Ordering the "George Hamilton" 10% more expensive thanks to socialist Obama
He can be a spokesperson for the Americans victimized by the oh so brutal tan tax. Maybe he can have a Beck type rally for leathery “skinsecure” people everywhere.
An aptly titled Calculated Risk post: Another Housing Tax Credit. It’s time to stop propping up the housing market.
Apparently, Michael Oher doesn’t care for the movie based on the Michael Lewis book about his transition from impoverished teen to DI football phenom:
Baltimore tackle Michael Oher has been invited to appear on Oprah twice. He’s been invited to the Academy Awards. He’s been asked to be in the audience at the ESPYs.
No, no, no and no.
Seems Oher is not very happy with how he was portrayed in The Blind Side movie. He thinks he was made to look like a simpleton who knew nothing about football before he was picked up off the Memphis streets and taken to live with a wealthy family. Seems he has no interest in furthering that public image, so he’s concentrating on one thing: being a football player.
via Brad Childress has no regret after begging Brett Favre to return – Peter King – SI.com.
This reminded me of the AV Club review of the film:
Sports movies have a long, troubled history of well-meaning white paternalism, with poor black athletes finding success through white charity. But The Blind Side, based on Michael Lewis’ non-fiction book, finds a new low. In the character of “Big Mike” (real life success story Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron), a poor, undereducated teenager later groomed into a top-tier offensive lineman, the film suggests a gentle, oversized puppy in need of adoption. (The family that takes him in literally picks him up from the streets during a rainstorm, like a stray. All that’s missing are the children pleading, “Mom, can we keep him?”) Given his background and 0.6 GPA, there’s no question that Oher was well behind his peers, but casting him as a big-hearted simpleton makes him seem subhuman, more mascot than man.
From BBC News:
Bacteria taken from cliffs at Beer on the South Coast have shown themselves to be hardy space travellers.
The bugs were put on the exterior of the space station to see how they would cope in the hostile conditions that exist above the Earth’s atmosphere.
And when scientists inspected the microbes a year and a half later, they found many were still alive.
These survivors are now thriving in a laboratory at the Open University (OU) in Milton Keynes.
The experiment is part of a quest to find microbes that could be useful to future astronauts who venture beyond low-Earth orbit to explore the rest of the Solar System.
Depressing.
The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and this summer its sea ice is melting at a near-record pace. The sun is heating the newly open water, so it will take longer to refreeze this winter, and the resulting thinner ice will melt more easily next summer.
At the same time, warm Pacific Ocean water is pulsing through the Bering Strait into the Arctic basin, helping melt a large area of sea ice between Alaska and eastern Siberia. Scientists are just beginning to learn how this exposed water has changed the movement of heat energy and major air currents across the Arctic basin, in turn producing winds that push remaining sea ice down the coasts of Greenland into the Atlantic.
Globally, 2010 is on track to be the warmest year on record. In regions around the world, indications abound that earth’s climate is quickly changing, like the devastating mudslides in China and weeks of searing heat in Russia. But in the world’s capitals, movement on climate policy has nearly stopped.
Democrats in the Senate decided last month that they wouldn’t push for approval of a climate bill. In Canada, Australia, Japan and countries across Europe, the global economic crisis and other near-term concerns have pushed climate issues to the back burner. For China and India, economic growth and energy security are more vital priorities.
Climate policy is gridlocked, and there’s virtually no chance of a breakthrough. Many factors have conspired to produce this situation. Human beings are notoriously poor at responding to problems that develop incrementally. And most of us aren’t eager to change our lifestyles by sharply reducing our energy consumption.
via Op-Ed Contributor – Near the North Pole, Looking at a Disaster – NYTimes.com.
Utterly depressing.
Soccer. Boxing. Football.
Players of these sports are affected by ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) at much higher rates than the general population. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel correspondent Bernie Goldberg profiles researchers who may have found a link between concussions and ALS.
Doesn’t this “The Secret” crap just seem like Byrne wants to get in on her own Scientology type organization at ground zero?
Remember that book The Secret from a few years back? It was a “think positive thoughts and everything will turn out alright” self-help/spirituality manuals that Oprah promoted. Its Peter Pan philosophy also made it highly controversial.) Well, today the book’s author, Rhonda Byrne, released her follow up to The Secret called The Power.
(video courtesy WhiteHouse.gov)
President Obama’s original statement at the White House Ramadan Iftar on the evening of Friday, August 13, 2010 is not walked back by his statement on the tarmac. It is held back by the press’ inability to process and summarize complex thoughts to convey the general public. Note’s Greg Sargent (bold mine) (by way of The Urban Politico.)
To be clear, I agree entirely with Ben Smith and others who say that today’s quote was probably a political misstep. The media is mostly framing this story as: Did Obama “endorse” the project or didn’t he? That’s an overly simplistic framing, but you work with the media you have, not the one you want. Today’s quote was bound to be interpreted as a walkback in the face of intense pressure. What Obama should have said was this: “I’m not commenting on the wisdom of the project. Nor is it my place to do that. But now that they have decided to proceed, we must respect their right to build the center and welcome them in accordance with American ideals.”
That would have been more desirable, and in some ways more directly consistent with his brave stance yesterday. But even so, based on what he did say, I’m just not seeing a serious walkback or contradiction here.
via The Plum Line – Did Obama walk back his support of Cordoba House?.
Here is video of Obama’s original statement in the White House:
…and on the Tarmac in Florida on Saturday, August 14…
“In this country, we treat everybody equally in accordance with the law regardless of race, regardless of religion. I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country’s about and I think it’s very important that as difficult as some of these issues are we stay focused on who we are as a people and what our values are all about.”
To Imam Feisal: We write with an unshakable commitment to religious freedom, and to your right to exercise it in meaningful and concrete ways. We have great appreciation for the progressive and inclusive interpretation of Islam to which you speak. We have read with care your own words about the purpose of the Cordoba House. We take those words as our starting point for the issues we raise in this letter, as we appeal to your senses of decency, empathy and prudence—and to those of all Muslims of goodwill.
Your stated goal of interfaith and cross-cultural understanding is a good one—one that we all share and have devoted considerable energy to furthering. It may well be that this goal would be furthered still by the building and operation of Cordoba House. However, while we will continue to stand with you and your right to proceed with this project, we see no reason why it must necessarily be located so close to the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
[…]Our deeper concern is what effect Cordoba House would have on the families of 9/11 victims, survivors of and first responders to the attacks, New Yorkers in general, and all Americans. As you have seen in the public reaction to the Cordoba House, 9/11 remains a deep wound for Americans—especially those who experienced it directly in some way. They understandably see the area as sacred ground. Nearly all of them also reject the equation of Islam with terrorism and do not blame the attacks on Muslims generally or on the Muslim faith. But many believe that Ground Zero should be reserved for memorials to the event itself and to its victims. They do not understand why of all possible locations in the city, Cordoba House must be sited so near to there.
Many New Yorkers and Americans will conclude that the radical interpretation of Cordoba House’s purpose is correct. That belief will harm what you have articulated to be Cordoba House’s core mission. Rather than furthering cross-cultural and interfaith understanding, a Cordoba House located near Ground Zero would undermine them. Rather that serving as a bridge between Muslim and non-Muslim peoples, it would function as a divide. Your expressed hopes for the center not only would never be realized, they would be contradicted from the start. Insisting on this particular site on Park Place can only reinforce this counterproductive dynamic.
Another site—not just away from Ground Zero but also closer to residential neighborhoods—would serve your institution and the city better. Worshipers would be closer and the communities that need help would also benefit from proximity. We stand ready to help you select and secure another site, to overcome regulatory hurdles, and to make up for any lost time.
via Dan Senor: An Open Letter on the Ground Zero Mosque – WSJ.com.
Senor and King may have general public opinion on their side and they may indeed be proven correct by erection of Cordoba House near Ground Zero. People may be offended when the center is built. A Cordoba House near ground zero may fail to foster more tolerance between Muslims and the general public. All that may occur in spite of the fact that Muslims died on 9/11 and in spite of the fact that there are two Mosques, (one pre-dating the construction of the World Trade Center and both pre-dating either WTC attack), mere blocks away from ground zero, and in spite of the fact that Muslim soldiers are fighting under our flag in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.
Obama’s argument is that it is the right of any American to express their self religiously in accordance with the law.On both Friday and Saturday, Obama said he believed in the right of Imam Feisal’s group to build the Cordoba House. It is the right of any American to seek any of the positives Imam Feisal sees as resulting from construction of Cordoba House. It is the right of any American to risk all of the negatives that Senor and King see as the likely response to a Cordoba House cultural center near Ground Zero.
The neo-cons want to argue that there is a lack of wisdom, sensitivity and common sense behind the Cordoba house initiative because with leading poll questions and cable news appearances they can sway public opinion. Obama is asserting that the matter is settled by First Amendment rights and first amendment rights only. He can’t win an argument against people’s personal feelings about Islam and he is right to explicitly stress that this a matter of constitutional rights. I feel he’s choosing not to argue with fools.
Last week, Ben Quayle son of former Vice President Dan Quayle, was a great babysitter. Now, he alleges that something called tax cartels are in Washington, and he is going to “knock the hell” out of the whole darn city. (video courtesy Hullabaloo)
Quayle also let’s us know he was “raised right”. Unless you are Mr. T or The Juggernaut, claiming you will “knock the hell” out of an entire city falls into category of “Don’t write checks your ass can’t cash”.
Funny thing about claiming you were “raised right” while running for office in the self proclaimed party of “family values” one of your hobbies probably shouldn’t have been blogging under the pseudonym “Brock Landers” for “frat-tire”/NSFW site Dirty Scottsdale. Apparently The Dirty founder Hooman Karamian aka Nik Richie is pissed off that Quayle tried to deny any connection to him or The Dirty.
Is Rand Paul a co-ed kidnapper? Does he forcibly drug his victims after he kidnaps them? Was he involved in a drug fueled crime spree? Paul calls the charges “Reefer Madness” in this Fox News interview…(Video courtesy Think Progress)
It’s not slander because I ended every sentence with a question mark! (Writing headlines about stupid sh*t like this can’t be that enjoyable for cable news producers, can it?)
The real answer is: who cares. Paul is an awful candidate for all types of substantive reasons. In having to answer these questions about his young adulthood, Paul is only suffering from the unnatural confines of the sanctimonious public persona that is required to be a GOP candidate.
I am not one who would take time to celebrate the AWOL Jet Blue Flight Attendant being celebrated today…
An American flight attendant has been released on bail after after deploying an emergency chute to leave his aircraft following a row with a passenger.
An emergency chute isn’t a play toy, if you deploy it without warning someone can get hurt. He then reportedly grabbed a couple brews and went speeding home. You have to pull it together.
On top of that, I am sure the other passengers who followed the rules and behaved respectably ended up being delayed. I’m sure the passenger that set him off was a jerk, but his tantrum made him one too.
UPDATE: A much better way to quit.
Ben Quayle, candidate for the House of Representatives in AZ-3, is former Vice President Dan Quayle’s Son and some people say he is pretending to have kids in two of his new campaign mailers. Maybe he just showing off his babysitting skills (the kids are allegedly children of a staff member). Either way, it’s ridiculous a guy who is recently married and without a child doesn’t feel he can just run as a married guy without kids yet, but that’s part of the hackneyed right wing view of what a politician should be and conservatives have fully embraced it. Which I guess is what led Quayle to use this faux-family picture in an official campaign mailer.
Ben Quayle and someone else children's "A New generation" mailer for his House Of Rep. run in AZ (Courtesy Arizona Capitol Times)
Ben Quayle: he won’t feed your kids too much ice cream.
Not even kidding: Tom Junod recounts what it was like to have an ant colony take over his family’s home.
And yet the numbers aren’t the worst part. The worst part is the intelligence of the numbers. A few years ago, I interviewed the great biologist E. O. Wilson right before he and his colleague Bert Hölldobler published their magnum opus, The Superorganism. The book, a study of ant societies, was an exploration of the notion that ants are such organized organisms that they almost don’t count as individual organisms at all but rather as cells of the colony they serve. The colony is the superorganism, and as Wilson told me, “an ant colony is far more intelligent than an ant.” I’ll say. An ant by itself is an inoffensive creature, at worst a crunchy annoyance, smidgeny and obsessively clean and, above all, dumb, with a pindot of a brain. An ant by itself is not going to get any ideas… the problem being that it’s rarely by itself, that it’s representative of something, and that what it represents not only has ideas — it has designs. Wilson’s book proposes that what an ant colony possesses is a kind of accumulated intelligence, the result of individual ants carrying out specialized tasks and giving one another constant feedback about what they find as they do so. Well, once they start accumulating in your house in sufficient numbers, you get a chance to see that accumulated intelligence at work. You get a chance to find out what it wants. And what you find out — what the accumulated intelligence of the colony eventually tells you — is that it wants what you want. You find out that you, an organism, are competing for your house with a superorganism that knows how to do nothing but compete. You are not only competing in the most basic evolutionary sense; you are competing with a purely adaptive intelligence, and so you are competing with the force of evolution itself.
And the worst part about that — the worst part about discovering that the ants in your house are actually emissaries of the enormous teeming brain in your backyard — is that it worsens the other worst parts, of which there are many. For example, I have found ants in my underwear. Lots of them, which I didn’t find until I put the underwear on. As a person who has had ants in his underwear, however, I have to say that what makes their presence particularly irksome is not the momentary discomfort but rather the knowledge of why they’re there. They’re not just passing through, you see, on their way to somewhere else. They’re not in your underwear by accident. They’re nation-building. They’re extending the range of their civilization, and they’re doing it in your drawers.
MI-13 Won’t have Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick to kick around anymore!. And that’s a good thing.Her son was disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who was a classic study in arrogant corruption.The victor: State Sen. Hansen Clarke.
My friend Jonathan Carroll over at Class is in Session is an educator, swim coach, tri-athlete, father and husband. The preventable and tragic drowning deaths of the 6 Louisiana teens in the Red River has everyone thinking about water safety and Jon, posting from press row at the 2010 USA Swimming National Championships, is no exception:
Data from a study done by the University of Memphis in partnership with USA Swimming indicates that FEAR is one of the biggest factors keeping parents from involving their kids in swim lessons. While I understand the initial hesitation, I would humbly direct those parents to the example of my mother, who doesn’t know how to swim, but was adamant that all three of her chidren (and now her grandson) learn how to swim. The fear of watching your little ones go through lessons is nothing compared to the lifetime anxiety you’ll feel every time you’re near a pool or open water with the knowledge that your loved ones can’t swim. For the ethnic families that worry about the damage that chlorine does to relaxed hair, go with braids for a summer, or au natural until the kids are water safe. The sad reality is that cities large and small will continue to cut pool time from their recreation budgets as long as the public does not make use of facilities. Swimming has been too good to me for me to look at it as a sport that is killing members of my community.
Jonathan and his wife Nkechi also recently interviewed USA Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones for the upcoming 2nd season of their talk show A Breathe of Fresh Air With John and Nkechi. Click here to support USA Swimming and Jones’ Make a Splash safety initiative. You can sponsor or donate a swim lesson and also support parental water safety education.
Roy L. Beasley wants to change the fundamental mission of HBCUs to reflect the nature of the desegregated higher education system.
It’s time to leave the “historical” HBCUs to history. Whereas back in the early 1970s, over 80 percent of African American college students still attended HBCUs, not even 20 percent do so today; and the long-term trend is further downward. In other words, the days in which HBCUs were the largest suppliers of postsecondary educational opportunities for African Americans are over. Given the magnitude of the new challenges, the nation would be well advised to stimulate the development of a number of innovative institutions which, for now, I will call “BCUs.” Their core mission would have two components, the first of which would be to develop, demonstrate, and disseminate more effective methods for educating the nation’s African American students. Please note that the following paragraphs propose specifications for BCUs that are already met in whole or in part by many existing HBCUs, but their core missions are different.
Beasley has some interesting ideas, including a few specific proposed changes in core mission that would mark an institution’s change an HBCU to BCU:
[BCU’s would have a] commitment to conducting high-quality research on issues that have disproportionately negative impact on African Americans and on other peoples of color in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora. BCUs would also offer masters and Ph.D. programs whose students would learn how to extend or apply this research.
The F.B.I. alleges that Wikipedia’s display of its seal in a reference article violates US Code Title 18,701:
Whoever manufactures, sells, or possesses any badge, identification card, or other insignia, of the design prescribed by the head of any department or agency of the United States for use by any officer or employee thereof, or any colorable imitation thereof, or photographs, prints, or in any other manner makes or executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the likeness of any such badge, identification card, or other insignia, or any colorable imitation thereof, except as authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both
You would immediately say they can’t be serious. but apparently..they are.
FP Passport’s Joshua Keating poses and answers the question: Do old terrorists ever get to retire? Apparently, Yes.