Author: NewMexiKen

More Jon Stewart
More NOW with Bill Moyers

From Bill Moyers’ interview with Jon Stewart, July 11, 2003:

MOYERS: I do not know… I have a confession.

STEWART: Alright.

MOYERS: I do not know whether you are practicing a old form of parody and satire.

STEWART: Uh-huh.

MOYERS: Or a new form of journalism.

STEWART: Well then that either speaks to the sad state of comedy or the sad state of news. I can’t figure out which one. I think, honestly, we’re practicing a new form of desperation. Where we just are so inundated with mixed messages from the media and from politicians that we’re just trying to sort it out for ourselves.

Boo!

Want to get in the mood for Halloween? Want to be scared? Read Ron Susskind’s article about the President in Sunday’s New York Times.

“This is why [Bush] dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,” Bartlett went on to say. “He truly believes he’s on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.”

145 years ago tonight

From the Library of Congress:

Late on the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and twenty-one armed followers stole into the town of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) as most of its residents slept. The men–among them three free blacks, one freed slave, and one fugitive slave–hoped to spark a rebellion of freed slaves and to lead an “army of emancipation” to overturn the institution of slavery by force. To these ends the insurgents took some sixty prominent locals including Col. Lewis Washington (great-grand nephew of George Washington) as hostages and seized the town’s United States arsenal and its rifle works.

The upper hand which nighttime surprise had afforded the raiders quickly eroded, and by the evening of October 17, the conspirators who were still alive were holed-up in an engine house. In order to be able to distinguish between insurgents and hostages, marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee waited for daylight on October 18 to storm the building.

…

For his actions, Brown was quickly tried and convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and sentenced to death by hanging. The simplicity and sincerity of Brown’s address after his sentencing astounded listeners on both sides of the issue. While awaiting his fate in the Harper’s Ferry jail, he received a sympathetic letter from Massachusetts writer and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. “I think of you night and day,” she wrote, “bleeding in prison, surrounded by hostile faces, sustained only by trust in God and your own heart. I long to nurse you–to speak to you sisterly words of sympathy and consolation.”

Brown declined her offer, asking instead that she contribute to the financial support of his surviving family which included two daughters-in-law whose husbands had been killed in the raid. “Would you not,” he wrote, “as soon contribute fifty cents now, and a like sum yearly, for the relief of those very poor and deeply afflicted persons, to enable them to supply themselves and their children with bread and very plain clothing, and to enable the children to receive a common English education?”

There’s much more.

Federal money

For every dollar the federal government spent in the fiscal year that ended two weeks ago:

  • 35 cents came from individual income taxes
  • 32 cents came from Social Security, Medicare and other retirement taxes
  • 8 cents came from corporate income taxes
  • 3 cents were generated by taxes on alcohol, tobacco, fuel, telephones, air transportation, etc. (excise taxes)
  • 3 cents came from estate taxes, custom duties and government fees (such as $50 for a National Parks Pass)
  • and 19 cents were borrowed from our children and grandchildren

Ignorance is as ignorance does

From The Week Newsletter:

A California library was chagrined to discover that its new $40,000 mosaic of famous people in history misspells 11 names, including “Eistein,” “Shakespere,” and “Van Gough.” The city of Livermore quickly voted to spend $6,000 to have artist Maria Alquilar fix her mistakes, but she refused, saying that spelling was not important to the spirit of the work. “There seems to be so much hatred within certain people,” she said. “They continuously look for a scapegoat. I guess I am the sacrificial goat.”

No, just ignorant.

In a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle a writer suggeested:

Rather than accept any blame or offer any apology, Alquilar responded that “the people are into humanities and are into (William) Blake’s concept of enlightenment — they are not looking at the words. In their mind, the words register correctly.”

The City Council, having already spent $40,000 on the project, voted to spend $6,000 more — plus expenses — to fly Alquilar back from Florida to fix it.

I think the City Council has available a simple solution to save precious money: Upon completion of the work, issue a check for $6, not $6,000. In my mind, the numbers register correctly.

The Godfather

Author Mario Puzo was born on this date in 1920. The Writer’s Almanac tells his story:

[Puzo is] best known as the author of the novel The Godfather (1969), which was made into a movie in 1972. People had written novels and made movies about the mafia before, but the mafia characters had always been the villains. Puzo was the first person to write about members of the mafia as the sympathetic main characters of a story. The son of Italian immigrants, he started out trying to write serious literary fiction. He published two novels that barely sold any copies. He fell into debt, trying to support his family as a freelance writer. One Christmas Eve, he had a severe gall bladder attack and took a cab to the hospital. When he got out of the cab, he was in so much pain that he fell into the gutter. Lying there, he said to himself, “Here I am, a published writer, and I am dying like a dog.” He vowed that he would devote the rest of his writing life to becoming rich and famous. The Godfather became the best-selling novel of the 1970s, and many critics credit Puzo with inventing the mafia as a serious literary and cinematic subject. He went on to publish many other books, including The Sicilian (1984) and The Last Don (1996), but he always felt that his best book was the last book he wrote before he became a success – The Fortunate Pilgrim (1964), about an ordinary Italian immigrant family.

Puzo died in 1999.

Speech writing

John Kenneth Galbraith (96 today) once wrote a speech for President Lyndon Johnson. Galbraith was a very prominent economist and not a speech writer, but he worked diligently on the draft and was impressed with what he produced. It was given to LBJ who, out of respect for the economist, told him personally what he thought.

“Ken,” LBJ said. “Writing a speech is a lot like wetting your pants. What feels warm and comforting to you can just seem cold and sticky to everyone else.”

It’s the birthday

… of John Kenneth Galbraith. The famed economist is 96.

… of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The famed historian is 87.

… of Lee Iacocca. The famed auto-maker is 80. Iacocca wrote that the Chevrolet Vega and Dodge Aspen were two cars that never should have been made. NewMexiKen can attest that they were two cars that never should have been purchased (though, in fairness, we did get more than 120,000 miles from the Aspen).

… of Barry McGuire. He’s 69, pretty close to the Eve of Destruction.

… of Penny Marshall. Laverne DeFazio is 62.

… of Jim Palmer. The Hall of Fame pitcher and underwear pitchman is 59. Palmer won World Series games in three decades (1966, 1970 and 1971, 1983).

Best line of the day, so far

“Okay, so you’re going to tell me that professional baseball is no longer pure — that players make too much money, owners rip off the fans, and there’s drug use. Yeah, well, the same is true for Congress, but I still vote.”

Juanita (Susan DuQuesnay), who claims she intended to watch the Astros-Cardinals Wednesday night and record the debate.

Becoming less undecided

“There’s a lot of talk in political circles about an amendment to the U.S. constitution so people born in other countries can run for president. Apparently this is part of Bush’s plan to outsource the presidency.”

Jay Leno

“During the debate, Bush was asked by a lady to name three mistakes he’s made. And Bush responded, this debate, the last debate and the next debate.”

Bill Maher

Beep beep

A story from Jason Kottke —

Last week, I saw a guy almost get hit by a van while crossing the street. He was pissed and understandably so. He was in the crosswalk with the walk signal and the guy in the van was super aggressive in trying to get through; the guy actually had to run out of the way to avoid being knocked down. The guy was so pissed that when the van finally stopped to let him pass, he reached through the window and beat the driver on the head with his cell phone. As a sympathetic pedestrian, I almost went over there to help him.

No ringy-dingy

France’s industry minister has approved a decision to let cinemas, concert halls and theaters install cell phone jammers — on condition that emergency calls can still get through, officials said Monday. Jean Labbe, president of the National Federation of French Cinemas, said the measure was a response to “a long-standing request” from cinemas of all sizes. Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian gave the go-ahead Friday, backing a decision by the Telecommunications Regulation Authority to allow jammers, his ministry said in a statement.

Associated Press via Wired News

Columbus Day

They … brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane…. They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

Christopher Columbus writing in his log upon meeting the Arawaks.