Monthly Archives: July 2012
Picture of the Day
“Shelton” and “Scott” hold a banner showing their opposition on the Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Rights Settlement Act or SB 2109 at the Council Chambers in Window Rock, AZ, on July 5, 2012. Photo courtesy of Donovan Shortey.
Filed under News
Supreme Court Refuses FCC Bid to Fine CBS for Janet Jackson Incident
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake in the second after the traumatizing “wardrobe malfunction.”
Eight years after Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” during the half time show of the 2004 Super Bowl, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s $550,000 indecency fine against the CBS network.
In November, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia upheld its earlier ruling that the FCC’s indecency fine against the network was invalid. The court didn’t say whether the incident was indecent but said the FCC’s fine represented an undisclosed change in the enforcement of its policy with regard to “fleeting images” and hence could not be enforced.
I’m so glad that this major issue can finally be put to rest. I recall a Congressional hearing over the matter in the days after the incident and not surprised that the Republican-controlled panel would get so upset over it and not investigate whether President George W. Bush lied about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. Never mind that football is one of the most violent sports and that the Super Bowl features scantily-clad cheerleaders bumping and grinding and ads from Viagra and Cialis warning about 4-hour erections. Never mind also that some Super Bowl commercials show men and boys enduring groin injuries for the sake of cheap laughs. All of that apparently is perfectly acceptable. But, now that it’s over, we can all pick up the tattered pieces of our lives and try to move forward.
Filed under News
In Memoriam – Ernest Borgnine 1917 – 2012
Veteran character actor Ernest Borgnine has died at the age of 95. Borgnine won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as a homely butcher who lives with his domineering mother in Marty. He’s also remembered for unique personages in other films such as From Here to Eternity, Bad Day at Black Rock, The Dirty Dozen and – one of my favorite films – The Poseidon Adventure. Born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917, in North Haven, CT, he was the son of Italian immigrants. After a decade in the U.S. Navy, Borgnine pursued an acting career, which began on the Broadway stage and then, transitioned into television and film.
His manager, Lynda Bensky, said Borgnine died of kidney failure Sunday afternoon. His wife, Tova, and children were at his side at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, she said.
“It’s a very sad day,” Bensky said. “The industry has lost someone great, the caliber of which we will never see again. A true icon. But more importantly, the world has lost a sage and loving man who taught us all how to ‘grow young.’ His infectious smile and chuckle made the world a happier place.”
Filed under News
July 7 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Fashion designer Pierre Cardin is 90.
Trumpeter – bandleader Doc (Carl) Severinsen, The Tonight Show Band, The Doc Severinsen Band, is 85.
Author David McCullough (The Johnstown Flood, The Path Between the Seas, 1776, John Adams, Truman) is 79.
Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey; drummer: The Beatles; singer: It Don’t Come Easy, Photograph, You’re Sixteen) is 72.
Actor Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues, Cast the First Stone, Brotherhood of Justice, American Graffiti, Northern Lights) is 66.
Actress Shelley Duvall (Popeye, Nashville, Roxanne, Brewster McCloud, The Shining, Annie Hall, McCabe and Mrs. Miller) is 63.
Actor Bill Campbell (Dynasty, Moon Over Miami, Gettysburg, The Brylcreem Boys, Once and Again) is 53.
Actress Jorja Fox (C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation, Missing Persons, ER, The West Wing) is 44.
Michelle Kwan (Olympic Figure Skating Champion [silver, 1998]; World Champion [1996, 1998]; U.S. National Champion [1996, 1998]) is 32.
Filed under Birthdays
On July 7…
1754 – King’s College opened in New York City. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 and, later, became Columbia University.
1860 – Composer Gustav Mahler was born in Vienna, Austria.
1865 – Mary Surratt became the first woman executed by the federal government for her role as a conspirator in President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
1887 – Artist Marc Chagall (Red Nude Sitting Up, I and the Village, Bride with a Fan, The Cattle Dealer, Jew at Prayer, Bella with a White Collar) was born in Liozna, Belarus, Russia.
1898 – The United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands.
Inauguration of Sanford Dole, the first governor of Hawaii, with him transferring the Sovereignty of Hawaii to United State Minister Harold M. Seewall.
1899 – Movie director George Cukor (My Fair Lady, A Star is Born, Born Yesterday, Love Among the Ruins, The Philadelphia Story) was born in New York City.
1902 – Movie director Vittorio de Sica (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Marriage Italian Style, Two Women, The Bicycle Thief; actor: The Shoes of the Fisherman, It Started in Naples) was born in Sora, Lazio, Italy. (Some sources list his birth year as 1901.)
1976 – The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY, admitted women for the first time.
1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor, an Arizona court of appeals judge, became the first woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate unanimously approved her appointment on September 21.
Filed under History
Picture of the Day
Beau Chandler (left) and Mark Jiminez went to the Dallas County Clerks Record Building on Thursday, July 5, and completed a marriage license application. Since same-gender marriages are illegal in Texas, the clerk refused to honor the men’s application. So the duo handcuffed themselves to one another and refused to leave the building until their request was approved. Dallas police arrested them for trespassing. Each man bonded out of jail and now have court appearances scheduled for next month.
Let’s see, Dallas County has one of the highest rates of uninsured children in the nation, a serious gang problem and an ongoing illegal narcotics epidemic, especially among teens. And, this is what upsets the Dallas Police? Two damn queers want to get married? My own parents – who just marked their 53rd wedding anniversary and in no way feel threatened by Chandler and Jiminez – literally scoffed at the overreaction.
Video of the Day
This is a 2011 presentation by the Spanish choral group “Voices for Peace.” If you recognize that ancient instrument towards the front of the ensemble, raise your hand!
Filed under News
Christopher Columbus May Have Been Polish
Columbus
This story made the news last year, but it’s worth repeating. Portuguese historian Manuel Rosa has uncovered evidence that navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus – a heroic figure to the Italian people – may have actually been Polish. In Columbus: The Untold Story, published in Spain, Rosa, a professor at Duke University in North Carolina, claims that Columbus was the son of exiled Polish King Vladislav III and a Portuguese noblewoman. Columbus, declares Rosa, may have lied to protect his true identity.
The conventional tale states that Columbus was born in 1451 as the son of humble Genovese weavers. But, Rosa believes the explorer was able to convince the Spanish monarchy to finance his voyage across the Atlantic only because he was descended from royalty himself.
According to Rosa, Columbus was trained as a pilot in Portugal and lived in Madeira where he married Filipa Moniz, a Portuguese noblewoman and daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrello, a Knight of the household of Prince Henry the Navigator, Captain and Governor of Porto Santo, a smaller nearby island at northeast of Madeira.
Columbus’s 1479 marriage to Filipa Moniz, who was an elite member of the Order of Santiago, required the approval of King John II of Portugal indicating the recognition by the King of Columbus’s aristocratic lineage.
About his theory being met with some reservation by other researchers, Rosa welcomes the challenge. “Although there are many academics familiar with my research that support my conclusions,” he says, “I understand that this will take some time to work its way through the big machine of academia, the media, and the public’s inquiring minds. But in the end, I am confident the change will have to happen, especially if an English language edition gets published.”
I know a lot of Italians will probably get upset at this revelation, but my personal lack of political correctness doesn’t give a damn. Some Italians – like many others – still perpetuate the myth that Columbus discovered the Americas, as if the land was devoid of people and civilizations. Regardless of Columbus’ true identity, it doesn’t deflect from the fact that he wasn’t the first person in the Western Hemisphere, nor was he the first European. Sometimes history’s corrections are painful but necessary.
Christopher Columbus’s house on the island of Porto Santo, Madeira archipelago, now the Columbus Museum.
Filed under News
Siamese Dreams
Tami Manning, left, and Alisa Lee, run the Texas Siamese Rescue in Corinth.
I’m not a cat lover, but this is a great story. Two women in Denton County, Texas, have taken over the Texas Siamese Rescue organization. Last year, the group faced possible closure after its founder died, while the 179 cats still awaiting adoption faced animal control intervention and therefore, possible euthanasia.
But then, Tami Manning, who’d volunteered at the rescue for about six years, and her partner, Alisa Lee, stepped in and organized the few volunteers to help care for the cats. “We love this place to work, but it wasn’t our ideal of a home,” Lee said.
Their passion for the cats grew during this last year of balancing the bills between their own incomes and the rescue’s finances.
Texas Siamese Rescue began in 1998, and its volunteers have helped rescue and find homes for nearly 20,000 cats. But, in December 2010, the founder and director became ill and passed away months later, leaving behind a massive debt on the property and the 179 felines.
Lee said she and Manning went through all the rescue’s finances, discovering that $244,000 was due on the 3,500-square-foot house on a ranch in Corinth and that taxes hadn’t been filed since 2000. Luckily, she said, the rescue somehow maintained its 501(c) (3) status.
The owner of the property lives in New York and has agreed to forgive a large portion of the debt, giving the rescue a year to raise $40,000. Lee and Manning have implemented dozens of changes to help meet the deadline, but they said they’re still in need of donations.
The two have overseen the re-branding of the rescue, revamping the logo, reaching out through social media to gain volunteers and adoption interest, and cutting the cost of operations by two-thirds by reducing energy use, switching power companies and using coupons. They even have a volunteer photographer to take professional pictures of the cats, making them look their best for potential adopters.
But perhaps the biggest change they made was an open space for the cats to live and socialize. Instead of cages lining the walls, the rescue has a large room filled with climbing fixtures and cushions so the cats can play and nap peacefully.
Adoption fees range from $75-200, depending on age. Lee has also developed a sponsorship program, starting at $25, for people who want to help with the cost of caring for a cat but can’t take on any more pets at home. The option is popular among children who see the rescue’s cats at adoption fairs and can later go online and see their sponsored cat.
“And they never have to take them home, and we do all the work,” Lee said.
But once a cat is adopted, Lee and Manning’s work doesn’t end. They offer support, training and tips on how to help a new cat adapt and they’ll take a cat back for any reason.
“We support them all the way through to death,” Lee said. “If it’s something I started, I will finish.”
Visit www.Tx.SiameseRescue.org for more information.
Story source.
Chief Writing Wolf 