No, I’m not about to start stamping about on Doug’s turf, but I noticed this story in today’s New York Times (free registration required). Apparently there is such a glut of French wine in the market that some quality wines are selling in supermarkets in that country for less than the cost of bottled water. To survive, French vintners are converting 150 million liters of the country’s Appellation d’Origine Controlée into ethanol to be used in gasoline.

The article cites a few reasons for this overabundance, including a crackdown on drunken driving in France, but finally gets around to this:

Mr. Gibelin’s exports to the United States are a tenth of what they were a few years ago, thanks to a strong euro and, to some extent, he says, to the American boycott of French products that followed France’s refusal to support the invasion of Iraq (his biggest market was in Texas).

France may yet have the last laugh, however:

Because France exports gasoline and one of its biggest markets is the United States, by sometime next year, some Americans may be pumping their cars full of gas that includes a bit of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.

I guess that soon I won’t have to check just the octane rating but the vintage as well when I fill my car. With a particularly bad year it might be fun spill the gas on the ground and complain to the attendant, “You call this gasoline? Why, I wouldn’t serve this to my lawn mower!”

I don’t want to trespass on King’s turf either, so I’ll leave it to him to evaluate the effectiveness of the EU’s response:

Whatever its cause, the glut has led to ruinous price declines. A bottle of modest Côtes-du-Rhône that used to sell wholesale for about 1.20 euros, or about $1.40, sells today for 60 centimes, about 70 cents. Even bottles of fancier Saint-Émilion are going for under 3 euros apiece.

To prevent the problem from growing, the European Union has kept the acreage devoted to vineyards in Europe fixed for the last five years. There are even subsidies available for people who agree to tear up their vineyards rather than keep producing bad wine, known in Europe as plonk. France’s state wine regulator, the National Inter-Professional Wine Bureau, has also been buying up vineyard rights – in effect, licenses to make wine – and taking them off the market.

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June 14, 2005:

McCombs, speaking on a conference call from his San Antonio office, reminded reporters that all the offseason moves made by Minnesota were completed under his watch. After adding at least five new starters on defense, the Vikings could be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

“To me, this year — this will be my team, regardless of the fact that we’re totally out of ownership,” he said. “It’s obvious that we were involved in putting this team together.”

Red,

Most of us Vikings fans snorted back in June at your all-too-typical attempt to wring another windfall out of your stint as Vikings owner. We knew the only reason the new free agent acquisitions were made was because you already had Reggie Fowler’s $20 million non-refundable deposit safely tucked into an empty Folger’s can and buried in a secret location on your ranch. As if that weren’t enough, you tried to arrange it so that all the signing bonuses for the new guys wouldn’t be paid until after the team was sold so as not to depreciate your $400 million profit.

You are, after all, the guy who wouldn’t even pay to have the central air-conditioning at the club’s headquarters repaired. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you smuggled your own peanuts into your owner’s suite at the Dome so you wouldn’t have to pay those high catering prices.

Nor were we shocked that when it it was time to replace Denny Green you embarked on an exhaustive, 16-hour search of possible candidates before settling on Mike Tice, the team’s offensive line coach. Tice did have one important credential, however: he was so gosh-darn excited by the opportunity to be a head coach — despite never having even been a coordinator — that he was willing to work for about one-third the going rate for NFL head-coaches. It was a match made, not in heaven, but at Sam’s Club.

For the past three seasons as the team has struggled under your ownership it was hard to tell how much of the problem was coaching and how much of it was a lack of skilled players across the roster. Of course, it didn’t help that you savored the bouquet of all those dollars you saved by staying well under the salary cap each year the way some rich folks covet a fine cognac.

But, oh, the promise of this year! Fans were overlooking, however, that your actions let Tice limp into this season as the lamest of ducks. Therefore, once Scott Linehan found out he could make nearly as much money being the coordinator for the Dolphins as Tice would make as head coach, it was impossible to attract a promising offensive-coordinator for what might be a one-year (low-paying) job. Undiscouraged, you left no stone unturned in the Winter Park parking lot in another exhaustive search and found yet another offensive line coach already under contract. Not only was he willing to take the new responsibility, but he’d keep his old job, too. I bet you loved that two-fer.

It’s not that Coach Tice doesn’t have some positive attributes. He’s much more charming and forthright than Denny Green, and while his efforts to motivate his players were mostly ham-handed, he seemed to know a bit about the game and it was hard not to root for the big lug. And, yeah the team has had injuries and played some tough teams so far. But I’ve got to draw the line on a guy who said repeatedly, “This is my team. This is the team I built,” and who now says “We’re still trying to find our identity.” Finding this team’s identity ought to be as easy for him as finding his own backside with one hand; instead it’s looking like a game of two-handed blind man’s bluff.

Red, with your used car selling background you know better than anyone else that you get what you pay for. The irony in this situation is that this is the team that you got paid for, but you were absolutely right back in June. It’s your team, Red. You’ve earned it.

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Jeff at Peace Like a River had an account the other day of a Pentagon briefing where Donald Rumsfeld openly speculated on the types of questions Al Qaida leadership might face from a similar press corps (if the Arab world actually allowed such a thing). Using Rumsfeld’s questions (in italics, below) I imagined the following scene:

(Setting: a subterranean cavern. The hum of generators powering the lights for TV cameras neutralizes the echoes of the voices of the press corps as they await the briefing. At one end of the cavern a man emerges from behind a tapestry, and approaches a lectern already set up. He is flanked by three guards. He is the senior minister of military activity for Al Qaida.)

Minister: Thank you all for coming today. Our illustrious leader, Osama bin Ladin, sends you greetings from his undisclosed location. He has asked me to speak to you today to brief you on the most exceptional progress of our war against the Great Satans of the West and our impending, glorious victory.

We are making progress. We are winning. Our enemies cower in hiding, afraid to venture outside their compounds. Their media daily broadcast the news of their defeats and the numbers of their killed and wounded. Weekly the people in America take to the streets by the millions calling for their soldiers to surrender. Our own people are so inspired by our cause that now even women and children are being pressed…I mean, are volunteering to be martyrs. As for our own leaders, the jihad is going so well that they have been permitted to take vacations in order to rest up for our final victory, so don’t be concerned if you don’t see some of them around. I am now permitted, ensha’allah, to take a few questions.

Reporter: Minister, it appears your insurgency has failed to stop millions of Afghans and Iraqis from voting in free and relatively orderly elections. Could you explain how this advances your cause?

Minister: (turns to one guard and whispers; the guard takes out a notebook and writes briefly) Those were not elections. In fact, we encouraged our brothers to take to the streets en masse to show that they are not afraid of the terroristic actions of the imperialists swine. And, of course, they did so with smiles on their faces.

Reporter: Yes, but we have reports that even the Iraqi Sunnis, who are supposedly the natural allies of the insurgents, have chosen, albeit belatedly, to energetically embrace the political process, registering in large numbers.

Minister: Look, who are you going to believe – me, or your lying eyes, for as ever long as they remain in your head? Next question. Yes, you from Islamic Week.

Reporter: Minister, can you tell us why the insurgency has failed to prevent nearly 200,000 and some 75,000 Afghans — 200,000 Iraqis and some 75,000 Afghanis — I think it’s technically 194,000 Iraqis — from joining the Afghan and Iraqi security forces, despite their very best efforts at intimidation to prevent them from joining those forces? Or why the vast majority of Afghans and Iraqis have rejected twisted ideology and, instead, are supporting efforts to build new societies? Or how you expect to succeed militarily when you cannot rely on sanctuaries in places like Fallujah or Najaf or Tall Afar to plan operations and to train recruits?

Minister: (menacingly) “Look, don’t get stuck on stupid.” (Guard writes again in notebook.)

Reporter: Um, uh, so do you have an exit strategy?

Minister: An excellent question. (Turning to a guard) Hassan, will you help our friend here exit the room? Take him down to our new media center where I can, um, explain things more personally.

Now then, I’d like to take some questions from bloggers. Any bloggers here? (A few hands go up. Guards immediately descend and remove those who raised their hands). I’m sorry, I meant to say, “I have a few questions for bloggers.” Pardon my slip. Are there any other questions?

No? Well then, thank you all again for coming. We have arranged special transportation for each of you to get you safely home. A number of cars are waiting for you outside this complex; please take them back to your cities.

Oh, one piece of advice: no smoking.

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Kind of a weird experience today. This morning I read about the Aussies who won the Nobel Prize for their work in determining that ulcers are caused by bacteria and not by stress or lifestlye. Later in the day, while looking for something else, I came across the Eye of Science web site, that had picture of the very virus in question, magnified 9,000 times.

Bakteria: Helicobacter pylori

Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM). This pathogen of chronically active gastritis and intestinal ulcers was discovered in 1983. The bacteria are wound in a spiral shape and possess up to 7 flagella. H. pylori populates the mucosa of the human stomach exclusively. It is diagnosed by a stomach biopsy or a Urea Breath Test. Treatment of the infection involves the administration of anti-microbial substances combined with bismuth salt over the course of 14 days. Transmission of the infection seems to take place by mouth to mouth contact. Magnification 9.000 X

Beauty, eh? This is a super-cool site, subtitled “life in a microcosmic world”, that features images of tiny to microscopic bacteria, flora and fauna. Browse their galleries or visit their online store for posters and books of these images which include butterfly wings, a tick, a fruit fly, E coli bacteria and several others – 10,000 times larger than life and in brilliant color. As I said, cool!



(HT: Z + Partners Blog,.)

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No alchohol. No strippers. And no mercy. What a party!

Imminent newlywed Cedric over at Cedric’s Blog-0-Rama just had a day-long bachelor party that covered multiple locations and events and involved several costume changes and much public humiliation. (With friends like these, who needs nightmares?)

From his account, however, Cedric appears to have enjoyed every minute and I’d have to say his friends probably did him a great service in preparing him for marriage. After all he’s already endured, marriage will be easy.

Intrusive in-laws? No problem! 2 a.m. baby feedings? Piece of cake! Cold feet on your backside? Refreshing! Trip to the store for feminine hygiene products? Smiling all the way!

You know, these guys might be on to something.

You can keep up with the more typical daily adventures of this mild-mannered illustrator here.

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For those of us who think we have a biblical worldview, it can be both shocking and stimulating to learn there are areas in our lives where our thinking and what we assume to be true is really based on humanism. A “Worldview Weekend”, sponsored by a group by the same name, can be challenging and entertaining way to examine our own thinking and learn how to be more effective in understanding, living and communicating Christian values.

These weekends are held all around the country throughout the year, and one is coming to North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota, in just a couple of weeks: Friday night, October 14 and Saturday, October 15.

A flyer for the event has the following description:

This is a power-packed weekend featuring some of themost gifted biblical teachers and communicators of our time. Starting on Friday night and ending Saturday afternoon, this weekend is fast paced, energetic and non-stop training on how to see the world through the lens of the Bible. There are nine sessions in a Worldview Weekend of which six are general sessions for both adults and students and three are breakout sessions for students and three are sessions in the main auditorium for adults….

…This weekend is for any student or adult that has the desire to think and live like a Christian in an increasingly anti-Christian culture. This weekend is for any skeptic or critic that wants to investigate the truth claims of Jesus Christ and the validity of Christianity.

(Emphasis mine.)

The event is headlined by Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron. I’ve read a few of Comfort’s books, listened to one of his tape series and seen him in person, and he is very dynamic and will have you laughing and thinking in no time. It appears as if the various sessions will focus not just on the spiritual life but on politics, the media and academia as well. I’ve not been to one of these weekends before, but I’ve read materials from them and they are excellent. You can get more information about the Twin Cities event here (scroll down to the Minneapolis/St. Paul info). There is a cost of $45 for adults and $35 for students, but there is a family plan where if you buy three tickets you get a fourth one free.

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I’m pretty much on an every-other week schedule for Keegan’s Thursday night trivia (when my family hasn’t otherwise abandoned me), which would have me in the thick of the fray tonight – except that it is my lovely wife’s birthday. Even though I’ve offered her a birthday present of the two free drink tickets I’ve accumulated from my most recent visits, she would rather celebrate the occasion in another manner.

She’s already made it so easy for me that I can’t possibly resist. She’s already selected the restaurant where she wants to eat, and then it’s off to the store to pick up the birthday present she’s already selected. How good is that? This doesn’t indicate a lack of faith on her part for my gift-buying acumen, as I think I’m pretty good at that. This just allows me to focus my skills and attention on our upcoming anniversary.

By the way, this is one of those birthdays for her that ends in a “9”. If enough of you think the first number is “2” then I’m sure she’ll be back at Keegan’s in no time to thank you personally. Below is a photo of a previous visit, when we were joined by the mysterious Tiger Lilly (the Mall Diva was probably shopping).

(photo by Douglas Bass)

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I don’t watch a lot of protests on television, especially during football season (I find it more interesting to watch events where you don’t know what’s going to happen next). I do remember seeing several protests on television when I was younger, though: the ’68 Democratic National Convention, Kent State, the Selma marches. You know the images – tear-gas, guns, fire hoses, baton-wielding police in facemasks, police-dogs tearing at clothes.



In later years I also watched the the TV show Cops with all of its jerky camera foot-chases through dark alleys after wild-eyed, half-naked suspects desperate to get away and knee-in-the-back arrests with bleeped out language and pixilated faces.



When I heard about the anti-war protests over the weekend and that Cindy Sheehan and others had been arrested – and since George Bush is the new Bull Connor – you might understand why I imagined a desperate melee of hair-pulling blood and brutality, or at least a little bruising.



Ah, no.

(Photo via Reuters/Yahoo. Click to enlarge.)







Back in the day, you would have heard angry voices:



“@#%#% Pigs!”

“Hippie scum!”



Now it’s more like, “Good morning, I believe you had an appointment to be arrested?”



“Why yes, yes I did. I’m ready if you are, but be careful – my bursitis is acting up in this shoulder.”



I mean, there’s even a guy talking on his cell phone in the picture: “Hi, Muffy, it’s me. Everything’s right on schedule here, so I should be home by four. Hey, could you check and see whether or not I remembered to Tivo The West Wing before I left?”



I believe the group was chanting “The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!” Assuming this were true (except for all the people in China, Iran and Darfur and other places who are dead or in jail for protesting against their government) then the whole world has got to be thinking, “What a country!”



Times have changed, I guess, as has the song the protestors sing:



“All we are saying, is put us on TV!”

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