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The New York Times is carrying an unusually in-depth story "What Happened to the Girls in Leroy? on an epidemic of twitching, stuttering, and tics among the high-school girls of a small town in upstate New York.
The reporter didn't go there, but I couldn't help noticing strong parallels to what we know about the run-up to the Salem witch trials. The symptoms reported from LeRoy are very like the "sickness of astonishment" which, in the belief context of Puritan Massachusetts in the 1690s, led to accusations of witchcraft and the torture and hanging of twenty people.
Today's verdict on the epidemic in LeRoy matches what historians generally believe about the causes of the Salem witch trials. Mass hysteria – or, in more modern clinical language, an epidemic of "conversion disorder" in which psychological stressors turn into physical symptoms through unconscious neurological mechanisms that are not yet well understood.
What is yet more interesting, but not as closely examined by the reporter as it should have been, is the secondary illness the girls induced in the community around them. Parents reaching for explanations in Salem in 1692, living within a strongly religious world-view, seized on Satan and hostile witchcraft to explain the twitching, stuttering, and tics. The parents of Leroy, in a more secular world, instantly invented an equally unfalsifiable explanation – one which tells us a great deal about the native insanities of our own time.
Yes, it's 2012, and trace chemical pollutants have become the new witchcraft.
They're perfect for the role. Because they're believed to be able to cause harm in sub-microgram amounts, absence of evidence can never be evidence of absence. They're just like Puritan sinfulness – if you don't find them, it's because you're not looking hard enough. Worse, your failure to find witchcraft pollutants can and will be taken as evidence that you are in league with Satan the polluters.
By the time Erin Brockovich and a media posse come to your town (which actually happened in Leroy, yes) rationality is out the window. Nobody has the capability or the desire to confront the actual demons haunting these children – the long dying of the town's economy and pride, fraying trust networks, disintegrating neighborhoods, absent or abusive parents – so hate and fear is displaced onto "chemicals" and unspecified but sinister corporations who might as well be standing in for the Princes of Hell.
I've written before that environmental panics often seem like a sort of sorcerer hunt – a frenzy for finding someone to blame, a human cause that can be punished so that we can evade the truth of our ignorance of and powerlessness over impersonal causes. The Leroy case illustrates this exceptionally well – and it shows us something else as well. When those causes might in fact be partly under human control – when our children are ill and failing because we have failed them – the frenzy can get even worse.


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17 May 2012
Antheraea polyphemus
Last week I received an email from a good friend and fellow lepidoptera enthusiast, who asked if I would like to have some cocoons of the Polyphemus moth. I hesitated only a few milliseconds before replying in the affirmative, and several hours later was at her home, where she presented me with a grocery bag whose contents are depicted above, spread out on paper on our dining-area table.
Last summer my friend had raised Polyphemus caterpillars; in the autumn they had pupated by spinning cocoons amid the oak leaves they were feeding on. The cocoons are well camouflaged and are not easy to see in the photo above, but here's a good example -
The caterpillars pull some oak leaves together, then spin the cocoon. They overwintered during sub-zero days here in Wisconsin, and during this mid-spring day began their eclosion (emergence). I didn't photograph the process, because unlike with butterflies I couldn't tell when it would happen.
The cocoon is surprisingly firm, since the silk is glued together with a material that hardens; to get out, the adult moth secretes a digestive enzyme that melts a hole in the tip of the cocoon. The moth emerges in a "compressed" form with the wings tiny. He/she then seeks a surface from which to hang while the wings are inflated. This one is somehow managing to climb a plastic sheet (!) and is shown from the back -
- and from the side. From the lateral view you can see the distended abdomen which contains the body fluids that are pumped into the wings for inflation and which in the female contain the hundreds of eggs (already formed) which she will oviposit as soon as a male fertilizes them.
I didn't want to disturb the moth at this point in the process. The others I moved to a terrarium, where this one emerged and clung to an oak twig during this process.
The end result is an absolutely gorgeous creature - and a huge one (for an insect). I didn't think to take a photo with one on my hand, but if I had, the wingspan would have covered my palm. The one pictured below is resting on the railing of our screen porch, which is where we kept them while they emerged. This one is a male, identifiable by the elaborate structure of the antennae, which he uses to detect pheromones released by the females.
This view is particularly interesting because it shows that the four "spots" on the wings are actually translucent membranes. I'm not sure if that translucency offers any functional advantage, but the large spots on the hindwing are presumed by humans to serve as false "eyes" to startle or confuse potential predators.
Here's another freshly-emerged moth (I think a female with smaller antennae), resting on the carpet of the screen porch.
The morning after the first ones emerged, I took one across the street to show to neighbor children, who were enthralled. They took turns holding the giant silkmoth in their hands (it took two flattened child-size hands to hold one). As we talked about the moths (and how they have no mouthparts and thus cannot feed and will die in a couple days), the sun warmed the moth they were holding, and after a few prelimary flaps on their hands it gradually lifted itself into the air, then circled us at a low altitude, then soared over a housetop seeking a resting place until it would be time for its nocturnal search for a mate.
The name Polyphemus was applied to these moths in reference to a character from Greek mythology. The legendary Polyphemus was a giant, a son of Poseidon, who had one eye and was one of the Cyclopes.
For more on the legend of the Cyclops, scroll down to the next post, or click here.
And for a discussion of how to retrieve the silk from the moth cocoons, keep scrolling, or click here.
6 comments:
- Swift LorisMay 17, 2012 at 1:49 PM
What a smashing post, M'Stan. Just stunning. It should get some kind of award.
The photos are magnificent. And the last paragraph, about showing the moth to the kids, made the magic of the moment when the moth flew away so vivid, I had to wipe my eyes.
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Wouldn't a "progressive corporate profits" tax accomplish both penalty for excessive profits and subsidy for lean years?
With modern quarterly accounting, this form of corporate profits tax could be revenue neutralized with the corporate customers taxes within less than a year, in the case of oil companies, the "excess profits" could be returned to the general population through federal income tax reduction.
In lean years for the corporations, this would place a larger tax load on the citizens - possibly deepening a depressed spending trend. However, in fat years, it would return some of the windfall to the pockets where it fell from, preventing a consumer spending pullback. I think it is disengenuious to point out that the bulk of the oil company profits come from overseas when domestic retail sales are clearly grossing 50% more than a year ago - without those retail price increases, profits would not be as high as they are.
Setting the sliding scales for a progressive corporate tax would be an interesting exercise, corporations are not "one size for all" like individuals... In effect, current accounting rules already accomplish this sliding scale, allowing net operating loss and zero tax payment for corporations with billions in cash flow. The problem is that the maximum effective tax rate on gross corporate income is not very large, and therefore small incentive to blunt profit spikes.
The policy proposals coming out of Washington DC regarding high gasoline prices are quite discouraging. These range from futile (investigating price gouging and manipulation) to pathetic ($100 rebate) to bad (suspension of the gas tax) to even worse (price controls).
My study of transportation economics leads me to believe that there are policy options available to the US that are infinitely superior to those currently being considered. These options would not only exert downward pressure on gas prices, but also put money in peopleÔøΩs pockets, while reducing traffic congestion, global and local air pollution, road and parking costs, and costs related to accidents. In addition, all this can be achieved without raising taxes, increasing the budget deficit, building new refineries, drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, or replacing SUVs with hybrids.
This combination of benefits can be achieved because the US transportation sector is enormously inefficient in economic terms. In many respects, the transportation sector is the ÔøΩSoviet UnionÔøΩ of the US economy, regularly violating the fundamental micro-economic principle that the price of a product is efficient to the degree that it includes ALL costs in a VARIABLE (or marginal) manner. More than half the total cost of driving is either external (meaning that the cost is paid for by someone other than the motorist) or internal but fixed (meaning that the motorist pays the same price regardless of how much he/she drives). Variable internal costs (those paid by the motorist in proportion to how much he/she drives) make up only about 45% of total driving costs.
Neither external nor internal fixed costs are reflected in the price of driving, so motorists frequently receive a faulty signal that encourages some travel even though the true costs (external, internal fixed, and internal variable) of producing this travel is greater than the benefit. To put it differently, the true cost is more than what the driver would be willing to pay, if he/she were paying full freight. Overall, we would be better off if this marginal travel were not produced and consumed, and the savings spent on other goods and services of greater benefit. Incorporating external costs and internal fixed costs into the price of driving gives motorists market signals that encourage efficient behavior which, in turn, maximizes consumer benefit.
External costs can be included in the price of driving through what are known in economics as ÔøΩcorrectiveÔøΩ taxes. This is the justification of seemingly exorbitant gas taxes paid by drivers almost everywhere outside the US. There is widespread consensus among economists of all ideological stripes that higher gas taxes in the US are justified on efficiency grounds. The problem is political: higher gas taxes mean higher prices at the pump for already outraged driver/voters. Such proposals are political non-starters.
On the other hand, incorporating internal fixed costs into the price of driving can increase efficiency without inciting political opposition because drivers already pay for them. When these internal fixed costs are converted to variable costs, all drivers enjoy incentives to reduce driving of minimal benefit. As a result, aggregate miles traveled and gasoline demand decline, putting downward pressure on gas prices. In addition, motorists who do reduce their driving get to pocket the cost savings that result.
This situation is analogous to flat-rate water use fees. If consumers pay by the year and not for the amount of water used, no one faces any incentive to fix leaky faucets, to sweep the driveway instead of hosing it down, or to avoid over-watering the lawn. As a result, everyoneÔøΩs water usage goes up and aggregate consumption goes way up, along with water rates. When fees are changed to per-gallon basis, everyone has an incentive to use less resulting in lower water consumption and prices.
There are two areas in the transportation sector where internal fixed costs can be converted to more efficient variable costs: auto insurance and ÔøΩfreeÔøΩ employee parking at work.
Currently, car insurance is a fixed internal cost, sold on an ÔøΩall you can driveÔøΩ per year basis. William Vickery, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1996, proposed an alternative which bases premiums on miles driven in addition to existing rate factors such as age, gender, DUIs, accident history, location of residence, credit score, etc. Within any rating class, the less you drive the more you save, so every driver enjoys an incentive to reduce the number of miles they travel. Each driver decides which miles provide the least benefit and can be reduced with minimal pain, while preserving the option of driving when the perceived benefit is great.
ÔøΩFreeÔøΩ employee parking at work is similarly a fixed internal cost, although mostly invisible to the employee. Currently the compensation package for almost all US employees includes ÔøΩfreeÔøΩ parking at work. Of course, providing this parking is not free but has a cost of $50-100/month that reduces the employeeÔøΩs take-home pay. Effectively, the employee pays for his parking spot regardless of whether he drives and parks or not. The solution to this distortion is Parking Cash-Out. This means that commuters who are offered subsidized parking are also offered the cash equivalent if they use alternative travel modes. Each commuter decides how to get to work, but those who choose to walk, bike, carpool or ride transit can now pocket the parking cost savings that occur.
Just how big are the effects of these two proposals? It is estimated that a 6-cent per-mile auto insurance incentive would reduce total miles traveled by roughly 10%, while Parking Cash-Out typically reduces single occupancy vehicle work commuting by 10-30%
The beauty of these proposals is that they are truly ÔøΩwin-winÔøΩ, in that the increase in consumer welfare is truly a net economic benefit, not merely a transfer from one group in the economy to another. In addition to reducing the price of gasoline, and putting money in peopleÔøΩs pockets, these proposals would also benefit motorists and non-motorists alike in numerous ways: Collision costs, injuries and deaths would be reduced because all drivers would be traveling less and getting in fewer accidents, and crash-prone drivers would face particularly high per-mile incentives. Car ownership would be more affordable, as insurance is converted from an ownership cost to an operating cost. There would be less traffic congestion, especially at rush hour due to Parking Cash-Out; less global and local air pollution; and reduced road and parking costs. Low-income drivers would be able to purchase only as much insurance as they need, no longer forced to choose between driving uninsured and buying prohibitively expensive unlimitedÔøΩmileage coverage.
As you can see, the US does enjoy policy options that are superior to those being offered by politicians and in the press. Do you know of any policy-makers who would be interested in these ideas?
If you are interested in transportation economics, please see www.vtpi.org
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Chrysler Group unveiled its much-needed new small car, the Dodge Dart small car at the Detroit auto show Monday. The car is expected to go on sale later this year at prices starting at about $16,000. Official fuel economy estimates aren't available, yet.
The Dart is based on engineering shared with Italy's Fiat, Chrysler's parent company.
It will be built in Chrysler's Belvidere, Ill., factory. It will go on sale with a base price of $15,995.
Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne conceded at a press conference later Monday that the company won't make a lot of money at that price for the stripped down model. But he's betting that buyers drawn in by the low price will add options. "You start shopping there and by the time you finish, maybe you'll pay more," he said.
The Dart is adapted from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta sold in Europe, but it's wider and longer to better suit American tastes.
It will be available with three engine choices: 2.0-liter and 2.4-liter 4-cylinder engines and a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine.
The only small car Dodge sells now is the Caliber, a model that Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has said is not competitive.
"To call the Caliber a retail vehicle would be an abomination," Marchionne said during a meeting with reporters at last year's Detroit Auto Show.
Chrysler Group, which makes Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles, has been partnered with Fiat since emerging from bankruptcy in the summer of 2009.
In June, the U.S. Treasury Department sold its last remaining stake in Chrysler to Fiat. Providing Chrysler with a small, fuel-efficient car based on Fiat engineering was one of Treasury's requirements before the Italian automaker could take its majority stake in the company.


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Victor Davis Hanson on America: Decline or Renaissance? *UPDATED*
I did something very nice yesterday: I attended a luncheon at which Victor Davis Hanson spoke. I've read his work for years, and knew that I would be in the presence of an intellectual giant. Hanson is an expert in both Classic and military history (not to mention Classic military history). He is also an acute observer of the American political and social scene.
There's always a risk going in that a Classics scholar's delivery will dry and dusty, and heavily larded with Latinisms and allusions to long-forgotten historic figures known only to those who have studied them closely. Hanson is not that scholar. Instead, he is the professor you always wished you could have had in college.
Hanson is a focused speaker who uses his unusually wide body of knowledge to support a carefully constructed, well-thought out narrative. He doesn't waste words. He also doesn't use sesquipedalian words to impress — nor does he need to. He's impressive enough speaking in straightforward English. (And yes, it was my little joke to use a ridiculously long word to highlight the fact that Hanson eschews ponderous obfuscation. Yup. Another little — very little — joke.)
So what did Hanson speak about? He spoke about the cusp on which America now finds herself. On the one hand, we see a world in disarray, both at home and abroad. On the other hand, America still towers over other nations when it comes to her people, her resources, and her accomplishments. If America is unable to succeed it will be because we will have followed in the path of other successful nations that disintegrated from within.
Hanson opened by detailing all the facts that should have responsible people worried. The situation abroad his grim. In 2008, Barack Obama promised direct dialog with the North Koreans, Syria, and Iran. Since that time, North Korea has produced a video imagining a joyful future in which North Korea destroys us with a nuclear attack; Syria is in the midst of a bloody civil war, with both sides hating America only slightly less than they hate each other; and Iran gleefully thumbs its nose at the world as it continues work on its nuclear arsenal.
Even as the world's bad actors — Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, etc. — work to buff their nuclear credentials, Obama is showing his post-election flexibility by promising Russia that America will unilaterally downsize her nuclear arsenal. Those countries within the geographic radius of predatory nuclear nations are (rightly) becoming extremely worried.
In the Middle East, Obama has embraced a bifurcated policy. On the one hand, he leads from behind so that countries such as Egypt, Mali, and Libya can fall into the hands of radical Islamists. On the other hand, his visceral dislike for Netanyahu and Israel gives him an aggressive stance towards that small, democratic nation.
Not only has the Nobel-prize winning President failed to bring about world peace, he's presided over some of the worst killing in America's recent wars. Obama has overseen the deaths of as many American troops in four years as George Bush did in eight (not that we hear anything about that from the media). Moreover, the same president who said that it was inhumane and immoral to waterboard three known terrorists has recently announced that he has the unilateral power to use drones to kill American citizens.
I was gratified to hear Hanson make the same point I made during George Bush's presidency — that his "wild man" persona, no matter how ill-deserved, was an effective deterrent to thugs, because they did not know how he would act under provocation. Obama, though, brings absolutely reliability to the process: When the chips are down . . . he does nothing. This means, Hanson says, that "we're in a very dangerous period abroad." Oh, joy.
Things at home aren't any more cheerful. Hanson, who has an impressive mastery of facts, ran through those gloomy numbers and statistics about the debt, the deficit, the unemployment rate, and the usually flat, but occasionally shrinking, economy.
The only bright spot in Obama's America is the Left's/media's relentless cheerfulness. Having embraced Obama, Hanson notes, the media also embraces a European style economy (not from the hip 60s, but from the decayed 2010s), and calls it good.
California, Hanson's home state and mine, looks equally grim. Although California has 1/6 of the total American population, it manages to support 1/3 of the nation's welfare recipients. Despite the highest teacher pay in the US, we're number 48 in public school education. (California was number 1 in the 1960s and very early 1970s.) And although Californians are forced to fork over the highest taxes in America, we have the worst infrastructure.
These facts are deeply depressing, but there is a bright side, and it's not that we're going European. It's that, if we can find the will, America still has the resources for greatness. To make this point, Hanson pivoted from focusing on the grim news we see in the news every day, and started identifying America's staggering resources.
Although the U.S. has 6% of the world's population, we produce 26% of the world's goods. One American worker is as productive as three Chinese workers.
Our military continues to be the wonder of the world. Even downsized (and Hanson emphasized during the question and answer period that sequestration would slow, rather than reverse, military growth), it will take a long time for other nations to catch up. Even one of our aircraft carriers (and we have eleven) is greater than the carrier strength of the other nations put together. Our problem when it comes to wars, isn't resources or our troop's abilities. It's the leadership's will to win, or lack thereof.
Despite the shabby state of our primary education system, and despite the political correctness that has destroyed liberal arts programs all over America, when it comes to the hard sciences, the US still leads in higher education. Of the top ten ranked universities in the world, eight are American. And of the top ranked fifteen, five of those are in California.
Either because of, or despite, our education system, America continues to lead the world in technological innovation. In that regard, California's own Silicon Valley, despite California's hostile business environment, is still one of the most important intellectual and electronic/technological hubs in the world.
We also lead the world when it comes to exporting our culture. Americans may be fascinated by a variety of indigenous cultures around the world, but everyone else wants to be American. They watch our movies, buy our clothes, listen to our music, mimic our military, copy our educational institutions, and love our food.
Our fundamental strength has long been and, for now, continues to be the fact that we are not a class-based society. Unlike all other countries (whether modern European ones, Latin American banana republics, or Eastern autocracies), people in America do not need the right social or familial connections, the right accent, the right university degree, or the right anything else to succeed. If they've got discipline and drive, they'll rise up, and if they add to that a touch of marketplace genius, the sky's the limit.
America's "room at the top" philosophy may explain why America is the only major nation left in the world with a positive demographic growth trend. Not only do immigrants want to come here, but people who live here still believe in having children. With our fertility rate at 2.1, we're still growing ever so slightly.
The same is not true for the rest of the world. In Japan, said Hanson, the stores sold more diapers last year for old people than they did for babies. All over Europe, countries have negative population growth. China still has 1 billion or so people, but the Chinese one-child policy has ensured that the future will see a dramatically shrunken population. Russia has more abortions than babies.
The Arab world and Iran are in even worse shape. Aside from a catastrophic demographic decline, if one takes away their oil (which is beginning to be tapped out) it turns out that they do not have functioning economies. They have no education, their misogyny means that 50% of their population cannot contribute to their economic well-being, and their controlling doctrine, even more than Islam, is nihilism. When they insist on a world-wide caliphate, they don't offer any positive vision about this new world. Instead, they threaten only destruction.
At the end of his talk, Hanson half-jokingly said that the Islamist line of argument is "Give us what we want, or we'll make you as miserable as we are." Part of America's diffidence in dealing with Islamists is that we're unwilling to suffer for short intervals, even if that limited suffering is what it takes to protect entirely us from Islamic nihilism.
The European Union is also a disaster. Not only is it going broke very quickly, it's completely undemocratic. Once accepted into the EU, countries must abide by its Kafka-esque bureaucratic rulings. Worse, once in, there is no mechanism for dissatisfied countries to leave. (When Hanson said that, it occurred to me that the EU is the governmental equivalent of a Roach Motel: countries check in, but they don't check out.)
Our wonderful Constitution, despite the current fights over the Second Amendment and the religious component of the First, is mostly intact. Because we have a simple, functioning Constitution, we are the most stable major nation in the world.
America is also fortunate that we have massive amounts of the two things that every society needs to survive: food and fuel. Even the Democrat's relentless attack on California's central valley (which sees vast swathes of land reduced to dust in order to protect the Delta Smelt), has not changed our status as the world's major food producer. Not only do we grow the most food, people like and want American food — it's clean, safe, and tasty.
We also lead the world in fossil fuel reserves. While the Arab lands are being pumped dry, American ingenuity means that, on private lands all over America, we are starting to produce meaningful amounts of oil and natural gas that can support us at home and leave enough to send abroad. If Obama would allow drilling on federal land, and if democrat-run states would allow drilling on their soil, we would have almost unimaginable amounts of cheap fuel. (Obama, amusingly, used the SOTU to boast about America's oil production, even as he conveniently forgot to tell the American people that this production is all on private land, since he and many Democrat governors have forbidden it on public land.)
America also continues to be the world's largest coal producer. [UPDATE: I erred when i said this. Please see a comprehensive correction here.] Surprisingly, given the Left's war on coal, it's still a money-maker. Even though the government is preventing its use at home, the rest of the world, especially Europe, is begging for more.
Given America's vast human and natural resources, why aren't we doing better? I can stop looking at my notes now, and quote directly from Hanson's latest article at National Review:
The gradual decline of a society is often a self-induced process of trying to meet ever-expanding appetites rather than a physical inability to produce past levels of food and fuel or to maintain adequate defense. Americans have never had safer workplaces or more sophisticated medical care — and never have so many been on disability.
By any historical marker, the future of Americans has never been brighter. The United States has it all: undreamed-of new finds of natural gas and oil, the world's preeminent food production, continual technological wizardry, strong demographic growth, a superb military, and constitutional stability.
Yet we don't talk confidently about capitalizing and expanding on our natural and inherited wealth. Instead, Americans bicker over entitlement spoils as the nation continues to pile up trillion-dollar-plus deficits. Enforced equality, rather than liberty, is the new national creed. The medicine of cutting back on government goodies seems far worse than the disease of borrowing trillions from the unborn to pay for them.
History has shown that a government's redistribution of shrinking wealth, in preference to a private sector's creation of new sources of it, can prove more destructive than even the most deadly enemy.
(You really should read the whole article, which is a pleasing amalgam of ancient history, mid-20th century trends, and our modern condition. It takes a truly great writer and thinker to blend those disparate elements so seamlessly and to arrive at a compelling conclusion.)
If the opportunity to hear Victor Davis Hanson comes your way, seize it. It's a great pleasure to be in the same room as a speaker who uses his education, knowledge, and intelligence to support fundamental American principles.


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ホーム > 作曲家 > 作曲家(クラシック) > ドミートリー・ショスタコーヴィチ (Dmitry Shostakovich)
Dmitry Shostakovich belongs to the generation of Russian composers trained principally after the Communist Revolution of 1917. He graduated from the Petrograd Conservatory as a pianist and composer, his First Symphony winning immediate favour. His subsequent career in Russia varied with the political climate. The initial success of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, based on Leskov and later revised as Katerina Ismailova, was followed by official condemnation, emanating apparently from Stalin himself. The composer's Fifth Symphony, in 1937, brought partial rehabilitation, while the war years saw a propaganda coup in the Symphony No. 7, 'Leningrad', performed in the city under German siege. In 1948 he fell afoul of the official musical establishment with his Ninth Symphony, thought to be frivolous, but he enjoyed the relative freedom following the death of Stalin in 1953. Shostakovich outwardly and inevitably conformed to official policy, but posthumous information suggests that he remained very critical of Stalinist dictates, particularly with regard to music and the arts. He occupies a significant position in the 20th century as a symphonist and as a composer of chamber music, writing in a style that is sometimes spare in texture but always accessible, couched as it is in an extension of traditional tonal musical language.
Stage Works
Katerina Ismailova remains the principal opera of Shostakovich, other notable works being the early opera The Nose, based on Gogol, and the ballet The Golden Age. Incidental music for the theatre includes scores for Shakespeare's Hamlet and for King Lear, the same two plays being among the films for which he wrote scores.
Orchestral Music
The 15 symphonies of Shostakovich range in scope from the First Symphony of 1925, a graduation composition, to the embittered Thirteenth, which uses Yevtushenko's poems. The Fourteenth, which contains settings of various poems, came two years before the Fifteenth and last symphony of 1971. The Fifth Symphony, the immediate post-war Ninth, and the Tenth of 1953 are most often heard, while the Second and Third, with the Eleventh and Twelfth, have more overtly patriotic suggestions about them.
Shostakovich wrote an early concerto for piano, trumpet and strings, and a second piano concerto in 1957 as a vehicle for his son, Maxim. He wrote two violin concertos and two cello concertos.
Shostakovich arranged concert suites from many of his film and theatre scores.
Choral and Vocal Music
Choral works by Shostakovich include The Execution of Stepan Razin, a setting of a text by Yevtushenko. His solo songs are generally less overtly political, evidence of a private rather than public voice.
Chamber Music
The 15 string quartets by Shostakovich form a remarkable body of work, lucid in texture, often moving in musical content. The intensely felt Viola Sonata of 1975 is the third of his duo sonatas, preceded by the 1934 Cello Sonata and the Violin Sonata of 1968. To these may be added two piano trios and the G minor Piano Quintet, written in 1944.
Piano Music
The piano music of Shostakovich includes, in addition to two piano sonatas, an ingenious set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, as well as an earlier set of 24 Preludes.


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Soulja Boy Car Accident -- Yeah, I Was Driving ... But SHE'S A RACIST!!!
Soulja Boy Car Crash Yeah, I Was Driving ... But SHE'S A RACIST!!!
Soulja Boy is finally admitting he was behind the wheel when his red Bentley got into a car accident Saturday night in Hollywood -- but the rapper insists ... the other driver isn't just at fault ... she's also a giant RACIST.
Soulja just released a video statement on YouTube, claiming the other driver "ran the light. Our light was green. We were going straight. She turned too fast, thought she was gonna make it, hit my car."
He adds, "You know what that was. That was some people trying to come up on some money ... I was going straight in line." Soulja also says the other driver was "racist" and accused him of driving a stolen vehicle.
People close to Soulja previously said the rapper wasn't driving -- his bodyguard was.
As for the Bentley, Soulja said it took the bigger beating in the accident -- and now, it's in the shop getting fixed. Soulja says it'll take about a week to repair.
As we reported, the other driver's husband claims Soulja ran the double line and smashed into their car. The accident is still under investigation.


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Fox Decides: Law Providing In-State Tuition To Some Students Regardless Of Immigration Status Is "Flawed"
Written by Adam Shah
Fox's supposedly "straight news" show, America's Newsroom, did a segment on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear a challenge to a California law that provides that students who attended California high school for at least three years and meet other requirements are eligible for in-state college tuition.
Anti-illegal immigration activists challenged the law in California courts, asserting that the statute conflicted with federal law because it did not have an exception barring illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition. The California Supreme Court upheld the law unanimously. The decision was written by Judge Ming W. Chin, who was appointed by former Republican Governor Pete Wilson (who was a strong supporter of the anti-illegal immigrant Proposition 187), and the opinion was joined by other Wilson appointees.
Anti-immigration activists were not satisfied, so they asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The high court refused to hear the case without any justice publicly stating his or her disagreement with the court's action.
Although there is no way to know why the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, it would only take the votes of four justices (say Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito) to hear the case.
Case closed, right?
Not if you're Fox News. America's Newsroom spent a five minute segment hosting Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) to attack the law. In the middle of the segment, the guest co-host of this supposedly "straight news" program, Alisyn Camerota, said to Bilbray: "It seems as though this law is flawed in a few ways." A few minutes later, as the segment was drawing to a close: "Well look, you've obviously made a very compelling case for what is wrong with the law. So why did the Supreme Court then endorse it yesterday?"
Not only that, but during the segment, a Fox News on-screen graphic slurred undocumented immigrants as "illegals."
Watch the segment:


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By: Joseph Jacobs, J. Guttmann
Franciscan monk, theologian, and scholiast; born at Dunston, North umberland, England (according to some, at Dun, Ireland), in 1266 (?); died in Cologne, 1308. He was the foremost representative of the Franciscan Order, and founder of the Scotists, which school stood in sharp contrast to the Thomists, or followers of Thomas Aquinas, who, together with their leader, belonged for the most part to the Dominicans.
In accordance with his opposition to the doctrinal speculations of Aquinas, Duns Scotus professed, concerning the attitude that the secular authorities and the Church should assume toward the Jews, views which were diametrically opposed to the more humane and enlightened views held by Aquinas, and which represented a deplorable reaction. Thus, whereas Aquinas denounced the forcible baptism of Jewish children, especially on the ground that such a course would be a violation of justice, inasmuch as the child, not being possessed of its full reasoning powers, is naturally under the jurisdiction of its parents (compare Guttman, "Das Verhältniss des Thomas von Aquino zum Judenthum und zur Jüdischen Literatur," p. 4, Göttingen, 1891), Duns Scotus stoutly advocated such baptism. Such a procedure, he maintained, would mean a breach of natural justice only in the event of its being undertaken by a private person; to the sovereign, however, the right appertains. Just as the jurisdiction of local magistrates is limited by the authority of higher functionaries, so the jurisdiction of the parents ceases when it conflicts with the authority of God. Accordingly, it is not only a privilege, but a duty to take children out of the power of their parents in case the latter are unwilling to bring them up conformably to a true worship of God, and to lead them in the right way (commentary in Sent. iv. 4, 9: "Opera," ed. Wadding, viii. 275, Lyons, 1639).
And not only the children, but also the parents themselves should be subjected to forcible baptism. Nor can the words of Isaiah (iv. 22), according to which the remnant of Israel shall be converted in the last days, be cited against such a procedure, since, in order to fulfil this prophecy, it would suffice to transfer a little band of Jews to some island, and to grant them permission to observe the Law.
Duns Scotus, in support of his contention, refers to the decision of the Council of Toledo, which commended King Sisebut for his piety in compelling the Jews to an acceptance of Christianity (ib.).
Duns Scotus' acquaintance with Hebrew literature was confined to the "Fons Vitæ" of Ibn Gabirol (whose name takes with him, as with William of Auvergne, the form of "Avicebron") and to the "Moreh Nebukim" of Maimonides. In one place he makes mention of a rabbi who is unknown even to the greatest scholars of Hebrew literature. He speaks there of one "Rabbi Barahoc," who is a worthy counterpart to the renowned "Rabbi Talmud"; for he is indebted for this name to the Talmud tractate Berakot, out of which a certain convert of Jewish extraction communicated a passageto a Franciscan monk, who interpreted it in a spirit not very friendly to the Jews ("Quæstiones Miscellaneæ," qu. 6, art. 21: "Opera," iii. 477).
Influence of Gabirol.The influence of Gabirol's philosophy shows itself particularly in the doctrine which is at the foundation of one of the most important differences between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. As early as Alexander of Hales, the founder of the Franciscan theological school, the view is expressed that not only corporeal, but also spiritual substance is compounded of matter and form. This view is held also by William of Lamarre, Bonaventura the Mystic, Roger Bacon, and Raimond Lully, who were all members of the Franciscan Order. Stoutly rejected by the Dominicans, this fundamental concept of Gabirol's philosophy was adopted by Duns Scotus and incorporated in his system as an integral part. In his "De Rerum Principiis" (qu. 8, art. 4: "Opera," iii. 51) he expressly declares, in opposition to Aquinas, in favor of a return to the standpoint of Avicebron.
The metaphysical and cosmological system which is advanced in this work, presupposes Gabirol's doctrine of a unitary, universal substance underlying all created things, both corporeal and spiritual. In elaborating this doctrine Duns Scotus, as might be expected of an independent thinker of his type, follows his own individual bent. But as regards the fundamental principles, the dependence of his system upon Gabirol is so marked that, in the words of Stöckl ("Gesch. der Philosophie des Mittelalters," ii. 808), "his work gives the impression of a running commentary on the metaphysics of Avicebron."
Strange to say, Duns Scotus makes no mention whatsoever of Gabirol's teaching on the will. In his other works, which are mainly in the nature of a commentary on the Bible, and in which, therefore, there is little occasion for a systematic substantiation of his theological doctrines, Duns Scotus rarely refers to Avicebron.
Influence of Maimonides.With Maimonides, too, Duns Scotus shows more than one point of contact. Like Thomas Aquinas, he follows the statements of Maimonides concerning belief and knowledge, or the relation of revelation and reason, which statements are all, in their essential points, traceable back to Saadia as their first source (see Guttmann, "Die Religionsphilosophie des Saadia," pp. 24-25; idem, "Das Verhältniss des Thomas von Aquino," etc., pp. 32 et seq.). "The doctrine concerning the existence and freedom of God," says Duns Scotus, referring to Maimonides, "had to be imparted to the Israelites by means of revelation, although it may indeed be demonstrated by human reason. Such a revelation was necessary in view of the fact that the culture of the Israelites was of an imperfect order, and also because they were inclined to idolatry" (comment. in Sent. i., dist. 2, qu. 3, 7, v. 294; compare "Moreh Nebukim," ii. 31). "Altogether, it can not but be helpful to a people that even truths accessible to reason should be authoritatively communicated to them; since there is a general indolence in regard to the discovery of truth, and the powers of comprehension of the average man are limited; and, finally, for the reason that errors are apt to creep into speculations independently carried on, giving rise to doubts. Through an authoritative communication or revelation such a danger is obviated" (Duns Scotus, ib. p. 295; compare "Moreh Nebukim," i. ch. xxxiv.; Munk, "Guide," i. 118-130).
In connection with Aquinas' statements concerning the divine attributes, Duns discusses the view of Maimonides, which he finds to be in harmony with that of Ibn Sina, and which is to the effect that the attributes applicable to God either refer to His activity or else are of a negative character (commentary in Sent. i., dist. 8, qu. 4, 2: "Opera," v. 751; compare "Moreh Nebukim," i. ch. li., liii. et seq.). To Maimonides also is traceable the statement that there occur in the Bible designations that are applicable only to God—a view which the Jews held in regard to the Tetragrammaton (comment. in Sent. i., dist. 22, qu. 1, 3: "Opera," v. 1053; compare "Moreh Nebukim," i. ch. lxi.; Munk, "Guide," i. 271 et seq.).
Duns Scotus follows Maimonides also in his treatment of the various forms of prophecy, not to mention other less important particulars. The highest form of prophecy is, according to him, that in which the prophet not only grasps the revelation that comes to him, but is also aware of its coming to him from God. Of this character was, for instance, the intuition of Abraham, who would not have been ready to sacrifice his own son had he not been convinced that the command proceeded from God ("Quæst. Miscell." 6, 8: "Opera," iii. 474; compare "Moreh Nebukim," iii. ch. xxv.; Munk, "Guide," iii. 194-195). On the other hand, Duns Scotus combats the opinion that the temporal character of the world can not be proved—an opinion held by Aquinas, and borrowed by the latter from Maimonides, whom Duns does not mention ("Quæstiones in Metaphys." qu. 1, 13: "Opera," iv. 513; compare "Moreh Nebukim," ii. ch. xxi.; Munk, "Guide," ii. 269).
- Guttmann, Die Beziehungen des Johannes Duns Scotus zum Judenthum, in Monatsschrift, 1894, xxxviii. 26-39;
- idem, Die Scholastik des Dreizehnten Jahrhunderts in Ihren Beziehungen zum Judenthum und zur Jüdischen Literatur, Breslau, 1902.


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23 thoughts on "Black Hat 2008: What's Next For Firefox Security"
Whoa, noscript in the core? That would be seriously awesome and bypass some of the dance the extension has to do to get it to work (though ff3 improved things). I wonder if they're going to make adblock+ features more integrated — blocking things from known-bad and user-defined hosts would be much easier that way. in fact, that could replace the first few extensions that I install before I actually use the browser…
She's kind of cute. :)
uh… black hat?
more like black face… am i rite? -
@joesph-walton: congratulations, you're a racist.
This chic can overflow my buffers any time..
This chic is hot like fajita meat..
..Goes to start bug hunting in Mozilla code…
@tjhooker: congratulations you are a sexist, and both of you are douchebags.
identifying race is racist. thank you. this is useful information.
Uh… seriously: What role does the race play here? If you said "None", you got it right.
Now, adding security is a good thing. But IMHO the mozilla project should also pay attention to quite some other things, e.g. stability, speed, memory consumption, protection against badly written extensions and plugins, proper multithreading, …
@Anonymous/#5: Identifying a back person as "black face" isn't racist, under any context? Wow, I need to go retake linguistics if that isn't racist.
[tjhooker]: she has a pretty and black face, and those are valid observations. your objection is inappropriate.
what you seem to be objecting to is the _mention_ of and idea of conciousness about skin color, spurred by a common-sense connection between article title and picture. you call that racist, despite the lack of any judgment on any property of the person so far beside the compliment.
this isn't vaudville "black face" impersonation. this isn't that context. in another context, calling you a canine would be a prelude to violence and showing the sole of my foot a digusting display of disrespect.
any physical response can be justified if intent is deemed equivalent to imaginary offense. however, they are not the same. so until you actually _ask_ whether [joesph-walton] had ulterior meanings, try not assigning some of your own for irrelevant purposes.
an attractive young female the knows code? the odds are good that the goods are odd.
The person directly associated it with the fact "black" was in the name of the event she attended, and then followed it with "more like black face… am i rite?".
This isn't rocket science, or even advanced linguistics.
I'd like to throw down some triple syllable words to really set it in stone, but it's just racism under every context of ever written and spoken language. Excusing it is kind of instigating trolling and repetitive explanations of core language skills.
Matasano Security is the firm that 'accidentally' leaked the DNS exploit details on their blog and then pulled it down and apologized, saying they meant to "only post it after someone ELSE leaked it", right?
great…now firefox is gonna get a LeakThis! button right next to the Home button that autoposts stuff from your email account to your blog with no confirmation.
Who the hell cares.
She's more of a mocha color.
Diversity fucking rules, I'm sure any of you would drink her up like a hot lil' latte, so quit talking shit.
Putting aside testostorone, why the hell hasn't this happened sooner lol?
I was bored. That's the only reason I pointed it out. Seeing people excuse something so obvious was what made me make more responses.
She's the co-founder of one of the consultant firms they're bringing in.
"but it's just racism under every context of ever written and spoken language"
You're in fucking outer space. Are there no black people there? Must not be, or you'd have heard things in unbigoted context.
@13: How the hell is this bigotry?
Like I said this isn't advanced linguistics. The way they phrased it doesn't fit any other context. If it does then please enlighten me on what that is, using the whole context, and not just a fragment.
Like I said, the context is so blunt/obvious that by conjuring excuses you're doing nothing but trolling; frivolously at that.
@14: I agree, I did use too much sexual innuendo.
Too bad political correctness isn't used on ALL things politically incorrect here. I'm sure you calling me out on my first post is a bit hypocritical given stuff you've posted on the net before.
oh, now racism isn't bigotry. i need to update my dictionary, it was published before 1984.
@17: Perhaps go back to grade school and take literature classes, or even introduction to english, too.
I was clearly addressing the "or you'd have heard things in unbigoted context" statement towards me.
What's funny is you actually in turn agreed that racism is being used, but sadly do to your poor interpretation/reading skills you labeled me as a racist(hopefully it won't be terrorist next(
Did anyone else notice that FireFox's Security Chief is a Fox?
They should really take a peek at some of the work Ronald van den Heetkamp has done with Opera and javascript wrappers…
I don't want noscript in mozilla's hands, it's better that it's independent and constantly tweaked by enthusiast rather than in control of google-lovers who might have an interest to at some point allow some stuff we the user would not want to allow.
0nce too much is under some central control the road to disaster is nicely paved. -
I've started looking all around for this specific information. Fortunately my partner and i noticed it on Msn.
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CHALKER et al. v. BIRMINGHAM & N. W. RY. CO. et al.
39 S.Ct. 366
63 L.Ed. 748
CHALKER et al.
BIRMINGHAM & N. W. RY. CO. et al.
No. 283.
Argued March 25 and 26, 1919.
Decided April 21, 1919.
Messrs. C. E. Pigford, of Jackson, Tenn., and Watson E. Coleman, of Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs in error.
Mr. R. F. Spragins, of Jackson, Tenn., for defendants in error.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 523-525 intentionally omitted]
Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.
The point for determination is the liability of J. W. Wright, Jr., a citizen and resident of Alabama with his chief office therein, who engaged in the business of constructing a railroad in Tennessee, for the tax prescribed by section 4 of 'An act to provide revenue for the state of Tennessee and the counties and municipalities thereof,' approved May 1, 1909 (Acts of Tenn. 1909, c. 479, pp. 1726, 1727, 1735), which provides:
'Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, that each vocation, occupation, and business hereinafter named in this section is hereby declared to be a privilege, and the rate of taxation on such privilege shall be as hereinafter fixed, which privilege tax shall be paid to the county court clerk as provided by law for the collection of revenue.
* * *
'Each foreign construction company, with its chief office outside of this state, operating or doing business in this state, directly or by agent, or by any subletting contract, each, per annum, in each county . . . $100.00
'Each domestic construction company and each foreign construction company, having its chief office in this state, doing business in this state, each, per annum, in each county . . . $25.00
'The above tax shall be paid by persons, firms, or corporations engaged in the business of constructing bridges, waterworks, railroads, street-paving construction work, or other structures of a public nature.'
Replying to the claim that the statute in effect discriminates against citizens of other states the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in Wright v. Jackson Const. Co., 138 Tenn. 145, 152, 153, 196 S. W. 488, 490, said:
'The determining feature in the legislation quoted is the having of one's chief office in this state. Any citizen of this state, as well as any citizen of a foreign state, who has his chief office out of the state, must pay the $100 tax; so of any domestic corporation, as well as foreign corporation, having its chief office out of the state. Any foreign corporation or citizen of another state, or firm, as well as domestic corporations, citizens of this state, and firms of this state having its or their chief office in this state, are all alike entitled to carry on a railroad construction business here on the payment of $25. There is no discrimination at all.'
With this conclusion we are unable to agree. Accepting the construction placed upon it by the Supreme Court, we think the quoted section does discriminate between citizens of Tennessee and those of other states by imposing a higher charge on the latter than it does on the former, contrary to section 2, art. 4, of the federal Constitution:
'The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.'
The power of a state to make reasonable and natural classifications for purposes of taxation is clear and not questioned; but neither under form of classification nor otherwise can any state enforce taxing laws which in their practical operation materially abridge or impair the equality of commercial privileges secured by the federal Constitution to citizens of the several states.
'Excise taxes, it is everywhere conceded, may be imposed by the states, if not in any sense discriminating; but it should not be forgotten that the people of the several states live under one common Constitution, which was ordained to establish justice, and which, with the laws of Congress, and the treaties made by the proper authority, is the supreme law of the land; and that that supreme law requires equality of burden, and forbids discrimination in state taxation when the power is applied to the citizens of the other states. Inequality of burden, as well as the want of uniformity in commercial regulations, was one of the grievances of the citizens under the Confederation; and the new Constitution was adopted, among other things, to remedy those defects in the prior system.' Ward v. Maryland, 12 Wall. 418, 431 (20 L. Ed. 449); Guy v. Baltimore, 100 U. S. 434, 439, 25 L. Ed. 743; Blake v. McClung, 172 U. S. 239, 254, 19 Sup. Ct. 165, 43 L. Ed. 432; Darnell & Son v. Memphis, 208 U. S. 113, 121, 28 Sup. Ct. 247, 52 L. Ed. 413.
As the chief office of an individual is commonly in the state of which he is a citizen, Tennessee citizens engaged in constructing railroads in that state will ordinarily have their chief offices therein, while citizens of other states so engaged will not. Practically, therefore, the statute under consideration would produce discrimination against citizens of other states by imposing higher charges against them than citizens of Tennessee are required to pay. We can find no adequate basis for taxing individuals according to the location of their chief offices—the classification, we think, is arbitrary and unreasonable. Under the federal Constitution a citizen of one state is guaranteed the right to enjoy in all other states equality of commercial privileges with their citizens; but he cannot have his chief office in every one of them.
It is insisted that no tender of any sum for license tax was made in time, and therefore plaintiff in error cannot question the validity of the enactment because of discrimination. But the Supreme Court expressly declared that the statute fixed the liability of Wright at $100. A tender of less would have availed nothing and it was therefore unnecessary.
The judgment of the court below is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.
The following state regulations pages link to this page.


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Jewish World Review August 28, 2003/ 30 Menachem-Av, 5763
Ann Coulter Liberal arguments: Still a quagmirehttp://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Liberals are hopping mad about the war with Iraq. Showing the nuance and complexity of thought liberals pride themselves on, they are excitedly restating all the arguments they made before the war -- which arguments were soundly rejected by the American people, the U.S. Congress and the Bush administration. Before the war, they said Saddam Hussein -- their favorite world leader behind Jacques Chirac -- was not a threat to America's interests in the region, was not developing weapons of mass destruction, and did not harbor terrorists. Now that we've taken the country and are uncovering mass graves, canisters of poison gases, victims of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and colonies of terrorists, liberals are claiming the war created it all. Thus, an op-ed piece in The New York Times recently proclaimed: "America has taken a country that was not a terrorist threat and turned it into one." This was written by Jessica Stern of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (Motto: "Where mediocre students pay exorbitant sums to say they went to Harvard"). You can't win with these people. The termites are swarming out into the light of day, and liberals are blaming the exterminator. Liberals simply refuse to consider thoughts that would interfere with their lemming-like groupthink. They hold their hands over their ears like little children who don't want to listen to mother. Yes, perhaps there are important textural differences between secular Saddam loyalists and Islamic crazies -- though it's a little odd to be lectured on nuance from people who can grasp no difference whatsoever between Bill O'Reilly and Jesse Helms. But as George Bush said: You are with the terrorists or you are with America. Now we're getting a pretty clear picture of who is with the terrorists. As George Patton said, I like when the enemy shoots at me; then I know where the bastards are and can kill them. But liberals are indignant for every day that we haven't turned a barbaric land into Vermont. They were willing to give Stalin 36 years for the awkwardness of his revolution. We have essentially imposed a revolution on Iraq -- and liberals give us a month to work out the bugs. U.S. forces in Baghdad say that Iraq is well on its way to establishing American-style representative democracy and might even be holding its first free elections in less than a year. Within three years the Iraqi people could be recalling their first governor. Indeed, the war is going so well that now liberals have to create absurd straw-man arguments no one ever uttered in order to accuse the Bush administration of horrible miscalculations. Amid her sneering, PMS-induced anger toward the Bush administration, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd claimed the Bush administration was "shaken" to discover "the terrible truth: Just because we got Odai and Qusai, Iraqi militants are not going to stop blowing up Westerners." I'd love to see the quote where anyone in the Bush administration -- anyone in the universe -- said that. Admittedly, Republicans were not mourning the deaths of Odai and Qusai the way Democrats were, but only a moron would think that killing these two monsters would mark the end of the war on terrorism. Normandy didn't end World War II. That didn't make it a failure. MacArthur was still in Tokyo straightening out Japan in 1950 -- five years after V-J Day. Not only was Japan an advanced and ethnically unified country, but U.S. forces also made things easier for MacArthur by killing several million of the most militant anti-American Japanese during World War II. Paul Bremer doesn't have this advantage in Iraq. In fact, he has the reverse situation: Saddam killed the most pro-American Iraqis before the war. With all their pointless chitchat about Osama bin Laden, liberals of all people ought to have known the war would not be over with the deaths of Odai and Qusai. Speaking of which -- where is Osama? We haven't heard much from him lately. Nor is Saddam Hussein out shaking his puny fist at the Great Satan anymore. Concerned that he might try to sneak out in disguise, U.S. soldiers in Iraq have been given pictures of Saddam Hussein in various outfits, hairstyles and even makeup schemes. (And I thought this was kind of interesting -- it turns out he's a "winter.") What is the point of liberal carping? What precisely are they proposing we do? Turn tail and abandon Iraq to the mullahs and the Syrians? Revert to the Democrats' tried-and-true method of abandoning the region to any local Pol Pot who might turn up? Clinton's statesmanlike response to Islamic fanatics was to do nothing -- except when he needed to distract from his impeachment and would suddenly start bombing foreign countries at random. In eight years, the only domestic Muslim terrorist Clinton went after was a blind cleric sitting outside a mosque in New Jersey behind a card table with an "Ask Me About Terrorism" sign. The Clinton approach was working great, if you don't count the first bombing of the World Trade Center, the bombing of our Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia, the bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the bombing of the USS Cole and, finally, the greatest terrorist attack in the history of the world right here on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001. We have seen how well the Democrats' surrender approach works for 50 years. We saw it again last week. The United Nations stood shoulder to shoulder with American liberals, France, Germany and Saddam Hussein in opposing war with Iraq. And then last week in Iraq, the little darlings bombed the U.N. embassy in Baghdad. But that's Bush's fault, too. Perhaps Bush is also responsible for J-Lo and Ben Affleck's bomb of a movie.
The only people whom liberals absolutely refuse to hold accountable for anything are their friends, the Islamofascists.
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JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of, most recently, "Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism." (Sales help fund JWR.)


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Historians are rubbishing claims by a Maori leader of an academic conspiracy around who the first people were to populate New Zealand.
Ngapuhi elder David Rankin today said based on some research, there needed to be an investigation into the status of Maori as the country's indigenous people.
He pointed to books authored by investigative journalist Ian Wishart and historian Maxwell Hill, which he said revealed "clear evidence" that some of New Zealand's earliest residents might have arrived before the Polynesians.
And he said details of much of the country's past were being concealed by academic historians.
"I would say it's a conspiracy. They are worried that their own research will be exposed so they have worked hard to ridicule and suppress any Maori history which disagrees with their views.
Victoria University Professor of New Zealand studies Richard Hill said theories about people arriving pre-Maori resurfaced from time to time.
"Not one of them has ever passed any remote academic scrutiny."
He said normally those types of theories were considered in the academic world to be "colonisation justification myths".
Independent Wellington historian Vincent O'Malley said the works Mr Rankin referred to were not considered to be scholarly or credible.
"It's not something I'd take seriously."
He said theories of Greek, Egyptian and other pre-Maori voyages were not based on scientific evidence - "it's all a joke".
Dr O'Malley said people who published notions that Maori were not the country's first residents often had a political agenda.
"That whole idea of de-legitimising Maori as tangata whenua or having any rights under the Treaty (of Waitangi)."
Mr Rankin is involved with treaty negotiations at the moment, but he said if the theories had any merit, that would not put discussions in peril.
"It will actually just start opening up new chapters in history. It's about finding out about the truth.
"It could open a Pandora's box."
He pointed to Maori oral histories which referred to people being here when the first Maori arrived, including fair-skinned people.
"If we believe our histories, then we as Maori are not the indigenous people of New Zealand."
Mr Rankin wanted debate around the issue in an attempt to uncover the truth behind the country's colonisation history.
"To work out whether they're crack-pots or whether they do have some standing in what they have to say."
Current accepted theory on New Zealand settlement:
* initial settlement occurred about 1280 CE (common era) at the end of the medieval warm period;
* according to Maori oral history, Kupe was the first to reach New Zealand, by using stars and ocean currents from his Polynesian homeland of Hawaiki, in a large waka;
* more waka followed over the next few hundred years;
* there is limited evidence of return, or attempted return voyages, from archaeological evidence in the Kermadec Islands; and
* evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology indicated that the first settlers came from east Polynesia and became the Maori.
Alternative theories:
* a book, To the Ends of the Earth, written by Maxwell C Hill and Gary Cook, with shipwreck explorer Noel Hilliam, detailed evidence the authors said convinced them that Greek-Egyptians and others sailed to and settled New Zealand long before the arrival of Maori;
* it showed ancient maps detailing the coastlines of Australia and New Zealand and first drawn before the birth of Christ. Skeletons, rock carvings, stone buildings and monuments and oral tradition all attest to people of European origin living here for centuries before the arrival of Polynesians;
* another book, The Great Divide, by investigative journalist Ian Wishart, said New Zealand may have been settled by humans between 2000 and 14,000 years ago;
* but a massive comet strike that left a 20km wide crater with walls 150m high in the seabed near Stewart Island in the mid 1400s created a 220 metre high tsunami which swept up the coast, wiping out evidence of early human settlement, and was the most likely culprit in mass species extinction of moa, eagles and other animals around the same time;
* it said the early humans left South Island cave paintings featuring what scientists described as "crocodiles and pythons" - animals not known in Polynesia.
- Rebecca Quilliam of APNZ


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That's the verdict of British writer James Delingpole, in a blog posted in the Daily Telegraph, about an article by Kevin Myers published in the Irish Independent online version, brought to our attention by a Paul Chesser Facebook post. (Got all that? Ain't the Internet grand?)
Myers' focus is on the potentially fatal results of European wind energy, should this form of green delusion be carried to its logical extreme, and the pure destruction of wealth its massive misallocation of resources already represents (imagine hundreds of Solyndras). Thanks to members of the Michigan House and Senate, since 2008 the same dangerous and destructive folly is underway in the Great Lake State. That's when they enacted a law imposing a 10 percent "renewable" energy mandate on electric utilities, and forcing customers to pay for it through higher electricity bills.
Here's the relevant excerpt from "Energy policy based on renewables will win hearts but won't protect their owners from frostbite and death due to exposure":
Russia's main gas company, Gazprom, was unable to meet demand last weekend as blizzards swept across Europe, and over three hundred people died. Did anyone even think of deploying our wind turbines to make good the energy shortfall from Russia?Of course not. We all know that windmills are a self-indulgent and sanctimonious luxury whose purpose is to make us feel good. Had Europe genuinely depended on green energy on Friday, by Sunday thousands would be dead from frostbite and exposure, and the EU would have suffered an economic body blow to match that of Japan's tsunami a year ago. No electricity means no water, no trams, no trains, no airports, no traffic lights, no phone systems, no sewerage, no factories, no service stations, no office lifts, no central heating and even no hospitals, once their generators run out of fuel.
Modern cities are incredibly fragile organisms, which tremble on the edge of disaster the entire time. During a severe blizzard, it is electricity alone that prevents a midwinter urban holocaust. We saw what adverse weather can do, when 15,000 people died in the heat wave that hit France in August 2003. But those deaths were spread over a month. Last weekend's weather, without energy, could have caused many tens of thousands of deaths over a couple of days.
Why does the entire green spectrum, which now incorporates most conventional parties across Europe, deny the most obvious of truths? To play lethal games with our energy systems in order to honour the whimsical god of climate change is as intelligent and scientific as the Aztec sacrifice of their young. Actually, it is far more frivolous, because at least the Aztecs knew how many people they were sacrificing: no one has the least idea of the loss of life that might result from the EU embracing "green" energy policies.
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- Home
- Explore
- About Citrus Heights
- Citrus Heights History
- Ladies Auxiliary & Ladies in White
Ladies Auxiliary & Ladies in White
Ladies Auxiliary
In the early 1940s, many men were called into military service to fight in World War II. Because men who volunteered to fight fires at night were no longer available during the day, the Citrus Heights Volunteer Fire Department was left short-handed.
Chief Eugene Desimone filled the need with the Ladies Auxiliary. Chief Desimone appointed and trained a group of women recruits to provide firefighting services during the daytime. There were enough women volunteers to fully staff the Greenback and Mariposa fire station.
Ladies in White
In 1951, Chief Desimone responded to a fire on Auburn Boulevard when he encountered an accident involving a bus and a car. He was forced to leave some of his men to handle the accident while the rest proceeded to fight the fire. In the aftermath of his dual emergency, he spoke to his wife Zella about reinstating the Ladies Auxiliary and training them to handle first aid emergencies.
The Ladies in White provided volunteer emergency response services throughout the area from 1951 - 1986. They pioneered the concept of medical response teams working in conjunction with local fire departments and provided an organizational model that other communities would soon follow. The Ladies in White generously donated their time, talent, and training to aid and assist those in peril.
Training & Supplies
The women received training from local hospitals, the Red Cross, and local firefighters, which usually required 3 to 6 months to complete. In addition to initial training, the dedicated volunteers were required to participate in monthly drills to maintain their Rescue Workers certificates. Upon completion of training, they were issued uniforms that were modified painters coveralls and a medical aid kit. Supplies were added at their own expense. The Ladies in White were assigned their own radio which was used in dispatching them to emergencies. Medical Assistance Always on call, the proud Ladies in White lived in and around Citrus Heights. They covered an area of 38 square miles, using their own vehicles or "Ol' Rescue". By the 1960s, they responded to over 600 calls. These included not only fire-related emergencies and accidents, but a range of medical assistance including:
- Application of splints and bandages
- First aid administration
- Mouth to mouth resuscitation
- Transportation
- Delivering babies, often in less than desirable conditions
About the Name
The name "Ladies in White" aptly describes the all-female squad who slipped into their all white coveralls when summoned to an emergency. Fastened to many of these uniforms were a diaper pin with any number of safety pins attached to it. This signified the number of babies each had delivered. Skilled in a variety of rescue and medical techniques, the ladies successfully competed in national and international events.
Historical Contributions Publication
The City of Citrus Heights takes great pride in the legacy, strength and dedication of the Ladies in White and the Ladies Auxiliary.
The women who were a part of the Ladies in White and Ladies Auxiliary worked selflessly in their positions. When asked if she ever got tired of receiving calls in the middle of the night, Lois Patterson, Louise Patterson's sister-in-law, immediately responded, "Oh no! It is an honor to be part of the Ladies in White."
The City of Citrus Heights has published a book based on the historical contributions of this local WWII era all-female volunteer firefighting brigade, which eventually evolved into one of the nation's first and most effective volunteer first aid programs. This book combines historical information the city has amassed over the years including oral history interviews, donated photograph collections, and information from both the city's and the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District's archival collections. Visit the Lulu Bookstore website to purchase a copy.


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Wednesday, 04 January 2012 06:54 AM EST
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Narrow Iowa victory in hand, Mitt Romney was looking toward the next-up New Hampshire primary — essentially on his home turf — and shaper criticism from his Republican rivals, including chief challenger Rick Santorum.
The former Massachusetts governor was declared the winner of the leadoff presidential caucuses early Wednesday by just eight votes, ringing down the curtain on an improbable first act in the campaign to pick a challenger to President Barack Obama in the fall.
Appearing hours after the caucuses had ended, Iowa GOP chairman Matt Strawn said Romney had 30,015 votes, to 30,007 for Santorum, whose late surge carried him to a near win.
Earlier, Romney added to his already-formidable national network by announcing the endorsement of John McCain, who twice won the New Hampshire primary and was the GOP presidential nominee in 2008.
In a sign of the acrimony ahead, Santorum said that was to be expected, and jabbed at his rival. "John is a more moderate member of the Republican team, and I think he fits in with Mitt's view of the world," he said.
Even before his victory was announced, Romney looked past his GOP rivals and took aim at Obama. "The gap between his promises four years ago and his performance is as great as anything I've ever seen in my life," he told supporters in Iowa's capital city.
"Game on," declared Santorum, jaw set, after easily outdistancing several other contenders to emerge as Romney's unvarnished conservative rival for the primaries yet ahead.
In all, more than 122,000 straw ballots were cast, a record for Iowa Republicans, and the outcome was a fitting conclusion to a race as jumbled as any since Iowa gained the lead-off position in presidential campaigns four decades ago.
Returns from all 1,774 precincts showed both Romney with 24.55 percent support and Santorum with 24.54 percent. Texas Rep. Ron Paul drew 21.5 percent of the votes.
The results are non-binding when it comes to picking delegates to the GOP convention next summer in Tampa. But an Associated Press analysis showed Romney would win 13 delegates and Santorum 12, if there were no changes in their support as the campaign wears on.
Paul ran third and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fourth, and both men vowed to carry the fight to New Hampshire's primary next week and beyond.
Not so Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who came in fifth and told supporters he would return home to Texas to reassess his candidacy.
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was a distant sixth, and her campaign appeared in disarray. She told reporters she would carry on — less than an hour after her campaign manager raised doubts in an Associated Press interview about whether she would stay in the race.
Romney is heavily favored in New Hampshire's Jan. 10 primary, with contests in South Carolina and Florida packed into the final weeks of the month.
Poised to become the front-runner's chief agitator, Gingrich is welcoming Romney to New Hampshire with a full-page ad in the state's largest newspaper that jabs him as a "Timid Massachusetts Moderate."
The day before, Gingrich, who has repeatedly vowed to stay positive in his party's nomination contest, called Romney a liar on national television. Speaking to supporters late Tuesday, he made clear that he wouldn't back down.
Gingrich knocked Romney as "a Massachusetts moderate who in fact will be pretty good at managing the decay, but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any ability to change the culture or change the political structure or change the government."
Paul was joining Santorum and Romney in New Hampshire this week to try to demonstrate his third-place finish in Iowa wasn't a fluke. And the candidates will meet Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, who skipped the Iowa caucuses and began ratcheting up Romney criticism of his own in recent days.
Speaking to New Hampshire supporters while the votes were still being counted in Iowa, Huntsman questioned Romney's belief system Tuesday, suggesting he's "been on three sides of every issue." Earlier in the week, Huntsman criticized Romney's ties to Wall Street donors and congressional Republicans.
Romney has largely ignored the direct attacks so far, saving his own criticism for the man he hopes to face next November, Obama. He's amassed a ton of money and built a campaign organization in several states that staffers say will be able to go the distance to the nomination. In a show of force Tuesday, Romney became the first candidate to purchase television advertising in Florida, whose primary is Jan. 31.
Some of his competitors — most notably Santorum — have given virtually no thought to contests beyond South Carolina's Jan. 21 primary. Santorum struggled to pay for campaign transportation in recent days, never mind television advertising in states beyond New Hampshire.
He's spending just $16,000 to air a television ad on New Hampshire cable stations this week. Romney is spending $264,000 on television advertising in New Hampshire, $260,000 in South Carolina and $609,000 in Florida, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press.
Gingrich doesn't have any television ads reserved going forward. But with two debates set for New Hampshire this weekend, he's likely to use his national audience to drive his anti-Romney message.
And Paul, while often dismissed as unelectable by members of his own party, has strong organizations in states beyond Iowa and is spending more than Romney on television advertising in New Hampshire this week. He's spending roughly $368,000 there and another $127,000 in South Carolina.
Paul told supporters his was one of two campaigns with the resources to do the distance. "There's going to be an election up in New Hampshire, and believe me this momentum is going to continue and this movement is going to continue and we are going to keep scoring," he said.
The Texas lawmaker didn't say so, but the other campaign already built for a long run was Romney's. The former Massachusetts governor was closeted with aides and his family as he sweated out the caucus count in Iowa, a state that humbled him four years ago.
Despite its importance as the lead-off state, Iowa has a decidedly uneven record when it comes to predicting national winners. It sent Obama on his way in 2008, but McCain finished a distant fourth here to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Romney, who finished second in Iowa in 2008 despite a costly effort, initially campaigned cautiously this time around.
But he barnstormed extensively across the state in the race's final days in pursuit of a first-place finish, running as a conservative businessman with the skills to fix the economy and as the challenger with the best chance to defeat Obama.
Santorum, Gingrich, Perry and Bachmann argued that Romney wasn't nearly conservative enough on the economy and social issues such as abortion. They vied for months to emerge as the alternative to the former Massachusetts governor.
And they'll continue that effort this week, half a continent away.
"We are off to New Hampshire because the message I shared with you tonight is not an Iowa message or an Iowa and South Carolina message," Santorum told his Iowa supporters. "It's a message that will resonate across this land."
Steve Peoples reported from New Hampshire.
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This is how you level the deck on your Troy-Bilt riding lawn mower. Always be sure to check your owner's manual for detailed instructions on how to adjust the deck on your riding lawn tractor.
Step 1:
Be sure the mower is on a flat level surface and engage the parking brake. Turn the engine off and make sure it is cool. Remove the ignition key. Remove the spark plug ignition wire.
Step 2:
To level the deck from the front to rear, place the deck lift lever in the middle position.
Step 3:
Wearing gloves, rotate the blade closest to the discharge chute parallel to the lawn mower.
Step 4:
Measure the height of the front blade tip to the ground. Next, measure the height of the rear blade tip to the ground. Refer to your operator's manual for proper height differences between front and rear.
Step 5:
Tighten the hex nut to raise the front of the deck.
Step 6:
Loosen the hex nut to lower the front of the deck.
Step 7:
Wearing gloves for protection, level the deck from side to side by rotating the blades perpendicular to the lawn mower.
Step 8:
Measure the height of the blade tips on each side of the deck from the ground.
Step 9:
Adjust the deck by loosening the hex bolt on the left hangar bracket.
Step 10:
Raise or lower the deck by turning the adjustment gear.
Step 11:
When both blade tips have the same measurement from the ground, tighten the hex bolt.
Step 12:
Reconnect the spark plug ignition wire.


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Year of publication
- 2017 (1) (remove)
- Familienbetrieb (1)
- Finanzierung (1)
- Fremdkapital (1)
- debt capital (1)
- family firms (1)
- financing (1)
Financial decisions in family firms : private equity investors, capital structures and firm identity
This paper-based dissertation deals with financial issues of family businesses. These businesses are mainly characterized by the overlapping of the two social systems: family and business. Thus, the involvement of an owner family can have a significant impact on corporate decision- making, for instance in terms of corporate finance decisions. In Germany, the latter is dominated by a strong orientation towards banks. Nevertheless, the relevance of external equity, as source of funding, has increased during the last years due to regulatory interventions (Basel III) and a growing number of alternative private equity providers. Against this backdrop, the present dissertation and its four papers examine different research questions in the context of capital structure decisions of family firms. These decisions are related to external equity as well as debt financing. The first paper is a structured literature review concerning the interaction of family firms and external equity investors. The paper analyzes the current state of knowledge and points out directions for future research, which is particularly relevant for a young and recently growing field of research. The second paper is a conceptual paper that deals with the differences of various types of private equity investors from the perspective of family firms looking for funding. The literature review paper revealed that existing studies so far neglected the topic of heterogeneity among investor types. Thus, the second paper represents a first attempt to close this research gap. Paper three also takes up a research gap identified by the first paper and examines the exit of private equity minority investments in family-owned businesses. The paper applies a qualitative empirical research design, which includes fourteen cases and related six interviews. The results reveal that the disinvestment phase of private equity investors only rarely leads to conflicts with owner families. The fourth paper uses a quantitative research design with a comprehensive dataset of 691 companies. The paper aims to compare the capital structures of large family and non-family firms. Overall, the findings show that family firms have significantly higher overall and long-term debt levels compared to their non-family counterparts. The identity as a family firm, which leads to a leap of faith by banks, can be a possible explanation for these results.


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Born in Ohio..huge Reds and Buckeyes fan. Been in radio since '91.I got my start at an oldies station in Eugene Oregon. After multiple moves around the country and all different formats...I have found my home at the "B".
Moved to S.Dakota back in '06 to be with my 2 offspring and granddaughter..Emma. Now my family has grown to 2 more grandkids. 2 boys, Ayden and Easton.
It's all about Classic Rock and the Blues...I told Crash when he welcomed me aboard that I like Jazz, he said I would love Jazzfest. Boy was he spot on with that. Tune in week nights at 9 as we "Get the Led out"..followed at 10 with the" 10 o'clock Rock Block". Any questions, comments or something you want to hear...Love to hear from you..... firstname.lastname@example.com


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Stiffness Analysis of a Communication Mast's Diagonal Mounting
Application ID: 1363
Communication masts usually have a framework with a bolted triangular lattice design. The diagonals of the framework are assembled from several parts and welded together.
When operating under a given wind load at a specific location, the antenna's total rotation angle should stay below a certain limit to ensure uninterrupted communications. For the type of mast in this model, the engineers have determined that its torsional stiffness is too low, and this effect is due to the geometry of the diagonal mountings. The goal is to increase the stiffness of such a diagonal mounting by first analyzing an existing geometry followed by an update of the geometry and a new analysis.
The model also demonstrates the individual meshing of parts with the interactive meshing tool.
This model example illustrates applications of this type that would nominally be built using the following products:
however, additional products may be required to completely define and model it. Furthermore, this example may also be defined and modeled using components from the following product combinations:
The combination of COMSOL® products required to model your application depends on several factors and may include boundary conditions, material properties, physics interfaces, and part libraries. Particular functionality may be common to several products. To determine the right combination of products for your modeling needs, review the Specification Chart and make use of a free evaluation license. The COMSOL Sales and Support teams are available for answering any questions you may have regarding this.


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(first posted 1/23/2014) Maurice Calloway was often described as a "grizzled old bastard whose head has outlived at least four bodies." To say that Maurice had lived in the fast lane was an understatement.
An auctioneer by trade, Maurice's demeanor was one of seeming inconsistencies. While he drank heavily, he would not drink on Sunday. He also was prone to extremely profane language and copious amounts of tobacco, but he would not tolerate any smoking or colorful language from others if they were in the presence of women and especially children.
A physically large man, he was also quite proud of his compact Rambler.
Maurice could have purchased anything he wanted when he grew weary of his '56 Oldsmobile. He had become annoyed with its appetite for fuel and had tired of its physical size. He figured if he was going to downsize, he wasn't going to monkey around.
One Tuesday morning, Maurice drove to the Rambler dealership nearest his small town. The salesman was amusingly dismayed to see this large Oldsmobile driving man looking at the Ramblers on the lot. When he picked one out, a black one in bottom-level Deluxe trim, he pulled a wad of cash from the pocket of his pants and started peeling off $100 bills.
This Rambler was almost as basic as one could buy in 1960. Maurice had opted to spend the $23.50 for the dual headlights, $10.20 for the inside and outside rear-view mirrors, and $9.95 for back-up lights. Beyond that, the Rambler had no options whatsoever. Maurice figured it had a sturdy little six cylinder engine of 127 horsepower and a time tested three-speed manual. Like so many others of his World War I born generation, he figured the less equipment it had, the less there was to go wrong.
Upon his arrival back home, Maurice, a lifelong bachelor, started to receive some degree of grief about having dumped the Olds for a Rambler. He statement was usually, "piss on you, this Rambler will still be ticking long after I'm gone."
After the initial surprise wore off, Maurice and his Rambler soon became synonymous with each other. Nearly every Saturday there was an auction somewhere in the central part of his state, and Maurice Calloway was the de facto auctioneer of choice. By 1970 Maurice and his black Rambler were as close to an institution as many could imagine.
Some were amused by how Maurice and his Rambler never seemed to age any as the 1970s unfolded. The skeptics would say that Maurice could not age due to his thorough degree of self-pickling, although everyone was simply astounded the now old Rambler was still looking as shiny as it ever had. Sure, there were a few little laugh lines around the Rambler, but it was amazingly blemish free for the number of miles Maurice had driven around the area to his almost weekly auctions.
Maurice knew of the amusement and astonishment about the condition of his Rambler. Only he and a select few confidants knew his secret. The sheer simplicity of his formula, and how it was totally lost on so many, was a source of constant humor for old Maurice.
As Maurice once told one of his so-called conspirators: "It's simple; Rambler gave me a maintenance schedule to follow. So I follow it. I also have a garden hose, so I use it. I also park it inside. How tough is that?" Maurice knew that if you take care of your equipment it would take care of you. He was puzzled how such a simple concept could be lost on all the young, foolish people around the area.
Yet as we still know, Maurice was a man of inconsistencies. While everyone thought of him as a confirmed bachelor, Maurice did have a woman in his life. It seemed like nobody ever noticed a black Rambler going down a gravel road a few miles from his home.
Maurice had a son with a woman much younger than he. The woman's husband had been drafted during the Korean War, about the same time Maurice and this younger woman began their illicit romance. Both had felt profound remorse about their actions during a time when a married woman's husband was serving his country. The remorse was compounded when they realized their actions had culminated in a pregnancy about the time a clueless husband was killed in action.
With the baby having been born early, it was possible for the woman to pass off the child as that of her husband, an action that did not jeopardize her military pension. Neither the woman nor Maurice were proud of their self-created situation, but both maintained it was the pragmatic decision for the benefit of an innocent child growing up in a small town.
All this extramarital intrigue leads us back to Maurice and his black Rambler. Maurice was fifty when he had purchased his Rambler. Realizing he had been too flagrant of a spender in his life so far, he was determined to change that and give the son he could never claim a healthy start in life. The Rambler was part of a raw determination to build a solid financial foundation for his son. Just as Rambler was on the ascendancy in 1960, Maurice felt he was also, making the purchase a natural decision.
Starting on the day in 1960 when Maurice swapped off the Oldsmobile, the Rambler had served as the impetus and constant reminder of his never ending quest for frugality and practical solutions to those situations everyone encounters in life. While nobody realized it, this was the time Maurice doubled down on gaining auctioneer jobs and squirreled away every spare dollar he had. He knew his time on this earth had likely been compromised due to various bad decisions and he was determined to make things better for his son.
Maurice kept driving the Rambler until his death in 1987, at age 77. By now the old black Rambler had covered an unknown quantity of miles – the odometer had broken in 1976 and Maurice didn't want to spend money to fix it as it did not directly relate to the functioning of the car. Spending money to maintain it did not cover such frivolities; Maurice was a man of inconsistencies.
It was at the time of Maurice's death that his son, at age 34, finally learned of his true heritage. The news didn't really surprise him as he had always suspected something. He knew Maurice had to be more than simply a concerned friend of his mother's.
Maurice's son was the sole recipient of his father's now sizable estate. Despite it all, the Rambler is the item Maurice's son has treasured most. Twenty-seven years later, the sheer sight of it still brings him back to warm childhood memories of a loving, grizzled looking old man taking him on the adventures all children deserve.
While the Rambler is clearly starting to show its nearly fifty-four years of existence, it is still starting as reliably as it ever has. While the compression of its old straight-six isn't what it used to be, and it has had a little bit of a rattle for a few years now, it is still giving Maurice's son everything it has.
The son has contemplated some degree of restoration of the old Rambler, but he has been reluctant to do so. His thought process is that any refurbishment will erode the overall aura of a car that reminds him of a simpler time in his life. The car is so ingrained in his psyche, the fact of owning it as long as his father had eludes him.
Even with the diminished state of the old Rambler, Maurice's son knows his dad was right; it would still be ticking long after he was gone.