Euclid alone has looked on Beauty Bare / okay okay I owe you 50,000 goddam trees, okay okay / in 28 days, bake & eat a pi(e)

Click on images if you want to make any of them bigger.

e-mail to my nephew in Patagonia. Yes, he lives in Patagonia, Punta Arenas (Sandy Point) to be precise.


=======================

Hola D** y L***,

Once upon a time my response time to interesting and/or important communications was near-instantaneous, but as I have recently surpassed the 23741 day milestone, things is a-slowing down and I am easily distracted by all sorts of Alarums and Diversions and Hautboys in Another Part of the Forest.

Indeed, as you have so surprisingly brought to my attention,

[see topmost image above]

 which, despite my careful calculation of the days I have been alive, escaped my attention -- and I love Prime Numbers the way normal people love chocolate and Lady Gaga.

The mathematician Hardy recalled of the self-taught number theorist Ramanujan

"Every positive whole number was one of his personal friends."

Everpresent at the fringes of Number Theory -- you can't get rid of it even if you use Lysol or Clorox or Dettol -- is Numerology, the conviction that within the Set of the Positive Whole Numbers lurks a powerful Sacred Magicke -- beginning with elementary crap like the number 13 (I am told some skyscrapers and office buildings are designed to have no 13th Floor, the elevator buttons just go 11 12 14 15), and then stuff like 666, but Numerology can get far more obtuse and arcane then that. Kabbalah may be the High-Water Mark of Numerology, and for about the last ten years this aberrant, verkakte bad neighborhood of Judaism has gone viral with the Celebrity Elite, chiefly Madonna, who is now an avowed Kabbalist. I got a pal in Lisboa who tells me her synagogue just hired a Kabbalist Rabbi, the whole joint now guides its adult and child members toward Kabbalah Truth, Wisdom and Sanctity.

The inventors of all modern Number Theory, the guys and gals who put it on the map, the Pythagoreans, were drunk on Numerology, so the Magickal Properties of Our Friends the Positive Whole Numbers has a very sexy and ancient provenance. One can only scoff at Numerology just so much, after which one is scoffing at The Master -- and The Master's adherents were so serious about this stuff that they flung a guy over a cliff to his death for proving that one of The Master's fundamental tenets was Wrong. (Such was their devotion to mathematical Truth that they notified the world of his discovery, but they were so pissed off that the moment he finished his blackboard demonstration, they hauled him out of the temple and threw him over the cliff.)

(Details of what The Master got wrong on request.)

So by what Engine or Craft did you discover that

[see topmost figure]

? My ability to program is currently Off-Line, so I had to resort to this cheesy site, and how they do it I haven't the foggiest notion.

When I was at Alice Deal Junior High School, my classmates and I were selected to be los Conejitos des Indies for an experimental curriculum which eventually became The New Math. There I learned the most amazing, bizarre Magicke Trick: The Sieve of Eratosthenes. This old dead Greek fart (c. 276 BC – c. 195 BC) cranked out a method to find all the Primes up to any desired number, and the goddam thang worked so goddam fast and so goddam well that the world's biggest supercomputers still use it to find huge primes and test themselves. Were you ever taught The Sieve? When the lightbulb dimly began glowing in my junior-high brain, I was just astonished, gobsmacked. This was One Very Smart Guy.

[see middle image]

Eratosthenes was no 1-Trick Pony. Using the lengths of shadows of sticks at Alexandria and Syene (modern Aswan), he computed the first accurate circumference of the Earth. (Of course he, and all sailors, knew it was a sphere.) He was the Librarian of the Great Library and Museum at Alexandria, and a pen-pal of Archimedes in Syracuse.

Okay, at your slightest urging, I will be delighted to Prove To You that there is an Infinitude of Primes, that there exists no greatest Prime, beyond which there are no more primes. It's my fave Euclid proof. It's also a real gobsmacker.

[Abraham] Lincoln's birthday is coming up. For doing some electioneering for the local Illinois political boss, he was appointed a state surveyor -- a slight embarrassment, as he knew totally zilch about surveying. They gave him a theodolite and a crude Surveying Primer, and off he went to lay out Illinois' roads and county boundaries. (Most of his roads and boundaries remain as he surveyed them.)

He noticed that all over the Primer, on nearly every page, was

(cf. Euclid)

and he asked around about this Euclid guy, and was eventually lent a copy (in English) of "The Elements." Late in life he told an interviewer that he eventually completed every proof and demonstration and construction in Euclid, and that it was the most profound intellectual experience of his life. I've always been convinced that forcing himself to master Euclid (a feat best accomplished with a big bottle of aspirin) made him the undefeatable trial lawyer and debater he became.

Euclid Alone Has Looked on Beauty Bare

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare,
Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
To ponder on themselves, the while they stare
At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere
In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese
Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release
From dusty bondage into luminous air.
O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day,
When first the shaft into his vision shone
Of light anatomized! Euclid alone
Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they
Who, though once only and then but far away,
Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Oh! Speaking of which -- you have 28 days to prepare for the world's most important fiesta:

[See bottom image]

 which of course falls on 3/14 . (Traditionally you're supposed to bake and eat a pie.)

Unkie Munkie

 

Saturday 11 February 2012

Israeli reaches Chile plea deal to plant trees

(AP)  SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile has settled its criminal case against an Israeli hiker accused of negligently causing a fire that destroyed much of the Torres del Paine national park.

Under Chile's obsolete Forests Law, pyromaniacs or negligent tourists can be fined no more than $300 for setting fires in national parks.

So instead of seeking a conviction, prosecutors worked out a deal with Israeli hiker Rotem Singer designed to restore much of the area destroyed after he allegedly set fire to toilet paper and it burned out of control.

The 23-year-old Singer has agreed to pay $10,000 and raise other money for an environmental group that will buy 50,000 native trees that will be used to replant the park by Chile's national forestry agency.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

350+ prisoners die in Honduras prison fire

Reuters (UK newswire)
Wednesday 15 February 2012

Honduras prison fire 
kills more than
350 inmates

by Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) -- A massive fire swept through an overcrowded prison in Honduras and killed more than 350 inmates, many of them trapped and screaming inside their cells.

A senior official at the attorney general's office, Danelia Ferrera, said 357 people died in the blaze that began late on Tuesday night at the prison in Comayagua, about 75 km / 45 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

"It's a terrible scene ... Our staff went into the cells and the bodies are charred, most of them are unrecognizable," Ferrera told Reuters, adding that officials would have to use dental records and DNA in many cases to identify those killed.

It was one of the worst prison fires ever in Latin America.

"We heard screaming from the people who caught on fire," one prisoner told reporters, showing the fingers he fractured in his escape from the fire. "We had to push up the roof panels to get out."

Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world, according to the United Nations, and there are frequent riots and clashes between rival street gangs in its cramped prisons.

But it was not yet clear if the prison fire was started during a riot or if it was an accident.

Worried and angry relatives surrounded the prison on Wednesday morning, at one point throwing rocks at police and trying to force their way inside the prison.

Police responded by firing shots into the air and shooting tear gas at protesters, most of whom were women.

President Porfirio Lobo said he suspended the director of the Comayagua prison and the head of the national prison system to ensure a thorough investigation.

He promised to "take urgent measures to deal with this tragedy, which has plunged all Hondurans into mourning".

There was confusion over the death toll, with some reports that more than 100 inmates had escaped and could have been mistakenly counted among the dead and others that the dead and missing totaled 402 people -- almost half the prison's inmates.

Lucy Marder, head of forensic services in Comayagua, said police reported that one of the dead was a woman who had stayed overnight at the prison and the rest were inmates, but she said some of the presumed dead could have escaped.

Local media reported that the Comayagua fire department chief also died in the blaze.

VIOLENT GANGS, DRUGS

Honduras' notoriously violent street gangs, known as 'maras', gained power inside Hispanic neighborhoods in the United States in the 1980s and then spread down into Central America. Their members wear distinctive tattoos and are involved in drugs and weapons trafficking, armed robbery and protection rackets.

The Comayagua prison housed more than 850 inmates -- well above its capacity. A local police chief read out the names of 457 survivors outside the prison, but relatives were not appeased.

"This is desperate, they won't tell us anything and I think my husband is dead," a crying Gregoria Zelaya told Canal 5 TV as she stood by a chain link fence.

Local firemen said they were prevented from entering the prison due to gunshots. But Daniel Orellana, head of the prison system, said there was no riot.

"We have two hypotheses, one is that a prisoner set fire to a mattress and the other one is that there was a short circuit in the electrical system," he said.

Across Honduras, prisons are filled to double their capacity with about 12,500 prisoners in jails meant to hold 6,000. More than 100 prisoners were killed in a fire in the textile manufacturing town of San Pedro Sula several years ago, and survivors said later that guards fired on prisoners trying to escape the blaze.

Honduras had more than 80 homicides per 100,000 people in 2009, a rate 16 times that of the United States, according to a United Nations report last year.

The country is a major drug trafficking transit point for South American cocaine moving north to consumers in the United States, and authorities say there is increasing presence of violent Mexican drug cartels in the country.

A political crisis ripped through Honduras in mid-2009 when a widely-condemned coup toppled the democratically elected president but the country has been trying to heal divisions since Lobo was elected later that year.

(Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera and Mica Rosenberg in Mexico; Editing by Kieran Murray)
- 30 -

============
Wikipedia
============
Comayagua prison fire

    This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Location     Comayagua, Honduras
Date     February 14–15, 2012
Ignition source     Suspected electrical fault or riot
Fatalities     357+

Between February 14 and 15, 2012, at least 357 inmates were killed in a fire in the National Prison of Comayagua in Honduras.[1] Many were trapped in their cells and either suffocated or were "burned beyond recognition".[2] The fire in the prison started late in the evening of February 14.[3] According to one prisoner, calls for help went out almost immediately and "for a while, nobody listened. But after a few minutes, which seemed like an eternity, a guard appeared with keys and let us out."[4] Rescue forces did not arrive until about 40 minutes later.[5]

Reuters termed the incident as "one of the worst prison fires ever in Latin America."[6] The Associated Press added that this was "the world’s deadliest prison fire in at least a century."[4]

Casualties

There were 856 prisoners officially listed on the roster for the prison.[7] The Comayagua prison is considered a medium security facility, but of the inmates were being housed for serious crimes, such as murder and armed robbery.[4][5] Around 475 prisoners escaped, many through the roof of the facility, while 357 are missing and presumed dead.[2][4] According to firefighters, around 100 inmates burned to death or suffocated in their cells as the keys to release them could not be located.[7] Around 30 prisoners were transported to the capital to receive specialist treatment for severe burns.[2]

The chief of forensic medicine for the prosecutor's office stated that it would take at least three months to identify all of the victims, mainly from DNA samples.[8]
[edit] Cause

The exact cause of the fire is not yet know.[5] It was initially believed to have been the result of a riot, during which a mattress was ignited. This was denied by prison authorities who blamed it on an electrical fault.[9] Survivors reported that an inmate was responsible for the fire.[4] The unidentified man reported shouted "We will all die here!" and then set the place on fire.[4] His motives are unknown.[4]

Prison overcrowding, which is common in the region, has been cited as a contributing factor in death toll.[4] According to one survivor, 60 people were packed in a single cell.[4] Honduras has repeatedly been criticized for poor prison conditions by human rights groups in recent years.[4] The Comaygua fire is the fourth prison fire in Honduras since 1994 to result in 70 or more casualties.[4]
[edit] Aftermath

Relatives of the prisoners gathered outside the facility to discover the fate of the incarcerated, eventually leading to clashes with the police. Angry family members attempted to storm the prison to claim the remains of their loved ones and had to restrained with tear gas.[4] Some were seen hurling rocks at police officers.[4] The President of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo Sosa, has demanded a full inquest into the disaster.[2]

whoopee Georgia USA gonna get 2 brand new nuclear power plants! Wheeeeeee! / There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!

The USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission has just issued the first new nuclear power plant license -- two of them, in the Southern state Georgia -- since 1978.


Part of an exchange on the e-List Ionizing Radiation Affacionadi:


=================

Between issuing the first new USA nuclear power plant licenses since 1978, and the startup of any of these plants, there exist potential barriers that have proven effective many times in the past in preventing the startup of a new nuclear plant: massive construction cost overruns, and the increasingly unenthusiastic investors who react to the eventual disclosure of massive overruns.

 

These barriers are entirely independent of a poorly informed public, or assaults by anti-nuclear activist-ideologues.

 

The bottom line, figuratively and literally, is the willingness of investors to support the long and hyperexpensive construction process for several years. When, for any reason, sufficient capital ceases to fertilize the plant project, the plant dies, or begins to thrash around in an unfocused investment market that may involve bankruptcy and reorganization, or quick and bargain-basement sale to other entities.

 

There is also an ever-changing "weather" to nuclear power: The fluctuating regional market price of electricity generated by non-nuclear means. If it becomes significantly cheaper than the price the new nuclear plant would sell watts for, a collapse in demand for more expensive watts can kill the project.

 

Every new plant needs the blessings of the NRC and the federal authorities above it.

 

But they dwarf in significance compared to the blessings of Wall Street. When investors try to prophesy what their profits will be over the next 5 or 10 years, a historical absence of clear and accurate investment prophesy on billion-dollar-plus nuclear plant constructions can significantly dampen investor enthusiasm.

 

In the USA, the benchmark investment meltdown is (Wikipedia:)

 

 

The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was a completed General Electric nuclear boiling water reactor  located adjacent to the Long Island Sound in East Shoreham, New York. The plant was built between 1973 and 1984 by the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO), but never operated.

 

 

Eventually, LILCO sold the completed Shoreham plant to the state of New York for $1, and efforts were made to retro-convert the plant to a coal-burning generation facility -- with what success or investor satisfaction I don't know.

 

This list has been one of the Internet's most detailed and accurate chronicles of almost all aspects of the Fukushima incident. But one phenomenon this list has not discussed or "monitored" has been the behavior of the investment and capital market in the nuclear power industry for the decade before and the 11 months since Fukushima (commenced 11 March 2011). Surely this curve must be as interesting, significant and informative as ionizing radiation levels before and since Fukushima.

 

All investment takes and accepts risk, and runs the risk of partial or complete loss.

 

But some games in the casino are riskier and more volatile than others. (Best: blackjack. Worst: slots.)

 

One of the most stable and carefully monitored industries -- accurate government records date to at least the 18th century -- is Death, so in theory, investing in Death Futures should be the gold standard of stable prediction and investments.

 

About ten years ago, Canada's largest chain of funeral homes suddenly and without warning went bankrupt because of a freakishly mild winter. The vulnerable and the old die in usually predictable numbers during the stress of winter, and the funeral home chain had, as it always had, made its operating and purchasing plans on this known fact. When Canadians failed to die in the predicted numbers, the entire chain collapsed.

 

There's also a new "player" in town who wasn't playing the stock market the last time lots of nuclear plants were licensed and built in Western capitalist nations.

 

A huge amount of investing is now the result not of what humans think is a good bet, but is placed by computer programs, whose decisions to buy or dump huge blocks are triggered (within a hundredth of a second) by the behavior of dozens of fluctuating market conditions. This is called Programmed Trading. So a great deal of the behavior of the investment market results from the behavior of non-human intelligence. (We seem to be naturally and instinctively greedy; computers must be specifically instructed to try to make profit.) It's unlikely human investors can prophesy how computer programs will support the construction and eventual startup of a newly licensed nuclear power plant with much accuracy.

 

Bob / Massachusetts USA

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: bcer_eh

To: GeigerCounterEnthusiasts@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:05 PM

Subject: [GeigerCounterEnthusiasts] Re: 2 new nuclear plants in Georgia USA

 

You Americans. It wasn't mindless CNN drones that destroyed
chernobyl or Fukushima to prove that nuclear energy is not safe. It was highly-trained, highly-paid nuclear engineers. Not only did they prove that reactors are unsafe, they threatened the lives of millions of people and polluted the air and oceans.
Paranoia results in crazy thinking and bad decisions, not watching TV.

--- In GeigerCounterEnthusiasts@yahoogroups.com, "jp2cbyou" wrote:
>
> Even if CNN is correct, and one is fully approved; it will be cancelled now because CNN informed their army of mindless drones followers. Expect P.I.T.A and N.A.M.B.L.A and the like crazies to show up at the construction site wearing suicide bomb vest to kill contractors and destroy equipment. Perhaps they will wait until the reactor is online to destroy it to prove nuclear energy is not safe. That is how they think.
>
> Justin

Murdoch scum tabloids settle phone-hacking lawsuits

 ..............................Click photos to enlarge.

The Associated Press
USA newswire
Wednesday 8 February 2012

Rupert Murdoch's 
tabloid empire
settles 9 more 
hacking suits

by Raphael Satter

LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch's News International has settled nearly all the cases against the company in the first wave of lawsuits for phone hacking by its journalists, with a new round of apologies and payouts announced Wednesday in a London court.

But a potentially damaging claim lodged by British singer Charlotte Church is still headed to trial later this month and a wave of new lawsuits -- as many as 56 in all -- is looming, lawyers told London's High Court.

News International, a division of News Corp., has tried hard to keep phone hacking cases from going to trial, launching its own compensation program overseen by a respected former judge and paying out millions of pounds/dollars in all in out-of-court settlements for about 60 cases.

On Wednesday, lawyers announced that nine more lawsuits filed on behalf of about a dozen different people had been settled, including cases brought by comedian Steve Coogan, former soccer star Paul Gascoigne and maverick lawmaker George Galloway.

"This has never been about money," said Coogan, who received a settlement of 40,000 pounds (U$63,500). "Like other people who have sued, I was determined to do my part to show the depths to which the press can sink in pursuit of private information."

Gascoigne received 68,000 pounds ($108,000), while Simon Hughes, deputy leader of Britain's Liberal Democrat party, received 45,000 pounds ($71,500). Galloway, known for his uncompromising opposition to the Iraq war, received 25,000 pounds ($39,700) and an admission from News International lawyer Michael Silverleaf that the company had intercepted five of the lawmaker's voicemails around the time of the 2003 invasion.

Sally King, a friend of former British Home Secretary David Blunkett, received 60,000 pounds ($95,300), while her husband, Andrew, received 50,000 pounds ($79,400). Silverleaf acknowledged that a News of the World journalist even followed the pair to the U.S. as they tried to find refuge there from the press.

Her father and brother also received substantial damages, as did former Labour Party strategist Alastair Campbell and a series of other claimants.

After each settlement, Silverleaf said the Murdoch company had accepted responsibility and regretted the damage it had caused. The company also agreed to pay the claimants' legal fees.

The lawsuits stem from revelations of phone-hacking and other illegal tactics at the now-defunct Murdoch tabloid, the News of the World, where journalists routinely intercepted voicemails of those in the public eye in a relentless search for scoops.

Murdoch closed the 168-year-old paper in July amid a wave of public revulsion over its 2002 interception of voicemails belonging to a missing 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered. Murdoch and his company paid millions to the Dowler family.

But the lawsuit by Church, a former child singing prodigy, heads into court beginning 28 February. It is one of the more embarrassing cases for Murdoch, who had the angel-voiced singer perform at his wedding when she was 13.

Silverleaf said Church's lawsuit was "one of the more complicated cases, and one where the claimants have taken a particularly polarized view."

Last year Church testified before a British media ethics inquiry that Murdoch's newspapers and other British tabloids had spent years tormenting her, often while she was just in her teens, blowing her credibility "to bits" and damaging her career. She detailed how cameramen had tried to take photos up her skirt and how reporters had published details about her sex life when she was just 17.

Wednesday's arguments between Church's lawyer David Sherborne and Silverleaf largely focused on how the court would measure the toll that journalists' attention took on her mental health and her family's business.

A lawyer for the News of the World's private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who Church is also suing, asked that the case be heard at least in part in secret to avoid prejudicing any potential criminal case against Mulcaire. Judge Geoffrey Vos, however, indicated such a move would be unlikely.

Vos said he was "extremely hostile" to imposing blanket reporting restrictions on the Church case because of the public interest in letting the facts be known. He said he might consider an "appropriate, limited order" at a later hearing.

Despite the latest Murdoch settlements, there's no end in sight yet to the scandal. Victims' lawyer Hugh Tomlinson told the court that six more people had decided to sue and that 50 others were at various stages in preparing their lawsuits.

At the same time, three parallel police investigations are under way into wrongdoing not only at the News of the World but also at two other Murdoch papers in Britain, The Sun and The Times. More than a dozen ex-Murdoch employees have been arrested and several executives have resigned.

British politicians and police also have been ensnared in the scandal, which exposed the cozy relationship between senior officers, top lawmakers and newspaper executives and the bribery of police for information.

The government-commissioned ethics inquiry is currently investigating British media practics and media links to police and politicians. Heather Mills, the former wife of musician Paul McCartney, is expected to testify before that inquiry Thursday.
..............- 30 -

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

anti-Planned Parenthood hatchetwoman Karen Handel resigns from Komen for the Cure [for breast cancer]

Karen Handel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
daily broadsheet, Atlanta Georgia USA
Tuesday 7 February 2012

Karen Handel resigns 

from Komen for the Cure

by Jim Galloway, Political Insider

Karen Handel, the former GOP candidate for [Georgia] governor, just announced her resignation as a senior vice president for public policy of Susan G. Komen for the Cure -- one week after the breast cancer charity reversed itself on a decision to sever financial ties with Planned Parenthood.

Below is the letter. Note that Handel says she is declining the offer of a severance package from Komen -- which might have required her to keep silent.

=============================

February 7, 2012

The Honorable Nancy Brinker
CEO, Susan G. Komen for the Cure

VIA EMAIL
5005 LBJ Freeway, Suite 250
Dallas, Texas 75244

Dear Ambassador Brinker:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure has been the recognized leader for more 30 years in the fight against breast cancer here in the US -– and increasingly around the world.

    As you know, I have always kept Komen’s mission and the women we serve as my highest priority -- as they have been for the entire organization, the Komen Affiliates, our many supporters and donors, and the entire community of breast cancer survivors. I have carried out my responsibilities faithfully and in line with the Board’s objectives and the direction provided by you and Liz.

    We can all agree that this is a challenging and deeply unsettling situation for all involved in the fight against breast cancer. However, Komen’s decision to change its granting strategy and exit the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood and its grants was fully vetted by every appropriate level within the organization. At the November Board meeting, the Board received a detailed review of the new model and related criteria. As you will recall, the Board specifically discussed various issues, including the need to protect our mission by ensuring we were not distracted or negatively affected by any other organization’s real or perceived challenges. No objections were made to moving forward.

    I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it. I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen’s future and the women we serve. However, the decision to update our granting model was made before I joined Komen, and the controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the organization. Neither the decision nor the changes themselves were based on anyone’s political beliefs or ideology. Rather, both were based on Komen’s mission and how to better serve women, as well as a realization of the need to distance Komen from controversy. I believe that Komen, like any other nonprofit organization, has the right and the responsibility to set criteria and highest standards for how and to whom it grants.

    What was a thoughtful and thoroughly reviewed decision -- one that would have indeed enabled Komen to deliver even greater community impact -- has unfortunately been turned into something about politics. This is entirely untrue. This development should sadden us all greatly.

    Just as Komen’s best interests and the fight against breast cancer have always been foremost in every aspect of my work, so too are these my priorities in coming to the decision to resign effective immediately. While I appreciate your raising a possible severance package, I respectfully decline. It is my most sincere hope that Komen is allowed to now refocus its attention and energies on its mission.

    Sincerely,

[Karen Handel] 

1st Day Issue / Postalö Vleeptron / Bob's Birthday / Bob becomes an Entitlement schnorrer

Click stamps to enlarge.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure (for breast cancer) plays stooge for right-wing anti-abortion whackos, then has to eat its words / right-wing whacko-in-chief Karen Handel

As odd as it has seemed to me at the time, women and girls have asked me for advice about their women's health problems.

Knowing absolutely nothing about women's health, I've always sent them straight to Planned Parenthood. I know they'll be treated with excellence.

Now I'm amending my advice and telling all girls and women to stay far away from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Komen plays footsie with right-wing fundamentalist women-enslaving politicians -- and would rather push a political agenda than help women and their health issues.

==================

The Associated Press
USA newswire
Friday 3 February 2012
Komen drops plans to cut

Planned Parenthood grants

NEW YORK --  The Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity on Friday abandoned plans to eliminate grants to Planned Parenthood. The startling decision came after three days of virulent criticism that resounded across the Internet, jeopardizing Komen's iconic image.

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives," a Komen statement said.

As first reported by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Komen had adopted criteria excluding Planned Parenthood from future grants for breast-cancer screenings because it was under government investigation, citing a probe launched by a Florida congressman at the urging of anti-abortion groups.

Komen said it would change the criteria "to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political."

"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants," the statement said.

Many of Komen's affiliates across the country had openly rebelled against the decision to cut the funding, which totaled $680,000 in 2011. One affiliate, in Aspen, Colo., had announced Thursday that it would defy the new rules and continue grants to its local Planned Parenthood partner.

In addition, Komen was inundated with negative comments via emails, on Twitter and on its Facebook page. Many of the messages conveyed a determination to halt gifts to Komen -- organizer of the popular Race for the Cure events -- because of the decision.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood was reporting an outpouring of support — donations large and small, triggered by the Komen decision, that it said surpassed $3,000,000 since the story broke. It has pledged to use the funds to maintain and expand its breast health services.

Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, thanked those donors Friday and welcomed Komen's change of heart.

"We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria," Richards said. "What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer."

Through the Komen grants, Planned Parenthood says its health centers provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and more than 6,400 mammogram referrals over the past five years.

Komen, in its statement, said it was immediately starting an outreach to its affiliates and supporters to get the charity back on track.

"We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue," Komen said. "We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics -- anyone's politics."

On Tuesday, when Komen's plans to stop funding Planned Parenthood were revealed, there was an immediate and powerful reaction. Anti-abortion activists, long opponents of Planned Parenthood, applauded the decision, and said that they would now be able to support Komen's activities.

But others decried what they considered a political act by a charity that had become ubiquitous in the fight against breast cancer.

A family foundation in Dallas made a $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a $250,000 matching pledge against future donations. In Washington, 26 U.S. senators -- all Democrats except for independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- signed a letter calling on Komen to reconsider its decision.

"It would be tragic if any woman -- let alone thousands of women -- lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack," they wrote.

On Thursday, Komen's top leaders held their first news conference since the controversy erupted and denied that its decision was driven by pressure from anti-abortion groups.

"We don't base our funding decisions ... on whether one side or the other will be pleased," said Komen's founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker.

While previously Komen had said it had merely decided to bar grants to organizations under investigation, Brinker insisted there were additional factors, notably changes in the types of breast-health service providers it wanted to support.

A source with direct knowledge of decision-making at Komen's headquarters in Dallas gave a different account, saying the new policies were adopted with the deliberate intention of targeting Planned Parenthood. According to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions, a driving force behind the move was Karen Handel, hired by Komen last year as vice president for public policy after losing a campaign for governor in Georgia in which she stressed her anti-abortion views and frequently denounced Planned Parenthood.

Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC, said Handel didn't have a significant role in the policy change.
- 30 -

===========

San Jose Mercury-News
daily broadsheet
San Jose, California USA   
Friday 3 February 2012

Editorial: 

Komen puts politics 

before women's health

The Susan G. Komen Foundation revealed its true colors Tuesday, and there wasn't a hint of its trademark pink in sight. Komen put red-state, right-wing politics above low-income women's health, pure and simple, with its decision to stop giving money to Planned Parenthood to pay for breast cancer screenings.

It could be the most cowardly act by a health foundation in U.S. history.

Fortunately, the backlash has been powerful, particularly among the many professional women who until now have valued and supported both charities and suddenly feel betrayed. Their voices and their financial support need to remain strong on behalf of the women with no health insurance whose care makes up 97 percent of Planned Parenthood's work -- a fact often drowned out by the political static over the 3 percent involving abortions. In rural areas, Planned Parenthood health clinics often are the only places women can receive any type of health care.

Komen gave Planned Parenthood almost $700,000 in 2011 to provide poor women with breast cancer screenings who otherwise would not have received them; mammograms aren't free. About 170,000 women benefitted. Withdrawing the money and reducing the number of early detections of breast cancer will hand some of those women a death sentence. How pro-life is that?

Komen CEO Nancy Brinker, sister of the late Susan G. Komen, asserts that the decision wasn't political.

Give us a break. Brinker is a major Republican donor who was ambassador to Hungary in the George W. Bush administration. The foundation's relationship with Planned Parenthood was never a warm one. Then, in 2010, Brinker hired Karen Handel as senior vice president for public policy. When Handel ran for governor of Georgia, she drew the endorsement of Sarah Palin by describing herself as "staunchly and unequivocally pro-life."

At Komen, she immediately began a full review of the foundation's grants and declared a policy of denying funding to any organization under investigation by federal, state or local authorities. Imagine how shocked, shocked, she was when [Republican] Florida Rep. Cliff Stearns soon after announced a congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood.

This is the same Stearns who was ridiculed this past spring for filing an amendment that forces all 9/11 first responders requesting compensation for injuries to first be checked against the terrorist watch list to make sure they're not terrorists. The Stearns whose stated goal is to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding, "now and forever," even though the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding for abortions.

Planned Parenthood has meticulously kept any federal dollars as well as Komen grants separate from these services. The Health and Human Services inspector general and state Medicaid programs conduct audits of Planned Parenthood. The findings are a matter of public record. The congressional investigation is purely a political tool to cut health care for poor women.

Both Komen and Planned Parenthood over the years have saved lives and helped women who had no place else to turn for care. What a tragedy that right-wing politics has intervened in what should be common cause.

- 30 -

========================

The Baltimore Sun
daily broadsheet, Maryland USA
Friday 3 February 2012
Komen controversy puts 

Maryland native in spotlight
Karen Handel criticized 

amid Planned Parenthood flap

by Yvonne Wenger and Jill Rosen, The Baltimore Sun

As the funding controversy swirled around Susan G. Komen for the Cure this week, much of the criticism was directed not at the group's chief executive but at a Maryland native who serves as a senior policy adviser.

Karen Handel, who faced a hard-luck childhood in Prince George's County [a suburb of Washington DC], has been painted in the media as an architect of the group's decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood, and many critics took aim at her background as a candidate for Georgia governor in 2010. In the Republican primary race -- in which she was endorsed by both Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin -- she showcased her anti-abortion philosophy and promised to cut state grants to Planned Parenthood.

Komen's founder and CEO, Nancy G. Brinker, in an interview with MSNBC [cable TV news channel], denied that Handel drove the organization's decision.

Still, some critics pointed to a comment Handel, Komen's vice president for public policy, made on the social media site Twitter.

After the Planned Parenthood news erupted, Handel, though not the original author, sent this message to her Twitter followers: "Just like a pro-abortion group to turn a cancer orgs decision into a political bomb to throw. Cry me a freaking river."

She later deleted the comment, but it was captured as a screen grab and widely circulated.

The spotlight of politics and the Komen debate seem an unlikely twist for Handel, 49, who has described a rough upbringing -- which led Palin to call her a "self-made, strong woman who pulled herself up by her bootstraps."

During the 2010 campaign, Handel told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she left her family home in Upper Marlboro when she was 17 years old to get away from her mother, whom she described as an alcoholic who had pulled a gun on her.

Handel, whose maiden name was Karen Walker, graduated in 1980 from Frederick Douglass High School in Prince George's County. She then worked, taking college courses at nights and on weekends. She said she took the certified public accountant's exam without earning a degree.

"Remember the context of my life," she told the newspaper in 2010. "I'm on my own at 17. My first job was at AARP. I think I made $9,050 a year. The idea I could go to college at night, get enough credits in accounting and sit for the CPA, I was like, 'Wow, I can have a real life.'"

Neither Handel nor the Komen organization responded to a request from The Baltimore Sun for comment.

Handel has not been quoted in the major media since the Planned Parenthood controversy began.

Handel attended Prince George's Community College and the University of Maryland, according to the Journal-Constitution.

Rob Simms, a close friend who aided Handel's political career, said she relocated from the Washington metropolitan area to Georgia when her husband, Steve, accepted a job offer. The Handels have been married for about 20 years and have no children.

"I think Karen, as long as I've known her, felt a calling to serve and be an active participant in her community and her state," Simms said Friday. "Karen is a very driven, smart, independent person. I think those qualities and traits were certainly, in part, developed as she was growing up and dealing with what was not the best or ideal family situation."

After Handel lost the 2010 GOP primary to Nathan Deal, who went on to become governor, she weighed her options and found the breast cancer advocacy group to be a good fit, Simms said. Handel had worked as deputy chief of staff to Marilyn Quayle, wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle, as part of her breast cancer awareness outreach efforts.

That program, according to Handel's Facebook page, eventually led to the founding of Komen's Race for the Cure.

Simms said Handel now splits her time between Atlanta and Washington for her job with Komen.

He said that Georgia is home to Handel, but she still has family in the Washington region. And he noted that her Maryland upbringing helped shape who she is today, including her love for the National Football League's Colts, who were based in Baltimore before moving to Indianapolis.

Simms and Handel met about 12 years ago when they worked in Fulton County, Ga., the county in which Atlanta lies. He worked on her campaigns and served as her deputy after she was elected Georgia's
secretary of state. Simms is now chief of staff to Rep. Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Handel moved to Georgia in the 1990s, and got her political start as chairwoman of the Fulton County Commission before becoming the state's first Republican secretary of state since the Civil War.

Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said Handel is "quite conservative" and moved even further to the right when she became a statewide candidate.

Officials at Planned Parenthood in Georgia were taken aback by Handel's criticism as a gubernatorial candidate. Until then, she had been supportive of the organization's mission, sais Leola Reis, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Southeast.

Reis and others had previously applauded Handel, who had defended Georgia's funding of Fulton County breast cancer screenings and family-planning services when other lawmakers proposed cutting it.

"She had previously indicated an appreciation and an understanding of the work that Planned Parenthood does," Reis said. "Then she turned around and used it as a battle cry in her campaign."

Handel often spoke of her opposition of abortion except in the cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life was at risk. Even so, she came under fire from Georgia Right to Life, whose leadership did not find her to be "pro-life enough," according to the Journal-Constitution.

During the campaign, Handel also found herself embroiled in a controversy over her association with a group of gay and lesbian voters, known as the Log Cabin Republicans, according to the Journal-Constitution.

The former head of the GOP group released emails from 2002 and 2003 from Handel's address, while she was a candidate for Fulton County commissioner, that indicate she supported granting benefits to county employees in same-sex domestic partnerships, the newspaper reported.

Handel denied supporting same-sex partnerships and said that while on the commission she voted against a plan to extend benefits to domestic partners.

Bullock said the flap damaged her candidacy but wasn't its death knell, and Handel won the commissioner election.

If Handel takes the fall for the Planned Parenthood controversy, Bullock said, she could end up gaining. Conservatives might see her a "sacrificial lamb" and be eager to sign her up for a Republican cause.

Handel said in an April 12 statement, when she accepted the vice president's job, that the mission of Susan G. Komen for the Cure was extremely important, given the federal government's budget constraints.

According to the statement on the organization's website, she said: "It is imperative that Komen leads the charge with policymakers to help ensure access to crucial breast cancer screening and treatment programs for the millions of women around the country who need them."

ywenger@baltsun.com
twitter.com/yvonnewenger
jill.rosen@baltsun.com
- 30 -

ferry sinks off northeast coast of Papua New Guinea

BBC News2 February 2012 
Last updated at 02:48 ET

Papua New Guinea: 
Many rescued after ferry sinks

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard: ''This is obviously a major tragedy''

    "There are people floating in life jackets"
More than 200 people have been rescued from the sea off Papua New Guinea (PNG)'s north coast after a ferry sank with up to 350 on board, officials say.

Captain Nurur Rahman, from PNG's National Maritime Safety Authority (NMSA), told the BBC most people had been rescued from the water.

Efforts were continuing to pick up as many as possible before sunset, he said.

Australia PM Julia Gillard earlier said the incident was a "major tragedy".

Ms Gillard said the authorities were urgently trying to find out if any Australians were on board.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said the cause had yet to be confirmed, and he sent his sympathies to the families of those involved.

The MV Rabaul Queen, operated by PNG company Star Ships, was travelling between the towns of Kimbe and Lae.

It sent out a distress signal in the early hours of Thursday.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority, which is assisting the PNG authorities, has confirmed that the vessel sank approximately 16km (9.9 miles) off Finschhafen.

Eight ships and three helicopters are at the scene helping with the rescue. Three Australian fixed-wing aircraft have also been sent, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Sydney.

Earlier, Capt Rahman told the BBC he had reports of people floating in life jackets where the boat sank.

A Star Ships spokesman told the AFP news agency that "bad weather" was believed to have sunk the ship.

"[There are] survivors. At the moment rescuers from Australia are at the site. No fatalities have been reported yet," the spokesman said.

Star Ships is one of PNG's biggest ship operators.
- 30 -

Is this and this and this and this and this and this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? / Republican Hair Helmet / why Magyars are from Mars / why Callista is from Yobbo or Hoon

 

Click stamps to enlarge.

United States Pustule Service
1st Day Issue / 6-sheet
Callista

Is it possible you don't know what, or who, this is?

Be patient, citizens of Papua New Guinea! 

Just wait! Because there is an outside-outside off-off-Broadway left-field chance that this very odd image will be thrust in your faces 24/7 after the summer Republican Party convention (in Tampa, Florida).

And then there is an infinitessimal chance -- we're talking asymptotic here -- that in November, this very odd image will be the new First Lady, the wife of the new president of the United States.



(ATTENTION GAMBLERS: DO NOT PUT YOUR LIFE SAVINGS ON THIS LONG-SHOT. This is not a Sure Thing like Brasil in the World Cup was.)

There is very little TV or Internet evidence that she has a voice or can make audible noises. The campaign has her more gagged than the vault guards during the Brinx Robbery. 

About 2.5 weeks ago, she pulled a Comet Halley and actually sat down with someone pretending to be a journalist and gave a Fiesta de Softbol which resembled a brief interview. I didn't see/hear it, so to me it's just an unsubstantiated rumor that she has a voice box and can make herself audibly understood.

Maybe YouTube keyword Callista or Callista speaks or voice of Callista.

Well anyway, Gawker got to the core of the question everyone in North America has been asking: 

What the hell is all that crap north of her throat?

Because it's ALWAYS like that. There exist no public images of this honey where she has -- comment d'it on? -- let her hair down, no papparazo snap of her a half-mile down a beach with the wind whipping through natural human female hair. Perhaps holding hands with Newt, who is wearing surfer trunks, like Blaine wore when he briefly had a dalliance on the beach with Barbie.

When she's out the front door, this is what the world sees every time. (cf. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffmann.)

Lately S.W.M.B.O. and I have been irradiating ourself with unusually heavy doses of satellite (we got DirecTV) programs dealing with the cryptonormal or the xenobiological or the exobiotical, programs whose fundamental premise is whack jive nonsense, like that UFO Aliens inseminated Early Man and inserted into our DNA the lust for gold sufficient to keep digging and prospecting and mining it. In other words, Aliens have made us into their DNA-hypnotic Gold Slaves (because the Aliens love and value gold, but they don't like hard work, so they screwed with our DNA to make us do all the hard work for them. Get used to it. Buy a shovel).

Many experts in xenopolitical science or crypto- or exo-biopolitics believe Callista is not of our species, but is from Another World.

This would explain why she chats within microphone range so rarely -- her thick Xnvvvvvvvietto accent, which you can spot 4.71 light years away.

At Los Alamos in the late 1940s, there was a Theory, with many adherents and advocates, that Hungarians were actually Martians. The obvious evidence:

1. ethereal transcendent intellect

2. they move around a lot, they're always moving somewhere else

3. their lingo is totally unlike any of the other human languages surrounding Hungary

... so a very good case could be made that these hyper-brainy people are always changing countries and continents because they don't want to give the neighbors much time to get to know them -- and begin to suspect they're Martians.

As evidence to quash doubters, they would point around the cafeteria to Edward Teller or John von Neumann or Leo Szilard or about 6 other Magyars fundamentally important to making nuclear bombs go boom. The first humans to build a nuclear bomb were instructed largely by Magyars -- possibly because they'd had them on Mars for 94,000 years and knew all about how to design them.

So it is equally true, a fortiori, that this babe is from Outer Space -- could be from Planet Hoon, or Mollyringwald, maybe from Yobbo.

There is a way to verify this Theory. All of these species, the Hooners, the Mollyringwaldiattes, the Yobbooooo, fart concentrated gaseous nitromethane (CH3NO2). So if you sneak up behind one of them unsuspecting with a Bic, either nothing happens, or you level four city blocks. Then everyone would know this is a Theory.

But let's start with the thing on her head.

============================

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

============================

Callista, also can be spelt as Calista, Callistee, Kallista, Kalista or Kallistee comes from the Greek for "most beautiful (fem.)" (καλλίστη - kalliste).

As a name it is derived from the Greek name of a huntress in the myth of Callisto, who was loved by Zeus. The name Callisto was changed to the common Callista for use as a name because in Latin Callista is the feminine form.

==============================

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gawker

Owner     Gawker Media
Created by     Nick Denton (Publisher)
A.J. Daulerio (Editor-in-Chief)
Hamilton Nolan, Brian Moylan, Maureen O'Connor, Adrian Chen, Jim Newell, John Cook, Max Read (staff writers)
Launched     January 2003
Current status     Active

Gawker is a newsmagazine/blog based in New York City that bills itself as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip" and focuses on celebrities and the media industry.

Founded in 2003, Gawker is the flagship blog for Nick Denton's Gawker Media. Gawker has created other blogs, including Defamer, covering Los Angeles, and Valleywag covering Silicon Valley. Since folding those other blogs into Gawker.com itself, the site now uses the slogan "Gossip from Manhattan and the Beltway to Hollywood and the Valley".


*****************************
Bob's Birthday: 
Sunday 5 February 2012
If you're not busy that day ...
***************************** 
========================








Gawker
Wednesday 1 February 2012 

The Secrets of the 
Republican Hair Helmet
 
by Brian Moylan



This has been a remarkably entertaining Republican primary season. Amidst all the insanity, there is one thing that is so odd, unnatural, and reprehensible that it boggles my mind. No, I'm not talking about Rick Santorum. I'm talking about Callista Gingrich's hair. Her butter-blonde helmet is a feat of modern engineering. How does she get it just so?

Callista's hair is a thing of devious genius. It is also the only thing about New Gingrich that is grosser than he is asking for an open marriage. Still, her bob is exactly the same every time you see her before the camera: the indescribable height, the precise wave, the texture that simultaneously looks shellacked and like cotton candy. Callista's follicular fortress joins the ranks of other great Republican domes like Nancy Reagan's and Margaret Thatcher's (who wasn't really a Republican, but come on). So how the hell does she do it?

I called up Michael Angelo, owner of Wonderland Beauty Parlor here in New York. He helped us figure out what was wrong with Donald Trump's hair so I figured he'd be able to help here.

"It's 2012," Mr. Angelo says. "If I was looking back I'd say it was rollers and back combing, but I'm thinking it must be set with a curling iron and combed out. There's no way it's done with a blow dryer and a round brush. I don't know how you get that out of a blow dryer alone."

Michael says that Maggie Thatcher thatched her roof with rollers, as you'll see in the (deplorably bad) movie The Iron Lady but using rollers is out of favor in the hair style world. He suggests that there is a mousse or gel in the hair for foundation and then it is set, combed out, sculpted, and hairsprayed within an inch of its life.

I ask him how he would give a client the "Callista Gingrich" if she was deluded enough to ask for it. "Someone who is not a drag queen? Like a real girl? I would have to start with the cut. It has to be short enough layers around the top where you can bulk it up high without having too much weight."

What is remarkable about her 'do is that it is precisely the same every time she is in public view. "The reality of a hairstyle like that is that it takes masterful skill," he says. "You have to know every quirk of a person's hair growth to get it to work and be exactly the same every time. You can't trust that to a random stranger. She must have someone full time or close to it." He adds that not only is she dying it probably every two weeks to keep from getting any roots whatsoever, but there is no way she is doing her hair on her own on a daily basis. Having her own (probably expensive) hairstylist on staff seems like it would be a White House spending scandal waiting to happen if (God forbid) Newt were to be elected President. Just remember the John Edwards $400 haircut fiasco? This would be even worse.

What is more scandalous than that, however, is the idea that a woman would favor a haircut that seems even more reactionary than her husband's politics. While Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann are deplorable for their own reasons, at least Sarah's unfussy soccer mom updo's and Michele's natural-seeming cascade appear modern, effortless, and flattering. To liberals Callista looks like some sort of dead-eyed, Lego-haired Stepford Bible beater and after beauty queens like Palin, Bachmann, Ann Coulter, and S.E. Cupp, Callista looks a bit marmish and out of style. Even to conservatives.

With this haircut, Callista just seems so old fashioned, like her hair would be more suited to Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, or even Jackie Kennedy. Or maybe that's the thing? Maybe she's trying to weasel her way into our little minds by forcing us to associate her with a first lady just on her nostalgic noggin alone. She's winning votes one stealthy suggestion at a time.

Even Michael Angelo wonders what hair stylist would give her such an old-fashioned cut, unless she goes to the same D.C. salon as all the other out of touch GOP grande dames. (According to The New Yorker she gets it done at Sugar House in Old Town in Alexandria, Va., outside of D.C.). Or maybe it's something more sinister. Michael says, "I'm just wondering if there is some queen behind the chair laughing his ass off. 'Take this, you Republican bitch.'"

Contact Brian Moylan:

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Discussion Threads
 
TabithaIapetus
23 Jan 2012 4:47 PM
What trips me out about this chick is that she is 45-years old. And yet, she chooses to look 60+.

Excusado @TabithaIapetus
WHAT??!!!! NO WAY. No freaking way.

Paddington @TabithaIapetus
Geez, is she really? Wow.

pomolly @TabithaIapetus
It's amazing, isn't it.

gerbilsoutofexile @TabithaIapetus
Holy shit, how is it that I'm almost 50, and still have a more up-to-date do than her? That is frightening.

Liz the Whiz @TabithaIapetus
Woah! I didn't know that! She looks like she's in her 50's!!!

Newt probably orchestrated this so she wouldn't look like his child-bride. Since she looks older, he's hoping that people don't remember their vast age difference.

Tigrrl @TabithaIapetus
Whoa. I thought she was much older, at least a youngish looking 55. I would have said, hey, she looks okay for 55, but 45? Whoa.

Wren @TabithaIapetus
She chooses to look like Newt. It's the only way she might hold onto him, for his self-love knows no bounds or end. The same cannot be said for wives.
 
There's a Visine for that @TabithaIapetus
You just blew my mind. I assumed she was in her early 60s up until now.
 
There's a Visine for that @Tigrrl
I really don't think she looks okay for 55. My mom and her friends are all hovering around 55 and they look like svelte young things compared to Callista. Her skin looks rough, but I think styling might have a lot to do with how ruddy she looks. Like, her and Pelosi look like they'd tennis together.

ShuchitaJulisa @gerbilsoutofexile
I think it's deliberate. The hair, the makeup, the clothes. All to avoid acting as a constant reminder that Gingrich left Wife #2 for a much younger woman. THis way, she doesn't seem any younger than her does.
promoted by gerbilsoutofexile

hfool @Wren
I beg to differ. Newt's wives will be boundless and endless, should he get his way. And, in fact, he leaves a religion with each one, as a token of his love.

gerbilsoutofexile @ShuchitaJulisa
I think it's because she came from the factory like that.

Tigrrl @There's a Visine for that
I guess I was feeling generous, but she does look like crap. With all that effort it takes trying to repress the memory of how she stole another woman's husband that's eating away at her from inside, no wonder her skin looks so bad. edited for errant apostrophe
Edited by Tigrrl at 01/23/12 5:37 PM

TabithaIap… @gerbilsoutofexile HA!

Hickory @TabithaIapetus
Yup, it'stotal old lady hair.

Hickory @Liz the Whiz
Or maybe its some kind of Stockholm syndrome thing

TimotheaDadillac @TabithaIapetus
Look at older photos of her when her hair was longer and "free". She looked like a school-girl. She got into this relationship for one reason: to become the next First Lady. Personally I couldn't do that romping mound of lardo for all the power in the world.

sekushinonyanko @ShuchitaJulisa
I think it's deliberate as well. Like on Mad Men when Betty Draper got with the governor. She started dressing and styling her hair in a much more matronly, old-fashioned kind of way and it's easy to imagine she was trying to match her husband.

watchwhathappens @TabithaIapetus
yeah, she's my age. trust me, I look noooothing like that and it flips me out that she does. I don't even know how it's possible.

Sinister Dexter @TabithaIapetus
It's probably deliberate. I mean, if she looks that much closer to his age, then its easier to downplay the fact that Newt's a creeper perv who married a woman 23 years his junior.