April 11, 2011 · 10:10 pm

4 ways we’re still fighting the Civil War – CNN.com

This article gave me a lot to think about.  Since Americans don’t know, don’t care about and don’t learn from their history, it’s also rather scary.

Some amazing parallels here in this article.

I encourage you to click the link and read the entire thing on CNN.com:

But you don’t have to tour a battlefield to understand the Civil War. Look at today’s headlines. As the nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of its deadliest war this week, some historians say we’re still fighting over some of the same issues that fueled the Civil War.

“There are all of these weird parallels,” says Stephanie McCurry, author of “Confederate Reckoning,” a new book that examines why Southerners seceded and its effect on Southern women and slaves.

“When you hear charges today that the federal government is overreaching, and the idea that the Constitution recognized us as a league of sovereign states — these were all part of the secessionist charges in 1860,” she says.

“Living history” on Civil War battlefields

These “weird parallels” go beyond the familiar debates over what caused the war, slavery or states’ rights. They extend to issues that seem to have nothing to do with the Civil War.

The shutdown of the federal government, war in Libya, the furor over the new health care law and Guantanamo Bay — all have tentacles that reach back to the Civil War, historians say.

They point to four parallels:

via 4 ways we’re still fighting the Civil War – CNN.com.

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April 11, 2011 · 10:05 pm

America’s Meanest Airlines | Gadling.com

Since I’m currently in the middle of business trip, this seemed appropriate to share…

I can’t believe USAirways didn’t take top dishonors in every category.  They are truly a horrible airline in every conceivable way…

From the Gadling.com:

2011’s Airline Quality Report came out this month, which means that it’s time to distill out the industry leaders in a variety of categories, from on-time departures to lost bags to general happiness among passengers. Reporting on the best of the best is only half as fun as vilifying the worst though, so Yahoo and US News took the liberty of sorting out the worst performers in each category and hanging their decapitated bodies in the public square for everyone to shame. Among the losers this year:

Meanest major carrier: United Airlines

Meanest regional carrier: American Eagle

Most complained about airline: Delta Air Lines

Most likely to be unsafe: Jetblue

Most likely to overcharge for bags: Delta / US Airways / Continental

Most likely to bump you: American Eagle

Most likely to be late: Comair

Most likely to mishandle your bag: American Eagle

Daunting stuff, right? Maybe. Bear in mind, that the AQR samples a limited data set over a limited market, and that the term “worst” doesn’t necessarily mean that service is bad. American Eagle, for example, mishandles 7.15 bags for every thousand that go through its hands. The best carrier? Air Tran at 1.63 per thousand. That’s 1 drop in the bucket versus 1.0002 drops in the bucket.

Our suggestion? If you really want to figure out why each airline performed the worst in its own category then download the AQR yourself and flip through the data. It’s the only way you can get an accurate gauge of quality.

via America’s Meanest Airlines | Gadling.com.

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April 11, 2011 · 10:01 pm

To sir, with love: How ‘Glee’ turned Matthew Morrison from Broadway stalwart to international star -The Independent

One of the many things I love about “Glee” is that it’s given so many Broadway people a wider audience and bigger paychecks.

We saw several younger members of the cast on and off Broadway in “Spring Awakening”.

We also knew Matthew Morrison from Broadway.  We had seen him in “Light in the Piazza” and maybe a couple of other things.  I hated that he had left “South Pacific” by the time we got to see it as we had been looking forward to seeing his Lt. Cable.

So I’m quite pleased to see him making it big now.  We already have our tickets to see him live, again, when he comes to Greensboro this summer.

Here is an interesting article about him I thought I would share…

 

Morrison is Glee’s break-out male star, and not just because he gets to share screen time and vicious dialogue with the best female character, comedy nasty cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch). On the set he’s known as “Triple Threat”: he can sing, he can dance, he can act. So, after rigorous training, can most of the other cast members. But not with the natural-born – and professionally honed – savvy of Morrison.

Prior to Glee, he was a Broadway stalwart with a decade of well-regarded, award-winning performances behind him, in shows including Hairspray, The Light in the Piazza and South Pacific – he was the male lead in the latter when Glee creator Ryan Murphy cast him in the show. He went from earning “something like 10 grand a week” to a figure he can describe only with a cat-that-got-the-cream smile.

With seven to 10 years’ age on most of his castmates, he is also a little more sanguine about the hoopla surrounding what has become one of the biggest TV shows in the world. “I’m so happy I got to live out my twenties in New York and be free to do whatever I wanted to do, not under that public eye and that scrutiny,” he says. “I feel bad for the rest of the guys that they’ll never experience that.”

via To sir, with love: How ‘Glee’ turned Matthew Morrison from Broadway stalwart to international star – Profiles, People – The Independent.

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April 11, 2011 · 9:38 am

Happy Anniversary to Us!

My first date with my partner, Steve, was 14 years ago today.

It lasted 48 hours…

We moved in together 6 months later…

And have been together ever since…

I want to thank him for the best 14 years of my life as we look forward to at least another 50!

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April 10, 2011 · 7:36 pm

Some Thoughts from 37000 Feet

First of all, I’m amazed that I can blog from an airplane 37000 feet in the air while I’m traveling to Phoenix on a business trip.  It’s so cool to be able to access the internet in flight, but I’m so thankful they still don’t let people use cell phones.  This is as good as it gets while traveling….

I’m sitting here listening to Spencer Lewis on my iPod while I type this…I’ve flown cross-country and around the world with Spencer more times than I can count and he’s never known.  Maybe he will now.  His music makes it so easy to create my own peaceful, pleasant bubble while surrounded by travel madness.

And travel is madness now.  There is no longer anything pleasant about it.  Planes are packed solid and less comfortable than the old Greyhound Buses.  The airlines are out to get every penny they can from you any way they can.  Customer service is non-existent.

And my fellow travelers…

I frequently think of the old Noel Coward song:  “Why Do the Wrong People Travel?”

So many of them complain constantly and I don’t know why.  Sure, its miserable to travel, but why do people have to wallow in it?  Why can’t they just make the best of it and muddle through.

I will offer them a few travel pointers:

  1. Never argue with the airline.  You will not win.  They do not care and you will only raise your blood pressure.
  2. When your flight is delayed and you originally only had 30 minutes to make your connection, do not complain loudly to anyone and everyone within ear shot.  Yes, we realize you are going to miss your connection and we do not care.  You should never have booked a flight with a connection that tight in the first place.  We should all know better by now.  I certainly do.
  3. If it is cold enough for you to think you need to wear a sweat shirt, it is too cold to wear flip-flops, so don’t complain loudly about your feet being cold.
  4. If you are a man over 40, and certainly over 50, you have no excuse for wearing shorts on a plane.  No one wants to see your  legs anymore.  Where is your sense of dignity, man?
  5. When you travel, you are on an airplane.  They do now have the internet, but they do not yet have gyms.  Dress accordingly.  No need to wear your workout clothes…
  6. It is beyond tacky to bring a whole box of Bojangles Chicken on the plane and eat it by yourself.  Yes, someone is doing that a couple of rows behind me…

That’s it for now.  I’m going to put up the laptop and go back to listening to Spencer Lewis on my iPod with my Bose noise reduction headphones and reading my Kindle.

I’ve learned these are all necessities for my frequent travel in today’s world.  They help me pretend to be anywhere but where I am.  This is one moment I do not need to be in….

I just had to take advantage of the moment and the access to all this new technology.

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April 9, 2011 · 8:53 pm

Auburn School District Decides All Kindergartners Need iPad 2

Wow….

I wish my kindergarten teacher was alive to see this…

All we had were crayons….

I’m feeling very old….

Especially since I have an iPad and really don’t get it….

I’ve been thinking of putting it on eBay…

Maybe I should just re-enroll in kindergarten to learn how to really use it…

A Maine school system may be adding the iPad 2 to its list of mandatory kindergarten classroom items, with the district footing the bill.

The Auburn Schools Committee voted unanimously to provide all kindergartners with an iPad 2 next year. Each subsequent kindergarten class would receive individual devices as well, CNN and WGME report.

It would cost the district about $200,000 next year, with Apple cutting them a deal by charing $475 per iPad. Superintendent Tom Morrill says the district will find the money in the budget and through grants.

“What we’re seeing is that this is an essential tool — even more important than a book. It’s a learning tool they need to have.”

Skeptical community members say the kids are too young to take care of an iPad and that they simply don’t need it.

via Auburn School District Decides All Kindergartners Need iPad 2 (VIDEO).

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April 9, 2011 · 6:37 pm

Is It Possible To Become A Gay Icon?

Cute article from Joel Stein in Time Magazine in light of Elizabeth Taylor’s passing…

Here is a brief excerpt and a link to the full article at the bottom:

Irish wakes are good, sitting Shivah is O.K., jazz funerals are great, and ayatullah processions have their moments, but the people you really want to show up when you die are the gays. The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, is still mourning Elizabeth Taylor, who hung out there with her dog Daisy, drinking watermelon-and-apple martinis. Taylor was a gay-male icon: beautiful and talented with a messy personal life, addictions to drugs or alcohol, and about 14 marriages. I don’t know the details because I’m straight.

In fact, gay icons totally confuse me. I get that Maria Callas and Judy Garland are hot, talented women martyred by their art. But Marilyn Monroe was fabulous and tragic, and gays don’t care about her except as a Halloween costume. And I’ve yet to hear of one drag queen who puns off of Vincent van Gogh. Meanwhile, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and Cher seem to have fine lives. Is inner strength the key? Or vulnerability? And how can you possibly iconicize all four Golden Girls? They’re so different.

But all of them have a much better deal than having straight-dude fans. The moment you stop playing your sport, they ignore you and your sad suburban autograph signings. But if you’re a gay icon and get addicted to meth, stop working and abuse your assistant, your fans just love you more for it. I needed to figure out how to become a gay icon. Even if it required drinking watermelon-and-apple martinis.

via Is It Possible To Become A Gay Icon? – TIME.

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April 9, 2011 · 11:22 am

Betty White on Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen

She doesn’t pull any punches!

Betty White made her name back in the innocent days when TV stars knew their place.

‘We considered ourselves lucky to be on the box, never complained if a critic didn’t like us, dressed modestly and were always on our best behaviour in public,’ she recalls primly.

Now she’s 89, a big name for more than 40 years with The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls and Malcolm In The Middle, and she doesn’t have much time for today’s celebrities.

The drinking, the misbehaving and the endless self-analysis . . . she can’t bear any of it. ‘They party too much, don’t learn their lines, are unprofessional and they grumble about everything. I think they are terribly ungrateful,’ says Betty, her eyes flashing.

‘I cannot stand the people who get wonderful starts in showbusiness, and who abuse it. Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, for example, although there are plenty of others, too. They are the most blessed people in the world and they don’t appreciate it.’

via Golden Girl Betty White, 89, has a new show and an eye for the boys | Mail Online.

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April 9, 2011 · 10:08 am

Shocking Truth Behind Donald Trump’s Hair Revealed?

Now that DT is running for President, this is potentially a National Security issue….

I hope they discover and validate the truth behind the world’s greatest comb-over before he’s elected and seals the information forever as a State Secret….

From Vanity Fair:

My baldly-stated thesis: this could be evidence of a rarely-sighted, possibly unprecedented “double comb-over.” It looks as if a length of hair growing from the part on the left side of Trump’s pate has been combed left-to-right over the crown of his head, while a second length of hair, growing from the back of his head, has been combed back-to-front over the first length of hair. Salon-strength hair products likely play a role in the final construction of this lattice-like structure—which could also explain the “ship’s prow” look one sometimes sees in side views of Trump.

Granted, there could be other explanations for the cross-hatching in Trump’s hair, such as a wood-grain tattoo on his scalp. Further study is clearly called for. Now that Trump is running for president, I nominate the Washington press corps to look into it, just as soon as they’re finished writing down everything Michele Bachmann says.

via Shocking Truth Behind Donald Trump’s Hair Revealed? | VF Daily | Vanity Fair.

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April 8, 2011 · 11:41 pm

Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls: Matt Taibbi

Great article in Rolling Stone from Matt Taibbi.

I love is snarky tone and accurate facts…

Here is a brief excerpt and I encourage you to click the link to read the rest of it…..

Never mind that each time the Republicans actually come into power, federal deficit spending explodes and these whippersnappers somehow never get around to touching Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. The key is that for the many years before that moment of truth, before these buffoons actually get a chance to put their money where their lipless little mouths are, they will stomp their feet and scream about how entitlements are bringing us to the edge of apocalypse.

The reason for this is always the same: the Republicans, quite smartly, recognize that there is great political hay to be made in the appearance of deficit reduction, and that white middle class voters will respond with overwhelming enthusiasm to any call for reductions in the “welfare state,” a term which said voters will instantly associate with black welfare moms and Mexicans sneaking over the border to visit American emergency rooms.

The problem, of course, is that to actually make significant cuts in what is left of the “welfare state,” one has to cut Medicare and Medicaid, programs overwhelmingly patronized by white people, and particularly white seniors. So when the time comes to actually pull the trigger on the proposed reductions, the whippersnappers are quietly removed from the stage and life goes on as usual, i.e. with massive deficit spending on defense, upper-class tax cuts, bailouts, corporate subsidies, and big handouts to Pharma and the insurance industries.

via Tax Cuts for the Rich on the Backs of the Middle Class; or, Paul Ryan Has Balls | Rolling Stone Politics | Taibblog | Matt Taibbi on Politics and the Economy.

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