Two Views of The Late Great Johnny Ace:
69 Years after his birth, my eldest daughter's favorite band is The Beatles (slightly ahead of the JoBros). The main reason, apparently, is this film. (I'm trying to show her the originals on which it is based, but the best of the set is temporarily unavailable).
WalterJon finds a brilliant judge's response to a "birther" case:
The Court observes that the President defeated seven opponents in a grueling campaign for his party’s nomination that lasted more than eighteen months and cost those opponents well over $300 million. Then the President faced a formidable opponent in the general election who received $84 million to conduct his general election campaign against the President.
It would appear that ample opportunity existed for discovery of evidence that would support any contention that the President was not eligible for the office he sought. To press her "birther agenda," Plaintiff’s counsel has filed the present action on behalf of Captain Rhodes....
The American taxpayers paid for her third and fourth years of medical school and financially supported her during her subsequent medical internship and residency program. In exchange for this valuable free medical education, Captain Rhodes agreed to serve two years in active service in the Army. She began that term of active service in July of 2008 and had no concerns about fulfilling her military obligation until she received orders notifying her that she would be deployed to Iraq in September of 2009.
Captain Rhodes does not seek a discharge from the Army; nor does she wish to be relieved entirely from her two year active service obligation. She has not previously made any official complaints regarding any orders or assignments that she has received, including orders that have been issued since President Obama became Commander in Chief. But she does not want to go to Iraq (or to any other destination where she may be in harm’s way, for that matter). Her "conscientious objections" to serving under the current Commander in Chief apparently can be accommodated as long as she is permitted to remain on American soil.
Andrew Samwick states the obvious, clearly and well:
I think we are now 18 months behind where we should be in moving forward with sensible government spending plans. We should have pulled the fiscal policy ripcord in January 2008 with a public investment plan designed to repair our aging infrastructure. I'd rather have the 18 months back -- as would the millions of unemployed workers who could have been collecting a paycheck if we had started sooner -- but the proper course of action today is the same as it was then.
You know what's coming next, don't you?
When I first heard that Michael Jackson died, I thought immediately of Chuck Sullivan. I met him once, probably in the early 1990s, after his sponsorship of The Jacksons's Victory tour savaged his fortune. Unlike the other Moguls I Have Seen, it seemed his reversal of fortune impacted his mood. (More likely, I just caught him on a bad day.)http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5048766
So I decided to do an AB post about the Victory tour, which was probably the beginning of the end for MJ's claim to being "the new Elvis," since it was the last time he toured with his family.
Fortunately, as my Loyal Reader (a loyal Patriots fan) notes, I don't have to. Chad Finn at the Boston Globe tells the story:
[A] disastrous business venture by the Sullivan family -- the founding owners of the franchise -- indirectly helped Kraft fulfill his dream of owning the Patriots....Charles Sullivan had used the stadium as collateral to fund the Jackson brothers' Victory Tour back in 1984. Over-leveraged, Sullivan went bankrupt and was forced to sell the arena.
Because a world without Leonard Cohen songs readily available to all in Frisian is not a world we want to live in:
plagiarism confession: This post is entirely copied from Brad DeLong who quoted Justin FoxJustin Fox.
See Maureen Dowd -- that wasn't so hard was it ?
I don't feel like talking about economics right now, so let's talk Rock and Roll.
The contract with Van Halen's legendary "brown M&Ms" rider has been published by The Smoking Gun. And it was there for purely rational reasons:
While the underlined rider entry has often been described as an example of rock excess, the outlandish demand of multimillionaires, the group has said the M&M provision was included to make sure that promoters had actually read its lengthy rider. If brown M&M's were in the backstage candy bowl, Van Halen surmised that more important aspects of a performance--lighting, staging, security, ticketing--may have been botched by an inattentive promoter.
I don't feel like talking about economics right now, so let's talk Rock and Roll.
The contract with Van Halen's legendary "brown M&Ms" rider has been published by The Smoking Gun. And it was there for purely rational reasons:
While the underlined rider entry has often been described as an example of rock excess, the outlandish demand of multimillionaires, the group has said the M&M provision was included to make sure that promoters had actually read its lengthy rider. If brown M&M's were in the backstage candy bowl, Van Halen surmised that more important aspects of a performance--lighting, staging, security, ticketing--may have been botched by an inattentive promoter.
Ken Houghton
Consider this a bright, cheerful post, as opposed to my next one.
As long as TAPPED is talking about "classism," let's recall that the easy solution was Common Knowledge by the early 1980s:
When I was in school I ran with kid down the street
But I watched him burn himself up on bourbon and speed
But I was smarter than most and I could choose
Learned to talk like the man on the six o'clock news
Always keep in mind, of course, that a thick accent comes in handy, especially if you're trying to be underestimated. But that's not generally in the first round.
Ken Houghton
Consider this a bright, cheerful post, as opposed to my next one.
As long as TAPPED is talking about "classism," let's recall that the easy solution was Common Knowledge by the early 1980s:
When I was in school I ran with kid down the street
But I watched him burn himself up on bourbon and speed
But I was smarter than most and I could choose
Learned to talk like the man on the six o'clock news
Always keep in mind, of course, that a thick accent comes in handy, especially if you're trying to be underestimated. But that's not generally in the first round.
(hat tip to Jo Walton)
(hat tip to Jo Walton)
...at least not so directly:
The Treasury Department has turned down a request by General Motors for up to $10 billion to help finance the automaker’s possible merger with Chrysler, according to people close to the discussions.
Instead of providing new assistance, the Treasury Department told G.M. on Friday, the Bush administration will now shift its focus to speeding up the $25 billion loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles approved by Congress in September and administered by the Energy Department.
...at least not so directly:
The Treasury Department has turned down a request by General Motors for up to $10 billion to help finance the automaker’s possible merger with Chrysler, according to people close to the discussions.
Instead of providing new assistance, the Treasury Department told G.M. on Friday, the Bush administration will now shift its focus to speeding up the $25 billion loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles approved by Congress in September and administered by the Energy Department.
Krugman believes people want someone who is "serious":
In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia—after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on their personas: Mr. Bush was an amiable guy you’d like to have a beer with, Al Gore was a stiff know-it-all, and never mind all that hard stuff about taxes and Social Security. And let’s face it: six weeks ago Mr. McCain’s focus on trivia seemed to be paying off handsomely.
But that was before the prospect of a second Great Depression concentrated the public’s mind....
[T]he Barack Obama voters see now is cool, calm, intellectual and knowledgeable, able to talk coherently about the financial crisis in a way Mr. McCain can’t. And when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation.
Meanwhile, the video of the night on November 4th should be this one (NSFSanePeople):
*Or its Economics equivalent
Krugman believes people want someone who is "serious":
In a way, you can’t blame Mr. McCain for campaigning on trivia—after all, it’s worked in the past. Most notably, President Bush got within hanging-chads-and-butterfly-ballot range of the White House only because much of the news media, rather than focusing on the candidates’ policy proposals, focused on their personas: Mr. Bush was an amiable guy you’d like to have a beer with, Al Gore was a stiff know-it-all, and never mind all that hard stuff about taxes and Social Security. And let’s face it: six weeks ago Mr. McCain’s focus on trivia seemed to be paying off handsomely.
But that was before the prospect of a second Great Depression concentrated the public’s mind....
[T]he Barack Obama voters see now is cool, calm, intellectual and knowledgeable, able to talk coherently about the financial crisis in a way Mr. McCain can’t. And when the world seems to be falling apart, you don’t turn to a guy you’d like to have a beer with, you turn to someone who might actually know how to fix the situation.
Meanwhile, the video of the night on November 4th should be this one (NSFSanePeople):
*Or its Economics equivalent
