The following interview with Anabel Park and Eric Byler was on tonight on Channel 4:
Michael Jackson Comments on Hitler
The internet and news sources were abuzz recently with the rumor that Michael Jackson liked Adolph Hitler and idolized him. Wrong! According to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s novel, The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation , Michael was never anti-semetic and certainly did not admire Hitler. The rabbi was a mentor and spiritual advisor to Michael. Rabbi Boteach provided the following quote by Michael Jackson:
Hitler was a genius orator. He was [able] to make that many people turn and change and hate. He had to be a showman and he was. Before he would speak, he would pause, drink a bit of water, and then he would clear his throat, and look around. It was what an entertainer would do trying to work out how to play his audience. He would go into this fury of the first words he would say and he would hit them hard. But where did he come from? I know he failed school and he wanted to be an architect. He failed a lot of things. But I think it all happened in prison, the whole Mein Kampf thing, didn’t it?
This sounds more like assessment to me, than admiration. Since when is genius always flattering?
Who of us hasn’t wondered how a failure like Hitler ended up having the influence and power that he did?
Interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: (Warning: Some of the details about his father are very disturbing)
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The Supreme Court: Home to America’s Highest Court
The Supreme Court reconvenes on Monday after summer recess. To mark this occassion, C-Span will air its documentary The Supreme Court: Home to America’s Highest Court giving us an inside look at internal workings of the US Supreme Court.
According to the Washington Post:
Supreme fanatics will learn something new here about justices’ chambers and the busts, interior artwork and exterior features of the 1935 court building.
Most interesting, this marks the first time that all the current and retired justices (including Sandra Day O’Connor, David Souter and newcomer Sonia Sotomayor) have given individual interviews on camera for the same film. If nothing else, it’s rare to see some of them move and speak up close. (Longer individual interviews will be aired later in the week, and full transcripts, natch, will go up on C-SPAN’s Web site.)
That the justices say almost nothing revealing and stick squarely to their respect and reverence for the job is fine with me, as is the fact that you’d have to go to a funeral home to find a more hushed edifice. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg most giddily shows off the hallowed halls. There is discussion of pecking order and chamber offices that face street protesters and offices that don’t. There is the never-before-filmed robing room, where one treats one’s colleagues with utmost kindness and respect, even when “you may be temporarily miffed because you received a spicy dissenting opinion,” she says.
The show airs at 9 pm Sunday night for 90 minutes on CSPAN. Sunday night is getting some better TV for those willing to leave the standard networks.
Apple Quits US Chamber of Commerce over Climate Change Position
Apple, the tech behemoth, has resigned its membership in the US Chamber of Commerce, effective immediately because of the position taken on climate change by the organization. Apple follows on the heels of Nike who also just resigned.
According to the New York Times:
The New York Times reports that Apple’s resignation is effective immediately. Catherine Novelli, vice president of worldwide government affairs at Apple, called the chamber’s stance on climate change issues “frustrating” in aletter addressed to its president and CEO.
“We strongly object to the chamber’s recent comments opposing the E.P.A.’s effort to limit greenhouse gases. … We would prefer that the chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis
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Several energy companies have also left the Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, Bill Maher spoke explicitly and irreverently , as usual, on Friday night over the climate change issue:
Beyond a Reaonable Drought
According to Huffington Post, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), mentioned by Maher and known as the King of Global Warming Deniers, announced on C-Span over the weekend that he will go to Copenhagen later this fall to enlighten the scientists and he will present:
another view.” “I think somebody has to be there — a one-man truth squad,” he said. Throughout the program, Inhofe went through his tattered global warming denier claims: that climate change is a “hoax,” that CO2 is not a pollutant, and — latching on to the latest false right-wing talking point — that clean energy legislation will cost American families $1,700 a year
Bill Maher might be on to something. Forget science. Has anyone else noticed that the flowers and plants now last well in to November. Our 5 senses should be telling us something is different. When I was a kid, the growing season ended much earlier. Forget being a kid, when I was right out of college the growing season was shorter than it is now. Forget politics. Are there differences? Even if you don’t believe most of the scientists, are you willing to take the chance?
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