What we saw in Wausau.

I thought I was going to Wauwatosa, but really it was Wausau. Well, I got the "Wau" right. I saw "Wau," and naturally, I assumed Wauwatosa. Who wouldn't? Wauwatosa is, relative to Madison, almost all the way to Milwaukee. Wausau is dead center in Wisconsin, which means it's way north of here -- a two and a half hour drive. That's means five hours of talking in the car, which we did, and it was scintillating. Really.

Why did we go to Wausau? To me, and probably to you, Wausau is an insurance company, not so much a real place. But it's a pretty big city, by Wisconsin standards, and there have been enough wealthy people there over the years -- dealing in lumber and insurance -- that there are some excellent houses. We went on an architectural tour.

The best thing on the tour was the Charles and Dorothy Manson House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1938-41:



There was another Wright house, the Duey-Wright House, done in 1957, shortly before Wright's death:



I also liked the Aytchmonde and Leigh Yawkey Woodson House, designed by George Washington Maher, 1913-14. Here's a detail:



There were tons of cool details inside all the houses, but, unfortunately, photography was only allowed outside.

Here's the lovely arbor outside the Cyrus and Alice Yawkey House:



We saw a couple Wright-inspired houses built in the last decade. They're at the bottom of the page at the link. We loved one and scorned the other. The Letarski house was designed by a guy who had really internalized Wright's ideas and had an artist's feeling for what he was doing. He lived in the house with his family. The Sorenson House was built by an architect who said he was given free rein by his clients -- two doctors -- and he had collected elements from three Wright designs and fitted them together, but it didn't have a believable, genuine spirit to it. It didn't make sense. The difference between the two houses was quite striking. I felt as though the Sorenson House could be an exam for architecture students: What do you count as mistakes and why?

I hope your day was as Usonian as ours.

The NYT covers the YearlyKos convention.

And you gotta love the photograph:

Yikes... bloggers. They took off their jammies and put on their shorts. They've come out of the house and walk among us. Black socks go with shorts, right, moonbeambushhater? I'm looking at the paper NYT, and the photo is twice as wide. What are you missing? To the left of the white-legged ones is a slouching young woman with scraggly hair. There's a sign on the wall behind her -- something about "swing states" -- and the photo is framed so that we see the word "swing" is next to her head. To the right, we see a banner -- "Mark Warner/President '08" -- and standing above it is a very tubby man in short sleeves and wrinkled pants. To his right is a guy with a beard and hair growing past his shoulders. Okay, let's read the text:

They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair.

The horror! It's bad enough Iowa gets so much power....

"It's 2006, and I think we have arrived," Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the Daily Kos and the man for whom the conference was named, announced after being greeted with the kind of reception Elvis, or at least Wayne Newton to a more traditional Las Vegas audience, might have received had he walked into the dowdy ballroom at the Riviera Hotel and Casino.

Is the tone of contempt subtle enough? Wayne Newton... Las Vegas... dowdy ballroom...

The ceremony and self-celebration notwithstanding, the actual extent of the blogging community's power is still unclear. For one thing, it was hard to find a single Republican in the crowd here, though organizers insisted that a few had registered. For another, as the presidential campaign of Howard Dean demonstrated in 2004, the excitement and energy of the Web does not necessarily translate into winning at the polls. "I do believe that each day, they have more impact," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the minority leader, who will deliver the keynote speech to the group on Saturday night. "Now how far that will go, I don't think we know that yet." But, Mr. Reid added: "One of the reasons I so admire them is they have the ability to spread the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years. We could never have won the battle to stop privatization of Social Security without them."

Hey, that's a good tag line for a blog: Spreading the truth like no entities I've dealt with in recent years. Yeah, all you politicians: deal with this entity! One Democrat who declined to attend: Hillary Clinton. What did Kos say when asked if she was popular with his crowd? "Oh my God, no way!" Mark Warner was there though. And Howard Dean. Tom Vilsack. Wesley Clark "was spotted on Thursday night looking somewhat out of place as he roamed the halls in a pin-striped suit before heading to the Hard Rock Cafe to hold his own reception for bloggers." The poor man! Ha, ha... they must all kneel to the lefty bloggers! Maureen Dowd was there too. If you've got TimesSelect, you can check out her column today. A taste:

I ... wad[ed] through a sea of Kossacks, who were sitting on the floor in the hall with their laptops or at tables where they blogged, BlackBerried, texted and cellphoned — sometimes contacting someone only a few feet away. They were paler and more earnest than your typical Vegas visitors, but the mood was like a masquerade. This was the first time many of the bloggers had met, and they delighted in discovering whether their online companions were, as one woman told me, male, female, black, white, old, young or "in a wheelchair."... As I wandered around workshops, I began to wonder if the outsiders just wanted to get in. One was devoted to training bloggers, who had heretofore not given much thought to grooming and glossy presentation, on how to be TV pundits and avoid the stereotype of nutty radical kids. Mr. Moulitsas said he had a media coach who taught him how to stand, dress, speak, breathe and even get up from his chair.

How to dress? First, get out of the pajamas. Okay, now, about those socks....

The death penalty for rape of a child.

Five states have authorized the death penalty for the rape of a child:

In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could not be imposed for the rape of an adult woman. The penalty was, the court ruled, disproportionate to the crime and therefore forbidden as cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

"Life is over for the victim of the murderer," Justice Byron R. White wrote for the majority. "For the rape victim, life may not be nearly so happy as it was, but it is not over and normally is not beyond repair."

The defendant in that case, Ehrlich Coker, escaped from a state prison in Georgia where he was serving time for a murder and two rapes. He soon raped another woman in front of her husband. He was sentenced to death for that last crime.

Dissenting from the majority decision to overturn Mr. Coker's death sentence, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote that the ruling "prevents the state from imposing any effective punishment upon Coker for his latest rape."

... In recent decisions barring the execution of juvenile offenders and the mentally retarded, the court took careful stock of state laws and trends in state legislatures to evaluate whether a societal consensus existed to permit or bar capital punishment in given classes of cases.

Trey Walker, chief executive assistant to Attorney General Henry McMaster of South Carolina, said in an interview yesterday that "there will be more and more" laws making sex crimes against children capital offenses.

"This is something the Supreme Court takes into account," Mr. Walker said. "There is not much doubt that this law would be upheld and found constitutional."

In Coker, Georgia was the only state with the death penalty for the rape of an adult. The case largely preceded the very intense political activity aimed at making people take rape much more seriously than they had before. Here's Justice White's description of the rape:

Coker then raped Mrs. Carver. Soon thereafter, petitioner drove away in the Carver car, taking Mrs. Carver with him. Mr. Carver, freeing himself, notified the police; and not long thereafter petitioner was apprehended. Mrs. Carver was unharmed.

Mrs. Carver was unharmed. How many law professors have read that line sarcastically in class? I know I have. I can't imagine White writing like that 10 years later, after all the discussion of rape that took place in that time. Brownmiller's "Against Our Will" was published in 1975 and the author was one of a collection of women who were named Time magazine's "Persons of the Year" in 1975, two years before Coker, so I still have to say that the Court, at the very least, had a tin ear. Even when you're striking down the death penalty, the convention is to show great respect for the suffering of the victim. But Mrs. Carver was unharmed. Really, that belongs on the list of worst sentences ever written by a Supreme Court Justice.

So Georgia's anomalous law made it easier to strike down the death penalty for rape of an adult. What happens now as more and more states adopt the death penalty for the rape of a child? The public understanding of the harm to children has grown over the years, as has the conviction that persons who commit this crime are hopeless and even inhuman. You may say that you think the Constitution should not be interpreted to take account of the current understanding of what is "cruel and unusual," but the Justices who agree with you can be counted on to accept what the states are doing now. What should the Justices who go by "the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" say about the death penalty for child rape?

Consider the unintended consequence: authorizing the death penalty will stimulate sympathy for child rapists. Death penalty opponents will be motivated to paint a strong picture of the rapist as a pitiable creature with a terrible mental health problem.

Need to replace your iPod?

Advice from a spellcheck looking at "iPods": Replace with aphids.

Rudy Giuliani picks the top 5 biographies of leaders.

How can you read this list and not think that he first decided which 5 leaders should be on his list and in what order and then came up with the names of books for the 5 slots?

I'm not blaming him. He's a politician. It's like all those politicians who let us know what is in their iPods. The demonstration of balance is too obvious, the need to show the right frame of mind, so we'll trust them with what they want us to let them do.

Giuliani briefly explains why he picked each book, and each explanation is perfectly honed as a campaign pitch -- deniable, yet unmistakable.

For book #1:

On the night after the attacks of Sept. 11, I remember getting home at about 2:30 a.m. and seeing on my nightstand a book I had been reading, a prepublication copy of Roy Jenkins's forthcoming "Churchill."...

Mmmm... yeah... who's to say it didn't happen?

Book 2 is about Jefferson. Book 3 is about... guess!... Lincoln:

My mother was a great storyteller and a natural teacher. She introduced me as a child to the life of Abraham Lincoln....

Don't you tell me she didn't! You don't appreciate Mom?

Book 4 is... love me Democrats... President Kennedy's "Profiles in Courtage"!

One profile in particular that stuck with me was that of Edmund Ross, the Kansas Republican who cast the deciding vote for acquittal in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. Ross was no fan of Johnson's but sensed that the trial was more about rounding up votes than weighing the evidence. His decision to break ranks with his party ended Ross's political career, but his principled stand has been vindicated by history....

Yay, Republican!

Book 5 is... note, Democrats, I put him after Kennedy... Ronald Reagan!

My wife, Judith, recently bought me Richard Reeves's book (subtitled "The Triumph of Imagination"), which excels in depicting Ronald Reagan's management style and unrelenting pursuit of his core principles: the restoration of the American spirit, limited government, a strong defense and the defeat of communism.

First, Kennedy, then, Reagan. First, Mom, then, Wife. Do you love me yet? Did I present my admiration for Reagan in a way that makes both Democrats and Republicans feel good? Management style! Principles! Like the principles I extracted? Come on, they're really good ones! What? You're for unlimited government?

Hey, I love the guy. I'm just saying I can read.

Caricature.

I have adored David Levine's caricatures for decades, but this one of George Bush just doesn't look a thing like him.

Here are all his Bush caricatures, most of which are great. I'm just wondering what strange perception shift took place in Levine's brain.

Mazzu's Canine & Feline Hotel.

A luxury hotel for pets. Not a luxury hotel where you can stay with your pet, a luxury hotel where you leave your pet. Hey, you're the one with the pet. If you're leaving town, this is what you ought to do for for your dog... and what your cat expects you to do. The slide show (with audio) made me think this is a pretty smart business idea.

Vykhukhol.

It's not a Blogger verification word. It's this li'l endangered guy:

"She's got Dad's baby blues and just a soft crop of fair hair, but it's those lips - check out the super-size pout - that most give her away."

People Magazine effuses about the Pitt-Jolie entity Shiloh. Angelina lips on an infant? If the kid actually looked like that it would be horrifying. Photoshop that. I assume it's already been done.

I mean, really.... do you want to see "super-size" anything on a baby? And as far as "pouting" is concerned... pouting and kids? Well, what's more annoying? Pouting kids or grown women who "pout" not because of any emotion but out of the delusion that they are making their lips more attractive. Didn't Ben Stiller convince us of the sheer idiocy of that facial maneuver five years ago?

Have you ever wondered if there was more to life, other than being really, really, ridiculously good looking?

"He mumbled something but it was indistinguishable and it was very short."

The "he" was al-Zarqawi, still alive after the bombing:

[A military spokesman] said that when the terrorist "attempted to sort of turn away off the stretcher, everybody resecured him back onto the stretcher. ... He died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this airstrike."

"We did in fact see him alive," Caldwell said. "There was some sort of movement he had on the stretcher and he did die a short time later. There was confirmation from the Iraqi police that he was found alive."

In case you were hoping he suffered, you got your wish.

Democrats and Islamo-fascists.

Thomas Friedman -- behind the TimesSelect wall -- uses the occasion of the Zarqawi obliteration to lecture Democrats about their political prospects. Don't get too smug reading Bush's poll numbers, he says:

What the polls show is largely the result of President Bush's incompetent performance in Iraq, rather than the emergence of a convincing Democratic national security message or group of candidates respected on defense....

What Zarqawi and the recently arrested group of terrorists in Canada remind us of is that, whatever you think about the Iraq war, open societies today are threatened by these utterly ruthless jihadists. Many Americans feel that. If Democrats want to really seize control of the national security issue, they must persuade the country — in its gut — that they have a convincing post-Iraq strategy to rally the world against these Islamo-totalitarians.

Do Democrats even use the expression "Islamo-totalitarians" (or "Islamo-fascist")?

ADDED: And I must say that I'm enough of a Democrat that it bothers me to use the term "Islamo-fascist." I just looked at my blog after publishing this and felt a twinge seeing the word in the title to the post. Frankly, I think it's repulsive to see the word "fascist" next to the name of a religion.

"Peace, Love and Higher Returns."

Hedgestock:

This week, on spacious lawns surrounding a turreted, gargoyle-encrusted mansion north of London, thousands of hedge fund managers and the bankers and lawyers who love them gathered for their own alternative festival, called Hedgestock....

The Who, who played at Woodstock, headlined Hedgestock, and the band's guitarist, Pete Townshend, now 61 years old, did, in fact, do his trademark windmill guitar moves....

Unlike the perfectly polished, traditionally dressed and generally suave investment bankers who top the food chain in big banks, hedge fund managers have carved out a niche as the finance industry's iconoclasts. They do yoga; they buy modern art; they're often socially awkward.

I wonder if, in every area of economic activity, there is a subdivision that attracts the "socially awkward," the iconoclasts, and whatever the equivalent of a hippie is. For example, in law, it's got to be the law professors (and some subjects more than others).

"I am continually shocked and appalled at the details people voluntarily post online about themselves."

Amid all the efforts to stir up public outrage about the evils of government invading our privacy, MySpace and Friendster stand as monuments to our willingness to invade our own privacy. Do you expect the government not to take advantage of the information people post about themselves?

New Scientist has discovered that Pentagon's National Security Agency, which specialises in eavesdropping and code-breaking, is funding research into the mass harvesting of the information that people post about themselves on social networks. And it could harness advances in internet technology - specifically the forthcoming "semantic web" championed by the web standards organisation W3C - to combine data from social networking websites with details such as banking, retail and property records, allowing the NSA to build extensive, all-embracing personal profiles of individuals....

"You should always assume anything you write online is stapled to your resumé. People don't realise you get Googled just to get a job interview these days," says [Jon Callas, chief security officer at PGP, a Silicon Valley-based maker of encryption software].

But I used a pseudonym!... But I left off my last name!

There's also the problem of trying to make people care about the government listening in on phone calls when we walk around everywhere with our phones and talk in front of people all the time.

UPDATE: If you think this post is an argument about what rights are, your reading is very poor.

"Zarq is blown right to hell."

Daily News Headline.

Stephen Colbert, on last night's show: "al-Zarqawi is al-Kablooey."

Heard any other good lines? (And do these things ever go too far? A man did die...)

2 "American Idol" things.

1. Here's a clip of Kellie Pickler doing comic interviews at the MTV Movie Awards. I've said it before, and this proves me right: that girl's a gifted comedienne who ought to have her own show.

2. "The Daily Show" tonight did a play on "American Idol": saying al-Zarqawi's "journey ends here" and launching into a montage with "You Had a Bad Day" on the soundtrack.

Blogger?

Is Blogger behaving again yet?

No comments allowed here. If Blogger's accepting new comments, put some comments on the other posts that went up today. They need commentary. And don't put crap about Blogger over there. Really, I've heard it all and answered it all. Asked and answered. Move on.

UPDATE: As you can see from the Blogger Status page, there have been some serious problems today. Sorry if you've been trying to comment and not getting through.