CORRECTION: The other day this blog referred to right-wingers recklessly calling Obama weak for his careful handling of the Iranian crisis as “clowns.” In fact, they should have been called “dangerous clowns.” Best Defense regrets the error.
Month: June 2009
The Real Nixon
“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white. Or a rape.”
Batting lead-off
… for the Albuquerque Isotopes, Manny Ramirez.
Manny will be Manny tonight as he begins a “rehab” assignment with the Albuquerque Isotopes vs. the Nashville Sounds.
Needless to say, this is the talk of our sometimes delightfully small town.
UPDATE: Ramirez struck out on a foul tip first time up.
Ouch!
I’m fine, sorta, and not traveling or away from the computer or anything.
But every once in a while my chronic spinal degeneration becomes acute back pain, and so it has been since Saturday. It began when I was folding laundry. Last time I ever do THAT!
Sitting at the keyboard long enough to get some blogging going just isn’t too appealing. And I’m even crankier than usual besides.
Send pizza and painkillers.
I can’t watch this video all the way through
A young Iranian woman is shot watching the protests with her father.
I post it because … I don’t even know. It’s too important to ignore and too horrifying to watch.
The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.
As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.
Martin Luther King once said – “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.
President Obama
Best paragraphs of the day
The recent haggling over Guantanamo Bay is such classic Democratic Party politics, it almost makes you want to laugh. Almost, except that it’s, you know, revolting. Eight years of Clintonian squirming was bad enough, but now we have Barack Obama, smoking Habeas Corpus and not inhaling it.
Why is the Gitmo decision classic Democratic Party thinking? Because when certain of us said we wanted Gitmo closed, we sort of meant a change in policy – we didn’t mean just physically closing the plant, moving the prisoners elsewhere, and leaving the policies essentially unchanged. This is what this generation of Democrats does every time: every time they come to a fork in the road, they try to take it.
Matt Taibbi has more on “The End of the Obama Honeymoon, Part II”
The solstice
… is at 11:46 tonight Mountain Daylight Time. (1:46 AM Sunday EDT, 12:46 AM Sunday CDT, 10:46 PM Saturday PDT and AT).
New Mexico gave him a belly-ache
If Zachary Taylor hadn’t gotten gastroenteritis, New Mexico could have become a state 62 years sooner.
On June 20, 1850, New Mexicans ratified a free-state constitution by a vote of 8,371 to 39.
Taylor immediately called for New Mexico’s admission along with California’s; southern outrage flared to new heights; and the state of Texas vowed to secure its claims to all of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, by force if necessary. Taylor ordered the federal garrison at Santa Fe to prepare for combat. By early July, it looked as if civil war might break out, pitting the United States against southern volunteers determined to secure greater Texas for slavery. (The Rise of American Democracy)
Taylor died July 9. Fillmore became president and defused the situation by laying aside New Mexico’s application for statehood.
Today is the happiest day of the year
According to a formula worked out by a British academic, today is the happiest day of the year (I guess he means in the northern hemisphere).
How’s it working out for you so far?
The Froomkin firing
Idle thought
How difficult would it be to get a small computer with voice recognition that could be programmed to mute the TV sound whenever certain sportscasters came on; you know, like Bob Costas?
June 19th
Today is the birthday
… of Gena Rowlands. She’s 79. Miss Rowlands has been nominated for the best actress Oscar twice — A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980).
… of Salman Rushdie. He’s 62.
He resurrected a minor character from a novel that he had abandoned, a character born at the midnight moment of India’s independence. He placed this character, Saleem Sinai, at the center of his new work. He said, “Then Saleem, ever a striver for meaning, suggested to me that the whole of modern Indian history happened as it did because of him; that history, the life of his nation-twin, was somehow all his fault.”
Rushdie returned to England out of money. He got his copywriting job back on a part-time basis, working two or three days a week, splitting the job with another aspiring writer …
After he completed the manuscript for Midnight’s Children in 1979 and sent it to his editor, he learned that the first reader had reported after reading the thick manuscript: “The author should concentrate on short stories until he has mastered the novel form.” But the second reader was more enthusiastic, and the book was published in 1981 to great acclaim. It won the Booker Prize and marked Rushdie as one of the most important fiction writers of his generation.
The above excerpted from The Writer’s Almanac, which has much more. Midnight’s Children is on those book lists we’ve been discussing.
… of Phylicia Rashad. Clair Hanks Huxtable is 61. (Bill Cosby, Dr. Huxtable, is 11 years older.)
… of Kathleen Turner. She’s 55. Miss Turner was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
… of Paula Abdul. She’s 47. A former Lakers cheerleader, Miss Abdul had six number one records 1988-1991. She topped the charts for 15 weeks altogether.
Lou Gehrig was born on June 19 in 1903.
Lou Gehrig teamed with Babe Ruth to form baseball’s most devastating hitting tandem ever. “The Iron Horse” had 13 consecutive seasons with both 100 runs scored and 100 RBI, averaging 139 runs and 148 RBI; set an American League mark with 184 RBI in 1931; hit a record 23 grand slams; and won the 1934 Triple Crown. His .361 batting average in seven World Series led the Yankees to six titles. A true gentleman and a tragic figure, Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak ended at 2,130 when he was felled by a disease that later carried his own name.
Gehrig died in 1941. As Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos puts it, “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”
Moses Horwitz was born on June 19th 112 years ago. That’s the boss stooge, Moe Howard. “I’ll squeeze the cider out of your Adam’s apple.”
The Statue of Liberty arrived at Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor on June 19, 1885.
The statue is constructed of hand-shaped copper sheets, assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by engineers Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. For transit to America, the figure was broken down into 350 separate pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue of Liberty sits within the star-shaped walls of the former Fort Wood, rising to a height of 305 feet on a pedestal designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt.
Best redux line of the day
“I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?”
Ronnie Shakes
Friday stuff
“On Thursday, the Washington Post confirmed it had fired liberal online columnist Dan Froomkin. On Friday, they gave a guest column to Bush war architect Paul Wolfowitz.”
“In Prof. Chen’s study, although a third of consumers bought extended-service contracts, only 8% used them at least once. She said that many of those who bought the contract but didn’t use it defended their choice by claiming it gave them peace of mind.”
Saving money gives me peace of mind. During my time in retail, I can’t tell you how much pressure was on us to sell extended-service contacts.
Two great links from Elise:
Golf line of the morning
“Tiger made two double bogeys in the first round last year at Torrey Pines and still won.”
Dan Jenkins on Tiger’s two double bogeys in round one this year (+4 for the first round).
Need your heart warmed?
My sensitive side shows with these two. Hey, I can’t be cranky all the time.
The New York Times
1. The Times should hire Dan Froomkin.
2. The Times has the Times Wire, a very good way to keep up. It’s updated constantly, blog style, as articles are posted on the Times web site. The Times Wire has a very useful RSS feed, too.
3. The Times has also just updated its Article Skimmer. The layout makes it easier for you to see lots of articles, with an abstract, by section, and click on them. I am used to the Times home page, but this really is more newspaper-like.
Got to give them credit. The Times has done as much or more than any publication to adapt to the internet.
The Washington Post fires its best columnist
The Washington Post … just fired WashingtonPost.com columnist, long-time Bush critic and Obama watchdog (i.e., a real journalist) Dan Froomkin.
What makes this firing so bizarre and worthy of inquiry is that … Froomkin was easily one of the most linked-to and cited Post columnists. At a time when newspapers are relying more and more on online traffic, the Post just fired the person who, in 2007, wrote 2 out of the top 10 most-trafficked columns. In publishing that data, Media Bistro used this headline: “The Post’s Most Popular Opinions (Read: Froomkin).” Isn’t that an odd person to choose to get rid of?
Glenn Greenwald elaborates. Froomkin was one of the few remaining reasons to read the Post.
When a pilot dies mid-flight
Salon’s Patrick Smith (Ask the Pilot) explains.
Best line of the day on economics
“No.”
Robert Reich answering the question: Does the Obama Plan for Reforming Wall Street Measure Up?
Best U.S. Open line of the day
“Play was just suspended for the day. There’s so much water on the 18th hole that Michael Phelps couldn’t par it.”
Jenkins also had this: “Five things that can ruin an Open: Weather, traffic, Jack Fleck, Steve Jones and power-hungry volunteers manning the crosswalks.”
One, two and five apply to just about any event.
The problem with best lists
The problem with best book lists — like the ones discussed here the past two days — is, I think, the use of the word “best.”
Best is the superlative of good, but otherwise it has no specificity.
Is the best pitcher in the league the one with the most strikeouts, the best ERA, the highest salary, or the most wins?
Is the best film the one that takes in the most money, has the most critical acclaim, or wins the Oscar?
Is the best place to live the one with the most jobs, the mildest climate, or the best coffee shops and pubs?
Is the best novel the one taught in the most literature courses, published in more editions, or celebrated each June 16th?
I would argue that the best novels of a century have to transcend being a book. They have to have been discussed continuously since they were published.
There is, for example, a scene in The Wire in prison where they discuss The Great Gatsby.
D’Angelo Barksdale:
He’s saying that the past is always with us. Where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all this shit matters. Like at the end of the book, ya know, boats and tides and all. It’s like you can change up, right, you can say you’re somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But, what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. It don’t matter that some fool say he different cuz the things that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through.
The best novels may not be the best to read or the most enjoyable, or anyone’s favorite. And they may indeed have been written mostly by now dead white men. The language can be difficult; the cadence unfamiliar. But they are larger than that. To mention two 19th century classics, Moby Dick is not just a book about whaling; Huck Finn is not just a book about a boy and a river.
The fact that a novel is on the Modern Library best list is — in a way — almost validation that it should be on the list.
Best line of the day, so far
“Anyone else out there find himself doubled over laughing after reading Goldman, Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein’s ‘apology’ for his bank’s behavior leading up to the financial crisis? Has an act of contrition ever in history been more worthless and insincere? Even Gary Ridgway did a better job of sounding genuinely sorry at his sentencing hearing — and he was a guy who had sex with dead prostitutes because it was cheaper than paying live ones.”
Blankfein’s apology: “While we regret that we participated in the market euphoria and failed to raise a responsible voice, we are proud of the way our firm managed the risk it assumed on behalf of our client before and during the financial crisis.”
Taibbi deconstructs it, phrase by phrase.
Where will you meet your Waterloo?
Napoleon met his Waterloo at the Belgian village of Waterloo on this date in 1815.
The BBC has a concise history of the battle beginning with this introduction:
The Battle of Waterloo was fought thirteen kilometres south of Brussels between the French, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Allied armies commanded by the Duke of Wellington from Britain and General Blücher from Prussia. The French defeat at Waterloo drew to a close 23 years of war beginning with the French Revolutionary wars in 1792 and continuing with the Napoleonic Wars from 1803. There was a brief eleven-month respite when Napoleon was forced to abdicate, exiled to the island of Elba. However, the unpopularity of Louis XVIII and the economic and social instability of France motivated him to return to Paris in March 1815. The Allies soon declared war once again. Napoleon’s final defeat at Waterloo marked the end of the Emperor’s final bid for power, the so-called ‘100 Days’, and the final chapter in his remarkable career.
Defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon’s reign. He was exiled to the island of St. Helena where he died in 1821 at age 51.
Egypt
It was on this day in 1953 that Egypt was officially declared an independent republic. It had been occupied by various foreign powers for 2,000 years, including by Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Ottoman Turks, Napoleon Bonaparte-led French, the servant-king Mamluks, and most recently the British.
Above from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, which has a quick but informative history.