Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jasmin, age 14 and homeschooled: Letter to the Editor (Imgur)
If homosexuality is allowed, ducks will take over the world.
Ryan J. Reilly: Man Tied To Va. GOP Arrested In Voter Form Destruction (Talking Points Memo)
A Pennsylvania man employed by a company working for the Republican Party of Virginia was arrested by investigators from the Rockingham County Sheriff's office on Thursday and charged with destroying voter registration forms. Colin Small, a resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications ….
Susan Estrich: World Series Time (Creators Syndicate)
Are you for or against a system in which every American is required to be insured, along with the limits on denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and subsidies for those who can't afford private market prices? Should folks in their 40s and 50s get a voucher option to Medicare? Will doing so give them more options, or result in the kind of cherry picking that lands the sickest people on Medicare, resulting in cuts to benefits?
Romney: Believe in Half of America
For a detailed explanation of how the Romney-Ryan tax plan is able to cut taxes by $5 trillion without exploding the deficit or requiring tax hikes on the middle class, simply click the button below.
Andrew Tobias: Bill Clinton Knows Whereof He Speaks
Governor Romney keeps guaranteeing that if we elect him, rich folks won't pay any less in tax than they do now. Yet if you listen closely, you'll hear that what he's actually saying is that they won't pay a lower SHARE of the overall tax burden than now. What he never admits is that will pay a whole lot less TAX. Let me give you two examples.
Obama's Plan Is Working - Bill Clinton (YouTube)
No one makes more sense.
Froma Harrop: Etch A Sketch, Made in China (Creators Syndicate)
Part of Romney's rap against China is the stealing of U.S. technology. But Microsoft had accused Bain's Chinese retailer, Gome Electrical Appliances, of pirating its software. And Global-Tech, a Bain Chinese appliance company, was found to have violated a U.S. patent held by a French company.
Connie Schultz: Ryan's Publicity Stunt Could Hurt Ohio Soup Kitchen (Creators Syndicate)
Americans across the country now know about a soup kitchen serving thousands of hungry people in Youngstown, Ohio. Unfortunately, most learned about it because of a publicity stunt by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The backlash from the Ryan Budget Traveling Roadshow could threaten future funding for the program.
Andrew Tobias: The Number 47
As others have noted: [47 is] both the percentage of Americans for whom Mr. Romney feels contempt ("I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for for their lives") and the job creation rank to which Massachusetts fell under his stewardship (down from 37th when he took office). Not good either way you look at it. And let's not forget 34: the Governor's 34% approval rating upon leaving office in Massachusetts. If he did a good job, why the Bush-like approval rating?
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
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."
answered:
wrote:
replied:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Strip Club Anthem?
"Binders Full of Women"
Hey Marty:
I'm a music producer and I think my new track I've made sampling Mitt Romney's "binders full of women" quote at the Presidential Debate two nights ago would make for a great post on BartCop.com's Entertainment section as it has picked up almost 2,000 views in less than one day just via word-of-mouth.
"BINDERS FULL OF WOMEN"(Prod. by Alex Kresovich) - YouTube Link
"BINDERS FULL OF WOMEN"(Prod. by Alex Kresovich) - Free SoundCloud Download Link
The song came about as Alex was watching the debate and joked on Twitter that he would turn Mitt's "binders full of women" quote into a strip club instrumental for Juicy J ("Bandz A Make Her Dance") and 2 Chainz ("Birthday Song"). He turned his joke turned into reality the very next day. He's encouraging rappers to hop on the track and release their own versions on YouTube and SoundCloud as responses to his video.
The track was produced by Alex Kresovich, a music producer from Ithaca, NY currently best known for winning the NBA 2K12 Producer Contest to produce the main theme for NBA 2K12 video game (used in commercial on ABC here).
The track was mixed by Ken Lewis (ProToolsMixing.com), the 10x Grammy winner best known for being an instrumentalist/engineer for Kanye West. His work has included arranging the brass section on "All of the Lights" by Kanye West, serving as main engineer for Jeremih's breakout single "Down On Me", and most recently for providing additional drumming work to "We Are Young" by fun. and "Girl On Fire" by Alicia Keys.
The single art was created by Chris Colbert.
Alex
Thanks, Alex!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Kinda cloudy and cool.
Break World Record
"Trekkies"
Star Trek fans made history on Saturday by breaking the record for the largest gathering of people dressed as characters from the TV series at the "Destination Star Trek London" convention.
An estimated 1,083 costume-clad "trekkies" assembled at the event at London's ExCel centre, narrowly beating the previous record of 1,040 characters, which was set at the bigger, annual Star Trek convention in Las Vegas in August.
"Destination Star Trek London" is the first live Star Trek event in Britain for over a decade. Around 17,000 fans came to London to celebrate the 46-year-old TV and film franchise, which has spawned six television series and 11 feature films.
The three-day convention also saw all five captains from the TV series appear on stage together for the first time.
The captains played by actors William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard), Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) and Scott Bakula (Captain Archer) joined forces to officially open the convention on Friday night.
"Trekkies"
Settles Dish Drama
AMC
Dish Network's 14 million TV subscribers, who were no longer receiving AMC
Dish had stopped broadcasting AMC programming on July 1 after public and heated carriage negotiations.
Sunday's settlement reveals Dish will pay $700 million in cash for the distribution deal.
An accompanying agreement had the AMC channel return Sunday, while other programming -- Sundance Channel, WE, IFC and Fuse -- will resume Nov. 1.
AMC
Launches Live Stream Opera
Vienna
Vienna's opera scene is going live on the web for the first time with the launch of the first Internet-based platform for streaming classical productions from the Austrian capital.
The venture kicks off Sunday with the premiere of Gioachino Rossini's "La cambiale di matrimonio" - "The marriage contract" - at Vienna's Kammeroper.
The production stars an international cast of singers, including Lithuanian bass-baritone Igor Bakan, American tenor Andrew Owens, Australian baritone Ben Connor, and soprano Anna Maria Sarra and mezzosoprano Gaia Petrone, both of Italy. The production is conducted by Konstantin Chudovsky and directed by Jacopo Spirei.
Bakan, in the role of Tobia Mill, says he hopes "both avid fans and newcomers" will tune in online at www.sonostream.tv.
The free performance begins at 1730 GMT.
Vienna
Baby News
Adele
Adele has given birth to a baby boy, according to reports.
The Grammy winner, 24, is thought to have had her first child with boyfriend Simon Konecki on Friday night.
She has so far not commented on her blog or her Twitter account, and a spokesman declined to comment.
She reportedly met Mr Konecki, CEO of water charity Drop4Drop, in summer 2011.
Adele
Clooney Called to Testify
Silvio
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a rare appearance at his trial in Milan, claiming movie star George Clooney can help him prove he did not have sex with an underage showgirl.
Berlusconi, a right-wing 76-year-old media mogul known for hosting infamous "bunga bunga" parties that are allegedly lavish orgies, is accused of paying a Moroccan showgirl, known as "Ruby the Heart Stealer" for sex more than a dozen times when she was underage.
Ruby claims she saw Clooney and and his ex-girlfriend, Elisabetta Canalis, at one of the bashes however Clooney has denied ever partying with the former prime minister.
"I spoke to their people and said, 'I will come and testify if you'd like,' because I wasn't at the party that I was said to have been at. I wasn't at his 'bunga bunga' party," Clooney told Time Magazine last year.
Berlusconi admitted he gave Ruby nearly $80,000, but said it was for a beauty salon she planned to open.
Silvio
Huntin' Antelope With Fat Tony
Elena Kagan
Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia are ideological opposites, yet they share a pastime. They like to hunt together.
Kagan amused an audience Friday at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville with stories of how the conservative Scalia taught her to shoot fowl.
She said Scalia told her in the spring, "It's time to move on to the big game."
She said the two will go hunting in Wyoming this weekend and she hopes to bag an antelope.
Elena Kagan
Scientists Link Deep Wells To Deadly Quake
Spain
Farmers drilling ever deeper wells over decades to water their crops likely contributed to a deadly earthquake in southern Spain last year, a new study suggests. The findings may add to concerns about the effects of new energy extraction and waste disposal technologies.
Nine people died and nearly 300 were injured when an unusually shallow magnitude-5.1 quake hit the town of Lorca on May 11, 2011. It was the country's worst quake in more than 50 years, causing millions of euros in damage to a region with an already fragile economy.
Using satellite images, scientists from Canada, Italy and Spain found the quake ruptured a fault running near a basin that had been weakened by 50 years of groundwater extraction in the area.
During this period, the water table dropped by 250 meters (274 yards) as farmers bored ever deeper wells to help produce the fruit, vegetables and meat that are exported from Lorca to the rest of Europe. In other words, the industry that propped up the local economy in southern Spain may have undermined the very ground on which Lorca is built.
The researchers noted that even without the strain caused by water extraction, a quake would likely have occurred at some point.
But the extra stress of pumping vast amounts of water from a nearby aquifer may have been enough to trigger a quake at that particular time and place, said lead researcher Pablo J. Gonzalez of the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Spain
U.S. Stance Unchanged By Legalization Votes
Marijuana
A top Justice Department official has told "60 Minutes" the federal government is ready to combat any "dangers" of state-sanctioned recreational pot, amid criticism of the Obama administration for its relative silence on legalization drives in three states.
Voters in Colorado, Washington state and Oregon are set to vote on November 6 on whether to legalize and tax marijuana sales, raising the possibility of a showdown with the federal government, which views pot as an illegal narcotic.
Deputy Attorney General James Cole, in comments to "60 Minutes" posted on Saturday to the website of CBS affiliate KCNC-TV in Denver, said his office's stance on pot would be "the same as it's always been" if voters approved legalization.
Cole's statement is an indication the federal government, which has raided medical pot dispensaries in several of the 17 states that allow cannabis as medicine, could also take aim at state-sanctioned recreational marijuana.
Marijuana
No-Fly List Strands Man
Hawaii
Hawaii is a paradise for most visitors. But it was Wade Hicks Jr.'s prison for five days.
The 34-year-old from Gulfport, Miss., was stranded in the islands this week after being told he was on the FBI's no-fly list during a layover for a military flight from California to Japan.
The episode left Hicks scrambling to figure out how he'd get home from Hawaii without being able to fly. Then he was abruptly removed from the list on Thursday with no explanation.
It also raised questions beyond how he landed on the list: How could someone on a list intelligence officials use to inform counterterrorism investigations successfully fly standby on an Air Force flight?
Hicks said he was traveling to visit his wife, a U.S. Navy lieutenant who's deployed in Japan. He hitched a ride on the military flight as is common for military dependents, who are allowed to fly on scheduled routes when there's room.
Hawaii
Benny's Newest Saint
Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri Tekakwitha was named the first Native American saint today by Pope Benedict XVI in a ceremony held in St. Peter's Square.
Some 80,000 people came to the open-air ceremony as the 17th century Mohawk-Algonquin woman and six others were canonized.
Among some of the select faithful who were chosen to receive communion from the pope was Jake Finkbonner.
The Washington boy was near death for months with a flesh eating bacteria, but made a miraculous recovery that the Vatican credited to Tekakwitha.
The Vatican said it believes that the prayers Finkbonner's family directed to Tekakwitha were responsible for bringing the boy back from the brink of death.
Kateri Tekakwitha
Weekend Box Office
"Paranormal Activity 4"
Paramount's "Paranormal Activity 4" debuted at No. 1 with $30.2 million, a big drop from the $40 million and $50 million opening weekends of the last two installments, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Perpetual hit maker Tyler Perry failed to find an audience for his new persona as ace crime solver. Summit Entertainment's "Alex Cross," starring Perry as author James Patterson's brilliant criminal profiler, was a dud, opening at No. 5 with $11.8 million.
Ben Affleck's Iran hostage tale "Argo" held up well in its second weekend, remaining at No. 2 with $16.6 million, dropping just 15 percent from its debut. Big studio releases often drop 50 percent or more in subsequent weekends, but "Argo" has proven a hit with critics and audiences alike, earning Academy Awards buzz and strong word of mouth that should give it a long run at theaters.
Liam Neeson's action sequel "Taken 2," which had been No. 1 the previous two weekends, slipped to fourth-place with $13.4 million, lifting the 20th Century Fox release's domestic haul to $106 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. "Paranormal Activity 4," $30.2 million ($26.5 million international).
2. "Argo," $16.6 million.
3. "Hotel Transylvania," $13.5 million.
4. "Taken 2," $13.4 million ($23.6 million international).
5. "Alex Cross," $11.8 million.
6. "Sinister," $9 million.
7. "Here Comes the Boom," $8.5 million.
8. "Pitch Perfect," $7 million ($320,000 international).
9. "Frankenweenie," $4.4 million ($4.1 million international).
10. "Looper," $4.2 million.
"Paranormal Activity 4"
In Memory
George McGovern
Former U.S. Senator George McGovern, a liberal Democrat and fierce opponent of the Vietnam War whose 1972 presidential race against Richard Nixon led to one of the worst electoral defeats in U.S. history, died on Sunday at the age of 90, his family said.
The McGovern family said he died Sunday morning at Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, surrounded by family and friends. He had suffered from a combination of medical conditions due to age that had worsened in recent months.
Although he gave speeches and wrote beyond his 90th birthday this summer, McGovern had been hospitalized several times in the past year after complaining of fatigue after a book tour, a fall before a scheduled television appearance, and dizzy spells.
McGovern, who served in the Senate for South Dakota from 1963 to 1981, challenged Nixon in 1972 on a platform opposing the war in Vietnam. He suffered one of the most lopsided defeats in U.S. history, taking only 37.5 percent of the vote and winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Later, as Nixon's presidency unraveled in the Watergate scandal, bumper stickers saying, "Don't blame me, I'm from Massachusetts," and buttons saying "Don't blame me, I voted for McGovern," appeared.
McGovern was not the first choice of the Democratic Party leadership to serve as their standard bearer in the 1972 race, and his nomination marked a shift away from the influence of party overlords and toward voters determining the nominee through state primaries and caucuses.
His platform not only called for ending the Vietnam War, but greatly reducing defense spending and amnesty for draft evaders. During the campaign he proposed what came to be known as "demogrants" - a $1,000 payment to Americans to guarantee them income and replace some welfare programs - but he eventually dropped that from his campaign.
McGovern's failure to vet his vice presidential running mate Thomas Eagleton thoroughly cast doubts on his judgment when Eagleton announced he had hospitalized himself three times for "nervous exhaustion and fatigue."
He picked former Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy family in-law, as Eagleton's replacement but the damage was done.
The son of a Methodist minister, McGovern was born July 19, 1922, in Avon, South Dakota, and his family moved six years later to Mitchell, where he graduated from high school in 1940.
McGovern flew combat missions over Europe as a B-24 bomber pilot during World War Two, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956, and re-elected two years later. After McGovern lost a U.S. Senate election in 1960, President John F. Kennedy named him the first director of the Food for Peace Program.
He also ran for president in 1968 after the assassination of front-runner Robert F. Kennedy and entertained a short-lived bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984.
McGovern said he had moved on from his 1972 defeat, but when another defeated Democratic presidential candidate, Walter Mondale, asked him in 1984 how long it took to get over losing in a landslide, McGovern replied: "I'll let you know when I get there."
As a soft-spoken academic - he was a history and political science professor - and a decorated pilot, McGovern did not fit the model of many of the leaders of the anti-war movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
He became a campaigner for world food issues in his post-politics life. He wrote several books, including an autobiography, the story of his daughter's struggle with alcoholism, and "What it Means to Be a Democrat," which was released last year.
McGovern also continued to make television appearances and write editorials and commentaries and often lamented what he saw as a lack of a true public debate on policy issues from members of both parties.
McGovern and his wife Eleanor, who died in 2007, had five children.
Services will be held in Sioux Falls, the family said. Details will be announced shortly. McGovern's family has directed donations in memory of the senator the charity Feeding South Dakota ( www.feedingsouthdakota.org ).
George McGovern
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
