by liberal japonicus
While the post on Michael Irvin was pretty open thread-y, form demands that when the sun's rays cross the international dateline, an appropriately labeled open thread should be offered up to the ObWi gods, which, in order to not inflame the atheist/skeptic crowd here, is strategically placed below the fold.
There has been a little talk about why the reaction to the Murdoch scandals has been different on the two sides of the Atlantic. Some may say that it is evidence that the game is played differently in the US. Others may assert that British politicians are ahead of US politicians in growing a pair. I think that it is because they list their committee members like this.
PA has published a list of the members of the Commons culture media and sport committee who will grill Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks at next Tuesday's hearing:
• Chairman John Whittingdale is a senior backbench Conservative. He quit his job in the City to work as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.
• Tom Watson, Labour, took the Sun to court and won after it ran stories claiming he had been involved in a campaign to smear the Tories.
• Louise Mensch, Conservative, a "chick-lit" novelist, claims she has been "threatened" before by a national newspaper journalist.
• Philip Davies, Conservative, is a rebellious backbencher who is outspoken on crime and immigration.
• Therese Coffey, Conservative, was finance director for Mars Drinks UK before being elected last year.
• Damian Collins, Conservative, worked at Saatchi advertising before setting up his own marketing firm.
• Paul Farrelly, Labour, admitted last year he "wrestled" a man to the floor in a Commons bar "entirely in self-defence".
• Alan Keen, Labour Co-operative, is chairman of the All Party parliamentary football group and once worked as a tactical scout for Middlesbrough football club.
• Adrian Sanders, Liberal Democrat, is a keen campaigner on animal welfare issues.
• Jim Sheridan, Labour, a former trade union convener and chairman of the All Party parliamentary Scottish football group.
I love the deployment of quotations in admitted last year he "wrestled" a man to the floor in a Commons bar "entirely in self-defence". While I'm sure that equally interesting descriptions of various US politicans could be conjured up, I'm afraid the other side of the Atlantic lacks the ability to do so, unless it is in a container clearly labeled satire, such as the Simpsons. Here is where you link to an interesting thing you read about the scandal, or reveal how you wrestled someone entirely in self-defence. Have at it!
“There has been a little talk about why the reaction to the Murdoch scandals has been different on the two sides of the Atlantic.”
Um, because they happened on one side of the Atlantic, and not the other? And there’s no particular reason to think any of his media properties on this side are implicated in any way? Beyond hoping like heck they are for political reasons?
Um, there is a difference between ‘there is little talk’ and ‘there is a little talk’. The former emphasizes the lack while the latter suggests it does exist. For example
Peter King calling for an investigation
Eliot Spitzer in Slate pointing out that
It prohibits any American company or citizen from paying or offering to pay—directly or indirectly—a foreign official, foreign political figure, or candidate for the purpose of influencing that person in any decision relating to his official duties, including inducing that person to act in violation of his or her lawful duty. Very importantly, even if all such acts occur overseas, the American company and citizen will still be held liable here. So acts in Britain by British citizens working on behalf of News Corp. create liability for News Corp., an American business incorporated in Delaware and listed on American financial exchanges.
James Murdoch has dual citizenship btw.
The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation
And at the NYTimes
This time could be different. To the Bancrofts’ credit, the agreement requires News Corporation to preserve the integrity not just of Dow Jones, but of all the company’s “publications and newsgathering services.” Arguably, those principles have been violated at its British outlets. And if the committee of five chooses, it can hire investigators, lawyers and accountants to conduct their own investigation, with full access to News Corporation’s books, records and people.
So, the phrase ‘a little talk’ actually refers to current events. So while I am ‘hoping like heck’ that Murdoch gets what he deserves, my wishes don’t actually have me trying to redefine reality so the view is better.
reveal how you wrestled someone entirely in self-defence.
Do my occasional clashes with Phil count?
That horrible lefty Peter King, always trying to make Fox News look bad by trying to drum up frivolous FBI investigations.
Or, what LJ said.
It’s normally good form to NOT automatically presume the worst of possible intentions on the part of people you disagree with, even if they don’t reciprocate. Here’s the way I’d have put it:
In general, I’d refrain from trying to guess why, for the same reason I object when my motivations are roundly discussed. There’s a logical fallacy for that, I think, but I’m too lazy to look it up for you. Just because someone might have the motive that you just made up for them doesn’t mean that they are actually being driven by that motive, nor does it (in my opinion) really matter all that much when discussing criminal activity. If someone is doing something highly illegal and unethical, it hardly matters whether I have an axe to grind in pointing that out, does it?
Not to me.
/soapbox
I could see that. Some fights go immediately to the takedown, and one takedown defense is to take the other fellow down when he tries to take you down.
Sorry if that ruins the humor, but there it is. If someone was discourteous enough to try and take me down, I’d do whatever it took to defend myself, up to and including making sure that he got slammed to the floor instead of me.
“Beyond hoping like heck they are for political reasonsnot because that would be a horrible intrusion into the privacy of people who have undergone terrible tragedy?
That would, you know, be a valid reason for being concerned about it, if it happened here. It’s not a valid reason for believing it has happened here. Which is what I was addressing. The reason we’re not reacting much to it, is that it’s somebody else’s problem, until we have actual reason to believe it’s our problem, too. Which is a typical reason for not being concerned much with things.
Beyond hoping like heck they are for political reasons?
While I appreciate Slart’s comment on this question, I have no qualms about admitting that I think Rupert Murdoch’s media holdings have a cancerous effect on politics in my country and that I would be glad to see them disappear because of it.
So, yes, while I don’t want anyone’s privacy to be unduly invaded, I, for political reasons, would be very happy for Fox to be found out for doing so, if that’s what they did, and I’d be happier for Fox to be the one who did it than a less politically cancerous outfit, all other things being equal.
I’d also be happier for Rupert Murdoch, as opposed to some other news-media mogul, to have some sort of epiphany, deciding that his media holdings have been engaged in wrong-headed reporting and that he was therefore going to dissolve them – because Fox sucks (more than everyone else of comparable size and influence).
In short, if it’s gotta be someone, it might as well be Murdoch. I don’t see any reason to feel bad about thinking that.
That would, you know, be a valid reason for being concerned about it, if it happened here. It’s not a valid reason for believing it has happened here.
It’s a perfectly valid reason to think Fox more likely to invade people’s privacy, considering the common ownership. It’s good reason to give Murdoch’s outlets over here a bit of extra scrutiny.
If (so far not demonstrated) Fox did something similar in the US, I am small minded enough to hope that they did their illegal wire-tapping on someone who is an icon to the folks who take everything that Fox News says as gospel. A totally non-political “victim of over-reaching government”? Or maybe the Palin kids? Maybe Mr. Bachmann?
I will now go hang my head for a few minutes.
Brett Bellmore: “a typical reason for not being concerned much with things.”
Which explains why Brett’s appearances in this blog, and many others, are so rare. An almost Buddhist view of existence.
I tend to resonate with somebody else’s problem, though.
Brett – I would have thought your remarks on this post would have been more like, “Silly Rupert Murdoch, only the U.S. government is allowed to illegally hack citizens’ cellphones.” Or somesuch.
Ugh, are you saying there are some thing governments do that we frown on private citizens doing, like extortion (taxes), kidnapping (arrest) for ransom (bail), murder(execution)? Because that, sir, is crazy talk.
Two observations follow from this.
First: Brett either has not been paying much attention to this story, or has been unconsciously filtering out select parts of it. I can think of no other reasons–other than dishonesty–why someone would be capable of writing what Brett did. Because as others noted upthread, there are a number of reports suggesting that it has, indeed, happened here.
Second: Brett either has not been paying much attention to the thread on which he’s commenting, or has been unconsciously filtering out select parts of it–because he’s so far been commenting as if he was unaware of the information in LJ’s 9:24 and Ugh’s 9:34 comments. Unless he’s arguing in bad faith, which I’d prefer not to assume.
Brett, perhaps you’d like to address the information in those comments? It’s really hard to assert that there’s no reason to be concerned or believe it happened here when reports of such are being investigated by the DOJ at the request of both Republicans and Democrats.
As an Australian who has been subject to Murdoch’s heinous influence over our national government via his gutter press interests for a long time, the News hacking scandal has all kinds of interest for me. Reminds me suddenly of this: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”
I’ve mentioned our oldest cat Marble here before, and her ongoing kidney and thyroid problems that we treat regularly. Lately, she’s also had tooth and mouth sensitivity, which has interfered with her eating. She’s down to 4 lbs 14 oz, and we are expecting blood work results for her on Monday that in suspect are going to show that we’ve reached a crisis point with the kidneys.
To make matters worse, our 16 year old calico, Chestnut, has had health problems since at least last fall, in which she was vomiting copiously on a regular basis, usually projectile vomiting in nearly unbelievable amounts. We’ve taken her in several times, and they’ve recommended a variety of treatments – hydration, antinauseal medication, appetite stimulants, etc. This last week, though, she started becoming lethargic and unfocused, and refusing all food and water. We took her in Wednesday and during the exam, when the vet checked her small intestine, she threw up a quantity of brownish bile through her mouth and nose. They gave her 300cc of sub-q fluids plus a painkiller/antibiotic, and we took her home to see if she would improve. She continued to periodically burp up bile, and she still refused to eat, or drink. She showed no reactions to anything, including catnip, and just lay there staing at nothing.
Early this morning she simply laid down in her litter box. We took her back to the vet, and after another abdominal exam, the vet reported that her small and large intestines had both become thickened and ropy. His diagnosis is advanced intestinal lymphoma. No food is getting into her intestine from the stomach, and she’s not absorbing any nutrients. There’s no recommended treatment.
We asked to take her home for the weekend, and he hydrated her with 200cc of fluid and gave her a steroid shot to temporarily reduce the inflammation so she can be in less pain and maybe eat and drink a bit. We’re taking her in Monday to have her euthanized, because we will not have her suffer and starve to death or die of dehydration.
How this all came to a head so quickly with both of them, we have no idea. Our 20th wedding anniversary is Wednesday, and our gift might be two dead cats. Eff the effing universe.
Phil, sorry about the cats. Hard times.
On the other hand, congrats on the twenty years. If I had a hat on I would take it off and salute you. Since I don’t, I’ll just wish you a good start on the next twenty.
Sorry about your kitties, Phil. I’m sure they kow you love them.
May you recieve the strength to see you through this. As one who has suffered his share of loss, I can tell you that you should not fight the urge to cry.
Oh, believe me there’s been no end of crying. We’re trying to limit it so as not to upset them more than necessary, but it’s been constant tears otherwise. We decided today, even though it’s really s decision we made in our hearts earlier this week, that it’s time for both of them. Marble’s in near constant pain now, and simply won’t eat or drink. Everything we try to do to help causes her more distress and agony. We have to bring an end to her suffering.
Chestnut simply can’t digest anything. Whennthe doctor checked her intestines, he didn’t even want to recommend a treatment option. It’s that bad.
This is our last day with the two of them. After 20 and 16 years, respectively, they’ll be gone after tomorrow morning. I don’t know how I’m going to make it through this.
I’m sorry, Phil.
Your beloved cats, somehow knowing more about the cold, effing, universe than we do (yes, cold, but then why not curl up for a nice nap in the morning sun coming through the window, while we wait), found love in your home.
As for the effing universe, that it could use a good rogering is beyond dispute. That it would notice the effort, except to check its watch and not even require a post-effing cigarette, is doubtful.
Nine lives. Eighteen if you count the two of them.
I don’t why, but I found this to be moving and oddly comforting (for reasons of my own in this truly sh&tty year) — The 21 Lives of Sean Bean:
http://thedailywh.at/2011/07/14/another-supercut-of-the-day/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feedburner%2Foicv+%28The+Daily+What%29
Go to Andrew Sullivan this morning for the live link, if you like.
I’m very sorry, Phil.
My thiughts are with you Phil.
Phil, if you’d like to write something for the front page, please contact me libjpn at gmail.
Phil, you have my sincere condolences.
Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. This is reposted from another forum I frequent because I don’t have the strength to type it all out twice:
After a very sleepless night, in which they both suffered a great deal more agitation and pain than I would like to have seen, we were able to get them both to take a little food and water this morning. It seemed to help them a little, but they were still both clearly in pain. My sister, and my mother’s boyfriend, came over to go to the vet with us for support. The staff there was extremely compassionate and helpful. We got a little room in which we let them out of their carriers, and they both peaked in terms of agitation — they were in an unfamiliar place and wanted out, out, out. The doctor came in and talked through everything with us, and then administered a sedative to each cat. They calmed down instantly, and became so quiet and still. I cried as if I were an infant again, but I knew that, for the first time in MONTHS, they were not in any pain at all. No hunger, no unquenchable thirst, no obstructed or inflamed bowel, no vomiting, no subcutaneous fluid needle, no nothing. They were relaxed and peaceful, and my wife and I held them and stroked them and told them how much we loved them and how glad we were for so many years with them.
Because the injection must be administered by a vet and not a tech, we had to do them consecutively. Marble went first. We both held her close and told her it was OK for her to go and be at rest. She never even flinched when he put the needle in, and she passed so, so quietly. I thanked her for being such a good girl for so long. I know her suffering is finally over. She gave it one hell of a fight, and I like to think we bought her at least an extra year with all the hyperthyroid meds and kidney treatments.
Afterwards, we hugged Chestnut and again told her how much we loved her. We both told her how sorry we were that it came to this so quickly, but that we couldn’t make her suffer through painful chemo treatments that might only buy her a few more weeks. (As it was her pain was near-constant last night. We were able to feed and water her some on Sunday but it all came back up eventually, mixed with and smelling of fecal matter.) We laid her down next to Marble, and as the doctor administered the IV, she sought out my wife’s eyes. The only thing I can describe is that she looked fulfilled. She was with her Mommy, and she had finally stopped hurting, and she just looked so glad and relieved. My wife held her head as she passed.
We spent a little more time holding them afterwards, then we put them back in their carriers. These were beloved companions, not to be just left on a rug on the floor. We provided each of them with a loving token to be cremated with them. For Marble, it was a stuffed “Pound Kitty” that she’s had since she was a baby. She used to wrestle with it when she was a kitten, wrapping her arms around it and biting it; and as she grew up, she treated it like her own baby, carrying it around by the scruff of its neck, bathing it and meowing to it. We’d often hear her off somewhere in the house howling, and then she’d walk in carrying that little stuffed animal in her mouth. For Chestnut, we sent her favorite blanket, which was actually my wife’s blanket from when she was a baby. It was much the worse for wear, with the flower pattern worn off and holes everywhere, but Chestnut just loved it. And when she was sick on it or it got dirty, we’d wash it and she would get SO excited when it came back from the laundry smelling of fabric softener. As we spread it on the bed, she’d jump down and roll all over it.
Goodbye, girls. You gave us many, many years of joy and memories, and although I’m heartbroken, I’m relieved that you aren’t in pain anymore.
That’s a lovely eulogy, Phil.
I wish I had something useful to add. I don’t. These things are never easy. Pets are like children, only we usually don’t outlive our human children. OTOH, what our pets get from us–in what to them is a full and happy life–probably matches, if not exceeds, what they give to us. Not that this makes it hurt less. Really sorry.
Try to take some solace from the fact that you did the right thing at the right time Phil. That’s the final and likely most important responsibility of a good and caring pet owner.
My biggest regret as a pet owner is the extra months of hell we put our dog through trying to extend her life for our own selfish reasons because we couldn’t bring ourselves to let go.
I’m at a loss as to how I can gracefully change the subject, and as much as I don’t like the thought of anything making Phil cry, a perfunctory “I’m sorry” seems, well … perfunctory. So here it goes:
This morning, I somehow volunteered to give part of a presentation at work on Thursday. I intensely dislike public speaking because it makes me feel like I’m going to die. I don’t really get it, because I’m generally very sociable and I regularly speak my mind (sometimes with great vigor!) in meetings with smaller groups.
The moment I agreed to do this, I began to feel the physical dread. Now all I can think about is standing in front of a bunch of people and being a bundle of nerves, hating every second of it.
HELP ME OBSIDIAN WINGS! YOU’RE MY ONLY HOPE! (Not really, that’s just a motivational thing.)
When I was a young adult I was terrified to speak before a group. Somehow along the way, I got over it. I don’t even remember much about the process , but part of it was coming to accept the fact that I wouldn’t be perfect, and that that was okay, and that anyone who was mean about it [as people were a handful of times when I was young, shreddingly] was just an asshole and I didn’t need to give them any head space.
The memory of being an accompanist helped. When I was in high school I played the organ at Mass (at church and school both) and was the piano accompanist for the school choir and the school musicals. When you’re accompanying singers and you flub something at the piano, you aren’t in a position to stop, fret about it, apologize for your ineptness, and grovel before the people passing judgment in the real world (if any) and in your head. The singers go on singing, and you gotta go right on with them. There isn’t really even any time to be upset about it.
That can be applied to public speaking. And relaxing about it has a self-reinforcing effect…..
Shorter me: keep breathing.
*****
Well, you asked. 😉
Speaking in front of large groups hasn’t always come easy to me, but it has for most of the last fifty years or so, and my memory of how I overcame initial trepidation is so vague as not to be helpful.
But a couple of things: (1) what JanieM said – you’re going to make mistakes (or be less perfect than you hoped, anyway), but it’s no big deal, so long as you keep breathing and keep going.
(2) you said you can talk to small groups. Fine, do that. Pick out a “small group” situated toward the back of the hall and talk to them, explaining and exhorting as you would if there were just the few of you in the room. Assuming you have a decent sound system, you don’t even need to raise your voice. Some speakers will actually envisage themselves talking to just one listener to get the appropriate sense of relaxation and make themselves as clear as possible.
I hope this helps. If not, send me a message and I’ll fly in and bulls**t on any topic of your choosing at half an hour’s notice. Doesn’t matter whether I know anything about it or not. It’s a gift. ;}
After I had been in Japan for 3 years, I was transferred to the Board of Education and a number of times, I was called on to give speeches in Japanese to various PTA groups. And while my Japanese was good for conversational give and take, a 45 minute speech was a whole nother thing. So what I did was make the first 20 minutes or so a quiz, or, in the parlance of teachers like me a TWA (time wasting activity) Basically, I’d ask a multiple choice question about some aspect of the US education system, have the audience stand up for the different answers and then explain the correct answer. This broke the talk up into discrete segments so I didn’t feel overwhelmed and got the audience to participate a bit (a new experience for most Japanese audiences).
This may be a bit trickier because of your audience, the topic and the relationship to your audience, but with questions constructed cleverly enough so that the answer might surprise them, it would make a good start.
This is actually a good way to envisage a powerpoint presentation, assuming you are doing one, where you put up some teaser and then reveal the answer in a subsequent powerpoint.
One more thing, you’ll probably be tempted to go the self-deprecation route (“I don’t know why I’m up here talking, so I assume that all of you don’t know either”) but it’s something that you want to be careful with cause it’s easy to go overboard.
Thanks for the replies, everyone (especially instanbul eskort bayan – what would I do without you?).
I’m actally feeling better about it now. After thinking about what I have to do, it’s not all that significant. I think I just had a knee-jerk “speaking in front of people = terrifying disaster!” reaction after agreeing to present, but it’s really not such a big deal after all. That and simply expressing my fear seem to have calmed me down a bit. (We’ll see if that lasts through tomorrow morning….)
I will breathe, over and over again, slowly and deeply.
hsh, I have a similar problem having taken up piano as an adult — the first time I tried to play for an audience (my fellow students, the most supportive and encouraging audience imaginable!) my hands literally shook. You can imagine the difficulty in playing the piano with shaking hands. Somehow I continued but to this day I can’t recall what I played.
Now, after 8 years, I enjoy playing for others but I still get butterflies before starting.
I have given many technical presentations and although I have the same initial feelings they always disappear once I get going.
The only thing I can say is, it gets easier with practice.
Oh — let me add, best of luck with it!
You can imagine the difficulty in playing the piano with shaking hands.
vibrato!