The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The Executive Order Edition
What action would you have our President-elect do in his very first Executive Order?
1. Issue a new order pertaining to___________....
2. Repeal Dubya's outrageous order to_________ ....
There it is, Poll-fans! Short, sweet and so very important, don't ya know...
So, think hard! This a big deal! The very first one! One shot only! Bring it on (haha)!
Send your response, and a (short) reason why, to BadToTheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
John Bogle of Vanguard says, Keep Investing (Video)
Paul Krugman: Lest We Forget (nytimes.com)
The story of how we failed to see this coming has a clear policy implication that financial market reform should be pressed quickly, and that it should not wait until the crisis is resolved.
Scott Burns: A Better Way to Tough It Out (assetbuilder.com)
"Should I sell now, before all my money is gone?" "If I fire my money manager, as you suggest, what do I do next?" Those two questions dominate my e-mail. I don't think I need to explain why. So let's talk this through. First, should you sell now?
Maggie Mahar: "Worried Sick: How Vulnerable Are You Really to Heart Attack, Stroke or Breast Cancer?" (alternet.org)
Americans are bombarded with messages that death and danger are just around the corner. Reality is usually much different.
Kermit Roosevelt: California's same-sex marriage case affects all of us (csmonitor.com)
This suit raises a serious question: When should a majority have the power to take away a constitutional right granted by a court? It's a question that forces us to think about why we have constitutional rights in the first place, and why they are enforced by judges. But it is not simply a theoretical puzzle. All of us enjoy constitutional rights, and most of us are at some point in a minority. All of us could be affected.
Tom Danehy has queries about eegee's ranch dressing, people who take up two parking spaces and Björk (tucsonweekly.com)
I saw this big-ass truck parked like that the other day, and I figured that the only reason it didn't have a sign on it that read, "Please vandalize my truck," was that the moron couldn't spell "vandalize," and I'd probably have to spot him the t-r-u just so he could get close to spelling "truck." I would never damage somebody else's vehicle, but neither do I let things like that pass.
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: In the battle of man vs. pack rat, the pack rats are winning--at least at Catherine's house (tucsonweekly.com)
A few years ago, we got my son a car. And a few years later, he came home from college and tried to drive the car, which had been sitting alongside the driveway since his departure.
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: "Confessions of a speeder: Some of us are just built to speed better" (tucsonweekly.com)
I got a speeding ticket the other day. Over near Ina and Thornydale roads, a motorcycle cop the size of a buffalo--who simply refused to recognize both the uniqueness of my worldview and the fact that I had to pee--nailed my ass.
Kira Cochrane: Sidelines (guardian.co.uk)
In her new autobiography, "Wishful Drinking," Carrie Fisher writes of her former relationship with Paul Simon: "Once, when I was flying to Los Angeles, we'd been fighting all morning, so Paul drove me to the airport to get rid of me faster. As I was about to get on the plane, I said: 'You'll feel bad if I crash.' And he shrugged and said: 'Maybe not.'"
Aimee Levitt: Laurell K. Hamilton, the Mistress of Horror (Riverfront Times)
Nobody writes vampire novels the way the St. Louis author does -- and yes, there's lots of sex.
wrote:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
Hot water heater sprang a leak Wednesday night, just in time for the holiday.
Supposed to be fixed before noon today. Sure hope so.
National Heritage Day
American Indians
For the first time, federal legislation has set aside the day after Thanksgiving - for this year only - to honor the contributions American Indians have made to the United States.
Frank Suniga, a descendent of Mescalero Apache Indians who lives in Oregon, said he and others began pushing in 2001 for a national day that recognizes tribal heritage.
Suniga, 79, proposed his idea to a cultural committee that is part of the Portland-based Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. The organization took on the cause of a commemorative day, as did the National Congress of American Indians and other groups.
Congress passed legislation this year designating the day as Native American Heritage Day, and resident George W. Bush signed it last month.
American Indians
AIDS Awareness Campaign Turns 10
MTV
MTV marks the 10th anniversary of its AIDS awareness campaign this year with an hour-long documentary by U.S. singer and Destiny's Child founding member Kelly Rowland.
The music channel launched "MTV Staying Alive" in 1998, and has produced films, competitions and celebrity tie-ins to educate young people about the risks of HIV and AIDS and encourage them to talk about it.
In "The Diary of Kelly Rowland," the 27-year-old travels to South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and the United States and meets young people affected by HIV/AIDS and those trying to educate people about the risks.
The video can be watched at www.staying-alive.org from Monday, which is World AIDS Day.
MTV
French Say Size Matters
Condoms
The French say they need the largest condoms in Europe while Greeks get by on smaller ones, according to a Europe-wide study by a German consultancy that provides advice on condoms.
The study by the Singen-based Institute of Condom Consultancy was done by asking 10,500 men in 25 countries to measure their penis and enter the number into a database.
The results show Frenchmen on average claim to need 15.48-cm (6.09-inch) long condoms, about 3 cm longer than Greeks, whose condom-size requirement was the most modest.
Jan Vinzenz Krause, the institute's director, did not want to comment on how honest he thought the Frenchmen had been in reporting the data.
Condoms
Fragment To Auction
Gospel of John
An unusually large fragment from possibly the oldest copy of part of the Gospel of John will go on sale next month, when the torn piece of papyrus with Greek writing is expected to fetch up to 300,000 pounds.
The fragment is believed to date to 200 AD, less than 170 years after the crucifixion of Christ, when Christianity was still illegal and around 100 years after experts believe the original Gospel was first written.
The fragment was discovered in 1922 by British archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt at the site of the important early Christian community at Oxyrhynchus, about 120 miles (193 km) from Cairo. It is believed to have been written in Alexandria.
Gospel of John
Chimpy In Fantasyland
'History'
George W. Bush hopes history will see him as a president who liberated millions of Iraqis and Afghans, who worked towards peace and who never sold his soul for political ends.
"I'd like to be a president (known) as somebody who liberated 50 million people and helped achieve peace," Bush said in excerpts of a recent interview released by the White House Friday.
"I would like to be a person remembered as a person who, first and foremost, did not sell his soul in order to accommodate the political process. I came to Washington with a set of values, and I'm leaving with the same set of values."
He also said he wanted to be seen as a president who helped individuals, "that rallied people to serve their neighbor; that led an effort to help relieve HIV/AIDS and malaria on places like the continent of Africa; that helped elderly people get prescription drugs and Medicare as a part of the basic package."
Bush added that every day during his eight-year presidency he had consulted the Bible and drawn comfort from his faith.
'History'
Ban "Magic" Mushrooms
Dutch
The Netherlands will ban the sale and cultivation of all hallucinogenic "magic" mushrooms from next week, the latest target of a country seeking to shed its "anything goes" image.
The Dutch government proposed the ban in April, citing the dangerous behavioural effects of magic mushrooms following the death of a French teenager who jumped from an Amsterdam bridge in 2007 after consuming the hallucinogenic fungus.
A challenge to the ban was rejected by a court in the Hague on Friday. From December 1 the production or sale of fresh magic mushrooms could lead to a maximum jail sentence of four years, a spokesman for the Dutch Justice Ministry said on Friday.
"We are targeting the growers and the shops who are selling the mushrooms," the spokesman said.
Dutch
FDA Sets 'Safe' Level For Contaminants
Infant Formula
Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula.
Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula so long as a related chemical isn't also present. They said they are continuing to analyze the results of tests on 87 samples of infant formula, but of the 74 samples analyzed so far, one had traces of melamine below the new threshold and another had traces of cyanuric acid, a related contaminant. None had both contaminants.
That's key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA's director of food safety.
FDA officials didn't tell the public they had found melamine in U.S.-made infant formula until after The Associated Press published a story Wednesday based on test results obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Infant Formula
Birthplace Withdraws Honorary Titles
General Francisco Franco
The town council in the birthplace of General Francisco Franco has voted to withdraw all the honorary titles it awarded the late Spanish dictator and his family during his lifetime.
Franco, who ruled Spain for 36 years until his death in 1975, will no longer be "honorary mayor" and "favorite son" of Ferrol, the town in the northwestern region of Galicia where he was born in 1882.
His late wife, Carmen Polo, and his daughter and only child, Maria del Carmen Franco y Polo, now 82, will also no longer be "adopted daughters of Ferrol."
The names of various educational establishments in the town associated with Franco's family or his regime will also be changed.
General Francisco Franco
2,700-Years-Old
Oldest Stash
Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.
The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.
The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.
Oldest Stash
William Gibson
Playwright William Gibson, whose "The Miracle Worker" won awards and thrilled audiences with its hopeful tale of the teaching of deaf and blind Helen Keller, died at age 94 this week in Massachusetts.
"The Miracle Worker" first appeared on television in 1957 before Gibson adapted it into a play that debuted on Broadway in 1959 with Anne Bancroft portraying Anne Sullivan, who taught Keller how to communicate. Patty Duke played Keller.
The play won three Tony awards, Broadway's highest honor, for best play, best actress for Bancroft and best director for Arthur Penn. A 1962 film adaptation, again with Penn directing, won Oscars for Bancroft as best actress and Duke as supporting actress, while Penn and Gibson were both nominated.
While "Miracle Worker" was Gibson's best-known play, he wrote many others including 1958's "Two for the Seesaw" which was nominated for a best play Tony and made into a movie.
Gibson earned another Tony nomination for the musical "Golden Boy" starring Sammy Davis, Jr.
Gibson also wrote short stories, poems and novels such as 1954's "The Cobweb" and he published a memoir, "A Mass for the Dead," in 1968.
His wife Margaret Brenman-Gibson, a noted psychologist, teacher, writer and social activist, died in 2004.
William Gibson
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