on March 9, 2010 by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Is reality TV finally living up to its name?
Most of what we are served up under that rubric is actually the farthest thing from reality. The exploits of Snooki, Jake the Bachelor, and all those Real Housewives hardly reflect life as most of America knows it and lives it.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
The long-awaited “roadmap” for U.S. public diplomacy has finally emerged from Undersecretary of State Judith McHale’s office, and it is a stunning disappointment.
It is so lacking in imagination, so narrow in its scope, and so insufficient in its appraisal of the tasks facing U.S. public diplomats that it is impossible to understand why its preparation took so many months.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Sarah Palin’s recent statement that, presumably during her childhood, she and her family used to cross the border from Alaska into Canada to take advantage of Canada’s health care system is not really a gaffe or a verbal slipup, but offers an interesting insight into Palin. It is not exactly surprising, or even”ironic”, to use Palin’s words that somebody who has made a name, and a great deal of money, for herself by linking health care reform to some kind of socialist bogeyman, used to take advantage of socialized medicine.
Speaking to a Canadian audience and reminiscing about traveling to Canada for health care as a child is the kind of thing we might expect from a progressive supporter of health care, seeking to stress the need for a better health care reform system in the US. Had, for example, Anthony Weiner made this comment while on the Canadian side of the border near New York, you can be sure that Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and, yes, Sarah Palin would be seeking to red bait him out of the congress. There will, of course, be no such consequence for Palin.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Betty Rowland, aka “The Ball of Fire” is a 93-year-old retired burlesque queen. We first met in 1997 during research for my documentary film on the last generation of burlesque, Pretty Things (2005). Betty also wrote the forward to my book on the same subject, Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens (Harper Collins, 2006)
The first time we met in person she told me that she had sued my grandfather, Samuel Goldwyn, as part of a publicity stunt surrounding his film Ball of Fire (1941). In my research I found that notorious Hollywood copycat costume designer Edith Head had modified one of Betty’s burlesque costumes for Barbara Stanwyck’s nightclub singer character. My grandfather and grandmother, along with Head and director Howard Hawks, had all been named in a deposition as having gone down to the Follies Theater in Los Angeles to catch her act. For me, this was just another (albeit quite personal) example of how much burlesque had influenced “legitimate” entertainment.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
TAWAS CITY, Mich. (AP) — Prospects are good for resolving a dispute over abortion that has led some House Democrats to threaten to withhold support of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, a key Michigan Democrat said Monday.
Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Though Gov. Pat Quinn won’t discuss his proposal for fixing the state’s massive deficit until Wednesday, a top Quinn aide told the Associated Press Monday that the state can expect 17,000 teachers to lose their jobs, thousands of poor families to get less help with child care and fewer state troopers to patrol the roads.
Quinn budget director David Vaught told the AP that even if lawmakers agree to Quinn’s proposed tax hikes, the state will still face big cuts.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Despite harsh winter conditions and high levels of unemployment, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index rates the small Michigan town of Holland-Grand Haven as one of the happiest in the United States. The index ranks Holland as second only to Boulder, Colo. in terms of “well-being,” a term which includes the physical and mental health of residents, as well as job satisfaction and other measures of happiness.
So what’s making these Michiganites so happy? As ABC News has recently pointed out, Holland also ranks as the second most generous town in the country. Holland residents are committed to regularly giving back, whether it’s lending a helping hand to a neighbor or volunteering with a local organization — and that just might explain what keeps them smiling.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
“Women are just men without money.” On International Women’s Day it
is worth remembering Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson’s
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
“As they try to reclaim the ethical high ground during a difficult stretch, House Democratic leaders are considering a dramatic move: declaring a party-wide ban on earmarks this year,” the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported on Monday.
The idea, floated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a leadership huddle Tuesday, is for House Democrats to outflank their Republican counterparts, who have mulled and rejected such a moratorium in recent years.
on by Jude Emantsal in Other News, Comments (0)
Sarah Palin took to her Facebook page Friday to defend a Navy SEAL from south suburban Blue Island who is accused of mistreating an Iraqi terror suspect along with two of his fellow servicemen.
Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas of Blue Island is accused of mistreating Ahmed Hashim Abed, the alleged mastermind behind a 2004 ambush and murder of four American security contractors whose bodies were burned. Two of the victims were hung on a bridge over the Euphrates River. The SEALS captured Abed in September.