You’ve really got to pay attention. And you’ve got to tell someone. If students at Folsom Lake College hadn’t noticed David Ming Lee acting oddly, he might have used the small part of his weapons cache that he decided to bring to school that day.
A Folsom Lake College student remains in custody – his bail set at $1 million – after his arrest Thursday for bringing a loaded handgun onto campus, college officials said.
Police dropped in on his apartment.
A subsequent search of Lee’s residence turned up an assault rifle and large capacity magazines.
… that when she was a teenager she sang (standing with her guitar on the front porch of a house down the block from the house on Rokeby Avenue where she now lives) at a McGovern rally… And that she thinks she sang There But for Fortune...
It also reminds UD how impressed she was with the writing of this Laura Blumenfeld Washington Post article about McGovern’s daughter’s alcoholic death. It’s got precision, clarity, narrative shapeliness, and an attitude that’s humane but not sentimental. You remember writing like this, years and years later.
She was intelligent, funny, generous, charismatic, tender. She was a flop-down doorstep drunk.
All his life, George McGovern has been a textbook liberal, either an idealist or a sap, depending on your politics. He believes that human beings are improvable, that good intentions translate into good policy. He believes it is possible to intervene to solve people’s problems. He does not believe, did not believe, that at some level life is just a cold, lonely fight.
Amid the fallout from the controversy, lawmakers passed a measure that requires artwork for a newly renovated [University of Wyoming] recreation center to reflect Wyoming’s history of transportation, agriculture and minerals.
So, Comrades!
Enjoy!
… NORTHEAST US.’
So, what’s it like? you ask.
Well, at the moment we’ve got a lovely mild evening, so one sort of stands out in the garden looking at the sky and thinking what a sneak it is. So calm, so lovely, a thin little moon, everything very still except the crickets, and yet it’s all a ruse. Out in the garden you somehow already feel the rain and the wind, already see the ripped power lines and the tree limbs all over the street.
“Hey,” says UD to Mr UD. “I have an idea. Let’s leave. Let’s drive west for a few hours and find a nice inn and stay there.”
He doesn’t go for it. There’s a stream of rational reasons against it coming out of his mouth but I’m not listening.
“Hey. I’m willing to wait a couple of hours after we lose power – in case there’s a miracle and it comes back on. But after two hours I’m outta here. Hotel.”
Ominous silence from It’s Good for the Soul to Rough It Mr UD.
“And if all the hotels around here are fully booked, I ask that we continue driving until we get to a region with available hotels.”
Silence.
But anyway. We’re calm in the calm before the storm.
… and so does UD. As Phoenix falls from its ashes, and as even scuzzier outfits make their way through the courts, it truly begins to look as though Americans have figured out how the tax-syphons work, and refused to play along.
… at an all-Berlioz concert in his honor in San Antonio, where he had lived for many years.
Jacques Barzun is dead at 104.
… after they’ve seen … college?
The University of Wisconsin has endured the taptaptap of bad news about one of its faculty for years, and for years it has closed its ears to it.
It’s our old friend Thomas Zdeblick, object of a federal investigation into his remarkably lucrative relationship with Medtronic.
Investigators … found that two papers Zdeblick co-authored were among 11 in which Medtronic employees, including those in the company’s marketing department, were secretly involved in drafting and editing, a practice known as ghostwriting.
Both papers were published in the Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques where Zdeblick has served as editor-in-chief since 2002. That role was the subject of a 2009 Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation that found the journal frequently published favorable articles about Medtronic products under Zdeblick’s watch. The story noted that Zdeblick’s financial relationship with Medtronic was not disclosed by the journal.
Many more gory details here. The picture the investigation draws is one of rampant conflict of interest destructive of patient health and research integrity. An Emory professor to whom Medtronic gave $25.5 million protests that the money had absolutely no effect on the articles he wrote about its products.
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The Zdeblick scandal jumps to Reuters. Perhaps now, with the release of the Senate’s definitive report, this story will get the attention it deserves. The University of Wisconsin will no more respond to it than Donna Shalala’s University of Miami will face up to what it has in Charles Nemeroff. It will take international coverage of practices at schools like Wisconsin for the conflict of interest that corrupts academic medicine in the United States to change.
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Two of the featured Medtronic beneficiaries are at the University of Louisville.
… supporters, maybe Donald Trump is something God intended to happen.
From the student paper at the University of South Dakota (My comments are in parentheses.):
‘With a 10-3 lead over Western Illinois and a crowd of 10,200, the University of South Dakota football team had it all going for them heading into halftime of the Dakota Days game Oct. 6.
Little did they know that as they prepared for the second half, hundreds of USD student fans were filing out of the bleachers and walking out of the DakotaDome.
USD swiftly lost the lead, inevitably losing 24-17 to WIU. [Why inevitably? Does the writer instead mean ultimately, or eventually?]
The obvious lack of fan support as of late has left USD administrators scratching their heads, wondering, where exactly students are going? [Throughout the article, awkward use of commas and awkward word order contribute to a certain messiness. Plus you don’t need as of late. Maybe rewrite in this way: The obvious lack of fan support has USD administrators scratching their heads, wondering where students are going.]
For USD athletic director David Sayler the real question is: Why do the students leave?
“It has been a frustrating situation,” Sayler said. “Student support is essential to college teams, they bring the energy and the atmosphere teams use to thrive. We need them at home games.” [Semi-colon after teams.]
Assistant director of Student Life Lindsay Sparks said the issue needs to be addressed by both the university and its students. [Pause and think about “the issue.” Why is there a problem here? So some students leave an event early. If they’re bored or hungry or want a drink – no booze allowed at this stadium – that’s their business. Are you going to lock them in?]
“The university really does need to address it and figure out what’s going on,” Sparks said. “But I also think students need to make the commitment.” [Here we go. The glory of attending a big sports school is that the school is always after you to buy tickets and keep your butt in the stadium seat and shriek your head off with uncontrollable excitement over your team. It’s really a bit demeaning, isn’t it? To you and to the school? From the moment you arrive large amounts of money and staff time are devoted to making you “commit” to desperately caring about a football team.]
Sophomore Austin Johnson said he has been baffled by the lack of student fan support.
“(The students) represent this school and when we don’t stay at games, it reflects negatively on the university,” said Johnson. [No it doesn’t. It’s a university, see, not a boosters club. The fact that a lot of students are bored out of their gourd by football in general, or by your particular team, says nothing negative about your university. In fact, it might say something positive. What if they’re streaming out in order to go home and read their economics textbook?]
Sparks said in order to improve the lack of student support at athletic events, the question over why students are leaving must be answered. [See? Sparks is a salaried employee at a university. Lindsay’s job is to psychoanalyze students in order to discover the secret of their indifference to a game.]
“When I talk to students who regularly leave games, most of them tell me they leave because their friends are leaving,” Sparks said. “We are still puzzled over why exactly students don’t want to stay, and until we do know, we can’t give them what they want.” [Give them what they want. The customer is always right! Just find out what the buggers want and give it to them!]
Sayler said efforts to improve student involvement at athletic events has been attempting in the past. [Wake up. Rewrite.]
“We have tried to give things away during games and we are playing very student heavy music, but nothing seems to stick,” said Sayler. [The nanny state gives out free gifts and plays student heavy music, so why aren’t they happy? Why doesn’t that succeed in lulling them into a full-game trance?]
While Sayler and Spark’s guess as to why students are leaving are good as any ones, Johnson said it all boils down to one thing. Alcohol.
“A lot of (students) leave because there is no alcohol served at the DakotaDome,” Johnson said. “They lose their buzz and then leave to go drink again.” [For some people – let’s not use hurtful words in characterizing them – alcohol is more important than anything — even a University of South Dakota football game. When its effects wear off, they will search for more.]
Sparks said the university is aware that alcohol is a factor, but serving alcohol at games to solve retention is out of the question. [Why? Many, many American universities – more universities all the time – pour expensive beer down their students’ gullets in order to immobilize them in their seats. Those who aren’t immobilized get into fights and verbally abuse other fans and all, but that’s what hundreds of police are for. Time for USD to join the fun.]
“The DakotaDome is owned by the university,” Sparks said. “So, while we know some students say alcohol would help keep people there, our hands our tied.” [UD predicts the university will get the message and do what needs to be done.]
… Head coach Joe Glenn said legacy of a fan base lies on the shoulders of the students. [It’s your responsibility, now that we’ve accepted you at our university, to be a fan base.]
“If students get to know their players and learn to cheer them on, then the longevity of the fan base will extend,” Glenn said. [UD has spent years getting to know quite a few American university football players. She responds to some players with a hope that they will be able to overcome their illiteracy problem, and to others with a hope that their time in jail helps straighten them out. A few others inspire her with their brains and maturity, but for the most part she finds little to cheer about here. Why should students be any different?]
As far as the university is concerned, Sayler said in order to improve the current situation, honesty is key.
“We need the students to be completely honest with us,” Sayler said. “We want them to tell us what they want to see at football games. If they are leaving because our team loses, or because there isn’t enough interaction, we want to know. Once we have a clear understanding at what is driving students away at halftime, we will being to work towards improving the experience as much as we can.” ‘ [I think the university knows perfectly well why students leave. They’re basically bored. Being drunk, as we know, is an excellent way to tolerate boredom. They’re leaving because they don’t feel drunk anymore, and as result they’re bored.]
The solution seems to UD obvious. You’ve got everything else in place – presents, student heavy music. You’ve almost put them out. But without something like this –
– a personal at-will dispensing mechanism at every seat so they can suck on that teat the minute they start to feel sober – you’re going to lose clients.
She’s not sure why, but when she has lain abed contemplating all of our great states, she has had a tendency to overlook Missouri.
Thanks to the athletics department at the University of Missouri, however, the state has found a way to worm its way into her consciousness.
How can she forget the YouTube of Mizzou’s football coach trying to recite the alphabet? The salary and incentives the university gives this fantastic representative of the life of the mind? Their quarterback who made a sextuple play? The moving testimonials from MU’s professors about what it’s like to teach there?
No, UD will never forget Missouri again. It has burned itself into her consciousness, and she certainly doesn’t need to hear about Mizzou’s Michael Schumacher in order to jog her memory.
Director of [athletic department] video operations Michael Schumacher spent $7,605.50 [of university money] in a single night at Olympic Garden, a club conveniently located on the Strip that “feature[s] literally hundreds of the world’s most beautiful ladies (known as the Dreamgirls) in a relaxing and spacious setting.” One of those charges included a $2,000 tip on a $4,400 bill. Maybe I don’t understand how strip clubs work, but was Schumacher being extra generous, or is “tip” just how you say “blowjob” on a receipt?
————–
UD thanks Dave.
You can’t put a price tag on what big-time athletics does for America’s universities.
A video of [University of Wyoming football coach Dave] Christensen’s exchange with Air Force coach Troy Calhoun was posted online on Thursday. As of Monday afternoon, the video had more than 105,000 views.
The video starts with Christensen cursing in the direction of the Air Force team before meeting Calhoun for the post-game handshake. He accuses Calhoun of having quarterback Connor Dietz fake an injury to buy the Air Force staff extra time before the go-ahead touchdown. Christensen then continues his tirade by personally attacking Calhoun.
“I’d be f—— scared to death if I had a f—– like you defending me,” Christensen told Calhoun.
After being pulled away by his daughter toward the Wyoming locker room, Christensen finished by saying:
“Go get in your f—— press conference, fly boy.”
The comments came on Wyoming’s “Military Appreciation Day.”
Romney’s eyes look a little red. Tired? Anxious? Good line from Romney: “We can’t kill our way out of this mess.” (Talking about instability in the Middle East.)
Actually, Obama’s eyes look red too. Maybe it’s the cameras.
Too bad they’re sitting down this time. I think striding around was good for both men. Seemed to wake up Obama.
Obama gets in the first hit: Romney’s strategy in regard to the region “has been all over the place.”
Romney gesticulates more than Obama, which I find sort of surprising.
Another hit from Obama: Romney called Russia – not the Middle East – our biggest foreign policy challenge. “Every time you’ve offered an opinion about the region, you’ve been wrong.”
Romney comes back strong, correcting Obama on Russia. Yes, he called it a geopolitical problem, but “in the same paragraph” he identified Iran as our biggest national security threat.
The guys are mixing it up now, talking over each other. Obama is rather condescendingly lecturing Romney.
“Syria is Iran’s route to the sea,” says Romney, which neglects, Mr UD points out, Iran’s long coastline.
Romney’s long-suffering smile is a little odd after awhile.
Obama, in talking about Egypt, makes an elegant reference to JFK (the moderator began by noting that today is the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis.)
Romney’s effort to characterize our weak economy as a threat to our power and influence abroad is rather unconvincing.
“America is stronger now than when I came into office.” Obama answers strongly. “Our alliances have never been stronger.”
What happened to foreign policy? They’ve wandered totally into domestic policy. Bob Schieffer is being a wimp. Get Candy Crowley in there!
Romney says the navy has fewer ships than it did in 1917. “Governor, we also have fewer bayonets and horses. Things have changed. There are now, for instance, submarines; boats that go under the water.” Ouch. Fantastic comeback from Obama. On Romney’s budget: “We’ve visited your website quite a bit. The numbers still don’t work.” Getting laughs from the audience. Strong stuff from Obama.
Both men have beautiful speaking voices (Obama also sings well, while Romney’s singing voice is painful). Mellifluous is the word that comes to mind.
I’d say that generally Obama seems nimbler, more energetic. Romney feels a little flat-footed, reciting policy paragraphs but not punching well. I’d even suggest that Romney’s age relative to Obama’s is showing a bit.
The seated arrangement is hurting Romney. Obama is now going down a long list of examples of Romney being “all over the place” on foreign policy, versus Obama’s “clarity of foreign policy.” If they were standing, Romney would be striding about; here, he’s forced to sit there and take it.
“When Tunisians began to protest, this nation moved to support them before anyone else.” Good answer from Obama in defense of our response to the Arab Spring.
Obama has also told, throughout the debate, lots of human interest stories (Romney has told none).
Romney’s good on the trade imbalance with China. In fact, he’s now telling his first story: His encounter with counterfeit valves.
They’re both keeping their tempers. “People can look it up,” says Romney calmly, on the matter of exactly what he said about Detroit and bankruptcy.
Another anecdote from Romney. Good. On the other hand, his repeated statement – “I love teachers.” – comes across as empty, and in fact Schieffer just made fun of it.
Closing statements now.
Instant responses here, with our friends:
Obama won the debate.
I don’t know. They agreed about so much.
Well, it’s a beautiful match-up. This year’s scandal-plagued darling, North Carolina Chapel Hill, and comical, pathetic Minnesota with its $800,000 bill not to play football.
