Gal Gadot is 'Very Ableist'

The L.A. Times had a fascinating obituary of Stephen Hawking earlier this week, "Stephen Hawking, who redefined the view of the universe for scientists and public alike, dies at 76."

It turns out that Hawking was an anti-Israel BDS advocate.

Which makes this piece at about Gal Gadot interesting, if not ironic. At Althouse, "'Gal Gadot’s Seemingly Innocent Tribute To Stephen Hawking Pissed Off Some People/ Several disability rights advocates called it ableist'."

(PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons.)

Kirsten Powers Deleted Tweet Shaming Hugh Hefner Moments After Announcement of His Death

Sometimes you just need to chill on those hot takes.

Kirsten Powers wisely deleted this tweet about Hugh Hefner. pic.twitter.com/NFr7bDB1VB

— Brittain for Senate (@SenatorBrittain) September 28, 2017

Jerry Pournelle Remembered at Instapundit

Mr. Pournelle died September 8th.

The New York Times' obituary is here, "Jerry Pournelle, Science Fiction Novelist and Computer Guide, Dies at 84."

And check Instapundit for all kinds of commemoration.

Here's the link I posed a couple of minutes ago, for Niven and Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye.

Also, The Gripping Hand, and The Legacy of Heorot.

Kate Millett Has Died

I wouldn't have known, except for Robert Stacy McCain (below).

Here's the Guardian (FWIW), "Kate Millett obituary: Radical feminist writer best known for her pioneering 1970 book Sexual Politics."

The Death of a Dishonest Feminist https://t.co/IxcXkaggiO pic.twitter.com/rU0j8PUYdE

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) September 11, 2017

Glen Campbell, of 'Rhinestone Cowboy' Fame, Dead at 81

At LAT, "Glen Campbell dies at 81; country-pop singer battled Alzheimer's."

Also, "'A shining light in so many ways': Music world remembers country-pop great Glen Campbell":

As news of the death of Glen Campbell spread, celebrities of all kinds took to the Internet to express their grief over the loss of the country music legend, who died Tuesday at 81.

"Had Glen Campbell 'only' played guitar and never voiced a note, he would have spent a lifetime as one of America’s most consequential recording musicians," Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a statement.

"Had he never played guitar and 'only' sung, his voice would rank with American music’s most riveting, expressive, and enduring," Young added. "He left indelible marks as a musician, a singer, and an entertainer, and he bravely shared his incalculable talent with adoring audiences even as he fought a cruel and dread disease. To all of us who heard and loved his soulful music, he was a delight."

Others shared similar sentiments about the singer, songwriter, musician, television host and actor...

More.

Alex Tizon Has Died: Seattle Times Reporter Won Pulitzer for Investigation Into Federally-Sponsored Housing Programs for American Indians

I saw this at the New York Times, "Alex Tizon wrote about Native Americans and won a Pulitzer. Then he wrote about himself."

Then I checked Google, and I'm glad I did.

At the Seattle Times, "Alex Tizon, former Seattle Times reporter who won Pulitzer Prize, dies at 57":

Alex Tizon, former Seattle Times reporter who won Pulitzer Prize, dies at 57 https://t.co/4LItq8rXRl

— Times Watchdog (@STWatchdog) March 26, 2017

Alex Tizon, a journalist and professor who won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting while at The Seattle Times and spent decades exposing untold stories of marginalized communities, has died at age 57.

Mr. Tizon died unexpectedly Thursday, of natural causes, at his home in Eugene, Oregon, according to his family and the University of Oregon, where he was working as an assistant professor of journalism.

Mr. Tizon was one of three Seattle Times reporters to win the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, for stories that exposed widespread corruption and inequalities in the federally sponsored housing program for Native Americans. The series, which documented how billions of dollars in taxpayer funds were helping wealthy people across the country live in mansions while tribes were housed in decrepit shacks, inspired reforms to the program.

Friends, colleagues and family members said Mr. Tizon was known as a deep listener who preferred to dive headfirst into complicated, long-form stories that are becoming rarer in today’s fast-paced media cycle. An introvert who spent hours alone brooding over deep issues like the meaning of his life, he would often take on seemingly simple stories and come back with complicated tales about humanity.

“He was very curious about other people — and learning about other people helped him learn about himself,” said his wife, Melissa Tizon. “That’s what journalism did for him. His whole life quest was about trying to understand who he was, as an immigrant growing up in a largely white community.”

Born in the Philippines, Mr. Tizon immigrated to Seattle with his family when he was 5 years old and bounced around the country before he settled back here.

He spent 17 years at The Seattle Times before becoming the Seattle bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times from 2003 to 2008. He also contributed to publications like Newsweek and programs such as “60 Minutes.”

He then spent two years in Manila, where he helped track efforts by the government to eliminate poverty in poor communities, and taught workshops in far-flung locales like Romania. And he wrote a memoir, “Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self,” about the challenges of being an Asian-American man in the United States.

He turned to teaching in 2011, but his passion for writing still burned.

A year ago, he revived a story he began working on at the Los Angeles Times a decade before, about an Alaskan family whose son had disappeared. People go missing there all the time — about 3,000 a year at one point — but in the remote corner of the world, it garners little attention or news coverage.

The family had learned that authorities had found remains that might provide closure to their grief. Mr. Tizon flew to the tiny town to write a lengthy magazine piece for The Atlantic on the family’s struggles and the broader phenomenon of why so many people vanish in that state.

Those who worked with Mr. Tizon said the story was emblematic of his career — the way he spent so much time deeply reporting the piece, and the fact that he chose a topic that others in the media likely would have ignored.

“He had a real interest in marginal characters and people who had not been in the spotlight,” said his editor on The Atlantic piece, Denise Wills. “He almost became a member of the extended family for these people.”

In an interview last year, Mr. Tizon told the Harvard journalism program: “The stories I work on, especially for any length of time, do tend to become personal to me.”

Jacqui Banaszynski, a University of Missouri journalism professor who was Mr. Tizon’s editor for two years at The Seattle Times, echoed others who said his death was a loss to the journalism community. She recalled Mr. Tizon as “an almost philosopher essayist” in his approach, and that the paper would send him on stories that were complex and needed to be told at a deeper level than the standard news story...

Still more.

Chuck Berry, One of the 'Founding Fathers' of Rock 'n' Roll, Dies at 90 (VIDEO)

At the Los Angeles Times, and the George Harrison Foundation below.

Chuck Berry was a dynamic force on the frenzied rock 'n' roll tours of the 1950s. He died at age 90. https://t.co/VfHehF0JOT pic.twitter.com/hKIqo7bXsJ

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 18, 2017

RIP Chuck Berry. The 1st song that @thebeatles performed at their 1st US concert was "Roll Over Beethoven."
Watch: https://t.co/rFyPCranEw pic.twitter.com/8JSgALNjDY

— George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) March 19, 2017

BONUS: At CBS This Morning, "Music world remembers Chuck Berry."

I blogged about him on his birthday, in October, "'Johnny B. Goode'."

Bill Paxton Has Died

From complications during surgery, I guess.

The first thing out of my mouth when I saw the headline was, "Oh my God!"

He was so young and vital. Only 61 years old.

I watched him in "Nightcrawler" on Netflix over the Christmas Holiday. He just seems too young.

At Memeorandum, "Bill Paxton — Dead at 61."

And TMZ:

#RIP Bill Paxton Dead at 61 https://t.co/Np1hdE9yZt

— TMZ (@TMZ) February 26, 2017

John Hurt Has Died

Well, he'll always be remembered as "Winston" to me.

At London's Daily Mail, "Hollywood legend John Hurt dead: Two-time Oscar nominee and Elephant Man actor passes away aged 77 after battling cancer and suffering intestinal complaint."

That's four movie and television stars in four days: Mary Tyler Moore, Mike Connors, Barbara Hale (from "Perry Mason"), and Sir John.

Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — Dead at 82

Rafsanjani was a so-called moderate.

A lot of good he did, pfft.

From Austin Bay, at Instapundit, "SHED NO TEARS: Iran’s Rafsanjani is dead. He died of a heart attack."

And FWIW, at NYT:

The NYT obituary for Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani https://t.co/PUsrefuYnJ

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 8, 2017

'Watership Down' Author Richard Adams Dead at 96

Well, that's a long and lustrous life.

I wish we all could live that long.

Still though, we're losing so many in 2016. It's a great year, actually, but the obits are mounting.

I read "Watership Down" for a book club at my college, and it was great. Adams declaims any larger moral to the story, but the moral is clearly to stand and fight for what you believe, and that good will prevail over evil.

At NYT:

Richard Adams has died at 96. He became one of the world’s best-selling authors with his debut, “Watership Down." https://t.co/7fgkGyzsq0

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 27, 2016

Carrie Fisher Dead at 60

I'm not that big a "Star Wars" fan. I remember, back in 1977 when the original "Star Wars" came out, my Uncle Doug had rounded up a bunch of us kids in my family and took us to see the movie.

It was of course fabulous, and we all had a great time; and then I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" and "The Return of the Jedi" when they came out, as these were basically obligatory.

But that's about it. I don't have all the movies on CD, and haven't even seen all the more recent updates in the franchise.

It just seems like Carrie Fisher's death has some kind of social significance. It's weird, I guess.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Carrie Fisher, child of Hollywood who blazed a path as 'Star Wars' heroine, screenwriter and author, dies at 60."

And at the Other McCain, "CARRIE FISHER DIES AT AGE 60":

"Good-bye, Princess Leia — and may the Force be with you!" https://t.co/HhDIgt9wBF

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) December 27, 2016

Her death came while the latest film in the Star Wars saga, Rogue One, was No. 1 at the box office. She won critical praise for her performance in the original Star Wars film (“Episode IV: A New Hope”), which I first saw in 1977 at Atlanta’s Phipps Plaza theater immediately after its original release. Many of her best scenes were Princess Leia’s exchanges of sarcastic lines with the outlaw pilot Han Solo, memorably played by Harrison Ford, which recalled the classic romantic pairings of Hollywood’s Golden Age — Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, etc.

Singer George Michael Dies of AIDS at 53

Here's the Santa Monica Observer, the only media outlet I found that accurately reported George Michael's death yesterday, "Singer George Michael Succumbs to HIV/AIDS at 53, at Home in England."

The Observer got so much traffic the server almost crashed.

Singer George Michael Succumbs to HIV/AIDS - Santa Monica Observer https://t.co/FTSL9H5Bmn pic.twitter.com/YXgbZcsVh9

— SM ObserverNewspaper (@SMObserved) December 25, 2016

Leftists were upset that people were even mentioning AIDS:

If you want to keep faith this Christmas, do not search 'George Michael AIDS' on Twitter. Outrageous claims/comments/judgements circulating.

— Leon Ward (@LeonjWard) December 25, 2016

Check out my mentions if you want to see how despicable people can be.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

I blocked 200+ trolls, and I deleted the tweet that was energising them (life’s too short). Humanity is disappointing today.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

If you speculate that #GeorgeMichael died of #HIV, you’re basing that on your own biases, not facts. You’re a garbage person.

— Paul Kidd (@paulkidd) December 26, 2016

There was one other rather honest piece about Michael's death, from Alison Boshoff, at Daily Mail, "ALISON BOSHOFF: How sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll took their toll on troubled genius George Michael":

Michael, who wrote and performed pop classics including Careless Whisper, Praying For Time and Faith, said himself that he suffered from two afflictions –'grief and self-abuse'.

He would smoke enormous amounts of marijuana – up to 25 joints a day at some points in his career.

He also struggled with depression, following the death of his lover Anselmo Feleppa from an HIV-related illness in 1993, and his mother, of cancer, in 1997.

His drug use included a dependency on sleeping pills and a dabble with designer drug GHB. In 2008, Michael was caught smoking crack cocaine in a public toilet.

He was in the habit of cruising for sex with strangers – an activity he declared he had started in his teens. He told friend Piers Morgan that he had up to 500 sexual partners in seven years – which works out, staggeringly, at one every five days.

Yet Michael had no apologies for his lifestyle. Life fast, die young:

I HAVE NEVER AND WILL NEVER APOLOGISE FOR MY SEX LIFE ! GAY SEX IS NATURAL, GAY SEX IS GOOD! NOT EVERYBODY DOES IT, BUT.....HA HA!

— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) May 13, 2011

John Glenn, Legendary American, Dies at 95

When the news broke the other day that John Glenn had died, I thought it was sad, but that he'd lived a full life until the ripe old age of 95.

What a kind and decent man, I thought.

It wasn't until I watched CBS This Morning's review of his life when I shook my head and said, "Damn, the dude's a freakin' American hero!"

Really, just wow.

And below is the New York Times obituary:

John Glenn, 1921-2016 https://t.co/lE2UaH5PLl

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 9, 2016

For Decades, Cuban Americans Longed to Return Home. But Now That Fidel's Dead, Not So Much

The thrill is gone, baby.

At LAT, "For decades, Cuban Americans have longed to return to a post-Castro Cuba. But now that Fidel is dead, many aren't so eager to go."

Cuban Exiles Celebrate in Miami (VIDEO)

All you have to do is look to Miami to get the real pulse on this historic moment. Forget leftists. They can't stand true freedom.

At CBS News 4 Miami, "Cubans in Miami Celebrate, Look to Brighter Future."

Also, "Cubans on the Island Are ‘Stunned’ as Cuban-Americans Celebrate," and "Cuban People Cautiously Optimistic After Death of Fidel Castro."

Jill Stein Praises Fidel Castro: 'A symbol of the struggle for justice...'

I'm rolling my eyes.

But see Instapundit, "COMMIES GONNA PRAISE COMMIES."

Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!

— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) November 27, 2016

PREVIOUSLY: "Jamie Glazov, United in Hate."

Read Babalú Blog for Best Castro Coverage

I probably should've been linking Babalú more frequently over the years, but it's never too late.

See, "A death worth celebrating: Cuba’s ‘Beast of Birán,’ dictator Fidel Castro, finally dead at 90."

Scroll around here.

And see Val Prieto on Twitter.



Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Castro's Obituary at the Miami Herald

I'll start this one after I've finished NYT's, heh.

Read the Miami Herald obit. It's a tour de force. https://t.co/M31cj8E0Nw

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) November 26, 2016

Fidel Castro, Cuba's Communist Dictator, Dead at 90

I still haven't finished this obituary. I started reading it on my phone last night when I got in bed, and I turned on the Michigan/Ohio State game when I got up.

Extremely comprehensive obituary. #FidelCastro https://t.co/thanwo2CIL

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 26, 2016

I'm loving the commentary on Twitter though.

The glamorization of Fidel Castro today is disturbing, if you love life, freedom and liberty you are appalled. pic.twitter.com/MkJNbDlDBh

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) November 26, 2016

More later.