Dead at 78.
RIP
R.I.P. Daniel Inouye, 1924-2012
(via Dave Weigel) Dave Weigel, at Slate: Tonight, for the first time, the state of Hawaii is not represented by Daniel Inuoye. The 88-year old senator entered politics in the 1950s, joining the territorial legislature, and waiting for statehood. When Hawaii became the 50th state, Inuoye ran for, and won, its sole seat in Congress. …
Heroism
The awful events in Newtown give us another chance to contrast the rhetoric of gun-toting imaginary heroism with the real heroism demonstrated by some of the wonderful people who’ve been lost in mass shootings in the past few years. This time, it’s the principal, school psychologist and vice-principal at Sandy Hook Elementary. When I was …
McGovern
Betty’s post points out one of the ironies of George McGovern’s life–a war hero whose patriotism was attacked for opposing the Vietnam War. Another of the great ironies is that someone as skilled in politics as McGovern lost as badly as he did in 1972. Before McGovern, there was no Democratic Party in South Dakota. …
RIP, Mongo
Alex Karras, dead at the age of 77: When I bought a blu-ray, the very first movie I purchased was Blazing Saddles.
Phyllis Diller, RIP
She was 95 so the obit writers had plenty of time to prepare, and the Times doesn’t disappoint. When I was a little kid, I remember thinking she was the funniest person on TV, probably because she had a bit of the clown in her (her outfits just kept getting more over-the-top) and because her …
David Rakoff, RIP
You might know him from his books, essays or his contributions to This American Life, but perhaps you didn’t know that he was a remarkably talented and generous artist. And goddam was he funny: