Monday

Monday Miscellany

Whew. Whatta weekend. Our high school produced The Sound of Music. Abbie (16) was Liesl, Meg (9) played Marta, and Tess (5) played Gretl. On top of that, my son Alex (17) performed the role of Franz, the butler. It was really neat. The kids worked hard for almost three months, and it came together for a wonderful weekend. Things got harried yesterday, when Tess woke up with a fever and other signs of the illness that put Max (7) down for two days last week, combined with a houseful of guests that kept things loud, but the Sunday performance went great. It blew me away (Friday, not so much). The musical experience by itself made the exigencies of raising a large family worth it. I wish I could post good pictures, but all I have at this time are two flawed pictures from my phone. They're below. * * * * * * * Do you feel that everything is just fine here, that the State hasn't gotten out of control, that freedoms are entirely in tact? Well, you're delusional, but no matter. Check out this little anecdotal evidence to the contrary: North Carolina threatened a man with "practicing engineering without a license" for putting together a report that disputed the conclusions of the state engineers with respect to a road project. How do you make sure such stuff doesn't happen in the future? If you merely fire the man who abused his power in this way, there's a chance some other small-souled man will take over the position. You get rid of the licensing requirements altogether and use private credentialing firms instead. (And yes, the same would apply to the legal profession.) * * * * * * * Felon search. Pretty wild. I live in a staid community, but there are a dozen felons within a mile of me. To be honest, I have mixed emotions about such services. Some of the felons listed are senior citizens. Are they really a risk anymore? Do we need to make their ignominy so public? Yeah, maybe. Again, I have mixed emotions, but bottom line is, when I heard about the site, I went and checked it out. * * * * * * * Isn't this how I am Legend began? Flu breakthrough promises a vaccine to kill all strains. * * * * * * * The best line from my weekend reading comes from Walter Williams, writing about black education: "Some people take the position that we should repair not abandon failing schools. That's a vision that differs little from one that says that no black child's education should be improved unless we can improve the education of all black children." Link.