Hey You! Shut up!

Yes, you. 


By Capt. Fogg

It's the time of year at which I start to bitch and moan more than usual about what you have been doing to my language in that pathetically  passionate and Sisyphean pursuit of  being like the cool kids, the hip, with-it, urban, hang around the mall texting, thug pretending Clearasil crowd you wish you were like instead of the afraid-to-grow-up nerd with the 6000 word vocabulary you are.   Don't take comfort in the idea that I'm the only one.  I have allies.

Lake Superior State University may be seeking status by publishing their annual list of banned words.  I admit I would never have heard of them otherwise, but standing up for human dignity, taking a risk or even sticking their necks out (which is a cliche on my own banned list ) is easier for the little guy than for the English Department at Yale or Princeton or Harvard who have so much jargon laden linguistic naughtiness of their own to hide. I mean listen to those people some time.

It's to be noted that the Oxford dictionary folks have given us "selfie" as the word of the year, as though the nickname, the childish contraction, the conveyor of infantile cuteness makes the useless word preferable to 'self portrait' or simply 'picture' and as though we've made a statement  as important, as piquant, as precious as wearing your hat backwards some 40 years after the cuteness and uniqueness turned rancid.  Like most of this pretentious pre-teen babble, it says, "I'm not a stodgy grown up, I'm a kid, a street urchin, a rebel."   The hell you are.

No wonder then that  LSSU puts 'selfie' at the top of the annual banned list and suggests that we all teach by example and not use it no matter how much the idiot press tries to gain favor from the never-grow-ups.  It doesn't make you younger and  more charming than covering your encroaching baldness by wearing a hat in a restaurant or running shoes with a business suit.

Sure, many or maybe most people will giggle at the list and perhaps snicker about the rural pretentiousness  of  some college housed in some igloo somewhere on the frigid shores of Lake Superior and offers majors in  Fisheries and Wildlife Management, but they're heroes to me. Back when I was riding about alone with a lance and tin pot helmet like trying to like get people to like not say like so much it was encouraging to have them out there with me, not that anything ever retards the advance of  acid dripping aliens or drooling Americans yearning to be hip.  But you do what you have to do. You make a point of  ignoring the latest media infatuation, the latest gleeful descent into ever more nearly transcendental  vulgarity like  that culture destroying practice of  waving one's genitals in the public face like a blue-assed baboon in heat or a moose in rut: twerking. It's on their list and mine, targeted for destruction.


It's equally as encouraging to have LSSU riding at my side when approaching that  overripe, fly-blown and stinking cliche that has has anything larger than common as "on steroids."   Perhaps we should start the rumor that saying "on steroids" does the same thing to your genitals as actually being on steroids.  Maybe untrue, but anything for the cause. 

But there's a gorilla in the room, to pick another beaten to death trope, and although this year's list doesn't mention it, it may be the most vile, most overused, most needful of a quick and merciful death and it's "awesome."   There must be some psychological principle involved but most of us don't notice that you can't get through a dozen words without one of them being Awesome.  You can't say it without a certain smile, inflection, gesture or bit of micro-theater -- everything from relieving your bladder to the contemplation of the cosmos is just Awesome!  Didja hear that smile in my voice? Ain't I childlike and cute?  I just hope the next time something seems just 'Ahhhhsome' that you choke on it and don't expect no stinking Heimlich from me or my buddy on the donkey here: LSSU the fighting Lakers.

And then there's "urban."  That accursed term which no longer has much to do with metropolitan life. We have definitions and we have "urban" definitions. We have an "urban" dictionary which serves to give some ersatz dignity to any ignorant patois and attempts to explain those great linguistic questions of the difference between big and big ass and all the strange agglutinative properties of  affixes like ass.   Indeed "urban" stands for a subculture and the language it uses.  I have only one thing to say about it: don't.  By the time it gets into the Urban Dictionary it's too damn late and probably inaccurate at that.  That makes you a follower, a  loser a poseur. 

So look, if you really speak English, if you enjoy novel and creative usage and know something about the history of the words you're building something out of, go ahead.  It's how language progresses, it's where poetry and literature begin, but if you use it to cover up ignorance or even to promote it, if everything is awesome only because it's all you know. you're on the list bud. You're got me and the LSSU Lakers on your trail and they're not just bad-ass, they're awesome and might just do something impactful, if you know what  I mean.

Your moment of Zen

Hoya cinnamomifolia is a vine that comes from the island of Java. This is its flower.

Sick leave

Sorry, I've been too sick to blog for the last few days. All I want to do is sleep. Going to break down and go out and buy some medicine today, so maybe that will help. I will be back.

Your moment of Zen

Frosted bluebonnets in Texas. [RC McKee photo]

Leaving This Town

I followed Sam Youngman for only a short while on the twitter. I found him to be pretty much a pompous ass promoting bad policy. As the kids say, ain't nobody got time for that. So guess I missed his metamorphosis because I was surprised his longish goodbye note to DC was so self-aware. It's Politico, so be warned, but it's worth reading in full.

Not even going to excerpt it, except this one line which captures the theme:

In Washington, a divided America is good for business.

And good for the insiders who run the place. Rare to find a insider that would say that out loud, but then again Youngman is now on the outside having successfully escaped the toxic bubble. Hope a few of his former colleagues take his advice.

Happy holidays

If it's in keeping with your celebration...

The art of snow

We're not doing news today. Instead have some snow paintings made by foot. By Simon Beck creates snow drawings by walking in pristine snow for hours. They're huge. No idea how he figures out the grids. The images change according to the light of the sun. More photos at the link.

Your moment of Zen

Christmas in Gapyeong, South Korea. [Via New York Post, more photos at link.]

Christmas Eve in Florida

By Capt. Fogg

We can forget the Norse
Gods here -- their trees and fires.
The Winter nights aren't all that cold
or long
and we don't need their help.

The inns don't have room
in tourist season
if you don't have reservations,
and there aren't many of them.

But if you have to sleep outdoors
in the balmy night
behind the dumpster at the Winn-Dixie
or even on the beach
it's not so bad.

Not hard to find an old cooler
to put the baby in.
Hey, I know an abandoned car
if it rains.

No shepherds in Florida.
Thank God.
But watch for the cops
and no worries,

any wise men from the east
won't get past the Coasties.

Will the armadillos come to marvel?
The hoot owls hoot Hosanna in the night?

What goes around comes around

By Capt. Fogg

So here's me looking at this guy in the hardware store selecting Christmas lights. He's got a little kid with him - shorts and tank top and skin covered top to bottom with graffiti like a subway car from the 60's. Looked like Bible quotes.  

"What the fuck you looking at?  You like my legs, huh?"  It's one of those "shoulda said" in retrospect moments, but  I didn't say "if you didn't want anyone to read it you should have tattooed it on your ass," discretion being very much the better part of valor particularly for someone who's left his Colt .380 at home since the Zimmerman incident.

So again, a bit later,  I'm about to pull into a parking space at the post office, sunny day, top down, feeling merry -- but there's a guy there - old dude about my age about to step in front on his way to the other side.  I stop and wave for him to go ahead because I'm polite to other geezers and good looking women. 

"What the fuck does that mean, asshole? What the fuck you wavin' at you cocksucker? I'm tryina walk, dooya fuckin'  mind?"  

"Merry fucking Christmas to you too, you crazy bastard" I said with a grin and getting out of the car. Not worried about this one.  The postal employee emptying the outside box pretended he saw and heard nothing, going postal being a metaphor for good reason.  Ran inside, grabbed the flat rate box I came for and saw Mr. Nice guy rummaging in his late model Mustang convertible for something in the console.

Now here's that better part of valor again. I didn't wait --  and once  again, didn't have weaponry in the car like so many other Floridians. If I had,  it would have been a felony just to have it there much less to take it out and show it, whether standing my ground or not, concealed weapon permit or not. 

Sometimes it's nice to have 400+ horsepower.

So here's the old man in white beard, red sled with presents in the trunk,  pulling out on to Old Dixie Highway with Christmas spirit and lotsa tire smoke -- and he looks over his shoulder as he steps on the gas:   

Merry Christmas to all and y'all kiss my ass!

Your moment of Zen

Beautiful Maze at Longleat, England

Your moment of Zen

Snow Queen, one of the largest snow sculptures in the world, measuring 35m high and 200m long.

White Elephant

If I had won that big Megabucks lottery a few days ago, I would have funded this project myself. Brilliant. And how cool is it that you can make a living at origami?




Backstory:

Now the 33-year-old artist is appealing to Indiegogo’s crowdfunding angels to help him realize his ambition of folding a life-size elephant out of a single sheet of 50 x 50 meter (164 x 164 foot) paper. (So far he’s raised $13,843 of his $24,000 goal with 3 weeks to go.) Mabona says his aim is to show what a single sheet of paper can do by using it to create a replica of one of the world’s most imposing land-dwelling creatures.

[via anne Laurie]

Another BigMedia fail

While I've been offline for a few days President Obama held a presser. I didn't see it but Betty Cracker did and reports:

UPDATE: Conference underway. PBO started off talking up the economy, deficit reduction and healthcare enrollment. Noted that a budget passed. Called for an extension of unemployment benefits, saying GOP should have passed it before they left town.

She runs down the questions our prima donnas of the insider media asked POTUS. Of course almost none of them addressed the substance of his remarks. My personal favorite:

What is your New Year’s resolution?

Notably missing were any questions about the unemployed or any recognition that Obama is right about GOP obstruction. These are same people whining about lack of access. Have a hard time working up much sympathy when they ignore what Obama says and pursue their stupid "zomg, it's a failed presidency" trolling instead. I don't engage with trolls either.

Your moment of Zen

And the sun begins to win again against the darkness. Stonehenge on Solstice day.

Almost Christmas

I'm still alive. Just really busy with real life this week. And it's almost Christmas so time for some music. Possibly the best rendition of this Christmas carol ever by my friend Mike Finnigan.

Useful rubes

[Ed Stein cartoon]

George Zimmerman, rip off artist

Apparently, when the hero of the gun crazy crowd isn't busy murdering unarmed teenagers for inciting his personal terror of Skittles, or threatening women, he's taken up more artistic pursuits. Zimmerman's first painting fetched a cool 100K when he put up for auction at EBay this week.

And if that's not enough to gag you, he has fans:

A well-wisher expressed love and support for Zimmerman in a question posted on the eBay auction, telling him there were many people on his side, and the artist replied.

“Thank you so much for the words of kindness and support. I do know how many great Americans are still here, I run into at least 3-5 a day that go out of their way to tell me the same. Your Friend, GZ @therealGeorgeZ.”

Putting aside the disgust, gotta give the guy credit for figuring how to work his grift for the highest return possible. Feel a bit sorry for the winner of the auction though. As it turns out, Georgie's art work wasn't entirely original. Hilariously, it's a rip off of a Democratic Underground logo that was generated from a stock photo. [h/t Atrios]

Which reminded me of the plagiarized Breitbart tribute painting. What it is with crackpot cons and their proclivity to steal real artist's work?

FOX surrenders in the War on Christmas

This is hilarious. Apparently FOX has defected to our side in the War on Christmas.



Wonder if anyone has told Megyn or Bill O yet? [Media Matters screen capture via Oliver Willis]

Your moment of Zen

Castle made of sand, Santa Cruz, California. [photo via]

New precedents for the surveillance state

Important opinion out of the federal courts today. Judge Richard Leon ruled the NSA's metadata sweep of all the phones is unconstitutional, kicking what little breath was left out of the body of the Fourth Amendment. Or as the Hon. Judge Leon put it more formally:

[T]he question in this case can more properly be styled as follows: When do present-day circumstances — the evolutions in the Government’s surveillance capabilities, citizens’ phone habits, and the relationship between the NSA and telecom companies — become so thoroughly unlike those considered by the Supreme Court thirty-four years ago that a precedent like Smith simply does not apply? The answer, unfortunately for the Government, is now.

In other words, the decades old precedent the NSA built their surveillance permissions on is no longer applicable to the way we communicate today.

Judge Leon ordered the NSA to cease immediately and to destroy all their stored records. Which doesn't mean much since he stayed the order pending appeal. Which will surely go all the way to SCOTUS. Which will no doubt take several years. Still a high judicial rebuke of the program is far from nothing. Good news for anyone who cherishes the right to privacy.

Charlie says we should thank the hapless Ed Snowden and his champion Glenn Greenwald for this breakthrough, no matter how annoying you might find them. He's right. I was never bowled over by their revelations. I've been paying attention for a really long time and don't think I've learned anything new from Glenn and Ed. But they did succeed in keeping the story in play in the media for long enough to make it public knowledge among the less engaged citizenry. I doubt it would have made it this far in the courts without the worldwide public attention.

And yes, that Larry Klagman is going to get the credit for this case makes me want to vomit too.

Your moment of Zen

Aurora Borealis over Iceland. [NASA photo]

What America would look like without the EPA

Pretty much like Shanghai:

For the seventh day this month, Shanghai officials have warned children and the elderly to stay inside in a city where 24 hours exposed to the off-the-charts pollution would have hazardous consequences to one’s health. Hundreds of flights and sporting events have been cancelled, while face masks and air purifiers sold out in stores. All week, the pollution level hovered at “heavily” and “severely” polluted, according to Shanghai’s Air Quality Index, at up to 31 times the recommended levels. [...]

Officials have ordered vehicles off the road to curb air pollution, so far removing roughly 30 percent.

Since that didn't work so well, Shanghai's "environmental authority took decisive action to address the frequent air-quality alerts: It adjusted standards downward to ensure that there won’t be so many.

That's pollution, not ordinary fog. Beijing doesn't usually look much better. This is your world without environmental regulations.

Your moment of Zen

"Monster Sled" at Fenway starting 12/28. [photo via RedSox]

If only they had passed Medicare for All

It's like everybody forgot what health insurance was like before Obamacare. Sam Baker reminds us don't blame Obamacare just because it's there. Take for instance, losing your doctor:

Insurers tried to narrow their provider networks in the '90s using HMOs, and consumers hated the plans so much that insurers ultimately backed away. That could happen again this time—the Affordable Care Act doesn't require narrow networks and it doesn't dictate how much insurers pay doctors.

"No one has ever heard of an HMO? Networks have been around forever," said Aaron Carroll, director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research at Indiana University. "The idea of networks as somehow new or government-created is strange.... I understand why people don't like it. They never have. But it's not the fault of the Affordable Care Act. It's the fault of trying to keep spending to a minimum."

I recall many stories before they passed the ACA about people losing their doctors because employers changed plans, raised rates and cut benefits. And speaking of employers and high deductibles:

But deductibles were already on the rise, pre-Obamacare. In the market for employer coverage, which Obamacare barely touches, deductibles have been growing steadily. In 2006, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 10 percent of workers covered by an employer plan had an annual deductible of $1,000 or more. By 2010, the year the Affordable Care Act passed, it was up to 27 percent. By last year it had reached 38 percent.

In other words, Big Business is blaming Obamacare for cuts they were already planning to make to save money and raise profits.

Our legislators should have listened to the hippies who were screaming for single payer. They should have ignored Joe Lieberman's great concerns that derailed the Medicare buy-in deal. But they didn't. In the end, the only thing that would pass is this Rube Goldberg morass of new regulations that allowed the middlemen to maintain their status as useless skimmers. As Baker puts it:

There's not a big difference between "how Obamacare works" and "how health insurance works"—and that, health experts said, is what makes the law such a convenient target.

Atrios warned them about this from the first day of negotiations. No matter what happened, and it was never going to be great as long as insurance corporations weren't cut out as the arbiters of health care, Obamacare and Democrats were going to be blamed for everything wrong with the system. The system sill sucks and always will until we cut out the middlemen. [image via]

Your moment of Zen

Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia. [via Google Earth Pics]

Hungry

Some days I just despair for the future of my progeny. Are we so far gone as a society to find it acceptable to watch our elderly and disabled slide into abject poverty while casino capitalists on Wall Street are raking in billions of nearly tax free winnings and corporate CEOs make 475 times more than their workers, who have reached the human capacity for increased productivity while sharing none of the gains?

With House Republicans hell-bent on cutting food stamps, some Congressional Democrats believe they can strike a "compromise" in the upcoming Farm Bill by "only" taking $90/month away from 850,000 poor families. [via]

And this on top of the expiring unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans which probably won't be renewed before John Boehner sends his House of Dysfunction home to enjoy their own comfortable holidays.

There's war of conservative aggression in the House

Thing about Tea Party cons, they will never back down. It's the prime rule of the crackpot credo. No compromise. No surrender. Never admit you're wrong. So now we're on day two of the BigCon Grifters versus John Boehner. Apparently John has found that mason jar with his balls in it that Charlie Pierce keeps talking about. Channeling his inner honey badger, Boehner don't care what the fuck they do anymore.

Admit I'm admiring him just a little today for finally standing up to them. Wondering how long it's going to last though. This from a charter member of the House Crackpot Caucus on the budget deal doesn't bode well for the Speaker.

The budget deal that emerged this week was crafted to win support of Democrats and Republicans alike, and that's simply a bridge too far for one tea party congressman.

“This bill is not designed to get our vote,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) said Wednesday at a meeting hosted by the Heritage Foundation. “This bill is designed to pass with bipartisan support in the House.”

Ye Gods. We can't have that. Our government might actually function as it was intended to by those rascally Founding Fathers. No true conservative can stand for that.

Your moment of Zen

Aurora over Maine farmhouse. [photo via]

Deep tweets

Not sure of context. Assume presser.

Actual question to a congressman just now: “ You keep saying this is a step forward. Is it really kicking the can down the road?”
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) December 11, 2013

GOP infighting heats up the House

Looks like the one lesson old guard Republicans learned from 2012 is the Tea Party's crackpot conservatism is toxic for the Republican brand. Showing a rare flash of public irritation, it's cear John Boehner has had enough of those people. The crackpot cons were not amused:

Club For Growth issued a statement in response to Boehner's remarks, but didn't mention him by name, and instead lit into the budget agreement he and Ryan are vouching for.

"We stand with Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Coburn, Rand Paul, members of the Republican Study Committee and every other fiscal conservative who opposes the Ryan-Murray deal," Chris Chocola, the group's president. "After carefully reviewing the budget deal, on which we never commented until it was complete, we determined that it would increase the size of government. We support pro-growth proposals when they are considered by Congress. In our evaluation, this isn't one of those."

That would be the same Ted Cruz, Tea Party dreamboat and 2016 dreamer who proudly strutted out of the stadium.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Tuesday that the lawmaker walked out of Nelson Mandela's memorial service in Johannesburg when Cuban President Raul Castro spoke to the crowd, according to news reports.

Because nothing says presidential material like storming out of a state event because you don't like another world leader. But it's sure to play well with the rubes. Probably be able to fundraise a decent chunk of change off that tantrum.

Boehner is right. It's all about the grift. I'd take more pleasure in watching him reap his rewards for empowering these miscreants in the first place if we weren't all paying the price for his fall. [graphic via]

Dancing with my selfie

Nelson Mandela's memorial service was an important occasion of international import. Yet with all the possible news to cover, the media went wild over Obama's selfie with David Cameron and Denmark's very attractive (blonde) Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. Thus ensued a tidal wave of thinly veiled snark about "angry black woman" Michelle Obama who was pictured looking serious, or (if you're a pro journo looking for clickbait)a  pissed off wife. Nearly everyone got it wrong and not just about Michelle Obama. Yes it said a lot about our bias, but no, taking the selfie was not disrespectful in any way. Funerals are not somber events in Africa. Surely the media saw the parties in the streets when Mandela died. They apparently do not mourn death there as we do. They celebrate the life of the person who passed. As for the misconstrued photo, let's let the photographer explain the selfie:

I’d been there since the crack of dawn and when I took this picture, the memorial ceremony had already been going on for more than two hours. [...]

Anyway, suddenly this woman pulled out her mobile phone and took a photo of herself smiling with Cameron and the US president. I captured the scene reflexively. All around me in the stadium, South Africans were dancing, singing and laughing to honour their departed leader. It was more like a carnival atmosphere, not at all morbid. The ceremony had already gone on for two hours and would last another two. The atmosphere was totally relaxed – I didn’t see anything shocking in my viewfinder, president of the US or not. We are in Africa.[...]

I later read on social media that Michelle Obama seemed to be rather peeved on seeing the Danish prime minister take the picture. But photos can lie. In reality, just a few seconds earlier the first lady was herself joking with those around her, Cameron and Schmidt included. Her stern look was captured by chance.

I took these photos totally spontaneously, without thinking about what impact they might have. At the time, I thought the world leaders were simply acting like human beings, like me and you. I doubt anyone could have remained totally stony faced for the duration of the ceremony, while tens of thousands of people were celebrating in the stadium. For me, the behaviour of these leaders in snapping a selfie seems perfectly natural. I see nothing to complain about, and probably would have done the same in their place. The AFP team worked hard to display the reaction that South African people had for the passing of someone they consider as a father. We moved about 500 pictures, trying to portray their true feelings, and this seemingly trivial image seems to have eclipsed much of this collective work. [...]

I confess too that it makes me a little sad we are so obsessed with day-to-day trivialities, instead of things of true importance.

I was especially disappointed to see my hero Charlie Pierce jump onto the scolder bandwagon.

@ESQPolitics Et tu? There's a few more out there that aren't getting RTed much. Like this. pic.twitter.com/nJuu6QpAGd
— Libby Spencer (@libbyspencer) December 10, 2013

Truth is there were many world leaders enjoying themselves at the service. Including this guy:

Such an eloquent look on Bishop Tutu's face: "Jeez, they'll let ANYBODY into these things." pic.twitter.com/QEcRVrfWCC
— billmon (@billmon1) December 10, 2013

This is why, as much as I support freedom of the press, I can't get too exercised over the WH Media's alleged lack of access to every waking moment of Obama's day. They're not really giving us some great hidden truth from behind the scenes. It's all about finding the clickbait to invent outrage and drive traffic. Just not seeing what civil society gets out of that.

Your moment of Zen

Bethel, CT yesterday.

Deep Tweets

This one has no explanation because it would either take a million words or none to do so. But trust me, it's deep.

I was in the presence of @EliLake last night. He was rapping. He rhymed Ashkenazi and Benghazi in his flow. Surreal.
— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) May 31, 2013

GOP hypocrites hate handshakes

President Obama had the audacity to shake the hand of a world leader at Mandela's funeral. Before the internet was invented, we used to call this good manners. Some might even have called it responsible statesmanship. But the world leader in question was Raul Castro standing in for his brother Fidel. So of course GOPers immediately launched themselves onto the fainting couches, demanding smelling salts.

Maybe somebody gave them bath salts instead, because this reaction from Senator Grumpy Gramps was batshit crazy.

When asked if Obama should have extended his hand, McCain was quick to respond.

"Of course not," the senator said. "Why should you shake hands with somebody who's keeping Americans in prison? I mean, what's the point?"

Then, after a slight pause, McCain went there.

"Neville Chamberlain shook hands with Hitler," he added.

I'll spare you the endless photos of GOP illuminaries shaking hands with every genocidal tyrant our government propped up over the years when it was convenient to keep them in office and simply post this obvious answer to McCain's ravings.

Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.
— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) August 15, 2009

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio complains:

"If he was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba," Rubio told ABC News.

Sure, if only Obama had immediately scolded Castro, all Cubans would be enjoying freedom right now. Hell, maybe all the world leaders there could have engaged in a huge argument upon arriving at a funeral because, what better way to show respect for the occasion?

In any event, perhaps Rubio could have watched the damn speech before he shot his mouth off. Not like Obama let anybody off the hook.



Yes I know our own record of supporting domestic dissent isn't exactly stellar but we're still better than most places and it was important speech in support of human rights. Not that the corporate media is much interested in talking about that. Too busy reporting every anguished blathering coming from the GOpers and other assorted cons.

Deep tweets

War on Christmas edition.

This would be funny, if not so sad & true! True meaning of GOP Christmas (hypocrisy): pic.twitter.com/Sw2Mn2RmIa
— Jack Berlin (@jackaberlin) December 9, 2013

Deep Tweets

Posted without comment.

ok, i better go put on my face. see you in 14 minutes on @OutFrontCNN i hope -- got an engaging and fun show planned
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 6, 2013

The last true freedom fighter of his generation

Nelson Mandella is dead. He was among us for longer than most of our present day heroes. His body wasn't even cold before his former critics and enemies leapt to co-opt Mandela's legend to score cheap political points.

I'm not reading any of cheap potshots and vile conservative commentary. For myself, I choose to reflect on my good fortune to have lived to witness so much of his life and work. Many have already spoken of his legacy so I'll spare you my inadequate thoughts and simply outsource to Charlie Pierce's eulogy.

Nelson Mandela died yesterday, and he was the last of them, the last of the patriots in a line all the way back to George Washington who fought to rid their native countries of the deadweight of colonialism, who fought for self-determination against the rule of distant, unyielding governments that slid into tyranny without even knowing they were doing it, who fought and won and, in Mandela's case, like Washington, but unlike Michael Collins and so many others, outlived the stifling detritus of dying empires. Nelson Mandela was a reminder of all the others, famous and obscure, who fought the same battle in so many places against so many oppressors, known and unknown. He was the last in their line, the last of them -- people like, to name only one, Ho Chi Minh -- who drew strength and purpose from the deep, lasting echoes of what a group of wealthy merchants and planters -- and, yes, slaveholders -- set loose upon the world in Philadelphia in 1776. What they did was to set freedom itself free, although most of them probably didn't know they were doing it at the time, and many of them would have blanched at the prospect. But the one thing they did, Mr. Jefferson and all of them, was throw out to the world in their magnificent rhetoric a magnificent bluff. Nelson Mandela was the last man who called it in the last place it was called.

All men are created equal.

Endowed with certain inalienable rights.

Self-evident.

Read the rest at the link. You won't have to read anything else.

Your moment of Zen

Lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center. [More photos here]

Your moment of Zen

Epcot flower show.

The price of privatizing the public commons

The 73 year old grandmother denied cancer medication and being clapped into solitary confinement for an entire month in a private prison for complaining about it, is just one story in the long and sorry annals of private prison abuse. We're unlikely to close this book any time soon. The Prison Industrial Complex has no incentive to change.

Though a court has not yet heard Lester’s case, the two prison companies in question already face a string of allegations that they abuse or neglect inmates. Because private prison companies must turn a profit, health care and quality of life are often sacrificed for the bottom line. Corizon is already handling lawsuits and investigations all over the country charging that the health care company ignored inmates’ calls for help, left sick inmates in soiled bedsheets without any food or water, and even let a man die because calling an ambulance was deemed too expensive.

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), meanwhile, was recently held in contempt for understaffing prisons, and a few months earlier paid $600,000 to settle another lawsuit over inmate abuse. The extremely profitable company has also been caught overcrowding prisons to the point that many inmates sleep on the floor, using gangs to police facilities.

CCA's revenue is  about 1.736 billion. It only employed 16,750 people as of 2011. A paltry fine of $600K is just another cost efficiency in the ledgers. I have no idea if private prisons are saving the government money in incarceration costs. But even if it is cost effective in dollars, it comes at the price of our humanity and our shared obligations. A civil society treats its prisoners humanely. [image via afsc.org]

Deep tweets

Strange tweet from a few days ago. Never saw another word about it.

Look who visited #Guantanamo today: Obama's closers, shown at GTMO airstrip, in media blackout fact-finding trip. pic.twitter.com/LBkvWqCeyy
— Carol Rosenberg (@carolrosenberg) November 25, 2013

Apparently Ben Smith never heard of them. In response to his query, she tweeted this: Hey, @BuzzFeedBen They're Obama special envoys Cliff Sloan (State) and Paul Lewis (Pentagon).

Your moment of Zen

Aurora Borealis, Alaska. [photo via Tamitha Skov and Watergate Summer]