The Voice of the West Gets a Facelift. [The Chronicle] - One hundred forty-four years after two teenage brothers in San Francisco founded The San Francisco Chronicle with a $20 gold piece borrowed from their landlord, the broadsheet is about to embark on a bold new era that could provide a model for how daily newspapers can thrive in today's market.

Last year I made a series of posts in celebration of the Independence Day holiday. I can think of little to add this year, except a wish for peace and a prayer for the safe return home of our troops. My heart is especially with those in Afghanistan who are now involved in the largest Marine offensive since Vietnam.

These are some shots I took last weekend on our outing to Sullivan for the Theatre For Young Audiences performance of Cinderella at The Little Theatre on the Square. I'm mainly posting it her as a test of Flickr Slideshow. I'm going to be handling the theatre's website, and am looking for ways of incorporating various media.

7 Basic Knots Every Man Should Know [The Art of Manliness] - For centuries, knotsmanship has been passed down from generation to generation - until recent generations, that is. Our pals at Art of Manliness present a series of videos on this essential skill.

Though I have often been dumbfounded at the depth of ignorance displayed by political commentators of a certain stripe, I watched something so astounding in the course of my duties today that I still wonder if it mustn't have been meant as parody.

There was the usual run of the mill derision of our President, his party and all those of the "Loony Left."

Then came this argument.

Democrats were responsible for every war waged by the United States in the 20th Century. World War I was Wilson. World War II was FDR and Truman. Korea was Truman. Vietnam was Kennedy and then Johnson (and, they did allow, at the end Nixon). Clinton sent troops to Somalia and Kosovo. But it was only when George W. Bush sent troops to Iraq that people started raising a fuss about "preemptive war."

There is so much wrong with this that one barely knows where to begin. Surely, we might agree that Wilson and FDR didn't start either of the World Wars, and that they weren't "preemptive" in nature. U.S. involvement in the Korean Conflict, as anyone with a passing acquaintance with history should know, was as part of an international coalition of troops under the auspices of the United Nations - similar to the first Gulf War under George Herbert Walker Bush (which our commentators conveniently omitted).

Let's look at Vietnam. It is beyond dispute that President Kennedy escalated U.S. involvement, and that LBJ further escalated it (by magnitudes), but U.S. involvement there started during the Eisenhower Administration, of course, with nearly 1000 U.S. military "advisers" on the ground in Vietnam before JFK took office.



Let us not split hairs, though. It was, in the end, Johnson's war, and as we all know, and as our commentators suggest, no one raised a cry of dissent, at least no Democrat or "Liberal." Right?

What, in the Name of the Good Christ, do they think the 1968 riots in Chicago were about? Why did Lyndon Johnson, a man who had won one of the most decisive landslide election victories in American history just four years earlier, decide that he would be unable to hold his own party's nomination for another term in office?

If you are going to talk about history, gentlemen, at least do a little Googling or something. Maybe even read a book? I realize that some of you on the Right are a little afraid of facts and intellectual rigor, but I promise that at least some very basic knowledge of your subject won't hurt you.

It now looks as if there may be a movement developing in Iran that seeks to end the rule of the Islamic clerics. Many on Twitter and elsewhere are going orange in support of freedom and democracy (recalling the peaceful protests following the Ukrainian elections of 2004, dubbed the "Orange Revolution").

This, finally, is something I can get behind without hesitation.

The people of Iran remain in my prayers.