'Misc.' Archive
Multitalent
- filed under Misc.
Dennis Cahill (see top ten below) is apparently a very talented photographer as well as a gifted and sensitive guitarist. See his photos here.
The Miser Brothers are Back!
- filed under Misc.
ABC is bringing back the Miser Brothers this year.
From the press release:
“Mickey Rooney returns as the voice of Santa Claus and George S. Irving returns as Heat Miser in a tale of how Santa throws out his back and is unable to deliver gifts for Christmas, threatening to ruin Christmas for children all around the world. This time it’s up to the battling brothers Heat Miser and Snow Miser to come together and help save Christmas!”
I know what I will be doing at 8pm on Dec. 13.
Yip Yip Martians
- filed under Misc.
Topless Robot has a list of the 8 most underrated muppets of all time.
My choice: the Yip Yip Martians.
Hat tip: the always informative Pop Candy.
What We Know
- filed under Misc.
Given the media attention on this issue I thought it would be useful to set out what we know about the Clintons’ finances:
The total amount the Clintons have made since leaving the White House, delineated by year. www.taxhistory.org
Each of the sources of that income, including all of President Clinton’s business income, and the amount. www.taxhistory.org
Speeches the President was paid to give since leaving the White House. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000019
How much he was paid for each speech, who paid him, and when and where he gave it. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000019
The amounts that the Clintons each made on their books. www.taxhistory.org
The property they own. www.taxhistory.org
The investments they own. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000019
The interest income they have made. www.taxhistory.org
Contents of their bank accounts. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000019
The liabilities they have held. http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00000019
The charitable contributions they have made through the Clinton Family Foundation. http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/ffindershow.cgi?id=CLIN040
What we know about the Clinton Foundation:
Revenue and assets of the Clinton Foundation. http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=6903
Stocks held and grants and allocations made by the Foundation. http://clintonfoundation.org/about-the-clinton-foundation/annual-financial-reports
Commitments made at the Clinton Global Initiative. http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=2612&srcid=2384
Number of children who now have access to pediatric medicines through the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative’s partnership with UNITAID: http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-hiv-aids-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Number of Rwandan children who have modern sanitary facilities for hand-washing because of the Foundation. http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-hunter-development-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Number of countries in which the Foundation helped to secure lower priced AIDS/HIV drugs. http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-hiv-aids-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Percent reduction in the price of an effective malaria drug because of the Foundation’s efforts. http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-hiv-aids-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Number of people in Asia with access to safe drinking water because of the Foundation. http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-global-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided or reduced because of the Clinton Climate Initiative. http://clintonfoundation.org/what-we-do/clinton-global-initiative/what-we-ve-accomplished
Election Turning Points
- filed under Misc.
Over at the NY Times I write about the selection of Hillary’s campaign theme song.
My choice is below. Beneath that is the song the campaign selected.
The New Fontainebleau Hotel
- filed under Misc.
The New York Times had a piece today about the Fontainebleau Hotel’s renovation in Miami Beach. It described a glamour palace that by the time I went down in the 70s with my family no longer existed. I remember it as a hotel for families, catering to kids. Maybe the glamour got turned on at night, after we went to sleep, but if so we never heard about it.
With its decline, and the demise of the Sonesta Beach Hotel on Key Biscayne, the Loews on South Beach has become the destination of choice for families with young kids in South Florida. It will be interesting to see if the refurbished Fontainebleau will be able to compete with the Loews, which, in my experience, has been doing all the little things to accomodate little people.
Political Reads
- filed under Misc.
Critical Mass — the blog of the national book critics circle board of directors — asks: “Which work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry best captures the realities of American political culture?”
To their list I would add:
John Barry’s The Ambition and the Power: The Fall of Jim Wright
John Farrell’s Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals
E.L. Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel
Don DeLillo’s Libra
Taylor Branch’s Parting the Waters
Robert Caro’s The Power Broker
Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie
David Kennedy’s Over Here: The First World War and American Society
A Center Right Nation??
- filed under Misc.
In this week’s Newsweek, editor Jon Meacham asserts that the United States is “more instinctively conservative than it is liberal,” and warns that “America remains a center right nation — a fact that Senator Obama forgets at his peril.”
Among his proof points is the fact that seven of the last ten Presidential elections have been won by Republicans. That is certainly true (I discuss this period over at the New Republic). But in the ten Presidential elections before that, from 1928-1964, Democrats won seven of ten contests — five with more than 400 electoral votes.
So while Meacham is right that American Presidential politics has been dominated by Republicans during the last 40 years, this is not a permanent condition. Our politics are more of a pendulum, swinging back and forth in broad arcs in reaction to events.
And my goodness, the American people are reacting. Democrats are poised to make major gains this election — for the second cycle in a row — because Republican policies and politics have been discredited by events. Wars of pre-emption have not gone according to plan. Banks and Wall Street titans, shorn of regulations, are failing.
As a result, Americans are looking for their government to do more at home, and to engage cooperatively around the world.
Now is not the time to trim the sails out of fear that America is a center right nation. After decades of conservative ascendance, progressives are on the move.
Best High School Movies of All Time
- filed under Misc.
Entertainment Weekly has just listed their 25 best high school movies of all time here.
A couple that the magazine missed: Can’t Buy Me Love, 10 Things I Hate About You, and, inexplicably, 16 Candles!
Subscribe to RSS