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I think it was Michael Eisner, the head of Disney at the time, who was quoted as saying, ‘He’s ruining the movie.’ Upper-echelon Disney-ites, going, What’s wrong with him? Is he, you know, like some kind of weird simpleton? Is he drunk? By the way, is he gay? … And so I actually told this woman who was the Disney-ite … ‘But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?’ Which really made her nervous.”
Category: Links
suggested reading at other sites
links for 2010-11-22
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Just because the Ninth Circuit ruled that 1973 airport screening procedures were legal administrative searches does not mean that the TSA is not currently violating the Fourth Amendment. In fact, the same court addressed secondary screenings only three years ago.
In Aukai, the Ninth Circuit stated TSA screening procedures are “well-tailored to protect personal privacy escalating in invasiveness only after a lower level of screening disclosed a reason to conduct a more probing search.” (United States v. Aukai, 497 F.3d 955 (2007)).
Employing AIT and enhanced pat-downs as primary screening mechanisms hardly seems to comport to that ruling.
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While the new TSA enhanced pat downs may violate the Fourth Amendment on the surface, what most people are not aware of is that the 9th Circuit Court of the United States ruled on the search of passengers in airports back in 1973, which effectively suspends limited aspects of the Fourth Amendment while undergoing airport security screening.
In 1973 the 9th Circuit Court rules on U.S. vs Davis, 482 F.2d 893, 908, there are key pieces of wording that give the TSA its power to search essentially any way they choose to. The key wording in this ruling includes “noting that airport screenings are considered to be administrative searches because they are conducted as part of a general regulatory scheme, where the essential administrative purpose is to prevent the carrying of weapons or explosives aboard aircraft.” -
a Lao Tzu story: 2500 years ago, if you wanted to cross a river your bridge was basically a rope slung between the banks. You hauled yourself over, using the rope to counter the drift of the current. Imagine that upstream a man was in a boat and he lost his oar. He is out of control as the current bears him towards you. When he hits you, or comes close, you shake your fist at him. But what if the boat was empty? To be hit by en empty boat is an act of fate, an accident. It’s a story to tell. To act in the way of Tao, essentially, is to act as an empty boat.
links for 2010-11-08
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Jim DeMint says he’d be willing to shut down the government, the country to go into default on our debt and probably throw us into a world wide great depression by refusing to raise the debt ceiling if we don’t do something to get the budget balanced. When asked by David Gregory on this weekend’s Meet the Press to name specifically what he’d cut DeMint can’t name any specifics other than earmarks. He does also cite Paul Ryan’s plan which includes privatizing Social Security and Medicare so Wall Street can get their hands on the Social Security Trust Fund.
links for 2010-11-06
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A murder costs society $17.25 million, or about 50 times an armed robbery, according to a research team from Iowa State University. A paper from Spain put the average "price" of a pack of cigarettes for men at about $150. And a group of U.K. health experts considered a range of social, economic and health costs when trying to determine which recreational drug was most harmful. Alcohol won.
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Guthrie’s Jewish lyrics can be traced to the unusual collaborative relationship he had with his mother-in-law, Aliza Greenblatt, a prominent Yiddish poet who lived across from Guthrie and his family in Brooklyn in the 1940s. Guthrie – the Oklahoma troubadour – and Greenblatt – the Jewish wordsmith – often discussed their artistic projects and critiqued each other’s works, finding common ground in their shared love of culture and social justice, despite very different backgrounds. Their collaboration flourished in 1940s Brooklyn, where Jewish culture was interwoven with music, modern dance, poetry and anti-fascist, pro-labor activism.
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Those progressives are angry at the Senate for, in their view, bumbling the legislation Democrats passed in the House, and making it less popular. They have polling proving that the public option was more popular than the health care mandate. This is yet another reason that the "listen to the Blue Dogs" argument falls flat with them — if they'd listened to the Blue Dogs, they'd have had even less to show voters. In terms of progressive legislation, Pelosi was the most successful Democratic speaker since Sam Rayburn.
links for 2010-11-02
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AutoZone wants to own the creative, all of it, regardless of who wins the account. That demand, becoming more common, has prompted at least one finalist — Havas’ Arnold in Boston — to bail two weeks ago. Interpublic Group’s McCann Erickson in Troy, Mich., remains in, though it told AutoZone that it won’t pitch on those terms, said sources.
links for 2010-10-27
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Originally set to open at the Maxine Elliott Theatre with elaborate sets and a full orchestra, the production was shut down due to "budget cuts" within the Federal Theatre Project—though it was widely believed that this was instead because of accusations that it was pro-communist. The theatre was padlocked and surrounded by armed servicemen, ostensibly to prevent anyone from stealing props or costumes, as all of this was considered U. S. Government property. They even impounded leading man Howard Da Silva's toupee.
On the spur of the moment, Welles, Houseman, and Blitzstein rented the much larger Venice Theatre and a piano, and planned for Blitzstein to sing/play/read the entire musical to the sold out house which had grown larger by inviting people off the street to attend for free. Orson Welles encouraged cast members to say their lines from the audience, to exercise their right of free speech. -
my photo here.
Toxie — Planet Money's mortgage-backed toxic asset — is in a coma.
links for 2010-10-26
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Lillian Hellman's 1931 play will pair the two actresses as headmistresses whose lives are destroyed when a pupil accuses the two of being lesbians. You will intuit that this is a period piece by the fact that the combination of the phrases "Keira Knightley," "Elisabeth Moss," and "lesbian lovers" results in despair and suicide instead of ultralucrative search-engine optimization.
links for 2010-10-25
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“I’m sure I’ll take you with pleasure!” the Queen said. “Two pence a week, and jam every other day.” Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, “I don’t want you to hire ME – and I don’t care for jam.” “It’s very good jam,” said the Queen. “Well, I don’t want any TO-DAY, at any rate.” “You couldn’t have it if you DID want it,” the Queen said. “The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday – but never jam to-day.” “It MUST come sometimes to “jam to-day,”” Alice objected. “No, it can’t,” said the Queen. “It’s jam every OTHER day: to-day isn’t any OTHER day, you know.” “I don’t understand you,” said Alice. “It’s dreadfully confusing!”The Queen’s rule is a pun on a mnemonic for remembering the distinction between the Latin words “nunc” and “iam” (sometimes written “jam”). Both mean “now”, but “nunc” is only used in the present tense, while “iam” is used in the past and future tenses.
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Mr. Assange is guilty of one of the worst offenses in American culture: challenging deeply-held beliefs about the benevolence of American foreign policy with facts. It’s no wonder that American media outlets immediately turn the spotlight onto him, and not the actual materials themselves.
links for 2010-10-22
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Of course, Tribune columnist John Kass would prefer to rail at bloggers. You know, the kind who work out of mommy's basement. Here's a question for you, John: What blogs do you read? Cite some examples. Or are you just cutting and pasting from the hoariest cliches you've heard about the Internet?
links for 2010-10-21
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The city of Chicago has 36,000 parking meters. In 2008, it sold them on a 75 year lease for over one billion dollars. The buyers were led by Morgan Stanley. But as Matt Taibbi reports in his forthcoming book Griftopia, previewed in Rolling Stone, the state-owned investment arm of Abu Dhabi ended up owning a large share — possibility a controlling majority — in Chicago's parking meter system.
links for 2010-10-20
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On occasion, I’d like to showcase other iPhoneographers in The Small Mega Pixel. The great thing about the worldwide community of people creating ‘art’ with an iPhone is that they can be right in your backyard. Today’s work is from local guy Seth Anderson.
links for 2010-10-19
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When is it ever a good idea to tie up a woman and have her kneel before a false idol?
links for 2010-10-18
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Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information—in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies
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In Chamorro culture many values are exhibited in daily life. Geftao (generous, giving in the Chamorro language) is an example of a principle that conveys cultural mores through practice and lifestyle.
To be geftao is a holdover from ancient Chamorro times. For example, it is unacceptable and a cause for embarrassment to be a poor host (taotao guma’) to your relatives, friends and even strangers. A Chamorro host’s goal is to make their guests comfortable when they visit their homes or at events such as parties or social gatherings.
links for 2010-10-15
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The Apple logo was multicolor because the Apple II was the first color computer. No one else could do color, so that’s why they put the color blocks into the logo. If you wanted to print the logo in a magazine ad or on a package you could print it with four colors but Steve being Steve insisted on six colors. So whenever the Apple logo was printed, it was always printed in six colors. It added another 30 to 40 percent to the cost of everything, but that’s what Steve wanted. That’s what we always did. He was a perfectionist even from the early days.
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The corner of North Leavitt and West Randolph looks a far cry from the most dangerous neighborhood in America as reported my several large national and local media outlets.
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Mayor Richard M. Daley joined Near West Side residents and members of the business community in dedicating the national headquarters of CB2 — a sister brand of Crate and Barrel — in a re-developed department store building at 240 N. Ashland in late September.
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The name of Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney is misspelled as Rich “Whitey” on electronic-voting machines in nearly two dozen wards — about half in predominantly African-American areas — and election officials said Wednesday the problem cannot be corrected by Election Day.
The misspelling turned up on touch-screen machines in 23 wards overall.
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Glenn Beck is urging his listeners to donate money to the Chamber of Commerce.
Now, the Chamber of Commerce is not simply an advocacy organization pursing an ideological agenda, like the National Rifle Association or the National Right to Life Committee. It is a trade association representing some of the largest corporations you can think of. Its board of directors counts among its members executives from Pfizer, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, US Airways, JPMorgan Chase & Co., IBM, and Verizon. It is The Establishment incarnate.
And Glenn Beck is calling on his hardworking listeners to donate money to the Chamber.
links for 2010-10-14
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“We have probably 60 or so foreign multi-national companies in our membership that we have had for decades, many of which have been in the United States for half a century or a century,” said Josten.
The Chamber is being deceptive. In addition to multinational members of the Chamber headquartered abroad (like BP, Shell Oil, and Siemens), a new ThinkProgress investigation has identified at least 84 other foreign companies that actively donate to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6). Below is a chart detailing the annual dues foreign corporations have indicated that they give directly to the Chamber
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What the new genre of foreclosure photography reveals about the human side of the Great Recession.
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But, if I were a teacher, I’d definitely bring in my humidifier and park it in the corner of a classroom. Leaving one humming in the background might just reduce the transmission of all those combined flu particles hanging, exhaled, in the air. Studies have shown that humidifying nursing homes reduces flu transmission – so it’s not just a theoretical benefit. So if you’re a parent, consider sharing this info, as well as the gift of a humidifier, with your kids’ teachers. You don’t need an expensive humidifier – in fact the types that simultaneously heat the air may lead to mold growth in the humidifier (something you definitely don’t want to be blowing into the air you breathe). A good old cheap type of humidifier that you dump out each day and refill is plenty good enough.
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Two years ago today, Jonah Goldberg offered Juan Cole a bet: “Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn’t want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let’s make a bet. I predict that Iraq won’t have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I’ll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there’s another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I’m all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc
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The notion that Tribune editor Gerry Kern would be offended is laughable and just goes to show you how lame the whole company has become – I mean, it was lame before, but at least in a less psychotic way. We get Corporate Lame. This is the jocks vs. the nerds and I can’t take sides in that crappy fight. I hated high school. I’m with the rockers, the burnouts, the misfits, the pranksters, and the smart and witty independent outsiders who don’t care about the prom, their SATs, or tattling about beer and sex. My god, when they came for the journalists there were none of us left!
I didn’t go to my high school prom either, can I join your club…
