The Weekly Poll
The New Question
This week's poll:
Unisex Selective Service Registration
OK, Poll-Fans, here it is...
Senator Barack Obama has gone on record that females aged 18-25 be required to register with the Selective Service as males in that age group are required by law to do.
He also is in favor of opening up all 'Combat Arms' positions that women are not currently not allowed to participate in... Candidates differ on female draft
Are you in favor or opposed to these positions?
BadtotheboneBob
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob (BCEpoll (at) aol.com)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
TOMMY McCALL: Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants (nytimes.com)
As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover's presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
Mark Morford: More booze and cake! (sfgate.com)
Cruel recession got you down? Buck up, pal. Good news abounds!
Bill Wilson: Historian: Today's politicians could learn a lot from Lincoln (McClatchy Newspapers)
As America prepares to elect a president, historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin said what the country needs is another Abraham Lincoln to lead it out of today's economic crisis.
Michael Pollan: Farmer in Chief (nytimes.com)
Like it or not, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close, and Michael Pollan has a message for the next president...
John Dolan: 5 Pieces of Advice for the New Paupers (AlterNet.org)
I just went through the hell of going from grad school-level poverty to the real thing. Here are my lessons learned.
John Mark Eberhart: Anne Rice returns to the religion she knew as a child (McClatchy Newspapers)
Ultimately, Anne Rice decided that being an atheist was just too damned hard.
Hugh McGuire: What Publishing Can Learn From Music (huffingtonpost.com)
Book publishing is late to the digital party so it can look to all the many mistakes the music business made in the past decade, and decide how to move into the uncertain future.
Luaine Lee: Angie Harmon plays Lily Tartikoff in Lifetime movie 'Living Proof' (McClatchy-Tribune News Service)
Throughout her life people have always called actress Angie Harmon names. When she was a kid they called her "square eyes" because all she wanted to do was watch the square box in the living room. When she costarred with Sam Waterston in "Law & Order," he called her a "Force of Nature."
Jake Chapman: How Bambi shattered my innocence (guardian.co.uk)
Like lambs to the slaughter we followed our parents into dim cinemas, oblivious to the dreadful rite of passage lying in wait.
Bill Gibron: Review of "South Park - The Cult of Cartman: Revelations" (popmatters.com)
Never pretend to be handicapped. Know what awaits you in Heaven. Use racial tolerance to get what you want. Never swear on television. Stay HIV positive. Never take a joke too far. Never give up on cheating. People will always find a way to ruin your good time. Kids with red hair and freckles have no souls. The world will end in 2012. These are just some of the revelations offered by Eric Theodore Cartman, the nine year old self-proclaimed wunderkind of South Park, Colorado.
Charlie replied:
MAM 
noted:
Reader Comment
The Debate
Marty
Watched the debate last night. No real surprises there, and I felt that Obama clearly won. McCain started to get grouchy and you could see him fighting to control his anger. It will be interesting to see Dave Letterman tonight and see what he has to say. MSNBC says that the program has been taped, so he made it this time.
My cousin, Rebecca Mahony, went to Altoona when Joe Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, was there, enjoyed the rally thoroughly, and had her picture taken with Valerie. Valerie in the pink sweater Becky in the middle.
Reader Comment
Letterman/McCain
Maybe this is premature, as I haven't seen the show, it will be on later. John McCain bailed on David Letterman's show at the last minute, weeks ago. With no real reason given, other than some flimsy "have to get back to Washington to save the economy" excuse, which turned out to be B.S. I had always thought of David Letterman as a man of principle, until now. When Barbara Streisand bailed on Johnny Carson at the last minute, he explained what had happened to the audience and said she would never appear again on the Tonight show. Of course, Johnny Carson had balls, something I guess David Letterman needs to grow a pair of.
Uncle Sky
Thanks, Unc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and near seasonal.
5 Free Concerts For Obama
James Taylor
James Taylor will play five free concerts in North Carolina as he tours the state to support Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Taylor has concerts scheduled in Charlotte, Asheville, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Wilmington beginning Sunday. Taylor, who was raised in Chapel Hill, has at times used his musical celebrity to highlight political candidates in the state.
The Grammy winner will encourage Obama supporters to get out and vote early. One-stop voting begins Thursday in North Carolina.
Obama has been heavily investing in North Carolina to try and swing a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic president since 1976. Republican rival John McCain has been increasing his presence to defend the state.
James Taylor
Dems Abroad
'Frost/Nixon'
If Barack Obama doesn't get into the White House, it won't be for want of trying on the part of a good slice of the movie and music world.
The cast and crew of "Frost/Nixon," which had its world premiere at the opening of the London Film Festival late on Wednesday, lost little time in making their political persuasions known.
Actor Kevin Bacon and Oscar-winning director Ron Howard both backed the Democratic candidate, who is leading in the polls with less than three weeks to go before the November 4 election.
Bacon, who described himself as a life-long Democrat, added that he thought Obama was going to be a "fantastic president."
'Frost/Nixon'
Auctioning Early Works
MAD Magazine
Alfred E. Neuman, the grinning face with the flapping ears, has gazed out from the covers of MAD magazine for half a century - becoming such a familiar presence that Charles, Prince of Wales, may have felt it necessary to deny that he looked like him.
As far as was known, the heir to the British throne, then 9 years old, did send a letter to that effect in 1958. On Buckingham Palace stationery and mailed from a nearby post office, it was published in MAD's letters column.
Now the magazine that since 1952 kept legions of American youths reading under the covers with flashlights is putting a last batch of original drawings of Alfred and other early works up for auction.
The collection is mostly made up of Alfred E. Neuman covers, including the first one drawn by the late Norman Mingo for MAD's issue No. 30 of December 1956. It shows the gap-toothed icon as a "write-in candidate for president," saying "What - me worry?" as an elephant and donkey glare angrily at each other in the background.
MAD Magazine
Last Titanic Survivor
Millvina Dean
The last remaining survivor of the Titanic disaster is auctioning mementoes from the doomed liner to pay for her nursing home fees, a newspaper said Thursday.
Millvina Dean was only two months old when the Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank in 1912, but now at the age of 96 she is struggling to make ends meet and hopes to make 3,000 pounds from the sale.
Personal items going under the hammer include a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes given to her family by the people of New York after they arrived there following the catastrophe.
Dean's family were emigrating to Kansas aboard the doomed liner. She was the youngest survivor, rescued along with her baby brother and mother Eva, although her father died.
Millvina Dean
Nobel Peace Prize Concert
Diana Ross
Diana Ross will headline artists performing at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in honor of the 2008 laureate, Finnish peace mediator Martti Ahtisaari, organizers said Thursday.
The show's hosts, generally Hollywood superstars, are to be announced next week. Last year's show was hosted by Uma Thurman and Kevin Spacey.
The list for the Dec. 11 concert also includes Canadian singer Feist, American country singer Dierks Bentley, Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas, Nigerian star Seun Kuti, and Norway's popular singer-songwriter Marit Larsen.
Diana Ross
Ideal Beat For CPR
'Stayin' Alive'
U.S. doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco anthem "Stayin' Alive" provides an ideal beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim.
The American Heart Association calls for chest compressions to be given at a rate of 100 per minute in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). "Stayin' Alive" almost perfectly matches that, with 103 beats per minute.
CPR can triple survival rates, but some people are reluctant to do it in part because they are unsure about the proper rhythm for chest compressions. But research has shown many people do chest compressions too slowly during CPR.
Five weeks after practicing with the music playing, they were asked to perform CPR again on dummies by keeping the song in their minds, and again they kept up a good pace.
'Stayin' Alive'
Bimbo Eruption For McPalin
Vicky Iseman
A female telecommunications lobbyist who became part of an explosive story early this year about John McCain has broken months of silence to deny the main subtext of the account - that she was suspected of being romantically involved with the Republican presidential candidate. "I did not have a sexual relationship with Senator McCain," Vicky Iseman told the National Journal magazine.
Iseman was the subject of an article by The New York Times in February that said in 1999 McCain aides worried that the Arizona senator and the lobbyist may be having an affair. The newspaper did not publish any evidence of such a relationship.
The story alleged that McCain wrote letters and pushed legislation involving television station ownership that would have benefited Iseman's clients.
But her public emergence, coming less than three weeks before the election, also serves to remind the public about a story that had receded from memory. When the story broke, the allegations of sex and influence-peddling caused a sensation. McCain furiously denied the story and described Iseman as merely a friend.
Vicky Iseman
Your Tax Dollars At Work
AIG
Insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG.N) is spending money to lobby states to soften new controls on the mortgage industry, the Wall Street Journal said.
When the U.S. government took control of failing mortgage titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it prohibited them from lobbying. But it hasn't banned the practice at AIG, a huge insurer that is still 20 percent-owned by public shareholders, the Journal said.
State regulators said AIG is working to ease some provisions in a new federal law, passed in July as part of a sweeping housing-industry rescue package, which establishes strict oversight of mortgage originators, the paper said.
The company, once the world's largest insurer, was bailed out by the U.S. central bank with an $85 billion cash lifeline last month after being crippled by losses on bad mortgage bets. The Federal Reserve has since expanded its assistance in a manner that could bring the total aid up to around $120 billion.
AIG
Called To The Mothership
Glenn Beck
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck is leaving CNN Headline News for Fox News Channel, where he will host a weekday show at 5 p.m. starting next spring.
Beck's departure is a blow for CNN Headline News, where he was the second most-watched show behind Nancy Grace's talk show.
But Beck sensed growth opportunities at Fox, which appeals more to a conservative audience and has many more viewers than CNN Headline News. Although he's not in prime time, he gives Fox a bench in case there are any changes to that lineup.
Glenn Beck
Final Stages Of Recovery
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope was in the final stages of recovery on Thursday after NASA successfully bypassed a faulty computer and resurrected an 18-year-old spare from orbital hibernation.
The faulty computer, which is needed to collect and process data from science instruments, prompted NASA to delay a long-awaited space shuttle mission to service the telescope.
"Everything's going perfectly," said NASA spokeswoman Susan Hendrix, with the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The telescope was back in automated mode, rekindling connections between its instruments and the computer. Science observations were expected to resume Friday morning, Hendrix said.
Hubble Space Telescope
Political Preference Displayed
Dog Poop
A man was ticketed for unlawful dumping after admitting to putting dog feces in his neighbor's truck for political reasons. Police Sgt. Jerry Edblad said a 19-year-old St. Cloud man told police he has found small baggies of dog feces in the back of his pickup truck for the past few weeks.
Donald Esmay told KNSI-AM the feces started appearing in his truck right after he put a 2-foot-by-4-foot McCain sign there.
When police later spoke with the neighbor, Edblad said he told officers he did it because he "hates McCain."
The unlawful dumping ticket comes with a $183 fine.
Dog Poop
In Memory
Edie Adams
Actress and singer Edie Adams, the blonde beauty who won a Tony Award for bringing Daisy Mae to life on Broadway and who played the television foil to her husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, has died. She was 81.
A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Adams hoped to become an opera singer but instead went on to gain fame for her sketches with Kovacs and her pivotal roles in two top Broadway musicals.
For nearly two decades, she also was the sexy spokeswoman for Muriel cigars, singing and breathily cooing in TV commercials: "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it sometime?"
She was born Elizabeth Edith Enke in 1927 in Kingston, Pa., and grew up in Tenafly, N.J. She first attracted notice on the TV show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." Kovacs was then performing his innovative comedy show on a Philadelphia TV station, and his director saw her and invited her to audition.
With her innocent face and refreshing manner, Adams became the ideal partner for Kovacs' far-out humor. They eloped to Mexico City in 1954.
In 1957, Adams won a Tony for best featured (supporting) actress in a musical for her role as Daisy Mae in "Li'l Abner," based on Al Capp's satirical comic strip.
In Billy Wilder's classic "The Apartment," the 1960 Oscar winner for best picture, Adams played the spurned secretary to philandering businessman Fred MacMurray.
Among her other movies were "Lover Come Back," "Call Me Bwana" (with Bob Hope), the all-star comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (as Sid Caesar's wife), "Under the Yum Yum Tree," "The Best Man" and "The Honey Pot."
In early 1962, Kovacs left a star-filled baby shower for Mrs. Milton Berle and crashed his car into a light pole, dying instantly. He had been a carefree gambler and profligate buyer of unneeded things. He once telephoned his wife and said he had bought the California Racquet Club, with its nightclub, shops and mortgages.
His widow was faced with debts of $520,000, trouble with the Internal Revenue Service and a nasty custody battle over Kovacs' daughters, Betty and Kippie, from his first marriage. She and Kovacs also had a daughter Mia, born in 1959.
For a solid year, she worked continuously. She did movies, TV musical revues and a Las Vegas act where Groucho Marx introduced her with the comment: "There are some things Edie won't do, but nothing she can't do."
In the 1980s and 1990s, she made appearances on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote" and "Designing Women." She also played Tommy Chong's mother, Mrs. Tempest Stoner, in the first Cheech and Chong movie, "Up in Smoke," in 1978.
After her widowhood, she had two brief marriages to photographer Martin Mills and trumpeter Pete Candoli.
She is survived by her son, Joshua Mills. Daughter Mia Kovacs was killed at 22 in a 1982 car accident.
Edie Adams
In Memory
Jack Narz
Longtime game show host Jack Narz has died. He was 85.
His wife, Delores, says Narz died yesterday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from complications of a stroke.
Among the shows he hosted over the years were "Video Village," which began in 1960, "Seven Keys," 1961, "I'll Bet," 1963, and "Now You See It," 1974. Narz also guest hosted many shows and did updated 1970s versions of older shows such as "Concentration" and "Beat the Clock."
He was the brother of veteran game show host Tom Kennedy.
Narz was host of "Dotto," a televised connect-the-dots game, when it was abruptly taken off the air in August 1958. Audiences didn't know it at the time, but a contestant had gone to authorities after he found a notebook backstage that indicated that another contestant was given answers in advance.
Jack Narz
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