“The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy writing for the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush.
Month: June 2008
Baseball Hall of Fame
Sixty-nine years ago today.
Back row: Honus Wagner, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Walter Johnson.
Seated: Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Cy Young.
Ty Cobb is absent from the photo; he had missed a train and arrived late.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was officially dedicated in colorful ceremony on June 12, 1939. The game’s four ranking executives of the period — [Kenesaw M.] Landis, [Ford] Frick, [William] Harridge and William G. Bramham, President of the National Association — participated in the ribbon-cutting. Of the 25 immortals who had been elected to the Hall of Fame up to that point, 11 were still living; and all of them journeyed to Cooperstown to attend the centennial celebration. A baseball postage stamp commemorating the occasion was placed on sale that day at the Cooperstown post office, with Postmaster General James A. Farley presiding.
Check out the Babe’s socks. He was into the low-cut sock look long before anyone else.
June 12th
President George H.W. Bush is 84 today.
Well, gawwwleee and shazzayam, Jim Nabors is 78.
Marv Philip Aufrichtig was born 67 years ago today. We know him as Marv Albert.
Armando Anthony Corea is also 67. We know him as Chick.
Anne Frank should have been 79 years old today. The Writer’s Almanac has a brief essay about Frank. Beginning with: “It was on this day in 1942 that she received a red and white plaid journal, from her father, for her 13th birthday, and she started to write her diary, a diary that she called by the name of ‘Kitty.'”
Fourteen years ago today someone killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Racism at Fox
NewMexiKen doesn’t watch Fox News and I try not to mention it too often around here, even to complain about it. But this is too much.
In case you can’t read it: “OUTRAGED LIBERALS: STOP PICKING ON OBAMA’S BABY MAMA!”
Excuse me, but Michelle Robinson Obama is not Obama’s baby mama.
A “baby mama” is a woman who has been left by the the father.
You know, like the first Mrs. McCain.
As if “Liberals” would use the term anyway.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Best line of the day, so far
“Of course, the boys have already been reading other books, but the truth is Calvin and Hobbes is the standard to which all other great literature is held.”
Testosterhome on her sons’ summer reading. She goes on to note that the boys will be required to report on their summer books — “I’m sure there will be ice cream or weapons involved in this equation as well.”
Webb’s rebel roots
NewMexiKen believes Barack Obama will select a governor or retired general as his running mate, not another senator. Be that as it may (and my prognostication skills have proven sadly lacking before), Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) makes every list.
But is Webb a Confederate sympathizer? David Mark suggests that might be the case at Politico. Mark begins:
Barack Obama’s vice presidential vetting team will undoubtedly run across some quirky and potentially troublesome issues as it goes about the business of scouring the backgrounds of possible running mates. But it’s unlikely they’ll find one so curious as Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb’s affinity for the cause of the Confederacy.
Webb is no mere student of the Civil War era. He’s an author, too, and he’s left a trail of writings and statements about one of the rawest and most sensitive topics in American history.
He has suggested many times that while the Confederacy is a symbol to many of the racist legacy of slavery and segregation, for others it simply reflects Southern pride.
James Fallows deconstructs Mark:
… Moreover, the article that “uncovers” this startling fact is written in classic and depressing Beltway “could be perceived as problematic” style. It doesn’t flat-out say that there is anything wrong or illegitimate in Webb’s views.
…And after all: we’re discussing scenarios in which the first black major party nominee might choose Webb as his running mate. Somehow this would “have the potential” of conveying a pro-Confederate tilt?
Webb has pretty much made the point that he respects the fighting courage of Confederate soldiers, and their belief in state sovereignty. It isn’t slavery and slaveholders that most of them fought for he argues. Webb got 85% of the black vote in the 2006 Virginia election.
Thanks to Byron for the link. Interesting stuff.
Ah-Dee’s Belly
Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, reports on Aidan, who’ll be five in September. Ah-Dee’s been having some reflux issues.
Aidan had an upper GI this morning, which is a test to try to identify certain problems in the stomach and diaphragm. He had to drink a bunch of barium (which the tech flavored with Hershey’s syrup for him, but which still was pretty gross), then stand and lie in a variety of positions on an x-ray table, sipping the barium the whole time, as they photographed him.
He did a very good job. The doctor told me that he didn’t see any obvious ulcers or tumors, which is good news. Apparently, ulcers in four years olds are more common than you’d think.
After that we went across the street and he had four vials of blood drawn. That was far more traumatic for Aidan, but we had a lab technician there who was quick, no nonsense, and got the stick the first time despite Aidan thrashing as hard as he could, screaming, and having difficult veins because he’d fasted 12 hours for the upper GI. I could have kissed her. (This is the same lab where I brought Reid when he was nine months old, and took my time explaining to the tech that he had difficult veins, and that we’d had many problems in the past, and we’d had to go into his head, and it took many tries, yadda yadda, and she nodded at me, turned around, and had the needle in his vein in about three seconds. I am never going anywhere else.)
Next we have to collect some stool and turn that in. That we get to collect at home, Yay. Apparently, we use saran wrap.
Anyway, maybe something will turn up in these tests to explain his stomach, and maybe it won’t. We have to wait until mid-August to see a pediatric gastroenterologist, believe it or not. But we got a new Zantac prescription, so at least we can make him feel better while we wait to see if they can diagnose him.
I had promised him that if he did a good job at the upper GI, we could go to Safeway and get him a doughnut and a soda. As he’s in the middle of the test, I hear his little voice from the machine, “Mommy, remember, after this I get a doughnut, soda, and candy.” I replied, “I don’t remember saying anything about candy!” The doctor and the tech laughed and the doctor said, “He’s kind of running the show right now, mom.”
Later the tech told me to make sure Aidan got a lot to drink today, “…and things without caffeine.” Feeling like Champion White Trash Mom, I replied, “So, no Mountain Dew, then?” Aidan piped up, “No, I want diet Coke.” And we left, to the sound of dueling banjos in the distance.
Now here’s a line of the day
“I don’t know if I would want him as vice president. He and I have the same strengths. But to serve in other capacities? Hell, yeah.”
John McCain talking about Dick Cheney in a 2006 interview with Cheney biographer Stephen Hayes, quoted at Politico.com.
June 11th, a holiday by any standard
Two-time Oscar nominee Gene Wilder is 75 today. Wilder was nominated for supporting actor for The Producers and as a co-writer with Mel Brooks for Young Frankenstein.
Chad Everett is 71.
Adrienne Barbeau is 63. And now it’s her age, too.
Frank Beard is 59 today. That’s him with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frank Beard is the one without a beard.
Joe Montana is 52.
Shia LaBeouf is 22.
William Styron was born on June 11th in 1925. This from American Masters:
After leaving the service, [Styron] moved to New York, where he supported his fledgling writing career working at McGraw-Hill Publishing. He also began taking classes with Hiram Haydn at the New School for Social Research. With guidance and encouragement from Haydn, Styron made his stunning debut at the age of twenty-six with LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS (1951). This novel launched his career and earned him the American Academy’s Prix de Rome. Told under the shadow of the Hiroshima bombing, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS charts the tragic descent into suicide of a young woman raised in a troubled Virginia family.
He followed LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS with THE LONG MARCH (1957), SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE (1960), and one of his most famous novels, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER (1967). Published at the height of the civil rights movement, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER is told from the point of view of the historical figure who led a disastrous and bloody slave insurrection which set the stage for the Civil War. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER was both praised as a brave look into a rarely represented life, and maligned for what many saw as a clichéd conception of a black man.
Styron’s next novel did not appear for more than ten years. The tragedy of SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1979) is played out between a young Virginia writer and a Polish Holocaust survivor in an urban Jewish enclave of Brooklyn. It takes place during the aftermath of World War II, an era Styron describes as “a nightmarish Sargasso Sea of guilt and apprehensions.” In SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Styron weaves a fictional tale, profound in its engagement, with major recent historical events. Made into a popular movie starring Meryl Streep, SOPHIE’S CHOICE returned Styron to the popular eye as both a controversial personality and a major writer.
Styron’s compelling Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) describes his crippling, nearly suicidal depression at age 60. Styron died in November 2006.
Vince Lombardi was born on June 11 in 1913. Lombardi is the legendary football coach. You know — the one the Super Bowl trophy is named for.
Some Lombardisms:
- “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
- “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
- “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
- “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
Vince Lombardi died in 1970 at age 57.
Jeanette Rankin…was born on this date in 1880 on a ranch near Missoula, Montana. In 1916, Rankin was elected the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. In 1941, she cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol. Read Rankin’s obituary from The New York Times.
And NewMexiKen’s very own sister Martha is celebrating her birthday today, too.
Oh, and today is a state holiday in Hawai’i. It’s Kamehameha Day. “On June 11th, 2008, thousands of people will gather on the northern tip of the Big Island of Hawai‘i to honor King Kamehameha I, the chief who united the Hawaiian Islands in 1795.”
OK, quickly now
Which is farther west, Los Angeles or Reno?
Which is farther west, Richmond, Virginia, or Lima, Peru?
Yesterday and today’s trivia from Andrew Tobias.
Most exciting NewMexiKen poll
{democracy:35}
Economic Stimulus Check
I still haven’t gotten my $600. I feel like Addie Loggins (about 1 minute in).
‘Cept I want my six hundred dollars.
Best line of the day
“Well, for the first time in history, the national average for gallon of gas is over $4 a gallon. In fact, today Dick Cheney was seen putting up his own ‘Mission Accomplished’ sign.”
Jay Leno
The Sky, From Above
“[S]ome of the best photographs of Earth’s skies, taken from above – way above (over 200 miles to be more exact)”
Cool.
Old guys
If McCain is the nominee, he will be the third oldest man ever to run for president, and only the third older than 70. Can you name the other two?
Earmarks
While not endorsing the use of earmarks by federal legislators, I would like to point out that they amount to less than 59 cents out of every $100 in the budget. They really are of no fiscal consequence.
Complaining about earmarks makes about as much sense as complaining about the 9/10ths when gas is $4.049 a gallon. Making it a key part of your economic policy is either pandering or stupid.
And I am so tired of having a president that panders and/or acts stupid.
Name the Last 10 Vice Presidents
Can you name the last 10 vice presidents in two minutes?
There goes the redneck vote
Via Eschaton.
Oh, by the way, annual cost of earmarks: $17 billion
Annual cost of the war in Iraq: $200 billion
Do you think any of these people might be terrorists?
Commenting on Barack and Michelle Obama’s on-stage “fist bump” before the start of a June 3 speech by Barack Obama, host E.D. Hill previewed a segment on the June 6 edition of Fox News’ America’s Pulse by saying, “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.”
An Internet search for terms “fist bump,” “pound,” “dap,” and “bumping fists” has revealed images of numerous athletes, celebrities, and politicians performing the same social gesticulation. Does Fox think any of the following might be terrorists?
Click Media Matters to see the potential terrorists.
Factoid line of the day
“Our tests found that leaving a Playstation 3 on while not in use would cost almost… five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period”.
Meep Meep
“[I]f all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day.”
An American military supercomputer, assembled from components originally designed for video game machines, has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second.
The new machine is more than twice as fast as the previous fastest supercomputer, the I.B.M. BlueGene/L, which is based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
The new $133 million supercomputer, called Roadrunner in a reference to the state bird of New Mexico, was devised and built by engineers and scientists at I.B.M. and Los Alamos National Laboratory, based in Los Alamos, N.M.
Quick
Which is further north, Venice, Italy, or Bangor, Maine?
Paris, France, or Seattle, Washington?
June 10th
Prince Philip is 87 today.
Maurice Sendak is 80. He illustrated and wrote Where the Wild Things Are in 1963.
Football hall-of-famer Dan Fouts is 57.
John Edwards is 55.
Gina Gershon is 46.
Jeanne Tripplehorn is 45. Her father played with Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
Elizabeth Hurley is 43.
Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, is 37 today. If he runs with McCain, their average age election day would be nearly 55.
Frances Ethel Gumm was born 86 years ago today. We know her as Judy Garland. She was just under 5-feet tall and the need for weight-control lead her to drugs, which controlled much of her adult life. She died of a barbiturate overdose at age 47. Ms. Garland was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for A Star is Born (1955) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Judgment at Nuremberg (1962). She won a special “Juvenile Oscar” for The Wizard of Oz (1940).
The author Saul Bellow was born on June 10th in 1915 in Quebec. He grew up in Chicago. The Writer’s Almanac had a brief bio last year that included this:
His father wasn’t happy that Bellow wanted to be a writer. He said, “You write and then you erase. You call that a profession?” His brothers went into more conventional careers and Bellow once said, “All I started out to do was to show up my brothers.”
Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10th in 1895. She won a supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind, the first African-American to be nominated. Ms. McDaniel has nearly 100 credits listed at IMDB.
Best line of the day, so far
“[Hillary Clinton] became a caricature: too smart, too strong, too assertive, too rational, too competent. Think how the young Harry Potter and his male friends initially reacted to Hermione Granger and you get the idea.”