Carter at Brandeis ...3:28 pm
Former President Jimmy Carter visited Brandeis University yesterday. You’ll recall he refused to appear if it meant that he had to debate Alan Dershowitz with regard to Carter’s recent book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” (Although he persistently says he wrote the book in order to provoke debate.) Dershowitz came on for a rebuttal after Carter had safely left the building. I didn’t get to hear very much of the event. The New York Sun blogs on it today.
The Boston Globe also reports on some backtracking by Carter in this appearance:
In response to a question, Carter apologized for a sentence in his book that he acknowledged seemed to justify terrorism by saying that suicide bombings should end when Israel accepts the goals of the road map to peace with Palestinians.
“That sentence was worded in a completely improper and stupid way,” Carter said. “I’ve written my publishers to change that sentence immediately in future editions of the book. I apologize to you personally and to everyone here.”
But.
But he defended the use of the word apartheid in his book title.
“I realize that this has caused great concern in the Jewish community,” he said. “The title makes it clear that the book is about conditions and events in the Palestinian territory and not in Israel. And the text makes clear on numerous occasions that the forced separation and the domination of Arabs by Israelis is not based on race.”
The Globe quotes some of Dershowitz’s follow-up too:
“Had he written a book similar to what he said on stage, I don’t believe there would have been much controversy,” he said. “I wish I didn’t have to be here today to respond to President Carter.”
Dershowitz later added, “We are not that far apart in our views.”
I heard enough of Dershowitz’s talk to know that the above is not a fair representation of the overall tone of his remarks. He did make the point that Carter appeared to be different person in this appearance at Brandeis, but spent some considerable time tackling the other Jimmy Carter: the one who wrote the book and the one who gives interviews to al-Jazeera which feed into their anti-Jewish worldview.
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Thundering along ...11:40 am
Thanks to the blogkeeper at One Year Viewed From Space for the compliment on my “Mister Pitiful” post from a week or two ago, where I ruminated on a line from Thunder On The Mountain. He also goes on to provide his own very interesting angle on the song.
Thanks also to Ronnie who offers another insight on the same line, i.e., For the love of God, you ought to take pity on yourself, saying:
Doesn’t it paraphrase John 3:16?
For the love of God = For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son
You oughta take pity on yourselves = that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Just a thought especially when you substitute the synonym “mercy” for “pity.”
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Mercurial arrest ...9:51 am
Via CNN: Suspect held in Los Angeles subway mercury spill. (Previous posts here and here.)
California authorities on Tuesday arrested a man suspected of spilling mercury in a Los Angeles subway station before Christmas, according to an FBI spokeswoman.
Armando Bustamante Miranda, 27, was being held on parole violation charges and was being questioned, said Laura Eimiller. He was arrested by the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force. Eimiller could not say whether Miranda is a U.S. citizen.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Miranda is homeless. He would not comment on why he allegedly had mercury in his possession.
The task force last week said they were seeking a man for questioning in connection with “unexplained activity.” That activity can be seen in a copy of the surveillance video — obtained exclusively by CNN — that shows the Pershing Square subway station in Los Angeles late on the evening of December 22, the Friday before Christmas.
In it, a man wearing a brown jacket crouches on the train platform and spills about five fluid ounces of a liquid from a small bottle. He then goes to a Metropolitan Transit Authority call box to report what happened. Testing of the spot later showed the liquid was mercury.
And more from the LA Times:
Sheriff’s Det. Danny Regalado described Miranda as a transient who told authorities he found the mercury while scavenging through a commercial dumpster on the Westside for items he could sell to support his drug habit.
Miranda, according to Regalado, said during the two-hour interview with detectives that he was “fixated” on the mercury and the way it moved in the vial, adding that he recognized the substance from a “Terminator” movie. He told authorities he took it out of his pocket at the station and was showing it off, hoping another passenger would purchase it. When he spilled the mercury, he told police, another passenger told him to report it.
Detectives said an acquaintance of Miranda recognized his photo and contacted authorities, setting up a meeting with the suspect in Hollywood. Regalado said he was “very cooperative.”
So, these early reports would seem to rule out any motive on Miranda’s part to test the authorities’ response time to a chemical spill (which turned out to be eight hours, and then only after a second person reported something strange on the platform). However, the reports are still early.
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Dylan at the symphony ...9:26 am
The New York Sun has a story on “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan,” a project of classical composer John Corigliano.
Take seven of Bob Dylan’s songs — as beloved as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and as obscure as “Clothes Line.” Then discard the original melodies and reset the lyrics to a cycle of postmodern art songs, trading folk guitar for piano and Mr. Dylan’s nasal, raspy vocals for a soprano at turns delicate and aggressive.
After reading the whole article, I’m not sure if I think the composer is admirably imaginative in his approach to Dylan’s work, or too dull and simplistic. Obviously, it’s something you would have to hear.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Boom ...10:39 pm
The Telegraph reports: North Korea helping Iran with nuclear testing.
Last August RWB rang the bell about the Iranian/North Korean connection (not that I was the only one).
So does alarmism become realism.
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Monday, January 22, 2007
Hitchens on Steyn ...7:43 pm
Christopher Hitchens looks favorably, overall, on Mark Steyn’s recent book “America Alone,” although he finds the ten-point list near the end on how we should deal in the future with the Islamist danger to be a little “slapdash.”
He offers some more specific prescriptions of his own including the following:
1. An end to one-way multiculturalism and to the cultural masochism that goes with it. The Koran does not mandate the wearing of veils or genital mutilation, and until recently only those who apostasized from Islam faced the threat of punishment by death. Now, though, all manner of antisocial practices find themselves validated in the name of religion, and mullahs have begun to issue threats even against non-Muslims for criticism of Islam. This creeping Islamism must cease at once, and those responsible must feel the full weight of the law. Meanwhile, we should insist on reciprocity at all times. We should not allow a single Saudi dollar to pay for propaganda within the U.S., for example, until Saudi Arabia also permits Jewish and Christian and secular practices. No Wahhabi-printed Korans anywhere in our prison system. No Salafist imams in our armed forces.
Stopping to consider, one has to wonder why the policies recommended above are not already standard practice. This is an area where, bluntly, we are losing this war: that is, in the area of the ideological conflict. The term “reciprocity” (which Pope Benedict, to his credit, has used many times) is one which should be stated over and over and over again till it rolls off the tongue as easily as “global warming.” It is the very least of the demands we should be putting on the Muslim world. It is a necessary reality-check at a time when Muslim activists in the Western world are persistently playing the victim card — as if Muslims in the Western world are not free to openly practice their faith, build new houses of worship, and proselytize at will. Christians and others must be free to those same things in majority Muslim nations before the complaints of sundry Saudi princes and various loudmouthed imams can even pass the laugh test.
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Mmmm, yummy ...11:16 am
Following up on the “still unexplained” story of a man who spilled mercury onto an LA subway platform and skedaddled, here’s this: Some touched mercury spilled in Los Angeles subway incident.
At least four subway passengers either touched or stepped on 6 ounces of mercury that a man dropped onto a downtown subway platform here, with one commuter finally alerting authorities about the spill eight hours after it occurred.
Video from a camera in the Pershing Square station also shows several people looking down at the viscous fluid. At least two men can be seen stooping to touch it.
Officials said none of those exposed appeared to have been sickened by the mercury, which can cause severe health problems if inhaled, ingested or touched.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has come under harsh criticism for its handling of the Dec. 22 incident, in which a man in a sports jacket dropped the hazardous element on the platform — then used an MTA intercom to say, “I spilled mercury.”
So, the story has advanced a little. Now the man is described as using an MTA intercom, as opposed to calling the authorities, which implied using a telephone. Not a big deal, but it shows once again how basic facts get misreported in the initial stages of any story.
As for the people who, unbelievably, stooped to touch the spilled liquid: they should consider themselves lucky that it was only mercury. I can’t conceive of ever wanting to touch a liquid I saw on a subway platform. (And it has absolutely nothing to do with fear of terrorism.)
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Blue Monday? ...10:35 am
On the unhappiest day of the year, why not watch Johnny Ray singing Just Walking in the Rain:
The tie-in to Dylan is easy: Bob has brought up Johnny Ray’s name in many interviews over the years, as someone who made a huge impression on him in the 1950s.
For instance, he talked about Ray, and about radio in the days gone by, to Der Spiegel in 1997:
When I was young, America was connected above all by means of the radio. The radio was the most important. You had stations who could play whatever they wanted. And all of this was broadcast over thousands of miles. Take Jimmy Hendrix, he grew up in Seattle. The radio connected us all. I don’t know when they started to play all that pap, I only know that radio today is different. Someone like the singer Johnny Ray, who was kind of a leper back then, he wouldn’t stand a chance today. Johnny Ray had a whole different kind of dynamic, he had heart and soul and he really wanted us to feel something when he sang.
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Better late than never, 2 ...8:28 pm
The New York Post’s gossip page today, under the “We hear …” section, reports …
THAT the sultry female voice that begins every episode of Bob Dylan’s wildly popular XM radio show, “Theme Time Radio Hour,” belongs to Ellen Barkin . . .
Wow, what a revelation. That fact was noted in this space back on August 15th, 2006.
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- The Theme Time Radio Hour
- (And still) Too Much Of Nothing from the Christian Science Monitor
- Charlton Heston, 1923 - 2008
Better late than never ...7:15 pm
A very sick dog set RWB back many hours today, but, one big pointless vet bill later, she seems to have made herself all better.
This Sunday’s mp3 is something I heard for the first time very recently — it’s Bob in Dublin, Ireland, in 1995 performing one of his most squarely declarative gospel songs, In the Garden, with a guest appearance by none other than Carole King on piano.
And if that’s not odd enough: from near the end of the same gig, this is Real Real Gone, a song written by Van Morrison, being performed by Bob and the band with Van Morrison himself and, for good measure, Elvis Costello also guesting on vocals, and apparently Carole King again. It’s a big mess but an amusing one. It starts off with Dylan, returning to the stage after the encore, saying, “You know these guys, right?”
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
This is only a test ...9:21 pm
I’m somewhat surprised this isn’t getting more attention, or maybe I’ve just missed it: Accident or ‘Dry Run’ For Terrorist Attack?
A man spills a vial containing mercury in Los Angeles’s Pershing Square subway station. He calls the police to report it, and then disappears.
More details at DebbieSchlussel.com.
It took eight hours for the police to show up to investigate.
You can watch the video clip at CNN and judge for yourself whether the man appears to have had an accident with his vial of mercury or whether he appears to have deliberately poured it out.
I only know that when I accidentally spill my mercury in the subway (I’m such a butter fingers), it looks nothing like how this guy does it.
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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ...5:58 pm
Another show this week, and another pot-pourri of great music, questionable jokes, useful facts (… continue reading …)
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Or not? ...9:50 am
I posted yesterday regarding the story in Insight magazine on the alleged extent of Barack Obama’s Muslim background, and their added claim that the detailed check of that background was initiated by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The Hillary team responds today:
Clinton’s aides blasted the story as an attempt to tar both her and Obama. “We have no connection to this story,” said spokesman Howard Wolfson, noting the magazine is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon-founded Unification Church.
“It is an obvious right-wing hit job by a Moonie publication and an attack on both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.”
So, take your pick.
Just to descend a tad deeper into deviousness (and we are talking Clinton here): if you wonder why any source in Hillary’s campaign would leak this story to a magazine like Insight, instead of, say, Salon or something, then consider the deniability factor. If indeed this was given to Insight by a Hillary-ette, then the campaign has succeeded (1) in propagating the toxic story on Obama and (2) in being able to tell fellow Democrats (who would look askance on the move) that it’s just a nutty right-wing smear-job. Presumably, the source would have insisted on confidentiality, so the Insight reporter’s hands are tied.
(Don’t you just look forward to having the Clintons back in the White House?)
…
Oh, and somehow it’s still news that she’s running: “I’m in. And I’m in to win.”
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Friday, January 19, 2007
Bon mots ...9:28 pm
Brian e-mails about the Dylan song lyric I currently have posted atop the page:
Put on your cat clothes, Mama, put on your evening dress
Put on your cat clothes, Mama, put on your evening dress
A few more years of hard work then there’ll be a thousand
years of happiness
… saying:
Are you sure it’s not ‘camp clothes’ - put on your camp clothes mama,
put on your evening dress…I guess not, but that’s how I heard it!!
The official lyrics for Modern Times are live on the BobDylan.com website, at this link, though they’re not necessarily indexed properly throughout the site (eg., they don’t seem to appear in the overall list of song titles). So, I know “cat clothes” is right.
But mishearing Dylan lyrics is a long and respectable tradition. I know how crushing and disorienting it can be when you discover that a word that you thought was one thing turns out be another. When I looked through the official Modern Times lyrics, I saw at least one thing I had wrong.
I found out that what I thought was the line:
We eat and we drink, we field and we think
is actually
We eat and we drink, we feel and we think
I liked “field,” like fielding questions or fielding baseballs. Oh, well.
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HAIR ...8:24 pm
So, straight to Bob’s intro: (… continue reading …)
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