Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Diane Ravitch: Education in Crisis and the Threat of Privatization (Huffington Post)
"Do you think American education is in crisis? What is the cause of the crisis?" And I answer, "Yes, there is a crisis, but it is not the one you have read about. The crisis in education today is an existential threat to the survival of public education. The threat comes from those who unfairly blame the school for social conditions, and then create a false narrative of failure. The real threat is privatization and the loss of a fundamental democratic institution."
Paul Krugman: The Pathos of Republican Reformers (NY Times Blog)
What we call the Republican establishment is really a network of organizations that represent donor interests because they're supported by donor money. These organizations impose ideological purity with a combination of carrots and sticks: assured support for politicians and pundits who toe the line, sanctions against anyone who veers from orthodoxy - excommunication if you're an independent thinking pundit, a primary challenge from the Club for Growth if you're an imperfectly reliable politician.
Lucy Mangan: President Trump: Can He Really Win? review - it's no longer a ridiculous question, sadly (The Guardian)
When anger meets bigotry, the outcome could be President Trump, as Matt Frei's campaign-trail documentary makes clear. Plus: goodish/baddish Happyish, and the joy of Raised by Wolves.
Tom Danehy: Tom celebrates being old with old journalism and musings of living in crazyland (Tucson Weekly)
There was an item in the local daily paper last week about a 15-year-old kid in West Virginia who died when he was struck in the head while playing a game of "dodge the arrow." Poor kid; he never got the opportunity to vote for Donald Trump.
Adda Bjarnadottir, MS: "Instant Coffee: Good or Bad?" (Authority Nutrition)
Overall, instant coffee is a healthy, low-calorie beverage that is linked to the same health benefits as other types of coffee.
Markos Hasiotis: 5 Famous Characters You Didn't Know Died Stupid Deaths (Cracked)
5) Saruman, Mighty Wizard, Gets Unceremoniously Stabbed
Eric Thurm: "Archer creator Adam Reed: 'I wouldn't want the characters to be my friends'"(The Guardian)
As FX's farcical, sardonic spy cartoon returns, Reed talks about the complications of a show that featured a group called Isis and whether the Bastard Chef might make a comeback.
Sam Thielman: How fatherhood and grief have shaped the work of graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (The Guardian)
The acclaimed creator of Ghost World has spent five years on his most ambitious project yet: a psychedelic tale of murder and time travel.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Video Game Animation
David
Thanks, Dave!
Reader Comment
Re: Carl Sagan link
I want to thank you for the Carl Sagan link (Carl Sagan On Religion And The Possibility Of Life On Other Planets).
It opened a whole new world of personal interviews with intelligent, gifted people, I could have spent my entire day and more just absorbing the myriad of wonderful links that emanated from that single inclusion of light: Temple Grandin, Richard Feynman, Buckminster Fuller, et al.
Thank you,
Billy in Cypress
Thanks, Billy, and you're welcome!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JUST LABEL THE CRAP DAMN-IT!
BATS-SHIT CRAZY!
THE LYING CHRISTIANS!
MARCH IN ALASKA!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and much warmer.
Tribute Concerts
David Bowie
A sold-out Carnegie Hall audience joined a children's chorus in a singalong to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" Thursday, a sweet end to a tribute concert that turned into a memorial through some bizarre timing.
Jakob Dylan, Michael Stipe, the Flaming Lips and Heart's Ann Wilson were among the artists who joined Bowie's former collaborator Tony Visconti and other musicians who had performed with the late rock star.
Organizers of an annual benefit for music education that focuses on the work of a particular artist had decided last fall that Bowie would be featured for its 13th year. They publicly announced it in January - just hours before Bowie's family said the rock star had died on Jan. 10.
The concert sold out in two hours, demand so fierce that a second show was added for Friday at Radio City Music Hall.
David Bowie
Open Casting Call
'Hamilton'
The Broadway smash "Hamilton," which has been cheered for reclaiming the nation's founding story by a multicultural cast, has oddly come under fire for specifically seeking "nonwhite men and women" for upcoming roles in future versions.
That went too far for the Actors' Equity Association union, which said Wednesday that the show's language was not official or in compliance with their rules.
The show responded by saying it regretted the confusion and will amend the notice to add that "we welcome people of all ethnicities to audition."
No such outcry was heard when the show was first being mounted, which called specifically for nonwhite actors to play the likes of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson and Eliza Hamilton. Only King George III was supposed to be filled by a white man.
'Hamilton'
Reins In Civil Forfeiture
Supreme Court
The US Supreme Court struck a blow on Wednesday against a government practice of seizing the financial assets of people accused of crimes, even if the money has no connection to criminal charges.
Criminal defendants had argued that the process of freezing their assets before they had been convicted harmed their ability to pay for a legal defense.
In a 5-to-3 ruling, the high court ruled that federal prosecutors had violated the constitutional rights of a Miami woman accused of Medicare fraud when they froze more than $40 million in assets, including money that wasn't related to the criminal charges.
Sila Luis had argued that the forfeiture prohibited her from hiring the lawyer of her choice with "untainted" money. As the president of two healthcare companies, she was indicted in 2012 on charges that she and others had defrauded Medicare of $45 million over six years.
Investigators said the scheme involved bribes and kickbacks paid to prospective patients who agreed to sign up for home healthcare they did not need or never received. Some of the funds were later transferred to Mexico, while other money was used to buy properties, expensive cars, and jewelry.
Supreme Court
Rupert's Ex-Wife Moves Up
Wendi Deng
A US magazine has claimed that Wendi Deng and Vladimir Putin are dating.
US Weekly published the astonishing claims a day after Rupert Murdoch's ex-wife was pictured going onto Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's yacht in St Barth during a vacation with her family.
One source told the publication they are "serious".
They claim rumors have been circulating around the world after the pair divorced their former partners.
Putin split from Lyudmila - the mother of his two children - after 30 years of marriage in 2013, while Deng split from media mogul Murdoch in 2014.
Wendi Deng
University Names Law School For Scalia
George Mason
George Mason University plans to name its law school for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Fat Tony" Scalia, following an anonymous $20 million donation from a Scalia admirer and a $10 million donation from the foundation of industrialist and philanthropist Charles Koch.
The law school announced Thursday that its anonymous donor approached the school through a friend of Scalia and asked that the law school be named for him.
Mason's law school has developed a reputation as a conservative powerhouse in recent years.
Koch, known for his donations to conservative and libertarian causes, has long been a prominent donor to Mason.
The name change will require approval from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
George Mason
Rejects Nazi Collaboration Claim
Associated Press
The Associated Press on Wednesday defended its operations in Germany in the run-up to World War II after a researcher uncovered what was claimed to be evidence of collaboration with the Nazi regime.
The US news organization responded to a paper in the German-language journal Studies in Contemporary History claiming it supplied American newspapers with material selected by the Nazi propaganda ministry, and in turn allowed it to use AP images for anti-Semitic propaganda.
"AP rejects the suggestion that it collaborated with the Nazi regime at any time," said a statement from agency spokesman Paul Colford.
"Rather, the AP was subjected to pressure from the Nazi regime from the period of Hitler's coming to power in 1933 until the AP's expulsion from Germany in 1941. AP staff resisted the pressure while doing its best to gather accurate, vital and objective news for the world in a dark and dangerous time."
Colford added however that the AP is now "reviewing documents and other files in and beyond AP corporate archives, in the US and Europe, to further our understanding of the period."
Associated Press
Fined $5,000
Ex-Judge
A former Maryland judge who ordered a defendant to be physically shocked in his courtroom was sentenced Thursday to participate in anger-management classes and pay a $5,000 fine.
Robert C. Nalley of La Plata, Maryland, will also have to spend a year on probation. Nalley, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a civil rights violation for ordering a deputy to activate a "stun-cuff" that a defendant appearing before him was wearing around his ankle. The defendant, who was acting as his own lawyer, was before Nalley in July 2014 for jury selection and had failed to listen to Nalley's orders to stop speaking.
After he was shocked, the defendant fell to the ground screaming. A video of the exchange without sound and separate audio was played in court Thursday. Prosecutor Kristi O'Malley noted that the defendant didn't raise his voice or yell during the exchange and even called the judge "sir."
She said Nalley "very quickly grew impatient" and that his use of the stun-cuff was "highly disproportionate" for "nothing more than verbal interruptions."
"Our constitution does not allow a violation of rights based on annoyance," she said.
Ex-Judge
Hospital Funds
Vatican't
The Vatican said on Thursday it is investigating two former officials over claims money meant for a children's hospital was used to refurbish a cardinal's luxury apartment.
Costly work at former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's flat -- seeming to clash with Pope Francis's recommendations that church officials live as modestly as he -- caused a scandal when allegations emerged that the Bambino Gesu Hospital foundation had helped foot the bill.
Giuseppe Profiti, former manager at the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesu, and its ex-treasurer Massimo Spina are being investigated, Vatican press officer Greg Burke said, confirming a report in Italian magazine L'Espresso.
Efforts to track down the two men, who no longer work at the hospital, were not immediately successful.
Vatican't
New Museum
Smithsonian
The Smithsonian now plans to acknowledge the sexual-assault allegations against Bill Cosby at its new African-American history museum on the National Mall, which will display two items related to Cosby's career in television and standup comedy.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opens Sept. 24, will include the cover of a Cosby comedy album and a comic book from his pioneering TV drama "I Spy" as part of its exhibit on black entertainers and artists. Initially, the museum planned to include historical facts about the items without mentioning the allegations, drawing criticism from some Cosby accusers.
The museum's founding director, Lonnie Bunch, said in a statement Thursday that the display would address Cosby's alleged behavior, although he did not specify exactly how.
"Like all of history, our interpretation of Bill Cosby is a work in progress, something that will continue to evolve as new evidence and insights come to the fore," Bunch said. "Visitors will leave the exhibition knowing more about Mr. Cosby's impact on American entertainment, while recognizing that his legacy has been severely damaged by the recent accusations."
Smithsonian
In Memory
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, the world's most famous female architect who attracted plaudits for works of sweeping curves and controversy for huge cost overruns, died on Thursday at the age of 65, her company said.
Iraqi-British Hadid, the first woman to win the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture, was best known for her designs for the Guangzhou Opera House in China and the aquatics centre used in the 2012 London Olympics.
Born in Baghdad in 1950, where her father was a politician, Hadid forged a career in the male-dominated world of architecture bringing her curvaceous, radical designs to life in glass, steel and concrete.
"It is with great sadness that Zaha Hadid Architects have confirmed that Dame Zaha Hadid died suddenly in Miami in the early hours of this morning," her firm said in a statement, adding that she had suffered a heart attack after contracting bronchitis this week.
Hadid's other notable works included the Italian National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, the Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku and the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati.
Hadid studied maths at the American University of Beirut before going on to study at the prestigious Architecture Association in London, where her professors included leading Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
She established her own practice in London, Zaha Hadid Associates, in 1979 but it took some time before she got a building constructed. The first was a fire station in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, in 1993.
She was twice awarded Britain's top architecture award, the RIBA Stirling Prize, in 2010 and 2011.
Queen Elizabeth II honoured her with a damehood in 2012 and only last month she was awarded Britain's Royal Gold Medal, joining Frank Gehry, Norman Foster and Frank Lloyd Wright in receiving the architectural honour.
Zaha Hadid
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