Best lines of the day

When it comes to foreign policy, the saying goes that politics stops at the water’s edge.

When it comes to climate science, we say that politics should stop at the atmosphere’s edge.

One of us is a Republican, the other a Democrat. We hold different views on many issues. But as scientists, we share a deep conviction that leaders of both parties must speak to the reality and risks of human-caused climate change, and commit themselves to finding bipartisan solutions.

Scientists have known for more than 100 years that carbon dioxide in our atmosphere traps heat. And today we know that the excess carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere from human activity – primarily, burning coal and oil and clearing forests – is altering our climate.

It’s a conclusion based on established physics and on evidence gathered from satellite data, ancient ice cores, temperature stations, fossilized trees and corals. …

Read more from Peter C. Frumhoff and Kerry Emanuel.

Sept 14

Today is the birthday of Margaret Sanger, born on this date in 1879. From her obituary in The New York Times (1966):

As the originator of the phrase “birth control” and its best-known advocate, Margaret Sanger survived Federal indictments, a brief jail term, numerous lawsuits, hundreds of street-corner rallies and raids on her clinics to live to see much of the world accept her view that family planning is a basic human right.

The dynamic, titian-haired woman whose Irish ancestry also endowed her with unfailing charm and persuasive wit was first and foremost a feminist. She sought to create equality between the sexes by freeing women from what she saw as sexual servitude.

Hal Wallis was born on this date in 1899. A producer, Wallis was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar 15 times, winning for Casablanca in 1942. Wallis died in 1986.

The itinerant hall-of-fame basketball coach, Larry Brown, is 71 today.

Davenie Johanna Heatherton was born 67 years ago today. She was called Joey and had a lot of appearances when she was 16-25 on various TV shoes with older male singers — Perry Como, Dean Martin, Andy Williams — Bob Hope’s Christmas shows for the troops. It was mostly about her looks.

Sam Neill was born in Northern Ireland 64 years ago today. Neill has appeared in numerous films, most famously The Hunt for Red October, Jurassic Park and as the ass-of-a-husband in The Piano.

The wonderful actress Melissa Leo is 51 today. See was nominated for best actress for Frozen River (a superb performance) and won for best supporting actress for The Fighter. She was in the TV series Homicide: Life on the Street and is currently in Treme as Antoinette “Toni” Bernette.

Wendy Thomas, for whom Wendy’s is named, is 50 today.

Amy Winehouse did not make it to 28.

Clayton Moore was born Jack Carlton Moore on this date in 1914. He was, of course, The Lone Ranger for 169 episodes of the 221 of the TV series 1949-1957, training his voice to sound like the radio version. (Moore was not on the radio series; it ran for 2,956 episodes, 1933-1954.) Moore had to sue to maintain his rights to appear as the Lone Ranger after the show ended. He died in 1999.

Actor Jack Hawkins was born 101 years ago today. He was the Roman admiral Quintus Arrius in Ben Hur, “We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live.”

Handel completed the Messiah 270 years ago today.

In the British American Colonies it was September 2nd 259 years ago yesterday and September 14th 259 years ago today. (The British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.)

William McKinley died on this date in 1901, seven days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz. Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States, and the youngest ever. He was 42 years, 10-1/2 months old.

And it was on September 14th in 1814 that Francis Scott Key wrote the poem that became “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Writer’s Almanac had a good telling of the tale last year.

Summary of the day

“[Tuesday’s] Census report shows that in 2010, the share of all Americans and the share of children living in poverty, the number and share of people living in ‘deep poverty,’ and the number without health insurance all reached their highest level in many years — in some cases, in several decades — while median household income fell significantly after adjusting for inflation. The data also show that many of these grim figures and the level of hardship would have been much worse if not for key federal programs such as unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and Medicaid.”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Tea Party solution to these problems, of course, is to abolish the Census Bureau.

News story of the day

“Police said they arrested a Carlisle man after security officers at a Walmart store saw him stealing raw meat.

“Borough police said 53-year-old Scott Shover opened packages of hamburger and stew beef and then ate some of the meat Monday afternoon before putting the packages back on the shelf for sale.”

WHTM abc27

What I want to know, is how did he chew it? Click to see the photo.

Best baseball on TV line of the day

“For the World Series, how about letting the great Vin Scully have one last hurrah?  We won’t have many more chances to hear this national treasure.   Oh, and let him work alone. It’s the best Tim McCarver will ever sound.

“And while we’re on the subject of the upcoming baseball playoffs – there’s something wrong when Dick Stockton is working for two networks and Jon Miller is not even working for one.”

By Ken Levine

HPV

The HPV vaccine issue is ideal for Bachmann, who is the most intellectually irresponsible candidate in the Republican field. In the nineteen-nineties, when she was travelling around the state of Minnesota warning that new federal and state education standards would lead to totalitarianism, she often mentioned the tale of a little girl who was forced to clean toilets at a motel under the new laws—a story that produced audible gasps from her audiences. When Bachmann crusaded against same-sex marriage, she warned that children were the “prize” for the gay community. She is just getting started on HPV, and in front of much larger audiences than she ever had access to in her home state, she is already falsely linking the vaccine to mental disabilities.

News Desk: Ryan Lizza: The New Yorker

““If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it, claiming it would encourage smoking?”

— Governor Rick Perry

Americans Eat 42 Pounds of Corn Syrup Annually

The American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day and that men consume no more than nine, which amounts to about 100 and 150 calories, respectively. Forty-two pounds is the equivalent of 3,865 teaspoons of corn syrup, or almost 11 per day. Nobody should be eating that much added sugar.

Exacerbating the problem is that high-fructose corn syrup has been shown to be worse than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain.

GOOD

Story of the Day

Late in the morning of the Tuesday that changed everything, Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney was on a runway at Andrews Air Force Base and ready to fly. She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and she had her orders: Bring down United Airlines Flight 93. The day’s fourth hijacked airliner seemed to be hurtling toward Washington. Penney, one of the first two combat pilots in the air that morning, was told to stop it.

The one thing she didn’t have as she roared into the crystalline sky was live ammunition. Or missiles. Or anything at all to throw at a hostile aircraft.

Except her own plane. So that was the plan

Click to read F-16 pilot was ready to give her life on Sept. 11 from The Washington Post.