The Ledes

Thursday, September 19, 2024

New York Times: “A body believed to be of the suspect in a Kentucky highway shooting that left five people seriously injured this month was found on Wednesday, the authorities said, ending a manhunt that stretched into a second week and set the local community on edge. The Kentucky State Police commissioner, Phillip Burnett Jr., said in a Wednesday night news conference that at approximately 3:30 p.m., two troopers and two civilians found an unidentified body in the brush behind the highway exit where the shooting occurred.... The police have identified the suspect of the shooting as Joseph A. Couch, 32. They said that on Sept. 7, Mr. Couch perched on a cliff overlooking Interstate 75 about eight miles north of London, Ky., and opened fire. One of the wounded was shot in the face, and another was shot in the chest. A dozen vehicles were riddled with gunfire.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, but Akhilleus found this new one that he says is easy to use.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

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.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Thursday
Nov262015

The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2015

Internal links & defunct video removed.

Ashley Southall of the New York Times: "A man climbed over a fence in front of the White House on Thursday as President Obama and his family were inside celebrating Thanksgiving, the Secret Service said. The breach exposed how vulnerable the White House grounds remain.... The service identified the man who climbed over the fence on Thursday as Joseph Caputo. Agents apprehended him on the North Lawn around 2:45 p.m., moments after he cleared the fence, said Robert Hoback, a spokesman for the Secret Service. Mr. Caputo is facing criminal charges.... He was draped in an American flag and was carrying a binder in his mouth as he scaled the fence. Once inside the perimeter, Mr. Caputo raised his arms and dropped to his knees, before lying on the ground. The White House was placed on lockdown for about three hours...." ...

     ... The Washington Post story, by Lynh Bui & Ashley Halsey, is here. ...

Cheryl Thompson & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "... at least 48 people ... have died in the United States since January -- about one death a week -- in incidents in which police used Tasers, according to a Washington Post examination of scores of police, court and autopsy records.... More than half of the 48 suffered from mental illness or had illegal drugs in their system at the time. At least 10 were Tasered while handcuffed or shackled. Only one was female. Nearly 55 percent of the people who died were minorities."

Ken Vogel & Seung Min Kim of Politico: "Senate Republicans plan to insert a provision into a must-pass government funding bill that would vastly expand the amount of cash that political parties could spend on candidates, multiple sources tell Politico. The provision ... would eliminate caps on the amount of cash that parties may spend in coordination with their candidates.... Campaign finance watchdogs argue that it would allow wealthy donors to exercise even more influence with members of Congress."

Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The spate of mass killings over the past year reignited mental health reform efforts in both chambers of Congress.... But the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, has been working behind the scenes to drum up support for his own mental health legislation, which includes language endorsed by the National Rifle Association.... His critics say the legislation actually loosens restrictions on gun purchases, under the umbrella of mental health reform.... His push ... is creating a wedge in the bipartisan coalition that had been trying to keep mental health clearly separate from any legislation touching on the politically volatile issue of guns."

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) "is siding with [seafood industry] employers [and against labor advocates & the Obama administration,], spurred by a desire to protect her state's seafood companies at a time when pollution, warming water and competition from companies in Southeast Asia have taken a toll."

Glenn Greenwald in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "Bodies were still lying in the streets of Paris when CIA operatives began exploiting the resulting fear and anger to advance long-standing political agendas. They and their congressional allies instantly attempted to heap blame for the atrocity not on Islamic State but on several preexisting adversaries: Internet encryption, Silicon Valley's privacy policies and Edward Snowden." CW: Greenwald cites two former CIA directors, but no active CIA officials or spokespeople. Do ex-directors qualify as "CIA operatives"?

Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, psyches out the pathology of the "Daddy party": "Nothing made them feel more like helpless infants than seeing Obama act presidential -- especially when he reached out to them, inviting a mature response, which they were utterly incapable of, boxed in by their own intricate structure of lies about him, prisoners of their own dark projections.... They couldn't govern their way out of a paper bag. In fact, they're really the baby party. All they can do is finger-point and fear-monger. That's it."

Joby Warrick of the Washington Post: "The river of ice that hugs Mount Grinnell's high ridges ... may be the most accessible glacier in all of North America.... But if you want to see it, you'd better hurry. Grinnell Glacier is disappearing -- fast. This crescent-shaped glacier in Montana's northern Rockies had been contracting for decades because of warming temperatures. Lately it has been shrinking at a breathtaking clip, losing as much as a 10th of its mass in a single year. As early as 2030, scientists say, it may no longer exist."

Shan Li of the Los Angeles Times: "The holiday shopping season got off to a brisk start Thursday as consumers gobbled their turkey dinners then gorged on Thanksgiving shopping.... Several chains opened Thursday afternoon or evening Many retailers in hopes of luring shoppers with doorbuster deals ahead of Black Friday...." ...

... BUT. Vauhini Vara of the New Yorker: "In the past couple of years..., retailers have tended to take a determinedly pro-frenzied-consumerism approach to Black Friday, beginning their sales earlier and earlier, so that they have eventually impinged on Thanksgiving Day. The phenomenon became so pervasive that it even got a name, Black Friday Creep.... But R.E.I.'s statement this year [video below] is actually part of what appears to be a slowdown in the creep.... This year, it seems, some brick-and-mortar retailers have begun to feel that whatever benefit they get from early openings isn't worth the trouble.... The widespread availability of good deals on the Internet has diminished the appeal of all that sales-bin arm wrestling -- and, in fact, has made it seem a bit unsavory."

Helaine Olen in Slate: "Whether they appealed to lower-, middle-, or upper-income shoppers, department stores once epitomized our seemingly limitless consumer economy. Now they're experiencing what economists call a long-term cyclical decline. According to market researcher IBISWorld, sales across the entire department-store category, which includes everything from high-end retailers like Bergdorf Goodman to lower-end establishments such as Walmart (a place few of us think of as a department store at all) fell by a 4.5-percent annual rate between 2010 and 2015."

Bob Cesca in Salon: "It’s difficult to think of another annual occasion that combines American excess with American indignity more than the day after Thanksgiving.... Rather than building stronger middle- and working-class incomes to keep up, our politics and our corporate culture have collaborated on a humiliating work-around: cheaper crap that you might have to fight for.... Adding insult to injury, The Wall Street Journal and Kiplinger.com discovered that Black Friday deals aren't very good ones."

Josh Harkinson of Mother Jones: "The people who organized the largest-ever Black Friday demonstrations against Walmart last year are leaving their protest signs at home this year. Instead, they're launching a campaign to support 1,000 food drives around the country to help struggling Walmart workers. Making Change at Walmart's 'Give Back Friday' campaign kicked off on Tuesday with the launch of a national TV ad campaign urging people 'to help feed underpaid workers'..."

Adam Chandler of the Atlantic: "Football has never been more popular, but public interest in the concussion epidemic is only growing.... According to a ongoing PBS Frontline project, NFL players have already suffered 108 concussions through 11 weeks of play this season. While the league has instituted new protocols, just this week they were criticized as insufficient after Case Keenum, the quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, failed to be removed from the game after suffering a concussion on Sunday.

Today's History Lesson. Bradford Richardson of the Hill: "The Statue of Liberty was originally designed to be a Muslim woman, the Smithsonian Institution's magazine says. An article on the government-administered museum's blog, Smart News, claims one of the designers of Lady Liberty drew inspiration from monuments in Egypt and originally intended to construct a veiled female peasant on the Suez Canal....The design of the project was eventually altered to the Roman colossus...." ...

... This history lesson should allay Stephen Colbert's concerns. Thanks to Colbert for helping ICE identify terrorists hiding among the refugee applicants (& GOP presidential candidates). Also, thanks to D. C. Clark for the link:

Presidential Race

Jose DelReal of the Washington Post: "A day after he was widely rebuked for mocking a reporter with a physical disability..., Donald Trump on Thursday denied that he had done so and accused the reporter of 'using his disability to grandstand.' Trump also demanded an apology from the New York Times, the reporter's employer, which earlier in the week issued a statement condemning Trump for ridiculing 'the appearance of one of our reporters.'" See yesterday's Commentariat for more on this story, including a link to a Guardian video which shows Trump clearly mocking the reporter's disability. Scum. ...

... Judd Legum of Think Progress: To "prove" his claim that "thousands & thousands" of New Jersey "Arabs" were cheering as the Twin Towers fells, Donald Trump linked in a tweet to a page in "Infowars.com, a conspiracy website that pushes the idea that 9/11 was an inside job.... Even Infowars' article doesn't support Trump's claim that thousands of Muslims were celebrating on 9/11. It's simply a woman who claims she saw a 'pocket' of Muslims celebrating." ...

... Tim Egan: "Donald Trump's reign would be a police state. He has now outlined a series of measures that would make the United States an authoritarian nightmare. Trump is no longer entertaining, or diversionary. He's a billionaire brute, his bluster getting more ominous by the day." ...

... Jamelle Bouie: "In the past week..., 'Donald Trump as fascist' has gone from hyperbolic to mainstream.... Alone and disconnected, [Trump's] rhetoric isn't necessarily fascist. Some of it, in fact, is even anodyne. But together and in the person of Donald Trump, it's clear: The rhetoric of fascism is here. And increasingly, the policies are too. The only thing left is the violence." ...

... In seeking to define fascism, Bouie relies on this 1995 New York Review of Books article by Umberto Eco. Eco was a decades-long friend of my husband's, & among those partisani Eco describes in the first grafs of his essay was my husband Aldo Scaglione. And, yes, one can definitely see Trump in many of the elements of "ur-fascism" Eco describes. ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "Four months into his crazed foray into presidential politics, Trump is still winning this thing. And what could once be dismissed as a larkish piece of political performance art has seemingly turned into something darker. Pundits, even conservative ones, say that Trump resembles a fascist. The recent terrorist attacks in Paris, which some hoped would expose Trump's shallowness, have instead strengthened him by intensifying people's anger and fear.... This is the thing Trump knows: You can stand around fretting about truth and propriety and the danger of pandering to baser instincts. Or you can give the people what they want." ...

... Brian Beutler of the New Republic: "As much as they've awakened to the threat that Trumpism poses to their party, Republicans and the conservative intelligentsia lack the self-awareness -- or perhaps the temerity -- to acknowledge that though they now resent it, they've been courting it all along."

Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Ben Carson, who is facing increasing scrutiny over his grasp of foreign policy, is traveling to Jordan on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, in order to gain an understanding of the pressing issue and to polish his candidacy.

Beyond the Beltway

Elizabeth Bruenig of the New Republic: The state of "Texas is demanding that Christian groups stop taking in Syrian refugees. The groups say that's a violation of the Constitution." CW: Huh. Turns out freeedom of religion (or freeedom of Christianity) is important to Texas's Christianist officials only when conveeenient.

Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "While the trend in much of the United States is moving toward decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, Virginia is heading in the opposite direction: sharply rising arrest totals for possession of pot, and a disproportionate number of black people arrested in the commonwealth, according to a new study based on state data reported to the FBI."

Way Beyond

Nicole Winfield & Tom Odula of the AP: "Visiting one of Nairobi's many shantytowns on Friday, Pope Francis denounced conditions slum-dwellers are forced to live in, saying access to safe water is a basic human right and that everyone should have dignified, adequate housing."

Andrew Roth of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Francois Hollande in the Kremlin on Thursday that Russia is 'prepared to work with you' in combatting the Islamist militants who have inflicted devastating attacks on both countries. Hollande flew to Moscow to enlist Putin in a joint campaign against the Islamic State in Syria, but the prospects for close coordination between wary nations are problematic." ...

... Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "The downing of a Russian warplane by Turkey threatened to lead to a wholesale breach in the countries' relations on Thursday, with the Kremlin preparing to sever economic ties and Turkish officials saying they had no reason to apologize."

Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "... life in Bangladesh’s crowded capital has changed significantly since a string of terrorist attacks this year, including shootings claimed by the Islamic State that left two foreigners dead and a third, an Italian missionary, seriously wounded. Many have stopped walking or bicycling to work in favor of company cars. An international AIDS conference was postponed and other events canceled."

Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "In his first full day in Africa, Pope Francis spoke to the many millions reeling from a string of terrorist attacks, condemning the way young people have been 'radicalized in the name of religion to sow discord and fear.' That message -- like the rest of his comments [in Nairobi, Kenya.] on Thursday -- spoke to both global and local concerns, shifting between lamentations for a perilous time, globally, in history and the threats facing Kenya as its economic and geopolitical strength grows."

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "Miss Canada, otherwise known as Anastasia Lin, a 25-year-old actress and classically trained pianist ... has been denied a Chinese visa to attend the monthlong [Missi World] pageant, presumably because of her outspoken advocacy for human rights and religious freedom in China."

AP: "The French national anthem played by a military band has closed the ceremony honoring those killed in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.... The tightly secured ceremony paid homage to the 130 people, overwhelmingly young adults, killed when Islamic extremists struck the national stadium, bars, restaurants and a concert hall."

"Europe the Unready." Paul Krugman: There is a "slow-motion disaster now overtaking the European project on multiple fronts."

News Ledes

BBC News: "The Democratic Action party [of Venezuela] says Luis Manuel Diaz[, a regional leader of the party.] was killed by a man who approached the stage after a public meeting in central Guarico state. Opposition leaders blamed militias supporting the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). President Nicolas Maduro denied this and said an inquiry had been launched."

AP: "Malian special forces have arrested two men over last week's attack on a luxury hotel in the capital that killed 19 people, according to a statement distributed Friday morning. The statement identified the two Malians, both arrested in Bamako, but provided no other details on their background or their potential roles in the attack."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (11)

As I am ending what has been a lovely, sunny day on the Oregon Coast--with a spectacular high tide--I think about how at this moment I feel far away from the violence of our war(s), guns, and American exceptionalism. Today was the first day I have not grieved and obsessed angrily about the massacre and cover up of the MSF Hospital in Kunduz.

I want to share with you all a sweet poem, by the Norwegian poet, Rolf Jacobsen, as I look forward to a peaceful sleep.

[CW: Content removed for copyright violation. You can read the poem "When They Sleep," in its English translation here.]

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

“If you want to know if somebody is Christian, just ask them to complete this sentence: Jesus said, ‘I was hungry, you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you...’” he said. “And if they don’t say ‘welcomed me in,’ they are either a terrorist, or they are running for president.”

~ Stephen Colbert

video here:

http://thebea.st/1QyevH7

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

So we are starting to get to the point of identifying the real Adolf Trump. Yes he is a fascist (not so much in economics but since he leads the business world in bankrupts he knows nothing on the subject). But my frustration is in part when are we going to start talking about mental illness.
I mean Trump has not the slightest problem lying. I saw the video of his mocking of the disabled reporter, yet he has no problem denying the obvious. He can never admit to a mistake. Never.
So lets sum it up>
There are no facts, only Trumps
There is no Constitution, only the Trump
In 2017 we will become the United States of Trump
And of course he will not become POTUS he will become King Trump, oh wait, that doesn't do it. Emperor Trump!, that sounds better, for him.

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

Marvin,

Since Le Donald has often praised or panned people based on whether they have been "nice to me", how about Dear Leader? Or Le Dear Donald?

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterD.C.Clark

I'm thinking that when Obama speaks negatively about the GOP's antics and says, "We are Americans–-we are better than that!" he leaves out all those Americans whose loyalty to those like Trump and others who are definitely NOT better than that. It's like the "we are created equal" business–-no, we are not, but we NEED to be. And if being treated equally those that dirty our waters need to be called out.

IS this what you want for your country, folks?

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Today's news...I'm curious to know what was in Joseph Caputo's binder? Recipes for leftover turkey, nude photos of Ben Carson, proof of alien life???

Speaking of Ben Carson. I'm waiting for him to perform some miracle neurosurgery on a Syrian refuge child, a miracle healing perhaps. Another of his delusional deity prophesies fulfilled.

Glen Greenwald seems to be moving closer and closer to a really unpleasant stereotype. I bet he's a dream to live with.

@Marie. Umberto Eco? I remember reading the "Name of the Rose" for the 1st time, it hooked me on mysteries for a lifetime. Unfortunately, most others haven't measured up.

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@PD Pepe: I don't think "all men are created equal" means to suggest that we are created with equal talents, but that we have equal "natural" rights which the government is bound to ensure. In the next clause, the Declaration reads, "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That clause, I think is a modifier to the "created equal" language, not an additional principle.

Of course, Jefferson & Co. did not apply those "equal" rights to indentured men, black Americans, native Americans, or women, & it was only some while later -- and on as state-by-state basis -- that ordinary men received more or less "equal" treatment under U.S. law.

As for Obama, he continues to appeal to the angels of our better nature, in the same way a parent might tell a child who has misbehaved, "I raised you to be better than that."

Democratic principles, as far as they go, are fine. The problem comes in how poorly we apply them & to whom we consistently afford them.

Marie

November 27, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Diane: I read a good portion but not all of "The Name of the Rose," & I saw the movie. What surprised me initially was that none of plot lines or devices was original. For instance, the poison on the pages of a book is an older trope than I knew: prior to reading "Rose," I had read an old short story that used the same method. Turns out that story's use of the device wasn't original, either, because the method also appears in one of the "Arabian Knights" tales.

I think Eco lifted these tropes as a spoof on popular literature & at the same time as an acknowledgment that a popular story was the best vehicle for publicizing esoteric topics. His idea, I'm guessing, was to create a page-turning framework by employing the usual means, but embedding in it many digressions on history, philosophy, linguistics, etc. As Eco himself says in the postscript to "Rose," "... books always speak of other books, & every story tells a story that has already been told."

I see literature the same way, including popular literature. In popular literature, every single element is a copy or rearrangement of what has come before. In more serious literature, the writer tries to "make it new" by embedding in her work her own responses to earlier works.

Marie

November 27, 2015 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Diane

Could it have been another patriotic American with a binder full of women?

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

@Marie. I am a voracious reader and of course you are correct about plot devices. For me, it's not figuring out the "mystery" itself, but the quality of the writing and in particular, the writer's ability to capture the guts of the character and his era. Don't get me started.

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

@ Yeah, I get the equality bit–-my point was we are not "created" ( a word in dispute) equal, but we need to be treated equally in this so called democracy. As far as Obama's message I'd like him to say, "We as Americans need to strive to be better than this–-we, as such a strong nation, should be holding up the torch for compassion for those that need our help. Let's not falter in our quest for greatness and generosity."

November 27, 2015 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.