test blog #10

Two letters in the New York Times opposed to CIANA : To the Editor: Re "House Tightens Parental Rule for Abortions" (front page, April 28): Given that the parents of the pregnant girl had no say in her becoming pregnant, why should they determine whether she chooses to terminate the pregnancy? This is just another example of zealots who, in pursuit of their own agenda, press to put Big Brother in our bedrooms, doctors' offices, drugstores, libraries and schools, while proclaiming they want smaller government and less government interference in our lives. Beatrice Williams-Rude New York, April 28, 2005 • To the Editor: The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act does nothing to discourage young women from having abortions. All it does, in fact, is make abortions more dangerous. Those who see abortion as a moral issue should address the problem at its root instead of placing the safety of women in jeopardy. Politicians often fail to honor complexity when they "sol...

"Why can't I make my own decision?" That was the blunt question to a judge from a pregnant 13-year-old girl ensnared in a Palm Beach County court fight over whether she can have an abortion. "I don't know," Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez replied, according to a recording of the closed hearing obtained Friday. "You don't know?" replied the girl, who is a ward of the state. "Aren't you the judge?" A thirteen year old girl is making her case before a Florida judge, in an effort to expel a blob of cells from her own uterus. This country is completely insane. The girl, however, is tough and smart, and she makes a good case for herself. Read the story here . Among the many injustices embedded in this story is how the laws restricting abortions disproportionately affect low-income women. A 24-hour waiting period is not a big deal - unless you don't have a car or child care, and you had to beg a ride to the clinic in the first place, an...

Yes, I know, I'm not supposed to be here this morning! I'm on my way to the library right now. This is just a quick post to alert you to watch TV tonight and Sunday. If you blog, please ask others to do the same. From the ACLU: Two leading TV shows this weekend that will feature interviews with ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. On both programs, Anthony will discuss the ongoing abuse of detainees and prisoners in U.S. military custody, and the erosion of America's moral leadership in the wake of continuing disclosures of abuse. Tune in this weekend: Friday, April 29: PBS "NOW" at 8:30 pm ET and again Sunday at 11:00 pm ET (check local listings) Sunday, May 1: CBS "60 Minutes" at 7:00 pm ET (check local listings) The ACLU has played a pivotal role in bringing the abuse and torture carried out by the United States government to light. These two appearances allow Anthony to address specific allegations of torture and the lack of accountability at t...

Two fun stories from ALPF, who continues to make my life easier. In the first , we see the link between the possible NDP-Liberal deal and gay marriage. One thing that's often lost in the American discussion of Canadian gay marriage is that gay marriage is already legal in seven of ten Canadian provinces, and there's legislation pending in an eighth. The federal bill would extend it nationwide. That's significant, and it should happen, but from what I gather - and not just from Rob - it will happen. The conservative posture against the bill is just that: posturing. Remember when budding democracies wanted to emulate the United States? These days it seems they have a different role model. ALPF's second story is about the withering of communism's legacy in Russia, and what is envisioned as a replacement. It will take Russia at least another decade to emerge from its totalitarian past, and when it does, Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov hopes it looks a lot like Canada. ...

I've started researching the new book. In an effort to get to the library earlier in the morning - since I run out of steam in the afternoon - I'm going to try blogging in the evening. We'll see if I can multi-task enough to listen to a baseball game, sip a glass of red wine and compose coherent blog posts at the same time. If I can't, it's back to mornings! Today I spent many hours at a good library in midtown Manhattan, as I will most weekdays for the foreseeable future. I haven't had occasion to do library research in many years; most of research is done by interviewing. So this will be very different, and so far it's fun, if a little more time-pressed than I'm comfortable with. On a break, I went to beautiful Bryant Park , outside the main branch of the NYPL (the building with the lions), very near the branch I was using. Tulips and magnolias were in bloom, there were lots of people out, it was sunny and cool, it felt great. I thought, this is what ...

I forgot to congratulate the Spanish people on their excellent move . Spain is poised to become the third European country to legalize gay marriage, and the first to do in defiance of its traditional Catholic roots. It's thrilling to see freedom growing before our eyes.

I preface this post with a reminder: this blog is not a forum to discuss the morality of abortion. Here's some info about the latest assault on our personal freedom and bodily integrity. It was fully expected, but that doesn't mean we aren't mourning. And fighting. House Committee Approves Measure Barring Transport Of Minors Across State Lines To Avoid Abortion Parental Notice. From the Kaiser Family Foundation Daily Reproductive Health Report : The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved 20-13 a measure ( HR 748 ) that would bar the transportation of minors across state lines for the purpose of evading state abortion parental notification or consent laws. The bill, known as the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA), would authorize fines or up to one year in prison for people who violate the measure. The measure includes an exception if an abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant minor and would allow minors to gain judicial bypass from a ...

In this article from Macleans, Canada resembles that overly needy kid in the school cafeteria, trying to get the cool kids to like her. Or the boyfriend you're trying to shake, whining about giving him one more chance. Canadians feel like Americans take them for granted and don't know the country well enough, Ambassador Frank McKenna said Tuesday in a strong pro-trade pitch geared to sharpening Canada's image south of the border. . . . "We want Americans to know us better. Because we look like you, sometimes we think you take us for granted. . . . We feel that we sometimes get lost in the crowd . . . We want you to know that we are your northern neighbour and that we have a lot to be proud of in our own right." In listing a host of famous Canadians from all walks of life, McKenna said he wants to change U.S. perceptions that Canada merely produces great hockey players. Oy vey. I wish Canada could just say "fuck it" and not care what the US thinks or do...

Randy Cohen, who writes a column called "The Ethicist" for The New York Times Magazine , has an amazing idea . I propose to create, with the help of the Book Review's readers, a literary map of Manhattan -- not of its authors' haunts but those of their characters, a map of the literary stars' homes. I began thinking about this map years ago while reading Don DeLillo's "Great Jones Street." Bucky Wunderlick gazes out the window of his "small crowded room" at the firehouse across the street. I realized: there's only one firehouse on that street and few buildings that contain tiny apartments rather than commercial lofts. I know where Bucky Wunderlick lives. Or would live if he existed. He's got to be at No. 35. Knowing this made walking around the neighborhood like walking through the novel. But I walked without a map. Shouldn't there be a map of imaginary New Yorkers? It would be a lush literary landscape -- the house on Washingto...

I should be working, but I saw this in the Toronto Star , and I thought of something... It's an article about a family with a disabled child who was forced to relinquish custody of their 14-year-old son because they couldn't afford to care for him. The boy, who has a brain injury and is autistic, is now in a juvenile group home. Ontario's new ombudsman is investigating complaints from parents who say they must give up custody of their severely disabled children to get them the care they need. "If that is the case, it is simply unacceptable," André Marin told a news conference yesterday, promising results from a team of seven lawyers and investigators within weeks. "This urgent and pressing issue demands our immediate attention." Marin said parents have complained they are forced to give up their children under the "false pretense or artifice that the child is in need of protection or has been abandoned by the parents." He urged any parents in ...

When you're too busy to blog, who ya gonna call? ALPF! Here's a funny piece I never would have seen, from a twice-yearly review of Canadian journalism published by students in their final year of J-school at Ryerson University in Toronto. Is The Comedy Network not doing it for you? Do you like the laughs but wish it had more politics, more current events, more outrageous personalities? Are you okay with lots of yelling, loud music, and flashy graphics? Then I have great news for you; Canada's getting another comedy station: FOX News. Fox News's special love for Canada has not escaped their notice: Rose thinks Canadians will tune in out of curiosity and, except for a small, far-right minority, will only keep watching because of the station's entertainment value. He says he can't see FOX News having any kind of impact on Canada's political slant. Adds the Globe's John Doyle: "It's always a mistake to underestimate the shrewdness of Canadian viewe...

wmtc welcomes David Cho , a blogger from Orange County, California, who has an incredibly cute dog . He's what I call a Bustery Dog. (The dog, that is, not David.) David Cho describes himself as a Christian conservative, so I am greatly heartened by his opposition to the war in Iraq. It has always seemed to me that standing up for peace is the Christian thing to do, despite what Fearless Leader would have us believe. Here is something David wrote after the 2004 election, called "Moral Selectivity". It's very good.

This is how "we support our troops". A growing number of veterans are breaking the code of silence to speak out about the appalling conditions under which they are asked to serve. Operation Truth is the place to read more.

I didn't post anything about Marla Ruzicka, the American humanitarian-aid worker who was killed in Iraq ten days ago. There was a great outpouring from the progressive media and the blogosphere about it, and I didn't feel I had anything to add. Beyond that, I felt a little squeamish about everyone mourning one American when so many people have been killed. Most of the pieces I saw about Ruzicka's death were also concerned about that, and took great pains to relate her death to the whole disgusting situation over there. Also, Ruzicka chose to go to Iraq to help alleviate other people's suffering; in that sense she truly was heroic, and her life should be celebrated. But still, it made me uncomfortable. This morning I see our pal Bob Herbert attended Ruzicka's funeral. He uses it as an occasion to write about the horrors of war - and the silence that keeps those horrors off the American radar screen The vast amount of suffering and death endured by civilians as a res...

Here's something I would love to do. I was reading this neat story about a man who has walked every block of downtown Manhattan (that is, below 14th Street). There are some cool pics; I especially like the one of the whirligigs in an East Village community garden. I was going to post about this, and when I searched for the link (I was reading it in hard copy), I found this letter: To the Editor: I enjoyed reading about Robert Jay Kaufman, who walked every Manhattan street below 14th Street ("His Long Walk Home," April 17). Mr. Kaufman has a delightful perspective on the city, and I'm looking forward to reading his book. But his walking accomplishment is not unique - many people have actually walked every one of Manhattan's 500 miles of streets. For instance, Cmdr. Thomas Keane completed a four-year Manhattan walk in the early 1950's; his story made The Times on Dec. 15, 1954. I myself walked every Manhattan street in two and a half years, and I finished on ...

I read a short novel called Wildcat Falling , said to be the first published work by an Aboriginal Australian. It was published in 1965, but was released in the US only in 1992. The book was OK, a first-person narrative of a poor, intelligent, mixed-race young man, a "bodgie" - the Australian equivalent of a British "teddy boy" - leaving prison to little opportunity on the outside. The more interesting story is the author, born Colin Johnson, known as Mudrooroo , who I gather became a controversial semi-celebrity figure in Australia. He lived a nomadic life, living all over the world, from the London jazz scene, to a few years in India, where he became a Buddhist monk, to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury with readings at the famed (and still wonderful!) City Lights Bookstore. He still writes and teaches about Aboriginal culture. Apparently some people challenged Mudrooroo's claims of being part aboriginal, and his refusal to respond or get involved in any way...

My blog footer - the Margaret Mead quote - has migrated into the sidebar. No matter what I do, it won't return to its proper place in footerville. I don't know if this is a Blogger glitch, or my own ineptitude. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. If your blog has a footer, perhaps you can send me the code.

Connecticut takes a step forward . Microsoft retreats .

There's a lot of bad news today, none of it surprising, all of it better left to other bloggers. It's expected, it's business as usual, it's we move to canada. Closer to home, this week the results of a study conducted jointly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study , called "Excess Deaths Associated With Underweight, Overweight, and Obesity," strikes a blow to the notion that an "obesity epidemic" is shortening the lives of tens of millions of Americans. The study found that a very small (8%) percentage of Americans are clinically obese to the point of threatening their health and lives. Even more interestingly, it shows that being underweight is as much a danger to health as obesity, and that a few extra pounds in otherwise healthy adults seems to increase longevity. From the New York Times story : People who are overweight...

Some kind of vibes are flowing through cyberspace across the national borders: ALPF and I are beginning to think alike. Taking a break from national and personal anxiety, ALPF and wmtc bring you nine-year-old activist Hannah Taylor. Hannah's compassion for the homeless people that she saw on the streets of her native Winnipeg led her to start saving her own money to donate. Hannah turned that experience first into a home and classroom project, teaching her three siblings and her schoolmates about the most underprivileged people in their community. Then she started collecting spare coins in old baby-food jars, gaily painted red and black like good-luck ladybugs. Those jars, to "make change" for the homeless, were the start of the Ladybug Foundation, which raises money for charities that help homeless people. Hannah also does public speaking - for example, in front of 16,000 people at the opening of Winnipeg's MTS Centre - to urge Canadians to find a better way to care...

A personal post today. I got the assignment. And I'm freaking out. It's typical feast-or-famine freelance stuff, but in this case the semi-famine was on purpose - and I was enjoying it. Thanks to my well-paid, low-work day-job on the weekends, I'm able to enjoy down periods without financial stress. With this BLC* looming, I've been very comfortable without a lot of writing work. Seeing friends, enjoying the city, watching movies or baseball, and of course blogging, has been enough. Add in my work for Kids On Wheels and what I'm still doing with the Haven Coalition, and it was quite enough. Note that this is a five-day week: Saturday and Sundays are spent in a corporate law firm, 12 hours each day. Then a giant project falls in my lap. It's interesting work, something I enjoy and am good at. It pays literally ten times more than the other books I've written and four times more than I've ever been paid for a single assignment. I don't write strictly...

I didn't blog about Michael Ignatieff's recent speech , because I seldom (never?) agree with anything he says, and I don't know enough about the current Canadian political situation to put his remarks in perspective. ALPF sent - and I even saw this one on my own! - some interesting commentary on the speech from Star columnist Richard Gwyn. In a piece called "Too Many Canadians Aren't Canadian Enough," Gwyn writes: Being Canadian, he [Ignatieff] writes, is "a constant act of justification and self-invention." To be tired of all of this "is to be tired of Canadian life". He's wholly right. My own formulation, which I've expressed earlier in this space, is that to be Canadian is to be someone who is forever becoming a Canadian. But I think Ignatieff misreads the nature of the looming crisis. It isn't because Quebecers are too Québécois, it's because Canadians aren't Canadian enough. Quebec isn't a real threat, I would...

Thanks to ALPF, I didn't miss this story: Canada is the first country in the world to approve a cannabis spray that relieves pain in people with multiple sclerosis, Health Canada said Tuesday. . . . Sativex, which is administered through a spray in the mouth, relieves pain in patients that suffer from MS, the government agency said. It's expected to hit the shelves by late spring. "Effective pain control and management are extremely important in a disease like MS," said Dr. Allan Gordon, neurologist and director of the Wasser Pain Management Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, in a statement. "The approval of Sativex in Canada reflects the urgent need for additional treatment options in the field of neuropathic pain in MS." As someone concerned with the issues of people with disabilities, I welcome this news. Can any of us imagine what it's like to live with constant and untreatable pain? And should any of us deny relief to others who suffer, bas...

I have to be out very early tomorrow morning, so I'll blog tonight while watching Bronson Arroyo vs. Roy Halladay. So far one mammoth home run from Manny Ramirez, and some mean defense from the Blue Jays... I'm waiting to hear about a writing assignment that, if it happens, will drastically change my outlook for the next month or two. It would be very interesting, challenging - and highly lucrative. The three rarely go together for me. But I'll really have my hands full meeting all my deadlines. No more NYC-to-do excursions for a while, and I'll have to resist replying to all your great comments during the day. Your comments to this post were fantastic. I really appreciated everyone's input and perspectives. Galileo , who I believe is both gay and a practicing Christian, had this to say: When I first read about the move to allow pharmacists to not carry certain items according to their conscience, I thought, "Gee. That's a good idea. No one should be force...

Six years ago today, we adopted Cody, also known as Brown. Cody, the dog with the world's saddest eyes, is the ultimate bottom dog. She isn't overly affectionate, and the affection she gives is quiet and restrained. She is slow, lazy, devious, and mischievous in her own quiet way. She is also a survivor: Cody is the only dog I've ever heard of who was an overweight stray. In typical bottom-dog fashion, Cody hates anything being done to her - bath, vet, nails clipped - and screams bloody murder before anything even starts. (By contrast, Buster the Alpha Dog will calmly submit to any and all procedures if he is so instructed. And if his mommy is with him.) Cody likes to be alone. In fact, she's the only dog we've ever had who doesn't sleep in our bedroom. This is a subject of great note in our home. Dogs normally want to be around their human family at all times, but Cody likes her privacy. Indeed, I suspect she's not a dog at all, but a cat wearing a clever d...

In post-revolutionary Iran, "morality police" rode the streets on motorbikes searching for - and attacking - women who were "immoral", i.e., wearing lipstick, allowing a strand of hair to fall out of their chadors , walking on a sidewalk unaccompanied by a male relative. In Christian America, pharmacists refuse to fill prescriptions for products they don't believe women should use. If you're not following this story, it's about Emergency Contraception, also called the Morning-After Pill, marketed under the name Plan B. (I blogged about access to EC in Canada here .) Pharmacists in various states have been refusing to fill prescriptions for these drugs, citing concerns of conscience. I know the thought of people - make that women - having sex without birth control, or of birth control failure, is a dire problem for other people's consciences. But if you can't do your job properly because your conscience is bothering you, you need to find another p...

David Corn, the Washington editor of The Nation , asks that question in a piece that might win a prize for Most Obvious Title: "Newspaper Editors Serve Bush Lame Questions" (which I saw at Common Dreams ): I often watch presidential press conferences and find myself shouting at the television: "Don't ask that!...That's a dumb question!...Follow up, follow up!...Come on, don't let him off the hook!" I realize it's not always easy to press a president in these controlled and staged settings, and most members of the White House press corps are encumbered, rightly or wrongly, by a certain sense of decorum. If a president says something wrong, misleading, false, evasive or stupid, they do not feel empowered to reply, "Excuse me, Mr. President, but that simply is not so. Can you please give us a straight and direct answer?" For those Americans who look to the Fourth Estate to hold--or try to hold--the politicians accountable, White House reporte...

Today is Patriots Day in New England, the day of the Boston Marathon . I love the Boston Marathon because it was the first city marathon to include an official wheelchair division - thanks to the persistence of activists, especially the pioneering road racer and chair designer Bobby Hall . I've also written a lot about Jean Driscoll , who won the women's wheelchair division an amazing eight times in her signature yellow racing chair. By contrast, an official wheelchair division in the New York City Marathon came much more recently, and only after a long, ugly battle. I'm very proud to have contributed to that fight. I covered the situation for years, which is how I came to know Hall. My notes from an interview with Allan Steinfeld, then the president of the New York Road Runners Club, were to be used in evidence in the last big lawsuit, but NYRCC finally settled out of court. My long wrap-up of the fight is here , from an excellent but now-defunct online sports magazine ca...

George Steinbrenner is an idiot .

In today's New York Times , Bob Herbert remembers my favorite US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I know about his flaws and his missteps, though I point to different issues than some. I don't think having relationships outside of one's marriage is a problem for a presidency, especially if it's not even a problem within the marriage! Amazingly for an American president, FDR was married - happily - to a feminist, a bisexual, a radical thinker. I see this as a measure of a man well ahead of his time. Eleanor was Franklin's intellectual partner, and an enormous influence on his thinking. (A case can be made for Eleanor being nearly solely responsible for FDR's progressive ideas.) In those days a president's personal life was out-of-bounds for the press. The White House press corps knew about Lucy Mercer, FDR's girlfriend, and many may have known about Eleanor's relationship with Malvina ("Tommy") Thompson. But those were considered thing...

Here's an excellent story about some California nurses battling with their state's steroidal governor. I found this on Welcome to Gilead , where TJ says " Emma Goldman would be proud". You know it. Read about the nurses' issues, their amusing tactics, and their effect on Arnold here . Turns out this has a direct connection to wmtc. In the L. A. Times story, I noticed this bit: "In the face-off with Schwarzenegger, the association has staged about 40 attention-grabbing demonstrations up and down the state and as far away as Ohio, where sign-waving nurses tailed him to a bodybuilding exhibition. . . . " A body-building exhibition in Ohio?? Our dogwalker was there! She took the weekend off to drive to Cincinnati with her boyfriend. It was called something like the Arnold Classic. She met Ms Universe. If only I had known about the protesting nurses, I would have asked for a picture...!

Someone just emailed this to me. +++++++ George: (While preparing bicarb) She invites me up at twelve o clock at night, for coffee. And I don't go up. "No thank you, I don't want coffee, it keeps me up. Too late for me to drink coffee." I said this to her. People this stupid shouldn't be allowed to live. I can't imagine what she must think of me. Jerry: She thinks you're a guy that doesn't like coffee. George: She invited me up. Coffee's not coffee, coffee is sex. Elaine: Maybe coffee was coffee. George: Coffee's coffee in the morning, it's not coffee at twelve o clock at night. Elaine: Well some people drink coffee that late. George: Yeah, people who work at NORAD, who're on twenty-four hour missile watch. Everything was going along so great: she was laughing, I was funny. I kept saying to myself "Keep it up, don't blow it, you're doing great." Elaine: It's all in your head. All she knows is she had a good time. ...

Why am I moving to Canada? Have you heard about "Justice Sunday"? This nauseating bit of theocracy is brought to us by some of our favorite political hacks, bigots and former criminals: Bill Frist, James Dobson, Chuck Colson, etc. No links, if you don't know them, you'll have to look them up yourself. There's a good story about it in The American Prospect : The Family Research Council says anticlerical judges pose a greater danger than al-Qaeda. . . . The fight over the Senate confirmation of President George W. Bush’s most conservative judicial nominees is about to take an ugly turn, as the administration’s supporters in the religious right prepare an organized campaign to accuse Democrats of being biased against Christians. For several years now, in the right’s rhetoric against Democrats who have threatened to filibuster judicial nominees, there has been an undercurrent that hinted at an anti-Christian bias. But at a conference on the judiciary last week, sponso...

...then apply for a job with the W administration! Tim Harper, a Toronto Star columnist, has a good wrap-up of how incompetent losers are rewarded by the Bush White House, as long as they fall into lock-step and kiss enough butt. One will always live in infamy for gravely misjudging the cost of the Iraq war and the reception accorded U.S. troops, publicly underestimating the American death toll and blaming scared journalists for not reporting the war's good news. The second sat behind Colin Powell in the U.N. Security Council, nodding solemnly and sagely as Washington provided a dossier of inaccurate, fanciful intelligence to justify the Iraq war. The third was described last week as a "serial abuser" — a bully who berates and intimidates subordinates and a U.S. unilateralist who once declared that no one would notice if the top 10 floors of the United Nations secretariat disappeared. In the private sector, Paul Wolfowitz, John Negroponte and John Bolton may have been sh...

What with all the "what I'm reading" posts, and pleas for the Salinas, California library, and wmtc's own resident librarian , you'd think I would have pointed out National Library Week. I thought it was April 18-24 - and had a post all ready to go. But no, that was 2004. In fact, the 2005 National Library Week just passed. Duh. Libraries are so great. Think about it. You walk in, show your little card, and walk out with books or music or movies. Read, listen, watch, bring them back, get some more. What a concept! Now that we can get so much information online in our own homes, it's easy to forget the mountains of reference materials and archives - all the history and knowledge - all the potential power - those buildings house. To read more about how cool libraries and librarians are, visit G . The ALA is a leader in the fight against the undemocratic and unpatriotic so-called Patriot Act, fighting to keep the FBI out of our libraries. The organization als...

Dr Marco, who blogs here when he has time and sometimes comments on wmtc, is part of a great group blog called Porquois Pas? . The authors describe the site thusly: "A group of people striving for justice & peace for humankind, and respect for this planet & all its species." Is this what's known as a mob blog? I have trouble seeing a mob as anything but the kind of inbreds who were stared down by Atticus Finch, so I'll stay with group blog for now. Anyway, go check it out. **** Wmtc notes the passing of Andrea Dworkin at the much-too-young age of 58. Dworkin was a radical feminist, an author, an original thinker, and a tireless voice for the forgotten and the oppressed. Her work helped end the silence around violence against women. Dworkin's writing was usually controversial; she was often caricatured and ridiculed in the mainstream. She didn't write for readers to nod their heads and turn the page. She wrote to provoke us to think differently. I didn...

MOMA was spectacular. Special treats (for me) included Van Gogh's The Starry Night , Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , Matisse's The Dance , Picasso's Three Musicians , and this monumental Jackson Pollack. There was much more, of course; I could post images of dozens of Picassos and Matisses that I loved, along with twenty other artists. The building is dazzling , including the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden , full of works by Henry Moore, Picasso, Alexander Calder, David Smith and other modern sculptors. I am very partial to sculpture gardens of all types, and this was no exception. We also had a fabulous meal there. The restaurants and cafes are all run by Danny Meyer, one of New York City's great restaurateurs, whose signature Union Square Cafe happens to be our favorite restaurant. Meyer is famous for serving amazing, creative food in an elegant - but always friendly and unpretentious - atmosphere. His work makes even a cup of tea and a lig...

Not much time to blog today, as the goodbye continues . We're spending the day at the reopened MOMA . I'm as excited to see the new building as I am to see some of the art I love best - classic Picasso, Matisse, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Brancusi, Rodin, etc. MOMA highlights here , sculpture and painting highlights here . I still object to the $20 entrance fee - the highest for any Museum in the country. In MOMA's defense, they've secured corporate funding for free Friday nights, there are good discounts for seniors and students, and the cost of membership, which wasn't raised, is now a really good deal. Still, $20 is certainly prohibitive for many people, and must prevent people from experiencing art they wouldn't normally see. But despite this, I haven't been to MOMA in many years, and I absolutely must go before I leave the city. Making a full day of it turns the $20 ticket into a bargain. Last time I went to MOMA, I saw Woody Allen and Mia Farrow taking in an ...

From Seymour Hersh's Chain Of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib : "The requirement that U.S. Special Forces unit operate in secrecy, a former senior coalition advisor in Baghdad told me, provided an additional incentive for increasing their presence in Iraq. The Special Forces in-country numbers are not generally included in troop totals. Bush and Rumsfeld were insisting that more American troops were not needed, but that position was challenged by many senior military officers in private conversations. "You need more people," the former advisor, a retired admiral, told me. "But you can't add them, because Rummy's taken a position. So you invent a force that won't be counted. . . . . "Secrecy and wishful thinking, a Pentagon official told me in the spring of 2004, were defining characteristics of Rumsfeld's Pentagon. "They always want to delay the release of bad news -- in the hope that something good will break," he said. ...

Yesterday, I mentioned some proof that the NYPD spent a good portion of the Republican National Convention trampling on First Amendment rights. Longtime reader Peter, a Canadian, noted: And what this story doesn't talk about is what happened to the police officer who registered the complaint against the individual. I don't know about in the states, but in Canada making a false statement in a criminal court is a very serious crime. Especially when done by an officer of the peace. It's a serious crime here, too - or should be. If I recall correctly, "bearing false witness" is included in a certain dectet of "thou shalt not"s, which I mention only to emphasize that, historically, this has always been considered a big no-no. In today's Times , reader reaction: To the Editor: Re "Videos Challenge Hundreds of Convention Arrests" (front page, April 12): You report about shocking misconduct in connection with some of the 1,806 arrests made during...