Monday, January 31, 2005
Examiner photog dies in car wreck
This is a real shock to those of us who work or did work at the Examiner. Susan was the photog their for 15 years. It's hard to know what to say or feel right now. For some reason, one of the first thoughts I had when I heard the news was about all those times I gave her a photo assignment at the last minute or otherwise made her life hard by not giving her enough info on a photo request, asking her to take a picture of something lame like a building, etc.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Sosa trade to Baltimore
OK, it's not the end of the world that Sosa is leaving Chicago. Could everyone please relax? Shees. The Cubs ain't winnin the freakin pennant either way.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Sharon Stone raises $1million in five minutes
From today's SF Chron:
Sharon Stone raised $1 million in five minutes Friday for mosquito nets in Tanzania, turning a panel on African poverty into an impromptu fund-raiser. About an hour into the panel, when a U.N. official said 150,000 African children were dying of malaria every month because they didn't have bed nets, Stone suddenly rose from her seat in the audience. "I'd like to offer $10,000 to help you buy some bed nets today," Stone told Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa, who was on the panel along with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and others. Stone then implored others in the hall -- packed with several hundred well-heeled executives and political leaders attending the World Economic Forum -- to reach into their pockets. "Just stand up. Just stand up. People are dying in his country today," she said. "And that is not OK with me today." Immediately an unidentified man promised $50,000. Around 30 others quickly followed, and within five minutes, Stone had raised $1 million, said Sen. Bill Frist, the Senate leader who moderated the panel discussion on how rich nations can best fund the war on poverty. The money will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The nets can be had for as little as $7 for pretreated models that last up to five years. Also in the audience was actress Angelina Jolie, a United Nations goodwill ambassador for refugee issues, who later said she thought it was "wonderful" what Stone had done. "We can all contribute in our own way," she told The Associated Press.
Sharon Stone raised $1 million in five minutes Friday for mosquito nets in Tanzania, turning a panel on African poverty into an impromptu fund-raiser. About an hour into the panel, when a U.N. official said 150,000 African children were dying of malaria every month because they didn't have bed nets, Stone suddenly rose from her seat in the audience. "I'd like to offer $10,000 to help you buy some bed nets today," Stone told Tanzanian President Benjamin William Mkapa, who was on the panel along with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and others. Stone then implored others in the hall -- packed with several hundred well-heeled executives and political leaders attending the World Economic Forum -- to reach into their pockets. "Just stand up. Just stand up. People are dying in his country today," she said. "And that is not OK with me today." Immediately an unidentified man promised $50,000. Around 30 others quickly followed, and within five minutes, Stone had raised $1 million, said Sen. Bill Frist, the Senate leader who moderated the panel discussion on how rich nations can best fund the war on poverty. The money will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The nets can be had for as little as $7 for pretreated models that last up to five years. Also in the audience was actress Angelina Jolie, a United Nations goodwill ambassador for refugee issues, who later said she thought it was "wonderful" what Stone had done. "We can all contribute in our own way," she told The Associated Press.
Letter to America
This is so great! I have issues with 6b, but other than that, sounds good! Oh, maybe 16 wouldn't be so great :-)
Blogs I've read this week
At some point I'll actually have time to figure out how to get one of those blog role thingies on the side of my blog, but for now I'll just post this weekly listing:
Meathook Reality: Adam at lawschool
Big Sur Marathon trainingSome dudes I know running a lot
David Wagner, who is cool
Jack is a conservative wacko, but he reads my blog, and comments too! So I like him despite his misguidedness.
Meathook Reality: Adam at lawschool
Big Sur Marathon trainingSome dudes I know running a lot
David Wagner, who is cool
Jack is a conservative wacko, but he reads my blog, and comments too! So I like him despite his misguidedness.
Cheney clothing choice criticized
Fashion wasn't really what we were supposed to be focusing on yesterday, now was it? Knuckleheads.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Blogburst: Remembering the Wannsee Conference and the Liberation of Auschwitz
I've never heard of a "blogburst" before, but I guess it's something lots of bloggers link to on the same day.
The article below was written by Joseph Alexander Norland of Israpundit as part of the January 27, 2005 BlogBurst to remember the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp sixty years ago, on January 27, 1945.
On January 20th, we marked the anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference. In the course of that Conference, the Nazi hierarchy formalized the plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Understanding the horrors of Auschwitz requires that one be aware of the premeditated mass-murder that was presented at Wannsee.
Highlighting these events now has become particularly important, even as the press reports that "45% of Britons have never heard of Auschwitz"! (Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2004)
On January 20th, we marked the anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference. In the course of that Conference, the Nazi hierarchy formalized the plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Understanding the horrors of Auschwitz requires that one be aware of the premeditated mass-murder that was presented at Wannsee.
Highlighting these events now has become particularly important, even as the press reports that "45% of Britons have never heard of Auschwitz"! (Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2004)
The Holocaust, symbolized by Auschwitz, the worst of the death camps, occurred in the wake of consistent, systematic, unrelenting anti-Jewish propaganda campaigns. As a result, the elimination of the Jews from German society was accepted as axiomatic, leaving open only two questions: when and how.
As Germany expanded its domination and occupation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, Poland, parts of the USSR, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Italy and others countries, the way was open for Hitler to realize his well-publicized plan of destroying the Jewish people.
After experimentation, the use of Zyklon B on unsuspecting victim was adopted by the Nazis as the means of choice, and Auschwitz was selected as the main factory of death (more accurately, one should refer to the “Auschwitz-Birkenau complex”). The green light for mass annihilation was given at the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942.
The Wannsee Conference formalized "the final solution" - the plan to transport Europe's Jews to eastern labour and death camps. Ever efficient and bureaucratic, the Nazi kept a record of the meeting, which were discovered in 1947 in the files of the German Foreign Office. The record represents a summary made by Adolf Eichmann at the time, even though they are sometime referred to as "minutes".
Several of the Conference participants survived the war to be convicted at Nuremberg. One notorious participant, Adolf Eichmann, was tried and convicted in Jerusalem, and executed in 1962 in Ramlah prison.
The mass gassings of Europe's took place in Auschwitz between 1942 and the end of 1944, when the Nazis retreated before the advancing Red Army. Jews were transported to Auschwitz from all over Nazi-occupied or Nazi-dominated Europe and most were slaughtered in Auschwitz upon arrival, sometimes as many as 12,000 in one day. Some victims were selected for slave labour or “medical” experimentation before they were murdered or allowed to die. All were subject to brutal treatment.
In all, between three and four million people, mostly Jews, but also Poles and Red Army POWs, were slaughtered in Auschwitz alone (though some authors put the number at 1.3 million). Other death camps were located at Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec (Belzek), Majdanek and Treblinka. Adding the toll of these and other camps, as well as the mass executions and the starvation im the Ghettos, six million Jews, men, women, the elderly and children lost their lives as a consequence of the Nazi atrocities.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945, sixty years ago, after most of the prisoners were forced into a Death March westwards. The Red Army found in Auschwitz about 7,600 survivors, but not all could be saved.
For a long time, the Allies were well aware of the mass murder, but deliberately refused to bomb the camp or the railways leading to it.
The article below was written by Joseph Alexander Norland of Israpundit as part of the January 27, 2005 BlogBurst to remember the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp sixty years ago, on January 27, 1945.
On January 20th, we marked the anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference. In the course of that Conference, the Nazi hierarchy formalized the plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Understanding the horrors of Auschwitz requires that one be aware of the premeditated mass-murder that was presented at Wannsee.
Highlighting these events now has become particularly important, even as the press reports that "45% of Britons have never heard of Auschwitz"! (Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2004)
On January 20th, we marked the anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference. In the course of that Conference, the Nazi hierarchy formalized the plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Understanding the horrors of Auschwitz requires that one be aware of the premeditated mass-murder that was presented at Wannsee.
Highlighting these events now has become particularly important, even as the press reports that "45% of Britons have never heard of Auschwitz"! (Jerusalem Post, December 2, 2004)
The Holocaust, symbolized by Auschwitz, the worst of the death camps, occurred in the wake of consistent, systematic, unrelenting anti-Jewish propaganda campaigns. As a result, the elimination of the Jews from German society was accepted as axiomatic, leaving open only two questions: when and how.
As Germany expanded its domination and occupation of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, the Low Countries, Yugoslavia, Poland, parts of the USSR, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Italy and others countries, the way was open for Hitler to realize his well-publicized plan of destroying the Jewish people.
After experimentation, the use of Zyklon B on unsuspecting victim was adopted by the Nazis as the means of choice, and Auschwitz was selected as the main factory of death (more accurately, one should refer to the “Auschwitz-Birkenau complex”). The green light for mass annihilation was given at the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942.
The Wannsee Conference formalized "the final solution" - the plan to transport Europe's Jews to eastern labour and death camps. Ever efficient and bureaucratic, the Nazi kept a record of the meeting, which were discovered in 1947 in the files of the German Foreign Office. The record represents a summary made by Adolf Eichmann at the time, even though they are sometime referred to as "minutes".
Several of the Conference participants survived the war to be convicted at Nuremberg. One notorious participant, Adolf Eichmann, was tried and convicted in Jerusalem, and executed in 1962 in Ramlah prison.
The mass gassings of Europe's took place in Auschwitz between 1942 and the end of 1944, when the Nazis retreated before the advancing Red Army. Jews were transported to Auschwitz from all over Nazi-occupied or Nazi-dominated Europe and most were slaughtered in Auschwitz upon arrival, sometimes as many as 12,000 in one day. Some victims were selected for slave labour or “medical” experimentation before they were murdered or allowed to die. All were subject to brutal treatment.
In all, between three and four million people, mostly Jews, but also Poles and Red Army POWs, were slaughtered in Auschwitz alone (though some authors put the number at 1.3 million). Other death camps were located at Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec (Belzek), Majdanek and Treblinka. Adding the toll of these and other camps, as well as the mass executions and the starvation im the Ghettos, six million Jews, men, women, the elderly and children lost their lives as a consequence of the Nazi atrocities.
Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945, sixty years ago, after most of the prisoners were forced into a Death March westwards. The Red Army found in Auschwitz about 7,600 survivors, but not all could be saved.
For a long time, the Allies were well aware of the mass murder, but deliberately refused to bomb the camp or the railways leading to it.
George Will is a hypocritical windbag
Here's proof.
During the 1980 campaign, he drew fire when it was learned he'd secretly coached Republican candidate Ronald Reagan for a debate with President Jimmy Carter using a debate briefing book stolen from the Carter campaign. Immediately following the debate, Will appeared on Nightline (10/28/80) to praise Reagan's "thoroughbred performance," never disclosing his role in rehearsing that performance (New York Times, 7/9/83).
During the 1980 campaign, he drew fire when it was learned he'd secretly coached Republican candidate Ronald Reagan for a debate with President Jimmy Carter using a debate briefing book stolen from the Carter campaign. Immediately following the debate, Will appeared on Nightline (10/28/80) to praise Reagan's "thoroughbred performance," never disclosing his role in rehearsing that performance (New York Times, 7/9/83).
Dowd sells out to conservatives!
I still have many Christmas bills to pay. So I'd like to send a message to the administration: THIS SPACE AVAILABLE. I could write about the strong dollar and the shrinking deficit. Or defend Torture Boy, I mean, the esteemed and sage Alberto Gonzales. Or remind readers of the terrific job Condi Rice did coordinating national security before 9/11 - who could have interpreted a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" as a credible threat? - not to mention her indefatigable energy obscuring information undercutting the vice president's dementia on Iraq.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Gay marriage: Understanding conservative arguments
I posted the following on The Charging Elephantin response to a general post on conservatism. It's a very interesting topic to me and I thought I'd put it out on my blog to get some responses:
Here's a conservative argument I sincerely don't understand, with regard to gay marriage. I completely understand why people don't want gays marrying in their church. That is totally up to them. But legal marriage, as it is today, is a governmental institution, not a religious one. My marriage ceremony took place inside a courthouse in the office of the judge who performed the ceremony. Why would it make marriage "something it is not" to allow two people of the same gender to take part in that same exercise?
I am even more preplexed by the people who say that "real" marriages will be degraded if gays are allowed to marry. I strongly believe that, if people *really* want to "defend" marriage, they should be going after people who marry, say, five times, or people who, ala Brittney Spears, get married sort of as a joke and get an anullment or divorce right away. Why is gay marriage more threatening to straight marriage than that?
Looking forward to your comments...
Here's a conservative argument I sincerely don't understand, with regard to gay marriage. I completely understand why people don't want gays marrying in their church. That is totally up to them. But legal marriage, as it is today, is a governmental institution, not a religious one. My marriage ceremony took place inside a courthouse in the office of the judge who performed the ceremony. Why would it make marriage "something it is not" to allow two people of the same gender to take part in that same exercise?
I am even more preplexed by the people who say that "real" marriages will be degraded if gays are allowed to marry. I strongly believe that, if people *really* want to "defend" marriage, they should be going after people who marry, say, five times, or people who, ala Brittney Spears, get married sort of as a joke and get an anullment or divorce right away. Why is gay marriage more threatening to straight marriage than that?
Looking forward to your comments...
Monday, January 24, 2005
Right-wingers support bullies' rights to call kids "fags"
Discourage a liberal from trying to do some good so you can advance your own political agenda; yeah, that's pretty Christian.
Bob Johnson, director of marketing for the Pro-Family Coalition of America, said No Name-Calling Week is unnecessary. "The fags should do what my kids do when others call them 'Bible-thumpers' or 'Jesus-freaks,'" he said: "turn the other cheek."
OK, I made that up. But it's not far fetched, is it?
Bob Johnson, director of marketing for the Pro-Family Coalition of America, said No Name-Calling Week is unnecessary. "The fags should do what my kids do when others call them 'Bible-thumpers' or 'Jesus-freaks,'" he said: "turn the other cheek."
OK, I made that up. But it's not far fetched, is it?
Support your local farmers market!
Yesterday I rode my bike five miles, as I often do on Sundays, to visit the Menlo Park Farmers Market. Not only is the market open year-round, but it features many great vendors, including "Phil the Prune Man." Yesterday I met a wonderful woman named Alison, who has been coming to the market here for many years and is a chef, so she sometimes makes food (this time it was chili, with vegetarian and pork options available) for the farmers, just to say thanks! I stayed for a while and chatted with her and some of the farmers. What a great way to spend an hour on Sunday afternoon!
So, why should you buy produce, flowers, etc. from the farmers market instead of your neighborhood [insert giant-corporation-owned supermarket here]? Well, you get to meet great people like Phil and Alison. The food is fresher, which means it's more tasty and nutritious. And buying local means saving the environment from the pollution produced by shipping the produce from across the country or across the globe.
Look up your local farmers market here or here, or do a Google search for "[your state] farmers market directory."
So, why should you buy produce, flowers, etc. from the farmers market instead of your neighborhood [insert giant-corporation-owned supermarket here]? Well, you get to meet great people like Phil and Alison. The food is fresher, which means it's more tasty and nutritious. And buying local means saving the environment from the pollution produced by shipping the produce from across the country or across the globe.
Look up your local farmers market here or here, or do a Google search for "[your state] farmers market directory."
It's a sad day
This sums it up. Not many celebrities manage to keep from turning into cheeseball hams at some point. Carson was one.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Focus on the Family at it again
Christian groups issue "gay warning" -- whatever that is
Sponge Bob is gay
Still, Dobson assistant Paul Batura told the Times that Focus on the Family stands by its complaint. ''We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids,'' he said.
Leave it to the good doctor, James Dobson, to make American Christians look like a bunch of idiots.
Sponge Bob is gay
Still, Dobson assistant Paul Batura told the Times that Focus on the Family stands by its complaint. ''We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids,'' he said.
Leave it to the good doctor, James Dobson, to make American Christians look like a bunch of idiots.
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