REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- February 5, 2012

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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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The Commentariat -- February 5, 2012

My column in today's New York Times eXaminer: "Ross Douthat, foe of women’s reproductive rights, uses his column today to complain about the 'frankly brutal coverage' in 'the media frenzy' surrounding the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s decision to renege on contracts to fund mammograms for poor women. 'You would think,' he writes, that 'all these millions of anti-abortion Americans simply do not exist…. On the abortion issue, the press’s prejudices are often absolute, its biases blatant and its blinders impenetrable.' Oddly enough, Douthat is angry about the lack of coverage of anti-choice Americans in a matter in which, according to the Komen Foundation, abortion rights played no part." The NYTX front page is here. You can donate here.

Prof. Larry Lessig in Salon: "What Obama must do if he is to make American democracy possible again is to speak boldly, not practically, about reform.... He needs to begin the process of persuading the nation that fundamental reform is necessary and possible.... He must stop, by his silence, defending the status quo.... Outside Washington, in the grassroots of American politics, Democrats, independents and Republicans all support a radical change in how we fund campaigns.... There is overwhelming support for the idea of limiting the role of independent expenditures in political campaigns."

Mike Konczal in Salon: "Privatizing the government is one of the most active projects of the early 21st century.... The fraud and waste that often come with outsourcing these services has been well-documented.... Rather than solving problems with government, privatization often amplifies those issues to new extremes."

Prof. Christina Romer, in a New York Times opinion piece, explains why manufacturing should not be singled out as the only business sector to get special tax breaks and other government support. Other sectors could potentially produce better results for the economy.

Colbert v. the Court. Dahlia Lithwick in Slate: "... in the history of the Supreme Court, nothing has ever prepared the justices for the public opinion wrecking ball that is Stephen Colbert.... Colbert has spent the past few months making every part of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Citizen United look utterly ridiculous. And the court, which has no access to cameras (by its own choosing), no press arm, and no discernible comedic powers, has had to stand by and take it on the chin.... The institutional aloofness that allowed the Roberts court to pen such a politically naive decision is the same blind spot that precludes them from even understanding, much less responding to, the media criticism."

Katie Ryder of Salon speaks to writer Arthur Goldwag about right-wing haters & conspiracy theorists. They've always been around, but they're more visible now. An interesting read.

Emily Flitter of Reuters: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg keeps up his fight for gun control; he'll appear in a D.C. rollover ad during the Super Bowl with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Bloomberg paid for the ad.

AND cartoonist Brian McFadden has some tips on how to have a highbrow Super Bowl halftime. Personally, I'd turn down the sound on the teevee during Madonna's performance & ramp up something like the famous habanera L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Bizet's "Carmen" (Anna Caterina Antonacci performs it here):

Right Wing World

David Schwartz of the Las Vegas Sun: "Mitt Romney’s easy victory in Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses might, in the long run, be less important than the fact that a surprising number of Republicans who could have participated Saturday chose to stay home. Republicans’ disappointing turnout foreshadows difficulty energizing GOP voters in Nevada, a key swing state in November’s general election."

** New York Times Editorial Board: "... the conservative legal battles of our modern times are being waged by the most powerful, often against the weak and oppressed. They began with a carefully planned and successful effort to reshape the courts to be sympathetic to conservative causes. They are largely aimed at narrowing rights, not expanding them — except where property and guns are concerned. And beginning with the Reagan administration, conservatives ... sought to remake law into a weapon of aggressive action.... The political influences on these major cases are important by themselves, but also as a reminder that the makeup of the court for the next generation, and thus the law’s direction, are likely to be determined by the 2012 election."

Worse Than Bush. Contributor P. D. Pepe made an important point in yesterday's Commentariat, which bears repeating: Romney's tax policy is worse than the Bush tax cuts. As Ezra Klein wrote a few days ago, "Romney's tax policy, described simply, is to extend the Bush tax cuts and, then on top of that, sharply cut taxes on corporations, the wealthy, and upper-middle class investors, while letting a set of tax breaks that help the poor expire. The result, according to the Tax Policy Center, would be a $69 tax cut for the average individual in the bottom 20 percent and a $164,000 tax cut for the average individual in the top one percent. And Romney would pay for this through unspecified cuts to domestic programs." That is, "he wants to lower the tax burden on people like himself, and pay for it by cutting programs for the poor and seniors.... His tax plan ... is the most moderate plan of any candidate in the GOP primary."

Local News

Indianapolis Star: "Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White (R) was convicted of six felonies early [Saturday] morning, and consequently lost his job.... A jury convicted White of three counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of theft. He could face six months to three years in prison on each of the counts.... The charges stemmed from confusion over where White lived when he campaigned for secretary of state in late 2009 and 2010. White claimed that he lived at his ex-wife's home on the east side of Fishers. But the jury convicted him based on allegations that he actually lived in a townhouse on the opposite side of town.... The townhouse was outside his Fishers Town Council district." ...

... AP: White was the state's top elections official! Gov. Mitch "Daniels (R) quickly appointed White's chief deputy, Jerry Bonnet, as interim secretary of state." But state Democratic "Chairman Dan Parker said the party will seek to have its 2010 candidate, Vop Osili, who lost to White by about 300,000 votes, certified as secretary of state this week. A civil judge in Marion County ordered the state to declare Osili the winner in December, saying White wasn't an eligible candidate because he had lied about where he lived on a voter registration form."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Egyptian authorities have referred 19 Americans and two dozen others to criminal trials, justice ministry officials said Sunday, as part of a politically charged investigation into the foreign financing of nonprofit groups that has shaken the 30-year alliance between the United States and Egypt. The referral flies in the face of increasingly urgent warnings to Egypt’s military rulers from President Obama, cabinet officials and senior Congressional leaders that the investigation could jeopardize $1.55 billion in expected American aid this year, including $1.3 billion for the military.On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she personally warned the Egyptian foreign minister, Mohammed Amr, during a security conference in Munich."

New York Times: "Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive keeping Newt Gingrich’s presidential hopes alive, has relayed assurances to Mitt Romney that he will provide even more generous support to his candidacy if he becomes the Republican nominee, several associates said in interviews here."

... Washington Post: "After a likely second-place finish in the Nevada caucuses Saturday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich sought to dispel the idea that he might drop out of the Republican presidential nomination any time soon, promising a hotel ballroom filled with reporters that he will fight on to the convention in the summer."

Reuters: "Western and Arab countries responded with outrage on Sunday after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said she was 'disgusted' by the vote, which came a day after activists say Syrian forces bombarded the city of Homs, killing more than people in the worst night of bloodshed of the 11-month uprising. 'Any further bloodshed that flows will be on their hands,' ambassador Susan Rice said...." ...

... Guardian: "US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for greater cooperation between the US and Europe to isolate tyrants such as Syrian president Bashar Assad and promote democracy in the Arab world."

... Al Jazeera: "Arab states will not stop their efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis even though their bid to secure UN backing was blocked by Russia and China, the Arab League's secretary-general has said."

Reuters: "Protesters demanding a swift presidential election and an early handover of power by the army hurled rocks at police guarding the Egyptian interior ministry on Sunday and were forced back with volleys of tear gas." Al Jazeera story here.

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One wonders whether Republicans will point to the conviction of Indiana's Sec'y of State as hard evidence of the phantom voter fraud charges they've been spraying around like DDT the last few years (you know, ever since Republicans won two presidential elections through fraud--hey, they can't have just anyone perpetrating voter fraud!)?

One tends to doubt it. But Gov. Mitch Daniels apparently is holding off on naming a permanent replacement for the state's chief elections official now that he's one of the few actually guilty of elections fraud because, as he says, some nice conservative judge may reduce White's sentence making him guilty only of a series of misdemeanors rather than felonies which, in Right Wing World, would be okay since then he could keep or at least regain his job.

Only in Right Wing World. Just imagine if this were a Democratic Sec'y of State in some hated blue state. Fox would be providing 24/7 coverage as proof of progressive perfidy. But since this is one of their own, I'm sure they'll be using the jury's verdict as an indication that they were bought off. Republicans simply can't be guilty of anything. They're God's chosen party!

February 5, 2012 |

akhilleus

Marie, to add another piece to your article about the Koman Foundation scandal, there was an article in the local paper today about an effort (totally worthless) to double human lifespan. I responded by noting another problem that we humans can't seem to deal with. The earth really can't handle an infinite number of people. There are serious studies that argue that we already have more folks than we can sustain. And as I have noted previously, 6 million children die every year from starvation and treatable disease.

But the religious don't give a damn about anything except their pathetic efforts to prove that their god has it right. So no contraception, no abortion but after they are born, well that's not their problem! So this anti-abortion, anti-contraception, have lots of children mentality is going to kill millions more, every year. And if you add the climate factor, maybe billions.

The Koman story shows that we live in two worlds. Those that respect and care about their fellow human beings and those that pretend to. And in America the internet has made the view clearer.
The most interesting part comes from the fact that a large proportion of the public reaction came from women. And that power is what really scares the hell out of the 'Doughnut' and HIS
fellow believers.

February 5, 2012 |

Marvin Schwalb

I read Douthat's column in the NYT before Marie had put the link to her Examiner column on Reality Chex. My first thought was "I can't believe Marie didn't have something to say about this!". So thank you, Marie, for your fact-filled rebuttal to his lies and distortions.

I guess if Douthat were a woman, he'd know that an annual "woman care" check-up includes a manual breast exam (which a healthcare provider gets paid to do) and, when deemed necessary, a REFERRAL for a mammogram (which also has to be paid for). Maybe he thinks every place with an OB-GYN on staff has one of those mammogram machines just like every KFC has a fry-o-lator.

I could go on and on about how angry his column made me, but instead I guess I'll just make a donation to the Examiner and go take a shower to get his slime off of me.

February 5, 2012 |

Gail Leiser

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