Accidental Blogger

A general interest blog

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  • Another Bizarre Hurricane Story

    Reports about possible mercy killings in a New Orleans hospital in the aftermath of Katrina have been circulating for some time. Given the explosive nature of the allegations involved, it has been a surprisingly low key story so far. A few weeks ago, it was even suggested that charges of doctors killing their patients, may be another urban myth spawned by Katrina. But there obviously is more to it than just wild allegations because the Lousiana Attorney General has opened an investigation. All deaths involved critically ill patients at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans. Hospital personnel, along with patients, were confined within the hospital under very bleak conditions, with few prospects of evacuation in sight.

    From time to time, we hear about "Angel of Death" killings by individual medical care givers who go on killing rampages motivated by a delusional sense of merciful mission. But the New Orleans case appears to be different – several seemingly rational individuals – doctors and nurses, may have been involved. I wonder what the investigation will reveal. More likely than not, if true, this bizarre event will prove once again the fragility of the human condition – under extreme stress caused by hopelessness, even sane people will sometimes do insane things.

  • No Go For The ‘Stros

    The Chicago White Sox swept the World Series (1-0 in Game 4). The Houston Astros fans are predictably hearbroken.  But there is always a next time. Hope next time won’t be 88 long years in coming, as it was for the White Sox.

    A Texas Sized Curse:

    This story in Slate is really funny. It was written one day before last night’s final game.

  • No Question Too Frivolous, No Answer Too Obscure – Your Comments Sought

    I started this weblog exactly a week ago.  I do not plan to make a habit of giving out periodic progress reports – the health of the blog is my concern, not that of the readers.  But I would like to give a brief summary of some of the things that transpired in the first week of this endeavor because people other than myself were involved in dictating the turn of events.

    At the very outset, I alone was involved in generating readership by contacting and haranguing friends and family.  Most are supportive of my new hobby and dutifully visited here. Ethan Leib, with whom I had enjoyed my first stint in blogging, provided an early endorsement and kind words on the popular law blog Prawfs Blawg.  Manoj Joshi (my brother in law), an editor of a major newspaper in India,  linked the blog to his own archival site. Traffic picked up even while I was scrambling to iron out some wrinkles in the system. Then last Monday, Brian Leiter of the widely read and influential Leiter Reports where I have been a regular reader, mentioned Accidental Blogger on his site. That caused an unexpected boost in traffic, causing me some panic initially and much satisfaction later. I don’t expect the same level of activity to continue. When things settle down, readership will be determined mostly by my own ability to attract and keep readers. But it sure proves that a helping helping hand can make things happen – even in the blogosphere.

    The activity I mention above however, is not visible on the weblog because with a few exceptions, only those who know me personally, have left comments. Going to a new blog is a bit like going into the living room of a stranger – one doesn’t know what to expect or how to behave … and unlike me, not every one is comfortable in starting a conversation with a stranger. But don’t let that hesitation hinder anyone from leaving me a few comments and suggestions. I have no insider knowledge and am not offering any special expertise. The commentary here is just my perspective of things happening around us. Agree with me if you wish and disagree if you must. Either way, it will be fun.

    I will take stock of my efforts in another 2-3 weeks. If I feel that I have the energy to keep up the solo effort and that I might have something worthwhile to say, I will continue. If readers let me know how they feel about this neophyte blog, it will help greatly. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. I look forward to  your return visit.   

  • Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

    Natural disasters have a way of shaking up preconceived notions. 

    The tsunami in faraway Asia tugged at American hearts and pursestrings with an unprecedented urgency.

    The earthquake in Kashmir has Indians and Pakistanis talking to each other like neighbors and not mortal enemies.

    Katrina blew the cover off the Bush administration’s carefully constructed veneer of competence and credibility to expose its crony infested, bumbling political machinery.

    But one unshakeable constant of war and other disasters is that while thousands suffer, a handful of wily individuals always find a way to make money – by either denying victims what should rightfully be theirs or by scalping them. The more respectable looking the thief, the bigger is the take.

    Two stories here and here.

  • The Const”Ant” Gardener

    I am convinced that Houston’s pathetic NFL team, The Houston Texans (winless this season) would have had a far better winning record if they had used some imagination and foresight and called themselves The Texas Fire Ants.

    This interesting little story in Scientific American shows that there is more to an ant’s life than the drudgery of military discipline, hard work and guarding the queen and her eggs.  They also do aggressive landscaping.

  • Memorial, Not Milestone

    The press likes to report the deaths of soldiers in round numbers – multiples of 10, then 100 and now 1000. Today we learnt about the death of the two thousandth US soldier killed in Iraq. It is neither a milestone as it appears on the news nor just a number as the Pentagon would like us to believe. Let us call it what it really is – a colossal and tragic waste. The soldiers had names, were mostly young , all leave behind grieving families and now we know that they died because some cynical older men with warped minds waged an unnecessary war. The accurate count of dead Iraqis is still unavailable.

    Rosa Parks, another soldier, died last night at the age of 92. She fought her battle on the home front, lived to enjoy the victory – at peace, knowing that hers was a just war.

    Well Said.

    A pertinent editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich here.

  • When The Shoe Was On The Other Foot

    It is interesting to watch some dogged supporters of the Bush administration lying, spinning and singing a different tune, now that one, two or even three of their own may be facing perjury or more serious charges for their role in leaking the identity of  the  undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame. Carnival barkers on the right, such as Rush Limbaugh and  Sean Hannity have a simple answer – Joe Wilson himself exposed his wife’s secret identity! Partisan Republican lawyers like Victoria Toensing  use falsehoods and legal mumbo-jumbo to discredit  Patrick Fitzgerald’s efforts to get to the bottom of the sordid conspiracy.  Senator Kay Baily Hutchison, The Gentlelady from Texas, came up with the pathetic Martha Stewart defense – the crime may not  have been serious enough to prosecute. It took her only seven short years to make a 180 degrees turnaround from the Clinton days.   Here she is in her own words – then and now.

    Clinton impeachment era:

    The edifice of American jurisprudence rests on the foundation of the due process of law. The mortar in that foundation is the oath. Those who seek to obstruct justice weaken that foundation, and those who violate the oath would tear the whole structure down.

    Every day, thousands of citizens in thousands of courtrooms across America are sworn in as jurors, as grand jurors, as witnesses, as defendants. On those oaths rest the due process of law upon which all of our other rights are based.

    The oath is how we defend ourselves against those who would subvert our system by breaking our laws. There are Americans in jail today because they violated that oath. Others have prevailed at the bar of justice because of that oath.

    What would we be telling Americans — and those worldwide who see in America what they can only hope for in their own countries — if the Senate of the United States were to conclude: The President lied under oath as an element of a scheme to obstruct the due process of law, but we chose to look the other way?

    I cannot make that choice. I cannot look away. I vote `Guilty’ on Article I, Perjury. I vote `Guilty’ on Article II, Obstruction of Justice.

    I ask unanimous consent an analysis of the Articles of Impeachment be printed in the Record.

    http://www.ameriroots.com/impeachment/senator_hutchison…

    Karl Rove, Scooter Libby (Dick Cheney?) era:

    I certainly hope that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn’t indict on the crime so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation were not a waste of time and dollars.

    http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/23/hutchinson-technica…

  • A Questionnaire About Questions?

    Thanks to my Democratic women friends, I have a large collection of G.W.B. jokes in the IN box of my email. (I also unashamedly enjoy Bushisms).  It would be easy blogging if I decided to draw from my collection of the above materials.  But the president’s daily Q & A with reporters is such a rich and reliable source of startling utterances that one does not have to resort to low grade or made up humor.

    I heard the following on Countdown With Keith Olbermann last Friday.  The video with sight and sound was of course much funnier than reading the transcript.  (Perhaps you can find the video on the link I have provided). President Bush was answering a question about Harriet Miers’ possible confirmation hearings. Olbermann showed an excerpt from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

    …………………………………………………

    Keith Olbermann : But, first, your COUNTDOWN‘s top three sound bites of this day.

    JAY LENO, HOST, “THE TONIGHT SHOW”:  Hey, you remember when you were in school, and you didn’t know the answer to a question, so you would talk around the question?  Harriet Miers filled out a questionnaire.  And here’s President Bush responding to a question about her questionnaire. 

    GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:  The questionnaire that she filled out is an important questionnaire.  And, obviously, they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire, as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire. 

  • Just Different Haircuts

    Religion, race and ethnicity are convenient excuses for fostering fascistic agendas.  Although the players are different, the game is played by the same simple, violent rule – deprive one group of its basic dignity and civil rights by appealing to the narrow identity pride and self interest of another. Substitute the name of one fascist (promoting whichever group) with a different one, the message remains unchanged – "my want before yours".  Fascists the world over, have different skin colors, dress codes and haircuts – in their hearts, they carry the same rotten core of hatred.

    Brian Leiter has a very revealing post (India’s Brush With Fascist Theocracy) on the subject of the rise of religious fanaticism in India in the recent years.  This topic is of great concern to me and I had thought about addressing it here at some future date. Although religious tensions always played a major role in India’s political and public life, when I was growing up, it was kept in check  by the optimistic, secular outlook of the majority of Indians. India, at that time had closer ties to the erstwhile communist USSR than the democratic USA.  National leaders, at least in public, kept their rhetoric inclusive and  relatively free of poisonous religious fractiousness.  Student politics at universities tended to be divided between the socialist and the capitalist camps – an ideological debate not a sectarian one. In Indian national and regional politics (except in Bengal and Kerala, two states with long rules by communist governments), religion now plays an overt role in public policy discussions.  What is even more disheartening is that the younger generation grown up in the last two decades, has been adversely affected by this unhealthy mind set. Now the young student leaders openly run university election campaigns on "Hindu" or "Muslim" platforms. Many educated middle class Indians are no longer ashamed to give voice to their suspicions of the "other" communities. Communal violence has been frequent in the past years.

    Another interesting trend that is on the rise is the closing of the immigrant Indian mind outside India.  Most US Indian Hindus used to vote Democrat right up to the 2000 elections. But after 9/11, many Indians revised their world view to fit the "Muslims and the rest of us" stance that Bush appeared to telegraph to the world. In 2004 many Indian Hindus switched party allegiance and voted Republican because that would be "good for India" (read Hindus).

    Arundhati Roy has been a clear and fearless voice against religious fanaticism in India and abroad.  She has spoken out against the BJP government’s fascistic ideals in India and the Bush administration’s imperialist designs here. Many in India would like to dismiss the wealthy Roy as a "limousine liberal" or a "comfortable commie" because she dares to shine the light on this violent and ugly side of the "world’s largest democracy ". But her net worth is not the issue – her message is.

    I should add:

    The BJP government lost to the Congress Party in the 2004 Indian general elections. I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on whether the loss was due to ‘bread and butter" issues in rural India or because the citizenry got fed up with its communal politics

  • Not An Optical Illusion!

    My husband likes to drive with his foot heavy on the gas pedal, eyes on the horizon (and the occasional police car) and he does not stop to ask for directions. The duty of reading maps and signs falls squarely on my lap.  I have performed the role of a pathfinder in various cities and states in the US, Europe and India,( where  one tends to navigate by landmarks because road signs are sometimes difficult to decipher and often non-existent).  In my long experience of sign spotting, I have come across many official and non official road signs which caught my attention. They fall in various categories. For example:

    Pleasantly welcoming : "Nebraska … The Good Life". (State line of Nebraska)

    Cleverly insulting : "Tuck Fexas" … Hand painted sign on the Oklahoma side of the Oklahoma – Texas border on I-35 South.

    Faintly menacing:  "Don’t Mess With Texas" … Anti littering message on Texas roads.

    But I have never had the good fortune to come across anything so interesting as these preposterous public postings. They are so hilarious, you have to wonder if the sign painter may have been playing a practical joke . (Click on the windows below the photos to see an assortment). The confused traveler’s misery is at least alleviated by a hearty chuckle. 

  • English Tea Goes Native At Last

    For centuries, English Tea has been a misnomer. English Breakfast and Earl Grey, the quintessential ingredients of the satisfying "cuppa" are blends of tea grown in India, China and Sri Lanka. Now a descendant of Earl Grey ( with the rather common name of Jonathan Jones) is growing tea in the heart of England because "English tea should be grown on English soil" according to him. This is the first time that the tea loving nation of England has cultivated the leaves locally. The tea estates in Asia need not worry – the output of Jones’ farm is a miniscule drop in the enormous bucket of the English tea market. At $10 an ounce and currently available only at the upscale Fortnum & Mason, the competition from the new "English" brew  will be negligible. Still, I expect the tea to sell briskly because that is a small price to pay for a beverage you can truthfully call your own.

  • Gawd!

    This post is to test if I can copy and paste cartoons here. This one is from Newsweek’s (October 24, 2005) Perspectives section.

  • Which Amendment, Judy?

    I posted the following comment on Leiter Reports about Maureen Dowd’s column on Judy Miller. I am copying it here for those readers who may have stumbled in here.

    I am looking forward to Maureen Dowd’s column going into syndication.  The fact that NYT columnists are now speaking out against the mischief made by their own colleague is a healthy sign – but it comes too late for the dead and maimed US soldiers and Iraqi citizens. Those of us who from the start had a jaundiced view of the misadventure in Iraq, never were impressed with Judy Miller’s breathless, pro-war cheerleading. (Why were experienced reporters and editors not similarly skeptical?)  We suspected her and other mainstream and not-so-mainstream journalists like Jim Hoagland (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3407964) and Christopher Hitchens of either eagerly swallowing the Bush administration’s jingoistic lies or having their own peculiar agenda. The press seemed more content in analyzing Howard Dean’s scream than the poisonous whisper campaign of Bush and his war mongers. And while we must blame Bush and his patsies of the Fourth Estate, let us not forget the “America uber Alles” mentality of many ordinary citizens after 9/11.

    As for “St. Judith of the First Amendment”, it is hardly a surprise to discover now that the amendment she was defending all along is the Fifth !

    And One More:

    While Dowd and other columnists at NYT were muzzled and the better known papers were playing it safe about Judy Miller (who wants to malign a "brave" woman languishing in jail?), Arianna Huffington was relentless on The Huffington Post in unveiling Miller’s true role in the CIA leak and WMD mess. Huffington may be the true heroine in this rapidly unfolding story about Judy, the shill… another feather in the cap of "Blogger Reportage".

  • Sameness, Same As Success?

    The latest issue of Newsweek has a column by a reader who extols the virtues of her sixteen years of "all girls" education. The debate is very old and I don’t know if we will ever have the right answer. I myself went to a girls’ school and my children to integrated public schools. Although the social pressures we faced were different, I am not sure that the quality of education was related to the presence or absence of the opposite sex.  I know from experience that there are many social pressures in an all-girls school which can be just as stressful as having an obnoxious (or very cute) boy sitting next to you. If stress is created by having to share a classroom with the opposite sex, can the same not be said about mixing of race, class, religion and other social and biological attributes? I would like to hear the opinions of readers- those who went to schools with a homogenous (sex,religion, ethnicity) student body and wished for a more diverse experience and vice-versa . And is being comfortable the only predictor of success in school?

  • Mug Shot As Photo Op

    Tom DeLay’s post indictment story is full of fighting words, pointing fingers and bizarre charges. At his arraignment today , DeLay’s attorney accused the judge of having donated money to MoveOn.org, "a liberal organization that he said has been "selling T-shirts with Mr. DeLay’s mug shot on it."  DeLay, as you may know, smiled for his mug shot when he was booked and fingerprinted. Knowing the Hammer and his in your face attitude, many are speculating that if he is able to beat the charges, he might defiantly use this mug shot in his campaign poster in 2006.