Bates Blog

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html

“The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway”
Obama’s Bug Sellout

Hey, Baxter — There’s something you must know about your mom’s favorite team.  No, it’s not bad, per se…it’s just..well..it’s different.  Sit, we’ll talk about it.  Sit.  I said Sit.  Baxter…SIT…SIT.

[Caption]

Bill Moyers Interviews Wendell Potter, former CIGNA PR exec. 
Wow.  This will blow your mind. 

The AMA, which at the time still included a majority of U.S. physicians, led the opposition to Medicare, but did not prevail.
Single-Payer insurance is the way to go — written by a physician.

Goldman Sachs Execs Dumped Stocks Like Crazy

Cool Optical Illusion

Do Fish Feel Pain?
This one’s for my dad.  We debated this while salt water fishing off Mexico this last weekend.  If you think fish are the only ones that feel pain, let me tell you how my day on the charter boat fishing with my father was.  First, in trying to put SPF 50 on my face, I sprayed sunblock in my eyes.  Twenty minutes later, my right eye turned bloodshot and became irritated.  While this was going on, my transitional lens in my glasses refused to do their job in the hot sun with reflecting Pacific Ocean, and my pupils got sunburned.  REPEAT — My goddamn pupils got sunburned.  Both eyes turned bloodshoot, itchy, refused to dialate, mucus starting running out my nose and every moment looking at anything felt like pain.  This was in the first three hours of a 12-hour trip.  My poor dad just wanted to spend some quiet time on the ocean with his son, wasting away the day catching our nation’s finest aquatic creatures.  Instead, he got this every ten minutes:

ME: I think there’s something wrong with eyes.
DAD: Yeah, they’re red.
ME: Dad..
DAD: {fishing}
ME: Dad?
DAD: {sighs}
ME: Hey Dad?
DAD: Yes, son.
ME: My eyes hurt pretty bad.
DAD: I know.
ME: Hey Dad? 
DAD: {considering getting another beer}
ME: Dad?  Are my eyes red?
DAD: {rewriting the will in his head}
ME: {sniffs} Dad, what side is starboard?

Bill Simmons and Chuck Klostermann on MJ
Loved this. Click the 4th on down or so…it’s 6/29 part 1.  Great discussion on MJ. 

The Web Collapses Under the Weight of Michael Jackson’s Death
Would have been a fitting end, had he broken the internet on his way out. He probably earned it.

Here are my thoughts on Michael –

TMZ was the hero of the day today.  That’s sad.  If there ever is to be, historically, a day that journalism died, people will look back and remember today as TMZ held on to the MJ death, and every other news agency balked and waited.  I hope TMZ is wrong one day…so wrong that it destroys them.  But today is not that day.  Today is the day Harvey Levin picks up his grande water bottle for his cameras and whiteboard, and smug his way to millions of more dollars in advertising.

_____

Everybody in the world knows Michael Jackson. From Botswana to Belarus, there are 9-year old kids on YouTube (from recent uploads, mind you) moonwalking with a white glove and red-zippered jacket utilizing the choreography from MJ’s heyday. They think it’s hip and new and cool — and that’s fine.

It’s fine because you can talk to 99 percent of the population on this planet, mention Michael Jackson and make a connection. Start something. Share a moment. That’s amazing to me. I don’t know how to say “How’s the weather?” in 192 different and distinct languages. I DO know, however, how to say, “Michael Jackson” in English. Even in 2009, that’s enough to start a conversation, connect. Every time we connect with another human being it means we’re not as alone as we thought and not as scared as we thought. That’s important.

From the first “You’re so gay you like Michael Jackson” joke on the 4th grade playground that I heard, to an hour ago when I read “His last request was to ask if he could be moved to the children’s ward,” MJ was at least a conversation starter, a chance to relate and a moment to share. From his moonwalk on Motown’s anniversary show to the Thriller album being in every household in America in the 80’s (Seriously. Close your eyes. Open that Thriller album with your mind. Do you see Michael and that tiger? I do), he was as loved and respected as he was mocked. He was a genuine talent. And a nut job. And he took a chimp to the Grammys. And Brooke Shields. And hung out with Emmanuel Lewis. And Corey Feldman. And wore military garb as if he was the general of dance.

And bought the Elephant Man’s bones or something.

As human beings we seem to continually move away from each other, stare at our computers in solitude, watch, read, experience and choose to pay attention to more and more segmented and niche experiences. But as we do that and move further and further apart from each other, we can always look back at the last 30 years and have Michael. When Michael was on network TV we all watched. When he had a Pepsi commercial we were all there. When he was accused of…well, you know—we all saw. When MJ was in his heyday, there was never 900 different TV channels, 1000 different podcasts and 4 million different ways to click on “Michael Jackson” on Google search.

We had the water cooler, the dinner table, the classroom, the playground and the backyard bbq.

So, for better or for worse, there will never be another MJ. The jokes will continue, we’ll laugh together, we’ll mock together. We’ll kinda feel better about ourselves. Let’s thank him for that. He made a few bucks off us but he paid for it in many, many ways.

So, as we almost break the internet discussing his passing, crack each other up with jokes at his expense, and yet also share our favorite songs and moments and recount his God-given abilities as a songwriter, musician, dancer and performer – however we do it, it’s ok, because as long as we’re still talking and sharing with each other in 2009 as everything seems to be falling around us…it’s a good thing.

FROM BOINGBOING.NET –

CyberWar Guide to Iran Election

Too Poor To Make the News
“But the outlook is not so cozy when we look at the effects of the recession on a group generally omitted from all the vivid narratives of downward mobility — the already poor, the estimated 20 percent to 30 percent of the population who struggle to get by in the best of times. This demographic, the working poor, have already been living in an economic depression of their own. From their point of view “the economy,” as a shared condition, is a fiction.”

New Bob and David Interview
I once handed David Cross two beers backstage at the UCB Theater in LA when I was interning. He was thankful and ok. I’ve heard worse stories. He doesn’t suffer fools glady…or journalists…or people…or fans.

PETA Not Happy With Obama Fly-Killer

Respect the Phil (Collins)

Realtime Coverage of Twitter/Blogosphere/Flickr in Iran

What Makes us Happy?
Fascinating read on decades-long study of happiness and satisfaction of Ivy League grads

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Banksy’s Secret Art Show

Links of the day –

I Was a Marine Sniper

Scientific Ways to Persuade People (from kottke.org)

Lowest Test Score Ever from Paramount Pictures?  Ouch.

The Making of Zach Galifianakis

Talk to Strangers…Online…No Judgement…Omegle!!!