Showing posts with label Beckwith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beckwith. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Looking Up The Facts



____________________


In An Interview With Annie Proulx in an issue of bookslut dot com published in December of 2005 I read:

Q.  I know you do a lot of research for your stories, and I was wondering at what point the research is finished and it's time to move forward with the story?

A.  First of all, I never feel that it's finished, but you have to stop somewhere. There's no end to the amount of things that one should know about a place...

That question and its answer poked my Huh? What was that? button and I paused for a few hours to think about and dig up some information about the role of research in the art and craft of fiction writing. And after doing that, I now have a greater grasp of the why, you know, the how come I have with problems in writing the body and ending of a story after what seems to be a truly fine beginning of each and every attempted story these days.

Now I think a breakthrough might be in the offing.

A breakthrough in my perspective on fiction writing.

Or not . . .

We'll see.

That piece in bookslut had a great deal of other interesting items regarding one author's views on writing.

An Interview With Annie Proulx

_____


Did You Know . . .?

Drying you hands with paper towels will reduce the bacterial count by 45 to 60 percent on your hands. However, using a hand dryer will increase the bacteria on your hands by up to 255 percent because it blows out bacteria already living in the conveniently warm moist environment.

(Note: I knew towels were more healthy because I watch The Big Bank Theory... wherein Sheldon said it was so.)

_____


HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1994 Byron de la Beckwith was convicted of the assassination of civil rights leader Medger Evers 31 years earlier, ending the lengthiest murder case in American history. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's small children were inside waiting for their father.

Justice was finally achieved when Beckwith was convicted and given a life sentence. Beckwith appealed the conviction, claiming that he had not been granted a speedy trial as required by the Constitution. However, the appeals courts rejected his argument.  Beckwith died in 2001.

The story was dramatized in Rob Reiner's movie, Ghosts of Mississippi.

_____


WORD FOR TODAY

amnesty
noun
-  A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of persons, usually for a political offense.
-  The act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of persons who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted."

AMNESTY:
The state's magnanimity to those offenders
whom it would be too expensive to punish.
--Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
_____


CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


(born February 5, 1964)
Laura Linney is an American actress. She is most well known for her performances in films such as The Truman Show, Mystic River and Kinsey, among others.



(Feb 5, 1995 - Feb 26, 2012)
Trayvon Martin was the son of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. He lived with his mother and older brother in Miami Gardens, Florida. On the day he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, he and his father were visiting his father's fiancée at her town home in Sanford, Florida.



(born February 5, 1981)
Sara Foster is an American actress, best known for her role as Jen Clark on 90210.



(born February 5, 1967)
Chris Parnell is an American comic actor best known as a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1998–2006 and for his role as Dr. Leo Spaceman on NBC's comedy series 30 Rock. Parnell is currently doing voicework for the character Cyril Figgis on the FX animated comedy Archer, and as Jerry in the Adult Swim animated sci-fi/comedy Rick and Morty. He is also co-starring as Fred Shay on the ABC sitcom Suburgatory.

__________

"I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself."
--Annie Proulx

NASA TV

   

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Liberty And Justice For All?

      
Tucson Weather Today
 
_________________


Note: Rensselaer Adventures has some great snow and ice nature photos in its Monday entry.

Check it out

_____


Injustice, not justice, is rampant on Planet Earth.

More children, women, and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade: Millions toil in bondage, their work and even their bodies the property of an owner.

Trafficking in humans generates profits in excess of 32 billion dollars a year for those who, by force and deception, sell human lives into slavery and sexual bondage.

Nearly 2 million children are exploited in the commercial sex industry.

Pedophiles find that they can abuse children with impunity. The rights of women are violated on a massive scale worldwide.

See Injustice Today


In the United States, the most successful lawyers are paid millions (perhaps billions) of dollars for getting known perpetrators of crimes released by the courts through judicial bribery, outright perjury, and letter-of-the-law legal tricks.

Our legal system is known by most citizens to be unjust and needs overhauling desperately. People who have money to pay top lawyers get off for murder, while others who have incompetent court appointed lawyers, serve many years for lesser crimes.

In most cases, a politician or elected official will easily LIE to further his own agenda.


Wrongly Convicted Texan

A Texas man who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 25 years for his wife’s murder told a judge recently that neither he nor his legal team knew authorities were aware that his then 3-year-old son had witnessed the 1986 slaying and indicated it was a “monster” and not his father who committed the crime.

Michael Morton testified about what his son knew during the first day of a special court proceeding that will determine whether the ex-district attorney — now a judge — who prosecuted the murder case could face criminal charges for allegedly hiding evidence.

In this case, District Judge Louis Sturns, of Fort Worth, will hear evidence and decide whether Judge Ken Anderson acted improperly when he was district attorney for Williamson County. Sturns could refer the case for possible prosecution if he determines Anderson committed a crime.

Morton, 58, was released in October 2011 after new DNA tests showed he didn’t kill his wife, Christine, who was beaten to death in the couple’s north Austin home.

LINK


What do millions of students recite at the beginning of each school day?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and JUSTICE for all.

Yeah . . . right.

So, what's to be done about it?

Probably nothing. The Christian doctrine, in which most Americans claim to believe, teaches that true justice is in the Hand Of God, that all unrepentant sinners will feel His wrath at the time of judgment.

Nothing will be done. The people of Earth are all too happy to be able to pass the buck, and to kick the can down the road.

_____


HISTORICAL CLIP

Byron De La Beckwith, Jr. (November 9, 1920 – January 21, 2001) was an American white supremacist and Klansman from Greenwood, Mississippi, who was convicted in the 1994 state trial of assassinating the civil rights leader Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Two previous trials in 1964 on this charge had resulted in hung juries.

A 1994 state trial was held before a jury of eight black and four white jurors; it ended with De La Beckwith's conviction of first-degree murder for killing Medgar Evers.

He appealed the guilty verdict, but the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1997. The court said the 31-year lapse between the murder and De La Beckwith's conviction did not deny him a fair trial. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

Byron De La Beckwith, Jr.
 
 
Wikipedia

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

justice
noun
1.
the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness.
2.
rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason.
3.
the moral principle determining just conduct.
4.
conformity to this principle, as manifested in conduct.
5.
the administering of deserved punishment or reward.

Statue at Shelby County Courthouse
located in Memphis, Tennessee
 
 

Wikipedia states: "The Western notion of justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion or equity. It is also the act of being just and/or fair."

_____


BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
 
Born Feb. 5, 1974
Age: 38 years old

Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter and producer. He was best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek.

As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun–Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television program, The Lieutenant.

In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. Syndication of Star Trek led to increasing popularity, and Roddenberry continued to create, produce, and consult on Star Trek films and the television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation until his death.



 
Born Feb. 5, 1919
Died Jul 13, 2006

Red Buttons was an American comedian and actor.

In 1952, Buttons received his own variety series on television, "The Red Buttons Show," which ran for three years, and achieved high levels of success. In 1953, he recorded and had a two-sided hit with Strange Things Are Happening/The Ho Ho Song, with both sides/songs essentially being the same.

Buttons performed in numerous feature films, including the Africa adventure Hatari! with John Wayne, the war epic The Longest Day, the biopic Harlow, the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, the dance-marathon drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, the family comedy Pete's Dragon, the disaster film When Time Ran Out with Paul Newman and the age-reversal comedy 18 Again! with George Burns.


 
Born: Feb 5, 1941
Died Sep 30, 2010

Stephen Joseph Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist and occasional actor, and the founder of Stephen J. Cannell Productions.

Cannell sold his first script to the Universal series It Takes a Thief in 1968. He was soon freelance writing for such other crime shows as Ironside and Columbo. He received his first full-time gig as the story editor of Jack Webb's police series Adam-12, then in its fourth season (1971–1972).

Cannell created or co-created nearly 40 television series, mostly crime dramas, including The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, Wiseguy, 21 Jump Street, Silk Stalkings, and The Commish. In the process he had, by his own count, scripted more than 450 episodes, and produced or executive produced over 1,500 episodes.



 
Born: Feb. 5, 1900
Died July 14, 1965

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was an American politician, noted for his intellectual demeanor, eloquent oratory, and promotion of liberal causes in the Democratic Party. He served as the 31st Governor of Illinois, and received the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1952 and 1956; both times he was defeated by Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower. He sought the Democratic presidential nomination for a third time in the election of 1960, but was defeated by Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. After his election, President Kennedy appointed Stevenson as the Ambassador to the United Nations; he served from 1961 to 1965.

The Writer's Almanac every day posts Poet's and Author's birthdays, with a short bio of each.

__________

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
--Martin Luther King, Jr.