Help!

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

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR you can try this Link Generator, which a contributor recommends: "All you do is paste in the URL and supply the text to highlight. Then hit 'Get Code.'... Return to RealityChex and paste it in."

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

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.

The Ledes

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Washington Post: “Paul D. Parkman, a scientist who in the 1960s played a central role in identifying the rubella virus and developing a vaccine to combat it, breakthroughs that have eliminated from much of the world a disease that can cause catastrophic birth defects and fetal death, died May 7 at his home in Auburn, N.Y. He was 91.”

New York Times: “Dabney Coleman, an award-winning television and movie actor best known for his over-the-top portrayals of garrulous, egomaniacal characters, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 92.”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
The Ledes

Friday, May 17, 2024

AP: “Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Tuesday
Sep282010

The Commentariat -- September 29

Here's the third of three articles based on Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars.

Fred Kaplan of Slate gets something out of Obama's Wars that Woodward may not have fully understood -- how the Afghanistan war may end.

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post warns businesspeople who are hoping for Republican victories to be careful what they wish for. He singles out Sen. Jim DeMint as an example of a Republican legislator who is bad for business, but he says that all Republican obstructionism is a net loss for the economy. Here the backstory from Politico: "South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block [i.e., place a hold on] all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session.

"Power without Responsibility." Dana Milbank writes a serioius column: as top Administration officials leave the White House, Valerie Jarrett gains even more influence over the President. Jarrett, however, has been his advisor on areas where he has made the biggest blunders: his relationships with Wall Street & with liberals. Oh, & Desiree Rogers was her idea.

Ticket to Ride. Arianna Huffington promises to provide "Sanity Buses" to take people from New York City to Washington, D.C., October 30, for Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity":

     ... Politico Update: In Richmond, Virginia, President Obama "endorses" the Stewart rally (& bores the kid seen on the right of the shot):

Michael Barbaro of the New York Times: "As he mounts an outrage-filled campaign for governor of New York, Carl P. Paladino has vowed to forcibly rid Albany of the wayward officials and misbehaving bureaucrats..., promising to 'take out the trash.' But some of the people whom Mr. Paladino has recruited to run his campaign are plagued by checkered pasts.... [His] driver was jailed over his driving record; his campaign manager has tax troubles; and a strategist is charged with stealing $1.1 million." See more stories on the New York gubernatorial race on the New York page of Campaign 2010.

"Ya Can't Drive." You've probably heard President Obama use this metaphor a number of times. He used it again yesterday in Madison. Here he was speaking in May:

     ... It turns out "ya can't drive" is more than a metaphor. Republicans really can't drive:

     ... Although Sen. John McCain blamed illegal immigrants for purposely causing accidents on Arizona highways, it appears that it's his own voters who don't know how to drive. According to a Daily Beast analysis, "Nine of the 10 worst-performing states [i.e., had the most accidents per capita] went for McCain, while nine of the 10 best performers voted for Obama." The states with the worst drivers were North Dakota (the worst), Montana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alaska, Missouri, Delaware, Idaho & Texas. The best were Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, Ohio, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Virginia, & -- best of all -- Connecticut.

Glenn Beck. New York Times photo.Mark Leibovich has a profile of Glenn Beck to be published in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine. CW: it's unlikely I'll read it.

CW: this New York Times story by Damien Cave peaked my interest because Al Capone reputedly used to stay in the house I live in now. But the real thrust of the Cave's article, about a re-enactment of a Capone trial, is that things haven't changed much in South Florida in the eight decades since the real trial.

Comments Off