Sunday, September 30, 2012
English captioned Univision report on Operation Fast and Furious
New Details Emerge on How the U.S. Government Armed Mexican Drug Cartels.
Milestone: U.S. Troop Deaths Now at 2000 in Afghanistan
I assume that the lapdog media will take little note of this, now that Bush isn't around to blame.
Muslims Now Rioting Over Facebook Photos
Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims angry over an alleged derogatory photo of the Islamic holy book Quran on Facebook
set fires in at least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes near the southern
border with Myanmar, authorities said Sunday.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Inside the Cold, Calculating Libertarian Mind
When libertarians reacted to moral dilemmas
and in other tests, they displayed less emotion, less empathy and less
disgust than either conservatives or liberals. They appeared to use "cold" calculation to reach utilitarian conclusions about whether (for
instance) to save lives by sacrificing fewer lives. They reached
correct, rather than intuitive, answers to math and logic problems, and
they enjoyed "effortful and thoughtful cognitive tasks" more than others
do.
Obama administration tries to block sequester layoff notices
Read the whole thing at Hot Air: the White House will press government contractors to hold off on issuing
layoff notices in October in anticipation of the sequestration cuts,
afraid of the political backlash that will ensue. In fact, the Obama
administration is offering to indemnify government contractors for
losses and fines for delaying those notices.
So, defense companies are required to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires companies to give advance warning to workers deemed reasonably likely to lose their jobs. Obama doesn't want them giving notice, as required by WARN, 60 days before sequestration, because that's just before the election. Sooo...
If an (government) agency terminates or modifies a contract, and the contractor must close a plant or lay off workers en masse, the company could treat employee compensation costs for WARN Act liability, attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs as allowable costs to be covered by the contracting agency—so long as the contractor has not issued those 60 day (required) notices.
In other words, break the law and we (the government, financed by the taxpayers) will pay for whatever problems arise.
So, defense companies are required to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires companies to give advance warning to workers deemed reasonably likely to lose their jobs. Obama doesn't want them giving notice, as required by WARN, 60 days before sequestration, because that's just before the election. Sooo...
If an (government) agency terminates or modifies a contract, and the contractor must close a plant or lay off workers en masse, the company could treat employee compensation costs for WARN Act liability, attorneys’ fees and other litigation costs as allowable costs to be covered by the contracting agency—so long as the contractor has not issued those 60 day (required) notices.
In other words, break the law and we (the government, financed by the taxpayers) will pay for whatever problems arise.
Disabled woman uses her cane on burglar
"I saw him put his foot in, his butt in, his arm in, his face in, and then this (waving her cane) took care of him."
Full list of Obama's tax hikes to date
President Barack Obama has signed into law twenty-one new or higher taxes on the American people. The full list is here.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Iranian News Agency fell for Onion article: “Gallup Poll: Rural Whites Prefer Ahmadinejad to Obama
Details at Politico.
Onion editor Will Tracy released an equally satirical statement about Fars’ slip-up.
“The Iranian news agency, Fars, is a subsidiary of The Onion. They have acted as our Middle Eastern bureau since the mid 1980s, when the Onion’s publisher, T. Herman Zweibel, founded Fars with the government approval of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The Onion freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran’s Finest News Source on their superb reportage,” Tracy joked.
Onion editor Will Tracy released an equally satirical statement about Fars’ slip-up.
“The Iranian news agency, Fars, is a subsidiary of The Onion. They have acted as our Middle Eastern bureau since the mid 1980s, when the Onion’s publisher, T. Herman Zweibel, founded Fars with the government approval of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The Onion freely shares content with Fars and commends the journalists at Iran’s Finest News Source on their superb reportage,” Tracy joked.
Nine Drawn and Quartered at Renaissance Fair (may be NSFW)
As I make plans to visit Maryland's Renaissance Fair this weekend I was reminded of this old Onion article -Read the whole thing:
Nine people were torn limb-from-limb and skewered through the anus with wooden stakes this weekend at the city’s annual Renaissance Fair. Organizers boast that the “Drawn and Quartered” show made this year’s fair one of the most authentic ever.
And this:
In the skit, victims were randomly selected from the crowd, strung up on posts, and read official “charges.” A dirt-encrusted dagger was then used to saw off vital parts of the condemned. One man’s scrotum was cut off, causing his testicles to fall to the ground. According to witnesses, children at the festival then tossed the testicles back and forth as the victim watched.
Vital organs such as the liver were cut out of further victims, then cooked and force-fed to them. The pale and barely conscious victims were then taken down from the posts and prepared for the next stage of their torture amid taunts and bellows from the crowd.
Nine people were torn limb-from-limb and skewered through the anus with wooden stakes this weekend at the city’s annual Renaissance Fair. Organizers boast that the “Drawn and Quartered” show made this year’s fair one of the most authentic ever.
And this:
In the skit, victims were randomly selected from the crowd, strung up on posts, and read official “charges.” A dirt-encrusted dagger was then used to saw off vital parts of the condemned. One man’s scrotum was cut off, causing his testicles to fall to the ground. According to witnesses, children at the festival then tossed the testicles back and forth as the victim watched.
Vital organs such as the liver were cut out of further victims, then cooked and force-fed to them. The pale and barely conscious victims were then taken down from the posts and prepared for the next stage of their torture amid taunts and bellows from the crowd.
Sununu: 'Lazy and Detached' Obama Set Stage For Ambassador’s Murder
“Look, one of the key responsibilities
of a president is to keep up with the intelligence data that’s coming in
and what’s going on around the world. This president has skipped about
60 percent of his personal contact Presidential Daily briefings, the
PDB. That document that he skims on his iPad is a summary,” .
“This president thinks he’s so smart, he doesn’t have to go through that! He thinks he doesn’t need to put the extra work in for going through that process. That’s why I say he’s lazy and detached. And unfortunately, Ambassador Stevens suffered the consequences of us not providing adequate security there,” Sununu said.
“This president thinks he’s so smart, he doesn’t have to go through that! He thinks he doesn’t need to put the extra work in for going through that process. That’s why I say he’s lazy and detached. And unfortunately, Ambassador Stevens suffered the consequences of us not providing adequate security there,” Sununu said.
The best bacon costume from 1894's Covent Gardens Fancy Dress Ball
From a 1917 book called Bacon and Hams: discussion and more pictures here.
and here are some 1880 Batgirl costumes.
and here are some 1880 Batgirl costumes.
Did the DoJ play Let’s Make a Deal with St. Paul, MN?
Ed Morrisey has comments and links at HotAir - read the whole thing.
On February 10, 2012, the City of St. Paul abruptly abandoned a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that observers said it was poised to win.[2] Slumlords had sued the city to prevent it from enforcing its housing code on the grounds that it disproportionately decreased the amount of housing available to minorities.[3] The City argued that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA) prohibits only intentional discrimination, not neutral practices like code enforcement that happen to impact particular groups disproportionately.[4]
Mr. Perez fretted that a decision in the City’s favor would dry up the massive mortgage lending settlements his Division was obtaining by suing banks for housing discrimination based on disparate effects rather than any proof of intent to discriminate.[5] Accordingly, as documents reviewed by Committee staff show, he orchestrated a deal to induce the City to drop its Supreme Court challenge. In exchange for St. Paul dropping its case before the high court, the Justice Department declined to intervene in an unrelated False Claims Act (FCA) case that had the potential to return over $180 million in damages to the U.S. treasury.
On February 10, 2012, the City of St. Paul abruptly abandoned a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that observers said it was poised to win.[2] Slumlords had sued the city to prevent it from enforcing its housing code on the grounds that it disproportionately decreased the amount of housing available to minorities.[3] The City argued that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (FHA) prohibits only intentional discrimination, not neutral practices like code enforcement that happen to impact particular groups disproportionately.[4]
Mr. Perez fretted that a decision in the City’s favor would dry up the massive mortgage lending settlements his Division was obtaining by suing banks for housing discrimination based on disparate effects rather than any proof of intent to discriminate.[5] Accordingly, as documents reviewed by Committee staff show, he orchestrated a deal to induce the City to drop its Supreme Court challenge. In exchange for St. Paul dropping its case before the high court, the Justice Department declined to intervene in an unrelated False Claims Act (FCA) case that had the potential to return over $180 million in damages to the U.S. treasury.
‘Piss Christ’ Causes Bloody Riots in Manhattan
Enraged Christians were brutal: Shouting frenzied slogans such as, “what I’m praying for is for people
to be touched by this,” “I just want to give people hugs, actually,” and
“we think this art is passé,” the protestors demonstrated the harrowing
face of modern American theocracy.
Friday links
Firefly Provides Lessons in Contract Law.
William Faulkner’s Resignation Letter
Gallery of vintage calculators.
What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop?
Are You Pooping Wrong? Sort of related, A toilet you can wear while you sleep.
Cry havoc! 17 weird ways we used (and use) animals for battle.
William Faulkner’s Resignation Letter
Gallery of vintage calculators.
What if a rainstorm dropped all of its water in a single giant drop?
Are You Pooping Wrong? Sort of related, A toilet you can wear while you sleep.
Cry havoc! 17 weird ways we used (and use) animals for battle.
Soldier Charged With Manslaughter After Trying to Cure Another of Hiccups. With a Gun.
Personally, I'd rather just suffer through the hiccups.
Both soldiers, joined by a third man, were drinking alcohol and watching football at the time of the incident.
Both soldiers, joined by a third man, were drinking alcohol and watching football at the time of the incident.
Watch 32 discordant metronomes achieve synchrony in a matter of minutes
If you place 32 metronomes on a static object and set them rocking out of phase with one another, they will remain that way indefinitely. Place them on a moveable surface, however, and something very interesting (and very mesmerizing) happens.
The metronomes in this video fall into the latter camp. Energy from the motion of one ticking metronome can affect the motion of every metronome around it, while the motion of every other metronome affects the motion of our original metronome right back. All this inter-metranome "communication" is facilitated by the board, which serves as an energetic intermediary between all the metronomes that rest upon its surface. The metronomes in this video (which are really just pendulums, or, if you want to get really technical, oscillators) are said to be "coupled."
The math and physics surrounding coupled oscillators are actually relevant to a variety of scientific phenomena, including the transfer of sound and thermal conductivity. For a much more detailed explanation of how this works, and how to try it for yourself, check out this excellent video by condensed matter physicist Adam Milcovich.
via io9.
Reminded me of this, at The Onion:
Lilith Fair Performers, Attendees Achieve Largest-Ever Synchronized Ovulation
Thursday, September 27, 2012
On this day in 1825 the first steam locomotive pulled a passenger train
A celebration of railways:
Railway termini... are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them alas! we return. In Paddington, all Cornwall is latent and the remoter west; down the inclines of Liverpool Street, the fenlands and the illimitable Broads; Scotland is through the pylons of Euston; Wessex behind the poised chaos of Waterloo.*
- E. M. Forster (1879-1970) (Howard's End, Ch. 3)
A contrary view:
Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.
- John Ruskin (1819-1900) (The Seven Lamps of Architecture, "The Lamp of Memory," Sct. 20)
A humorous take:
Railroad, n. The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to get away from where we are to where we are no better off. For this purpose the railroad is held in highest favor by the optimist, for it permits him to make the transit with great expedition.
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) (The Devil's Dictionary)
An American voice:
Lord, you ought to been uptown
And seen that train come down
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Oh, I'm walking these ties
With tears in my eyes
I'm trying to read a letter from home
From my home, from my home
From my home, from my home
I'm trying to read a letter from my home
If this train runs right
I'll be home Saturday night
I'm five hundred miles away from my home
Away from home, away from home
Away from home, away from home
I'm five hundred miles away from home
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
- "Hear the Whistle Blow a Hundred Miles" (traditional)
Today is the 187th anniversary of the day in 1825 when the first steam locomotive to pull a passenger train was operated by English railway pioneer George Stephenson (1781-1848).** This epic journey of 21 miles on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in County Durham was the modest beginning of the "railway revolution" that took the world by storm in the next half-dozen decades. Stephenson's locomotive was originally named the Active, later Locomotion No. 1, and the Stockton and Darlington was the first railroad to haul both passengers and freight on a regular basis.
One of the classic steam-train photographs by American photographer O. Winston Link (1914-2001):
Railway termini... are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them alas! we return. In Paddington, all Cornwall is latent and the remoter west; down the inclines of Liverpool Street, the fenlands and the illimitable Broads; Scotland is through the pylons of Euston; Wessex behind the poised chaos of Waterloo.*
- E. M. Forster (1879-1970) (Howard's End, Ch. 3)
A contrary view:
Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.
- John Ruskin (1819-1900) (The Seven Lamps of Architecture, "The Lamp of Memory," Sct. 20)
A humorous take:
Railroad, n. The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to get away from where we are to where we are no better off. For this purpose the railroad is held in highest favor by the optimist, for it permits him to make the transit with great expedition.
- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) (The Devil's Dictionary)
An American voice:
Lord, you ought to been uptown
And seen that train come down
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
Oh, I'm walking these ties
With tears in my eyes
I'm trying to read a letter from home
From my home, from my home
From my home, from my home
I'm trying to read a letter from my home
If this train runs right
I'll be home Saturday night
I'm five hundred miles away from my home
Away from home, away from home
Away from home, away from home
I'm five hundred miles away from home
You could hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
- "Hear the Whistle Blow a Hundred Miles" (traditional)
Today is the 187th anniversary of the day in 1825 when the first steam locomotive to pull a passenger train was operated by English railway pioneer George Stephenson (1781-1848).** This epic journey of 21 miles on the Stockton and Darlington Railway in County Durham was the modest beginning of the "railway revolution" that took the world by storm in the next half-dozen decades. Stephenson's locomotive was originally named the Active, later Locomotion No. 1, and the Stockton and Darlington was the first railroad to haul both passengers and freight on a regular basis.
Arlo Guthrie singing City of New Orleans:
One of the classic steam-train photographs by American photographer O. Winston Link (1914-2001):
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
RIP Andy Williams
Legendary singer Andy Williams passed away last night (Tuesday) at home
in Branson, Missouri following a year long battle with bladder cancer,
it was announced by his family.
George Gershwin was born 114 years ago today - some quotes and history
Today, a great American composer:
The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself ... Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
- George Gershwin (quoted in Goldberg, Tin Pan Alley)
Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.
- Gershwin (The Composer in the Machine Age (1933))
My people are American, my time is today ... music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.
- Gershwin (quoted in Armitage, Accent on America)
Many musicians do not consider George Gershwin a serious composer. But they should understand that, serious or not, he is a composer - that is, a man who lives in music and expresses everything, serious or not, sound or superficial, by means of music, because it is his native language.
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) (quoted in Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins)
Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937), born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn to Jewish parents of Russian/Ukrainian descent. Gershwin started piano lessons at an early age, left school at 15, first worked as a "song plugger" on Tin Pan Alley, and published his own first song in 1916. Later, while working as a piano-roll arranger, he began a series of Broadway collaborations, leading to his first show with brother Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), Lady Be Good (1924). This was followed by (among others) Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), Show Girl (1929), and Girl Crazy (1930). In 1924, Gershwin also wrote his quasi-classical Rhapsody in Blue for Paul Whiteman's band, and it has remained his most popular work in that vein. That same year, he traveled to Paris, hoping to study composition with Nadia Boulanger or Maurice Ravel - they demurred - but while there he did compose another of his well-known semi-classical works, An American in Paris. Following a brief Hollywood stint, Gershwin wrote his most ambitious work, the "folk opera" Porgy and Bess (1935), based on a novel by DuBose Heyward, and it has been an American classic ever since.* Gershwin's shows became the source of countless popular hits, including "I Got Rhythm," "Strike Up the Band," "Swanee," "Summertime," and "Someone," and his classical compositions raise intriguing questions about "what might have been" had he not been felled by a brain tumor in 1937. On his death, American novelist John O'Hara (1905-1970) wrote,
"George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."
* N.B. Of Porgy and Bess, American composer Virgil Thomson 1896-1989) wrote,
"Porgy is ... an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad set-up. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power."
Rare footage of Gershwin himself playing "I Got Rhythm".
George Gershwin:
The above is taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via
email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address
in the comments.
The composer does not sit around and wait for an inspiration to walk up and introduce itself ... Making music is actually little else than a matter of invention aided and abetted by emotion. In composing we combine what we know of music with what we feel.
- George Gershwin (quoted in Goldberg, Tin Pan Alley)
Not many composers have ideas. Far more of them know how to use strange instruments which do not require ideas.
- Gershwin (The Composer in the Machine Age (1933))
My people are American, my time is today ... music must repeat the thought and aspirations of the times.
- Gershwin (quoted in Armitage, Accent on America)
Many musicians do not consider George Gershwin a serious composer. But they should understand that, serious or not, he is a composer - that is, a man who lives in music and expresses everything, serious or not, sound or superficial, by means of music, because it is his native language.
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) (quoted in Kimball and Simon, The Gershwins)
Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of American composer George Gershwin (1898-1937), born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn to Jewish parents of Russian/Ukrainian descent. Gershwin started piano lessons at an early age, left school at 15, first worked as a "song plugger" on Tin Pan Alley, and published his own first song in 1916. Later, while working as a piano-roll arranger, he began a series of Broadway collaborations, leading to his first show with brother Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), Lady Be Good (1924). This was followed by (among others) Oh, Kay! (1926), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), Show Girl (1929), and Girl Crazy (1930). In 1924, Gershwin also wrote his quasi-classical Rhapsody in Blue for Paul Whiteman's band, and it has remained his most popular work in that vein. That same year, he traveled to Paris, hoping to study composition with Nadia Boulanger or Maurice Ravel - they demurred - but while there he did compose another of his well-known semi-classical works, An American in Paris. Following a brief Hollywood stint, Gershwin wrote his most ambitious work, the "folk opera" Porgy and Bess (1935), based on a novel by DuBose Heyward, and it has been an American classic ever since.* Gershwin's shows became the source of countless popular hits, including "I Got Rhythm," "Strike Up the Band," "Swanee," "Summertime," and "Someone," and his classical compositions raise intriguing questions about "what might have been" had he not been felled by a brain tumor in 1937. On his death, American novelist John O'Hara (1905-1970) wrote,
"George died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."
* N.B. Of Porgy and Bess, American composer Virgil Thomson 1896-1989) wrote,
"Porgy is ... an interesting example of what can be done by talent in spite of a bad set-up. With a libretto that should never have been accepted on a subject that should never have been chosen, a man who should never have attempted it has written a work that has a considerable power."
Rare footage of Gershwin himself playing "I Got Rhythm".
George Gershwin:
The above is taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via
email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address
in the comments. New Questions About How Obama Got Into Harvard
According to a newspaper column released in 1979 by Vernon Jarrett,
father-in-law of Obama confidente Valerie Jarrett, President Barack
Obama might owe his success to a very controversial benefactor.
Al-Mansour who made news in 2008 when it was revealed that he had been a patron of Barack Obama and had recommended him for admission to Harvard Law School in 1998
Al-Mansour who made news in 2008 when it was revealed that he had been a patron of Barack Obama and had recommended him for admission to Harvard Law School in 1998
Finger inside trout traced to owner. Of the finger, not the trout.
Detectives were able to get a fingerprint off the severed digit. They matched it to a fingerprint card for Haans Galassi, 31, of Colbert, Wash., and called him Tuesday morning.
Investigators learned that Galassi lost four fingers from his left hand in a June 21 accident on the same lake where the fish was caught.
Investigators learned that Galassi lost four fingers from his left hand in a June 21 accident on the same lake where the fish was caught.
The Fiscal Costs of Nonpayers
Correlations: 1 percentage point increase in the share of tax filers who are
nonpayers (from 40 percent to 41 percent, for example) is associated
with a $10.6 billion per year increase in transfer payments.
Iowahawk: Seething Midwest Explodes Over Lombardi Cartoons
Seeking a unified Lutheran caliphate.
Actually from 2006, but Iowahawk never gets old. ;-)
via Instapundit.
Actually from 2006, but Iowahawk never gets old. ;-)
via Instapundit.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Will Obama Free the Blind Sheik?
The theologian of terrorism inspired the 1993 and 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. The White House should state clearly that he will serve out his life term in the U.S.
Obama: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam”
Comments and links at HotAir.
The private school where the Obama girls go don't have to deal with gov't mandated lunch restrictions
According to the school's website, pepperoni pizza is on the menu today:
French Mushroom Soup
Classic Caesar Salad
Boston Bean Salad
Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza
Variety Flatbread Pizza
Variety Veggie Flatbread Pizzas
Sauteed Local Greens
Sliced Melon
French Mushroom Soup
Classic Caesar Salad
Boston Bean Salad
Pepperoni Flatbread Pizza
Variety Flatbread Pizza
Variety Veggie Flatbread Pizzas
Sauteed Local Greens
Sliced Melon
Like the gov't imposed school lunch mess? Wait til you see the gov't imposed national curriculum
Problems with Common Core
And this: Common Core Rollout Draws Parental Opposition Nationwide. A "moms-versus-monolith battle".
Previous post:
Wasted Food, Hungry Kids: Predictable nanny state chaos
And this: Common Core Rollout Draws Parental Opposition Nationwide. A "moms-versus-monolith battle".
Previous post:
Wasted Food, Hungry Kids: Predictable nanny state chaos
Group sues Secret Service for info on cost of Malia Obama’s spring break trip to Mexico
Judicial Watch announced on Tuesday that it has filed the lawsuit, known
as Judicial Watch v. U.S. Secret Service, for the records. The agency has so far, according to the group, not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request made on March 29.
Pigford III? Obama USDA offering women, Hispanic farmers over $1.3 billion in discrimination payouts
If I remember Pigford correctly, you didn't even have to have applied and been turned down - you could just say you thought about it and didn't apply because you assumed you'd be discriminated against.
Hispanic and women farmers who believe they have faced discriminatory practices from the USDA must file a claim by March 25, 2013 in order to have a chance to receive a cash payment or loan forgiveness,” Vilsack explained in a statement Monday.
Hispanic and women farmers who believe they have faced discriminatory practices from the USDA must file a claim by March 25, 2013 in order to have a chance to receive a cash payment or loan forgiveness,” Vilsack explained in a statement Monday.
Tuesday links
Sandy Koufax and the Year The World Series Opened on Yom Kippur.
How A Steam Locomotive Works.
The Best Sci-Fi Sidekicks.
Zimbabwean city asks residents for mass synchronized toilet flush.
RIP Washer of the Sovereign's Hands.
How A Steam Locomotive Works.
The Best Sci-Fi Sidekicks.
Zimbabwean city asks residents for mass synchronized toilet flush.
RIP Washer of the Sovereign's Hands.
Shostakovich was born 106 years ago today: some quotes and history
I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible; and if I don't succeed, I consider it my own fault.
- Dmitri Shostakovich (quoted in Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music)
The composer apparently does not set himself the task of listening to the desires and expectations of the Soviet public. He scrambles sounds to make them interesting to formalist elements who have lost all taste... The power of good music to affect the masses has been sacrificed to a petty-bourgeois, "formalist" attempt to create originality through cheap clowning. It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very badly.*
- Pravda (on the Shostakovich opera Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, "Muddle Instead of Music," January 1936)
Shostakovich told me: "I finished the Fifth Symphony in the major and fortissimo... It would be interesting to know what would have been said if I finished it pianissimo and in the minor." Only later did I understand the full significance of these words, when I heard the Fourth Symphony, which does finish in the minor and pianissimo. But in 1937, nobody knew the Fourth Symphony.**
- Boris Khaikin (1904-1978) (Discourses on Conducting)
There may be few notes, but there's lots of music.
- Shostakovich (on his film music for King Lear; quoted in Wilson, Shostakovich, A Life Remembered)
Particularly during the Cold War, Shostakovich was anathema to many Western critics:
The Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich always has been singularly irritating to this chronicler... Whenever I hear one of his marches, my imagination fastens upon a picture of the parades in Red Square and the banners of Uncle Joe, and my irritation becomes powerful.
- Cyrus Durgin (? - 1962) (Boston Globe, 25 October 1952)
To anyone who knew his music, a first encounter with Dmitri Shostakovich could not fail to be startling. In contrast to the elemental force, bombast, grandeur of his works, he was a chétif*** figure, the perennial student, unassertive and shy, who looked as though all the music could be wrung out of him in a couple of song cycles.
- Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) (Unfinished Journey)
(Today is the 106th anniversary of the birth of the greatest of Soviet composers, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), recognized by many as the greatest symphonist of the 20th century. Three decades after his death, his reputation only continues to grow. Born in St. Petersburg, Shostakovich was an early piano prodigy and studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory during the early Soviet era. At first recognized internationally as an exemplar of the best of Soviet musicianship, he ran afoul of the regime with his modernistic opera, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, which so outraged Stalin that he is said to have had a personal hand in writing the infamous Pravda editorial, "Muddle Instead of Music" that literally put the composer's life in jeopardy during the "Great Purge" of the late 1930s. Shostakovich somehow survived, even though he was recurrently criticized by the regime for his “modernist” tendencies. During his subsequent tumultuous career, he produced an enormous oeuvre: 15 symphonies, concertos, a great quantity of chamber music, song cycles, piano music, and several operas. Generally considered a serious - almost tragic - composer, Shostakovich nonetheless wrote a large amount of “light” music, including even a stage work – Moscow Cheryomushki (1959) – that might be described as a Russian musical comedy.
For newcomers to the music of Shostakovich, I would recommend his 4th, 5th, and 10th symphonies, the two piano concertos, the "autobiographical" 8th strinq quartet, his several "jazz" and "ballet" suites compiled from light works of the 1930s, and his film score for The Gadfly, whose "Romance" was used to great effect as the principal theme of the TV series, "Riley, Ace of Spies."
During the last two decades, there has been a raging musicological debate about whether the music of Shostakovich reveals him as a loyal Soviet citizen or a closet dissident whose works portray a tormented man. No one really knows. He was clearly a quirky guy. In contradiction to the opening quotation above, he noted late in life,
"I've said what I said. Either you have it in you to understand, or if not, then it would be fruitless to try to explain anyway.")
* N.B. In the first year of the Great Purge, this last sentence was a terrifying threat.
** After the uproar caused by Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich "redeemed" himself with his Fifth Symphony (1937), designated "A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism," still one of his most successful and popular works. However, his iconoclastic Fourth Symphony, which had been in rehearsal at the time of the debacle, was withdrawn and did not emerge again until 1961. It is now considered one of the master's most original works and a fascinating indicator of "the road not taken." By the way, Boris Khaikin was a Soviet-Jewish conductor.
*** Chétif - a French word meaning "puny."
Here is the romance from The Gadfly, accompanying a selection of photos.
More typical of Shostakovich is the opening of his 4th symphony.
Dmitri Shostakovich:
The above is taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
- Dmitri Shostakovich (quoted in Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music)
The composer apparently does not set himself the task of listening to the desires and expectations of the Soviet public. He scrambles sounds to make them interesting to formalist elements who have lost all taste... The power of good music to affect the masses has been sacrificed to a petty-bourgeois, "formalist" attempt to create originality through cheap clowning. It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very badly.*
- Pravda (on the Shostakovich opera Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, "Muddle Instead of Music," January 1936)
Shostakovich told me: "I finished the Fifth Symphony in the major and fortissimo... It would be interesting to know what would have been said if I finished it pianissimo and in the minor." Only later did I understand the full significance of these words, when I heard the Fourth Symphony, which does finish in the minor and pianissimo. But in 1937, nobody knew the Fourth Symphony.**
- Boris Khaikin (1904-1978) (Discourses on Conducting)
There may be few notes, but there's lots of music.
- Shostakovich (on his film music for King Lear; quoted in Wilson, Shostakovich, A Life Remembered)
Particularly during the Cold War, Shostakovich was anathema to many Western critics:
The Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich always has been singularly irritating to this chronicler... Whenever I hear one of his marches, my imagination fastens upon a picture of the parades in Red Square and the banners of Uncle Joe, and my irritation becomes powerful.
- Cyrus Durgin (? - 1962) (Boston Globe, 25 October 1952)
To anyone who knew his music, a first encounter with Dmitri Shostakovich could not fail to be startling. In contrast to the elemental force, bombast, grandeur of his works, he was a chétif*** figure, the perennial student, unassertive and shy, who looked as though all the music could be wrung out of him in a couple of song cycles.
- Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) (Unfinished Journey)
(Today is the 106th anniversary of the birth of the greatest of Soviet composers, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), recognized by many as the greatest symphonist of the 20th century. Three decades after his death, his reputation only continues to grow. Born in St. Petersburg, Shostakovich was an early piano prodigy and studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory during the early Soviet era. At first recognized internationally as an exemplar of the best of Soviet musicianship, he ran afoul of the regime with his modernistic opera, Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, which so outraged Stalin that he is said to have had a personal hand in writing the infamous Pravda editorial, "Muddle Instead of Music" that literally put the composer's life in jeopardy during the "Great Purge" of the late 1930s. Shostakovich somehow survived, even though he was recurrently criticized by the regime for his “modernist” tendencies. During his subsequent tumultuous career, he produced an enormous oeuvre: 15 symphonies, concertos, a great quantity of chamber music, song cycles, piano music, and several operas. Generally considered a serious - almost tragic - composer, Shostakovich nonetheless wrote a large amount of “light” music, including even a stage work – Moscow Cheryomushki (1959) – that might be described as a Russian musical comedy.
For newcomers to the music of Shostakovich, I would recommend his 4th, 5th, and 10th symphonies, the two piano concertos, the "autobiographical" 8th strinq quartet, his several "jazz" and "ballet" suites compiled from light works of the 1930s, and his film score for The Gadfly, whose "Romance" was used to great effect as the principal theme of the TV series, "Riley, Ace of Spies."
During the last two decades, there has been a raging musicological debate about whether the music of Shostakovich reveals him as a loyal Soviet citizen or a closet dissident whose works portray a tormented man. No one really knows. He was clearly a quirky guy. In contradiction to the opening quotation above, he noted late in life,
"I've said what I said. Either you have it in you to understand, or if not, then it would be fruitless to try to explain anyway.")
* N.B. In the first year of the Great Purge, this last sentence was a terrifying threat.
** After the uproar caused by Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk, Shostakovich "redeemed" himself with his Fifth Symphony (1937), designated "A Soviet Artist's Response to Just Criticism," still one of his most successful and popular works. However, his iconoclastic Fourth Symphony, which had been in rehearsal at the time of the debacle, was withdrawn and did not emerge again until 1961. It is now considered one of the master's most original works and a fascinating indicator of "the road not taken." By the way, Boris Khaikin was a Soviet-Jewish conductor.
*** Chétif - a French word meaning "puny."
Here is the romance from The Gadfly, accompanying a selection of photos.
More typical of Shostakovich is the opening of his 4th symphony.
Dmitri Shostakovich:
The above is taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the comments.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Teledildonics update
In 2012, a couple of designers are hoping to make teledildonics a
reality with LovePalz, an iPhone sex toy that allows you to "remotely control your partner's device through your body movement."
Feds scramble to halt stink bug invasion
Hmmm... Maybe this falls under providing for the common defense.
Jonah Goldberg: The Dumbest Anchormen
Ron Burgundy has nothing on Chris Matthews.
What makes media bias so infuriating is not its existence but the stubborn refusal of the guilty parties to admit it. It’s all part of the larger con of American liberalism, which sees itself as immune to ideology, on the side of facts and logic and all things “pragmatic.”
What makes media bias so infuriating is not its existence but the stubborn refusal of the guilty parties to admit it. It’s all part of the larger con of American liberalism, which sees itself as immune to ideology, on the side of facts and logic and all things “pragmatic.”
Car Rental Agency Charged With Discriminating Against Heterosexual Renters
Volokh has links and details.
AVIS charged Plaintiff more money for her car rental than it would have charged Plaintiff if Plaintiff had been a member of the favored gay and lesbian groups.
AVIS charged Plaintiff more money for her car rental than it would have charged Plaintiff if Plaintiff had been a member of the favored gay and lesbian groups.
Obama Hurt My Feelings When He Destroyed the Constitution
Read the whole thing.
Apparently, the world's only superpower is now in the business of kissing the boo'boos of murderous Muslims aggrieved by our Constitution. And, of course, handing out $2-billion hankies of foreign aid to wipe away their precious little tears of America-induced rage.
Apparently, the world's only superpower is now in the business of kissing the boo'boos of murderous Muslims aggrieved by our Constitution. And, of course, handing out $2-billion hankies of foreign aid to wipe away their precious little tears of America-induced rage.
VDH: The Fantasy House of Barack Obama
But what is surprising is not that Romney is not ahead, but that he is even close
There is not really any free press anymore, but instead a Ministry of Truth, in which PBS, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Newsweek, Time, AP, McClatchy, and Reuters are de facto extensions of the Obama campaign — far more highbrow and adept in disguising their partisanship than an overt Hannity or Limbaugh. Their “journalists” are fed favorable administration leaks when in the old days they had to sue to publish a hit piece. They care little whether ambassadors are left unguarded, or that the U.S. suffers the most costly attack on its air assets since Vietnam, or that administration officials offer lies about Libya that they know cannot be true.
Remember that the grandees of the universities, the foundations, the arts, the unions, and the government employees are all heavily invested in Obama — the class warrior who assures those of the upper classes that class and racial resentment will be turned against others. Remember the powers of presidential incumbency. Remember that millions are still mesmerized by teleprompted eloquence. Remember that each month thousands more go on food stamps, receive disability insurance, obtain unemployment insurance extensions, and are excused from the federal income tax rolls — and are loyal to those who enable them and hostile to those who might not. Remember that to criticize Obama still almost immediately earns the charge of “racist.”
It is not easy to overcome all that.
There is not really any free press anymore, but instead a Ministry of Truth, in which PBS, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Newsweek, Time, AP, McClatchy, and Reuters are de facto extensions of the Obama campaign — far more highbrow and adept in disguising their partisanship than an overt Hannity or Limbaugh. Their “journalists” are fed favorable administration leaks when in the old days they had to sue to publish a hit piece. They care little whether ambassadors are left unguarded, or that the U.S. suffers the most costly attack on its air assets since Vietnam, or that administration officials offer lies about Libya that they know cannot be true.
Remember that the grandees of the universities, the foundations, the arts, the unions, and the government employees are all heavily invested in Obama — the class warrior who assures those of the upper classes that class and racial resentment will be turned against others. Remember the powers of presidential incumbency. Remember that millions are still mesmerized by teleprompted eloquence. Remember that each month thousands more go on food stamps, receive disability insurance, obtain unemployment insurance extensions, and are excused from the federal income tax rolls — and are loyal to those who enable them and hostile to those who might not. Remember that to criticize Obama still almost immediately earns the charge of “racist.”
It is not easy to overcome all that.
Elizabeth Warren’s been practicing law without a licence
Read the whole thing: Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection provides great detail of Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem.
Warren represented not just Travelers, but numerous other companies starting in the late 1990s working out of and using her Harvard Law School office in Cambridge, which she listed as her office of record on briefs filed with various courts. Warren, however, never has been licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.
Warren represented not just Travelers, but numerous other companies starting in the late 1990s working out of and using her Harvard Law School office in Cambridge, which she listed as her office of record on briefs filed with various courts. Warren, however, never has been licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Winston Churchill on governmental redistribution
"You may, by the arbitrary and sterile act of Government—for remember,
Governments create nothing and have nothing to give but what they have
first taken away—you may put money in the pocket of one set of
Englishmen, but it will be money taken from the pockets of another set
of Englishmen, and the greater part wil be spilled on the way."
And this: a passage that never grows stale, but that has become especially timely — from the conclusion of Churchill’s great speech of October 5, 1938 condemning the Munich Agreement:
And this: a passage that never grows stale, but that has become especially timely — from the conclusion of Churchill’s great speech of October 5, 1938 condemning the Munich Agreement:
[D]o not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.via Powerline.
Obama Wages War Against Cheap Energy
Forbes: He believes that there is something wrong with Americans living so comfortably when there are poor nations in the world.
via NRO's Planet Gore.
via NRO's Planet Gore.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
The new job that everyone wants is stay-at-home mom. This makes sense to me.
Althouse:
"It’s clear that women don’t want to bust through the glass ceiling, or they’d have done it by now. And it’s clear that men are not pulled by kids in nearly the same way women are, because women’s careers tank when they have kids and mens’ careers don’t."
That's Penelope Trunk, noting a new Forbes survey that says 84% of working women want to stay home with kids. Forbes notes that "more than one in three resent their partner for not earning enough to make that dream a reality." Resentment is a bad place to be. I like these 2 items from Trunk's advice:
"It’s clear that women don’t want to bust through the glass ceiling, or they’d have done it by now. And it’s clear that men are not pulled by kids in nearly the same way women are, because women’s careers tank when they have kids and mens’ careers don’t."
That's Penelope Trunk, noting a new Forbes survey that says 84% of working women want to stay home with kids. Forbes notes that "more than one in three resent their partner for not earning enough to make that dream a reality." Resentment is a bad place to be. I like these 2 items from Trunk's advice:
Live below your means.
You know at age 23 if it’s likely that you’ll want to stay home with kids. Which means the minute you get married you should adjust your spending for one income....
Pick your spouse carefully.Are people of today able to do and say such things? It seems radical and dangerous. But resentment... resentment is slow-growing and corrosive.
If you want to stay home with kids, don’t marry a guy who can’t earn a living. If you want to stay home with kids, make it clear that even though you earn more than the guy, the guy will be the breadwinner. If you want to stay home with kids then you put all your financial hopes in the guy’s career. Whatever his earning ability is, then that is your earning ability, because you are a team, and he is the breadwinner.
How to keep colonoscopy patients from exploding
Colonoscopies sometimes end with intestinal detonation, or what's known in more official circles as a "colonic gas explosion."
Mark Steyn: Male Genitalia Shrinking - due to global warming?
CBS News, in an alarming story headlined “Male Genitalia Shrinking“,
is reporting that global warming may be responsible for a ten per cent
reduction in male private parts over the last fifty years.
States and Organizations Fight to Preserve Liberty from Dodd-Frank Act Intrusions
The legal challenge by the states and private organizations seeks to enforce constitutional limits on the ever more intrusive federal government.
via Newsalert.
via Newsalert.
Mark Steyn: Bowing to the Mob
If government functionaries want to do movie reviews, they should have a
PBS fundraiser, offering a “Barack Hill at the Movies” logo-ed
burqa for pledges of over $100, and a complimentary clitoridectomy for
pledges over $500.
Last year Hillary Clinton went to see the Broadway musical Book of Mormon. “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others”? The Book of Mormon’s big showstopper is “Hasa Diga Eebowai” which apparently translates as “F*** you, God.” The U.S. secretary of state stood and cheered.
...how quickly the supposed defenders of liberal, pluralist, Western values came to sound as if they were competing to be Islam’s lead prison bitch.
Last year Hillary Clinton went to see the Broadway musical Book of Mormon. “We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others”? The Book of Mormon’s big showstopper is “Hasa Diga Eebowai” which apparently translates as “F*** you, God.” The U.S. secretary of state stood and cheered.
...how quickly the supposed defenders of liberal, pluralist, Western values came to sound as if they were competing to be Islam’s lead prison bitch.
Reminder of Obama’s Disdain for Israel
Mona Charen, writing in The Corner, reposts this piece she wrote in December 2011: "It’s a summary of this administration’s treatment of Israel. I cannot
discuss the Jewish vote without getting an ulcer, but I’d simply ask
that you forward to anyone you know who is sympathetic to Israel."
The
Obama Administration has tirelessly — one might even say tiresomely —
proclaimed its rock solid commitment to Israel. The message has been
delivered by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the
National Security Advisor, and most flamboyantly, by the president
himself. At a recent fundraiser attended by Jewish donors, President
Obama boasted, “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this
administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel
than any previous administration.” Both clauses of that sentence are
risible.
In
fact, the Obama administration’s approach to Israel has been decidedly
cool when it has not been openly irate. It began in the early weeks of
the new administration. Traveling to the region, the president visited
American allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He skipped Israel.
Rather
than consult with Israel about the delicate state of relations with the
Palestinians, President Obama jumped directly into the process with a
peremptory demand: Israel should cease all settlement activity. Mahmoud
Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, had made no such demand
regarding renewing negotiations. But once the president of the United
States had essentially declared the opening position of the Palestinian
Authority, he could hardly demand less. Accordingly, while Netanyahu had
agreed to a settlement freeze and no preconditions for resuming
negotiations, talks stalled as Abbas refused to participate.
That
the administration blamed Israel, and not the Palestinians or itself
for the impasse became clear when Vice President Biden was visiting the
Jewish state in 2010. During the Vice President’s trip, a municipal
authority in Jerusalem announced a building permit for a block of
apartments in Jerusalem. The usually phlegmatic President Obama went
ballistic. Though Netanyahu apologized to Biden, and Biden accepted the
apology on the spot, President Obama insisted that Secretary of State
Clinton call Netanyahu and chew him out for 40 minutes. Details of the
dressing down were immediately released to the press.
Not
satisfied with this, a few days later presidential advisor David
Axelrod appeared on a Sunday chat show to reiterate that the White House
regarded building apartments for Jews in the capital of the Jewish
state as “an affront.” Later, when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu visited the White House, President Obama delivered the final
slaps – declining to pose for pictures or take press questions with the
prime minister; delivering a list of steps Israel would have to take to
restore trust; and then pointedly walking out on the prime minister with
the parting words “Let me know if there is anything new.”
Contrast
that treatment with the administration’s passivity in the face of
Palestinian conduct. In March of 2010, Palestinian terrorists entered
the home of Udi and Ruth Fogel in the town of Itamar on the West Bank.
The terrorists first slit the throats of Udi and his 3-month old
daughter Hadas. Ruth was in the bathroom but was attacked and killed as
she emerged. Two more sons, Yoav, 11, and Elad, 4, were also killed by
knives to the heart. Their throats were slit as well. There were three
more Fogel children. Two other boys, ages 8 and 2, asleep on the sofa,
were apparently missed by the murderers. Twelve-year-old Tamar, who had
been spending Shabbat with friends, returned home to discover 2-year-old
Yishai standing over the bodies of his parents and begging them to wake
up.
In Rafah, Palestinians celebrated the news of the massacre by dancing, singing, and handing around sweets.
The
Obama Administration issued a pro-forma condemnation. “There is no
possible justification for the killing of parents and children in their
home” it read. Secretary Clinton called the murders “inhuman” and
reportedly coaxed a more robust denunciation of the atrocity from
Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas than he had at first
offered.
But
there has been little else – no ongoing campaign to shame or humiliate
the Palestinians; no list of actions they must undertake to show their
good faith – not even a particularly strong expression of revulsion.
The
administration has let it be known, again and again, that it regards
Israel as the obstacle to peace. This, at a time when Israel’s neighbors
have given the world abundant reasons for worry. The Palestinian
Authority has formally allied with the terrorist organization Hamas.
Mahmoud Abbas announced just last week that “there are now no
differences between us.” Does that include Hamas’s implacable
determination to destroy the Jewish state and to exterminate Jews all
over the world “no matter how long that should take”?
Meanwhile,
in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 40 percent of the vote in
parliamentary elections, while another 25 percent went to Salafi forces.
The Salafis regard the Muslim Brotherhood as squishes. Sheik Abdel
Moneim el-Shahat, leader of the Salafis, is scornful of the Muslim
Brotherhood for talking about citizenship and freedom outside the
strictures of Islamic law. El-Shahat is not so broad-minded. “I want to
say: citizenship restricted by Islamic sharia, freedom restricted by
Islamic Sharia, equality restricted by Islamic Sharia.” So two-thirds
the Egyptian electorate supports candidates who will find Hamas utterly
congenial.
The
regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria is engaged in a bloody repression of
his restive people that has claimed the lives of more than 5000 brave
protesters.
But the Obama Administration is dismayed by Israel.
Every
previous US administration has tacitly accepted that Israel has nuclear
weapons and has chosen not to make an issue of it. And for good
reasons. Every fair-minded analyst understands that Israel is a tiny
nation surrounded by enemies dedicated to her destruction. Israel’s
possession of nuclear weapons is understood to be a purely defensive
measure. But the Obama Administration, in the person of Rose
Gottemoeller, Assistant Secretary of State and America’s chief nuclear
arms negotiator, has called on Israel (along with Pakistan, India, and
North Korea) to sign the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. It is hard to
interpret this as anything less than a hostile act by the United
States.
When
Turkey and a consortium of Islamist and leftist groups (including Obama
friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn) organized the so-called
“Freedom Flotilla” to run the legal blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza,
President Obama failed to condemn the Turks. Yet when Israel was forced
to confront the ships at sea, the U.S. declared that the blockade (also
imposed, incidentally, by Egypt) was “unsustainable and unacceptable”.
Rather than defend Israel at the United Nations when the inevitable
resolution condemning Israel was presented to the Security Council, the
U.S. voted with Israel’s enemies. It was a move that Elliott Abrams
called “joining the jackals.”
The
president telegraphed his intention to distance the United States from
Israel in his first address to the United Nations. “The United States
does Israel no favors,” he said, “when we fail to couple an unwavering
commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the
legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians.” The clear implication
is that Israel is not, in fact, respecting the legitimate claims and
rights of the Palestinians.
In
his second address to the UN, the president went further — demanding
that Israel withdraw to the 1967 borders (with land swaps). After
enduring bitter criticism from Republicans and even some Democrats in
Congress, the administration attempted to justify its recommendation of
what Abba Eban called “Auschwitz borders” by suggesting that “everyone
knows” that a future Palestinian state will be on the West Bank and
Gaza. But once again, rather than insist that the Palestinians accept
Israel as a Jewish state, or that the Palestinians purge the terrorists
from their midst, the president placed all of the onus on Israel.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, repairing to the language of those
with nothing on the line, encouraged Israel to “take risks for peace.”
In his less serene moments, he has barked that Israel should “get back
to the damn table” — an extraordinary example of anti-Israel bias by the
Obama administration since it is the Palestinians, not the Israelis,
who have refused to talk.
Incredibly,
even Iran’s march toward a nuclear bomb — arguably the greatest foreign
policy challenge of this decade — has been blamed on Israel by the
Obama administration. Former National Security Advisor James Jones
offered that “We understand Israel’s preoccupation with Iran as an
existential threat. We agree with that. . . . By the same token, there
are a lot of things that you can do to diminish that existential threat
by working hard towards achieving a two-state solution.”
This
was no stray remark. A few weeks later, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, made the same point: “For Israel to get the kind of strong
support it’s looking for vis-Ã -vis Iran it can’t stay on the sideline
with respect to the Palestinian and the peace efforts . . . they go
hand-in-hand.” In other words, any effort to prevent Iran from gaining
nuclear weapons is perceived by this administration not as a national
security priority for the United States, but as a favor to Israel.
Even
assuming that the U.S. were going to “reward” Israel with, say, tough
sanctions on Iran in exchange for “progress” on a Palestinian state,
what world are living in when you imagine that a two-state solution
would have any bearing whatsoever on Iran’s nuclear ambitions? Does
President Obama believe that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons in order to
achieve a Palestinian state?
President
Obama brought to relations with Israel the leftist views he’d imbibed
from academia, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Prof. Rashid Khalidi, and from
the left wing of the Democratic Party (Jimmy Carter supported the
Palestinian’s bid for statehood at the UN). Yes, he’s sold the Israelis
bunker buster bombs, and engaged in military to military cooperation.
But the most important support America provides to Israel is public. The
most damaging attacks on Israel in the 21st century (so far) have not
been military but moral and psychological. Israel’s enemies have sought
to delegitimize and defame the Jewish state — with some success.
So-called “Israel Apartheid” protests have proliferated on university
campuses. UN conferences at Durban have trafficked in anti-Israeli and
anti-Semitic slanders. It is becoming acceptable in Europe to say that
Israel’s birth was a mistake. Even a liberal columnist for the
Washington Post, Richard Cohen, has expressed this view.
The
nations of the world, never a sentimental lot, have the capacity to
descend to a lynch mob where Israel is concerned. Only the military,
political, diplomatic, and moral support of the United States prevents
that. President Obama, whatever behind-the-scenes aid he has provided to
the Jewish state, has failed in the far more important public support
for one of America’s closest allies.
Friday, September 21, 2012
The Effects of Peanut Butter on the Rotation of the Earth
Scholarly article co-authored by 198 Ph.D. physicists comes to this conclusion: So far as we can determine, peanut butter has no effect on the rotation
of the earth.
Nick Jr. Suspends Production On 'The Almighty Muhammad's Porkalicious Toon Jihad'
The half-hour animated television show, which centers around the wacky
Jihadist adventures of the Islamic prophet and his mischievous pig
friend Abrahammy, was slated to begin airing this October.
Jonah Goldberg: Free speech isn't the problem
If free speech in America causes a comparative handful of zealots to
want to murder Americans, the correct response is to protect Americans
from those zealots (something the Obama administration abjectly failed
to do in Libya) and relentlessly seek the punishment of anyone who
succeeds. Because, as far as America is concerned, there is no alternative to the First Amendment.
The Onion: No One Murdered Because Of This Image
The link below is definitely NSFW.
The image of the Hebrew prophet Moses high-fiving Jesus Christ as both are having their erect penises vigorously masturbated by Ganesha, all while the Hindu deity anally penetrates Buddha with his fist, reportedly went online at 6:45 p.m. EDT, after which not a single bomb threat was made against the organization responsible, nor did the person who created the cartoon go home fearing for his life in any way. Though some members of the Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths were reportedly offended by the image, sources confirmed that upon seeing it, they simply shook their heads, rolled their eyes, and continued on with their day.
The image of the Hebrew prophet Moses high-fiving Jesus Christ as both are having their erect penises vigorously masturbated by Ganesha, all while the Hindu deity anally penetrates Buddha with his fist, reportedly went online at 6:45 p.m. EDT, after which not a single bomb threat was made against the organization responsible, nor did the person who created the cartoon go home fearing for his life in any way. Though some members of the Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths were reportedly offended by the image, sources confirmed that upon seeing it, they simply shook their heads, rolled their eyes, and continued on with their day.
Friday links
Insane Hand Painting.
Gorgeous video: The beauty of pollination.
The U.S. Conducted Atomic Weapons Tests On Beer.
Gorgeous video: The beauty of pollination.
The U.S. Conducted Atomic Weapons Tests On Beer.
Giants of the canine world.
U.S. Postal Service asks Floridians to stop crashing into post offices.
Tomorrow is the autumnal equinox - quotes, poems, Nat King Cole and Vivaldi
No, you can't balance an egg on the equinox.The falling leaves drift by the window
The autumn leaves of red and gold....
I see your lips, the summer kisses
The sunburned hands, I used to hold
Since you went away, the days grow long
And soon I'll hear ol' winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling,
When autumn leaves start to fall.
~Johnny Mercer
Here's Nat King Cole singing Autumn Leaves:
Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
~Samuel Butler
The leaves are falling, falling as from way off,
as though far gardens withered in the skies;
they are falling with denying gestures.
And in the nights the heavy earth is falling
from all the stars down into loneliness.
We all are falling. This hand falls.
And look at others: it is in them all.
And yet there is one who holds this falling
endlessly gently in his hands.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Autumn
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may'st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruit and flowers.
~William Blake
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cells.
~John Keats
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
~P. D. James
Autumn wins you best by this, its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay.
~Robert Browning
Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower.
~Albert Camus
Autumn's earliest frost had given
To the woods below
Hues of beauty, such as heaven
Lendeth to its bow;
And the soft breeze from the west
Scarcely broke their dreamy rest.
~John Greenleaf Whittier
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
~George Santayana
The day becomes more solemn and serene,
When noon is past - there is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As it could not be, as if it had not been!
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
The teeming Autumn big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burden of the prime
Like widowed wombs after their lords' decease.
~William Shakespeare
Tomorrow (22 September) at 10:49 in the morning (EDT), we will mark this year's Autumnal Equinox, the moment at which the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south - or more simply, the first day of fall, with equal hours of light and darkness. It's not generally appreciated that perhaps the best-known of all works of baroque music, Le Quattro Stagioni ("The Four Seasons") by Venetian composer Antonio Vivaldi (ca. 1675-1741), was first published with four Italian poems - likely by Vivaldi himself - that describe the several scenarios represented in the music.
Below is Vivaldi's poem Autumn, and here's a performance of the third movement of "Autumn" in Venice's foggy Piazza San Marco:
Celebra il Vilanel con balli e Canti
Del felice raccolto il bel piacere
E del liquor de Bacco accesi tanti
Finiscono col Sonno il lor godere
The peasant celebrates with song and dance,
The harvest safely gathered in.
The cup of Bacchus flows freely,
And many find their relief in deep slumber.
Adagio molto
FÃ ch' ogn' uno tralasci e balli e canti
L' aria che temperata dà piacere,
E la Staggion ch' invita tanti e tanti
D' un dolcissimo Sonno al bel godere.
The singing and the dancing die away
As cooling breezes fan the pleasant air,
And the season invites each and all
To a sweet sleep, without a care.
Allegro
I cacciator alla nov'alba à caccia
Con corni, Schioppi, e canni escono fuore
Fugge la belua, e Seguono la traccia;
Già Sbigottita, e lassa al gran rumore
De' Schioppi e canni, ferita minaccia
Languida di fuggir, mà oppressa muore.
The hunters emerge at dawn
With horns, shotguns, and dogs baying.
The quarry flees while they give chase.
Terrified by the dogs and wounded by the guns
The prey struggles on,
But harried, dies.
The two revolutions, I mean the annual revolutions of the declination and of the centre of the Earth, are not completely equal; that is the return of the declination to its original value is slightly ahead of the period of the centre. Hence it necessarily follows that the equinoxes and solstices seem to anticipate their timing, not because the sphere of the fixed stars moves to the east, but rather the equatorial circle moves to the west, being at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic in proportion to the declination of the axis of the terrestrial globe.
~Nicolaus Copernicus
City may sue developer who spent $20,000 to remove 40 tons of trash from vacant lot
He spent more than $20,000 of his
own money not only to remove the trash but also to level the soil; add
cherry trees, fencing and park benches; and repave the sidewalk.
"This was a lot of garbage," local resident Elaine McGrath told the paper. "Now it's gorgeous. I'm excited."
However, the city agency was less excited, demanding that Feibush return the vacant lot to its previous condition and saying it is considering legal action against him.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
State Department now running TV ads in Pakistan denouncing Mohammed movie
Your tax dollars at work
As always when the government strains to show respect for Islam, there’s nothing genuinely respectful about it. The thought of Hillary cutting a video like this for the Israeli market in response to some U.S. citizen’s anti-semitic propaganda because she “respects” Judaism is unimaginable. The motive here is fear, not respect.
As always when the government strains to show respect for Islam, there’s nothing genuinely respectful about it. The thought of Hillary cutting a video like this for the Israeli market in response to some U.S. citizen’s anti-semitic propaganda because she “respects” Judaism is unimaginable. The motive here is fear, not respect.
DNC rabbi: I'll vote for whichever candidate seems likelier to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
At TIME, The rabbi who gave the benediction at the DNC asks, Which candidate will prevent nuclear terror?
Elderly woman who botched religious fresco demands royalties
The Sancti Spiritus Hospital Foundation, which owns the Sanctuario de
Misericordia, has also retained lawyers to defend the action and retain their right to proceeds from visitors to the church.
Palate cleanser: I met a man who had no shoes
The bus driver jumped off the bus to chat with a man that looked to be
down on his luck; by all accounts, a homeless man. I first thought the
driver was going to offer the man a ride until our driver took off his own shoes and gave them to the man on the sidewalk.
Unexpectedly - jobless claims up
ZeroHedge has graphs and comments. Also, check out the ridiculous disconnect between initial claims prints and subsequent revision:
It’s a remarkable spectacle in a way: the Fed is printing money that nobody wants.
The Fed is trying to stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates
low, especially for mortgages, but many borrowers aren’t qualifying for
loans. If banks don’t want to lend or can’t find qualified customers, it doesn’t really matter how low interest rates go.
via Instapundit.
via Instapundit.
Good for her: Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,”
Benghazi: former seals were not there as security, but stepped in to help. With bonus Kipling
Richard Fernandez at Belmont has links and comments to/about this:
The two former SEALS, Tyrone Woods, 41, and Glen Doherty, 42, were not employed by the State Department diplomatic security office and instead were what is known as personal service contractors who had other duties related to security, the officials said.
They stepped into action, however, when Stevens became separated from the small security detail normally assigned to protect him when he traveled from the more fortified embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi, the officials said.
Re the security firm who "became separated": The firm had been selected because they were amenable to State Department Rules of Engagement which specified that the guards have no bullets in their guns.
He also posts this, from Kipling:
There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with “the scorn of scorn.”
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
Shame? No. There’s none of that any more.
The two former SEALS, Tyrone Woods, 41, and Glen Doherty, 42, were not employed by the State Department diplomatic security office and instead were what is known as personal service contractors who had other duties related to security, the officials said.
They stepped into action, however, when Stevens became separated from the small security detail normally assigned to protect him when he traveled from the more fortified embassy in Tripoli to Benghazi, the officials said.
Re the security firm who "became separated": The firm had been selected because they were amenable to State Department Rules of Engagement which specified that the guards have no bullets in their guns.
He also posts this, from Kipling:
There were thirty million English who talked of England’s might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.
They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!
The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with “the scorn of scorn.”
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.
Shame? No. There’s none of that any more.
Will Humans Eventually All Look Like Brazilians?
Globalization, immigration, cultural diffusion and the ease of modern travel will gradually homogenize the human population, averaging out more and more people's traits.
This is interesting: before the invention of the bicycle, the average distance between the birthplaces of spouses in England was 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). Scholars have identified similar patterns in other European countries.
This is interesting: before the invention of the bicycle, the average distance between the birthplaces of spouses in England was 1 mile (1.6 kilometers). Scholars have identified similar patterns in other European countries.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Dodd-Frank Financial Regulation: We'll Figure It Out When We Get There! Maybe!
Read the whole thing at Reason: They had passed TBD legislation, and they would figure out how it
all worked when they got there.
They’re still trying to figure it out.
Spengler: Maybe it's a good idea if Israel attacks Iran
Read the whole thing: Consider the possibility that all-out regional war is the optimal outcome for American interests. An Israeli strike on Iran that
achieved even limited success - a two-year delay
in Iran's nuclear weapons development - would
arrest America's precipitous decline as a
superpower.
Counter-terrorism conference to include zombie attack
“Whatever the catalyst is for a mass casualty event, nobody really
cares,” Barker said. “What you’ve got is chaos, mass casualties and a
whole lot of confusion. What we’re looking to do is to recreate the chaos.”
Arrrg! Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day
A 12-step program for drawing a pirate.
Official Site and the Wikipedia page.
Instructions: How to talk like a pirate.
Here's an English to Pirate translator.
Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Five A's:
Krispy Kreme is giving out free doughnuts for talking like a pirate(or wearing an eye patch) today.
Official Site and the Wikipedia page.
Instructions: How to talk like a pirate.
Here's an English to Pirate translator.
Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Five A's:
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Japanese scientists may have ended tooth decay
Scientists in Japan have created a microscopically thin film that can
coat individual teeth to prevent decay or to make them appear whiter.
Game of Thrones Season 2 FX reel
Tomorrow is Talk Like A Pirate Day!!
Official Site and the Wikipedia page.
Instructions: How to talk like a pirate.
Krispy Kreme giving out FREE Doughnuts For Talking Like a Pirate on September 19.
Instructions: How to talk like a pirate.
Krispy Kreme giving out FREE Doughnuts For Talking Like a Pirate on September 19.
Check out this picture of a fire tornado
An Unserious President In Seriously Perilous Times
IBD: The Mideast is in turmoil, the economy is faltering and the president opts to spend precious time with David Letterman, Beyonce and Jay-Z. Are
we the only ones to wonder if Obama's suited to be president?
Dr Samuel Johnson was born on this date in 1709. Some quotes and history.
A selection of his legendary insults follows:
Of Lord Chesterfield:
This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find, he is only a wit among Lords.
And of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son:
They teach the morals of a whore; and the manners of a dancing-master.
Of Thomas Sheridan:
Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in nature.
Of Polly Carmichael, a member of his household:
I took to Poll very well at first, but she won't do upon closer examination... Poll is a stupid slut. I had some hopes for her at first, but when I talked to her tightly and closely, I could make nothing of her. She was wiggle waggle: and I could never persuade her to be categorical.
Of Lady Macdonald of Sleat:
...she was as bad as negative badness could be, and stood in the way of what was good; that insipid beauty would not go a great way... and such a woman might be cut out of a cabbage, if there was a skilful artificer.
Of two disputants:
One has ball without powder; the other powder without ball.
Of a man hired to sit with him during a convalescence:
The fellow's an idiot; he is as awkward as a turn-spit when first put to the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse.
Of James Macpherson:
He wants to make himself conspicuous. He would tumble in a hogstye, as long as you looked at him and called him to come out.
Of the new rich:
Sir, they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentlemen.
Of the respective merits of the poets Derrick and Smart:
Sir, there is no settling the point of precedence between a louse and a flea.
Of the criticism of one critic (Edwards) of another (Warburton):
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but the one is but an insect and the other is a horse still.
Today is the 303rd anniversary of the birth of that quintessential 18th-century curmudgeon Dr. Samuel Johnson, the literary lion of Georgian London for much of his lifetime (1709-1784). A poet, critic, lexicographer, and wit, Johnson compiled the first respectable English dictionary between 1747 and 1755, following several years of writing critical articles for London magazines such as The Idler. Born in Lichfield the son of a book dealer, Johnson studied at Oxford and ran his own private school - where the actor David Garrick was a student - before removing to London and its literary milieu in 1737. There, in 1763, he met his companion and biographer, the Scot, James Boswell (1740-1795), to whom we owe the recording of most of Johnson's voluminous observations. Despite his legendary bile, Johnson did remark later in life,
"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly."
Dr. Samuel Johnson, dyspeptic as usual:
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If
you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the
comments.
Of Lord Chesterfield:
This man I thought had been a Lord among wits; but I find, he is only a wit among Lords.
And of Lord Chesterfield's Letters to His Son:
They teach the morals of a whore; and the manners of a dancing-master.
Of Thomas Sheridan:
Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in nature.
Of Polly Carmichael, a member of his household:
I took to Poll very well at first, but she won't do upon closer examination... Poll is a stupid slut. I had some hopes for her at first, but when I talked to her tightly and closely, I could make nothing of her. She was wiggle waggle: and I could never persuade her to be categorical.
Of Lady Macdonald of Sleat:
...she was as bad as negative badness could be, and stood in the way of what was good; that insipid beauty would not go a great way... and such a woman might be cut out of a cabbage, if there was a skilful artificer.
Of two disputants:
One has ball without powder; the other powder without ball.
Of a man hired to sit with him during a convalescence:
The fellow's an idiot; he is as awkward as a turn-spit when first put to the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse.
Of James Macpherson:
He wants to make himself conspicuous. He would tumble in a hogstye, as long as you looked at him and called him to come out.
Of the new rich:
Sir, they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentlemen.
Of the respective merits of the poets Derrick and Smart:
Sir, there is no settling the point of precedence between a louse and a flea.
Of the criticism of one critic (Edwards) of another (Warburton):
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but the one is but an insect and the other is a horse still.
Today is the 303rd anniversary of the birth of that quintessential 18th-century curmudgeon Dr. Samuel Johnson, the literary lion of Georgian London for much of his lifetime (1709-1784). A poet, critic, lexicographer, and wit, Johnson compiled the first respectable English dictionary between 1747 and 1755, following several years of writing critical articles for London magazines such as The Idler. Born in Lichfield the son of a book dealer, Johnson studied at Oxford and ran his own private school - where the actor David Garrick was a student - before removing to London and its literary milieu in 1737. There, in 1763, he met his companion and biographer, the Scot, James Boswell (1740-1795), to whom we owe the recording of most of Johnson's voluminous observations. Despite his legendary bile, Johnson did remark later in life,
"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly."
Dr. Samuel Johnson, dyspeptic as usual:
Taken from Ed's Quotation of the Day, only available via email. If
you'd like to be added to his list, leave your email address in the
comments.
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