Morris Dees has been marked for death for decades — long before I wrote about his Southern Poverty Law Center and how he bankrupted Klansmen who weren’t about to be prosecuted for the lynching of a young African American. This month, the SPLC won the appeal of a $1.3 million verdict against a notorious Klan leader — and the SPLC’s security consultant, a former CIA agent, tells Dees that its legal actions "have placed the Center and its personnel in the crosshairs of virulently racist and heavily armed groups." Morris is used to death threats. This appeal is for his staff — he’d like to hire extra security. If you’d like to donate, do it here. And thanks.

Rave rave rave. And not just me. Read the Times. Or just watch this.

“Let’s see action, let’s see people, let’s see freedom, let’s see who cares.” Pete Townshend, from Who Came First. 

At the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea, until November 26.

Jeffrey Rubin will speak on The Art of Flourishing this Sunday, 11 AM to 1 PM at the home of Harriet Diamond, 692 Mildred Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666.Free to members of New Jersey Society for Clinical Social Work, $40 for Non-Members. 

My 94-year-old mother — a lifelong reader, mother of a writer and a medical researcher who writes beautifully about science — is losing her sight. She’s been admitted to a pilot program that might stop her vision loss; if it doesn’t work, darkness awaits. But on the just-introduced Apple iPhone 4S, there’s an amazing voice-recognition feature that opens the world for the visually challenged. Watch for the blind woman at the end of the video and you’ll understand why, across the country, some people are crying for happy. And thanking Steve. 

Unlikely choice. But kinda terrific. Can’t get it? It’s this.

He defies description. The European Tony Bennett? A saloon singer? Or just… Paolo Conte.

I wrote a short take on my Gilt blog about the influence of the Hamptons on de Kooning’s work, but the piece to inhale before you go to this exhibition is Jill Krementz’s picture-and-text tour in New York Social Diary. Jill is one of our best chroniclers of writers and artists, and here she delivers a brilliant primer on de Kooning’s evolution as a painter — and a who’s who of MOMA guests at the opening. 

Tony Bennett has a new CD: “Duets II.” This one, with Amy Winehouse, is just so good — and so sad. (To buy the CD from Amazon, click here. For the MP3 download, click here.) 

The author of The Art of Flourishing will speak on ‘Insights from Buddhism and Psychoanalysis’ at New York Insight on Friday, 9/16, 7-9 PM.
 

Duane Hampton, author of Mark Hampton: An American Decorator, will be speaking at the New York Society for Interior Design (170 East 70 Street, New York City) this Wednesday, 9/14, at 6 PM. Admission is free, but RSVP is required. Write rsvp@nysid.edu or call 212-472-1500, x405.