December 26, 2008 archive

Late Night Karaoke

We’re Just Having Fun

Thomas Dolby – She Blinded Me With Science

Bush Giveth And Then Taketh Away

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

How very awkward.  And how very typical.  On December 24, Preznit Bush suddenly became concerned about appearances and revoked a pardon he gave New York real estate developer Isaac Toussie the day before, after reports surfaced that Toussie’s family gave almost $40,000 to Republicans.

Of course, the White House mouthpiece immediately  took the story through a muddy spin cycle:

White House press secretary Dana Perino said neither Bush nor counsel Fred Fielding was aware of the GOP contributions from the father of Isaac Robert Toussie, who had been convicted of mail fraud and of making false statements to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Perino said Bush had also been unaware of other aspects of the Toussie case that were revealed in news reports yesterday.

“Looking at the totality of the case, more could have been described to the president,” Perino said. “The political contributions certainly were not known. It raises the appearance of impropriety, so the president prudently decided not to go through with the pardon.”

So…Do We Need a Javert?

This commentary is original to All Over the Board:

Harold Pinter 1930-2008

R.I.P. Harold and thank you for this amazing Nobel Laureate address…. among many other amazing works.  

ZuZu’s Petals.

It’s a rainy Christmas Day here in Los Angeles and so, after the waking up and the present opening (the Jew in the house still a tad bit disquieted by the decorated evergreen being kept alive by sugar water in the living room) and some of the food eating, we, the family, headed upstairs to watch a movie my wife, Holly, had managed to avoid for 38 years; It’s a Wonderful Life.

Photobucket

You know the tale… George Bailey gives and gives only to find himself in dire straights on Christmas Eve.

He’s suddenly short $8000 and wishing to God, quite literally, that he had never been born.

Well, there’s an angel and a look at a world without him and then there are his daughter’s Zuzu’s petals, that fell off a flower she was given and ARE in George Baily’s pocket when he’s alive and not so much when he’s not.

Harold Pinter 1930-2008: “What happened to our moral sensibility?”

Harold Pinter died yesterday of cancer at age 78. He was one of the great playwrights of the twentieth century. In his plays, like The Homecoming, The Birthday Party, and Old Times, he caught the ambivalent and restless conflict, the striving for significant personal connection and the intricate by-play of emotion and memory, that lay at the heart of the human dilemma.

Pinter also was one of the great moral voices speaking for human justice and freedom the English-speaking world has seen in recent times. This is most evident in his final testament, his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature, which he received in 2005.

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