Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF! Temperature is supposed to be well above freezing here for the first time this week. I think we should all get matching “I survived the Polar Vortex of 2013” shirts. Except you live somewhere warm. Unless your wind chills went below zero, no T-shirt for you.
PLEASE Do Not Recommend the check-in diary!
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:
The results of the last midterm congressional election, in 2010, were termed a “shellacking” by President Barack Obama. Some pundits said it was “not as bad as it could have been”, and also pointed to the 1994 midterm election when another first-term Democratic president lost control of Congress. That was little comfort for those of us who wanted to see President Obama’s agenda (our agenda) advanced.
The Democratic Party lost 63 seats in the House of Representatives, the biggest midterm loss since 1938 and the largest seat exchange since 1948. John “Big Gavel” Boehner became Speaker of the House and progress towards implementing the president’s agenda came to a screeching halt. The 112th Congress passed less legislation than the Do Nothing Congress that Harry Truman ran against in 1948. (The current Congress, the 113th is on pace to do even less).
The Congress that the 112th replaced, the 111th Congress was one of the most productive in recent history. Fifty years after President Harry S Truman first talked about universal health care, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democratic majorities gave us the Affordable Care Act of 2010. That legislation affects the lives of every American by putting in place a structure to allow purchasing health insurance that is not just affordable but which provides minimum standards for coverage and does not punish policy holders for getting sick.
The “problem” with passing the Affordable Care Act was that in 2010 it put a big target on the backs of many Democrats who had been elected in the wave election of 2006. That year, another midterm election year, Democrats and other sentient beings were motivated to vote in order to create a firewall against the abuses of the Bush Administration. Democrats picked up 31 seats … and the majority … making Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In early 2009, legislation addressing the economic collapse caused by Wall Street greed was passed and congressional leaders began discussions about how to address the crisis of 50 million Americans uninsured (and another 48 million under-insured). The Tea Party movement formed in spring 2009, purportedly to decry the bank bailouts (Trouble Asset Relief Program or TARP) and tax “burdens” (Taxed Enough Already). By summer, in a effort to grassroot itself in order to win elections, it developed the meme “Hands Off My Medicare”, misdirected at Democrats since it was the Republicans who, in their 2009 budget alternative, recommended eviscerating Social Security and Medicare to give tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%. The “clever” signs at their rallies, sponsored by FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and Fox News, suggested that the participants were actually more upset that a black president had been elected: a president who they did not believe was even an American citizen and who stole the election via fraud perpetrated by the community action group, ACORN. That anger fueled a voting coalition that helped elect two governors in 2009, a senator in early 2010, and led to the 2010 midterm loss of our majority in the House of Representatives.
(Click for Colbert Report “Bump” video … and patriotic music!)
In 2008, the presidential election year, Rep. Hall won re-election 164,859 to 116,120 over his Republican challenger, Keiran Lalor. In 2010, Rep. Hall voted with the Democratic majority for the Affordable Care Act and was defeated in November by the teaparty Republican candidate, Nan Hayworth, 109,956 to 98,766. It is important to note that Rep. Hayworth, toeing her party’s extreme ideological line by voting against disaster relief for her own constituents in the wake of Hurricane Irene, lost to Sean Maloney in 2012, another presidential election year, by 130,432 to 121,911 … 9,000 votes.
Let’s look at those numbers. In 2006, a midterm election, 195,000 people voted and John Hall won by 5,000 votes. In 2008, a presidential year, 281,000 people voted in the house race and he won by 38,000 votes. In 2010, when Rep. Hall lost by 11,000 votes, only 209,000 people voted in the house race. In 2012, another presidential year, 252,000 people voted in the house race. So there were 70,000 fewer voters in 2010 than 2008 (and we lost) and 40,000 more voters in 2012 than 2010 (and we won).
That simple analysis makes the answer to the question “what happened in 2010?” pretty easy: more people turned out to vote for Republican candidates than Democratic candidates. Basic arithmetic.
What caused the low turnout? Was it that the left-of-the-left did not get their ponies and stayed home? Was it because “protecting a congressional majority” is not as exciting as “electing a really cool president” and young people, notorious no-shows in midterm elections, did not vote in the numbers they did in 2008 (only 20.9% in 2010, down from 51% in 2008)? Or just that midterms are low turnout elections historically? Was it all of the above or some of the above running headlong into “the other side wanted it more”?
History tells us what has happened and what may happen again but it does not predict the future. In 2002, Republicans gained seats in the midterm following the 2000 “election” of George W. Bush. The current crop of teaparty congressmen may find that their own history, showing disdain for their constituents in the service of the national party’s agenda, just like Nan Hayworth did, may be more relevant history to base election predictions on (shutting down the government to please Ted Cruz was not popular except in the reddest of the red districts).
What really matters is this: in 2014 we need to have more of our voters than their voters turn out to vote.
Turnout is driven by motivation and enthusiasm. Republicans had hatred and fear of The Other, we had the reality that change is not quick or easy and that progress, especially after 30 years of anti-government rhetoric, is slow. President Obama was handed the Great Recession and two wars and needed to get the economy back on track before he could deliver on his campaign promises. And when what he was able to deliver (without a filibuster-proof Senate) did not include single-payer health care and the end to both wars on January 20, 2009, it was reported as a failure when in fact the successes of his first two years in office were pretty impressive.
We have a representative democracy and as such our participation comes from choosing who our representatives will be: there is only one way to choose them, by voting. And because our representatives are chosen every 2 years, when we don’t vote in the midterms we let those who are more motivated to thwart our agenda than we are to promote our agenda choose those who will represent us. We must vote in every election. Period.
Motivation, enthusiasm; they had it, the collective “we”, Democratic voters, didn’t. But enthusiasm is contagious. If we, the activist we, have it, how can we spread it to other Democratic voters? Moral Mondays, the take-to-the-streets movement started in North Carolina, is one way. Talking up the positives of the Democratic party and our agenda are another way. You can also remind people that the Republican agenda will, quite simply, make their lives suck more.
Think of it this way: if you were told that you could fix our country’s most serious problems by doing just one thing … taking a few hours out of one day every two years to vote … what would you say? You should say “Heck yeah, I can do that!!”.
So heading into 2014, remember to both Get Out The Vote (volunteer in your local Democratic party to call, canvass, and help get people to the polls) and Get Out And Vote.
Elections really do matter. When we vote, we win. And when we win, we can advance the Democratic agenda and then America wins.
In 1789, Georgetown University was established in what is now present-day Washington, D.C. (but was then part of Maryland).
In 1849, English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.
In 1932, New York Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that he was running for President.
In 1941, Charles Lindbergh testified in front of Congress, advocating for a neutrality pact with a man he admired – Adolf Hitler.
In 1950, in Israel, the Knesset decided that Jerusalem, instead of Tel Aviv, would be the capital of Israel.
In 1964, the 24th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, eliminating poll taxes in federal elections. In recent elections, Republicans have sought ways to bring poll taxes and similar voting restrictions back.
In 1977, ABC began airing the TV mini-series “Roots,” based on Alex Haley’s novel. This was a very big thing, kindling an interest in genealogy in all kinds of people, but especially among African-Americans, who previously never dared to hope they might be able to trace their own ancestry back to Africa.
In 2002, Daniel Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was abducted in Pakistan, by terrorists, who demanded the return of prisoners from the Afghan campaign. He never made it home, having been murdered by his kidnapers.
Born on This Day
1574 – Lucas Franchoys the elder, Belgian painter (d. 1643)
1606 – Giacinto Gimignani, Italian painter (d. 1681)
1622 – Abraham Diepraam, Dutch painter (d. 1670)
1767 – Jeanne-Elisabeth Chaudet, French painter (d. 1832)
1783 – Stendhal, French writer (d. 1842)
1810 – John Rogers Herbert, English painter (d. 1890)
1813 – Camilla Collett, Norwegian writer and feminist (d. 1895)
1829 – Anton Seitz, German painter (d. 1900)
1832 – Édouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)
1881 – Luisa Casati, patron of the arts, muse and fashion icon (d. 1957)
1896 – Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
1898 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
1898 – Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
1907 – Dan Duryea, American actor (d. 1968)
1910 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (Quintette du Hot Club de France) (d. 1953)
1919 – Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
1924 – Frank Lautenberg, American politician
1928 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress
1933 – Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer
1935 – Bob Moses, American civil rights activist
1943 – Gary Burton, American jazz vibraphonist
1943 – Gil Gerard, American actor
1944 – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
1948 – Anita Pointer, American singer (Pointer Sisters)
1950 – Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
1950 – Danny Federici, American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band) (d. 2008)
1950 – John Greaves, English musician (Henry Cow, National Health)
1951 – Chesley Sullenberger, American pilot, captain of US Airways Flight 1549
1953 – Antonio Villaraigosa, American politician, 52nd Mayor of Los Angeles
1953 – Robin Zander, American singer (Cheap Trick)
1954 – Edward Ka-Spel, English musician (Legendary Pink Dots)
1957 – Princess Caroline of Monaco
Died on This Day
1516 – Ferdinand II of Aragon (b. 1452)
1570 – James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (assassinated)
1578 – Bartolomeo Schedoni, Italian painter (d. 1615)
1612 – Edward Fenner, English judge, famous for involvement in prosecution of witchcraft
1760 – Giovanni Antonio Guardi, Italian painter (b. 1698)
1803 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)
1806 – William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1810 – John Hoppner, English portrait painter (b. 1758)
1883 – Gustave Doré, French artist, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1832)
1889 – Alexandre Cabanel, French painter (b. 1823)
1893 – Gustave Léonard de Jonghe, Belgian painter (b. 1829)
1924 – James Wilson Morrice, Canadian painter (b. 1865)
1931 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
1933 – Apollinary Vasnetsov, Russian painter (d. 1856)
1943 – Alexander Woollcott, American actor, author, and bon vivant (b. 1887)
1943 – Richard E. Miller, American impressionist painter (b. 1875)
1944 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
1947 – Pierre Bonnard, French painter (b.1867)
1956 – Alexander Korda, Hungarian/British film director (b. 1893)
1957 – Willie Edwards, Murder victim/killed by KKK members (b. 1932)
1973 – Kid Ory, American jazz trombonist (b. 1886)
1976 – Paul Dupuis, French Canadian film and television actor (b. 1913)
1976 – Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)
1977 – Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (b. 1903)
1978 – Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (b. 1946)
1978 – Jack Oakie, American actor (b. 1903)
1982 – Hope Hampton, American actress (b. 1897)
1989 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (b. 1904)
1990 – Allen Collins, American guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1952)
1993 – Thomas A Dorsey, known as “the father of black gospel music” (b. 1899)
2003 – Nell Carter, American singer and actress (b. 1948)
2004 – Helmut Newton, German-born photographer (b. 1920)
2005 – Johnny Carson, American television host (b. 1925)
2007 – E. Howard Hunt, American Watergate figure (b. 1918)
2011 – Jack LaLanne, American fitness and nutritional expert (b. 1914)
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.)
Despite not being constitutionally eligible to seek the office of President of the United States, Alexander Arefyev, the coach of the Russian men’s ski jumping team, staked out a position that would certainly give him a claim on the nomination. Explaining his opposition to women’s ski jumping, an event being added to the Olympic program for the first time this year, Arefyev said:
“I admit, I do not advocate women’s ski jumping,” he said in Russian. “It is quite heavy and traumatic sport. If a man were seriously injured, it is not fatal, but for all women may end up far worse. If I had a daughter, never would give in jumping – it’s too hard work. Women have a different purpose – to have children, do housework, to create a family home. (emphasis my own)“
I guess that means women should be off to pop out the babies, cook dinner, wash the dishes and clean the floor? Given the high level of social conservatism in Russia, is it any surprise that he would feel so free to make this statement about women’s “different purpose,” by which it’s really meant that women shouldn’t stray from their “proper place?”
I don’t know about what other people might think, but that sounds a lot like what many Republicans would like given the degree to which they want to regulate women’s bodies. The only difference is that very few of them are that explicit about it. And if a Republican candidate was explicit about it, I sadly have no doubt that he would immediately shoot to the top of the polls for saying what so many were already thinking.
They’re all wrong about the fact that a woman’s place is in the house. Nope, a woman’s place is in the House (and, hopefully come 2016, the White House too).
In 1890, the Knights of Labor Trade Assembly No. 135 and the National Progressive Miners Union merged to form the United Mine Workers of America.
In 1905, Russian troops opened fired on marching workers in St. Petersburg, killing more than 100 in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
In 1968, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” debuted on NBC.
In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.
In 1984, the Apple Macintosh was introduced to the world via a Super Bowl ad – the famous “1984” commercial.
In 1997, Madeleine Albright was confirmed as the first female secretary of state in U.S. History.
In 1998, in exchange for a lighter sentence, Theodore Kaczynski pled guilty in to being the Unabomber. He got life in prison without parole.
In 2008, Jose Padilla, on trial for plotting with al-Qaeda to detonate “dirty bomb,” was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison on both terrorism and conspiracy charges.
Born on This Day
1690 – Nicolas Lancret, French painter (d. 1743)
1762 – Jean-Baptiste Joseph Wicar, French Neoclassical painter (d. 1834)
1782 – Franz Xaver Lampi, Polish painter (d. 1852)
1788 – George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (Lord Byron), English poet (d. 1824)
1820 – Joseph Wolf, German artist (d. 1899)
1822 – Karoly Markó the younger, Hungarian painter (d. 1891)
1849 – August Strindberg, Swedish writer (d. 1912)
1856 – Walter Gay, U.S. painter (d. 1937)
1863 – Joseph Bail, French painter (b. 1921)
1875 – D. W. Griffith, American film director (d. 1948)
1878 – Constance Collier, English actress (d. 1955)
1879 – Francis Picabia, French-born painter and poet (d. 1953)
1890 – Fred M. Vinson, 13th Chief Justice of the United States (d. 1953)
1891 – Moise Kisling, Polish painter (d. 1953)
1893 – Conrad Veidt, German actor (d. 1943)
1904 – George Balanchine, Russian choreographer (d. 1983)
1906 – Robert E. Howard, American author (Conan the Barbarian) (d. 1936)
1906 – Willa Brown, African-American aviator (d. 1992)
1907 – Douglas Corrigan, American pilot (d. 1995)
1909 – Porfirio Rubirosa, Dominican diplomat and international playboy (d. 1965)
1909 – Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001)
1909 – U Thant, Burmese diplomat and 3rd United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
1917 – Albert “Pud” Brown, jazz reed player (d. 1996)
1924 – J. J. Johnson, American trombonist and composer (d. 2001)
1931 – Sam Cooke, American singer (The Soul Stirrers) (d. 1964)
1932 – Piper Laurie, American actress
1934 – Bill Bixby, American actor (d. 1993)
1934 – Graham Kerr, British-born chef
1935 – Seymour Cassel, American actor
1939 – Jeff Smith, American chef, The Frugal Gourmet (d. 2004)
1940 – John Hurt, English actor
1946 – Malcolm McLaren, British musician and manager (d. 2010)
1949 – Phil Miller, English guitarist (National Health, In Cahoots, Matching Mole)
1949 – Steve Perry, singer of the dreadfully cheesy pop act, Journey.
1953 – Jim Jarmusch, American director
1959 – Linda Blair, American actress
1960 – Michael Hutchence, Australian singer (INXS and Max Q) (d. 1997)
1965 – Steven Adler, American drummer (Guns N’ Roses)
1965 – DJ Jazzy Jeff, American rapper and actor
1965 – Diane Lane, American actress
1968 – Guy Fieri, annoying television host and restaurateur (if you haven’t seen that brilliant review of one of his restaurants that is out there on the internets, look it up, it’s hilarious).
1975 – Balthazar Getty, American actor
1981 – Ben Moody, American guitarist (Evanescence and We Are the Fallen)
Died on This Day
1557 – Giulio Raibolini Francia, Italian painter (b. 1487)
1649 – Alessandro Turchi, Italian painter (b. 1578)
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:
Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:
Be kind to each other… or else.
What could be simpler than that, right? OK, maybe this:
We’re now more than a year into President Obama’s second term and Ted Nugent is still a free man and free to spew crap such as this (h/t Bob Cesca):
I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist raised communist educated communist nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama (emphasis partially Cesca’s and partially my own) to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America. I am heartbroken but I am not giving up. I think America will be America again when Barack Obama, [Attorney General] Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, [Sen.] Dick Durbin, [former New York City Mayor] Michael Bloomberg and all of the liberal Democrats are in jail facing the just due punishment that their treasonous acts are clearly apparent.
So a lot of people would call that inflammatory speech. Well I would call it inflammatory speech when it’s your job to protect Americans and you look into the television camera and say what difference does it make that I failed in my job to provide security and we have four dead Americans. What difference does that make? Not to a chimpanzee or Hillary Clinton, I guess it doesn’t matter. (emphasis Cesca’s)
Nugent also made a sexist remark about Hillary Clinton, claiming, “Our politicians check their scrotum in at the door. Even Hillary, but obviously she has spare scrotums.”
But, of course, we know that none of the criticism has to do with President Obama’s race or Secretary Clinton’s sex. It’s just that these words, that in Nugent’s mind, and those of other critics, constitute “legitimate” criticism of policy also happen to have for ages been used as nasty code words. Just so these critics are aware, I live in Brooklyn and I have a bridge that I’d be happy to sell them.
Also disturbing is the fact that Nugent, for all the love he professes for the Constitution (meaning the Second Amendment and apparently nothing else) fails to understand that advocating for policy change, and then acting upon those convictions when holding office, does not constitute treason. He desperately needs to read Article III, Section 3:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.
Nothing there about advocating for policy change or elected officials seeking to pass legislation to that effect. He also needs to read the amendment that immediately precedes the one he talks about so much. Here’s the First Amendment for him:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech (emphasis my own), or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Even the most conservative and restrictive interpreters of this provision, such as Robert Bork, hold that political speech is protected. What can be more political than advocating that the government change its policy?
Of course, in the end, and the language used bears this out, many of President Obama’s critics don’t care one whit about what policy he advocates for; they just want that black man out of the White House. They should just be honest about what they really want.
That said, after five years, I’m not at all surprised by the racism. It’s a sad statement of just how far we still have to go.
I was re-reading for the nth time Hamden Rice’s powerful piece “Most of you have no idea what Martin Luther King actually did“, yesterday, where he describes what his father told him about the importance of Dr. King and the movement he was an integral part of, in making black people unafraid.
When talking about the resistance to Martin Luther King Day, last Sunday, and in reading and commenting in Meteor Blade’s piece on J. Edgar Hoover’s assaults on Dr. King and the movement, it struck me that some people-imho mistakenly-believe the civil rights movement was ended with the death of Dr. King. That somehow it was buried with him, and is now solely to be honored and respected as “history”, to be dusted off a few times a year. The wikipedia entry gives dates “1955-68”.
I realized that those of us who lived during those early days have a very different perspective than those who were born later and perhaps got insights from watching series like “Eyes on the Prize” or reading memorial news coverage.
For me, the movement has never ended…yes it has had an ebb and flow, and yes, we have lost leaders and cadres and supporters over the years-to natural and unnatural death-but the reasons we have struggled haven’t gone away, and the reports of “movement’s end”, from my perspective are greatly exaggerated.
In fact, it’s a lie that we cannot afford to buy.
I recognize that people of all ages, races and ethnicities who continue to fight the battle, were at some point moved, or jettisoned into the struggle, by a moment, or an image, or an incident that had a profound impact and continues to sustain their movement forward. That people who are committed to long term struggle are sustained by memories and moments large and small.
I’ve never asked people to share what memory, or moment, or incident shaped your commitment.
I’d like to do so today.
I know that one of the most profound moments in my childhood sounds simple. I was in Princess Anne Maryland, with my mom, in the hot summertime. I was 4 or 5 years old. I wanted an ice cream cone. I saw a little boy standing inside an ice cream parlor, licking one with relish. He looked at me, through the glass, and slowly stuck his tongue out at me. My mom was dragging me away. There would be no ice cream that day, because as she explained to me, that little boy was “white”, and that ice cream parlor was segregated, and my mother wasn’t setting foot in a place like that.
I’ve never forgotten that day, that boy, that ice cream cone. That word-segregation.
I was never denied ice cream in NYC.
Sure, later as I grew older, I learned about race, and racism, Jim Crow, and voting rights, and racial economic inequality, and was encouraged by my parents to fight back-actively. I joined various wings of “the movement”. I joined young people, and middle aged people and old folks, of all colors, and we marched on. I fought in the North, and I fought in the South. I fought alongside Native Americans, and Asians, and Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, and radical whites.
Inspired-initially-by an ice cream cone I couldn’t have.
What moved you, or inspired you to take that first step into our ongoing movement?
Was it an image? A memory, a book, a song, a film, an incident, or something someone said or did?
How much have you, personally, been affected by climate change?
Did you make up secret languages and/or code words as a kid so you could talk in front of others without them understanding? Got any examples you recall?
What is the easiest vice you ever gave up? Why did you give it up?
The Twitter Emitter
I've reached Peak Anonymous Source. Whenever I see one now, I just assume the journalist is lying.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis and five other southerner politicians resigned from the U.S. Senate.
In 1908, New York City passed the Sullivan Ordinance, which would have made it illegal for women to smoke in public, but it was vetoed by the mayor (whose wife probably threatened to put her cigarette out in his face).
In 1950, Alger Hiss was found guilty of perjury by a federal jury.
In 1977, President Carter pardoned most of the Americans who had evaded the draft for the Vietnam war.
In 1994, Lorena Bobbitt was acquitted, by reason of temporary insanity, of “bobbitting” her husband, John, after he sexually assaulted her.
In 1997, the House of Representatives voted for first time in history to discipline its leader, Newt Gingrich, for ethical misconduct. Now he is considered an elder statesman, and is highly respected in circles that think adultery and chicanery are just hunky-dory.
In 2010, the Supremes made the wrong decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations and Kochs to spend their fortunes directly to win elections for president and Congress. Fortunately the outcome has not yet been AS successful as they had hoped, since that black guy got elected again.
Born on This Day
1659 – Adriaen van der Werff, Dutch painter (d. 1722)
1725 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter (d. 1805)
1824 – Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, American, Confederate army general (d. 1863)
1877 – Gustave De Smet, Dutch painter (d. 1943)
1884 – Roger Baldwin, American social activist who was one of the founders of the ACLU. (d. 1981)
1891 – Franz Sedlacek, Austrian painter (d. 1944)
1895 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (d. 1972)
1905 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d. 1957)
1905 – Karl Wallenda, German born high wire acrobat (d. 1978)
1919 – Jinx Falkenburg, actress and supermodel (d. 2003)
1922 – Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
1922 – Paul Scofield, English actor (d. 2008)
1924 – Benny Hill, English actor, comedian, and singer (d. 1992)
1926 – Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
1934 – Audrey Dalton, Irish actress
1935 – Ann Wedgeworth, American actress
1938 – Wolfman Jack, American disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
1938 – John Savident, British actor
1940 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
1941 – Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor
1941 – Richie Havens, American musician (d. 2013)
1947 – Pye Hastings, English singer and musician (Caravan)
1955 – Jeff Koons, American artist
1965 – Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d. 2002)
1966 – Robert Del Naja, English musician (Massive Attack)
1969 – Karina Lombard, American actress
1970 – Mark Trojanowski, American musician (Sister Hazel)
1972 – Cat Power (Chan Marshall), American musician
Died on This Day
1519 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)
1668 – Jan Adriensz van Staveren, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
1672 – Adriaen van de Velde, Dutch painter (b. 1636)
1729 – Marco Ricci, Italian painter (b. 1676)
1748 – Joseph Francis Nollekens, Flemish painter (b. 1702)
1784 – Peter de Wint, English landscape painter (d. 1849)
1793 – King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
1857 – Franz Krüger, German painter (b. 1797)
1905 – Robert Brough, Scottish painter (b. 1872)
1914 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b. 1857)
1928 – Nikolai Astrup, Norwegian painter (b. 1880)
1937 – Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
1938 – Georges Méliès, French filmmaker and innovator (b. 1861)
1950 – George Orwell, British writer (b. 1903)
1959 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)
1959 – Carl Switzer, American actor (b. 1927)
1967 – Ann Sheridan, American actress (b. 1915)
1984 – Jackie Wilson, American musician (Billy Ward and His Dominoes) (b. 1934)
1985 – James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)
1997 – Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of Elvis Presley (b. 1909)
1999 – Charles Brown, American blues singer and pianist (b. 1920)
1999 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
2001 – Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist murderer (b. 1921)
