My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Alice Walker.

If [female genital mutilation] can happen to a hundred million women and girls alive today, across the globe, without protest, without comment, without any but the most isolated outrage, what did it mean to be a woman anywhere in the world, at this particular time on Earth? p. 40

Or search the Internet for “BeerBelly.” It’s a device you can strap to your chest to smuggle beer into stadiums, but you can also use it smuggle 40 ounces of dangerous liquid explosive onto planes. The magnetometer won’t detect it. Your secondary screening wandings won’t detect it. Why aren’t you making us all take our shirts off? Bruce Schneier

CAPT Benjamin Tupper: I spent the last year as an American Soldier embedded within the Afghanistan National Army. The time I spent away from home was both rewarding and damaging. Like the Afghan mountains we lived and fought in, my year there had emotional high peaks and valley lows. I experienced the loss of close friends, both American and…

Why are we as businesspeople so tolerant of non-elected senior civil servants impeding the resolution of international crises? The “War on Terror” is not exclusively a military / Security services affair. Cosy though that thought may be. It is just as much our war on our own drivers of ineffectiveness. It’s a real test of the belief that market forces will ensure optimal state performance (a la Capitalism). Well, I’m not seeing much evidence of a high performing state response to terrorism. Are you? Chris Nel

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

In most of the United States, there is a policy of checking on any stalled vehicle on the highway when the temperatures drop down to single digits or below.

Needless to say, the man from Dumas, Texas, was arrested and is probably still shaking his head over the state trooper in Oklahoma who could run 50 miles per hour.

for this is the home of a human being
and I must act like one
or the whole picture goes haywire.

From Vacuuming Spiders by Charles Goodrich,.

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Alice Walker.

Susannah, however, also an angel or ghost, has learned an important lesson about how destructive is the need to be remembered, and is gleeful to watch her own body burn. p. 38

One of the important conversations I had at Bloggapalooza on Saturday was with Chas Rich. He brought me up to speed on Wendy Hoke and the Society of Professional Journalists Media Fat Cats. Years ago I was part of a different journalists organization that successfully blocked the attempt to make media organizations full members.

The wall between sales and editorial is just as important as the separation of church and state and when the wall is breached, this is what you get:

I learned that the other “journalism advocacy organizations” were in fact publishers-Conde Nast (Advance), Forbes, Gannett, Hachette, Hearst, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, McGraw-Hill, Magazine Publishers Association, Newspaper Association of America, New York Times, Newsweek, Playboy, SPJ, Time Inc., Tribune and Wenner Media-NOT journalism-advocacy organizations.

So…once I pointed that out, the shit hit the fan, I was told to cease and desist, the freelance chair sent a scathing e-mail to the entire executive committee (with a [copy] to the ethics committee chair) and she received a phone call from the president warning her not to “widen the circle” on this one and reminding her that committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the president.

I love that line: committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the president. What? Does the president of SPMFC think he’s George Bush?

So what’s the fight really about? Money. Of course. Chas shines the light in the corner.

The case… in dispute and under appeal, concerns the issue of copyright and contract rights. The freelance photographer signed a standard release of the use of some of his images by National Geographic in the magazine and in subsequent re-uses — at the time that would have presumably been reprints in books or special edition magazines.

That said, I don’t understand the SPJ siding against the freelance photographer or getting involved at all in this matter. Wendy Hoke raises some serious and troubling ethical issues by the SPJ in this matter and they don’t seem to feel they owe her or their members any answer.

If I were a member of the Society of Professional Journalists Media Fat Cats I’d be livid with rage. I’d be mad enough to tear up my membership card.

But I’m not. It will be interesting to see who stands up in the local chapter.

Much of what I know about inside politics in Cleveland comes from reading first Roldo Bartimole’s Point Of View and now his blog. I’ve read things there that you could never find in what Roldo refers to as our giant whale, beached in shallow water. Too embarrassing not to look at, too big to give it much help, and too obvious to ignore.

And he continues to convince me that we need to vote the bums out.

Because if we don’t, we’ll continue to get taken like this:

Back home, the PD – without a blink of the eye – ran a piece recently that a number of buildings along Euclid would get city and other subsidies to help them. Help again, that is, for the Ratners.

Victor also got a commission of $47,762 for a lease for Smythe-Cramer and a $55,000 commission on a Nationwide Advertising company lease, both in the Halle”s building.

It’s all about institutional memory.

She Who Writes Like She Talks passed this story along to me about what is being referred to as the Jewish National Fund Bill in Israel. I did a quick Google search for the actual language of the bill, which passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset 64-16 and didn’t find a copy. And that’s a big problem if you’re an American Jew.

The reason I’d like to see the a good translation of the bill is because the news stories I’m reading are vague. What they’re saying is that the:

legislation… would prohibit Arab Israelis from leasing land owned by the Jewish National Fund.

There are a number of problems with that statement as written. Here are a three.

Who qualifies as an Arab? For instance, many many Iranians and Indonesians are Muslims but they are not Arabs. Would the bill disqualify a Muslim of Iranian or Indonesian descent, now a citizen of Israel, from leasing land?

And what about Arabs Israelis (citizens) who are Jewish, Christian, Buddhist or any other of thousands of potential faith systems? Are they excluded?

And who qualifies as a Jew? Would I, a convert to Judaism, be allowed to lease land if I became a citizen of Israel? Would it matter who performed my conversion?

Whether we like it or not, American Jews are inextricably enmeshed in Israeli politics. And groups on both sides are making their feeling known to the Knesset. The side I fall on is that of the Association of Reform Zionists of America:

The Reform Movement is in the process of drafting its own letter opposing the bill, to be sent to Knesset members this week.

“What we are seeing is the maturation of an Israeli democratic society, and some institutions need to be reevaluated with regards to the current demographics. Israel will never be a state exclusively for Jews,” he said.

It seems to me that the only fair line the democratic state of Israel can draw is that between citizens and non-citizens. Parsing the divide further is a dangerous path to explore.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Error messages we can all understand

I don’t happen to think the United States is that much more physically secure from terrorist attacks in 2007 than it was in 2001. And, of course, we are much less secure in a political sense having wacked the hornet’s nest a good one. But President George Bush has created the a great money pit called the Department of Homeland Security.

And it’s got our tax dollars to shower on Ohio.

From WCPN:

Ohio has more than $75 million in federal homeland security money coming its way. Now, we don’t want to give away any secrets, but what is it all going to be spent on? Monday morning on The Sound of Ideas, we’ll talk to state officials and local emergency management personnel about where the money is going and how past grants have been spent and if all this money is making us safer. We’re looking forward to hearing your questions, too, Monday morning at nine on 90.3.

I sent the following email to Sound of Ideas host Dan Moulthrop this morning:

Shalom Dan,

In commenting on Eric”s post I wrote:

Shalom Eric,

Two points in the story get my Lemmings Meter running:

First, security clearances aren’t generic, they’re always need-to-know. (I held a secret clearance in the Navy with a nuclear weapons specification for the system I worked on, but that didn’t get me access to non-system information.)

Why in the world would any official ask that question and then take your word without documentation that you had such a clearance?

Second, even random patrols by local police as a deterrent to criminals are questionable as an effective measure. Why should anyone assume that all criminals are as stupid as the Watergate burglars?

If this is truly a target, then even hourly patrols wouldn’t make a difference. Casual surveillance would quickly determine how often the black and whites roll by and allow the criminals to plan accordingly.

Given the amount of Department of Homeland Insecurity money that has not been spent, the inefficient budget excuse just doesn’t work.

There may be a deeper story here, but given the information provided here, I think your first instinct was most likely correct.

Whether this is a corruption story or an inept government story, I’d say go with it.

B’shalom,

Jeff

Second, on how Ohio ought to spend $75 million (if I heard the amount correctly) in Homeland Security money, I suggest on of the following.

hess@havecoffeewillwrite.com
http://www.havecoffeewillwrite.com

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

0627 Bloggapalooza: Good Food, Good Friends, Good Tunes…

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For by Alice Walker.

Have your work in the world, and have your children. Only one, please, out of respect for the weight we are to our Mother. But be aware that the other children of the world are your responsibility as well. You must learn to see them, to feel them, as yours. Until you do, there is no way you make your own children feel safe. p. 24

Unfortunately, the`aspects of Catholic schools that are the key contributors to educational success cannot be mimicked in a public system. First Catholic and private schools practice conditional enrollment.

Finally, and most importantly, is the fact that parents who choose to pay tuition, who have chosen to invest in a child”s education, are parents who will actively participate in the learning process and support teachers. And that makes all the difference. Marybeth Matthews

Here”s a question for you “Victory is just around the corner” types, who believe that Iraq will be a total success if we just give it a little more time, a little more money, and a few more troops.

4. At what point is “victory” not worth the cost of achieving it?

Lee

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand. “Daddy, what happened to him?” the son asked.

The daughter bowed her head and said, “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is The Stand Up Desk.