Mark Morford: A fine week for total insanity (SF Week)
Then come those days when progress and humanity seem to lurch and stumble around like confused animals, where, if you have any sort of progressive inclination whatsoever, you are left feeling like you've been both kissed and mauled, flattered and mugged, bitch-slapped and proposed to, all while riding a burning roller coaster, on a Wednesday, drunk.
Amanda Marcotte: Texas Abortion Bill Will Pass, So What Did Wendy Davis Actually Accomplish? (Slate)
1) National attention for a story Republicans hoped would be buried. The whole point of putting the abortion bill in the special session was so that Republicans in the state, particularly the ambitious Dewhurst, could pander to the religious right without catching too much heat from the national media, or the libertarian branch of Texas Republicans who think all this abortion stuff is a waste of time. Any hopes they could slip this one in under the radar are gone.
Andrew Tobias: Some Week
(And the Supreme Court overturned DOMA and allowed marriage to resume in California. Note that if we had not elected Barack Obama, the vote would not have been 5-4 for equality, but 6-3 against. We know this because in 2008 John McCain said, "I've said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I've said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. […]." Roberts and Alito, as you know, voted against equality. Justices Sotomayor and Kagan voted for.)
Froma Harrop: "Fighting the Stadium Con: Go Brazilians!" (Creators Syndicate)
Something's gotten into Brazilians that hasn't caught on here, but should. They're out on the streets protesting their government's plan to sink billions into monuments to sport. Rather than celebrate their country's hosting of the soccer World Cup next year and the Olympic Games in 2016, they are saying "hey." As in "hey," our streets are lousy. "Hey," the schools are substandard. "Hey," despite our economic miracle, poverty persists.
Froma Harrop: About Those Who Abuse Their Health (Creators Syndicate)
In addition to being a fine actor, James Gandolfini was smart and rich. He could afford the best medical care the West has to offer and understand the stakes of being so overweight and stressed. Yet he let his weight balloon in an orgy of careless eating and drinking. Did he think himself invincible or assume that he had time to deal with health issues later, his age being only 51?
Robert T. Gonzalez: Rich, educated westerners could be skewing social science studies (io9)
The vast majority of psychological studies recruit test subjects who are Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic - or "WEIRD." Which is... well, weird, given that these people represent a very small segment of the global human population, from a cultural standpoint.
Extispicy (from Latin extispicium) is the practice of using anomalies in animal entrails to predict or divine future events. Organs inspected include the liver, intestines, and lungs. The animal used for extispicy must often be ritually pure and slaughtered in a special ceremony.
Although extispicy would commonly be viewed with skepticism by the modern mind, some 20th-century scholars suggested that this technique was also a valuable and legitimate form of, essentially, autopsy, which might indicate internal disease tied to poor environmental factors, information that would be important to nomadic peoples.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
animal entrails
Charlie wrote:
Reading entrails.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, is taking the week off to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary.
Sally said:
Extispicy, divination by the reading of animal entrails.
Happy Birthday (Friday) to MAM and Wowser!
Adam answered:
I won't say what my first thought was and just quote Wikipedia: the practice of using anomalies in animal entrails to predict or divine future events.
Marian responded:
animal entrails
Dale of Sizzling Springs, NORCALI replied:
Extispicy is the study and divination by use of animal entrails, usually the victims of sacrifice usually to predict foredooming events!!! UGH!!!!
Gonna be hot for the next six days! Look for a possibility of 134F in Death Valley, which is probably going to happen next Monday or Tuesday!!!
MAM wrote:
The practice of using anomalies in animal entrails to predict or divine future events. Organs inspected include the liver,intestines, and lungs. The animal used for extispicy must often be ritually pure and slaughtered in a special ceremony.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'CSI: The Original One', followed by a FRESH'Brooklyn DA', then '48 Hours'.
NBC opens the night with a RERUN'Crossing Lines', followed by a FRESH'Do No Harm'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a RERUN, hosted by Melissa McCarthy, music by Phoenix (from 04/06/13).
ABC begins the night with a FRESH'Zero Hour', followed by a FRESH'666 Park Avenue', then '20/20'.
The CW offers an old '2½ Men', followed by another old '2½ Men', then an old 'Family Guy', followed by another old 'Family Guy'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'MLB Baseball', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY has an old 'Burn Notice', followed by another old 'Burn Notice'.
A&E has 'Storage Wars', another 'Storage Wars', still another 'Storage Wars', yet another 'Storage Wars', followed by the movie 'Con Air'.
AMC offers the movie 'S.W.A.T,', followed by the movie 'The Mummy Returns'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES UK - Season 4 - Ep 5 - The Curry Lounge
[7:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 2 - Ep 8 - Sabatiello's
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 4 - Ep 6 - Cafe Tavolini
[9:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 3 - Ep 1 - Mojito's
[10:00AM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 5 - Episode 2
[10:40AM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 5 - Episode 3
[11:20AM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 5 - Episode 4
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR: BEST OF 11-12 - Episode 1
[1:00PM] TOP GEAR: BEST OF 11-12 - Episode 2
[2:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 8 - Episode 7
[3:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 8 - Episode 8
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 5 - Schisms
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 6 - True Q
[6:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE FIRST DOCTOR
[6:30PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE SECOND DOCTOR
[7:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE THIRD DOCTOR
[7:30PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE FOURTH DOCTOR
[8:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE FIFTH DOCTOR
[8:30PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE SIXTH DOCTOR NEW
[11:00PM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE SIXTH DOCTOR
[1:30AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTORS REVISITED - THE FIFTH DOCTOR
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 3 - Man of the People
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 4 - Relics
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 5 - Schisms
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 6 - Ep 6 - True Q (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 'Real Housewives Of NJ', followed by the movie 'The 40-Year Old Virgin'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Tommy Boy', followed by the movie 'Get Him To The Greek', and 'Gabriel Iglesias: Aloha Fluffy'.
FX has the movie 'The Proposal', followed by the movie 'Just Do It', then the movie 'What Happens In Vegas'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)-Finally! The Last Episode (Ever) (For Now ...)
[7:15AM] Delirious
[9:30AM] The Three Stooges-A Missed Fortune
[9:55AM] The Three Stooges-Of Cash and Hash
[10:20AM] The Three Stooges-Pest Man Wins
[10:45AM] The Three Stooges-Punchy Cowpunchers
[11:10AM] The Three Stooges-Rumpus in the Harem
[11:35AM] The Three Stooges-Scheming Schemers
[12:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Lois' Birthday
[12:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Dinner Out
[1:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Casino
[1:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Convention
[2:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Robbery
[2:30PM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[2:45PM] Stop-Loss
[5:15PM] Bad Boys
[8:00PM] The Shawshank Redemption
[11:00PM] V for Vendetta
[1:45AM] The Shawshank Redemption
[4:45AM] Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)-Finally! The Last Episode (Ever) (For Now ...) (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers
[7:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-The Little Things
[8:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Discos and Dragons
[9:00AM] Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life
[9:30AM] The Killing Fields
[12:00PM] A Mighty Heart
[1:45PM] Don't Say a Word
[3:45PM] The Killing Fields
[6:15PM] Misery
[8:00PM] Transamerica
[10:00PM] The Virgin Suicides
[11:45PM] Raising the Bar-Team Hot Rod
[12:00AM] 3Some
[1:45AM] The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
[3:30AM] The Virgin Suicides
[5:15AM] Next Floor
[5:30AM] Man Shops Globe-Mexico (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Godzilla', 'Sinbad', followed by a FRESH'Sinbad', then a FRESH'Primeval: New World'.
Cast members (L-R) Virginia Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Brooke Shields, Camryn Manheim and Wanda Sykes pose at the premiere of "The Hot Flashes" in Los Angeles, California June 27, 2013. The movie opens limitedly in the U.S. on July 12.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Jennifer Lopez, Lena Dunham, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lucy Liu have received one of the most exclusive invitations in Hollywood.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Friday that it has invited them, and 272 others, to join its ranks.
Other invitees include Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, "Machete" star Danny Trejo, "Bridesmaids" director Paul Feig and "Before Midnight" writer-star Julie Delpy.
Those who accept the invitations will be able to vote on the recipients of the next Academy Awards, set for March 2, 2014.
Actor Ewan McGregor poses with his Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal, after being presented with it by Prince Charles during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London June 28, 2013.
Photo by John Stillwell
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says religious leaders, including those in Christianity and Islam, share the blame for mistreatment of women across the world.
The human rights activist said Friday religious authorities perpetuate misguided doctrines of male superiority, from the Catholic Church forbidding women from becoming priests to some African cultures mutilating the genitals of young girls.
Carter said the doctrines, which he described as theologically indefensible, contribute to a political, social and economic structure where political leaders passively accept violence against women, a worldwide sex slave trade and inequality in the workplace and classroom.
"There is a great aversion among men leaders and some women leaders to admit that this is something that exists, that it's serious and that it's it troubling and should be addressed courageously," Carter said at an international conference on women and religion.
The nation's librarians will be recruited to help people get signed up for insurance under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. Up to 17,000 U.S. libraries will be part of the effort to get information and crucial computer time to the millions of uninsured Americans who need to get coverage under the law.
The undertaking will be announced Sunday in Chicago at the annual conference of the American Library Association, according to federal officials who released the information early to The Associated Press.
The initiative starts Oct. 1, when people without health coverage will start shopping for insurance online on new websites where they can get tax credits to help pay the cost. Low-income people will be enrolled in an expanded version of Medicaid in states that adopt it.
About 7 million people are expected to sign up for coverage in the new marketplaces next year, but the heavy emphasis on the Web-based portals puts anyone without access to a computer at a disadvantage.
Libraries will be particularly important in conservative states that aren't making much effort to promote the health law's opportunities.
Snoop Lion arrives at the LA premiere of "Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain" at the Regal Cinemas at L.A. Live on Thursday, June 27, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Scott Kirkland
They traveled more than 6,000 miles from the Tuva Republic, a predominantly rural region of Russia, to the United States in hopes of saving their culture from slow extinction.
The group of eight musicians and craftsmen speak Tuvan, one of more than a dozen endangered languages represented by native speakers at the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington.
The festival's program, "One World, Many Voices," focuses on drawing attention to dying languages around the globe, bringing speakers of languages on the verge of extinction to Washington to explain the challenges to passing their linguistic heritage to younger generations. Other themes presented this year include exploring Hungarian heritage roots and a look into African-American diversity, style and identity.
According to Smithsonian curators, about half of the world's 7,105 languages are reported as endangered. Of those, 3,524 languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people each.
Two former editors of a British tabloid newspaper shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch over a phone-hacking scandal lost a legal battle on Friday to have criminal charges against them dropped.
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both former News of the World editors and close associates of Prime Minister David Cameron, have pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired to intercept people's voicemail messages in pursuit of stories.
Their lawyers had argued that once a message had been heard by its intended recipient it was no longer "in the course of transmission" as defined by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act under which the charges were brought.
The ruling means that Brooks, Coulson and others will stand trial as planned in September on hacking and other charges.
Actor Johnny Depp arrives with actress Amber Heard at a restaurant in Moscow, June 27, 2013. Depp is in Moscow to promote the movie "The Lone Ranger".
Photo by Ivan Burnyashev
A second set of hikers this summer have had to be rescued after trying to reach a famed abandoned Fairbanks city bus in the Alaska wilderness, after the book and movie "Into the Wild" made the remote bus famous.
A group of three hikers had to be lifted out of the wilderness on Tuesday, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. A helicopter delivered the three to their vehicle, and they drove to a medical clinic in Denali Park so Nichole Pickering, 25, of Florida could have an injury to her leg checked, Alaska State Troopers said.
The green and white bus, used for years as a shelter for hunters, has become a destination for those seeking to retrace the steps of Chris McCandless.
"The Bus," as it has become known, has been the source of multiple rescues since it was made famous, first by Jon Krakauer's book published in 1996 and then by Sean Penn's 2007 film, both of which chronicled the life and death of McCandless, a 24-year-old Virginian who hiked into the Alaska wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment and spent the summer living in the bus. McCandless was found dead in the bus almost four months later after starving to death.
Since the book and movie came out, troopers have rescued numerous hikers who hiked out to the bus but could not return due to high water in the Teklanika River. A woman from Switzerland drowned in the river three years ago on the trail to the bus, but it was unclear whether she was hiking to the bus or just hiking in the area.
An appeals board is upholding the Bureau of Land Management's decision to grant the artist Christo a permit for his Over the River project, which involves temporarily suspending 5.9 miles worth of silvery fabric panels in sections over 42 miles of the Arkansas River.
The Interior Board of Land Appeals on Friday rejected arguments that the BLM didn't fully consider impacts of Over the River before granting the permit.
New York-based Christo said in a written statement that he remains confident that state and federal permitting processes were thorough and complete. "This is one of three legal hurdles that needed to be overcome, and I am very happy with this decision," Christo said.
Even if Christo wins in the lawsuits, it would be at least 2016 before the project would be ready for public display.
Model's present creations as part of the Givenchy men's fashion Spring-Summer 2014 collection, presented Friday, June 28, 2013 in Paris.
Photo by Francois Mori
Members of a congressional advisory panel believe U.S. regulators should tighten scrutiny of casino companies operating in Macau, the world's top gambling market, because of the risk of money laundering.
The commission was set up in 2000 to examine national security implications of the trade and economic relationship between China and the U.S. and make recommendations to the U.S. Congress.
Nevada-based Las Vegas Sands Corp., Wynn Resorts Ltd. and MGM Resorts International are among six operators that have shared in the casino boom in Macau, the only place in China where gambling is legal. The former Portuguese colony earned $38 billion in gambling revenue last year, about six times more than the Las Vegas Strip.
Most of Macau's gambling revenue comes from the tens of millions of mainland Chinese gamblers who visit each year. However, the central government in Beijing imposes strict capital controls that limit the amount of money that can be taken out of mainland China to 20,000 yuan ($3,200) per trip.
To get around these controls, wealthy Chinese gamblers use so-called junket agents who arrange for them to travel to Macau, visit private VIP rooms, lend them money for their bets and collect on debts. VIP gamblers account for about two-thirds of Macau's total gambling revenue.
Federal officials cleared the way Friday for a return to domestic horse slaughter, granting a southeastern New Mexico company's application to convert its cattle facility into a horse processing plant.
In approving Valley Meat Co. plans to produce horse meat, USDA officials also indicated they would grant similar permits to companies in Iowa and Missouri as early as next week.
With the action, the Roswell, N.M., company becomes the first operation in the nation licensed to process horses into meat since Congress effectively banned the practice seven years ago.
The USDA said it also expects to issue permits next week for Rains Natural Meats in Missouri and Responsible Transportation in Iowa.
A petroglyph showing two turkeys is seen in this undated handout photo taken in a cave in Tennessee, provided by the University of Tennessee. Jan Simek, a University of Tennessee anthropologist, is leading a team of scientists who have discovered America's oldest cave art dating back 6,000 years in the Cumberland Plateau, a division of the Appalachian Mountains extending from southern West Virginia to northern Alabama.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican hypocrites?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
is taking some time off.
wrote:
took the day off.
