STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
The Red Cross Society of North Korea sent $100,000 (¥8.1 million) in aid to the Japanese Red Cross Society for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.Fearless leader Kim Jong Il also kicked in another $500,000 to help pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan affected by the quake/tsunami.
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic organized a charity soccer match and dinner involving several ATP stars that raised $100,000 for the relief effort.
Yomiuri Giants baseball star Alex Ramirez, meanwhile, donated $1 million, as well as sending trucks stocked with medicine to the worst-hit areas.
One of the biggest sources of aid has come from what some might consider an unlikely source-the yakuza.
April 9, 2011 archive
Apr 09 2011
Random Japan
Apr 09 2011
Original v. Cover — #73 in a Series
This week’s selection was performed by an East Coast blue-eyed soul group that enjoyed its initial wave of popularity from 1965-1972, which peaked from 1966-1969. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on May 6, 1997, which was also the first time that the original band members had appeared together in years, during which time they performed their three #1 hits and their #4 hit. They were later inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.
In April, 2010, all four members of the original band reunited for the Kristen Ann Carr benefit, held at New York’s Tribeca Grill. Bruce Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt joined the band for their closing number.
Apr 09 2011
Lie To Me
Barack Obama recently issued an executive order imposing a wave of sanctions against Libya, not only freezing Libyan assets, but barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks.
So raise your hand if you knew that the United States has been extending billions of dollars in aid to Qaddafi and to the Central Bank of Libya, through a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. And raise your hand if you knew that, just a week or so after Obama’s executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly issued an order exempting this and other Libyan-owned banks to continue operating without sanction.
More: Why is the Fed Bailing Out Qaddafi?, Matt Taibbi, April 01, 2011
Apr 09 2011
Popular Culture (Music) 20110408: The Who. Happy Jack
Happy Jack was the second album released by The Who and their second studio album. It was released in the UK with the title A Quick One. That was a little suggestive for Decca Records, the US label and the single Happy Jack has charted in the US, so that title was used. The song lineup is a little different betwixt the two records as well, Happy Jack not being on the UK version.
Released in the UK 19661209, it was delayed in the US for almost six months, finally being released in 196705 (I am not sure of the exact day). This record was truly transformative, and is one of my personal favorites. It was this album where Townshend really showed that the was a writing force with which to be reckoned, and he took some risks that he would not have taken previously for a large reason: the brilliant Kit Lambert had replaced the hack Shel Talmy as the producer of the band.
Apr 09 2011
from firefly-dreaming 08.4.11
This is an Open Thread
Essays Featured Friday the 8th of April:
Late Night Karaoke features Angie, mishima DJs
Six Brilliant Articles! from Six Different Places!! on Six Different Topics!!!
Six Days a Week!!! at Six in the Morning!!!!
Labor Murals are on slksfca‘s mind in Friday Open Thoughts
Wendys Wink is Perambulating the Neighborhood, republished by RiaD
from Timbuk3: The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time!
Tonight #86
join the conversation! come firefly-dreaming with me….
Apr 09 2011
The Week in Editorial Cartoons – The New Wisconsin Workers Anthem
Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette
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Apr 09 2011
Worse and then Better(?) Again
So where are we? Well, a few weeks ago, things were sort of looking up, but last week they seem to get into the well-known hand basket.
For instance, the Maryland House passed a bill disallowing many, but not all, forms of discrimination against people based on gender identity or expression. It wasn’t unanimously applauded by the trans community since there were no protections in public accommodations, but there it was.
But only a week or so earlier, the Maryland House had tabled the marriage equality bill that had already passed the Senate, to someone in the Senate decided that the House need to be taught a lesson, so sent the gender identity/expression protection bill to the Senate Rules committee, expecting it to languish and die there. After all, who do those House members think they are? We’ll show them! We’ll kick this transpeople right where it hurts.
Wasn’t that just very cool?
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