LotD

Isn't science cool? Remains of King Richard III found under parking lot

LotD

Happy Valentine's Day! In honor of the pink and red, I bring you my favorite cultural commenter, Jon Stewart, weighing in on the recent birth control controversy. The most important point regarding the issue is at the very end.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Vagina Ideologues
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Follow-up

I think, I think Celo Green was on The Today show this morning. I'm starting to suspect my deep thought from yesterday is indeed true. Celo Green is property of NBC!!! If anyone can confirm, please let me know as I just saw the tease for his appearance. If it is indeed true, bottoms up!

What the heck?

"Entertainment Tonight", that self-serving and glossily packaged entertainment 'news' program, has been airing clips about the filming of the epic movie Titanic as its angle on the recent cruise ship disaster off the coast of Italy. It strikes me as misguided, even a bit callous, as the anchors breathlessly describe the hardships and intricacies of the movie filming as compared to the ACTUAL SINKING OF A SHIP. Yes, poor Kate Winslet was cold while filming, but she did not DROWN. Old interviews from actors are dredged up and they talk about the 60 degree water, the 40-foot drops they had to make and it's all fascinating and interesting stuff, it really is. But the fact remains that "ET" is serving up a decade-plus old disaster movie (albeit real life disaster) as its hook/comparison to a real life tragedy. The more they milk the filming of Titanic in relation to the Costa Concordia, the more disgusting and annoying it becomes. If you can't cover a tragedy properly, then it's probably best to move on and not do it at all.

He won't be missed

The NYTimes' Osama bin Laden obituary. Startling but very welcome development. Here's the inside story, per the WaPo. I'm just in awe of the Navy SEALs and CIA operatives who carried out this mission.

Wedding bells

To clear up the confusion, Kate Middleton will actually be known as Princess William after marriage, not Princess Catherine. See more here.

LotD

How the middle class became the underclass. Discuss.

Two more

Add Lindsey Lohan and Charlie Sheen to the list of people I wish news organizations would ignore. The former hasn't been relevant in a while and the latter is just... disgusting. Neither adds much to society. They both need help, seem willfully inclined to disregard any help that is offered, and neither shows any motivation to improve themselves (and yes, I know addiction is a disease). It's just irritating when their troubles seem to trounce what's happening in Egypt and other places around the world.

QotD

Thomas Friedman just said on Meet the Press: "Egypt and the Middle East has been on vacation from history for the last 50 years because of oil. Egypt didn't have oil but it had the agreement with Israel, which was to Egypt what oil is to the rest of the Middle East."

The quote just struck me because I'm reading a biography of Catherine of Aragon and the first few chapters have reference to the Moorish influences on Spain and the technological and artistic contributions made to that country prior to their ousting. I'm not quite sure what the peace treaty with Israel did economically for Egypt (perhaps aid from the US?) but oil and its ensuring revenues/subsidies gave some of these countries a reason not to develop other capabilities/competencies, leading to the high unemployment rates and stagnation that we see in the Middle East today. It's not just a democratic revolution that's needed, but an industrial one as well.

Ask and you shall receive

A few weeks ago, I voiced my desire for a Palin-free month (I think more than a month would be asking too much; a Palin-free week is practically a luxury). Dana Millbank of the WaPo has declared February a Palin-free month. Unfortunately, I don't think the rest of the media will follow the ever amusing Millbank's lead.

LotD

Heavy reading from the University of Maryland: Misinformation and the 2010 Election. Andrew Sullivan summarizes here.

LotD

Vanity Fair had an interesting article, The Simple Solution to America's Unemployment Problem. It caught my attention because I've been thinking lately, is Big Business really good for you and me? I haven't completely formulated my thoughts on the subject because I can see the pro and cons of the equation, but I can tell you think: hiring people and paying them a liveable wage cuts in profits.

Profits are what are important to companies. They want to make money and so if they can't make their sales, they cut their spending. People are among the easiest assets to let go. And my great fear these days is that with businesses doing more with less, the incentive to hire is so low. I mean, if they've got someone who can do the job of three people, that's a cost savings to the company and an improved bottomline. Who's going to go through the expense of hiring when you don't need to?

Anyway, it's an interesting rant and much to think about. We think Big Business is good for America, for us the little people, but is Big Business making their decisions with America in mind?

News blues

Our local station -- which once featured an adorable but utterly useless weather dog named Radar -- is reporting on mailboxes that were installed backwards. You have to feel for the poor field reporter spending time interviewing people about their mailbox confusion and investigating WHAT HAPPENED TO HAVE MAILBOXES INSTALLED BACKWARDS (you just know she never anticipated this kind of story when she went to J-school or maybe she's grateful that she's not standing in the surf in the middle of a hurricane; mailboxes are, after all, less dangerous).

After the three-minute story concluded (featuring lots of people parking, getting out of their cars, and mailing letters and letting the reporter know they were confused), the anchors went on their Facebook page and started reading viewer comments (which, btw, is the new "thing" for this news station. Highly annoying as no one is as witty or funny as they think they are on Facebook).

Backwards mailboxes. Hard hitting stuff. It's right up there with the breaking news story from a few years ago about how filthy movie theaters are. And oh, wait! After their commercial break, they're coming back with a story about a dog in a wheelchair... I have no words.

How to write a misleading headline

Dr. Dre Loses Round In Death Row Court Battle. When I first saw this headline, I thought, "What? Dr. Dre on death row? What? How? Where? Is this another Dr. Dre?" Turns out I can step down from red alert; Death Row is the name of a record label. Some of you may have already known that. But for those of us who were unaware, definitely this headline is unclear. I'm not sure what the spacing/character count constraints were on this headline but I think "Dr. Drew loses in record label court battle" would be a more clear headline as to what's actually going on.

I'd like to teach the world to spell

The Flawed Language of Protest; hilarious misspellings at Tea Party protests. In general, I think it's a sign of a lackadaisical attitude towards grammar and spelling. In so many different venues, I see just atrocious attitudes towards grammar, but no overwhelming attitude to impress on people that knowing the difference between then/than and you/your/you're is important nor do people seem to care to get it right.

LotD

Hillary has always been my girl, but I'm increasingly impressed by Nancy Pelosi. What she has done, how she has done it, is nothing short of impressive. She knew what she wanted, she stuck by her principles, and she worked tirelessly to get it done, even when it seemed that defeat was certain.

In her way stood a series of obstacles that would give most normal people a migraine so intractable that insurance companies would deem it a pre-existing condition. There was Bart Stupak and his faction of anti-abortion Democrats. There was the equally large bloc of pro-choice lawmakers who threatened to revolt if Stupak's demands for restrictions on insurance coverage of abortions prevailed. There were the unions, livid at the idea that the House might entrench the Senate's tax on high-cost health plans. There was Dennis Kucinich. Each week seemed to bring an explanation of some obscure parliamentary manoeuvre that had been proposed and proved impossible.

Verklempt

House Approves Health Overhaul. Just wow. I never thought this day would come. Unbelievable. Amazing.

Pins and needles

I've been eagerly following the votes for the health care reform bill, scheduled to be voted on tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed that it will pass. I'm also concerned that the move to repeal it will start on Monday. It's exciting, daunting, terrifying and while nothing will happen until 2014 at the earliest, I can't believe we're actually seeing some progress on this front. It's imperfect (I wanted a public option, but alas) but it's a step in the right direction. People with pre-existing conditions (acne to cancer) will no longer have to worry about being denied and in this age of recession, people who lose their jobs won't be burdened by COBRA payments or such high premiums that they forgo health insurance (my COBRA payment, btw, was quoted at $590/month just for me; I imagine a family of 4 would be much, much higher).

LotD version HCR

The healthcare bill: 10 things you need to know. This is a pretty good briefing on what is actually in the 2,700-page bill.

LotD

Is the runaway Prius the next balloon boy hoax? I thought this story was a bit crazy when it came out because the guy refused to put his Prius in neutral when the emergency worker told him to. Plus, I just didn't see how he was able to try and unstick the accelerator pedal with his hand while driving; he'd practically have to duck below the steering wheel to do so. The story could be true, but it's really odd. All of the other sudden acceleration stories (most of which have unhappy endings) ended quite quickly. This was a 20-minute joyride. Something's rotten in Denmark, that's for sure.