Where’s the beef?

“Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover Humane Society video surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.”

The Associated Press reporting on the largest recall of beef in U.S. history.

Hey kids, no more truant officers

John McCain:

Also, I do not believe in mandates. I believe that every American should have affordable and available health care and I’d like to talk just an additional minute about that. But I’m not going to mandate that they do. I want every American to have affordable and available education. But I’m not going to mandate that they do.

Transcript from CNN.com. Pointer via digby.

Atonement

Atonement is an interesting if depressing story told with some good acting. Beyond that

it is sooooooooooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

and

draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn outttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

and

self-indulgent.

Indeed, at times I assumed the title “Atonement” came from what the audience was doing — atoning for some horrible misdeed by sitting through the movie.

(OK, not quite that bad.)

NewMexiKen has seen all five. I still pick Juno to win the Best Picture Oscar.

George Washington’s Birthday

Tomorrow the federal holiday is George Washington’s Birthday. (See Three-day weekend for the background.)

Most know that Washington’s actual birthday is February 22. But, in fact, Washington was not born on that date either.

So, our little one item quiz for today (and so you can dazzle your friends and co-workers this week):

If there had been a calendar on the wall when George Washington was born, what would have been the month, day and year?

I’ll confirm the answer once someone gets it correct. No fair Googling.

We are surrounded by imbeciles

Far and away, Abraham Lincoln is ranked by Americans as the nation’s greatest president, according to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive and released this week, just ahead of Presidents Day. What’s surprising is that President George W. Bush, whose approval rating has plunged to just 30 percent, also sneaks into the top ten list.

AOL News

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Ronald Reagan
3. Franklin D. Roosevelt
4. John F. Kennedy
5. George Washington
6. Bill Clinton
7. Thomas Jefferson
8. Harry Truman
9. Theodore Roosevelt
10. George W. Bush

The point being, of course, is that a lot of people (an awful lot) can only name two or three recent presidents, so they tend to show up on these lists.

A recent ranking by “scholars” has the top ten:

1. Washington
2. Lincoln
3. FDR
4. Jefferson
5. TR
6. Jackson
7. Truman
8. Reagan
9. Eisenhower
10. Polk

Best reprised line of the day, so far

“Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It’s the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.”

Lily Tomlin

February 17th

Today is the birthday

… of Jim Brown, 72. Brown was listed as the 4th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. (Which makes him the second greatest athlete born on this date.)

“For mercurial speed, airy nimbleness, and explosive violence in one package of undistilled evil, there is no other like Mr. Brown,” wrote Pulitzer Prize winning sports columnist Red Smith.

Read the entire ESPN essay on Jim Brown: Brown was hard to bring down.

… of Michael Jordan, 45 today.

Jordan was the ranked the top athlete of the 20th century by ESPN. Here’s what they had to say: Michael Jordan transcends hoops.

“What has made Michael Jordan the First Celebrity of the World is not merely his athletic talent,” Sports Illustrated wrote, “but also a unique confluence of artistry, dignity and history.”

… of Oscar-nominee Hal Holbrook, 83.

… of Rene Russo, 54.

… of Lou Diamond Phillips, 46.

… of Paris Hilton, 27 today. Age now surpassing apparent IQ. That’s her celebrating last night. She’s a walking argument for keeping the inheritance tax.

H.L. Hunt was born on this date in 1889. Hunt was a Texas oil tycoon who, among other things, fathered 14 children with three women, including two that he was married to simultaneously.

Three-day weekend

Before we all head out for more shopping this three-day weekend, I thought this item from last year was worthy of a review:

According to some of the calendars and appointment books floating around this office, Monday, February 19th, is Presidents’ Day. Others say it’s President’s Day. Still others opt for Presidents Day. Which is it? The bouncing apostrophe bespeaks a certain uncertainty. President’s Day suggests that only one holder of the nation’s supreme magistracy is being commemorated—presumably the first. Presidents’ Day hints at more than one, most likely the Sage of Mount Vernon plus Abraham Lincoln, generally agreed to be the greatest of them all. And Presidents Day, apostropheless, implies a promiscuous celebration of all forty-two—Jefferson but also Pierce, F.D.R. but also Buchanan, Truman but also Harding. To say nothing of the incumbent, of whom, perhaps, the less said the better.

So which is it? Trick question. The answer, strictly speaking, is none of the above. Ever since 1968, when, in one of the last gasps of Great Society reformism, holidays were rejiggered to create more three-day weekends, federal law has decreed the third Monday in February to be Washington’s Birthday. And Presidents’/’s/s Day? According to Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, it was a local department-store promotion that went national when retailers discovered that, mysteriously, generic Presidents clear more inventory than particular ones, even the Father of His Country. Now everybody thinks it’s official, but it’s not. (Note to Fox News: could be a War on Washington’s Birthday angle here, similar to the War on Christmas. Over to you, Bill.)

Hendrik Hertzberg

Hertzberg has more.

Best line of the day, so far

“Bush calls for “free and fair” elections in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe responds by calling for “free and fair” elections in Florida”

FARK.com