Better Move Your Library!
You may have heard, Borders Books is going out of business. If you ‘own’ any eBooks, particularly from Borders, you might be interested in the email I received recently:
Wouldn’t it be nice if this video was a metaphor, and the fly represented the GOP?
You may already have heard that an ESPN movie is in the works, based on “Those Guys Have All the Fun”, a book by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
Last night (July 28) on Keith’s new Countdown on CurrentTV, Keith and his old friend and former sidekick Dan Patrick discussed who might play the various persons depicted in the book. It quickly became apparent that there is only one person who can ever be properly cast as Keith Olbermann; particularly a young Keith Olbermann: Ben Affleck.
Click on the picture below to see why. Continue reading
by Michael R. Honig
It’s sometimes interesting what you can learn from old movies. That’s why I enjoy watching them, even when they otherwise have only modest artistic merit.
Such was the case with a film I watched last night (previously recorded by my TiVo on TCM; bless you, TCM, for being the only place to see these old, sometimes-great, but almost-always interesting films!), called The Dark Horse (1932).
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Does the Universe suck, or does it blow? That could be an existential question.
I am neither a scientist nor a mathematician, not a cosmologist nor a quantum physicist. I simply know enough about a lot to be dangerous. Please as you read the following, understand that it reflects some thoughts I had and that I present as sheer speculation. A mind game akin to contemplating the sound of one hand clapping.
To the extent that it may provoke any actual scientifically-grounded thought, that would be exciting.
Mike
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What if we’re all really “matter chauvinists”? It wouldn’t be unreasonable. As thinking, reasoning matter, we’re kind of at the top of the “existence chain”, and that could make us a bit cocky.
But the problem with matter is gravity, and the problem with gravity is entropy.
Maybe nature does not abhor a vacuum. Or maybe nature is actually a vacuum chauvinist, and we just can’t ‘see’ it. (As the saying goes, if Nature abhors a vacuum, why is there so much of it?)
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I received this announcement in my email today. This should be of interest to anyone who believes in the principle and importance of separation of Church and State; a line of separation which Texas Governor Rick Perry and other Republicans are trying, with increasing stridency and boldness, to blur.
Mike
PS: [7/20/2011, 6:53PM] Just minutes ago, I received a robocall from Rick Perry inviting me (an unwelcome Jew, I might add) to this event. Absolutely, this is a United States Governor advocating and presiding over a religious event under color of his authority as an elected official sworn to uphold the Constitutions of both the United States of America and the State of Texas.
My question: Has this now reached the level of an impeachable offense?
UPDATE (10:22PM, 7/20/2011): The robocall came from a phone number in Tupelo, MS. My CID stamps it by “Unknown Caller” at 6:43PM (7-20-2011) from 662-821-2011. As of this writing, you can call that number to hear the message.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, July 20, 2011
CONTACT: Kirsten Bokenkamp, (832) 691-7013 or kbokenkamp@aclutx.org
Perry’s “The Response” Blurs The Lines Between Separation Of Church And State
HOUSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas today requested that Gov. Rick Perry and other officials disclose the amount of tax-payer dollars and other state or local government resources used to promote the prayer event, The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis, set for Aug. 6 at Reliant Stadium.
“We are concerned that Gov. Perry is using public office to endorse a sectarian religious event and to advance specific Christian beliefs,” said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director of the ACLU of Texas. “We are seeking information on the degree to which state resources have been or will be used for the planning and promotion of this event and for state officials’ participation in it.”
The ACLU of Texas filed open records requests with the governor’s office as well as the Harris County sheriff’s, auditor’s and fire marshal’s offices and the City of Houston.
“The ACLU of Texas values the diversity of belief systems in public life, and each of our beliefs calls us to address problems in different ways. But none of us, especially an elected official, is in the position to say whether believers or non-believers should lead the way in solving our common problems,” said Terri Burke, Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas. “We believe that diversity is protected, society is best served, and the U.S. Constitution is respected when government actions remain separate from religious action, when religion is neither forced upon us, nor prohibited, by government. The Response certainly does not seem to follow that principle.”
One of the cornerstones of the ACLU’s work is to ensure that the First Amendment is upheld and to safeguard against government promotion of, or interference with, religious practice.
Under the state’s open records law, government officials have 10 business days to respond to open records requests. The ACLU of Texas expects a response on or before August 3.
For a copy of the documents filed with state and local government offices, please go to our website.
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We always think of John F. Kennedy as young, because he never lived long enough to grow old. It’s amazing today to think that, of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy, Kennedy was the oldest of the three.
Below is a speech he gave when accepting the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency, where he talks about what being a Liberal means to him.
Contemporary Democrats should take note.
Mike
Andy Pope’s “Pattern Fills”, which has some different functionality from Eric Patterson’s add-in.
I admit that when I first went to Office 2007, I personally found “The Ribbon” quite daunting, but I ultimately found Microsoft’s logic – that there are features in Office that you wouldn’t even know you had with the old menu system, which are easily discovered with “The Ribbon” – to be true.
Even having arrived at the conclusion fairly quickly, it took a lot of ‘accustomization’ and tweaking of the Quick Access Toolbar to make Office 2007 or 2010 easy enough for the real advantages to become appreciable.
I made a fairly quick jump to Office 2010 because Office 2007 lacks some key advantages of 2010; particularly “Track Change” in Excel and PowerPoint.
Apparently, Microsoft Excel 2007 also lacks a key feature from Excel 2003: Pattern Fill for charts and graphs. This is a big deal if you print your charts or graphs in black and white, instead of color. 
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This post was originally written by Cenk Uygur in 2005 for his blog. Rachel Maddow discussed it with Cenk one night on her show, and he read parts of it on the air.
I thought it insightful enough that I searched it out and have posted it here.
Enjoy.
Mike Honig Continue reading
On June 30, Keith Olbermann had NY Senator Charles Schumer on Current TV’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann to talk about the debt ceiling debate, and the Congressional and — specifically — the Republican politics surrounding it. During that interview, Schumer made an unusually blunt and explosive charge: That Republicans are deliberately trying to ‘tank’ the economy for their own political advantage.
To home-based, Monday morning political quarterbackers like me, that is not a surprising statement. It’s one that many political commentators and bloggers have been making for some time.
It’s explosive because it comes from a sitting senator, Continue reading
In today’s email, I received an appeal to customers from a local restaurant owner. His remarks could apply to any local business anywhere, and that’s why I’m reproducing it for you below.
His letter isn’t just specific to him. and he makes some good points about supporting local merchants. Continue reading
Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig 