"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Oh jeez, this can't be good:TEHRAN, Iran – Hard-line Iranian student groups have asked the government to authorize volunteers to go carry out suicide bombings in Israel in response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had not responded to the call by Wednesday. Volunteer suicide groups have made similar requests in the past and the government never responded to their calls. The groups' activities appear to be mainly for propaganda purposes, and there has been no sign of Iranians carrying out suicide attacks in Israel.
Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched a registration drive on Monday, seeking volunteers to carry out suicide attacks against Israel.
In an open letter to Ahmadinejad, the students said "volunteer student suicide groups ... are determined to go to Gaza. You are expected to issue orders to the relevant authorities to pave the way for such action." A copy of the letter was made available to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
"Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal."- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Another list by Daily Beast. The Ben Franklin one is particularly good.
Gawker has a list of 10 people who should be unemployed in 2009. There are some obvious and great candidates like Mark Penn and Bill Kristol. But I particularly enjoyed number 10: 10. Everyone in New York By "everyone in New York" we mean, obviously, the type of people who actually think they represent "everyone in New York," which means people in media, finance, the "arts," publishing, and whatever the hell people who read blogs do all day, for a living. Not the "everyone in New York" that includes people who live in, like Staten Island or whatever. No, the ones who watch Gossip Girl. Basically all of these people should be unemployed, next year.
I am really trying not to take sides on this whole Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Israelis are making it hard:
A boat delivering 3.5 tonnes of Cypriot medical aid to the Gaza Strip has been rammed by Israeli naval vessels in international waters, activists say.The Free Gaza campaign group, which operates the Dignity, also claimed shots were fired towards the crew.
The boat later docked in Lebanon after sustaining serious damage to one side.
Israeli officials confirmed there had been "physical contact" but denied reports of shooting and said the crew had not responded to radio calls.
I don't understand:
CHICAGO — Embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to name former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.
State Senate President Emil Jones said Tuesday that Burris told him about the appointment. Burris did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Blagojevich was arrested earlier this month on federal charges that he tried to sell or trade the seat to the highest bidder. U.S. Senate leaders have said they won't seat anyone appointed by Blagojevich.
I'm not sure what to make of this, but the New York Times said this about Lil Wayne:It seems clear that 2008 will go down as the year of Lil Wayne.
If you read this blog, you know I'm not a big Bill Kristol fan. However, I'm usually content to let him be. But today's New York Times column was something else: Obama has selected Yale’s Elizabeth Alexander to compose and read a poem. I still remember watching Maya Angelou read “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 — and thinking that American culture really was in a state of irreversible decline, as she indulged in that multicultural cataloguing of “the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew,/ The African and Native American, the Sioux, / The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek,/ The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,/ The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,/ The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.”
Pablo Neruda is a bit of an odd poet in my opinion. His worldview so intertwined with love and passion that his poetry could easily be maudlin. But it's not. Maybe it's the beautiful images, or the lyrical rhythms of each line. Or maybe he avoids the cliches of love and speaks honestly and truly about what he feels. Whatever the case, he's great. Here's one of my favorite poems of his.
There are many among us who would like to declare the end of racism because we now have a Black President. Hmm...
The murder rate among black teenagers has climbed since 2000 even as murders by young whites have scarcely grown or declined in some places, according to a new report.
The celebrated reduction in murder rates nationally has concealed a “worrisome divergence,” said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Northeastern University who wrote the report, to be released Monday, with Marc L. Swatt. And there are signs, they said, that the racial gap will grow without countermeasures like restoring police officers in the streets and creating social programs for poor youths.The main racial difference involves juveniles ages 14 to 17. In 2000, 539 white and 851 black juveniles committed murder, according to an analysis of federal data by the authors. In 2007, the number for whites, 547, had barely changed, while that for blacks was 1,142, up 34 percent.
The increase coincided with a rise in the number of murders involving guns, Dr. Fox said. The number of young blacks who were victims of murder also rose in this period.
Murder rates around the country are far below the record highs of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a crack epidemic spawned violent turf battles.
“Regrettably, as the nation celebrated the successful fight against violent crime in the 1990s, we grew complacent and eased up on our crime-fighting efforts,” the authors said.
The report primarily blames cutbacks in federal support for community policing and juvenile crime prevention, reduced support for after-school and other social programs, and a weakening of gun laws. Cuts in these areas have been felt most deeply in poor, black urban areas, helping to explain the growing racial disparity in violent crime, Dr. Fox said.
Daily Beast is featuring the best political comedy of 2008. If you were a 2008 election addict like myself, it's worth a look.
This sounds bad:Tensions in the Middle East are already high. I wonder how the Arab world will react if Israel invades Palestine? It can't be good...With hundreds of troops and tanks being deployed along the edge of the territory there were growing fears that the air bombardment could be followed by a ground incursion.
"The indications here on the ground are certainly that the build-up is there, that the preparations are there for a ground offensive," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from Izmit in Israel, said.The Israeli cabinet approved the call-up of 6,500 military reservists and Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, has warned that the air raids could be followed by a ground offensive.
"If it's necessary to deploy ground forces to defend our citizens, we will do so," Barak's spokesman quoted him as saying.
What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood. -Aldous Huxley
Not good news from Hamas: Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, has called for Palestinians to wage a new intifada against Israel, including a return to suicide missions.I have no suggestions on how to solve this conflict, but then again it seems no one else does. So expect the killing of thousands and thousands more innocent people for good reason...In an interview on Al Jazeera, Meshaal said: "We called for a military intifada against the enemy. Resistance will continue through suicide missions."
Meshaal's call came after Israel hammered Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 220 people in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
Meshaal said Hamas had accepted "all the peaceful options, but without results."
Not too shabby. But there is also plenty of wisdom to be found here, much of it based on the wisdom of Zen, but Matthiessen includes insights from the west as well. Here's a sample:
A nutcracker is rasping in the pines, and soon the crows come, down the morning valley; cawing, they hide among long shimmering needles, then glide in, bold, to walk about in the warming scent of resin, dry feel scratching on the bark of the fallen trees.
William James wrote a master work of metaphysics; Emerson spoke of "the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal one..."; Melville referred to "that profound silence, the only voice of God"; Walt Whitman celebrated the most ancient secret, that no God could be found "more divine than yourself." And then, almost everywhere, a clear and subtle illumination that lent magnificence to life and peace to death was overwhelmed in the hard glare of technology. Yet that light is always present, like the stars of noon. Man must perceive it if he is to transcend his fear of meaninglessness, for no amount of "progress" can take its place. We have outsmarted ourselves, like greed monkeys, and now we are full of dread.
If you put your conditioned intellect to rest for a long time, suddenly it will be like the bottom falling out of a bucket -- then you will naturally be happy and at peace. - Yaunwu
A couple of days ago, I had a post about the Palestinians firing rockets into Israel. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from Gaza pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of air strikes Saturday, killing at least 145 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day in Gaza in recent memory.Well obviously, if someone keep firing rockets into your country, retaliating is an legitimate option. But check out some of the details from the New York Times story:Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and in response fired several medium-range Grad missiles at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four were wounded.
A military operation against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a rocky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas broke down completely in early November and rocket attacks began in large numbers against Israel. Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, in broad daylight on about 100 sites, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.
The center of Gaza City instantly became a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The vast majority of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, but the dead included several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.
I get it Israel: National Security. Your enemies are all around you, so you must be strong. But as an individual observer with no allegiances to either Israel or Palestine, it makes me sick to my stomach to know that so many of the innocent-- working men, mothers and little children-- were killed.As the first President with African-American lineage, Barack Obama’s election is a historic landmark in a long journey of purging the terrible scourge of slavery and racism from our nation’s soul. President Obama’s election is also historic because of his ideology and agenda. Obama is arguably the most liberal person to come to the White House. Ideas have consequences and Obama’s ideas, we predict, will have historic and perhaps devastating consequences on our nation.
We Resist!
With Obama and the Democrats in Congress already embarking on the implementation of their agenda, Grassfire.org and hundreds of thousands of citizens across this nation unashamedly announce our Resistance.
Further proof of how unpopular George W. is around the world:Dozens of Iranians in the country's capital Tehran have held their own shoe-throwing rally in protest at US President George W Bush.As much as I love this country, it's hard for me to argue with rest of the world's complaints again our current president. I never thought of him as an evil man. But he's certainly an incompetent one.
They were showing support for the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at the American leader in Baghdad.
The protesters waved their shoes in the air before throwing them at posters featuring caricatures of Mr Bush.
The journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, is due to go on trial in Iraq, accused of assaulting a foreign head of state.
The demonstration took place near Tehran university as people headed to Friday prayers.
One demonstrator, who called himself Mr Ghanati, said he was a member of the Islamic guards and that the Iraqi journalist had seen off the "traitor" Mr Bush with his action.
"Bush has committed a lot of cruelty against the people of Iraq and other countries," he said.
I'm not sure anyone in the U.S. realizes how close the possibility of an all-out Middle East war is after the attacks in Mumbai. Rising tensions with India are prompting Pakistan to shift forces away from fighting the Taliban near the Afghan border and toward preparations for a subcontinental standoff. And of course they are — Pakistan has no choice but to make its situation vis-a-vis India its primary security concern. This is the sort of thing people really need to think harder about before talking about bringing India into NATO.Both India and Pakistan have nuclear weapons and absolutely despise each other. And any attack of aggression is sure to start a war that could domino to Afghanistan and the Middle East. If we to prevent the possibility of a World War III, Barack Obama will have to make this one of his top priorities.Meanwhile, it’s a reminder that all the clever counterinsurgency tactics in the world aren’t going to work as a substitute for a regional diplomatic strategy.
Every year, moviecitynews.com creates a scorecard of critic's top ten list as a way of measuring the year's best movies. It's usually a pretty good indication of what the best movies of the year are. For example, last year No Country For Old Men was at the top of the list.
"It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet."-Franz Kafka
I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.- Charles Dickens
Harold Pinter, the British playwright whose gifts for finding the ominous in the everyday and the noise within silence made him the most influential and imitated dramatist of his generation, died on Wednesday. He was 78 and lived in London...
In more than 30 plays — written between 1957 and 2000 and including masterworks like “The Birthday Party,” “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming” and “Betrayal” — Mr. Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life in the second half of the 20th century with terse, hypnotic dialogue filled with gaping pauses and the prospect of imminent violence.
Along with another Nobel winner, Samuel Beckett, his friend and mentor, Mr. Pinter became one of the few modern playwrights whose names instantly evoke a sensibility. The adjective Pinteresque has become part of the cultural vocabulary as a byword for strong and unspecified menace.
I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I will not be posting a lot today because it's Christmas, but I will return tomorrow.
I am going to start posting great scenes from "The Wire," because as I've said before, it's the best show ever created.And here is the video of the speech:But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.
"Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt. Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner. Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity."- Tao Te Ching.
I know every president-elect enjoys a honeymoon period, but this is sort of ridiculous:So what does this mean? I think it means that Obama can pretty much get whatever he wants for the first year of his presidency. That possibly means universal health care, an aggressive economic stimulus plan and stronger environmental regulations in the near future.Eighty-two percent of those questioned in a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Wednesday morning approve of the way the Obama is handling his presidential transition. That’s up 3 points from when we asked this question at the beginning of December. Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way Obama’s handling his transition, down 3 points from our last poll.
The 82 percent approval is higher than then President-elect George W. Bush 8 years ago, who had a 65 percent transition approval rating, and Bill Clinton, at 67 percent in 1992.
The poll also suggests that the public approves of the President-elect’s cabinet nominees, with 56 percent of those questioned saying Obama’s appointments have been outstanding or above average, with 32 percent feeling the picks have been average, and 11 percent saying Obama’s choices have been below average or poor.
That 56 percent figure is 18 points higher than those who said then President-elect Bush’s cabinet appointments were outstanding or above average and 26 points higher than those who felt the same way about then President-elect Clinton’s nominees.
Just when you think they're out, they pull themselves back in:Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired mortars and rockets into southern Israel, without causing any injuries.
The Islamist militant group, Hamas, said the attack was in retaliation for three of their men being killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday.
More than 50 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip since Hamas ended a six-month ceasefire last week.
Israel said two crossings in Gaza that were due to re-open on Wednesday would remain closed because of the attacks.
According to the Israelis, 30 rockets and 30 mortars were fired over night on Tuesday and the following day, the BBC's Tim Franks in Jerusalem reports.
One landed close to a children's playground but did not result in injuries.
However there are reports of injuries in Gaza, where some of the rockets fell short of their target, says our correspondent.
There are also conflicting accounts over whether the three men who died last night were shot by the Israeli army or were killed when a bomb they were planting blew up.
Hamas blamed Israel for the end of the ceasefire on Friday, saying it had not respected its terms, including the lifting of the blockade under which little more than humanitarian aid has been allowed in.
The Israeli government meanwhile said it had begun a staged easing of the blockade, but this was halted when Hamas failed to fulfil agreed conditions, including the ending of all rocket fire and halting weapons smuggling.
Earlier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on a visit to Cairo that Egypt would press for the truce to be renewed.
It looks like China, after years of economic growth, could be in trouble in 2009 because of the recession and political instability:FOR China’s leaders, a perfect storm is brewing. Economic growth, which has helped keep the Communist Party in power, is faltering. The new middle class, hitherto a pillar of the party’s support, is plunging into despondency. The coming months are studded with politically sensitive anniversaries that will focus disaffected minds on the party’s shortcomings. Having endured a year of natural disasters, riots and the organisational nightmare of hosting the Olympics, the party sees little salve ahead.
2008 was a magical season in baseball, especially in the AL East. The biggest reason: the Tampa Bay Rays, the team with the lowest payroll in the division, beat out the overpriced Yankees and Red Sox.
"Look at this shit, how come we can't ever invade a cool country, like chicks in bikinis, you know, how come counties like that don't ever need Marines, I'll tell you why, it's lack of pussy that fucks countries up, lack of pussy is the root fucking cause of all global instability, if more hajis were getting quality pussy, there'd be no reason for us to come over and fuck em up like this, cause a nutbusting haji, is a happy haji... Yeah, yeah, you should quote me on it, you know what, you should definitely quote me on it, this whole thing comes down to pussy! Look, if you take the Republican Guard and comp their asses for a week in Vegas, no fucking war! No, in the opinion of this Marine, its about pussy... No, Saddam is just part of the problem, if Saddam invested more in the pussy infrastructure of Iraq than he did in his fucking gay ass army, then this country would be no more fucked up than say, Mexico."- Cpl. Ray Person from Generation Kill
Question: "When you're not talking about politics, what do you and your father talk about?"
Bush: "Pussy."
To David Fink of the Hartford Courant, at the 1988 Republican Convention, Salon, 9th April 2000
I've said my peace already, on this subject. But I thought Ta-Nehisi had a great perspective too:I want to be absolutely clear here. Obama hasn't betrayed anything or anyone. On this issue, he is what I thought he was. One of the first blog posts ever wrote noted the amazing hypocrisy in Obama lecturing black people on homophobia, while himself, holding a position on arguably the most important civil rights issue of our time, which was essentially bigoted. It's my job to say things like that, to, at once, not just carp, but still not simply fall in line.True, true, Ta-Nehisi. Barack has been exactly what we expected, a great man, but a politician. The people who are disappointed by his Warren choice are those who expected more than a politician. And as much I hate to be naive, I was one of those people. He fooled me once, but not again.
'Bama's job, meanwhile, is to be a politician. I don't say that derisively or sarcastically, but literally. He has to exist in a world where Rev. Wright's sermons are kyrptonite, but a man who compares gay sex to incest, who lies about the nature and history of marriage is political capitol. Let's not be confused--Rick Warren rolls with a crew that didn't simply block gay marriage in Cali, but is now actively attempting to destroy marriages. Forgive me, I find it hard to be rational while watching men of the cloth cynically claim the abstract mantle of family values, while attempting to erase actual families. How in the world are these people not evil?
Sorry, I was supposed to be getting to the diplomatic part. The diplomatic part is this: Barack is the president of the United States. He has all sorts of people pressuring them. His job is to respond to those pressures in such a way as to not break the consensus he needs to get things done, and to expand the Democratic brand in the American mind. So when people make the pragmatic arguments, it's not that I think they're wrong. They are, in fact, totally right.
But Obama's job, isn't my job. I just don't think it's my role to make him as comfortable as possible. This isn't about betraying progressives, it isn't about lefties being "depressed," it isn't about a Democratic civil war, and it doesn't need to be squished into a seven minute segment on Hardball. Let's be honest here--Barack Obama has, so far, been exactly what we expected. Exactly. Let us acknowledge that. But let's not use that as an excuse to not our job, which is as I see it, to say, "Mr. President. Now, do more."
At least Meyer Lansky--or "Hyman Roth," as they called him in the subtly anti-Semitic Godfather II--"always made money for his partners." Bernie Madoff, if the charges are to be believed, always stole money from his partners. (It should be remembered that while the perp was a Jew, oh so many of his victims were, too.)
Hyman Roth is the age-old stereotype of the Jewish betrayer. The prime Italian gangster values in the sage are sometimes betrayed, but a betrayal recognized as a departure from the norm, the core virtue in the saga - honor and family. The Jewish values: Nothing but money (and maybe TV dinners), the apotheosis of which is Roth's betrayal of Michael, "This is the business we've chosen."
Look at the Jews in the films, the Hollywood horse lover, Moe Green in Vegas, Roth. Any "good" Jewish gangsters we should respect as we supposedly should respect Don Vito and Michael? Even the Sopranos has the at least ambiguous Hesh, but even he stole from his black R&B singers, right? I'm not saying any of the real world crooks necessarily deserve conventional respect or emulation, but on a spectrum that includes Bernie M., who stole from sick kids' charities, I'll take Meyer Lansky.
"Faith: not wanting to know what is true." -Friedrich Nietzsche
A friend of mine introduced this theme to me from the beautifully shot Wong Kar-Wai movie In The Mood For Love. It's a melancholy but gorgeous piece of music. Take a listen.
I just found out that the poet, Elizabeth Alexander, is reading at Barack Obama's inauguration. I was glad to hear that a poet would be reading at the event, but I had never heard of Elizabeth Alexander, so I went to find some of her poetry. Her is one poem I really enjoyed called Blues.
George Stephanopoulos has an early look at the Obama team’s internal review of its contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and the news is good for Rahm Emanuel. The incoming chief of staff, sources tell the ABC newsman, had only one “pro-forma” courtesy phone call with Blago, and only a “passing reference”—no deal—was made to Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Rahm also talked four times with Blago’s chief of staff, John Harris, about the seat, and made the case for picking Obama pal Valerie Jarrett, though he confirmed that all Blago would get was “appreciation” for it. The president-elect had expressed frustration over the US attorney’s request that he delay the release of his team’s review of its involvement with Blago’s alleged attempts to sell the Senate seat; it’s expected to be released this week.
I am probably going to get a fatwa put on my ass Salman Rushdie-style for saying this, but fundamentalist Islamic law is awful:
A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty.
The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 135 miles north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.
Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:"The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty."
"Public schools, health care systems, giant water parks, I mean, the same reason anybody comes to America."- Ricky Bobby responding to his French rival's question "Do you know why I came to America?"
There are thousands of great sporting achievements in the history of sports. Wilt Chamberlain scoring 100 points in a game coming to mind. Tom Brady throwing 50 TD passes in a season is another. But none of them is quite as unique as what Dock Ellis did in 1970:No-hitting the San Diego Padres on June 12, 1970 despite being, as he would claim in 1984, under the influence of LSD throughout the course of the game.[1] Ellis had been visiting friends in Los Angeles under the impression he had the day off and was still high when his girlfriend told him he had to pitch a game against the Padres that night. Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher. Ellis claims catcher Jerry May wore reflective tape on his fingers which helped Ellis to see his target. Ellis walked eight, struck out six, and was aided by excellent fielding plays by second baseman Bill Mazeroski and centerfielder Matty Alou.[2] During the game, Ellis is reported to have commented to his teammates on the bench between innings that he was pitching a no-hitter, despite the superstition that discourages mentioning a no-hitter while it is in progress. Because the no-hitter was the first game of a double header, Ellis was forced to keep track of the pitch count for the night game.[3]
- According to Ellis:
- I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the (catcher's) glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me.[4]
Looks like California attorney general, Jerry Brown, has changed his mind:Although there is certainly a possibility that this is a calculated political move-- Brown might run for governor again in 2010-- I still have to give him props. Besides Gavin Newsome, he's the only major elected official to go protest the passage Proposition 8.SAN FRANCISCO — The California attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.
In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters.
But Brown said he reached a different conclusion "upon further reflection and a deeper probing into all the aspects of our Constitution.
"It became evident that the Article 1 provision guaranteeing basic liberty, which includes the right to marry, took precedence over the initiative," he said in an interview Friday night. "Based on my duty to defend the law and the entire Constitution, I concluded the court should protect the right to marry even in the face of the 52 percent vote."
OK, there is going to be a 15.4 billion dollar budget deficit in the state of New York this year, and as a New Yorker, I am willing to make some sacrifices to help close the gap. But this is a bit ridiculous, no?ALBANY - Gov. David Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too.Taxing downloaded music? Movie tickets? Beer? Wine? As a poor as shit New Yorker living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, how the fuck am I supposed to enjoy myself?
Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap, Paterson called for 88 new fees and a host of other taxes, including an "iPod tax" that taxes the sale of downloaded music and other "digitally delivered entertainment services."
"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.
The proposal, which needs legislative approval, did not include broad-based income tax increases, but relied on smaller ones to raise $4.1 billion from cash-strapped New Yorkers.
Movie tickets, taxi rides, soda, beer, wine, cigars and massages would be taxed under Paterson's proposal. It also extends sales taxes to cable and satellite TV services and removes the tax exemption for clothes costing less than $110.
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