Whatever Became Of You, Ebert

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

This Esquire article on movie critic Roger Ebery is a must-read if you've ever been wondering what's been happening to him.  A selected quote:

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear, he writes in a journal entry titled “Go Gently into That Good Night.” I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

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No Victory Laps

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

If there's any difference between the Bush/Cheney administration and the Obama administration when it comes to waging war, it's this: the Bush/Cheney folks were quite happy to tout their victories, even prematurely, if it could be used to score political points at home.  Remember "Mission Accomplished"?

There's no other way to look at this: the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's top military commander, is no small matter. It's a "major victory." Given that Baradar is the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the war began, and his role in leading the Taliban's military operations, this is a success that may very well pay considerable dividends for U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

But did the Obama administration toot their own horns, even while Dick Cheney was blasting the Obama administration on national security over the weekend?  Nope.  They kept Baradar's capture under wraps for more than a week, while they garnered important intelligence information from him.  It might have been tempting for Biden and others to use the Baradar capture as evidence that Cheney doesn't know what he's talking about. But the White House Grown-Ups knew the ongoing efforts were more important than making Dick the Clown look foolish, and bolstering their own security creds.

As Juan Cole noted:

[T]hat Joe Biden and others kept the arrest secret, in order to allow further operations against Taliban leaders in Karachi, shows a discipline that Bush and Cheney never had. They were always happy to prematurely release details of ongoing investigations to get a political bump, even if it meant allowing terrorists to escape.

Yup.

Which Social Networking Site To Use?

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

I never got into the Twitter (although I have an account).  I'm on Facebook.  I'm also trying out the newly-minted Google Buzz.

Your mileage may vary.  This chart might help.  (Keep in mind that Google Buzz is still a bit of a work-in-progress, so in a week from now, some of the information regarding it may be obsolete).

500x_master-chart-for-social-networks-ver2-3

Jon Stewart Hits Home

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

I've known Richard Swett, and at least known the name, for as long as I can remember.  I don't know how I knew him — maybe his family and my family belonged to the same country club back in New Hampshire.

Anyway, when Obama came to New Hampshire recently to conduct a post-State-of-the-Union town hall meeting in Nashua, Richard Swett — who goes by the name Dick Swett — was called upon by the President, and he asked a question.

Apparently, Dick Swett's name is cause for giggles, a point not lost on Jon Stewart, who couldn't believe that Obama didn't do a spit take when Dick mentioned his full name:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
The Dick Swett Incident
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

To Stewart's credit, he ended the segment with praise for Dick Swett — praise for having lived 52 years and putting up with all kinds of juvenile jokes from people like, well, Jon Stewart.

Funny, I never realized Dick Swett's name was funny.

Happy Pancake Day!

Ken AshfordPancakesLeave a Comment

From Wikipedia:

In Canada,[8] the United Kingdom,[9] Ireland,[10] and Australia,[11] pancakes are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday, which is also known as "Pancake Day" and, particularly in Ireland, as "Pancake Tuesday". (Shrove Tuesday is better known in the United States, France and other countries as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday). Historically, pancakes were made on Shrove Tuesday so that the last of the fatty and rich foods could be used up before Lent.

Charity and school events are organized on Pancake Day: in a "pancake race" each participant carries a pancake in a frying pan. All runners must toss their pancakes as they run and catch them in the frying pan. This event is said to have originated in Olney, England in 1444 when a housewife was still busy frying pancakes to eat before the Lenten fast when she heard the bells of St Peter and St Paul's Church calling her to the Shriving Service. Eager to get to church, she ran out of her house still holding the frying pan complete with pancake, and still wearing her apron and headscarf.[citation needed] Pancake Day is widely celebrated in Australia; ready-made pancake mixes often sell out.

Every Shrove Tuesday since 1950 the towns of Olney[12] and Liberal, Kansas have competed in the International Pancake Race. Only local women may compete; they race, and their times are compared to determine the international winner. In Olney the main women's race is augmented by races for local schoolchildren and for men.

The Rehab UK Parliamentary Pancake Race takes place every Shrove Tuesday, with teams from the British lower house (the House of Commons), the upper house (the House of Lords), and the Fourth Estate, contending for the title of Parliamentary Pancake Race Champions. The fun relay race is to raise awareness of the work of the national brain injury charity, Rehab UK, and the needs of people with acquired brain injury. In 2009, the Lords won.[13]

I'm with Nadia over at The Atlantic:  you can keep your Mardi Gras; I'll take Pancake Day anyday!

Also, iHop and Miss America need a better calendar.

Fox News Poll On Tea Party Movement

Ken AshfordTea PartyLeave a Comment

The question posed to Fox News website viewers:

What Do You Think Tea Party Movement Is About?

The-internet-wins-a-fox-news-poll-15623-1265917242-1
The poll is still going on right now, so feel free to weigh in. 

RELATED:  From The Moderate Voice:

If you read one article today, spend 15 minutes with this report from the NYT re: the so-called “Tea Party” and (loosely) associated groups.

Though fueled by the rhetoric of Glenn Beck and others, many members of this movement do not articulate their gripes within a Democrat v. Republican matrix. The article contends that the most radical elements within the movement express not only ire for our current President but strong suspicions of the immediately prior President. In some quarters, they’re as upset with the Patriot Act as they are with efforts to reform health care …

In New Mexico, Mary Johnson, recording secretary of the Las Cruces Tea Party steering committee, described why she fears the government. She pointed out how much easier it is since Sept. 11 for the government to tap telephones and scour e-mail, bank accounts and library records. “Twenty years ago that would have been a paranoid statement,” Ms. Johnson said. “It’s not anymore.”

Maybe the article is an over-reaction. Maybe I’m over-reacting to an over-reaction. Regardless, it seems you’d have to be more-than-slightly medicated to not find lines like these, from the article’s conclusion, chilling …

Mrs. Stout said she has begun to contemplate the possibility of “another civil war.” It is her deepest fear, she said. Yet she believes the stakes are that high. Basic freedoms are threatened, she said. Economic collapse, food shortages and civil unrest all seem imminent.

“I don’t see us being the ones to start it, but I would give up my life for my country,” Mrs. Stout said.

She paused, considering her next words.

“Peaceful means,” she continued, “are the best way of going about it. But sometimes you are not given a choice.”

Me Want

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

Supine Reading Glasses

These are the glasses that allow you to read while lying supine in bed, eliminating the need to crane your neck. The lightweight glasses employ two optical-quality glass prisms that bend your vision 90º providing easy reading from a recumbent position. Equally useful while lounging outdoors on a hammock, chaise, or on the beach. Includes a hard case. Brown frames. (1 oz.)

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Also, me wish I had invented.

Maybe Calling Obama A “Socialist” Wasn’t A Good Idea

Ken AshfordObama OppositionLeave a Comment

The unspoken GOP tactic is this: Paint Obama as a socialist.  That way, people will start disliking Obama.  And the GOP wins the day.

Problem is, the strategy may have backfired.  Why?

Because it seems to have caused many Americans to reassess their view of socialism, rather than Obama.

According to this recent Gallup poll:

More than one-third of Americans (36%) have a positive image of "socialism," while 58% have a negative image. Views differ by party and ideology, with a majority of Democrats and liberals saying they have a positive view of socialism, compared to a minority of Republicans and conservatives.

36% of all Americans have a positive view of socialism?  Yes, 36% is comparatively low, but it would have been in the single digits ten, twenty, or thirty years ago!!

New Hampshire State Rep. Nancy Elliott Discusses Same-Sex Marriage

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

The (NSFW) money quote:

"We’re talking about taking the penis of a man and putting it in the rectum of another man and wriggling it around in excrement. And you have to think, would I want that to be done to me?"
News flash to Nancy: a lot of married opposite-sex couples, including many of your constituents, practice anal sex.  Sorry, honey — like it or not – they just do.
 
And it takes a particularly filthy and depraved mind to make the issue of same-sex marriage about excrement.  But even if that were somehow relevant, sodomy laws were repealed in New Hampshire over a quarter of a century ago.
 
But the real issue isn't what Nancy would or wouldn't want "done to her".  The real issue is whether or not Nancy should be in a position to make that decision for other people.
 
P.S.  And what about lesbianism, Nancy?

The Stupid — It Hurts

Ken AshfordEnvironment & Global Warming & EnergyLeave a Comment

Content.cartoonbox.slate 

I've seen a lot like this lately in the form of political cartoons, blog posts, radio rants, tweets and other asides — all from the conservative ranks.

It all comes down to the same thought process: there is a lot of snow; therefore, global warming can't be true.

Messages like this come from people who are either too stupid or too dishonest to be opining on anything.

Do we need to explain this again?  Apparently.  So here I go.  One more time….

It's not "global warming" — it is more accurately called "climate change".  Let's just start there.

And let's consider that there is a difference between climate and weather.  If you don't know the difference, than educate yourself or, shut up.

And even if you want to talk about warming, the snowstorm — and other similar phenomenon — don't negate the premise of climate change.  After all, you know what happens when the oceans heat up, even slightly?  You get more moisture in the air.  You know what happens when you get more moisture in the air?  You get more precipitation.  You know what happens when that precipitation falls in a region that often has many below-32-degree days during the winter?  You get more snow.

I propose that this issue be a litmus test for the stupidity and/or honesty of any particular person or group.  Anyone who thinks the spate of heavy snow is proof against climate change is a person whose opinions are not worth listening to.

Free Showing of METROPOLIS On The Internet Today

Ken AshfordHistory, Popular CultureLeave a Comment

For background, I refer you to this post, telling you all you need to know about the silent film by Fritz Lang called Metropolis.  In that post, I point out that somebody had discovered what is believed to be the full original uncut version of the film.

That version is being shown today, over the Internet, for free.  Unfortunately, it is being shown to French and German audiences, but that's okay because it IS a silent movie.  The stream begins at 8:15 p.m. Berlin time on Feb. 12 — an hour earlier in the UK and Ireland, six hours earlier on the US East Coast, seven hours earlier in Chicago, and so on.

Roger Ebert's site has the details and links.

Here's a clip from the 1984 "restoration" of Metropolis, a re-edit of the film that was compiled by Giorgio Moroder, using a contemporary soundtrack.

UPDATE:  Well, what the hell — I'll embed it.  It's not quite what I hope it would be:

Judges And Their Facebook Friends

Ken AshfordCourts/LawLeave a Comment

Interesting opinion today from the Florida Supreme Court's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, which was asked this question in a recent case:

“Whether a judge may add lawyers who may appear before the judge as “friends” on a social networking site, and permit such lawyers to add the judge as their “friend.” 

In other words, can Judge Smith, a judge in the local Springfield civil court, be a Facebook friend of an attorney who practices in Springfield, and occcasionally appears in a case before Judge Smith?

The Florida Supreme Court's Committe said "no".  Doing so would violate certain canons of judicial ethics, particularly the one that states that judges should avoid having connections that make it look like theycould have favoritism.

The opinion is here.

Dumb America

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family Values1 Comment

Very very dumb America.  There's no other conclusion to be drawn from this CBS poll, the upshot of which is this:  Most people favor gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military, but when it comes to the perverted homosexuals… hell no!

I'm not kidding.  Check out this chart:

Image6198097

Honest to God, a scary percentage of this country is too stupid to live.
 

Palin Poll

Ken AshfordElection 2012Leave a Comment

An ABC/WaPo poll informs us that 71 percent of the public believe that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve in the White House as President.  Another 4 percent "don't know".

Stinging news for Palin, who turns 46 today.  Happy Birthday, you betcha!

Clinton Campaign Hostage Taker Guy: Fugitive

Ken AshfordCrime, Election 2008Leave a Comment

Remember Lee Eisenberger?  The guy who took several people hostage at the Clinton Campaign Headquarters in Rochester NH in 2007?  Well….

New Hampshire authorities say the man who took hostages at a Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign office in 2007 has cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet and is a fugitive.

Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi says Leeland Eisenberg cut off the bracelet Tuesday morning. That was a day after Verlardi says he was given a "last chance" at freedom by a judge who released him despite probation violations.

Velardi says Eisenberg is a danger to the public and should not be approached.

Leland spent about two years behind bars for the November 2007 siege at Clinton's campaign office in Rochester. He was released on probation last November. His first violation occurred soon after his release, when he failed to charge his monitoring bracelet.