Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marissa Bagg: Sebastian Chavez: Boy's organs to be donated, helping five to seven others (WPTV)
Friends gather for moment of silence for young boy.
Bristol man gets revenge by texting works of Shakespeare to rogue internet seller (Bristol Post)
Edd Joseph, 24, who lives in the city with his girlfriend, was furious when he bought a PS3 games console for £80 and the seller failed to deliver the goods. So Edd decided to take his revenge by sending him the entire works of the Bard - by text.
Tom Danehy: If Arizona Republicans hate welfare so much, why are they looking to expand it for education? (Tucson Weekly)
By now, Arizonans who care about education (and apparently most of us don't) realize that when a Republican in this state opens his/her mouth to speak about education, about 54 percent of what comes out translates to "I hate teachers unions." Another 24 percent is "I hate teachers, period." Then, 21.2 percent is "How can I dick the middle class and help my rich donors send their kids to private school at the same time?" The remaining 0.8 percent is largely unintelligible, even more so than the other 99.2 percent.
Jessica Chiappone: I haven't voted in years because I went to prison years ago. Give me my rights (Guardian)
I've paid my taxes and obeyed the law, yet there are millions just like me. Here's what I told the UN last week - and what's next.
Jess Denham: Disney's Frozen is 'very evil' gay propaganda, says Christian pastor (Independent)
Disney's hit movie Frozen encourages homosexuality and bestiality. Or at least, that's what one Christian pastor thinks.
Patrick Strudwick: "Boy George: Bad karma" (Independent)
… the Norwegian model told me, O'Dowd [Boy George], under the influence of cocaine and convinced that Carlsen had broken into his computer, "asked me to come into the bedroom. He and another guy are standing there and suddenly they are both jumping and beating on me and kicking on my back, my face, dragging me along the floor... tying me up... handcuffing me...screaming abuse… I've never seen a person so full of hate. I thought he would kill me."
Eddie Deezen: The Popeye the Sailor Story (Neatorama)
Popeye the Sailor made his comic strip debut in January of 1929. Popeye was originally just one of the many characters in a comic series drawn by Elzie Segar called Thimble Theater.
Adam Todd Brown: 4 Famous People Who Get Away With Being Total Hypocrites (Cracked)
#4. Jimmy Kimmel
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
took the day off.
wrote:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny spring day.
Pee-Themed Letter To Auction
John Lennon
A letter that John Lennon wrote to producer Phil Spector blaming Who drummer Keith Moon and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson for urinating on a recording console in the Seventies is going up for auction, via auctioneer Cooper Owen. Dubbed by Lennon "A Matter of Pee," the missive minces no words and shows the former Beatle's discontent with the recording studio that wanted to evict him over the matter. It dates back to Lennon's "Lost Weekend" period, a debaucherous 18-month stretch in which he dated his assistant May Pang outside of his marriage with Yoko Ono, worked on 1975's "oldies" record Rock 'n' Roll
"Should you not yet know, it was Harry and Keith who pissed on the console!" Lennon wrote in the exclamation point-laden letter. Later in the note, he added, "I can't be expected to mind adult rock stars nor can May, besides she works for me, not A+M! I'm about to piss off to [recording studio] Record Plant because of this crap!"
Lennon later gifted the letter to guitarist Jessie Ed Davis, who played on Pussy Cats, Rock 'n' Roll and Lennon's 1974 album Walls and Bridges. It is expected to fetch between $6,600 and $9,900 in the auction. Davis' estate is also auctioning four drawings Lennon gave him, including a self-portrait with Davis and Nilsson, a sumi ink depiction of a man meditating, a landscape full of mountains and puns and an acetate sleeve with a UFO, a yin-yang and the words "Walls and Bridges." Bidding begins on all auctions on Friday.
Both Moon and Nilsson had reputations for riotous behavior. Moon was known for blowing up toilets and imbibing copious substances (after accidentally ingesting an elephant tranquilizer once, the drummer spent days paralyzed), and Nilsson was once ejected from the L.A. club the Troubadour with Lennon after the pair heckled the Smothers Brothers. In 1978, Moon died in Nilsson's house after overdosing on a sedative his doctor had prescribed him to prevent seizures induced by withdrawing from alcohol.
John Lennon
25 Years Later
Exxon Valdez
Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, at the time the nation's largest oil spill.
The 987-foot tanker, carrying 53 million gallons of crude, struck Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989. Within hours, it unleashed an estimated 10.8 million gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the water. Storms and currents then smeared it over 1,300 miles of shoreline.
For a generation of people around the world, the spill was seared into their memories by images of fouled coastline in Prince William Sound, of sea otters, herring and birds soaked in oil, of workers painstakingly washing crude off the rugged beaches.
After the spill, the population of herring crashed. It is now listed as "not recovering." The silvery fish is a key species because it is eaten by salmon, seabirds and marine mammals from otters to whales. Four years after the spill, the estimated herring population based on modeling shrunk from 120 metric tons to less than 30 metric tons.
Exxon Valdez
Show History By Pen
US Archives
Joseph Stalin's signature was bold and forceful, Harry Truman's was unaffected and readily legible, while Winston Churchill's was formal and unflappable.
The autographs of World War II's Big Three leaders -- etched on a program to a string orchestra concert during a break from their conference in Potsdam -- are on display at the US National Archives in a new exhibition that aims to look at history through penmanship.
The exhibition, which opens Friday and runs until January 2015, taps into the National Archives' collections to show more than 100 signatures of figures as diverse as pop legend Michael Jackson and the first US president George Washington.
In perhaps the most chilling section, the National Archives has put out the marriage license of Adolf Hitler signed on April 29, 1945 as the German dictator and Eva Braun eloped one day before they committed suicide.
US Archives
Corpse Schtupping In Seattle
Kurt Cobain
With the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death approaching, a Seattle police detective re-examined the case files in connection with the Nirvana front man's suicide.
Police spokeswoman Renee Witt said Thursday the review found nothing new. But while looking over the files, the detective found several rolls of undeveloped film, Witt said. Seattle police planned to release one image from that discovery later Thursday.
Police took another look at the Cobain suicide to be ready to answer questions in connection with next month's anniversary, she said.
"There's still a lot of interest in this case," Witt said. "The detective went into the case files to refresh himself. The outcome of the case has not changed."
Kurt Cobain
Jury Selection Continues
George Wallace
A jury was being picked Thursday for comedian George Wallace's trial seeking $9 million from a posh Strip resort for a leg injury he received when he fell over stage wiring during a private performance for a corporate group in 2007.
Clark County District Court Judge Ronald Israel said he hoped a jury could be seated to begin hearing testimony Friday.
Wallace, 61, who removes his trademark beret as he enters the courtroom, blames the Bellagio Las Vegas for an Achilles tendon rupture his lawsuit said he suffered while performing for an HSBC Card Services Inc. corporate audience.
Wallace had named HSBC as a defendant in the civil negligence lawsuit filed in 2009. Those two parties reached a confidential pretrial settlement this week, according to Gentile and Loren Young, attorney for HSBC. Neither would disclose the terms.
Gentile cast Wallace as an entertainer so unwilling to disappoint an audience that he finished the show for the HSBC group and went on a few hours later to perform his nightly show from an office chair at the Flamingo hotel-casino.
George Wallace
Japan PM To Visit
Anne Frank House
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R-Right-Wing Revisionist) will visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam this weekend to express regret over the vandalism at Tokyo libraries of hundreds of books related to the young Holocaust victim, a Japanese official said Thursday.
Abe will visit the museum Sunday, a day before he attends the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the appearance publicly.
More than 300 Frank-related books, including copies of "The Diary of a Young Girl," were vandalized recently at Tokyo libraries. Police last week arrested a man in the case.
While Abe is stressing the importance of learning history, his revisionist view about his own country's wartime brutalities in Asia has strained ties with South Korea. Japan is pushing for a three-way meeting with South Korea and the U.S. during the March 24-25 summit in the Netherland, where leaders of all three countries plan to attend.
Anne Frank House
Too Big To Fail, Predator Edition
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair
The outcome of a trial that was widely regarded as a litmus test for how the US military handles sexual assault in its ranks has caused an outcry among lawmakers and advocates of victims of sexual assault - as well as many long-serving military officers.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair, accused of sexual assault, on Thursday received what was widely regarded as a light sentence, consisting of a $20,000 fine and an official reprimand.
The general had pleaded guilty to having a long-standing affair with a captain under his command and having inappropriate relationships with three other junior soldiers. Earlier in the week the Army dropped sexual assault charges, citing what the judge (an Army colonel) reportedly believed were questions about unreliability in the victim's testimony and "undue command influence" in moving the charges forward.
Sinclair's sentence was "beyond disappointing," said retired Rear Adm. Jamie Barnett, now a partner with the law firm of Venable LLP, who represented the accused on a pro bono basis. "Clearly, the Army judge does not understand the nature of cruelty, maltreatment of subordinates, and sexual abuse by a superior in command," he added in a statement. "This sentence can only be interpreted as the Army viewing what General Sinclair did as just not that bad."
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair
FWIW, dear old Dad's CO (a colonel) in WWII was court martialed for fraternizing with the enlisted men, playing poker and gambling.
He ended up doing hard time.
Firing of LAPD Officer Upheld
Rihanna
A judge has upheld the firing of a former Los Angeles police officer who improperly took a photo of Rihanna's battered face that eventually ended up on celebrity website TMZ.
Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin issued a ruling Thursday saying that the firing of former officer Rebecca Reyes was proper and her conduct should preclude her from being a peace officer.
Reyes acknowledged she used her personal cellphone to take a picture of an evidence photo that depicted Rihanna's injuries after she was beaten by then-boyfriend Chris Brown in 2009. She also acknowledged sharing it with other officers, but denied leaking it to TMZ.
Reyes' attorney accepted the ruling without argument Thursday afternoon.
Rihanna
Top 20
Concert Tours
The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The list is based on data provided to the trade publication Pollstar by concert promoters and venue managers.
1. (2) Justin Timberlake; $1,804,342; $115.43.
2. (1) Beyoncé; $1,798,401; $126.05.
3. (3) George Strait; $1,582,818; $90.71.
4. (4) Pink; $1,529,428; $87.17.
5. (5) Jay Z; $1,089,218; $96.47.
6. (6) Kanye West; $949,374; $89.06.
7. (8) Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $742,976; $54.21.
8. (9) Jason Aldean; $601,248; $50.52.
9. (10) Keith Urban; $555,116; $63.06.
10. (12) Zac Brown Band; $505,903; $63.91.
11. (13) John Mayer; $454,733; $61.84.
12. (14) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis; $362,011; $41.34.
13. (15) Jeff Dunham; $243,874; $46.81.
14. (16) Florida Georgia Line; $228,732; $32.93.
15. (20) Tobymac; $182,494; $33.60.
16. (18) The Fresh Beat Band; $180,188; $40.17.
17. (19) The Band Perry; $174,006; $41.71.
18. (New) Justin Moore; $159,177; $33.95.
19. (New) "Winter Jam"/Newsboys; $153,235; $12.87.
20. (New) Willie Nelson; $131,615; $75.86.
Concert Tours
In Memory
Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps, the pastor who led a small Kansas church's vitriolic "God Hates Fags" anti-gay campaign across the United States, has died, the church said on Thursday.
"People die - that is the way of all flesh," a blog post on the church's website said.
"Look, you can't preach the Bible without preaching the hatred of God," Phelps said in a 2010 Huffington Post interview.
Phelps' rhetoric was hotter than fire and brimstone. He called President George W. Bush a "Bible pervert," Barack Obama a "bloody beast" and conservative TV commentator Bill O'Reilly a "demon-possessed messenger of Satan".
Phelps's church gained notoriety in 1998 by picketing the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a gay man who was beaten outside a bar in Wyoming and left to die. His story was turned into a movie and play.
Phelps and his congregants had their biggest impact at military funerals, where they faced an angry backlash from veterans' families and their supporters. Their right to picket led to action by the U.S. Congress and a freedom-of-speech legal battle that the church won at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Phelps's church even sent a contingent to Pittsburgh in 2003 for the funeral of Fred Rogers, the mild-mannered host of the children's TV show "Mister Rogers Neighborhood," on the grounds that he was "a wuss" and had not denounced homosexuality.
Fred Phelps
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