Gandolfini Fat-Shaming

Hey, he was a big man who died young.

I can see where people are coming from, but see Althouse, "Gandolfini’s death prompts rampant fat-shaming'."

Dash Cam Captures Journalist Michael Hastings' Final Ride

This is kinda freaky, a commentary on today's techno/social media ubiquity. And clearly, Hastings' wasn't fit to be driving at 4:25am. Look at that ball of fire at the end there.

Via R.S. McCain, "Michael Hastings ‘Was Hauling Irish Ass’."

PREVIOUSLY: "Remembering Journalist Michael Hastings."

Remembering James Gandolfini

At the New York Post, "'Sopranos' star James Gandolfini dead of heart attack in Italy at 51."

And, "‘Reserved’: Gandolfini mourned at Holsten's ice-cream parlor where last ‘Sopranos’ scene was shot."

Plus, at US Weekly, "James Gandolfini Dead: Details on His Shocking Death, Final Day."

Plus, at US Weekly, "James Gandolfini Dead: Details on His Shocking Death, Final Day."

And at the Hollywood Reporter, "HBO: James Gandolfini Was a ‘Special Man’ and a ‘Great Talent’."

And, "James Gandolfini Remembered: 10 Definitive Tony Soprano Moments (Video)."

James Gandolfini Has Died

This is just breaking:

Actor James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano on HBO's "The Sopranos," has died at age 51, HBO has confirmed.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) June 19, 2013

Man, he checked out early.

I'm 51. Gulp.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 19, 2013

I'll post some of the obituaries later...

The New York Times has an obit, "James Gandolfini, ‘Sopranos’ Star, Dies."

Also a Memeorandum thread now...

Remembering Journalist Michael Hastings

Well, I don't want to speak ill of the dead, but this is the guy who shived Gen. Stanley McChrystal. And for that, the dude's now a martyr to the leftist antiwar stab-the-troops-in-the-back cause.

At KTLA Los Angeles, "Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash."

Also at Rolling Stone, "Michael Hastings, 'Rolling Stone' Contributor, Dead at 33," and Foreign Policy, "Michael Hastings, 1980-2013."

And a flashback to 2010, at the Other McCain, "Gen. McChrystal Relieved of Command."

In the great scheme of things, Michael Hastings may have cost the U.S. clear victory in Afghanistan. See Kimberly Kagan, at the Weekly Standard, "A Winnable War."

And from my report, "Pentagon Clears Gen. Stanley McChrystal After Rolling Stone Hit Job":

What a tragedy. Progressives stabbed McCrystal in the back. Progressives stabbed the people of Afghanistan in the back. Progressives stabbed our uniformed men and women in the back. And they're currently destroying our nation from within and without. As Andrew  [Breitbart] said to the Trumka-Obama hordes in Madison: "Go to Hell."

Jean Stapleton Remembered

Rob "Meathead" Reiner remembers Jean Stapleton's career and character of Edith Bunker, at CBS News, "Jean Stapleton - TV's Edith Bunker - Remembered."

Also, an excellent obituary, at the New York Times, "Jean Stapleton, Who Played Archie Bunker’s Better Angel, Dies at 90."

Ray Manzarek: 1939-2013

An obituary, at the Los Angeles Times, "Ray Manzarek dies at 74; keyboardist for the Doors."

Richie Havens: 'Here Comes the Sun...'

Via William Jacobson, "RIP – Richie Havens."

Also at Rolling Stone, "Richie Havens, Folk Icon, Dead at 72."

Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead

Simply amazing news out of Great Britain, at the Guardian UK, "Thatcher's death prompts chart success for Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead." And, "BBC to play Ding Dong in chart show despite anti-Thatcher Facebook push."

And at Telegraph UK, "Play Margaret Thatcher death song, her supporters tell BBC":

Two ardent supporters of Margaret Thatcher have called on the BBC to broadcast the song mocking her death.

The anti-Thatcher anthem Ding Dong the Witch is Dead has seen a surge in popularity since Baroness Thatcher’s death and looks set to retain a top slot when the Official Chart Show airs on Sunday.

In a controversial move the BBC are likely to play the track if it is in the top five, after executives are said to see little reason to take it off of the airwaves. A final decision will not be made on grounds of taste or decency.

But the move has found support in some unlikely corners as UKIP leader Nigel Farage and Tory MP Philip Davies, who have both paid glowing tribute to the former leader, said broadcasting the song was the right thing to do.

Mr Farage said: “If you suppress things then you make them popular, so play the bloody thing. If you ban it it will be number one for weeks.

A Foe of Unions and Communism

From Kim Hjelmgaard, at USA Today, "Divisive and dynamic, Thatcher leaves an indelible mark":

British leader stood up to unions, backers of government subsidies, foreign policy doves.

LONDON -- For years after her tumultuous time as prime minister, it seemed as if no one in the United Kingdom was undecided about Margaret Thatcher. You are either for her or against her.

But it's not clear whether the enmity and adoration she sparked in her conservative confrontation of labor unions, government subsidies and foreign policy doves will outlast Thatcher, who died Monday at 87 after a stroke.

"It's undeniable that for certain generations she is always going to divide the country," said Timothy Stanley, a historian and writer at the University of Oxford.

"I remember when I was a student, for example, there was a lecturer who at the beginning of the British political history course said: 'Now we all know Margaret Thatcher is evil, but please don't write that on the exam paper,'" Stanley said. "That speaks to how a certain generation in the U.K. feels about her."

But he said Brits born 20-odd years ago are not going to feel very strongly about the coal-mining unions she faced down in the mid-1980s.

"I know it still moves grown men to tears in some places," he said. "But if you grew up in the last 20 years, the days of Margaret Thatcher may as well be in the 19th century."

Continue reading.

Thatcher Saved Britain With Message of Freedom

At the Wall Street Journal, "Not for Turning":

In that dreary winter of 1979, the piles of uncollected trash in London's Finsbury Park seemed to stretch for miles. The garbagemen were on strike. So too, at one time or another, were hospital workers, ambulance drivers, truck drivers, railwaymen. Also gravediggers: In Liverpool, corpses had to be warehoused as they awaited burial—yet another long queue that socialist Britain had arranged for its patient masses.

This was the "Winter of Discontent," when Great Britain came about as close to economic collapse as at nearly any point in its peacetime history, and it was the country Margaret Thatcher inherited when, on May 3, she defeated the Labour government of James Callaghan to become Prime Minister—the first woman in the office and 49th in a line that includes some of the greatest figures of Western civilization: Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, the Duke of Wellington, William Pitt the Younger.

***
Thatcher died in London Monday, at age 87, having earned her place among the greats. This is not simply because she revived Britain's economy, though that was no mean achievement. Nor is it because she held office longer than any of her predecessors, though this also testifies to her political skill. She achieved greatness because she articulated a set of vital ideas about economic freedom, national self-respect and personal virtue, sold them to a skeptical public and then demonstrated their efficacy.

Consider economic policy...

Continue reading.

Michelle Malkin Slams the Left's Chávez Necrophilia

Another great clip, "Michelle Malkin: 'I Hope Hugo Chavez is Choking on Sulfur & Rotting in Hell'."

And I linked some of those Twitchy posts Michelle mentions: "Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's Anti-American Caudillo, Dead at 58."

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's Anti-American Caudillo, Dead at 58

From this morning's Los Angeles Times, "President Hugo Chavez dies at 58; hero to Venezuela's poor":

The charismatic leader won the loyalty of the impoverished with his socialist revolution, but he left the nation deeply divided and did little to help it develop, analysts say.

And don't miss Michael Moynihan, "Hugo Chávez Dead at 58: Good Riddance!"

Plus, Twitter was a riot last night, with all the progs going crazy with the Chávez necrophilia. This was hilarious, at Twitchy, "ThinkProgress compelled to warn readers against eulogizing hateful tyrant."

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA thkpr.gs/XRueEW via @thinkprogress
— Matthew DesOrmeaux (@cynicusprime) March 5, 2013

Only one US political party has to remind its members not to eulogize tyrants RT @thinkprogress Why Dems shouldn’t eulogize Hugo Chavez
— R. A. Thompson(@RayburnThompson) March 5, 2013

Lots more at Twitchy's "Hugo Chávez" search results.

And see Alma Guillermoprieto, at the New York Review, "The Last Caudillo."

Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch Dead at 88

He was the quintessential New Yorker, and the New York Times does him justice in this obituary, "Edward Koch, Former Mayor of New York, Dies at 88."

And at Twitchy, "Photo: Ed Koch’s headstone quotes Daniel Pearl’s final words; Update: Koch and Pearl both died Feb. 1."

Lots more at Memeorandum.

I admired him a lot. A good Democrat and patriotic American. RIP.

Patty Andrews, Last Surviving Member of the Andrews Sisters, Dead at 94

A fascinating obituary.

At LAT, "Patty Andrews dies at 94; Andrews Sisters' last surviving member":

They were the swinging, sassy voice of the homefront for U.S. service personnel overseas during World War II, singing catchy hit tunes such as "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Rum and Coca Cola" that delighted Americans and catapulted the Andrews Sisters to the very top of the pop charts.

One of the most successful female recording groups in pop history, the sisters — LaVerne, Maxene and Patty Andrews — became a beloved American institution, lifting the nation's spirits during a conflict whose outcome seemed often in doubt.

When the war ended in 1945, it was even the Andrews Sisters who announced it, to 5,000 GI's during a USO concert in Italy as the men were heading for duty in the Pacific. The troops' commanding officer had interrupted the show, handing the women a note that was read aloud by the youngest, Patty Andrews.

"At first there was dead silence," her sister Maxene told The Times years later. "Then Patty repeated the message. 'This is really true,' she told them, and then she started to cry. Suddenly there was a roar. They knew they would be going home, and they did."

Patty Andrews, the group's lead singer and its last surviving member, died Wednesday of natural causes at her longtime home in Northridge, according to her attorney, Richard Rosenthal. She was 94. Maxene, the middle Andrews sister, died in 1995 and LaVerne, the eldest, in 1967.

The Andrews Sisters began singing professionally in 1932, when Patty was just 14, and scored their first major success in 1938 with an English version of the Yiddish song "Bei Mir Bist du Schoen" (or "To me, you're grand," as the sisters put it.) The song zoomed to No. 1 and made them overnight stars.

Continue reading.

More video here.

The Truth About Aaron Swartz 'Crime' — Remove the Quotation Marks and It's Not So Hard

Alex Stamos, CTO of Artemis Internet, was an expert witness for Aaron Swartz. He wrote a post about Swartz's death, "The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime”." He also cross-posted it at i09, and was surprised that folks might have a different take on things:

Man, there are some mean commenters at io9. I guess this is my intro to Gawker-world.
— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) January 14, 2013

And here's a sample of those "mean" comments:

Swartz is not at fault for sneaking into a supply closet to intentionally evade detection because the closet was unlocked?

What, so it's somehow normal and acceptable for anyone to just walk into an unlocked supply closet (with intent to evade detection) so they could access files in a manner that shouldn't be accessed?

If he were truly not breaking any laws or any of MIT's terms, then he wouldn't have gone to lengths (even minor lengths) to evade detection.

Not breaking any of MIT's or JSTOR's terms is irrelevant. Private companies' terms are not the same thing as the law. The subterfuge proves that, yes, he was committing fraud so he could access information in a manner he knew he shouldn't have, JSTOR and MIT's attempts to stop him prove that although they did not have any terms he was an unwelcome presence on their network. There was intent to commit a crime, there was subterfuge to avoid detection, and a crime was committed. Why is this so hard?

No, not hard.

It's only hard if your moral universe inhabits the same vicinity as Anonymous, WikiLeaks, or the New York Times.

PREVIOUSLY: "Can We Just Not Get All Sentimental About Aaron Swartz, to the Effect of Martyring the Dude, or Anything Like That?"

EXTRA: At the Times of Israel, "Activist’s death fuels debate over computer crime."

UPDATE: The Jawa Report links, "Thief, Terrorist Lover Lauded by MSM." Thanks!

Plus, the Wall Street Journal has a big piece, and it's not putting the wonder kid is a positive light, "Legal Case Strained Troubled Web Activist." (At Memeorandum.) Swartz was an extremely flawed activist, no MLK type whatsoever. He was a coward who refused to accept responsibility for his own criminal activity. Althouse has more on that:

He knew what he was doing was criminal, and he was a very intelligent man who chose to do it anyway and conceived of what he was doing as actively virtuous....

His crime was about making more information freely public, and yet he cringed at publicity about his own plight, even where his plight was something he invited into his life and believed in as an especially good thing to do. Why the shame? Why not expose yourself as a martyr to laws you oppose?

RTWT.

And William Jacobson is working the civil liberties angle, "Finding common ground in limited government — I am the NRA and EFF."

I am not indifferent to that angle, although Swartz's case isn't all that different to me than, say, Julian Assange's and WikiLeaks. I don't impute noble motives to these people. And pushing cyber-law reform can be accomplished without making martyrs of proven cowards.

Can We Just Not Get All Sentimental About Aaron Swartz, to the Effect of Martyring the Dude, or Anything Like That?

Look, I'm a big fan of John Donne, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind...", and so forth. But all day yesterday you couldn't click on Memeorandum without somebody else weighing in on how angelic this Aaron Swartz was. I mean, sheesh. It's a wonder the dude was ever indicted in the first place. And it wasn't just folks on the left. I posted on Althouse's response to the news, which needed at least two blog entries. She's a law professor and law professors are interested in the law, so the legal facts around the case are compelling. And of course if the feds were playing especially hard against Swartz --- which seems to be the consensus, perhaps to make an example out of the guy, I'd say --- then we all have an interest in the liberty implications of his death. Be that as it may, I think the bipartisan outpouring for the, er, defendant, has more to do with the ignorance of this hacker's ideological program than the causes for which he stood. He wasn't libertarian. He was a social justice radical and his family's obituary goes to lengths to point it out. I tweeted earlier today to mock the Los Angeles Times, which had the most clueless heading with links to Swartz's obituary, and Daniel Greenfield responded back with the money tweet:

@ampowerblog and a Chomskyite anti-American terrorist lover
— Daniel Greenfield(@Sultanknish) January 13, 2013

I'm not happy the man is dead, but when you see people like the radical Henry Farrell going gaga over him, as if he's a freakin' martyred saint, then you know there's some larger collectivist significance going on. Seriously. Say a prayer for the dude but save the Beatitudes for someone who's indeed worthy. This guy was being charged with felony counts and was looking at doing significant time.

FYIY, Patterico has more on the legal aspects of the case, and it's not to say that these are unimportant, "EXCLUSIVE: Attorney for Aaron Swartz: Prosecutors’ Arguments Were “Disingenuous and Contrived”."

And I'll update if I find more information on this man's radical past, which apparently was pretty substantial.

UPDATE: This just in from the New York Times, "Aaron Swartz, a Data Crusader and Now, a Cause." Whatever. People glorify the broken idealist, fighting the injustices of governmental or corporate power, or some kinda power, like the power of MIT's journal storage website, which no doubt was causing the impoverishment of the entire developing world, or something else even more nefarious as that. What else could it be? I'm in awe of the lost promise of this gone-too-young tech-cultural genius.

Aaron Swartz Suicide

I saw this story trending on Memeorandum and thought, "Okay, let's see what this is all about."

This Swartz guy apparently hacked into the JSTOR academic journal database, gaining access to "millions" of scholarly journals (articles?). He was facing trial on multiple counts and looking at up to 35 years in jail. Most of the commentary's even more emotional than usual, since the guy was some kind of Internet genius. It's like he was some 21st century Jesus, or something.

In any case, Althouse is fascinated by the legal aspect and is sympathetic to the argument of government bullying, although what caught my attention was this comment from Beldar:

Our host asked in comments above, "Assuming the law is important -- as was said about the law David Gregory violated — why was it in the public interest to go against Swartz and try to get this creative, well-meaning, energetic young man put in prison for 35 years?"

But the presumtion that the MAXIMUM potential punishment sought is also the ONLY possible punishment that might have resulted makes this a loaded question.

If the laws he's accused of violating have social value, it's to protect intellectual property.

On other occasions Swartz tried to change those laws more directly, but on this occasion he was accused (apparently with good reason) of having engaged in a massive and deliberate violation of them, indeed the most shocking sort of violation of the law that he could contrive — for, he claimed (in his best Robin Hood voice), the most altruistic of purposes.

What Professor Althouse sees exclusively as a "creative, well-meaning, energetic young man" was indeed probably that, but he may also have been a deliberately notorious thief of intellectual property. Certainly if one only focuses on the "words trying to be free," one comes up with a different evaluation than if one also weighs, for example, the financial damage to the net worths of both the academics and their institutions whom the current law deems worthy of protection.

There's no doubt that the late Mr. Swartz' suicide is sad. But when I'm picking my heroes, even when I'm looking among those whose heroism is supposedly demonstrated by their noble civil disobedience, I expect to see in them a frank acknowledgment and acceptance of the costs and consequences of that disobedience.

More at Althouse, on Lawrence Lessig's comments, "'Prosecutor as bully'."

George McGovern Has Died

McGovern was further to the left than Lyndon Baines Johnson but somehow still remained a Cold War liberal. His party, however, was becoming a New Left organization grounded in radical theories of anti-Americanism and coercivie economic distribution. The full flowering of that ideology burst forth during the Iraq War in 2004, when the Democrats in Congress turned on their own country and stabbed in the back the very men and women they sent to war the previous year. Perhaps McGovern, who flew B-24 bombing raids over Germany in World War II, is the last of a breed, a stalwart of modern American liberalism, of the non-communist variety. I'm sure some might say I'm being too generous, but I'll leave it at that. I saw McGovern speak back at Fresno State around 1990. He seemed like a very decent man. (But folks might check Daniel Flynn, at FrontPage Magazine, "How George McGovern and the Left Polarized America.")

At the New York Times, "George McGovern | 1922-2012: George McGovern, a Democratic Presidential Nominee and Liberal Stalwart, Dies at 90" (at Memeorandum).

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

Michael Clarke Duncan, 1957-2012

I was shocked to see this obituary, at the Wall Street Journal, "Actor Michael Clarke Duncan Dead at 54." He was so young and full of life.