As Wonkette puts it, “screw Obama. This was the speech of the year.” New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey’s resignation speech.
Author: NewMexiKen
Check it out!!
Link via First Draft.
Update: That’s an AMTRAK GE P42DC running north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, at 80mph last Saturday. Here’s the background.
Best line of the day, so far
Illinois senate candidate Barack Obama on why he will debate Alan Keyes fewer times than he had agreed to with Jack Ryan — [S]ix debates was “a special for in-state residents.”
Keyes resided in Maryland until Tuesday.
Wouldn’t it be great to hear Johnny’s monologues on this year’s campaign?
“Let’s see what’s going on with the Democrats, John and Teresa. Or as they’re now called, ‘Cash and Kerry.’ According to the Drudge Report, John Kerry and his wife had a huge argument after a campaign rally in Arizona and had to sleep in separate hotel rooms. So apparently they’re going after the Clinton vote.”
“President Bush said yesterday it doesn’t make any sense to raise taxes on the rich because rich people can figure out how to dodge taxes. Then Dick Cheney said ‘Shut up! You’re ruining everything.'”
Jay Leno
Cecil B. DeMille…
was born on this date in 1881.
Producer/director DeMille won the Best Picture Oscar in 1953 for The Greatest Show on Earth, a wonderful, if melodramatic film about circus life in the days of the big top. It starred Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Dorothy Lamour, James Stewart (always in clown makeup) and actual circus performers. DeMille was nominated, but did not win the Oscar for director for the movie.
DeMille’s was also nominated for Best Picture in 1957, for The Ten Commandments.
What our neighbors think
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Frances Fitzgerald has written a review of History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History.
Here are a few things students in this country will not find in their history books but that students from certain other countries may know for a fact:
a) Our revolution was inspired by the work of the French Enlightenment philosophers (not the essays of John Locke).
b) We won that war largely because the British commanders were slow and blundering (not because of the wisdom and determination of George Washington).
c) What we thought of as a revolution was for many inhabitants of British North America an extended civil war, in which many were forced into exile.
d) After Gen. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781, the Spanish and French fleets opened full-scale war with the British in the Caribbean.
Those with a particular interest in American history should find the whole review well worth reading.
And anyway, who cares?
From an editorial in The Salt Lake Tribune:
Every minute spent by Larry King or Fox News on Lori Hacking or Laci Peterson is a minute they don’t spend on health care, education, environmental quality, national security, the economy or other real issues that should be the center of public attention, especially in an election year.
A nation full of people who know more about Scott Peterson’s defense strategy than they do about Donald Rumsfeld’s is not a nation that shows much ability to govern itself.
Local folks have a right and a duty to look over the shoulder of their criminal justice system as it does its job. Reporters from other media outlets can and should be available to backstop the locals whenever there is reason to believe that those closest to the story were seduced into joining either a lynch mob or a whitewash.
But for so much of the talent, time and resources of our worldwide media to be spent on a story of strictly local importance displays no courage and little imagination. Instead, it is a symptom of a perverse laziness on the part of both the media and its audience.
Bush on tribal sovereignty
Here’s the video.
Link via Scaramouche Blog via Sideshow.
Toys R’nt Us
Toys ‘R’ Us is thinking about getting out of the toy business (it’s losing out to Wal-Mart, Target and others). Isn’t this sort of like McDonald’s getting out of the hamburger business?
Largest college stadiums
Strangely enough, NewMexiKen is the first Google pick for “largest college stadiums.” This seemingly is based on one small entry last November. The least I could do is give you the top ten.
Michigan, Michigan Stadium 107,501
Penn State, Beaver Stadium 106,537
Tennessee, Neyland Stadium 104,079
Ohio State, Ohio Stadium 101,568
UCLA, Rose Bowl 95,000
USC, L.A. Memorial Coliseum 92,000
LSU, Tiger Stadium 91,600
Georgia, Sanford Stadium 86,520
Auburn, Jordan-Hare Stadium 86,063
Stanford, Stanford Stadium 85,500
[Update: See here for top 30.]
Eleven Angry Men
From Brendan I. Koerner writing at Slate:
Suspected serial killer Derrick Todd Lee was found guilty [Tuesday] of second-degree murder. Eleven members of the Port Allen, La., jury voted for conviction, while a lone dissenter voted to acquit. Aren’t juries in criminal trials supposed to unanimous?
Not in Louisiana or Oregon, where most felony cases require only a supermajority of 10 jurors to convict or acquit. The exceptions in Louisiana are death-penalty cases, as well as trials that use six jurors rather than 12. (The second-degree murder charge that Lee faced carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.) In Oregon, all murder cases, regardless of the prescribed punishment, still require unanimity.
Tonight, tonight
Won’t be just any night
From Space.com:
A fine display of shooting stars is underway and peaks overnight Wednesday into early Thursday morning. Astronomers expect the 2004 Perseid meteor shower to be one of the best versions of the annual event in several years.
Watching meteors requires no special gear — telescopes and binoculars are of no use. So anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with clear skies could see some “shooting stars.”
His idea of higher education is being able to read without moving your lips
Juanita got me laughing so hard about Tom DeLay, I actually had to stop and take a break from reading.
The more his poll numbers drop, the more he’ll be calling in favors. Thelma says that for the promise of some federal government pork, she’ll give him a reception over at Thelma’s Pool Hall and Family Mediation Center. However, Thelma really means pork, as in pork ribs, not the government money kind.
It’s the birthday…
of Marilyn vos Savant, born on this date in 1946. She’s the Parade magazine columnist and one-time holder of the title of world’s highest IQ. Her IQ was once measured at 228, but more modern tests now reveal it to be simply a lofty 180. She is married to Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart.
The Wikipedia article on vos Savant led me to this item:
Sho Yano (born in Portland, Oregon) is a Japanese American and Korean American boy who at the age of 12 held the title of world’s highest recorded IQ with a figure so high that it was unmeasurable. He graduated from Loyola University magna cum laude at age 12, and attends the University of Chicago Medical School on a full scholarship. He scored 1500 on the SAT at the age of 8.
NewMexiKen has found errors among Wikipedia entries in the past. No guarantees here, either.
Do Me a Favor, Keep a Lid on Your Double Latte
Roxanne Roberts on nursing in public:
I admit it: I’m lactose intolerant.
The latest assault on the right to a peaceful cup of Joe comes courtesy of Lorig Charkoudian, a Silver Spring woman who not only wants to breast-feed her daughter at Starbucks whenever she likes but expects me to avert my eyes or leave if I don’t share her enthusiasm for double breast milk latte. It’s not enough that a new Maryland law supports her right to lactate in public — no, she wants Starbucks to issue a nationwide corporate policy supporting her position.
Speaking for the school of not letting it all hang out, let me say: Don’t. Please, please please. Just don’t.
NewMexiKen was a bit startled to notice a nursing infant next to him a few weeks ago while on the hayride at the petting zoo (with three of the Sweeties). But the mother was modest and the world didn’t end. As long as it’s not the Super Bowl halftime show, who cares?
Link via Electablog.
Monitoring baby
From Gizmodo:
The Boardbug is a watch-like baby monitor that has two distinct modes. In the first “baby” mode, the devices work like a traditional baby monitor, broadcasting audio from the child’s unit to the parent’s and even sounding a warning buzzer if the baby outsmarts the latch and takes the unit off. Plus it has a built in thermometer to monitor temperature levels in the baby’s room.
The “toddler” mode takes all those features and adds on a proximity-based “safety range” and a panic button, which sounds a startling klaxon so you can easily determine which freeway your child is playing in, but sadly does nothing for the periodic anxiety attacks that come from realizing you’ve got 16 more years of this shit.
Coming soon to a traffic lane near you
From CNN:
A man was acquitted Tuesday of charges he caused a fatal crash by taking his eyes off the road while watching a movie on a DVD player mounted on his truck dashboard.
Jurors acquitted Erwin Petterson Jr., 29, of two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of manslaughter. No law in Alaska prohibits operating a DVD player in view of a driver.
*****Petterson testified he was not watching a movie and that his truck strayed into oncoming traffic when he reached for a soda.
Maybe they thought it was highbiscus
From the Houston Chronicle —
Landscape contractor Blair Davis was in his northwest Harris County home around 2 p.m. Tuesday when there was a knock at his door.
Davis said he hadn’t even gotten his hand on the doorknob when it flew open and he was looking at the barrel of a pistol.
Behind the gun were about 10 members of the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force, who burst into the home, guns drawn, and began shouting at him to get down on the floor.
There on the floor, Davis said, it took a while to figure out that what had caused the swarm of lawmen to descend upon him was the hibiscus in his front yard.
That’s right, hibiscus.
The foliage of the Texas Star hibiscus, a native plant that’s growing in popularity, vaguely resembles that of marijuana.
But: “It’s got white buds on it,” Davis said. “Hello.”
Davis had several of the plants in his yard, where he grows stock for his business.
“They were in containers,” he said. “I don’t want to say potted plants.”
Evidently, some well-meaning but horticulturally challenged citizen turned Davis in. Davis said the team of narcotics officers combed his house for about an hour, at one point discussing whether red and gold bamboo growing in his window might be marijuana. They also asked what he did with the watermelons and cantaloupes growing in his back yard.
“What would I do with them?” Davis said.
Link via Stupid Words.
The Rock
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary accepted its first prisoners 70 years ago today.
Alcatraz is a 22-acre rock island in San Francisco Bay, 1½ miles from shore. For 29 years the federal prison system kept its highest security prisoners there, including Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and the famous Birdman, Robert Stroud (played by Burt Lancaster in the film Birdman of Alcatraz). Reportedly, no one was ever known to have successfully escaped from Alcatraz.
From 1868 to 1934, Alcatraz was a military prison. In 1969, American Indian activists occupied and claimed the island. Their occupation lasted 19 months.
Alcatraz Island became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area of the National Park Service in 1972.
Alcatraz, for the original Spanish Alcatraces, is usually defined as meaning “pelican” or “strange bird.”
Click photo to enlarge.
Tired of regular postage stamps?
Well now you can make your own. That’s right, real postage stamps with your own photos/art. New baby, put their photo on the stamps for the announcements. Take a trip, put your own photo on the stamps for the postcards. Costs about $21 for twenty 37-cent stamps. Still, pretty cool.
Update: Actually, I guess you’d have to send the postcards when you got home and received your order.
Wal-Mart = Bush. Costco = Kerry. Costco’s Winning.
Daniel Gross writing at Slate tells us —
Now we’ve also got red-state, blue-state discount retailers.
On the left: Costco Wholesale Corp. Last week, Jeffrey Brotman and James Sinegal, chairman and chief executive office of Costco, respectively, joined the list of executives who endorsed John Kerry for president. The company is based in Washington (a blue state in the past four elections, and one that Kerry leads, by a 53-45 margin according to the Aug. 2 Zogby poll), and a list of its locations bears some resemblance to the Kerry-Edwards campaign: strong on the affluent coasts and virtually nonexistent in the comparatively poor Great Plains and in the Old Confederacy….
Like today’s Democratic Party, Costco favors highly trafficked urban and edge-city locations—it has three stores in New York City. And it caters to a decidedly upscale crowd. As John Helyar reported in this excellent Fortune profile, the average salary of a Costco member is $95,333. The company’s merchandise mix reflects the fact that its customers shop at discounters by choice, not by necessity. They’re New Luxury suckers who like to save on staples, more Jean Chardonnay than Joe Six-Pack. As Helyar notes: “Costco is the U.S.’s biggest seller of fine wines ($600 million a year).”
The article continues.
Bush on tribal sovereignty
It seems a number of visitors to NewMexiKen are searching for the President’s answer on the American Indian tribal sovereignty issue. Here it is [mp3 file].
Update: Type “tribal sovereignty Bush wav” into Google and you get NewMexiKen as the first pick.
Kerry for President
A young woman came to NewMexiKen’s door last night — right in the middle of a Law & Order rerun (one I didn’t remember!). She knew my name and wanted to encourage me to vote for John Kerry. I told her that wouldn’t be a problem, but she persisted. (Just maybe there aren’t that many Kerry supporters in my neighborhood and she wanted someone to talk to).
What was the most important issue, she asked.
He wasn’t an idiot, I answered. (My reasons to be positive about Kerry actually do exceed my negativity about Bush, but it was an easy answer.)
But it still didn’t seem to satisfy her. She must have felt I was just telling her what she wanted to hear so I could get back to Briscoe and Curtis. And I just felt her time was better spent convincing someone who needed convincing.
Did I have any questions about the candidates?
No, I said. Then I gave her the response that seemed to completely satisfy her that I was indeed in Kerry’s column.
My son used to work on Senator Kerry’s staff, I said.
Traffic fatalities…
were down slightly in 2003 to 42,643; motorcycle fatalities were up 12% to 3,661.
56% of those killed in car crashes last year were not wearing seat belts.
Rollover crashes account for 3% of all accidents, but they represent one-third of all highway fatalities.
Report from the Los Angeles Times.
Not close
From the Los Angeles Times —
Almost half of Medicare recipients dislike the new prescription drug law, and nearly 3 in 10 seniors and disabled persons say the issue will influence their vote for president, according to a national survey released Tuesday.
The survey suggests that there are “maybe a half-million seniors” who might swing their votes to Democratic candidate John F. Kerry and another “1 million to 2 million whose votes might be up for grabs on this issue,” said Drew E. Altman, president and chief executive of the private, nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.