The papers and photographs of the late Rosa Parks being opened up for scholars at the Library of Congress and a more limited selection will be on view for the public. As the piece notes, this is particularly important for Parks since this is a woman who is all but frozen in time in the public mind for a single iconic moment, even a single photograph. “I think it’s one of the first times we’re actually able to read her voice, and it just totally goes against this image of the quiet seamstress,” says Margaret McAleer, a Library of Congress archivist. “Her writings are phenomenally powerful.” Another thread of the story: the papers were locked up in a legal struggle between heirs and friends for years. Then last year philanthropist Howard Buffett (Warren’s son) bought the whole thing and placed it on a long term loan to the Library of Congress. Wealth deployed to a powerful, public end. Read more here.
Personally, I can’t wait to see the digitized collection open up.
GOP Sen. Tillis: We shouldn’t force employees to wash their hands after pooping.
Let’s set aside the horrific nature of the killing of the Jordanian pilot in the video released today. But why did it happen? The Jordanian government was apparently quite willing to trade the imprisoned suicide bomber in exchange for their pilot. They only wanted a proof of life from ISIS. So did they not want a trade? Was the value of the public killing greater than the return of one of their own? Or was the whole thing a sham – and as the Jordanians feared – their pilot was already dead. According to Jordanian state TV it was latter. Jordanian state TV is saying the pilot was killed a month ago.
Here’s a good brief history of how the vaccine-autism myth started and why people still get duped by it.
I look for an analog to meddling Ambassador Dermer in American history. And I found him!
This has been mainly off our radar – TPM’s and the US media. It’s been a big focus in Argentina and Israel. But it just became a much, much bigger deal.
The simplest version starts with a prosecutor who was investigating issues surrounding 1994 bombing of a building that housed a major Jewish organization and killed 85 people. The outstanding question was whether the Argentine government had protected Iranian officials who were implicated in the bombing because of various oil concessions or other favors. The prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, was found dead on January 18th in apparent suicide. But it quickly became clear that it was not a suicide: he’d been murdered. Separately, a reporter who broke the story fled for his life to Israel. Now a draft warrant for the arrest of the Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and other high level officials has been found in the garbage in Nisman’s apartment. So very, very big deal. Here’s more.
It is a bit comical to see some level of split among high-level Republican officeholders over something like whether people should all get vaccinated for serious communicable diseases. It’s nice to see various Republicans, even fringier ones like Ben Carson, saying yes, please people, get vaccinated! Mitch McConnell says he’s a “big fan” of vaccinations because … well, he had polio. (Perhaps polio is a vaccine against derp). Bobby Jindal is full on pro-vaccination. But quite apart from vaccines themselves, this flareup is again illustrating what should be obvious. Rand Paul has no future as a presidential candidate.
It looks like whether or not to get vaccinated is shaping up as a central issue in the 2016 GOP primary race. So here we present your definitive guide to potential 2016 contenders and vaccines.
The state of Utah is revising its rape statute. But some lawmakers, like Rep. Brian Greene, think it may be going too far – specifically by suggesting that it’s always rape when you have sex with a person who is unconscious.
These appear to be genuine pictures, from a dashcam, of the plane crash in Taiwan …
Whoa RT @W7VOA These images showing #GE235 from @Missxoxo168 dash cam. pic.twitter.com/UADYBd2N6M
— Hiroko Tabuchi (@HirokoTabuchi) February 4, 2015