Quote of the Day
I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally.
W. C. Fields
What Is It About New York Congressmen
Wanting To Get Things Off Their Chest?
Former Congressman Chris Lee (R-NY) earlier decided it was getting hot in here and decided to pose topless. Question: did Anthony Weiner ever see the "The 40 Year Old Virgin"? I didn't realize that male waxing was so controversial... Personally, I think the look is weird, but maybe his wife likes it that way...
Anthony Weiner, after past dubious denials, finally came clean that he was responsible for sending the risqué photos and made a public apology to his wife and any women unintentionally becoming part of the story. I give him props for finally doing the right thing and telling the truth.
Let me be clear: I do not care for Weiner's politics or personal style (he's a 2-time nominee for my tongue-in-cheek Jackass of the Year award). I don't approve of his morals or his lack of integrity with his constituents and the press, and I think his behavior could have resulted in his being blackmailed in a way that could have compromised his position as Congressman. But at the same time, Weiner's unprofessional behavior is incidental to the execution of his responsibilities as Congressman. I think we should move on and leave it to the Congressman, his wife and constituents to resolve his political future.
New York City: Big Nanny Run Amok
NYPD Blue Saving the World From Doughnut Eaters
It seems that in New York City, two young women who had just purchased doughnuts from a local store spotted an empty bench at a park across the street and went there to enjoy their treat. Cops spotted the ladies and issued them tickets for their being at a playground without a child to accompany them. (They had earlier cited chess players for the same.)
I didn't read if the cops also cited them for eating doughnuts without bringing enough to share with all the kids at the playground... Or for having the audacity to eat a high-caloric, high-carb food in public, without the expressed written authorization of Dietitian in Chief Michelle Obama.
Sunday Talk Soup (Sarah Palin Edition)
Fox News continues to hype a non-candidate's bus tour (perhaps I should send out a press release of my next visit to Sam's Club...) Sarah Palin was the lead exclusive interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. Chris Wallace, in a subsequent round table discussion, seemed to be suitably impressed with Palin's performance, noting he did not give the typically cloying FNC interview (e.g., Sean Hannity or Greta Van Susteren) and she did not reprise the notorious Charlie Gibson/Katie Couric interview debacles. Oh, my God! You mean you are really surprised that a politician whom resigned 2 years ago, has had a number of political insiders pushing her candidacy for two years, and has signed a number of lucrative media deals finally has the time to memorize politically spun talking points on issues? How bad does a potential candidate have to be for a Sunday talk show host praise her ability to exceed basement-level expectations of an interview performance?
Just a few points here: first of all, Sarah Palin needs to fire her economic advisors. I reported in this blog several weeks ago that Japan had cut its highest corporate tax bracket rate, leaving the US with the highest such rate among the developed economies. She made reference to the second-highest rate. How could she not know this? As a potential candidate, I would be highlighting Obama's anti-business policies. Palin here is doing little more than memorizing a few key (obsolete) facts; as a former educator who has published one or two articles on behavioral objectives, I stress the need of a person to go beyond rote memorization and to exercise higher-order cognitive abilities and skills. We need to see evidence of Palin's ability to make prompt, sound, tough judgments dealing with very complex issues where there is poor quality, incomplete information.
What does the record show? I submit that the evidence is that Sarah Palin's judgment is demonstrably suspect from a number of perspectives. I cannot think of any circumstance where a sitting governor should go after a late-night comedian, like her attack on David Letterman; it doesn't matter that the joke in question was in bad taste. The joke in question involved some unspecified sexually active Palin daughter at a baseball game, and Sarah Palin's oldest daughter was an unmarried mother and a high-profile teen abstinence advocate. It turned out that Sarah brought her underage middle, not her oldest daughter to the baseball game. On multiple occasions, Sarah Palin specifically used the factual discrepancy to knowingly smear David Letterman by suggesting, on multiple occasions, his intent was to make a statutory rape joke at the expense of a little-known Palin daughter, which is patently absurd. Now this is not the first time I've written about this, and Letterman can speak for himself. First, it was not the first time a late-night comic had made direct or implied (in this case) reference to then 18-year-old Bristol Palin, and the real target of this joke was a promiscuous Yankee baseball player. Second, Sarah Palin clearly showed bad judgment by giving a bad joke undue publicity. Third, Sarah Palin lacked class by first refusing to accept his apology in person and then in accepting his unconditional apology reasserted her unconscionable, preposterous assertion that David Letterman has an unhealthy interest in underage girls. Now, I do believe that a politician's children should be off-limits, and I understand why Sarah Palin would be offended at her adult daughter being portrayed as a slut in a late-night joke. But I want a leader whom reacts calmly and proportionately to a situation and doesn't let the petty behavior of other people get under his or her skin; I would rather have a reputation as responding to an indignity with class and grace, modeling the behavior I would expect from my own children under adversity, leaving justice to God. I don't want someone in the White House with an enemies list and a petty score to settle.
Going back to the economic issues, what she says, once again, as I've repeatedly pointed out in this blog, is little more than conventional talking points. Chris Wallace, my favorite Sunday host, is failing to follow up and probe the candidates, in particular, Sarah Palin. It's obvious to me that her entire discussion of economic issues was political spin. It would have been interesting to probe, say, her understanding of Keynesian economics and the role of government spending in the GDP, excess capacity, etc.
I could go on to discuss other things, but once again we find Sarah Palin sticking obstinately to something she said on her famous bus tour of revolutionary sites. I am, of course, referring to the Paul Revere kerfuffle. What astonishes me is the way that Bill O'Reilly and others will go through absurd lengths to explain how Sarah Palin's botched revisionism of American history is accurate. IT'S NOT. The conventional story that any American child knows is that Paul Revere made his famous ride to alert colonists of approaching British forces. Here is Sarah Palin's version:
He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be secure and we were going to be free and we were going to be armed.
Materially false. Utter rubbish. My criticism has nothing to do with the left-wing blogs making similar points. This is so garbled as to be nonsensical: someone we consider a patriot is really in the process of providing intelligence to the British (but only after first secretly alerting the colonists), which I would regard as a crime of treason. The British were en route to arrest patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock; Revere's ride was to tip the colonists off, not to alert the colonists to hide an already hidden cache of weapons and ammunition. Sarah Palin seems oddly obsessed about the enumerated Second Amendment (ratified roughly 15 years later) rather than our unalienable rights. Sarah Palin is putting the cart before the horse: it is true that the British were trying to quiesce the rebellion by seizing arms, but the very existence of arms proves the purpose of the rebellion was over other principles.
Some people are trying in vain to look for something, anything in a desperate attempt to rationalize Palin's revisionist history, portraying Revere's main mission as an in-your-face taunt to British troops of the inevitable success of our revolutionaries. In fact, Revere was captured by the British on the way to Concord--after he had already warned Adams and Hancock in Lexington. So in any event, the Palin apologists are pointing to an obscure 1789 letter from Revere which Revere mentions effectively that the British are too late because he's already reached 500 patriots to confront them. In fact, the letter in question clearly says that Revere was forcibly CAPTURED (not meeting with the British on his own initiative) and ordered to tell them what he knew or they would execute him on the spot. That's not a "warning", unless Palin wants to suggest that the purpose of enhanced interrogation techniques by the CIA was over obtaining useful "warnings".
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update. This segment is a thrice-weekly, more readable summary of some key blogs covering the the recovery of Fukushima Daiichi shutdown but damaged nuclear reactors 1-3 and relevant spent fuel pools, whose critical cooling systems failed as the result of power failure following a record earthquake/tsunami.
One of the things I focused on early in the crisis was an MIT research scientist's writeup on nuclear power plant design to reassure family and friends against anti-nuke hysteria. There was one untenable prediction downplaying future safety risks; at some point, the MIT NSE departure started a blog using a corrected version of the paper as a starting point. I did quote from the MIT blog on multiple occasions, but other blogs were providing more timely updates, and I eventually phased out references to the blog. They have just published what is one of the best, most readable lessons-learned documents I've ever seen, available here. I have not read the full report as I write this, but the document does a very good job of pointing out important Fukushima Daiichi issues (such as geographic risk to emergency personnel during a similar nuclear power crisis) and (more importantly) implications for US nuclear power operations. Highly recommended.
The Hiroshima Syndrome blog notes:
- Monday post: The blogger first notes the MIT report (see above). There is a discussion of various steps TEPCO is taking (pumping contaminated water across buildings, new storage tanks, etc.) The RPV's coolant injections are discussed with reduced flow to reactor 3 resulting in higher temperatures. There is some discussion about whether automatic/manual venting issues with reactor 1 may have contributed to the observed hydrogen explosion. There's discussion of a more thorough systematic approach to sampling the ecology within the evacuation zone. The heat removal external cooling pumps for spent fuel pools (#2) are not adequately addressing humidity problems. On the Hiroshima Syndrome front, German Chancellor Merkel signed a bill that effectively does away with German nuclear power plants by 2022.
Political Humor
"You know, Donald, I don’t want to say anything, but if you’re taking an esteemed visitor to get real New York pizza, Famiglia’s ain’t it. Unless real authentic New York pizza can also be found in Terminal Four of the Phoenix Airport. Governor Palin, no disrespect to you, you’re a guest in our city, we should offer you the finest that our hospitality has to offer you. I just would have thought Captain Combover could have pulled that one off." –Jon Stewart
[Well, Trump likes the fact that each pizza comes with a long-form certificate of authenticity that the pizza was baked in New York and contains no MSG.]
"Sarah Palin met with Donald Trump in New York yesterday. Then Sarah Palin left by helicopter and shot that thing off Trump's head." –Craig Ferguson
[Well, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty were already in the boardroom while Sarah Palin arrived. The Donald then entered the room to review this week's project for Presidential Apprentice, which was finishing their last gubernatorial term in office. After Sarah wheeled her luggage onto the helicopter, she thanked Donald Trump for saying she is incredibly bright, smart, intelligent, and iconoclastic, but noted that his nose seemed much longer than she expected...]
Harmon Killebrew: Hall of Fame Synopsis
Harmon Clayton Killebrew
Born: June 29, 1936, Payette, Idaho
Died: May 17, 2011, Scottsdale, Arizona
Bats:
Right
Throws:
Right
Played For:
Washington Senators (1954-1960), Minnesota Twins (1961-1974), Kansas City Royals (1975)
Elected to the Hall of Fame by Baseball Writers: 1984
AVG G AB R H HR RBI SB
.256 2435 8147 1283 2086 573 1584 19
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
Chicago, "Along Comes A Woman". The final Peter Cetera Chicago hit before turning solo. Peter Cetera wanted to negotiate more of a deal like Phil Collins had with Genesis or Steve Perry with Journey to work on solo projects and/or at least a break from touring while continuing to record with the band. The band continued to rack up hits after Cetera's exit, but it is notable that Cetera's first solo album outsold the first Chicago album without Cetera. I don't have a problem with Jason Scheff, but I think you dance with who brung you. It's really odd; Scheff has spent more time with the band (since 1985) than Cetera, when the band first recorded in the late 60's, but the band hasn't hit the Hot 100 in the last 20 years and only 11 Hot 100 hits since Cetera left. Cetera wrote or co-wrote roughly twice that many hits for Chicago during his tenure and has hit the US or US adult contemporary chart at least a comparable number of hits during his post-Chicago era.
Over the next few segments, I'll be featuring Cetera solo/duet hits as a special case of Chicago before finishing up with my coverage of the Scheff-era hits.
