Diggapedia

Stuck with nothing to watch at 30,00 feet, I discovered   a 2008 episode of Big Love.   And oh boy what a surprise.   Firstly, it was great to see Lawrence O’Donnell   Jr. (yes Jr.) featured as Bill Hendrickson’s (Bill Paxton) attorney; clearly pre Last Word days. Next was Mireille Enos, now starring as the outstanding detective Linden on The Killing, as one of Bill’s brother Joey’s wives and the fabulous Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman, as the Scott Quittman, Sara Hendrickson’s boyfriend.   But best of all was the background soundtrack   a television talk show caller can be heard   telling the host “He saved the Olympics, who cares if he goes out with his dog on the roof.”   Yes boys and girls, the caller is defending the one and only Mitt Romney during the 2008 GOP campaign.   Seamus was news worthy in 2008.   If interested, check out the Big Love episode “Oh Pioneers”.     Some final thoughts on the Supreme Cou...

On June 21, 1788 ratification of the Constitution was complete.   On June 21, 1964 Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi one day after the passage of the Civil Rights Act.   186 years apart, these two seminal events in American history are forever connected.   The Constitution established the rights of citizens and the formation and powers of the government of our nascent republic.   Over the course of those 186 years, the Constitution was amended to correct a series of omissions most notably the 15 th , 19 th , 24 th Amendments as they addressed the voting rights of all citizens and the elimination of the poll tax.   On that faithful date in 1964, these three young men were working for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) attempting to get African Americans registered to vote.   The promise of the Constitution and the hope of these young men to establish justice and eradicate subjugation are what American Exc...

·          Did anyone out there think that Tom Cruise as a rock’n roller was going to be a huge gate draw for Rock of Ages?   I guess the studio execs did. ·          When gas prices were rising the MSM loved to ask if that would damage President Obama’s re-election chances.   Now with gas prices down $.40 over the last 10 weeks I haven’t heard a single question asking if the dropping prices improves his re-election chances. ·          Is it me or are we closer to the   dystopian society depicted in the 1975 film Rollerball?   “Jonathan Jonathan Jonathan!” ·          Still trying to figure out how a blue collar middle class folks think they are best served by Republicans.   Perhaps they feel that the impoverished are taking away from them when it is really the very rich that have taken from ...

Presidential proclamations and executive orders can be a slippery slope.   While we often applaud these Constitutional executive instruments when ‘our guy   (or gal)’   occupies the White House, we are quick to criticize when the other team actively issues its own orders.   I was very pleased watching President Obama’s speech from the Rose garden where he talked about his latest executive order ending deportation of young adults who were brought to this country illegally when they were young.   It is a safe bet to say that support and displeasure will fall along political lines. But there are difficult question our Republic faces. Does the constitutionally balanced form of our government get out of balance when the executive can issue orders and in the process eradicate the prescribed checks?   Does our Republic become a monarchy? Is what’s good for the goose, good for the gander?   After all, thousands of executive orders have been issued since G...

The Good: ·          Since 2006, the U.S has slashed CO 2 emissions by 7.7% or 450million tons, more than any other country.   Biggest driver?   The switch from coal to natural gas. ·          The 1 st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) is unconstitutional. ·          According to Bloomberg News, since March the world is consuming less oil than is being produced. ·          In 1958, NBA player Cincinnati Royal Jack Twyman became the legal guardian to his paralyzed and unable to speak teammate Maurice Stokes who had been injured at the end of the season.   As the Sporting News described it “Here was a 23 year old white man adopting a 24 year old black man.”   The 78 year old Twyman passed away last month after a successful NBA, announcing, and food wholes...

When you say Albert Einstein, the first thing you’ll often hear is E=MC 2 , theories of relativity, patent clerk, quantum physics, and opposition to atomic weapons.   No doubt the man was a brilliant innovative scientist and there are hundreds of quotes attributed to him regarding science and humanity.   I have taken the liberty to reference two such quotes to frame the Republican party and all those that support what was once grand, but is now just old. Since the end of World War II, administration after administration, Democrat and Republican alike,   worked hard to keep deficit spending under control while fiscal policy addressing spending and taxation were adjusted based on economic conditions.   That all went out the window when the uber Keynesian Ronald Reagan took office and eight years later, the ‘staunch conservative’ had tripled the national debt.   Along with this reckless spending and tax giveaways, the free market maven started the nation down ...

If you think President Obama is a Socialist, then you need to   take a one way trip to Venezuela or Bolivia. If you don’t believe in climate change,   then you need to go back to 7 th grade and take Earth Sciences again. If you think we are a Christian Nation, then you need to read the writings of Madison and Jefferson If you think Ronald Reagan was a patriot, then you need to read the Boland Amendment If you think raising taxes causes job losses, then you need to read the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Commerce Department reports for 1992 – 1996. If you think deficits don’t matter, then you are likely a Republican in office. If you think deficits do matter, then you are likely a Republican trying to get into office. If you think there is no war on women, then you need to research Seneca Falls, Comstock Act, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott. If you think the Obama Administration are the ones killing the coal industry, then you need to look i...

·          The Old Testament when taken as simply storytelling is a pretty damn scary book.   Large fish, fratricide, apocalyptic flood, human sacrifice, Sodom and Gomorrah, the sun not setting, ten plagues, and shitload of murder and mayhem.   Suddenly the Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel doesn’t looks so scary. ·          If millions of people texting while walking wasn’t bad enough, there is now a worse danger: people using their iPads as cameras while walking.   I witnessed on several occasions in Manhattan last week people walking down the side walk holding their iPads up to snap photos of buildings oblivious to others around them and the fact they had entered the intersection.   Apparently there is an app for stupidity and thousands have downloaded it. ·          Herman Cain is getting a radio show.   At first glance I ask what qu...

Last week my wife and I made our annual anniversary visit to Manhattan for great food and theater, and of course shopping (for one of us).   We decided to also return to the World Trade Center site for the first time since 2002, and I was surprised how strong and profound the site remains.   While the construction of the new tower and other buildings moves along, I found myself less curious or interested about the buildings as I did the human stories.   Buildings are buildings, and while there is beauty in the architecture and engineering marvel in the design and construction, they are, after all, just buildings; just marble, steel, and glass.   May the twin reflecting pools honoring those that lost their lives on that fateful day be a permanent reminder of those that perished and that volunteers who conduct the tours and work at the museum and memorial continue to share their personal stories as a cathartic process.   But what got me thinking was the school k...