04/13/2014 archive

I’m convinced people hate me.

My Therapist says I’m crazy.

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

April 13 is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 262 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1742, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah premieres in Dublin, Ireland.

Nowadays, the performance of George Friedrich Handel’s Messiah oratorio at Christmas time is a tradition almost as deeply entrenched as decorating trees and hanging stockings. In churches and concert halls around the world, the most famous piece of sacred music in the English language is performed both full and abridged, both with and without audience participation, but almost always and exclusively during the weeks leading up to the celebration of Christmas. It would surprise many, then, to learn that Messiah was not originally intended as a piece of Christmas music. Messiah received its world premiere on this day in 1742, during the Christian season of Lent, and in the decidedly secular context of a concert hall in Dublin, Ireland.

Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel, and is one of the most popular works in the Western choral literature. The libretto by Charles Jennens is drawn entirely from the King James and Great Bibles, and interprets the Christian doctrine of the Messiah. Messiah (often but incorrectly called The Messiah) is one of Handel’s most famous works. The Messiah sing-alongs now common at the Christmas season usually consist of only the first of the oratorio’s three parts, with “Hallelujah” (originally concluding the second part) replacing His Yoke is Easy in the first part.

Composed in London during the summer of 1741 and premiered in Dublin, Ireland on 13 April 1742, it was repeatedly revised by Handel, reaching its most familiar version in the performance to benefit the Foundling Hospital in 1754. In 1789 Mozart orchestrated a German version of the work; his added woodwind parts, and the edition by Ebenezer Prout, were commonly heard until the mid-20th century and the rise of historically informed performance.

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungover  we’ve been bailed out we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

But like ek horbeck

I would never make fun of LaEscapee or blame PhilJD.  And I am highly organized.

Actually, I’m better organized. 😉

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Passover begins on Monday evening. Like all Jewish holidays it’s focus is on community, family and food, especially the food. I was born Jewish and raised in an ecumenical household that celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays. I never kept a kosher home, although my first and current mothers-in-law did.

My favorite part of most meals is dessert. I’ve been the desert lady since I started a catering company some years back as a hobby. Here are some recipes for Passover deserts that I recently found and I’m trying this year.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with George Stephanopolis: The guests in the Sunday’s “This Week” are:  Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power; and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

The roundtable guests are ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd; Republican strategist and ABC News contributor Ana Navarro; Democratic strategist James Carville; syndicated radio host Laura Ingraham; and University of California, Berkeley professor and former Clinton Labor secretary Robert Reich.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests are Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN); and Rep. Elijah Cumming (D-MD).

Michael Eric Dyson of Georgetown University; Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry; Tavis Smiley of PBS; and Nikole Hannah-Jones of ProPublica and the Atlantic will discuss the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

His panel guests are Peter Baker of The New York Times; Frank Rich of New York magazine; Leigh Gallagher of Fortune; and Michael Gerson of The Washington Post.

Meet the Press with David Gregory: This Sunday’s MTP guests are: historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin; Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA); former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis; Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki; and former New England Patriots player Joe Andruzzi.

Guests on the political roundtable are Re/Code Co-Executive Editor Kara Swisher; Republican strategist Mike Murphy; Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot; and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD).

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms. Crowley’s guests are Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Rep. Steve Israel and Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Congressman Greg Walden.

Her panel guests are Cornell Belcher, Ron Brownstein and Liz Mair.

Ukraine ‘bid to take back Sloviansk police HQ’

 13 April 2014 Last updated at 07:07

  The BBC

Ukrainian forces have launched an operation against pro-Russian activists who seized a police station on Saturday, the interior minister says.

Arsen Avakov announced on his Facebook page that “all security units” were involved in an “anti-terror operation” in the eastern city of Sloviansk.

Russia warned earlier that any use of force in eastern Ukraine could scupper crisis talks due later this week.

The US accuses Moscow of inciting the trouble. The Kremlin denies the charge.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kiev government was “demonstrating its inability to take responsibility for the fate of the country”.

But the US said there had been a “concerted campaign” by forces with Russian support to undermine the authorities in Kiev.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

The Sunday Talking Heads:

This Week with George Stephanopolis:

Face the Nation:

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd:

State of the Union with Jake Tapper: