Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Serbia Elects the American President (Creators Syndicate)
In Mladenovac, Serbia, a town not unlike Steubenville, Ohio, Luka Maksimovic and some of his bros started making videos poking fun at politicians. They're all in their 20s, young guys with a video camera and probably a case or two of beer.
Marc Dion: An Exciting New Opportunity for my Readers (Creators Syndicate)
In your emails to me, many of you have mentioned that I don't write enough columns reflecting your opinions about guns, Jesus, political correctness, the Federal Reserve Bank, Mexicans, Muslims, spanking, gay marriage, bathroom rights and privileges, abortion, the Book of Revelations and the fact that black slavery "wasn't so bad." That's why I'm announcing my new "Personalized Column Program," an exciting, brutally capitalist plan that allows you to see your crazy opinions in print.
Lenore Skenazy: Shaking Up 'Shaken Baby Syndrome' (Creators Syndicate)
Toddlers toddle. Sometimes they fall. Usually it's fine, but sometimes it's tragic. It may be diagnosed as the result of a shaking, but here's the sticking point: If someone shook a baby so hard that its head went flopping back and forth, the neck would show signs of whiplash, right? And yet, the film notes: None of the hundreds of "shaken" baby cases Goldsmith reviewed showed serious neck damage. Not one.
Lenore Skenazy: "Verizon's 'Hum' Allows Parents to Track Their Teen Drivers: Why This Stinks"(Creators Syndicate)
But the idea that once we trust our kids to drive we do not trust them to go where they say they're going, drive the way they tell us they're driving, or stay where they agreed to stay means a basic bond of trust is gone. We are treating them like toddlers who need direct oversight, even though we make this happen electronically.
James Delingpole: I hope more darlings are killed off in Game of Thrones season 6 (Spectator)
So: Game of Thrones. Finally - season six - the TV series has overtaken the books on which it is based and the big worry for all us fans is: will it live up to the warped, convoluted, sinister genius of George R.R. Martin's original material?
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst: A real-life Tristram Shandy - found in a skip (Spectator)
Alexander Masters transforms some anonymous diaries found discarded on a skip into a volume worthy of Laurence Sterne.
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wrote:
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
College Costs
Marty
Re: Yesterday's College Costs - Middle-Class Kids Are Screwed
Don't they know?
In 1975, David Rockefeller convened his Trilateral Commission (yes, my
tinfoil helmet is firmly in place, and I'll wait for the derisive
snickering to subside) and the result was "The Crisis of Democracy"
(there's far too much of it, and it's not efficient...).
The resulting document also insisted that the citizens of the world's
industrial nations must lower their expectations (so that those at the
Rockefeller table can continue to enjoy the lion's share of global wealth?).
Source
One of the suggested means for expectation-lowering: RESTRICTED ACCESS
TO HIGHER EDUCATION...
Whether or not the group's proposal ever gained traction, I do not know
- but ruinous tuition at formerly free or low cost colleges and
universities has had the same effect...
But doesn't Corporate America require brainpower, from time to time?
Indeed so, but such can be obtained, on the cheap, by offshoring, via
satellite, or by means of special visas (after those jobs are first
advertised to Americans (in Hindi or Putungwah script, rumor has it).
None other than Woodrow Wilson came to a similar conclusion back in the
day, viz.:
"We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want
another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every
society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit
themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks."
Back in the mid 1960s, when I was in school, I learned that some 2/3 of
America's youth, those who had the intellectual ability to succeed in
college, would never set foot in one - a terrible national waste, a
disgrace...
Now we have likely moved closer to the UK, that "skid row of the
European Community," where the ratio of U to non-U is more like 1 to
1,000...
So, from the standpoint of our Plutonomy, most of us must indeed lower
our expectations for decent lives so that more and more wealth can be
shifted to the 1% of the 1% - after all, "money is how you keep score in
the game of life."
James in Alhambra
Thanks, James!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
"WIVES, SUBMIT YOURSELVES…"
HOW IS THE "CAKEWALK" GOING THESE DAYS?
"CREEPY" AND OTHER COLORFUL DESCRIPTIONS.
WHERE ARE THE PEACE LOVERS?
THE GOLD PLATED MAN!
DON'T TRUST A WEASEL!
WELCOME!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool.
Rejected
John Wayne Day
What a California lawmaker intended as a benign resolution honoring a late, world-renowned movie icon exploded into an emotional debate over decades-old racist comments.
The state Assembly defeated the official ode to John Wayne Thursday after several legislators described statements he made about racial minorities and his support for the anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee and John Birch Society.
Republican State Assemblyman Matthew Harper of Huntington Beach sought to declare May 26, 2016, as John Wayne Day to mark the day the actor was born.
"He had disturbing views towards race," objected Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville, leading off a 20-minute debate.
"I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people," he told the magazine.
John Wayne Day
Pot Limits & Tourists
Colorado
Colorado's tourists would be able to buy as much marijuana as residents, if a bill moving through the state Legislature passes.
The measure repeals Colorado's unique-in-the-nation tiered purchasing system for marijuana. All adults over 21 here are allowed to possess an ounce of marijuana - but retail pot shops can't sell more than a quarter ounce in one day to people without Colorado IDs.
The purchasing limits were established in 2013 to prevent marijuana diversion out of state. Lawmakers figured that visiting tourists wouldn't blaze through a full ounce before heading home. An ounce of pot is sometimes compared to a keg of beer because it's difficult for most users to finish in a few days.
"We don't want people taking it out of state," said Sen. Cheri Jahn, a Democrat sponsoring a bill that includes the change. "What we found was, that's really not happening."
Colorado pot regulators now say that tourists carrying small amounts of pot home aren't Colorado's main marijuana-diversion problem.
Colorado
Apologizes To Musician
American Airlines
A concert musician who was not allowed to board a flight with her violin says she hopes the incident will raise awareness of regulations that permit violins and other small instruments as carry-on luggage.
Rachel Barton Pine was told by a flight attendant and captain of an American Eagle flight that she could not bring her 18th century violin on board the plane Thursday from Chicago to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They offered to valet-check the instrument, but Pine declined. The airline, which is based in Texas, later apologized.
She said the fact that her violin, a 1742 Guarneri, is a rare and valuable instrument, is irrelevant: "It could be a $50 student violin and the same problem exists."
Pine said federal regulations and American Airline's own policies specifically say "a musician may carry a small instrument such as a violin onto the plane" to be stowed overhead or under a seat.
"A law is only helpful if people know what it is," said Pine. "I hope that bringing this to light will help other musicians know their rights and obligations."
American Airlines
'Lost' Medieval Music
"Songs of Consolation"
After a 20-year reconstruction effort, a researcher and a performer of medieval music have brought "lost" songs from the Middle Ages back to life.
The "Songs of Consolation" were recently performed at the University of Cambridgein the United Kingdom. Reconstructed from "neumes" (medieval symbols used to represent musical notation), the tunes accompanied poems from Roman philosopher Boethius' magnum opus, "The Consolation of Philosophy."
Two decades may seem like extensive research for a concert, but performing ancient works does not simply mean reading and playing sheet music.
A millennium ago, music was written in melodic outlines and not the modern "notes" that musicians rely on today. Music in medieval times was then shared through aural traditions and musicians' memories. Since these traditions died out hundreds of years ago, it is nearly impossible to decipher music from this era, because the pitches are unknown, experts have said.
The researchers faced one major hurdle in their reconstruction project: a missing page from an 11th-century manuscript called "Cambridge Songs," the final part of an anthology of Latin text. The lost page included vital notations used to understand the musical principles of the era.
"Songs of Consolation"
$55M Severance Pay
Yahoo
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will walk away with a $55 million severance package if the company's auction of its Internet operations culminates in a sale that ousts her from her job.
The payout disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday consists of cash, stock awards and other benefits that Mayer would get should she be forced out as CEO within a year after a sale.
Mayer, a former Google executive, has been unsuccessfully trying to turn around Yahoo for nearly four years. Instead, Yahoo's long-running slump has deepened during her reign, making her pay a prickly topic among investors.
Yahoo declined to comment beyond its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The documents didn't explain the rationale for the severance packages covering Mayer and other Yahoo executives, although they are common at most publicly held companies as a way to maintain some stability during times of uncertainty.
Mayer received a compensation package valued at nearly $36 million last year under the SEC's accounting rules. Yahoo's board maintained in its filing that it was only worth about $14 million as of April 1.
Yahoo
Seeks Summary Judgment
Lance Armstrong
Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong has asked a U.S. judge to decide a more than $100 million lawsuit against him by the federal government without holding a jury trial.
The motion seeking a summary judgment in Washington's U.S. District Court is part of a 2013 U.S. government lawsuit against Armstrong. The suit argues that Armstrong's team breached its Postal Service sponsorship contract by doping and made false statements to continue payment.
Armstrong's lawyer, Elliot Peters, said the Postal Service had gotten a "windfall" through sponsoring the team and Armstrong had settled every legitimate claim against him.
"This lawsuit is pure grandstanding and hypocrisy. We hope and believe the Court will see that and be willing to pull the plug," Peters said in a statement.
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France victories and banned for life from racing in 2012 by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency after it accused him in a report of engineering one of the most sophisticated doping schemes in sports.
Lance Armstrong
World's Biggest Ivory Bonfire
Kenya
Eleven giant pyres of tusks went up in smoke Saturday as Kenya torched its vast ivory stockpile in a grand gesture aimed at shocking the world into stopping the slaughter of elephants.
Huge white clouds of smoke spiralled into the sky as the flames took hold, fuelled by thousands of litres of diesel and kerosene injected through steel pipes.
Lighting the fire in Nairobi's national park, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta demanded a total ban on trade in ivory to end the "murderous" trafficking and prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.
"The height of the pile of ivory before us marks the strength of our resolve," Kenyatta said, before thrusting a burning torch onto the ivory.
"No-one, and I repeat no-one, has any business in trading in ivory, for this trade means death of our elephants and death of our natural heritage."
Kenya
Blocks Farm Sale
Australia
Citing national interest, the Australian government on Friday blocked a Chinese-led consortium from buying the nation's largest private land holding, a collection of Outback cattle ranches bigger than South Korea.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said he was concerned that the land owned by a pioneering dynasty is more than 1 percent of Australia's total land area and 2 percent of agricultural land. He also worried that the land holding was so big that it was difficult for Australian bidders to compete.
The refusal to sell to the Chinese-based Dakang Australia Holdings and Australian-listed company Australian Rural Capital is only a preliminary decision and Dakang has until Tuesday to respond. The price tag is 371 million Australian dollars ($284 million).
S. Kidman & Co. Ltd. owns 10 cattle ranches, a bull breeding stud and a feed lot covering 101,411 square kilometers (39,155 square miles) in four states. That's an area bigger than South Korea and almost as big as the U.S. state of Virginia.
The government in November blocked the first attempt to sell the Adelaide-based company founded by beef baron Sir Sidney Kidman in 1899, and now owned by his descendants.
Australia
Tailless Comet
C/2014 S3
Astronomers have found a first-of-its-kind tailless comet whose composition may offer clues into long-standing questions about the solar system's formation and evolution, according to research published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.
The so-called "Manx" comet, named after a breed of cats without tails, was made of rocky materials that are normally found near Earth. Most comets are made of ice and other frozen compounds and were formed in solar system's frigid far reaches.
Researchers believe the newly found comet was formed in the same region as Earth, then booted to the solar system's backyard like a gravitational slingshot as planets jostled for position.
Scientists involved in the discovery now seek to learn how many more Manx comets exist, which could help to resolve debate over exactly how and when the solar system settled into its current configuration.
The new comet, known as C/2014 S3, was discovered in 2014 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS. This network of telescopes scours the night-time skies for fast-moving comets, asteroids and other celestial bodies.
C/2014 S3
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