Sorry

My connection's intermittent -- postings delayed. (5/22 8:00 PT)

I share a wireless connection with a cable modem subscriber who's away this week, and I'm not able to reach the system to reboot it.

Losing Your Head

Deal or No Deal

When the axe fell on Chrysler dealerships last week, 3 of 5 in the Las Vegas Valley drove into the ditch. Only 2 remain to serve the 2,200 square mile area, ironically they're located only 0.3 miles apart within the same auto mall... So much for the alleged "streamlining strategy" of trying to prevent potential customers "crossing the street" in search of a better price.

Rights & Rites

Personally, I don't care. There's nothing about any two people choosing to marry that threatens my life or relationships. And after 5 years experience with marriage equality in Massachusetts, apparently their citizenry is realizing it's no big deal to them either.

That said, I can understand religious objections and their insistence on doing things in accordance with their own beliefs and traditions... Within their own membership. My faith leads me towards treating others as equals, and in terms of law and how a state should act, I'm convinced this is a civil rights question.

Keith Olbermann takes on the economic objection:

Standing O in South Bend

Inside:

Outside:

Complete address.

This Week in @#$$%&!

I Need Me Some Bones

With season finales popping up all over the tube this week, which of your favorites are still in limbo as TV approaches solidifying fall lineups?

Admittedly the lineups don't set up any firmer than Jello, but "upfronts" or advance ad sales are pressing and time is running out.

Feature: Los Angeles Times.

Not So Sweet Reception

Brown v. Board of Education

55 years ago today...
The United States Supreme Court, then nine old white men led by former California Governor Earl Warren, stood united in agreement with the position argued by the NAACP's chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, who was later appointed to become a member of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. Their unanimous (9-0) decision in Brown v. Board of Education ruled "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."

As a result, earlier rulings going back to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 were overturned. The Court declared racial segregation imposed by law was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This victory paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement

Pound Cake

50 years after Brown v Board of Education, or 5 years ago today, William H. Cosby, PhD, delivered perhaps the most controversial monologue of his lifetime in addressing the NAACP at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC: the pound cake speech.

Academic Accomplishment

Along with various academic achievement in the recently completed Spring Semester, St. Mary's College in California celebrated the 50th anniversary of the original by re-creating this famous Life magazine photo from 1959, with 22 of its students stuffed into a phone booth. The bigger challenge this time was finding a phone booth.

Top Photo: Life Magazine, 1959
Bottom Photo: Geekologie Blog, 2007

My Bad + The Obligatory Sad Excuse

Public apologies are a dime a dozen.

The perps above, however, are written off as small potatoes in the history of the public mea culpa by the editors of The Boston Globe. They've compiled their own Top 10 list of public apologies, and the offenses behind them.