Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: "Barack McNamara Obama: Why Can't Obama See His Wars Are Unwinnable?"
Robert McNamara, one of the "best and the brightest" technocrats behind the escalation of the Vietnam War, eventually came to regret his actions. But his public contrition, which included a book and a series of interviews for the documentary "The Fog of War," were greeted with derision.
Tom Danehy: The days of criticizing the City Council on a partisan basis may soon come to an end (tucsonweekly.com)
A man for whom I have great respect sorta sideways called me a Republican the other day. I get this every now and then, as the Democratic Party to which I have belonged for decades continues to drift-not just to the left, but also sometimes in a yz direction on the coordinates, toward a place where the air is thin, and it's easy to become disoriented.
Christopher S. Putnam: The Total Perspective Vortex (damninteresting.com)
Most people think of the "mentally disordered" as a delusional lot, holding bizarre and irrational ideas about themselves and the world around them. Isn't a mental disorder, after all, an impairment or a distortion in thought or perception? This is what we tend to think, and for most of modern psychology's history, the experts have agreed; realistic perceptions have been considered essential to good mental health. More recently, however, research has arisen that challenges this common-sense notion.
Kent Sepkowitz: Paging Dr. Feelgood (slate.com)
The joys and perils of giving celebrities what they want.
Sharon Waxman: "Jackson's Final Act: Sainthood" (huffingtonpost.com)
We all know that it is unseemly to speak ill of the dead. But today's metamorphosis of Michael Jackson was nothing short of astonishing.
Catherine O'Sullivan: Despite his immense talent, Michael Jackson is not a man who should be revered (tucsonweekly.com)
I had the misfortune of landing at Los Angeles International Airport the day Michael Jackson died. I called a friend and told her I'd be there in an hour. She said, "I doubt that. Michael Jackson died. People are pouring into the streets."
Paul Krassner: Behind the Fake Report of Jeff Goldblum's Death (huffingtonpost.com)
A friend of mine received an e-mail from Global Associated News, complete with a professional-looking logo of the globe. Their "Breaking News" was about the death of Jeff Goldblum.
DAVID KUPFER: In The Jester's Court (thesunmagazine.org)
Paul Krassner On The Virtues Of Irreverence, Indecency, And Illegal Drugs.
"Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating, and Drinking Wine in California" by Jonah Raskin: A review by Regan McMahon
At the end of the fall semester of 2006, Sonoma State University communications Professor and author Jonah Raskin, about to turn 65, decided he needed to get in touch with the earth and explore his rural surroundings.
Farhad Manjoo: www.thosenewdomainnames.areforsuckers (slate.com)
Soon you'll be able to buy any top-level domain you want: .yourname, .america, .whatever. Don't do it.
Glenn Gamboa: Pragmatic '80s band Def Leppard is still spot on (Newsday)
You don't need to be bonked in the head by a massive piece of Broadway scenery to figure out that something is going on.
Laura Barton: Where there's Maccabees there's brass (guardian.co.uk)
The Maccabees sing songs about Lego and toothpaste. They are also being hailed as the saviours of indie. So why have they joined forces with a brass band?
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
Results are delayed a few days.
The 'Taking it Personally' Edition
Has the unexpected death of a celebrity ever affected you in a profound manner?
Send your response to
Results tomorrow
noted:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Michael Moore's New Documentary
'Capitalism: A Love Story'
Michael Moore's latest documentary now has a title - and a theme that resonates with recession-weary audiences.
Moore's look at the consequences of big business will be called "Capitalism: A Love Story." The documentary is due in theaters Oct. 2.
Distributor Overture Films said "Capitalism" examines the disastrous effects of corporate profiteering.
'Capitalism: A Love Story'
Bush Blowback?
Science
The share of Americans who see science as the nation's greatest achievement is down sharply, even as the public continues to hold scientists in high regard. A new Pew Research Center poll indicates that 27 percent of Americans say the nation's greatest achievements are in science, medicine and technology, more than any category other than don't know.
But that's down from 47 percent in a similar study a decade ago, the center reported Thursday.
The era of "Big Science," like the moon landings, has receded into history, while one-time wonders such as organ transplants seem increasingly routine and the battle against cancer drags on.
Most Americans - 64 percent - see this country's science as "above average," but with advances by other countries getting increasing attention, just 17 percent say it's the best in the world. Indeed, the European Union currently published more scientific papers than the United States.
Science
Flap Over Logo
'Big Love'
The University of Utah says the HBO series "Big Love" can't use the school's name or logo without its permission.
University officials say they learned an episode of the show displayed a document with the school name and logo. They say the document made it seem like the university is affiliated with the program about a fictitious polygamous family that lives in a Salt Lake City suburb.
University President Michael K. Young says Collegiate Images, the university's agent, has sent a cease-and- desist letter to HBO, demanding the logo be removed from the episode and not be used in the future.
HBO said it was confident that nothing in the program violates anyone's rights and that it "will be responding in due course."
'Big Love'
Small, Empty Table
Nancy Pelosi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution honoring Michael Jackson because debate on the symbolic measure could raise "contrary views" about the pop star's life.
Lawmakers are free to use House speeches "to express their sympathy or their praise any time that they wish," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "I don't think it's necessary for us to have a resolution."
A resolution sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, cites some of the singer's charitable acts and proclaims him an American legend, musical icon and world humanitarian.
Unbowed, Jackson Lee said she will seek support from colleagues who thanked her when she introduced the measure June 26, one day after Michael Jackson died. She said honorary resolutions don't often "pass the next day."
Nancy Pelosi
New Words
Webster's
Plan to spend your staycation watching vlogs and webisodes? Or perhaps you plan to signal a flash mob for a quick bite of shawarma.
If you're not entirely certain what all that means, turn to the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which has added about 100 new words that largely reflect changing trends in American society.
John Morse, president and publisher of the Springfield-based dictionary publisher, said many of this year's new words are tied to changes in technology, increasing environmental awareness and aging baby boomers' concerns about their health and have become part of the general lexicon.
Some words that just now made the cut have been around for generations. The term "sock puppet" - a false online identity used for deceptive purposes - was tracked to 1959 but has taken on new popular use with people using fake IDs on social networking sites.
Webster's
8,000 Artists Celebrate
Panafrican Festival
From superstars to tribal dancers, thousands of African artists are celebrating their troubled continent's culture and potential in an epic festival - and looking back at what they've accomplished and squandered in four decades of freedom from colonial rule.
It's been 40 years since the first Panafrican Festival in Algiers. Since then, there has been so much bloodshed, instability and financial turmoil across the continent that nobody was in a position to organize a second one, until now.
The opening parade this week made for a staggering one-and-a-half-hour show, with several hundred performers from Congo's Pygmy hunters to Kenya's Masai and Mali's Peuhl tribesmen mixing their dances and songs with Arab fighters galloping through the stage on horseback, fire-eaters and trapeze artists.
Some 8,000 dancers, singers and other artists are gathering with academics for symposiums, plays and writing seminars at the second Panafrican Festival, which lasts until July 20 at hundreds of venues throughout Algeria.
Panafrican Festival
Horse Race Soundtrack
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
A British horse racing track said Thursday it asked the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to give a recital at its finishing post, hoping to wow spectators and spur the animals to quicken their pace.
Kempton Park race course, just south of London, staged the unique event on Wednesday, as the orchestra played the "William Tell" Overture, the "Lone Ranger" theme song, during a horse race.
Organizers said it was the first race staged with a live soundtrack.
Hopes that the music would encourage a speedier race were dashed - winning horse Action Impact covered that one mile, three furlong course (2.2km) in two minutes and 20.34 seconds, more than two seconds off the record pace.
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
How Low Does He Go?
Rupert
Police said on Thursday they would not reopen investigations into the interception of celebrities' mobile phone voicemails by journalists, despite new allegations against a Rupert Murdoch newspaper. Skip related content
According to a report in The Guardian, reporters at Murdoch's best selling News of the World worked with private investigators to access "two or three thousand" private mobile phones belonging to celebrities, MPs and public figures.
The story generated a political storm and Prime Minister Gordon Brown said there were "serious questions to be answered." But police said they would not reopen a 2005 investigation that led to the jailing of two men, News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and a private investigator, for hacking into the phones of staff working for the royal family.
Labour Party politicians called for an inquiry into the police's actions, Murdoch's newspapers and the Conservative Party, which hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as its communications chief in May 2007.
Rupert
Lawyers Spar In Dispute
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton hated her 2006 movie "Pledge This!" and refused for months to make promotional appearances for it despite a contract requiring her to do so, lawyers for the film's investors said as trial opened Thursday in an $8 million lawsuit against her.
With Hilton nodding vigorously from her defense table seat, her attorney Michael Weinsten insisted she did numerous appearances for the movie but was unavailable to meet many requests by the film's producers because of her extremely busy schedule. Hilton also had the right to refuse some promotion events that might harm her "brand" and never agreed to plug the DVD release of the movie from December 2006 through May 2007, he said.
Hilton, a 28-year-old heiress, actress and model, is expected to testify Friday. She traveled to Miami for the trial from Dubai, where she has been filming episodes of her "My New BFF" reality show. Wearing a sleeveless black-and-white dress with a large bow on the back, Hilton sat quietly at the defense table during opening statements, occasionally taking notes or fiddling with her twin ponytails.
The lawsuit seeks $8.3 million in damages, essentially to recoup the money spent to make and distribute the film. It was filed by attorney Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed receiver for a now-defunct Miami company that was the movie's key investor. That company was shut down as a $300 million Ponzi scheme by the Securities and Exchange Commission, with its operator now living in Brazil.
Paris Hilton
Parents Paid For Mistress
Sen. John Ensign
Sen. John Ensign (R - Philanderer) said Thursday his parents gave his mistress and her family nearly $100,000 "out of concern for the well being of longtime family friends during a difficult time," providing his first public acknowledgment that the woman received payments tied to the affair.
In a statement through his attorney, Ensign described the April 2008 payment as a single check for $96,000 given to Cindy and Doug Hampton and two of their children. The Hampton family received the check after the senator told his parents of his affair with Cindy Hampton, a campaign aide and longtime friend.
The statement comes a day after Doug Hampton told a Las Vegas television show that Ensign paid Cindy Hampton more than $25,000 in severance when she left her job as treasurer for two Ensign-controlled campaign committees.
Ensign, a 51-year-old conservative Christian lawmaker, confessed to the affair last month, after Doug Hampton sought money from the senator through an attorney and began to take his story to the media.
Sen. John Ensign
Seen As World's Worst
French Tourists
French tourists are the worst in the world, coming across as bad at foreign languages, tight-fisted and arrogant, according to a survey of 4,500 hotel owners across the world.
They finish in last place in the survey carried out for internet travel agency Expedia by polling company TNS Infratest, which said French holidaymakers don't speak local languages and are seen as impolite.
The Japanese ranked top of the Best Tourist survey, with the British and the Germans judged the best of the Europeans.
But French tourists received some consolation for their poor performance, finishing third after the Italians and British for dress sense while on holiday.
French Tourists
Death Won't Silence
Billy Mays
Death won't still the voice of Billy Mays or his mighty powers of persuasion. Viewers will continue to find the boisterous, bearded TV pitchman hawking household products for the indefinite future.
And at least one of his commercials is being introduced posthumously.
"Just stretch, wrap and it fuses fast," says Mays, demonstrating a product called Mighty Tape on a kitchen drain pipe in the new commercial. Moments later, he's seen, still wearing his signature sport shirt and khaki slacks but accessorized with scuba gear, as he repairs a hole in another diver's air hose underwater using Mighty Tape.
The commercial will begin airing July 20. Mays' advertising for other products in the Mighty brand line returned to the air earlier this week. The commercials were pulled after Mays' death June 28 of an apparent heart attack.
Billy Mays
80K A Year
Wookey Hole
Fancy 80,000 dollars a year on a stress-free job with flexible working hours and no need to wear a suit?
Well, grab your black pointy hat, take out that rusty black hessian drape from the back of the wardrobe and refresh your memory on how to turn your grumpy neighbor into a mouse. Somerset tourist attraction Wookey Hole caves is advertising for a "witch" and has already received 100 applicants since the beginning of the week.
The successful candidate, who will be living in a "spacious" cave, has to cackle, not be allergic to cats and will be asked to perform "a range of tasks" including magic at an open audition scheduled for July 28.
In keeping with modern times, the role is open to men, women and trans-gender witches to comply with sexual discrimination laws.
Wookey Hole
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen Media Research for the week of June 29-July 5. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 4.89 million homes, 6.9 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 4.61 million homes, 6.29 million viewers.
3. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.98 million homes, 6.24 million viewers.
4. "NASCAR Post Race Show" (Saturday, 11:15 p.m.), TNT, 3.76 million homes, 5.47 million viewers.
5. "Sonny With a Chance" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), Disney, 3.74 million homes, 5.16 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.63 million homes, 5.68 million viewers.
7. Auto Racing: "Sprint Cup/Daytona" (Saturday, 8:05 p.m.), TNT, 3.56 million homes, 5.27 million viewers.
8. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.28 million homes, 4.4 million viewers.
9. "Hannah Montana" (Sunday, 7:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.05 million homes, 4.09 million viewers.
10. (tie) "Jonas" (Sunday, 9:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.014 million homes, 4.03 million viewers.
10. (tie) "Army Wives" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), Lifetime, 3.014 million homes, 3.62 million viewers.
12. "NCIS" (Monday, 7 p.m.), USA, 2.67 million homes, 3.24 million viewers.
13. "Wizards of Waverly Place" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), Disney, 2.655 million homes, 3.58 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Tuesday, 5 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.655 million homes, 3.51 million viewers.
15. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Monday, 1 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.63 million homes, 3.63 million viewers.
Ratings
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
