Filed under: Los Angeles — Ginger Mayerson @ 6:26 pm
“Octuplets’ mom Nadya Suleman has turned down an offer of a home and 24-hour pediatric nursing care, attorney Gloria Allred said this morning during an appearance on CBS’ ‘The Early Show.’
“The nonprofit Angels in Waiting volunteer nurses ‘would have provided 24/7 care along with developmental specialists, early intervention professionals, wraparound services for — and individualized care for — all these babies,’ Allred said on the show.
“‘And I have to say that she did not accept our offer. And a home would have been provided. All 14 could have been kept together, the siblings as well. There would have been no burden on the taxpayers. Instead, now, it may be that the taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill for all of this.’” Octuplets’ mom turns down offer of a home and nursing care, LA Times, February 27, 2009
Oh, man, now she’s got Gloria Allred on her case. And not in a good way.
But Suleman has apparently agreed to receive some help. Appearing on the “Dr. Phil” show, Suleman said she has accepted an offer from Angels in Waiting to provide child care. Suleman had earlier rejected the group’s offer.
According to a statement from “Dr. Phil,” Angels in Waiting will “initially will be providing around-the-clock services of skilled neonatal intensive care nurses who specialize in premature infant developmental care. Psychological and physical early therapies to help enhance all of the children’s growth and well-being will also be provided.”
“Enter Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee and legal resident of Britain who had found work as a janitor after drug problems derailed his college career. According to his lawyer, Clive Smith of the human rights group Reprieve, Mohamed traveled to Afghanistan in 2001, attracted by the Taliban’s drug-free way of life – which, from my point of view, was a little like upgrading from bronchitis to lung cancer. War soon drove him out of Afghanistan and to Karachi, from where he sought to return to the U.K. But, as a refugee, he lacked a proper passport and was using a friend’s, which led to his apprehension at the airport. Smith says the Pakistanis turned him over to the FBI, who were obsessed at the time with the possibility of an Al Qaeda nuclear attack on the U.S. After repeated beatings and the above-mentioned hanging by the wrists, Mohamed ‘confessed’ to having read an article on how to make an H-bomb on the Internet, insisting to his interrogators that it was a ‘joke.’
“But post-9/11 America was an irony-free zone, and it’s still illegal to banter about bombs in the presence of airport security staff. It’s not clear how the news of Mohamed’s H-bomb knowledge was conveyed to Washington – many documents remain classified or have not been released – but Smith speculates that the part about the H-bomb got through, although not the part about the joke. The result, anyhow, was that Mohamed was thrust into a world of unending pain – tortured at the U.S. prison in Baghram, rendered to Morocco for 18 months of further torture, including repeated cutting of his penis with a scalpel, and finally landing in Guantanamo for almost five years of more mundane abuse. He was just released and returned to Britain today.
“As if that were not enough for a satirist to have on her conscience, the U.S. seems to have attributed Mohamed’s presumed nuclear ambitions to a second man, an American citizen named Jose Padilla, aka the ‘dirty bomber.’ The apparent evidence? Padilla had been scheduled to fly on the same flight out of Karachi that Mohamed had a ticket for, so obviously they must have been confederates. Commenting on Padilla’s apprehension in 2002, the Chicago Sun-Times editorialized: ‘We castigate ourselves for failing to grasp the reality of what they’re [the alleged terrorists are] trying to do, but perhaps that is a good thing. We should have difficulty staring evil in the face.’
“I am not histrionic enough to imagine myself in any way responsible for the torments suffered by Mohamed and Padilla – at least no more responsible than any other American who failed to rise up in revolutionary anger against the Bush terror regime. No, I’m too busy seething over another irony: Whenever I’ve complained about my country’s torturings, renderings, detentions, etc., there’s always been some smug bastard ready to respond that these measures are what guarantee smart-alecky writers like myself our freedom of speech. Well, we had a government so vicious and impenetrably stupid that it managed to take my freedom of speech and turn it into someone else’s living hell.” My Role in the Torture of Binyam Mohamed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, February 23, 2009
Obama should close the Baghram torture center, too.
“CHICAGO (Reuters) – Brain scientists are starting to understand something poets, songwriters and diarists have long known: putting feelings into words helps ease the mind.” Words give brain handle on feelings: U.S. researcher, by Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, February 14, 2009
Yes, I can see that ranting on this blog and other blogs for six years is probably the only reason I came out of the bush mis-administration relatively sane. I don’t know if my blogging changed anything, but it sure made me feel like I was doing something about whatever it was. Kind of like prayer, now that I think about it. Hm…
Filed under: Uncategorized — Ginger Mayerson @ 9:52 am
“A comment from Sproing on io9 reminds us (and I forgot):Fun fact: [Voyager actress] Jeri Ryan dumped her husband to be with [Voyager producer Brannon] Braga, which led to the divorce filing that destroyed her husband’s Illinois senate candidacy — paving the way for Obama to become a senator, and then president. Thanks, Brannon Braga!” Voyager was good for something, Superfrankenstein, February 12, 2009
“The test is: Give one of the expensive and much praised pencils to a schoolboy for a week or two and see what’s left of it afterwards. I didn’t expect any of them to survive for long. In my head was the picture of the Charge of the Light Brigade….
Otis in the previous comments tells me to stop being so mean to gay haters. Well, that’ll be the day, Otis, these people exercised their rights as Americans to deprive other Americans access to a harmless and beneficial institution. We vote on this all the time in California; it’s like every so often we have to either prove we’re majority nice people or assholes. (See Prop 22 from 2000 and Prop 187 from 1998.) I’m not just disgusted with the Prop 8 passage, as a Californian, I’m embarrassed and horrified. It’s a well known fact that there really is enough marriage to go around. It appears not to be a finite resource and has no physical ill effects on those who partake of it. It is hypothesized that eight or nine shots of tequila causes bigger hangovers than gay marriage, but no data has been published on this. Save the Children doesn’t hold up for me either. Save them from what? Someone else’s marriage? Most kids need saving from their parents’ marriage. Children are in more danger from poverty, hunger and child abuse than any marriage. Let’s be sane about this, those of you who are so inclined.
Anyway, here’s the list of Real Americans who truly believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for EVERYONE (no matter what the Founders were thinking), and a big thank you from the meanest girl in town. From the CA SOS site and here’s a searchable, sortable, huggable excel file.
Thank you No on Prop 8 donors! We lost, but the California courts might yet rescue the American Way of Life once again.
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $1,250,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $1,250,000.00
NO ON PROPOSITION 8 — CAMPAIGN FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY, A PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: $1,200,000.00
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CALIFORNIA MARRIAGE PAC – NO ON PROP 8: $1,050,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $1,000,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $1,000,000.00
CALIFORNIA TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION ISSUES PAC: $1,000,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $1,000,000.00
LOS ANGELES GAY & LESBIAN COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTER: $1,000,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $871,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $700,000.00
CALIFORNIANS AGAINST ELIMINATION OF BASIC RIGHTS, NO ON PROP 8: $525,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $500,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $500,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $500,000.00
NO ON 8 – EQUALITY CALIFORNIA: $500,000.00
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CALIFORNIA MARRIAGE PAC – NO ON PROP 8: $500,000.00
WILLIAM RESNICK: $500,000.00 (more…)
JOHN TEMPLETON JR: $450,000.00
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS HEADQUARTERS: $250,000.00
MANCHESTER FINANCIAL GROUP: $125,000.00
JOSEPHINE TEMPLETON: $100,000.00
TERRY CASTER: $100,000.00
TERRY CASTER: $62,500.00
GERALD SIMONSEN: $50,000.00
JOSHUA BAKER: $50,000.00
ROGER BENSON: $50,000.00
CALIF. STATE COUNCIL KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: $25,000.00
LARRY SMITH: $25,000.00
ADAMO CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT CO.: $25,000.00
ROBERT HOEHN: $25,000.00
DAVID LESUEUR: $25,000.00
THE VINEYARD GROUP, LLC: $25,000.00 (more…)
Actually, I’m going to be very bad and link to blogs that were published in the Journal of Bloglandia. There were some repeat authors in v1, issue 2, so this list is a little smaller, but the issue was just as big.
1. A deleted blog: proof positive that J Bloglandia is needed because without it you’d be missing this lovely essay*. Unless Anne set up shop somewhere else and I haven’t heard about it. Oh well, blogs come and blogs go, and I’m on a mission to get as many readable, entertaining, educational, and enjoyable blog essays as I can in the Journal of Bloglandia.
Only the parts on the boat and Skull Island are good, occasionally great.
The parts in New York mostly suck. Except when Kong sees the man he hates most in the world and tears up the theater. I liked that part.
Adrian Brody and Jack Black were annoyingly miscast. Especially when Jack was supposed to be saying something serious and I kept waiting for a punchline (that never came).
Where is Naomi Watts’ Oscar? She was great. Especially when you consider how much time she had to spend acting to a blue (green?) screen. There should be a special award for that – just double the usual awards and then have ones for above and beyond the call of duty. AND she can juggle.
The straps on her slip, the one she wears during the whole Kong-on-the-island section, must be made of some kind of titanium/aluminum mesh because I’ve had those kind of straps snap with considerably less mauling.
Also, based on the way she was tied up, her shoulders should have been at least dislocated, if her arms weren’t completely torn out of their sockets, when Kong grabs her from the altar.
Yes, this King Kong creature is great, no one would argue with that. Sappy, sometimes goofy, yes, but otherwise no one would care when he falls off the Empire State Building and dies. Oh no, I told you the ending, sorry.
After he grabs the blond, the first time he stops, and right before she stabs him with her necklace, what is Kong doing swinging her around like that? I’ve watched it several times and I’m still stumped.
The giant bug attack holds up over repeated viewings. The penis denta (denti?) slugs/leeches/bugs/whatever they were especially. When I saw it in the theater, the person I was with had to leave the room until it was over. It’s becoming one of my favorite scenes, really.
The dinosaur stampede in the canyon was pretty good, too.
Thomas Kretschmann, Andy Serkis, and Evan Parke were great.
There’s really no one in this story to hate whole heartedly. The vain leading man was a candidate, but even he had a heroic and redeeming moment.
I would have liked to have known more about the Skull Islanders than was in this picture. If this story must be remade, let’s make it about the Skull Islanders next time. There are ruins on the other side of the big wall, how advanced were the inhabitants and was Kong the only reason the structures outside the big wall were abandoned? Also, why have a giant wall with a giant door if giants weren’t coming and going through that door? How is the loss of Kong going to impact their lives? Why can’t we have this story told where the movie crew’s ship visit and Kong snatching are incidental to the story? Possibly I think about these things too much, but that’s a film I’d happy pay LA prices to see.
The Skull Islander pole vaulting or poling or whatever it’s called his way across the rocks to the ship was awesome. I’m telling you, there’s much more than we get to know about the inhabitants of Skull Island. (There’s also got to be a fantasy novel in this, somebody please write it. We’ve had “The Wind Done Gone,” where is “Kong with the Wind”? Thank you in advance.)
In Kong’s cave, there seems to be three (four?) skeletons of a previous Kongs. This makes me wonder: where do little Kongs come from? Are there female Kongs somewhere?
Thomas Kretschmann, as the ship’s captain, would have been a better romantic lead than Adrian Brody. Nothing against A Brody, but, in my opinion, he was just one actor and character too many.
What terrible full-body whiplash Ann Darrow must have had when it was all over.
Did we really need another telling of this story?
I dunno, maybe we did need another one after the 1976 one, which was, as I now recall, bizarre and cheesy on far too many levels. At least Dwan in the 1976 one got to be all doped up before she got tied up.
And thank God we’re still around to have a blogiversery with a new, sane, and MUCH BETTER president! President Obama is the best blogiversery present ever! Thank you, America!
How long in human years is six blog years? Feels like forever. Here’s our first official post on Hackenbush 1.0 (Graymatter code; ah nostalgia):
1. Dang, also a locked blog!?!?! Geeze Louise, I’m givin’ away the store here. Please note: this blog and Debora Teasdale’s blog (see previous post) were not locked when I published them. I’m sure they both have good reasons for locking their blogs, but I’m glad they let me publish them before they did.
Here’s links to all the posts from Jan 31, Feb 1, Feb 2, and Feb 3 for the B.A.D. celebrations chez Hackenblog.
J Bloglandia, vol 1, issue 2, ISSN 1940-7645
J Bloglandia, vol 1, issue 1, ISSN 1940-7645
