FEBRUARY
26, 2006 --
Our UN Ambassador Goes to a Knicks Game …
LPR read that UN Ambassador John Bolton (president of the UN Security Council
in February) took his Security Council colleagues to Madison Square Garden to
see a basketball game between the Knicks and the Miami Heat.
LPR wonders if this action by Ambassador Bolton, serving without Senate confirmation,
will give his opponents more reason to be against his UN appointment. (The Knicks
did not win the game.)
FEBRUARY
26, 2006 --
But LPR Gets Some Visits from UAE …
The United Arab Emirates has gotten a good deal of attention, because of an
agreement that apparently puts it in charge of a number of U.S. ports. The
White House says it would not have agreed to the plan if it could harm the country.
Opponents, Republicans as well as Democrats, claim that the agreement could
imperil our security. The President was reported to have been unaware of the
agreement but strongly supports it.
LPR has not read up on this controversy, much, but wonders if it could have
an inflationary impact on our economy. (LPR hopes not as this would give the
Federal Reserve a justification for another interest
rate hike.)
And LPR is not alone in first learning that Britain previously owned the ports
now at issue -- indeed, LPR had no idea that our ports were owned by a single
entity (and not, say, by a federal or state agency).
Herewith full disclosure: occasional, LPR gets some visits from the UAE.
FEBRUARY
26, 2006 --
Question for Time Warner …
(Full disclosure -- this writer is still a shareholder of Time Warner.)
Notwithstanding the settlement between Time Warner and corporate challenger
(can we ever use the term "insurgent" in a
non-violent context, again?) Carl Icahn, the price of the stock dropped.
Still, some people, LPR read, got a nice amount of moolah for their efforts
during the controversy.
And LPR read that John Malone wants to be able to change his non-voting holdings
in Time Warner to voting shares.
The Icahn-Time Warner agreement reportedly calls for new directors. Will at
least one of the new directors speak for the TWX small shareholder?
FEBRUARY
26, 2006 --
The NCAA Basketball Tournament …
If it is March, can the NCAA tournament be far away?
For LPR, the opening two rounds are a super annual sports event, with wall-to-wall
reports of college scores.
FEBRUARY
26, 2006 --
LPR Again Thanks Google …
There are some 10,500,000 results on this Google search:
"general welfare: gas prices".
Lonely Pamphleteer Review is second on the list.
FEBRUARY
19, 2006 --
The Gates …
Shana watches as the remaining Gates are taken down, March 11, 2005.
LPR is pretty sure Shana enjoyed The Gates and was sorry to seem them
go.
(Google "Gates Retrospective II" if you missed last week's photos.)
LPR's retrospective is at the top of a Google list of more than 400 thousand
items.
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Shana
watching the "Gates" removal in 2005.
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FEBRUARY
19, 2006 --
Webjacking …
LPR learned that nearly 6,000 visits at another website saw an image taken
from LPR. When LPR tried to click that site it was met with the word "Forbidden," a
word perhaps more appropriate to using
copyrighted material without notice, much less permission. But thanks to the
webwhizzes at skullco.com,
LPR managed to reach that website and saw
there an LPR photo of Rev. Jesse Jackson. LPR proposes the term "webjacking" to
describe the practice of grabbing material from other websites
without permission, without notice, without attribution.
FEBRUARY
19, 2006 --
Fundamental Hypocrisy …
What else to call the justification of 29.99% interest rates due to high balances?
How much lower could the balances be if the credit card carried a --to use
an Administration word -- compassionate interest rate?
A lot.
Chase, alleging bank balances are too high (but not beyond the maximum), seems
intent on keeping those balances high by means of grossly disproportionate
and punitive interest rates, to continue to defend their heavy- handedness.
This seems, to LPR, a kind of malevolent circular reasoning. (Yet, doesn't
the
expression "what goes around comes around" suggest another form of
circular reasoning, reasoning rather closer to justice than...hypocrisy?)
As there seems no interest in the print media in this modern application of
the feudal mentality, LPR asks the grass roots media to take note.
To hear radio commercials touting home equity loans as the means to get out
from under crushing credit card debt suggests
that the interest rate overreaching of bank credit cards is a public issue
that cannot be ignored much longer by our elected representatives, senators--and
president. Not if they represent us -- and stand for fundamental fairness.
FEBRUARY
19, 2006 --
Not Exactly an American "Rules of the Game" …
It was good to learn that Harry M. Whittington, the attorney wounded by Vice
President Cheney, while they were quail-hunting, has been released from hospital.
LPR wishes Mr. Whittington a speedy and complete recovery.
LPR is also thankful it has not heard of a reference to Dan Quayle, a Cheney
vice presidential predecessor, in what George
Stephanopoulos calls the TV "funnies."
It is fortunate, of course, that the incident on the Armstrong ranch was not
precisely an American version of the great 1939 film,"Rules of the Game," directed
and
co-written by Jean Renoir. (He also appears in the film in the important role
of
Octave.)
The great French director was reported to have said that the film -- about
a weekend in the country enjoyed by members of the
French upper class -- was not meant to be social commentary.
In the fields, the weekend guests hunted rabbits, not quail. In the manor they
hunted liaisons.
The aristocratic owner of the estate was played by Marcel Dalio, who was forced
to leave France as the Nazis took over because he was born Israel Moshe Blauschild.
Eventually he and his wife,
the actress Madeleine LeBeau, reached the United States, and appeared in the
movie "Casablanca" (Dalio was the croupier; his wife was the woman
jilted by
Humphrey Bogart (Rick) -- whose story line, about the difficulties faced by
refugees from the Nazis, was poignantly close to their reality.
Dalio also starred in Renoir's "Grande Illusion." In 1970, he appeared
as the old man in Mike Nichols' movie of the Joseph Heller World War II novel, "Catch
22."
Active, after the war, in film (American and French) and television (including
a role in a General Electric Theater episode, Dalio died in 1983
FEBRUARY
19, 2006 --
NASCAR is Back …
The Nascar season has begun with the Daytona 500. LPR hears that the winner
of the race will be at ESPN Zone in Times Square, NYC, Tuesday, February 21,
from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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LPR
congratulates Jimmie Johnson (shown here in New York City last
September) on winning the Daytona 500.
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FEBRUARY
12, 2006 --
As Don Imus Would Say -- You Can't Make this Up …
In Texas was Vice President Richard Cheney
To search and destroy some quail
Instead he got a millionaire attorney
So far Texas authorities have not demanded bail
FEBRUARY
12, 2006 --
Tempus Fugit …
The Winter Olympics is on; pitchers and catchers report this week, and "March
Madness" is merely weeks away.
FEBRUARY
12, 2006 --
Abolish "supercede" …
The Wall Street Journal editorial, February 9 -- "Abolish FISA" --
commented that when President Jimmy Carter signed the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, "his own Attorney General declared that it
didn't supercede executive powers under Article I of the Constitution."
LPR is, true, a small website -- and so far it has gotten nowhere in its campaign
for humane credit card interest rates -- but must point out that its Random
House Webster's College Dictionary does not include "supercede." This
dictionary does, however, offer "supersede."
FEBRUARY
12, 2006 --
Guggenheim Update …
Last week, LPR posted photos of the Metropolitan Museum with its wrapping removed.
The Guggenheim Museum is several blocks north of the Met, on Fifth
Avenue and 88th to 89th streets.
LPR, February 10 saw that it is now the Guggenheim that is under wraps for
work on its exterior. Museum-goers please note -- the Guggenheim remains open.
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The
Guggenheim Museum - under wraps.
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FEBRUARY
12, 2006 --
Fashion Week …
LPR did not attend Fashion Week -- which ran from February 3 to February 10.
But it did photograph the Fashion Week site, on its last day.
The lower building in the right rear of the photo is the main branch of the
New York Public Library. The tall buildings on the left are on the north side
of 42nd Street.
The photo was taken looking east, from Sixth Avenue. The hub of Fashion week
was the tent-like structures in the middle of the photo that are, indeed, tents.
The site of Fashion Week is Bryant Park, which is between 41st and 42nd streets
and between Sixth Avenue and the New York Public Library.
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Fashion
Week site, looking East, from Sixth Avenue.
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FEBRUARY
5, 2006 --
The Metropolitan Museum Unveiled …
LPR intended to get a few more photos, February 3, of the Metropolitan Museum
wrapped for its facelift --- and found that the scaffolding and wrapping is
down.
LPR here offers clicksters two photos of this great New York cultural institution
with its main entrance again basking in the Fifth Avenue sun.
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View
of the "unwrapped" Metropolitan Museum.
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The
Metropolitan Museum in all it's grandeur, on February 3.
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FEBRUARY
5, 2006 --
LPR via Google …
LPR learned recently of this Google search:"what to know about federalist
#48."
There are some 485,000 listings and LPR is No. 2. No. 1 goes to Democrats.com-
which calls itself an "aggressive progressive" website. LPR's quick
scan suggests this is more a political search and destroy site.
FEBRUARY
5, 2006 --
Are There Two Possibilities?
That President Bush used the phrase "addicted to oil" because he
was "hopeful" to get a New York Times State of the Union compliment,
however strained -- or,
and this would be preferable to LPR, was the phrase inserted not for substantive
import but as a bet at The White House whether there was something Mr. Bush
could say that would get a measure of approval from The New York Times.
FEBRUARY
5, 2006 --
Defeating Terrorists in One TV Episode…
TV viewers who are fans of "24" but prefer to have complete stories
in one episode have NBC's "E-Ring", Wednesday at 8 p.m. (EST) as
a counter-terror action alternative, with Benjamin Bratt as the lead in a cast
that includes Dennis Hopper.
LPR was interested to learn that the executive producer of "E-Ring" (the
Pentagon's outer ring) is Jerry Bruckheimer, who apparently is now moving onto
Dick Wolf's TV turf.
FEBRUARY
5, 2006 --
Anthony LaPaglia Has That Right …
Anthony LaPaglia, who stars on the CBS series "Without a Trace" (Mr.
LaPaglia is from Australia and not, say, from Brooklyn) does a public service
announcement telling people who are hit with anxiety/depression not to expect
the it to click off suddenly, but to seek medical treatment.
Add to this something Anthony Hopkins told Charlie Rose recently on PBS --
that there are times he gets feelings of sadness and cannot account for them,
also telling Rose that he is very satisfied with his life. This writer has
noticed that anxiety/depression feelings seem to arrive with the new day, and
ease off as the day progresses -- and some prescribed pills are taken. Mr.
LaPaglia's announcement is part of a CBS Cares campaign. LPR is
not certain, however that there is a space between CBS and Cares, which could
suggest an altogether different message.
NOTE
TO LPR CLICKSTERS:
If we don't speak out against economic bullying
by Oil, Credit Cards, Municipalities, WHO
WILL?
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