“[L]ike Matt Cooper, [Tim] Russert had testified to the grand jury on the Plame affair, yet at no point during the interview did the salient fact sally forth to the viewer. The pretense was uninvolved journalist interviewing involved participant: the reality was one pea in the pod interviewing a fellow pea.”
Harry Shearer at The Huffington Post.
Do Tiger Woods’ grimaces and curses — even when making shots us mere mortals would die for — harm his image? Or does his billion-dollar smile overcome all?
Before the 134th British Open began, one of Tiger Woods’s advisers mentioned to him that if he were to win here on the Old Course, his 10 victories in pro majors and his three U.S. Amateur titles would match Bobby Jones’s total of 13 majors won from 1923 to 1930.
With that boyish smile, Woods said, “Apples to apples.”
Jones, playing before there was a Masters and never in the PGA (he was an amateur), won five U.S. and one British amateur championships, as well as four U.S. and three British opens. Jack Nicklaus won two U.S. Amateur championships. If included as majors, that would bring Nicklaus’ total to 20.
That’s the Arkansas River at Tulsa early Saturday — through a window.
Which brings two questions to mind:
1. Why would they build a hotel on a beautiful riverfront and not have balconies?
2. Why was I so slothful I couldn’t go outside to take photos on such a morning?
Pokernomics.com — Freakonomics’ Steven Levitt Explores the World of Online Poker.
Great Plains — You know you’re in the land of severe weather when you see that the interstate rest area restrooms have signs that say “Men,” “Women” and “Tornado Shelter.”
Small Town America — There are still places in America such as Jenks, Oklahoma, where the fireworks show commemorating the town’s 100th birthday is delayed 15 minutes because the firemen there to oversee the pyrotechnics were called away on an actual call.
Great idea — A kindergarten co-located with a nursing home. (Aside: NewMexiKen was amused while visiting to see a number of very elderly women in the lobby watching the Spike channel.)
Nostalgia — The Love’s truck stops along Interstate 40 reconstructed their price signs some years ago with space only for $1. (Seems rather short-sighted.) Unable to post $2, they simply post the cents. To the unsuspecting it would appear that gas was 269 cents.
Religious symbolism — The purported largest cross in the Western Hemisphere at Groom, Texas, makes one wonder what the universal symbol for Christianity would be if Jesus had been executed by a firing squad or a lethal injection.
Unfortunate advertising — Showing burgers and steaks with steer horns protruding from them is not appetizing. I prefer to strongly compartmentalize my food thoughts from my animal thoughts.
Slap — Mosquitoes suck.
NewMexiKen sees from USATODAY that the Descendants of Jefferson, Hemings hold Ohio reunion. Seems like a good time to sum up that whole business.
1. Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, died in 1782.
2. Sally Hemings was possibly Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson’s half-sister (that is, Martha and Sally may have had the same father).
3. The 1998 DNA test proved that a Jefferson male fathered at least one of Sally Hemings’ children. There were nine Jefferson males with proximity to Sally Hemings during the years her children were born.
4. In January 2000, a committee formed by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation reported that:
the weight of all known evidence - from the DNA study, original documents, written and oral historical accounts, and statistical data - indicated a high probability that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, and that he was perhaps the father of all six of Sally Hemings’ children listed in Monticello records - Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy); Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808). (Monticello.org)
5. According to Monticello.org, “Thomas Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings’ children: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson’s 1826 will. Jefferson gave freedom to no other nuclear slave family.”
6. The Hemings family claims Jefferson but is unwilling to permit DNA matching with the remains of a grandson of Sally Hemings.
7. Monticello.org concludes:
Although the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been for many years, and will surely continue to be, a subject of intense interest to historians and the public, the evidence is not definitive, and the complete story may never be known. The Foundation encourages its visitors and patrons, based on what evidence does exist, to make up their own minds as to the true nature of the relationship.
DES MOINES (AP) — In the name of homeland security, motorists are going to see costs skyrocket for driver’s licenses and motor vehicle offices forced to operate like local branches of the FBI, the nation’s governors warn.
The new federal law squeezed this spring into an $82 billion spending bill had Republican and Democrat governors fuming at their summer meeting here, and vowing to bring their complaints to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a Monday meeting.
“It’s outrageous to pass this off on the states,” said Republican Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, incoming chairman of the National Governors Association. “You’re essentially asking the front-line clerks at the DMV to become an INS agent and a law enforcement agent.”
…
Democrat Bill Richardson of New Mexico said the law, known as the REAL ID Act, unconstitutionally infringed upon state laws such as his, where illegal immigrants have been able to get licenses.
New Mexico’s approach made roads safer since licensed immigrants could get insured, helped the state keep track of immigrants, and also helped integrate immigrants into the community, he said.
“It’s a shortsighted, ill-conceived initiative,” Richardson said. “We’ll challenge it constitutionally.”
New Army Recruiting Poster from the The Albuquerque Journal.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A group of stranded illegal immigrants facing death in the parched Arizona desert saved themselves by using a cell phone they found to call rescue services, the U.S. Border Patrol said Thursday.
The group got lost in the desert near Arivaca, south of Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday after their guide abandoned them during a four-day trek across the border from Mexico.
Lost and low on water, they used a cell phone they found in their guide’s bag to dial 911. Rescuers dispatched helicopters and located the group in the desert shortly after sunset.
Thirty years ago, as a result of pesticides, water pollution, hunting and other factors, bald eagles had vanished from all but the most remote corners of the country that had made them a national symbol. Today, they can be found in every state except Hawaii, and are even making their home in a New York City park.
But the eagles’ comeback, still fragile at best, is threatened by an unusual confluence of factors. And, paradoxical as it may seem, Johnson’s package is linked to the policies and institutions that made the resurgence possible as well as to the new dangers that threaten it.
…
That’s where Johnson and his unusual package come in.
For more than three decades, the National Eagle Repository, an obscure federal agency near Denver, has quietly collected deceased eagles from zoos, highway departments and game wardens, and distributed them to people so they could carry on religious and cultural practices without having to hunt or trap live birds. The repository sends about 1,700 deceased eagles each year to Native Americans across the country.
However, the system of legal protections and government-controlled distribution of eagle parts to Native Americans is showing signs of breaking down.
And the demand for eagle feathers has begun to soar. Black-market prices for eagle feathers and parts are climbing too. And that, wildlife experts fear, could set off a wave of illegal poaching — with disastrous results.
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