Author: NewMexiKen

Arthur J. Goldberg…

was born on this date in 1908. Goldberg was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Kennedy in 1962. He subsequently made one of the great sacrifices for his country:

Three years after Goldberg took his seat on the Supreme Court, President Lyndon Johnson asked him to step down and accept an appointment as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. At first, Goldberg declined the offer, but after much prodding by Johnson, he finally accepted. Goldberg’s change of mind was prompted by his sense of duty to the country during the war in Vietnam. He said, “I thought I could persuade Johnson that we were fighting the wrong war in the wrong place, [and] to get out…. I would have loved to have stayed on the Court, but my sense of priorities was [that] this war would be disastrous” (Stebenne, 348). On July 26, 1965, Goldberg assumed the responsibilities of Ambassador to the UN.

The ambassadorship proved frustrating for Goldberg, involving many confrontations with Johnson concerning the war in Vietnam. Goldberg came to believe that he could affect American foreign policy better as a private citizen than through a governmental position, and on April 23, 1968, he resigned from the ambassadorship. He returned to the practice of law in New York City from 1968 to 1971 with the firm of Paul, Weiss, Goldberg, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison.

[Source: The Supreme Court Papers of Arthur J. Goldberg, Northwestern University School of Law]

Goldberg died in 1990. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery near his friend, Chief Justice Earl Warren.

It’s the birthday

… of Emiliano Zapata, born on this date in 1879. “There have been men who, dying, have become stronger. I can think of many of them – Benito Juárez, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ? Perhaps it might be that way with me.”

… of Esther Williams, born on this date in 1921.

… of Dustin Hoffman, born on this date in 1937. Hoffman has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role seven times, winning for Kramer vs. Kramer and Rain Man.

… of Larry Wilcox, born on this date in 1947. That’s CHiPs officer Jon Baker.

Amen

The General’s daughter had a medical emergency this weekend.

I can’t really say more than that without violating her privacy–even if I am pseudonymous. I will say, however, that her condition is complicated by a problem that is a result of malpractice. Those who would minimize the suffering of people who have been maltreated by incompetent doctors should meet someone like my daughter. She’ll be in pain for he rest of her life and at some point, she will probably be unable to work–although the other costs she endures may be even worse than that.

If there is one thing that both The General and my Inner Frenchman can agree upon it’s that the supporters of tort reform can go fuck themselves.

The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin

An excellent review of Gordon Wood’s The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin:

It’s Benjamin Franklin’s time. Two years ago Edmund S. Morgan gave us a fine character sketch with ”Benjamin Franklin.” Then Walter Isaacson’s ”Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” planted itself on the New York Times best-seller list for a long stay. H. W. Brands has chimed in with ”The First American,” a more commodious biography than Isaacson’s, if a less fluent one. And now we have Gordon S. Wood’s engaging book ”The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin.”

Wood has some tough acts to follow, but he is no slouch. A skilled writer with both Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes to his credit, he possesses as profound a grasp of the early days of the Republic as anyone currently working. He is the author of two books — ”The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787” and ”The Radicalism of the American Revolution” — that are essential for understanding the United States from its founding down to the present.

This study is not a biography, at least not a conventional one. Wood focuses on Franklin’s personal development and constructs his narrative around various turning points in the life, almost like a bildungsroman. We learn the choices Franklin made, the conflicts he had to resolve. This is the most dramatic of the recent Franklin books.

Continue reading the review from The New York Times.

Golf shot

From Larry Stewart’s Morning Briefing in the Los Angeles Times:

When longtime Bay Area play-by-play announcer Lon Simmons was presented with the Ford Frick Award at the recent baseball Hall of Fame inductions, he was introduced by Joe Morgan.

During his acceptance speech, Simmons told a story about a golf match with Morgan. With a bet still on the line going to the 18th hole, Simmons hit his tee shot in the fairway and Morgan hit his deep into the rough.

Simmons said Morgan couldn’t find his ball and had to be reminded that there was a five-minute time limit. Finally, Morgan yelled, “I found it.”

Said Simmons: “He proceeded to hit it out of the rough, through a bunker and right up to the flag.

“Now if you’re me and you’ve got his golf ball in your pocket, what do you say?”

All-American

From USA Today —

Mississippi suspended running back Jamal Pittman for at least six games and dismissed linebacker Ken Bournes from the team Friday, two days after they pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in a gun possession case.

Texas senior running back Cedric Benson was sentenced to eight days in jail after pleading no contest Friday to misdemeanor criminal trespassing for forcing his way into an apartment in 2003.

Eight Tulsa players on scholarship will not return when the team reports for preseason camp Aug. 8, coach Steve Kragthorpe said Wednesday. Among the eight are defensive backs Kedrick Alexander and Terrance Thomas, who both recently pleaded guilty to felony burglary charges.

Iowa State defensive end Jason Berryman, the team’s MVP and Big 12 defensive freshman of the year in 2003, was arrested early Tuesday for second-degree robbery after he allegedly took money and a cell phone from two people during an altercation, police said.

Kent State’s quarterback Joshua Cribbs, who set school records for both career total offense last fall, was sentenced to five years probation for marijuana possession.

Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick, suspended for the 2004 season because of run-ins with the law, pleaded guilty Tuesday to reckless driving and no contest to marijuana possession.

Because they could

Thursday Alabama executed a 74-year-old man for a murder he committed in 1977. From a Washington Post report via SFGate,com —

J.B. Hubbard’s failing body kept him lying in bed — a bunk on Alabama’s death row — most of the last days of his life. Other inmates say they walked his wobbly frame to the showers and listened to him complain about the pain: the cancer in his colon and prostate, the hypertension, the aching back. They combed his hair because he couldn’t. They washed him.

When spasms of dementia made him forget who he was — what he was — they told him: a 74-year-old, small-town Alabama man gone bad, a twice- convicted murderer, the oldest inmate on “the row.”

American Indians Expand College Hopes

From The New York Times —

Sometimes white people can seem really ignorant, says Alistaire MacRae, a 17-year-old Navajo high school student, noting the time he and his family vacationed at Yellowstone National Park and were soon surrounded by tourists snapping pictures of them, as though they were a herd of elk.

Still, Mr. MacRae wants a college education and knows that some good universities are predominantly white, far from his homelands in the Arizona desert, and hard to get into. So his parents paid $50 for Alistaire to join 50 other American Indian students this summer, meeting with representatives of Harvard, Stanford and 19 other schools for a crash course on how to apply to elite colleges.

“This has really opened up my mind,” said Kyle Hegdal, an Eskimo who is a high school senior from Fairbanks, Alaska, midway through the course on the Carleton College campus here. Mr. Hegdal said he had not previously contemplated applying to any Ivy League school. “But now I’m thinking East Coast, maybe M.I.T. or Cornell,” he said.

American Indians and Alaska Natives, who make up about 1 percent of the nation’s population, are underrepresented at many highly selective colleges, contributing well below 1 percent of undergraduates.

Even those who enroll often drop out. On average, fewer than one in five Indians who enroll in college earn a bachelor’s degree, said Norbert Hill, executive director of the American Indian Graduate Center of Albuquerque.

The article continues.

Management problems at Interior, ya’ think?

First part of editorial from The Salt Lake Tribune —

It’s hard to imagine that one person could be responsible for misspending millions of taxpayer dollars, leaving national park construction projects unfinished, subcontractors unpaid and contracts awarded with no regard for rules and policies.

Yet contracts for $17 million in construction projects at Grand Canyon National Park were awarded by the park’s contracting officer to Pacific General Inc. without the insurance bonds required by federal law to guarantee that the work is finished and subcontractors are paid.

The company, whose license had been suspended in Arizona for two years before it got the park contracts, went out of business after being paid but before completing a number of major projects and without paying subcontractors an estimated $2.5 million for the work they did.

It may be true that one man, who, not surprisingly, retired abruptly when the mismanagement was uncovered, was the primary culprit in this financial morass that has pushed some of 50 subcontractors near bankruptcy. But where were those who should have been overseeing him?

If oversight was as scandalously lacking at Grand Canyon as it appears, what might auditors find if they checked into the $94 million the Park Service extravagantly spent in overseas travel the past two years, or the major construction projects under way without congressional approval?

Thief of time

From the Farmington Daily Times —

More than 430 Indian artifacts estimated to be between 300 and 8,000 years old were seized from a Bloomfield home by the Bureau of Land Management this week.

Hundreds of stone tools, such as arrow points and cutting edges, as well as trade items and cookware were recovered from the County Road 5109 residence of David Major, 38.

“In terms of sheer numbers, this is the single largest recovery in my career,” said BLM Federal Officer R. Tracy, who has worked as a federal investigator for almost 10 years. “Right now we’ve counted 438 artifacts and we’re still working our way through the evidence.”

Among the objects recovered was a slightly damaged Dinétah Grey pot and lid, partially covered in mulch. With it were blue and purple Spanish trade beads believed to be from the 1700s, a raven effigy and decorative ocean shells. One of the older items discovered was a Folsom point arrow head that Tracy said was fashioned by early man to hunt bison and other large animals roughly 7,000 years ago.

Most of the items appear to have been taken from federal or Native American lands, which is a violation of the United States Archeological Resource Protection Act, Tracy said.

For Albuquerque readers only

The limitations of Albuquerque sometimes get the better of me — e.g., the Sweeties are too far away, no Crate & Barrel — but Friday night the city won me back. First, margaritas outdoors at Garduno’s Balloon Saloon; then, hitting a few more balls at the New Mexico Golf Academy driving range at dusk, thunderstorms and the smell of rain all around; last, strawberry-rhubarb pie at the Flying Star on Rio Grande.

The right of the people to keep and bear headboards, shall not be infringed

As Ralph said in his comments on the assault with a deadly horse story, “Horses, headboards, doesn’t anyone in New Mexico have a GUN?”

Appropriately it’s Ralph (of Makes Me Ralph) who brings us up to date on the headboard story:

New Mexico State Representative Rory Ogle refuses to resign after assaulting his wife with the headboard of their bed. Ogle doesn’t have opposition in November and says the issue is private and between him and his wife.

No, Rory, what happened between Jack Ryan and his wife was private. Criminal proceedings are public.

Now, Ogle is getting it from both sides. Republicans plan to run a write in campaign against him, as do Democrats. New Mexico Attorney General and Democratic Hottie Patricia Madrid issued a forceful call for Ogle’s resignation, as well as stiffer penalties for domestic violence.

Cape Cod National Seashore…

was authorized on this date in 1961.

CapeCod.jpg
Cape Cod National Seashore comprises 43,604 acres of shoreline and upland landscape features, including a forty-mile long stretch of pristine sandy beach, dozens of clear, deep, freshwater kettle ponds, and upland scenes that depict evidence of how people have used the land. A variety of historic structures are within the boundary of the Seashore, including lighthouses, a lifesaving station, and numerous Cape Cod style houses. The Seashore offers six swimming beaches, eleven self-guiding nature trails, and a variety of picnic areas and scenic overlooks.

Source: Cape Code National Seashore

It’s the birthday

… of Nathanael Greene, born on this date in 1742. Greene was a major general in the American army during the Revolutionary War and was the primary architect of American success in the south.

… of Ernest Thayer, author of the baseball poem Casey at the Bat. Thayer was born on this date in 1863, attended Harvard where he was an editor of the Harvard Lampoon along with William Randolph Hearst. Hearst offered Thayer a job writing poems for the San Francisco Examiner and “Casey” was published in the Examiner in 1888.

… of Ralph Bunche, born on this date in 1904.

Like his world, Dr. Bunche was a man of many faces and talents, full of paradox and struggle. By training and temperament, he was an ideal international civil servant, a black man of learning and experience open to men and ideas of all shades.

At the United Nations, he had been a key diplomat for more than two decades since his triumphal success in negotiating the difficult 1949 armistice between the new state of Israel and the Arab states.

As the architect of the Palestine accord, he won the Nobel Peace Prize of 1950.

Source: The New York Times obituary for Bunche, 1971.

… of Steve Martin, born in Waco on this date in 1945. “Well, EXCUSE me.”

… of Oscar winner Charlize Theron, who was born on this date in 1975.

So much time, so little to do

From The Week:

Topeka, Kan., officials were chagrined by the initial response to their search for a new slogan for the city. Entries submitted to the local newspaper include, “Topeka, you won’t get a lot of unwanted relatives visiting you,” “Topeka, it’s not as bad as you think,” and “City of morons.” Tourism official Stephanie Wallingford said the city might forego adopting a new slogan. “I don’t think they were terribly positive,” she said. “No slogan is better than a bad one.”