Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Suzanne Moore: Why did women vote for Trump? Because misogyny is not a male-only attribute (The Guardian)
Women were not the only ones to vote against their own self-interest in the US elections, but our complicity is at least explainable.
Dr. John McDougall: Is Sugar Really Making Us Fat? (Blue Zones)
How likely is it that a meat-eater will get diabetes, heart disease or cancer over someone who is purely plant-based?
If you follow the diet that I preach, which is a starch-based diet [rice, corn, potatoes, beans, peas, lentils and sweet potatoes] with fruits and vegetables, no dairy, and extremely little meat or none at all, then your chances of getting all the common diseases - MS, rheumatoid arthritis, prostate cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer - are zero compared to U.S. data.
Dorian Lynskey: Leonard Cohen - he knew things about life, and if you listened you could learn(The Guardian)
The great musician was a man who used songwriting as a way of making sense of a bewildering world.
Jonathan Jones: Always believe in your soul: why gold can spell heaven or hell (The Guardian)
As Donald Trump proves, gold attracts those drunk on power. But artists have shown it can point the way to the divine.
Jonathan Jones: Van Gogh's lost drawings: unconvincing, but does anyone care in a post-truth art world? (The Guardian)
The Van Gogh museum says the 65 newly discovered drawings are fakes - these flaccid sketches certainly lack the spirit of the artist's greatest period.
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"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
France
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Joe takes matters into his own hands
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bryan V Suggests
Music Influence
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
HOT DAMN!
"…AN IMAGINARY PAST OF GREATNESS."
THE BEGINNING OF THE END!
"THE FINEST FIGHTING FORCE THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN."
THE "RED LIST"IS FLAWED!
THE SUPER MOON!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Finally seasonal.
Reacts To Election
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart did not have many jokes to make on Thursday about President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, but he instead offered empathy for some Trump supporters.
In an interview with "CBS This Morning," the former "Daily Show" host said he feared for individuals who could be affected by Trump's policies but did not think Trump's election reflected a changed America.
"I don't believe we are a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago," Stewart said.
Stewart placed much of the blame for the anger that propelled Trump's election on congressional Republicans, arguing that their opposition to President Barack Obama's main legislative priorities resulted in the government dysfunction that Trump ran against.
"Donald Trump is a reaction not just to Democrats but to Republicans," Stewart said. "He is not Republican. He's a repudiation of Republicans. But they will reap the benefit of his victory, in all of their cynicism."
Jon Stewart
Walk O'Fame
Hollywood
A man who used a pickaxe and a sledgehammer to smash Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was charged Thursday with felony vandalism, authorities said.
James Otis, 52, faces a maximum of three years in jail or a $10,000 fine, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.
Otis destroyed the star of the president-elect in the pre-dawn hours of Oct. 27, when Trump was still a candidate, police said. He was arrested soon after.
Otis said at the time that he smashed the star in protest of Trump's treatment of women, and had initially planned to steal the star, sell it off and give the money to the 11 women who had said Trump groped them.
He said he would be happy to pay for the repairs.
Hollywood
Ailes Allegations
O'Really
Fox News host Megyn Kelly has responded to colleague Bill O'Reilly's suggestion that she is making the network "look bad" by alleging in a new book that former Fox News chief Roger Ailes sexually harassed her for years.
"Roger Ailes made the company look bad," Kelly said on CBS' "This Morning" on Wednesday, a day after O'Reilly refused to discuss Kelly's memoir on the same show.
"I'm not interested in making my network look bad," O'Reilly said.
On his primetime show, "The O'Reilly Factor," Tuesday night, O'Reilly devoted his "Tip of the Day" segment to "loyalty."
"If somebody is paying you a wage, you owe that person or company allegiance," O'Reilly said without mentioning Kelly by name. "Factor tip of the day: Loyalty is good."
O'Really
Ending On A&E
'Duck Dynasty'
The end is in sight for A&E's Duck Dynasty.
The network announced Wednesday night that after five years and 130 episodes, the unscripted series will come to an end. The current 11th season will be its last. This season runs through Jan. 18, with a small break, followed by the final seven episodes that will air from March 1 through April 12. A series of holiday specials are also likely to come later.
The series, which has faced its share of controversy during its run, ranked as the most-watched nonfiction series in cable history and, according to A&E, remains the No. 1 series on the network among total viewers.
The announcement was made Wednesday night during the season 11 premiere with a message from the Robertson family.
'Duck Dynasty'
36 Degrees Warmer Than Normal
North Pole
Political people in the United States are watching the chaos in Washington in the moment. But some people in the science community are watching the chaos somewhere else - the Arctic.
It's polar night there now - the sun isn't rising in much of the Arctic. That's when the Arctic is supposed to get super-cold, when the sea ice that covers the vast Arctic Ocean is supposed to grow and thicken.
But in fall 2016 - which has been a zany year for the region, with multiple records set for low levels of monthly sea ice - something is totally off. The Arctic is superhot, even as a vast area of cold polar air has been displaced over Siberia.
At the same time, one of the key indicators of the state of the Arctic - the extent of sea ice covering the polar ocean - is at a record low right now. The ice is freezing up again, as it always does this time of year after reaching its September low, but it isn't doing so as rapidly as usual.
In fact, the ice's area is even lower than it was during the record-low 2012.
North Pole
Frozen Embryos Property, Not People
Missouri
A divorced man and woman must mutually consent to using embryos that were frozen and stored while married, a Missouri appellate court has ruled in declaring the embryos marital property, not humans with constitutional rights.
The Missouri Court of Appeals' 2-1 ruling Tuesday upheld a St. Louis County judge's 2015 finding that Jalesia "Jasha" McQueen and Justin Gadberry maintain joint custody of the embryos, which have been frozen since 2007. The couple separated in 2010 and divorced last year; dissolution proceedings were drawn out by their dispute over the embryos.
McQueen, 44, sued Gadberry because she wanted to use embryos to have more children. But her 34-year-old former spouse doesn't want to have any more children with McQueen, doesn't believe he should be required to reproduce and has said through his attorney he would be willing to donate the embryos for research or to an infertile couple or have them destroyed.
The majority ruling, written by Appeals Judge Robert Clayton III, said the court "recognizes the sensitive nature of this case and the differing personal beliefs it evokes - ethical, religious and philosophical - pertaining to scientific advancements in reproductive technology, procreation choice, and the age-old and disputed question of when life begins.
He also noted that McQueen's bid to apply Missouri law defining life as beginning at conception is at odds with U.S. Supreme Court decisions protecting Gadberry's rights to privacy, freedom from government interference and not to procreate.
Missouri
Backs Ivana For US Ambassador
Prague
Czech President Milos Zeman on Wednesday backed Ivana Trump to become the US ambassador to Prague, after US president-elect Donald Trump's Czech-born ex-wife floated the idea last week.
Washington "could not send a better ambassador to Prague", the outspoken Czech leader, who endorsed Trump for president, said in a statement.
Born Ivana Zelnickova in what is now the Czech Republic, Ivana Trump told the New York Post on Friday: "I will suggest that I be ambassador for the Czech Republic."
A former fashion model turned businesswoman, Ivana is Trump's first wife and the mother of three of his children. They divorced in 1992.
Prague
Original Pyramid Found
Chichen Itza
Archaeologists have discovered what may be the original structure built at the pyramid of Kukulkan at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, experts said Wednesday.
Last year, archaeologists using electrical imagining techniques found that the pyramid, which is also known as El Castillo, was built atop a subterranean river, or a cenote.
Archaeologists have long known that a smaller pyramid is encapsulated underneath the visible temple.
Researchers said Wednesday that they had detected an even smaller structure inside the other two structures. Using what is called tri-dimensional electric resistivity tomography, or "ERT-3D," they found a 10-meter (yard) tall structure within the 20-meter (yard) tall 'intermediate' pyramid that was covered over by the last construction stage, perhaps around 900 A.D.
Archaeologist Denisse Lorenia Argote, of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the first structure may be in the "pure Maya" style from between 500 and 800 A.D.
Chichen Itza
Cold Octobers Gone Forever
Alaska's Arctic
Most of Alaska just sweated through the hottest October on record, according to figures released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Overall temperatures in the state were 4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average, with the Arctic communities of Nome, Kotzebue, and Barrow seeing record-setting highs, said Rich Thoman, a climate scientist with the Alaska Region of NOAA's National Weather Service.
It was also "the driest October since 1925 in Alaska," said Thoman, with "every single long-term climate site in the panhandle and the eastern Gulf Coast" registering the least October precipitation in recorded history.
The conditions in Arctic Alaska reflect fundamental changes in the region's climate, Thoman said, noting that Barrow's 10-year median October temperature has risen from around 11 degrees in the mid-1980s to about 24 degrees in the past several years. "Since 2001 there have been no cold Octobers [In Barrow]-not one!" he noted. "This change is a direct result of the catastrophic loss of Arctic sea ice along Alaska's North Slope."
The average temperature in the lower 48 states was 57.7 degrees during October, 3.6 degrees over the 20th-century average and the country's third-warmest October in 122 years of record-keeping, according to NOAA. But with average temperatures between January and August all hitting never-before-seen highs, the nation-and the world-is still on course to log the hottest year in the history of record-keeping.
Alaska's Arctic
Congressional Panel Calls For
Museum of Women's History
A congressionally-appointed panel on Wednesday called for the creation of a U.S. museum of women's history, with preferred sites on or near Washington's National Mall.
The American Museum of Women's History would close a gap in the U.S. capital, which has museums devoted to everything from space and spies to stamps and black history, but none focused on women, its backers said.
"America needs and deserves a physical national museum dedicated to showcasing the historical experiences and impact of women in this country," said the report from the seven-member commission - all women - empaneled by Congress in 2014.
Creation of the museum would call for a decade-long effort to gather support and funding and to build it. The cost for a building of 75,000 square feet (6,900 square meters) to 90,000 square feet (8,400 square meters) would be estimated at $150 million to $180 million in private funds, the report said.
The commission also recommended that Congress donate land free of charge for the museum site or provide an existing building.
Museum of Women's History
Painting Sets Record
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning's "Untitled XXV" was sold late Tuesday at Christie's in New York for $66.3 million, a record for a work by the abstract artist and for post-war contemporary art.
The imposing work, which measures 7 by 6.5 feet (2 x 2.2 meters), was painted by the Dutch-American artist in 1977 and is emblematic of the energetic, multicolor brush strokes he used in his work of the mid 1970s.
Christie's auction house initially valued "Untitled XXV" at $40 million (37 million euros). When the same painting was auctioned ten years ago it went for $27.1 million, a record at the time.
The bid was placed in a phone call, and the buyer's identity was not revealed.
De Kooning
In Memory
Leon Billings
Leon G. Billings, a former aide to Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie and a key author of the Clean Air Act and other landmark environmental laws, has died.
Billings, 78, died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, after suffering a stroke while visiting family.
Born in Montana, Billings moved to Washington in 1962 and had a 50-year career in politics and public policy. As the first staff director of the Senate Environment subcommittee, Billings was a primary author of the 1970 Clean Air Act, one of the first and most influential environmental laws in U.S. history and a foundation for current air pollution laws.
Billings also played a key role in the 1972 Clean Water Act, the primary federal law governing water pollution, and 1977 amendments to both the air and water pollution laws.
Billings served as Muskie's environment adviser for more than a decade and later was the Democrat's chief of staff in the Senate and when Muskie was secretary of state under President Jimmy Carter.
Billings also taught politics at the University of Southern California and served in the Maryland Legislature from 1991 to 2003, focusing on environmental issues.
Tom Jorling, who was Republican staff director on the Senate subcommittee while Billings led the Democratic majority, said Billings "had tremendous skills legislatively and politically. He was respected and trusted by all members of the committee, majority and minority. His talent and skills led to the enactment of the foundational environmental laws of that era."
Billings is survived by his wife, Cherry Billings, of Bethany Beach, Delaware, and three children. His first wife, former Maryland Del. Patricia Billings, died in 1990. Leon Billings was appointed to her seat before winning election in his own right.
Jorling said Billings was disappointed to see clean air and water laws come under attack from Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, but said the laws have survived previous attacks from the White House and Congress. Trump has called climate change a hoax and vows to cut back the role of the Environmental Protection Agency, which he describes as a job killer.
Leon Billings
In Memory
Melvin Laird
Melvin Laird, a former Wisconsin congressman and U.S. defense secretary during years when President Nixon struggled to find a way to withdraw troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam, died on Wednesday, his family said. He was 94.
Laird left a legacy that included a telephone call that eventually played a role in one of the biggest political stories of the century - the Watergate scandal that drove Nixon from office.
Laird was Nixon's counselor on domestic affairs in October 1973 when Nixon had to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had resigned in scandal. Laird called his good friend, Michigan Rep. Gerald Ford, to ask if he would be interested in replacing Agnew.
Ford accepted. About a year later, Nixon resigned because of Watergate and Ford became president. Ford pardoned Nixon, and two years later, Ford lost the presidential election to Jimmy Carter.
Laird, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was 30 when he was elected to the U.S. House in 1952. He represented Wisconsin's 7th District - mostly dairy-farming or lumber-producing counties in central Wisconsin - for nine terms, and was credited with helping spearhead the vast expansion of medical research and health facilities in the U.S.
Nixon appointed Laird as the nation's 10th defense secretary in 1969 and the first to come from Congress. The Vietnam War raged, with no end in sight for the 550,000 troops stationed in the Southeast Asian country as America lost its resolve for the fighting.
Laird was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on Sept. 1, 1922, and the family moved to Marshfield when he was a young child. He graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1942 and served aboard the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Maddox in the Pacific during World War II.
Laird was elected to his first political office in 1946, when he succeeded his late father, Melvin Sr., as a state senator in the Wisconsin Legislature. At the time, Laird, only 23, was the youngest state senator in the United States.
Melvin Laird
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