Reno and Beyond: This Is Me On Peter O’Toole

Posted by Myrna the Minx on January 4, 2007 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Stanley Scandalmonger began the blog coverage of today’s Gibbons-related embarrassment–but this one did not take place on his website. Aspiring to be like Rudy (Giuliani ), Gibbons has appointed the seemingly scandalous Philip Galeoto to be his Director of Public Safety. Remember Bernie Kerik? There are a couple of odd things about this appointment. First, Gibbons admitted that he knew there was something in Galeoto’s past at the Reno PD but still hired a former lieutenant who left under questionable circumstances to oversee NINE state agencies. Okay, he also was a tribal police chief somewhere in Minnesota, headed up the disastrous Baghdad Police College and “did police work in California.” He certainly sounds like the most qualified candidate available to oversee your safety doesn’t he?
Oh, and there may have been a semi-logical (but not necessarily good) reason for Gibbons’ early morning swearing-in. He wanted to invalidate Guinn’s Nevada Gaming Control Board appointments. Stanley also has that story.
I just found out that there is a Nevada Democratic Business Council with chapters meeting or set to meet soon in Reno/Tahoe, Las Vegas, and Carson/Capitol? From their website:

The goal of the Nevada Democratic Business Council is to counter this viewpoint with the reality that in the Silver State, there exist business people who want to play fair, do right by their neighbors and still enjoy a healthy profit.

What a concept. And a Buy Blue Nevada is coming soon as well. Be sure to check out the short academic paper by UNR professor of Economics, Elliott Parker, titled “Does the Part In Power Matter for Economic Performance?” that uses actual sources to show that the economy doesn’t perform better under Republican administrations, quite the opposite in fact.
The Holland Project got their mitts on a stage! And I think they are going to be fixing up their place this Saturday if you want to drop by and help out. 263 Keystone Avenue (right by the train trench). Drop them a line first if you can at volunteerholland@gmail.com.
From Vegas Pundit: No wonder I’m always noticing the differences between Virginia and Nevada–Virginia is the top performing state in Ed Week’s Chance-for-Success indicator. The good news? Nevada is better than those bozos in New Mexico.
David Neiwert writes about the rise of “family detention centers,” the latest in euphemisms, that house illegal immigrants and their citizen children. Its a fantastic read as his posts always are.
I’ve been meaning to call attention to Daniel Levitin’s book This Is Your Brain on Music for some time now. The New York Times referred to it as the “layperson’s guide to the emerging neuroscience of music,” and while that sounds rather dry, the book is all about showing the effect that music has on the human brain. For instance, Levitin and his colleagues have shown that our memories of pop music last much longer and are more accurate than other kinds of memories. None of us can be surprised that music triggers the reward centers in our brains. The most disappointing thing about Your Brain On Music is that is does nothing to explain the popularity of James Blunt.
RIP Tillie Olsen–a true literary champion of working class and poor Americans.
The Washington Post has a nice profile of Peter O’Toole by Desson Thomson. I must confess to a deep obsession with Mr. O’Toole ever since seeing Lawrence of Arabia as a very young minx (and I watched it again on AMC over the holidays–it never gets old). His beauty and sense of mischief was obvious even to a child. Can you imagine what it must have been like to hang out with O’Toole and Richard Burton? In fact, those two together would make the perfect man–that voice, those eyes–without all the alcoholism, drug addiction and abuse of course.