Terra Extraneus

Here’s a fascinating webpage with images of 54 famous trials, and links to hundreds of additional pages of info about each of them. One Oklahoma trial is included. Can you guess which one? (Answer below)

The 54 trials start with the trial of Socrates, 399 B.C., and end with the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the 9-11 terrorist. The website was created by Douglas Linder, a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. (Answer to Oklahoma question: the 1997 trials of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.)

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On Christmas evening, we went to the movies to see The Great Debaters. I offered my review of that great film in my previous post. While I was standing in the concession line at the theater that night, a fist fight broke out, which led to an unexpected outburst of Christmas cheer. I wrote about it on Joshua One, the other blog Rod Heggy and I write. See: Mall Fist Fight Prompts Outbreak of Christmas Spirit

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President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on this date, Nov. 22, in 1963. I was a fifth-grader in Omaha, Neb., 10 years old, when Kennedy was shot down in the streets of Dallas. The event made a lasting impression on me, as it did most members of my generation. It has popularly been observed that we who were alive then can remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we first heard the shocking news.

Nov. 22 became a special date on the calendar, joining other fateful dates such as June 6 (“D-Day”) and Dec. 7 (Pearl Harbor). However, more than four decades later, the historical significance of today’s date occurred to me today for the first time only this afternoon. I had to look it up to confirm my memory that this is indeed the date I suddenly realized it was. I heard no mention of JFK on the radio during my 20-minute drive to work this morning; nor have I heard him mentioned today in conversation. Looking now on the Internet, I do see several dozen media references to Kennedy’s assassination, but it is not one of today’s top stories.

I think it is fair to say that the impact of the Kennedy assassination is diminishing in our collective consciousness. That, I suppose, is inevitable. How many know the date upon which Lincoln was shot (Good Friday, April 14, 1865)? How many know even the names of the other two presidents beside Lincoln and Kennedy who were assassinated (Garfield and McKinley)? Kennedy’s youthfulness and charisma were compelling, and his image acquired a near-godlike aura after his martyrdom. However, all these years later, when the public was asked earlier this year to rank the 11 presidents since World War II, Kennedy still ranks high on the list, but only third after Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

Each generation has its notable dates. In the early 21st century it is “9/11,” a calendar reference that the public will not forget for a very long time to come. Of course, four decades ago I might have guessed that the public would never forget what happened on Nov. 22, 1963. But a lot can happen in forty years.

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Charles Hill at Dustbury does the math to establish that it cost him 59 cents/mile to drive a new car for six years. (Dustbury fans know that Hill recently said a tearful goodbye to his old car, after an auto-deer highway collision, and is now tooling around town in a newer model).

Hill’s calculations are based on his expenses from 2000-2006, during which he estimated that gasoline cost an average of $2/gallon, and he got 24 miles/gallon. Today, of course, gasoline is right around $3/gallon. So that’s going to up the ante even more, right? Well, actually, in Hill’s formula, the extra dollar per gallon would increase his cost only 4 cents/mile. That’s based on about 9300 miles/year.

One conclusion from above: The higher cost of gas is not as big a deal in the whole scheme of things as it may seem. Most of our driving expense is tied up in the cost of the car. Here’s how it breaks down in Hill’s numbers: 52%: automobile, 22%: insurance, 14%: gasoline, 12%: tax, tag, repairs, miscellaneous.

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Try: www.zillow.com. (Hat tip: Dustbury).

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Second only to the inspired words of the Holy Bible, the Declaration of Independence is the most important document ever written. It has just 1338 words and was originally contained on a single large sheet of parchment. Today we celebrate the 230th anniversary of one of the most important days in human history. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1776, 56 men representing the 13 British colonies of North America attached their signatures to that great Declaration.

By declaring their independence from Britain, the colonists simultaneously were declaring that a new nation had been born, “the United States of America.” The patriots had already been at war with England for a year when they signed that historic document. The fighting would continue for another seven years until the last British troops left New York City in 1783.

The world changed on that day. New ideas about equality and freedom and individual civil rights had been bravely proclaimed. New ideas about the relationship between a government and its citizens, and how God figures into that formula, had been laid out in clear, bold, brilliant statements.

On Independence Day, we celebrate the most important document ever written and the courageous decision of our founding fathers to stake their very lives on the ideas it professed. It would do us well, today and everyday, to remember what those ideas are. That all men are created equal. That men and women have rights given to them by God that no person and no government has the right to take away. That government exists to serve its citizens, and not the other way around.

The Declaration concludes with these words: “For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” Let each of us take the same pledge.

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Here is the full text of the Declaration of Independence.

Here is an essay by Brian Stone of An Audience of One, who was a history teacher for more than 20 years, on the importance of the Declaration.

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I had to come to work today in downtown Oklahoma City — on the Monday that keeps the weekend now past and Independence Day tomorrow from being a leisurely four-day weekend.

I didn’t really give it any thought until I pulled into our downtown parking garage. It is a nine-level garage that fills to capacity on most mornings. This morning the garage was mostly empty and I had my pick of parking spaces. That’s what soured me a little on working today.

Of the Seven Deadly Sins, I guess my problem is not sloth, but envy.

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Heavy cell phone use linked to brain tumors. The Swedish study defines heavy use as 2,000 hours or more cumulative lifetime — which equals an hour/day for 5-1/2 years.

I hate talking on the phone. Probably average 10 minutes a day tops on the cell phone. Even at that low level, I’ll hit 2,000 hours in 33 years. That’s OK for me, I didn’t get my first cell phone until my late 40s. But kids who start out at age 10 or 12 with their own phones and spend hours a day in the yakosphere may be in for trouble. An hour a day starting at age 12 will put a kid in the danger zone before age 18.

Kids (and other humans) need to yack less and blog more. Carpal tunnel is better than a brain tumor.

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For the first time, I’m getting telemarketing calls on my cell phone. What a nuisance. So I have just registered on the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call list.

At first I wasn’t sure if this “Do Not Call” site was legit – or just another telemarketing scheme. So I checked on the FTC site, and as you see, the above site is referenced on this page: “Q&A: The National Do Not Call Registry.”

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Category: Mental Health
Something profound from an arts and crafts teacher answering a question in a radio interview. The question: at a time when we all complain that we are busier than ever, why is the popularity of arts and crafts on the upswing, and how do people find the time. Her answer:
“The busier you are, the more important it becomes to do things that can’t be rushed.”
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Category: Left-Wing Conspiracy
High of 71. That’s the forecast for today, Dec. 27, 2005, in Oklahoma City. Those left-wing conspirators are so sinister in their machinations that they have found a way to actually increase the temperature by several degrees, just to fool us into believing in global warming.

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