Marc Dion: We've Cut Too Deep (Creators Syndicate)
American politics is interesting as all hell right now, but if you want to know the truth of it, properly run government is boring. Taxes get collected. Bills get paid. Decisions get made. It's as exciting as sitting down with your husband or wife to figure out the month's budget.
Mark Shields: Winning Means Coming in First (Creators Syndicate)
Listening to this particular presidential prevarication, I was reminded of the wisdom of the late Don Fraser, the Minnesota congressman and mayor of Minneapolis, who observed, "Under current law, it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for the government official to lie to the people."
Lenore Skenazy: From Distrust to Dystopia (Creators Syndicate)
Can we press pause to think about what this level of scrutiny does in terms of actual safety? And what it does in terms of changing the way we look at the people we interact with? And what happens when we believe we must start outsourcing our humanity to our tech (and government) overlords?
Susan Estrich: Kobe's 'Complicated' Legacy (Creators Syndicate)
Having sex with a 19-year-old who doesn't consent is called rape, or, if you prefer, felony sexual assault. The force comes when you, a professional athlete, shove her on a bed, tear off her clothes and have sex with her. I wrote a book about this - 35 years ago. By the time the girl left his hotel room in tears, Kobe had already called in the handlers and the lawyers. He tried denying that he had sex with her, notwithstanding bruises and blood. When that didn't work, he admitted that he never asked her for consent.
Susan Estrich: Here Comes Mike (Creators Syndicate)
Democrats can't afford to lose (likely as that seems right now), and we certainly can't afford the kind of landslide that could leave both houses of Congress in Republican hands.
Froma Harrop: Donors Are a Lousy Way to Gauge Political Support (Creators Syndicate)
To get onstage at the last Democratic debate, a candidate had to have received contributions from at least 225,000 donors. That disqualified Mike Bloomberg. He has only one donor: himself. That rule sounded nice and democratic with a small "d," but actually, it is a highly flawed way to measure a candidate's ability to win a national election. The Democratic National Committee has wisely just removed that requirement from the next debate, scheduled for Feb. 19 in Nevada.
A tittle or superscript dot is a small distinguishing mark, such as a diacritic in the form of a dot on a lowercase i or j. The tittle is an integral part of the glyph of i and j, but diacritic dots can appear over other letters in various languages.
Source
Mark. was first, and correct, with:
A tittle is the little dot over a lowercase i or j.
Mac Mac said:
On the i and the j
mj wrote:
Mostly
Above the letters i and j. Unless one has a leaky pen. Then the little
dots can happen all over the page.
Alan J answered:
Atop an i or a j.
Dave responded:
The letters i and j . The tittle is the dot. Not many tittles in the English alphabet, although they are common in punctuation!?.
Randall replied:
the dot above a lower-case letter like i or j
Deborah wrote:
A tittle is a diacritic mark, like the dot over the lower-case letter i or j, or an accent over a letter. Wasn't there a football player named Y.A. Tittle?
Husband is home after 10 days of traveling through Italy for business, and sounds like he has a cold…hope it's not the dreaded Coronavirus.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame said:
In the English alphabet, you would find a tittle over the lowercase letters "i" and "j." (Had a heck of a time overriding autocorrect on the lower-case i. My email software really wanted to capitalize it!)
zorch answered:
over an I or a j
Cal in Vermont replied:
The dot over the lower-case j or i maybe?
Rosemary in Columbus responded:
Over the i and j
DJ Useo said:
I believe a tittle is a tiny dot over a lower case letter. I had to know this when I was a proof-reader at a newspaper.
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~~~~~
Info: "Singer-songwriter Megan Bee writes with an unquenchable wanderlust and a raw love for the land. Her latest studio album Like a Canyon (2017) claims both The Ohio Music Awards 2017 Best Americana and Best Singer-Songwriter Album. With folk-Americana roots, she blends a distinctly homespun voice over an acoustic simplicity."
• In the late 1950s, Eileen Birin taught at a parochial school in Dallas, Texas. She had an unmotivated 7th-grade student named Scott, who received all F's on his report card. He even received a lecture from the monsignor because of his grades. The next day Scott went to school with his face a mess of black, purple, and black bruises. He also wore a bloody bandage on his head. One of the students told Ms. Birin that Scott's father had beaten him because of all the F's on his report card. Ms. Birin felt awful, of course, but she began teaching and assigned the students some math problems to do in class. While working on the math problems, Scott rubbed his face, and part of a bruise disappeared from his face and appeared on his hand! Ms. Birin looked closely at the "bruises" and discovered that they were really made of make-up. She told Scott, "You'd better go to the washroom and get that gunk off your face." Scott washed his face, and over time his grades improved, and although Ms. Birin has not seen him for a while, when the credits roll after she sees a movie, she looks for his name among all the make-up artists.
• A man went to a monastery and asked a monk a question about Buddhist teaching. Because the monk was silently meditating, he did not reply, so the man went away, angry. The next day, the man returned and asked a different monk the same question. The monk gave him a long answer, but the man was furious at the length of the answer and went away, still angry. Again, the next day the man returned and asked his question of a third monk, who was aware of what had happened the previous two days. This monk gave a medium-length answer, but the man accused him of treating the matter sketchily and again went away, still angry. The third monk explained the matter to the Buddha, who replied, "There is always blame in this world. If you say too much, some people will blame you. If you say a little bit, some people will blame you. If you say nothing at all, some people will blame you."
• Amy Votava teaches children about accepting other people, including fat people. She tells them about an experiment in which children were shown drawings of a child of normal weight and of children with handicaps and of a fat child. Children said that the depiction of the fat child was a depiction of a person who was "lazy, dirty, stupid, ugly, cheats, and lies." Not all children, however, feel that way. After teaching one group of kids about body size, Ms. Votava told them about the experiment and then asked, "Now that you have had these lessons about body size, what would you do if you had to pick the least likable child?" One girl raised her hand and replied, "I would say, 'How can you expect me to do this when I have no idea who these people are on the inside?'" Ms. Votava remembers, "Thirty-nine other heads nodded in unison."
• When Rabbi Joseph Telushkin was a student at Yeshiva University, a certain professor was blind, but was still able to teach because he had memorized so much of the Talmud. This professor had one small problem - he knew the name of only one student in the class, so he called on that student every day to read and explain the part of the Talmud being studied that day. This was driving the student crazy. One day, the professor, as usual, called on the student to read the text out loud, but the student spoke up, disguising his voice and saying that the student the professor had asked for wasn't present that day because of illness. "He's not here?" said the professor. "Then you read the Talmud out loud today."
CBS starts the night, as usual, with '60 Minutes', followed by a RERUN'NCIS', then a RERUN'FBI', followed by a RERUN'NCIS: The 3rd One'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'America's Got Talent: The Champions', followed by a RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games', then another RERUN'Ellen's Game Of Games'.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'Oscars'.
The CW offers a RERUN'Batwoman', followed by a RERUN'Supergirl'.
Faux has a RERUN'Last Man Standing', followed by a RERUN'Outmatched', then a RERUN'The Simpsons', followed by a RERUN'Bob's Burgers', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by another RERUN'Family Guy'.
MY recycles an old 'How I Met Your Mother', followed by another old 'How I Met Your Mother', then an old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by another old 'Big Bang Theory', then still another old 'Big Bang Theory', followed by yet another old 'Big Bang Theory'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Whicker's World
[6:45AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - You're No Fun Any More
[7:30AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Whither Canada?
[8:15AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - Sex and Violence
[10:00AM] GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002)
[1:30PM] ROAD TO PERDITION (2002)
[4:00PM] THE GREEN MILE (1999)
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO - Ep 7
[9:10PM] THE GREEN MILE (1999)
[1:10AM] ROAD TO PERDITION (2002)
[3:40AM] DOCTOR WHO - Ep 7
[4:50AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - It's the Arts
[5:25AM] MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS - School Prizes (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives of Atlanta', followed by a FRESH'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', then a FRESH'Shahs Of Sunset', followed by a FRESH'Watch What Happens: Live'.
FX has the movie 'Hidden Figures', followed by the movie 'Murder On The Orient Express', then a FRESH'The Weekly', and another 'The Weekly'.
History has 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers: Bonus Buys'.
IFC -
[6:15A] The Three Stooges - Booby Dupes
[6:30A] The Three Stooges - Pop Goes the Easel
[6:55A] The Three Stooges - Playing the Ponies
[7:20A] The Three Stooges - Phony Express
[7:45A] The Poseidon Adventure
[10:15A] Saving Private Ryan
[2:45P] Argo
[5:00P] Gladiator
[8:30P] GoodFellas
[11:45P] Argo
[2:30A] GoodFellas
[5:45A] The Three Stooges - If a Body Meets a Body (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00am] Law & Order
[7:00am] Law & Order
[8:00am] Law & Order
[9:00am] Law & Order featured
[10:00am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter - Documentary
[11:00am] Roots: The Next Generations
[1:15pm] Roots: The Next Generations
[3:30pm] Roots: The Next Generations
[5:45pm] Roots: The Next Generations
[8:00pm] Roots: The Next Generations
[10:15pm] Roots: The Next Generations
[12:30am] Roots: The Next Generations
[3:00am] Close Up With The Hollywood Reporter
[4:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[4:30am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:00am] The Andy Griffith Show
[5:30am] The Andy Griffith Show (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Iron Man', followed by the movie 'After Earth', then the movie 'King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword'.
The Golden Raspberry Foundation announced its picks for 2019's worst achievements in film, a day before the Academy Awards honor the industry's best.
Cats, which the Razzie folks described as a "widely derided feline flop," picked up eight nods. A Madea Family Funeral and Rambo: Last Blood also received eight nominations. All three films landed in the worst picture category.
Tyler Perry, who wrote, produced, directed and played four roles in A Madea Family Funeral, received multiple nods - worst screenplay, worst actress, worst screen combo, and two worst supporting actor nominations.
The Razzie Award winners are usually announced the day before the Oscars. But according to the Golden Raspberry Foundation, the schedule was changed this year due to the Oscar ceremony being moved up. The Razzie Awards date will be announced later.
The full list of nominees for the 40th Annual Razzie Awards - Razzies
Major League Baseball said they would stop running promotions for Roger Waters' upcoming North American tour following criticism from Jewish advocacy groups.
As part of an ad buy by AEG/Concerts West, advertisements for tickets to Waters' This Is Not a Drill trek were shown on MLB platforms. This drew the ire of Jewish organizations like B'nai B'rith, which has been critical of Waters for his support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Waters' views on Israel "far exceed the boundaries of civil discourse," the organization wrote in a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred earlier this month.
It's unclear why MLB would house ads for the This Is Not A Drill tour since the trek will only visit "in-the-round"-capable arenas and not baseball stadiums; in 2011, on a still-active page on the MLB.com site, the league promoted Roger Waters' The Wall concert at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies.
Waters' summer tour begins July 8th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and concludes October 3rd - a month shy of Election Day - in Dallas, Texas.
Like so many other wine country towns dependent on tourism and out-of-town visitors, the California resort community of Guerneville typically experiences a winter downturn.
Business owners know to prepare for it. Restaurant owners scale back seasonal staff. Hotels offer discounted rates.
But this winter, no one was prepared for the aftershocks of the second major wildfire to hit Sonoma county in three seasons - one that prompted widespread mandatory evacuations and panic. No one was prepared for the after-effects of weeks of power shutoffs, a preventative measure during high fire weather.
Business owners still reeling from the cancelled bookings and loss of business during peak tourism season in the fall are now struggling more than ever to get through the winter.
In a region ruled by an industry where image means everything, Guerneville is experiencing an unforeseen economic impact of climate change. The Kincade fire, which burned more than 77,700 acres in Sonoma county in 2019, was miles away from the community of 4,500 along the Russian River, but officials evacuated the region as a precaution, fearing a repeat of the 2017 Tubbs fire that killed 22 people.
A blighted bar in an eastern Pennsylvania town was on the brink of being demolished until a contractor pulled back a few layers and discovered something much more historic.
It was a centuries-old log cabin, covered beneath layers of siding and other modern construction, WNEP-TV reported.
An official estimates the building could be from the 1700s.
"Going through the building, there were some beams in the back of the old bar room that we wanted to salvage because they were so beautiful," Washingtonville Mayor Tyler Dombroski told The Daily Item newspaper. "As the contractor started to peel off the additions to the building from over the years, we started to see exposed beams and then the entire log cabin. Everybody's jaws dropped."
The Washingtonville, Pennsylvania bar was condemned three years ago.
Masked White Nationalists March With Police Escort
National Mall
Police escorted masked members of a white nationalist group on a march through Washington's National Mall on Saturday that Metropolitan Police said occurred without incident or arrests.
More than 100 members of the Patriot Front, dressed in khaki pants and caps, blue jackets and white face masks, shouted "Reclaim America!" and "Life, liberty, victory!" video of the march showed.
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the Patriot Front as a white nationalist group that broke off from a similar organization, Vanguard America, in the aftermath of the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
Video of Saturday's march in Washington posted on the News2Share Facebook page showed occasional hecklers, but there appeared to be no organized counter-protest movement waiting for the Patriot Front as the group marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the U.S. Capitol grounds and later a nearby Wal-Mart parking garage.
They were accompanied by dozens of police, some on bicycles, but it was unclear whether the group had obtained a permit for the march. A spokeswoman for District of Columbia Metropolitan Police said it had no record of a permit for the march. Capitol Police and the National Park Service could not immediately be reached for comment.
A former US drone operator is speaking out against the atrocities he says he was forced to inflict during his time in the armed forces and says the American military as 'worse than the Nazis'.
Brandon Bryant was enlisted in the US Air Force for six years. During his time with the military, he operated Predator drones, remotely firing missiles at targets more than 7,000 miles away from the small room containing his workspace near Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mr Bryant says he reached his breaking point with the US military after killing a child in Afghanistan that his superiors told him was "a dog." Mr Bryant recalls the moment: After firing a Hellfire missile at a building containing his target, he saw a child exit the building just as the missile struck. When he alerted his superiors about the situation after reviewing the tape, he was told "it was a f***ing dog, drop it."
Following that incident, Mr Bryant quit the military and began speaking out against the drone program.
During his time in the Air Force, Mr Bryant estimates he contributed directly to killing 13 people himself and says his squadron fired on 1,626 targets including women and children. He says he has been left suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
An endangered gray wolf that wandered more than 8,000 miles through Northern California has died, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced. OR-54, a 3- to 4-year-old female with a radio tracking collar, was found dead on Wednesday in Shasta County, the agency said in a statement.
It wasn't clear yet whether the animal died from an accident or natural causes or was killed. State wildlife officials previously said the female wolf was "exploring new ground in search of a mate or another pack."
In December, officials said OR-54 had traveled a "minimum distance of 8,712 miles at an average of 13 miles/day" since January 23, 2018. However, the wolf's radio collar apparently stopped working in December 2019.
It is illegal to take, shoot, injure or kill gray wolves, with federal penalties of up a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
Fewer than a dozen wolves are now known to live in the state, according to the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity.
The contractor that is building President Donald Trump (R-Unfit)'s border wall in southwestern Arizona began blasting this week through a site that the Native American O'odham people consider sacred to make way for newer, taller barriers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed the contractor started blasting through the site called Monument Hill at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument west of Lukeville "in preparation for new border wall system construction within the Roosevelt Reservation."
The Roosevelt Reservation is a 60-foot-wide swath of federally owned land along the border in Arizona. Since construction began in August, crews have been clearing that 60-foot swath - relocating certain plants, including the state's iconic saguaros, to other parts of the national park.
Monument Hill is west of the Lukeville border crossing and lies partly within the 60-foot reservation. The other portion is on the Mexican side of the border.
Monument Hill is one of several sites of archaeological and cultural significance to the O'odham people that is in the path of border wall construction.
The Trump administration, which came into office pledging to end "endless wars," has now embraced weapons prohibited by more than 160 countries, and is readying them for future use. Cluster bombs and anti-personnel land mines, deadly explosives known for maiming and killing civilians long after the fighting ended, have become integral to the Pentagon's future war plans - but with little public rationale offered for where and why they would be used.
These new policies, endorsed by Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, can be traced to 2017 when the Pentagon chief at the time, Jim Mattis, was drafting a military strategy that named Russia and China as the United States' great power rivals. Both have significant ground forces, and mines historically have been used to deny an adversary's troops the ability to advance on the battlefield.
In a news conference Monday, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, Jonathan Hoffman, said that the policy change "was the result of an extensive conversation" with different departments of the executive branch. It is intended "to provide the commanders on the ground nonpersistent munitions that are necessary for mission success in major contingencies in extreme or exceptional circumstances," he said.
Hoffman declined to specify who had requested the policy change.
The Pentagon has been unable to articulate the need for these types of weapons, but industrial lines once thought extinct at defense firms are returning. That is partly because of lobbying efforts by retired senior military officers like Robert H. Scales, a retired Army major general who served as an adviser to Mattis on overhauling infantry combat. But his argument was based, in part, on a flawed understanding of the effectiveness of cluster munitions in past conflicts, especially the 1991 Gulf War, where analysis afterward found high failure rates and little evidence they had deterred Iraqi forces to the extent at first believed.
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