Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Money and Morals (New York Times)
So we have become a society in which less-educated men have great difficulty finding jobs with decent wages and good benefits. Yet somehow we're supposed to be surprised that such men have become less likely to participate in the work force or get married, and conclude that there must have been some mysterious moral collapse caused by snooty liberals. And Mr. Murray also tells us that working-class marriages, when they do happen, have become less happy; strange to say, money problems will do that.
Froma Harrop: Big Brother is 'Sharing' (Creators Syndicate)
Stock analysts are valuing Facebook as high as $100 billion. That would make your social media company worth more than Caterpillar, Ford or Kraft Foods. The interesting part is that you have absolutely nothing to sell except information about your members.
Connie Schultz: Funny Man, Karl Rove (Creators Syndicate)
After I saw the new Chrysler ad - starring Clint Eastwood and titled "Halftime in America" - I walked from our kitchen to my home office and picked up the rusty wrench my father used during his 30 years at the power plant in Ashtabula, Ohio.
Kos: "The GOP's war on religion (or 'two can play that game')" (Daily Kos)
Most Catholics laugh at that nonsense, considering that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women use birth control. Yet that hasn't stopped the out-of-touch bishops from pressing ahead, and it certainly hasn't stopped opportunistic Republicans from rallying to their defense, because, you see, opposing the bishops on this issue means a war on religion!
Peter Montague and Maria B. Pellerano: One of Congress's Most Damaging (and Racist) Budget Cuts That Flew Under the Radar (AlterNet)
For Christmas this year, Congress gave the nation's urban children a gift that will keep on giving -- a 94 percent cut in funds for lead-poisoning prevention. Once a child is poisoned by toxic lead, permanent brain damage reduces I.Q., lowers grades in school, and diminishes self-control. This, in turn, can lead to frustration, a sense of failure, impulsiveness, aggression, and, for some, potentially even violence, crime, and prison.
Roger Ebert: Outguess Ebert on the Oscars
Uniquely among prolific directors with long careers, [Woody] Allen [nominated for Best original screenplay] writes almost all of his own films. My suggestion for him: You're likely the winner. Attend the ceremony for a change and soak up that standing ovation. You deserve it.
Steve Rose: "David Cronenberg: analyse this" (Guardian)
Exploding heads, Ballardian pile-ups - and a spot of spanking with Keira Knightley. Does David Cronenberg need therapy? No, he tells Steve Rose: he's just a regular guy.
Charlotte Gainsbourg: 'If I'm good in a scene it's a miracle' (Guardian)
The singer and actress talks to Tim Lewis about her famous parents, stage fright and working with Pete Doherty.
Roger Landis: Review of "Chronicle" (PG-13; 3 ½ stars)
Sometimes a movie arrives out of the blue that announces the arrival of considerable new talents. Josh Trank is 26, and this is his directing debut. Max Landis, also 26, has written a couple of shorts. ... Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan and Alex Russell are in their early or mid-20s, have some experience and work together easily here as an ensemble. It's their convincing acting and Landis' dialogue - not just the late drama but the early goofing around - that gives the movie a natural authenticity.
Quick Chat: With Steve Martin (LA Times)
Q: Are you friendly with the other nominees in the bluegrass category?
A: I have met all of them and liked all of them until now.
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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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Kinda cloudy, but warm.
Woo hoo. Jo the (lucky) lizard molted. This is the first shedding since the aggressive crickets damn near gnawed off his tail.
San Francisco To Honor
Tony Bennett
San Francisco is honoring legendary crooner Tony Bennett, whose famous song "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" was recorded 50 years ago.
Mayor Ed Lee, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Nancy Pelosi are among those expected at a ceremony for Bennett at City Hall on Valentine's Day on Feb. 14.
The event will include renditions of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" by the San Francisco Boys and Girls Choruses and the San Francisco Symphony, among others.
The event will conclude with a singalong of the song.
Tony Bennett
Why Washington Watches
'Homeland'
People are watching the Showtime TV series "Homeland" - and star Damian Lewis says it's all Barack Obama's fault.
Lewis says after the political thriller got the U.S. president's eye, the rest of the White House wanted to see it too.
Lewis tells The Associated Press "not only has Obama been watching it but his aides have been calling up going, 'we need to see it.' So he's been getting entire state departments, top of the U.S. government, asking to see it."
Lewis plays a Marine who has been missing in Iraq for eight years - but is he a war hero or a terrorist?
The British actor has been promoting the drama in his own homeland before it begins Feb. 19 on the U.K.'s Channel 4.
'Homeland'
Fire Might Have Claimed Items
'Gone with the Wind'
Museum officials are waiting to see whether memorabilia from the classic film "Gone with the Wind" was ruined when a fire heavily damaged the facility near Atlanta where it was stored.
Rebekah Cline with the Clayton County Convention and Visitors Bureau says the Road to Tara Museum in Henry County has a storage unit on the lower level of the facility, while the fire broke out on the upper level. But she says firefighters said all the units had sustained some degree of fire, smoke or water damage.
Cline says the unit housed collectible posters from the 1939 premier and promotional paintings. But she says the museum's most valuable treasures are at the museum. They include costumes, a signed first-edition copy of the book and an original movie script.
'Gone with the Wind'
Art Tribute
Vaclav Havel
Two artists have used wax from the thousands of candles that Czechs lit to mourn the death of President Vaclav Havel to create a large heart honoring him.
Lukas Gavlovsky - whose 7-foot-tall (2 meter), multicolored art work went on display in Prague on Friday, says it is meant "to celebrate (Havel's) ideas, his greatness."
Gavlovsky created the heart with his colleague, Roman Svejda, and dozens of volunteers.
Havel, a dissident who helped his nation shed Communism, was long associated with hearts. He ended his signature with one, and when he left office in 2003 a neon sign of a heart shone from Prague Castle.
Vaclav Havel
Britain's Media Ethics Inquiry
Rupert
J.K. Rowling described how press intrusion made her feel like a hostage, Hugh Grant traded insults with a newspaper editor and a former tabloid reporter insisted that only evildoers had any need of privacy.
The first phase of Britain's media ethics inquiry ended this week after 40 days of dramatic hearings that heard from 184 witnesses - celebrities, journalists, editors, academics and lawyers - and revealed wildly differing perspectives on the murky workings of the tabloid press.
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry, led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson, in response to a scandal that began with illegal eavesdropping by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World. Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid in July after evidence emerged that it had accessed the mobile phone voicemails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims in its search for scoops.
Here's what we've learned so far.
Rupert
Judge Hears Final Arguments
Golden Globe Awards
Attorneys for the journalists' group that organizes the Golden Globe Awards and its longtime producers offered a federal judge dueling versions of what a disputed $150 million broadcast deal means to each side.
An attorney for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association likened the deal to enslavement, arguing that if it is upheld it will mean that the organization that has hosted the glitzy awards gala for nearly 70 years will lose key control over its signature event.
Attorneys for dick clark productions told U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz that the case was merely an attempt by the HFPA to cut it out of the deal and take a larger share of the show's profits.
After nearly four hours of final arguments, Matz told both sides it would take him some time to sift through the case and render a decision. The judge had urged the two sides to settle, telling them he would declare a clear winner and his decision wouldn't extract the show from more legal wrangling.
Golden Globe Awards
Defends Racetrack Series
HBO
HBO is defending its treatment of horses used in the racetrack drama "Luck" after two of the animals died during production.
The horses were injured and euthanized during filming of the series, which stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte and has been renewed for a second season. The deaths, which occurred a year apart in 2010 and 2011, have drawn criticism from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
HBO said it worked in partnership with the American Humane Association and racing industry experts "to implement safety protocols that go above and beyond typical film and TV industry standards and practices."
The revised safeguards include the use of a second veterinarian to perform "soundness" checks on each horse and taking X-rays of all horse's legs for any problems that could prevent a horse being used in race sequences.
HBO
Linked to Heart Disease Risk
Diet Soda
Diet soda may seem to be a healthier alternative to calorie-laden regular soda, but a new study shows that people who regularly drink diet soft drinks may be putting their hearts at risk.
Those who drank diet soda on a daily basis were at an increased risk of experiencing stroke, heart attack and death due to these conditions, according to the study.
To analyze the relationship between both diet and regular soft drink consumption and heart disease, researchers studied the data of 2,564 participants in the Northern Manhattan Study, which was designed to determine stroke incidence, risk factors and prognosis in a multiethnic urban population.
After taking into account pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, the researchers found that people who drank diet soft drinks daily were 43 percent more likely to have had a stroke or heart attack, or died of heart disease, than those who did not drink diet soda.
The study also showed that those who drank less diet soda (who drank it between once a month and six times a week), as well as people who drank regular soft drinks, were not more likely to suffer vascular events.
Diet Soda
Files Suit Against Big Brewers
Oglala Sioux
A Native American Indian tribe has filed suit against some top beer makers, as well as a handful of retailers and distributors, claiming they have knowingly contributed to "crippling" alcoholism rates on a reservation in South Dakota.
The suit, filed by the Oglala Sioux tribe, alleges the defendants are "engaged in a common enterprise focused on assisting and participating in the illegal importation of alcohol" onto the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the sale, possession and consumption of alcohol is illegal.
The defendants include Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide Inc, SAB Miller, Molson Coors Brewing Company and Pabst Brewing Company, as well as four retailers in Whiteclay, Nebraska and the distributors who sell to them.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in federal court in Lincoln, Nebraska, claims the defendants have knowingly turned Whiteclay into a major source of alcohol smuggling onto the reservation, selling volumes of beer "far in excess of an amount that could be sold in compliance with the laws of the state of Nebraska."
The lawsuit claims that Whiteclay has a population of fewer than 12 people and "no publicly accessible place to lawfully consume alcohol." Yet each day, the four retailers in town sell more than 13,000 cans of beer.
Oglala Sioux
In Memory
Peter Breck
The actor who played a son of ranch owner Barbara Stanwyck on the 1960s Western "The Big Valley," has died. Peter Breck was 82.
Breck died Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia, after a long illness, his wife, Diane, announced on the website The Big Valley Writing Desk.
A native of Haverhill, Mass., Breck was also a regular on the TV Westerns "Maverick" and "Black Saddle." He had guest roles on series from the 1950s through the early 2000s including "Perry Mason," ''The Virginian" and "Fantasy Island."
His film appearances include "Thunder Road," ''I Want to Live!" and "Benji."
Breck was best known for his role as hot-tempered rancher Nick Barkley on "The Big Valley," which aired from 1965 to 1969.
He and his wife were longtime Vancouver residents.
Peter Breck
In Memory
Philip Bruns
The actor who played the father on the 1970s comedy series "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died. Philip Bruns was 80.
Bruns appeared on two seasons of "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," playing Mary's father on the soap-opera parody. He also spent three years with Jackie Gleason on his comedy-variety show in the mid-1960s.
Born in Pipestone, Minn., Bruns attended Yale University's drama school, then began his career in New York on the stage and as a prolific actor in TV commercials.
He later went to Los Angeles, appearing in more than 40 feature films, including "Flashdance," ''The Stunt Man" and "My Favorite Year."
Bruns is survived by his wife, actress Laurie Franks.
Philip Bruns
In Memory
Jeffrey Zaslow
Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow was killed Friday when he lost control of his car on a snowy road after promoting his latest book in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. He was 53.
The accident occurred about 9:15 a.m. Friday in Warner Township about 160 miles northwest of Lansing, according to the Antrim County sheriff's office.
Zaslow's car slid into the path of a semitrailer. He was killed on impact. No other details of the crash were released.
The sheriff's department did not release the name of the victim, but literary agent and friend Gary Morris confirmed Zaslow's death. Morris said he was told of Zaslow's death Friday evening by the author's wife.
Co-author of the million-selling "The Last Lecture," Zaslow was in northern Michigan speaking about "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters." The book, based on a Michigan bridal shop, was published in December.
Morris said Zaslow's first book was based on a 2007 column he wrote while at The Wall Street Journal. "The Last Lecture" was published in 2008.
He also worked on memoirs of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and airline pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.
"He was the most industrious and hardest working author I know," Morris said. "He never turned anything in late. He turned in the cleanest copy. It really was ethics. He was completely selfless in the writing of his own books and collaborations with others."
Zaslow lived in the Detroit area and is survived by his wife, Sherry, and three daughters, Alex, Eden and Jordan.
Jeffrey Zaslow
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