This week in The Tentacle

20080820 This week in The Tentacle

Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A Civil Affair at Saddleback
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Last Saturday I took a two-hour break from total Olympics immersion therapy to watch Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum on the presidency.

Emergency Room Retrofit
Tom McLaughlin
Throughout the past few years, there has been a blasting of the Canadian healthcare system. Many conservatives point to the “awful” conditions up north as an example of what can happen if the government gets involved.

From the desk of The Publisher!
John W. Ashbury

In yesterday’s column by Roy Meachum, the last name of the president of France was misspelled. It should be Sarkozy. The Tentacle regrets the error.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008
No Sabers to Rattle
Roy Meachum
A chance encounter. While Pushkin and I were taking a downtown stroll, an impossibly young captain out of the Point four years and returned recently from the Middle East. His USMA graduate-father along and a pretty wife; she wanted to talk to the pleased English pointer. She and Pushki retreated just beyond the conversational range.

Passing on Pollsters
Norman M. Covert
My son assures me that I should feel no guilt in hanging up on telemarketers. It is not alright, he says, to listen to pre-recorded messages about my car’s warranty, or Part D Medicare insurance and such. In that state of mind, I should have “passed” on a recent political phone call that probably verged on the sophomoric.


Monday, August 18, 2008
Summer Thoughts
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
I became a grandfather back in January. It's almost as great as everyone has ever said. I describe it this way: It's all of the love you had for your own children, without the crushing burden of responsibility!

Counting Students
Steven R. Berryman
The argument continues: Let’s count the children who are from families that are not paying into Frederick County Public Schools so that we can get our arms around the problem of looming budget deficits.


Friday, August 15, 2008
Evil Demagogue
Roy Meachum
The evil in John "Lennie" Thompson's soul became public when he prolonged a hearing past midnight; he knowingly kept children up who wanted to sleep. But their mothers desperately needed a school and a place to worship. But they were only Muslims and mostly foreign-born. They were, however, legal residents.


O’Malley Seeking Gold!
Katie Nash
Gov. Martin O’Malley should take a lesson from Baltimore super swimmer Michael Phelps. The governor is drowning and there is no life saver in sight.


Thursday, August 14, 2008
A Prime Rib Sandwich
Joan McIntyre
Do the terms Generation X or Y, or Baby Boomers mean a thing to you? Didn't mean much to me until I realized I could be the poster child for the thing they call The Sandwich Generation.

National Pride: Just Wonderful
Chris Cavey
Almost everyone who has laid finger to keyboard has written about the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; however, the story for me is viewing the quadrennial bubbling of national pride and knowing its juxtaposition with local heroes.


Wednesday, August 13, 2008
They shoot dogs, don’t they?
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In Prince Georges County on the evening of July 30, the home of the Berwyn Heights’ Mayor Cheye Calvo was the scene of a home invasion.


Beer Olympics
Tom McLaughlin
They’re back! After watching the March Past during the opening of the games in Peking (old spelling), I settled in to watch some of the sports. And wonders of wonders who did I see? Those two great representatives of American dirty old men, Misty May and Kerri Walsh. They were playing the great American sport – beach volleyball.


Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Media Furies
Roy Meachum
The Bruce Ivins tragedy starkly revealed the trashy shape of America's media. Print and electronic alike, they have become modern versions of Greek playwright Aeschylus's Eumenides; the Furies of ancient Rome, they resound still in the Yiddish phrase: Kein eine horah. "Not one listening" is a prayerful cautionary against the 40,000 beasties that always hover waiting to strike all those who earn praise.


Perception Often Worse Than Truth
Farrell Keough
Perceptions are a tricky thing. There are times in life when a person can feel so strongly about a situation they are willing to suffer the consequences of people believing they are either wrong or have some nefarious intent.


Monday, August 11, 2008
Hanging it up…
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
…a stethoscope, that is. On August 8, Dr. Wayne Allgaier snapped the closure on his leather medical kit for the last time. Last Friday, he hung the stethoscope up for the last time.


T. Boone & Slim Pickens
Steven R. Berryman
What does a famous Texas oil baron do to ensure some personal legacy at age 80? He becomes an alternative energy activist, and starts a web site with a link to his own MySpace page, of course!


They’re Not Just Athletes…
Derek Shackelford
Last Friday the 2008 Summer Olympics games opened in Beijing, China, where the government has come under scrutiny because of proclaimed human rights violations. The air quality – to some degree – has been deemed unhealthy. The government has been criticized for neglect of some of its citizens and the economic disparity is widely known. And its capital punishment policy has been questioned.

I'm American by Stuck Mojo

I'm American by Stuck Mojo

Posted on KevinDayhoffNet Soundtrack August 17, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD-t6tcBji4




"I'm American" Lyrics:

I'm an American related to all colors of brethren, Priests and Pastors and Prophets and Reverends, Divided we fall united we stand together man, In this cultural melting pot there's nothing better than, This land of the free and the home of the brave, Populated by ancestors of immigrants and slaves who met early graves, So we could see brighter days and we could proudly praise and raise the stars and stripes as Americans

Hate me
Blame me
You can't shame me
Come and stand with me
I'm American

I'm an American born in these states united, Where racial discrimination keeps us so divided, Well we've got free speech so I won't be quiet, We got a lot of problems here man I won't deny it, But ain't another place that I'd rather be, Than in this land of great opportunity, Where we can be anything that we wanna be, So until the day I D-I-E, I stand tall as an American

*****

With "I'm American," the second video from the new album "Southern Born Killers," Stuck Mojo once again takes a stand for pride in country, self-respect and self-reliance. These themes have been a constant throughout the band's career. Following in the footsteps of the wildly successful video for "Open Season," Mojo once again takes a politically incorrect position by not being ashamed of the qualities that have made America great.

You may download the entire "Southern Born Killers" album, for free, at the band's web site StuckMojo . us.

20070629 I'm American by Stuck Mojo

I'm American by Stuck Mojo

Stratfor: The Russo-Georgian War and the Balance of Power

Stratfor: The Russo-Georgian War and the Balance of Power

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/russo_georgian_war_and_balance_power

August 12, 2008 1508 GMT

By George Friedman

Related Special Topic Pages

Crisis in South Ossetia
U.S. Weakness and Russia’s Window of Opportunity
The Russian Resurgence
Kosovo, Russia and the West

The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted.

The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery.

This, as we have argued, has opened a window of opportunity for the Russians to reassert their influence in the former Soviet sphere. Moscow did not have to concern itself with the potential response of the United States or Europe; hence, the invasion did not shift the balance of power.

The balance of power had already shifted, and it was up to the Russians when to make this public.

They did that Aug. 8.

Let’s begin simply by reviewing the last few days.

On the night of Thursday, Aug. 7, forces of the Republic of Georgia drove across the border of South Ossetia, a secessionist region of Georgia that has functioned as an independent entity since the fall of the Soviet Union. The forces drove on to the capital, Tskhinvali, which is close to the border. Georgian forces got bogged down while trying to take the city. In spite of heavy fighting, they never fully secured the city, nor the rest of South Ossetia.

On the morning of Aug. 8, Russian forces entered South Ossetia, using armored and motorized infantry forces along with air power. South Ossetia was informally aligned with Russia, and Russia acted to prevent the region’s absorption by Georgia. Given the speed with which the Russians responded — within hours of the Georgian attack — the Russians were expecting the Georgian attack and were themselves at their jumping-off points. The counterattack was carefully planned and competently executed, and over the next 48 hours, the Russians succeeded in defeating the main Georgian force and forcing a retreat. By Sunday, Aug. 10, the Russians had consolidated their position in South Ossetia.





(click image to enlarge)

On Monday, the Russians extended their offensive into Georgia proper, attacking on two axes. One was south from South Ossetia to the Georgian city of Gori. The other drive was from Abkhazia, another secessionist region of Georgia aligned with the Russians. This drive was designed to cut the road between the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and its ports. By this point, the Russians had bombed the military airfields at Marneuli and Vaziani and appeared to have disabled radars at the international airport in Tbilisi. These moves brought Russian forces to within 40 miles of the Georgian capital, while making outside reinforcement and resupply of Georgian forces extremely difficult should anyone wish to undertake it.

The Mystery Behind the Georgian Invasion

In this simple chronicle, there is something quite mysterious: Why did the Georgians choose to invade South Ossetia on Thursday night? There had been a great deal of shelling by the South Ossetians of Georgian villages for the previous three nights, but while possibly more intense than usual, artillery exchanges were routine. The Georgians might not have fought well, but they committed fairly substantial forces that must have taken at the very least several days to deploy and supply. Georgia’s move was deliberate.

The United States is Georgia’s closest ally. It maintained about 130 military advisers in Georgia, along with civilian advisers, contractors involved in all aspects of the Georgian government and people doing business in Georgia. It is inconceivable that the Americans were unaware of Georgia’s mobilization and intentions. It is also inconceivable that the Americans were unaware that the Russians had deployed substantial forces on the South Ossetian frontier. U.S. technical intelligence, from satellite imagery and signals intelligence to unmanned aerial vehicles, could not miss the fact that thousands of Russian troops were moving to forward positions. The Russians clearly knew the Georgians were ready to move. How could the United States not be aware of the Russians? Indeed, given the posture of Russian troops, how could intelligence analysts have missed the possibility that the Russians had laid a trap, hoping for a Georgian invasion to justify its own counterattack?

It is very difficult to imagine that the Georgians launched their attack against U.S. wishes. The Georgians rely on the United States, and they were in no position to defy it. This leaves two possibilities. The first is a massive breakdown in intelligence, in which the United States either was unaware of the existence of Russian forces, or knew of the Russian forces but — along with the Georgians — miscalculated Russia’s intentions. The second is that the United States, along with other countries, has viewed Russia through the prism of the 1990s, when the Russian military was in shambles and the Russian government was paralyzed. The United States has not seen Russia make a decisive military move beyond its borders since the Afghan war of the 1970s-1980s. The Russians had systematically avoided such moves for years. The United States had assumed that the Russians would not risk the consequences of an invasion.

If this was the case, then it points to the central reality of this situation: The Russians had changed dramatically, along with the balance of power in the region. They welcomed the opportunity to drive home the new reality, which was that they could invade Georgia and the United States and Europe could not respond. As for risk, they did not view the invasion as risky. Militarily, there was no counter. Economically, Russia is an energy exporter doing quite well — indeed, the Europeans need Russian energy even more than the Russians need to sell it to them. Politically, as we shall see, the Americans needed the Russians more than the Russians needed the Americans. Moscow’s calculus was that this was the moment to strike. The Russians had been building up to it for months, as we have discussed, and they struck.

The Western Encirclement of Russia

To understand Russian thinking, we need to look at two events. The first is the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. From the U.S. and European point of view, the Orange Revolution represented a triumph of democracy and Western influence. From the Russian point of view, as Moscow made clear, the Orange Revolution was a CIA-funded intrusion into the internal affairs of Ukraine, designed to draw Ukraine into NATO and add to the encirclement of Russia. U.S. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton had promised the Russians that NATO would not expand into the former Soviet Union empire.

That promise had already been broken in 1998 by NATO’s expansion to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic — and again in the 2004 expansion, which absorbed not only the rest of the former Soviet satellites in what is now Central Europe, but also the three Baltic states, which had been components of the Soviet Union.

The Russians had tolerated all that, but the discussion of including Ukraine in NATO represented a fundamental threat to Russia’s national security. It would have rendered Russia indefensible and threatened to destabilize the Russian Federation itself. When the United States went so far as to suggest that Georgia be included as well, bringing NATO deeper into the Caucasus, the Russian conclusion — publicly stated — was that the United States in particular intended to encircle and break Russia.

The second and lesser event was the decision by Europe and the United States to back Kosovo’s separation from Serbia. The Russians were friendly with Serbia, but the deeper issue for Russia was this: The principle of Europe since World War II was that, to prevent conflict, national borders would not be changed. If that principle were violated in Kosovo, other border shifts — including demands by various regions for independence from Russia — might follow. The Russians publicly and privately asked that Kosovo not be given formal independence, but instead continue its informal autonomy, which was the same thing in practical terms. Russia’s requests were ignored.

From the Ukrainian experience, the Russians became convinced that the United States was engaged in a plan of strategic encirclement and strangulation of Russia. From the Kosovo experience, they concluded that the United States and Europe were not prepared to consider Russian wishes even in fairly minor affairs. That was the breaking point. If Russian desires could not be accommodated even in a minor matter like this, then clearly Russia and the West were in conflict. For the Russians, as we said, the question was how to respond. Having declined to respond in Kosovo, the Russians decided to respond where they had all the cards: in South Ossetia.

Moscow had two motives, the lesser of which was as a tit-for-tat over Kosovo. If Kosovo could be declared independent under Western sponsorship, then South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the two breakaway regions of Georgia, could be declared independent under Russian sponsorship. Any objections from the United States and Europe would simply confirm their hypocrisy. This was important for internal Russian political reasons, but the second motive was far more important.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin once said that the fall of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical disaster. This didn’t mean that he wanted to retain the Soviet state; rather, it meant that the disintegration of the Soviet Union had created a situation in which Russian national security was threatened by Western interests. As an example, consider that during the Cold War, St. Petersburg was about 1,200 miles away from a NATO country. Today it is about 60 miles away from Estonia, a NATO member. The disintegration of the Soviet Union had left Russia surrounded by a group of countries hostile to Russian interests in various degrees and heavily influenced by the United States, Europe and, in some cases, China.

Resurrecting the Russian Sphere

Putin did not want to re-establish the Soviet Union, but he did want to re-establish the Russian sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union region. To accomplish that, he had to do two things. First, he had to re-establish the credibility of the Russian army as a fighting force, at least in the context of its region. Second, he had to establish that Western guarantees, including NATO membership, meant nothing in the face of Russian power. He did not want to confront NATO directly, but he did want to confront and defeat a power that was closely aligned with the United States, had U.S. support, aid and advisers and was widely seen as being under American protection. Georgia was the perfect choice.

By invading Georgia as Russia did (competently if not brilliantly), Putin re-established the credibility of the Russian army. But far more importantly, by doing this Putin revealed an open secret: While the United States is tied down in the Middle East, American guarantees have no value. This lesson is not for American consumption. It is something that, from the Russian point of view, the Ukrainians, the Balts and the Central Asians need to digest. Indeed, it is a lesson Putin wants to transmit to Poland and the Czech Republic as well. The United States wants to place ballistic missile defense installations in those countries, and the Russians want them to understand that allowing this to happen increases their risk, not their security.

The Russians knew the United States would denounce their attack. This actually plays into Russian hands. The more vocal senior leaders are, the greater the contrast with their inaction, and the Russians wanted to drive home the idea that American guarantees are empty talk.

The Russians also know something else that is of vital importance: For the United States, the Middle East is far more important than the Caucasus, and Iran is particularly important. The United States wants the Russians to participate in sanctions against Iran. Even more importantly, they do not want the Russians to sell weapons to Iran, particularly the highly effective S-300 air defense system. Georgia is a marginal issue to the United States; Iran is a central issue. The Russians are in a position to pose serious problems for the United States not only in Iran, but also with weapons sales to other countries, like Syria.

Therefore, the United States has a problem — it either must reorient its strategy away from the Middle East and toward the Caucasus, or it has to seriously limit its response to Georgia to avoid a Russian counter in Iran. Even if the United States had an appetite for another war in Georgia at this time, it would have to calculate the Russian response in Iran — and possibly in Afghanistan (even though Moscow’s interests there are currently aligned with those of Washington).

In other words, the Russians have backed the Americans into a corner. The Europeans, who for the most part lack expeditionary militaries and are dependent upon Russian energy exports, have even fewer options. If nothing else happens, the Russians will have demonstrated that they have resumed their role as a regional power. Russia is not a global power by any means, but a significant regional power with lots of nuclear weapons and an economy that isn’t all too shabby at the moment. It has also compelled every state on the Russian periphery to re-evaluate its position relative to Moscow. As for Georgia, the Russians appear ready to demand the resignation of President Mikhail Saakashvili. Militarily, that is their option. That is all they wanted to demonstrate, and they have demonstrated it.

The war in Georgia, therefore, is Russia’s public return to great power status. This is not something that just happened — it has been unfolding ever since Putin took power, and with growing intensity in the past five years. Part of it has to do with the increase of Russian power, but a great deal of it has to do with the fact that the Middle Eastern wars have left the United States off-balance and short on resources. As we have written, this conflict created a window of opportunity. The Russian goal is to use that window to assert a new reality throughout the region while the Americans are tied down elsewhere and dependent on the Russians. The war was far from a surprise; it has been building for months. But the geopolitical foundations of the war have been building since 1992. Russia has been an empire for centuries. The last 15 years or so were not the new reality, but simply an aberration that would be rectified. And now it is being rectified.

Tell Stratfor What You Think

This report may be forwarded or republished on your website with attribution to http://www.stratfor.com/

20080812 Stratfor: The Russo Georgian War and the Balance of Power

Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from June 25, 2008 through August 3, 2008

Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from June 25, 2008 through August 3, 2008

Future of police protection delayed, but crime doesn't rest
Published August 13, 2008 by Eldersburg Eagle, Westminster Eagle
On Thursday, Aug. 7, the Board of County Commissioners voted 2-1 to not move forward with a plan to form a county police department...

Turkeys, fires and failed presidents were the stuff of old newspapers
Published August 10, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
As today's newspapers race into the Internet age, many folks might be fascinated with the look and feel of newspapers from the 1800s and early...

Carroll rides tall at the Chincoteague Pony auction
Published August 6, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
With pen in hand, Carroll County author Lois Szymanski looked up from a copy of one of her latest books, "Out of the Sea: Today's...

Fire and water have been volatile mix in Sykesville
Published August 3, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
It was 85 years ago, in the late afternoon of Monday, July 30, 1923, that an historic and terrible rainstorm hit Sykesville and other areas...

Destructive behavior from those contentious combines
Published July 30, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
On Saturday evening, the air was hot, thick and muggy, flavored with anticipation and seasoned with a hint of petroleum fumes. More than 5,000 fans...

20080813 Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from July 30, 2008 through August 13, 2008

Julia Child part of WWII era spy ring

Julia Child part of WWII era spy ring

Photo caption: It is not known as to whether or not Carrie Ann Knauer, pictured above interviewing Ms. Child in an undated photograph, followed in Ms. Child’s footsteps. She is indeed not only an excellent writer and cook - - but was she also once a secret agent? Kevin Dayhoff - File photo circa 2000.

Julia Child part of WWII era spy ring. Reports unsubstantiated that Carrie Ann Knauer was also once a secret agent

August 13, 2008

As many folks who follow the news are aware, it was recently revealed that Julia Child was part of a WWII-era spy ring

As you can read in the Associated Press story: “Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.”

However it has not been confirmed as to whether or not Carroll County’s very own “Rachael Ray” was ever a spy. We all know Carrie Ann Knauer’s work; she’s the prolific writer with the Carroll County Times who well known for her excellent coverage of Carroll County’s number one industry, agriculture, the environment and Carroll County’s number one love – food.

Did indeed, Ms. Knauer, pictured above interviewing Ms. Child in an undated photograph, follow in Ms. Child’s footsteps – and is indeed not only an excellent writer and cook - - but was also a secret agent.

Perhaps we’ll never know.

What is known is that Ms. Knauer first burst into the news media when she came to the Carroll County Times in February 2002. Of course this coincides well with fact that Ms. Childs moved to a retirement community in Santa Barbara, California, in 2001…

We are also aware that Ms. Knauer has been known to disappear for periods of time in which her locational whereabouts are not disclosed…

Hmmm, makes you wonder, now doesn’t it.

####

Documents: Julia Child part of WWII-era spy ring

Related Searches:
CIA Director William Casey
Office of Strategic Services
Kermit Roosevelt
military plans
Slideshow: International spy ring revealed

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated Press Writers Wed Aug 13, 11:10 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world.

They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The full secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

[…]

Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

Read the entire article here: Julia Child part of WWII-era spy ring

20080813 Julia Child part of WWII era spy ring

Kevin is wondering

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Kevin is wondering...

August 14, 2008

Kevin is wondering ...

what happens when you stick a kitchen knife in an electric socket?
Mr. Moose isn't worried. He's brave.

The Adventures of Mr. Moose on Facebook

20080814 KED Knife in socket

Posted by Kevin Dayhoff at 8/14/2008 05:07:00 PM

Kevin Dayhoff Art http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/

This week in The Tentacle August 13 2008

This week in The Tentacle August 13 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008
They shoot dogs, don’t they?
Kevin E. Dayhoff
In Prince Georges County on the evening of July 30, the home of the Berwyn Heights’ Mayor Cheye Calvo was the scene of a home invasion.


Beer Olympics
Tom McLaughlin
They’re back! After watching the March Past during the opening of the games in Peking (old spelling), I settled in to watch some of the sports. And wonders of wonders who did I see? Those two great representatives of American dirty old men, Misty May and Kerri Walsh. They were playing the great American sport – beach volleyball.


Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Media Furies
Roy Meachum
The Bruce Ivins tragedy starkly revealed the trashy shape of America's media. Print and electronic alike, they have become modern versions of Greek playwright Aeschylus's Eumenides; the Furies of ancient Rome, they resound still in the Yiddish phrase: Kein eine horah. "Not one listening" is a prayerful cautionary against the 40,000 beasties that always hover waiting to strike all those who earn praise.


Perception Often Worse Than Truth
Farrell Keough
Perceptions are a tricky thing. There are times in life when a person can feel so strongly about a situation they are willing to suffer the consequences of people believing they are either wrong or have some nefarious intent.


Monday, August 11, 2008
Hanging it up…
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
…a stethoscope, that is. On August 8, Dr. Wayne Allgaier snapped the closure on his leather medical kit for the last time. Last Friday, he hung the stethoscope up for the last time.


T. Boone & Slim Pickens
Steven R. Berryman
What does a famous Texas oil baron do to ensure some personal legacy at age 80? He becomes an alternative energy activist, and starts a web site with a link to his own MySpace page, of course!


They’re Not Just Athletes…
Derek Shackelford
Last Friday the 2008 Summer Olympics games opened in Beijing, China, where the government has come under scrutiny because of proclaimed human rights violations. The air quality – to some degree – has been deemed unhealthy. The government has been criticized for neglect of some of its citizens and the economic disparity is widely known. And its capital punishment policy has been questioned.


Friday, August 8, 2008
Greasepaint Missing
Roy Meachum
Not only the greasepaint was missing Wednesday from the justice department's dog-and-pony show. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's crew left behind their costumes. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor lacked the red bulb on his nose. The performance would have been hilarious except a Frederick man wound up dead.


Thursday, August 7, 2008
Breaching Our Security
Tony Soltero
"To protect and to serve." The venerable slogan of police forces nationwide. And, for the most part, law enforcement performs its duties professionally, effectively and within the constitutional bounds that distinguish America from repressive, totalitarian societies, such as the country currently hosting a major world sports event.


Obama vs. McCain
Patricia A. Kelly
I read and I listen. Answers are elusive, dandelion fluff on a summer breeze. One says the other said…the other says he didn’t, but that the other did….There are funny ads, outrageous ads. Always, politics, when something closer to the truth is so needed.


Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Insufficient Funds
Kevin E. Dayhoff
Recently the Carroll County Chapter of the Maryland Municipal League has been the focus of some unwanted and undesirable attention.


Voting White
Tom McLaughlin
Race is – and will continue to be – a very big factor in the presidential election. Sen. Barack Obama has called for change; however, his skin color will be too much of a change for many. White, not John McCain, will win the election.


Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Guilty or Not?
Roy Meachum
The apparent suicide of a Fort Detrick scientist was the weekend's conversational rage. Everyone knows someone who knows someone – that’s how it went.


One’s Inexperience and Immaturity
Joan McIntyre
Those aspiring to elected office need to learn before applying that it's a tough job and requires an equally tough skin. Do you question why I use the phase "applying?"


Monday, August 4, 2008
Who's watching the watchers?
Richard B. Weldon Jr.
Picture a rally against the death penalty or a gathering of anti-war protesters. Peace signs, Grateful Dead music, chanting, tie-dyed clothing, and soap-box speeches about injustice, inequality, and corrupt abuse of power.


“Mega Trends” Become Non-Sequiturs
Steven R. Berryman
Seems like chaos rules anymore when analyzing the changing trends in world happenings and trying to make things make sense. Much of it just doesn’t follow, as in non-sequiturs. There are just too many data points now for old method.

20080813 This week in The Tentacle August 13 2008

20080812 Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council Agenda

20080812 Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council Agenda

Carroll County ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Karen Merkle, Chair

Meeting /Agenda, Tuesday August 12, 2008 @ 3:00 p.m.

Room 003/004, Carroll County
Office Building

Cynthia M. Parr
Chief, Administrative Services
225 N Center Street, Room 300
Westminster, MD 21157-5194
Telephone: 410-386-2232
Fax: 410-386-2485
cparr@ccg.carr.org

All meetings are scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month. If an afternoon meeting, it will be from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.; if an evening meeting, it will be from 6:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M., in Room 003/004 of the County Office Building unless otherwise noted.

Notice of each meeting will be sent to local media prior to each meeting and will also appear on the website ccgov.carr.org under meetings/agendas.

1. Call to Order

2. Approval of June 10, 2008 Minutes

3. Communications

4. Open Forum
An opportunity for County residents to express concerns or propose issues not already before the Council, as future EAC Agenda items; three (3) minutes per
Presentation.

5. Presentations:

a. Doug Howard, Executive Director, Carroll Area Transit System Transportation Services and Environmental Considerations

b. Dawn Eldridge, Community Health Improvement Area Manager, CCHD Resource Conservation Coalition “ Partnership for a Healthier Carroll County.

6. New Business

a. Nominations and selection of Vice Chair

b. Review of Bylaws and Chapter 16

c. Adoption of the 2009 meeting dates

d. Adoption of EAC Environmental Awards Categories

7. Council Members Issues for future consideration

8. Announcements from the Chair

a. The September EAC meeting, will be an afternoon meeting Tuesday,
September 9, 2008, @ 3:00 p.m. in Room 003/004 of the County Office
Building

9. Adjourn

ACCESSIBILITY NOTICE: The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the Carroll County Government and its programs, services, activities, and facilities. If you have questions, suggestions, or complaints, please contact Ms. Jolene Sullivan, the Carroll County Government Americans With Disabilities Act Coordinator, at 410-386-3600/1-888-302-8978 or TTY No. 410-848-9747. The mailing address is 225 North Center Street, Westminster, Maryland 21157.

Environmentalism EAC - Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council

Manic Monday: Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl August 11 2008

20080811 Manic Monday Massive Attack Dissolved Girl

Manic Monday: Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl

August 11, 2008

It’s been Monday all day. Word has it that it will be Monday for quite a few more hours… At least I have two of my three columns due for this week filed. Right now I need a snack and a nap…

Massive Attack Dissolved Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8QT4BEOTo




David Sylvian - Orpheus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2dgMNm64Mg



More: Art Music electronica Massive Attack

Art Music electronica

Art Music electronica Sylvian – David Sylvian

Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from June 25, 2008 through August 3, 2008

Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from June 25, 2008 through August 3, 2008

August 3, 2008

Fire and water have been volatile mix in Sykesville
Published August 3, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
It was 85 years ago, in the late afternoon of Monday, July 30, 1923, that an historic and terrible rainstorm hit Sykesville and other areas...

Destructive behavior from those contentious combines
Published July 30, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
On Saturday evening, the air was hot, thick and muggy, flavored with anticipation and seasoned with a hint of petroleum fumes. More than 5,000 fans...

Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life
Published July 25, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
Since this is a Sunday column, I do hope it's fitting to talk about sacred places. Not necessarily houses of worship, mind you, though those are...

Viva la bicyclette de Carroll
Published July 23, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
Today, as you are reading this, the 95th Tour de France is in Stage 17. This year's race began on July 5. After 23 days,...

Memories from City Hall and e-mail from the great beyond
Published July 20, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
Westminster purchased the property for its City Hall, on Emerald Hill Lane, from the estate of George W. Albaugh in September 1939 for the grand...

Appreciating Tony Snow's passion for life
Published July 16, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
Saturday, July 12, former White House press secretary Tony Snow, 53, died of cancer. I certainly never knew him, yet after following his too-short career for...

Westminster's Civil War role didn't end at Corbit's Charge
Published July 13, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
The last several weeks have been busy in Carroll County, and one of the busiest was during the June 27-29 events surrounding the commemoration of...

Smith & Reifsnider was too hot to handle in July 1938
Published July 9, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
Seventy years ago, Carroll County was reeling from the aftermath of fireworks of an unwelcome variety -- one of the biggest fires in the county's...

What a concept: sharing the wealth and pain of tax increases
Published July 6, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
"Gov. (William Preston) Lane does not like taxes ... but as long as you have colleges to take your money, ... you are to have...

The merry marry month of June
Published July 2, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
As we say goodbye to the month of June, bachelors can breathe a sigh of relief that they've survived what has historically been the traditional...

Years ago, trip to the beach required help from a little ferry
Published June 29, 2008 by Sunday Carroll Eagle
EAGLE ARCHIVE For many Carroll County residents, summertime means an opportunity to make an annual family trek to Ocean City, Md. Some of my fondest childhood memories...

Westminster's past included days of swine and meters
Published June 25, 2008 by Westminster Eagle
There have been many critter problems in the history of Westminster, but none seems to have caused as much a stir as what to do...

20080803 Kevin Dayhoff Sunday Carroll Eagle and Westminster Eagle columns and articles from June 25, 2008 through August 3, 2008

Virginia Harrison Board of Ed appointee running as write-in By Karen Kemp

20080731 Virginia Harrison Board of Ed appointee running as write-in By Karen Kemp

Board of Ed appointee running as write-in

By Karen Kemp, Carroll County Times Staff Writer Thursday, July 31, 2008

After being appointed to the Carroll County Board of Education in April, Virginia Harrison has decided she wants to serve on the board for another four years.

Harrison filed as a write-in candidate July 3, said Gail Carter, director of the Carroll County Board of Elections. Carter said Harrison first contacted the board about two months ago requesting information about running a write-in campaign.

Harrison was appointed at the April 9 board meeting by Gov. Martin O’Malley to fill a vacancy after member Jeff Morse resigned for using a racial slur while visiting a school construction site.

Her term expires in November, and she has attended four out of five board meetings so far.

However, Harrison said she has been involved in various school activities during the past 10 years and said she quickly absorbed the information about the processes involved in being a board member.

“I thought it was a good fit for me,” Harrison said.

While each polling place will have a list of write-in candidates posted on the wall during the election in November, Harrison’s name and those of other write-in candidates will not appear on the county’s touch-screen voting machines, according to Carter.

[…]

Read the rest of the article here: Board of Ed appointee running as write-in

Reach staff writer Karen Kemp at 410-857-7890 or karen.kemp@carrollcountytimes.com.

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2008/07/31/news/local_news/newsstory2.txt

Elections 2008 Carroll Co. School Brd, People Carroll Co. Harrison – Virginia Harrison

Washington Post: Venerable columnist Robert Novak retiring

Washington Post: Venerable columnist Robert Novak retiring

August 5, 2008

Longstanding columnist Robert Novak, cites ‘dire’ prognosis “in his battle against a brain tumor” – announces that he is retiring immediately.

It’s sad news for the many of us who have been reading his columns for most of our adult lives. Since 1963, he has helped fill in the blanks and helped shape opinions about national and international events.

The Washington Post is carrying the story by William Branigin and Howard Kurtz in the Tuesday, August 5, 2008 edition of the paper:

Citing 'Dire' Prognosis, Novak Retires Immediately

Related: Robert Novak's Latest Column

By William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 5, 2008; C03

Columnist Robert D. Novak is retiring immediately because of a dim prognosis in his battle against a brain tumor.

Novak, 77, a conservative Chicago Sun-Times political commentator whose columns are syndicated nationwide, was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week and was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for treatment. He announced at the time that he was "suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."

Yesterday, however, the Sun-Times quoted Novak as announcing his immediate retirement in view of what he called his "dire" prognosis. His last column appeared July 28 in The Washington Post.

[…]

Novak launched a political column in 1963 with Rowland Evans and continued it after his longtime partner retired in 1993…

[…]

Read the entire article here: Citing 'Dire' Prognosis, Novak Retires Immediately

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401063.html?nav=rss_email/components

20080805 Washington Post: Venerable columnist Robert Novak retiring

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

20080804 Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

And it’s still Monday…

August 4, 2008

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZcTs00ZGg

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

20080804 Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

And it’s still Monday…

August 4, 2008

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZcTs00ZGg

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

20080804 Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you

And it’s still Monday…

August 4, 2008

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSZcTs00ZGg

if men vacuumed...

… if men vacuumed…

August 4, 2008

Oh, like you really wouldn’t understand. This photo is posted for Matthew Gunby. It’s a vacuum thing.

Matthew can be found these days at: http://www.gunbyphoto.com

20080804 20030500 if men vacuumed

Art photographers Gunby – Matthew Gunby, Erratum, Erratum caption contest, People Where are they now

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

It’s Monday and word has it that it’ll be Monday all day…

August 4, 2008

The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHChc2I7FKk



20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

It’s Monday and word has it that it’ll be Monday all day…

August 4, 2008

The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHChc2I7FKk



20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

It’s Monday and word has it that it’ll be Monday all day…

August 4, 2008

The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHChc2I7FKk



20080804 The Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Moth at UTR

Moth at UTR

August 3, 2008

Moth

Dayhoff Daily Photoblog

20080803 Moth at UTR.JPG
20080803 DDP SDOSM Moth at UTR

Kevin Dayhoff Art: www.kevindayhoff.com (http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/)

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

When the Sentry Equipment Corporation in Oconomowoc, Wis., was considering how to light its new factory last year, the company’s president, Michael Farrell, decided to try something new: light emitting diodes, or L.E.D.’s.

“I knew L.E.D.’s were used in stoplights. I wondered why they can’t be used in buildings,” Mr. Farrell said. “So I went on a mission.”

What Mr. Farrell found was a light source that many of the biggest bulb manufacturers are now convinced will supplant incandescent bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs.

[…]

L.E.D. bulbs, with their brighter light and longer life, have already replaced standard bulbs in many of the nation’s traffic lights. Indeed, the red, green and yellow signals are — aside from the tiny blinking red light on a DVD player, a cellphone or another electronic device — probably the most familiar application of the technology.

But it is showing up in more prominent spots. The ball that descends in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is illuminated with L.E.D.’s. And the managers of the Empire State Building are considering a proposal to light it with L.E.D. fixtures, which would allow them to remotely change the building’s colors to one of millions of variations.

The nation’s Big Three of lighting — General Electric, Osram Sylvania and Royal Philips Electronics — are embracing a new era of more efficient technologies, like halogen, compact fluorescent and solid-state devices. Encouraged by legislation and the rising cost of energy, as well as concerns about greenhouse gases, consumers are swapping out incandescent bulbs.

The switch is forcing a fast change in strategy, as companies reposition their manufacturing lines. General Electric, for instance, said earlier this month that it was spinning off its unit that makes bulbs.

The bulb makers face a tough problem. Their businesses were built on customers who regularly replaced light bulbs. How do you make a profit when new lighting may commonly last 50 to 100 times as long as a standard bulb? Compact fluorescents, which use less than one-third the power and last up to 10 times as long as standard bulbs, have replaced incandescent bulbs in many homes and offices.

[…]

Read the rest of the article here: Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb’s Time Has Come by ERIC A. TAUB July 28, 2008

20080728 Fans of L.E.D.’s Say This Bulb Time Has Come by Eric Taub

Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

My Sunday Carroll Eagle column is up…

Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

EAGLE ARCHIVE By Kevin Dayhoff Posted on www.explorecarroll.com on 7/25/08

Since this is a Sunday column, I do hope it's fitting to talk about sacred places.

Not necessarily houses of worship, mind you, though those are most often considered sacred places.

I'm thinking of the sacred public places as described in a 1981 book by Dr. Ira Zepp [pictured here in a 1996 file photo] and Marty Lanham, "Sacred Spaces of Westminster."

I thought of the book as I sat in a recent Common Council meeting at Westminster City Hall -- a building that many consider one of the true sacred places in Carroll County.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Tom Ferguson read a proclamation recognizing July as Recreation and Parks Month, and paid tribute to the city's recreation and parks director Ron Schroers, as well as other employees who work tirelessly for our benefit.

One of the recreational facilities that Schroers oversees is the popular Westminster playground in the heart of the city.

The playground is one the first pictures, taken by Lanham, in that 1981 book.

Moreover, toward the end of the book, the authors discuss one of the overlooked sacred landmarks in Westminster: the Memorial Gateway to the Westminster playground off of Center Street.

Zepp and Lanham explain that the "gateway was given to the city by H. Peyton Gorsuch in 1937. Its primary purpose was to acknowledge the community's debt to Carroll Countians who had served in the nation's wars."

The book goes on to highlight public places such as Belle Grove Square, various other parks, gardens, memorials and monuments.

Read the entire column here: Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

When he is not watching the ducks at the Westminster Community Pond, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org. Please don't feed the ducks ... or the Dayhoff.

20080725 Westminster's sacred places are shrines of community life

Labels and related: People Carroll County Zepp – Dr. Ira Zepp, Religion Dayhoff articles and essays, Art The Library, Art The Library Carroll County, History Westminster, Dayhoff Art writing essays and articles,

Westminster Dept Recreation and Parks Westminster Playground, Westminster Dept Recreation and Parks Dir Ron Schroers, Westminster Mayor 200505 to 2009 Thomas K. Ferguson

Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY for the New York Times

Whether or not you are involved in the customer service business – working for the public in the private or public sector, you will understand this piece all too well: Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY for the New York Times.

July 26, 2008 By TINA KELLEY

HONESDALE, Pa. — A dozen 9-year-old girls in jelly-bean-colored bathing suits were learning the crawl at Lake Bryn Mawr Camp one recent morning as older girls in yellow and green camp uniforms practiced soccer, fused glass in the art studio or tried out the climbing wall.

Their parents, meanwhile, were bombarding the camp with calls: one wanted help arranging private guitar lessons for her daughter, another did not like the sound of her child’s voice during a recent conversation, and a third needed to know — preferably today — which of her daughter’s four varieties of vitamins had run out. All before lunch.

Answering these and other urgent queries was Karin Miller, 43, a stay-at-home mother during the school year with a doctorate in psychology, who is redefining the role of camp counselor. She counsels parents, spending her days from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. printing out reams of e-mail messages to deliver to Bryn Mawr’s 372 female campers and leaving voice mail messages for their parents that always begin, “Nothing’s wrong, I’m just returning your call.”

Jill Tipograph, a camp consultant, said most high-end sleep-away camps in the Northeast now employ full-time parent liaisons like Ms. Miller, who earns $6,000 plus a waiver of the camp’s $10,000 tuition for each of her two daughters. Ms. Tipograph describes the job as “almost like a hotel concierge listening to a client’s needs.”

The liaisons are emblematic of what sleep-away camp experts say is an increasing emphasis on catering to increasingly high-maintenance parents, including those who make unsolicited bunk placement requests, flagrantly flout a camp’s ban on cellphones and junk food, and consider summer an ideal time to give their offspring a secret vacation from Ritalin.

One camp psychologist said she used to spend half her time on parental issues; now it’s 80 percent. Dan Kagan, co-director of Bryn Mawr, has started visiting every new family’s home in the spring and calling those parents on the first or second day of camp to reassure them.

[…]

Read the rest here: Dear Parents: Please Relax, It’s Just Camp

Parents Can Help Ease the Burden By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday

Parents Can Help Ease the Burden By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday

See also: 20080719 Mom's House, Your Responsibility by Mara Lee, Special to The Washington Post

http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/2008/07/moms-house-your-responsibility-by-mara.html

Related: Business and Economics, Business and Economics Wills and Estates, Children Parenting and Intergenerational studies, Real Estate, Real Estate property management

By Mara Lee Special to The Washington Post Saturday, July 19, 2008; F02

There are things parents can do to make it easier for their children to handle their affairs after they die or if they should become unable to manage them.

Most important: Tell them where everything is. Where's your will? Where do you have bank accounts, stock holdings or safety deposit boxes? Where are those statements? Where are your tax records? Your utility bills?

Read the rest here: Parents Can Help Ease the Burden