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04/01/22 12:48 PM #10895    

 

David Mitchell

And then there is this.

(Somehow Mr. Williams must have let this one slip his mind in his Oscar medley.)

Nobody does it like those Moldovan guys - right?




04/02/22 06:42 AM #10896    

 

Monica Haban (Brown)

Columbus has a new Bishop!  Father Earl Fernandes, was our Cradling Christianity speaker years ago, and he is a good guy!  His sister is / was a member of St. Andrew Parish, and his niece and nephew attended St. Andrew School.  


04/02/22 12:48 PM #10897    

 

David Mitchell

Sounds like good news Monica


04/02/22 02:11 PM #10898    

 

Monica Haban (Brown)

Just checked my emails.  It's Bishop elect Fernandes' brother who is in our parish.  Tried to get him to buy a house in our neighborhood ten years ago.=)

When Father Fernandes was our speaker in 2012, for our fundraiser for the Christians in the Holy Land, Cradling Christianity, we offered him an honorarium as our speaker.  He handed it back.  He wouldn't accept it.  He asked that the check be given to the Christians in the Holy Land. He is a humble and holy man, the son of immigrant parents from India.  We are so blessed to have him as our new bishop. Lots of challenges ahead of him. 

If you want to take the time, his press conference is online.  He's on the board of the Josephinium, and he has siblings in Columbus. Impressive young man.  


04/03/22 12:05 AM #10899    

 

David Mitchell

So long to "Coach K". You will be missed.

42+ years of excellence - 1,202 wins - 5 NCAA titles 


04/04/22 02:18 PM #10900    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

https://www.clintonvillespotlight.com/articles/initial-proposal-calls-for-our-lady-of-peace-to-close/


04/04/22 08:53 PM #10901    

 

Mark Schweickart

And now, for something completely different -- more amazing street art.


04/04/22 11:06 PM #10902    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike McL., 

We all grew up with Mickey, The Mousekateers, Davy Crockett, Bambi and so many others. I am curious how - and if - Orlando Magazine is covering the Disney wokeness story. It is happening in your backyard, probably has been for some time, but now has come to a head with the American public.

Jim

 


04/05/22 10:24 AM #10903    

 

Michael McLeod

 

Jim: The Disney thing is an interesting and typically bizarre skirmish in the ongoing culture wars, not to mention presidential-level politicking. But those two things are one and the same these days, no?

Boiling how the Magic Kingdom got enmeshed in it into one word would be oversimplifying, though it doesn't surprise me to see you couch it that way.

It's very much a national story at this point but I'll sort about for a local take and share it later on this week.

 


04/05/22 03:18 PM #10904    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

Single words can sometimes cover many concepts and complex topics. My brief post was meant to discover what your (magazine's/local's) take is regarding that Orlando theme park, which may or may not differ from what is being covered in the national news. 

Inquiring minds want to know. I thought that you, being a journalist, could help those of us on the "couch" get some more info - and if Reedy Creek plays a role here.

Jim


 


04/06/22 01:02 PM #10905    

 

Michael McLeod

No problem Jim. That may have looked like it was directed at you personally,  but it was more a matter of my frustration about how things get politicized so quickly. In this case you are looking at a governor who is grooming himself as a presidential candidate and getting lots of free ink towards that end.

Here is a story about what happened that is, odd as it may be to imagine, about just the facts.

Remember Dragnet? And was the character Sgt. Friday? And wasn't his tagline, uttered in a dry, no-nonsense monotone: "Just the facts, maam"?

Words to live by. Or used to be.

Having said that, here's the story. This is from the Orlando Sentinel.

 

 

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday he would be “receptive” to the Legislature making changes to Disney’s unique self-governing district for Walt Disney World, clarifying comments he made Thursday calling for an end to the company’s “special privileges.

“As the governor, I could be presented with changes to that,” DeSantis said in Titusville. “And I think I’ve said I’d be receptive to that. But ultimately, the Legislature would have to move forward. So I know that there’s a lot of discussion about that. And we’ll just see how that shakes out.”IFrame

 

IFrameBut he also said that the many state tax breaks awarded to Disney, such as the $570 million in incentives for its new regional hub in Orlando’s Lake Nona community, applied to all businesses equally and he was not looking to end them.

DeSantis’ comments came amid a major feud between the Walt Disney Co. and DeSantis over Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s condemnation of what opponents call the ‘don’t say gay’ bill signed earlier this week.

State Rep. Spencer Roach, R-North Fort Myers, tweeted that lawmakers have met twice to discuss repealing the 1967 state law that allowed Walt Disney World to establish its own independent government through the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

 

DeSantis railed against the company at an event in Palm Beach on Thursday, saying, “I don’t support special privileges in law, just because a company is powerful, and they’ve been able to wield a lot of power.”

 

But he mostly attacked a carveout for theme parks included by legislators in his signature “Big Tech” bill designed to prevent social media companies from de-platforming political candidates, calling it “ridiculous” and “embarrassing.” Public records, however, showed his legislative affairs director served as a liaison between Disney and lawmakers to craft its language.

DeSantis didn’t openly cite Reedy Creek in his remarks Thursday. But he spoke Friday about one of the more notable provisions in the 1967 Reedy Creek agreement, in which state lawmakers granted Disney unprecedented control over its theme park property.

In addition to the ability to issue tax-free bonds for improvements, regulate land use and environmental protections, and provide fire, police and other essential public services, Disney could also decide on its own to build a nuclear power plant.

 

“I think a lot of those things that have accumulated over the years would probably not be justifiable,” DeSantis said. “... I was shocked to see some of the stuff that’s in there. They could do their own nuclear power plant. Is there any other private company in the state that can just build a nuclear power plant on their own?”

A bill that would have revoked Walt Disney World Resort’s ability to build a nuclear plant, however, died in the 2019 legislative session.

 

As for tax breaks, DeSantis said, “I think what people are pointing to is just a general program that we have for every business … Now the Legislature can certainly reevaluate that as a whole. But my view is, we should just treat everybody equally.”

DeSantis has singled out Disney for other special privileges before, however. In 2019, he signed a transportation bill that carved out Reedy Creek from restrictions on road materials, Florida Trend reported.

As for tax breaks, DeSantis also signed a package in 2019 that included a $5 million per year tax break on inventory given away to charity that had been pushed by a Disney lobbyist, the magazine also reported.

 

 

 

 


04/06/22 03:02 PM #10906    

 

Michael McLeod

PS.

Along those same lines.

 

 

Last week, a Michigan congresswoman whose existence had not yet entered the rest of the country’s consciousness credited Donald Trump with having “caught Osama bin Laden,” among other terrorists. It is difficult to forget that night in 2011 when Barack Obama told the world that, on his orders, a team of Navy commandos had killed the al-Qaeda leader. But Representative Lisa McClain, a first-term member of Congress, showed that, with effort, and with a desire to feed Trump’s delusions and maintain her standing among his supporters, anything is possible.

In ordinary times, McClain’s claim would have been mocked and then forgotten. But because these are not ordinary times—these are times in which citizens of the same country live in entirely different information realities—I put her assertion about bin Laden on a kind of watch list. In six months, I worry, we may learn that a provably false claim made by a single unserious congressional backbencher has spread into MAGA America, a place where Barack Obama is believed to be a Kenyan-born Muslim and Donald Trump is thought to be the victim of a coup.

Disinformation is the story of our age. We see it at work in Russia, whose citizens have been led to believe the lies that Ukraine is an aggressor nation and that the Russian army is winning a war against modern-day Nazis. We see it at work in Europe and the Middle East, where conspiracies about hidden hands and occult forces are adopted by those who, in the words of the historian Walter Russell Mead, lack the ability to “see the world clearly and discern cause and effect relations in complex social settings.” We see it weaponized by authoritarians around the globe, for whom democracy, accountability, and transparency pose mortal threats. And we see it, of course, in our own country, in which tens of millions of voters believe that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president because the man he beat in 2020 specializes in sabotaging reality for personal and political gain. This mass delusion has enormous consequences for the future of democracy. As my colleague Yoni Appelbaum has noted, “Democracy depends on the consent of the losers.” Sophisticated, richly funded, technology-enabled disinformation campaigns are providing losers with other options.

The threat posed by disinformation is the reason The Atlantic is joining with the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago to stage a conference, starting today, that is meant to examine disinformation in all of its manifestations. When David Axelrod, the founder and leader of the IOP, and I first discussed this idea, we both agreed that the future of this country—and of our democratic allies around the world—depends on the ability and willingness of citizens to discern truth from falsehood.

“It is a fundamental blow to our democracy—and any democracy—if people come to believe that an election clearly won by one person was illegitimate,” Axelrod told me. “That kind of malign fabrication is devastating for democracy. Anything that tears us apart, falsehoods that deepen distrust of institutions, anything that undermines the idea that there is such a thing as objective truth—these are huge challenges.”

Axelrod and I are both aware that disinformation is a virus that has infected much more than a single political party (though in my opinion, only one party in the American system has currently given itself over so comprehensively to fantasists). And we’re aware that there is only so much any citizen can do, when faced with a social media–Big Data complex that makes it easier and easier to inject falsehoods into political discourse. “Disinformation, turbocharged by the tools social media and Big Data now afford, threatens to unravel not just our democracy but democracies everywhere,” he said.

Any conference about disinformation will have some fraught qualities, starting with basic definitions. What is the difference between disinformation and misinformation? What is the difference between disinformation and information you simply don’t like, or find narratively inconvenient? These are answerable questions, but the answers contain a great degree of nuance in a rapidly shifting informational environment. This is a particularly challenging subject for journalists, and for someone like Axelrod, Obama’s former chief strategist (and a former journalist himself). “There’s no doubt that I, like everyone, took facts and arranged them in a way that would be most persuasive to the audience we were trying to win,” he said. “But that’s fundamentally different than creating stories that are wholly untrue and designed to polarize factions and achieve authoritarian goals. The lie about the Obama birth certificate, the Pizzagate conspiracy—these are examples of what we’re talking about.”

Disinformation is also a fraught subject for a big-tent magazine like ours, one that believes it is best for democracy to offer a wide variety of views and opinions. We strive for nonpartisanship at The Atlantic, and we aim to publish independent thinkers and a wide variety of viewpoints. But this most recent period in American history has presented what might be called “both-sides journalism” with serious challenges—challenges that have prevented this magazine from publishing many pro-Trump articles. (After all, our articles must pass through a rigorous fact-checking process.)

Our three-day conference will feature some of the great experts and commentators on disinformation and technology. Today’s agenda includes a conversation with President Obama, a talk by the Nobel Prize–winning journalist Maria Ressa, and our own Pulitzer-winning historian of Russia, Anne Applebaum. We’ll also hear from U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Representatives Adam Kinzinger and Lauren Underwood, and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

We hope you’ll watch the livestream here, and subscribe.


04/06/22 10:33 PM #10907    

 

Mark Schweickart

I know these 3-D street-art photos I have posted recently may seem a bit frivolous in the times we are in, but then again, they might bring a much needed, if slightly wan, smile to one's face. The building below is of normal straightl line construction, only the paint-job is fantastical.


04/06/22 10:45 PM #10908    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Wow, Mark....that is incredible art!!!  I can't even draw a stick person!!   


04/06/22 10:53 PM #10909    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Regarding post 10906:

Too bad the Atlantic and the rest of the corporate media and Big Tech did not worry for the past six years about "falsehoods that deepen distrust of institutions, (or) anything that undermines the idea that there is such a thing as objective truth"”
 
Fact is defined as "something that can be shown to be true."
Knowledge is defined as "possession of ... truths."
Science is defined as "knowledge ..."
Disinformation, is defined as "false ... information."
 
The Washington Post, NYT, CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC, and their allies in the Democratic party & Big Tech all promoted "disinformation" (as defined above) for many years concerning Trump/Russia collusion, Hilary Clinton's involvement, and the Hunter Biden laptop story. They continued to spread their "disinformation" throughout the pandemic about the viability of off-label brand Covid treatments, the efficacy of lockdowns, the efficacy of vaccines to prevent infection, and the efficacy of masks to protect someone other than oneself. Over the past few years, I have learned to start looking in the opposite direction for the truth of an issue whenever information or persons are flagged, censored, banned or canceled. If information can not be shared and debated in the public square of ideas, but can only be approved by those who wield power, then our nation is no better than authoritarian regimes like China and Russia.
 
By the way, at the University of Chicago today at the "Disinformation for the Erosion of Democracy Conference" a student  asked Atlantic staff writer, Anne Applebaum about the media’s coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story, which has finally (after two years) been confirmed by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Her reply was that she didn't think it was relevant and that she did not find it "interesting" as a news story.  Question....do journalists only pursue stories which they themselves find "interesting"? 

04/06/22 10:57 PM #10910    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mark, 

That street art is magnificent and somewhat mind boggling! It is like looking through those old "3-D Plastic Glasses" back in the old days, only much better. 

Mike, 

Thanks for your info about Reedy Creek. It is pretty much what I have read on the internet.

As for the Atlantic conference I wonder if it addressed topics such as Russian Collusion, Dossier, Gaffes vs. Lies vs. Cognative Problems etc. or were just concerned with anything anti-Trump.

Jim


04/06/22 11:02 PM #10911    

 

Michael McLeod

Yep I didn't want to start a firefight but I wasn't all that surprised it turned out that way.

Disinformation in the Internet age is surely worth a conference and I'm sorry it didn't play to everybody's favorites. I do agree that the Hunter Biden is a mess. But he is small change and nothing much more than a distraction compared to the big guns in this fight so I'd have to agree in the larger context of this event that he doesn't make the cut. It's the systematic financial and  political and cultural disinformation campaigns that are doing the most damage. That's the larger issue I'm interested in and the reason I'm monitoring the conference from home, though I wish I could be there. 

The first speaker was Nobel Prize winner Maria Resser, author of an excellent book I recommend: Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy. She noted an MIT study about the explosion of disinformation Its baseline conclusion: Lies laced with anger and hate spread faster than facts. It stands to reason, therefore, that many of the tech companies that distribute information are biased against the truth.

The system of journalists being gatekeepers was not perfect. But it existed on a set of principles that served the truth more often than not. Walter Kronkite has been spinning in his coffin for quite some time now, so what I just wrote above is nothing new. What bothers me is that it's getting worse.

Obama led things off as keynote speaker. Interesting note from him on Putin: "he was always ruthless, that's not new for him, but to bet the farm in this way i would not have predicted of him."  

He also noted - and he certainly wasn't the first to say it - that the 50 years of relative peace after ww2 was an anomaly, and we have to remember that if we want freedom and truth to prevail we have to fight for it, constantly. It just gives me a chill to realize how lucky our generation has been and how frightening things could be for those who have to face the road ahead.

He also mentioned how crazy it is that a vaccine "that has now been clinically tested by a billion people" and proven to be effective is still shunned by disbelievers.

Jim: doesn't seem to be anything about Trump so far and I'll share whatever I see about those subjects you mentioned. 

 


04/07/22 10:25 AM #10912    

 

John Jackson

I probably can’t add any anything meaningful to Mike’s excellent previous post, but here goes.

MM has picked some terrible examples of mainstream media misinformation:

Regarding Russian attempts to aid Trump’s election and re-election, (made all the more pathetic by the ongoing slaughter of innocents in the Ukraine), the Mueller report documented voluminous examples of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. But Mueller himself (against the objections of many of his senior lawyers) ruled that it did not meet the narrow legal definition of “collusion” (which requires proof of extensive two-way planning and communication between the colluders).  I’ll never understand how any thinking person could read the Mueller report and feel anything but shame, or watch the infamous “Russia, if you’re listening…” clip and deny that Trump gratefully accepted  Russian support.

Regarding the Trump “dossier”, mainstream media ignored it almost entirely because they have responsible editors who require proof of substantiation/corroboration before publishing.   I have yet to read a summary of the purportedly lurid details in major outlets like New York Times, Washington Post or the major networks.  The only references I have seen have been very oblique ones which use adjectives like “still unsubstantiated’ or “now-discredited.”  Would the right wing media have show such restraint if the “dossier” involved Biden or Obama?

And regarding off-brand COVID remedies like ivermectin there is NO evidence that they are remotely as effective as vaccines (which are cheap to produce and free to all Americans) or treatment drugs (which, to be fair, are largely expensive).

The only point that has a grain of truth is the Hunter Biden laptop story which was ignored by mainstream media and even by some conservative outlets like Fox News and Wall Street Journal because it was so incredibly bizarre (and made even more bizarre by the involvement of crazy uncle Rudy Giuliani who first surfaced with the laptop).  But after extensive forensic examination it now appears the laptop is authentic and the mainstream media are reporting on this story -  Washington Post broke a major story a week ago.  I only wish the right wing media would print corrections on a tiny fraction of the firehose of misinformation they spray out – best example being the monstrous lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

And I agree totally with Mike that the dysfunction of Biden’s obviously troubled son is small potatoes next to the larger problems we face.  The fact that relatives often try to use the names of important people to make a buck is hardly new.  Remember Billy Carter and Nixon’s ne’r-do-well brother (whose name escapes me)?  And to use an example much closer to now, where do you think Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric would be in their lives if their last name wasn’t Trump?


04/07/22 10:30 AM #10913    

 

John Jackson

And, Mark, your street art is great - keep it coming.


04/07/22 12:34 PM #10914    

 

Michael McLeod

Aw John you just had to bring up Trump, didn't cha?

But my lord when people read the history books years from now when we are long gone they will crip their knickers at the specter of a clueless US president fawning over a murderous psycho as if he's just playing out a scene in another meaningless reality tv show segment. Of all the woulda coulda shoudas whose absence in aiding Ukraine a few years helped doom that poor country to this horror we see,  having a self-indulgent manchild milksop performance-art prez when we  needed one that could play hardball with a real-world villian is the hardest to stomach. 

 


04/07/22 01:37 PM #10915    

 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

Your animosity toward former President Trump is once again evident and nothing can be said to change it.

Since you are playing the role of a prophet, maybe you can reveal to us how those future history books will deal with President Biden.

No more from me on this.

Jim

 

 


04/07/22 02:28 PM #10916    

 

Michael McLeod

Yeah Jim and I'm sure I'm the only one who feels that way.

There's a difference between reality and reality tv and it's too bad he missed it.

I actually pulled my punches on that putz around these parts but sometimes the truth is just the truth.

The hurdle Biden had to jump to best him in the history books was not a high one.

 

 


04/07/22 05:33 PM #10917    

 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

John, Mike....we will never agree on politics.  I post here on the forum to offer an alternative to my conservative leaning classmates.  

https://townhall.com/columnists/larryelder/2022/04/07/media-collusion-of-hunter-bidenjoe-biden-bombshell-story-n2605582

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/04/05/beware-the-eephus-durham-lowers-the-boom-on-former-clinton-counsel-michael-sussmann/

 


04/07/22 05:59 PM #10918    

 

Michael McLeod

This is like one of those parties where old friends get drunk and wind up yelling at each other in the driveway.


04/07/22 06:52 PM #10919    

 

David Mitchell

I consider myself a "conservaive leaning classmate" and I abhor the likes of this cheating, lying, whore-mongering, coward, who is actualey monetizing his "stop the steal" campaign on his undeclared "re-election campaign" trail in front of hopelessly ignorant fanatics throughout the country. (at least his crowd numbers are declining)

I thought the first impeachment trial clearly showed us all who followed it that both Trump AND Hunter Biden were as guilty as hell. I still cannot fathom how anyone could see it any other way, unless blinded by political loyalties that allow you to pick and choose truth as you wish.

I must be old fashioned, but my grade school catechism keeps gettting in the way of this new culture of lying through your teeth so often that people begin to just give up and accept it. 

As for the anti-vax campaign - almost laughble if it weren't such a serious mater. Just last week the New England Journal of Medicine (a pretty darned unimpeachable source) came out with a study (perahps the same recent one from a medical school in Canada, peer-reviewed by a Texas University medical school) showing a much larger and pretty irrefutable study proving that Ivermectin offered "0" (that is  ZERO) improvement with Covid patients. I even know a guy who got sucked into that rabbit hole and was sick as a dog for almost two weeks.

And just last week we read about this "Zoom" interview with a bunch of historians discussing the Trump presidnecy. Trump elected to join them on line and admitted that to the group "I did NOT win the election". Yet we still have con artists like this former Supreme Court Justice in Wisconsin (Michael Gableman - who claimed he "had no idea how elections are conducted"), using $600,000+  of taxpayer money to conduct another "Audit" of a two year-old election without coming up with a single clue of factual data suporting his point. In fact, I just read where after several months on his new $16,000/mo. (tax-payer bilking) salary, he hasn't even begun yet, partly it seems, because he has no idea how to proceed.

Note: If I am wrong on this story - please feel free to clarify for me. I'm in such a state of disbelief that it boggles my mind.

Best example I can think of about this problem with truth is the lady in Wisconsin (Republican State Rep. Lisa McClain) who told the crowd at a Trump rally the other night that "Trump killed Bin Laden". If you think that's bad, some reporters asked people afterward and they believed her!

I expect next she will tell her followers that Abraham Lincoln was a Muslim born in Kenya. 

Which reminds me, I forgot to tell you all that I spent 20 years in a North Vietnamese prison and fathered 48 children - one in each state - those other two states don't count. I may also have a few children on the moon, but they have not written in years.


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