Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Shopping Cart Art (Neatorama)
Artists love to turn ordinary things into art, and what could be more ordinary than shopping carts (or shopping trolleys, if you're on the other side of the Atlantic)?
Mark Shields: No Easy Job (Creators Syndicate)
… Obama campaign manager Jim Messina wasted no time in stating: "I could not disagree with Hilary Rosen any more strongly. Her comments are wrong, and family should be off-limits. She should apologize." The president unequivocally distanced himself from any suggestion that Ann Romney (and every other American mother) did not work every day of her life. In an interview with Bruce Aune of KCRG-TV of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Obama said, "There is no tougher job than being a mom," adding, "Anybody who would argue otherwise probably needs to rethink their statement."
Robert Scheer: You're on Your Own, Kids (Huffington Post)
During his campaign, Santorum, who on Tuesday dropped out as the standard-bearer for pro-life family values, turned to Clinton's draconian welfare law as a source of deep spiritual guidance: "It didn't just cut the rolls, but it saved lives" and granted the poor "something dependency doesn't give: hope." Well, glory be, hope is on the rise. A recent and well-documented Indiana University study concludes that the number of Americans living beneath the poverty line has risen 27 percent during the recession, leaving 46 million former fetuses living large on a new hope diet.
Connie Schultz: The Lonely World of Facebook (Creators Syndicate)
"The price of this smooth sociability is a constant compulsion to assert one's own happiness, one's own fulfillment," he writes. "Not only must we contend with the social bounty of others; we must foster the appearance of our own social bounty. Being happy all the time, pretending to be happy, actually attempting to be happy, it's exhausting."
Monkeys Question Tennessee Anti-Evolution Law (Huffington Post)
A controversial new anti-evolution bill in Tennessee is set to be enacted into law after Gov. Bill Haslam (R) decided on Tuesday to let it pass without his signature. The law, as laid out by HB 368, is designed to protect teachers who allow students to question and criticize "controversial" scientific subjects.
GABRIEL ARANA: My So-Called Ex-Gay Life (The American Prospect)
A deep look at the fringe movement that just lost its only shred of scientific support.
Vanessa Redgrave: 'I want to give people the jolliest time' (Guardian)
As the director of 2012's Brighton festival, Vanessa Redgrave hopes to save the Earth, fix the economy and uncover the real origins of the Arab spring. So why does Michael Billington think her firebrand days are over?
Henry Rollins: Japanese Guitar Freaks From Outer Space (LA Weekly)
To combat the confusion and depression that assault me when I come off the road in the middle of a tour, I seek the most oblivionated music possible. When it's the "way out there" that I seek, I go right to my stash of amazing music from Japan.
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."
wrote:
said:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Bosko Suggests
Cliff Buildings
Have a great day,
Bosko.
Thanks, Bosko!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, clear, and windy.
Hit By Former Child Stars
Kirk Cameron
A group of former child stars banded together in a video to lambast comments Kirk Cameron made in March calling homosexuality "unnatural," "detrimental," and "ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization."
The video, which was posted on Funny Or Die, featured seven child actors who had formed a group called Child Celebrities Opposing Kirk Cameron or CCOKC for short.
"Together we're pledging to raise awareness about a serious threat to our civil rights-Kirk Cameron's stupid opinions," they say in the video.
The spoof public service announcement featured seven former child stars, including Christine Lakin from "Step By Step," Kenn Michael from "The Parent 'Hood" and Josie Davis from "Charles In Charge."
"Look, we've met Kirk and he's a very pleasant guy," they say. "But Kirk, like all of us, lived and worked in the company of homosexuals for years and I would challenge him to name one thing they ever did to hurt him, his community, or civilization as a whole."
Kirk Cameron
On The Rise
Atheism
The number of disbelievers is growing, but they remain America's least trusted minority. Why?
How many atheists are there?
It depends on your definition of the term. Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called "hard atheism," the conviction that no higher power exists. But a much larger share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organized religion in favor of a nondefined skepticism about faith. This group, sometimes collectively labeled the "Nones," is growing faster than any religious faith in the U.S. About two thirds of Nones say they are former believers; 24 percent are lapsed Catholics and 29 percent once identified with other Christian denominations. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, claims these Nones as members of his tribe. "If you don't have a belief in God, you're an atheist," he said. "It doesn't matter what you call yourself."
Why are so many people leaving religion?
It's primarily a backlash against the religious Right, say political scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In their book, American Grace, they argue that the religious Right's politicization of faith in the 1990s turned younger, socially liberal Christians away from churches, even as conservatives became more zealous. The dropouts were turned off by churches' Old Testament condemnation of homosexuals, premarital sex, contraception, and abortion. The Catholic Church's sex scandals also prompted millions to equate religion with moralistic hypocrisy. "While the Republican base has become ever more committed to mixing religion and politics," Putnam and Campbell write, "the rest of the country has been moving in the opposite direction." As society becomes more secular, researchers say, doubters are more confident about identifying themselves as nonbelievers. "The collapse of institutional religion in the first 10 years of this century [has] freed so many people to say they don't really care," said author Diana Butler Bass.
Atheism
Guitars Stolen
Tom Petty
Five guitars belonging to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were stolen from a soundstage at The Culver Studios in Culver City, according to the band's website. A reward of $7,500 with "no questions asked" is being offered.
Petty had been rehearsing at the studios in advance of the band's 2012 North America-Europe tour, which kicks off on April 18 in Broomfield, Colo. No shows have been planned for Los Angeles.
The theft was reported to the Culver City Police Department on April 12 a little after 4 p.m., according to Sgt Dan Sukal.
The Culver Studios, a complex of 16 soundstages just off Culver Boulevard, was the home of "Deal or No Deal," "America's Next Top Model," and "The Starter Wife." Films such as "State of Play" and "Rush Hour 3" have also been filmed here. "Cougar Town" is currently in production on the lot.
The guitars include Petty's 1967 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SG TV Junior, Ron Blair's Fender Broadcaster, Scott Thurston's 1967 Epiphone Sheridan and Mike Campbell's blue Dusenberg, which was built for Campbell to commemorate the band's 30th anniversary.
Tom Petty
"Violins of Hope"
When a musician plays a violin long enough, the instrument is imprinted with its owner's way of making sound. If someone else picks it up, they learn to play it in a way that honors its history.
So when David Russell places a violin played in the World War II concentration camp of Auschwitz under his chin, he lets the violin tell him how to do it. The Auschwitz violin and 17 others with connections to the vanished world of Europe's prewar Jewish communities are part of a new exhibit and performance series called "Violins of Hope."
"When the violinists in 'Violins of Hope' play these instruments and they find how to make these instruments sound their best, they're actually bringing back patterns from the former performers who used to play them," said Russell, a music professor at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. "So we get an imprint, as it were, of that person. They're with us, they're in the concert."
"Violins of Hope" opens Monday at UNC Charlotte Center City and will remain on view through April 20 and again April 22-24. The program includes related exhibits at other museums and several performances using the violins. The project's final concert will take place April 21 at the Charlotte Symphony, with noted violinist Shlomo Mintz taking part.
"Violins of Hope"
Future Of Film Uncertain
Judah Maccabee
The future of a film about ancient Jewish warrior Judah Maccabee may be close to flickering out.
Warner Bros. spokesman Paul McGuire said Friday that the studio is "analyzing what to do with the project."
The film about the biblical hero was to be a collaboration between producer Mel Gibson and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas. After the studio recently rejected Eszterhas' script, the screenwriter accused Gibson of anti-Semitism in a letter published online. Gibson responded with his own letter denying the allegations.
The Eszterhas allegations and Gibson's history prompted Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center to issue a statement Thursday calling for Warner Bros. and all other studios "to permanently shelve the Maccabee project as long as Mel Gibson is associated with the film."
Judah Maccabee
Ex-Reporter Sues
Albuquerque
A former reporter is suing the city of Albuquerque, N. M., and a police officer for allegedly deleting evidence of police brutality and tampering with evidence during a story she was covering.
Cristina Rodda, a former anchor and reporter for the Albuquerque NBC affiliate station KOB, is suing Officer Stephanie Lopez of the Albuquerque Police Department. In her federal court filing this week she cited violation of the first, fourth and fourteenth amendments, intentionally spoiling evidence, violation of the New Mexico Tort Claims Act against Lopez. She also cited negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention against the city.
On April 29, 2011 the reporter was sent by KOB to Tumbleweeds night club in Albuquerque, following a tip about a "rave" party where underage people were allegedly allowed, according to the lawsuit.
Rodda was filming the entrance of the club from the parking lot, when Officer Lopez allegedly pushed a young patron to the ground while working crowd control for the police department. Lopez has reportedly been disciplined for similar conduct in the past.
Lopez frisked and searched Rodda's purse without consent, later admitting Rodda was compliant throughout the whole process, according to the suit. The officer took the camera.
When the tape was returned to the station the clip of the patron being thrown to the ground was gone. Lopez later admitted she took the camera home, viewed the tape and did not tag the camera into evidence with the police department.
Albuquerque
Tax Scofflaws
California
Pamela Anderson and Lionel Richie owe the government money.
California tax authorities have put Anderson on the latest list of the state's biggest income-tax delinquents. The Franchise Tax Board said the former "Baywatch" star owes $524,241 in state income taxes.
Meanwhile, E! Online reports that Richie, a music legend, owes the federal government $1.1 million in unpaid taxes and that a lien has been issued warning that the singers' assets may be seized if he doesn't pay up in a timely manner.
Other notable names on California's tax-delinquent list include CNET co-founder Halsey Minor and Joe Francis, the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire.
California
Stolen-Babies Scandal
Spain
The elderly woman who left Madrid's courthouse on Thursday morning looked stooped and ghostly, but neither her obvious frailty nor the plain blue habit she wore kept the small crowd of onlookers from screaming at her. "Shameless!" one woman shouted. "How could you cause so much suffering?"
Thursday was supposed to be the day that began to bring resolution to those who believe themselves victims of decades of baby robbing in Spain. The nun called to testify, Sor María Gómez Valbuena, is the first person indicted for her alleged involvement in a scheme which supposedly saw thousands of newborns taken from their mothers and sold to adoptive parents. But once in front of the judge, Gómez exercised her right to remain silent. And later that day at a meeting with representatives of victims' associations, Spanish government officials admitted that, although they would dedicate administrative resources to attempting to reunite mothers and children, the chances for bringing to justice those who had separated the families were slim.
Some 1,500 accusations of baby stealing, dating from the late 1950s until mid-1980s, have been filed in Spain in the past year or two. Most follow the same chilling narrative: a single mother or a married woman who already had several children gave birth to an apparently healthy child, but was soon told -- often by a nun who worked as a nurse -- that the baby had died. Although the adoptive parents frequently paid significant amounts of money for their child, ideology more than greed appears to have been behind the thefts. "These are nuns and priests who strongly believed that the child would be better off with a more traditional or more 'moral,' family," explains journalist Natalia Junquera, who has led the newspaper El País's investigation of the thefts. "They honestly thought they were doing the right thing."
Since the cases first began garnering attention more than a year ago, DNA testing has reunited six mothers with children they believed dead. Dozens of parents have found that the coffins in which they believed their newborns to be buried are in fact empty, or that civil registries do not contain death certificates for children they thought had died at birth. And yet until Sor María, no one had actually been charged with a crime. The courts have closed many of the cases for lack of evidence.
Spain
Ex-Dictator Admits Dirty War "Disappeared"
Jorge Rafael Videla
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the country's brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship "disappeared" leftist opponents, a euphemism for kidnapped and murdered, and said babies were taken from their parents.
Videla, 86, who was jailed for life in 2010 for murder, torture and kidnapping, has repeatedly justified the brutality of the military junta in the so-called Dirty War crackdown on left-wing opponents. Until now, he has also denied the forced disappearances.
Videla denied that babies were systematically stolen from leftist opponents and then put up for adoption, but said there were some cases in which babies were taken.
"Let's say there were 7,000 or 8,000 people who needed to die to win the war against subversion," newspaper La Nacion quoted Videla as saying in a new book "Final Mandate," by journalist Ceferino Reato, based on a series of interviews with Videla.
"There was no other solution," La Nacion reported Videla as saying. "We were agreed that was the price to win the war against subversion and that we needed it not to be evident so that society didn't notice."
Jorge Rafael Videla
British Police Recover
Chinese Artifacts
British police say they have recovered two Chinese artifacts valued together at more than 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) that were stolen from a university museum earlier this month.
Raiders chiseled through a wall to snatch the Qing Dynasty items from the Oriental Museum at Durham University in northern England on April 5.
Police soon arrested several suspects, but the items - a large jade bowl with a Chinese poem written inside that dates back to 1769, and a Dehua porcelain sculpture - were not immediately recovered.
Durham Police said Saturday that both artifacts had been retrieved, though it did not say how.
Chinese Artifacts
Theaters Can Now Serve Booze
British Columbia
Alcohol will now be on the menu at theaters in British Columbia after the provincial government reversed its long-standing ban on booze in cinemas.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman, who is responsible for liquor laws, said this week that multiplex theaters can now apply for a license to serve alcohol in theaters that play adult-rated movies and in adjacent lobbies.
He said the theaters must be closed to minors during screenings because it would be difficult to enforce the rules against underage drinking in a dark theater.
"These changes strike an appropriate balance between allowing liquor service at theaters and limiting minors' access to alcohol," Coleman said.
British Columbia
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
