The nexus between politics and entertainment ... has seldom been closer ...
OLDER-YOUNGER BROTHERS? - NBC's chief on-air legal analyst Dan Abrams and film star Jake Gyllenhaal.
Yes, the walls are starting to close in ... but before they do: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Nothing should be overlooked in fighting for better education.
Be persistent and ornery: this will be good for the
lethargic educational establishment
and will aid the whole cause of public education.
So, ladies, you say you want a raise? How should you go about getting it?
First, you have to figure out how to compete with the guy in the next cubicle. After all, he went to a school almost as good as yours. His grades were nearly as good as yours, too. He works hard. In fact, most mornings, he's the second person in the office. You know this, because you're always first. He is young, ruggedly good looking, and he washes his balls with a manly but fresh sandalwood soap.
What to do?
Fortunately, the good folks at Women's Day and Summer's Eve have a few words of advice for you.
CRIME NOTES - here in New Hampshire, we present Paul Baldwin - no, not the guy that "Coffee Talk" host Linda I'm a little verklempt Richman replaced, who was suffering from "spilgus in his gezook-ticus" ....
... no, the Granite State's Paul Baldwin is in jail after his 154th arrest - this time, trying to pilfer 48 cans of beer from a store in Kittery, Maine. Hey, now wait a sec .....
DIRECT DESCENDANTS? .... doesn't it look like our local criminal (left) ...is descended from the late Merlin Olsen the NFL Hall-of-Famer? Wotta shame ...
Help keep this crazy train rolling: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
NEW YORK -- A college student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan was charged Wednesday with using a folding tool to slash the neck and face of a New York City taxi driver after the driver said he is Muslim.
A criminal complaint alleged that Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the victim, "Consider this a checkpoint," before the brutal bias attack occurred Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan's East Side. Police say Enright was drunk at the time.
[Commercial radio] is owned by one or two corporations now,
and they're not in the music business.
They're in the advertising business, ...
So let's not kid ourselves.
If you want to hear music, go buy a guitar.
As a child, I recall my parents discussing a certain criminal with a very colorful name. Many years later, I was astonished to learn that Jack Roland Murphy - better known as Murf the Surf - by the age of 30 had accomplished more in life (both good and evil) than many people do in a lifetime. To think that he was able to convince authorities that he (who barely escaped the death penalty eighteen years earlier) could be paroled from a life sentence ... and become a role model ... well, let's have a look at a fascinating life.
I shouldn't be saying this - high treason, really -
but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent
into detecting brilliance that may not really be there.
More than a month has passed, actually now it has been two. In the third week of June, I heard the song in my head for the first time. With each day that passes the volume increases. Friends, family, and familiars were privy to what has been a curiosity for me. Still haunted by what I know needs to be shared farther and wider, today I tell you my tale. The story begins with two Florida Democrats. Each aspires to fill the one open United States Senate seat. The date; June 22, 2010. I was amongst those invited to attend the initial Meek Greene debate.. The place? The Palm Beach Post headquarters. The time? Midday. The reality realized and the reason my mind marinated in the melody titled It's About Time, today, Democrats, Progressives are not as they were.
I've seen it around the world, in the
poorest countries and in countries riven with conflict, ...
It is women who are the key to breaking out of poverty,
breaking out of stagnation. ...
It's women who can contribute to achieving real security --
not bombs and bullets and repressive governments.
There is so much flak for what seems would be a fine Presidential appointment. The nation's Chief Executive, Barack Obama, is often characterized as Spock, a Vulcan who is almost virtually void of emotion. It is said that our current President is practical. He acts on logic. Yet, this supposed intellectual individual has, at times, seemed ready to do other than what most think reasonable. Mister Obama has not appointed the truly best Sheriff for towns throughout the country, Elizabeth Warren..
I found myself wondering what a gay person
in such a masculine-oriented society did
- whether they fled to Denver or toughed it out.
I began thinking about homophobia.
In fact, the thing that destroyed the relationship
between the two characters was their own homophobia.
But the idea that some day people would want
to be able to interact and get stock quotes
and talk with other people or all these
different things, I just believed that was going to happen.
Have you ever wondered why young people
take to music like fish to water?
Maybe it's because music is fun.
Plain and simple. It opens up their minds to dream great dreams
about where they can go and what they can do when they get older.
A good many young writers make the mistake
of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope,
big enough for the manuscript to come back in.
This is too much of a temptation to the editor.
It's not just in the political arena: even a latter-day media star may have some unforeseen antecedents:
FATHER-SON? - Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs from the "Airplane!" films (as portrayed by the late Stephen Stucker) and newly-famous JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater.
Cue the movie tag-lines. Well, perhaps before you do: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Well. I was planning to do a pretty cool essay about the Big World Economic News today, to wit: that China's now passed Japan as the world's second largest economy. That'll have to wait a day or three. I don't think that either China or Japan are going anywhere. If you're dying for a taste of that, though, earlier this afternoon I did work-up a Front Page post over at my blog, LetsJapan.Wordpress.Com on this: China's Econ Passes Japan's. Let's All Take a Deep Breath, Shall We?'
"WASHINGTON - The Senate's top Democrat on Monday came out against plans to build a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, moving away from President Barack Obama on the controversial election-year issue.
"Locked in a tight race, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid became the highest profile Democrat to respond to Obama, who last week backed the right for the developers to build a mosque near ground zero. . . .
"I don't really want to stop the show,
But I thought that you might like to know," That the choice becomes clearer.
"So let me introduce to you
The one and only" Carole Kaye, Candidate for Florida House District 86
Local Election Days are upon us. For months now candidates for elected office have roamed their regions. Everyday people have had ample opportunity to meet, greet, and yes, even eat a meal with aspirants. Often, one challenger's name is better known. He or she may be an incumbent, or closely associated with one. Consider the Florida House race in District 86. Dissimilar Democratic candidates Carole Kaye and Lori Berman appear on the ballot. Who are these office seekers? What will they do for my community, commerce, our children, and me? Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and parts of Boca Raton constituents, who have not made politics their lives, search for answers as they travel to the polls.
Citizens are inundated with "information." Posters dot the landscape. Banners fly on Boulevards. Constituents don pins and place placards on their lawn. Windows and automobile bumpers have not escaped unscathed. Today, the message heard on avenue is "The time is now." Indeed, it is. Early voting began on August 9 and will continue through August 22, 2010. In Florida, while technically Primary Election Day is August 24, 2010, in reality it is today. In Palm Beach County House District 86, Primary Election Day is the final deciding date. Democrats with different styles compete for state House 86 seat. There is no Republican challenger in this race. The winner of the Primary will represent South Palm Beach County communities. Yet, many people do not feel equipped to decide. Whom might I cast a ballot for, the much lauded Lori Berman or the lesser known, highly qualified, Attorney, Educator, and person who for years has shared and cared for my backyard, Carole Penny Kaye.
RIP - jazz singer & civil rights activist Abbey Lincoln
One of my favorite singers of all time - Abbey Lincoln has died at the age of 80. As this excerpt from the NY Times says:
Ms. Lincoln's career encompassed outspoken civil rights advocacy in the 1960s and fearless introspection in more recent years, and for a time in the 1960s she acted in films with Sidney Poitier.
Long recognized as one of jazz's most arresting and uncompromising singers, Ms. Lincoln gained similar stature as a songwriter only over the last two decades.
This is an evening Open Thread - and after the jump is a profile I wrote about her some time ago.
Tammy Strobel was living what most people would describe as the American dream. She had a husband, a condo, two cars, a good job and a fair amount of consumer debt. But the work/spend grind was getting to her, and after reading about the 100 item challenge, she and her husband began to simplify their lives.
"Good eve-a-ning", indeed. But at least for now: stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
This is not a way of life at all in any true sense.
Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953
I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
The United States Military Industrial Complex has might. General and former President Eisenhower understood this. He warned Americans. Abundant might does not make right; it only advances the notion of righteousness. Patriotism is promoted through militarism. His words fell on deaf ears. The sound was hollow in contrast to the drone of drumbeats. At the time, Americans were as they are today; dedicated to the customs we think characterize democracy.
We see this in many a war and peace policy. Questions are asked of the government and the people. Testimony is taken. Think tanks assess Foreign Policy. Conclusions are drawn and decisions made. Still, in 2010, a few within the electorate wonder as General Eisenhower had.. With Al-Qaida Fading, Why Expand the Afghan War?
Originally posted at my site Bob Higgins I turned on the news this morning and instantly received my first commercial message of the day. You've probably seen it, it's a pitch from Time Warner which offers up well scrubbed "employees" who spend thirty seconds or so reading a script designed to convince us that they are "Moms," "Dads," and regular working schleps, just like us... pardon that - just like me.
The ad is an attempt to put a face on the faceless, to create the illusion that the giant soulless organization is really warm and fuzzy with a friendly beating heart and smells like fresh baked cookies.
Not to single out Time Warner here, they are no better or worse than the average avaricious media giant or the other corrupt and abusive corporations that rule our lives and will soon take complete control of our public affairs following the infamous "Citizens United" case.
There is a lot of this, I guess it's Astroturf marketing, the attempt to convince the Rubes that "Citizens for Fair Taxes," or "Patriots for Freedom," (two fictional groups that I just made up) were created by, and are composed of, Ma and Pa Kettle "American Gothic" types rather than plutocrats and public relations land sharks with agendas and vested interests completely inimical to the facade created by their homey and benign sounding names, like... "Citizens United."
BP, the oil spill company,is doing a lot of this, actually a mountain of it, spending 50 million bucks and perhaps much more in their attempt to put a local "Bubba" personality and a NOLA accent in front of the public as the face of their "massive cleanup" operation and the fulfillment of their responsibilities as "good corporate citizens." That "cookie" thing again.
The day was Sunday, August 1, 2010. Former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan appeared on Meet the Press. When asked to discuss the Congressional debate on tax cuts, the man known to move markets, a person who leans to the "Right," offered a decisive decree. In direct disagreement with Republican officials and the profitable corporations that fund countless political campaigns, Mister Greenspan declared, "Look, I'm very much in favor of tax cuts, but not with borrowed money. And the problem that we've gotten into in recent years is spending programs with borrowed money, tax cuts with borrowed money, and at the end of the day, that proves disastrous. And my view is I don't think we can play subtle policy here on it."
This statement was as a slap in the face to corporations, or more correctly to the tycoons who head these firms. Multi-millionaire media moguls might understand this best. These television and radio Executives experience firsthand that influence over an industry can translate into influence over an outcome. Cable News Network Chief Officers are among those who actively make use of this truth. Tax cuts expired? "Never;" say network Administrators and the newscasters such as Allan Chernoff, who do their bidding.
For the last several days I've watched and read a steady stream of media coverage on the miraculous disappearance of more than a hundred million gallons of oil from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Since the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank on April 20 killing 11 workers the NOAA estimates that 206 million gallons of "light sweet crude" spewed from BP's Macondo well field, fouling the waters of the Gulf, shutting down much of the commerce of the surrounding region and creating a giant toxic bouillabaisse in which now swim whatever critters managed to survive poisoning, suffocation, or being roasted alive.
The Feds now say, as reported by the NYT,
that 76% of the mess has either been picked up on the beaches, skimmed from the surface, captured by the containment process or burned off. (I suppose breathing this stuff in the air as particulates is "perfectly safe.")
At the risk of seeming a "Chicken Little" I'd like to point out that even if the reports of this "great disappearing" are true what is left is something on the order of 50 million gallons of crud in the Gulf or about the same as 5 Exxon Valdez spills.
So, while BP, the Government and our happy-go-lucky news media are fighting for places on the "where did all the oil go" bandwagon I see no cause for celebration.
I completely understand that everyone in the area wants to look out their windows and see people thronging to the beaches and fighting for restaurant reservations.
They naturally "want their lives back," and deservedly so, but because I have long experience (due to my status as a "geezer") listening to lies from government, lies from business and lies from the media, I'm not buying it just yet.
The other night I had a few of my drinking buddies over for some late night gibberish. At one point in the evening my buddy Chris claimed that the US is a deeply racist country and the evidence he offered is the fact that while Black people represent only about 12 percent of the US population they also represent 44 percent of the American prison population.
This is a profile of someone I've neither met, nor have any particular liking or disliking of. It may well be that others here have had dealings with him; would welcome your comments thereof. But this fellow went from trying to design a nuclear bomb all the way to unlocking the secrets of voter lists - so it's worth a look (after the jump).
Not something I took notice of before - but being in politics can wear oneself down ...
YOUNGER-OLDER BROTHERS? - former UK prime minister Tony Blair and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gadzooks - well, why not stop in for a look at news items outside the headlines, in the arts and sciences; foreign news that generates little notice in the US media and ....well, just plain whimsy.....
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy,
and after all our most pleasing responsibility.
To cherish what remains of it
and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
I apologize. My belly, my bloated body, only belatedly do I understand. It never was in the genes. The abundant meat that weighed heavily on my bones was not caused by my chromosomal structure; it was piled on by Congressional and corporately funded campaigns. Mommy and the husband who helped make me, much to my embarrassment, today I acknowledge my error. I was spoon-fed, and not by the two of you. Legislators, Lobbyists, and big businesses that place misleading labels on chemically cooked up cuisines put corn fillers on my every plate. I chowed down. My little body bulged out. From the inside out, I grew bigger and wider.
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