Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman's Column: The Centrist Cop-Out (The New York Times)
The facts of the crisis over the debt ceiling aren't complicated. Republicans have, in effect, taken America hostage, threatening to undermine the economy and disrupt the essential business of government unless they get policy concessions they would never have been able to enact through legislation. And Democrats - who would have been justified in rejecting this extortion altogether - have, in fact, gone a long way toward meeting those Republican demands.
Paul Krugman's Blog: The Halt and the Lame (New York Times)
Technology continues to advance; resource shortages are not severe enough to pose a major constraint; climate change is terrifying in its long-run implications, but hasn't inflicted much damage yet. The only major problem we have right now is the one that was supposed to be easy to solve: a simple lack of adequate demand. And we're totally failing in our response.
Scott Burns: Social Security Will Exist in the Future (assetbuilder.com)
While Social Security has a funding issue, I think it is a mistake to assume it will not exist when you retire. It is an essential program, absolutely necessary for the very survival of millions of older Americans. The day Social Security doesn't exist is the day Washington will burn and a guillotine will be located on the national mall for the televised beheading of some 535 politicians.
David Perez: The GOP's Hidden Tax Agenda (Huffington Post)
Boy do Republicans love taxes. They love taxes so much they're willing to push our country into default unless Democrats agree to a massive tax increase on the middle class. I know what you're thinking -- the GOP is the anti-tax party, and it's the Democrats who are the "tax and spend" party. Let me explain.
Who knew L.A.'s red-light camera fines were 'voluntary'? (Los Angeles Times)
Drivers who paid the tickets, some of which are $476, fume at the disclosure that authorities cannot force violators to pay up. But don't expect to get a refund.
Froma Harrop: Why Can't Women Be Comfortable? (Creators Syndicate)
Women run companies and countries. Some even play on co-ed football teams. But there's one glaring gender disparity that never gets better and only seems to grow: comfort.
Jessica Grose: Questions for Ryan Gosling (Slate)
His definition of manhood, why John Hughes movies make him crave violence, and why his doctor told him to make a comedy after filming 'Blue Valentine.'
Farhad Manjoo: How Netflix Is Killing Piracy (Slate)
It's convenient, it's not that expensive, and the selection is just good enough.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Terri" (4 stars)
I found a rare absorption while watching Azazel Jacobs' "Terri," the story of a fat kid who is mocked at school. Movies about high school misfits are common; this is an uncommon one.
BRENDAN KILEY: The Passion of Bart Simpson (The Stranger)
The Apocalypse, The Simpsons, and Actors in Yellowface.
Ken Russell interview: The last fires of film's old devil (Guardian)
It's been 40 years since Southampton boy Ken Russell filmed his notorious The Devils. Stuart Jeffries asks him about saints, sinners and the most frightening film he ever saw.
Kevin Brownlow: a life in the movies (Guardian)
Kevin Brownlow has won a lifetime-achievement Oscar and made superb films. So why isn't he better known, asks Philip Horne.
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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3 4 5 6 CaterpillarsGulf Fritillary Butterfly
Here are today's pictures:
Caterpillar #1 - pupated (but not looking so good, but still alive)
Caterpillar #2 - pupated
Caterpillar #3
Caterpillar #4
Caterpillar #5
Caterpillar #6 - the newest addition
A recent hatchinling flitters by
And a visiting swallowtail
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thinner marine layer, but still quite nice.
Time To Unseal Nixon's Testimony
Watergate
Thirty-six years after Richard Nixon testified to a grand jury about the Watergate break-in that drove him from office, a federal judge on Friday ordered the secret transcript made public.
But the 297 pages of testimony won't be available immediately, because the government gets time to decide whether to appeal.
The Obama administration opposed the transcript's release, chiefly to protect the privacy of people discussed during the ex-president's testimony who are still alive.
Nevertheless, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth agreed with historians who sued for release of the documents that the historical significance outweighs arguments for secrecy, because the investigations are long over and Nixon has been dead 17 years.
Nixon was interviewed behind closed doors near his California home for 11 hours over two days in June 1975, 10 months after resigning the presidency. Two grand jurors were flown in and the transcript was read to the rest of the panel sitting back in Washington. It was the first time a former U.S. president testified before a grand jury - Bill Clinton became the first sitting president to do so during the Monica Lewinsky investigation.
Watergate
Statue Fetches $89,625
Oscar
If you can't win an Oscar, why not buy one?
That's exactly what an avid movie buff did when a golden statue from the 1942 Academy Awards went up for auction on Friday.
A coveted collectible since Oscars are rarely for sale, the statue fetched $89,625, making it the star of bidding at Heritage Auction's movie and music auction in Dallas.
A rule adopted in 1950 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences prohibits Academy Award winners or their heirs from selling a statue without first offering it back to the academy for a price of $1.
This Oscar, presented before that rule was enacted, was won by Nathan Levinson for best sound recording for the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Oscar
China Concert
will.i.am
The State Department says it has teamed up with Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am to direct a concert in the Chinese capital later this year to support cultural and education exchanges between the United States and China.
I
n a statement, the department said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with will.i.am on Friday to discuss the Obama administration's "100,000 Strong Initiative," which seeks to significantly increase the number and diversity of American students in China. The Beijing concert, in which will.i.am and other American and Chinese pop stars will perform, will benefit and promote the initiative, it said.
Details about the other performers, date and specific venue of the concert were not immediately available.
will.i.am
Taxidermist Preserves Meat Dress
Lady Gaga
A California taxidermist has earned a rare place in pop history.
Sergio Vigalato preserved Lady Gaga's now-famous raw-meat dress for display in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.
The project has prompted a swarm of media interest in the 66-year-old former Southeast Alaska charter boat skipper who's originally from Brazil.
Vigalato operates American Taxidermy in Burbank, Calif. That's where he was contacted by the museum about preserving the dress that Lady Gaga wore at the September 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
The ensemble, which Lady Gaga said was a statement about equality, arrived at his shop frozen and decomposing. He restored it over the next three and a half months, and the dress went on display in June.
Lady Gaga
Convicted Of Assault
Pie Man
A British man who threw a shaving-cream pie at media tycoon Rupert Murdoch was convicted Friday of assault and causing harassment.
Jonathan May-Bowles hurled a paper plate with a pile of shaving cream at Murdoch on July 19 as he was giving evidence to a Parliament committee in London over the tabloid phone-hacking scandal.
The 26-year-old protester admitted the crime when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court Friday.
Friday's hearing was adjourned and May-Bowles was ordered to return to court on Aug. 2 for sentencing.
Pie Man
Hacked Cyber Supplier?
Anonymous
Hackers with the loose-knit group Anonymous said on Friday they had broken into the network of U.S. government contractor Mantech International Corp and posted some NATO-related correspondence online.
Anonymous, tweeting as AnonymousIRC, offered the correspondence between Mantech and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as proof of the breach. Two involve NATO contracting offices, and one discusses deploying staffers to an unnamed "NATO Theater of Operations" for what appears to be tech services.
Mantech, which claims the U.S. Defense, State and Justice Departments among its clients, declined to comment. It offers cyber security among its services.
Hackers associated with Lulz Security and Anonymous have claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Senate, Sony Corp websites and the website of Murdoch's British newspaper group, News International, among others.
Anonymous
Pleads Not Guilty
Andy Dick
Comedian Andy Dick pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges he sexually abused a security guard and another man at a West Virginia bar by grabbing their crotches.
The case marks the latest in a long string of legal entanglements for Dick, who was a regular cast member on the 1990s television comedy "NewsRadio" but has since struggled with substance abuse problems.
Dick pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual abuse before Cabell County Circuit Judge Paul Ferrell in Huntington, West Virginia, according to the local prosecutor's office.
He is accused of groping the two men at the Huntington bar in January 2010. The charge of sexual abuse carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Andy Dick
Sues Producers
Joe Pesci
Actor Joe Pesci has sued the makers of a movie about crime boss John Gotti and his son, accusing producers of reneging on a contract after he gained 30 pounds to play the notorious crime boss' right-hand man.
Pesci's lawsuit could be an early roadblock for the film, "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father," that has gained widespread attention due to its subject matter and a cast that includes John Travolta, Al Pacino and Lindsay Lohan.
I
n a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Pesci said he came to an oral agreement with producer Fiore Films to play Angelo Ruggiero, the close friend of the late crime boss John Gotti, and was promised $3 million for his part.
But Fiore Films later told Pesci that instead he would be playing the lesser role of Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso and would receive only $1 million, according to the lawsuit.
Joe Pesci
Shocking! He's A Hypocrite!
Beck
Radio talk show host Glenn Beck criticized the notion of summer political camps for kids like the one in Norway where 68 people were killed last week, even though he has promoted similar camps in the U.S. where children are taught tea party principles.
Beck's criticism earlier this week was directed at Norway's Utoya Island summer camp for the youth wing of Norway's ruling Labor party. On his radio show Monday, the former Fox News Channel host said the Utoya camp "sounds a little like the Hitler Youth or whatever."
However, Beck has promoted similar camps called vacation liberty schools in the U.S. that teach the "virtues and morals" of the Founding Fathers. Lisa Abler, one of the founders of the liberty camp concept, said she appeared on Beck's TV show a year ago to discuss the schools.
Abler said the program is modeled after vacation Bible schools hosted by many mainline churches, and are different from the Utoya camp because they aren't affiliated with a political party. Instead of teaching the Bible, the estimated 130 liberty school programs teach children about politics from Beck's perspective. The camps are independently run, but Abler said she has written a curriculum that she shares with other schools.
Beck
Cultural Legacy
Knights Templar
In his 1,500-page manifesto, confessed Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik claimed allegiance to a resurrected version of the Knights Templar, a medieval formation of Christian soldiers who waged brutal battle against Islam for control of the Holy Land and its relics. Breivik also wrote favorably of the mentorship of a British man known as "Richard (the Lionhearted)," who he credits for imparting to him the secrets of the Templar tradition.
In an exclusive report, AP correspondent Simon Haydon writes that he has located "Richard," whose actual name is Paul Ray, living in exile in Malta. In an interview with Haydon, Ray confirmed that he is associated with "a loose group of anti-Islamic extremists inspired by the Knights Templar," but denied that Breivik was associated with the group, or that he had served as Breivik's mentor.
Ray told the AP that he has embraced the Templar tradition in an effort to drive home the threat of Muslim immigration. "Muslims in (England) trying to take over our country. Let's not pretend it's not happening. They are actively declaring their vision to take our country over." He told the AP he did not approve of Breivik's methods, however.
That's not to say that the original Knights were at all peace-loving; quite the contrary. As Time writer Ishaan Tharoor notes, the Knights Templar formed at the site of the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which fell into Christian control after the first crusade of 1099, and were known as ruthless warriors. And while the Knights tried to cultivate an image as ascetic spiritual pilgrims, they extorted enormous gold and precious-metal tributes from Jewish and Muslim subjects in the Middle East, as well as among the unfortunate Christian populations in Europe who came into their path.
That history, indeed, accounts for the order's best known pop culture legacies, Dashiell Hammett to Dan Brown. After the Templars were dissolved in 1312, a later religious order based on the island of Malta (where now makes Ray's home in solidarity with the order's aims) continued hoarding gold and precious stones--and thereby furnished the inspiration for the bloody intrigue in Hammett's hardboiled suspense novel, "The Maltese Falcon," and the classic John Huston film of the same name. The order has continued to claim a prominent place in modern-day fables of shadowy conspiracy. As legions of "Da Vinci Code" readers well know, the group is a favorite hobbyhorse of pulp-antiquarian novelist Dan Brown.
Knights Templar
It's Howard's Fault
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner and Playmate Crystal Harris, his former fiance, have patched things up in no time flat.
Harris has apologized for saying this week on shock jock Howard Stern's radio show that sex with the 85 year-old Playboy founder lasted "like about two seconds," and that she never saw him naked.
"The Stern interview scared me, he's harsh," Harris, 25, said in a Twitter post on Thursday evening. "I was unprepared and blurted out things I shouldn't have said, I'm sorry."
"Crystal apologized for her Howard Stern interview, which I appreciated," Hefner tweeted. "It didn't have much to do with reality."
Hugh Hefner
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