A senior aide to California Senator Barbara Boxer was arrested and later quit when he tried to sneak some marijuana into a U.S. Senate office building.
Marcus Stanley was arrested Tuesday morning and soon after resigned from the senator's staff. Among his assignments during his career had been senior economic advisor to the senator and working for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and...wait for it...the Joint Economic Committee.
Ah, Mr. Stanley, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Revolting
One of the newest members of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, elected to that body by acclamation (meaning no nation eligible to vote asked for a recorded vote or objected to the move) seems to have an interesting idea about whose fault it is when the newspaper makes a mistake.
Iran, which sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be stoned to death when she confessed to adultery -- after receiving 99 lashes -- was upset that Ms. Ashtiani's picture appeared in The Times of London, because she wasn't properly covered with a veil or hijab hiding her hair in the photo. So they gave her another 99 lashes, according to her lawyer. The problem? The Times ran the wrong photo. It wasn't Ms. Ashtiani. They've said they're sorry. The Iranians have said they didn't beat Ms. Ashtiani, but you can believe that like you can believe the Earth is flat. And, oh, by the way, she also helped kill her husband -- that's the real reason we sentenced her to death even though we never said anything about it until now -- and butt out, everybody.
While the medieval-minded mouth breathers that pass for leadership in that nation have as yet to bury Ms. Ashtiani in the ground up to her chest and throw rocks at her until she dies -- the sentence to which the court condemned her -- the lawyer is also worried that they have simply been waiting for the end of the Muslim religious period of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayer during daylight hours. When it ends later this week, he believes Ms. Ashtiani will be killed, either by stoning or some other method.
I've given up wondering why the United Nations countenances Iran's presence at any table, let alone one concerned with women's rights, and treats it with anything other than the disdain that any civilized group of people should have for barbarians. There's no good reason and no way to choose from among the bad ones. But I am curious about something else.
Way back in April, Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi ("Hojatoleslam" being his title) said that when women dress immodestly, they tempt young men into sin and God punishes humanity in response with natural disasters. A young woman from Purdue, along with many other people, thought his remarks were very silly. But she went a step further and took action, encouraging women at first via her blog and then through a Facebook group to dress immodestly on April 26 to see if God would in fact send disasters in response. This became known as "Boobquake." The title refers to the body parts that would be more exposed via the protest, not the brain function of those who dreamed it up.
"Boobquake"'s Facebook page shows just above 98,000 "likes," or what would have been called two or three Facebook upgrades ago, "fans." A page entitled "No to stoning Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtian," by contrast, has nearly 150,000 likes. The catch? The second page is actually called "NO ALLA LAPIDAZIONE DI Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," because it's in Italian. The top number of likes for any English page referring to Ms. Ashtiani is under 1,000. She is mentioned in one link posted to the Boobquake page, a link which has drawn no comments, likes or other notice from Boobquake followers. A notice that a blogger will go without sleep for some time in order to raise money for her school's Secular Student Alliance, on the other hand, earned 88 likes and 30 comments. A news story about a study that suggests a connection between staring at breasts and longer lifespans has been posted at least twice.
So, what I don't understand is this. Why is it that the silly words of some preacher, destined to be soon forgotten (trust me on that one) and offering pretty much no immediate harm to anyone, can stir up such a fuss among people who care about the rights, status and empowerment of women, while the actual threat of actual death to an actual woman who will be killed by men throwing rocks at her until she dies is greeted with what is by comparison a cricket's chirp?
Iran, which sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to be stoned to death when she confessed to adultery -- after receiving 99 lashes -- was upset that Ms. Ashtiani's picture appeared in The Times of London, because she wasn't properly covered with a veil or hijab hiding her hair in the photo. So they gave her another 99 lashes, according to her lawyer. The problem? The Times ran the wrong photo. It wasn't Ms. Ashtiani. They've said they're sorry. The Iranians have said they didn't beat Ms. Ashtiani, but you can believe that like you can believe the Earth is flat. And, oh, by the way, she also helped kill her husband -- that's the real reason we sentenced her to death even though we never said anything about it until now -- and butt out, everybody.
While the medieval-minded mouth breathers that pass for leadership in that nation have as yet to bury Ms. Ashtiani in the ground up to her chest and throw rocks at her until she dies -- the sentence to which the court condemned her -- the lawyer is also worried that they have simply been waiting for the end of the Muslim religious period of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayer during daylight hours. When it ends later this week, he believes Ms. Ashtiani will be killed, either by stoning or some other method.
I've given up wondering why the United Nations countenances Iran's presence at any table, let alone one concerned with women's rights, and treats it with anything other than the disdain that any civilized group of people should have for barbarians. There's no good reason and no way to choose from among the bad ones. But I am curious about something else.
Way back in April, Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi ("Hojatoleslam" being his title) said that when women dress immodestly, they tempt young men into sin and God punishes humanity in response with natural disasters. A young woman from Purdue, along with many other people, thought his remarks were very silly. But she went a step further and took action, encouraging women at first via her blog and then through a Facebook group to dress immodestly on April 26 to see if God would in fact send disasters in response. This became known as "Boobquake." The title refers to the body parts that would be more exposed via the protest, not the brain function of those who dreamed it up.
"Boobquake"'s Facebook page shows just above 98,000 "likes," or what would have been called two or three Facebook upgrades ago, "fans." A page entitled "No to stoning Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtian," by contrast, has nearly 150,000 likes. The catch? The second page is actually called "NO ALLA LAPIDAZIONE DI Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani," because it's in Italian. The top number of likes for any English page referring to Ms. Ashtiani is under 1,000. She is mentioned in one link posted to the Boobquake page, a link which has drawn no comments, likes or other notice from Boobquake followers. A notice that a blogger will go without sleep for some time in order to raise money for her school's Secular Student Alliance, on the other hand, earned 88 likes and 30 comments. A news story about a study that suggests a connection between staring at breasts and longer lifespans has been posted at least twice.
So, what I don't understand is this. Why is it that the silly words of some preacher, destined to be soon forgotten (trust me on that one) and offering pretty much no immediate harm to anyone, can stir up such a fuss among people who care about the rights, status and empowerment of women, while the actual threat of actual death to an actual woman who will be killed by men throwing rocks at her until she dies is greeted with what is by comparison a cricket's chirp?
Monday, September 6, 2010
Not Bad
So today was in fact, my birthday. Every now and again it falls on Labor Day, which means I can pretend the country takes a day off in my honor. My mother says the actual birth was on a Saturday, but she still considers it labor day. I can't offer much of an argument; although I was present, I was not paying much attention to anything other than the masked giant hoisting me upside down and smacking me in the middle of a very cold room.
In addition to all of us U.S. folks getting the day off, TCM also decided to show Tender Mercies, the 1983 movie that won Oscars for lead Robert Duvall and screenwriter Horton Foote. One of my top films, top actors and top writers. No specific birthday message was offered by the cable channel, but sometimes you have to read between the lines.
A significant number of Facebook friends wished me happiness on this day, as well as thanked me for their holiday - heh. Spent the day with the folks, dined out and generally took it easy.
Well played, birthday. Well played indeed.
In addition to all of us U.S. folks getting the day off, TCM also decided to show Tender Mercies, the 1983 movie that won Oscars for lead Robert Duvall and screenwriter Horton Foote. One of my top films, top actors and top writers. No specific birthday message was offered by the cable channel, but sometimes you have to read between the lines.
A significant number of Facebook friends wished me happiness on this day, as well as thanked me for their holiday - heh. Spent the day with the folks, dined out and generally took it easy.
Well played, birthday. Well played indeed.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Hitting is Timing...
The fun little Max St. Pierre saga continues as the journeyman minor-league catcher gets a hit in his major-league debut and contributes to a Tiger win. I like it, even if the win comes over my own preferred team, whose dismal play for most of the last quarter-century has made wins over them annoyingly easy to come by.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Victory Over Evil!
The forces of good -- represented as always by the valiant Wildcats of Northwestern -- defeated the forces of wickedness -- today being played by the Commodores of Vanderbilt -- in the football season opener for both teams. Brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking was quoted as saying, "Well, at least the universe makes sense this week." Lionel Richie was reported to be considering filing a lawsuit to retroactively change the name of his former band so that they would no longer be listed as "The Commodores" on Billboard charts. "We always thought 'The Commanders' sounded a lot cooler, anyway," he said.
Although the villainous minions of Vandy Coach Robbie Caldwell tried desperately to wring a tainted victory from the grasp of the wholesome, apple-pie-loving Cats, they learned that, truly, they should have been thinking on quaecumque sunt vera.
Next week, the upstanding young men of Evanston will be crushing the hopes and dreams of Reggie Redbird and his Illinois State cronies as they make the long journey from Normal, Illinois, in order to experience utter futility.
Although the villainous minions of Vandy Coach Robbie Caldwell tried desperately to wring a tainted victory from the grasp of the wholesome, apple-pie-loving Cats, they learned that, truly, they should have been thinking on quaecumque sunt vera.
Next week, the upstanding young men of Evanston will be crushing the hopes and dreams of Reggie Redbird and his Illinois State cronies as they make the long journey from Normal, Illinois, in order to experience utter futility.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Blessed Omission
This morning, because of humid air or temperature layers or something else I don't quite understand (I know, I know -- the list is not thus much narrowed) a Dallas station came across my truck radio at the same frequency as our local radio station The Spy. In the space of the five minutes it took me to drive to work, I heard car dealer commercials, get-out-of-debt service commercials and payday loan commercials -- three of the least enjoyable kinds of advertisement pollution that clog modern radio airwaves. And I realized that I pretty much hadn't heard any of those in a while, and I further realized that's because they don't seem to get played on The Spy.
Thanks, Ferris.
Thanks, Ferris.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Sometimes, the World Plays Fair
As it has just done for one Maxim Joseph St. Pierre, a career minor-league catcher who's spent most of his time in the Detroit Tiger organization. Tuesday, St. Pierre was pulled from the AAA Toledo Mud Hens game in the third inning. The reason? The parent team had just purchased his contract and he was going to Detroit.
No big deal, happens all the time at this point of the baseball season, right? Major league clubs expand their rosters to give some of the raw talent a taste of the big time and some experience competing at the highest level of the game. But it's a big deal for Max St. Pierre. Max, you see, started playing professional baseball in 1997, and has played 978 games at different minor league levels without a single day on a major league roster. When St. Pierre started with the Gulf Coast Tigers of the Rookie League, Barry Bonds had only 334 homers and mostly normal blood chemistry.
With the exception of 10 games played for the Huntsville Stars of the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 2007, Max has been a loyal part of the Detroit Tiger system (And his .156 batting average for the Stars kind of shows his heart wasn't in the change). That's right -- for the first eight years of his career, Max's goal was to get to be a member of a team that couldn't post a winning season and in 2003 lost an American-League record 119 games. When you find out at the beginning of the season that you're not good enough to be a Tiger, you gotta really want to play to keep going.
He's being promoted to fill in for the ailing Gerald Laird, the Tigers' regular catcher who injured his back in batting practice and was unavailable to play. Laird's a year older and has spent two seasons on the Detroit roster after a career with the Texas Rangers that featured several stints right down the road at the Bricktown Ballpark.
So Max's time in the bigs may be limited. He may only get to play out the rest of this season before he's back shuttling between Toledo and the Tigers' AA club at Erie, PA. But I bet he won't care too much. Because for the rest of his life, baseball player Max St. Pierre will know he has spent time among those at the very top of his profession. He will face the best pitchers, and try to help his own pitcher fool the best hitters. His throw to second will be tested by the best baserunners. The daydream of almost every kid who ever picked up a bat and glove will solidify into reality for him. What most people have to watch on a TV screen or a from behind a wall will be Max St. Pierre's place of business. And even though sometimes we find out that working hard and persevering is not the automatic path to our dreams we have been promised, it will be for him.
Max St. Pierre's going to The Show.
No big deal, happens all the time at this point of the baseball season, right? Major league clubs expand their rosters to give some of the raw talent a taste of the big time and some experience competing at the highest level of the game. But it's a big deal for Max St. Pierre. Max, you see, started playing professional baseball in 1997, and has played 978 games at different minor league levels without a single day on a major league roster. When St. Pierre started with the Gulf Coast Tigers of the Rookie League, Barry Bonds had only 334 homers and mostly normal blood chemistry.
With the exception of 10 games played for the Huntsville Stars of the Milwaukee Brewers organization in 2007, Max has been a loyal part of the Detroit Tiger system (And his .156 batting average for the Stars kind of shows his heart wasn't in the change). That's right -- for the first eight years of his career, Max's goal was to get to be a member of a team that couldn't post a winning season and in 2003 lost an American-League record 119 games. When you find out at the beginning of the season that you're not good enough to be a Tiger, you gotta really want to play to keep going.
He's being promoted to fill in for the ailing Gerald Laird, the Tigers' regular catcher who injured his back in batting practice and was unavailable to play. Laird's a year older and has spent two seasons on the Detroit roster after a career with the Texas Rangers that featured several stints right down the road at the Bricktown Ballpark.
So Max's time in the bigs may be limited. He may only get to play out the rest of this season before he's back shuttling between Toledo and the Tigers' AA club at Erie, PA. But I bet he won't care too much. Because for the rest of his life, baseball player Max St. Pierre will know he has spent time among those at the very top of his profession. He will face the best pitchers, and try to help his own pitcher fool the best hitters. His throw to second will be tested by the best baserunners. The daydream of almost every kid who ever picked up a bat and glove will solidify into reality for him. What most people have to watch on a TV screen or a from behind a wall will be Max St. Pierre's place of business. And even though sometimes we find out that working hard and persevering is not the automatic path to our dreams we have been promised, it will be for him.
Max St. Pierre's going to The Show.
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