Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Police kick man (YouTube)
Paul Krugman: Looking for Mr. Goodpain (New York Times)
So what do we learn from the rather pathetic search for austerity success stories? We learn that the doctrine that has dominated elite economic discourse for the past three years is wrong on all fronts. Not only have we been ruled by fear of nonexistent threats, we've been promised rewards that haven't arrived and never will. It's time to put the deficit obsession aside and get back to dealing with the real problem - namely, unacceptably high unemployment.
Connie Schultz: Praise Be, I'm Liberal -- and Just Like You (Creators Syndicate)
Recently, a reader wanted to know whether I was aware that Creators Syndicate, which distributes my column, identifies me as a "liberal" on its website.
Claire Provost: Migrants' billions put aid in the shade (Guardian)
Money transfers from workers abroad to family back home have tripled in a decade and are three times larger than global aid budgets.
Anthonia Akitunde: Retirement Planning Doesn't Have To Be Scary Or Expensive (Huffington Post)
2. Stay healthy. By keeping the doctor away, you can work to earn supplemental income when necessary and avoid the backbreaking costs of catastrophic medical expenses, Yeager writes.
Suzanne Moore: Michael Gove is destroying our [UK's] school system (Guardian)
For the Conservative hardman in charge of our education policy, the three Rs are rigour, rightwing history and rote learning.
Annalee Newitz: The Cancer Death Rate is Down 20% (io9)
"In 2009, Americans had a 20% lower risk of death from cancer than they did in 1991, a milestone that shows we truly are creating more birthdays," said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.
Heidi Mitchell: The Best Way to Clean Your Glasses (Wall Street Journal)
The best way to clean your glasses, says Dr. Geist, is to run them under warm water and put a tiny drop of dishwashing detergent on the tip of your fingers to create a lather on the lens. Then rinse with warm water, and dry with a clean, soft cotton cloth.
Richard B. Woodward: A Dissonant Side of Pop (Wall Street Journal)
Lately, curators seem to be highlighting the downbeat, acerbic side of Pop's antics. Historical surveys are as likely to feature Warhol's prints of car crashes and electric chairs as they are his soup cans and flowers. Some art historians now prefer to view Pop as a subversion of American values ….
Hadley Freeman: "Christian Slater: 'Being sober makes me feel sexier'" (Guardian)
Q: You play a bad guy [in 'Bullet to the Head']. Did you pick up tips from Gary Oldman in True Romance and Alan Rickman in Robin Hood?
A: Those are great examples of guys who like to push things forward. Gary showed up on set in the dreadlock wig and with his eye all messed up and that was one of the greatest things ever.
Christopher Buckley: "Yours Ever, Plum: The Letters and Life of P.G. Wodehouse" (Daily Beast)
His error was being candid in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in which he declared that over the past year, he'd been paid "$104,000 for loafing." (This was a fair bit of pelf: over a $1 million today.) Such frankness did not sit well with the lares and penates of the studio, and in due course the faucets ceased their golden gush. He couldn't have cared less. All one really needs in life, he said in one of the letters here, is two good friends, books, and a Pekingese. He might have added: his wife, Ethel, and work.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Reminder
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Kinda cloudy.
Anyone else noticed that in the TV ads for Ford they spend more time talking about Sirius XM than the vehicle?
If the best part of a new car is the radio, it's time to remember what it is that you're shopping for.
Wants To Give Away Ferry
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
An Alaska borough stuck with a $90,000 monthly bill for maintaining a ferry it can't use is offering the $78 million vessel free to any government entity - federal, state or local - that will have it.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough also will consider selling the ferry, the 200-foot Susitna, for pennies on the dollar to a private company. The borough appealed for a taker last week with a letter to the Passenger Vessel Association, a trade group for companies that operate ferries, dinner cruises, tour boats and gambling boats.
The largest communities in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are about an hour's drive from Anchorage over a sometimes icy highway. Mat-Su officials have long dreamed of shortening the commute with a two-mile crossing over Knik Arm, a finger of saltwater separating Alaska's most populous area with one that has room to grow.
Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, promoted a plan to have a ferry funded by the Defense Department. The Navy paid for the vessel as a high-speed prototype of an amphibious landing craft for northern climates. Prototypes often are scrapped, Sullivan said, but in this case, a deal was struck for the boat to move Alaska commuters as the Navy monitored how it performed.
The catamaran can carry 120 passengers and 20 vehicles.
Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Temporarily Blacked Out in China
CNN
Chinese censors temporarily blocked CNN International's broadcasting signal Thursday night, during a segment about Chinese hackers infiltrating the New York Times' computer network, a CNN spokeswoman told TheWrap.
On Wednesday night, the Times reported that it had suffered four months of persistent cyber attacks after publishing a front-page story about the wealth amassed by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's family.
CNNI reporter Hala Gorani aired a segment on her show about the hacking on Thursday. Her entire six-minute segment was blacked out in China.
It wasn't the first time CNN faced the wrath of Beijing's censors. Last May, Anderson Cooper's report on a blind dissident was blocked in the country.
CNN
Supports Assault Weapon Ban
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone says that despite his "Rambo" image and new shoot-em-up film "Bullet to the Head," he's in favor of new national gun control legislation.
Stallone supported the 1994 "Brady bill" that included a now-expired ban on assault weapons, and hopes that ban can be reinstated.
"I know people get (upset) and go, 'They're going to take away the assault weapon.' Who ... needs an assault weapon? Like really, unless you're carrying out an assault. ... You can't hunt with it. ... Who's going to attack your house, a (expletive) army?"
The 66-year-old actor, writer and director said he also hopes for an additional focus on mental health to prevent future mass shootings.
"It's unbelievably horrible, what's happened. I think the biggest problem, seriously, is not so much guns. It's that every one of these people that have done these things in the past 30 years are friggin' crazy. Really crazy! And that's where we've dropped the ball: mental health," he said. "That to me is our biggest problem in the future, is insanity coupled with isolation."
Sylvester Stallone
Renewed
'NCIS'
Fans of "NCIS" can breathe easy. Mark Harmon will be sticking around, and his hit CBS drama is returning next season.
The network announced Harmon's one-year contract extension on Friday along with the renewal of a show that just keeps getting bigger.
Now in its 10th season, "NCIS" for the first time ranks as TV's most-watched program, CBS said, outpacing even NBC's "Sunday Night Football." ''NCIS" logs an average 21.5 million viewers each week, up 7 percent over last year.
'NCIS'
'Steven Tyler Act'
Hawaii
More than two-thirds of Hawaii's state senators have signed onto a bill to protect celebrities from paparazzi, giving them power to sue over unwanted beach photos and other snapshots on the islands.
The bill's author says he's pushing the law at the request of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, the former "American Idol" judge who recently bought a new home in Maui.
Sen. Kalani English, a Democrat from Maui, told The Associated Press the so-called "Steven Tyler Act" will help Hawaii's tourism and film industries, encouraging famous people to come here without fear of being stalked by paparazzi.
The bill would open people up to civil lawsuits if they invade the privacy of public figures by taking or selling photos or videos. It defines invasion of privacy as capturing or trying to capture images or sound of people "in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person" during personal or family moments. It does not specify places where pictures would be OK or whether public places would be exempt. The bill says it would apply to people who take photos from boats or anywhere else within ocean waters.
Hawaii
Visit Not Allowed
Salman Rushdie
British author Salman Rushdie accused local authorities on Friday of making it impossible for him to visit the Indian city of Kolkata to promote the film adaptation of his novel "Midnight's Children".
On Wednesday, Rushdie, whose 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" is banned in India due to its depiction of Islam, abandoned plans to attend a publicity event in the eastern city after about 100 protesters gathered outside the city's airport.
Rushdie, in a statement, said he was informed that the police would refuse him entry and that the decision was at the behest of West Bengal state's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. He did not say who had told him this.
The Indian-born author said a police source had issued details of his planned visit to the media.
"This was a clear invitation to troublemakers to do their worst and about 100 people duly turned up at the airport to oppose my arrival. I can't help feeling that this too was a part of the authorities' plan," he said.
Salman Rushdie
Indian Film Star Faces Homicide Charge
Salman Khan
An attorney says Indian movie star Salman Khan will be tried for homicide for his alleged involvement in a fatal road accident more than 10 years ago. If convicted he faces up to 10 years in jail.
Deepesh Mehta, Khan's lawyer, says a magistrate on Thursday accepted an appeal by state government prosecutors that he should be charged with homicide instead of causing death by negligence, which carries a maximum of two years in jail.
One man was killed and another three were injured when Khan allegedly rammed his car into a group of homeless people sleeping on a Bombay sidewalk in September 2002.
Khan's trial begins March 11. Indian courts are notorious for delays and a trial can take years to complete.
Salman Khan
London Bookshop Hit By Suspicious Fire
Freedom Press
One of Britain's oldest anarchist publishers says its east London bookshop has been firebombed.
Freedom Press - set up more than 100 years ago - said Friday that no one was injured in the overnight fire, but that its shop and electrics "have been seriously damaged."
London's Metropolitan Police said it was called by the fire brigade around 5:30 a.m. to reports of a fire in progress at the bookshop on Whitechapel Road.
Police say the incident is being treated as suspicious and that inquiries into the blaze's circumstances are under way.
Freedom Press
Defying Nudity Ban
San Francisco
Four protesters were arrested entirely in the buff as they took to the steps of San Francisco City Hall in a brazen challenge of the city's ban on public nudity on Friday, the first day it went into effect.
One woman and three men - one wearing just a mesh thong - were taken into custody as about a dozen other protesters in various states of undress paraded around with painted slogans on their bodies, holding up signs with messages such as "The Human Body is Beautiful."
Police gave them a 15-minute warning to disperse or put pants on before officers arrested those who failed to cover themselves. The protesters said their arrest would advance the cause of "body freedom."
"No matter what, we're going to continue practicing body freedom," said Gypsy Taub, a mother of two who hosts a local cable program devoted to the nudist cause. "In a society that's repressed and crazy, that glorifies war and at the same time criminalizes the human body ... nudity is a political statement."
San Francisco
In Memory
Ed Koch
Ed Koch, the voluble three-term mayor who helped bring New York back from the brink of fiscal ruin in the 1970s and came to embody the city with his wry, outspoken style, died on Friday at the age of 88.
As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doin?," was a natural showman and tireless promoter of both himself and the city. He could also be a deeply polarizing figure.
Koch died of congestive heart failure at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) at New York-Presbyterian hospital following a year of repeated hospitalizations, George Arzt, his spokesman, said.
Koch was credited with lifting New York from crushing economic crises to a level of prosperity that was the envy of other U.S. cities. Under his leadership, the city regained its financial footing and underwent a building renaissance.
But his three terms in office were also marked by racial tensions, corruption among many of his political allies, the rise in AIDS and HIV, homelessness and a high crime rate. In 1989, he lost the Democratic nomination for what would have been a record fourth term as mayor.
Tall and mostly bald, Koch had a quip for every occasion and once said he wanted to be mayor for life. He was the only U.S. mayor to have a bestselling autobiography that was turned into an off-Broadway musical.
Born into a Jewish immigrant family in the Bronx on December 12, 1924, Edward Irving Koch went on to attend City College and earn a law degree from New York University.
He entered politics in the 1950s in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood, winning a seat on the city council, and later went to Washington, where he served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1977, he ran for mayor of New York City, and proved to be an agile campaigner. To combat rumors he was gay, former beauty queen Bess Myerson began appearing by his side at campaign events.
Koch later admitted the two were never romantically involved. Koch remained a bachelor all his life and refused to answer questions about his sexuality even in his later years.
Koch's attempt at a fourth term failed when he lost his party's nomination to Manhattan borough president David Dinkins, a man as quiet and deliberative as Koch was outspoken and abrasive. Dinkins would go on to be the city's first black mayor.
After leaving office, Koch wrote articles on everything from Middle East politics to movie reviews, hosted a radio show and served as a judge on television's ""The People's Court." His book about another former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, was titled "Giuliani: Nasty Man."
He remained a formidable figure in New York politics until his death, endorsing candidates and offering political commentary on the local NY1 television station. He has been a supporter of New York's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and in 2010 he formed New York Uprising, a political action committee designed to fight corruption in state politics.
In 2008, Koch announced he had secured a plot in Manhattan's Trinity Cemetery, telling the New York Times: "The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me."
Ed Koch
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