please consider offering some support to those who oppose the War on Chocolate:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/22/the-war-on-chocolate/

Yes, this is serious business. Chocolate is (so far) a still legal mood-enhancing aid, unregulated (for consumers), that also benefits the cardiovascular system.

Truly the food of the gods, its properties should be sacrosanct, and protected from the vagaries of the IndustrialFoodComplex. Let us not have it spoiled by those who have graced us with HFCS, trans fats, and GMOs, while permitting us to be invaded by E coli, Mad Cow, and the abusive use of hormones and antibiotics.

"I'd like for just a moment to talk . . . about this dinner, because it has received its fair share of criticism [from] those who question whether reporters and their sources should dine together at a night like this," Scully said. "Now our job is to question policies and look at events with a skeptical eye. And I have to tell you that one dinner will not change that. . . .

"So let today be an example of what is good about our democracy and our First Amendment. Let us be reminded that an adversary is not the same thing as an enemy, nor does an evening of civility mean we are selling out."

Steve Scully of C-Span

via Froomkin: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

This is probably not the exact link you are looking for, but it's so close, I'm wondering if it might be the same person.

I remembered reading something like it, too, but not where. And then I came across the above while catching up with Froomkin's column from today. People have been criticizing Scully's choice of Little for weeks now.

[I love your screen name-- one of my favorite films-- and actors.]

...is how Detroit came up with the Edsel. Or, so I've read.

...I googled Tucker myself. The links I found were more likely to blame the SEC for the Tucker's failure than Detroit, but I'll have to check out more of them.

Your link to TACA was very tempting! Sounds like a fun conference, devoted to a beautiful car.

As for the Edsel, I did read (in some book, ages ago) that Ford asked people what they would like in their "ideal" car and then tried to incorporate everything, learning too late that consumers don't buy cars (at least not then) based on fantasy.

But then Bebop-O mentioned the nepotism factor, and that might really be the whole story... reflecting on recent history.

...and none of them from what I would term "natural" causes. I was sure that Vonnegut had at least another decade in him, given that sparkle in his eyes the last time I saw him on "Now." A friend and I were commenting that he and Jimmy Carter both have (now had) that same sparkle.

Thanks again, Joan, for managing to get Glenn Greenwald on Salon's pages; he's a great complement to the other writers and columnists.

LWM, I just didn't fully communicate my skepticism in that comment. I will have to check out more links, including yours.

The whole trolley line destruction was a travesty. (I live in suburban Philly and there are still a lot of viable lines, but too many of them have been "replaced" (if not literally removed) by diesel bus lines. Really aggravating.)

...that white men really have no legitimate (i.e., good faith) use for either the N-word or "ho," or any of the other many terms they use to denigrate women.

And, yet, as I've been reading this post, Bill Maher is weakly defending Imus. We know he's sexist, Maher, that is, but racist, too? Or is he just defending Imus because (subconsciously) of the sexist content. I don't know.

The problem in making some white men understand seems to be that there aren't any comparable words or notions that can be used as teaching examples. All of the words I know that are used to insult men began as words to insult women or minorities.

* * *

I wish this interview had delved a bit deeper, but perhaps I'll just have to read the book, because one book I always think about during these kinds of discussion is Frederick Douglass's narrative of his life as a slave. It is eloquent and poignant, beautifully written, and yet it does contain the N-word. Not from Douglass's own voice, but in the voices of some of the other characters. It's a book that should probably be taught more often because it covers so much, and not just about racism and slavery, but I wonder if the N-word keeps it off of very many syllabi. It would be such a great candidate for a one book-once city reading project.

should have read: one city-one book

...for the interesting debate(s) (WT, the Pauls, Emily, LWM, et al), the links, the Edsellian stream of consciousness (Bebop-O), and the preview of Moyer's program (sysprog).

My online reading life has certainly improved with GG now at Salon, and fewer clicks away than before.

...the only reason that the Tillman family has continued to search for the truth is because they are not Christian "enough" to accept being lied to about the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman's death.

So, being Christian enough means being willing to accept lies from the current occupant's administration because they really know what's best... even/especially if/when it's just lies. WELL!!! That explains a lot... about so many things.

* * *

In my email today, I received something from Tom Englehardt's TomDispatch that included a piece by John Brown, a former diplomat who resigned in protest in 2003. He was one of three. Resigning in protest of the rush to war was certainly heroic then.

If you want to read his piece, "The Cho in the White House," you can find it here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=189301