"A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all."
Tacitus
The market action was not worth any comment.
The fiscal cliff heats up again on Sunday as the House meets in the late afternoon.
I don't think any deal will be made, and I doubt that Boehner will allow a vote on the motion to not raise taxes on those who make less than $200,000.
And we might expect to do this all over again as the debt ceiling intrudes in January, and the government accounting gains should run out of gas by month's end.
To contact us Click HERE About seven months ago Raoul Pal of Global Macro Investor put forward a analysis called 'The End Game.'
I prefer to call it 'The Great Reset.'
I am not sure I agree with his analysis or his timing. That is a genteel way of saying that it is possible, but not probable and quite possibly crackers. A gentleman never wishes to inflict discomfort on anyone. But this does seem to be that time of year to review forecasts predicting doom, gloom, and demise in 2013, and this is one of them that has made the rounds, then and again. If nothing else, there is good money to be made in the gloom and doom business. People often like a whiff of danger-at-a-distance to jolt their jaded psyches. That explains the attraction of horror movies. And schadenfreude is always diverting for the aspiring ubermench and less amibitious sociopaths. It is always the other guy that gets it, and well deserved, at least in their minds. Such a financial reset and reallocation of wealth is not necessary, but it is only necessary that people think that it is. And there are those who would always enjoy the opportunity presented by a crisis, especially when their illusions and delusions seem to be running out of steam. A fresh scam beats working for a living.
Now that the 21 December 2012 Mayan end- of-all-things-as-we-know-them has belly flopped, let's see how we do next year.
To contact us Click HERE This will be my last post for 2012, excepting the usual chart updates, as we toddle towards yet another artificial crisis, this time the fiscal cliff.
I came across an interview with Chris Hedges by the Canadian Allan Gregg which illuminates Hedges' thesis of the decline of the American Empire and the illusory thinking that accompanies it. Can the shock and meltdown of Karl Rove on election night be any better contemporary illustration of the power of selective thinking to delude a group of seemingly rational people to their own downfall?
Although I differ from Hedges on a number of observations, particularly in degree, history does suggest that at the end of empires, and the accompanying sea change of social organization, there are often remarkable extremes in human behaviour. The almost frenetic preoccupation and stubborn adherence to the Nazi ideology in the latter stages of the war, when it was obvious to any rational observer that they had failed, is illustrative of that point.
I had been particularly struck in my reading some time ago with the 'wolf packs' of Nazis who had raged through Berlin, rounding up old men, and even boys who had not joined the Volkssturm, and hanging them, even while the Russians were shelling the Reichstag. It never made sense to me until today.
"The radio announced that Hitler had come out of his safe bomb-proof bunker to talk with the fourteen to sixteen year old boys who had 'volunteered' for the 'honor' to be accepted into the SS and to die for their Fuhrer in the defense of Berlin. What a cruel lie! These boys did not volunteer, but had no choice, because boys who were found hiding were hanged as traitors by the SS as a warning that, 'he who was not brave enough to fight had to die.'
When trees were not available, people were strung up on lamp posts. They were hanging everywhere, military and civilian, men and women, ordinary citizens who had been executed by a small group of fanatics. It appeared that the Nazis did not want the people to survive because a lost war, by their rationale, was obviously the fault of all of us. We had not sacrificed enough and therefore, we had forfeited our right to live, as only the government was without guilt."
Dorothea von Schwanenfluegel, Eyewitness account, Fall of Berlin 1945
This is an almost perfect illustration of the credibility trap. One cannot allow the illusion to falter, even a little, to the bitter end. And as the fraud fades, the force intensifies, becoming almost rabid in its deflection of guilt. Because that illusion has become the center of a hollowed people's being, their raison d'être, a mythological justification for their existence.
If the ideology had been a lie, then they are not heroes and gods on earth, but monsters and criminals, and their life has been self-serving and meaningless, without significance and honor. And that is the credibility trap. It is the impulse for the leaders to keep doubling down in the hope of a win, until exhaustion and collapse.
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
John Harrington
How else can one explain the irrational, destructive policy impulse? This is why they are metaphorically hanging Greeks and Spaniards and Irish in Europe, as tribute to an unsustainable and corrupt Euro monetary arrangement, with its puppet governments run by the banks.
And this is the US financial system and the American policy discussions today. First they come for the powerless and the weak, whether it contributes anything substantial to the broader resolution of the problems or not. The madness serves none but itself.
"A credibility trap is a condition wherein the financial, political and informational functions of a society have been compromised by corruption and fraud, so that the leadership cannot effectively reform, or even honestly address, the problems ot that system without impairing and implicating, at least incidentally, a broad swath of the power structure, including themselves.
The status quo tolerates the corruption and the fraud because they have profited at least indirectly from it, and would like to continue to do so. Even the impulse to reform within the power structure is susceptible to various forms of soft blackmail and coercion by the system that maintains and rewards.
And so a failed policy and its support system become self-sustaining, long after it is seen by objective observers to have failed. In its failure it is counterproductive, and an impediment to recovery in the real economy. Admitting failure is not an option for the thought leaders who receive their power from that system.
The continuity of the structural hierarchy must therefore be maintained at all costs, even to the point of becoming a painfully obvious hypocrisy.
The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery."
To contact us Click HERE The waters are a little muddied this time around because of the fiscal fluff and the January debt ceiling policy scrum to come, but lo and behold, gold rallied sharply on the last day of the year, after a series of repeated hits lower.
How unusual.
New year, same old games.
And Washington announced, in time before the markets close, that they reached a deal, kind of.
No grand bargain, but a deferral.
It looks like the Senate will agree to avert the tax increases for those with less than 450,000 per year in income, arrangements on capital gains, 40% inheritance tax on estates over 5 million, and AMT. It appears they will leave the budget cut wrangling for the debt ceiling fight in January, and possibly every two months next year after that.
The House will not have a chance to vote for it until later this week most likely.
And at the bottom, an update on Jim Rickards on the ongoing currency wars.
To contact us Click HERE There was no deal on the 'fiscal cliff' before the deadline at midnight tonight, but there was plenty of speculation, hints, and hope.
Whatever the leaders decide amongst themselves, the members of the House and Senate must ratify.
But there was plenty of paint on the tape for the close of this year.
"These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the desires of sinful nature, they entice people who think they avoid error.
They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves, for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him."
Where Are We Heading — Bedford Falls or Pottersville? By Robert Reich December 22, 2012
It’s easy to feel discouraged about the bullying by right-wing Republicans and their patrons over everything from gun control to taxes and social safety nets to trade unions and jobs.
Every year about now I watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” again to remind myself what Frank Capra understood about America — its essential decency and common sense.
In many ways the nation is better than it was in 1946 when the movie first appeared. Women have gained economic power and reproductive rights; we enacted Civil Rights and Voting Rights and, through Medicare and Medicaid, dramatically reduced poverty among the elderly; we began to tackle environmental devastation; we stopped treating gays as criminals and have even started to recognize equal marriage rights. We elected and then re-elected the first black president of the United States. We have enacted the bare beginnings of universal healthcare.
But we are still in danger of the “Pottersville” Capra saw as the consequence of what happens when Americans fail to join together and forget the meaning of the public good.
If Lionel Barrymore’s “Mr. Potter” were alive today he’d call himself a “job creator” and condemn George Bailey as a socialist. He’d be financing a fleet of lobbyists to get lower taxes on multi-millionaires like himself, overturn environmental laws, trample on workers’ rights, and shred social safety nets. He’d fight any form of gun control. He’d want the citizens of Pottersville to be economically insecure – living paycheck to paycheck and worried about losing their jobs – so they’d be dependent on his good graces.
The Mr. Potters are still alive and well in America, threatening our democracy with their money and our common morality with their greed.
Call me naive or sentimental but I still believe the George Baileys will continue to win this contest. They know we’re all in it together, and that if we succumb to the bullying selfishness of the Potters we lose America and relinquish the future.
"Most of the time, evil doesn't manifest as some cackling cartoon villain, mad-man on a murderous rampage, or even an unjust war waged on false pretenses. It results instead, in a far more banal but far-reaching way, from the highly refined ideas of men like Robert Bork who value abstract concepts such as efficiency over the effects the programs they institute have on the lives of real human beings."
Angry Bear, An Editorial on Robert Bork and His Legacy
To contact us Click HERE As you can see, gold had a 'tap tap' bottom at the end of last year, with a final intraday low on the 29th, the second last trading day of the year.
It rallied in January back to where it had been at the beginning of December.
We may be seeing a repeat of what I think is an 'end-of-year' phenomenon this year.
If so, we *might* see one more low this week, probably tied in with some sort of selloff related to the 'fiscal cliff.'
This sort of thing could be government related but it seems more probable that it is related to the gaming of large short positions as they are marked to market at year end. That, and of course, the obvious price manipulation that allows big players to pick up assets like miners and bullion on the cheap.
The 'bombing' of gold with large contract sell orders in quiet periods is leaving tracks all over the tape, that most can see, except if they are willfully blind.
It would not be surprising if we don't see exactly that double tap bottom again this year. We had an odd overnight plunge to 1649 on futures open after Christmas, and that may mark the bottom.
We *could* go back down to visit there again, and maybe even the prior double low of 1636 from just before the holiday. If it were me I would consider throwing a curve ball. And maybe hit the metals the first week in January very hard if the specs start jumping ahead of the rally early. Its hard to beat the house in the short term, especially when the cards are stacked, and they can see your hand.
But as Eliot Spitzer observed, when he was the NY Attorney General, what surprised them when they broke the investigation of manipulation by the banks was not the cleverness of their schemes, but the obviousness, the heavy handed, almost clumsy thuggery.
'No time for that. Give me a diablo sandwich, a Dr. Pepper, and make it quick. What we're dealing with here is a complete lack of respect for the law. '
To contact us Click HERE A wash and rinse day, with the markets going sharply lower on remarks from Senator Harry Reid that he sees no chance of a financial deal before year end.
And in the last hour the market rallied sharply off the bottom, closing almost unchanged for the day, on the news that the House of Representatives will reconvene on Sunday December 30 at 6:30 PM.
I just do not see what they can do, other than to offer to 'kick the can down the road' and take the nation into another crisis, more to their liking, at the next budget ceiling operation early next year.
I suspect the markets will continue to gyrate, as the monied interests and their servants in Washington hold the country hostage, as they did with TARP.
Hang on for a rough ride.
At the bottom is a chart from the Fed's database that shows the latest information on Labor's Share of National Income, which has declined to new postwar lows.
A greater share of income has gone to those wielding capital. This has not been positive for aggregate demand or the median wage. The extractive efforts of the financial and healthcare cartels are taking their toll, slowly but surely.
To contact us Click HERE A baby step higher day in the metals, with more shenanigans likely in the the waning days of this year.
Intraday commentary on the 'December manipulation' phenomenon here.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, Les Guêpes, 1849
There will be no sustainable recovery without genuine reform of the financial and political system. At best, there will be a pale imitation of growth fueled by a pernicious of monetary inflation and the continued financialization of the real economy.
May 19, 1999, was a pop culture milestone: Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace, the first Star Wars movie in 16 years, opened in the United States. More than two million people took the day off of work to see it. And what did those fans get after all the hype? A movie that drew mixed reviews at best.
And as the summer rolled on, one name kept popping upon news reports and on Internet message boards: Jar Jar Binks. His primary role was to provide comic relief. What went wrong?
The two thousand women who volunteered as nurses during the American Civil War came from all walks of life to play a vital role in the war effort. When war broke out, the country's male-dominated nursing profession was in its infancy and still relatively primitive. The huge escalation in the need for medical personnel during the conflict broke down the barriers preventing women from entering nursing.
Those who wanted to play their part were spurred into action, and these remarkable women made an invaluable contribution. Even so, their hard work and dedication was, largely, historically anonymous. And yet a few individuals contributed so significantly that their experiences have been recognized by history. Here are 10 of the greatest nurses of the American Civil War.
Coffee snobs who rave about ridiculously expensive 'pre-digested' Kopi Luwak civet coffee now have something new to turn their noses up at: Black Ivory coffee! Costing upwards of $1,100 per kilo ($500 per pound), this exceptionally rare brew is made from coffee beans eaten and excreted by elephants.
It's not a dumb idea if you think about it: palm civets are scrawny little beasts who can barely eat more than a couple of coffee beans at a sitting. Elephants, on the other hand, down entire coffee bushes in a single bite. They also excrete jumbo-sized clumps of fibrous waste that's easy to find, process and disassemble.
To contact us Click HERE
I saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" in October and I had my doubts about how much of it was true as I was sitting in my seat at the Public Theater in New York. (Which I noted in my review.)
It was clear to me that Mike Daisey was delivering a performance with his monologue. The way his voice would rise and fall, the quotes and scenarios that seemed too perfect, it smacked of acting, not delivering a speech. And that made me wonder how much of his story about traveling to China and talking to workers who assemble Apple products was embellished. After all, we're paying $80 for a ticket and we want drama, emotion, conflict.
I also couldn't believe that the workers at the Foxconn plant were so eager to talk to him, through an interpreter. China is, after all, a repressive, totalitarian country. Daisey doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the culture. But as I said at the time, he's a performer not a journalist and he's allowed to take artistic liberties. Despite my reservations, I found the piece compelling.
So I wasn't surprised when the radio program This American Life, which had aired an excerpt of Daisey's show, announced last week that parts of it were fabricated. Quotes and some of the things Daisey said he saw on his trip to China were made up. I can't say that I felt let down because I wasn't totally taken in by it in the first place.
But then I found my program from the Public Theater and saw something that I'd forgotten. It says, in big, bold letters, that The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs "is a work of nonfiction." Which clearly, it wasn't. That made me mad. He willfully misled his audience. And it wasn't necessary. With a little more effort and ingenuity, he could have written just as compelling a piece but made it truthful. On top of everything, he's guilty of lazy writing.
Then today, reading Daisey's response made me even angrier. Instead of taking responsibility it appears that he's trying to turn the tables, to shift the discussion from his work in a way that I find offensive.
He seems to think that by focusing on the deceptions in his monologue, we're being drawn away from the larger and more important question of how workers in China are treated. But he couldn't leave it at that. He chastises us for what he perceives as our moral failing. "If you think this story is bigger than that story, something is wrong with your priorities."
Well excuse me but I'm capable of doing both - being concerned about the conditions for workers AND the fallout from the lies in Daisey's monologue. I really resent his sanctimonious attitude. I'm not the one who sat in front of an audience, told them in the program that what they were about to hear was true and then lied.
I guess now, I feel less inclined to give Mike Daisey any more of my time or money.
If you want to learn something about Apple's manufacturing plants in China or the company's history and culture, I recommend stories from The New York Times and Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Both are authoritative and insightful.
To contact us Click HERE President Obama finally had his "We Shall Overcome" moment today when he endorsed the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love.
Congratulations, Mr. President. It's about time.
Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce the Voting Rights Act. He talked about the efforts of black Americans to secure for themselves "the full blessings of American life." He said, "Their cause must be our cause, too." He even invoked the words of the civil-rights anthem, "And we shall overcome."
The president's remarks today saying that he believes same-sex couples should be able to get married were not as dramatic or momentous as Johnson's a generation earlier. Made during an interview with ABC News, they lacked the eloquence of a prepared speech.
There was no mention of repealing the odious Defense of Marriage Act. He didn't vow to fight for same-sex marriage. His deference to the states on the matter was a bit troubling. (States' rights, did that not ring a bell for anyone at the White House?)
Yet despite all of that his words, based on his own experiences and his religious convictions, sounded sincere. I like that he mentioned the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. And they are powerful for the way they frame the debate. The president finally figured out how to use the White House as a bully pulpit.
It's practically impossible today for any straight American to say that they don't know a gay person. They are our friends, our family, our teachers, our colleagues, our loved ones, our neighbors.
As President Obama said, they are members of his staff, people in committed relationships. They are soldiers and sailors fighting on his behalf. Their children are friends with his daughters. The president of the United States made the issue personal. There are people in his life who are gay and lesbian. And he doesn't see any reason why they should not be allowed to get married.
Anyone - and by that I mean my fellow straight Americans - who cares about this country becoming a more equal place for all of its citizens has a stake in this. The president's comments don't change anything but they push homophobia and anti-gay rhetoric a little further to the fringes of American society - where they belong.
A couple of years ago, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that as more people have come out of the closet, we've learned about those in our lives who are gay. "It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love."
I believe that with all of my heart. Today, I'm proud that my president believes it as well and was not hesitant to say it. Their cause must be our cause, too. That statement rings as true today as it did in 1965.
To contact us Click HERE
I appreciate many of this season's singers on NBC's The Voice, but I consistently enjoy Nicholas David's vocals of Team CeeLo.
In the video above, Nicks sings Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On." I've already purchased the longer iTunes release. The Twitterverse is abuzz with comments such as Nicholas David has a black soul in his body."
As I tweeted at him (@TheFeelin) after I saw last night's show, "I do not suffer fools who attempt to sing Marvin Gaye, but U sir R no fool. I love you. :-) #smooth"
On last night's show, Bill Withers surprised him. He came to acknowledge Nick's performance of Withers's classic "Lean On Me." Nick covered the song last week.
There are no singers on The Voice that I dislike. I'd be most likely, however, to buy something by Nick, Trevin, Amanda, Melanie, or Cody. Cody cracked me up last week doing Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," but despite his theatrics, the boy can sing.
To contact us Click HERE If you’re in the mood for a well-crafted, gritty page-turner focused on crime and punishment in a New Jersey township, then Steven Hart’s We All Fall Down is the novel for you. Hart has written not only a compelling story but also shaped his heroine, Karen McCarthy, into a believable woman.
Karen McCarthy is the only female cop on a police force determined to make misogyny its battle cry, but she learns and grows as this mystery unfolds because running from a fight is not her style. You’ll see quickly that Karen makes mistakes, such as seeking comfort in the wrong places, but you’ll root for this young woman, nonetheless; she is flawed but seeks justice.
While many of her fellow officers in this fictional Jersey town sully law enforcement's brass shield, not all the men on the force slip easily into a blue-gang mentality or zero in on any evidence of female imperfection. Hart avoids painting a flat landscape of black and white in this dark crime drama, and Karen McCarthy’s world ripples with shades of gray and red. Lots of red. Bodies drop and drop in this thriller, but for the sake of humanity, you’ll nod that some of these characters deserve to die.
At other times, you may feel yourself fearing for the lives of itchy thieves and risk takers like meth-head Charley Murphy and his loyal girlfriend Noorie. The writing will make you care. You will also laugh occasionally at the colorful words coming out of these characters' mouths. Hart’s shady misfits, wannabe cop kings, and hard-working humans just trying to get by will suck you in, and their stories will stick with you a while after you’ve read the last page of We All Fall Down.
For six months this year, Jamie Foxx worked in New Orleans starring in Quentin Tarantino's slave film Django Unchained. Perhaps it was then that he noticed all the different accents and craziness that goes on down here.
On this past weekend's Saturday Night Live, Foxx joined the SNL cast in a wild skit called "Maine Justice" that poked fun at New Orleans' colorful characters and our strange ways. It had a snippet of commentary as well about Hurricane Katrina survivors who have moved away from the city, but don't want to give up the New Orleans way of life.
Of course, as the NOLA Defender notes, this comedy skit is not the first one in which SNL's taken a comic swing at the Crescent City. New Orleans resident and political commentator James Carville is often the butt of jokes on SNL's Weekend Update, and native Aaron Neville's taken a hit before as well.
Someone down here probably didn't find the skit amusing and may call me a traitor for laughing. Sorry, but I couldn't help myself; I lmao watching "Maine Justice," and I count the skit as a love lick from SNL and Jamie.
Foxx also sent up New Orleans native Tyler Perry during the show with an impression of Perry performing Alex Cross as Madea and Perry.
By the way, today is Jamie Foxx's birthday. He was born today in 1967 in Texas and given the name Eric Morlon Bishop.
To contact us Click HERE
I saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" in October and I had my doubts about how much of it was true as I was sitting in my seat at the Public Theater in New York. (Which I noted in my review.)
It was clear to me that Mike Daisey was delivering a performance with his monologue. The way his voice would rise and fall, the quotes and scenarios that seemed too perfect, it smacked of acting, not delivering a speech. And that made me wonder how much of his story about traveling to China and talking to workers who assemble Apple products was embellished. After all, we're paying $80 for a ticket and we want drama, emotion, conflict.
I also couldn't believe that the workers at the Foxconn plant were so eager to talk to him, through an interpreter. China is, after all, a repressive, totalitarian country. Daisey doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the culture. But as I said at the time, he's a performer not a journalist and he's allowed to take artistic liberties. Despite my reservations, I found the piece compelling.
So I wasn't surprised when the radio program This American Life, which had aired an excerpt of Daisey's show, announced last week that parts of it were fabricated. Quotes and some of the things Daisey said he saw on his trip to China were made up. I can't say that I felt let down because I wasn't totally taken in by it in the first place.
But then I found my program from the Public Theater and saw something that I'd forgotten. It says, in big, bold letters, that The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs "is a work of nonfiction." Which clearly, it wasn't. That made me mad. He willfully misled his audience. And it wasn't necessary. With a little more effort and ingenuity, he could have written just as compelling a piece but made it truthful. On top of everything, he's guilty of lazy writing.
Then today, reading Daisey's response made me even angrier. Instead of taking responsibility it appears that he's trying to turn the tables, to shift the discussion from his work in a way that I find offensive.
He seems to think that by focusing on the deceptions in his monologue, we're being drawn away from the larger and more important question of how workers in China are treated. But he couldn't leave it at that. He chastises us for what he perceives as our moral failing. "If you think this story is bigger than that story, something is wrong with your priorities."
Well excuse me but I'm capable of doing both - being concerned about the conditions for workers AND the fallout from the lies in Daisey's monologue. I really resent his sanctimonious attitude. I'm not the one who sat in front of an audience, told them in the program that what they were about to hear was true and then lied.
I guess now, I feel less inclined to give Mike Daisey any more of my time or money.
If you want to learn something about Apple's manufacturing plants in China or the company's history and culture, I recommend stories from The New York Times and Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Both are authoritative and insightful.
To contact us Click HERE President Obama finally had his "We Shall Overcome" moment today when he endorsed the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love.
Congratulations, Mr. President. It's about time.
Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce the Voting Rights Act. He talked about the efforts of black Americans to secure for themselves "the full blessings of American life." He said, "Their cause must be our cause, too." He even invoked the words of the civil-rights anthem, "And we shall overcome."
The president's remarks today saying that he believes same-sex couples should be able to get married were not as dramatic or momentous as Johnson's a generation earlier. Made during an interview with ABC News, they lacked the eloquence of a prepared speech.
There was no mention of repealing the odious Defense of Marriage Act. He didn't vow to fight for same-sex marriage. His deference to the states on the matter was a bit troubling. (States' rights, did that not ring a bell for anyone at the White House?)
Yet despite all of that his words, based on his own experiences and his religious convictions, sounded sincere. I like that he mentioned the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. And they are powerful for the way they frame the debate. The president finally figured out how to use the White House as a bully pulpit.
It's practically impossible today for any straight American to say that they don't know a gay person. They are our friends, our family, our teachers, our colleagues, our loved ones, our neighbors.
As President Obama said, they are members of his staff, people in committed relationships. They are soldiers and sailors fighting on his behalf. Their children are friends with his daughters. The president of the United States made the issue personal. There are people in his life who are gay and lesbian. And he doesn't see any reason why they should not be allowed to get married.
Anyone - and by that I mean my fellow straight Americans - who cares about this country becoming a more equal place for all of its citizens has a stake in this. The president's comments don't change anything but they push homophobia and anti-gay rhetoric a little further to the fringes of American society - where they belong.
A couple of years ago, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that as more people have come out of the closet, we've learned about those in our lives who are gay. "It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love."
I believe that with all of my heart. Today, I'm proud that my president believes it as well and was not hesitant to say it. Their cause must be our cause, too. That statement rings as true today as it did in 1965.
To contact us Click HERE
After covering everything that Google Search has to offer, you can easily forge that search only forms one small part of the Google behemoth. With so many different features and clients available, it's very easy to use the basic features for each and leave it at that.
However, if you delve a little deeper, there are many tricks hidden away that will help improve your experience. To help you out, here are a number of tips and tricks that you can use for four of Google's more popular features: Gmail, Maps, Google Drive and Google News.
In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. Bokeh has been defined as the 'way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.' Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.
It may have something to do with all those Brontosaurus burgers everyone's favorite modern stone-age family ate, but when you think of a giant dinosaur with a tiny head and long, swooping tail, the Brontosaurus is probably what you're seeing in your mind. Well hold on: Scientifically speaking, there's no such thing as a Brontosaurus.
Even if you knew that, you may not know how the fictional dinosaur came to star in the prehistoric landscape of popular imagination for so long. It dates back 130 years, to a period of early U.S. paleontology known as the Bone Wars.
Traditional tattoo designs, like anchors, swallows, and nautical stars, are popping up on the arms and ankles of kids in every hip neighborhood from Brooklyn to Berlin, Sao Paulo to San Francisco. Yet these young land lubbers probably don't even know the difference between a schooner and a ship, much less where the term 'groggy' comes from.
In fact, contemporary tattooing can be traced to the 15th century. Tattoos can't be lost or stolen and they don't encumber an already heavily burdened traveler, so it's not a surprise that they became inextricably linked with sailors.
Agbogbloshie is a wasteland of smoke and rubble nicknamed 'Sodom and Gomorrah' by the locals. Plastic parts, wires, and pieces of metal and glass lie strewn across the terrain, alongside more immediately recognizable household objects like televisions and refrigerators.
And the air is thick with the harsh smell of burning plastic and foul sewage gases drifting in from the heavily polluted Odaw River. Men and boys wander this bleak landscape in search of anything they can salvage and re-sell.
In this 1989 music video from Janet Jackson for her hit "Alright," you will see two of today's popular dance moves, PSY's "gangnam style" dance and LMFAO's "shuffle" from Party Rock. Watch and see.
And in this 1955 video of Bill Bailey tap dancing, you'll see the move associated with Janet's brother, the late, great Michael Jackson, "the Moonwalk."
As Michael fans know, the King of Pop watched a lot of musicals, as did many of us born around the same time as he, but unlike the rest of us, Michael was a gifted dancer and creative genius. In the dance moves of classic artists, he saw what he could re-purpose for his own musical productions and theatrical vision. I think he studied mime, as well.
I had a mime class as a teen and know that the Moonwalk is also part of that discipline. Furthermore, the great French mime Marcel Marceau was popular during the 70s when Michael Jackson and I were teens, and I recall that Michael was a fan of Marceau. So, Michael drew from multiple sources to create his masterpieces; he excelled at putting the old in context of the new.
Janet had similar visions. In her "Alright" video she pays homage to Cab Calloway, Cyd Charise, and the Nicholas Brothers in the same way that her brother, Michael, paid homage to Fred Astaire in his "Smooth Criminal" music video.
I guess one could say LMFAO, which is made up of two of Motown founder Berry Gordy's descendants (Redfoo is Berry Gordy's son and SkyBlu is Gordy's grandson) also have that same some sampling/mixtape creativity: the ability to cut, paste, and reshape multiple pieces into something appealing and new (the art of bricolage).
As all Michael Jackson and Jackson family followers know, Gordy signed the Jackson 5 when Michael was nine years old, drawing in as well Janet during their television show period. And if you saw Spike Lee's documentary on ABC last night, "Michael Jackson: Bad 25," you were reminded of how the Motown influence shaped Michael Jackson's artistic discipline. Likewise, Motown influenced Janet.
Of PSY and his "gangnam style" dance moves, as well as his pop music style, I see it as fun, yes, but also I see it as more evidence of this postmodern age's hyper-bricolage: the synthesis of multiple multicultural pieces (a good bit of it from HipHop culture these days). PSY draws on his own experience and culture, but also the cultures of others. So, I peg his work also as more evidence of humanity's attraction to simulacra and this era's mix-it-up, small-world aesthetics.
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Usually when I link to Huffington Post, I do so because one of its writers has written something worthy of thought or uncovered a political issue that the mainstream media has overlooked. Unfortunately, that's not why I'm linking to that website today. HuffPo is possibly large enough and powerful enough now to be called a mainstream media outlet itself, and due its reach and power, the website's big failure today regarding Oprah's breast cancer scare news is doubly troubling.
I'm speaking of the teaser HuffPo ran about Oprah at the top of its media section's main page. If you missed it, the screenshot is below this paragraph. The only thing I've added is the cloud burst identifying the teaser's wording as a fail. In big orange and black letters the teaser reads, "O Dear: Who Would Have Thought OWN Was the Least of Her Worries."
Dear Huffington Post: It's not okay to minimize a breast cancer scare. Yes, Oprah Winfrey is powerful, and yes, she is struggling to save her OWN venture and her magazine, and it's true that due to her power and influence, she often has been the punchline of jokes, but under no circumstances should anyone make light of her or anyone else's experience with a breast cancer scare. "O Dear: Who Would Have Thought OWN Was the Least of Her Worries" is too flip a teaser for such a potentially fatal healthcare outcome, scare or no scare. (I don't have the time to discuss the sexist implications with the use of "O Dear" here when applied to such a serious matter.)
If you saw and clicked the link on the media page, then you know that it linked to an article by the website's media editor, Jack Mirkinson, in which the lead is "Oprah had a recent breast cancer scare and may shut down her magazine if it starts losing money, the New York Times revealed on Monday." (The lead is problematic as well with its implication that the breast cancer scare is somehow connected to the failing magazine, but any analysis of the article would mean another blog post.)
Later in the article, Mirkinson references the New York Times story again in which its author recounts Oprah's announcement about her breast cancer scare at a conference. Mirkinson characterizes the announcement as "startling," so one has to wonder how he, as an editor of the media section, let such a callous teaser slip through. (I recall that the website had a similarly tacky headline during the Aurora, Colorado, massacre: "Horror in Aurora" was on the first page, a much too glib headline for such a tragedy due to the headline's similarity to the "Thrilla in Manila" rhyme that promoted one of Muhammad Ali's famous fights.)
The wording was also problematic for other reasons. Oprah Winfrey is not just a billionaire media mogul; she's also an African American woman and African American women are at a greater risk for breast cancer in its most deadly forms. Cancer does not discriminate, so Oprah's wealth doesn't shield her from being genuinely afraid of bad test results. (See my 2009 post on the higher incidence of fatal breast cancer among black women.).
Additionally telling for the Huffington Post, it published its poorly worded teaser just as a black woman's website posted an article about black women and breast cancer. At Madame Noire, writer Charing Balla asks "Is Racism The Reason Black Women Are More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer? Looking at the disparity between black women and white women in early detection for breast cancer and morbidity rates, the post discusses that "black women have a 41 percent higher death rate from breast cancer than their white counterparts."
When I first saw the provocative headline, I thought it was over the top, but a few minutes later I saw the Huffington Post teaser and I began to think perhaps I was too hard on the Madame Noire headline.
Knowing the facts about low diagnosis and survival rates for breast cancer among African-American women and that these low rates may be attributed, in part, to the medical community not listening to or showing racial bias toward black women, I'm even more disappointed with the Huffington Post's failure on its coverage of Oprah's breast cancer scare. With HuffPo's treatment of Oprah here, it falls into two pits: The dehumanization of celebrities and the dehumanization of the African-American female into the strong black woman stereotype to whom, some think, no consideration or concern is due.
Now I consider that Arianna Huffington needs to take a look at what her media empire is really contributing to multicultural news coverage. Her mega website appears to be losing its way despite its so-called progressive leanings toward inclusion. Over the last few years, through a syndication and aggregation model, Huff Po has turned its news coverage into a profit center promoting the commodification of humans by ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, and I see a problem.
The Huffington Post has its Black Voices, Latino Voices, women's section, and Gay Voices, but it's missing its sensitivity voice. In its rush to capitalize on identity politics and information segregation, the website has neglected to cultivate among its staff the kind of knowledge it takes to push news through such segmented channels with genuine multicultural intelligence.
The HuffPo teaser failed not only Oprah, black women, and women in general, it failed humanity as well. The website missed the chance to educate readers about a serious health crisis among black women and to show compassion. Oprah Winfrey, after all, is human first and she should be treated during her breast cancer scare with the same compassion as any other human would be treated following a cancer scare. She is a big personality, but in human frailty, we are all small.
Lagniappe: In the video below Alice Walker reads Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman." I see it as an appropriate ending for a post about a mainstream media outlet's failure to show compassion toward Oprah because as a black woman often called "powerful" and "a queen," her image carries the essence of the "strong black woman" stereotype.
Sojourner Truth's famous speech is often used to discuss Western culture's tendency to minimize the pain of black women, dehumanizing them as beasts of burden who can handle anything. This matter of the mythological black super woman who requires no protection sometimes presents a conundrum for modern black feminists/womanists seeking balance between being strong while also needing protection sometimes. It seems that in humanity's march toward greater inclusion, there remains a danger of segmenting the other into the same, overly-simplified, flat and essentialized images of older racist and sexist thinking.
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I appreciate many of this season's singers on NBC's The Voice, but I consistently enjoy Nicholas David's vocals of Team CeeLo.
In the video above, Nicks sings Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Going On." I've already purchased the longer iTunes release. The Twitterverse is abuzz with comments such as Nicholas David has a black soul in his body."
As I tweeted at him (@TheFeelin) after I saw last night's show, "I do not suffer fools who attempt to sing Marvin Gaye, but U sir R no fool. I love you. :-) #smooth"
On last night's show, Bill Withers surprised him. He came to acknowledge Nick's performance of Withers's classic "Lean On Me." Nick covered the song last week.
There are no singers on The Voice that I dislike. I'd be most likely, however, to buy something by Nick, Trevin, Amanda, Melanie, or Cody. Cody cracked me up last week doing Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," but despite his theatrics, the boy can sing.
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I saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" in October and I had my doubts about how much of it was true as I was sitting in my seat at the Public Theater in New York. (Which I noted in my review.)
It was clear to me that Mike Daisey was delivering a performance with his monologue. The way his voice would rise and fall, the quotes and scenarios that seemed too perfect, it smacked of acting, not delivering a speech. And that made me wonder how much of his story about traveling to China and talking to workers who assemble Apple products was embellished. After all, we're paying $80 for a ticket and we want drama, emotion, conflict.
I also couldn't believe that the workers at the Foxconn plant were so eager to talk to him, through an interpreter. China is, after all, a repressive, totalitarian country. Daisey doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the culture. But as I said at the time, he's a performer not a journalist and he's allowed to take artistic liberties. Despite my reservations, I found the piece compelling.
So I wasn't surprised when the radio program This American Life, which had aired an excerpt of Daisey's show, announced last week that parts of it were fabricated. Quotes and some of the things Daisey said he saw on his trip to China were made up. I can't say that I felt let down because I wasn't totally taken in by it in the first place.
But then I found my program from the Public Theater and saw something that I'd forgotten. It says, in big, bold letters, that The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs "is a work of nonfiction." Which clearly, it wasn't. That made me mad. He willfully misled his audience. And it wasn't necessary. With a little more effort and ingenuity, he could have written just as compelling a piece but made it truthful. On top of everything, he's guilty of lazy writing.
Then today, reading Daisey's response made me even angrier. Instead of taking responsibility it appears that he's trying to turn the tables, to shift the discussion from his work in a way that I find offensive.
He seems to think that by focusing on the deceptions in his monologue, we're being drawn away from the larger and more important question of how workers in China are treated. But he couldn't leave it at that. He chastises us for what he perceives as our moral failing. "If you think this story is bigger than that story, something is wrong with your priorities."
Well excuse me but I'm capable of doing both - being concerned about the conditions for workers AND the fallout from the lies in Daisey's monologue. I really resent his sanctimonious attitude. I'm not the one who sat in front of an audience, told them in the program that what they were about to hear was true and then lied.
I guess now, I feel less inclined to give Mike Daisey any more of my time or money.
If you want to learn something about Apple's manufacturing plants in China or the company's history and culture, I recommend stories from The New York Times and Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs. Both are authoritative and insightful.
To contact us Click HERE President Obama finally had his "We Shall Overcome" moment today when he endorsed the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love.
Congratulations, Mr. President. It's about time.
Forty-seven years ago, President Lyndon Johnson addressed a joint session of Congress to introduce the Voting Rights Act. He talked about the efforts of black Americans to secure for themselves "the full blessings of American life." He said, "Their cause must be our cause, too." He even invoked the words of the civil-rights anthem, "And we shall overcome."
The president's remarks today saying that he believes same-sex couples should be able to get married were not as dramatic or momentous as Johnson's a generation earlier. Made during an interview with ABC News, they lacked the eloquence of a prepared speech.
There was no mention of repealing the odious Defense of Marriage Act. He didn't vow to fight for same-sex marriage. His deference to the states on the matter was a bit troubling. (States' rights, did that not ring a bell for anyone at the White House?)
Yet despite all of that his words, based on his own experiences and his religious convictions, sounded sincere. I like that he mentioned the Golden Rule: Treat others as you want to be treated. And they are powerful for the way they frame the debate. The president finally figured out how to use the White House as a bully pulpit.
It's practically impossible today for any straight American to say that they don't know a gay person. They are our friends, our family, our teachers, our colleagues, our loved ones, our neighbors.
As President Obama said, they are members of his staff, people in committed relationships. They are soldiers and sailors fighting on his behalf. Their children are friends with his daughters. The president of the United States made the issue personal. There are people in his life who are gay and lesbian. And he doesn't see any reason why they should not be allowed to get married.
Anyone - and by that I mean my fellow straight Americans - who cares about this country becoming a more equal place for all of its citizens has a stake in this. The president's comments don't change anything but they push homophobia and anti-gay rhetoric a little further to the fringes of American society - where they belong.
A couple of years ago, Frank Rich wrote in The New York Times that as more people have come out of the closet, we've learned about those in our lives who are gay. "It is hard to deny our own fundamental rights to those we know, admire and love."
I believe that with all of my heart. Today, I'm proud that my president believes it as well and was not hesitant to say it. Their cause must be our cause, too. That statement rings as true today as it did in 1965.
To contact us Click HERE Real-life "Olivia Pope" inspiration, Judy Smith, has been hired by Jill Kelley of the Petraeus fiasco, reports AdAge. I came across this tidbit while reading Margaret Colson's column at Bloomberg in which she discusses the differences between how the media treats women during such media spectacles and how the media treats men.
Of Kelley hiring Smith, Colson observes that both Kelley and Paula Broadwell have hired crisis managers and notes that with the star of this real-life scandal, General Petraeus, remaining well under the radar, the two women have drawn the eyes: "The less the news media can find out about the star of the show, the more they will focus on the bit players," writes Colson. Her column also indicates that she's being criticized for writing about the women.
From what I can see, Judy Smith must have her hands full with Kelley. Sources report that Kelley, the Florida "socialite" who drew in an FBI agent to investigate the anonymous "harassing" emails that turned out to come from Broadwell, is in deep financial trouble and has also been under the false impression that she has diplomatic immunity.
Given that her husband is a cancer surgeon, the pair must have been living far above their means to land in so much debt, which begs the question, How can she afford to hire Judy Smith? A book deal must be in the making here for her.
In this 1989 music video from Janet Jackson for her hit "Alright," you will see two of today's popular dance moves, PSY's "gangnam style" dance and LMFAO's "shuffle" from Party Rock. Watch and see.
And in this 1955 video of Bill Bailey tap dancing, you'll see the move associated with Janet's brother, the late, great Michael Jackson, "the Moonwalk."
As Michael fans know, the King of Pop watched a lot of musicals, as did many of us born around the same time as he, but unlike the rest of us, Michael was a gifted dancer and creative genius. In the dance moves of classic artists, he saw what he could re-purpose for his own musical productions and theatrical vision. I think he studied mime, as well.
I had a mime class as a teen and know that the Moonwalk is also part of that discipline. Furthermore, the great French mime Marcel Marceau was popular during the 70s when Michael Jackson and I were teens, and I recall that Michael was a fan of Marceau. So, Michael drew from multiple sources to create his masterpieces; he excelled at putting the old in context of the new.
Janet had similar visions. In her "Alright" video she pays homage to Cab Calloway, Cyd Charise, and the Nicholas Brothers in the same way that her brother, Michael, paid homage to Fred Astaire in his "Smooth Criminal" music video.
I guess one could say LMFAO, which is made up of two of Motown founder Berry Gordy's descendants (Redfoo is Berry Gordy's son and SkyBlu is Gordy's grandson) also have that same some sampling/mixtape creativity: the ability to cut, paste, and reshape multiple pieces into something appealing and new (the art of bricolage).
As all Michael Jackson and Jackson family followers know, Gordy signed the Jackson 5 when Michael was nine years old, drawing in as well Janet during their television show period. And if you saw Spike Lee's documentary on ABC last night, "Michael Jackson: Bad 25," you were reminded of how the Motown influence shaped Michael Jackson's artistic discipline. Likewise, Motown influenced Janet.
Of PSY and his "gangnam style" dance moves, as well as his pop music style, I see it as fun, yes, but also I see it as more evidence of this postmodern age's hyper-bricolage: the synthesis of multiple multicultural pieces (a good bit of it from HipHop culture these days). PSY draws on his own experience and culture, but also the cultures of others. So, I peg his work also as more evidence of humanity's attraction to simulacra and this era's mix-it-up, small-world aesthetics.
To contact us Click HERE
Usually when I link to Huffington Post, I do so because one of its writers has written something worthy of thought or uncovered a political issue that the mainstream media has overlooked. Unfortunately, that's not why I'm linking to that website today. HuffPo is possibly large enough and powerful enough now to be called a mainstream media outlet itself, and due its reach and power, the website's big failure today regarding Oprah's breast cancer scare news is doubly troubling.
I'm speaking of the teaser HuffPo ran about Oprah at the top of its media section's main page. If you missed it, the screenshot is below this paragraph. The only thing I've added is the cloud burst identifying the teaser's wording as a fail. In big orange and black letters the teaser reads, "O Dear: Who Would Have Thought OWN Was the Least of Her Worries."
Dear Huffington Post: It's not okay to minimize a breast cancer scare. Yes, Oprah Winfrey is powerful, and yes, she is struggling to save her OWN venture and her magazine, and it's true that due to her power and influence, she often has been the punchline of jokes, but under no circumstances should anyone make light of her or anyone else's experience with a breast cancer scare. "O Dear: Who Would Have Thought OWN Was the Least of Her Worries" is too flip a teaser for such a potentially fatal healthcare outcome, scare or no scare. (I don't have the time to discuss the sexist implications with the use of "O Dear" here when applied to such a serious matter.)
If you saw and clicked the link on the media page, then you know that it linked to an article by the website's media editor, Jack Mirkinson, in which the lead is "Oprah had a recent breast cancer scare and may shut down her magazine if it starts losing money, the New York Times revealed on Monday." (The lead is problematic as well with its implication that the breast cancer scare is somehow connected to the failing magazine, but any analysis of the article would mean another blog post.)
Later in the article, Mirkinson references the New York Times story again in which its author recounts Oprah's announcement about her breast cancer scare at a conference. Mirkinson characterizes the announcement as "startling," so one has to wonder how he, as an editor of the media section, let such a callous teaser slip through. (I recall that the website had a similarly tacky headline during the Aurora, Colorado, massacre: "Horror in Aurora" was on the first page, a much too glib headline for such a tragedy due to the headline's similarity to the "Thrilla in Manila" rhyme that promoted one of Muhammad Ali's famous fights.)
The wording was also problematic for other reasons. Oprah Winfrey is not just a billionaire media mogul; she's also an African American woman and African American women are at a greater risk for breast cancer in its most deadly forms. Cancer does not discriminate, so Oprah's wealth doesn't shield her from being genuinely afraid of bad test results. (See my 2009 post on the higher incidence of fatal breast cancer among black women.).
Additionally telling for the Huffington Post, it published its poorly worded teaser just as a black woman's website posted an article about black women and breast cancer. At Madame Noire, writer Charing Balla asks "Is Racism The Reason Black Women Are More Likely To Die From Breast Cancer? Looking at the disparity between black women and white women in early detection for breast cancer and morbidity rates, the post discusses that "black women have a 41 percent higher death rate from breast cancer than their white counterparts."
When I first saw the provocative headline, I thought it was over the top, but a few minutes later I saw the Huffington Post teaser and I began to think perhaps I was too hard on the Madame Noire headline.
Knowing the facts about low diagnosis and survival rates for breast cancer among African-American women and that these low rates may be attributed, in part, to the medical community not listening to or showing racial bias toward black women, I'm even more disappointed with the Huffington Post's failure on its coverage of Oprah's breast cancer scare. With HuffPo's treatment of Oprah here, it falls into two pits: The dehumanization of celebrities and the dehumanization of the African-American female into the strong black woman stereotype to whom, some think, no consideration or concern is due.
Now I consider that Arianna Huffington needs to take a look at what her media empire is really contributing to multicultural news coverage. Her mega website appears to be losing its way despite its so-called progressive leanings toward inclusion. Over the last few years, through a syndication and aggregation model, Huff Po has turned its news coverage into a profit center promoting the commodification of humans by ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, and I see a problem.
The Huffington Post has its Black Voices, Latino Voices, women's section, and Gay Voices, but it's missing its sensitivity voice. In its rush to capitalize on identity politics and information segregation, the website has neglected to cultivate among its staff the kind of knowledge it takes to push news through such segmented channels with genuine multicultural intelligence.
The HuffPo teaser failed not only Oprah, black women, and women in general, it failed humanity as well. The website missed the chance to educate readers about a serious health crisis among black women and to show compassion. Oprah Winfrey, after all, is human first and she should be treated during her breast cancer scare with the same compassion as any other human would be treated following a cancer scare. She is a big personality, but in human frailty, we are all small.
Lagniappe: In the video below Alice Walker reads Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman." I see it as an appropriate ending for a post about a mainstream media outlet's failure to show compassion toward Oprah because as a black woman often called "powerful" and "a queen," her image carries the essence of the "strong black woman" stereotype.
Sojourner Truth's famous speech is often used to discuss Western culture's tendency to minimize the pain of black women, dehumanizing them as beasts of burden who can handle anything. This matter of the mythological black super woman who requires no protection sometimes presents a conundrum for modern black feminists/womanists seeking balance between being strong while also needing protection sometimes. It seems that in humanity's march toward greater inclusion, there remains a danger of segmenting the other into the same, overly-simplified, flat and essentialized images of older racist and sexist thinking.
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I also couldn't believe that the workers at the Foxconn plant were so eager to talk to him, through an interpreter. China is, after all, a repressive, totalitarian country. Daisey doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the culture. But as I said at the time, he's a performer not a journalist and he's allowed to take artistic liberties. Despite my reservations, I found the piece compelling.
If you’re in the mood for a well-crafted, gritty page-turner focused on crime and punishment in a New Jersey township, then Steven Hart’s We All Fall Down is the novel for you. Hart has written not only a compelling story but also shaped his heroine, Karen McCarthy, into a believable woman. 
For six months this year, Jamie Foxx worked in New Orleans starring in Quentin Tarantino's slave film Django Unchained. Perhaps it was then that he noticed all the different accents and craziness that goes on down here. 
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Real-life "Olivia Pope" inspiration, Judy Smith, has been hired by Jill Kelley of the Petraeus fiasco, reports AdAge. I came across this tidbit while reading Margaret Colson's column at Bloomberg in which she discusses the differences between how the media treats women during such media spectacles and how the media treats men.