Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Dalya Alberg: Peter O'Toole was not the drunken hell-raiser he made out, says author (The Guardian)
Actor's biographer says personal archive reveals a 'sensitive, organised man' who was writing two screenplays just before his death in 2013.
Gwilym Mumford: Rashida Jones denies she left Pixar over 'unwanted advances' by John Lasseter (The Guardian)
Parks and Recreation star refutes reports that she and co-writer departed over Disney animation head's behaviour, citing lack of diversity at studio.
John Patterson: Is all forgiven? The strange, troubling resurgence of Mel Gibson (The Guardian)
The actor-director seemed unemployable after a string of antisemitic and racist outbursts. But steady work since and a new comedy vehicle suggest his time in the wilderness is up.
Sarah Silverman: 'There are jokes I made 15 years ago I would absolutely not make today'(The Guardian)
Sarah Silverman's comedy has always aimed a laser into the dark corners of sexism, racism and religion. But now she's using her wit to make sense of the huge issues facing America. Sophie Heawood meets her in Hollywood.
Tom Danehy: Tom is thankful for family. (Tucson Weekly)
When we got to San Manuel, just to goof on her, I entered Michelle in the long jump. She protested, stating that she had never done it before. I told her to just watch the other kids and maybe get a tip or two from Leon. Each kid gets three jumps. On her first one, she went about 10 feet. I laughed and told her that I could probably do 10 feet, even at my advanced age and weight. She smiled. On her next jump, she went 12 feet, and on her final jump, she went 14 feet and won the event. I shrugged and said, "Well, that's just good coaching."
Deborah Orr: "It couldn't be for ever: mourning David Cassidy, the original 70s pinup" (The Guardian)
That hair! That voice! Cassidy was loved by millions but soon grew sick of the manufactured world of fame. His career mapped out a path for the teen idols who followed.
Steph Harmon: "David Cassidy: star of Partridge Family dies aged 67" (The Guardian)
Family statement says teen pop idol Cassidy died in Florida 'surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart.'
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Presenting
Michael Egan
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
took the day off.
wrote:
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
David E Suggests
Time Travel
David
Thanks, Dave!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
PILF?
"BE HAPPY."
"SICKENING"
SICKENING! PART TWO.
SICKENING! PART THREE.
THE LIARS, THE CHEATS AND THE THIEVES.
CONSERVATIVES ARE SOULLESS DOPES.
OLD MAN FIBBER.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
"Only" 92° - perfect temperature for having the oven on all day.
Hosting 2018 Golden Globes
Seth Meyers
Seth Meyers is your host for the 2018 Golden Globes.
The news comes days after trade outlets reported that the NBC's Late Night host was close to a deal to host the annual award ceremony, now in its 75th year.
Meyers follows in the footsteps of past Golden Globe Award hosts such as fellow SNL alumni Amy Poehler and Tina Fey and British funnyman and The Office co-creator Ricky Gervais.
Meyers has hosted award shows before--the 2010 ESPYs and the 2014 Emmys.
The 75th annual Golden Globe Awards presentation will air live on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018 on NBC at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET. Nominations will be announced on Monday, Dec. 11.
Seth Meyers
Refuses To Turn Over Evidence
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission received millions of suspicious comments in support of its plan to repeal net neutrality, and it ignored multiple requests for evidence that would explain their origin. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman isn't happy about that.
On Tuesday, one day after Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai (R-Verizon) announced he would forge forward with a plan to gutnet neutrality, Schneiderman published an open letter calling out the agency for some serious misdeeds.
In particular, he noted the FCC "has refused multiple requests for crucial evidence" that is essential to his office's ongoing investigation into the "fake comments." Since many of those comments used the identities of "hundreds of thousands" of real Americans, Schneiderman says, whoever submitted them likely broke the law.
The New York attorney general says his office requested the FCC records at least nine times over five months from multiple top FCC officials, yet "received no substantive response."
That lines up with the experiences of others who are looking into the origins of the comments.
FCC
Biden's Apology 'Not Enough'
Anita Hill
Anita Hill said former Vice President Joe Biden's recent apology for his handling of her 1991 Senate testimony against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas is "not enough" to make up for his failure at the time "to show leadership on this issue on behalf of women's equality."
"He said, 'I am sorry if she felt she didn't get a fair hearing.' That's sort of an 'I'm sorry if you were offended,'" Hill said in a wide-ranging Washington Post interview published Wednesday in which she also compared her time in the spotlight with unfairness that remains for women facing workplace sexual harassment.
Hill said Biden's apology omits "his role in what happened."
"He also doesn't understand that it wasn't just that I felt it was not fair," Hill said. "It was that women were looking to the Senate Judiciary Committee and his leadership to really open the way to have these kinds of hearings. They should have been using best practices to show leadership on this issue on behalf of women's equality. And they did just the opposite."
Hill also said that she does not feel Biden has taken "responsibility for" victimization she experienced as a result of the hearing.
Anita Hill
Navajo Family Gets Electricity
Utah
For years, Thomas and Annie Hamm walked around their southern Utah home with flashlights at night, heated water on a wood burning stove and kept their food cold on ice.
Sometimes, they ran an extension cord from a car battery to power a television. They had a small solar panel installed to provide power but ran out of it whenever clouds rolled in.
This year, the couple finally has gotten electricity just in time for the holidays. They are planning a Thanksgiving dinner with their three sons and their families, including several grandchildren, that won't have to end when the sun goes down.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority recently brought power to the Hamms' home in the tiny community of McCracken Mesa and plans to connect 240 other homes nearby. It's part of a project to expand infrastructure in a desolate region of the country where basic services such as electricity, running water and telephone service are not available for thousands of people on the reservation that extends into Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.
For the Hamms, years of not having electricity were even more frustrating because they live less than one mile (1.6 kilometers) from an existing power line. Another utility company required Navajo families to pay much of the cost to extend the lines, and the Hamms couldn't afford it.
Utah
Follows T-rump Playbook
Roy Moore
Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore (R-Likes 'Em Too Young) has executed a familiar playbook when it comes to allegations of sexual assault and harassment.
Like Donald Trump (R-Predator) during last year's presidential campaign, Moore has denied, obfuscated, and claimed he is the target of a liberal conspiracy in response to accusations of sexual misconduct leveled at him by several women, including one who was 14 when he allegedly assaulted her when he was a 32-year-old prosecutor.
Rather than withdraw from the race - as Trump was similarly urged to do by a number of GOP lawmakers in early October of 2016 - Moore has vowed to stay in and let Alabama voters decide his fate in a Dec. 12 special election against Democrat Doug Jones.
Like Trump, Moore has attempted to frame the story as a political conspiracy organized by the media and the Democratic Party. Moore and his supporters have also labeled the allegations "a witch hunt," questioning their source and timing.
Both men have also attempted to discredit their accusers. Trump said the women who alleged that he groped them were too unattractive for him to have done so. Moore has said he planned to provide "revelations about the motivations and context" of the women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
Roy Moore
100th Day At One Of His Properties
T-rump
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Lining His Own Pockets) is celebrating his first Thanksgiving as president at his members-only resort in Florida, marking the 100th day he's spent at a Trump-owned property since his inauguration.
Trump traveled to Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, hours after pardoning a turkey at the White House. Wednesday and Thursday were the president's 27th and 28th days at his Palm Beach resort, according to a New York Times tracker. He also visited the Trump International Golf Club on Wednesday, where the White House said he handled "a full schedule of meetings and phone calls." Reporters were not invited to join the president, but they were pretty sure Trump's schedule also included some golf.
Trump has now spent nearly one-third of his presidency at one of his properties.
Trump is set to return to the White House on Sunday.
T-rump
Banned Grom 26 European Countries
Spencer
A leading figure in the white nationalist movement has reportedly been banned from over two dozen European countries.
Richard Spencer (R-Pus) is said to have been banned from entering 26 countries across Europe's visa-free Schengen zone for the next five years.
The ban was introduced by Polish authorities, who apparently implemented the ban after he was due to travel to the country to speak at a far-right conference.
Spencer, who was previously banned from the Schengen zone for three years after he was arrested in Hungary in 2014, has vowed to fight the ban.
Spencer
"Rape Now Defined As Regrettable Sex"
Breitbart
The editor-in-chief of far right site Breitbart News has claimed women have co-opted the term rape to refer to sex which they later regret.
Alex Marlow (R-Flaccid) argued women have exploited the word in the wake of the me too campaign which has seen a steady stream of high profile individuals come forward to allege and denounce sexual assault.
The 31-year-old, whose news website has been branded misogynist, xenophobic and racist, said the definition of rape had been so far broadened it had lost all sense of meaning and this made it difficult to know whether accounts of rape were credible.
Breitbart, which is run by President-for-now Donald Trump's (R-Corrupt) former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon (R-Satan's Catamite), knew about the Washington Post story which broke accusations against Roy Moore ahead of publication. Prior to it even appearing online, Breitbart published a piece about Moore denying the allegations.
Breitbart
Barred From Mentioning Climate Change
Anti-Pipeline Activist
After a short trial lasting just a day and a half, climate activist and retiree Leonard Higgins was found guilty on Wednesday of a serious felony charge for his role in the "valve turner" protest last year that resulted in the brief shutdown of a tar sands pipeline in Montana.
The 65-year-old former state worker from Portland, Oregon, said he'd carried out the protest to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change. Higgins and his defense team, however, were barred from referring to climate change during the trial.
Last October, Higgins was one of five climate activists who coordinated efforts to stop tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, from flowing over the Canadian-U.S. border. He cut two chains to enter a fenced enclosure in Coal Banks Landing in Montana to turn off the emergency shutoff valve on a Spectra Energy pipeline. The four other activists successfully shut off four pipelines in Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington state, thus temporarily halting the flow of Alberta tar sands oil into the U.S.
During his trial, Higgins, an activist with Climate Direct Action, told a Montana district court that his goal had not been to cause major damage to the pipeline but to raise awareness about the threat of climate change.
Activists say the jury was not given the full picture of Higgins' motivations since mentions of climate change were off-limits during his trial.
Anti-Pipeline Activist
Refuse to Call Transgender Lawmaker a Woman
Republicans in Virginia
Republican lawmakers in Virginia plan to throw out hundred-year-old rules in their General Assembly so they don't have to call the state's first transgender legislator a woman.
Throughout the campaign leading up to the state election in Virginia early this month, Danica Roem's Republican rival, Robert G. Marshall referred to her as a man in public, as did Virginia Republican Party campaign fliers.
If three close races in the state house-which are yet to be decided-leave its Republican majority intact, members will stop referring to each other as "gentleman" or "gentlewoman," Republican House Majority Leader M. Kirkland Cox told theWashington Post through a spokesman early this week.
Danica Roem, a Democrat who will become state Delegate in Virginia's district 13, is America's first openly transgender lawmaker.Paul J. Richards/Getty
Republicans in Virginia
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