The New York Times has published the piece The Oscar for Best Fabrication by Maureen Dowd.  Some of the examples mentioned in Dowd’s article include:

The affable and talented Ben Affleck has admitted that his film’s climax, with Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers jumping in a jeep, chasing the plane down the runway and shooting at it, was fabricated for excitement.

“Zero Dark Thirty,” “based on firsthand accounts of actual events,” has been faulted for leaving the impression that torture was instrumental in the capture of Osama. It celebrates Jessica Chastain’s loner character, “Maya,” when it could have more accurately and theatrically highlighted “The Sisterhood,” a team of female C.I.A. analysts who were part of the long effort.

And then there’s the kerfuffle over “Lincoln,” which had three historical advisers but still managed to make some historical bloopers. Joe Courtney, a Democratic congressman from Connecticut, recently wrote to Steven Spielberg to complain that “Lincoln” falsely showed two of Connecticut’s House members voting “Nay” against the 13th Amendment for the abolition of slavery.

Remember the quote from Mark Twain, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

It does bother me when dramatizations of history make up stuff that is untrue.  I always remind myself after seeing such a movie to try to erase everything I have seen from my memory.  If you don’t do that, you will end up with a recollection of historical facts that are not historical nor are they facts.  Of course erasing something like this from your memory is as impossible as erasing an email that you have sent from being recorded somewhere in the cloud.

I am not pleased by movie makers when they pollute my mind with false information.  I did finally draw the line with “Zero Dark Thirty”.  I will not see that movie because of the portrayal of torture as an effective means of getting information when I have read that people who were responsible for getting important intelligence from captives tell us that torture actually stops the flow of useful information.

You can get this free bumper sticker by making a contribution to Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

By putting this sticker on your car, you can help convince thousands of people that the NRA is lying when it claims to represent hunters.

The link GunOwnersForReform.com takes you to a Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s web site for a petition.

When the deer, bears, and birds start shooting back, perhaps it is a sign that Mother Nature wants you to stop hunting rather than buying an assault weapon. Of course, if you are hunting other hunters and they shoot back, is that called playing on a level playing field?

Mother Jones has the article “Hubris”: New Documentary Reexamines the Iraq War “Hoax”.

The film highlights a Pentagon document declassified two years ago. This memo notes that in November 2001—shortly after the 9/11 attacks—Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with General Tommy Franks to review plans for the “decapitation” of the Iraqi government. The two men reviewed how a war against Saddam could be triggered; that list included a “dispute over WMD inspections.” It’s evidence that the administration was seeking a pretense for war.

The gist of most of the comments on the article is “Well, I knew from the get go that this was a hoax.” I put myself in that camp. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a post somewhere on this blog that makes that clear.

You may have seen this letter to the editor in The Boston Globe.

The Dallas Morning News has the story Video: 10-ton meteor streaks through the sky in Russia, hits injuring 500.

A meteor that scientists estimate weighed 10 tons streaked at supersonic speed over Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday, setting off blasts that injured some 500 people and frightened countless more.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement that the meteor over the Chelyabinsk region entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered about 18-32 miles above ground.

The fall caused explosions that broke glass over a wide area. The Emergency Ministry says more than 500 people sought treatment after the blasts and that 34 of them were hospitalized.

Two more videos and a slide show are available in The Wall Street Journal article Meteorite Hits Russia, Causing Panic.

So, were the Mayans and their calendar just off by one year?  Actually maybe off by only a couple of months?

The New York Times has the story East Asian Physical Traits Linked to 35,000-Year-Old Mutation.

Gaining a deep insight into human evolution, researchers have identified a mutation in a critical human gene as the source of several distinctive traits that make East Asians different from other races.

The traits — thicker hair shafts, more sweat glands, characteristically identified teeth and smaller breasts — are the result of a gene mutation that occurred about 35,000 years ago, the researchers have concluded.

I was wondering how evolution deniers could handle this story.  The comments on The Los Angeles Times version of this story headlined Tiny mutation may have shaped modern humans, scientists say gives the answer.

 Scott Traficante at 4:10 AM February 15, 2013

Junk science –and paid for on the backs of working Anericans.  It always amusues me that people make wole careers and raise families doing nothing but “researching: junk science.  In other words, find a conclusion, then make a hypothisis fit it.

Not the scientific method we were taight in school.

rphael at 7:41 PM February 14, 2013

So we are to believe that Chinese men prefare small breasts and to accomplish this, they got more sweat glands….  Monkey science?

I believe this is Elizabeth Warren’s first appearance as a member of the Senate Banking Committe.  This video from Huffington Post shows you why many of us in Massachusetts voted to put Elizabeth Warren in her new position.

The video below is presented to you using the code that Huffington Post gave to me to embed this in my blog. If it does not work for you, I have no explanation as to why. You can always use the above link to go directly to Huffington Post to see the video.

I found the link to this story on Jacquelyn Wells’ Facebook page. Jake, thanks for posting this.

In case you missed the speech or need to refresh your memory, here is the video.

The White House has a web page where you can comment about the speech.

Our involvement cannot end at just listening to the speech. We have to work with the President to defeat the inevitable opposition to these sensible initiatives.

Progressive Massachusetts has produced a comparison document on the records of Ed Markey vs. Stephen Lynch in the race for the U. S. Senate seat.  Click on the previous link if you want a PDF version of the image below.

Of course this is just an indication. Do your own due diligence before deciding.

April 30, 2013

I notice a lot of people are reading this blog post in the last two days. What has become increasingly apparent is that Ed Markey is the only truly progressive candidate in this race in either party. For instance, all the other candidates seem to be in favor of repealing Obamacare after we fought so hard to get a barely acceptable plan in place. I hear that Stephen Lynch has even abandoned the pretense that he voted against it because it was not good enough. I remember how the election of Scott Brown to the Senate was the final nail in the coffin of getting a good bill passed. If Lynch thinks we can repeal what is in place and get something better, I have to wonder what he is smoking.

After we worked so hard to get Elizabeth Warren elected and Scott Brown ousted, the last thing we need to do is repeat the original mistake by putting anybody else in the Senate but Ed Markey.

Politicus USA has the article Obama’s Reelection is Literally Destroying Fox News .

President Obama’s reelection has had a devastating impact on Fox News. Ratings are down, viewer trust is at an all time low, and now the network is caught in the middle of a Republican civil war.

I suppose it might be good if this were true.  And perhaps it is true.  But “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

Of course, I only publish this for my dear readers who might care 🙂