REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments - The Commentariat -- May 27, 2013

The Ledes

Monday, October 7, 2024

Weather Channel: “Hurricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 and hurricane and storm surge watches are now posted along Florida's western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek. 'Milton will be a historic storm for the west coast of Florida,' the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said in a briefing Monday morning.”

CNN: “This year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their work on the discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated. Their research revealed how genes give rise to different cells within the human body, a process known as gene regulation. Gene regulation by microRNA – a family of molecules that helps cells control the sort of proteins they make – ... was first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun. The Nobel Prize committee announced the prestigious honor ... in Sweden on Monday.... Ambros, a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, conducted the research that earned him the prize at Harvard University. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.”

The Wires

The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

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.”

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May262013

The Commentariat -- May 27, 2013

On Memorial Day, Juan Cole remembers conscientious objector Henry David Thoreau.

hollowed: having an indentation or inward curve
hallowed: holy, consecrated, sacred, revered

-- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Of Course They Were "Targeted." Nicholas Confessore & Michael Luo of the New York Times: "Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications. But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review." ...

... CW: congratulations to the Times for finally getting around to the crux of the controversy, something liberal writers have been on top of since the "scandal" broke. Also, good on the editors for making this a front-page story. (Plus, let's not forget the other part of the story: all 3 branches of government contributed to giving IRS functionaries an impossible task, then derogates them for doing the best they can with a mess of the accusers' making.) ...

... T. Steelman of Addicting Information: Fox "News," "the same network that is up in arms over this whole IRS 'scandal,' ..., in July of 2011 ... was on a campaign to have Media Matters' non-profit status revoked." Fox on-air personalities were teaching listeners how to complain to the IRS about Media Matters' tax status & urging them to spam the IRS. Thanks to Jeanne B. for the link. ...

... CW: Fox "News"s attempt to get the IRS to revoke Media Matters' tax-exempt status is not entirely analogous to the current controversy. The IRS reviews of 501(c)(4) applications were not about revoking any group's tax-exempt status, but rather about determining if these organizations should be "pre-cleared" to conceal the names of their donors. AND the IRS was not exclusively flagging right-leaning groups for this "pre-clearance" status. While I don't agree with the Supremes' interpretation that money = speech, even accepting that as a given, the First Amendment does not guarantee anonymous free speech. Nino & the Gang would agree with me on that. So what Fox was doing to Media Matters -- had the IRS bit -- would have had a much more serious direct financial impact on Media Matters than would an IRS review of Tea Party R-Us (c)(4) status.

Thanks to Jeanne B. for the lesson. CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE. It's worth it.

I think they ought to put a sign on the national committee doors that says closed for repairs, until New Year's Day next year, and spend that time going over ideas and positive agendas. -- Bob Dole, on today's GOP ...

... Bernie Becker of the Hill: "Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) on Sunday sharply criticized both his own party and the Senate he served in for close to three decades. Asked on 'Fox News Sunday' if the Senate was broken, Dole responded that 'it is bent pretty badly.'"

... Steve M. of No More Mister Nice Blog points out that Dole himself, according to a 1998 New York Times report, masterminded & orchestrated "a form of scorched-earth partisan warfare unprecedented in modern political life." That is to say, the party has simply gone from bad to worse.

Ben Ambruster of Think Progress: Peter King (R-N.Y.) "The House Homeland Security Committee chairman, said on Sunday that he was 'offended' that President Obama considered moral questions about U.S. counterterrorism policy in his major speech on national security last week.... Civilian casualties as the result of drone strikes, lack of transparency in the President's targeted killing program, and indefinite detention without charge or trial and torture-like force-feeding at Guantanamo, these are all issues Obama sought to address in his speech last week and ones Peter King seemingly could [sic.] care less about. In fact, he said 'we should be proud' of U.S. counterterror policy and 'defend what we're doing and stop apologizing for America.'" ...

... CW: I'm not surprised King was upset by Obama's speech. As Jane Mayer of the New Yorker pointed out last week, Obama rejected the cowboy/"might is right" mentality that underlay the Bush administration's foreign policy. Worse than Bush, King has a sickening jingoistic worldview, bashing Muslims at every opportunity, something that Obama also clearly rejects. American foreign policy is supposed to follow moral guidelines -- we used to pride ourselves on that (even when the pride was unjustified) -- but King & his ilk are not ashamed to put raw power before morality. There's little difference between his POV & that of any two-bit despot. He does help explain why the right hates & fears the United Nations -- because its charter is to promote peace & tolerance among all nations, with no special exception for U.S. interests.

Paul Krugman: "... it does look as if there's an Obamacare shock coming: the shock of learning that a public program designed to help a lot of people can, strange to say, end up helping a lot of people -- especially when government officials actually try to make it work." ...

... CW: one possible outcome -- further dividing the country along red state/blue state lines. People in red states will envy/resent the lucky duckies who live in blue states where health insurance is affordable, but that won't make red-staters demand that they get the same deals. Conservatism thrives on existential resentment, so this will just be one more tick on a long list going back to the War of Northern Aggression -- & before. ...

... Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "Wall Street investors hungry for advance information on upcoming federal health-care decisions repeatedly held private discussions with Obama administration officials, including a top White House adviser helping to implement the Affordable Care Act. The private conversations show that the increasingly urgent race to acquire 'political intelligence' goes beyond the communications with congressional staffers that have become the focus of heightened scrutiny in recent weeks." ...

... Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "... even as Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan [of the New York archdiocese] insists that requiring some religiously affiliated employers to pay for contraception services would be an unprecedented, and intolerable, government intrusion on religious liberty, the archdiocese he heads has quietly been paying for such coverage, albeit reluctantly and indirectly, for thousands of its unionized employees for over a decade." CW: somehow the Church manages to tolerate the intolerable when it is in its interest to do so. The fact that unions have been able to muscle the archdiosese into covering women's health needs is another example of why they are important & why the successful efforts to squelch them have been devastating to ordinary Americans.

Phillip O'Connor of the Oklahoman: "President Barack Obama came to Oklahoma on Sunday to comfort grieving families, laud the work of emergency responders and offer assurances that the nation stands ready to assist with recovery from last week's deadly tornadoes."

... Video of the President's full remarks is here.

Congressional Races

Politico Sounds the Alarm. James Hohmann of Politico: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) "looked to be a top GOP pickoff target next year after his agonizing seven-month recount and legal battle put him in the Senate in 2009 by a mere 312 votes. Yet, in a turnabout few could've predicted, Franken has yet to draw a Republican opponent.... Franken's success so far fending off a serious challenger speaks to the broader recruitment challenge Republicans face in 2014.... Also of help: Minnesota — genuinely purple a decade ago -- has taken on a more bluish hue. And the state Republican Party is reeling, debt-ridden and seeking to find its way after its Ron Paul-affiliated Senate nominee lost to Sen. Amy Klobuchar by 34 points in November."

Local News

Michael Fletcher of the Washington Post on how North Carolina is becoming a model for an ultra-conservatives agenda because Republicans control both houses & the governorship, thanks in some part to the financial support of multimillionaire Art Pope, whom Gov. Pat McCrory made the state's budget chief.

Three strikes and you're out. A great university with great students and alumni deserve better. From the mishandling of the Rice situation to the Eddie Jordan thing, where they didn't know that he didn't have his degree, to a woman who can't remember that every member of her volleyball team called her to leave. You remember that on your death bed. She should go, too. You can't make this stuff up. -- Former New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey (D), calling on Rutgers President Richard Barchi to resign ...

... Craig Wolff of the New Jersey Star-Ledger: "Political leaders from across the state reacted with a mix of dismay and astonishment yesterday that Rutgers found itself flush with yet-more controversy after Julie Hermann, the school's athletic director in waiting, had been accused of mental and verbal abuse by former players while she was the volleyball coach at the University of Tennessee.... Gov. Chris Christie told NBC on Sunday morning in Asbury Park that he will 'be asking questions' about Hermann's past and of Rutgers officials."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Designs for many of the nation's most sensitive advanced weapons systems have been compromised by Chinese hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon and to officials from government and the defense industry."

New York Times: "Divisions among European Union foreign ministers on Monday prevented the renewal of the arms embargo on Syria, raising the possibility of a new flow of weapons to rebels fighting to bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad."

Washington Post: "Hoping to use economic promise as a bridge to a peace deal between Palestinians and Israel, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced an estimated $4 billion economic development proposal for the West Bank on Sunday that he said could cut the 21 percent unemployment rate by two-thirds."

AP: " Washington state plans to install within weeks a temporary fix for an interstate highway bridge that crumpled after being hit by a truck, tossing cars and people into a chilly river but causing only minor injuries. Gov. Jay Inslee announced Sunday that the temporary spans for the Interstate 5 bridge will be installed across the Skagit River by around mid-June, if plans go well." Seattle Times story here.

Reuters: "Heavy fighting raged on Monday around the strategic border town of Qusair, [Syria,] and the capital Damascus, amid renewed reports of chemical weapons attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces."

Reuters: "A gunman randomly firing from his pickup truck killed one person and wounded five, including the sheriff of Concho County, Texas, on Sunday before the suspect was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, officials said. Authorities recovered an assault rifle, a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition from the suspect, who was said to be 23 years old and from North Carolina. The name was withheld pending notification of relatives, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement." ...

... Update: " A Texas gunman who killed one person and wounded five others before being shot to death by police was stationed at a North Carolina Marine base, the Texas Department of Public Safety said on Monday. The gunman was identified as Esteban Smith, 23, who was stationed at Camp Lejeune...."

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Minnesota certainly has a bi-polar aspect to it. In a state where the comedian Tim Bedore says,' The extroverts stare at your shoes and the introverts stare at their own shoes' a vast gap exists in the nature of who gets selected for political leadership. Consistency seems to be a foreign concept as the same state that yielded up Hubert H. Humphrey, Garrison Keillor and a host of thoughtful, philosophical thinkers also elects as Governor Jesse Ventura and somehow allows a lying witch like Michelle Bachman onto a national stage.
Those bachelor farmers around Lake Woebegon are truly a strange bunch.

May 26, 2013 |

Roger Henry

@Pepe

Thanks for the link. The NYT does dabble into the GMO conversation occasionally, which is a much needed voice in this debate. The lack of scientific studies on the secondary effects of GMOs on personal and environmental health is an issue that worries me greatly. Along with the mounting list of obstacles facing my generation, this one seems pivotal but unfortunately it also appears to be a losing battle. The revolving door of Washington and the financial might of chemical companies is a knockout combo that would take a tsunami of popular protest to dislodge from their golden pedestal. Yet while 2 million people protested globally, average Americans have become so lethargic that Million Man marches seem like a thing of the past. Hopefully I'm proved wrong but it seems clear that the GMO debate won't be the kickstarter.

Europeans are quite adamant about the need for further scientific testing before they give the green light to planting GM crops. My biggest fear is that once science has been given due process without manipulation by the usual suspects, the results will prove that the peddled benefits of GM crops are unfounded and could actually be potentially dangerous to human consumption. If this theory holds we could see a consolidation of nations rejecting the import and use of GM crops which would shut out the vast majority of US farmers from a large portion of the world market. Agricultural trading could be thus divided into conventional and GM groupings, with the conventional side with the huge comparative advantage because they'd have access to the world markets while GM producers would only trade between themselves. This could devastate local farmers who won't have the option to turn back to conventional seed because their fields have already been compromised.

Besides that, the indirect consumption of GMOs in the US is already a permanent fixture in an average diet, especially those people that buy lots of processed and manufactured foods. Removing these GMOs from the food chain should they prove hazardous to your health seems insurmountable. We'd just have to accept it.

This scenario could seem far fetched but if you follow the debate and the uncovering of GMOs secrets that Monsanto's fought so hard to suppress, world food production could see significant structural changes in the coming decades.

The website http://www.gmwatch.org/ has a wealth of information on the subject and I would highly recommended a quick surf through the site just to get a scope of the situation.

May 26, 2013 |

safari

Wisconsin, my home state, is an enigma to me! How could they choose a shit like Ron (Tea Party is Me) Johnson over (best Progressive) Russ Feingold? Still cannot understand that. Then--turn around and elect Tammy Baldwin to replace Herb Kohl? Maybe it is because their water is fluoridated! We have no such problem here in Orygon, where the right thinks fluoridation is a Communist plot, and the left wingnuts think it is adding lethal chemicals to our "pure"? water, which will make us all autistic. Forget the positive effect on teeth for the poor people who cannot afford dentistry!

I tell you: We live in a National Asylum, and our inmates are truly unglued!

May 27, 2013 |

Kate Madison

@safari: I know you were dismayed that the Monsanto protests received little national attention, but at least some local papers did a better job & perhaps some local TV stations did, too. My paper, the Fort Myers News-Press, ran a full-page story with pix in the Sunday paper, covering the protest here, even tho only about 200 people participated.

Marie

May 27, 2013 |

Marie Burns

I wrote this on Memorial Day 2007. I hope you don't mind my sharing it.

Memorial Day 2007

I'm back in RVN*
Walking carefully through the abandoned rice paddies
Taking care to step exactly where the man in front stepped
Since he didn't trip a booby trap or set off a mine.
The man behind me does the same, because so far, I haven't either.
It's brutally hot.

We're spread out: each platoon and the company CP about a click**apart.
That tree line ahead--
Is there someone in it, taking aim? At us? At me?
I hate tree lines and hedgerows. (I still do.)

A loud boom. Check all of the platoons.
It's bad news--a mine. The soldier isn't dead,
but he's minus part of a leg.
Pop smoke*** for the Dustoff.****
We've been walking for two days.
He rides back to the Combat Hospital in 20 minutes.

He might make it.
More likely gangrene will earn him a place on The Wall in DC.

We move on. What is the point of all this?
Futility.
It is so hot.

*Republic of Vietnam

**A kilometer or 1000 meters

***To set off a smoke grenade to mark location

****Medevac helicopter

May 27, 2013 |

Barbarossa

@ Barbarossa: Thank You–––for your words and for your deeds. the point was folly; you moved on.

May 27, 2013 |

PD Pepe

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