Sarah Palin debuts on Fox cable tonight as the new pundit in the pit. She’ll be appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Saw this one coming like an umbrella in the rain.
Conan O’Brien is in a showdown with NBC about moving the “Tonight Show” to 12:05 AM. Jay Leno not happy about his show being canceled as a way to move him back into his old time slot. Why can’t they do these things the good old fashion way: Late Nite hosts leave when they say they will leave. Notice, it hasn’t been the same since and bad feelings all around. Nikki Finke has a take on this on Deadline Hollywood if you care enough to read.
Read the Vanity Fair article on Tiger Woods especially on a night I can’t sleep. A definite cure for insomnia. Did we really have to go there with the comparison to the O.J. low speed chase. What’s the connection besides 4 wheel drive???
The 3rd gate crasher at the White House State dinner on “Good Morning America.” Actually, I did have time to care because I have to work doors from time-to-time. It still adds up to “You’re not on the list.” Invite with no name on it (inside envelope or on invitation) + no seat card at the table + no RSVP. I’m disappointed Robin never asked if he “RSVP’d.” Didn’t come up. Just cry ignorance dude. It still adds up to “You’re not on the list.”
Meet Nexi. I was introduced to her via a CBS News special report on American Creativity and innovation – “Where America Stands.” Nexi was born in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. She is part of an on-going project to develop robots that can help out in the home and probably a few other places. But as these robots beings become more “human” my key question is “Is the template or blueprint for human and humanity in the future inclusive of our diverse humanity?” Take Nexi. She’s white, blue-eyed. Her voice is pleasing. She expresses emotion. Does this come in a chocolate dark brown eyed model. Will one of her voice chips include “That’s alright, baby?” “It’s all good.” Or is it bad form to use “Negro dialect” in the 21st century?”
MIT calls this sophisticated class of robots Mobile/Dexterous/Social. But as we craft the 21st century, the social aspect appears to neglect the 21st centural global reality. The assumption that Nexi’s blue eyes and snow white skin represents some kind of futuristic norm is not a perspective that gives me hope about an inclusive future. With that in mind I’ll settle for the blue or purple modle.
Even in robotic sex fantasies, the norm comes in one model for the first sex robot that was unveiled at an Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. First, a marketing slip. Everyone knows variety is the ultimate fantasy. This robot’s name is Roxxxy. She has dark hair and dark eyes from what I can see from the photos. So I guess she’s the “ethnic.” But apparently Roxxxy’s all talk and no action. She provides noises and simple conversation.
“Sex only goes so far – then you want to be able to talk to the person,” according to Douglas Hines, Roxxxy’s creater.
Is Roxxxy the future of safe sex? Does she have a brother? How have the reports about the growing number of HIV infections among Black women “colored” desirability small talk.
And then there’s that discussion about what is desirable. What kind of “social chips” will be loaded into robots and from what century? I hear the Stepford Wives conspiracy theories churning.
Okay, the term is back to “health insurance reform.” “Health care reform” I would guess refers to treatment not payments. What I’m hearing from the outcome of the bill the President will sign is consumer protection reforms for health insurance purchases by employers, employees, and seniors purchasing medications. [I guess this is a “bye-bye” signal to the public option in the short term at least.] Then why not put the health care insurance oversight under a similar watch that’s being proposed for the banks? After all, most of the complaining recently seems to be more about costs over care. Maybe I’m making silly. Though the President outlines some of the immediate benefits of the health insurance reform package, I think it’s still important for people to know what will be in the final bill and when each “reform” will be implemented. Complacency is the enemy of a healthy democracy.
CATHERINE E. F. BIDEN (1917 – 2010) “My mother’s creed is the American creed: No one is better than you. You are everyone’s equal, and everyone is equal to you.”
–Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Vice President of the United States
Sympathies to the Biden family on the death of Mrs. Catherine E. F. Biden, mother of the Vice President. Mrs. Biden was 92 years old. She died Friday. In 2008 I was in the hall when then Senator Joe Biden, Jr. accepted the VP nomination slot in Denver. Catherine Biden was there and I’m sure a very proud mom.
My friend Clayton LeBouef sent me his latest: Political, social, cultural commentator Repetey Green (portrayed by Clayton LeBouef). Anyone who’s been around DC for a long while or saw the glaringly inaccurate, “Talk To Me,” based on, I suppose the posturing of the real Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene (who never spun records in DC), will get a kick out of Clayton’s new spoken word commentary. Here’s something Clayton included with the YouTube link from his press release:
“Petey is the real urban legend. He had the gift of gab and used it
to address issues of poverty, drug abuse, race, class, incarceration, and the politics of “hustlin’ backward.”
I was too young to really get into Petey Greene. But you could wave to him from the sidewalk, and he’d wave back. And by the time I was old enough to soak it up, I gave up eating chittlins, but kept the corn bread. But I might hang a bit with this Repetey guy.
Here’s another one in the Repetey hamper – a tribute to Michael Jackson.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem.
Barack Obama, victory speech November 4, 2008, Chicago
I may have to post this quote a few times as a reminder to the “disillusioned” and cynical. It also wasn’t the first time during the campaign that Barack Obama talked about “setbacks” and “false starts.”
This afternoon, the White House released their review from the security meeting on the “systematic failure” of piecing and analyzing the intelligence to prevent the passenger to board the Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, and attempt to set off a chemical bomb from his underpants.
Some important advice on how to avoid screwing up was conveyed to me by a music promoter who warned a client, “Never believe your own hype.”
Was the Christmas Day attack as much of a surprise about the efficiency of airport security or national intelligence post 9-11 as the airline crash into the Pentagon on 9-11 was to the Cold War generation? Cold War babies were always warned about the no-fly zone above and around the Pentagon. There were even numbers attached to it – how many miles or yard above before the ground-to-air-missiles took you out. Or was this a case of wishful thinking and wanting to believe we were secure?
Recently, WIRED magazine covered the subject of failure (a fascinating read) with live examples. This quote was taken from an article by Jonah Lehrer titled “Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up.”
When it comes to interpreting our experiments, we see what we want to see and disregard the rest. The physics students, for instance, didn’t watch the video and wonder whether Galileo might be wrong. Instead, they put their trust in theory, tuning out whatever it couldn’t explain. Belief, in other words, is a kind of blindness.
You can apply this theory to love and romance as well.
“That boy ain’t right.” I can see some of my old relatives and their friends looking Abdulmutallab over and leaning over with a one sentence assessment. It seemed so easy back in the day for parents, grand parents and other elders to read somebody just from a few words, body language, and behavior, sometimes even a handshake. Where does that wisdom come from? Definitely not from the ivy leagues, workshops, training or field manuals.
Because the December 25th attack was, for better and worse, a failure all around, hopefully there is an opportunity to apply the wisdoms.