Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
Friday Coffee Hour and check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
In 1801, The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
In 1812, poet Lord Byron gave his first speech as a member of the House of Lords, where he defended violence by Luddites against Industrialism in Nottinghamshire.
In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified officially limiting a president to two terms of office. Can’t have any more of those Socialist Roosevelt types!
In 1973, Members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, S.D., the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux people. They remained there until May.
In 1986, the Senate allowed its debates to be televised.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush announced that Kuwait was liberated, and the Persian Gulf War was over. He stated that combat operations would be suspended at midnight.
in 1997, divorce was finally legalized in Ireland.
In 1997, in Britain, legislation banning most handguns went into effect.
Born on This Day
272 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (d. 337)
1606 – Laurent de La Hyre, French painter (d. 1656)
1622 – Carel Fabritius, Dutch painter (d. 1654)
1729 – Jean-Hugues Taraval, French painter (d. 1785)
1741 – Michel Pierre Hubert Descours II, French painter (d. 1814)
1805 – Pharamond Blanchard, French painter (d. 1873)
1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (d. 1882)
1814 – Charles Louis Baugniet, Belgian genre painter (d. 1886)
1824 – Henri Pierre Picou, French painter (d. 1895)
1831 – Nikolai Ge, Russian painter (d. 1894)
1847 – Ellen Terry, English actress (d.1928)
1863 – Joaquín Sorolla, Spanish painter (d. 1923)
1869 – Alice Hamilton, American doctor and public health advocate (d. 1970)
1886 – Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1971)
1887 – James Dickson Innes, British painter (d. 1914)
1890 – Freddie Keppard, American jazz musician (d. 1933)
1891 – David Sarnoff, Russian-born broadcast pioneer (d. 1971)
1902 – John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
1903 – Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)
1905 – Franchot Tone, American actor (d. 1968)
1907 – Mildred Bailey, American singer (d. 1951)
1910 – Joan Bennett, American actress (d. 1990)
1912 – Lawrence Durrell, English writer (d. 1990)
1917 – John Connally, American politician (d. 1993)
1923 – Dexter Gordon, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1990)
1930 – Joanne Woodward, American actress
1932 – Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress (d. 2011)
1934 – Ralph Nader, American author, activist, and political figure
1936 – Roger Mahony, American cardinal and pedophile protector
1942 – Jimmy Burns, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1951 – Lee Atwater, evil American political figure (d. 1991)
1951 – Steve Harley, British musician (Cockney Rebel)
1958 – Nancy Spungen, American murder victim (d. 1978)
1959 – Johnny Van Zant, American singer (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
1969 – Brad Vander Ark, American musician (The Verve Pipe)
1971 – “Chilli” Thomas, American singer (TLC)
1980 – Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton
1983 – Kate Mara, American actress
Died on This Day
1834 – Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar, French Neoclassical painter (b. 1762)
1868 – Maximilien de Meuron, Swiss landscape painter (b. 1785)
1892 – Louis Vuitton, French ugly luggage maker (b. 1821)
1902 – Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant, Anglo-Australian soldier (b. 1864)
1926 – Olga Wisinger-Florian, Austrian painter (b. 1844)
1942 – Ernest Rouart, French painter (b. 1874)
1964 – Orry-Kelly, Australian costume designer (b. 1897)
1966 – Gino Severini, Italian Cubist and Futurist painter (b. 1883)
1968 – Frankie Lymon, American singer (The Teenagers) (b. 1942)
1977 – John Dickson Carr, American author (b. 1905)
1985 – Henry Cabot Lodge, American politician (b. 1902)
1987 – Joan Greenwood, English actress and director (b. 1921)
1992 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American linguist and politician (b. 1906)
1993 – Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)
2003 – Fred Rogers, American television host (b. 1928)
2008 – William F. Buckley, Jr., American author and journalist, founded the National Review (b. 1925)
2013 – Richard Street, American singer-songwriter (The Temptations and The Monitors) (b. 1942)
After a week of national backlash, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) has vetoed SB 1062, which would have allowed religious beliefs to be used to justify discrimination against LGBT people and others. Explaining her veto, Brewer said, “I call them like I see them despite the cheers or boos from the crowd.” She added that the bill does not address a specific concern and that she knows of no examples of how religious liberty has been under attack.
Opposition to the bill came from individuals and companies across the country, including the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, Apple, and Mitt Romney. Many other states have introduced similar bills, some specifying that businesses could refuse services to marrying same-sex couples, but most have stalled or died, particularly those introduced this week during the backlash against Arizona.
What explains Fox’s sudden cold feet now that several states are acting to deal with the manufactured threat to religious liberty that Fox News helped create?
To hear people like Fox’s Kelly and Tantaros explain it, laws like Arizona’s SB 1062 simply went a little too far. These laws would be acceptable if they only affected businesses directly involved in the marriage and wedding industry, but giving all business owners a license to discriminate against gay customers too closely resembles Jim Crow legislation.[…]
The distinction between marriage-related services and general services used by gay couples is convenient, but it doesn’t stand up under closer scrutiny.
For one, Fox News has aggressively promoted the idea that requiring equal treatment of gay people in non-marital contexts also infringes on businesses’ religious liberty. […]
… many of the network’s personalities are waking up to the harsh reality that their words have consequences. They’re in the uncomfortable position of to decide between disowning the right-wing talking points they helped promote or siding with measures that even they admit look a lot like pro-segregation laws.
“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
– Judge Leon M. Bazile, January 6, 1959
The premise of the [Arizona] bill is that discrimination becomes acceptable so long as it is packaged inside a religious wrapper. As Arizona state Rep. Eddie Farnsworth (R) explained, lawmakers introduced it in response to instances where anti-gay business owners in other states were “punished for their religious beliefs” after they denied service to gay customers in violation of a state anti-discrimination law.
Yet, while LGBT Americans are the current target of this effort to repackage prejudice as “religious liberty,” they are hardly the first. To the contrary, as Wake Forest law Professor Michael Kent Curtis explained in a 2012 law review article, many segregationists justified racial bigotry on the very same grounds that religious conservatives now hope to justify anti-gay animus.
“As a global values-based company, Delta Air Lines is proud of the diversity of its customers and employees, and is deeply concerned about proposed measures in several states, including Georgia and Arizona, that would allow businesses to refuse service to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. If passed into law, these proposals would cause significant harm to many people and will result in job losses. They would also violate Delta’s core values of mutual respect and dignity shared by our 80,000 employees worldwide and the 165 million customers we serve every year. Delta strongly opposes these measures and we join the business community in urging state officials to reject these proposals.”
The Center for Arizona Policy’s president Cathi Herrod:
“When the force of government compels one to speak or act contrary to their conscience, the government injures not only the dignity of the afflicted, but the dignity of our society as a whole.”
I think that word “afflicted” does not mean what you think it means, sad bigot Cathi Herrod.
Arizona Gov Jan Brewer vetoes homophobic bill, infuriating homophobic followers of noted non-homophobe Jesus Christ.
In an upcoming decision, the U.S. Supreme Court could either open the floodgates for a new outpouring of anti-gay discrimination laws — or constrict the “religious freedom” movement just as it’s getting started.
Whether Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer will veto Senate Bill 1062 has dominated headlines for the last week, and similar legislation has been introduced this year in Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Kansas, South Dakota, and Idaho. The proposed laws would greenlight the refusal by businesses and individuals to provide services to LGBT people by requiring the government to have a compelling reason to interfere with someone’s religious belief.
A closely watched case currently before the Supreme Court, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., has nothing to do with LGBT rights, but everything to do with religious freedom. At issue is whether the federal government can require private businesses to cover birth control for their employees under Obamacare if the employer objects to contraception on religious grounds.
That’s why advocates and legal experts say that if the justices rule that the health care reform law doesn’t apply to those individuals and businesses, their legal reasoning could open the door for more discriminatory legislation.
~
Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news items in the comment threads.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
In 1919, Woodrow Wilson signed the act of Congress that created Grand Canyon National Park.
In 1920, the German expressionist film, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, inspiration to goth kids everywhere, premiered.
In 1929, Calvin Coolidge created Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming via executive order. Tyranny!
In 1971, the United Nations proclaimed that the vernal equinox would henceforth be celebrated as Earth Day.
In 1980, full diplomatic relations were established between Egypt and Israel.
In 1987, in their report on the Iran Contra affair, the Tower Commission rebuked Reagan for failing to control his national security staff (as if they weren’t acting under his orders).
In 1993, members of Al Qaeld parked a truck bomb under the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center, It exploded, causing six deaths and thousands of injuries.
Born on This Day
1564 – Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist (d. 1593)
1740 – Giambattista Bodoni, Italian publisher and engraver and font guy. (d. 1813)
1802 – Victor Hugo, French writer (d. 1885)
1808 – Honoré Daumier, French painter, illustrator, and sculptor (d. 1879)
1821 – Félix Ziem, French painter (d. 1911)
1824 – Carl Goebel, Viennese painter (d. 1899)
1829 – Levi Strauss, German-born businessman (who did not invent jeans, just manufactured them). (d. 1902)
1836 – Elihu Vedder, painter (d. 1923)
1846 – William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, American frontiersman (d. 1917)
1866 – Herbert Henry Dow, American chemical industrialist (d. 1930)
1887 – William Frawley, American actor (d. 1966)
1906 – Madeleine Carroll, English actress (d. 1987)
1908 – Tex Avery, American cartoonist (d. 1980)
1909 – Fanny Cradock, English food writer and broadcaster (d. 1994)
1915 – Raúl Anguiano Valadez, Mexican painter (d. 2006)
1916 – Jackie Gleason, American actor, writer, composer and comedian (d. 1987)
1918 – Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (d. 1985)
1920 – Tony Randall, American actor (d. 2004)
1921 – Betty Hutton, American actress and singer (d. 2007)
1922 – Margaret Leighton, British actress (d. 1976)
1926 – Miroslava, Mexican actress (d. 1955)
1928 – Fats Domino, American singer-songwriter and pianist
1928 – Ariel Sharon, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 2014)
1931 – Robert Novak, American wingnut political columnist aka Novakula (d. 2009)
1932 – Johnny Cash, American country singer (d. 2003)
1943 – Bob Hite, American singer (Canned Heat) (d. 1981)
1945 – Mitch Ryder, American musician (The Detroit Wheels)
1947 – Sandie Shaw, English singer
1948 – Sharyn McCrumb, American mystery writer
1949 – Elizabeth George, American mystery writer
1958 – Tim Kaine, American politician
1960 – Jaz Coleman, British musician (Killing Joke)
1968 – Tim Commerford, American bassist (Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave)
1971 – Erykah Badu, American singer (Soulquarians)
Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.
The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour. Come back when time allows through the day – the conversation continues.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
I’m sick and tired of reading comments loaded with right-wing memes and myths.
Every time we try to deal with discussing racist murderers, whether its Micheal Dunn or George Zimmerman, and his defenders, someone steps into the conversation and brings up the tired trope of “black-on-black crime” as a tried and true method of derailing the conversation away from racism, Stand Your Ground laws as they affect black people, and racially biased jurors and prosecutors who don’t deliver justice-for us.
I see these unrelated stats thrown around willy-nilly, and not just on Fox.
This stuff is to be expected from Faux News, or folks over at Breitbart’s site.
term “black on black crime”. The only major racial/ethnic group where the majority of crime committed against them are from people of a different ethnic/racial group are Native Americans. That’s it!
The term feeds a rightwing meme.
He made the comment in a diary about ‘fear of blacks’ on Sunday, but that hasn’t stopped people from continuing to do apples and oranges.
Let’s get this straight.
A racist who kills or maims a black person, latino (or any other person of color) is committing a hate crime. Most white people killing white people as simply violent crime, black people killing black people in the course of violent crime-aren’t doing murders because of how they feel about someone’s skin color.
Dopper’s comment was referencing the one major crime stat where inter-racial imbalance really does occur-the rape of Native American women, where 86% of the rapes are committed by non-Indian rapists (70% are white) which has been the subject of other pieces here, and elsewhere-see Aji’s post-“Sovereignty for Native Women: The Tribal Law and Order Act“-and one I did on VAWA.
Back to the subject at hand. If you have never read them, strongly suggest you read two pieces by Jamelle Bouie:
In the first he makes it clear “Crime is driven by proximity and opportunity-which is why 86 percent of white victims were killed by white offenders.”
He goes on to point out why right-wingers have shifted the subject:
Last week, in Chicago, 16-year-old Darryl Green was found dead in the yard of an abandoned home. He was killed, relatives reported, because he refused to join a gang. Unlike most tragedies, however-which remain local news-this one caught the attention of conservative activist Ben Shapiro, an editor for Breitbart News. Using the hashtag “#justicefordarryl,” Shaprio tweeted and publicized the details of Green’s murder. But this wasn’t a call for help and assistance for Green’s family, rather, it was his response to wide outrage over Saturday’s decision in the case of George Zimmerman, where a Florida jury judged him “not guilty” of second-degree murder or manslaughter in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Shapiro, echoing many other conservatives, is angry over the perceived politicization of the Zimmerman trial, and believes that activists have “injected” race into the discussion, as if there’s nothing racial already within the criminal-justice system. Indeed, he echoes many conservatives when he complains that media attention had everything to do with Zimmerman’s race. If he were black, the argument goes, no one would care. And so, Shapiro found the sad story of Darryl Green, and promoted it as an example of the “black-on-black” crime that, he believes, goes ignored. Or, as he tweets, “49% of murder victims are black men. 93% of those are killed by other blacks. Media don’t care. Obama doesn’t care
In the second article Bouie wrote:
No one has said that crime between African Americans isn’t a problem. The point is that blackness has nothing to do with it. “Black-on-black crime” is a frame that presupposes black criminality-that there’s something inherent to blackness which makes intra-group crime more prevalent and more deadly. But that’s nonsense, and all it does is obscure the history that brought us to this point. After a century of anti-black violence and public policy-of manufactured ghettos, forced hyper-segregation, and state-supported peonage-is economic perilousness and heightened violence among the victims and descendants of those people really a shock? And if it isn’t, then why would talk about crime in these communities as a factor of blackness, and not of history and circumstance?
The only thing we accomplish by focusing on “black-on-black crime” as an independent phenomena-distinct from “white-on-white crime”-is justify universal suspicion of black men, and young black men, in particular. This is a problem. It’s absolutely true that “NYPD stats show that 96 percent of all shooting victims are black or Hispanic, and 97 percent of all shooters were black or Hispanic,” but it’s also true that the number of black and Latino offenders is a small fraction of all blacks and Latinos. But stop and frisk turns all blacks and all Latinos into potential offenders-it erases individual consideration and imposes collective suspicion.
Most Americans, especially the white ones, have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs at this point: all you have to do is push the right buttons, visually and rhetorically, and suddenly a lost young promising life is reduced to actual or potential yard waste: thug, hoodlum, gangbanger. Trash, to be thrown out. It may have been by the likes of law enforcement or it may have been by trigger-happy racists, but its still NBD.
Even when (thankfully) increasing numbers of people are becoming educated about the myth of Black criminality being just that, the cultural imperative demands that we not rest until we find some reason other than race to explain when an innocent dies. (As if any superficial explanation can excuse away the reality that when an innocent young Black man’s life has been taken unnecessarily by a knee-jerk reaction on the part of a white person to objectively reasonable behavior, almost always at least some racial thinking was in the mix somewhere.) Maybe this is why when the “Blacks shouldn’t commit so much crime” argument gets no play or is unsuccessful in quelling the legitimate outrage, the very next thing that the most obvious racists do when confronted with what would otherwise be an obvious slaughter of a human being for reasons due to behavior that is innocuous or which suggests that the slaughteree was actually himself afraid and trying to flee is to start harping on “why it is being ignored” that Black young men are killing other Black men.
Forget for a moment the obvious question (Dear racist white person who raises this stupid-ass argument: if Black-on-Black crime is being ignored, how come you know all about it although you probably haven’t actually talked to a Black person for more than 30 seconds or been in a neighborhood where Black-on-Black crime happens for more than 10 minutes EVER?) The important question is this: how on earth is this relevant to the discussion of a Black man dying at the hands of someone who isn’t Black too often and why this is a serious problem??? The fact that some stupid Black people kill other Black people within their own neighborhoods over real or perceived grievances with each other says absolutely nothing about whether strangers, usually white but not always, have good reason to conclude that they don’t have to judiciously exercise deadly force as a last, not first, resort when it comes to their interactions with unarmed young Black man, too often Black children. Two wrongs simply do not make a right.
I’ve witnessed crime and been a victim of it. I’ve interviewed hundreds of felons and former felons. Nobody sticking up the local dope spot did it ’cause the dealer was black or latino. They did it to get their hands on money and product. Most of the gangs I’ve worked with over the years are involved in turf wars and they’ll fight whoever threatens their little piece of ground irrespective of race or ethnicity.
But too many people are still overly defensive when discussions of racism are being held. And heaven forbid anyone brings up ‘white privilege’-automatic lodestone for deniers, and defenders of that privilege (and racism). They are tenaciously racist in their denialism, or try to wrap legal fig leaves around the discussion to threadjack, and obfuscate.
Time to stop allowing the threadjacks, and derailing and sailing on that “not a river in Egypt” (aka denial).
9. Resist the urge to believe and regurgitate myths about black people, even when they’re promoted by black people (African-Americans are all more homophobic, black-on-black crime is uniquely bad, there are more black men in prison than in college, all black women love being fat, etc.). Take a minute to challenge the things you hear many say over and over. You’ll often find they don’t have a strong basis in reality.
If You Cared About These Matters You’d Be Willing To Educate Me
You’re Being Hostile.
But That Happens To Me Too!
You’re Being Overemotional
You’re Taking Things Too Personally
You’re Not Being Intellectual Enough/You’re Being Overly Intellectual
You’re Arguing With Opinions Not Fact
Your Experience Is Not Representative Of Everyone
Unless You Can Prove Your Experience Is Widespread I Won’t Believe It
I Don’t Think You’re As Marginalized As You Claim
Well I Know Another Person From Your Group Who Disagrees!
A In B Situation Is Not Equivalent To X In Y Situation
Who Wins Gold in the Oppression Olympics?
You Have A False Consciousness
You’re Not Being A Team Player
You’ve Lost Your Temper So I Don’t Have To Listen To You Anymore
You Are Damaging Your Cause By Being Angry
Surprise! I Was Playing “Devil’s Advocate” All Along!
Okay. Rant over, but I’m not going to ignore folks who cite Fox not facts.
I have no problem with trying to educate, but there really is no good reason to tolerate repeated use of right wing tropes in what should be safe spaces.
In 1570, Queen Elizabeth I of England was formally excommunicated by Pope Pius V.
In 1870, Mississippi Republican Hiram Rhodes Revels, was sworn in as Senator, becoming the first African American in Congress.
In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline (a whole one cent!). Such a terrible, horrendous thing to do, and an obvious example of TYRANNY!
In 1932, Adolf Hitler became a naturalized German citizen, making him eligible to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident. He didn’t have to prove he wasn’t from Kenya.
In 1964, Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) defeated Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion.
In 1986, Ferdinand Marcos and his shoe-loving wife left the Philippines in a hurry after 20 years of corrupt rule following a badly tainted election. Corazon Aquino became President after his departure.
In 1999, white supremacist John William King was sentenced to death by a Texas jury for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man.
Born on This Day
1616 – Isaak Luttichuys, Dutch Baroque painter (d. 1673)
1656 – Carel de Moor, Dutch painter and printmaker (d. 1738)
1714 – René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France (d. 1792)
1714 – Sir Hyde Parker, 5th Baronet, British admiral (d. 1782)
1755 – François René Mallarmé, French politician (d. 1835)
1841 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter and sculptor (d. 1919)
1861 – Santiago Rusiñol, Spanish painter and writer (d. 1931)
1873 – Enrico Caruso, Italian tenor (d. 1921)
1885 – Sylvia Brett, English socialite (d. 1971)
1888 – John Foster Dulles, American politician (d. 1959)
1893 – Rudolf Wacker, Austrian painter (d. 1939)
1894 – Meher Baba, Indian spiritual figure (d. 1969)
1901 – Zeppo Marx, American actor (d. 1979)
1910 – Millicent Fenwick, American fashion editor and progressive Republican congresswoman (it wasn’t an oxymoron back then). (d. 1992)
1913 – Jim Backus, American actor (d. 1989)
1913 – Gert Fröbe, German actor (d. 1988)
1917 – Brenda Joyce, American actress (d. 2009)
1920 – Sun Myung Moon, Korean religious leader, founder of Unification Church (d. 2012)
1929 – Christopher George, American actor (d. 1983)
1930 – Sister Wendy Beckett, South African-born British art connoisseur
1937 – Tom Courtenay, English actor
1937 – Bob Schieffer, American broadcast journalist stenographer
1943 – George Harrison, English singer and guitarist, member of The Beatles (d. 2001)
1945 – Elkie Brooks, English singer (Vinegar Joe)
1947 – Doug Yule, American bass guitarist (The Velvet Underground and American Flyer)
1950 – Neil Jordan, Irish director
1950 – Emitt Rhodes, American singer/songwriter
1952 – Jerry Chamberlain, American musician (Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies)
1954 – John Doe, American musician (X)
1962 – Foster Sylvers, American singer, (The Sylvers)
1965 – Brian Baker, American guitarist (Minor Threat, Bad Religion, and more)
1965 – Veronica Webb, American supermodel and actress
1971 – Sean Astin, American actor
1982 – Bert McCracken, American singer-songwriter (The Used)
Died on This Day
1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English politician (b. 1566)
1639 – Roelandt Savery, Flemish painter (b. 1576)
1713 – King Frederick I of Prussia (b. 1657)
1723 – Sir Christopher Wren, English architect (b. 1632)
1756 – Eliza Haywood, English actress and writer (b. 1693)
1841 – Philip Pendleton Barbour, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (b. 1783)
1910 – Worthington Whittredge, American artist (b. 1820)
1911 – Fritz von Uhde, German genre painter (b. 1848)
1914 – John Tenniel, British illustrator (b. 1820)
1950 – George Minot, American physician, Nobel laureate (b. 1885)
1970 – Mark Rothko, Latvian-born American painter (b. 1903)
1983 – Tennessee Williams, American playwright (b. 1911)
1995 – Rudolf Hausner, Austrian painter (b. 1914)
2005 – Peter Benenson, English founder of Amnesty International (b. 1921)
2009 – Philip José Farmer, American novelist (b. 1918)
Today is
National Clam Chowder Day
National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day
Let’s All Eat Right Day (just after I finish this chowder and these peanuts)
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
In Georgia, the state Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicle Division approved of a new specialty license plate design that features the Confederate battle flag. Under state law, all license plate proposals are submitted to the Motor Vehicle division to screen out insensitive or offensive license plate designs.
[The design], proposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, features a more prominent Confederate battle flag across the background, the emblem of the SOCV on the left side, and a dedication to the organization in a banner across the lower-center of the plate.
Maynard Eaton, spokesman for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, called the display “reprehensible” and added “we don’t have license plates saying ‘Black Power’.”
So I guess that glorifying a rebellion that led to the deaths of about a half a million Americans and honoring “confederate veterans” who fought to continue the enslavement of an entire race of human beings is not insensitive at all!!
Or perhaps it is only “insensitive” if you are a member of the race of human beings who were enslaved.
Of course, this honoring stuff is part of Georgia’s Southern heritage and has nothing at all to do with the actual war, why it was fought, and the racism that the flag has symbolized since the 1860s.
So if the “Sons of Nazi German Soldiers” wanted to have a license plate with a swastika, would that be okay? Surely those sons should have a chance to celebrate their heritage.
Or how about this: “Sons of the Guys Who Burned Atlanta” with an American flag and a logo showing screaming white people looking at their plantations on fire.
