Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 207

Talking Like a Pirate: Dock Ellis's No-Hitter--On Acid

I missed "Talk Like a Pirate Day" yesterday (this is where you say arrrrrgh), but if you've never seenOne of the great moments in baseball history, 1970, captured in hysterical animation and famed Pittsburgh Pirate, Dock Ellis,  narrating. 

Troy Davis, Two Years On

Two years ago tomorrow Troy Davis was executed in the most controversial state killing of this decade.  Democracy Now! is marking it today with a special programs and posting an excerpt from new I Am Troy Davis book.   My own e-book on the history of capital punishment in the USA--right up to the Davis case--is available here.

Guns: The View from Abroad

The great Charles P. Pierce has been in Ireland, sitting in pubs and visiting the race tracks and all those other fun things.  But he weighs in today on the view of epic gun violence from abroad.  Read the whole thing, it's not long, but here's the closer:

But this kind of thing -- an armed madman obtaining deadly weapons legally -- is so pointless that it seems alien. It seems to be taking place in an alternate reality. Other countries simply don't have these events. Or if they do, they have them so rarely that when one occurs, as it did in Australia, the country gets very tough on firearms and changes its laws. The Teachable Moments actually teach something. It is more than odd to be sitting in another country, watching the news scroll by, and to realize that your country, the one that your grandparents braved a leaky boat and the North Atlantic to get to, is a country that has several of these events every couple of years, and accepts them as part of the cost of those essential freedoms your grandparents sought. From this vantage, it is very much like my country is part of another world.

Chicago Mass Shootings

Just reported,  at least 11 gunned down in Chicago at one site tonight, on or near a basketball court, including a kid, age 3--at least four in critical condition and five serious.   Local TV report here includes footage. Updates here. Locals call it "Chiraq."  See Twitter feed of local reporter:  @Schlikerman

The Napalm Girl, the Photographer and The Crop

Michael Shaw has long run a very valuable blog on photographic images, usually related to news or politics, called Bag News.  He has a terrific post now on the famous Nick Ut photo from Vietnam of the girl running from a napalm attack (she has already been hit), Phan Thi Kim Phuc.   Like me, he was not aware of the major cropping that it got right away and forever--the rightward one-third (see left).   Michael thought it interesting that what was cropped out (quite deliberately?) was a U.S. military photog fiddling with his camera, seemingly unconcerned with the terror of the children near him.

But see the comments section below the story.  Of course, some say it was simply and wisely cropped to emphasize the main action.  Then someone says the photog on the right was a well-known U.S. journo named David Burnett who was re-loading film and he can't be blamed for that.  Then Burnett himself  arrives to say, no, it is a Vietnamese photog.  Then someone else say he spots a U.P.I. stencil on the helmet.  Anyway, read the whole thing.  (Film footage of the same burned girl, and a burned baby.)

Rebel Rebel

Tonight from (who else?) McClatchy, a much-needed dose of reality for the McCains and Kristofs of the world.  Yes, it's not just Assad vs. the U.S. backed "rebels"--the Islamist extremist are also attacking them.

On Wednesday, extremists captured the north Syrian town of Azaz, killing eight Free Syrian Army troops and support personnel and effectively blocking a primary supply route from the nearby Turkish border to Free Syrian Army forces in Aleppo. Turkey closed the border crossing Thursday, while Free Syrian Army forces battled to regain control.

Fierce fighting also was reported in Deir el Zour, close to the Iraqi border, where extremists reportedly captured a number of Free Syrian Army fighters.

The confrontation had been growing all summer between the Islamists, who took control of large parts of eastern Syria early this year, and the Free Syrian Army, which has been begging the U.S. for arms so it can seize territory from the Assad regime and displace the radicals.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/19...

Jon on Guns

Stewart tried again last night.


The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Hitting Obamacare--With Uncle Sam as Pervert Doctor

You may not believe your eyes (or, given the atmosphere today, maybe you will), but check out one of the creepiest commercials ever, the first in a promised series by a major anti-Obamacare group.  It features a young woman who has just signed up for coverage spreading her legs in the doctor's office for an OB-GYN exam--and a leering Uncle Sam doctor pops up between them.

Sudsy Work But Someone's Got to Do It

But did you expect it to be James Fallows?  He not only sought out the home of the (consensus?) best beer made in the USA, but took some photos (before he keeled over, maybe) and just wrote about it  at The Atlantic.  Admits it is Beer Porn. Still won't reveal how company got its name or name of brew.  And you might have to drive to plant to buy any.

Father Along

Cool new political ad for young guy running for Congress--featuring his father, who is a Tea Partier.