The Ledes

Monday, September 30, 2024

New York Times: “Kris Kristofferson, the singer and songwriter whose literary yet plain-spoken compositions infused country music with rarely heard candor and depth, and who later had a successful second career in movies, died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday. He was 88.”

~~~ The New York Times highlights “twelve essential Kristofferson songs.”

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The Ledes

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Washington Post: “Towns throughout western North Carolina ... were transformed overnight by ... [Hurricane Helene]. Muddy floodwaters lifted homes from their foundations. Landslides and overflowing rivers severed the only way in and out of small mountain communities. Rescuers said they were struggling to respond to the high number of emergency calls.... The death toll grew throughout the Southeast as the scope of Helene’s devastation came into clearer view. At least 49 people had been killed in five states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. By early counts, South Carolina suffered the greatest loss of life, registering at least 19 deaths.”

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Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

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Feb252012

The Commentariat -- February 26, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer is on the New York Times "corrections" process. It seems that sometimes when a story is inaccurate, The Times doesn't think a correction is warranted. The NYTX front page is here. You can contribute here.

Jon Gertner in a New York Times op-ed on why Bell Labs really was innovative. Gertner contrasts the serious breakthroughs produced at Bell Labs with the small-bore "innovative" tech apps which are here today, gone tomorrow. CW: Read the op-ed and you'll wonder if we can do this today; I'd say the answer is "no"; not without government backing, unless we want to encourage monopolies. The small entrepreneurial garage operation is unlikely to produce much more than cool tech apps.

Frank Geary's much-maligned design for the Washington, D.C., Eisenhower Memorial.Ross Douthat likes Ike, but he can't seem to think of a single Eisenhower accomplishment.

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Appealing to the force of tartan pride, the Scottish National Party won surprise control of the regional Parliament last year, which thrust the separatist fantasy of hearing 'Scots Wha Hae' on the bagpipes as the national anthem into the realm of distinct possibility. The British government, boxed into a precarious corner, has opened formal negotiations with the Scots to set a date for an independence referendum."

Right Wing World

A Founding Father Who Has No Place in Right Wing World. I hate polemical politics and polemical divinity. My religion is founded on the love of God and my neighbor; on the hope of pardon for my offenses; upon contrition ... in the duty of doing no wrong, but all the good I can, to the creation of which I am but an infinitesimal part. -- John Adams

We're just trying to come up with the best possible lie. That's what this is all about. -- George Costanza, not a founding father, not even a real person, but a good imitation of Willard. See six more "Seinfeld" quotes that apply to Mitt Romney, courtesy of Dan Amira of New York magazine

"Crazed Reagan fixation?" Sorry, it appears the Reagans have left the circus. Thanks to a reader for the exclusive picture.Maureen Dowd: "The Republicans, with their crazed Reagan fixation, are a last-gasp party, living posthumously, fighting battles on sex, race, immigration and public education long ago won by the other side. They’re trying to roll back the clock, but time is passing them by." CW: Yet millions of Americans, whom time has passed by, will follow them into oblivion, possibly taking the rest of us with them. ...

... John Heilemann of New York magazine writes a long piece on the GOPocalypse: "That Mitt Romney finds himself so imperiled by Rick Santorum — Rick Santorum! — is just the latest in a series of jaw-dropping developments in what has been the most volatile, unpredictable, and just plain wackadoodle Republican-nomination contest ever.... The transfiguration of the GOP isn’t only about ideology.... It is also about demography and temperament, as the party has grown whiter, less well schooled, more blue-collar, and more hair-curlingly populist." A delightful read, till you get to the end, where Heilemann reminds us that the race for the presidency will be tight, whichever clown the GOP selects. ...

... David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "This week in Michigan, a pair of campaign events revealed the deep — and opposite — flaws that have kept either of the front-runners from running away with the GOP nomination. Romney uses a grandiose campaign to deliver relatively modest ideas.... This instinct toward grand stagecraft backfired Friday, when Romney gave an economic speech at Detroit’s cavernous Ford Field. That venue outstripped even Romney’s impressive campaign machine.... Santorum, by contrast, uses a modest campaign to espouse deeply grandiose ideas. His premise is that only he — a man who lacks the logistical wherewithal to rustle up snacks — can manage to rebuild the nuclear family and save freedom itself. That has made him a surprise front-runner. But it has done little to reassure the practical-minded part of the GOP base."

Mike McIntire & Michael Luo of the New York Times: "When Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign needs advice on direct mail strategies for reaching voters, it looks to TargetPoint Consulting. And when the independent “super PAC” supporting him needs voter research, it, too, goes to TargetPoint.... The overlapping roles and relationships of the consultants ... offer a case study in the fluidity and ineffectual enforcement of rules intended to prevent candidates from coordinating their activities with outside groups."

Cynical Republican Politicians Follow Crazy White Bouncing Ball. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Election-year adjustments in a lawmaker’s voting pattern are common. But this election cycle is shaping up as unique. The pressure from the right flank of the Republican Party is intense, and unlike in 2010, party veterans this time around have had time to see it coming after the last primary season bumped off or nearly toppled so many of their colleagues.... The rightward tilt has consequences for Congress and the Obama administration as it has hollowed out the center in Congress.... For the Obama White House, once-obvious Republican targets for negotiations have dwindled at times to a single senator, Scott P. Brown of Massachusetts, who, without a challenger on the right, is tacking to the center."

Mean Boys. Philip Rucker & Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney tried vigorously to undermine each other’s conservative bona fides Saturday in a bid to rally new supporters ahead of a crucial primary for the two leading Republican presidential candidates. Their fortunes shifting with three days until the high-stakes Michigan primary, the candidates leveled caustic, personal attacks against each other in dueling speeches before more than 1,000 tea party activists."

Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times: "... Mitt Romney ... has made organized labor enemy No. 1. He has railed against union 'stooges' and 'bosses,' arguing that their demands nearly killed the auto industry and gravely wounded America's competitiveness. Romney's message and his tone are popular talking points among Republican voters in most of the country, but they contrast sharply with the conciliatory statements he has made about labor in the past, particularly during his 2008 presidential campaign. His comments could haunt efforts by Romney and other Republicans to attract blue-collar workers and economically stressed voters in Michigan and nearby states."

Jonathan Martin of Politico: "Stepping up his assault on Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum delivered a slashing speech Saturday morning that portrayed the establishment favorite as an elitist and unreliable conservative." ...

... The First Amendment Is for Sissies and Infidels. Real Men Retch. To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up. What kind of country do we live in where only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up. And that should make every American [throw up]. I don't believe in an America where the separation between church and state is absolute," he said. -- Rick Santorum, speaking on ABC News' "This Week with Whoever" of John F. Kennedy's speech assuring religious leaders he believed religion should be separate from politics. (Kennedy made the speech in September 1960, when he was running for president, not in 1963 as the linked Politico report states. You can read a transcript of Kennedy's speech here.)

... "Senator Santorum's Planet." James Woods of the New Yorker: "... he may well believe that man cannot actually destroy the earth through such violence as global warming, for the perfectly orthodox theological reason that the earth will come to an end (or be renewed) only when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead.... This is Santorum’s 'theology,' phony or otherwise."

News Ledes

The New York Times has an Oscar page with all kinds of stuff on it. So does the Los Angeles Times, of course.

New York Times: "A grenade thrown by Afghan protesters wounded at least six American service members in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, as new details emerged in the investigation of the shooting death of two American officers within the Interior Ministry building the day before."

New York Times: In the shooting of two American officials in Kabul, "On Sunday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that it had identified a suspect who had fled and was 'believed to be an employee of one of the departments of the Interior Ministry.' President Hamid Karzai called for calm during a televised news conference Sunday from the presidential palace.”

New York Times: "Fourteen defendants appeared Sunday afternoon in the metal cage that serves as docket at the opening of the politically charged criminal trial of 43 people, including 16 Americans, accused of running unauthorized and foreign-funded nonprofit groups in a case that threatens to upend Washington’s 30-year alliance with Egypt. None of the Americans appeared Sunday. Only seven of the Americans remain in the country, including one who is the son of the secretary of transportation in the Obama administration. Egyptian authorities have barred the seven from leaving and they have taken refuge in the United States Embassy for fear of arrest. After a change of venue and a chaotic start, the trial was adjourned until late April, according to media reports."

Reuters: "The world's leading economies worked on Sunday to line up a deal in April on a second global rescue package worth nearly $2 trillion to stop the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis from spreading and putting at risk the tentative recovery."

Reuters: "Former South African President Nelson Mandela was discharged from hospital on Sunday after a keyhole abdominal examination showed there was nothing seriously wrong with the 93-year-old anti-apartheid leader, the government said."

AFP: "Syrians were called to the polls on Sunday to vote on a new constitution in the face of opposition calls for a boycott and deadly violence that Washington said made the exercise 'laughable.' The new text ends the legal basis for the five-decade stranglehold on power of the ruling Baath party but leaves huge powers in the hands of President Bashar al-Assad. The opposition says the changes are cosmetic and that only Assad's ouster will suffice after 11 months of repression by his security forces that human rights groups say have left more than 7,600 people dead."

AP: "Afghan officials say at least two demonstrators have been killed in northern Afghanistan as protests over last week's burning of Qurans turned violent. It marked the sixth day of deadly protests over the burning of Qurans and other religious materials at a U.S. base."

Reuters: "Thousands of Russians joined hands to form a human chain around Moscow city centre on Sunday in protest against Vladimir Putin's likely return as president in an election next week."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

How dumb is Douthat? Does the man never read?
Getting a ranking of 12 is quite respectable, IMHO.
The man orchestrated D-Day.
Eisenhower pushed for the very Interstate road system we have in this country. That he stole the idea from Hitler is beside the point.
No extrmarital dalliance?
There is the Kay Somersby innuendo, still out there.
Mae Finch

February 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMae Finch

The war on the poor has many skirmishes. The Wing Nut support of the Bishops is one of those. Six hundred Catholic hospitals and two hundred and forty Catholic colleges and universities probably employ close to one hundred thousand women. Many of these women, probably a majority, are in low paying jobs like cafeteria help, cleaning help, nurses aids and bed makers, and office clerks. These are the jobs that are held by women with problems of low family income and by many single mothers. These are the members of our society that need help the most. These are the members of our society most likely to need an abortion in response to an unwanted pregnancy. When discussing insurance for birth control we should be aware of those we are impacting.
The Bishops and Wing Nuts position has little impact on the middle class but can devistate poor working women and their families.

February 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCarlyle

Probably not your intent but the photo only goes to show that the Reagans were people who were ahead of their times. ;-)

February 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterKarl Thompson

@ Mae Finch. Douthat gets around the Summersby story by saying there were not sex scandals during Ike's administration. There were other scandals, tho. I learned what a vicuna was, for one thing. I thought the Summersby story was unrefuted, but I looked up the Wiki entry, & for every piece of evidence, nonbelievers have come up with a rationale that so-and-so was lying, made it up, blah-blah. I think Ike had an affair with Summersby, and so what? Why do people have to knock themselves out making excuses for why it could not possibly be true?

February 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterThe Constant Weader

@ Carlyle. Thanks for coming up with a number on the female employees. I made a quick stab at it yesterday & couldn't find anything. In addition to the employees are students at Catholic universities. Especially in grad school, the religious affiliation of students is diverse; people choose grad schools based on which schools are best in their fields. They should not have to rule out Georgetown or Notre Dame because the schools won't cover them for birth control.

Although the ACA will (or does) allow parents to keep their children on their policies thru their school years, I expect the university policies will usually be cheaper because they are insuring mostly young people. Also, policies do not cover birth control are costlier than those that do, because covering a pregnancy, no matter how it ends, is always more expensive than covering birth control methods. So this is an economic issue, too.

February 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarie Burns
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