Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Michele Bachmann? She's a Twit (Creators Syndicate)
Maybe those of us who drive forklifts for a living aren't getting any smarter but, geez, the in-charge people get dumber every generation.
Matt Miller: President, or pawn?
Is Barack Obama a president or a pawn? And is there any difference nowadays?
Clarence Page: Dump the war on drugs
When David Simon, creator of HBO's late dramatic crime series "The Wire," heard that Attorney General Eric Holder wanted to see the series return for a sixth season, he offered the nation's top prosecutor a deal.
Ryan J. Reilly: Aides To Former Maryland Gov Indicted For Ordering Calls To Suppress Votes (Talking Points Memo)
Voters in Maryland started getting mysterious phone calls on election day last year, that told them to "relax" and not bother going to the polls because President Barack Obama and Gov. Martin O'Malley "have been successful. "Everything is fine. The only thing left is to watch on TV tonight," the robocalls said.
Joe Bob Biggs: IckyLeaks (Taki's Magazine)
Last night, after trimming my pubic hair and photographing my penis so I could email it to a half-dozen women and post it on various social networks where the curious could assemble to marvel at it and debate whether it was real or Photoshopped… OK, OK, I'm lying.
Oliver Burkeman: Radical? Really? (Guardian)
When 'revolutionary' advice is anything but.
What I'm really thinking: The short man (Guardian)
I have just been on a date with a willowy brunette. We met at a cafe and ordered tea and cake. While sipping her cuppa, she asked, "How tall are you?"
Chuck Norris: The Invasion of Genetically Engineered Crops (Creators Syndicate)
The only real solution to prevent global food governance and our bodies from having to consume genetically altered foods is to mandate the proper labeling of all foods and to buy local and organic foods. By diminishing the supply of and demand for imported and genetically engineered foods, we can diminish their tyranny at the borders of our bodies.
"The Murder of the Century: The Gilded Age Crime That Scandalized a City and Sparked the Tabloid Wars" by Paul Collins: A review by Marc Mohan
A common complaint about journalism is that it focuses on the sordid, gruesome and melodramatic at the expense of "legitimate" reporting. Of course, this gripe is nothing new, as even a glance at the "yellow" journalism of more than a century ago reveals.
Jessica Grose: Questions for Simon Pegg (Slate)
The star of 'Shaun of the Dead' talks about his new book, 'Nerd Do Well,' and his romance with a girl called Meredith Catsanus.
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."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Secrets from Amber Ray"
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Purple Gene Reviews
"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thick marine layer hung around til very late afternoon.
Turns 66
Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi called for peace as she celebrated her 66th birthday on Sunday, her first as a free woman for almost a decade.
She was released from seven years of house arrest in November, having spent much of the past two decades as a prisoner in her own home, with the military regime never accepting her landslide election win in 1990.
"My birthday wish is for peace for all of us. I alone cannot get this peace, nor my party. We all have to work for it," she told about 1,000 well-wishers at her National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters.
"I would like to ask everyone to help by co-operating for peace in our country," she added, after cutting her birthday cake.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Visits Refugees
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie traveled to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday to thank its residents for welcoming in the estimated 20,000 migrants who arrived after fleeing unrest in Tunisia and Libya.
Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, toured a migrant holding center, chatted with some refugees and then participated in a ceremony at Lampedusa's memorial for migrants lost at sea as part of commemorations for World Refugee Day on Monday.
She thanked the residents who gathered for the ceremony for welcoming the migrants in and asked them to consider how "horrible" their lives must have been that they would risk everything for the chance of a better life in Europe.
U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres also was on hand to urge Europe to continue keeping its doors open to refugees. Italy's center-right government has begrudgingly accepted the migrants. It has also struck deals with Tunisia and the Libyan opposition to return those who don't qualify for asylum.
Angelina Jolie
Helping The Ttown Of Phil Campbell
Phil Campbells
After the small Alabama city of Phil Campbell was ravaged in April by a tornado that killed more than two dozen people and hurt even more, a select group from around the world offered to help: men named Phil Campbell.
Phil Campbells from across the globe are converging this weekend on the hard-hit city of 1,150 for the "I'm With Phil" convention, a gathering meant to raise spirits, money and new roofs.
Organizers say 18 Phil Campbells plan to be here before the weekend is out, and they're not picky on the spelling.
Located about 95 miles northwest of Birmingham, the town began in the 1880s as a work camp established by railroad crew leader Phillip Campbell, originally of England. It was incorporated in 1911 as the only town in Alabama to have both a first and last name, a distinction it still holds.
Phil Campbells
Cancels Part Of European Tour
Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse canceled part of her European tour on Sunday, a day after the British singer was heavily booed for being late and displaying erratic behavior on stage during a concert in Serbia.
The concert late Saturday in the Serbian capital of Belgrade kicked off what was to be a 12-date tour of Europe. But Winehouse decided to cancel appearances in Istanbul on Monday and in Athens on Wednesday, according to a statement from publicity company Outside Organization.
Her representatives said it would be "worked out as soon as possible" whether she would attend the rest of her European tour. The next scheduled concert date after Athens is July 8 in Bilbao, Spain. The tour was to end in Bucharest, Romania, on Aug. 15.
Winehouse would like to say sorry to fans expecting to see her in Turkey and Greece, but "feels that this is the right thing to do," the statement said.
Amy Winehouse
Life After Olbermann
MSNBC
Keith Olbermann essentially invented the present-day MSNBC, but he didn't take it with him when he left.
As Olbermann prepares for his debut on Current TV on Monday night, the MSNBC he left behind has survived; its boss says it has thrived. The prime-time focus on left-of-center political talk show hosts that began with Olbermann's transformation to on-air activist remains. Rachel Maddow, once Olbermann's protege, has taken over as the network's marquee name.
So far this year, MSNBC's average weekday prime-time audience is 965,000 viewers, or 10 percent more than last year over the same period, the Nielsen Co. says. Fox, easily the market leader with 2.4 million viewers, is down 12 percent in the same comparison, and third-place CNN is up 10 percent, with 770,000 viewers.
"I was surprised that we did not dip at all," said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's chief executive. "I was prepared for a 10 percent dip."
Dig deeper into the numbers and the picture isn't quite as clear. Viewership at 8 p.m. following Jan. 24, when Lawrence O'Donnell took over following Olbermann's abrupt departure, is down 6 percent from last year, Nielsen says. Ed Schultz's 10 p.m. hour is up 29 percent over last year, but MSNBC in early 2010 aired an Olbermann rerun at that hour, meaning Schultz's audience of 884,000 is being compared with recycled material a year earlier.
MSNBC
2D Outpaces 3D
Ticket Sales
2D movie ticket sales on Fandango for Warner Bros. weekend release "Green Lantern" and the final installment of "Harry Potter" are outpacing 3D ticket sales in a possible latest sign of 3D fatigue, BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield said Friday.
He cited the live "top sellers" data on the Pulse section of Fandango's iPad app, saying that the sales trends for the superhero movie come despite what he called a "massive 3D promotional push" for "Green Lantern" on Fandango, YouTube and elsewhere.
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2" ticket sales went on sale earlier this week, and 2D tickets are in the top 5 on the "top sellers" list, while 3D tickets are not, the analyst highlighted.
"We continue to believe U.S. consumers are frustrated with the amount of 3D movies Hollywood is producing, especially when combined with excessive ticket prices," Greenfield said.
"In addition, we suspect the darkness of 3D is starting to impact movie satisfaction (this was a key problem with "Pirates 3D," with both "Green Lantern" and "Potter" starting off with darker imagery and then layering on 3D glasses that darken the images further)," Greenfield added, pointing out the disappointing performance of a range of recent 3D releases.
Ticket Sales
Mi$$ing
$17 Billion
Iraq's parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down.
The missing money was shipped to Iraq from the United States to help with reconstruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein.
In a letter to the U.N. office in Baghdad last month, parliament's Integrity Committee asked for help to find and recover the oil money taken from the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) in 2004 and lost in the chaos that followed the invasion.
The committee called the disappearance of the money a "financial crime" but said U.N. Security Council resolutions prevent Iraq from making a claim against the United States.
$17 Billion
What's For Supper?
Airport Geese
New York City plans to capture pesky geese that threaten planes departing area airports and send them to Pennsylvania to be cooked for meals for the poor, city officials said.
The plan is aimed at avoiding incidents like the forced landing of a U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River in January 2009 after a flock of errant geese were caught in the engine during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.
Mass culls to clear the geese from the area were authorized after the National Transportation Safety Board positively identified the remains of Canada geese in the engine of the aircraft.
The city will pay for the capture and transport of the geese to facilities in Pennsylvania where they will be distributed to Pennsylvania food banks, a spokesman for the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said.
"Rather than disposing of them in landfills, we wanted to make sure they do not go to waste," the spokesman said.
Airport Geese
Weekend Box Office
"Green Lantern"
Ryan Reynolds' "Green Lantern" debuted at No. 1 with $52.7 million domestically, a fair but unremarkable opening stacked up against other comic-book adaptations. The movie added $17 million in a handful of overseas markets where it has opened, including Great Britain and Russia.
Released by Warner Bros., "Green Lantern" brought up the rear among superhero movies to open so far this summer, behind the $65.7 million debut of "Thor" and the $55.1 million launch of "X-Men: First Class."
The previous weekend's top flick, Paramount Pictures' sci-fi adventure "Super 8," slipped to No. 2 with $21.3 million. Its domestic total rose to $72.8 million.
Jim Carrey's family comedy "Mr. Popper's Penguins" had a frosty start as the 20th Century Fox release came in at No. 3 with $18.2 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Green Lantern," $52.7 million ($17 million international).
2. "Super 8," $21.3 million.
3. "Mr. Popper's Penguins," $18.2 million.
4. "X-Men: First Class," $11.5 million.
5. "The Hangover Part II," $9.6 million ($21.4 million international).
6. "Kung Fu Panda 2," $8.7 million ($52.5 million).
7. "Bridesmaids," $7.5 million ($7.3 million international).
8. "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," $6.2 million ($25.9 million international).
9. "Midnight in Paris," $5.2 million.
10. "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer," $2.2 million.
"Green Lantern"
In Memory
Yelena Bonner
Soviet dissident Yelena Bonner, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov and tireless critic of Vladimir Putin, has died aged 88 in her adopted home in the United States.
A pediatrician by training but a historic figure in life, Bonner died on Saturday in Boston after undergoing heart surgery for a third time, her friend and fellow rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva told AFP.
After a suburban Boston ceremony, Bonner's ashes will be interred next to her husband's remains at Moscow's Vostryakovo Cemetery, her daughter said in a statement released Sunday.
A seminal figure in the rights movement, Bonner was remembered as an unbowed fighter for Soviet freedoms who became so disillusioned with the course taken by modern Russia that she spent her last years in the United States.
There was no immediate reaction from President Dmitry Medvedev or his predecessor and current premier Putin, an ex-KGB man whose resignation Bonner demanded in a 2010 open letter titled simply "Putin Must Go".
A daughter of Jewish revolutionaries, Bonner served as the West's only link to her exiled husband and other dissidents in the 1980s, exposing abuses in Chechnya a decade later and demanding action over recent media restrictions.
After marrying the nuclear scientist Sakharov in 1972, she accepted his Nobel Peace Prize at an Oslo awards ceremony three years later as the Cold War raged, her husband being barred from travelling abroad because of his activism.
Sakharov died aged 68 in 1989 in the closing years of the Soviet regime, becoming a public critic of Mikhail Gorbachev after being allowed to return to Moscow together with Bonner during the last Soviet leader's perestroika era.
With the country in disarray after the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, Bonner helped organise Russia's nascent human rights movement and backed its first president Boris Yeltsin, who brought hope to those who suffered from oppression.
But she famously quit Yeltsin's rights commission for his 1994 decision to launch the first Chechen war, which killed tens of thousands in a Muslim region where violence festers to this day.
She spent her last years in the United States after expressing dismay with Russia's course under Putin, an era that saw the state win back control of major television stations and rights groups com under a new wave of pressure.
Born in the Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, Bonner was raised during the bloodiest years of Joseph Stalin's atrocities, an era in which the lives of tens of millions were gripped in fear.
Her father, a leading Communist Party intellectual, was executed in 1938 when she was 14 and her mother was sent to a labour camp for eight years.
She called herself one of "the strange orphans of 1937", the worst year of Stalin's purges.
Yelena Bonner
In Memory
Brian Haw
To some, he was a crackpot, an eyesore camped out on prime London real estate. To others he was an inspiration, tirelessly fighting for civil rights.
Brian Haw, a veteran British peace activist best known for staging around-the-clock protests outside London's Parliament continuously for 10 years, has died at age 62.
Haw died Saturday in Germany where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer, his family said Sunday.
Haw set up camp opposite the Houses of Parliament in June 2001 to protest U.S. and British bombing raids on Iraq. His protest soon widened in scope in the following years, with the invasion of Afghanistan.
Over the years, British officials tried - but failed - to shut down his protests and remove him from Parliament Square.
In 2002, the local council took legal action to remove him, saying he was a nuisance, but the case never went to court. Subsequent legal challenges resulted in limiting Haw's protest site, and this year he moved to the sidewalk after the Greater London Authority received permission to evict Haw and his supporters from the grass area of the square.
For a decade, Haw's tent, with his collection of pictures showing war victims and handwritten slogans like "Baby Killers," was a fixture in Parliament Square. Many did not take kindly to him - passers-by often shouted abuse at him, and Haw scuffled with critics several times. Nonetheless, Haw always returned to his chosen spot.
A father of seven, he had told reporters that he left his family to campaign for other families in war zones around the world.
The protester's work became the subject of a work of art in 2007, when former Turner Prize nominee Mark Wallinger recreated his camp in the Tate Britain gallery.
Supporters left his camping chair and his footstool in place. It has not yet been decided what will happen to his belongings.
Brian Haw
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