Our Thanksgiving

Well, our Thanksgiving went splendidly. Our Daughter and Grand Daughter joined us, and we had a wonderful (and early) dinner with all the fix-ins.

A 16 pound bird, cage and hormone free.

My Grand Daughter is a wee bit leery of the flutes we used for the sparkling grape juice.

The groaning board.

I am quite conscious that on this day we commemorate a time when our ancestors were saved from starvation by the indigenous people who they then proceeded to wipe of the face of the Earth, and that seems a stupid thing to give thanks for. But my family's presence is a blessing, and for that I am grateful.

Robert Kennedy, April 4, 1968

After annoucing the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King to an urban crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana, Robert Kennedy said this:

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, but we -- and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

While may cities in America exploded into violence after this event, Indianapolis did not.

Finally . . . .

(Via The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — Congress gave final approval on Sunday to legislation that would provide medical coverage to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and remake the nation’s health care system along the lines proposed by President Obama.

By a vote of 219 to 212, the House passed the bill after a day of tumultuous debate that echoed the epic struggle of the last year. The action sent the bill to President Obama, whose crusade for such legislation has been a hallmark of his presidency.

“This isn’t radical reform, but it is major reform,” Mr. Obama said after the vote. “This legislation will not fix everything that ails our health care system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like.”

So here we are, after all the shouting and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The bill, which I think does some things good but mostly far too little, has passed. Will the skies turn black and the earth crack and open up to swallow us all? Somehow, I doubt it.

Here's hoping this is just a beginning of the change this country needs. The change that Barrack Obama was elected for. And here's hoping the Republicans who have lied and screamed and thrown tantrums about all this are seen for what they are: craven, ignorant jackasses.

America: From the Greatest Generation to---a Nation of Pussies???

(Via Talking Points Memo)

Number of Gitmo detainees that the GOP hopes to keep off mainland U.S. soil with its "Keep Terrorists Out Of America Act": roughly 250.

Number of Axis POWs detained in camps on the U.S. mainland at the end of WWII: roughly 425,000.

The Republicans will do anything to whip up a phony issue. I'm more worried about the prisoners in Pelican Bay that the few so-called terrorists in Gitmo. And are you really telling me the nation that imprisons more people than anywhere else in the world can't take care of 250 detainees?

Quote for the Day (Former President Division)

We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

(And we also know that those who don't learn from history's mistakes are doomed to repeat them.)

Say hello to the new First Family:

This is incredible. I feel like the man who has stopped hitting himself in the head with a hammer: that feels good. I said to my wife I can vaguely recall the early days of hope and optimism of the JFK presidency. Could something of that nature be happening again? Is that naive? I sure hope not. And I certainly hope and pray that the ending of this chunk of history is not the same.

To see a beautiful black family take up residence in the White House, not as servants but as the First Family, is overwhelming. It is humbling and utterly wonderful to have seen this happen in my lifetime. We have a long way to go as a country, but we certainly have come a long way already.

Congratulations to all the Obamas. And thank God!!!!

Quote for the Day (Former Cabinet Member Division)

History never looks like history when you are living through it. - John W. Gardner, quoted by Bill Moyers

Quote for the Day (Former President Division)

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too. - Richard M. Nixon

How low can you go?

(Via Usa Today)

WASHINGTON — President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69% disapprove.

The thing that surprises me about this is that 28% of Americans approve of the job he's doing. Who are these people, and what the hell are they thinking?

Absolutely the coolest thing about not believing in evolution:

We get to ride dinosaurs!!!!

Take a picture, it lasts longer

Going back to my old stomping grounds a couple of weeks back set off some excavating into my archives. It's amazing what resides in old photo negative envelopes and can be scanned to yield some fairly embarrassing things:








The names will remain anonymous, but what were we thinking?

Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we'd choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

(This post is dedicated all all who have gone on, and in particular to Joanne. Rest easy, Jo.)

Quote for the Day (Jack Handey Division)

Eventually, I believe, everything evens out. Long ago, an asteroid hit our planet and killed our dinosaurs. But, in the future, maybe we’ll go to another planet and kill their dinosaurs. - Jack Handey (Via The New Yorker)

Quote for the Day (Recently Died Crypto-Nazi Division)

Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered. - William F. Buckley, Jr., To Gore Vidal during the 1968 Democratic Convention commentaries on network television.

Einstein's Brain

(Via Neatorama)

After his death in 1955, Einstein’s brain [wiki] was removed - without permission from his family - by Thomas Stoltz Harvey [wiki], the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy. Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from his job for refusing to relinquish the organ.

Many years later, Harvey, who by then had gotten permission from Hans Albert to study Einstein’s brain, sent slices of Einstein’s brain to various scientists throughout the world. One of these scientists was Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley, who discovered that compared to a normal person, Einstein had significantly more glial cells in the region of the brain that is responsible for synthesizing information.

In another study, Sandra Witelson of McMaster University found that Einstein’s brain lacked a particular "wrinkle" in the brain called the Sylvian fissure. Witelson speculated that this unusual anatomy allowed neurons in Einstein’s brain to communicate better with each other. Other studies had suggested that Einstein’s brain was denser, and that the inferior parietal lobe, which is often associated with mathematical ability, was larger than normal brains.

The saga of Einsteins brain can be quite strange at times: in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer Michael Paterniti on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein’s granddaughter. They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey’s Buick Skylark with Einstein’s brain sloshing inside a jar in the trunk! Paterniti later wrote his experience in the book Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain

In 1998, the 85-year-old Harvey delivered Einstein’s brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, the staff pathologist at Princeton University, the position Harvey once held:

… after safeguarding the brain for decades like it was a holy relic — and, to many, it was — he simply, quietly, gave it away to the pathology department at the nearby University Medical Center at Princeton, the university and town where Einstein spent his last two decades.

"Eventually, you get tired of the responsibility of having it. … I did about a year ago," Harvey said, slowly. "I turned the whole thing over last year [in 1998]."

Just one of 10 Strange Facts About Einstein you'll find here. It seems that Al was quite the lady's man . . . .