical activism (or at least of an idealized version of that activism) bemoans the lack of enthusiasm among today's college students.

Recently I finished teaching a freshman seminar at Harvard called "From Reform to Revolution: Youth Culture in the 1960s." When I built the syllabus, I asked students to ponder a single, overarching question: "How did the youth rebellion of the 1960s happen?" That is, what caused millions of young people to pierce the bland and platitudinous din that characterized the early Cold War years? Why did so many youths — many of them affluent and college-educated — suddenly decide that American society needed to be radically overhauled?

But as the semester progressed, my students frequently turned the question around: Why is there no rising protest movement among young people today? At the very least, they asked, shouldn't we be seeing more antiwar activity? According to a CNN poll this month, 67 percent of Americans oppose the war in Iraq, and more than half would like to see all U.S. troops home by year's end. Given that it was not until August 1968 that a majority of Americans began calling the Vietnam War a "mistake," this is a remarkable statistic. By 1968, of course, antiwar teach-ins, sit-ins and marches were commonplace on many campuses; demonstrators had violently clashed with soldiers on the steps of the Pentagon; and the Democratic National Convention had descended into chaos over the war.

McMillian goes on from there, but you get the picture. Now the fact of the matter is that this bemoaning that everyone doesn't see things his way appears to be a recurring theme. He has a number of articles in a number of places describing various disappointments he has experienced. For example there's this one.

One might think that history graduate students, who operate in a liberal profession, who are heirs to a rich legacy of social activism, and who often contend with difficult questions about the relationship between selfhood and historical consciousness, might be well suited for political action. And in fact, we have seen a recent push in this direction, as pockets of grad students at Columbia and elsewhere have begun agitating for graduate student unions. But generally speaking, social activism does not seem to be a prevailing trend at Columbia or at many other graduate departments. To the contrary, it appears that the bulk of history students today regard their scholarship with something approaching political indifference. Although I suspect most grad students vote, have good ideas, and stay well-informed, I know only a few who intend to enter the professional arena in a consciously political way, or who charge their research and writing with an explicitly political agenda.

To wit: In the five years that I lived in Morningside Heights, I can think of only two examples of formal cooperation among leftist history students……

Now McMillian keeps on trying and keeps on moaning about his failures. What seems to escape him is that there may well be a need to reexamine his belief structures instead. It could be that the message is not effective because the message is wrong. But heck, he's turning moaning into a little sideline revenue stream for himself. To the barricades, but not until I sell this piece!

Crossroads

The Opinion Journal today has a profile on Joe Lieberman that will be sure to provoke much spittle-flecked invective from the left. Those who tried to destroy him politically in the last election will be particularly shrill, I'm sure. But the interview the O-J did with Lieberman has some important, well-articulated thoughts on the war and why we cannot -absolutely cannot - allow ourselves to lose this war. Our politicians who send a message of disarray to our enemies as well as to our friends are doing this country no service.

At the center of this fray is Sen. Lieberman, a sort of Horatio at the congressional bridge–spiritedly trying to hold back a bipartisan stampede out of Iraq that he believes will result in devastating consequences for that country, the region and, most importantly, U.S. national security.

"Iraq is the central part of a larger and ultimately longer-term conflict in the Middle East between moderates and extremists, between democrats and dictators, between Iran- and Iraq-sponsored terrorism and the rest of the Middle East. . . . Are we going to surrender to them, surrender that country to them, and encourage people like them to be in authority and power all over the Middle East and in a better position to strike us again?" asks Mr. Lieberman. If only Livy had his quill today…..

…..So what does that say about Mr. Lieberman's Senate brethren, those who now want to turn tail for Rome, abandoning Horatio and his damned bridge to the enemy? What, I ask, accounts for the growing numbers of senators–including Republicans such as Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, Maine's Olympia Snowe, Oregon's Gordon Smith–who could well provide the decisive votes to undermine their own president in a time of war?

Mr. Lieberman offers a few half-hearted (dare I say, gentlemanly) explanations for the Senate's frigid feet. Some feel let down because the WMDs were never found; others are "affected in a political context by the loss of public support." But he ends up back at a baser truth, conceding that "some people, I just think have been partisan about this–and that, to me, is the worst reason."

Mr. Lieberman is also frustrated that those supporting the resolution are dodging the tough questions. "The resolution that is being talked about, in one sense I'd say it is offensive, because it is only cosmetic. . . . It won't affect the implementation of a new plan to succeed, to win in Iraq. But at the same time it will send a mixed message to those who are fighting for us in Iraq, and those who are fighting against us in Iraq. It will be a very graphic example . . . that we are divided."

I'd recommend reading the whole thing. Lieberman does a good job of explaining why a withdrawal is a really bad idea. The people who are advocating running away will leave behind a genocide. They think they have some form of moral high ground because they blame someone else for the war. But they will wash their hands of the Iraq situation in a river of blood that they have helped bring about.

More Hyperventilating Pontification

Brought to you by the ever ready to screech New York Times.

It is bad enough for troops in Iraq to learn that their tours of duty have been extended. It is terrible for them to have to hear about it from loved ones at home rather than from their military commanders.

This is what happened to about 150 New Jersey National Guard troops who had been scheduled to return home in March after having served in Iraq for a year. Their tours of duty were extended for up to 125 days as a result of President Bush’s decision to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq.

A day after Mr. Bush announced the troop increase in a televised speech, the National Guard in New Jersey told family members that their relatives would have to stay on. The news quickly made it back to the troops in Iraq through anguished phone calls and e-mail.

Not until Sunday — four days after Mr. Bush’s speech — were the troops notified by their Army commanders, after Gov. Jon Corzine of New Jersey made two phone calls to Army officials.

Mr. Corzine, who had learned of the lapse from outraged family members, said that Pentagon officials expressed regret and blamed the delay on a “breakdown in the chain of command on the ground in Iraq.” The governor rightly called what happened “unacceptable.”

Did it happen to this unit? Quite possibly. Is it the norm? Well, it sure wasn't for my son's reserve unit. The Family Readiness Group (FRG) for my son's company purposely waited until four days after my son called me to begin making notification calls. That way they were sure the soldiers had enough time to make calls themselves. Is it always going to be done perfectly? No. There are a lot of individual units over there. Is it a huge thing to make a fuss over? Only to the clueless bloviators who write editorials for the NYT.

They give no context whatsoever. Was the unit in the field at the time? Had orders been officially issued? (My son tells me that his company commander still does not have the official written orders yet). My son also told me that this used to be more common than it is right now. The Army has been trying to avoid this sort of thing happening and has been working to improve the communications. I can see that on this end in the higher level of sophistication in the FRG with very close coordination of communication. It was less coherent on the last deployment.