Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Future Blackmail (tumblr.com)
Naked baby in the bathtub photos? Please. That's so last century. Today's parent is all about posting photos on the internet. This is a blog of our fashionista in training, Valentine, and the clothes and costumes she wears. Some are adorable, others she's probably going to kill us for. Either way, she's a baby, so she can rock anything right now. Even a squid costume.
Mark Morford: Happy fun cloud will kill you now (SF Gate)
This much we know for sure: We know but a fraction of what the hell we think we know, and to presume we have the slightest grasp on how it all works and how we can sync it all together in some sort of nifty jetpack zip-zip fingerswipe touchscreen wonderland is to make God laugh.
Tom Danehy: Tom on the Pima GOP, cashless pay stations and Mr. Taco Stein (Tucson Weekly)
I'll admit that I've never understood this gun thing. I used to be more outspoken on this issue, but over the years, I've adopted a philosophy of "live and let ... them shoot at each other." I realize that there are a lot of people out there who need to have a gun in order to feel all manly and stuff, but this move by the county Republicans clears the Green Monster of basic human decency and is still rising.
Sam Jones: "9/11 victim's widow: 'I will not continue the anger. It has to stop with me'" (Guardian)
Elizabeth Turner talks about how she is raising her son, born two months after her husband was killed in the World Trade Centre.
In U.S., Obesity Rises in State With Highest Obesity Rate (gallup.com)
There is now no state in the nation that has an obesity rate lower than 20%.
Richard Roeper: The modern day Good Samaritan and the bag of cash (Chicago Sun-Times)
We in the media can't resist the "Good Samaritan" stories about the cabbie who finds and returns a jeweler's case filled with diamonds or the unemployed guy who stumbles across a wallet and goes to great lengths to return it to the rightful owner.
Connie Schultz: Tea Party Express Hits the Brakes (Creators Syndicate)
Most of the attendees were patriotic Americans who have more in common with people like me than they want to believe. All of them deserve better than the extremists claiming to be their leaders.
Andrew Tobias: Listen to a Highly Placed Long-Time Republican Staffer
Excerpts from thought-provoking opinion pieces.
Jim Hightower: "Perry Tales: Job Creation"
Probe even an inch into the million-job number that Perry tosses around like fairy dust, and you'll learn that these are mostly "jobettes" that can't sustain a family. Most come with very low pay and no health care or pension, and many are only part-time or temporary positions. Indeed, more than a half a million Texans now work for minimum wage or less - a number that has doubled since 2008, leaving Texas tied with Mississippi for the nation's highest percentage of its workforce reduced to poverty pay.
Tet: An Excerpt from Michael Moore's "Here Comes Trouble"
I can't quite remember when I turned against the idea of war, but I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that I didn't want to die. From pretty much the sixth grade on, I was firmly, solidly, against dying.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
wrote:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Review
GOP Debate Wed. Night
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot but less humid. It's a start.
SAG Achievement Award
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore will be honored with the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award.
SAG announced Moore as this year's recipient Thursday. The guild says Moore "created a new paradigm for female leads in television."
The actress rose to stardom in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and later starred in the landmark "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Her film credits include "Ordinary People" and her Broadway productions included "Whose Life Is It, Anyway?"
The 74-year-old Moore has won seven Emmys, a Tony award and been nominated for an Academy Award.
Mary Tyler Moore
Whitford, Lithgow Join Reading On Broadway
"8''
A new play about the legal battle over same-sex marriage in California keeps attracting big-name talent.
Producers announced Thursday that the cast of "8'' will include John Lithgow, Rory O'Malley, Bradley Whitford, Bob Balaban, Matt Bomer, Campbell Brown and Larry Kramer.
That's on top of cast members already revealed, including Anthony Edwards, Morgan Freeman, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei.
The play, by Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, will be performed as part of a fundraiser at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre for one night only - Sept. 19.
"8''
Most Tolerant Nation For Sex Scandals
Mexico
When politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in France last week, cleared of a New York sex scandal, he returned home smiling despite facing a frosty reception. Maybe he should have gone to Mexico, instead.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday shows 57 percent of Mexicans would be either very likely or somewhat likely to tolerate the sexual indiscretions of stars and politicians.
They were followed by Belgians at 55 percent. In the United States, the tolerance factor was 48 percent. France, in fact, was way down the list at only 33 percent, while Japan was the least forgiving country at only 28 percent.
In total, 44 percent of some 18,700 respondents in more than 20 countries said they would likely tolerate a scandal.
Mexico
Ben & Jerry's
Schweddy Balls
Ben & Jerry's is unveiling a new flavor, and it doesn't sound too tasty.
"Schweddy Balls" is an homage to an old "Saturday Night Live" skit featuring Alec Baldwin as bakery owner Pete Schweddy, whose unique holiday offerings included something called "Schweddy Balls."
Sean Greenwood, a spokesman for the Vermont ice cream maker, said Thursday that the company isn't worried about offending people with the name. He says one of the company's principles is to do fun things and that it fits in with that, just as it did with previous flavors like Karamel Sutra and Half Baked.
The new flavor is available at scoop shops and supermarkets. It consists of vanilla ice cream, rum, fudge-covered rum balls and milk chocolate malt balls.
Schweddy Balls
Matt & Trey Teach A Class
"South Park"
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have already taught America's youth about art, religion and war, but this week they gave some lessons in person -- in a New York University writing class.
The "South Park" creators surprised a class on "Storytelling Strategies" for mtvU's "Stand In." The multi-Tony Award winners told students to keep their stories simple.
"We started to learn that simple was better," Parker told the class. "But we had to learn that all over again with everything we did -- 'South Park,' 'Team America,' 'Book of Mormon.'"
mtvU, MTVs 24-hour college network, will air Stone and Parker's "Stand In" to more than 750 college campuses and on-demand at mtvU starting on October 3.
"South Park"
Cancels Racist Show
Fox Sports
Fox Sports said Wednesday it canceled a show that aired a segment that mocked Asian students who were filmed on the Southern California campus.
Fox Sports Network spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said in a statement that last week's segment was "clearly offensive and inconsistent with the standards FOX Sports believes in, and we sincerely regret that it appeared." He said the show that aired the video, "The College Experiment" would be cancelled effective immediately.
The Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder, Colo. reported about the video and the network issued an apology. The video shows a comedian approaching Asian students at USC and asking them to welcome the universities of Colorado and Utah to the Pac-12 Conference. The comedian tells the students to give the new Pac-12 members an "all-American welcome" and then mocks students' accents.
D'Ermilio says the video was removed as soon as the network became aware of it. He said "there was a breakdown in our internal processes" and that the network is taking steps to make sure an "incident of this nature is not repeated in the future."
Fox Sports
Legal Smackdown
T-Rump
Donald Trump received a setback in a New Jersey appeals court Wednesday, after a panel of judges upheld a ruling against him by another court, deeming that his defamation lawsuit against author Timothy L. O'Brien was without merit.
Trump had sued O'Brien, the author of 2009's "TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald," along with Time Warner Book Group and Warner Books, over a passage suggesting that Trump is worth far less than he claims.
In the passage, O'Brien cites three anonymous sources who put Trump's wealth at "somewhere between $150 million and $200 million," rather than the multiple billions that Trump has claimed.
The real-estate magnate had sought to establish that O'Brien had published the estimate with malicious intent.
Interestingly, over the course of the suit, Trump admitted that his estimations of his own wealth vary significantly due to numerous factors -- including his own mood.
T-Rump
Dad Convicted
Bar Refaeli
A court has convicted the father of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli for malicious damage over an altercation with paparazzi photographers.
The Kfar Saba Magistrates Court on Thursday convicted Rafi Refaeli, 57, for the incident that took place in 2007.
According to court documents, Rafi Refaeli received a call from his supermodel daughter complaining that she was being followed by photographers while driving to his house in Tel Aviv.
The documents say he broke one of the photographers' cameras and damaged one of their motorcycles when they reached his home.
Bar Refaeli
6,000 Euro Fine
John Galliano
A French court handed out a 6,000 euro ($8,421) suspended fine to John Galliano on Thursday after finding him guilty of anti-Semitic behavior, marking the end in a fall from grace for the former head designer of fashion house Dior.
For Galliano, whose worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, the penalty -- suspended for several years -- avoids any financial burden and is unlikely to constrain his liberty.
The fine, in line with what a prosecutor had recommended in June, falls short of the maximum sentence in such cases of a 22,000 euro fine and 6-month prison sentence.
The court explained its relatively lenient decision by referring to Galliano's lack of criminal convictions, his previous regard for respect and tolerance and the treatment for drug and alcohol addiction he has sought since his arrest.
John Galliano
Handshake Or Shakedown?
Amazon
California lawmakers rushed to write a bill to give Amazon.com Inc a one-year reprieve from collecting certain sales taxes in exchange for dropping its ballot measure campaign to undo the tax, aides said on Thursday.
The bill would put in writing the terms of a "handshake" agreement reached Wednesday between representatives of the Seattle-based Internet retailer, its brick-and-mortar opponents and lawmakers in a meeting called by legislative leaders.
The measure covers the collection of sales taxes on orders through its affiliates in the state.
Top lawmakers called the meeting after Democrats pushing a bill to block Amazon's ballot measure effort --, aimed at the recently enacted sales tax -- concluded they would not be able to win the necessary votes from Republicans for the legislation by Friday, when the legislature's session ends.
Under terms of the deal, Amazon will drop its ballot measure campaign and begin collecting sales tax on orders made by its California shoppers next September if federal legislation on online sales taxes that applies to all states fails to take shape by the end of next July.
Amazon
New Trial Ordered In Bus Case
'Extreme Makeover'
An Iowa appeals court on Thursday ordered a new trial in a bizarre legal dispute involving the sale of a luxury bus featured on ABC's popular show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Rose Grady, a western Iowa woman who owned the Prevost motor coach, claimed her ex-boyfriend John Kyreakakis and bus salesman Robert Dingle took it without her consent when she was out-of-state getting cancer treatment in 2005.
She hired a private investigator to try to find the missing bus, which she and Kyreakakis had used to travel the country before they split up, and reported it stolen to authorities in Harrison County. Grady thought Kyreakakis was either living in the bus or storing it somewhere and demanded he buy it or return it.
Grady was irate in January 2006 when she saw the bus featured on the ABC show, which is known for host Ty Pennington's catchphrase "Move that bus!" to reveal a family's new home at the end of episode each. She called ABC and eventually learned the bus had been sold for $740,000 to the owners of Diamond Coach, a Tennessee company that leases it to the show.
One of the buyers testified that Dingle told them they were selling the bus in May 2005 because Grady had died, which wasn't true.
'Extreme Makeover'
Rock, Meet Hard Place
NM Governor
New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R-Oopsy) has acknowledged her paternal grandparents came to the U.S. illegally, amid national attention and protests over her ongoing efforts to bar illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses.
Martinez has long acknowledged her Mexican heritage. But when asked previously about reports that her grandfather was an illegal immigrant, her office has said Martinez was unsure of his status since he abandoned the family when her father was young.
Her comments Wednesday appeared to be the first time she has answered the question definitively.
Martinez has made headlines recently for her push to repeal a state law that lets illegal immigrants get a New Mexico driver's license. She has added the issue to the agenda for a special session on redistricting that opened Tuesday.
NM Governor
Returns Ar
Israel Museum
Israel's national museum said Thursday that it has returned a painting to the estate of its creator, decades after the masterpiece was looted from a Jewish museum in Nazi Germany.
The Israel Museum said "The Return of Tobias," a 1934 painting by German Jewish artist Max Liebermann, is now in Berlin after it was determined the work belongs to Liebermann's heirs.
Liebermann, who died in 1935 at the age of 88, was a prolific painter who led the avant garde artistic society known as the Berlin Secession. He also served as president of the Prussian Academy of Arts during the 1920s and early 1930s. Some of his works have been valued at more than $1 million.
The Israel Museum's director, James Snyder, said Liebermann loaned his painting to the Jewish Museum in Berlin in the 1930s. The work, along with many others, disappeared from the museum during World War II. German Nazis stole countless art treasures from museums across Europe.
Israel Museum
WWE Wrestler
Jeff Hardy
Professional wrestling star Jeff Hardy will spend 10 days in jail after pleading guilty to drug charges in a Moore County court.
The Fayetteville Observer reports that Hardy will also pay a $100,000 fine and remain on probation for 30 months as part of the plea agreement.
The 34-year-old Cameron resident was arrested in 2009 and charged with multiple felony drug counts. Authorities say they found hundreds of Vicodin pills, anabolic steroids and powder cocaine.
Hardy was suspended by World Wrestling Entertainment in 2008 for a second violation of drug policy. He was later reinstated and won the world heavyweight championship. Until recently, he was one of the top stars in the Impact Wrestling company.
Jeff Hardy
Design Flaw
Nuke Plant
Last month's record earthquake in the eastern United States may have shaken a Virginia nuclear plant twice as hard as it was designed to withstand, a spokesman for the nuclear safety regulator said on Thursday.
Dominion Resources told the regulator that the ground under the plant exceeded its "design basis" -- the first time an operating U.S. plant has experienced such a milestone -- but said its seismic data from the site showed shaking at much lower levels than those reported by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Both the company and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have not yet found any signs of serious damage to safety systems at the North Anna nuclear plant, and the company said it is eager to resume operations once inspections and repairs are complete.
The NRC has said it plans to order all U.S. plants later this year to update their earthquake risk analyses, a complex exercise that could take two years for some plants to complete.
Nuke Plant
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen for the week of Aug. 29-Sept. 4. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. "Rizzoli & Isles" (Monday, 10 p.m.), TNT, 5.15 million homes, 6.71 million viewers.
2. "The Closer" (Monday, 9 p.m.), TNT, 5.05 million homes, 6.83 million viewers.
3. "Royal Pains" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 4.17 million homes, 5.4 million viewers.
4. "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 3.41 million homes, 4.42 million viewers.
5. "Storage Wars" (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), A&E, 3.4 million homes, 4.76 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.2 million homes, 4.79 million viewers.
7. "Burn Notice" (Thursday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.18 million homes, 4.07 million viewers.
8. "Necessary Roughness" (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.16 million homes, 4 million viewers.
9. "Suits" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.1 million homes, 3.96 million viewers.
10. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.04 million homes, 4.51 million viewers.
11. "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" (Sunday, 10 p.m.), E!, 2.83 million homes, 3.53 million viewers.
12. "True Blood" (Sunday, 9:03 p.m.), HBO, 2.78 million homes, 4.39 million viewers.
13. "Family Guy" (Wednesday, 11:30 p.m.), Cartoon, 2.76 million homes, 3.59 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.758 million homes, 3.57 million viewers.
15. "Jersey Shore After Hours" (Thursday, 11 p.m.), MTV, 2.752 million homes, 3.4 million viewers.
Ratings
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