The New York Times, Jill Abramson, and the NSA

The New York Times has been at the receiving end of much media attention following the unceremonious dumping to Executive Editor Jill Abramson, with all manner of stories being floated as reasons for her canning. Was it due to poor management style? Was it because she complained that she was being paid less than her male predecessors? Was it because those who worked for her were complaining about her? Was it because, as Michelle Goldberg writes, she sent a reporter to London to investigate the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal and the way that the BBC failed to cover it, which might have implicated NYT CEO Mark Thompson who was the head of the BBC at that time? Was it because, as Ken Auletta says, she was planning to bring in a deputy managing editor to work alongside managing editor Dean Baquet, the person who replaced her, and that he was unhappy with this move?
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Film review: The English pub trilogy

Recently I watched three films in rapid succession: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013). Although they are all distinct films with different characters and the stories are unrelated, they form a trilogy in that all three were written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, were directed by Wright, and starred Pegg and Nick Frost who plays Pegg’s sidekick. They also featured appearances by Martin Freeman (all three films), Bill Nighy (two films), Steve Coogan (one film), and two ex-Bonds Pierce Brosnan and Timothy Dalton (one each).
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FDR walking in 1937 All Star game

The longest serving president of the US was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who held office from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was elected president four times, before the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1951 that limited a president to two elected terms in office. He was a surprise Democratic party nominee for vice president in the 1920 election that he lost before becoming governor of New York in 1929.
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Revolution delayed because of rain

The great revolution called Operation American Spring that was to take place today has proven to be a bust. The plan was that 10 million to 30 million red-blooded patriots would converge on Washington DC today and when the leaders of government saw that so many opposed them, they would abdicate and would be replaced by people who would follow the constitution, which as any true patriot knows contains just five Articles:
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Purity matters more than good works

Colleen Simon is a Lutheran who has spent decades as a Catholic, drawn to that church by its social work mission. She was the coordinator of social work ministries at St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City and spent years encouraging food donations from the congregation and seeing that it was efficiently distributed to the needy. Her devotion to this work was highlighted in a profile in the Kansas City Star and that’s when she got into trouble.
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