“Earlier this year, Chick-fil-A became embroiled in a controversy surrounding its donations to anti-gay groups. Though Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy denied having an ‘agenda against anyone,’ an Equality Matters investigation discovered that Chick-fil-A donated more than $1 million to anti-gay causes between 2003 and 2008. Now, new IRS 990 forms reveal that the company donated nearly two million dollars to anti-gay groups in 2009 alone, the most recent year for which public records are available.”
Best line of the day
Instead, we have this quote from a Democrat “familiar with the talks,” who has requested anonymity because he doesn’t want his parents to know what a dumbass he’s become:
“This was a good-faith effort to put something on the table to see what kind of response we would get.”
What kind of response did you expect at this point? The Republicans wouldn’t agree to the purchase of a hose if the freaking room was on fire.
‘Nuff said
Pretty Soon Canada Will Need to Build a Wall
But Initiative 26, which would change the definition of “person” in the Mississippi state Constitution to “include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the equivalent thereof,” is more than just an absolute ban on abortion and a barely veiled shot at Roe v. Wade — although it is both. By its own logic, the initiative would almost certainly ban common forms of birth control like the IUD and the morning-after pill, call into question the legality of the common birth-control pill, and even open the door to investigating women who have suffered miscarriages.
What he wrote
Make no mistake about it: The actions of the police department in Oakland last night were a military assault on a legitimate political demonstration. That it was a milder military assault than it could have been, which is to say it wasn’t a massacre, is very much beside the point. There was no possible provocation that warranted this display of force. (Graffiti? Litter? Rodents? Is the Oakland PD now a SWAT team for the city’s health department?) If you are a police department in this country in 2011, this is something you do because you have the power and the technology and the license from society to do it. This is a problem that has been brewing for a long time. It predates the Occupy movement for more than a decade. It even predates the “war on terror,” although that has acted as what the arson squad would call an “accelerant” to the essential dynamic.
Best line of the day
“Anyway, Darren’s off to study institutional dining for the next five years or so.”
Darren Huff Georgia Birther Convicted
Click, you’ll want to see Darren’s photo.
Dry Tortugas National Park (Florida)
… was renamed and redisignated on this date in 1992. It had been Fort Jefferson National Monument since 1935.
Almost 70 miles (112.9 km) west of Key West lies a cluster of seven islands, composed of coral reefs and sand, called the Dry Tortugas. Along with the surrounding shoals and waters, they make up Dry Tortugas National Park. The area is known for its famous bird and marine life, its legends of pirates and sunken gold, and its military past.
The I’m OK, You’re Not OK Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Tombstone, Arizona, now a sleepy retirement community of 1,500 trying to milk its history, was a silver boom town of 10,000 in the early 1880s. Lawlessness was rampant — so much so that martial law was threatened by President Arthur in 1882.
Among the early residents were the Earp brothers — James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren (ages 40 to 25 respectively in 1881). The Earps were, more or less, itinerant lawmen, politicians, security guards, and gamblers. By 1881, Virgil and Wyatt were established in Tombstone, seeking political office and running gaming tables. When the town marshal disappeared, Virgil Earp was appointed to the job.
The Clantons — father N.H. “Old Man,” and sons Ike, Phin, and Billy — were part of the town rowdy cowboy crowd, probably rustling cattle from Mexico and generally being unsavory, at least as far the the establishment was concerned. They were also Southern Democrats. The Earps were Union men (James had been seriously wounded in the war).
The bad blood between the two families seems to have grown out of finger pointing between them. The Earps would accuse the Clantons of some nefarious activity and the Clantons would point right back — and, of course, both were basically telling the truth. Wyatt, intent on a big splash to assure his election as sheriff, negotiated with Ike Clanton to reveal the identities of the Contention stage coach robbers and killers so he, Earp, could capture them. The negotiations fell through, but knowledge of them became public, making Ike look like the turncoat he was. He blamed Wyatt.
130 years ago today (October 26, 1881), Virgil Earp arrested Ike Clanton, who had been making threats since the previous evening. As Virgil hauled Ike to the courthouse, Wyatt ran into a friend of Clanton’s, Tom McLaury. They had a heated exchange that ended when Wyatt hit McLaury over the head with a pistol. After this, Ike and Tom, joined by their brothers Billy (Clanton) and Frank (McLaury), considered their options, including leaving town. Billy Claiborne joined them. Meanwhile Virgil Earp, the town marshal, enlisted Wyatt, Morgan, and their friend Doc Holliday to help arrest the Clantons and McLaurys.
The nine met in a vacant lot on Fremont Street near the O.K. Corral livery stable. Thirty shots were fired in about 30 seconds. Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were killed. Virgil and Morgan Earp were wounded. The two prime antagonists, Ike Clanton and Wyatt Earp, were unhurt, as were Claiborne and Holliday. The Earps were accused of murder, but a justice of the peace found they had acted as officers of the law.
The gunfight was the end of the Earps political plans in Tombstone. Virgil lost his post as town marshal. Family and friends of the Clantons began a vendetta, seriously wounding Virgil in December and killing Morgan in March 1882. Wyatt killed a deputy sheriff and another man suspected of being involved in Morgan’s shooting.
Virgil and Wyatt took their skills and ambitions to California, Colorado, and Alaska. Warren Earp was killed in Wilcox, Arizona, in a gunfight that might have been fallout from the O.K. Corral. Virgil died of pnuemonia in 1906. Wyatt Earp died in 1929. He was 80.
October 26th
Pat Conroy is 66.
Today is Pat Sajak’s birthday. His wheel of fortune has spun for 65 years.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is 64 today.
Westley is 49. That’s actor Cary Elwes.
Natalie Merchant is 48.
And it’s the birthday of Mahalia Jackson, born in New Orleans 100 years ago today. As The New York Times noted in Ms. Jackson’s 1972 obituary:
“I been ‘buked and I been scorned/ I’m gonna tell my Lord/ When I get home/ Just how long you’ve been treating me wrong,” she sang in a full, rich contralto to the throng of 200,000 people as a preface to Dr. King’s “I’ve got a dream” speech.
The song, which Dr. King had requested, came as much from Miss Jackson’s heart as from her vocal cords. The granddaughter of a slave, she had struggled for years for fulfillment and for unprejudiced recognition of her talent.
She received the latter only belatedly with a Carnegie Hall debut in 1950. Her following, therefore, was largely in the black community, in the churches and among record collectors.
Although Miss Jackson’s medium was the sacred song drawn from the Bible or inspired by it, the words–and the “soul” style in which they were delivered–became metaphors of black protest, Tony Heilbut, author of “The Gospel Sound” and her biographer, said yesterday. Among blacks, he went on, her favorites were “Move On Up a Little Higher,” “Just Over the Hill” and “How I Got Over.”
Singing these and other songs to black audiences, Miss Jackson was a woman on fire, whose combs flew out of her hair as she performed. She moved her listeners to dancing, to shouting, to ecstasy, Mr. Heilbut said. By contrast, he asserted, Miss Jackson’s television style and her conduct before white audiences was far more placid and staid.
Had Mahalia Jackson been born a few decades later, when she could have sung her soul for audiences black and white, she, Mahalia Jackson, and not Aretha Franklin, would have been the Queen of Soul and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Even so, she is an inductee.
In Jackson’s own words, “Rock and roll was stolen out of the sanctified church!” Certainly, in the unleashed frenzy of the “spirit feel” style of gospel epitomized by such singers as Mahalia Jackson, Marion Williams and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, one can hear the rousing roots of rock and roll. One of Jackson’s accompanists was keyboardist Billy Preston, who went on to great fame as a rock and R&B star. But religious passion was paramount in Jackson’s life, and no sacred-to-secular transformation would mark her career as it did so many others. “Her voice is a heartfelt express of all that is most human about us—our fears, our faith, our hope for salvation,” David Ritz wrote in his liner notes for Mahalia Jackson: 16 Most Requested Songs. “Hope is the hallmark of Mahalia Jackson and the gospel tradition she embodies.”
Harry Belafonte called her “the single most powerful black woman in the United States.”
Not ALL Babies Are Cute
Fun to see, but “cute,” I don’t think so.
Baby Joy as Second White Rhino is Born at Beauval Zoo – ZooBorns
15 Most Hilarious Author Quotes
“While editing my new book, The 50 Funniest American Writers: An Anthology of Humor from Mark Twain to The Onion, I made a discovery: ‘If Mark Twain had had Twitter, he would have been amazing at it. But he probably wouldn’t have gotten around to writing Huckleberry Finn.’ The following are some of the most hilarious quotes by some of America’s funniest writers featured in my book (and they all fit perfectly into 140 characters).”
This Evening’s Photos
Ho hum, more not so great photos of a nice but fairly routine sunset. All four were taken with an iPhone 4S in my front courtyard. None is edited or cropped, though they probably should be. Anyway, any thoughts on the quality of the camera?
Click any for larger versions of all four.
Reading Walter Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’
I am continuing to read Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs
It is an exceptional well-written book, telling a fascinating story about a unique and important individual — and an extraordinarily eccentric one. If you have any interest whatsoever about the man or his technology, I assure you this book will be enjoyable. It’s a read where I keep looking to see how much is left, not because I want it to end, because I fear it will. It’s that good.
If you’re looking for a review, I recommend Review: Walter Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs’.
Isaacson’s Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
October 25
Just 61 days until Christmas.
Pablo Picasso was born on this date in 1881.
Today is the birthday
… of Marian Ross, 83 today. She was Marion Cunningham on Happy Days.
… of basketball coach Bobby Knight. He’s 71.
… of singer Helen Reddy. “I am woman, hear me roar” is a roaring 70.
… of author Anne Tyler (not to be confused with Ann Taylor). The Pulitzer winner (for Breathing Lessons) is 70.
… of basketball hall-of-famer Dave Cowens. The tenacious Celtic is 63.
… of Nancy Cartwright. The voice of Bart Simpson is 54.
… of Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, 27. She’s better known as Katy Perry.
Charles Edward Coughlin was born on this date in 1891.
One of the first public figures to make effective use of the airwaves, Charles E. Coughlin, was for a time one of the most influential personalities on American radio. At the height of his popularity in the early 1930s, some 30 million listeners tuned in to hear his emotional messages. Many of his speeches were rambling, disorganized, repetitious, and as time went by, they became increasingly full of bigoted rhetoric. But as a champion of the poor, a foe of big business, and a critic of federal indifference in the face of widespread economic distress, he spoke to the hopes and fears of lower-middle class Americans throughout the country. Years later, a supporter remembered the excitement of attending one of his rallies: “When he spoke it was a thrill like Hitler. And the magnetism was uncanny. It was so intoxicating, there’s no use saying what he talked about…”
Minnie Pearl was born Sarah Ophelia Colley on this date in 1912.
Best line of the day
“If you or I miss a $7 payment on a Gap card or, heaven forbid, a mortgage payment, you can forget about the great computer in the sky ever overlooking your mistake. But serial financial fuckups like Citigroup and Bank of America overextended themselves by the hundreds of billions and pumped trillions of dollars of deadly leverage into the system — and got rewarded with things like the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program, an FDIC plan that allowed irresponsible banks to borrow against the government’s credit rating.”
Best line about Gov Perry’s Tax Plan
“If the itches here are: taxes are too simple, rich people don’t have enough money, seniors have too much retirement security, and multinationals are not creating enough jobs abroad, Gov Perry just scratched them all.”
Idle thought
Scrolling down the page to the CPR video, at least the still image I’m seeing.
I’m thinking CPR is probably wasted on that guy.
Redux rant post of the day
First posted here six years ago today.
What’s the deal with public libraries anyway? Everywhere I’ve ever lived they start herding people out the door with announcements, flashing lights, computers shutting off and dirty looks well before the actual closing time. It happened to me again tonight. They close at 8:00 and at 7:45 they’ve got more rounding up going on than a well-led cattle drive.
NewMexiKen managed a public research facility for ten years. I well remember that some diehards would hang in until the last minute, but I don’t remember having to be rude about it. And I don’t remember my staff or I ever getting agitated if the last stragglers were still pulling together their belongings and filing out at two minutes after quitting time.
Who do these public library staffs work for anyway?
(For the record, I left the library tonight at 7:50, ten minutes before closing. I know what time it was because as I was leaving they made an announcement saying it was ten minutes to closing and you could no longer use your library card.)
Best redux line of the day
“A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body.”
Carlsbad Caverns (New Mexico)
Eighty-eight years ago today President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation creating Carlsbad Cave National Monument and its “extraordinary proportions and… unusual beauty and variety of natural decoration…” It became a national park in 1930.
As you pass through the Chihuahuan Desert and Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico and west Texas—filled with prickly pear, chollas, sotols and agaves—you might never guess there are more than 300 known caves beneath the surface. The park contains 113 of these caves, formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone, creating some of the largest caves in North America.
Effigy Mounds National Monument (Iowa)
. . . was proclaimed on October 25th, 1949. It is one of two National Park Service sites in Iowa (the other being Herbert Hoover National Historic Site).
An “Effigy Mound” American Indian culture developed over 1,000 years ago placing thousands of earthen mounds across the landscape of what (today) includes parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.
Over 200 mounds are preserved intact within the Monument; 31 are effigies in the shape of bears and birds – commemorating the passing of loved ones and the sacred beliefs of these ancient peoples.
The mounds preserved here are considered ceremonial and sacred sites by many Americans, especially the Monument’s 12 affiliated American Indian tribes. A visit offers opportunities to contemplate the meanings of the mounds, the peoples who built them and the relationships to their modern descendants. The 2,526 acre Monument includes 206 American Indian mounds situated in a natural setting, and located within the one of the most picturesque sections within Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area and along the “Great River Road” of the Mississippi River – a National Scenic Byway.
The Teacher Who Can’t Sign Up Her Students to Vote
“Republican state legislators would rather not see voting at all. These include black people, poor people, and people who know who Feist is. And, apparently, their civics teachers — thousands of dollars in fines being the state of Florida’s penalty these days for helping the kids in student government register to vote.”
Read it and weep.
Jobs
Busy reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs
Continuous Chest Compression CPR
Please watch the video. It could save a life. Truly.
Thanks to Kathryn for the link.
Pujols and Respect
A classic piece from Joe Posnanski. Don’t pass this by.