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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post publishes a series of U.S. maps here to tell you what weather to expect in your area this summer in terms of temperatures, humidity, precipitation, and cloud cover. The maps compare this year's forecasts with 1993-2016 averages.

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

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.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

Wherein Michael McIntyre explains how Americans adapted English to their needs. With examples:

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Monday
May282012

The Commentariat -- Memorial Day 2012

National Cemetery at Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo by Michael S. Lewis.

CW Note 1: My parents are buried in the Santa Fe cemetery. My father was a bombardier in the European theater during World War II. Rick Hertzberg of the New Yorker pointed me to Loudon Wainwright III's song below, the title of which has just become true for me, too. (The intro to the song included in the audio on the New Yorker site is excellent.) So Wainwright's observation -- something I have thought of in the abstract and must now shift to the concrete -- gives me a new way to remember my father:

CW Note 2: Thank you to everyone who joined yesterday's Comments thread. I was only able to skim the comments as they came in, but late yesterday I made time to read them through. Your remarks were a pleasure to read, and it's an honor to have such astute commentary appearing here. There are few -- if any -- sites on the Web where the writers match you.

CW Note 3: My column for NYTX on Friedman, which wasn't posted till late yesterday afternoon, is still there.

Marilynn Marchione of the AP: "A staggering 45 percent of the 1.6 million veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are now seeking compensation for injuries they say are service-related. That is more than double the estimate of 21 percent who filed such claims after the Gulf War in the early 1990s, top government officials told The Associated Press."

On this Memorial Day, a salute to the 101st Chairborne Division. Many thanks to Max Blumenthal for reporting this story back in 2007, & to Driftglass for highlighting it yesterday:

     ... Driftglass: "So that we might never forget that, before they put on tri-corner hats and pretended they had never heard [of] George W. Bush, the members of the 101st Republican Chairborne division were the most loyal members of Commander Cuckoobananas' Amen chorus."

A Bully AND a Phony. Paul Krugman: "For the modern American right doesn't care about deficits, and never did. All that talk about debt was just an excuse for attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps. And as for [Gov. Chris] Christie [R-N.J.], well, he's just another fiscal phony, distinguished only by his fondness for invective.For the modern American right doesn't care about deficits, and never did. All that talk about debt was just an excuse for attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps. And as for Mr. Christie, well, he's just another fiscal phony, distinguished only by his fondness for invective."

"A" Is for "Average." If you wonder why students r dum, here's one answer -- grade inflation. Remember those "Easy A" classes? Now they're all Easy A classes, so grades provide no motivation to excel. This also helps explain why prestigious schools are relatively more prestigious: since a potential employer can't tell squat from a grades transcript, she feels safer in taking the Harvard grad over the Miami-Dade College grad. Mark Perry of the University of Michigan: "National studies and surveys suggest that college students now get more A's than any other grade even though they spend less time studying." ...

... AND David Catanese & Dylan Byers of Politico: the Boston dailies, especially the Herald, are deeply invested in the Brown-Warren race.

"69 acres of waterfront land on the west shore of Staten Island, complete with a two-story gymnasium, a baseball diamond and an open-air pavilion...." Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "After cutting costs through traditional means like freezing wages of state workers and consolidating government offices, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is embarking on a less conventional effort: trying to sell New York's old prisons."

Stupid Zombie Story. Now the Boston Globe is promoting it. Mary Carmichael of the Globe (May 25): "US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago. But for at least six straight years during Warren's tenure, Harvard University reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman in its senior ranks at the law school. According to both Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves."

Presidential Race

Frank Newport of Gallup: "U.S. veterans, about 13% of the adult population and consisting mostly of older men, support Mitt Romney over Barack Obama for president by 58% to 34%, while nonveterans give Obama a four-percentage-point edge."

John Heilemann of New York magazine has a long article on Obama's campaign strategy. I've read at it (I'll go back to it later); it looks mildly interesting.

Reid Epstein & Ginger Gibson of Politico: "Mitt Romney has made it clear what he's against. What he'd be for as president is another question. The presumptive GOP nominee has some Republicans worried he lacks the 'vision thing' that has hurt previous presidential candidates and haunted George H.W. Bush in his quest to succeed Ronald Reagan."

Sometimes Even George Will Is Right. Jake Tapper of ABC News: "On 'This Week,' ABC News' George Will called Donald Trump a 'bloviating ignoramus,' questioning why presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is associating with the real estate mogul, who once again falsely questioned President Obama's birthplace this week." ...

... Adele Stan in Washington Monthly: "I'm still waiting for the uproar. Any day now, hordes of reporters will pummel Romney relentlessly with questions about his use of a hate-monger to bring him some dough, right? Yeah, right."

News Ledes

ABC News: "In his second address this Memorial Day, President Obama paid specific tribute to those perished during the Vietnam War on the 50th anniversary of its beginning. He recalled the sacrifice of the troops who served there and the unjust blame that was heaped on them upon their return. 'It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened. That's why here today we resolve that it will not happen again,' Obama told vets and their families gathered at the Vietnam War Memorial on the national mall." Washington Post story here.

President Obama commemorates Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery:

New York Times: "Kofi Annan, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, arrived Monday in Damascus, where he expressed horror at the massacre of more than 100 villagers in Houla and urged both sides to stop fighting."

AP: "American missiles killed five suspected Islamist militants close to the Afghan border, the latest in a barrage of attacks that show Washington is ignoring Islamabad's demands it halt the strikes, Pakistani officials said Monday."

Guardian: "Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of being behind the biggest leak of state secrets in US history, is being denied a fair trial because the army is withholding from him crucial information that might prove his innocence or reduce his sentence, his defence team is arguing. With Manning's court-martial approaching in September, his legal team has released details of what they claim is a shocking lack of diligence on the part of the military prosecutors in affording him his basic constitutional rights." CW: I'd link to the New York Times story on this -- but there isn't one.

AP: "Former Prime Minister Tony Blair testified Monday he never challenged the influential British press because doing so would have plunged his administration in a drawn-out and politically damaging fight." ...

... New York Times: "An antiwar protester broke into Britain's long-running judicial inquiry into press ethics through a supposedly secure corridor on Monday as former Prime Minister Tony Blair was giving evidence, accusing him of being in the pay of JPMorgan Chase bank when he sent British soldiers in support of American troops during the 2003 invasion of Iraq."

Washington Post: 'In recent weeks, investigators working in four countries have amassed new evidence tying the disparate assassination attempts [on U.S. officials] to one another and linking all of them to either Iran-backed Hezbollah militants or operatives based inside Iran, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern security officials. An official report last month summarizing the evidence cited phone records, forensic tests, coordinated travel arrangements and even cellphone SIM cards purchased in Iran and used by several of the would-be assailants, said two officials who have seen the six-page document."

AP: "One of the Vatican's biggest scandals in decades appears to be widening with reports that an Italian cardinal may be involved in a power struggle involving leaked documents, corruption and intrigue. The pope's butler, who has been arrested in the scandal, has pledged to cooperate in the probe."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (10)

I second your thanks to those who provided yesterday's comments. I especially wanted to thank Kate, without whom I might never have looked up "Procrustean," which, it turns out, is a precisely descriptive word for anti-government types such as Grover Norquist, who, unlike Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney, actually makes an effort, using ill-suited but initially attractive evidence (comparing Reagan's and Obama's "recoveries," which on further examination have little in common), and doesn't depend upon the revenue-enhancing asterisk.

Also, thanks for the link to the Psychology Today piece on narcissism. I doubt that a lesser man would have read the entire article ... [wink].

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJack Mahoney

Perfect timing. Yesterday we talk, in part, about narcissism and today we see Krugman attack a classic case of NPD, Chris Christie. Note that I said the NPDer's don't bother checking on the rules. Well Christie did a number that is truly special. He is in the process of screwing Rutgers University in an effort to 'improve' higher education or give a gift to a S. Jersey political boss, pick one. It turns out that his highness forgot to check on the fact that, by law, the Rutgers B of T has total control of the Rutgers assets. They voted 32-4 against the Governor's proposal and they include a lot of Republican business execs. Seems his highness forgot to discuss the matter with them. Then there is the other piece for the fiscal conservative lordship. There is no price tag for this change, estimated by idiots to be between $250-350M. But no problem. With someone who can never be wrong, NJ will have no problem finding the money, cutting taxes for the wealthy and having a Jersey come back.
P.S. If you think I might be wrong about Christie and NPD, just ask any NJ psychiatrist. I have and the response it always 'Are you kidding, it is beyond obvious'.

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

Continuing our narcissism discussion of yesterday, I agree that Chris Christie is our poster boy. That guy is morbidly obese, looks unhealthy to the max, but seems to glory in throwing his weight around. And he is an unrepentent bully, with a temper to match his girth. At a press conference some time ago, Christie was asked by a woman reporter if he thought his hugeness would be a problem for him politically, given the dawning awareness of the American public about the rising obesity epidemic. He laughed mirthlessly and said (I am paraphrasing): "I don't know what you are talking about. There is more of me to love." Standing beside him on the platform was his obese son--laughing and clapping. At least Mike Huckabee had the good sense to speak about his excessive weight as a health problem, and worried publicly about his kids.

I am not a mean girl, but I must say it would give me some pleasure to see New Jersey forced to declare bankruptcy, and watch Chris Christie wiggle and squirm his way out of that one. Then New Jerseyites would have more to detest. And Paul Krugman would once again be a prophet!

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterKate Madison

The incredible, but predictable video Marie has shared with us, courtesy of Max Blumenthal, through old friend Driftglass, points out the hypocritical flag waving of so many Republicans. No doubt there are many, many in uniform who vote Republican and are staunch right-wingers. But the fact is that many of the current, past, and future ideological foot soldiers in the war against, well, I suppose, against anyone not white, not right-wing, not Christian, not heterosexual (oooh, except for the many closeted gays and lesbians who pretend to be straight), not native born Americans, and those who don’t believe corporations should get a free ride as far as regulations and taxation go, have no stomach for the wars they so fervently praise and support.

But this has become an honored (*snicker*) tradition on the right side of the aisle. “Kill, kill, kill, shock and awe their asses, kill those towel heads, kill those islamo-fascists and then come back and whup anyone who says different in the great old US of A!!!” “Oh, but I didn’t say that I would be doing the killing. I have allergies and see, I played football but I have a thing with my back and --oooooh that would hurt SO much!”

Yeah. And like that. Happy Memorial Day to you too.

So without further ado, a nod to all those brave Republicans who fought America’s wars—wars they supported and in some instances caused—from the comfort of a nice warm easy chair in their private club, sipping bourbon and ripping liberals like John Kerry and Al Gore for trying having the temerity of going to Vietnam and serving their country.

The Role of Dishonor:

George W. (deserter) Bush
Dick (other priorities) Cheney

All the other Bush siblings.

Mitt (I’m for any war you’re for) Romney and all his sons who are no doubt war hawks too.

Rush (I had a thing on my fat ass otherwise I would have gone Rambo) Limbaugh

Paul (I don’t need to carry a weapon to kill people) Ryan

Rudy (deferments kept me from serving) Giuliani

Donald (same for me) Trump

Mitch McConnell

Bill Frist

Trent Lott

John Ashcroft

Rick Santorum

Fred (I play tough guys on TV) Thompson

Marco Rubio

Tom (the Hammer doesn’t do war zones) DeLay

John (but I’ll cry for veterans) Boehner

Eric Cantor

Dick (it’s ‘armey’ not ‘army’) Armey

Glenn Beck

Ken (I needed a deferment to study blowjobs) Starr

Karl Rove

Douglas Feith

Eliot (blow everyone up just as soon as I’m safely away) Abrams

Wayne (Holy shit! A guy can get hurt playing with guns!) LaPierre

John Bolton

John Roberts

Sam Alito

Clarence (I ain’t sayin’ nothin’) Thomas

Nino (why should I fight?) Scalia

Sean Hannity

Bill (I was studying Loofah-ology) O’Reilly

Bill Doocy

Brit Hume

Roger Ailes

Chris Wallace

Matt Drudge

Bill Kristol

Ted (I’m gonna hunt me a black president—but not if it’s in a war zone) Nugent

The Koch Brothers

Robert (I just write about WAR!!! and cowardly liberals!!!) Kagan

Bill (I’m too smart to go to war) Bennett

So who DID serve?

Darrell Issa, who lied about his time in the military, what he did, stole another soldier’s car, and was busted for low conduct ratings. Smooth. That’s how they roll in Right-Wing World. Cowards, liars, and scumbags.

There are plenty more. Also quite a long list of Demcrats who actually DID serve. But according to the GOP, Democrats like Max Cleland who lost three limbs serving in Vietnam are not good patriots. Certainly no match for a guy like Saxby Chambliss, Bush’s handpicked ChickenHawk to replace Cleland. What did he do during the war? Got deferments like most other Republican chickenhawk politicians and played football in college. Sounds pretty brave to me.

Typical. A coward, liar, and scumbag all rolled into one!

Happy Memorial Day, all.

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Eeeek...I meant the "Roll of Dishonor." Damn fingers...

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Marie provided a link to a story on Republico, er...sorry, Politico which offers a perfect nutshell of right-wing media strategy, but not without its own dollop of insulting comparisons between the camps. When discussing Democratic reactions to the made up scandal surrounding whether or not Elizabeth Warren knew that Harvard had promoted her as having Native American heritage, Politico describes the reaction as "sniffing" whereas all right-wing reactions are described as "chiding" or proper "critiques". No "sniffing" for them.

I'll be the last person to claim that a one newspaper town is better off but the Herald is little better than your smartass, give-a-shit little brother who enjoys dropping lit cherry bombs in toilets. And this is a perfect example of Fox style journalism. Pay no attention to issues. Instead, concentrate all your resources on bullshit crap to draw attention away from what really separates the candidates. Does the Democratic candidate offer substantive criticism of the Republican status quo and offer a solution to boot? IGNORE IT. Instead, find out if he or she has ever done anything questionable. And don't worry if they weren't directly involved with anything, tar them anyway. Anything to keep from placing the issues front and center. They try to brush away criticism of this sort of yellow journalism by trotting out attacks on Republicans, no matter how valid. So the fact that CBS tried to run a factual story about Bush's desertion during wartime, let's turn that story around and make it about typefaces, because we simply cannot have anyone telling the truth about our chosen candidate, now can we?

And so it goes.

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

I have always wondered if there would be less war if so many didn't believe they would see their dead children in heaven. As Pat Tillman's brother said , in response to John McCain, 'Pat's not with God, he is fucking dead'. And so are the uncountable millions of others.

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterMarvin Schwalb

Akhilleus: Thank you for the long list of Republican chicknsh- er - hawks. Mindboggling in its breadth. As far as Republicans whose service was less than stellar, you did omit a very obvious example: Congressman Allen West, who barely made it out of the Army with an honorable discharge, apparently. In connection with an incident where he shot a bullet next to an Iraqi's head and allowed 4 soldiers under his command to beat the man senseless, West was found in violation of the Military Code of Justice, relieved of his post, and fined $5000.

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterVictoria D.

Victoria,

I think West gets a pass, especially from the dominant right-wing media because he thought that guy was one of the myriad Commies in Congress. Hey, he was only doing what right-wingers always do: shoot first. ..........Oh. Were you waiting for the part about "ask questions later?"

Sorry. The Right-wing Ideology Playbook stops at "shoot first."

Questions are superfluous when you're never wrong.

As Dubya would say, "Mishun Acomplshd!!"

"Y'all"

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@ akhilleus

Just some proof that you're right about Mitts son's (via Pierce):

http://tbogg.blogspot.com/2007/04/five-not-for-fighting-willard-mitt.html

May 28, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterDaveS
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