Time-Out for American Alphabet

Have been on hiatus as I was working to open American Alphabet, a show for the 2010 Kansas City Fringe Festival. Sometimes the Zeitgeist is written about; sometimes it is performed. Check here for performance updates and the reviews.

Hogwash and Vilificaton

Feeling several days behind the "national conversation on race" that the media has been conducting, as I am working on a performance about race issues in America , so I will post the latest and what I think are the more interesting articles and editorials on the Shirley Sherrod smearing/firing/apologizing. But first, the video of Roger Spooner - the farmers at the center of Sherrod's NAACP speech:



Also worth a look - Melissa Harris Lacewell on MSNBC framing the story as the "vilification of black women for sport and political gain."

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From Eugene Robinson in this mornings Washington Post:

After the Shirley Sherrod episode, there's no longer any need to mince words: A cynical right-wing propaganda machine is peddling the poisonous fiction that when African Americans or other minorities reach positions of power, they seek some kind of revenge against whites.

Willie Nelson weighs in on The Huffington Post about Sherrod's advocacy for family farming, as does Andy Borowitz with his headline:

USDA Offers Sherrod Authority Over Farmville

And finally, Rachel Maddow's report on the flip-flopping of Fox News on the Sherrod story:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

BP Arts Sponsorship Protest Hits Texas

From the Durango Herald:

Vandals took out their anger at BP on the Durango Arts Center's canvas awning sometime last week, but the misguided protest is going to hurt the struggling nonprofit, its director said Monday.

DAC Executive Director Sheri Rochford Figgs said she'll have to replace the entire awning, which faces East Second Avenue and is decorated with the names of "significant" donors, except for, now, BP.

First Lady Advocacy of the Arts

A Washington Post article on Michelle Obama's relationship to the arts and the arts programming at the White House:

After a year and a half of an Obama White House, which has included more than 50 cultural events, this student workshop epitomizes the first lady's approach to the arts. Her philosophy is defined by an emphasis on education and access for those who are often locked out.

Reading the Supreme Court Tea Leaves

The NY Times discusses the recent ruling on a Christian student group and what it says or doesn't say about how the Court might rule on gay marriage:

Lawyers for couples challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage wasted no time in offering the judge hearing their case a translation of Justice Ginsburg’s sentence.

“The Supreme Court definitively held that sexual orientation is not merely behavioral, but rather, that gay and lesbian individuals are an identifiable class,” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. wrote the next day to Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court in San Francisco.

Ben Folds' Tribute to Levi Johnston

From Mediaite:

The chorus actually borrows directly from Johnston’s now-defunct MySpace page that became popular after Sarah Palin was announced as the GOP VP nominee. This is a pretty classic hook – but it makes it even better that it came from Levi himself:

I’m a fuckin’ redneck, I like to hang out with the boys
Play some hockey, do some fishing, and kill some moose.
I like to shoot the shit and do some chillin’, I guess.
Ya fuck with me and I’ll kick your ass.

Well, now the proposed reality show has a theme song…

Expanding the Political Lexicon, One Tweet at a Time

Juan Cole's must-read on the Palin-Shakespeare-Twitter kerfuffle:

There are many things wrong with the original tweet. “Refudiate” is, of course, not a word, and a case could be made for making Ms. Palin pay her parents back for all the money they spent on her education.

The phrase ‘stab you in the heart as it does ours’ should be ‘stab you in the heart as it does us’– she has incorrectly switched from a direct object of the transitive verb ‘to stab’ to a possessive modifying heart; in the first parallel phrase, ‘heart’ was the the object of a preposition.

The further errors in the tweet have to do with substance. A tiny fringe cult destroyed the Twin Towers in New York, not Islam in general (a religion of 1.5 billion human beings which could well be the religion of 3 billion human beings by mid-century). A monument to Usama Bin Laden or al-Qaeda would be in poor taste. A mosque, built anywhere in the United States, is not.

The #shakesplain hashtag on Twitter is hours of entertainment and you can play along!

Time's Joe Klein weighs in on the benign AND evil aspects of Palin's latest 140-character misstep:

Palin poses a potential gold-rush of neo-Americanoid language.

Little Green Footballs points out Palin used "refudiate" in an interview with Sean Hannity last week. It comes at the end around 2:35 in the clip.



The Guardian has an article and puts out a challenge to readers to coin their own new words. The comments below the article are worth the read including this:

Palindrone = the meaningless noise that comes out of Sarah Palin's stupid face.

How Brad Pitt Does Good

From GOOD, what Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation is getting right in New Orleans:

Before the foundation trained local contractors, no one in New Orleans knew how to pour the pervious concrete that absorbs rainwater. Training one contractor to do this for one house would be prohibitively expensive; MIR essentially shouldered this start-up cost. Throughout the project, the foundation has introduced new material streams, reduced the costs of learning to use them, and pioneered the path through a permitting office that had never seen any of this before. And it has evolved building schemes that use fewer resources and cut the cost of obtaining them by buying in bulk.

Happy Birthday Hunter S. Thompson

From Thompson's book Kingdom of Fear:

We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world-a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us... No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party

Playwrights take on culture wars taking place in the halls of American high schools:

From fourth grade to high school, at school board meetings and in state assemblies, temperatures are rising over censorship, control, religion and education. The battle over who teaches what, and how, has become one of the fiercest arenas of the culture wars.

The Lack of Passion in Defense of Mel Gibson

From the NY Times, Frank Rich's positive take on the Mel Gibson debacle:

Six years ago he was not merely an A-list movie star with a penchant for drinking and boorish behavior but also a powerful and canonized figure in the political and cultural pantheon of American conservatism. That he has reached rock bottom tells us nothing new about Gibson. He was the same talented, nasty, bigoted blowhard then that he is today. But his fall says a lot about the changes in our country over the past six years. We shouldn’t take those changes for granted. We should take stock — and celebrate. They are good news.

All Black Panthers, All the Time

From Media Matters: Six Fox News shows have discussed the phony New Black Panthers scandal during a total of 95 segments since Megyn Kelly's June 30 interview hyping the unsubstantiated allegations of right-wing activist J. Christian Adams. In all, these Fox shows have devoted more than eight hours of airtime to discussing the New Black Panthers.
Dave Wiegel, guest-blogging at The Alantic's The Daily Dish sums it up:

This isn't journalism. No one cares what the NBPP thinks about anything. This is minstrelsy, with a fringe moron set up like a bowling pin for Hannity to knock down. And that's the role the NBPP plays on Fox, frequently.

As Fox pits black commentator against black commentator, with blonde Megyn Kelly in between, it's worth a look back at Jon Stewart's view of Ms. Kelly.

Anchor Management

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

The Russian Bono

A NY Times Saturday profile on Russian rocker-activist Yuri Shevchuk:

These days, at 53, Mr. Shevchuk remains a guttural voice of defiance, just as he was when he began dodging Soviet censors by holding secret concerts in apartments throughout Russia in the early 1980s. But now he rails against Vladimir V. Putin’s government in his packed shows and openly scorns other musicians he accuses of selling out.

In Plain Sight

From The Daily Beast, Ted Haggard's male escort discusses sleeping with clergy:

What I also discovered is that there are usually plenty of clues to be found when someone is doing something on the sly, whether it’s sleeping with male escorts or stealing from their church’s coffers. But people don’t want to know that about their religious leaders. Many want to turn a blind eye, even when the truth is staring them right in the face. When I attended Haggard's New Life Church after the scandal broke, I was amazed to see all the explicitly homoerotic statues and paintings -- sculptures of nude, muscular men all over the place. I also noticed that all the people on stage where Ted would preach were young men -- not a female in sight. I was later told that Ted picked out all the art work and the final decision as to who was on stage lay with him.

Rotten to the Core

A must-read piece on the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten in the The Independent.

Broadway on Pennsylvania Avenue

Monday's "In Performance at the White House" features stars from Broadway. From the LA Times:

The Tony-winning performers are actor-singers Nathan Lane (two Tonys), Audra McDonald (four Tonys), Idina Menzel, Tonya Pinkins and Karen Olivo (one each, for "Wicked," "Jelly's Last Jam" and "West Side Story," respectively), and pianist Marvin Hamlisch, a Tony winner for his score to "A Chorus Line." Working behind the scenes is Jerry Mitchell, Tony-winning choreographer (for the 2004 revival of "La Cage aux Folles"), who will guide 20 Washington, D.C., dance students in a segment from "Hairspray," another show he choreographed.

Also performing are Brian d'Arcy James ("Shrek: The Musical"), Chad Kimball ("Memphis") and Assata Alston, a 12-year-old from Queens, N.Y., who recently debuted at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

More Proof Schools Need Art Programs

The Creativity Crisis from Newsweek:

Overwhelmed by curriculum standards, American teachers warn there’s no room in the day for a creativity class. Kids are fortunate if they get an art class once or twice a week. But to scientists, this is a non sequitur, borne out of what University of Georgia’s Mark Runco calls “art bias.” The age-old belief that the arts have a special claim to creativity is unfounded. When scholars gave creativity tasks to both engineering majors and music majors, their scores laid down on an identical spectrum, with the same high averages and standard deviations. Inside their brains, the same thing was happening—ideas were being generated and evaluated on the fly.

Money for "Placemaking"

From the NEA website:

NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman Announces $3 Million in Grants From Mayors' Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative

MICD25 supports creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform sites into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. The grants range from $25,000 to $250,000 and are awarded to 21 communities ranging from Easton, Pennsylvania (population 26,000) to Los Angeles, California (population 9.8 million). This is the first grant program developed under Chairman Landesman's leadership.

Here is Judith H. Dobrzynski's take on the new initiative.

Below-the-Street Theater

Frame-Flipping

Well worth the full read. Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic on the NAACP condemnation of racism in the Tea Party movement:

The NAACP's announcement initially struck me in much the same the way. But some hours of considering this have proven to me that my initial skepticism says more about the broad American narrative of race and racism, then it does about the justness of the NAACP's charge.

I think it's worth, first, considering the record of American racism, and then the record of the Tea Party and its allies. Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping--positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry, they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace, they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and strawman. Thus segregation wasn't necessary to keep the niggers in line, it was necessary to protect the honor of white women.

Cry for the U.S., Argentina

Glenn Greenwald in Salon on Argentina's approval of gay marriage:

It's worthwhile now and then to take stock of the vast disparity between how we like to think of ourselves and reality. When a country with Argentina's history and background becomes but the latest country to legally recognize same-sex marriage -- largely as the result of a population which demanded it -- that disparity becomes quite clear.

Chart of the Day

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has an amazing chart on same-sex marriage and this:

Although the past year has been frustrating to liberals and libertarians on many levels, one exception is in the increasing willingness of governments around the world to recognize same-sex marriage, as Argentina determined to do yesterday. There are now about 250 million people worldwide living in jurisdictions which provide for marriage equity,

65th Anniversary of Trinity

Today is the 65th Anniversary of the testing of the first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Greg Mitchell has a piece on the anniversary on his Media Fix blog at The Nation.

"Thank God for Slavery"

Judy Thomas' piece in the Kansas City Star on racism in the Tea Party movement is a MUST-READ.

For many tea partiers, racism is in the eye of the beholder.

Take Ron Wight, who stood with dozens of tea party activists at the J.C. Nichols Memorial Fountain in April, complaining about the Obama administration, its socialist agenda and being called a racist.

Those like him who complain about President Barack Obama are accused of racism, lamented the semi-retired music teacher from Lee’s Summit.

Then he added: “If I was a black man, I’d get down on my knees and thank God for slavery. Otherwise, I could be dying of AIDS now in Africa.”

Wight doesn’t consider that comment to be racist.

“I wish slavery had never happened,” he said. “But there are some black people alive today who have never suffered one day what the people who were black went through in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. Has somebody said something stupid or done something stupid? Yes, there have been incidents.

“But with everything that has been done in this country legally and socially for the black man, it’s almost like they’ve been given a great leg up.”

Too Sexy for My Public Radio

Mississippi Public Broadcasting cancels Fresh Air with Terry Gross. From Gawker:

Mississippi has modernized itself quite a bit lately. No longer are African-Americans required by law to wear chains, nor are women required to remain indoors. But Terry Gross's NPR show? Smut like that is still not allowed.

Rachel Maddow reports that the reason for the decision has to do with an interview with comedian Louis CK where he talks about having sex with his shirt on.

This is no shortage of outrage on Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Facebook page.

Palin Family Circus on Steroids

Yesterday was political theater Christmas! Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston announce their engagement - via the cover of US Weekly and a magazine spokesperson on the Today show. They don't tell Sarah Palin prior to announcement. And apparently they didn't tell Levi's sister Mercedes either. In her blog, Mercedes reacts to the surprise and then offers to be their wedding planner. Bristol reveals that they will marry in Alaska next month and the groom will wear "camo." Sarah and Todd Palin's press statement is more than a little chilly.

“Bristol at 19 is now a young adult. We obviously want what’s best for our children. Bristol believes in redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives.”

UPDATE: Gawker has an exhaustive compendium called All the Trash Levi Johnston Has Talked About His Future Mother-in-Law.

Gay Marriage in DC

Yesterday, same-sex marriage in the nation's capitol was upheld:

In its decision, the Court of Appeals, D.C.’s highest court, decided 5-4 that the Council properly exercised its authority under the D.C. Charter in establishing the requirement that a proposed initiative may not authorize, or have the effect of authorizing, discrimination prohibited by the D.C. Human Rights Act. The Court ruled unanimously that the proposed initiative would in fact impermissibly permit discrimination against gays and lesbians in the District.

Let Them Eat Vegetables

Check out Obama Foodorama, a new blog about White House food initiatives and other food politics.

NaziSexyMouse

From Google News:

A huge poster of a Nazi swastika behind a 1940s-style naked pin-up model clad only in a Mickey Mouse-mask and stretched across a building has stirred controversy in Poznan, western Poland.

A new art gallery is using the work titled "NaziSexyMouse" by Italian artist Max Papeschi to advertise an exhibition, but a city councillor has tried to take legal action saying it violates a law banning the display of Nazi symbols.

Whistlin' and Repudiatin'

Dale Roberts, founder of teaparty.org at a 2009 Houston Tea Party rally.


Windy City Watch in a post on Palin's "racial dog whistle" last night on Sean Hannity's show in response to the NAACP resolution on the racism within the Team Party Movement. She calls Obama "half white and half black" and she makes up a new word - "refudiate."

She is implying that white folks can’t be racist against some one who is “half white,” while at the same time reminding folks he is “half Black.” Let’s not forget that Palin’s buddy, radio host and pill popping bigot Rush Limbaugh refers to Obama as a “Halfrican American.” These references have a purpose and its not a celebration of Obama’s diverse background.

In the same interview Palin called on Obama to “refudiate,” (yeah the crazy lady made up the word “refudiate”) the NAACP for its resolution condemning the teabagger movement for the bigotry that is directed at Obama as well as others.

Happy Birthday Woody Guthrie!

Rock Star Pope

From The Independent - a look a new musical about Pope John Paul II:

Mamma Mia certainly did the business in reviving Abba's worldwide reputation; now the Catholic Church is hoping a new, all-singing, all-dancing biography can do the same for John Paul II and his flock.

The posthumous reputation of the Polish pontiff appears to be at a crossroads. As the Vatican clears the way for his beatification, serious questions have emerged about John Paul's responsibility for the clerical paedophilia scandal that has exploded into the open in Europe this year.

It is not all organ music and choirboys. To pull in the crowds, there are songs from home favourite Giuni Russo, an Italian blend of Grace Jones, Dusty Springfield and Cliff Richard. John Paul II doubtless appreciated the religious songs of her later years even if he didn't approve of her sexual ambiguity. And there are other populist touches, including rap music and Fame-style dance routines, leading the theatre critic of Italy's business daily Il Sole 24 Ore to pronounce the show "pure pop". It is perhaps an appropriate tribute to the man, often dubbed "the rock star Pope", whose death in 2005 drew 3million people to Rome to pay their respects.

Prop 8 and DOMA

The blog Balkinization unpacks the Massachusetts DOMA ruling and the possible scenarios as gay marriage cases make their way through the courts:

The elephant in the room, of course, is the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case in federal district court in California, which makes a direct assault on state marriage laws. If both these cases make their way to the Supreme Court about the same time, or if Perry v. Schwarzenegger gets there first, then it will be even more difficult to separate the constitutionality of section 3 of DOMA from the constitutionality of state marriage laws generally. And of course, if Perry v. Schwarzenegger strikes down Prop 8, and is affirmed by the Ninth Circuit the chances become very high that the Court will take cert in that case, even if it does not take cert in Gill.

The Fabulous and the Fiasco

The LA Times previews the high-tech production of Peter Pan imported from London.

The production features live action combined with digital visual effects projected on a 360-degree screen. The show will be performed in a 1,300-seat, 100-foot-tall tent that will travel to Southern California and occupy the site next to the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall.

Inside the tent, audiences will be able to view approximately 15,000 square feet of high-resolution video.

"Peter Pan" is directed by Ben Harrison and uses an adaptation by Tanya Ronder. The show has a cast of 22 actors and features puppetry and musical sequences. For the flying scenes, actors are lifted into the air against a digital backdrop featuring soaring shots of London.

Brings to mind the hilarious story of the most misguided production of Peter Pan ever - as told on This American Life. It is the first story in a shot called "Fiasco". The story is 23 minutes long and you won't regret one minute of it.

Tabloid Marriage

From The Today Show: Bristol Palin was worried about how she was going to tell her mother that she’s engaged to marry Levi Johnston, the father of her 18-month-old son.

She solved the problem by telling a tabloid magazine.

“We got engaged two weeks ago. It felt right, even though we don’t have the approval of our parents,” Palin told Us Weekly magazine in a bombshell story published Wednesday.

And in People Magazine, Bristol blames Sarah Palin for their break-up.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pink Eye

From the Boston Globe: Boston-based documentary photographer Lisa Kessler jumped down this rabbit hole when a friend asked if she ever worked in color. She immediately thought of pink because of her lifelong aversion to it — she says she gravitates toward subjects that make her uncomfortable — and for three years, she traveled the country in search of the ways Americans use the color.

The Fans of Glenn Beck

Well, this was inevitable.

Things Cindy McCain Likes

White tablecloths on the beach.

Genius or Savant?

Michelle Cottle in The New Republic about Sarah Palin's "p.r. genius":

With her new-media savvy and old-fashioned charisma, Palin has managed to merge Norma Desmond (“Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup”) with Greta Garbo (“I want to be alone”) to become one of the most irresistible spectacles on the public stage. Any political strategist who orchestrated such brilliant success via such unconventional means would instantly be dubbed the p.r. genius of our time. But, as far as we know, there is no crack communications team charting Palin’s course. At some point, even Palin haters may have to face the possibility that the p.r. genius is Sarah herself.

Art-Tweeting

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Every night in theatres around Australia, audience members are tweeting: during interval, after the show and sometimes, mostly surreptitiously, during the show itself. Twitter is the new word of mouth and all the major arts companies are taking it seriously indeed.

Drawing Fire for Drawing Mohammad

Seattle artist Molly Norris takes on the image of Mohammad and steps into all kinds of controversy.

Bachmann Beats Palin

From David Frum:

Michele Bachmann raised $1.7 million in the last quarter, more than the erstwhile Republican vice-presidential candidate, even though she had to balance fundraising with her congressional duties and her campaign for reelection. More importantly, Bachmann’s contributors were limited by FEC regulations to a maximum of $2,400, while Palin’s contributors were each allowed to donate up to $5,000 to her PAC.

Bachmann is raising spectacular amounts of money. So the question should be: why isn’t Palin, a national figure with more media coverage than Bachmann, at least keeping pace?

A good excuse to post a classic Bachmann video.

Gay Marriage in Argentina

Check out this ad for same-sex marriage in Argentina, where the government is currently debating the issue. If it passes, Argentina will be the first Latin American country to recognize gay marriage. Not surprisingly, the Mormons and the Catholic church have become involved.

The Drama of Facebook

CNN lists the 12 most annoying types of Facebook users.

The Social Network (the Facebook) movie comes out in October. Aaron "The West Wing" Sorkin wrote the script.

Let Them Eat Gold Leaf

Rush Limbaugh sells his luxury penthouse apartment in New York City. The Wall St. Journal has the details:

Mr. Limbaugh's 10-room condominium, which features a 30-foot-wide living room with fireplace and four terraces overlooking Central Park at East 86th Street, went into contract Thursday for a bit under the final $12.95 million asking price, brokers said.

One broker familiar with the transaction said the final price was about $11.5 million. Mr. Limbaugh paid just under $5 million for the apartment as well as a maid's room and a storage locker, in 1994.

The listing by Haidee Granger and Stuart Moss of Corcoran Group shows a richly decorated space with ornate, hand-painted ceiling murals, and walls upholstered in silk damask. A paneled study has a gold-leaf ceiling.

Things Cindy McCain Likes

Coronado, San Diego

The Angry Guy

A long piece in New York Magazine on the devolving John McCain:

He sees Obama less as the leader of all the people than a man who beat him, with a few lucky breaks. “He’s angry at Obama, at former staff, at his family life, at his fellow Americans,” says a veteran Republican strategist who has worked closely with McCain. “He’s angry.”

On the Importance of Light and Warmth

A synopsis of the film The Mirror (Lo Specchio):

In the far northwest corner of Italy, in a quiet valley dominated by steep hills, is the tiny hamlet of Viganella. It’s centuries old and mostly uninhabited. In the next fifteen years, the population of Viganella will dwindle from 100 to fewer than 30. For the inhabitants of this village, the empty stone houses point to a very real fear – their town is dying and it may soon be a village of ruins.

The mayor of the town, Pierfranco Midali, knows this. So he’s going to try and realize an incredible, if crazy, dream – to revive Viganella by building a giant mirror on the mountain behind the village to reflect sunlight into the town square.

Watch the trailer:

Polanski Walks

From the New York Times:

The Swiss government declared renowned film director Roman Polanski a free man on Monday after rejecting a U.S. request to extradite him on a charge of having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Post-traumatic Homophobia Syndrome

On the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell - from The Onion:

This May, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) promised voters he would do everything in his power to prevent gays from serving openly in the armed forces, and on Thursday, he told reporters that the role of the military is to defend American freedoms, not "the rights of, you know, those people some of us stay up all night thinking about as we toss and turn."

"Imagine you've got a boat full of sailors out cruising the Gulf of Aden when all of a sudden they're attacked. Some of the homosexuals lock themselves below deck and begin touching themselves," said the 73-year-old senator and Vietnam War veteran, his breath quickening. "One of their names is Ricardo. Unbuttoning his pants, he throws his gunner's mate down on the cot and penetrates him, his big, beautiful dick shimmering with power, his dog tags bouncing up and down as he's pounding, and pounding, and pounding."

Added McCain, "What I'm trying to say is: It all boils down to combat effectiveness."

We Don't Let Facts Get in the Way

From the Boston Globe:

In the end, truth will out. Won’t it?

Maybe not. Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

Prop 8 Case and DOMA Ruling Videos

Long interview with Davide Boies and Ted Olson at the Aspen Ideas Institute:

The Palin Puppet Soap Opera

Levi Johnston's reconciliation with Bristol Palin and the Palin family resulted in Levi threatening his sister Mercede.

The message was from my mother saying that Levi, who has not spoken to us since he rekindled his relationship with Bristol (although we had attempted repeatedly to call or text him), left a message saying that if I did not take my blog down by Wednesday that I would never get to see him, or Tripp, again.

Mercede continued her blog post with this:

As for this new People magazine article where my brother “Apologizes to the Palins” I am extremely disappointed in him. Not only is he being controlled like a puppet, but saying that all of his comments and stories were lies is absurd!

I know for a fact that all of his comments were true. I lived through all this and I remember clear as day all of the times that Levi would come home and tell me about Sarah complaining, or fights going on between the family, .etc.

I know he wasn’t making all that up, why would he have back then? I am very disappointed that he is allowing them to control him in such a manner.

Levi, please don’t do this to yourself and family again.

I am not afraid of the Palins. And yeah maybe it is just me up against a huge army of Palin supporters, but really what else can they take from me?

Nothing.

In the end the truth shall prevail.

Swimming in Oil

From PetaPixel, photographer Jane Fulton Alt comments on the BP oil disaster. She previously documented the aftermath of Katrina.

Palin, Ltd.

Forbes has a piece doubting Palin's previously reported net worth. For the Forbes' folks, $10 million in earnings last year does not make her a "financial juggernaut."

Bottom line: thanks to a memoir published at the zenith of public interest in her, the former Alsaka governor had a windfall year. But her best days, financially, could be behind her. Unless, of course, she's elected President.

Sports Zeitgeist

What's media hype and what's part of the zeitgest? Initially found very little of interest in the Lebron James' media tsunami, until I read Matt Taibbi's blog posting on the Rolling Stone website titled The Five Funniest Things About the "Lebron James: Global Superdouche" Broadcast. There are so many hilariously insightful paragraphs to pull. The whole piece is well the read:

I'm sure there's a larger point to make in all of this about how the insane pathology behind the Lebron spectacle (read: a co-dependent need to worship insatiable media-attention hogs gone far off the rails of self-awareness) is what ultimately is going to destroy this country and leave us goverened for all time by dingbat megalomaniacs like Sarah Palin. But for now I think it's important to just enjoy "The Decision" on a pure humor value basis, since we're unlikely to see anything that funny for a good long while.

The Wait for Twain is Over

The NY Times' article on the release of the Mark Twain unexpurgated autobiography:

Whether anguishing over American military interventions abroad or delivering jabs at Wall Street tycoons, this Twain is strikingly contemporary. Though the autobiography also contains its share of homespun tales, some of its observations about American life are so acerbic — at one point Twain refers to American soldiers as “uniformed assassins” — that his heirs and editors, as well as the writer himself, feared they would damage his reputation if not withheld.

“From the first, second, third and fourth editions all sound and sane expressions of opinion must be left out,” Twain instructed them in 1906. “There may be a market for that kind of wares a century from now. There is no hurry. Wait and see.”

Call Him Ishmael

Artist Matt Kish has a blog called One Drawing for Every Page of Moby Dick. And that's just what it is. His project is being turned into a book. For the best look at all the images (pages), visit his website.

Oakland Riots July 2010

There were riots in Oakland, CA last night. As described by photographer Thomas Hawk:

Last night protesters in Oakland, CA rioted after a Los Angeles jury convicted former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle of Involuntary Manslaughter. Mehserle, a whilte police officer, had been on trial for a highly visible shooting of black Oscar Grant in the back during a 2009 New Year’s Day incident at the Fruitvale BART station.

You can see Hawk's coverage of the riots and see his Flickr photo stream.

Always Scout

Guardian.co.uk has extensive coverage of the 50th Anniversary of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

On The Huffington Post, there is an excerpt from Anna Quindlen's new book, Scout, Atticus and Boo:

It's still always about Scout to me because there really aren't that many of those girls. There were hardly any of those girls in our real life, and there aren't that many of them in books. So you store them up as a hedge against the attempts of the world to make you into something else.

Scout is totally real and totally imperfect, and she has the best two words in the book and two of the best words that have ever been put into any book by any writer: "Hey, Boo." There are moments in books that make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and "Hey, Boo" is one of those moments.

Things Cindy McCain Likes

Coral Reefs.