Day 2 of the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings. Today, Kagan gets to speak. Yesterday, the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was on the hot seat. Kagan clerked for Marshall and described him as her hero. Marshall, the civil rights icon of desegregation in schools and first African American appointed to the Supreme Court in [...]
Even with an impromptu firing of the four star “Runaway General” Stanley McChrystal; and an almost seamless replacement (and in management terms – demotion) of General David Petraeus from head of Central Operations Command to Afghanistan operations — oil spill still ravaging the Gulf, Congress hits a brick wall on extending unemployment benefits — the [...]
Clayton LeBouef and I have been chatting up Rod Serling recently. “The Twilight Zone” and other works by Serling were light years before their time even compared to today’s standards for television programming. In what human relation areas have we entered a Twilight Zone? Race. Religion. Class. Culture. Immigration. Wall Street. The environment. War. Peace. [...]
In John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” song he writes “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Or lately, the adage resembles the Frank Sinatra tune “That’s Life.” One life lesson is there’s really no excuse for not practicing your art if that’s what you want or love even in a environment [...]
The annual Smithsonian Institution Folklife Festival starts this week from June 24 – 28; and from July 1 – 4. The festival takes place on the national mall by the Smithsonian castle and Ripley Center. This year’s featured festival programs include: – Mexico – commemorating Mexico’s Independence Bicentenary (1810-2010) and Revolution Centenary (1910-2010) – Asian [...]
