The Weekly Poll
The New Question
The 'All American?' Edition...
Actor/Producer Tom Hanks said at the LA premier of the Mormon polygamy themed HBO series 'Big Love', "The truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop-8 happen. There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them." A few days later he gave a qualified recantation by saying, "Last week, I labeled members of the Mormon church who supported California's Proposition 8 as 'un-American,'" I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination. But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are 'un-American' creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use 'un- American' lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."....
This week's poll has two questions...
Should Mr. Hanks have made that recantation?
and...
If banning gay marriage is discrimination isn't it the same to ban polygamy (or polyandry) between consenting adults?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
Results Tuesday
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
My sexual revolution (guardian.co.uk)
Thirty years ago, a group of radical women began arguing that all feminists should be lesbians. Julie Bindel explains how it changed her life.
BAL MARTINEZ: So many people, so many memories (latimes.com)
I see community activists from hell taking on the establishment in unique and surprising ways, one protesting at a City Council session by riding his horse into the meeting; another lowering his pants to moon the panelists; a woman engaging in a physical fight with a mayor, rolling around on the floor like muskrats at play to the stunned amusement of a large crowd.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Bad (nytimes.com)
As the Obama administration apparently prepares to launch Hankie Pankie II - buying troubled assets from banks at prices higher than they will fetch on the open market...
Christine Spolar: Europe feels U.S. crisis in absence of tourism (Chicago Tribune)
ROME - Americans have gone missing. American Express has shuttered two decades-old offices in major tourist cities. Taxi drivers are wailing that Americans -- and their big tips -- are nowhere to be seen. Clerks at Gucci and the upscale clothiers along Via dei Condotti are helping buyers from Russia and China -- the only holiday travelers found sifting through their racks one day last week.
Bruce Reed: Publishers Clearinghouse (slate.com)
A bestselling author proposes the most improbable bailout yet.
"Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell: A review by Isaac Chotiner powells.com)
Gladwell does not attribute achievement to genetic gifts, which is nice. Instead he proposes that group dynamics and cultural legacies play a decisive role in determining how far human beings advance. He dislikes attributing individual accomplishment to the accomplishing individuals. He has set out to prove that people with social advantages do better than people without social advantages, and so the really wise thing for society to do is to arrange for more advantages for more people.
Carlin Romano: The long, distinguished career of John Updike (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
John Updike, 76, the bookish, prolific, Berks County, Pa.-born novelist, poet and critic whose extraordinary and exquisite six-decade body of work made him Pennsylvania's greatest contributor to contemporary American and world literature, died Tuesday of lung cancer.
He died in a hospice outside Boston. He had lived for many years in Beverly Farms, Mass.
Updike on death: A poem (guardian.co.uk)
Perfection wasted
And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic, [...]
Geeta Sharma Jensen: Updike pioneered suburban novel (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
John Updike, the iconic chronicler of white male angst in the second half of the 20th century, died Tuesday at age 76, leaving behind an expansive legacy of incisive work that assures him a preeminent spot in American literature.
Stephen Metcalf: Who Is Bruce Springsteen? (slate.com)
The true legacy of America's last rock star.
Jordan Levin: R&B star John Legend evolves (McClatchy Newspapers)
Since he exploded onto the music scene in 2004, John Legend has broken ground by going back to basics. The 30-year-old former session player writes sharply crafted songs that are packed with emotion, and sings them with old-school soul and gospel power. His debut album, "Get Lifted," featuring the passionate hit "Ordinary People," moved millions of copies and won him three Grammys, and he followed it in 2006 with the platinum-selling "Once Again." His latest recording, "Evolver," features guests Kanye West, Outkast's Andre 3000 (on the exuberant party anthem "Green Light") and Brandy.
Glenn Garvin: Matt Damon likes to mix his art with politics (McClatchy Newspapers)
Matt Damon enters the Coconut Grove recording studio with a smile of obvious relief, notwithstanding the fact that in moments he will have to pronounce words like Kangerdlugssuaq. (You know, the glacier in Greenland.) Narrating a PBS show about the environment, no matter how tongue-torturous, is an easier gig than the one he just left, debating the moral implications of Santa Claus mythology with his 10-year-old daughter.
ansswered:
And, Joe S ("A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering."
~ William S. Burroughs) wrote:
Reader Contribution
Deer Photo
Reader Comment
Mel Brooks & Mt. Redoubt
Hi Marty!!
First off how did I not get the Mel Brooks answer right?
I'm confusitated. Granted with whatever neurological maladies I have my mental acumen is periodically kinda out it's ass but.....Gosh!... ; )
Hey ! Check this out... you can keep track of Redoubt's Rumlings on a minute by minute doohicky! Check out the temblor that hit it @ 04:30 I think she's gonna give birth before too long.
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
You (& Sally) are correct, and so was your Mel Brooks response.
If you look at the archived page, it's in agreement, too.
That's what happens when I'm in a hurry.
The kid broke his glasses & there were some complications getting a new pair on Thursday, and it carried over to Friday.
Friday didn't go especially well either, and time was shorter than my temper.
Sorry.
Reader Suggestion
Boy Scouts
Marty -
Check out Scout councils defend logging of their lands
Michelle in AZ
Thanks, Michelle!
OMG - how can they defend clear cutting?
Killing forrests so they can continue to defend bigotry?
Every time I think there's not enough irony in my diet....
Reader Comment
Road To Nome
The lady is truly off her nut! First the bridges to nowhere (even tho anyone who knows the reality of the bridges knows they are a good idea). Now a road to Nome...I lived in Nome for 4 years and there is NO WAY they should allow Nomites access to the rest of the state and "Normal" Folk!
Vic in AK
Thanks, Vic!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warm.
Bogus Warnings
Google
Computer users doing Google searches during a nearly one-hour period Saturday morning were greeted with disturbing but erroneous messages that every site turned up in the results might be harmful.
The company blamed the mistake on human error and apologized for any inconvenience caused to users and site owners whose pages were incorrectly labeled.
The glitch occurred between 9:30 a.m. EST and 10:25 a.m. EST, Google Inc. said in an explanation on its company blog. Anyone who did a Google search during that time likely saw the message "This site may harm your computer" accompanying every search result, the company said.
Google said it routinely flags any search results with that message if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously, a practice aimed at protecting its users. Google said it maintains a list of suspicious sites based on criteria developed with StopBadware.org, a nonprofit project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities who research consumer complaints.
Google
Cuba Letters Now At JFK Library
Ernest Hemingway
When Gaylord Johnson Jr. was struggling with a term paper at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., he figured he'd ask for help from someone who knew the material best: Ernest Hemingway.
"I've read a couple of the Nick Adams stories and have also read critical material on the same," Johnson wrote in a letter to Hemingway in 1956, referring to one of Hemingway's most famous characters. "I am, however, not quite satisfied with all I've read, and I wondered if you would write me and tell me just what you think of Nick Adams."
Johnson's letter, along with more than 3,000 other documents from Hemingway's time in Cuba, was previously tucked away in the basement of Hemingway's estate at Finca Vigia, unseen by scholars and researchers.
Now, thanks to an agreement between U.S. Rep James McGovern, D-Mass., and the Cuban government, copies of those writings are at the John F. Kennedy Library.
The archival replicas include corrected proofs of "The Old Man and the Sea," a movie script based on the novel, an alternate ending to "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and thousands of letters, with correspondence from authors Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos and actress Ingrid Bergman. The documents were previewed Thursday and will likely be available to researchers in late spring.
Ernest Hemingway
Tribute Removed
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
The director of an Iraqi orphanage says a sculpture honoring an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former resident George W. Bush has been removed.
Fatin al-Nassiri says Iraqi police told her the statue had to be removed from the orphanage in Tikrit because government property should not be used for something with a political bias.
She says the sofa-sized statue of a shoe was taken down on Saturday after being unveiled on Thursday.
Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes during a Dec. 14 news conference in Baghdad. Throwing shoes at someone is a sign of extreme contempt in Arab culture.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi
Photo Resurfaces
Abraham Lincoln
Seated by a window in the Illinois state Capitol in 1860, a beardless, bow-tied Abraham Lincoln held still for 25 seconds for what would become a classic campaign portrait of the soon-to-be president. It was undoubtedly a personal favorite.
"That looks better and expresses me better than any I have ever seen," Lincoln, who had recently launched his run for the White House as the Republican nominee, said in a letter to photographer Alexander Hesler. "If it pleases the people, I am satisfied."
Twenty years later, images of the slain Civil War leader were in high demand. Hesler's wet-plate collodion negative was used to create a high-definition, silver-gelatin interpositive - a new-technology format from which several thousand prints were generated and sold in the late 19th century.
Leap forward to 1933: During shipment by parcel post to St. Louis, the original glass plate is accidentally broken and ends up as a shattered artifact in the Smithsonian Institution's vault. But the 8-by-10-inch clone - evidently in the same package and similarly damaged - disappears.
Abraham Lincoln
Top Billing At Coachella
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney will headline the 10th annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, festival promoters announced Friday.
The ex-Beatle will be the featured act on the first day of the summer music festival, which runs April 17-19 in Indio, Calif.
McCartney, 66, shares top billing with Amy Winehouse, The Killers, The Cure, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, My Bloody Valentine, Leonard Cohen and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Paul McCartney
Turns To Bush v. Gore
Norm Coleman
The success of Norm Coleman's lawsuit to reclaim his Senate seat could depend on how willing the trial judges are to find a precedent in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling from another messy, political charged election battle: Bush v. Gore.
Republican Coleman's greatest hope to overtake Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead is his argument that about 11,000 rejected absentee ballots should be given another look by the three judges hearing the case. His lawyers argue that many were rejected while other ballots with similar mistakes were counted, that standards were applied differently from county to county in violation of the constitutional standard of equal protection.
"It's a long shot," said Jan Baran, a Washington election attorney and former general counsel to the Republican National Committee. "But it worked for Bush v. Gore."
Norm Coleman
Suit Settled
Nobu
An international upscale restaurant group partly owned by actor Robert De Niro has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit over the way it handled worker tips.
The New York Post reports that the plaintiffs in a class action suit against the Nobu eateries filed a motion Friday to request final approval of the settlement.
The suit accuses managers and sushi chefs of illegally taking a share of tips given to the wait staff. Waiters also complained about being shortchanged on overtime.
Court papers say some 200 employees have signed off on the settlement, which would give them about $3,300 each after legal fees are deducted.
Nobu
Norway Honors
Knut Hamsun
Norway will put Nobel literature laureate Knut Hamsun, who became an outcast and was charged with treason after World War II for his Nazi sympathies, on a commemorative coin, the central bank said Friday.
"It is the author we are celebrating," Leif Veggum, a central bank director, told AFP.
The coin, to be launched on February 19 on the 150th anniversary of Hamsun's birth, will be the first commemorative coin dedicated to the author of such masterpieces as "Hunger" (1890), "Victoria" (1898) and "Growth of the Soil" (1917).
Long hailed as a national hero, Hamsun's final years until his death in 1952 were spent in social isolation in a country deeply embarrassed and enraged by his decision in 1940 at the age of 80 to support the pro-Nazi regime of Norwegian collaborator Vidkun Quisling.
Knut Hamsun
Sewage Yields
Gold
Resource-poor Japan just discovered a new source of mineral wealth -- sewage.
A sewage treatment facility in central Japan has recorded a higher gold yield from sludge than can be found at some of the world's best mines. An official in Nagano prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, said the high percentage of gold found at the Suwa facility was probably due to the large number of precision equipment manufacturers in the vicinity that use the yellow metal. The facility recently recorded finding 1,890 grammes of gold per tonne of ash from incinerated sludge.
That is a far higher gold content than Japan's Hishikari Mine, one of the world's top gold mines, owned by Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd, which contains 20-40 grammes of the precious metal per tonne of ore.
The prefecture is so far due to receive 5 million yen ($55,810) for the gold, minus expenses.
Gold
Banned In Birmingham
Apostrophe
On the streets of Birmingham, the queen's English is now the queens English.
England's second-largest city has decided to drop apostrophes from all its street signs, saying they're confusing and old-fashioned.
It seems that Birmingham officials have been taking a hammer to grammar for years, quietly dropping apostrophes from street signs since the 1950s. Through the decades, residents have frequently launched spirited campaigns to restore the missing punctuation to signs denoting such places as "St. Pauls Square" or "Acocks Green."
This week, the council made it official, saying it was banning the punctuation mark from signs in a bid to end the dispute once and for all.
Apostrophe
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