Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (7:57)
Exclusive - Bill Clinton Extended Interview Pt. 2. Bill Clinton discusses the midterm elections, Tea Partiers and health care reform in this complete, unedited interview.
Joel Stein: The Masturbation Lobby (slate.com)
Message to Christine O'Donnell: Hands off my hobby.
Paul Krugman: Downhill With the G.O.P. (nytimes.com)
These days one of America's two great political parties routinely makes nonsensical promises. Banana republic, here we come.
Ted Rall: EXCLUSIVE: TRANS-AFGHANISTAN PIPELINE STILL A DREAM
There is no pipeline. There probably won't be one. Yet the pipeline-that-will-never-exist is one of the main reasons that hundreds of thousands of Afghans and two thousand American soldiers are dead.
Froma Harrop: Where Good Men (and Women) Die Old
There are few less-alike places in the continental United States than Ashley, N.D., and New York City. But Ashley (population 882) has one remarkable thing in common with New York (population 8,363,710). Its older residents enjoy longer and healthier lives than in most other parts of the country.
Jim Hightower: BP TRIES TO PRETTY UP ITS UGLINESS
Here's today's number: 93.4. That's $93.4 million - the amount that BP has now admitted to spending in just four months on its national advertising blitz, which is intended to put some gloss on its badly-faded corporate image.
Clarence Page: Race is making a political comeback (chicagotribune.com)
Black is back. So is white. Less than two years after President Barack Obama's White House win, race is making a political comeback - if it ever really left.
Jim Hightower: SURGING IN AFGHANISTAN
The surge is on in Afghanistan! Unfortunately, the surge that appears to be most effective is not the 30,000 additional U.S. troops that President Obama has now poured into this hellacious war, but a wholly-unexpected surge by the enemy.
Connie Schultz: A Hot Flash of Discovery (creators.com)
A new study shows that a two-minute hot flash burns more calories than 10 minutes of jogging. Not really. I made that up. But I've been reading so many facts, rumors and downright dirty lies about menopause lately that I thought I'd throw that one out there and see how long it takes to catch fire, so to speak.
Gaby Hinsliff: What did you do in the Skirt Wars, mum? (guardian.co.uk)
Teenage girls have always adapted school uniform.
MICHAEL HUMPHREY: "'My Lie': Why I falsely accused my father" (salon.com)
For years, Meredith Maran believed her dad molested her. She talks about "recovered memory," and finding the truth
"War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women Speak Out from the Ruins of War" by Ann Jones: A review by Curt Schleier
Time magazine's recent cover photo of a woman, Aisha, who had her nose and ears sliced off by her Taliban husband, lends further testimony to the savagery many women face. She'd been given to his family when she was 12 years old to settle a blood feud. When she reached puberty, she was married to the Taliban fighter, who used her as a slave and frequently beat her. She ran away. He caught her and disfigured her in retribution.
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Will Lizzie Warren take an axe...?' Edition
President Obama has appointed Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren to help organize the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The question now is whether Warren, a consumer champion, will wield the full power afforded that agency to crack down on Wall Street swindlers and speculators... Right now, the jury is still out...
There Will Be "Hell to Pay" If Elizabeth Warren Does Not Have Real Power | CommonDreams.org
Do you think Ms Warren and the CFPB will effectively protect consumers?
1.) Heck, yeah... She'll kick ass and take names...
2.) Not a chance... She's merely 'window dressing'... The Bankers rule...
3.) I haven't a frickin' clue what will happen...
Send your response to
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Street Art
Hi
A quick link... perhaps you may like...
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Reader Suggestion
'The Clock'
CHECK THIS MIND BOGGLING INFORMATION.
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MAM
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and hot.
Books You Might Not Expect
Banned Books Week
The pen is mightier than the sword and, apparently, it can also be more offensive. Many of us have read the most commonly banned and challenged classics, including "The Great Gatsby," "The Catcher in the Rye," "1984" and "Catch-22." Some of the other titles on the list of banned and challenged books may surprise you.
"Captain Underpants" - Some folks had their underwear in a bunch over this children's book series by Dav Pilkey. The "Captain Underpants" series -- about two fourth-graders and their superhero of a principal -- was one of the top 10 most frequently banned and challenged books for 2002, 2004 and 2005. The books were said to contain offensive language, to be sexually explicit and to be anti-family.
"The Lord of the Rings" - J.R.R Tolkien's book was burned, not in the fires of Mount Doom, but outside of a church in Alamogordo, N.M., in 2001 because it was viewed as "Satanic."
Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary - When it comes to banning books, even the dictionary gets no respect. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary was pulled from the shelf of a school in Menifee, Calif. The offending term in the dictionary? "Oral sex." The entry references of the dictionary also included cunnilingus and fellatio, which were not cited as the reasons for pulling the dictionary off the shelf. Merriam-Webster has been publishing language reference books for more than 150 years. They were bound to offend someone along the way.
Harry Potter series - One of the most surprising banned books sits at the No. 1 spot on the ALA list. It's not even a book. It's the entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. The Harry Potter series is to teens what "Star Wars" was to an entire generation of now-40-somethings. The series has been challenged for occultism, Satanism, violence, being anti-family and having religious viewpoint. The series is No. 1 on the ALA's most challenged book list for 2000 to 2009.
"The Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" is not just another classic on the list. The book was originally banned in California due to obscenity, but the catalyst behind the banning was based more in embarrassment: The people in the region did not like how their area and the workers' situation was portrayed in the novel.
For the rest of the list - Banned Books Week
Visits Congress
Stephen Colbert
Taking his blowhard comedy act to Congress, Stephen Colbert told lawmakers that a day picking beans alongside illegal immigrants convinced him that farm work is "really, really hard."
Staying in character as a Comedy Central news commentator, Colbert offered a House hearing his "vast" knowledge, drawn from spending a single day on a New York farm as a guest of the United Farm Workers.
The union launched its "Take Our Jobs" campaign to back up its claim that few Americans would do the work of farm laborers, the vast majority of whom are in the U.S. illegally. Only seven people accepted the jobs, the union said.
Colbert pleaded with lawmakers to do something about the farm labor issue because "I am not going back out there."
Stephen Colbert
Another O'Donnell Clip
Bill Maher
TV comedian Bill Maher is taking another jab at Republican Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, who as a conservative Christian activist was a frequent guest on his "Politically Incorrect" show in the 1990s.
After O'Donnell won last week's GOP primary in Delaware with the help of tea party activists, Maher played a 1999 tape in which she said she had dabbled in witchcraft while in high school.
Maher threatened to show more old clips of O'Donnell unless she appeared on his current cable show, "Real Time with Bill Maher."
On Friday night, Maher made good on his threat, showing another clip from the 1990s in which O'Donnell challenged the theory of evolution.
Bill Maher
Memorial Library Opens In L.A.
Ray Charles
On what would have been his 80th birthday, Ray Charles has joined the likes of past presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan with his own namesake library in Southern California.
The Ray Charles Memorial Library officially opened its doors Thursday night. Housed in the studio and office building Charles built in South Los Angeles in the early 1960s, the library features interactive exhibits about the musician's life and career.
Charles' friends and colleagues - including Quincy Jones, B.B. King, producer Jimmy Jam and filmmaker Taylor Hackford - welcome visitors via video to each section of the library, which is more like an interactive museum. Touch screens invite guests to explore Charles' most memorable recordings, while exhibits feature some of his Grammy awards, stage costumes, old contracts and ever-present sunglasses.
Charles' fans can see his personal piano and saxophone, his collection of microphones and letters he received from Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Johnny Cash. The library also includes a mixing station, where visitors can compose their own mixes of Charles' classic rhythms and melodies, and a karaoke room, where they can sing along with Charles and the Raelettes.
Ray Charles
Stops Danish Far-Right From Using 'Mamma Mia'
Abba
Legendary Swedish pop group Abba has stopped the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP) from using their "Mamma Mia" hit at meetings, the studio which holds the rights to the song said Friday.
"It came to our knowledge that the Danish People's Party had used in some way the song 'Mamma Mia', and Abba does not allow their music to be used in any political context at all," Olle Roennbaeck, the head of film and television at Universal Music publishing, told AFP.
"We told them to quit doing this immediately and the party came back and said they would not use the song" anymore, Roennbaeck said.
The party had replaced the lyrics of "Mamma Mia" with "Mamma Pia" in honour of party leader Pia Kjaersgaard.
Abba
Topples `Oprah'
`Judge Judy'
"Judge Judy" won a ratings verdict over "Oprah" last season to rank No. 1 among daytime series.
According to Nielsen figures, Judy Sheindlin's courtroom show averaged 6.3 million daily viewers, compared with 5.7 million for Oprah Winfrey's talk show. "Judge Judy" became the first show to knock "Oprah" out of the top spot in a decade - and it was "Judge Judy" that did it the last time, too.
Winfrey relied on more reruns than usual last season, which affected her ratings.
Sheindlin is in her 15th year with the legal show. Winfrey, who's in the 25th and final season of her syndicated show, will launch a new cable network in January.
`Judge Judy'
Friday Firing
CNN
CNN's continued struggles with its prime-time lineup led to the firing Friday of Jon Klein, the U.S. network's top executive, less than two weeks before a schedule revamp he engineered was about to launch.
Klein has been replaced by Ken Jautz, who currently runs HLN, said Jim Walton, CNN Worldwide President. CNN is also seeking another executive who will serve as executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide.
CNN slipped behind MSNBC into third place this year in its prime-time ratings, where Fox News Channel remains a dominant number one. Cable news viewers have increasingly become interested in hearing news filtered through strong, partisan viewpoints and CNN has resisted that approach for fear it would hurt its brand as an impartial news source.
The image of CNN as hurting particularly frustrates Walton, who noted that prime-time advertising accounts for only 10 percent of the company's revenue. CNN has been profitable for seven consecutive years during a disastrous time for the news industry, he said.
The timing was odd given that Klein's reboot of two-thirds of CNN's prime-time schedule was to begin on Oct. 4. That's when an 8 p.m. ET show hosted by former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and newspaper columnist Kathleen Parker is to debut.
CNN
Busy Day
Lindsay Lohan
A judge late on Friday granted an appeal to release actress Lindsay Lohan from jail less than nine hours after she was placed behind bars on a charge of violating her probation by failing a drug test.
Judge Patricia Schnegg, an assistant supervising judge in the Los Angeles courts, signed the order to free Lohan, set bail at $300,000 and ordered the "Mean Girls" actress to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet, a spokesman said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department, which runs the jails, was notified Lohan was free to go, but a spokesman was not immediately available Friday night to say whether she had been released.
Schnegg's order came at the end of a day of fast-changing events in which the 24-year-old actress was first denied bail and sent to jail for violating probation on a 2007 charge of drunken driving and cocaine possession, due to evidence she ignored an order barring her from consuming alcohol or drugs.
Legal experts had believed Lohan would spend nearly a month behind bars awaiting an October 22 hearing on probation violation, but her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley filed a writ of appeal late in the day seeking to set aside Judge Fox's ruling. Schnegg approved that appeal.
Lindsay Lohan
Losing Hope
Shepard Fairey
The artist whose poster of Barack Obama became a rallying image during the hope-and-change election of 2008 says he understands why so many people have lost faith.
In an exclusive interview with National Journal on Thursday, Shepard Fairey expressed his disappointment with the president -- a malaise that seems representative of many Democrats who had great expectations for Obama.
Fairey explained that when he came up with the poster in 2008, he was trying to find a single image that embodied the issues he cared most about -- promoting health care, helping labor, and curtailing lobbyists. He likened the issues to projectiles.
"Looking at Obama's standpoint on various policies, it was like, 'Why throw all these particular projectiles over the wall... when I could put all those things in one projectile that I could hurl over the wall,'" Fairey said in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. "Obama was the delivery device in theory. Now, I realize that he maybe is not the correct delivery device, and I'll just deal with those issues separately."
Shepard Fairey
Judge Orders Air Force To Reinstate
Maj. Margaret Witt
A federal judge ruled Friday that a decorated flight nurse discharged from the Air Force for being gay should be given her job back as soon as possible in the latest legal setback to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton came in a closely watched case as a tense debate has been playing out over the policy. Senate Republicans blocked an effort to lift the ban this week, but Leighton is now the second federal judge this month to deem the policy unconstitutional.
Maj. Margaret Witt was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued to get her job back.
Barring an appeal, Witt will now be able to serve despite being openly gay, and a federal judge in California earlier this month ruled the law unconstitutional and is considering whether to immediately halt the ban. While such an injunction would prevent openly gay service members from being discharged going forward, it wouldn't do anything for those who have already been dismissed.
Maj. Margaret Witt
Da Vinci's Dream
Ornithopter
Leonardo Da Vinci would be proud: the Snowbird has flown.
Centuries after the Renaissance inventor sketched a human-powered flying machine, Canadian engineering students say they have flown an engineless aircraft that stays aloft by flapping its wings like a bird.
International aviation officials are expected to certify next month that the Snowbird has made the world's first successful, sustained flight of a human-powered ornithopter, according to the University of Toronto.
The Snowbird sustained both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds, in an August 2 test flight near Toronto that was witnessed by an official of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, the university announced. A video of the flight was shown on news programs on Wednesday.
Ornithopter
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