The Weekly Poll
Results
The "Guilty by Association" Issue
Amnesty International is urging the suspension of US military aid to Israel in a report that details the recent use of US weapons in Gaza. (CommonDreams.org)
Do you support their call to do so or not?
DC Madman affirmatively says...
It's a no brainer for me "...several white phosphorus shells fired by the Israeli military hit the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, destroying medicine, food and aid". That sums it up, Israel is using the weapons to commit war crimes. Americans have no problem with hypocrisy so I say cut 'em off. Just because we commit war crimes doesn't make it OK for others to do the same. Do as we say, not as we do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes#International_Criminal_Court
Adam with one word...
Yes
thisoneaint with a few more...
Yes, I support their call to do so.
maw disagrees...
No. The only reason Israel exists, surrounded by enemies, is because of it's superior military. I think the US has to support the only democracy in the area. (Other than Turkey, that is)
SallyP(al) stands on the rampart with...
I absolutely support the call. The Palestine's were granted the West Bank back in 1947, in what is now Israel. Still the Israelis allow - even encourage - the settlers to pour into to a country which cannot support the population - in order to outnumber the Arabs! In the anticipation of the November election in the US, the Israelis committed genocide by the mega excessive bombing of Gaza, killing how many INNOCENT people who were caught up in this war... Only by cutting off the funds to Israel, can they be forced to return the land - period! This is not to excuse the Palestinian radicals who are shelling Israel indiscriminately - but how else can they get their point across? Israel remains firm in their stand to keep the land! For a people who have themselves been victims of such a genocide, it is inexcusable. The majority of Israelis have become greedy and abusive to their neighbor's, whose land they have stolen. Yet, for some reason no one seems to be able to acknowledge this simple fact. Thankfully, there ARE Peace groups in Israel (for instance Gush Shalom, and Bat Shalom - Israeli Peace Blocs). I can only pray for their work, and for the innocent Palestine people who live in camps with no hope for a decent future - save seeing their children blow themselves up - for God... Give back the damn land, Israel!!! PS: I read this site almost everyday to keep up with the happenings over there:
Douglas does too...
Poll answer: No more weapons!
1) Technically and legally we should not supply Israel with weapons (or aid) at all since they have undeclared nuclear weapons (yes Virginia, Dimona is a nuclear weapons facility). (about 140 warheads, last I heard)
2) Trillions of dollars in aid over the last sixty years, shouldn't they have enough weapons by now?
3) Israel has a technologically superior and potent standing Army, Navy and Air Force. Palestinians, Flintstone-era rockets,rocks and harsh words. (and the occasional suicide bomber)
4) Military Industrial complex quid pro quo; you give aid, we buy weapons. (And not just from us. Israel is the only country that is allowed to use the money we give them to buy from their internal weapons industries. We are subsidizing their weapons research to utilize the results ourselves. Particularly in the area of high altitude missile defense systems.)
Kap says...
No... We can stop the support when the Arab countries stop sending rockets into Israel. They lob rockets, then hide among civilians. When those in the Middle East start loving their children more than they hate Israel, that'll be the day when can halt our support.
My position is that the US should support Israel's right to exist as well as the creation of a Palestinian state that includes the West Bank. Jerusalem should become a UN controlled enclave open to all religions. The novelist Tom Clancy detailed how best that could be done in his work, The Sum of All Fears. Continued aid to the region will be necessary. The US is planning $900 million in reconstruction aid to Gaza at the present.
More should follow contingent on Hamas standing down their missiles and accepting the reality that Israel is NOT going to go away. Egypt, the second largest recipient of our foreign aid after Israel (surprise!)
U.S. Foreign Aid Summary should be 'encouraged' to lean on Hamas to behave. We should lean on the Israelis to vacate the West Bank and be more circumspect in its reprisals if attacks persist. Will any of this come to pass? As I always say, hope for the best - expect the worst
BadToTheBoneBob
New Question
The 'Can't Take a Joke' Edition
Clint Eastwood has slammed Political Correctness, saying "I think the PC madness is what's refreshing about playing this character. When I grew up there were a lot of people like this, and everybody didn't take themselves so seriously. People would kid themselves about everybody's... whatever race they were, whatever ethnic, religious groups they were. Everybody would joke about it and everybody got along just fine,"
He continues with "But then we've come to this now where everybody has to be walking on eggshells - kind of very... sensitive. And so it's become boring, kind of, and I think everybody would like to be Walt Kowalski for about 10 minutes."
A two-parter...
Do you agree with his take about Political Correctness stifling humor?
Is PC selective in its application?
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Revenge of the Glut (nytimes.com)
The international economic crisis is the revenge of the global saving glut. And the glut is still out there, worse than ever.
Blaine Greteman: How You Can Train Your Brain to Help Reduce Stress (Ode; Posted on alternet.org)
Neurofeedback is an emerging method that relaxes, enhances creativity and improves mental health.
"'Afloat' written by Guy De Maupassant and translated by Douglas Parmée": A review by Graham Robb (New York Review of Books Classics; Posted on powells.com)
In 1874, a twenty-four-year-old government clerk called Guy de Maupassant, depressed and maddened by his boring work and philistine colleagues at the Naval Ministry in Paris, was desperate to embark on a new career. Thankfully, his father paid him a small allowance, and his job at the ministry left him plenty of spare time. He spent most of his money and leisure time boating on the Seine, fencing, shooting, picnicking with friends, and visiting prostitutes.
JARRET KEENE: A.A. Bondy Prefers Recording in Barns to Fiddling with Computers (tucsonweekly.com)
There are two types of successful indie-folk musicians: the kind that takes your breath away, and the kind that breaks your heart.
Danielle Riendeau: Queer Gamers Seize Controller (afterellen.com)
A look at the progress - and pitfalls - of lesbian/bi representation in the video game world.
JEFFREY H. GRAY: Poets' Puffery (chronicle.com)
Europeans have often seen Americans as optimists and themselves as "realists." It is true that in the United States, the sense of exceptionalism - a term revived in the recent presidential campaign - seems to have driven hyperbole to new heights. In the academic sphere, grade inflation has been increasing since the late 1960s (at elite institutions more than elsewhere).
David Medskar: A Chat with Josh Zuckerman, star of "Sex Drive" (bullz-eye.com)
"I don't want to point fingers, but I think a lot of people were thrown off by a) the movie title, b) the poster, and c) the trailer."
Harrison Pierce: Here's Lookin' at You, Kidder
Since rising to stardom in the '70s, Margot Kidder has left her mark on some of American cinema's most iconic roles. Now making her home in Montana, she returns -- as a lesbian -- in "On the Other Hand, Death."
responded:
Reader Suggestion
Some Guy
Reader Comment
FYI
Marty,
Sadly, this season of The Closer finished last week, there is no fresh
episode.............
Sarah
Thanks, Sarah!
(Sorry about that.)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast with scattered showers.
Rebellion On Set
Sarah Silverman
More than two months after "Sarah Silverman" ended its second season, the show has yet to be renewed for Season 3. (In 2007, the second-season pickup came 11 days after the series' premiere.)
At the center of the holdup is the proposed budget for Season 3. Citing cuts imposed on the network by parent company MTV Networks, Comedy Central had proposed that the trio bring back the Writers Guild of America Award-nominated show at about $850,000 an episode, sources said, down from the $1.1 million an episode for the show's second season.
In broadcast, single-camera comedies are produced for about $1.5 million-$2 million an episode, and the budget for any series normally climbs from year to year.
Concerned they won't be able to maintain the integrity of the show at the discounted price, Silverman, on behalf of the three executive producers, informed the network late last week that they can't proceed with a third season. The move reportedly sent shock waves through Comedy Central's executive offices, with top brass jumping into action to find a budget compromise that would keep the flagship live-action series on the air.
Sarah Silverman
Target CD
Prince
Prince is coming to a Target near you.
The superstar is releasing a three-disc CD set through the retailer at the end of this month. The set will include two new albums - "LOtUSFLOW3R" and "MPLSoUND" - as well as a third by his new artist, Bria Valente, for the price of $11.98.
The CD set will be on sale at Target and its Web site on March 29.
Prince
Celebrated Today
Square Root Day
Dust off the slide rules and recharge the calculators. Square Root Day is upon us.
The math-buffs' holiday, which only occurs nine times each century, falls on Tuesday - 3/3/09 (for the mathematically challenged, three is the square root of nine).
"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day - and poof - they're gone," said Ron Gordon, a Redwood City teacher who started a contest meant to get people excited about the event.
The last such day was five years ago, Feb. 2, 2004, which coincided with Groundhog Day. The next is seven years away, on April 4, 2016.
Square Root Day
First Symphony Orchestra
YouTube
California surgeon Calvin Lee has barely picked up his violin for 15 years but on Monday he was named a member of the first YouTube Symphony Orchestra and next month he plays at Carnegie Hall with the group.
Lee was one of more than 90 musicians who earned a place in the orchestra created by the populist video sharing Web site by auditioning -- not in person but through Web videos.
Lee, 38, dazzled online viewers with his video audition at YouTube.com by playing "Presto" from Johann Sebastian Bach's Violin Sonata in G minor, despite all but quitting the violin before medical school.
The members of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra will travel to New York from nearly 30 countries for a three-day meeting with San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas, leading up to the April 15 Carnegie Hall show.
YouTube
MI5 Kept Tabs
Lee Miller
Model, muse, fashion photographer and war correspondent, Lee Miller was dashing, glamorous - and, a colleague at Vogue magazine suspected, a communist.
British intelligence officials agreed, keeping tabs on Miller for almost 20 years. But while her newly released security file contains descriptions of the photographer's "queer clothes" and eclectic circle of friends, agents concluded Miller was not a threat to the country.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1907, Miller modeled for Vogue in the 1920s before turning to photography. After a stint in Paris - where she was muse to surrealist photographer Man Ray - and a brief marriage to an Egyptian businessman, Miller came to London in 1939, shortly before World War II began.
Miller was Vogue's star photographer throughout the war, and her work went well beyond fashion. The only female photojournalist to record front-line combat, she chronicled the London Blitz, the aftermath of the D-Day landings and the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. A famous photograph shows her taking a bath in Hitler's abandoned Munich apartment in 1945, her muddy army boots sitting on the bath mat in front of her.
Lee Miller
Administration Releases Secret Memos
Obama
The Obama administration threw open the curtain on years of Bush-era secrets Monday, revealing anti-terror memos that claimed exceptional search-and-seizure powers and divulging that the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations and other treatment of terror suspects.
The Justice Department released nine legal opinions showing that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration determined that certain constitutional rights would not apply during the coming fight. Within two weeks, government lawyers were already discussing ways to wiretap U.S. conversations without warrants.
The Bush administration eventually abandoned many of the legal conclusions, but the documents themselves had been closely held. By releasing them, President Barack Obama continued a house-cleaning of the previous administration's most contentious policies.
The Obama administration also acknowledged in court documents Monday that the CIA destroyed 92 videos involving terror suspects, including interrogations - far more than had been known. Congressional Democrats and other critics have charged that some of the harsh interrogation techniques amounted to torture, a contention President George W. Bush and other Bush officials rejected.
Obama
CNBC Defends Lapdog
Rick Santelli
CNBC says reporter Rick Santelli is not connected to a Web site that used his name to promote a series of political protests against President Barack Obama.
Santelli's name was stripped from headlines on the home page of www.reteaparty.com Monday after its operator was made aware of CNBC's dissatisfaction. The site was operating within 24 hours after the reporter's self-described rant on Feb. 19, when he said the president's plan to help people in danger of home foreclosure was "promoting bad behavior."
Video of Santelli's appearance at the Chicago Board of Trade has been seen nearly 2 million times on CNBC's Web site, more than anything the network has ever posted, and more than 855,000 times on YouTube.
Before it was altered Monday, the Web site described "Rick Santelli's Re-Tea Party" four times on its home page, urging people to organize for protests. It had an "About Rick" link with the CNBC on-air editor's profile, saying he "voiced the sentiment of millions of Americans on the stock market floor."
Rick Santelli
Tax Trial Opens
Helio Castroneves
On top of the world a few months ago, Brazilian race car driver and "Dancing with the Stars" champ Helio Castroneves faces possible prison time if convicted at a tax evasion trial that began Monday with jury selection.
Castroneves, a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, smiled broadly as he entered Miami's downtown federal courthouse. Prosecutors say Castroneves, his business-manager sister Katiucia and Michigan attorney Alan R. Miller conspired to hide about $5.5 million in income from the Internal Revenue Service using offshore accounts.
Castroneves claims he relied on experts to advise him on handling finances. He also says his father controlled a Panamanian entity called Seven Promotions at the heart of the prosecution's case.
Castroneves claims the money Seven Promotions received wasn't his tax liability because the income was for his father, who had financed and promoted his son's career for over 10 years.
Helio Castroneves
Swiss Tax Exile
Johnny Hallyday
Veteran French rock star Johnny Hallyday has no plans to end his spell as a Swiss tax exile, even if Switzerland moves to abolish lucrative tax breaks for rich foreigners.
"I don't mind paying taxes, but there is a limit," Hallyday, 65, told Le Matin, a French-language Swiss newspaper, revealing that he paid just over 600,000 euros (755,000 dollars) to Swiss tax authorities per year.
Before settling in Switzerland in 2007, he said, "I was paying more than 70 percent (of my income). With what I've paid over my lifetime, I would have been able to support several families for generations".
"I live in Switzerland...when I'm not working. But I work a lot," he said, adding he also kept a home in Los Angeles for "professional activities" while his wife Laeticia is the registered owner of the couple's Paris residence.
Johnny Hallyday
Reception Difficulties
Digital TV
Harry Vanderpool, a beekeeper, lives on a hill nearly 1,000 feet above the Willamette River, outside Salem, Ore. It should be a good spot for TV reception, and it used to be.
"When you listen to the advertisements, it's 'Oh, all you have to do is get this little digital converter box and hook it up,'" Vanderpool said. "Well, we get nothing. Zero signal strength."
While generally better than analog, digital reception with antennas can be tricky. Although millions of people will receive more channels when switching to digital, many others are finding that stations they used to get in analog form won't come in on their converter boxes or digital TV sets.
It's not just rural and small-town viewers who are having problems with the phase-out of analog TV, which has been on the air for nearly 70 years. It's being done to give more room on the airwaves to wireless broadband, TV for cell phones and emergency communications.
In Hollywood, broadcast engineer Dana Puopolo gets the local stations fine with an indoor antenna in his bedroom, where he gets a view of the broadcast towers on Mt. Wilson, a dozen miles away. But even an amplified indoor antenna isn't enough to supply a watchable image to his widescreen TV, which is in the living room on the other side of the apartment.
Digital TV
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
