Wordsworth, thy name is Broin

In the "you paid a consultant $80,000 to do WHAT?" category:

Sioux Falls-based Broin Ethanol, one of the largest corn-based ethanol companies in the country has changed their name to:

Poet.

Whaaaa?

I know we're entering the s0-called "creative economy," but come on--this is the fruit of their branding consultant's labor?

Summer filled with Waste

I received word yesterday from a co-worker that the Government Accountability Office report I worked on all summer was finally released to Congress.
The scintillating topic: Low-Level Radioactive Waste.
Yep. All summer.
Don't be deceived -- this is a bona fide industry, complete with stakeholders, lobbyists, and their own conference that meets in a posh Chicago hotel once a year to discuss burial and disposal solutions.
Intrigued?
You can find it all online. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07221.pdf
And if you wade through all 110 pages my name is mentioned at the end.

Waste expert extraordinaire.

EC

"Render unto Caesar..."

The other day at the Capitol I had a pastor who ministers to state legislators tell me: "I don't try to influence legislation. I just don't. Trying to change a man or a society by legislation is like compulsively re-arranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic."

Maybe it's because I am seeing politics from the inside lately, but I am growing increasingly suspicious of legislation and its ability to effect meaningful change in society (It really is like a sausage -- you don't want to see how a law is actually made).

Especially as a Christian, the pastor's comments are resonating with me more and more.

Claes G. Ryn writing for The American Conservative late last summer breathes fire on Christians and conservatives who are inexplicably obsessed with politics as a method to change America's national course. (note: Ryn is himself a conservative Christian). It's worth reading the entire article, but here are a few notable excerpts:

Modern American conservatism has been enthralled by politics. It should be obvious to all by now that this has been a debilitating preoccupation. Society’s long-term direction is not set mainly by politicians. It is set by those who capture a people’s mind and imagination. Conservative politicians and policy wonks have failed to reverse any of the main deleterious social trends of the last half-century not because they have lacked financial resources but because efforts like theirs have limited efficacy in the first place.

(snip)

To recover, American conservatism would have to reorder its priorities and most especially put politics in its place. America’s crisis is at bottom moral-spiritual and cultural. Though a new alliance of homeless political groups is desirable, a realignment would be unavailing in the long run unless the old obsession with politics were also broken. The issues most needing attention will make the eyes of political junkies glaze over.

(snip)

The problem, simply put, was lack of sophistication—an inability to understand what most deeply shapes the outlook and conduct of human beings. Persons move according to their innermost beliefs, hopes, and fears. These are affected much less by politicians than by philosophers, novelists, religious visionaries, moviemakers, playwrights, composers, painters, and the like, though truly great works of this kind reach most minds and imaginations only in diminished, popular form.

(snip)

I know His name gets invoked for all kinds of causes these days, but in reality, this was in many ways the approach of Jesus Christ. He made not one attempt to influence, engage or assume control of the politics of His day. He went straight for our hearts and minds. He knew His Father held the supreme power to transform people -- not Caesar (or your congressman, or a Supreme Court judge, for that matter).

-BC

Confession: 300 looks wicked cool

I have to admit it: I can't wait to see 300, the comic-book/quasi-historical account of the Spartans versus the King Xerxes-led Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae, circa 480 B.C.

And yes, Christianity Today notes, that's the same King Xerxes who took Esther as his queen.

300 raked in a record-breaking $70 million in its first weekend.

Even serious-minded Classical Military scholar Victor Davis Hanson likes the movie for what it is:

"If critics think that 300 reduces and simplifies the meaning of Thermopylae into freedom versus tyranny, they should reread carefully ancient accounts and then blame Herodotus, Plutarch, and Diodorus — who long ago boasted that Greek freedom was on trial against Persian autocracy, free men in superior fashion dying for their liberty, their enslaved enemies being whipped to enslave others."

Iran is upset, however. It's "Cultural and psychological warfare," in Tehran's opinion. I'd like to tell them that Hollywood just ain't that subtle.

When we saw a preview for this movie a while back I said "COOL." EC looked at me with furrowed brow, in complete disbelief.

Night o' Music

Given that we've given up movies for lent, EC and I are taking a mini-vacation next weekend from long nights laboring over stubborn Public Policy Memos and going to the Boulder Theater to see one of our favorites: Patty Griffin. This music reminds me of many things, but most of all it reminds me of late night road trips from Sioux Falls to Denver...and back...and forth...and back...

BC

"Odie! I'll send you to Abu Dhabi!"

Remember when Garfield was always trying to ship Odie to Abu Dhabi? I remember thinking as a kid that Abu Dhabi was a made-up place, some fictional desolate country in the middle of nowhere.
Later I realized Abu Dhabi was in an actual country. But if Garfield was trying to send Odie there, it had to be a desert wasteland. Right?

Later still (a.k.a. "now") I realized that Abu Dhabi is in fact, not a desolate desert wasteland. In fact, if Garfield were to send Odie there now, Odie would have resort living, uber-modern architecture and ostentatious palaces to welcome him.

Frankly, Garfield probably couldn't afford to send Odie to Abu Dhabi these days.

Also as two signs of the times,

1) The legendary Louvre of Paris is opening a satellite museum Abu Dhabi and,
2) Halliburton is moving their headquarters from Houston, Texas to Dubai, next door to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

The irony is that Abu Dhabi was a desolate desert wasteland not 50 years ago. Oh Globalization...how you turn the pauper into a prince overnight, and vice versa...

The Stuffy GOP?

The Crunchy Conservative asks, echoing my recent post "The Stupid Party = Conservatives,"

"Why Can't Republicans Write Good Novels?"

Good stuff. Looks like he struck a nerve, with almost 70 comments on the post.

BC

Is Dobson drunk with power?

Has Jim Dobson (or "SpongeDob") officially entered Caligula-mode?

Dobson has taken on cartoon characters head to head, but now he's attacking prominent Evangelical leaders who dare to utter the words "climate-change."

Dobson is calling for the resignation of Richard Cizik, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals after Cizik refused to waver on his conviction that Christians should actually be careful stewards of God's Creation.

I've always found Cizik to be a remarkably articulate and reasonable public voice for the NAE - and certainly not just on the issue of "creation care." Do Dobson, and his brother-in-arms Jerry Falwell, feel threatened?

I am currently agnostic on the issue of "global warming" or "climate change." It does seem the Earth is trending to the warmer side. But the human causes of this trend seem to be miniscule. I am no scientist, and I reserve the right to be flat wrong on this subject I know little about.

I still think Dobson needs to stick to his strengths - writing books about parenting advice. Politics has not been good to James Dobson.

-BC

Don't call it a comeback...

Yes, after 68 years (who knew it had been that long???), Langford has advanced to the state B basketball tournament in SoDak.

Clearly, BC's 6-points-per-game career average laid the groundwork for this achievement.

;)

Go Lions!

Diversions...but Important Diversions

V. cool site: www.mapsofwar.com, and two fascinating interactive maps:

The History of Religion

and

Imperial History of the Middle East

BC

"Hip" Downtowns

Everyone wants a hip downtown these days.

Downtown revitilization is getting to the point where shopping mall construction was 20 years ago: if your town didn't have a major shopping mall, well sir, you must live in yokel-ville U.S.A., and you'd better get busy building a 10-square-block big box structure full of J.C. Penny's, Taco Bells, and Foot Lockers.

This may surprise many of you who know me as a major fan of lively, pedestrian-friendly downtowns. Let me assure you: I still am. I just hate bandwagons, and "downtown revitilization" is starting to look suspiciously like a bandwagon issue. Cities all over the country, big and small, really are making drastic changes to their city centers: restoring historic buildings, constructing residential space like apartments and condos, and forming downtown 'arts districts.'

I like all of this. I think it is a positive development. But again, the devil is in the details.

Cities really need to think: who do we want to live, work and play downtown? 24 year old hipsters? Retiring baby-boomers? Young families with children?

Most places look to lure the first two groups, not the last. I'm not so sure that's a good thing. Ideally, you would want to attract all three, with an emphasis on making the area amenable to young families.

New Urbanism is catching on. Denver is planning to build 70 - yes, 70 - New Urban-style suburbs in the metro area in the next 10-20 years. These will look a bit like current (and extremely popular) developments Stapleton and Lowry. They are pedestrian-friendly, kid-friendly, mixed-use developments, and they are nowhere near downtown Denver.

As I noted a post or two ago, many "micropolitan" cities across the Inter-Mountain West and Great Plains are picking up steam. South Dakota Public Radio recently had a two part series on downtown developments in Rapid City and Sioux Falls:

"Rapid Downtown Building Plans" and "Uptown at Falls Park"

The Stupid Party = Conservatives*

Always in the mood for a discussion about politics and worldview, I ask - Is this often-quoted statement true, false or something else:

"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself."

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

If the statement is true, why are so many conservatives involved in politics? Why do they even care about politics? Shouldn't they be laboring in the cultural (and therefore more powerful) vocations of writers, pastors, musicians, professors, artists, film directors, teachers, and so on? Many would argue it is "liberals" who dominate and excel in these professions. Are liberals inherently more creative than conservatives? I'll leave that to you to decide...

Maybe before going on with any discussion like this one, we need to get past the cracked-out Fox News definitions of liberal and conservative.

*John Stewart Mill's assessment of the conservatives of his day