January 2, 2015

Mario Cuomo: "Once you get to be President, you want to be king.”

JANUARY 1, 2015
Remembering Mario Cuomo
BY KEN AULETTA

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Cuomo did not go all the way in baseball (he couldn’t hit a curveball). Nor did he go all the way in politics. He chose not to run for President in 1992 because his ambition was superseded by his distaste for the grovelling, the fundraising, the selling, the motels. He did, however, “go all the way” as a public man.

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“The secret to contentment is reducing your needs and aspirations,” he said, as we sat on the couch. “I feel fulfilled in the job I have. I don’t have that great vacuum in my psyche that feels I have to keep going up. I felt that way as lieutenant governor. I don’t feel that way now.… Andrew has regrets. He thinks it should be me up there. He’ll get over it. You have to use criteria other than self-gratification. You can’t win that game. Once you get to be President, you want to be king.”

Mario Cuomo had flaws. History will not record that he was a great governor. His budgets were almost always late. His reflectiveness and reclusiveness did not dazzle legislative leaders. And his flight from San Francisco, like his choice not to run for President in 1992, may have indicated a reticence that would not have served him well as President. Or maybe it camouflaged insecurity that was both disabling and wonderfully human. Unlike most politicians, who have no interior lives, he was worthy of a novel. He was not, as the scouting report also observed, “an easy chap to get close to but is very well liked by those who succeed in penetrating his exterior shell.” In the four decades I knew him, I tried to keep him at arm’s length. Journalists are not supposed to say this, but I loved the guy.


http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/remembering-mario-cuomo?mbid=social_twitter

January 2, 2015

Jeb Bush Resigns as George W. Bush’s Brother

Borowitz Report
BOROWITZ REPORT

JANUARY 1, 2015
Jeb Bush Resigns as George W. Bush’s Brother
BY ANDY BOROWITZ

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“No longer being related to his brother is a key step to clearing Jeb’s path to the nomination,” an aide said on New Year’s Day. “We expect his poll numbers to soar on this.”

According to the aide, the former Florida governor resigned his post as brother in a ten-minute phone call with George W. Bush, after which he blocked the former President’s phone number and e-mail address.

In an official statement, George W. Bush said that he “understands and supports” his former brother’s decision.

“If I were him, I would no longer be related to me either,” he said.



http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/jeb-bush-resigns-george-w-bushs-brother



https://twitter.com/TheDailyEdge/status/550822460548214786/photo/1

January 1, 2015

Members of French far-right party spike vice-president's drink with laxative

Members of French far-right party spike vice-president's drink with laxative
Two members of Front National party expelled for prank which involved Marine Le Pen’s boyfriend Louis Aliot


Two young members of France’s far right National Front have been expelled from the party for spiking the drink of its second-in-command with a laxative.

The incident took place while FN vice-president Louis Aliot, who is also the boyfriend of party leader Marine Le Pen, was visiting the party’s Bordeaux offices several months ago.

Confirming a report in Sud-Ouest daily FN deputy secretary general Nicolas Bay told AFP that three party members sought to disrupt the meeting by slipping a laxative into Aliot’s wine glass.

According to Sud-Ouest they also unscrewed the light bulbs in a room where Aliot planned to hold a press conference.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/01/french-far-right-party-spike-vice-presidents-drink-laxative

January 1, 2015

The only reason for its existence is to serve as a money pit.

F-35 stealth jet 'will not be able to fire its guns until 2019'
Reported software glitch is the latest problem to dog state of the art fighter which is costing American taxpayers nearly $400 billion (£257 billion)

Amercia's much-vaunted new F-35 stealth jet has reportedly suffered the latest in a series of problems with the discovery of a software glitch which prevents the use of its on-board cannon.

The jump jets – 14 of which have been ordered by Britain – are costing US taxpayers nearly $400?billion (£257?billion) and are due to enter service next year.

But the Pentagon has been forced to deny reports in America that it will take a further four years before they will be able to shoot their guns.

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Billed as the world’s most advanced — and expensive — fighter jet, the cost per plane has doubled to $161.1?million and it will be six years late in entering full production.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11319455/F-35-stealth-jet-will-not-be-able-to-fire-its-guns-until-2019.html

January 1, 2015

2014 exposed the US myth of equality under the law

2014 exposed the US myth of equality under the law
This year Americans confronted the racial, ethnic and religious biases of the US justice system
December 31, 2014 2:00AM ET
by Christian Christensen

The description of the United States as the world’s policeman has always been laced with a heavy dose of irony and sarcasm. In democratic societies, the police are meant to uphold the law, but the U.S. has shown time and again that international legal conventions are not things to which the U.S. considers itself bound. From rejecting membership in the International Criminal Court to the invasion and occupation of Iraq to drone assassinations, the U.S. treats international legal frameworks like so many flies to be swatted away. This glaring double standard underlies much of the global animosity toward the U.S. in the post-9/11 era; while U.S. citizens accused of or subjected to criminal activity at home are entitled to their day in court, the rest of the world’s citizens are subject to U.S. power with little to no recourse to justice. In other words, the U.S. is a nation that respects the rule of law — but only within its own borders.

But 2014 has been a year in which the mythology of domestic U.S. legal egalitarianism — reinforced by the mantra of blind justice and a near religious reverence of the U.S. Constitution — was exposed as a pretense. As abroad, so at home: Some people are more equal than others.

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One thread ties together all these cases: The willingness of the U.S. to bend the law and condone the barbaric treatment of human beings is grounded in differences of race, ethnicity or religion. Police violence, the death penalty and torture are predominantly applied to nonwhites or non-Christians. How supportive would white Americans and lawmakers be of procedures such as “rectal rehydration” — a gruesome procedure that, according to the torture report, was applied to hunger-striking inmates — if they were performed on white Christians? How long would they would be to willing to tolerate routine police killings of unarmed white citizens?

2014 will be remembered for how the differences between international and domestic victims of U.S. power and between U.S. injustice abroad and at home became blurred. The U.S. has made much over the years of its “moral authority” on the international stage, but this year highlighted that, even at home, this authority is built on quicksand.

Christian Christensen is a professor of journalism at Stockholm University in Sweden.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera America's editorial policy.



the rest:
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/12/equality-law-torturepoliceviolencedeathpenalty.html

January 1, 2015

I Love Science! Scientist Accepts Nobel Prize Wearing Dress Depicting Her Discovery

Scientist Accepts Nobel Prize Wearing Dress Depicting Her Discovery

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When May-Britt Moser accepted the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on December 10, she did so wearing a custom-designed gown that depicted grid cells: brain cells that she had discovered. Moser, who works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, was being honored for the discovery alongside her husband, Edvard Moser, and their colleague, John O'Keefe. Grid cells were discovered by the trio in 2005. The grid cells are neurons which are responsible for helping humans to understand their physical space in the organism's environment.

Moser's gown for the award ceremony was designed by British designer Matthew Hubble, who is a self-admitted science enthusiast. The blue gown featured silver sequins and beads, arranged just like the grid cells.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/scientist-accepts-nobel-prize-wearing-dress-depicting-her-discovery


More:

http://gemini.no/en/2014/12/gala-dress-with-grid-cell-glitter/