skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The famous pressure Obama is putting on Netanyahu is for a 4-month construction freeze in East Jerusalem. For which Obama would not only pressure Abbas to hold talks with Israel, but direct rather than indirect talks. Four full months. That’s like tipping your waiter a nickel.
Berlusconi, annoyingly, did well in regional elections (although the racist Northern League did better), and he got a judge to overturn the little fake-signatures problem in Lombardy, so showgirl slash dental hygienist Nicole Minetti can add another line to her resume: regional councillor.
The ANC is angry that a song, recently sung by the party’s Youth League leader, has been banned as hate speech (by a white High Court judge yet): “Shoot the Boer.” They say it’s part of their heritage. I can’t find this no doubt catchy ditty on You Tube, but here are the lyrics, in Zulu and English:
Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayasab ‘a magwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
awu yoh
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyeah [oh mother]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot ]
ayeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ayasab ‘a magwala [the cowards are scared]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
iii yoh
dubula dubala [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]
awe mama ndiyekele [mother leave me be]
awe mama iyo [oh mother]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ziyarapa lezinja [these dogs are raping]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ay iyeah
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ziyarapa lezinja [these dogs are raping]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
ay iiiyo
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Aw dubul’ibhunu [shoot the Boer]
dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ay iyeah
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ayasab’ amagwala [the cowards are scared]
Dubula dubula [shoot shoot]
Ay iyeah
Oklahoma Governor Haskell has signed a resolution to submit a referendum to the voters to disfranchise blacks (or some blacks) from voting on constitution amendments. The story is quite short, but I think this is the grandfather clause.
L.C. Dulaney, a fixer in Mississippi politics, is arrested for paying State Senator T. G. Bilbo $645 to vote for Leroy Percy for US senator. Bilbo claims it was a sting operation, and that he kept Rev. Culpepper, President of Clark Memorial College, in a hotel for four days so that he might witness the bribe whenever it occurred (however, the reverend missed the hand-over, which took place in another room).
Teddy Roosevelt addressed the University of Egypt, praising British colonial rule in the Sudan and saying that “the training of a nation to fit it successfully to fulfill the duties of self-government is not a matter of a decade or two, but of generations.” He quoted “the old Arab proverb, ‘God is with the patient if they know how to wait.’” Roosevelt of course was renowned for his... patience. He also came out against assassination (Egypt’s Premier Boutrous Pasha Ghali, grandfather of the UN secretary-general, was assassinated by a nationalist in February). And he opposed the nationalists’ demand for a constitution: “Some foolish persons believe that the granting of a paper Constitution, prefaced by some high-sounding declarations, in itself confers the power of self-government.”
Supreme Court Justice David Brewer dies of apoplexy.
Easter egg-rolling at the White House. Here’s a surprise: “Children of the rich and the poor, white and colored, all were admitted and had the run of the place for their games and their picnics.” An inter-racial event at the White House – however did the Republic survive? No adults were admitted unless accompanied by children, but some small boys hired themselves out to successive adults who wanted to see the custom.
(London Times): “Queen Withdraws from Tattoo in Staircase Row.”
Headline of the Day (the Indy): “Zookeeper Hospitalised after Giraffe Headbutt.”
There was an anti-Harry Reid tea party rally addressed by Sarah Palin in Searchlight, Nevada. The NYT tells us: “The show put on by a group called the Tea Party Express included Tea Party country songs and Tea Party rappers”.
So... there are Tea Party rappers.
In a letter to the NYT, Alice Stone Blackwell offers assurances that women’s suffrage will not herald the end of chivalry and force women to stand in trolley cars. Women are much more likely to be offered a seat in Denver than in New York. However, Blackwell says, justice would be worth more to women than chivalry; better to stand for 20 minutes in a street car and get equal pay. But the two are not incompatible.
The general strike in Philadelphia has been called off, though the trolley workers soldier on. But who has been hurt most by the strike? Beggars, according to one blind guy who made up to $30 a week selling shoe laces and lead pencils in Philly (if true, more than the trolleymen make) but after the strike began had to relocate to D.C.
A blog post from Archbishop Timothy Dolan of NY complains about the church being singled out for criticism over the child abuse cases. Noting the NYT story “Doctor Asserts Church Ignored Abuse Warnings,” he asks why we never see headlines like “Doctor Asserts Public Schools Ignored Abuse Warnings,” because “abuse of minors by teachers, coaches, counsellors, and staff in government schools is much, much worse than by priests,” according to research (disputed research, I might add) by... wait for it... a Dr. Carol Shakeshaft.
So it’s official: according to a self-proclaimed expert on sin, two wrongs do in fact make a right.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, an opponent of gays in the military, says that if DADT is repealed, he will try to avoid making straight Marines roommates with gay ones – “I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual if we can possibly avoid it” – which implies that he intends to continue trying to determine the sexuality of marines and record it in their files. He says the Marines might even have to resort to single-occupant rooms, and it’s the word “might” that indicates how little actual thought he put into this before shooting off his mouth, because he seems to have thought about his policy of segregating gays only from the perspective of homophobic straight Marines, without considering the, um, implications of putting all the homosexuals into two-person rooms.
The Vatican claims it’s just scurrilous to suggest that Pope Benny when he was Cardinal Rats knew about the paedophile priest in Germany being allowed to continue working, as it were, with children. The archdiocese “rejects any other version of events as mere speculation.” Great, wheel his freaking holiness out to deny it out of his own mouth.
“Stray bullet” – the perfect metaphor for Eric Cantor?
Quote of the Day, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, about checkpoints in Afghanistan: “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.”
Tariff war with Canada has been averted. Still don’t care.
The Democrats of the Maryland Legislature, in caucus, agree to support the Negro Disenfranchisement Bill, which would do just what it sounds like it would do (Spoiler alert: the Lege will pass it and the governor will veto it). The claim is that this is constitutional because Maryland never ratified the 15th Amendment (in fact, the Legislature had rejected the amendment unanimously). (They finally ratified in 1973).
The London County Council had a marathon sitting that began at 2 in the afternoon and ended at 8 the next morning. The NYT is amazed that the 3 women councillors “pluckily” stuck with it, “bright and alert to the very end.”
According to Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of US forces in Iraq, “People have to get past why we came here.”
An American Commission to Liberia concludes that the republic is in trouble, beset by the British and French Empires on either side. What would really help Liberia out, the Commission suggests, is if the US take control of its customs collection. And organize its police. And establish a naval coaling station. “[T]he whole situation is summed up as very hopeless for the little nation unless the United States steps in and helps her out.”
Astronomer Percival Lowell talks about what he thinks Martians are like. Evidently, they’re not human beings. “They are intelligent organisms, but not in the least like men.” Sadly, Mars is dying from lack of water. Perhaps it would help if the US takes control of its customs collection.
The NY State Woman Suffrage Association issued a pamphlet, “Laws Discriminating Against Women in the State of New York.” The NYT gives a long list of them. Go read it.
The cable channel TLC will bring us “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Peter Liguori, CEO of the TLC’s parent company, Discovery Communications, says the program will “reveal Alaska’s powerful beauty as it has never been filmed,” which I believe is Liguori’s attempt to make us think Palin will be naked.
I was about to suggest a contest along these lines: clearly, TLC can no longer stand for The Learning Channel, so suggest what TLC now stands for in its Palinolithic period. But then I checked what TLC is up to these days, and figured out why I haven’t watched anything on it in years an forgot that it existed: its current focus seems to be not so much learning as reality shows about families with lots of children (Jon & Kate, the Duggars, etc), plus programs such as What Not to Wear, Cake Boss, Policewomen of Maricopa County, Paranormal Court, Hoarding: Buried Alive, and Extreme Forensics. The Losers Channel? In fact, I think that TLC has been dis-abbreviated and no longer does officially stand for The Learning Channel, just as A&E no longer stands for Arts & Entertainment since that channel dropped both from its schedule. Don’t get me started on the inevitable dumbing-down trend of cable channels (see also Bravo, BBC America).
So, CONTEST: the TLC thing, or suggest a better name for the program than “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” (Possibly “Look! A moose!”)
The Equal Franchise Society holds its last meeting of the season (evidently there’s a season for women’s suffrage). President Katherine Mackay notes that the Society has grown in its first year to 625 members, adding “We have been doing a propaganda work; we have not been preaching, been hysterical, or emotional. There is no need of it.”
Teddy Roosevelt is in Egypt. Sees the sphinx. And vice versa.
Speaking of TR, the circus was in town at Madison Square Garden. Barnum & Bailey. A trapeze artist fell, fracturing both wrists, distracting three other trapezists, who also fell, with lesser injuries. But the show went on, including a little parody of TR, a van filled with stuffed lions, hippos, giraffes, zebras etc, the driver dressed as Roosevelt, with giant fake teeth, followed by a clown with “a little dog incased in something that made him look like a lizard. The clown announced that this was ‘the only animal Teddy left alive in Africa.’”
The Pennsylvania Federation of Labor decides against a state-wide strike in support of the street car strike in Philadelphia.
The House voted to make it illegal for theaters in D.C. or territories of the US to discriminate against military people in uniform. Rep. Sims (who I take to be Thetus Sims, D-Tenn.) moved to amend the bill to apply only to white wearers of the uniform, but was told that the bill banned discrimination solely on account of the uniform and didn’t prevent other types of discrimination. Satisfied, he withdrew his amendment.
The NJ Legislature’s lower house passed an Audubon Society-sponsored bill by a vote of 33 to 11, to ban women (I assume the law actually applies to hat-wearers of both sexes, but the NYT says women) wearing hats decorated with feathers, wings or entire bodies of dead birds, with the exception of the feathers of birds of paradise, ostriches, domestic pigeons or domestic fowl.
Helpful advice, or incitement to violence, whichever, from Sarah Palin:
Taft visited New York and, says the NYT, “probably established a new record... for a day’s activity for a President of the United States.” For example, he attended two luncheons and a dinner. The things he ate did for his country. At the Press Club, a photographer’s flash set a curtain on fire; the Secret Service put it out. The members then sang parodies of popular songs, such as this one about Speaker Cannon to the tune, with which I’m sure we’re all familiar, of “Old Uncle Ned”: Hang up the gavel and cigar, cigar,
Close up the House and Senate bar;
There is trouble and woe for poor Uncle Joe,
Cause he went just a little too far!
His dinner was hosted by the American Peace and Arbitration League. He said he was all in favor of universal peace, which he intended to get... by building two new battleships each year until the completion of the Panama Canal. But he also agrees with the idea of an international arbitration court.
The trolleymen and the Philadelphia transit company haven’t come to an agreement, but the general strike seems to be breaking down, with textile workers and journeymen bricklayers returning to work. 35 motormen and conductors were arrested after a trolley car was dynamited.
NYC Mayor Gaynor ordered the NYPD to stop taking pictures and Bertillon measurements of prisoners for its Rogues Gallery unless they were actually convicted of a crime (while fingerprinting was known in 1910, evidently they didn’t keep a permanent record of fingerprints). And in 2010 there are op-ed articles in the NYT calling for a national database of everyone’s DNA.
In New Jersey, Mrs. Nellie Fitzherbert sued Surrogate David Young for saying she talked like a “damned fool.” Evidently in NJ, “The pain and suffering that can be caused by profane words is fixed by statute at 50 cents, plus the costs of court, which amount to $5.” He pleaded justification. The jury found him not guilty.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Shouty Town) admits to having shouted “Baby killer” on the floor of the House during the HCR debate, apologizes “to all the baby killers.”
Sent in my census form today (and received in turn a postcard reminding me to send in my census form). Answered the race question by checking other and writing in “human,” as per the suggestion of commenter “Huntress.” Annoyingly, right-wing loons are objecting to the question for completely different reasons and are writing in “American.”
So HCR allows parents to keep their children on their insurance until 26. If a daughter wants that extra abortion coverage and her parent doesn’t want her to have it, what happens?
By the way, a possible tariff war with Canada was a big topic of discussion 100 years ago, but you don’t care and I don’t care. Let’s move on to matters of greater moment.
Chicago City Council voted 68 to 2 to outlaw long hatpins. Punishable by arrest and $50 fine. Women hissed and booed from the council galleries.
Headline of the Day -100: “Policeman Shot for Raid on Goats.” In Brooklyn, no less. Possibly “part of an organized plan of vengeance” by Italians who were subpoenaed because their goats were intruding, as goats will, on other people’s lawns and gardens.
