Ain't misbehavin'.

I mean, who at some point hasn't set fire to some great public building? I know I have! -Monty Python

 
 
Christine O'Donnell, timely gift-wrapped present for Dems. (AP)

A collection of outrageous quotes by Christine O'Donnell, running for a Delaware U.S. senate seat on the erstwhile wicca, anti-masturbation ticket. (New Republic)

 
Rachida Dati, fired from Sarko cabinet, in exile at Euro-parliament in Strasbourg (above). (Reuters) 

Former French justice minister confuses "fellatio" with "inflation" in national radio interview. (Guardian)

Michigan school strips transgender homecoming queen of title. (Jezebel.com)

Too hot for homecoming: Girls chastened over insufficiently prim dresses at school dance (Dallas Morning News)

Maclean's tags Quebec as Canada's most corrupt province. (Toronto Star)

 
Lifting a pint is too often a threatening gesture at Oktoberfest this season. (Reuters)

Say it with glass: sudden spike in Oktoberfest mug bashing. (Der Spiegel)

 
Recently resigned Wisconsin GOP D.A. Ken Kratz, accused predatory sexter. (AP)

Ex-Wisconsin D.A.'s excreble mea culpa over sexting. (Slate) 

 
(Getty Images)

Why men cheat on spouses making more than them. (NYT) 

 

 

 

Smoke, mirrors and graphs.

GOP Central has fun distorting numbers in its platform for the midterms. For instance, here's its graphic depiction of "soaring" U.S. government expenditure as a percentage of the economy:

 
New Republic's Alexander Hart was initially shocked, too.

At first, I looked at that graph and thought "Holy cow--President Obama is proposing to double the size of government!" But then I saw the numbers at the top and bottom of the graph. The increase in government as a share of GDP looks so large only due to the fact that the box only ranges from 17 to 24. With that scale, even a small increase looks huge. Here's what a more honest graph of the same data looks like:

 

That modest increase in government's role in the economy explains most of what you need to know about the despond Obama and the Dems find themselves in. It's not nearly big enough an increase to satisfy progressives, sufficiently disillusioned to stay home rather than vote, and sufficiently big (any increase would be sufficiently big) to motivate reactionaries to "kick the bums out" - the ones who staved off a second Great Depression, and brought about the biggest improvement in American way of life (aka Obamacare) since Medicare was introduced 45 years ago.

 

 

 

We've come this far in 15 years.

You could expend a lot of words, and many have, explaining the power of reactionary forces in the U.S. these days.

 
Michael Douglas in The American President. (1995) (Studio handout)

But really, Andrew Ross Sorkin said it best in the words he wrote for Michael Douglas as U.S. President Andrew Shepherd in 1995's The American President, de facto pilot for "The West Wing." The following is the climatic, last-reel press-gallery appearance in which the progressive Shepherd has grown a spine, finally responding forcefully to the paleolith Bob Rumson, who's been filling a void with pronouncements of what he'd do as president.

For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was, to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free". I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.
[pauses]
I've loved two women in my life. I lost one to cancer, and I lost the other 'cause I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now. Tomorrow morning, the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration. It's White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a 20 percent reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out and writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns. We've got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the President. [Emphasis added.]

 

 

Enjoy your day.

 

 

 
Bighorn sheep crossing (scaling?) the downstream face of the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshoni River at Cody, Wy. (Getty Images)

H/T: P.J. Dempsey

 

Sob.

NPR has a wonderful round-up of "The saddest music in the world: 6 tunes to make you teary eyed."

NPR, which welcomes additional selections from listeners, starts with these heartbreakers: "When I Am Laid in Earth," from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; "Largo" from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5; Mahler's "I've Become Lost To The World"; Avro Part's Cantus In Memory of Benjamin Britten; "Der Leiermann from Schubert's Die Winterreise; and Lieberson's "My love, If I Die and You Don't."

Have a listen at NPR Classical.

 
Frequent collaborators Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington, c. 1956. (AP)

With so much of the greatest 20th-century music in the gut-wrenching genre, I naturally thought of these pieces as contenders:

1. Lush Life (Johnny Hartmann sings Billy Strayhorn). 2. Homage to Polish president Lech Kaczynski (18-year-old Canadian-Argentine composer Isaias Garcia). 3. Danny Boy (Frederick Edward Weatherly). 4. What's New? (Bob Haggart-Johnny Burke). 5. Leaving Me Now (By Level 42's Mark King-Phil Gould). 6. I'll Be Seeing You (the Vera Lynn classic, by Irving Kahal-Sammy Fain).

And one antidote: Our own Parachute Club's Rise Up. The band shot its video entirely on the streets of Toronto - a chance to see what 1980s T.O. looked like before the condo-tower invasion.

Hardly a definitive list. What are your faves for mourning happiness lost? 

 

Enjoy your weekend.

Six-foot hand-carved bear promoting ice cream treats outside a general store midway between the Ontario towns of Goderich and Blyth. Photo: EB contributor Mary Lou Chlipala.

...and is survived by paleoliths.

From the Sept. 8, 2010 edition of the Rome (Ga.) News Tribune.

Charlotte McCourt

 

CHARLOTTE MCCOURT Charlotte M. Tidwell McCourt, 84, of Pahrump, passed away July 8, 2010, after a long illness. She was born Dec. 25, 1925, in Wellington, Utah, and was a 40-year resident of Nevada. Charlotte held a zest for life and loved serving her family of five children; 20 grandchildren; and 65 great-grandchildren. She had been the wife of Patrick L. McCourt for 67 happy years. Active in her community, she assisted in many political figures' campaign efforts. As an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Charlotte served as a leader in the Relief Society for over 20 years. She and her beloved husband also served a full-time mission in the Cabanatuan Mission in the Phillipines. Charlotte is survived by her husband, Patrick; children, Pat and Nellie McCourt, Dan and Lanny Shea, Bill and Marsha Sortor, David and Sherry d'Hulst, and Tom and Ann McMullin; and many grandchildren. A memorial service was held Saturday, July 10, at the LDS Chapel, 921 E. Wilson, in Pahrump. We believe that Mom would say she was mortified to have taken a large role in the election of Harry Reid to U.S. Congress. Let the record show Charlotte was displeased with his work. Please, in lieu of flowers, vote for another more worthy candidate.

 

 

From the July 13, 2010 edition of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

 

 

 

H/T: P.J. Dempsey.

 

 

.

 

QuickLinx. (Saturday, Sept. 25)

HIGH STAKES

What to do if Canada wins coveted Security Council seat? (Globe and Mail)

Manmohan Singh laid the foundation for India's industrial revolution. But can he bring order from chaos in the Commonwealth Games preparations? (Getty Images)

Can widely respected Indian PM Manmohan Singh pull off Commonweath Games? (Peter Popham, Independent)

The Dems are in far less danger in November than you think. (Kirsten Powers, Daily Beast) "The polls have also started to move Democrats way, and should continue to move their way after the nascent Dem advertising campaigns begin in full swing."

The treachery of David Petraeus. (Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic) "The way in which Petraeus is leveraging his Iraq experience - an experience which, as every day reveals, ended in total failure except as a temporary face-saver for partial withdrawal - and his media clout to force an elected president into an open-ended commitment in Afghanistan is deeply disturbing."

Sneak-peek highlights of Woodward's first Obama book. (Bryan Curtis, Daily Beast) "In addition to being master bureaucratic infighters, the generals are genius P.R. men. Woodward recounts scene after scene of Petraeus talking to the press when he’s specifically been ordered to stand down."

POLITICS

Obama recently with a critical-care patient. (Getty Images) 

Repeal Obamacare? Many Americans tell pollster they wish it went even further. (USA Today) "A new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1."

Downhill with the G.O.P. (Paul Krugman, NYT) "The clear and present danger isn’t that the G.O.P. will be able to achieve its long-run goals. It is, rather, that Republicans will gain just enough power to make the country ungovernable, unable to address its fiscal problems or anything else in a serious way. As I said, banana republic, here we come."

 
G.O.P. House leaders Eric Cantor and John Boehner. (AP) 

G.O.P.'s midterms platform is world's saddest to-do list. (Alex Pareene, Salon) It's unserious nonsense. (Jonathan Cohn, New Republic) Daily Beast: "The Club for Growth's Andrew Roth was equally unimpressed writing:'I want to like the new G.O.P Pledge to America. I want to endorse it, but it's so milquetoast that it proves to me that these guys just aren't ready to lead'."

Where the Founding Fathers part ways with the Tea Partiers. (Ron Chernow, NYT)

ECONOMICS

Reports of the middle class' death have been greatly exaggerated. (Gregg Easterbook, Reuters) "The Tea Party crowd, which claims taxes are rising, doesn’t like to talk about the reality that taxes are falling. (Tax cuts, not spending increases, are the main reason for rising deficits.) The left doesn’t like to talk about after-tax income — only pre-tax numbers are used, because they’re the only numbers that are disturbing."

The faux tax plight of the $250,000-$500,000 crowd. (Justin Fox, Harvard Business Review)

Anne Mulcahy, probable successor to Larry Summers. (AP) 

Anne Mulcahy, ex-Xerox turnaround CEO and likely successor to Larry Summers, will be a PR nightmare. (Alexander C. Hart, New Republic)

BUSINESS

How Tim Hortons will take over the world. (Dawn Calleja, Report on Business Magazine)

Souvenirs of Lehman Bros., whose failure triggered the Great Recession. (Cahal Milmo, Independent)

CULTURE

James Cameron and Zoe Saldana at the Golden Globes. (Reuters) 

James Cameron tops Guardian's 100 most powerful people in UK film. (Guardian). Fellow Canuck Piers Handling, director of the Toronto International Film Festival, also makes the cut (78). "Cameron, whose films Avatar and Titanic have taken a total of $4.61bn (£2.94bn) at the box office, took the top spot ahead of fellow director Steven Spielberg and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who has replaced Tom Cruise as the go-to leading man for big-budget movies. Cruise did not make the list."

Stephen Colbert testifies on Capitol Hill. (Getty Images)

Steven Colbert's hilarious Congressional testimony on immigration. (Guy Adams, Independent) "This is America. I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, then sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan in a spa where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian...Maybe, the easier answer is just to have scientists invent vegetables that pick themselves."

The trouble with Jonathan Franzen. (Ruth Franklin, New Republic) Q&A with Franzen. (Ed Pilkington, Guardian) Franzen: "The categories by which we value fiction are skewed male, and this creates a very destructive disconnect between the critical establishment and the predominantly female readership of novels. That's inarguable."

JOURNALISM

Lefties call out loonies in their ranks, Michael Moore par example. Neo-cons don't. (Noah Kristula-Green, FrumForum)

How Slate's Jack Shafer exposes bogus trend stories. (Mallary Jean Tenore, PoynterOnline)

THE WAY WE LIVE TODAY

Diet, not fitness, is key to weight loss. (Emma John, Observer) "You have to do an awful lot more exercise than most people realize. To burn off an extra 500 calories is typically an extra two hours of cycling. And that's about two doughnuts."

The disturbing truth about cellphones. (Martin Mittelstaedt, Globe and Mail). "There are chilling clues that these ubiquitous devices are far from benign."

The real reason you're broke? Look in the mirror. (Kerry Taylor, Squawkfox) "Are you craptastic?...Crap is the stuff that’s cluttering your home and bursting out of your front door. It’s the disposable, upgradeable, and superfluous stuff you buy in a heart-beat because you’re worth it! But crap costs. Crap consumes your space, can initially make you feel good but can lead to feelings of guilt, and can make you broke. Please, learn to identify crap and end the spending spree – you’re worth it."

Enjoy your day.

 
Reuters.

 

 

Quick Linx. Friday, Sept. 17.

ABOUT TIME

Elizabeth Warren, valuable Wall Street scold, darling of progressives. (AP) 

Reformer Elizabeth Warren to be named WH advisor on consumer financial protection. (Boston Globe) Move sidesteps near-impossible task of securing filibuster-proof nomination of Warren to head new consumer financial protection agency. "The White House has found a way to put her there, and this is the best news American consumers have gotten in the financial area ever," says Rep. Barney Frank (D.-Mass.), chair of the House financial services committee and one of Warren's many champions, to be found exclusively among progressives. As Frank conceded, some conservative Dems would likely have joined in blocking Warren's nomination.

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

The Saudis, among America's most reliable allies (!), are in line for a fleet of F-15s. (AP)

Obama the arms dealer: Prez to authorize record $60-billion sale of jet fighters to Saudi Arabia, which holds America to oil ransom and gave us most of the 9/11 hijackers. (Guardian)

POLITICS

A GOP takeover of Congress would be murder on the EPA. (New Republic) Which was created by...Richard Nixon. Go on, look it up.

BUSINESS

Whaddya know: Discount airlines boast the highest quality ratings. (27/7 Wall St.)

Toronto and Montreal now among world's most expensive cities. (Toronto Star)

Stephen Wetmore, latest in long line of Canadian Tire CEOs to lash surly employees with a limp noodle. (CP)

CEO of Crappy Tire acknowledges obvious, that Canadian Tire employees are world-class in customer-unfriendiness and need to shape up. (Toronto Star). Good luck with that. We've been hearing these avowals to improve since...when was the company founded, 1919?

CULTURE

CDC says about one-third of teens aren't learning about contraception in sex-ed. (AOL News) They are learning to say no to under-age sex, however, which is encouraging.

Profile of Jon Stewart and the times that made him. (New York) Stewart: " This is not a fragile country. I’m not suggesting we couldn’t find ourselves in deep conflict. But we had slaves, and we fought a civil war; now we’re down to Glenn Beck being hyperbolic with his audience about nostalgia. This too shall pass.”

Rare Q&A with Woody Allen. (NYT) Allen:  “To me, there’s no real difference between a fortune teller or a fortune cookie and any of the organized religions. They’re all equally valid or invalid, really. And equally helpful.”

 

Why Freddie quit blogging. (L'Hote) " I am incapable of writing on the Internet without becoming an asshole. This fact has asserted itself to me again and again. And while I believe the blogosphere is a narrow-minded and vulgar space, there is no excuse for my own vulgarity, my own lack of compassion, my own failure. I have tried reform; I have tried rededication; I have tried genre and tonal shifts. Sooner or later I revert to my hands, this keyboard, and my anger." (H/T Andrew Sullivan, who concedes his similar worries.)

 

Most of the tens of thousands of smartphone "apps" vendors brag of are useless to folks who have no idea they're there or how to use them. (27/7 Wall St.) I'm thinking for iPhones, which run out of juice after about seven minutes of light texting, a good app would be a GPS locator of the nearest greasy spoon that will let me recharge without springing for la plat bleu speciale.

 

CAREERS

 

The 10 least likely areas to add jobs in the future. (24/7 Wall St.) Which are: state and local government employees; construction; instalation, maintenance and repair; automaking; pharmaceuticals; big telecom; newspapers; airlines; realtors; and bank tellers.

 

ODDLY ENOUGH

 

World's biggest and smallest dogs meet in Central Park to launch latest Guinness book. (AOL News)

 

Inventor of "The Club" dies in car crash. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

 

Forget Koran burning: The real disgraces are Vancouver's annual pole-dancing contest (participants are fully clothed, but still) and the annual Brooklyn, N.Y. "Air Sex" (as in air guitar) contest for simulated sex. To which a stop must be put, please, someone! (AOL News)

 

Georgia man fined for backyard garden in "Cabbagegate" scandal. (AOL News)

 

Just holding an alcoholic drink makes you seem dumb. (AOL News)

 

Disgraced former president Bill Clinton presents the Liberty Medal to disgraced former British PM Tony Blair. -Getty Images

 

Tony Blair awarded $100,000 Liberty medal. (Philadelphia Inquirer) Previous honorees: Pol Pot, Charles Taylor, Phil Rizzo, Richard (Agent Orange) Nixon, Andrew Dice Clay. If only. The pious abettor of 200,000+ dead inncent Iraqi civilians will donate the prize proceeds to two charities named for, er, him, natch. New Statesman: "He may have been pelted with eggs and shoes in Dublin but Tony Blair can always count on a warm reception in the United States." (video)

 

Calvin College, Michigan liberal arts school, rescinds invitation to New Pornographers indy band. (Dumb as a Blog) Press release: "The band's name, to some, is mistakenly associated with pornography. Consequently, Calvin, to some, was mistakenly associated with pornography. Neither the college nor the band endorses pornography." A press release on how the task of explaining this didn't come up at the time the invitation was made is no doubt forthcoming.