Archive for the ‘Common-Place Book’ Category
Wall-Street Gall: Handy Summary
Making such pronouncements particularly galling is the fact that many of the banks summarily raising interest rates [on credit-card debt] and piling on the penalties have received billions in bailout money. Our money. We gave Citi $45 billion, Bank of America $45 billion, JPMorgan $25 billion, AmEx $3.4 billion, Capital One $3.6 billion, and Discover […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Common-Place Book
Penn on Equality and Shame
I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone. –Sean Penn, accepting his Oscar for […]
Carol on "State Secrets Protection"
There's not much evidence that "protecting state secrets" ever gets invoked for any purpose other than to prevent embarrassment to officials who have behaved incompetently, irresponsibly, or illegally, but it's a dead cert that it's a source of injustice and erodes freedom. [Avedon Carol, "Let the sun shine", The Sideshow, 12 February 2009]
Carol on Media Bias
When Republicans are in power, the media explain their bias and deference toward conservatives by saying they are what's going on, they are in power, and a lot of them have a certain reverence for the office and power. But when Democrats are in power, they explain their hostility to Democrats and continuing preference for […]
Science & Religion: Compatible?
These two excerpts are from a longish book review by Jerry A. Coyne, of two books, Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution, by Karl W. Giberson; and Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, by Kenneth R. Miller. The piece is called "Seeing and Believing" (The New […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, The Art of Conversation
Sharpton on California's Proposition 8
It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when the they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being delegated into poverty, yet […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
I Didn't Vote for a Tie
Now, when we fight Warren in California, we are going to hear, ‘Oh, yeah, but Obama picked him for the inaugural.’ He doesn’t deserve that honor. And I don’t want to hear that the other clergyman at the inaugural, Reverend [Joseph] Lowery, supports gay rights. I didn’t vote for a tie in the election. [Barney […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Perhaps Not This Year
What Obama and his folks maybe didn't realize is that this is not the year to antagonize gay people. [Mario Ruiz, "The Wind Is Out of My Sails", Huffington Post, 24 December 2008.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Chu on Cars: Consider the Refrigerator
For automobile manufacturers, a small parable told by energy-secretary-designate Steven Chu: This past summer, Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who currently heads Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—and who has been tapped to be the next Secretary of Energy—delivered a talk on climate change and how to combat it. Consider, Chu said, the refrigerator. Refrigerators consume […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Recognizing Marriage
I no longer recognize marriage. It's a new thing I'm trying. Turns out it's fun. Yesterday I called a woman's spouse her boyfriend. She says, correcting me, "He's my husband," "Oh," I say, "I no longer recognize marriage." The impact is obvious. I tried it on a man who has been in a relationship for […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
Has One Life Been Made Better?
I can say with certainty that my attitude about members – and especially leaders – of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has changed dramatically in the past six months. And not for the better. I’ve not seen one individual – within or without the church – whose life has been made […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Causing Trouble
The TimesOnline [UK] reported on a meeting between then presidential candidate Barack Obama and now-familiar Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson ("Barack Obama asked gay bishop Gene Robinson what it was like to be 'first'", 6 November 2008). Many things were discussed, but I was most amused by the reported first words exchanged: Obama: "Well you’re certainly […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Faaabulosity
David Sedaris on Undecided Voters
I look at these people [undecided voters interviewed on TV] and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
The Hidden Hand as Enabler
If Wall Street got drunk, it is the cult of the hidden hand that held the bottle. [Marty Kaplan, "Alan Shrugged", Huffington Post, 13 October 2008.] I liked the quotable witticism, but I also liked the article (and not only for its title). The subject is our current economic difficulty, free-market cultism, and the role […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, The Art of Conversation
McCain Pals with Felons
While [McCain's] telling the American people that he tried to protect them from the current financial crisis before it happened, the only person he's documented as ever trying to protect is convicted felon Charles Keating. He desperately tried to protect him from public accountability after Keating was responsible for the collapse of Lincoln Savings and […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Current Events
Suppressing Votes
Despite McCain's being the old farts' candidate, I won't be voting for him. McCain looks old and ill to me. He seems to have no circulation under his papery white skin. He always looks like he is suppressing a fart. [Erica Jong:, "Is John McCain Really Our Friend?", Huffington Post, 8 October 2008.]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Old Fartdom
Pulman on Religion
My basic objection to religion is not that it isn't true; I like plenty of things that aren't true. It's that religion grants its adherents malign, intoxicating and morally corrosive sensations. Destroying intellectual freedom is always evil, but only religion makes doing evil feel quite so good. — Philip Pullman ["The censor's dark materials", Guardian […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Feeling Peevish
What Would It Have Looked Like?
Spending a bit of time online with Richard Dawkins (I was spending time with him whereas he spent no time with me–the net works that way), I listened to a reasonably interesting TED talk in which Dawkins talked about how our perceptions of reality are shaped by the evolution of our brains to help us […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, It's Only Rocket Science
Loud, but Honest
From the National Portrait Gallery, "Amy Henderson, a historian at the National Portrait Gallery, discusses Ethel Merman, and her 1971 portrait by artist Rosemarie Sloat. The portrait is currently on view at NPG, in the 'Bravo!' exhibition, on the museum’s third floor mezzanine." It's an iconic portrait of Merman as Annie Oakley in Annie Get […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Music & Art
From the Pad I
By the reclining chair from which I watch movies on our television set I keep a pad of paper. Occasionally someone in one of the visual treats we are enjoying will say something that I think worth making a note of, so I write it on the pad. Many months later I notice that I […]