Gunman opens fire at N. Illinois U. hall (AP)

AP - A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 17 people before he killed himself, authorities said. "Police are confirming that the shooter is dead by a self-inflicted gunshot," the school said on its Web site.

Goodbye, My Friend ...

[On top today. New posts begin below - F.]

Today is a sad day in Blogtopia. We have learned, through a detective with the local police, that our dear friend Lurch has passed away. We didn't receive any details, the information is privileged for family members, but the cop was decent enough to give us that much.

I didn't know him that well, mostly through this blog and via email, but my wife and I feel honored we were able to break bread with him when he visited Long Island a year ago.

Lurch had a personality that drew one to him and the time we spent with him seemed far too short. Unfortunately, the trip he planned a few months back fell through and we're saddened another get-together is no longer in the cards.

What I know of his military service would fill a thimble, though I knew he served his nation with honor and distinction as an Army paratrooper during the war in Vietnam. Through his experience and study, he was one of the most knowledgeable people when it came to the workings of the service, strategy and tactics, and some of the best insight when it came to reading between the lines on defense issues. He was an invaluable resource as well as a friend.

Please join me in mourning our friend as well as passing on condolences to his family. I'm grateful for the time he spent with us here in Blogtopia, grateful for his insights, and grateful for the opportunity to have known him. I am proud to call him a brother in arms.

As they say in the Navy: Fair winds and following seas, my friend.

Until we meet again.

Cross-posted at Main & Central.

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Gary Coleman gets hitched, also rides bronco

Gary Coleman secretly wed a woman 18 years younger than him. The 40-year-old cowboy(?) married 22-year-old of Utah. Gary finally lost his virginity and claims to have found the woman with the right amount of looks and intelligence. Now he has someone to throw things at. Awww. Page Six reports:

Price said height wasn't a consideration because, "He was 10 feet tall to me because he was sweet." Still, the relationship isn't without its problems. "He lets his anger conquer him sometimes," Price admitted. "He throws things around, and sometimes he throws it in my direction."

I don't see what the big problem is. Gary Coleman likes to throw shit. Sheesh, wear kneepads. Or do that move where you put your hand on his head and he frantically bats at the air. That's the cornerstone to a good marriage. Or midget wrangling. Same thing. Now where's my little Oompa Loompa bride? Hey, get out of the cookie jar! You know I hate footprints on my Chips Ahoy, woman.

Photo: Splash News

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Was The Passenger Driving?

The story of little bit! Man, Paris' parents are going to be building a new wing on some DUI lawyer's house!

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Tom Lantos Dies

Dies (After Failing to Reach his Castle Before Sunrise)

Congressman of California, a notorious warmonger and the pious hypocrite, has died at the age of 80.

Lantos, who was relentlessly pushing for dismemberment of Serbia during the past decade, bullying the U.S. Congress to support the creation of a jihadist mafia state in Serbian Kosovo-Metohija province, famously declared America's support for Albanian Muslim terrorists and secessionists in Serbia will be recognized and cheered by the jihadists around the world:

"Just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led government[s] in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe," Lantos told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in the April last year.

The Bela Lugosi of the House

A partial portrait of the late, by Wayne Madsen, CounterPunch.org

He is a fake, a phony and a complete fraud. He constantly stresses his victimhood: first as a Holocaust survivor in Nazi-run Hungary and then as a refugee when the Communists took power. He fancies himself as the leading human rights specialist on Capitol Hill. In fact, this odious so-called Democrat is a master of deception and propaganda and a wallower in corrupt campaign money.

Meet California Congressman. The Gollum-like Lantos has launched his latest string of invectives at France, Germany, and Belgium. He said "the failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt" and that he is "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of America's three NATO allies.

Lantos, who represents California's 12th District (San Mateo), has a history of just plain lying and intimidating others in order to push his sordid agenda.

He once told Clinton White House security chief Craig Livingstone, who was testifying before a House committee on the so-called "Travelgate" matter, that he should think about committing suicide. Lantos, who sounds a lot like Bela Lugosi, told the beleaguered aide, "At least Admiral Boorda had the decency to commit suicide," a reprehensible reference to the tragic suicide of the Chief of Naval Operations.

And who can forget the last time Lantos shilled for a Bush war on Iraq? On October 10, 1990, Lantos, who laughably chaired the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, held a meeting during which a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who only went by the name Nayirah told a sobbing hearing room that as a volunteer for a Kuwait hospital she personally witnessed Iraqi soldiers yank new born babies from their incubators, steal the incubators, and leave the infants on the cold floors to die. Lantos, it turns out, was in on a little scam he cooked up with Citizens for a Free Kuwait and an entity Lantos chaired called the Congressional Human Rights Foundation. In fact, both organizations were rump entities set up by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, the same company that is now shilling for the Saudis to fend off all criticism of Osama bin Laden's true paymasters.

Lantos, the consummate prevaricator, said that poor Nayirah's last name had to be kept confidential or otherwise her family in Kuwait might face reprisals from Iraqi occupiers. Nice try, but soon it was revealed that Nayirah's actual last name was Al Sabah and that she was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States. But the disinformation soon caught on. George H. W. Bush traveled around the country condemning the Brute of Baghdad for throwing newborn babies on to the floors of Kuwaiti hospitals. Support for Bush's war skyrocketed as a result.

A Venomous, Hateful Little Man

Now, as another President Bush hones his plans to control Iraq through pro-consul and fellow Texan, General Tommy Franks, Lantos is bleating forth more disinformation about the "treacherous" French, Germans, and Belgians for not jumping into Bush's lap in the same manner as Britain's Tony Blair and Australia's John Howard.

Lantos' venomous brand of politics has earned him scorn from many of his House colleagues, especially those in the Congressional Black Caucus. Always quick to accuse those who don't stand with Israel of being anti-Semitic, Lantos is intolerant of African-American members who have accused the international diamond industry of responsibility for a large share of Africa's bloody civil wars and torment. Lantos has, in some cases, made no secret of his disdain for people of color who dare question his competency to lord over human rights issues from his Capitol Hill perch. The relationship between Lantos and Hill and Knowlton, the agents of past brutal dictatorships in Indonesia and Turkey, makes Lantos's congressional monopoly on human rights advocacy an outrageous fraud.

In 1992, high tech entrepreneur Glenn Tenney challenged Lantos in the Democratic primary. Although Lantos is well-known for his arrogance in Washington, Tenney and his supporters pointed out that this haughtiness extended to the constituents of the 12th District as well. But Lantos, who is propped up partly with the infusion of campaign funds from mob-controlled unions at San Francisco International Airport, remained invulnerable to the challenge.

Although Lantos's biography says he is the only Holocaust survivor to have ever served in Congress, it glosses over the fact that his wife, also a Holocaust survivor, and two daughters left the Jewish faith and are practicing Mormons. And it is also a well-known fact that the Latter Day Saints Church remains a prime backer of the Republican Party and George W. Bush. Nonetheless, Lantos was quick to hurl his hackneyed anti-Semitism charges at his two last challengers, Republican Michael Moloney, who favored cutting off all U.S. aid to Israel and Libertarian Maad Abu Ghazalah, a Palestinian refugee from the West Bank, who called for a more even-handed American foreign policy in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

As eloquent Democrats like West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold call into question Bush's Iraq adventure and his creeping totalitarianism at home, Lantos, to coin a phrase, remains, as always, "beneath contempt."

Entire article »

Hat tip: M.V. Pejakovich and FreeRepublic

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Review Four-Fer: Jazz Albums For Kids and Families

A while back, I wondered, "why are there not more great jazz albums for kids?" I could have substituted the word "good" for "great" and it still would have been a legitimate question. Still, the kids music jazz subgenre has picked up some steam since I wrote those words and with the recent appearance of a definitely great jazz album for kids, I thought it worthwhile to highlight some other new disks worth further exploration if you're looking to broaden the jazz section on your family's CD shelf (or whatever the iPod equivalent of that is).

Thirty Tigers' Jazz and Swing For Kids applies a big band (or at least one that approaches double digits) to 10 familiar kids' tunes. A glance at some of the titles, however, shows that they're mixing things up a little bit -- "Diddle Diddle Swing," for example, or the "Old MacDonald Jazz Remix" (a boogie-woogie which throws in a snippet of "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie" for good measure). Strong vocals ("Here Comes the Rain Itsy" gets turned into a rave-up) and a sense of playfulness are the strong points on this 33-minute CD.

The Doug Beavers Rovira Jazz Orchestra's Jazz, Baby! is, in many ways, a similar album. All 10 songs here are traditional ("Twinkle Twinkle," "Shortnin' Bread," "Working' On the Railroad"), and the vocals take center stage. If there is any difference it's that the arrangements are stronger, with strong versions of "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that take full-advantage of a 20+ member big band being two highlights. "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" is done in a fun cha-cha style. It's a polished recording, and while it's not targeted at adult listeners, those listeners who listen with their kids certainly won't begrudge time spent in its company. (Listen to several tracks from the 33-minute album here.)

While those two CDs certainly have much to recommend them, by sticking to traditional and familiar early childhood songs, they don't necessarily lend themselves to repeated listening over a long period of time -- they're CDs you might dip into occasionally.

Are there CDs worth more than an occasional dip? Well...

Baby Loves Jazz's latest CD, Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 & 2 certainly has its fair share of the standard childhood classics -- "Wheels On the Bus," "Skip To My Lou," and "Old Macdonald," to name a few. And its animated characters -- "Duck Ellington" (groan) or "Ella Elephant," for example -- clearly show who the CD is targeted at. But the album has more than its fair share of originals. Take the loopy "Blue Lemurs," a snappy little tune with piano accompaniment and the ear-wormy lyrics, "I like blue lemurs / And I don't know why." Or "Makes Me Want to Skat" and "We're a Band," which features "Ella Elephant," or, as we call her in the real world, Sharon Jones (of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings), who scats up a storm. Whether original or traditional, the music from the small jazz combo backing the vocalists is top-notch.

At 46 tracks and nearly 90 minutes in length, this two-CD set is almost too long (I wonder if the original CD/book combos from which the tracks were selected might not be better introductions). But that length also provides a tremendous variety of styles to choose from, from the rap-jazz of "Duck Jam" to the slower album closer "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I would be surprised if any family couldn't find at least 30 minutes of music they'd want to hear many times over. (Listen to samples and download some tracks here and here.)

Finally, there's a possibility that Swingin' in Daddyland, the first foray into kids and family music from Vermont's Lewis Franco piqued my attention as I listened to all these jazz CDs precisely because it sounded different. And that could be true. But this CD, which features Franco and a 3-man band called The Missing Cats, swings in a relaxed way. Franco and his band play a lot of gypsy swing jazz tunes ("Swing 42," which sets Franco's original lyrics to an old Django Reinhardt tune, is a good example) but isn't afraid of different styles, such as the Western swing on "Stomp Stomp" or even the not-very-jazzy but lots of fun roots-rocker "Annabelle."

I came to think of Franco as a jazz version of Brady Rymer, who often takes as his subject family life, from both the child and parental perspective. His lyrics, especially "Have You Looked?," about a father who answers repeated questions from his daughter about where lost objects might be, deal with both perspectives with understanding and heart. You can listen to samples and a couple full tracks here. While this is definitely a jazz album, Swingin' in Daddyland I think would have broad appeal beyond those looking for just a "jazz album" -- it's my favorite of the four good albums here and is definitely recommended.

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Snyder's ineptness rears its ugly head again with coaching hire

is promoted to head coach after a whopping two weeks as the Redskins' new offensive coordinator. Is he more qualified than Jaguars defensive coordinator Gregg Williams? No, but Zorn might be a better yes-man for meddlesome owner Dan Snyder, Pete Prisco says.

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