Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: The Dollar Store Saved Us (Creators Syndicate)
In the city where I live, we have 88,000 people, 17 dollar stores and a Walmart. This is why North Korea backed down. North Korea, for those of you who belong to the tea party, is cuddled up right next to China
Ted Rall: America Insults Intelligent and Educated People (Creators Syndicate)
Europeans make fun of dumb people. Americans elect them to high office.
Lenore Skenazy: The Modern Baby (Creators Syndicate)
Babies haven't changed much in about a million years. But how we view and raise them? That's changing all the time and, in the process, changing us, says Janet Golden, a professor of history at Rutgers and author of the new book Babies Made Us Modern: How Infants Brought America into the Twentieth Century.
Mark Shields: Hostile Language (Creators Syndicate)
It's an established American tradition to call people what they wish to be called. That's why after he converted religions, nearly everyone - except a few die-hard bigots - called the heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali instead of Cassius Clay. Marion Morrison chose to become John Wayne. Ilyena Lydia Vasilievna Mironov would later become Dame Helen Mirren, and Caryn Johnson would achieve fame and fortune as Whoopi Goldberg. But some Republicans, included among them the current GOP president, regularly choose to ignore this national custom by …
Mark Shields: Character Does Matter (Creators Syndicate)
John McCain is no plaster saint. I have seen firsthand and experienced the sting of his temper and his unforgiving cold shoulder. As of today, he stands as the last American veteran to be nominated for president who could tell us convincingly that "only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the cruel and merciless reality of war." John McCain teaches us once again that character truly is destiny.
Simon Jenkins: The Quakers are right. We don't need God (The Guardian)
The group is considering dropping God from its meetings guidance as it makes some feel uncomfortable. This is the new religiosity.
Anna Chen: An American woman wearing a Chinese dress is not cultural appropriation (The Guardian)
Minorities face real problems in the US. What a waste of energy to harangue a teenager for wearing a Chinese dress.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
took the day off.
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
Thanks, Linda!
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
MOVING DAY WITH DOGS.
CAT CURLING!
BOOM!
"THAT WOMAN."
"A PERMANENT RIFT IS OPENING."
THE DEPTH OF DEPRAVITY!
THE QUARTET OF FASCISM.
"DON'T EVER BE THE FIRST TO STOP CLAPPING."
From history facts daily, a vignette from Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago"
Under Joseph Stalin's reign over the Soviet Union, he developed a cult of personality that was so intense that people were terrified to stop clapping for him. There is an example of this that took place in a political rally in Moscow. At the end of the rally, a tribute to Stalin was called, so of course the people all stood up and began to clap. They clapped for minutes upon minutes, afraid to be the first one to stop clapping. After 11 solid minutes of clapping, one man sat down, quickly followed by the rest of the audience, who were now safe to sit without drawing attention to themselves. The man who sat first was imprisoned for 10 years. After his final interrogation before imprisonment, an official reminded him "don't ever be the first to stop clapping."
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another extra toasty day.
Now A Sober Home
'Big House'
A sprawling 44-bedroom house surrounded by towering brick walls that was the home base for polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs has been converted into a sober living center by Evangelical missionaries. It's the latest sign of his group's dwindling control of the small community on the Utah-Arizona border.
Jeffs hasn't lived in the three-story home known as the "Big House" for years because he's serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides. In his absence, his religious group known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, has been weakened amid government crackdowns and an exodus of members who were kicked out or decided to leave.
The 29,000-square-foot house that was built around 2000 has been modernized, but remnants of Jeffs' legacy remain.
A secret room under the home's main entrance can only be accessed through a linen closet by pulling a hidden latch that resembles a light switch that allows a person to slide open the shelving and push open a door, said Glyn and Jena Jones, who run the sober living center. The safe that Jeffs used to store religious records remains inside.
Jeffs' 65th wife, Briell Decker, was granted the right to buy the home for a discounted price of $600,000 by a community board overseeing the redistribution. Decker, who left the FLDS some six years ago, said she didn't have enough money so she sought someone who would help her turn a house that stood as a symbol of oppression to her and other former sect members into something that would spark hope.
'Big House'
Adjusts Time Zone To Match South
North Korea
North Korea readjusted its time zone to match South Korea's on Saturday and described the change as an early step toward making the longtime rivals "become one" following a landmark summit.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to sync his country's time zone with the South's during his April 27 talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. A dispatch from the North's Korean Central News Agency says that promise was fulfilled Saturday by a decree of the nation's Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.
The Koreas used the same time zone for decades before the North in 2015 created its own "Pyongyang Time" by setting its clocks 30 minutes behind South Korea and Japan. It said at the time that it did so to root out the legacy of Tokyo's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, when clocks in Korea were changed to be the same as in Japan.
"Pyongyang Time" was created as tensions between the authoritarian country and the U.S. grew over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and international sanctions aimed at dismantling it. But in recent months relations between the Koreas have warmed dramatically, with Kim and Moon pledging at their summit to rid their peninsula of nuclear weapons.
North Korea
School Mural
Chula Vista
A mural at a San Diego County charter school is causing a stir for depicting the decapitated head of the president with a spear going through it.
CBS8 reports the mural at MAAC Charter School in the southern San Diego County city of Chula Vista shows an Aztec warrior putting a spear through Donald Trump's head. Parents of students at the school have voiced their concerns about the painting, saying it is too graphic and inappropriate.
"I know Donald Trump is not the best president, but that's not good because that only starts more trouble, in my opinion," one man told CBS8.
Some thought the representation of the artist's opinion was a valid choice, though even they admitted it might be inappropriate at a school.
An artist who goes by the name Sasha Andrade has claimed responsibility for the mural, saying she won't be censored.
Chula Vista
What Killed Medieval Sultan
Saladin
What killed the sultan Saladin, who famously unified the Muslim world during the 12th century, recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians and helped spark the Third Crusade? Until now, it was a mystery. But by sifting through clues on Saladin's medical symptoms written more than 800 years ago, a doctor may have finally determined what illness felled the mighty sultan.
It was typhoid, said Dr. Stephen Gluckman, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, announced today (May 4) at the 25th annual Historical Clinicopathological Conference at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Experts at the conference diagnose a historical figure every year, and past diagnoses have featured Lenin, Darwin, Eleanor Roosevelt and Lincoln.
Gluckman cautioned that a definitive diagnosis will probably never be known, given that Saladin lived before the age of modern diagnostic tools. But typhoid - an illness that people contract when they ingest food or water that's contaminated with the bacterium Salmonella typhi - seems to fit the bill, he said.
Saladin is an iconic figure who played a pivotal role in the history of Europe and the Middle East.
Saladin, born in 1137 or 1138 in Tikrit, in what is now modern-day Iraq, was part of a mercenary Kurdish family. He fought with his uncle, an important military leader, against the Egyptian Fatimid Caliphate, a religious dynasty that ruled from 909 to 1171. But when his uncle died in 1169, Saladin replaced him at the age of 31 or 32, Asbridge said. After triumphing in battle, Saladin was appointed both commander of the Syrian troops in Egypt and vizier of the Fatimid caliph, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Saladin
'He'll Get His Facts Straight'
Rudy
Rudy Giuliani (R-Serial Philanderer) put it all out on the table this week. And now, after days of confusion and speculation that he may have exposed President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Crooked) to new legal jeopardy, he's gathering it all back in.
In remarks to the media Friday, Trump contradicted statements the former New York City mayor made earlier in the weekregarding a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election.
"He just started yesterday," Trump said of Giuliani, who started as the lead attorney regarding issues related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation in late April. "He'll get his facts straight."
On Wednesday, Giuliani made waves when he told Fox News the president had in fact repaid his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, for the funds. Trump had previously denied all knowledge of the payment.
Trump seemed to initially confirm Giuliani's statements in a series of tweets on Thursday morning. As of Friday, though, Trump's explanation is apparently that Giuliani didn't know what he was talking about.
Rudy
No Clinton Tie
NOT REAL NEWS
"Smallville" actor Allison Mack is under indictment on sex trafficking charges, but a story being shared online falsely connects the criminal case to Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Rothschild banking family.
The article on nyeveningnews and other sites declares that Mack "confessed that she sold children to the Rothschilds and Clintons during her time in the child sex cult." The story combines falsehoods with information from Mack's actual legal case.
Mack was charged last month after federal prosecutors in New York said she recruited women to a group led by Keith Raniere, who sold himself as a self-improvement guru to the stars. Mack pleaded not guilty, is free on $5 million bond and under home detention in California. Raniere also is being held on trafficking charges, and his attorneys say he's innocent.
The alleged Clinton connection in the story is based on something that isn't true. It claims that Seagram's liquor fortune heiresses Clare and Sara Bronfman, who are followers of Raniere, are members of Bill Clinton's foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, which requires a $15,000 membership fee. A spokesman for the foundation tells The Associated Press they haven't donated any money or made a required "commitment to action" to the Global Initiative.
Mack's indictment and a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York make no mention of the Clintons, the Rothschilds or child victims.
NOT REAL NEWS
Medical Debt
North Dakota
A single mother who was found dead of gunshot wounds along with her three children had recently moved into a rental property in North Dakota and had been struggling to pay off medical bills.
Astra Volk, 35, and her children, 14-year-old Tyler Talmage, 10-year-old Aidan Talmage and 6-year-old Arianna Talmage, were found dead Thursday at their home in Grand Forks. Police went to the house after officials from Aiden and Arianna's school requested a welfare check.
Police have not officially classified the killings as murder-suicide or explained what happened, citing the ongoing investigation, but they said all four died of gunshot wounds and a handgun was found in the house with the bodies.
But there were signs that Volk was struggling with finances. Grand Forks County court documents show a collection agency went to court to get money from Volk for unpaid medical bills. During the last six months of 2017, she was ordered to pay about $3,750.
A woman by the same name set up a GoFundMe account April 25 seeking money to help pay off medical bills she said were brought about in part for treatment for a mental illness. The woman said she was working full-time but that her wages had been garnished.
North Dakota
Court Convicts Woman
Australia
The wife of an Islamic State group recruiter gave the militants' single-finger salute outside a Sydney court on Friday after becoming the first person convicted under a new state law criminalizing the refusal to stand for a judge.
Moutia Elzahed, 50, defiantly remained seated with her arms folded in the Downing Centre Local Court dressed in a black niqab, gown and gloves after magistrate Carolyn Huntsman delivered the landmark decision.
She was found guilty of nine charges of disrespectful behavior during previous court hearings she was involved in. She will be sentenced on June 15.
New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, introduced the law in 2016 after several Muslim defendants refused to stand for judges on religious grounds.
The magistrate found Elzahed had repeatedly and intentionally flouted the established court convention in 2016 when she failed to rise for District Court Judge Audrey Balla. Elzahed said she only stood for Allah, but Huntsman found no evidence she had acted on a genuine religious belief.
Australia
'Highest Level In 800,000 Years'
Carbon Dioxide
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached its highest level in at least 800,000 years, according to scientists.
In April, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere exceeded an average of 410 parts per million (ppm) across the entire month, according to readings from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
This is the first time in the history of the observatory's readings that a monthly average has exceeded that level.
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography said that before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels did not exceed 300ppm in the last 800,000 years.
The Keeling Curve, which plots the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, shows a steady rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere for decades.
Carbon Dioxide
In Memory
Carlos Carvalho
An award-winning South African filmmaker has died after being head-butted by a giraffe while filming at a safari lodge.
Carlos Carvalho was working on a feature film when a bull giraffe named Gerald swung its head at him at the Glen Africa Country Lodge in the North West Province on Wednesday night.
The 47-year-old father-of-two was flown by helicopter to hospital in Johannesburg, where he later died from his head injuries.
"When Carlos was standing in front of the giraffe, the animal spread its legs, bent its neck and swung its head at Carlos," said Richard Brooker, whose family owns the lodge.
"Gerald will remain at the lodge. He did nothing wrong," Mr Brooker said.
In 2014, Mr Carvalho, who was the director of photography for The Forgotten Kingdom, the first feature film produced in Lesotho, won the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography at the 14th annual Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Awards Gala held in New York.
Mr Carvalho joined the film industry as a runner in 1992. He also won a Silver Lion at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.
Carlos Carvalho
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