I hope you have enjoyed this week’s music of Madonna.
1998–2002: Ray of Light, Music, and marriage to Guy Ritchie
Madonna’s seventh studio album, Ray of Light, (1998) reflected this change in her perception and image.[116][117] She collaborated with then relatively unknown electronica producer William Orbit and wanted to create a sound that could blend dance music with pop and British rock.[118] American music critic Ann Powers explained that what Madonna searched for with Orbit “was a kind of a lushness that she wanted for this record. Techno and rave was happening in the 90’s and had a lot of different forms. There was very experimental, more hard stuff like Aphex Twin. There was party stuff like Fatboy Slim. That’s not what Madonna wanted for this. She wanted something more like a singer-songwriter, really. And William Orbit provided her with that.”[118] The album garnered critical acclaim and Slant Magazine declared it as “one of the great pop masterpieces of the ’90s”.[119] Ray of Light was honored with four Grammy Awards, and Rolling Stone listed it among “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.[120][121] Commercially, the album peaked at number one in numerous countries and sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.[122] The album’s first single, “Frozen”, became Madonna’s first single to debut at number one in the UK, while in the U.S. it became her sixth number-two single and set another record for Madonna as the artist with the most number two hits.[37][123] The second single, “Ray of Light”, debuted at number five on the Billboard Hot 100.[124]
The 1998 edition of Guinness Book of World Records stated: “No female artist has sold more records than Madonna around the world”.[125] In 1999, Madonna signed to play a violin teacher in the film Music of the Heart but left the project, citing “creative differences” with director Wes Craven.[126] She recorded the single “Beautiful Stranger” for the 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. It reached number 19 on the Hot 100 solely on radio airplay and earned Madonna a Grammy Award for “Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media”.[37][75]
In 2000, Madonna starred in the film, The Next Best Thing, and contributed two songs to the film’s soundtrack: “Time Stood Still” and the international hit “American Pie”, a cover version of Don McLean’s 1971 song.[127] She released her eighth studio album, Music, in September 2000. It featured elements from the electronica-inspired Ray of Light era, and catered to her gay audience. Collaborating with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï, Madonna commented: “I love to work with the weirdos that no one knows about—the people who have raw talent and who are making music unlike anyone else out there. Music is the future of sound.”[128] Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic felt that “Music blows by in a kaleidoscopic rush of color, technique, style and substance. It has so many depth and layers that it’s easily as self-aware and earnest as Ray of Light.”[129] The album took the number-one position in more than 20 countries worldwide and sold four million copies in the first ten days.[120] In the U.S., Music debuted at the top, and became her first number-one album in eleven years since Like a Prayer.[130] It produced three singles: the Hot 100 number one “Music”, “Don’t Tell Me”, and “What It Feels Like for a Girl”.[37] The music video of “What It Feels Like for a Girl” depicted Madonna committing acts of crime and vandalism, and was banned by MTV and VH1.[131]
In 1999, Madonna met her second husband director Guy Ritchie. On August 11, 2000, she gave birth three weeks earlier than expected to their son Rocco John Ritchie in Los Angeles. Rocco and Madonna suffered complications from the birth due to her experiencing placenta praevia. He was christened at Dornoch Cathedral in Dornoch, Scotland, on December 21, 2000. Madonna married Ritchie the following day at nearby Skibo Castle.[132][133] Her fifth concert tour, titled Drowned World Tour, started in April 2001.[50] The tour visited cities in the U.S. and Europe and was the highest-grossing concert tour of the year by a solo artist, earning $75 million from 47 sold-out shows.[134] She also released her second greatest-hits collection, titled GHV2, to coincide with the home video release of the tour. GHV2 debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200.[135]
Madonna starred in the film Swept Away, directed by Ritchie. Released direct-to-video in the UK, the film was a commercial and critical failure.[136] In May 2002 she appeared in London in the West End play Up For Grabs at the Wyndhams Theatre (billed as ‘Madonna Ritchie’), to universally bad reviews and was described as “the evening’s biggest disappointment” by one.[137][138][139] That October, she released “Die Another Day”, the title song of the James Bond film Die Another Day, in which she had a cameo role, described by The Guardian film reviewer as “incredibly wooden”.[140] The song reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for both a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song and a Golden Raspberry for Worst Song.[37]
Why Wall Street and Consulting Firms Win at the Elite College Brain Drain Game
Posted on August 27, 2014 by Yves Smith
The question of why graduates of prestigious undergraduate schools still wind up, in disproportionate numbers, at places like Goldman and McKinsey may seem so obvious as to be unworthy of notice. These schools are elite institutions, correct? Certainly this was all part of these students’ plans. They went to fancy academies to make sure they occupied a good position in society. The most obvious way to assure that is to get on a well-recognized fast-track career path. Even if things don’t work out as planned, these graduates will have accumulated more markers of their superior intelligence and work habits on their resumes, which surely will afford them better options later than other choices would have.
A new article in Washington Monthly describes why this conventional picture isn’t as tidy as it seems. Author Amy Binder and a small research team investigated recruitment processes at two campuses, Harvard and Stanford, and interviewed sixty undergraduates and recent grads who, seemingly by accident, wound up competing for and getting these highly-sought-after jobs. In fact, none of them had any interest in these careers before they encountered a systematic effort, in conjunct with the campus recruitment offices, to groom students for these plum positions. Consider: these firms still are magnets for new graduates:
In 2007, just before the global financial meltdown, almost 50 percent of Harvard seniors (58 percent of the men, 43 percent of the women) took jobs on Wall Street. That number contracted sharply during the Great Recession, but after 2009 it began rising again. Among this year’s graduating class at Harvard, 31 percent took jobs that will channel their energies into derivatives, mergers, and often destructive outsourcing. And many more tried out for such positions. According to a study by the sociologist Lauren Rivera, a full 70 percent of Harvard’s senior class submits résumés to Wall Street and consulting firms.
Meanwhile, among Harvard seniors who had secured employment last spring, a mere 3.5 percent were headed to government and politics, 5 percent to health-related fields, and 8.8 percent to any form of public service. Only high-tech fields captured the interest of graduating seniors at anywhere near the level of finance and consulting, and even this seemingly healthy countertrend has problems.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/why-wall-street-and-consulting-firms-win-at-the-elite-college-brain-drain-game.html
We Want Justice @TalkofSTL 3h
Kids kicked her off the slide at school. School said they didnt see it so theyre not taking action #JusticeForAvaLynn pic.twitter.com/hHw6xf2YTA
https://twitter.com/xX_NarieBaae/status/505508064246525952/photo/1
Dear God.
OMG!
There are some decent people out there.
…………………..
Found this at TOD:
dotster3
August 29, 2014 at 7:50 pm
Nice story: When it became known after all the celebrations that
one of Chgo’s Little League championship team players and his family were currently homeless, a local businessman has stepped forward to help. He has offered to pay their rent for a year in a home of their choosing. The family lost their rental when the mom’s hours as a home healthcare worker were cut—-and the dad’s part time repairman wages were not sufficient. I knew when this became known, someone would help—–Chgo fell in love with this team—-and there’s a lot of good, generous people out there. This little leaguer scored the winning run in their championship game.
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Donor-Helps-Homeless-JRW-Family-273253871.html
Ok,
I just had an italian beef & giardenera pizza.
Damn, it was good.
The Fall of France
François Hollande, the president of France since 2012, coulda been a contender. He was elected on a promise to turn away from the austerity policies that killed Europe’s brief, inadequate economic recovery. Since the intellectual justification for these policies was weak and would soon collapse, he could have led a bloc of nations demanding a change of course. But it was not to be. Once in office, Mr. Hollande promptly folded, giving in completely to demands for even more austerity.
Let it not be said, however, that he is entirely spineless. Earlier this week, he took decisive action, but not, alas, on economic policy, although the disastrous consequences of European austerity grow more obvious with each passing month, and even Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, is calling for a change of course. No, all Mr. Hollande’s force was focused on purging members of his government daring to question his subservience to Berlin and Brussels.
It’s a remarkable spectacle. To fully appreciate it, however, you need to understand two things. First, Europe, as a whole, is in deep trouble. Second, however, within that overall pattern of disaster, France’s performance is much better than you would guess from news reports. France isn’t Greece; it isn’t even Italy. But it is letting itself be bullied as if it were a basket case.
On Europe: Like the United States, the euro area — the 18 countries that use the euro as a common currency — started to recover from the 2008 financial crisis midway through 2009. But after a debt crisis erupted in 2010, some European nations were forced, as a condition for loans, to make harsh spending cuts and raise taxes on working families. Meanwhile, Germany and other creditor countries did nothing to offset the downward pressure, and the European Central Bank, unlike the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, didn’t take extraordinary measures to boost private spending. As a result, the European recovery stalled in 2011, and has never really resumed.
At this point, Europe is doing worse than it did at a comparable stage of the Great Depression. And even more bad news may lie ahead, as Europe shows every sign of sliding into a Japanese-style deflationary trap.
How does France fit into this picture? News reports consistently portray the French economy as a dysfunctional mess, crippled by high taxes and government regulation. So it comes as something of a shock when you look at the actual numbers, which don’t match that story at all. France hasn’t done well since 2008 — in particular, it has lagged Germany — but its overall G.D.P. growth has been much better than the European average, beating not only the troubled economies of southern Europe but creditor nations like the Netherlands. French job performance isn’t too bad. In fact, prime-aged adults are a lot more likely to be employed in France than in the United States.
Nor does France’s situation seem particularly fragile. It doesn’t have a large trade deficit, and it can borrow at historically low interest rates.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
Why, then, does France get such bad press? It’s hard to escape the suspicion that it’s political: France has a big government and a generous welfare state, which free-market ideology says should lead to economic disaster. So disaster is what gets reported, even if it’s not what the numbers say.
Continue reading the main story
Recent Comments
Dan Wafford
3 hours ago
Only a liberal can with a straight face define as “austerity” not spending money that you don’t have. Mr. Krugman seems to align himself…
Other Jersey Guy
3 hours ago
France has never recovered emotionally or financially from their disastrous failings in two world wars. French leadership is an oxymoron.
Mikey41
3 hours ago
Drink wine, eat fine bread & cheese, and let the Germans have their cabbage!!!
See All Comments
And Mr. Hollande, even though he leads France’s Socialist Party, appears to believe this ideologically motivated bad-mouthing. Worse, he has fallen into a vicious circle in which austerity policies cause growth to stall, and this stalled growth is taken as evidence that France needs even more austerity.
It’s a very sad story, and not just for France.
Most immediately, Europe’s economy is in dire straits. Mr. Draghi, I believe, understands how bad things are. But there’s only so much the central bank can do, and, in any case, he has limited room for maneuvering unless elected leaders are willing to challenge hard-money, balanced-budget orthodoxy. Meanwhile, Germany is incorrigible. Its official response to the shake-up in France was a declaration that “there is no contradiction between consolidation and growth” — hey, never mind the experience of the past four years, we still believe that austerity is expansionary.
So Europe desperately needs the leader of a major economy — one that is not in terrible shape — to stand up and say that austerity is killing the Continent’s economic prospects. Mr. Hollande could and should have been that leader, but he isn’t.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/opinion/paul-krugman-the-fall-of-france.html?src=me&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Most%20Emailed&pgtype=article
In First Year of Pre-K Expansion, a Rush to Beat the School Bell
By KATE TAYLOR
AUG. 28, 2014
Shanté Jones walks around central Brooklyn for hours every day, visiting playgrounds, lingering outside public pools, trolling the cereal aisles in supermarkets — anywhere she thinks she might find small children and their parents.
“Good morning,” she said, approaching a young couple at a playground in Brownsville this month. “Do you know any 4-year-olds?”
Expanding free full-day prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds was one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature campaign proposals, and his administration has invested heavily in it, training thousands of teachers and hiring close to 200 fire and health inspectors, teaching coaches and “enrollment specialists” like Ms. Jones to make sure the first phase of the effort, involving 53,000 seats, rolls out next week without major problems.
On Thursday, Mr. de Blasio announced that the city was close to reaching its enrollment goal, with 50,407 children signed up so far.
“Parents get what this means for their kids,” the mayor said. “They understand the difference between their child getting a strong start and not getting it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/29/nyregion/new-york-pre-k-expansion.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
Ain’t this the truth
Neera Tanden @neeratanden
Follow
I’m a little unclear on how you have to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote, 21 to buy alcohol but can legally handle an Uzi at the age of 9.
9:21 PM – 27 Aug 2014
This is the most avoidable tragedy that I have heard of in a very long time. I live in Arizona and I know how stupid people are about their guns out here and I am not at all surprised that this happened.
You would have expected the parents to have more common sense, but I suppose they thought it would be cute to get a video of their nine year old shooting an Uzi. Now a guy is dead, a child killed him, and she gets to live with that for the rest of her life even though her parents orchestrated the whole thing.
Theirs a lot of folks out there these days who have very little respect for weapons that can kill people and devastate families. They are just tragedies waiting to happen.
https://twitter.com/LowPayIsNotOK/status/504820949020344321/photo/1
This Is Mighty White Of You
By Charles P. Pierce on August 29, 2014
Hillary Clinton finally said something about recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. What she said appears to have been written by nine consultants, eight people from marketing, seven lawyers, six ESL valedictorians, and Mark Penn. She feels very bad about the stuff that happened, as stuff sometimes will happen, because it is stuff, and it happens. Or something.
This summer, the eyes of our country and indeed the world have been focused on one community in the middle of the American heartland, Ferguson, Missouri. Watching the recent funeral for Michael Brown, as a mother, as a human being, my heart just broke for his family, because losing a child is every parent’s greatest fear and an unimaginable loss. But I also grieve for that community and for many like it across our country. Behind the dramatic, terrible pictures on television, are deep challenges that will be with them and with us long after the cameras move on. This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any community together fray. Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war zone, not in America. We are better than that. We saw our country’s true character in the community leaders that came out to protest peacefully and worked to restrain violence. The young people who insisted on having their voices heard and in the many decent and respectful law enforcement officers who showed what quality law enforcement looks like. Men and women who serve and protect their communities with courage and professionalism, who inspire trust, rather than fear. We need more of that, because we can do better.
What is our country’s “true character,” at least as it is defined by the people in authority, is a heavily militarized police force made up of trigger-happy yahoos who consider any black person a threat? Why isn’t that just as plausible an interpretation of recent events? Because America, fk yeah!? Try again.
We can’t ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality. Imagine what he with would feel and what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers. Instead of the other way around; if white offenders received prison sentences 10 percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes; if a third of all white men, just look at this room and take one-third, went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so many of the communities in which they live.
I applaud President Obama for sending the attorney general to Ferguson and demanding a thorough and speedy investigation, to find out what happened, to see that justice is done, to help this community begin healing itself. We should all add our voices to those that have come together in recent days to work for peace, justice and reconciliation in Ferguson, and beyond, to stand against violence and for the values that we cherish. We can do better.
I don’t have to imagine it. I know it, because it is actually happening. Thank you for noticing.
We can work to rebuild the bonds of trust from the ground up. It starts within families and communities. It was 51 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called us to live out true meaning of our creed, to make the dream real for all Americans. That mission is as fiercely urgent today as when he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the hot August sun all those years ago.
The fierce urgency of taking two weeks to say something is not what Dr. King was talking about, I do not believe.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/A_Day_Late_And_A_Couple_Of_Million_Short
This right HERE:
This Is Mighty White Of You
By Charles P. Pierce on August 29, 2014
Hillary Clinton finally said something about recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. What she said appears to have been written by nine consultants, eight people from marketing, seven lawyers, six ESL valedictorians, and Mark Penn. She feels very bad about the stuff that happened, as stuff sometimes will happen, because it is stuff, and it happens. Or something.
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/A_Day_Late_And_A_Couple_Of_Million_Short
Note to Hillary: You can do “BETTER,” by not running for POTUS. BYE GIRL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKjQcD1URYE
Empty-headed, talking points with a cheap smile and walk off. BYE GIRL!
Chernynkaya @Chernynkaya
Libertarian kids: “wealthy privileged racist authoritarians who want to smoke weed and not lose their financial aid” http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_08/those_libertarian_kids_already051863.php …
From TOD:
A Word From Tally
Why Health Care Matters, and why the US is still vulnerable
The US is the only country on Earth where it’s legal to make a profit on someone’s illness. I understand why; it’s a giant conflict of interest. But because of that profit, the system is still out of reach for many, especially in red states with asshole GOP governors who refused the Federal Medicaid expansion funds.
So…… what if something like the West Africa Ebola outbreak happens here?
If EVERYONE doesn’t have affordable access to healthcare, how do you contain such an outbreak?
As awesome as the ACA is, Obamacare doesn’t cover all our citizens yet, and we must clear the way for everyone in this country to have access to healthcare, yes, even illegal aliens and people visiting here from other countries.
Viruses don’t care where you were born, how much money you make, what color your skin is, what sex you are, what religion (if any) you practice, what your sexual orientation is, who you voted for, what flavor of ice cream you prefer, or where you live.
They’re equal opportunity killers, and you aren’t magically protected from getting a virus from someone who is uninsured, even if you are.
The US is a sitting duck when it comes to this, and healthcare access should be a National Security issue. We’re the country who’s population never take vacation, and suck it up when we’re sick by going to work anyway, less we appear weak. By doing so, we’re spreading our germs everywhere, allowing the virus to spread far and wide, mutating in the process.
It would be easy to lay us low between our work-at-all-costs attitude, and lack of access to affordable care.
There’s a reason other countries have Nationalized health care systems, and don’t drive their citizens into financial ruin if they get sick. It’s better, and healthier when people just go to the doctor when they’re sick, then go home and get better.
It’s only in the US where working yourself to death is a badge of honor, and denying citizens health care is acceptable to some.
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/08/29/rise-and-shine-895/
That horrible Lifetime show with the 4 Black women ‘ fixing’ a White woman?
Luvvie’s done a recap
…………………
Girlfriend Intervention’s Attempt at Fixing Needs Fixing: Premiere (And Only) Recap
Luvvie—August 28, 2014
I watched Lifetime TV’s newest reality TV show, Girlfriend Intervention last night. TWICE. The first time to just see it and the second time to get some of the quotes because the show was just that roastable. I already went in with my side-eye strong because the tagline of the show is “Trapped inside of every white girl is a strong black woman ready to bust out.” Oh REALLY?
The show takes 4 Black women and gets them to makeover the life and style of some helpless white woman. Because you know what every white woman needs is a 4 sassy Black besties.
The show’s first hapless white woman is Joanie, a former hip hop dancer who is married to a Black man named Bradley, a current hip hop dancer with the nickname “Shoes.” Joanie has apparently let herself go so she needs the help of Nikki Chu (to fix her house), Tiffiny Dixon (to fix her style), Tracy Balan (to fix her hair) and Tanisha Thomas (to fix her soul).
http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2014/08/girlfriend-intervention.html
National Guard troops in Rio Grande Valley using food bank because they haven’t been paid
By Kolten Parker, San Antonio Express-News
August 29, 2014 11:37am
SAN ANTONIO — About 50 National Guard troops deployed to the border by Gov. Rick Perry are using food and gas assistance from a food bank in the Rio Grande Valley because they haven’t been paid in weeks.
The troops were deployed weeks ago — state and local officials were tight-lipped about an exact deployment date — and told RGV Food Bank employees in Pharr that they won’t be paid until Sept. 5, according to a report from KGBT.
“To have any of our men and women in uniform having to be in a food bank line is embarrassing for Texas,” state Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, told KGBT, adding that it is “disrespectful” and blamed poor planning.
http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/National-Guard-troops-in-Rio-Grande-Valley-using-5721181.php?cmpid=twitter-mobile
Dear Marco Rubio, PLEASE Shut Down the Government
Spandan ChakrabartiAugust 28, 2014
Marco Rubio, aka Sen. Cottonmouth, has never gotten over the fact that his political dreams nearly drowned in the small bottle of water he reached for while giving the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address in 2013. He’s been trying to come back ever since.
What he needs to come back in the party he serves is the votes of cranky white supremacist Teabaggers that control the GOP’s fast-shrinking voting base. And nothing is more scary to that base than a bunch of brown people being allowed to stay in this country – thanks in no small part to the GOP’s obstruction in Congress to both comprehensive immigration reform and to full funding for enforcement.
Now that the President’s executive action is nearing, the GOP is growing more and more nervous every day about how best to foil Obama’s plan. They tried to attach draconian deportation changes to a scant funding bill in the House and it went down in flames because it did not have approval from racists extraordinaire such as Steve King. So the GOP’s bright young star, Marco Rubio is looking his fellow villain Ted Cruz for guidance. And he has found it: another government shutdown!
““There will have to be some sort of a budget vote or a continuing resolution vote, so I assume there will be some sort of a vote on this,” Mr. Rubio said Tuesday in an interview with Breitbart, a conservative website. “I’m interested to see what kinds of ideas my colleagues have about using funding mechanisms to address this issue.””
But he didn’t say shutdown! The funny thing is, everything else Republicans could do to use the funding mechanisms at Congress’ disposal have already been tried. They can’t even pass those restrictions out of the chamber of Congress they do control, let alone get it past the Senate and through the President’s veto pen. So that leaves only one option, if they are going to use the power of the purse to keep the President from doing his job: shutting down the government.
I say Marco Rubio should go for it. Everyone already knows that the GOP “leadership”, such as it is in Congress, is completely feckless and cannot stop their own party’s rabid wingbats from ruining all their plans. Ted Cruz proved that last year, by singlehandedly shutting down the government while his Republican colleagues were left watching in terror as their party suffered the worst damage in the polls in recorded history. Cruz had the support of the Tea Party nutjobs in the party, and that’s all that mattered. Nothing else – including the fact of Cruz’s utter failure to achieve stated objective for the shutdown, preventing the Affordable Care Act from taking full effect.
I suspect that the President, being the brilliant strategist that he is, is well aware of this phenomenon within the GOP. And he intends to use that predicament to drive a wedge inside the Republican party. That the president has a legitimate case for his action – the Republican House has now had over a year to vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill passed by the Senate and failed to take it up – makes his action even more potent and the GOP’s predicament even more lethal.
If Marco Rubio moves to shut down the government over the President’s action on immigration, which is likely to prioritize deportation of criminals and allow family members and skilled workers to remain in this country, one of two things is going to happen, both equally combustible for the GOP:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2014/8/28/dear-marco-rubio-please-shut-down-the-government
Thank you, DU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOJZv_9ZgGQ&feature=player_embedded
Josh be like:
http://twitter.com/KennettDems/status/505052230190661632/photo/1
this is why I voted for you, Mr. President!
Son of Warren Buffett buys Rosa Parks archive
By Associated Press August 28 at 10:30 PM
DETROIT — Hundreds of items that belonged to civil rights icon Rosa Parks and have been sitting unseen for years in a New York warehouse were sold to a foundation run by the son of billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett, the younger Buffett said Thursday.
Howard G. Buffett said his foundation plans to give the items, which include Parks’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, to an institute or museum he hasn’t yet selected.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/son-of-warren-buffett-buys-rosa-parks-archive/2014/08/28/7adedf38-2f1f-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1
Buffett heir buys Rosa Parks archive
7 hr ago | By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER of Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Hundreds of items that belonged to civil rights icon Rosa Parks and have been sitting unseen for years in a New York warehouse were sold to a foundation run by the son of billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett, the younger Buffett said Thursday.
Howard G. Buffett told The Associated Press that his foundation plans to give the items, which include Parks’ Presidential Medal of Freedom, to an institute or museum he hasn’t yet selected. Buffett said the items belong to the American people.
“I’m only trying to do one thing: preserve what’s there for the public’s benefit,” he said. “I thought about doing what Rosa Parks would want. I doubt that she would want to have her stuff sitting in a box with people fighting over them.”
A yearslong legal fight between Parks’ heirs and her friends led to the memorabilia being removed from her Detroit home and offered up to the highest bidder.
Parks, who died in 2005 at age 92, was one of the most beloved women in U.S. history. She became an enduring symbol of the civil rights movement when she refused to cede her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus to a white man. That triggered a yearlong bus boycott that helped to dismantle officially sanctioned segregation and helped lift the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to national prominence.
Because of the fight over Parks’ will, historians, students of the movement and the general public have had no access to items such as her photographs with presidents, her Congressional Gold Medal, a pillbox hat that she may have worn on the Montgomery bus, a signed postcard from King, decades of documents from civil rights meetings and her ruminations about life in the South as a black woman.
The impetus for the sale came earlier this year when Buffett saw a televised news report about how Guernsey’s Auctioneers has kept Parks’ valuables in a New York warehouse since 2006.
“I could not imagine having her artifacts sitting in a box in a warehouse somewhere,” Buffett said. “It’s just not right.”
So he directed the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to make an offer, which was accepted. A purchase agreement was signed over the summer, and the transaction was officially closed last week.
Buffett would not disclose the amount he paid for the items, but Steven Cohen, a lawyer for the seller, the Detroit-based Rosa & Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, said it was “consistent with the intrinsic value of the artifacts and their historical significance.”
In addition to medals and letters, the lot includes lamps and articles of clothing. Guernsey’s years ago put together a complete inventory, which is 70 pages long and includes more than 1,000 items. Many are in New York, but some remain in Parks’ home city of Detroit.
Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger, who had valued the collection at $10 million, would not say what it was sold for, but said the judge overseeing the Parks estate was satisfied with the deal.
“This material, which needed to be out there to be both educational and inspirational to people today and their children’s children, was sitting in our warehouse. That was wrong,” Ettinger said.
Buffett, a philanthropist who focuses much of his giving on helping fellow farmers in developing countries, acknowledged he probably was not the most likely candidate to buy Parks’ memorabilia.
“My wife said, ‘You don’t do that sort of stuff.’ I said, ‘I know, but it’s important,'” Buffett said
http://news.msn.com/us/apnewsbreak-buffett-heir-buys-rosa-parks-archive
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Good morning ladies. Have a great day.
Good Morning, SHO & Everyone!
I’ve enjoyed Madonna week, Rikyrah Thank you!