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The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

The Wires

Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts.

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

Page Links

Thursday

Sep092010

Burn This Book

Gail Collins writes about a minister in Gainesville, Florida, whom she refuses to name so as not to give him more publicity, who is following "the theory that the best way to honor Americans who died at the hands of religious extremists is to do something that is both religious and extreme." Collins notes that "the candidates running in this year’s elections seem to be superquiet."

The Constant Weader finds some politicians & Gainesville residents with guts:

If you read the Gainesville Sun, you'll find out that many people in Gainesville are rising to the occasion & condemning the crazy Koran burners. Wednesday, 300 people opposing the Koran-burning showed up for an interfaith prayer service at the local Episcopal church. Christian, Muslim, Jewish & Greek Orthodox clerics spoke in solidarity against Terry Jones' planned "protest." Video from the Sun:

Clergy gather at Gainesville's City Hall to speak out against the Koran burning. Gainesville Sun video:

The paper's letters to the editor are pretty much exclusively from Gainesville citizens who are appalled by the Koran-burning plans.

And some Florida politicians are speaking out. The mayor of Gainesville has expressed his opposition from the beginning. Mayor Craig Lowe has also been a victim of Terry Jones' theology of hate: Jones protested Lowe's election because Lowe is gay. The catchy protest slogan: "no homo mayo."

Gov. Charlie Crist, running for Senate as an independent, calls the Koran-burning "offensive" and says he "strongly agrees" with Gen. Petraeus that the Koran-burners are putting American soldiers at risk. Not a peep from Crist's opponents, as far as I can tell.

Some national politicians have spoken out. Ron Paul, who of course is up for re-election to Congress, has blasted Jones. And, oh dear, Sarah Palin calls Jones' plans "insensitive ... much like building a mosque at Ground Zero." That's a direct quote from Palin's Facebook media outlet. (Oh, and sorry, no link.)

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the Taliban are reading the Gainesville paper & Palin's Facebook page. As long as the media push the story of one Florida nut case & his band of 50 dopey disciples, Jones remains a good sales tool for radical Muslims -- exactly the folks Jones claims he is protesting. Like most crazy people, Jones is evidently incapable of appreciating irony.

Also, see a couple of very good comments from Karen Garcia of New Paltz (#1) & Gemli of Boston (#3).

President Obama talks to George Stephanopoulos of ABC News about the planned Koran-burning:

... Washington Post story here.

Reuters, related: "India led calls on Thursday for the United States to intervene to halt a small church's plan to burn copies of the Koran in commemoration of the September 11 attacks and urged a media blackout to calm tensions." ...

... AP, related: "Religious and political leaders across the Muslim world ... have called on the church to call off the plan, warning it would lead to violence against Americans."

... Gainesville Sun Update: "The city of Gainesville's top administrator said Wednesday that he will send Terry Jones, the senior pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center, a bill for the estimated tens of thousands of dollars it will cost to police the area if the church goes through with its plan to burn the Quran on Saturday." ...

** Huh? AP Update: "Pastor Terry Jones said Thursday that he decided to cancel his [koran-burning] protest because the leader of a planned Islamic Center near ground zero has agreed to move its controversial location. The agreement couldn't be immediately confirmed." ...

... NBC News Update: "But sources close to the imam behind the New York mosque denied any deal had been struck." ...

... New York Times story here. ...

... Change of Heart (not to suggest he has one). AP: "An anti-Islamic preacher backed off and then threatened to reconsider burning the Quran on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, angrily accusing a Muslim leader of lying to him Thursday with a promise to move an Islamic center and mosque away from New York's ground zero. The imam planning the center denied there was ever such a deal."

... Gainesville Sun: "A Dove World Outreach Center sign on Southwest 13th Street announcing its 'International Burn a Koran Day' was painted over Wednesday evening by Alachua County sheriff's deputies. The sign was put up on a billboard on property adjacent to the Hoda Center Academy, a mosque and Islamic center, under an agreement between the property owner and church officials."

On Background. Wall Street Journal: Gen. David Petraeus, "the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a small Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort.... [He] said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes...."

AP: "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday called a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks a 'disrespectful, disgraceful act.' Others in the Obama administration weighed in against the proposed burning, including Attorney General Eric Holder, who called it idiotic and dangerous. A State Department spokesman branded the planned protest 'un-American' while other officials warned that it could threaten U.S. troops, diplomats and travelers overseas."

New York Times: "Prominent Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders held an extraordinary 'emergency summit' meeting in the capital on Tuesday to denounce what they called 'the derision, misinformation and outright bigotry' aimed at American Muslims during the controversy over the proposed Islamic community center near ground zero.... Some of the same religious leaders later met with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to urge him to prosecute religious hate crimes aggressively."

Addendum

"The housekeeper noticed a foul smell coming from the chimney." My friend Lulu Moretti has remarked on media coverage of the Case of the Right Rev. Cap'n Kangaroo. Her observations, in part: "... our media love a good story (though I don't think they spent enough time on the doctor who tried to enter her ex-lover's house via the chimney)." Ah, the Constant Weader pleads guilty as charged. Tardy though it may be, here's a link to a Time article on a summertime Santa story gone awfully wrong.

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