Author: NewMexiKen

Beyond Bush

“In 19 months [Bush] will be a private citizen, giving speeches to insurance executives. America, however, will have to move on and restore its place in the world.”

At Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria writes on How to Restore America’s Place in the World. It’s an excellent, and I think correct, review of American foreign policy.

On the campaign trail, Giuliani plays a man exasperated by the inability of Americans to see the danger staring them in the face. “This is reality, ma’am,” he told a startled woman at Oglethorpe. “You’ve got to clear your head.”

The notion that the United States today is in grave danger of sitting back and going on the defensive is bizarre. In the last five and a half years, with bipartisan support, Washington has invaded two countries and sent troops around the world from Somalia to the Philippines to fight Islamic militants. It has ramped up defense spending by $187 billion—more than the combined military budgets of China, Russia, India and Britain. It has created a Department of Homeland Security that now spends more than $40 billion a year. It has set up secret prisons in Europe and a legal black hole in Guantánamo, to hold, interrogate and—by some definitions—torture prisoners. How would Giuliani really go on the offensive? Invade a couple of more countries?

Thanks again to Tom at Functional Ambivalent for the pointer.

I love you guys

Scott Adams is 50 today and has a wonderful idea:

“Here’s what I want you to do for my birthday. Send someone an e-mail and tell them how much you appreciate them, or love them. Do it right now. Then tell me about it in the comments. That’s what I want. It’s my birthday so you have to do it.”

Maybe they can’t read Latin

“Yes, yes…it’s great that the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act yesterday. But to think there are eight idiots on the committee—Kyl, Brownback, Sessions, Grassley, Cornyn, Graham, Coburn and Hatch—who think our system of government functions just fine without it is scary. There’s a word for people like them…and it ain’t ‘American.'”

Daily Kos: Cheers and Jeers

FYI Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution states: “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

Most interesting line of the morning, so far

“[U]nless you’re the kind of person who needs a little help through a ‘stressful and maybe difficult period,’ and unless you’re unwilling to wait a little longer to sell your house, then the commission that you pay your Realtor is in essence a big fat tip.”

Freakonomics Blog, commenting on a new paper “measuring the sale price of homes sold by Realtors and those sold directly by owners.”

There’s also a report in The New York Times.

June 8th

Barbara Bush is 82.

Jerry Stiller is 80. Stiller and Anne Meara have been married since 1954 and they are, of course, Ben and Amy Stiller’s parents.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky is 74. That’s Joan Rivers. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College.

Moondoggie is 71. James Darren to us; born James William Ercolani.

Nancy Sinatra is 67. Her boots have done a lot of walkin’.

Robbie Douglas is 63. That’s the second of “My Three Sons,” Don Grady.

Keenen Ivory Wayans is 49.

Julianna Margulies is 40.

Eddie Gaedel was born on this date in 1925. The 3-feet 7-inch Gaedel came to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. He was, according to Browns owner Bill Veeck, “the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball.” Read about Gaedel’s time at the plate, told as the first chapter of Veeck’s autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck — “When Eddie went into that crouch, his strike zone was just about visible to the naked eye. I picked up a ruler and measured it for posterity. It was 1½ inches. Marvelous.”

Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this date in 1867. PBS has a locator to the more than 60 Wright buildings open to the public. It includes building names, locations, photographs and maps.

Wright.jpg

For more than 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright showed his countrymen new ways to build their homes and see the world around them. He created some of the most monumental, and some of the most intimate spaces in America. He designed everything: banks and resorts, office buildings and churches, a filling station and a synagogue, a beer garden and an art museum.

Busiest airports

Interesting stuff from Ask the Pilot:

Let’s return to last week’s list of the top-10 busiest airports in the world, measured by number of takeoffs and landings: Chicago O’Hare, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston Intercontinental, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Notice that all 10 are in the United States. A number of e-mailers suspected the ranks were in error. Who would have thought that Philadelphia or Minneapolis would have more traffic than Tokyo, Frankfurt or London’s Heathrow? But they do. (Salt Lake City sees as many takeoffs and landings as Heathrow, transporting a third as many passengers. If you want to reduce commercial aviation’s carbon footprint, there’s a place to start.)

If you rejigger to account for total number of passengers, the top 10 is very different. Heathrow, for example, comes in at third place, with Tokyo’s Haneda, Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Amsterdam all checking in. Suddenly only five of the busiest airports are American.

This difference is a powerful illustration of how and why our air system is nearing perpetual gridlock. The problem isn’t too many people flying, but how many planes they are flying in. Our airlines sell frequency, or the illusion thereof, creating a system so immense, and so precarious, that a single thunderstorm throws the entire thing into paralysis.

Lincoln Message Discovered

Lincoln note to Halleck

Today, the National Archives announced the discovery of a new Abraham Lincoln message written in President Lincoln’s own hand to Major General Henry Halleck. The message, which was found among the Adjutant General’s Records in the stacks at the National Archives Building, is dated July 7, 1863. . . .

Lincoln’s message said:
Major Genl Halleck
We have certain information that Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if Gen. Meade can complete his work so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the litteral(sic) or substantial destruction of Lee’s army, the rebellion will be over.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN

The National Archives

NewMexiKen found some pretty interesting previously unknown handwritten messages in my career at the Archives — JFK to Nixon, Reagan to Nixon — but I have to admit, no Lincolns. The contents of the Lincoln message above have long been known from the telegram Halleck sent to Meade relaying its content.

Red card

According to the Seattle Weekly the following will get you ejected from Safeco Field, home of the Mariners.

•Foul/abusive language or obscene gestures

•Intoxication or other signs of impairment related to alcohol consumption

•Displays of affection not appropriate in a public, family setting

•Obscene or indecent clothing

•Any disruption of a game or event, including throwing of objects or trespassing on the playing field or other restricted areas

•Sitting in a location other than the guest’s ticketed seat

•Fighting, taunting or making threatening remarks or gestures

•Smoking or the use of tobacco products, in any form

NewMexiKen can’t decide what I think about this. Yes, I’ve witnessed some awful behavior at stadiums, even threatening. Still, some of my fondest memories of ball parks include the guy eating the moths — and kissing his girlfriend; some guys yelling to the lower deck, “Hey Miller, how much for your daughter?” (Miller was the name on the jersey a guy was wearing); and, of course, moving to better seats.

Oh, and catching my teenage uncle smoking when I was 7 or 8 — and threatening to tell Grandma.

Link via Awful Announcing.

Lee’s Resolutions

It was on June 7 in 1776 that the idea of independence was first officially proposed in the Continental Congress. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced and John Adams seconded the following:

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

The Avalon Project

The vote on the resolution was set aside until July 1st — it actually occurred on the 2nd. In the meanwhile a committee was formed to draft a formal declaration of independence.

Note in the resolution the plural ” free and independent states.”

June 7th

The linguist and author Deborah Tannen is 62. The Writer’s Almanac reports that Deborah Tannen has said, “Saying that men talk about baseball in order to avoid talking about their feelings is the same as saying that women talk about their feelings in order to avoid talking about baseball.”

Oscar nominee Liam Neeson is 55.

Author Louise Erdrich is 53.

Her father was of German descent, her mother a Chippewa Indian. She grew up in North Dakota, where her parents were both teachers at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school.

She studied creative writing at Dartmouth. After college, she decided not to go into teaching as she had planned. Instead, she wrote poetry, and supported herself hoeing sugar beets, picking cucumbers, babysitting, life guarding, selling fried chicken, waitressing and short order cooking. She was even once a girl with a flag at a construction site on the highway.

She switched from poetry to fiction. One of her first short stories began to grow in her mind and became her first novel Love Medicine, about two Indian families, the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. She created those two families and then went on to write several more novels about them and their imaginary reservation in North Dakota, including The Beet Queen, The Bingo Palace, Tracks, and others.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Prince Rogers Nelson is 49.

Allen Iverson is 32.

Jessica Tandy was born on this date in 1909. Tandy won an Oscar (at age 81 for Driving Miss Daisy), a Tony, an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She was the mother who didn’t like Tippi Hedren much in The Birds.

Dino Paul Crocetti was born on June 7th 90 years ago today. We know him as Dean Martin.

Yay!

The University of Arizona softball team defended its national championship tonight defeating Tennessee in a best of three series. The Wildcats beat the Vols in the deciding game 5-0.

Taryne Mowatt, the Arizona pitcher — and in college softball a team usually has just one pitcher — threw 1,035 pitches in the tournament since Thursday (8 games, 60 innings). She was the Women’s College World Series MVP.

It’s Arizona’s eighth NCAA softball title.

Assault on Reason

Completed Al Gore’s The Assault on Reason. An important book, certainly a strong indictment of Bush. At times however, the book borders on being a screed; just when you think Gore’s exhausted a subject, he comes back around at it again — and sometimes yet again. Frankly, a more heavily edited and sharply argued work would have been better.

Still, compelling in making the case that we live in perilous times and that Bush is the worst and most dangerous president ever. That alone should make it required reading for concerned citizens.

Should we amend all of the textbooks in America to explain to schoolchildren that what has been taught for more than two centuries about checks and balances is no longer valid? Should we teach them instead that the United States Congress and the courts are merely advisory groups that make suggestions to the president on what the law should be, but that the president is all-powerful and now has the final say on everything? Should we teach them that we are a government of men, not laws? Should we teach them that we used to be a democracy but now we only pretend to be?

Two of the reasons they call it the Comedy Channel

“Last night, CNN hosted the second in a series of infinite Democratic debates. Most people feel candidates should get more time to answer the questions than contestants on ‘Deal or No Deal’ get. What is with the raising the hand thing? From now on the only question candidates can answer by raising their hands should be ‘Are you happy?’ and ‘Do you know it?'”

— Jon Stewart

“Speaking of threats to public safety, I don’t know if you watched the Democratic presidential debate last night — I didn’t. But I assume I would have been really impressed with the way Hillary, Obama, and Edwards cemented their status as front runners; Gravel said something batshit crazy; Richardson talked about New Mexico; Biden said you can’t ship Richardson back to Mexico; and Kucinich called for the deployment of an all-butterfly army.”

— Stephen Colbert