PBS Crosses Over to the Land Beyond
Even 10 years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine any piece of these sentences:
PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger addressed the public broadcaster’s decision to quickly fire Fred Willard from the network’s competition reality show Market Warriors after the 72-year-actor was caught allegedly engaging in a “lewd act” at a Los Angeles triple-X movie house.
“At the end of the week when [Willard’s arrest] became known, we realized that we had to move fast,” she said. “Our concern was his circumstances would actually become a distraction from the series.”
Just to break that down into mentally digestible bites:
• PBS
• Competition reality show
• Fired Fred Willard
• 72 year old for engaging in lewd act
• Because he would be a “distraction”
A 72 year old’s being caught masturbating would be a distraction, from the PBS reality competition series Market Warriors. Which barring that distraction, America will be laser focussed on.
That is all.
Rupert Murdoch resigns from News Corp boards
Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as a director of News International, in a move that will fuel speculation the media mogul is preparing to sell off his UK newspapers.
In an email sent on Saturday, staff at The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun were told that Murdoch, 81, remained “fully committed” as chairman despite relinquishing positions on a number of UK boards, including NI Group.
“¦soothing words are nice, but maybe itâs time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country. And everybody always says, âIsnât it tragic,â and you know, we look for was the guy, as you said, maybe trying to recreate Batman. I mean, there are so many murders with guns every day, itâs just got to stop. And instead of the two people â President Obama and Governor Romney â talking in broad things about they want to make the world a better place, okay, tell us how. And this is a real problem. No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them concretely, not just in generalities â specifically what are they going to do about guns? I can tell you what we do here in New York. The State Legislature passed the toughest gun laws â some states may say no. Thatâs okay, what do you want to do? And maybe every Governor should stand up. But in the end, it is really the leadership at a national level, which is whoever is going to be President of the United States starting next January 1st â what are they going to do about guns?”
—Mayor Bloomberg
“Perhaps it is fitting that the leading employer in this often ignored place is an industry that only whispers its name. Aurora's central location, high elevation, and clear prairie air long ago moved the Pentagon to locate classified and high-tech radar arrays on the edge of town. As a boy I would look from my bedroom window at the mysterious giant golf ball shapes and picture the Soviet missiles homing in on them. Aurora was certainly on the Kremlin's map during the Cold War. Since 9/11, that function has been expanded, and now the Buckley Air Force Base employs more than 12,000 people to monitor spy satellites and Predator drones and who knows what all secret business. Defense contractors like Raytheon and Northrup-Grumman employ thousands more. It's a shame that those extraordinary devices, which can see a man walking in the Yemeni desert or spy a campsite beside the Khyber Pass can't discern a deranged individual and his growing arsenal in time to prevent a massacre down the street. There would be more people alive in Aurora today, and fewer grieving families. And the overlooked city would still be largely unknown, which, we now see, is not so bad after all.”
—Time magazine’s David von Drehle on his hometown of Aurora, Colo.
5 African Countries Near the Demographic Sweet Spot
investinginafrica.netWe know that, on average, African nations are nearing a demographic sweet spot – where the size of the labor force is twice that of the child and elderly population. In other words, a dependency ratio of 50 or below.
But which ones are closest? And when will they get there? UN statistics on the US Census Bureau’s website give us an idea.
Here are five African economies that will hit the demographic sweet spot within the next 30 years, ordered from soonest to latest.
When It Rains, It Pours
On Wednesday evening, Governor Scott Walker got into the act of lambasting President Obama for his comments about business owners, (incorrectly) using the Bible to explain that people do things all by themselves and the government only gets in their way:
And then the very next day, of course, Walker asked the federal government for money to help his state:
Walker on Thursday requested a federal disaster designation for 23 counties because of significant damage from the ongoing drought. Under the designation, farmers could apply for emergency loans through the Farm Service Agency.
I think my friend Michael Tofias put it best:
Shouldn’t the farmers help themselves, Governor? I mean, we wouldn’t want to enable President Obama to claim that they didn’t do everything themselves if they get some assistance from the government in the wake of this drought ….
I guess this is just one more example of critics who are absolutely certain that the government is always terrible … right up to that moment when they desperately need government to swoop in and help them out of a bad situation.
