Quartet played inauguration to taped music:

Whether you loved or hated the classical music played at President Barack Obama's inauguration, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier unless you were sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision a day before Tuesday's inauguration after a sound check to use a previously recorded audio tape for the broadcast of the ceremonies.

Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the weather was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune.

While watching, I sortof suspected something wasn't right about that performance, but I put it down to video/audio sync issues (of which there were plenty). Shoulda gone with my gut.

Rosanne Cash tells the story of her time playing the Clinton Inauguration, and includes this bit about her father:

My dad and I loved politics and we loved talking about world affairs. A presidential election was thrilling to both of us. In the last few years of his life he was obsessed with CNN and turned it on at 4:00 in the morning, as soon as he woke. He said he woke up wanting to know what had happened in the world while he was asleep.

We had a discussion about world leaders not long before his death in 2003, and I decried the lack of women in high office. “A black man will be president first, before a woman,” Dad said authoritatively. “People in this country are more prejudiced toward women than they are toward black men.” He paused. “But you’ll see both in your lifetime,” he said quietly.

Smart man. I always thought it would be a woman would be first - a Republican woman, specifically. I'm glad I was wrong about the Republican part, kindof ambivalent about the other part - either one would've been fine, in the abstract.

Sadly, I can't think of late-era Johnny Cash anymore without thinking about Sad Kermit's version of Johnny Cash's cover of NiN's "Hurt" (probably NSFW):

Justice v Civility

Warning: spoilers if you haven't seen the end of last season.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canada’s decision to legalize gay marriage has paved the way for polygamy to be legal as well, a defense lawyer said Wednesday as the two leaders of rival polygamous communities made their first court appearance.

...

But Blackmore’s lawyer, Blair Suffredine, said during a telephone interview that marriage standards in Canada have changed.

"If (homosexuals) can marry, what is the reason that public policy says one person can’t marry more than one person?” said Suffredine, a former provincial lawmaker. Canada’s Parliament extended full marriage rights to same-sex couples in 2005.

Sources tell me that the Canadian Man Box Turtle Love Association (CAMBOTLA) has offered to fund Blackmore's defense.

The Ten Best Scotch Whiskies

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama

In Cell Phone Cameras We Trust

As a squishy lefty pacifist, I know I shouldn't smile at this. So I will stop. But, I gotta say this smells like karma:

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

...

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. One security source said: "This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease. It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda."

(via)

Ep28: The Greatest Generation Would Have Arrested Him