Continuing with our Star Trek theme today, I’m going to bend the acceptable-language rules a trifle to share the above, which George Takei himself posted on Facebook earlier today. I think he got it from here…
The title, of course, is only a slight rewording of Ms. Rand’s classic treatise, The Virtue of Selfishness.
Randians kept reminding us that “Atlas Shrugged” Still Flying Off Shelves!
I’ll bet this title would sell as well. I might buy a copy, just to be seen on my bookshelf.
OK, now we’re getting into the nit-picking, since this time it was small type way down in a slide, rather than the title of an initiative. And it wasn’t the candidate himself who made either mistake:
First “Amercia,” then “sneak-peak,” and now “Ronald Regan.” No wonder the Romney campaign is searching for a copywriter. (Required skill: “Ability to edit and proof own work.”)
Buzzfeed spotted the latest spelling error from the Romney team on Wednesday after taking a look at a slideshow the campaign’s pollsters put together for bundlers, and the rest of the Web appears to have taken notice. (The Gipper’s last name is spelled Reagan.) Among the international outlets currently running the story: Britain’sTelegraph, Canada’s Star and Ireland’sIndependent.
The typo was in a chart showing the approval ratings of incumbent presidents in the May before their re-election attempt. “Ronald Regan” was noted as having a 53 percent approval rating. (For the record, Obama’s was 47 percent, according to the chart).
But that’s the way it works. Poor ol’ Gerald Ford stumbles once, and the heartless media marketplace labels him a klutz.
For Romney, it looks like it’s gonna be spelling. Sorry, Mitt; them’s the breaks.
Not to be outdone by Bill Clinton in the civility department, Jeb Bush has offered some light praise for President Obama:
The brother of the Mr. Obama’s predecessor noted that Mr. Obama had chosen the head of the Chicago public school system, Arne Duncan, as his education secretary and they had worked to focus more on school children and less on the adults running the schools.
“Any time an elected official in the world we’re in today that appears so dysfunctional challenges a core constituency not of their opponent but of their own political base, I think we should pause and give them credit,” Bush said.
The comments came after Rose pointed to comments Bush had made in April praising Duncan and saying the Obama administration had done “a pretty good job” on education policy…
The former politician, who flatly ruled out a run as Mitt Romney’s running mate in the interview, noted that he now has the luxury of being able to say what he thinks and is not constrained by political ambitions.
“I don’t have to play the game of being 100,000 percent against President Obama. I got a long list of things that I think he’s done wrong. And I, with civility and respect, I will point those out if I’m asked. But on the things that I think he’s done a good job on, I– I’m not gonna just say, ‘no, no,’ ” Bush said…
In his case, though, he’d like to see the compliment returned:
“I think it would help him politically. For example, when he was gracious at the unveiling of the portrait, you know, there’s no way not to be gracious I guess in that kind of setting,” Bush said, referring to a recent ceremony at the White House to unveil the official portrait of former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush.
“But it helps,” he said, calling it “just a small acknowledgement that the guy that, you know, that you replaced isn’t the source of every problem that– and– and the excuse of why you’re not being successful I think would help him politically.”…
Actually, I think it would, too — among people like me. But he has to worry about his base.
Unfortunately, to those who are not retired from politics, the other side is the devil these days, and one is never allowed to give the devil his due.
I’ve been sort of puzzling over this press release since it came in yesterday:
Carol Tempel to Withdraw from House District 115 Race After Supreme Court Ruling“It’s the right thing to do”
Carol Temple
Charleston, SC – Democrat Carol Tempel announced Wednesday that she will withdraw from seeking the Democratic nomination for House District 115 (James Island, Folly Beach, Kiawah) after Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling that very clearly stated that candidates must turn in their Statements of Economic Interests and Statements of Intention of Candidacy at the same time. Tempel acknowledged she had inadvertently filed electronically but did not submit a paper copy of her Statement of Economic Interest and thus will be forgoing a run for the nomination. Tempel released the following statement on Wednesday:
“The Supreme Court could not have been more clear in their ruling yesterday. If candidates did not file properly, they should not be on the ballot. I accept full responsibility and thus will forgo seeking the Democratic nomination for House District 115. While the opportunity of serving the people of Charleston County is still on the table, I had to respect yesterday’s ruling and uphold the rule of law. I call on other candidates in Charleston County to follow my lead and do the right thing. If you did not file properly, do not risk being held in contempt of court by stubbornly trying to remain on the ballot. I look forward to fellow James Island resident Paul Thurmond and all other candidates in Charleston County who did not file properly to respect the law and immediately withdraw from the race. “Tempel is currently weighing the option of running as a petition candidate for House District 115.#####
OK… but as far as I know, she had no choice in this. I mean, she was legally off the ballot. So I’m confused by the “It’s a far, far better thing I do” tone of this announcement, as though she were making some sacrifice, of her own volition, for the principle of the Rule of Law.
Or maybe I’m just misreading it…
From Star Trek to real space exploration (Remember space exploration? It’s something we used to do when I was younger, and we believed in ourselves.)…
Listen to the voice of astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining what we have lost with our retreat from space. I found this at a site called “geeksugar.”
I didn’t agree with everything that E.J. Dionne said in his column about the failed Wisconsin recall effort, but I was pleased to read this part:
Perhaps the most significant exit poll finding was this one: Only about a quarter of those who went to the polls Tuesday said that a recall was appropriate for any reason. Roughly six in 10 said a recall should be used only in the case of official misconduct. And another tenth thought a recall was never appropriate. Most voters, in other words, rejected the very premise of the election in which they were casting ballots. This proved to be a hurdle too high for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D), Walker’s opponent.
Voters should have to live with their bad decisions until the next election, to allow for some order in government — and to lessen the already toxic atmosphere of the perpetual campaign.
If an official does something really heinous, there’s impeachment. But this “make us mad and we’ll have another election” stuff is inimical to our system of representative democracy.
E.J.’s column was about what left and right should learn from Wisconsin. He suggests, although doesn’t say it overtly, that it would be wrong to think the left has a losing proposition with its support for public employee unions.
But it does. I found this piece, also in the WashPost today, more to the point:
“Anybody, anybody would have been better than Scott Walker,” said Gregory J. Junemann, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents workers in more than a dozen federal agencies. Junemann commutes weekly to Washington from Milwaukee, where his union member wife is a public school employee.
Like many political observers, Junemann can point to the tremendous funding advantage Walker had over Barrett, but the union leader isn’t satisfied with that as an excuse for the mayor’s defeat.
“The people of Wisconsin said that the attack by Scott Walker and his allies on public employes and their unions was acceptable,” Junemann said. “That’s what they said with their votes. This puts us in a very uphill battle for November.”
Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, has a different spin: “I do not believe the results of the Wisconsin election demonstrate strong support for anti-employee policies.” Instead, “the broader long-term message,” she said, is “working men and women, and their unions, will not stand idly by while reactionary forces attempt to roll back hard-won rights.”
They might not stand idly by, but they also might lose.
This was brought to my attention by pourmecoffee, one of the better Twitter feeds:
All five of the Star Trek captains appeared together for the first time this weekend at Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con. The photo shows William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula from left to right. The photo above was taken by Tomlin Campbell for Wizard World.
Of course, there was only one real captain. The fat guy on the left used to be him. This is one subject on which I agree with Hitler.
