Unintended consequences

This shot is from NYT Green Inc on November 25, 2008. The story concerns the troubles that occur with the extra-long and extra-heavy wind turbines that are being transported to wind farms. One of the difficulties is that interstate highways have bridges that are too low to allow passage of these loads.

Another factor is the weight exceeding legal limits. In Lincoln, Illinois, the Lincoln Courier reports that a company was fined $20,000 by the state for being about double the limit. Comments to the story include the suggestion that the company employ a police escort for $100 to guide the delivery though the town. Truckers claimed the signage was misleading, and that's how they took a wrong turn. So, put up better signs or hire out a guide?

Hillary and Barack at Yearly Kos 2007

This is a test, in learning how to use Photobucket to post photograph on a blogsite. Perhaps this is how dw sends photos to his blog, obab.

I would like to center this, or make it smaller, still more to learn.

John Stauffer's "Giants" published Nov. 3, 2008

Thanks to B&N knowing that I purchase CW titles on my account, I received notice that a book signing would take place in the Skokie B&N store. Two of us from the CW book discussion group made it to the talk, where we learned lots about Lincoln and Frederick Douglass in a half hour or so.

Looking forward to reading the book, and learning more about their "parallel lives" which is the subtitle. Turns out that reading material was one thing they had in common, much before they ever chanced to meet. Stauffer challenged us to name six books: we came up with the Bible, Shakespeare, and the leading book on oratory [the Columbian Orator, full name], while he had to supply Aesop's Fables (a book by a slave about slaves), followed by the poetry of Robert Burns and Lord Byron. We were congratulated with being able to name so many!

In discussing his writing of this book, Stauffer brought in the similarity of Obama's use of oratory and performance skill. The obvious point to all, that Obama will acknowledge that he reads and is informed by Lincoln's writings, while not mentioning Douglass, whose influence Stauffer detects in Obama's words, was also discussed. Which thus becomes another hook to the potential readership for "Giants."

Big "D" Democracy in 1860

When reading the Brooks Simpson and Jean Berlin volume of Sherman's letters, Sherman's Civil War, when it was first published, I was not as cognizant of the feelings Americans held in respect to widespread voting. After dipping into the literature* of how political movements were bent on expanding and contracting the franchise laws in the various states, and after reading Sean Wilentz' 2005 book, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, I now understand the significance of the term as it was used by William T Sherman. *Reference: Alexander Keyssar, The Right to Vote (NY, 2000).

He certainly railed about the direction that Democracy was taking the country in his early letters as he bemoaned the government's lackadasical plans for arming the North. Having served in the South after leaving West Point, in Florida as well as Charleston and having made the trip that took him from Georgia to Alabama and back, Sherman returned to the South to establish the military academy in Louisiana whose students included sons of Bragg and Beauregard.

Unfortunately for Sherman's equanimity, he soon had cause to rail about the Press, rather than Democracy, and various reporters and editors became his target du jour.

But to return to the Wilentz book, for an engaging and thorough review of the parties as they formed, merged and morphed and for the role played by all the most important politicians as the changes occurred, an interested reader will do well with this volume to serve as an illumination for a complicated period in American political history.

July has come and gone (in a blur)

Taking advantage of enough frequent flier miles, I booked a week's stay in Los Altos to visit family. Our outings ranged from fireworks on the campus at Stanford to a visit to the Rodin Sculpture Garden to Roaring Camp steam railroad in the mountains toward the Pacific coast. All in all, a very enjoyable time.

The month closed with my daughter and her three children coming to Chicago for a few days. The modern digital astronomy shows at the Adler Planetarium kept us intrigued for a full day. Not zipping through the galleries as I have sometimes done previously, I noticed that the solar observatory on the grounds is operational and quite a neat addition to the gallery filled with large photos of astronomical entities and explanations of same.

That visit unexpectedly became a connection to a panel I heard while attending the Yearly Kos Convention at McCormick Place. Dr Sean Carroll presented a marvelous tale of the universe's composition - 5% the universe we know, 25% black matter, 70% black energy. (Hope I have these in the correct order.) This talk provided 1/3 of the content on the Scienceblog panel, which also included a speaker on defeating school boards whose members subscribe to extremist positions of teaching abstinence until marriage and creationism alongside evolution. Then I attended a Global Warming panel which opened up new avenues for sharing information, becoming informed, and even more active in ways that make a difference.

It seems the Kos name was a matter of convenience when the first convention was held last year. The next one will be called Network Nation. Being held where I could commute in daily made this one doable for me. Being able to see and hear seven Democratic candidates was definitely a draw. On top of that, I registered early enough so that I was seated in Obama's small group session. The Q&A was excellent.

That excitement carried me into August, and a return to Civil War reading.

Dixie Chicks documentary film: cheers and tears

Audiences watching "Shut Up and Sing" are in for an up-close and personal look at the drama that unfolded for three young singers who hardly expected a maelstrom to follow the simple observation that one of them made.

Just for comparison, I recall having a similar sentiment on November 23, 1963, the day President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. I knew that anyone from Texas was likely to be feeling badly if not guilty. A family friend at the time certainly showed that on her face.

Fast forward to 2003 and a young woman reveals that she is embarrassed that President Bush is from her home state. Why? Because of his decision to roll into Iraq at that very time. The remark is picked up by the print press and cable television, and the career of the Dixie Chicks spirals downward.

Even though the remark was made in Shepherds Bush, England, it reverberated around the world, most tellingly through the world of country music.

A triumphant return engagement in Shepherds Bush in 2006 brings the documentary to a rousing close. The years between are fraught with family issues and career plans: just what can the trio, their manager, their family members and all their employees do to cope with the reality that their old familiar audience is never going to be the same for them.

As a social commentary, "Shut Up and Sing" is excellent. It has a speeded up quality that seems to reflect the lives of the extended group. Most of all, media impact and the ill effects of media consolidation permeate this film. Rent it and just see how much your own heart strings will be twanged.

Suggested reading: Eric Klinenberg's Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media, Metropolitan Books, 2007.

Waiting for Barack...

After shifting from leg to leg and tapping my toes to LOUD music for over an hour, Sen Obama was still a no-show. Heard he was smoozing with the higher-powered devotees gathered at Union Station. I suppose he's often late to rallies, but I thought a "reception" might be a little different. Sigh...that's my donation for this quarter, and maybe for the calendar year!

There isn't a lot of choice for train connections in the late evening, and I'd decided that the 10:35 pm was preferable to the 12:25 am, so I ducked out without even seeing him. And I was close to the stage, too! So now I'll never know how it went. It gave me some consolation that Channel 2's reporter, Jay Levine, had to report for the late news (at 10) that Obama hadn't arrived yet. I'll just have to make do with having read his June 5 speech to the ministers at Hampton. It is an excellent speech. He makes the most of an incident, turning the tag line into a theme that I hope inspired his audience.

Here it is at Truthout.