Back in college, WC was required to read Whitaker Chambers’ 1952 autobiography, Witness. WC came to the book reluctantly. WC was a distant relative of Helen Gahagan Douglas, U.S. Representative from California, smeared by Richard Nixon as “The Pink Lady.” Whitaker Chambers contributed to that effort, and afterwards to the Pumpkin Papers political theater that made…
WC is an unapologetic reader of fantasy literature. In this post, WC looks at another set of stories set in Paksenarrion’s universe. Elizabeth Moon, through the Deed of Paksenarrion, these two stories and three of a projected five novels that follow the Paks trilogy, has created a vivid, complex and believable world, chronicling a span…
So it’s in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court now. We heard the arguments, heard the querulous questions of the Justices (all those old voices), and listened to the hordes of tea-leaf readers. WC, while he has little confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court, has no idea how it is going to turn out.…
WC is an unapologetic reader of fantasy literature. There’s a lot of really bad fantasy literature, but there are some gems, too. The Deed of Paksennarion is a trade volume of Elizabeth Moon’s frist three novels, a fantasy following the life of Paksennarion Dorthansdotter. Published between 1992-1995, the story starts with Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, which tells…
While the Alaska Legislature is wildly enthusiastic about creating ridiculously harsh sentences, and a presumptive sentencing system that can put repeat offenders in the slammer into their 80s, the Legislature is notoriously miserly about building prisons to house all those convicts. By preference, and when forced bycourt order to reduce overcrowding, the Legislature will warehouse…
Not everyone should wear a bikini. Obviously: WC had absolutely nothing to do with creating this masterpiece. WC swears it. It was just there, on the east side of the road, driving south to Valdez. For those not familiar with the Richardson Highway, this is seriously in the middle of nowhere. The whole tree had…
Readers have likely already recognized that WC is not a fan of House Rep. Tammie Wilson (R. North Pole). But her latest effort, an attempt to abolish public food inspection services by the State, probably will go in the Guiness Book of World Record for Dumb Ideas. Wilson has introduced HB 202, which would abolish…
The fate of the Affordable Care Act will be handed to the very conservative U.S. Supreme Court this week. There will be three days of oral argument, and then the SCOTUS will take the various challenges to the law under advisement. This isn’t a surprise. It was a given from the day the bill was…
WC wrote a remembrance for the late Judge Jim Fitzgerald a while back. One comment noted the effort to honor Fitz. WC is pleased to report it has happened, that the federal courthouse in Anchorage will be named the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse. WC wishes it had happened in Fitz’s lifetime, but on the other hand,…
WC received an email the other day with a link to Mike Daisey’s gross lies about Foxconn. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, go to the episode of This American Life in which host Ira Glass ‘fesses up to having been sucked in by a con artist. The episode is itself pretty amazing; that Mike…
The Tito Puente, Jr. Orchestra was at Hering Auditorium last night, a part of Fairbanks Concert Association’s 2011-12 concert season. Any dust left in the rafters after k. d. lang, Te Vaka, Sweet Plantain and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was shaken loose as the second generation of the mambo kings rocked down the house. Tito Puente…
It seems increasingly like that the opportunist former governor Romney will be the Republican candidate for President. In an effort to understand the candidate and his positions, WC will undertake a series examining The Mitt’s claims and the reality, looking for correspondence. We’ll turn first to defense spending. Numerous sources have reported The Mitt is…
Sometimes there are unscripted moments, magic moments, that tell you more about a person than thousands of words ever can: Stephon stood just a few feet away from Barack Obama. The president, busy shaking hands, looked right at him. “It was like he was waiting for me to say something,” he said later. So the…
Repsol has officially plugged the blown-out gas well on the North Slope. Readers will remember that the well blew out at 10:29 AM on February 15, 2012; the well was officially plugged at 1:30 PM on March 18, 2012. If you had your stop watches going to see how long it would take to plug a…
Q: Why does New Jersey have all the Superfund sites and California have all the lawyers? A: New Jersey got to choose first. The State Integrity Investigation describes itself as “a $1.5 million public collaboration designed to expose practices that undermine trust in state capitols — and spotlight the states that are doing things right.”…
As anyone following the news knows by now, an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin was murdered by a gun-toting vigilante in Sanford, Florida. The gunman, George Zimmerman, claims he was acting in “self-defense,” even though he disobeyed the police dispatcher’s instructions. Florida law enforcement authorities claimed that under Florida’s “stand your ground” self-defense statute,…
TPM had made an interesting analysis of increases in government spending, neatly summarized in the following graph: At the end of their first terms, only two of the five presidents had achieved a reduction in federal spending: Clinton and Obama. Reagan and Bush I increased federal spending by 6%; Bush II by a whopping 10%.…
The Republican presidential wannabes’ recent posturings have reminded WC that he has shamefully neglected the ongoing review of logical fallacies. WC has visited the Ad Hominem attack; the Big Lie and the Non Sequitur have been discussed. Certainly we have seen the Republican yokels use all three. Today we turn to a political and religious…
Most advertising goes by WC without notice. It’s probably adaptive behavior in the 21st Century. But occasionally an ad comes along which grabs even WC’s jaundiced, cynical eye. Certainly Alaska Airlines’ Salmon Thirty Salmon back in 2005 is an example of an ad that will make you do a double take: (This is a promo…
WC got a tip from unnamed Alaska Dog Mushers Association official that Paula Poundstone would be making a surprise appearance in the AARP mushing event Saturday in downtown Fairbanks. The AARP mushing event – and it really is sponsored by AARP – involves geriatric dogs and geriatric mushers, a complicated scoring system and fills the…
As a St. Patrick’s Day treat to you: WC, so far as he knows, doesn’t have a drop of Irish blood in his veins. Perhaps it shows. But a Happy St. Pattie’s Day to the lot of you.
Dear Senator Inhofe – WC doesn’t usually let himself get dragged in to arguments with right wing religious nut-jobs, but he makes an exceptions for U.S. Senators who fit the bill. And your comments on the Voice of Christian Youth America’s “Crosstalk” on March 7 were so far over the top that you can’t even…
Chuck Hagel, retired senator (R, NE) was interviewed in Al Monitor recently, and had this to say about President Obama: I do think Obama’s done a good job overall. There are a lot of things I don’t agree with him on; he knows it. I have the honor and privilege of seeing those guys a…
Disclaimer: WC knows several of the people involved in this sorry mess. You may want to take these comments with a suitable amount of salt. The report from Henry F. Schuelke III became public today. Schuelke – the individual charged by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan with investigating prosecutor misconduct in the Ted Stevens…
Despite recent embarrassing lapses, there are signs that Senator Lisa Murkowski is actually doing her job: serving as a voice of moderate Republican thinking. The New York Times reports that at a recent closed-door lunch of Republican Senators, Murkowski woodshedded her colleagues on their opposition to renewal of the Violence Against Women Act: At a…
Today is the 33rd anniversary of Visicalc. Visicalc was the first spreadsheet program for a personal computer. Until Visicalc was developed by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston, primitive early personal computers like the Apple II were seen as toys. Visicalc didn’t ship as a package until October 1979, but there were copies out in the…
It’s time for WC to clean out his in-boxes again. And be warned: some of this stuff is pretty disgusting. The Catholic Church has reverted to type and is now harassing its victims. SNAP, the Missouri-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the target of subpoenas and depositions by the Church. Never mind that…
Ice Alaska is moved to its new location, and WC is pleased to report that the sculptures are once again world class. Photos can’t begin to capture the experience. If you are in Alaska, you need to stop by for a few hours, preferably after dark, and see the art. This is only a portion…
According to the statistics features at WordPress, this is WC’s 1,000th blog post. Hmm. When Wickersham’s Conscience launched in November 2009, WC had no expectation that it would last this long, let alone amount to 1,000 posts. Some notes for the occasion: The most popular post ever is . . . A Field Guide to…
Our friends at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner have elected to censor Doonesbury again. They ran an uncredited re-run instead of the current ‘toon. As a courtesy to Fairbanksans, WC posted today’s cartoon here. After three days or so, WC will take it down to minimize the copyright infringement. Link to Comic under Discussion Doonesbury 03/12/2012…
Wickersham's Conscience 
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