One of the highlights of my tenure as a TV person was the chance to visit Egypt in advance of the Ramses exhibit visiting nearby Memphis. It was an abolutely fascinating trip and included a visit to King Tut’s tomb. I am in awe of the pyramids and the technology needed to built them, too. I was fascinated this morning to wake up to the TV reports that the mummy of King Tut was being displayed to the public, beginning today.
King Tut’s buck-toothed face was unveiled Sunday for the first time in public - more than 3,000 years after the youngest and most famous pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt was shrouded in linen and buried in his golden underground tomb. Archeologists [...]
UPDATE: Interesting behind-the-scenes piece from NBC News:
Let the sleeping pharaoh be
An irreverent and entirely inappropriate thought kept imposing itself as I waited to report live on MSNBC about the first-ever public viewing of the face of King Tutankhamen from his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. There he lay in front of me, his blackened face and empty eye sockets staring upwards, with taut cheeks stretched over small bones, lips pulled back in a sneer and deep wrinkles forming jagged scars in his face. And all I kept thinking as I waited for the anchor to ask her first question: Do not kiss the Sleeping Beauty who died more than 3,000 years ago. I imagined that if I did, maybe he would come back to life. And if he did, what would [...]
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Egypt, King Tut
Here’s a key question:
The price of oil is approaching $100 a barrel, an important psychological barrier for Americans already hard hit by higher energy prices and the threat of a housing-induced economic slowdown. Even though headlines will scream, markets will get nervous, and politicians will blame each other, the real economic impact of a triple-digit price for petroleum is [...]
Categories: Consumer · Economy
Here’s just one more reason your paycheck doesn’t stretch as far as it used to. Most every station around here is sitting right at $3.00. I can’t bring myself to fill up, opting instead for a game of "will the price drop a few cents before I run out of gas".
The national average price for gasoline rose about 16 cents over the last two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday. The average price of regular gasoline on Friday [...]
Categories: Consumer · Economy
Lots of chatter today about Fred Thompson and a convicted drug dealer…
GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson has been able to overcome charges that he lobbied for pro-choice advocacy groups and gave legal advice to lawyers who were defending the Pan Am 103 terrorists, but now he’s got an adviser and donor to his campaign who is a convicted drug dealer [...]
Categories: 2008 Election
The guys overseas have picked up on our "West Memphis Three" story that we’ve been following for some time. The Arkansas Times blog provided great coverage of a news conference this week and now we’re seeing detailed reports from overseas…
Fifteen years ago, the “West Memphis Three” were convicted of the torture and murder of three young boy scouts in the deep south. New DNA evidence has bolstered the case, laid out in two HBO documentaries and an upcoming movie, that the three teenaged convicts—one of whom was sentenced to death—were victims themselves of a community more concerned with their taste in music than evidence [...]
Categories: Crime · West Memphis Three
Here’s one to pass around. I’m sure we’ll hear a "but…" from the Administration, but it’s a nice, comforting, thought for right now.
First, to be sure everyone sees this: McClatchy’s top story today is “Experts: No evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons program.” Despite President Bush’s claims that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons that could trigger “World War III,” experts in and out of government say there’s no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program. » read [...]
Categories: Iran
DEEPLY depressed. Nice, huh?
One year out from the 2008 election, Americans are deeply pessimistic and eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of President Bush, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Concern about the economy, the war in Iraq and growing dissatisfaction with the political environment in Washington all contribute to the lowest public assessment of the direction of the country in more than a decade. Just 24 percent think [...]
Categories: 2008 Election · Consumer · Economy · Iraq War
Sunday’s quickly slipping away and there’s still much to do. Taking a quick break to watch a bit of football and scan through some bloggers. We’ll start with a well-written post from an Iraq War veteran, analyzing the big picture of Iraq..
I keep hearing of the recent success stories in Iraq that are attributed to the surge. Of course President Bush will capitalize on this temporary phenomenon with his usual optimism that his plan for Iraq will be successful — whether he actually believes it or not. His allies in Congress will continue to tout the so called progress along with the Republican presidential candidates going into the 2008 election — provided it lasts long enough. One thing I’m sure about is that now more than ever we as Americans need to [...]
Iraq, though, does look pretty good, when you compare it to Pakistan…
For several years, the Bush White House has said “stability” in the Middle East is a misguided foreign policy goal. The president’s vision demanded that transformative democracies spread throughout the region, and that maintaining stability does little more than tolerate dictatorships. It made for pleasant rhetoric, but the administration never really meant a word of it. [...]
Categories: Iraq War
And mine.
For the better part of the past three decades the Republican Party has promoted itself as the party of tax cuts. What happens, though, when Republicans filibuster legislation that would ensure that as many as 50 million Americans don’t get caught in the net of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was originally designed to ensure that the wealthiest among us weren’t able to get out of paying federal income taxes? That might not be the way the media is [...]
Categories: Economy · Taxes
