DAVID GEORGE HASKELL: The Seasons Aren't What They Used to Be (NY Times)
SEWANEE, Tenn. - Sexual energies were loosed early this year in Tennessee, then quashed. In February, spring peepers made my ears ring as I walked through wetlands east of Nashville's honky-tonks. These frogs were a month ahead of their normal schedule.
HISHAM MATAR: Books Can Take You Places Donald Trump Doesn't Want You to Go (NY Times)
What false vigor then must demonizing and excluding millions of innocent people based on their race and religion inspire. And just like the censor who underestimates the common reader, Mr. Trump too has a limited interpretation of himself and therefore of humanity. And just like the censor, his actions will damage the fiber of his society because, in the long run, the more lasting damage falls on the one doing the excluding more than those being excluded.
ALISSA J. RUBIN: Trump May Have Pushed Dutch Voters Away From Populism (NY Times)
"In Europe we all see the developments in the United States, and that's not where we want to go because we see it as chaos," said Janka Stoker, a professor in the School of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands.
John Cheese: What The Poor Are REALLY Doing With Our Taxes (Cracked)
I was outraged. I couldn't believe that I lived in a country where the impoverished could shamelessly flaunt those luxuries right in my face while I heroically sacrificed my tax dollars to support their laziness. I had to see this for myself, so I got in my car and drove an hour to my mother's house to see if Fox News' claims were real.
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, and southeast of Greece.
Source
Alan J was first and correct with:
Cyprus.
mj wrote:
While visiting there as a teen
One of my friends and his brother got arrested for throwing dishes and
furniture from a restaurant off a cliff. Cyprus.
Deborah said:
Is it Cyprus?
Isn't that where an influential rich Russian launders his money? Wait, doesn't #45 do that as well? Things that make you go "Hmmmm."
TGIF!
Jim from CA, retired to ID, responded:
Cyprus
BttbBob replied:
Cyprus ( I thought Sardinia, but found it's 2nd after I checked)...
~~~~~
"Save the Birds!" Moment - Cyprus has a huge problem with the poaching of migratory birds -No let-up in Cyprus bird poaching - BBC News - 1.7 million birds were illegally trapped last year for local consumption...
~~~~~
'Bartcop' Flashback - Remember when good Ol' Bart use to hammer on the 'March Madness' thing clogging up TV programming? I can really relate now... I can't get my 'Big Bang Theory' rerun fix on TBS in the evening and I am annoyed... No, well annoyed. Sheldon would say that, "I am well annoyed".
~~~~~
'Famous for Being Famous' Comment - Well, it seems that the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate, is "less than pleased" at her husband, Prince Billy, over his antics on a solo 'Lad's Ski Trip' to the Alps... Whoa... "Less than pleased"... That's, like, 'Royal-Speak' for being really, really torqued. Woulda loved being a fly on the wall when he got home and they met... Bad, Billy! Bad!
~~~~~
Somehow, I can't help but think that Harry smirked... Yeah, I'd put money on that... I like Ol' Harry... He's just one of the guys, ya know?
Billy in (a different) Cypress wrote:
The Mediterranean Island would be Cyprus according to Wiki which is split into two political/national states kind of like the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Either island would be a fitting home in exile for CpPDJT-ID and the gang of Repug thugs raping the citizens of the U. S. in the name of greed; however, I would prefer a smaller oceanic home, like an iceberg, slowly melting while schools of sharks circle in anticipation of a belly full of white meat sushi and the inhabitants of the iceberg fight each other gladiator style to see who wins the top prize of being the dessert, then shark shit.
Mark. took the day off.
Randall took the day off.
Gene took the day off.
Kevin K. in Washington, DC took the day off.
Dave in Tucson took the day off.
Joe S took the day off.
David of Moon Valley took the day off.
Dale of Springy Diamond, Norcali took the day off.
Patriot Act NSA Spying Unconstitutional Section 215 National Security Letters Must End
My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called "Patriot Act" laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
Supposed to go into work, but a sinkhole closed the street.
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS fills the night with LIVE'2017 NCAA Basketball', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old '48 Hours'.
NBC fills the night with the movie 'Fast Five'.
'SNL' is a RERUN with Casey Affleck hosting, music by Chance The Rapper.
ABC fills the night with LIVE'NBA Basketball', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old '20/20'.
The CW offers an old 'Friends', followed by another old 'Friends', then an old '2½ Men', followed by another old '2½ Men'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE Monster Energy Supercross', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY recycles an old 'Rizzoli & Isles', followed by another old 'Rizzoli & Isles'.
A&E has 'The First 48', another 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'Live PD'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Matrix', followed by the movie 'The Matrix Reloaded'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 23 - Episode 3
[7:30AM] TOP GEAR - SEASON 24 - Episode 1
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 5 - EPISODE 16-Dark Frontier, Pt. 2
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 5 - EPISODE 17-The Disease
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: VOYAGER - SEASON 5 - EPISODE 18-Course: Oblivion
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-Challenges of Life
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-Reptiles and Amphibians
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Mammals
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Fish
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Birds
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Insects
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Hunters and Hunted
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Creatures of the Deep
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Plants
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5-Grasslands
[10:10PM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-Challenges of Life
[11:00PM] THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW - SEASON 20 - EPISODE 21
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 5-Grasslands
[1:10AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-Challenges of Life
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Mammals
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Fish
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Birds
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH: LIFE - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Insects (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'Mean Girls', followed by the movie 'Mean Girls', again.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Liar Liar', followed by the movie 'Office Space'.
FX has the movie 'Riddick', followed by the movie 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past'.
History has 2 hours of old 'Counting Cars', followed by a FRESH'Counting Cars: Supercharged', then another FRESH'Counting Cars: Supercharged', followed by a FRESH'Detroit Steel'.
IFC -
[6:45AM] THE GREY
[9:15AM] THE SUM OF ALL FEARS
[12:00PM] SPEED
[2:30PM] SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL
[5:15PM] TRAINING DAY
[8:00PM] ALEX CROSS
[10:15PM] TRAINING DAY
[1:00AM] ALEX CROSS
[3:15AM] STAN AGAINST EVIL-Know, Know, Know Your Goat
[3:45AM] STAN AGAINST EVIL-Let Your Love Groan
[4:15AM] STAN AGAINST EVIL-Life Orr Death
[4:45AM] ROCKY (ALL TIMES EDT)
Sundance -
[7:15AM] Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
[9:15AM] Smokey and the Bandit II
[11:45AM] Spies Like Us
[2:00PM] Planes, Trains and Automobiles
[4:00PM] Crocodile Dundee
[6:00PM] M*A*S*H-Officer of the Day
[6:30PM] M*A*S*H-Aid Station
[7:00PM] M*A*S*H-Big Mac
[7:30PM] M*A*S*H-The Most Unforgettable Characters
[8:00PM] M*A*S*H-They Call the Wind Korea
[8:30PM] M*A*S*H-Major Ego
[9:00PM] M*A*S*H-Period of Adjustment
[9:30PM] M*A*S*H-Dear Uncle Abdul
[10:00PM] M*A*S*H-April Fools
[10:30PM] M*A*S*H-Your Retention, Please
[11:00PM] Smokey and the Bandit II
[1:15AM] Smokey and the Bandit II
[3:45AM] Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo-Episode 1
[4:45AM] Little Miss Sunshine (ALL TIMES EDT)
SyFy has the movie 'Zombieland', followed by the movie 'X-Men: The Last Stand'.
Arkansas lawmakers gave final approval Friday to legislation removing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The state House approved the proposal with a 66-11 vote and sent it to Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who had urged lawmakers to end the dual holiday. Once the bill is signed into law, Mississippi and Alabama will be the only states that honor Lee and King on the same day.
The bill sets aside the second Saturday in October to honor Lee with a memorial day, not a state holiday, marked by a gubernatorial proclamation. It also expands what is taught in schools about the Civil War and civil rights.
Hutchinson, who promised last year to push for ending the dual holiday, made the unusual move of testifying in front of two separate legislative committees this month to speak in support of the proposal. Hutchinson told the panel that King deserved his own day of recognition, and that ending the dual holiday would be a healing moment for the state.
Both Lee and King were born in January. Arkansas has had a holiday honoring Lee since 1947, and one for King since 1983. That year, state agencies required employees to choose which two holidays they wanted off: King's birthday on Jan. 15, Lee's birthday on Jan. 19 or the employee's birthday. In 1985, the Arkansas Legislature voted to combine the holidays.
Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, presents a shamrock to Domnhall the Irish Wolfhound Mascot, watched by Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, Colonel of the Irish Guards, left, at the St. Patrick's Day Parade at the Cavalry Barracks in Hounslow, London, Friday, March 17, 2017. Their Royal Highnesses visited to present shamrocks to the Officers and Guardsmen of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards.
Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth
The results are in and the thimble, boot and wheelbarrow are out.
Ahead of World Monopoly Day on March 19, Monopoly-owner Hasbro has revealed that the iconic thimble, boot and wheelbarrow tokens will be removed from the game's new fall edition.
As part of the brand's "Monopoly Token Madness" campaign, more than 4 million people voted to decide which eight tokens should be part of the next iteration of the game. Folks were given more than 50 options, including old favorites like the shoe, top hat and Scottie dog, and new designs like a roller skate, a hashtag and an emoji.
Replacing the three ousted pieces are a T. rex, rubber ducky and penguin.
The game, which went on sale during the Great Depression, has had 20 different tokens. The thimble, top hat, race car and boot were among the original tokens in 1933, and others have been added in an attempt to modernize the game.
Two divisions of The Walt Disney Co. will pay $3.8 million in back wages to nearly 16,400 Florida resort employees under an agreement with the Department of Labor.
The DOL's wage and hour division found violations of minimum wage, overtime and recordkeeping provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, according to an announcement from the federal department.
The DOL said that resorts in Florida "deducted a uniform or 'costume' expense that caused some employees' hourly rates to fall below the federal minimum wage." The DOL also found that the resorts also did not pay employees performing duties during a "pre-shift period" and during a "post-shift period," and that they failed to maintain time and payroll records.
The employees worked for two Disney divisions - Disney Vacation Club Management Corp. and the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts U.S.
Padlocks and pictures of late Princess Diana are displayed at the bottom of the Liberty Flame monument at the Place de l'Alma, above the underpass where Diana Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident on August 31, 1997, Paris, France, March 17, 2017.
Photo by Charles Platiau
Pope Francis on Friday advised priests who hear troubled confessions from parishioners to not hesitate to call on the services of an exorcist.
A good confessor has to be very discerning, particularly when he has to deal with "real spiritual disorders," the 80-year-old pontiff told priests at a Vatican training seminar on the art of hearing believers recount their sins.
Disorders could have their roots in all manner of circumstances, including supernatural ones, he suggested.
In such circumstances the confessor "must not hesitate to refer to exorcists... chosen with great care and prudence."
It is not the first time the pope has talked about exorcising demons from a believer's person, and he generally refers more frequently than his predecessors to the devil, characterising him as a physical presence in this world.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump (R-Grifter) downplayed his business ties with Russia. And since taking office as president, he has been even more emphatic.
"I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia," President Trump said at a news conference last month. "I have no loans in Russia. I don't have any deals in Russia."
But in the United States, members of the Russian elite have invested in Trump buildings. A Reuters review has found that at least 63 individuals with Russian passports or addresses have bought at least $98.4 million worth of property in seven Trump-branded luxury towers in southern Florida, according to public documents, interviews and corporate records.
The buyers include politically connected businessmen, such as a former executive in a Moscow-based state-run construction firm that works on military and intelligence facilities, the founder of a St. Petersburg investment bank and the co-founder of a conglomerate with interests in banking, property and electronics.
Debris around a snow man, after an explosion in Rockville, Md., Friday, March 17, 2017. A house in a Maryland suburb of the nation's capital was leveled early Friday by a thunderous explosion heard for miles around, the blast shattering windows and causing other damage to several neighboring homes, authorities said.
Photo by Jose Luis Magana
An actor who played one of the Power Rangers in the kids' television series pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for stabbing his roommate to death with a sword.
Ricardo Medina Jr. admitted on Thursday that he killed Josh Sutter in January 2015, the Los Angeles Times reports. The two roommates got into a fight at their home in Green Valley, Calif., according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
They began fighting over how Medina's girlfriend parked her car, according to the Times, and when Sutter confronted Medina, the former Power Ranger stabbed him multiple times before calling 911.
Now Medina faces up to six years in state prison when he is sentenced later this month, prosecutors said. He entered his plea Thursday in Antelope Valley court, one year after he was charged with murder.
Medina, who played the Red Lion Wild Force Ranger on Power Rangers Wild Force from 2002 to 2003, also played an evil character named Deker in Power Rangers Samurai from 2011 to 2012.
A California woman who was drugged along with her boyfriend and then dragged from their home described the "hell that we have survived" in emotional testimony Thursday before her abductor was sentenced to 40 years in prison in a crime so elaborate and bizarre that police initially dismissed it as a hoax.
"You treated me like an object, a toy, an animal," Denise Huskins told her kidnapper, Matthew Muller, a disbarred Harvard University-trained attorney who pleaded guilty in September.
Huskins described the two days of physical and psychological torture she endured after Muller snatched her from her and her boyfriend's San Francisco Bay Area home two years ago.
Her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, who was bound and drugged during the kidnapping, said he "cannot and will not ever be the same."
After her release, Vallejo police called the kidnapping a hoax and erroneously likened it to the book and movie "Gone Girl," in which a woman goes missing and then lies about being kidnapped when she reappears.
A H-IIA rocket, carrying a government's information gathering radar satellite, lifts off from the launching pad at Tanegashima Space Center on the Japanese southwestern island of Tanegashima, Japan on March 17, 2017.
Former Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, who invited rocker Ted Nugent (R-Draft Dodger) to President Barack Obama's 2013 State of the Union address, is accused of spending money meant for charity on himself and contributions to his campaign.
Stockman, a Republican who served two inconsecutive terms in the U.S. House, is charged with conspiracy to make conduit contributions and false statements. He was released from custody after a hearing Friday in Houston federal court.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Stockman on Friday blamed his arrest on a "deep state" shadow government, which is a theory that has taken hold among some conservatives that there is a shadowy network of powerful entrenched federal and military interests working to undermine President Donald Trump (R-Crooked).
In an affidavit, FBI Agent Vanessa Walther wrote that in January 2013, shortly after starting his second House term, Stockman solicited $350,000 in charitable donations from an unidentified wealthy businessman on behalf of a Nevada-based nonprofit, Life Without Limits, which had been set up to help people through traumatic events.
The donation was solicited for the purpose of renovating a house in Washington, D.C., called the Freedom House. But the check was deposited at a bank branch in Webster, Texas, into an account set up by Stockman doing business as Life Without Limits, according to the affidavit. Financial records show that Stockman made no significant expenditures toward the purchase, renovation or operation of Freedom House, which never opened. Rather than spending the money on Freedom House, Stockman secretly diverted the money to pay for a variety of personal expenses and to funnel contributions to his campaign under the guise that they were from other people, the affidavit states.
A reporter from a conservative-leaning website is the only media representative flying with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on his trip to Asia this week.
The website, the Independent Journal Review, said late Tuesday that IJR reporter Erin McPike is the lone journalist accompanying Tillerson to Japan, South Korea and China. The State Department confirmed the account.
Tillerson arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday for the first leg of the trip, which is occurring amid escalating tensions with North Korea.
The department originally had said Tillerson would not take journalists with him as he was traveling on a small plane. It said accommodations would be made for those who traveled commercially.
But Tillerson ended up taking a Boeing 737, which could have accommodated some of the usual contingent of State Department journalists, each of whom pays his or her own way for trips.
Derek Walcott, a Nobel prize-winning poet known for capturing the essence of his native Caribbean, died Friday on the island of St. Lucia. He was 87.
The prolific and versatile poet received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1992. The academy cited the "great luminosity" of his writings including the 1990 "Omeros," a 64-chapter Caribbean epic that it praised as "majestic."
Walcott, who was of African, Dutch and English ancestry, said his writing reflected the "very rich and complicated experience" of life in the Caribbean. His dazzling, painterly work earned him a reputation as one of the greatest writers of the second half of the 20th century.
With passions ranging from watercolor painting to teaching to theater, Walcott's work was widely praised for its depth and bold use of metaphor, and its mix of sensuousness and technical prowess. He compared his feeling for poetry to a religious avocation.
Walcott was born in St. Lucia's capital of Castries on Jan. 23, 1930 to a Methodist schoolteacher mother and a civil servant father, an aspiring artist who died when Walcott and his twin brother, Roderick, were babies. His mother, Alix, instilled the love of language in her children, often reciting Shakespeare and reading aloud other classics.
Early on, he struggled with questions of race and his passion for British poetry, describing it as a "wrestling contradiction of being white in mind and black in body, as if the flesh were coal from which the spirit like tormented smoke writhed to escape." But he overcame that inner struggle, writing: "Once we have lost our wish to be white, we develop a longing to become black."
Not all his work was met with accolades. He collaborated with American pop star Paul Simon to write "The Capeman" story, which became a Broadway musical in 1997 and quickly became a major flop, closing less than two months into its run and getting panned by critics.
Wild ducks take off from the waters of Lake Balaton under a sky streaked by contrails during sunrise in Keszthely, 182 km southwest of Budapest, Hungary, 17 March 2017.
Photo by Gyorgy Varga
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