Third Circuit Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. is President Bush’s new nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Larry Ribstein provides an overview of Judge Alito’s decisions in business cases, Orin Kerr believes that Judge Alito will ultimately be viewed as being quite similar to Justice Roberts and, thus, easily confirmed, and Doug Berman provides the early analysis of the nomination from a criminal justice standpoint.
John Keegan is England’s foremost military historian and, for many years, was the Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. His book — The Second World War — is arguably the best single volume book on World War II and his book The Face of Battle is essential reading for anyone seeking an understanding of the history of warfare. His latest book — The Iraq War — was published in 2004, and here are prior posts on Mr. Keegan’s views on the Iraq War. In short, when John Keegan writes about war, it is wise to take note.
Over this past weekend, over 100,000 Germans celebrated the reopening of Dresden, Germany’s beautiful Baroque church — the Frauenkirche — which had laid in ruins for almost 60 years as a bleak reminder of the Allied fire-bombing raids of February 1945 that killed 25,000 people and incinerated Dresden’s old city. The Dresden firebombing remained largely unnoticed outside of military circles until the early 1970’s when it formed the basis of Kurt Vonnegut’s haunting novel, Slaughterhouse Five, which in turn formed the basis of the 1972 George Roy Hill movie of the same name.
In this Daily Telegraph op-ed, Mr. Keegan uses the occasion of the Frauenkirche celebration to review the Dresden firebombing and to observe how Allied terror bombing during World War II raises difficult issues in these times of widespread civilian terror bombing against Americans and citizens of Allied countries. As with all of Mr. Keegan’s writings, the entire piece is well worth reading, and his conclusion gives you a taste of his special perspective:
In the last, remembering Dresden forces one to recognise that there is nothing nice or admirable about any war, and that victory, even a victory as desirable as that over Nazi Germany, is purchased at the cost of terrible human suffering, the suffering of the completely innocent as well as of their elders and their parents in arms. It is right to remember Dresden, but chiefly as a warning against repetition of the mass warfare that tortured Europe in the 20th century.
As noted earlier here and here, I enjoy the British tradition of witty obituaries, which often provide a hilarious review of the failings, idiosyncracies and peccadilloes of the deceased.
In that regard, this Wall Street Journal ($) article examines the tradition of Cambridge University’s King’s College in regard to publishing obituaries of its alumni that, as the article puts it, reflect “an anthropological study of the eccentric ways of the British intelligentsia.” For example, the Journal describes the obituary of the late novelist Simon Arthur Noel Raven, whose writing was described by some as “smut for its own sake”:
One of the often overlooked historical aspects of America’s health care finance crisis is that employer-based medical insurance was largely non-existent until World War II. During the war, governmental wage and price controls prompted employers to offer medical insurance as a means to attract scarce labor without violating the wage controls. Employers quickly realized that such insurance was a cheaper way to attract labor than increasing wages, so the concept of employer-based medical insurance became a standard component of many American employers’ compensation plans for employees over the past generation.
Well, as this NY Times article notes, the market distortion of substituting medical insurance for direct employee compensation has generally benefitted employers, but now rising health care costs are making employer-based medical insurance more expensive than simply paying employees direct compensation. The Times article notes the following about Wal-Mart, which employs a large number of low wage earners:
That’s a huge sigh of relief that you are hearing from the South Main area as the Texans (1-6) avoided the real possibility of a 0-16 season with their win over the equally hapless Cleveland Browns (2-5). Amazingly, the Texans were able to pull out this field goal battle with only 237 yards of total offense, including 120 yards passing on David Carr’s 10 completions on 20 attempts. Let’s just say that I don’t think that’s a prescription for another victory next week in Jacksonville against the 4-3 Jaguars.
The Cowboys (5-3) continued to get stellar defensive play as they held the Cardinals (2-5) to just over 200 yards total offense in cruising to an easy victory. The Pokes needed a win in this one as they head into their bye week, after which they have to play three games in 11 days, including tough ones at Philadelphia against the Eagles (4-3) and at home against the Broncos (6-2).
On Saturday, I spent a beautiful Texas fall afternoon on the sidelines of Kyle Field in College Station to watch the Texas A&M Aggies host the Iowa State Cyclones in a Big 12 Conference football game.
Iowa State head football coach Dan McCarney and I grew up together in Iowa City, Iowa, where we were teammates on a championship high school football team at City High in 1970. We have remained close friends over the years, and so I have tried to attend each game in Texas that Iowa State plays since Coach Mac became head coach at Iowa State in 1994, and Coach Mac always comes through with a sideline pass for me to each of the games.
The following are a few photos that I took Saturday afternoon as the 10.5 point underdog Cyclones steamrolled the Aggies 42-14 in front of over 86,000 rather disheartened Aggie fans.
The Corps “Steps Out”. One of many fabulous traditions at A&M on gameday is when the A&M Corps of Cadets “Steps Out” of the Corps’ dorm about two blocks away from Kyle Field. Precisely one hour and 45 minutes before kick-off, a cannon blast signals that the outstanding Fightin’ Aggie Marching Band is beginning to lead the various Corps squadrons out of the dorm area as they parade down a boulevard to Kyle Field. Thousands of Aggie fans stand along the parade route and cheer the Band and the Corps members as they march toward Kyle Field. When they reach Kyle Field, the band and the Corps march into the stadium before the watchful eye of visiting dignitaries on a reviewing stand, which yesterday included former President Bush and Texas Governor Rick Perry. “Step Out,” the parade, and “March In” are truly among the great college gameday traditions in all of college football.
Coach Mac chats with Coach Fran. Coach Mac and Texas Aggie Coach Fran (Dennis Franchione) engage in the traditional head coach pre-game chat at mid-field as both teams go through their pre-game warmups.
Coach Mac and Coach Fran are about the same age, but Coach Mac has been coaching in the Big 12 far longer (11 seasons) than Coach Fran, who is in his third season at A&M. Inasmuch as Coach Fran and his squad are going through a tough season, he’s probably passing along his troubles to Coach Mac, who has plenty of experience in enduring tough seasons. By the way, that fellow below the two coaches is fixing something on the turf rather than tying Coach Mac’s shoe.
An old quarterback shows he can still throw the pigskin. One of Iowa State’s associate head coaches is Terry Allen, shown here throwing pregame warm-up tosses to the Iowa State receivers. Terry’s family lived across the street from my family while we grew up in Iowa City, although Terry is several years younger than Coach Mac and me, so he did not play ball with us in high school. However, Terry was quite a player, and he went on to be the starting quarterback for three seasons in the late 1970’s for the University of Northern Iowa, where he eventually became a successful head football coach. Terry parlayed that success into the head coaching job at the University of Kansas during the early part of this decade, but he — like many other coaches at that football coaching graveyard — was fired after just a few seasons. Coach Mac hired Terry immediately and he has become a key member of the Iowa State staff.
Kyle Field is a very intimidating place to play. This is a photo of one of Iowa State’s first plays during the game, which prompts me to comment on what it’s like on the sidelines of Kyle Field when the visiting team has the ball. To put it gently . . . IT IS VERY LOUD!
One of the A&M traditions is the 12th Man, which means that all students and many other Aggie fans stand during the entire game and make an incredible amount of noise while the visiting team is attempting to call its signals at the line of scrimmage. The effect of this din is disconcerting, to say the least, and most teams end up relying on hand signals to their wide receivers because of their inability to hear the signals that the quarterback is calling at the line of scrimmage. As a result, more illegal procedure penalties are generated from opponents at Kyle Field than any other venue in college football.
A key play in the game. Although I did not realize it when I was taking this picture, this play turned out to be a key one during the game. With A&M trailing 14-7 late in the first half, A&M’s talented quarterback Reggie McNeal is dropping back to pass on the play, but is flushed by the Iowa State defensive line. The fleet McNeal took off done the far sideline, then cut back across the field and raced 65 yards for an apparent touchdown, except for those dreaded words . . .
“There was a flag on the play.”
As you can see from this photo, directly in front of McNeal, an Aggie offensive lineman is holding Iowa State defensive lineman Nick Leaders, who has beaten the Aggie lineman badly on the play. That indiscretion cost A&M a game-tying touchdown and, frankly, the Ags never recovered.
The Fightin’ Aggie Marching Band lines up for its halftime performance. The Aggie Marching Band is one of the great bands in college football, and this picture shows the band lining up for their halftime performance directly under A&M’s “Zone” facility that looms over Kyle Field’s north end zone. When the opposing team has the ball and is near the “Zone,” the noise down on the field is absolutely deafening. A&M’s master facility plan projects that a similar facility will eventually be built in the south end zone of Kyle Field, which will raise the stadium’s capacity to 110-115,000.
The Aggie Band specializes in precision military marching drills and patriotic music (think John Phillip Sousa on steroids). My favorites — the theme to the movie Patton, Noble Men of Kyle and the Strategic Air Command March.
The Tuba Pivot. A favorite part of the Aggie precision marching drills is the pivot that the tuba players make while turning during the drills. You have to see the Tuba Pivot to appreciate it fully, but take it from me — the Aggie Tuba Corps is one precision outfit.
During the days of the now defunct Southwest Conference, the Aggie Band used to come to Houston each season when the Aggie football team played either Rice or the University of Houston. During those days, the Aggie Band and the Corps of Cadets used to parade down Main Street in downtown Houston the morning of their game against either Rice or UH, and the parade was always well-attended. That’s a part of Texas football culture that I miss.
The Final Score. The scoreboard tells the story as the Cyclones beat the Aggies for the first time in eight games between the two schools. Inasmuch as it’s highly unusual for Iowa State to beat A&M — and even more unusual to hammer them at Kyle Field — Coach Mac came over to me as the final seconds on the clock were winding down to commiserate for a moment before he had to rush off at the end of the game for the midfield handshake with Coach Fran, post-game interviews and his many other responsibilities.
It was a heartwarming moment as I embraced my old friend on the sidelines and congratulated him on his first win over the Aggies until . . . the Iowa State players decided to give Coach Mac the traditional celebratory ice-water dousing at that particular moment!
As we both got drenched, Coach Mac and I had a good laugh as we parted, and it was all-in-all a satisfying — albeit wet — post-game ride back home to The Woodlands.
This OpinionJournal editorial does an excellent job of sizing up Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald‘s indictment (pdf here) yesterday of Vice-President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby:
Sometime in May 2003, or slightly before, Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times, was informed of Joe Wilson’s 2002 trip to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam Hussein had attempted to buy yellowcake there. Mr. Kristof wrote a column, and Mr. Libby began to ask around, to determine why a Democratic partisan had been sent on such a sensitive mission in the run-up to the Iraq war. He allegedly learned in the course of his inquiries that Mr. Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA.
World-renowed Rice University chemistry, physics and astronomy professor, Richard E. Smalley, died today at the age of 62. The Chronicle’s Eric Berger provides an excellent obituary of Professor Smalley, who was one of the best of Houston’s numerous fine scientists. Among his numerous awards, Professor Smalley won the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Eric’s obituary passes along a fine anecdote about Professor Smalley’s Nobel award banquet that had been passed around Houston professional and business circles for years:
The chairman of Rice’s board of governors at the time [that Smalley was awarded the Nobel], William Barnett, recalled Smalley agonizing over whom to give the 10 tickets he had received for the awards banquet in Sweden. Barnett said Smalley gave two to his son, Chad, who later told his father he was bringing his mom, one of Smalley’s ex-wives. Smalley had three.
“I think his reaction was, ‘Oh lord, now I’ve got to ask the other one,'” Barnett said. “The Swedes were so taken with this, the joke going around the banquet was that they were going to tell Rick, if they had only known this in advance, they would have awarded him the peace prize as well.”
The travails of Krispy Kreme over the past couple of years have been a common subject of posts here, so it is worth noting that some Southern California-based Krispy Kreme franchisees have started a blog about the company and its problems called Protectors of the Krispy Kreme Brand (introductory post here). Gotta love those Spiderman Krispy Kreme doughnuts! ;^)
Almost on cue with the latest round of energy company earnings announcements, our political leaders in Washington — both Democrats and Republicans — signaled their intent to attempt to demonize the energy industry for political gain and, in so doing, make it more difficult for markets to respond to the current limited supplies of oil, natural gas, and refined products.
This really is utterly amazing. Sen. Bill Frist (R., Tenn.), the Senate majority leader, asked the chairmen of three Senate committees to investigate high energy prices and declared that he might support a federal anti-price gouging law.
