Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Come to Jesus! Then, Go Away! (Creators Syndicate)
So, I'm sitting here writing a column, smoking a cigar, a practice I believe is forbidden by some religions, though not all. I mean smoking, of course. No religion forbids writing. At least not until after the next election.
Ted Rall: What's the Matter with Obama?
As a pundit it's my job to explain why politicians do the things they do. Every now and then, however, a pol behaves so irrationally that I have to throw up my arms and ask: What the hell is this guy thinking? That's what Obama has me doing. For over two years. Why isn't he worried about unemployment?
Terry Savage: Impact of Credit Rating Downgrade Rests With Actions by Fed, Congress (Creators Syndicate)
But the next steps taken by Congress will tell the world what's likely to happen in the future. And nothing in the past is nearly as important as that next signal from Congress. We must tell the world we are getting serious about our finances - and soon.
What I'm really thinking: The sexual health doctor (Guardian)
'I don't think I'll ever tire of looking at people's private parts.'
NANCY SHUTE: Bill Clinton's Life As A Vegan (NPR)
Bill Clinton became renowned on the campaign trail for his ability to snarf up burgers and fries. Heart bypass surgery convinced him to cut back on the grease. In the past year, Clinton's gone even further: He's gone vegan.
Charlyn Fargo: The Power Breakfast (Creators Syndicate)
My 13-year-old son headed back to school today, ready for his eighth-grade year. That means summer is officially over, and it's time to get back to the routine.
ROBERT T. GONZALEZ: Your TV is Slowly Killing You (io9)
The authors point out that they do not believe their results are linked to a lack of exercise (something the researchers classify as an entirely separate behavioral risk factor), but rather sedentary behavior - which makes this research the latest in a long line of attacks in the recent war on sitting.
Brendan Gleeson: 'My sons all roared: "Dad's going to be Mad-Eye Moody. Wa-hey!"' (Guardian)
Ireland's answer to Gérard Depardieu tells Killian Fox about Hogwarts fame and working with Spielberg and the McDonagh brothers.
Not Fade Away
Forget the music of the 1950s? That'll be the day. Essay by Robert Christgau.
Red Hot Chili Peppers: The band that couldn't be stopped (Guardian)
What keeps the Red Hot Chili Peppers from retiring to the beach? Rob Fitzpatrick asks the LA rock aristocrats how they keep things chaotic after all this time.
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."
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and pleasant.
Does Obama's Job For Him
Jon Stewart
If you didn't see Jon Stewart's summer break sign-off Thursday night, in which he summed up the right's "class warfare" hysteria over demands that the rich go back to paying the same tax rates they paid during the Clinton boom years, you've got to give this two-part clip your eyes for just a couple minutes:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart's World of Class Warfare - Warren Buffett vs. Wealthy Conservatives
In all this, Stewart makes clear that Fox News is able to lie and bark absurdities because it's not a news organization but a one-note propaganda machine whose seamlessness would have left George Orwell's Winston Smith paralyzed in admiration.
But what's best about Stewart is the way he makes crystal clear that Democrats are engaged in self-censorship. For two weeks now, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have been on a poverty tour, calling for Obama and the Dems to recognize that they've been fighting with one arm tied behind their back, to stop limiting their concern only to the "middle class," and to dare to say the "p" word. When half the country possesses only 2.5 per cent of the country's wealth, the diminishing middle can choose either to be bodyguards for their overlords or throw their lot in with the poor.
"The poors," Stewart calls them. Obama needs to recognize that the world economy is shuddering to a halt because the global rich are so focused on wealth protection into a distant future that capitalism can't find the money to function and grow. The time that his paltry stimulus bought the system has run out. As they did by going after Saddam instead of Al Qaeda, the political class is again setting off weapons of mass distraction-this time, by going after "spending" and the deficit instead of unemployment and the foreclosure crisis.
Jon Stewart
Seattle's Hempfest
Dennis Kucinich
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was back in Seattle Saturday, taking the stage at Seattle's Hempfest, where he gave an impassioned speech comparing marijuana- legalization efforts to the Civil Rights movement and the Arab Spring.
It was just the latest in a steady schedule of local public appearances for Kucinich, who, despite a 'buzz off' message from state Democratic Party leaders, is continuing to explore whether to run for a congressional seat here in 2012. (His longtime West Cleveland district is in jeopardy due to redistricting.)
Kucinich on Saturday gave no more clues to his 2012 plans. But his future should become clearer in a few weeks when Ohio's new congressional district maps emerge. That will determine whether he can run again there, or try to find a new home.
Kucinich didn't stop at hemp, he also exhorted the crowd to demand gay rights, universal health care and an end to U.S. military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Of course, Kucinich wasn't the only pro-legalization politician to take the Hempfest stage. Also speaking were Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, City Attorney Pete Holmes, City Councilman Nick Licata and state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.
Dennis Kucinich
Struggling To Update
Coast Guard
Nearly a decade into a 25-year, $24.2 billion overhaul intended to add or upgrade more than 250 vessels to its aging fleet, the Coast Guard has two new ships to show after spending $7 billion-plus.
Now it's facing an uphill battle persuading a budget-conscious Congress to keep pouring money into a project plagued by management problems and cost overruns.
"Congress wants to work with the Coast Guard to meet their needs for its myriad missions, but will not simply supply a blank check," said GOP Rep. Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard.
By now the Coast Guard was supposed to have at least eight new ships - four 418-foot national security cutters and four 154-foot cutters - either in the water or about to be delivered. Instead it has only two of the largest ships already in use, with two ships more on the way.
Coast Guard
Wedding News
Wright - Blitzer
Chely Wright, the first mainstream country performer to come out as lesbian, married her partner, activist Lauren Blitzer, on Saturday in Connecticut, People magazine reported.
Wright, 40, met Blitzer, 30, soon after the singer's 2010 announcement that she is a lesbian.
Named the top new female vocalist by the Academy of Country Music in 1995, Wright hid her homosexuality for years, believing it would hurt her career in the traditionally conservative country music community.
"They would rather you were a drug addict than be gay," she told reporters at the time of her coming-out, which is chronicled in the upcoming documentary "Wish Me Away."
Wright - Blitzer
Rapper Charged
Machine Gun Kelly
Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly was cited with disorderly conduct after he was accused of refusing to get down from a food court table during a flash mob he organized at a suburban mall, police said on Sunday.
Police in Strongsville, Ohio, received a tip on Saturday of a possible flash mob planned for 5 p.m. local time by the rapper, who recently signed a recording deal with rap mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' music label.
As the event began, mall management asked a group of people including the rapper not to stand on a table located next to a second-floor railing, according to a statement issued by police.
The 21-year-old rapper, whose real name is Richard C. Baker, and two others who failed to comply were removed from the mall, police said. They were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and released.
Machine Gun Kelly
British Comedian Attacked
Jeff Mirza
A British comedian says he was attacked with a bottle at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival while dressed as Moammar Gadhafi.
Jeff Mirza was handing out flyers on the street for his show, dressed as the embattled Libyan leader, when a man approached and asked for a cigarette. Mirza said he shook his head and the man walked on, but when Mirza turned around he was hit on the back of the head with a bottle. He was not seriously hurt.
Mirza is at the annual festival with his show "Jihad: Heresy or Hearsay."
The comedian said Sunday that most festivalgoers had been welcoming. He said "most people at the Fringe get the joke of me being dressed up as a washed up dictator trying to sell the show."
Police say they do not believe the Aug. 14 attack was racially motivated.
Jeff Mirza
Shows Risk Of Online Health Records
Data Spill
Until recently, medical files belonging to nearly 300,000 Californians sat unsecured on the Internet for the entire world to see.
There were insurance forms, Social Security numbers and doctors' notes. Among the files were summaries that spelled out, in painstaking detail, a trucker's crushed fingers, a maintenance worker's broken ribs and one man's bout with sexual dysfunction.
At a time of mounting computer hacking threats, the incident offers an alarming glimpse at privacy risks as the nation moves steadily into an era in which every American's sensitive medical information will be digitized.
Electronic records can lower costs, cut bureaucracy and ultimately save lives. The government is offering bonuses to early adopters and threatening penalties and cuts in payments to medical providers who refuse to change.
Data Spill
Schools Cut Costs With 4-Day Week
South Dakota
When the nearly 300 students of the Irene-Wakonda School District returned to school this week, they found a lot of old friends, teachers and familiar routines awaiting them. But one thing was missing: Friday classes.
This district in the rolling farmland of southeastern South Dakota is among the latest to adopt a four-day school week as the best option for reducing costs and dealing with state budget cuts to education.
The four-day school week is an increasingly visible example of the impact of state budget problems on rural education. This fall, fully one-fourth of South Dakota's districts will have moved to some form of the abbreviated schedule. Only Colorado and Wyoming have a larger proportion of schools using a shortened week. According to one study, more than 120 school districts in 20 states, most in the west, now use four-day weeks.
The schools insist that reducing class time is better than the alternatives and can be done without sacrificing academic performance. Yet not all parents are convinced.
South Dakota
Conservative Family Values
Freedom Free Will Baptist Church
Dale Richardson was saved at a tent revival 32 years ago, was called to preach the Lord's word in 2006 and, for the past year, had served as pastor at Freedom Free Will Baptist Church, a modest red brick structure on a South Carolina side road running along a railroad track.
Now he's in jail, charged with kidnapping and raping three women at gunpoint - two of them in a trailer behind the church - and kidnapping a fourth who was not sexually assaulted.
According to an incident report, about noon on a Saturday last month, Richardson picked up a woman and gave her a ride. When the 20-year-old tried to get out of the car, Richardson allegedly pulled a gun, bound her hands, covered her head and took her to the gray-blue trailer home behind the church.
The report said he later dropped the woman in a wooded area, threatening to shoot her if she turned around. Police said the woman was able to identify Richardson from his picture on the church website, which also displays a short biography detailing how he became a Christian and then a pastor.
The church website says Richardson became pastor of the church on June 9, 2010. It says he graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. - the college founded by evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell - and has a wife and two grown daughters.
Freedom Free Will Baptist Church
Dumps Mayor
Sodaville
A small city in Oregon has kicked out its mayor for not showing up to work.
The Albany Democrat-Herald reports that Sodaville replaced 35-year-old Brady Harrington with the city council's president.
The newspaper says Harrington missed council meetings in June and July, along with skipping three budget meetings.
The new mayor, Nick Heineck, says Harrington was occupied as a firefighter and student, but would not commit to returning to meetings when council members reached him by phone this week.
Harrington declined to resign. He was elected to his second term as mayor in November.
Sodaville
Weekend Box Office
"The Help"
"The Help" continues to clean up at the box office, taking over the No. 1 spot with $20.5 million in its second weekend. The DreamWorks Pictures film starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Octavia Spencer in a drama about Southern black maids had debuted in second-place a week earlier. "The Help" raised its domestic total to $71.8 million and bumped 20th Century Fox's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," which slipped to No. 2 with $16.3 million after two weekends at the top, according to studio estimates Sunday.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" remains a solid hit, lifting its domestic total to $133.8 million.
A rush of new movies had weak openings: the Weinstein Co. family sequel "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World" at No. 3 with $12 million; Lionsgate's action remake "Conan the Barbarian" at No. 4 with $10 million; the DreamWorks-Disney horror-comedy remake "Fright Night" at No. 5 with $8.3 million; and Focus Features' literary adaptation "One Day" at No. 9 with $5.1 million.
Overall domestic revenues slid for the first time in five weekends. Receipts totaled $124 million, down 3 percent from the same weekend last year, when "The Expendables" led with $17 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
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. "The Help," $20.5 million.
2. "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," $16.3 million.
3. "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World," $12 million.
4. "Conan the Barbarian," $10 million.
5. "Fright Night," $8.3 million.
6. "The Smurfs," $8 million ($35.3 million international).
7. "Final Destination 5," $7.7 million.
8. "30 Minutes or Less," $6.3 million.
9. "One Day," $5.1 million.
10. "Crazy, Stupid, Love," $5 million.
"The Help"
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