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

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

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

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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."

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Saturday
Apr162011

Whoops! Big Whoops!

In today's New York Times, Charles Blow blasts the House Republican/ Ryan/Tea Party budget: "More tax cuts would be gluttony in a time of starvation. That is not America. That is a nation about to be plundered, and a people laid to waste."

I wrote a comment to Blow's column, later published at #2. Reader Helen F. found a teensy-weensy problem with it, though. Check out that last sentence. On my honor, I am not a closet Republican shilling for Paul Ryan. I really, really, really meant "Progressive" there. Here's my comment, complete with any and all typos, including the error in the offensive last paragraph:


So if you're looking for an alternative budget plan that will help not only the poor but also the middle class, look no further than the Congress of the United States, where the Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed a budget that moves toward balancing the budget at the same time it encourages job creation, clean energy and education, and it continues entitlement programs in full force.

Of course the rich, the super-rich and corporations will have to start paying their fair share of taxes to bring the CPC budget into balance, and we might have to quit fighting no-win wars around the globe, but are those caveats so bad? I don't think so.

With only four defectors from the Republican party, and not a single Democratic vote, the House passed the Ryan/Republican Tea Party budget today (Friday) that ends Medicare as we know it and reduces investment in social programs like Medicare and food stamps. The bill will go nowhere in the Senate (unless the Democratic leadership wants to get some of those Republican Senators on record voting for this anti-American bill). Even if the bill should pass the Senate, President Obama has promised to veto it.

With the House Republican bill dead in the water, we need to turn our attention toward a budget that will work for the American people. I say that budget is the Congressional Republican* Caucus budget. Let's stop talking about the bad guys long enough to focus on what the good guys have proposed.

* Uh, that should be "Progressive."


My comment on Gail Collins' column is still sitting in the holding pattern, so I'll post that, too. Collins noted, with some disappointment, that Mitt Romney failed to include in any of his books the story of his family trip to Canada during which he kept his dog strapped on the hood of the car. My comment:

Thanks for the laughs, Gail. Only you could find humor in ex-Governor Mitt.

Of course the biggest joke of all is that Mitt Romney is probably the best candidate Republicans can field this year. Since Mitt has been running for President since at least 2007 (what is he exploring again?), Republicans are already pretty tired of him. They're looking around longingly for somebody great like another Bush brother or Gov. Whatzhizname from Indiana who beat Wisconsin Gov. Walker to the punch on stripping those elitist union members of their collective bargaining rights. (He did it by executive order! He's bold! He did it on his first day in office! He's decisive!)

I'm not among that huge core of liberals who fell back in love with President Obama after his American Values Budget speech (it was a good speech), but Obama sure looks good when you hold him up next to Paperback Romney. I wonder if Mitt noticed Barack (or ghostwriter Bill Ayers) wrote a children's book last year. If Mitt noticed, let's hope we'll get a children's book from him, too. I'd suggest he base it on that glaring omission from his No Apology tome. A family trip to Canada with an Irish setter strapped to the roof of the car sounds like great fare for the kids. There's probably a moral for them in there somewhere, too.


P.S. After having had literally hundreds of my comments axed or held back by Times moderators and after hearing the same stories from many other Times would-be commenters, I've decided to start some kind of Alternate Times Comments page for those of us who get whacked from the Times comments pages. Stay tuned. I'm not 100 percent sure I'll be able to manage it, but I will give it a try. 

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