I’m in the outer studio at WSHC FM getting my playlist ready for the 11 AM show (we’re up until 1:00 PM.) The station is 89.7 for those of you within 50 miles or so from Shepherd University (our owner) and on the internet at http://www.897wshc.org. Feel free to tune in… or call in at 304- 876- 5369.

We’re probably going to talk about some of the dreadful things Newt and

Mitt have been hurling at each other in Florida this week, among other things. Also, there is a production of Sweeney Todd opening next week at Shepherd, which I’m looking forward to… so they’ll be a little theatre discussion.

I expect that Ralph, Mark or Stu or some other of our regulars will be calling in as well. I also have my usual eclectic mix of music.

Have a nice day… I’m signing off for a couple of hours.

Washington Post national poll, December 28, 2011:

ImpreMedia/Latino Decisions, 9/30-10/9:

PPP, 9/30:

Latinos are, in general,  disappointed in the lack of progress on immigration reform. But they saw who voted against the DREAM Act in Congress (Republicans), and they see who is still campaigning against the DREAM Act (Republicans). They see who is demagoguing Mexico and kowtowing to the notorious Latino-hating Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Republicans), and they see who is passing anti-immigrant laws in places like Arizona and Alabama (oh yes, Republicans).

Romney wants to make things so miserable for undocumented immigrants that they “self-deport,” according to speeches he has made in the primaries. Not a popular position among Latinos.

Then there was the straight attack on Cuba in the last debate. Cuban Republicans are a strong Latino group in Florida, but, like many Americans, they wonder if, after 50 years of maintaining the Cuba boycott, we might like to try something else.

Guess we wait and see. Tuesday is the Florida Primary.

Related articles

• Senior Republicans: don’t alienate Latino voters with immigration attacks (guardian.co.uk)
• GOP, don’t blow it with Florida’s Latinos (cnn.com)
• ‘Soccer mamis’ could sway Florida race, affect general election (cnn.com)
• Poll: Romney Dominating Gingrich Among Florida Latino Voters (miami.cbslocal.com)
• Latino group to challenge Rubio as GOP courts him (sfgate.com)
• Obama courts Latino vote on economic tour (ajc.com)
• Obama’s Latino Arizona Strategy (thedailybeast.com)

Hugo was a salute to the early film industry in France (the fantastic films of Georges Melies) with chase and mystery in the Paris railroad station. I brought two of my grandsons to see it and I don’t know who liked it more, them or me. Martin Scorsese made a real winner here… and it was in 3D!

The Artist, which Elly and I saw last week, was a tribute to silent movies… black and white, some sound added for effect… and funny. One of the few movies I’ve seen lately that I would have watched again on the same day.

Both of these are worth winning the Oscar. I hope one of them comes through.

While he makes the budget balanced as President, Newt Gingrich has now promised to put a US base on the moon… by the end of his second term!

The two problems with this are 1.) the cost would blow us even deeper into debt, and 2.) we have to elect Newt for Two Terms!

Now we know he was angling for the NASA vote on the “Space Coast”, but doesn’t Newtie realize that the whole nation is watching (and laughing)?

“I’ll pay for the seats, but I won’t shortchange you by not giving my best.” said Williamson. And then he walked off stage.

At age 26 when he auditioned for “Inadmissible Evidence,” playwright John  Osborne wrote in his diary that this “pouting, delinquent cherub produced the face to match the torment below the surface. He is much too young, 26, to the character’s 39, but no matter. He is old within.” The playwright called Williamson “the 

greatest actor since Marlon Brando.”

After appearing in films, television productions and plays on the English and Broadway stages, he retreated to Amsterdam about two decades ago and focused on playing country music. Before he died, he was able to finish recording the CD he had been working on, said his son, Williamson’s only immediate survivor. “He didn’t want any fuss made over his passing. He was not interested in publicity,” said Luke Williamson.

Nicol Williamson was known for being hard to get along with, especially by directors and producers (he once punched David Merrick during a rehearsal), and he commentd on his own personality:

“I think the only valuable thing you can do as an actor is to make people recognize in themselves what is also there in you, and what you see in them. Then they’ll hate you because they don’t want you to do that to them. That’s why I’m hated a lot of the time. They don’t want you to show these things in you because it makes them uncomfortable. It makes them frightened. But I think you must show these things in order to be true to yourself.”

However, I check all spam comments to make sure no legitimate comments have been accidentally taken out ( less than 1% of them… pretty good record). Usually it only takes me a minute or less to run down the list and check them, but in the last couple of days I have taken the most outrageous comments and checked where they are coming from.

Here is the result of my review:

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I’m not sure why anyone reading these comments would print them. So why do these idiots waste their time posting them?

My thanks to Laura Bakin for today’s donation to Under The LobsterScope. Watch your e-mail, your Bill’s Barnhart Ornaments font is on the way!

- Bill

If you’d like to help us out at Under The LobsterScope (and we hope you will), go HERE.

Oklahoma Lawmaker Wants To Outlaw Use Of Human Fetuses In Production Of Food

By Adam Peck on Jan 24, 2012 at 7:40 pm

Oklahoma State Sen. Ralph Shortey (R)

Oklahoma GOP State Senator Ralph Shortey is on a mission to finally put an end to his state’s allegedly rampant cannibalism problem. Alarmed after his own research, which consisted of reading a nameless report stating that companies have used stem cells in the production of food, Shortey introduced a bill that would prohibit the manufacturing and sale of food “which contains aborted human fetuses.”

Shortey explained his reasoning to local radio station News Talk Radio KRMG in Tulsa:

There is a potential that there are companies that are using aborted human babies in their research and development of basically enhancing flavor for artificial flavors.

Shortey was unable to provide any specific examples of the problem he’s trying to curb, and admits that it’s possible there aren’t any human fetuses in Oklahoma’s food. “I don’t know if it is happening in Oklahoma, it may be, it may not be,” he said.

NPR suggests Shortey may have caught wind of a boycott waged against PepsiCo and others last year after they contracted with the San Diego research and development company Senomyx, which employed the use of stem cells in their research. But the cell line in question dates to the 1970s, and can be traced back to human embryonic kidney cells, a far cry from Shortey’s claim of human fetuses.

And there are people who believe this stuff! The wavin’ wheat may sure smell sweet in Oklahoma, but the politics stinks.

Gov. Mitch Daniels (R – Indiana) was the opposition leader commenting last night, and he was content to give a list of everything the Republicans consistently say is Obama’s lack of policy decisions. This, of course, ignored just about every statement the President made that not only contradicted the Republican positions, but backed up each statement with statistics and examples proving their fairness and worth.

Daniels, however, accused President Obama of doing the things which just about everyone who watches this stuff would lay at the feet of Republicans:

“No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others,” he said.

Obama dealt directly with reducing the deficit, with everyone playing “by the same set of rules”, by adjusting taxes on the rich and saving deductions for the middle class. He gave support to businesses, while the Republicans stated that he ignored business.

Obama’s speech was positive and moving. The total result of the Republican response was that they could only solve all our problems by reducing the deficit. The President gave the outline of what is going to be a very strong campaign. The Republicans seemed to be on the ropes.

In the Organic Consumers Association blog, the report concerns Monsanto shareholder (and organic food activist) Adam Eidinger. A clip:

Eidinger, who organized last October’s a 100 person, 313 mile “Right2Know March” from New York City to the White House for federally mandated GMO food labeling says: “With the rise or Round-Up resistant ‘superweeds‘ the company is simply telling farmers to spray even more toxic herbicides including 2,4 D, the main ingredient in Agent Orange.

I urge you to go read the article and to contact your representatives about Monsanto poisoning (and hiding their actions concerning) our food.

GINGRICH 2012: HE WILL ALWAYS LOVE AMERICA. UNLESS IT GETS CANCER (or MS).

So let’s hope that the country wouldn’t get sick under a President Gingrich… he would probably leave it for Canada.

Obama is expected to use the State of the Union to pitch new initiatives on jobs, taxes and housing, in what will be billed as his opening salvo in a long 2012 election race. He will probably push tax breaks for bringing manufacturing jobs home from overseas, give ideas to help the troubled home-mortgage market and create incentives for alternative energy development. Expect him to call again for higher taxes on the wealthy – despite consistent Republican opposition – and to speak of further pressure on China over currency and trade practices.

There are a number of ways you can watch and follow the speech online. The official White House website, which will not only be streaming the speech live, but will be accompany it with charts, stats, and data that reinforce the address. On television, ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC will all air the speech live. The Huffington Post will also run liveblog coverage of the event, accompanied by an embedded live video feed.

Some items based on recent Obama remarks leading up to the address:

_____

Related articles

• Obama to Hold Google+ ‘Hangout’ After State of the Union Address (techland.time.com)
• President Obama’s State of the Union Address Webcast (diaryofafemaleveteran.wordpress.com)
• State of the Union: President Obama’s big campaign speech (tarpon.wordpress.com)
• Obama to Answer Your Questions on State of the Union Interview on Google+ (socialtimes.com)
• Obama to shift strategy on healthcare in 2012 – The Hill’s Healthwatch (policyabcs.wordpress.com)

Reblogged from DRUDGE RETORT:

Check your kitchen cabinets, NOW!

________________

Boycott the Koch Brothers

by Ben Hoffman

Reblogged from Tribune of the People:

These products are owned by corporations owned by the Koch Brothers — the fascists that began the whole Tea Bagger movement. Boycott these products.

Ben Stein Sues: “Ad Agency Replaced Me Over My Global-Warming Position”

Instead of winning Ben Stein’s money, Stein is seeking to win Kyocera’s in a touchy lawsuit.

The conservative pundit and actor — and former Nixon speechwriter — claims that his position on climate change had him kicked off a $300,000 acting gig scheduled to start in 2010, only to be replaced by a lookalike.

Stein filed a discrimination suit against Japanese company Kyocera Corporation and New York ad agency Seiter & Miller Advertising, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.

He is alleging breach of contract, wrongful discharge and emotional distress, among other charges.

In the suit, Stein says Kyocera reneged on the deal and replaced him after the company found out that he isn’t sure humans are responsible for climate change.

The deal would have had Stein — who has previously been featured in advertisements for Comcast, Clear Eyes and Hewlett-Packard — acting in commercials for Kyocera and appearing at a major company event.

Apparently, when he was asked about his position on Global Warming, Stein told Kyocera and Seiter & Miller that he was extremely concerned about the environment but unsure whether humans are responsible for global warming.

“He also told Hurwitz to inform defendants that, as a matter of religious belief, he believed that God, and not man, controlled the weather,” the suit claims.

Kyocera then tapped well-known economics professor Peter Morici – a bow tie enthusiast with an uncanny resemblance in appearance and mannerism to the actor –  to appear in the commercials. Stein claimed hat they were basing the character of an “economics professor” on his image. According to the suit, Stein has been described as “the most famous economics teacher in the world” for his iconic role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

“In an astonishingly brazen misappropriation of [Stein's] persona, [they] dressed him up as Stein often appeared in commercials (bow tie, glasses, sports jacket).”

It seems that Stein is claiming a brand logo kind of situation for the image… as if he owned it.

Stein is seeking $300,000 for the work he agreed to do, along with attorney fees, court costs and punitive damages.

I don’t know what Morici will seek from Stein.

Anyway, this week I’ve decided to do something I haven’t done in a while, and that is to focus on one editorial cartoonist – David Horsey.

David Horsey in the L. A. Times

The horror show…

- and -

Now I understand primaries…

- and -

It’s the economy, stupid!

- and -

Mitt loves to fire people…

- and -

He still doesn’t see what it takes…

1. Gingrich: 34 percent
2. Romney: 26 percent
3. Ron Paul: 13 percent
4. Rick Santorum: 11 percent
5. Other: 2 percent
6. No opinion: 14 percent

“Gingrich has been closing the gap nationally, according to the Gallup tracking poll. Florida is a reflection that Republicans nationally are moving toward Gingrich.”

- Matt Towery, chief pollster for InsiderAdvantage

This will be interesting to watch, unless, like me, you don’t want to miss the new episode of House.

We are losing a Representative of great promise and distinction.

Here is her statement:

So Santorum has Iowa (we guess), Romney has New Hampshire, and Newt now has South Carolina. Now there is no REAL leader and we’re looking toward Florida to see what happens next.

I doubt that Ron Paul is going to quit yet. Wouldn’t it be funny if he took Florida?

There’s also the potential, now, for a brokered Republican Convention… this means that a wholly new candidate could be brought in by the Party and made nominee (Chris Christie, maybe?)

So now we have one candidate that often switches positions solely to get the vote  (Mitt), one that makes Democrats look sane (Newt) and one who puts religion and ant-gay hysteria on top of governing the country (Santorum.)

As to which one of these Obama would prefer to tun against…who knows? Any one of them has great benefits for the Democrats. I’d prefer Santorum, but that is the least likely.

Of course, I read it with no trouble, but the comment of being a pointless talent means the idiot who wrote it would probably have been a failure at old time typesetting.

In the days of moveable type, all words and sentences were set backwards (and often, in the old time newspaper production area, upside down as well.) If you couldn’t read – and write – backwards with clarity, you were prone to typos and would not hold a job very long.

This may be a talent which the time of desktop publishing by computer has relegated to specialty shops, but a talent it certainly is. It also promotes discipline and concentration, something we have
very little of in the work-a-day world these days.

Filed under: Art, Arts, Books, creativity, editorial, Education, fonts, history, Job Seeking, Labor, Opinion, Press, quote, Technology, Word from Bill Tagged: Adobe PageMaker, Arts and Entertainment, Business, Desktop publishing, Facebook, Lorem ipsum, Movable type, publishing, United States ]]> http://underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/not-everyone-recognizes-true-talent/feed/ 0 39.430100 -77.804161 39.430100 -77.804161 btchakir 407521_2697334672774_1238821616_32521494_987848130_n Ppals1 http://underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/quote-of-the-day-wisconsin-governor-walker-denies-health-care-for-his-const/ http://underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/quote-of-the-day-wisconsin-governor-walker-denies-health-care-for-his-const/#comments Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:41:10 +0000 btchakir http://underthelobsterscope.wordpress.com/?p=19117 ]]> Wisconsin (unfortunately the state my son and his fiancee live in) will turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement health care exchanges under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday.

This is regarded as a purely political decision by a Governor who is currently facing a major recall petition (over one million signatures) to remove him from office.

The American Cancer Society is among many organizations commenting on the situation:

“A robust, consumer-friendly health exchange designed specifically for Wisconsin would greatly expand access to care to those who need it most, while preserving what already works. It’s unfortunate the (Walker) administration is deciding to ignore this reality.”

- Allison Miller, Wisconsin government relations director for the American Cancer Society.

One would hope that Wisconsin could get this turkey out of office as soon as possible and elect someone who has the concerns of the citizens ahead of party.

There’s about 2 inches of snow layered with a half inch of ice.  It took me a few minutes to scrape my car off, but it looks like the worst is probably over. The Weather Bureau says the temperature will go above freezing and we’ll have a little light rain and then overcast sun later this afternoon. Can’t wait.

Given the weather, I’m not sure if any of my regular walk-in guests will be on “Talk To Me” today. Hopefully folks will call in to 304-876-5369 and say hello.

The internet is up, so if you’re not in the Shepherdstown, WV, area you can tune in at http://897wshc.org. I’ll be on from 11AM until 1 PM ET.

Since it’s a great day to stay inside and snuggle up with your sweetie take advantage of it. There has been so little winter this year that this is almost like a vacation.

Romney Inverts His Image

…about releasing his tax returns. He said he would “maybe” when the question came up, as everyone expected it would, about Mitt‘s tax returns and how his father, Michigan governor George Romney, had released 12 years of returns.

That “maybe” got him booed by Republicans who weren’t ready to wait.

As Andrew Sullivan said:

“Romney then completely flounders in response to John King’s brilliant citation of George Romney’s position on the matter. And that word — ‘maybe’ — in answer to a direct and simple question is devastating.It not only makes him look shifty; it makes him look as if he doesn’t respect his own father’s honorable example.”

So what if Newt, despite his open marriage past, gets the South Carolina vote?

The Democrats will be thrilled.

_________

First the good. Elly called to say that the word had come up from Texas and they accepted the offer we put in on the house and 4 acres I spoke about on this blog yesterday. Now we can start planning our move and the future with chickens and goats.

___________

Unfortunately the bad news overshadows the good.

My mother called to tell me that my Uncle Peter had died in Connecticut. Peter had been in a nursing home for the last couple of years, but we kept in touch through e-mail (he was a reader and commenter on this blog and, until last August, had a blog of hos own… As I understand it he used to completely take over the community computer in the Home to live on the Internet.)

He was my favorite Uncle, my father’s second youngest brother, a Yale PhD in English Literature ( his dissertation can still be read today : Epic prolepsis and repetition as structural devices in Milton’s Paradise Lost.)

In a family full of Republicans, he was the Democrat, and served as my guide as I became a lifelong liberal.

It was as a writer that he excelled… for many years at the Hartford Courant where he did columns and obituaries and local news… retiring early when they cut down on their staffs. For a while he worked with Elly and me at U-Design (actually that’s where he took up the computer.)

You might like to see a sample of his work, witty and wonderful and very provocative. This was on his blog last August:

I WILL NOT RUN FOR PRESIDENT

Politics – I Won’t Dance
by Pete Tchakirides
No! No! I won’t do it! I refuse to throw my hat into the ring. Today, I am announcing publicly, officially and categorically, that I will not be a candidate for the presidency of the United Startles in 2012. I will not run in a Democratic primary against President Barack Hussein Obama. I will not register as a Republican and seek the GOP nomination for that high post. As Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman said concerning the presidential election of 1884: “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” Why, you ask? Why? Because I have no experience of elective office, especially one that requires knowledge of the legislative process, from the time of classical Greece’s democracy and the workings of the Roman Senate to the formation and development of the English Parliament. I do not have the political or oratorical skills of a Marcus Tullius Cicero, or the depth of historical knowledge of an Edward Gibbon. I have no experience, or appetite, for the commanding of men and women, especially those I might have to send to their deaths in combat. No, I am no Caesar, nor Cicero. You remember what happened to both of them? Yes, assassinated. You still press me to run? Nay, I am getting on in years, and see no need to trouble my old age with more headaches, and heartaches. What? You say that I am as qualified as anyone seeking the nomination for president today? That, as Henry David Thoreau tells us, “No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America”? That most of the candidates are fools, and the rest both fools and knaves? That they represent the interests of political factions and special interests? Perhaps you are right. There are no wise men or women who would be president. I alone, like Socrates, know only I am wise, because I know I do not know anything. But, like Socrates, I would rather drink hemlock than to pretend that I am wise enough to be president.

Lately I’ve been rewatching a Canadian television series from 6 or 7 years ago, Slings and Arrows, about a professional Shakespeare Festival. There is an artistic Director who dies and comes back as a ghost that can be seen by only one person. If I have the opportunity of having a ghost that could talk with me, I would hope it was my Uncle Pete, who I will miss tremendously.

___________

Good news and bad news. Tomorrow is another day.