Jonathan's blog

We had some friends (Chai, Sitter, Wanous) over Saturday afternoon. Below are some photos and a video of the boys in the backyard. On Monday we watched the parade. The Somasi and Jolly families came over for pizza lunch. Some yard work in the afternoon. Then dinner at the Jolly's place.

• A Candidate, His Minister and the Search for Faith (NY Times, discusses Obama's faith and his relationship with his controversial pastor)
• A Plastic Wrapper Today Could Be Fuel Tomorrow (NY Times, scientists are developing plastics for normal uses that are designed to be easily used as a diesel fuel)

Here are some photos of Elliot from a few weeks back:

Some people really lack judgment and wisdom. REALLY LACK. From a recent issue of The Week magazine:

Teachers told sixth–graders on a field trip to a Tennessee state park last week that a gunman was coming and ordered them to turn off the lights and hide under tables. After five minutes, during which someone in a hooded sweatshirt pulled on the locked doors, the teachers told the trembling students that the whole thing was a prank.  “I thought I was going to die," said 11–year–old Shay Naylor, who estimated that about a third of the 69 children were crying in terror. The teachers said “campfire pranks” were a school tradition, and that most of the kids thought the experience was fun. One teacher and an assistant principal were suspended after some parents complained that the prank was horribly ill–conceived, coming just weeks after the mass murder at Virginia Tech.

In an article of the same title in The Washington Post by Dana Milbank describing President Bush's Thursday press conference:

The session was called to draw attention to the fact that Democratic leaders had just caved in to Bush's demand that the Iraq spending bill have no withdrawal timeline. But as frequently happens at presidential events these days, it quickly became al-Qaeda, all the time. Bush invoked the terrorist group 19 times and even suggested it was going after individual reporters' kids. "They are a threat to your children, David," he advised NBC's David Gregory. "It's a danger to your children, Jim," Bush informed the New York Times' Jim Rutenberg. This last warning was perplexing, because Rutenberg has no children, only a brown chow chow named Little Bear. It was unclear whether Bush was referring to a specific and credible threat to Little Bear or merely indicating there was increased "chatter in the system" about chow chows in general.