Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau has a series of comic strips slated to run this week lampooning Virginia’s new law mandating (vaginal) ultrasounds before women can get an abortion there.
The Boston Globe’s boston.com site has already reported that a Texas newspaper has rejected the series.
The question here:
Will the Globe follow suit?
Stay tuned.
(Sorry no links – we’re s–t out of iPadluck.)
Good day in the Big Town for me and the Missus. Some of what we saw:
* “Impact: 50 Years of the Council of Fashion Designers of America” at FIT (through April 17).
If a camel is a horse designed by committee, this is a camels hair-shirt of an exhibit – not the best of everyone, but the least-common-denominator of everyone. Even so, it’s worth seeing.
* “Impact, Movement, and Simplification: Paintings by Charles Green Shaw, 1960-1970” at the Spanierman Gallery.
The leader of the Park Avenue Cubists was at the peak of his powers during the ’60s, and this show is a worthy showcase.
* “Benny Andrews, Bob Thompson, and Alice Neel” at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery.
A revelation – Benny Andrews displays a unique vision, Bob Thompson channels the Blue Riders, and Alice Neel creates portraits that nail their subjects.
* “Whitney Biennial 2012” at the Whitney Museum of American Art (through June 10).
A collection of umpteen contemporary works of art, exactly none of which I understood.
* “John Chamberlain: Choices” at the Guggenheim (through May 13).
At first Chamberlain felt like a one-trick pony, but by the end of the exhibit it was clear he was an ultra-trick pony. And the Guggenheim is an excellent venue to experience that, since you can walk around the mostly iron(ic) sculptures, see them from below, and see them from above.
Over all, an above-average show – the kind the Guggenheim is uniquely suited to present.
(Sorry no links – we’re iPadlicked.).
So Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren (D-I Got Your $336.99 Right Here) has finally decided which charity incumbent Sen. Scott Brown (R-I Got Your $336.99 Right Here) should contribute to for violating their People’s Pledge to keep independent political groups out of their Senate race.
The charity: An autism group, as techPresident reports.
(Sorry no link – we’re iPadlacked.)
See Campaign Outsider for further details.
Smart front-page piece in Friday’s Boston Globe about the GOP presidential PACmary race.
(Sorry no links – we’re iPadlocked.)
Spending tally:
Pro-Romney Restore Our Future: $33.8 million.
Pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future: $16.1 million.
Pro-Santorum Red White and Blue Fund: Not specified in the Globe, but a lot.
This is more like an auction than a primary at this point: A bunch of rich guys bidding against each other for the GOP presidential nomination.
Someone should stop it. But no one can.
Well the Missus and I trundled down to the Big Town and our first stop was The Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94.
And it is a 10.
There were 228 dealers there (according to the New York Times – no link, we’re iPadblocked) and at least that many interestingly dressed art grazers.
A visual delight, all the way around the course.
The hardworking staff noted yesterday that U.S. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Got Any Cash on You?) owed $336.99 to the charity of Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Gotcha!) choice for this violation of their People’s Pledge to keep third-party money out of their electoral race.
Via techPresident:
Elizabeth Warren is asking her supporters which charity Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown should donate money to after his supporters violated both campaigns’ pledge against third party ads. The Brown campaign has agreed to donate the money to a charity of the Warren campaign’s choice.
Warren’s appeal:
Help Scott Brown Fulfill the People’s Pledge
Elizabeth and Scott Brown made an agreement – called the People’s Pledge – to keep special interest groups’ ads out of our campaigns.
Scott Brown’s supporters just violated that pledge for the first time, and the Brown campaign has agreed to donate 50% of the value of the advertising spend to a charity of our choice, as outlined in the pledge.
Since this pledge is the People’s Pledge, we’d like your help picking the charity Scott Brown donates to.
Our suggestion: The Campaign Outsider Fund, dedicated to keeping the hardworking staff stuffed.
What – you have a better idea?
When we last left the dogged opinion-mongering (or is that mongreling?) of Gail Collins, the hardworking staff had posted a comment on the New York Times website protesting her exclusion of our excellent Seamus Sweepstakes™ from yesterday’s column and said we’d keep you posted on our post.
Well we’re here to say that the Times has posted 691 comments on the column, none of which is ours.
Clearly Collins leaned on the Times masthead to behead the hardworking staff. But the joke might be on her, given this post at Buzzfeed:
Twitter Is Sick Of Gail Collins Writing About Mitt Romney’s Dog
Representative sample:
Time for everyone to jump on the Seamus Sweepstakes™, seems to us.
Hard on the heels of Tikkun’s email blitz promoting its full-page ad in Wednesday’s New York Times (duly noted by the hardworking staff yesterday) comes a second wave of emails imploring us to interview editor Michael Lerner.
Exhibit Amail:
On Wednesday, March 7 we at Tikkun magazine placed a full page ad in the New York Times against a U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran, either now or after economic sanctions have “been given a chance to work.” Approximately 2,800 people signed the ad. Please click here to view the ad and then consider helping its author, Rabbi Michael Lerner, get a hearing in your media . . .
Exhibit Bmail:
Do you have friends in Chicago, Dallas, New York, Montclair, or Boston who might be interested in hearing Rabbi Lerner speak? Rabbi Lerner will travel to all of these locations in the coming two weeks to speak about his new book, Embracing Israel/Palestine. In some locations, he’ll also discuss his vision for spiritually progressive activism and why he opposes war with Iran. In every location, the presentation will be followed by a Q&A and book-signing.
Not to enable the stalkers, but here’s Lerner’s Boston-area itinerary:
7pm, Wednesday, March 21: Debate-style event with Rabbi Lerner and Prof. Richard Landes at Boston University Hillel House, 213 Bay State Road in Boston. The topic is “A Debate About Israel, The Jewish People, and Our Path to Peace.” Contact Lauren Shuman at lshuman@bu.edu.
2pm, Thursday, March 22: Presentation on Embracing Israel/Palestine at Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA. Building and room number TBA. Contact fellman@brandeis.edu.
7pm, Thursday, March 22: Presentation on Embracing Israel/Palestine at Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon St., Boston, MA. Contact Bill Rich, WRich@trinitychurchboston.org.
Okay – now will you leave us alone, Tikkun?
Campaign Outsider headline, October 20, 2011:
Gail Collins Back To Dogging Mitt Romney
Gail Collins headline, March 8, 2012:
Dogging Mitt Romney
Are we soulmates or what?
So how come Collins doesn’t mention our excellent Seamus Sweepstakes™ in today’s column, which starts this way:
I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this, but Mitt Romney once drove to Canada with the family Irish setter on the roof of the car.
Seamus, the dog-on-the-roof, has become a kind of political icon. You cannot go anywhere without running into him. There are Seamus T-shirts and endless Web sites. This week, the story was a New Yorker cover, with Rick Santorum playing the role of the Irish setter.
Neil Swidey, the Boston Globe reporter who first broke the Seamus story in 2007, wrote recently that he had been avoiding a return to the topic for fear that some day the dog would wind up in the lead of his obituary.
Which I can totally understand.
Collins then conducts a Q&A with herself that’s heavy on Swidey but nowhere mentions the hardworking staff.
That’s just wrong.
(To clarify: We yield to no man in our respect for Neil Swidey’s work, but – hey – what about us?)
The hardworking staff has duly registered its protest in the Comments attached to Collins’s column.
We’ll keep you posted on whether it’s posted.
The hardworking staff has a new pen pal: Tikkun, which describes itself as “A Jewish Magazine, an Interfaith movement.”
We received not one, but two emails yesterday urging us to interview Tikkun editor Michael Lerner.
From email #1:
I’m writing to let you know that, with $60,000+ in donations from interfaith supporters around the world, a full-page advertisement has been published in today’s New York Times against a U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran. (Click HERE to view the ad.) Rabbi Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine, organized this massive effort and is very eager to be interviewed for any program or article that deals with the subject of Iran.
Very eager to be interviewed? Aren’t we all.
From email #2:
Media once again leads path to war–by ignoring that Obama and Netanyahu publicly legitimated a preemptive attack on Iran
Today, our ad saying “No” to a first strike (preemptive attack) by either Israel or the U.S. on Iran, appeared in the New York Times (in the National Edition it is on page A19). The ad was signed by 2,700 people. View the ad atwww.tikkun.org/iran
The media has distorted what has been going on between Obama and Netanyahu, representing it as Obama standing up to Netanyahu and being a hero for peace. But actually what happened is that Obama legitimated a first strike and preemptive attack on Iran, arguing with Netanyahu about the timing of such an attack, seeking to allow coercive economic sanctions to work first, but stating explicitly that Israel should not be constrained in any way to follow what it decides to be in its best national interest in regard to a strike on Iran. That’s why AIPAC gave him a standing ovation when Obama addressed them a few days ago.
Media distortion? No wonder the hardworking staff has been offered a chance to set the record straight.
For the record, the aforementioned ad:
(For actually readable version, see here.)
Full disclosure: The hardworking staff will not be interviewing Rabbi Lerner in the foreseeable future. But we will keep an eye on him.
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