Reader Tips

Reader Tips 35 Comments

In 1949 Pete Seeger and Lee Hays wrote If I Had A Hammer, which that lists all the beautiful things that could be accomplished – “I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters” – if only a hammer could be located. In tonight’s musical oddity the performer not only has a hammer, but she looks like she’s itching to use if for less friendly purposes. From a 1964 appearance on Italian public television station Rai 2, here’s Rita Pavone performing her peppy, muscular, and slightly disconcerting “why, I oughta” version of Datemi un martello – literally, Give Me A Hammer.
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35 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. So…what is she saying about the other female candidates?
    “MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A legislative candidate from Wisconsin can’t use a profane, racially charged phrase to describe herself on the ballot, an election oversight board decided Wednesday.
    “Ieshuh Griffin, an independent running for a downtown Milwaukee seat in the state Assembly, wants to use the phrase, “NOT the ‘white man’s bitch.'”
    “But the state’s Government Accountability Board voted to bar that wording, agreeing with a staff recommendation that it is pejorative and therefore not allowed…”

  5. Israeli generals win US high-tech ballistic missile tracking system

    A ballistic missile fired at Israeli from any spot in the Middle East, be it Iran, Syria or South Lebanon, can now be tracked from launch by top Israeli commanders by means of the Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense System (ALTBMD) developed to protect NATO forces against missile threat and provided Israel by the United States.
    DEBKAfile’s military sources report: The system’s interim stage links up radars of early warning sensors, radar, missile interceptors and space-based detectors. This integrated, layered protective network against tactical missile threats will alert Israeli division and brigade commanders in the field and the home front from a combined US-Israel operations center to the launching of a ballistic missile (from up to 3,000 kilometers) against Israel by sea, air or land.
    For the first time, Israel’s war commanders will be forewarned in real time of an approaching ballistic missile, its estimated launch point and impact target and be able track the engagement by counter-missiles. The information will give them a sense of whether the incoming missile threatens command bases, military forces or civilian population areas.
    Our military sources add that the US Defense Department has decided to arm NATO generals in Afghanistan and Europe with interim ALTBMD capabilities by the end of the year, as part of America’s preparations for war with Iran.

  7. California Official’s $800,000 Salary in City of 38,000 Triggers Protests
    No kidding!
    I think we’re gonna see a lot of this kind of thing during the Greater Depression: a great revolt of the tax and reg serfs.
    I’ve always felt that just as government bonds have traditionally had lower yields than corporates due to their lower risk, so too should state employee remuneration (cash+benefits) be lower than in the private sector — by 5-10% at least. But as Kate observes, it’s an upside-down world, eh?
    A few weeks back I read somewhere that if state employees (the US states) pay was merely reduced to the level of the private sector, there would, in the aggregate, be no deficit. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it sounds plausible to me.

  8. Rita Pavone – What a little bundle of energy! Reminds me a bit of Annamaria Alberghetti (or sumpin’ like that)

  9. Shirley Sherrod’s quick dismissal from the Obama administration may have had less to do with her comments on race before the NAACP than her long involvement in the aptly named Pigford case, a class action against the US government on behalf of black farmers alleging that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had discriminated against black farmers during the period from 1983 through 1997.
    According to Wikipedia:
    “The plaintiffs settled with the government in 1999. Under the consent decree, all African American farmers would be paid a “virtually automatic” US$50,000 plus granted certain loan forgiveness and tax offsets. This process was called “Track A”.[2]
    “Alternatively, affected farmers could follow the “Track B” process, seeking a larger payment by presenting a greater amount of evidence – the legal standard in this case was to have a preponderance of evidence along with evidence of greater damages….
    […]
    “In other words, according to Agri-Pulse.com the number of total claims filed not only exceeded the original estimate by almost 40 to 50 times, it is close to four times the USDA’s estimate of 26,785 total black owned farms in 1977!”

  10. Re: Sara Landriault
    49 years ago, I applied for a staff position with a Canadian mining company. The detailed application form that they sent me asked for my “complexion”, hair colour and even the colour of my eyes. I complained to an MP who raised the matter in Parliament, and he later advised me that the company had “volunteered” to change the offending document.
    How times have changed, eh?
    Needless to say, I wasn’t desperate for a job at the time! BTW, I am (as far as I know) whitey white.
    Go get ’em Sara.

  11. The MSM is still all fired up about the Harper government’s decision to make the census voluntary. Even the National Post has jumped into the fray with a nauseating article by Kevin Libin, claiming that Harper is ruining his chances at a majority with this move.
    Now the head of Stats Can has resigned over this, but as far as I’m concerned this loser better not come whining to me.
    Another example of the MSM attempting to spin a minor issue into a major one. It reminds me of countless other “issues” with Harper, like Hans Schreiber, Afghan detainees and so on. When the MSM cries wolf as often as it does, is there any wonder why people are tuning them out?

  12. I haven’t gone through all the links here to see if anyone has already covered this… but… the BBC is reporting today that this American blogger has found evidence that B.P. has photoshopped the video shots of the Deepwater Horizon well leak. The same photos everyone has been looking at hoping that someone at B.P. has finally done something correctly? well, they’ve been shitting us.
    warning: I don’t recognize any of his favorite links on his side panel. That’s an indication that no one here reads them either… you know what I mean?
    http://www.americablog.com/2010/07/bp-photoshops-fake-photo-of-command.html

  13. “Another example of the MSM attempting to spin a minor issue into a major one.” – Dennis (11:33 pm)
    No kidding. The National referred to the putative furor over the census as a “vicious” debate. They’re really just reporting on reporting at this point.
    RT: In Toronto Life, Michael Ignatieff lists the ten things he can’t live without, which include his pocket Moleskine notebook, tickled ivory, a night at the opera, lacing up – “I like brown or black shoes with laces” – and a lovely little doll that his wife brought back from Hungary.
    Now you know. In case someone asks.
    (h/t bcblue.wordpress.com)

  14. Top 10 List of Cap & Trade scams in Europe.
    Michelle Chan, a Friends of the Earth campaigner, told the Wharton school that “Carbon offsets are especially prone to corruption and fraud because they involve representations that greenhouse gas emissions have occurred — and that ultimately can’t be proved.”
    She adds: “You’re saying, ‘My emissions would have been so much, but my offsets reduced it by this much.’ In many cases, the emissions reduction … would have happened in any case. The offsets market is inherently rife with opportunities for truth stretching and outright lies.”

  16. @11:45 – Iggy does know that you need to get the serfs to vote you in nowadays, right? ‘Cause that’s some very inept pandering, I must say.

  17. Who’s giving him advice these days?
    Hockey, sir. Remember to tell them you love hockey.

  18. Fred Barnes at the WSJ:
    “We’ve often seen media groupthink in campaigns…(but) I think JournoList is—or was—fundamentally different, and not simply because one of its members proposed to make palpably false accusations. As best I can tell, those involved in JournoList considered themselves part of a team. And their goal was to make sure the team won. In 2008, this was Mr. Obama’s team. More recently, the goal seems to have been to defeat the conservative team.”
    (…)
    “The first call I got after the Daily Caller unearthed the emails involving me was from Karl Rove. He said he wanted to talk to his ‘fellow racist.’ We laughed about this. But the whole episode was also sad. I didn’t sputter at the thought of being called a racist. But it was sad to see what journalism, or at least a segment of it, had come to.”
    The whole thing here.

  20. Frances, Pete Seeger wrote some great songs – One Grain Of Sand comes to mind – but I can’t quite stomach linking to him at this point in our history – or at least, the history of our neighbours to the south. Nice starry-eyed fellow, and all that, but if he’d have been given a hammer he’d have wanted a sickle, if you catch my drift.
    If you’re referring to Trini Lopez, on other hand, well, cha-cha-cha!
    /:>)>

  21. A follow up to this post’s music:
    Simon and Garfunkle…I’d Rather Be A Hammer than a Nail….love it!

  22. “Statscan employees say privately the agency has already undergone a significant shift in emphasis under the Harper government – away from social issues and towards more economic subjects. It’s also scaled back nuanced analysis – something that made it unique in the world, sources there say. The tone of reports is tilting away from detailed storytelling about Canadian life as workers are ordered to stick to reporting the facts.”
    The above quote is buried half way through an article about the census. I think it reveals the real battle between Harper and Statscan.
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/statistics-canada-chief-falls-on-sword-over-census/article1647348/

  23. EBD at 1:52 AM, my fav rendition was Peter, Paul and Mary. Theirs was the first LP I ever bought. I liked Seeger, too. Now, not so much.

  24. To quote the immortal Scottish comedian Billy Conolly
    “If I had a hammer, there wouldn’t be no folk singers”

  27. Indeed, Brendan Kelly. The great James Lileks once said something along the lines of, “What do you mean, IF you had a hammer? They’ve got them at Wal-Mart. Couple of bucks, tops. Where’s the problem?”

  31. ‘Some cognitive dissonance in If I Had a Hammer: peace-loving Pete Seeger singing about how he’d change people’s attitudes — if he had a hammer.
    Actually, the tune’s pretty boring, but with Peter, Paul and Mary’s harmonies, it was OK. I don’t think I’ll youtube it, though. 😉

  33. batb – not the way Rita sings it. Actually, I think Pete Seeger (despite his politics,) could harmonize pretty well with Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hayes and Fred Hellerman.

  34. larben, you’re probably right about Seeger’s harmonizing with Gilbert (I know who she is!) and the other two, but I was too young to hear these guys when they first sang it! I was getting into folk in the ’60s and ’70s!! 😉
    ‘Now, if I just had a hammer …

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