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Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A visit from St. Nick, circa 1898
More YouTube treasures:
Made in 1898, G.A. Smith's 'Santa Claus' is a film of considerable technical ambition and accomplishment for its period. It uses pioneering visual effects in its depiction of a visit from St. Nicholas.Read the rest of this post...
A former magic lanternist and hypnotist, Smith was one of the first British film-makers to make extensive use of special effects to create fantastical scenes. It comes as little surprise that Smith corresponded with the French pioneer Georges Méliès at about this time, as the two men shared a common goal in terms of creating an authentic cinema of illusion. (Michael Brooke)
Desmund Tutu is right again
The failure to take serious action by the South African government is shameful. Even in his old age, Nelson Mandela could have done more to help right this obvious wrong. Crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity regardless of the skin color of the aggressors.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said Wednesday that the international community must use the threat of force to oust Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe from office.Read the rest of this post...
Tutu told BBC radio that he hopes African Union members can be persuaded to issue Mugabe an ultimatum, threatening to intervene if he continues clings to power in the ailing nation.
Asked if Mugabe should be removed by force, Tutu said there should "certainly be the threat of it." He said Mugabe should also be warned that he could face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for his violent suppression of opponents.
He said that he's ashamed that his native South Africa has so far blocked attempts to oust Mugabe. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki mediated a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and Zimbabwe's opposition in September, but the agreement has stalled over how to divide Cabinet posts.
A cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people since August and Zimbabwe remains mired in an economic and humanitarian crisis.
"I have to say that I am deeply, deeply distressed that we should be found not on the side of the ones who are suffering," Tutu told the BBC.
"We have betrayed our legacy, how much more suffering is going to make us say, 'No, we have given Mr. Mugabe enough time'," he said.
KBR knowingly exposed US troops to carcinogens, suit alleges
Nice.
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh said Tuesday he would reintroduce legislation to create a medical registry for military personnel exposed to toxic chemicals following reports that Indiana National Guard troops were exposed to a toxin in Iraq.Read the rest of this post...
The legislation would establish a registry to track military service members exposed to industrial toxins during wartime service, guaranteeing them access to priority care at Veterans Administration hospitals.
It would also authorize a scientific review of evidence linking exposure to adverse health effects.
Bayh, D-Ind., said in a prepared statement that he would reintroduce the legislation when Congress reconvenes in January.
"Our government has a responsibility to remove needless obstacles to care for soldiers exposed to potentially lethal quantities of toxic chemicals in service of their country," Bayh said. "We should be guided by our governments response to Agent Orange in Vietnam, when we changed our VA claims system so veterans placed at risk did not bear the burden of proof if health conditions developed later in life."
Bayh's statement followed a report Monday on CBS on Indiana National Guard troops that were assigned to guard the Qarmat Ali water pumping plant in Basrah, Iraq shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003. Sixteen soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry filed a federal lawsuit this month against defense contractor KBR Inc., saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to sodium dichromate, a known carcinogen, while guarding the water plant.
The chemical, used to remove pipe corrosion, is especially dangerous because it contains hexavalent chromium, which is known to cause birth defects and cancer, particularly lung cancer, according to the suit. The cancer can take years to develop.
Hold off on marriage until we get civil unions?
Reader David asks:
You quoted Nate Silver writing:I'm curious what you guys think first. Then I'll weigh in. (Don't want to skew the debate.) Read the rest of this post..."But it may no longer be the case on gay rights. Just who is on what side of the 55/45 split depends on what question you're asking -- a majority of the public now supports civil unions, although not yet gay marriage. That's beside the point, though; "That's exactly my point. Why not fight for and win civil unions, and leave marriage up to the states at this point. We know, you and I, that it's not full equality, but full equality will take much longer with too many "moderate" Democrats and the Republicans in Congress. I doubt we'd see it on the federal level in the next 10 years, barring court intervention. So, let's take civil unions and move the ball forward in smaller steps.
I'd be curious to see what your readers think. What do you think?
It's Christmas Bonus Time
Last year I started a tradition of giving you the chance to offer me and my writers a Christmas bonus, should you like. Last year I included all of my writers, and this year I'm adding our various anonymous comments monitors. So, if the spirit moves you, you can make a donation to our Christmas bonuses by clicking on this PayPal button (it will take you to a page asking you how much you want to give etc. - it's secure and safe):Thanks in advance, and seriously, please don't donate if you're cash strapped. We truly appreciate the thought, but I honestly don't want folks putting themselves out for this.
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IMF's top economist warns of another Great Depression, urges government spending to replace consumer demand if necessary
AFP
The IMF's top economist, Olivier Blanchard, maintained that governments around the world should boost domestic demand in order to avoid another Great Depression similar to the global downturn that shook the world in the 1930s.Actually, I found the article in Le Monde, and I think the economist was even more vehement than the AFP translation. I'm also not convinced that AFP totally explained what the economist was suggesting - he wasn't just saying that we need to restart consumer demand, he was saying that governments have to consider boosting their own spending to REPLACE consumer demand, if necessary, even if it leads to larger deficits.Here is what Le Monde says:
"Consumer and business confidence indexes have never fallen so far since they began. The coming months will be very bad," Blanchard said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde.
"It is imperative to stifle this loss of confidence, to restart household consumption, if we want to prevent this recession developing into a Great Depression," he added.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, le directeur général du FMI, pousse les gouvernements à multiplier les dépenses budgétaires pour soutenir la croissance. Or, le Fonds était un grand ennemi des déficits. Pourquoi ce revirement?What the economist appears to be saying is that governments need to consider REPLACING the loss of consumer spending with GOVERNMENT spending, if necessary, regardless of whether it leads to deficits.
Nous sommes en présence d'une crise d'une amplitude exceptionnelle, dont la principale composante est un effondrement de la demande. Les indices de confiance des consommateurs et des entreprises n'ont jamais autant chuté depuis qu'ils existent. Du jamais-vu !...
Les mois qui viennent vont être très mauvais. Il est impératif de juguler cette perte de confiance, de relancer et, si nécessaire, de remplacer la demande privée, si l'on veut éviter que la récession ne se transforme en Grande Dépression. Bien sûr, en temps normal, nous aurions recommandé à l'Europe de diminuer ces déficits. Mais nous ne sommes pas en temps normal.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, is pushing governments to increase their own spending in order to support growth. The IMF has always been a big enemy of deficits. Why the reversal?Read the rest of this post...
We are facing a crisis of an exceptional breadth, the basis of which is a collapse of demand. The consumer and business confidence numbers have never fallen this much since they've first been recorded. We've NEVER seen this!...
It is imperative to curb the this loss of confidence, to relaunch it and, if necessary, replace private demand, if we want to avoid a recession that turns into a Great Depression. Of course, in normal times, we would recommend that Europe reduce its budget deficits. But these are not normal times.
The New Left
From Nate Silver, who doesn't necessarily agree with us 100% on the Rick Warren issue, but is nonetheless impressed at the new strength coming from the gay community:
One reason that cultural issues like abortion have been successful rallying points for Republicans is because such issues tend to beget an asymmetry of passion. While a majority of the country supports abortion rights under most circumstances, the average pro-lifer is probably more engaged by the issue than the average pro-choicer, thereby enabling the 45 percent to outweigh the 55 percent under certain conditions.Read the rest of this post...
That may still be the case for abortion, where public opinion has been static for many years. But it may no longer be the case on gay rights. Just who is on what side of the 55/45 split depends on what question you're asking -- a majority of the public now supports civil unions, although not yet gay marriage. That's beside the point, though; what I think the Warren dust-up reveals is that the left is now willing to raise at least as much ruckus about the issue as the right. The left, of course, has always had its own moral compass, but it's now beginning to convert that into more focused, overtly political action. ...
I think the passion aroused among the left on the issue has been fairly impressive, and is potentially fairly consequential.
Students across the Middle East are increasingly embracing conservative Islam
I hear they're simply trying to reach out to extremists in the spirt of civility.
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Putting a stake through the "Cheney legacy"
From Robert Scheer:
In the end, the shame of Vice President Dick Cheney was total: unmitigated by any notion of a graceful departure, let alone the slightest obligation of honest accounting. Although firmly ensconced, even in the popular imagination, as an example of evil incarnate—nearly a quarter of those polled in this week’s CNN poll rated him the worst vice president in U.S. history, and 41 percent as “poor”—Cheney exudes the confidence of one fully convinced that he will get away with it all....Read the rest of this post...
The Bush administration, with Cheney in the lead, did not so much fight the danger of terrorism as exploit it for partisan political purpose. The record is quite clear that the administration was asleep at the switch before 9/11, blithely ignoring stark warnings of an impending attack. But the hoary warmongering after 9/11 afforded a convenient distraction from the economic problems at home. As I asked in a column on June 26, 2002: “Has the war on terrorism become the modern equivalent of the Roman circus, drawing the people’s attention away from the failures of those who rule them? Corporate America is a shambles because deregulation, the mantra of our president and his party, has proved to be a license to steal.”
That is the true legacy of Dick Cheney and the president he ill-served.
Putting a stake through the "Bush legacy"
Amen.
And now the same folks that brought us the needless $3 trillion war in Iraq have the mother of all swan songs left in store: redefining the Bush legacy as something other than a failure. Weekly Standard senior writer and GOP insider Stephen Hayes let slip earlier this month that an unofficial White House PR campaign is afoot - which Hayes dubbed the "Bush Legacy project" -- with the mission of highlighting what they believe are the President's accomplishments and shirking responsibility for the more numerous and far more consequential failures....Read the rest of this post...
The Bush legacy should be remembered as a grand and failed experiment of what happens when conservatives are in complete control of the government. Conservative ideology rails against government, argues that government is the problem, not the solution. So when a government run by conservatives is faced with the most important responsibility any government has - to protect its citizens - is it any wonder you wind up with a tragedy of epic proportions like Katrina?
For helping drive a stake in the heart of conservative governance for years to come, Bush actually deserves all the credit and thanks in the world.
Christmas Eve morning open thread
One day to go. The snow in Chicago continues, God bless it. I know when you live here, snow sucks. But when you move away, snow is a Godsend. It brings back so many childhood memories, looking out the upstairs windows and seeing the snow build up in the corner of the window. Seeing the icicles hanging from the front porch. I remember our bathroom window used to free up with a layer of ice, and my brother and I used to blow on pennies to warm them up, then push them into the ice so they'd melt up against the window and stick. Unfortunately, the windows were upgraded a decade or two ago. Well, let's see what news there is today - Chris and I promise that tomorrow, Christmas Day, we'll keep the news light and fun.
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Holiday thoughts
Joelle and I are heading down to the Beaujolais later today to spend Christmas with her 94 year old grandmother who she adores. Quite a few members of the family will be coming by this year as Colette has not been feeling well lately so everyone hopes that a big family gathering will boost her spirits. Colette has been so generous with everyone over the years so we all look forward to raising a glass of Champagne (her favorite) and talking about the fun times over the years.
I received a holiday letter from a friend yesterday and thought I'd share part of it as I think it sums up what is really important. He's 65 and divides his time between Paris and Philadelphia where his kids and grandchildren reside. For me, it's Joelle, family and good friends and the rest is just a bonus.
I received a holiday letter from a friend yesterday and thought I'd share part of it as I think it sums up what is really important. He's 65 and divides his time between Paris and Philadelphia where his kids and grandchildren reside. For me, it's Joelle, family and good friends and the rest is just a bonus.
Many friends, both French and American, remain important parts of my life, even though at times I am remiss or careless about them. I have learned a great deal from them all and they have helped me often.Read the rest of this post...
Nonetheless, I think about the difficulties we face: an economic crisis which could easily turn into a depression; two wars which seem to have no end in sight; many people with diminished hope and future prospects. Despite all this, I try to keep focused on what counts in life—and that is essentially the people in it—family, loved ones, friends. That makes the other difficult parts more endurable and, in many cases, not that troublesome.
When I reach that point when death calls, I don’t think I will wish for another day at the office; but I might wish to hug Sammy Fitz and Rosemary one more time. I don’t think I will wish that I had closed that business transaction; but I might wish for one more Thanksgiving celebration. I don’t think I will wish to have won that match or succeeded in that exam; but I might wish to have one more dinner and long conversation with those friends I hold dear. I don’t think I will wish to have earned more money; but I might wish to have spent more time, and to have used more of what I have, to help others.
So when you reflect this year at Christmas, and when you face the difficulties of the coming year, keep focused on what counts.
The old Swedish farmer, when asked why he loved his wife, at first was perplexed. He was not clever with words or emotions; so he looked at the ground and then at the sky; he scratched his chin and seemed lost, until suddenly he brightened and said: “Because she’s my best friend”. That’s really it, isn’t it? He really got it, didn’t he?
And finally, midst all the turmoil, remember to go at life with gusto and abandon.
“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body. But rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming—wow—what a ride!”
Even Google is cutting bonus cash this year
The stock price may be down and the growth is slowing but the halls are still flowing with profit. Obviously nobody enjoys cuts but this is still more proof that the Wall Street bonuses are wrong in so many ways.
This year, instead of the usual $1,000 present to plump up the festive pay cheque, Google is giving all its employees a version of the G1, the mobile phone it released this year to compete with Apple's iPhone.Read the rest of this post...
In an internal e-mail, the company told staff: “The holiday bonus is a Google tradition - it's a great way to thank everyone for their hard work. In the past, we've done this in cash. This year, we've decided to give Googlers a different kind of present - a Dream phone.”
The mobile, which runs on Android, Google's own mobile operating system, went on sale in October to tepid reviews. It was dubbed by The Register, the tech website, as “an unattractive and uninspiring piece of plastic”.
The e-mail calls on “Googlers”, as staff are called, to “dogfood” the phone - an industry term meaning to test it in-house. “Some of you will of course be wondering why we decided to change from a cash bonus to the Dream phone,” the e-mail reads.
It continues: “Googlers globally have been asking for the Dream phone and we're looking forward to seeing all the things that you do with them. This is a chance for us to once again dogfood a product and make it even better!”
The company, which had previously revealed that it was considering plans to trim its contract staff, did admit to other, baser reasons, for the switch. “Second, the current economic crisis requires us to be more conservative about how we spend our money.”
The e-mail does not dwell on negatives and goes on to finish on an upbeat note: “Thank you for all that you do to make Google the company that it is. We hope that you will enjoy using your Dream phone in 2009 and have a very happy holiday!”
The customised G1 devices will be given to all permanent Google employees in the United States, Western and Central Europe, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Japan, covering about 85 per cent of its 20,123 global staff.
However, the e-mail explains that for legal reasons the G1 cannot be shipped to other parts of the world, so Googlers elsewhere will receive $400 instead.
Why does Santa wear a red outfit and other critical questions answered
Why even St Nicholas in the first place? Why 25 December? Why Christmas cards? It's all here, or at least quite a few of those traditions that we embrace over Christmas.
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