Re the blog-silence. No, we haven't sailed off the edge of the earth. We've been preoccupied with home improvement, and Fleck has been channeling his spare energies into his weird obsession with bending Wikipedia to his will. Dave-Man, manfully correcting error in fields from comparative anatomy to quantum physics!

If that isn't superhero enough, he has also been involved in my current obsession, the beautification of my office - he kindly painted the walls for me, and will be attending to installing some molding next weekend. It really is shaping up to be a lovely and serene little room. I almost feel guilty - Dave-Man, you see, has his lair in the basement - a space much larger than my own, but...well, it's the basement. Carpeted and finsished, mind you, but...it's the basement. Shares it with the furnace, dehumidifier, back-basement storage, etc. Is he not a noble spouse for giving me the airy second-floor retreat, and applying his power tool time to its improvement, when he could be replacing his depressing acoustic-tile ceiling?

But we'll be back. There's been no action on S.536 that I know of.

Keep pushing - S.536 NAGPRA vote on Tuesday May 10: I like to think that all the helpful bloggers who contributed to getting the word out on McCain's stealth amendment made a difference. Here's the latest from the Friends of America's Past mailing list (my emphases):

The Senate will vote on S.536 which includes the amendment Section 108 to expand NAGPRA's definition of Native American. According to staffer Patrick McMullen, Senator McCain will introduce an amendment to remove this section from S.36 before the voice vote. It would be quite helpful if someone is present to keep tabs on this vote to report the outcome. If McCain overlooks this task, he needs to be questioned closely about it. Follow up with Senator Gordon Smith (OR) and Senator Cantwell (WA) on this issue would also be newsworthy.

Mr McMullen has indicated that hearings will be held on Section 108. However, the committee has not announced a date for the hearing. We hope that the committee will be reasonable and fair in scheduling a hearing with enough advance notice so that a wide range of views can be expressed to the committee.

So it looks as if there was enough complaint from enough sources to focus somebody's attention. However, the vote appears to be coming up very soon (10 May), so I urge all of you who have helped in the past to keep up the pressure. And if any of you live in the D.C. area and have the time to keep an eye on the procedures noted above?

(Related links here.)