“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
Steve Jobs
Quote of the Day: Steve Jobs
Filed under Quote of the Day
Happy Birthday, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
The film version of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” opened 50 years ago today, October 5, 1961.
I’ve always loved this movie….
I had to go to Tiffany’s on my first trip to New York just to pay homage to this film and it’s star Audrey Hepburn. I even had to have my picture take where she stood.
I’m much more blase’ and world-weary now, but I always think of this film whenever I’m on Fifth Avenue and go by Tiffany’s. It was one of the films that formed my childhood image of New York.
I’m still looking for the New York of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
And I always will be….
And the original trailer:
And here’s a great blog entry about the film from Gary Susman at Moviefone:
http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/10/05/25-things-breakfast-at-tiffanys-anniversary/
Filed under Entertainment, Movies, Uncategorized
Remembering Steve Jobs….
There will be a lot of tributes to the genius who was Steve Jobs over the next few days. And they will be most deserved.
He made Apple Computers- and the PC industry what it is today. Then he remade it.
We can thank him for PC’s, iPods, iPads and so much more.
Here is a great video, that I first saw at MotherJones.com, of him introducing the Mac for the first time back in 1984.
This is where it all began….
Filed under Technology, Uncategorized
Sarah Palin Will Not Run for President – ABC News
Damn.
This would have been so much fun! I was so looking forward to new Saturday Night Live sketches.
And she would have been the easiest Republican for President Obama to beat…
Oh, well….
I guess she decided she better stay out of the limelight so she can keep raking in the big bucks from gullible conservatives.
She must have learned a bright light shining on her is not a good thing for her credibility-as if she had any to begin with– or her marketability…..
ABC News’ Polson Kanneth reports:
Sarah Palin will not run for president. She made the announcement in a letter to supporters Wednesday night.
Read Palin’s letter here:
October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
– Sarah Palin
96-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Denied Voter ID
This is truly despicable….
I keep telling people, there is no “voter fraud” in the sense the GOP is citing for these Voter ID Laws. This is all an attempt to disenfranchise legitimate voters-who generally vote against the GOP.
The Republican Party is the one really perpetrating Voter Fraud as they are trying to defraud people of the right to vote.
From ThinkProgress.org:
Swept up in the craze of preventing widespread voter fraud that doesn’t actually exist, Tennessee Republicans passed a voter identification law this year that they claimed would put an end to fraud and ensure fair elections. Like similar laws in other states, Tennessee’s version has come under scrutiny from voting rights advocates, civil rights groups like the NAACP and ACLU, and even Democratic senators, who oppose the laws because they will disenfranchise poor, elderly, and minority voters who are less likely to have photo IDs.
The state now has evidence that that will be the case. Dorothy Cooper, a 96-year-old Chattanooga resident who says she has voted in every election but one since she became eligible to vote, wanted to ensure she’d have the necessary ID to vote in next year’s elections, when Tennessee’s law goes into effect. But when she went to apply for the ID, she was denied, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports:
That morning, Cooper slipped a rent receipt, a copy of her lease, her voter registration card and her birth certificate into a Manila envelope. Typewritten on the birth certificate was her maiden name, Dorothy Alexander.
“But I didn’t have my marriage certificate,” Cooper said Tuesday afternoon, and that was the reason the clerk said she was denied a free voter ID at the Cherokee Boulevard Driver Service Center.
“I don’t know what difference it makes,” Cooper said.
Cooper doesn’t have a driver’s license — she never learned to drive — and has never needed identification to vote, and her lack of a valid marriage license is likely due to the fact that she’s outlived two husbands. Under the Tennessee law, Cooper will still be able to vote via absentee ballot, which does not require photo ID. But standing outside her normal voting precinct, Cooper told the Times Free Press she will miss going there to vote. “We always come here to vote,” Cooper said. “The people who run the polls know everybody here.”
Quote of the Day- A Revolution is Coming- Robert F Kennedy
A revolution is coming —
a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough;
compassionate if we care enough;
successful if we are fortunate enough —
But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not.
We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability
Robert F Kennedy
Filed under Quote of the Day, Uncategorized
Dumb Alabama Immigration Law Working So Well Its Crops Are Rotting
Elections- and Laws- have consequences….
These Racist Tea Party Republicans better be careful what they ask for; they just might get it….
They need to be aware of the consequences of putting their slogans into laws and actions….
But then, Alabama probably forgot slavery was now illegal and figured they would pick the cotton, er, tomatoes
These little facts keep getting missed by the home schoolers……
At least they still have Mississippi to make them look good….
From Wonkette.com:
Alabama is just the latest backwards state to legally codify its crusader witch hunt against the illegal immigrant wizards working their back-breaking field labor black magick on Alabama’s giant agriculture industry, but the state’s recently-enacted set of draconian worst-ever anti-immigrant laws are working a little too fast: zillions of Alabama tomatoes are rotting away in the fields this harvest season as undocumented immigrants flee like hell. Tomato farmers got together to protest these vicious dingus laws and make GOP state senator Scott Beason — the same creepy racist turd blossom who called African Americans “aborigines” — haul around one of the tomato buckets for five seconds to see how heavy they are. Beason felt he was too good for this and refused to pick it up, which is…hey, exactly like every other legal worker in Alabama!
The AP has the details of the Tomato Bucket Incident:
Tomato farmer Brian Cash said the migrant workers who would normally be on Chandler Mountain have gone to other states with less restrictive laws.
After talking with famers at the tomato shed, Beason visited the Smith family’s farm. Leroy Smith, Chad Smith’s father, challenged the senator to pick a bucket full of tomatoes and experience the labor-intensive work.
Beason declined but promised to see what could be done to help farmers while still trying to keep illegal immigrants out of Alabama.
Smith threw down the bucket he offered Beason and said, “There, I figured it would be like that.”
Oh well, at least Alabama and Scott Beason got to make their Important Point, about being dicks. [AP]
via Dumb Alabama Immigration Law Working So Well Its Crops Are Rotting.
Filed under Immigration, Jobs, Politics, Uncategorized
White House on Occupy Wall Street: `We understand’ – The Washington Post
The fact that the mainstream media is finally paying attention and that the White House is having to address this is a really, really big change….
This movement is getting too big to ignore- which is a very good thing!
I knew there was an Anit-Tea Party alternative out there and it looks like the sleeping giant has awakened….
From Greg Sargent in the Washington Post:
The story here is not what the White House said but that it was asked to weigh in on the protests at all — another sign of the remarkable speed with which it has grown from a crowd chanting at police two weeks ago. As for the substance of the White House response, it would have been a mistake for it to go any further than it did here — registering an understanding of economic frustration. Because if there’s one thing that’s growing clearer by the hour, it’s that this is an entirely organic effort, one that’s about nobody but the protesors themselves. In this sense, we’re seeing a replay of the Wisconsin protests. Those ended up falling just short of what activists had hoped to achieve, but their months-long showing was still important — it demonstrated that left wing populism is still alive and well and sent an important message about the mood of the country. The key was that it grew organically with little to no involvement from Beltway Dems and the White House.
If anything, Occupy Wall Street’s lack of outside encouragement from bigfoot Dems has been a strength, rather than a weakness. As major progressive groups debate how they can contribute to strengthening the movement — and how to give it specific direction and a specific agenda — the need to preserve its grassroots nature will remain paramount. Who knows where this will end up, but for now, this is another reminder that the Tea Party isn’t the only voice of popular discontentment over the economy. We don’t necessarily live in Tea Party Nation, after all.
More: White House on Occupy Wall Street: `We understand’ – The Plum Line – The Washington Post.
Filed under Elections, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, The Economy
Campus Walkout Planned by Occupy Wall Street
It seems like this is just getting bigger and bigger…I think it’s already bigger than the Tea Party movement started out to be and much more open and supportive of Democracy.
I’m also so very glad to see so many young people involved and trying to bring so much positive energy to the process- as opposed to the old, bitter, mean Tea Party crowd….
It will be interesting to see how this plays out and even more interesting to see if the mainstream media covers it….
I wish these guys luck!
The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has already spread to Washington D.C., Boston and Los Angeles. On Wednesday it will reach college campuses. On a Facebook page called Occupy Colleges, student organizers are planning protests — without specifying much in the way of goals, other than expressing “solidarity” with the left-wing protests that have gripped lower Manhattan.
A related website advertises a national student walkout: “Wednesday, October 5th, countrywide student walkout 12PM your local time. Do not go to school Go fight for yours and everybody else’s rights at Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles or your nearest Occupation. The time is now to join our fellow %99!”
The site includes a list of 24 campuses where student groups have organized walkouts.
Student walkouts are generally forms of nonviolent protest, but students who skip class out of laziness are often lumped in with those who did so with the protest in mind, making it difficult to gauge any such effort’s success..
The “Occupy” movement has largely used Facebook and Twitter to organize its ranks.
via Campus Walkout | Occupy Wall Street | Solidarity Movement | The Daily Caller.
Filed under Uncategorized
Bill Maher: On Being Over 50
Very nice article from Bill Maher over on Huffington Post about being over 50….
God, I hope he’s not getting soft in his old age….
We need his feisty outrage too much….
The thing about your fifties is, you’re not nearly over (if you’re lucky) — in fact, lots of ambitious people are peaking — but it is the first time in your life that you can see over the crest of the mountain and down into the Valley below — you know, Death. Death is the monster we all fear, yet with each day, we walk toward it, and can’t help doing so; we can’t help but walk toward the one thing we’re most trying to avoid.
Little things remind you of this all the time — like minor cuts taking longer to heal than they used to. It doesn’t cause you any health problems, but it reminds you your body is not replacing cells as fast as it used to, and the ones it is sending are inferior copies of their predecessors. That’s why we age, and look progressively worse as the years pass: just like a photocopy or a video tape that looks slightly worse each time its copied, we are constantly copying ourselves and coming out a little inferior every time. Merry Christmas.
However… the one thing that does seem to get better, at least so far, is the brain — you know, so you can be more aware of the depressing physical part! But hey, the depressing physical part also gives you an urgency to life that is really quite irreplaceable. When you’re young, you don’t appreciate! And learning to appreciate life is almost better than being young and ignoring it.
At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.
MORE: Bill Maher: On Being Over 50.
Filed under Politics, Uncategorized
Lost in the 21st Century 