Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Snowflake Kitten (Creators Syndicate)
In America, we all own guns, we endlessly revere our "hero" cops and our "hero" firefighters, and our brave troops, and yet we elected the biggest coward ever to hold the office of the president. This snowflake of a president starts to melt on even moderately cloudy days. Abe Lincoln, big as hell and a country boy wrestler, would have just laughed at Donald Trump and possibly called him a "city boy water lily."
Froma Harrop: America's Clown Show Negotiations Are Not Funny (Creators Syndicate)
When bluster ends in capitulation, what do other negotiating partners see? Blood in the water. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, surely absorbed the lesson from the Trump administration's recent dealings with China. He saw how rashly President Trump waged trade war against China and how rapidly he retreated at the first sign of serious resistance.
Froma Harrop: Does More Debt Lead to Fewer Babies? (Creators Syndicate)
Romper, a website for young mothers, asks a good question. Is crushing student debt a big factor in millennials' not having children? Its answer is yes. … Young Americans striving to better themselves are the very people we should want to raise a next generation. How sad that so many, carrying the elephant of student debt on their backs, are opting out. Does the future matter in Washington?
Ted Rall: "#MeToo: A Cultural Workaround to a Legal Failure" (Creators Syndicate)
What is necessary is for the authorities not to automatically believe every accusation, but to take accusers seriously and treat them with respect. Until that happens, those seeking justice for sex crimes will continue to make do with the clumsy, imperfect and startlingly extrajudicial process of cultural and professional shunning embodied by #MeToo.
Susan Estrich: Improving Women's Health? (Creators Syndicate)
Who is kidding whom? President Donald Trump claims he is trying to "improve women's health" by depriving them of medical advice, forcing their doctors to lie and increasing the cost of routine women's health care all at once. He's back at it. If the Chinese won't listen to him, then why not beat up on women? Forget about picking on North Korea; he wants to pick on the people who take care of the poorest and neediest women among us.
Hadley Freeman: All hail the renaissance of Hugh Grant, freed from decades of romcom hell (The Guardian)
In the past two years he has produced the best work of his life, including his latest turn in A Very English Scandal.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Wonkette on feminist duchess
Learned some things about Meghan I had not known. Used the link in the article to donate to the Myna Mahila Foundation.
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
OKLAHOMA IS A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY.
THE LIAR!
DRIVING OUT THE 'DEVIL'.
"THE LUCK OF THE GAMBLER."
TRUMP IS UNDER 'LUCIFERIAN' ATTACK!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice sunny afternoon.
Landslide Vote
Ireland
Ireland voted by a landslide to ditch its strict abortion laws in a landmark referendum that Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said had finally lifted decades of stigma and shame.
More than 66 percent of voters in what has been a traditionally staunchly Catholic country backed repealing the constitutional ban on terminations, triggering scenes of tearful jubilation in Dublin on Saturday after a divisive and often emotional campaign.
Hugging, celebrating, singing and cheering wildly, thousands crammed into the courtyard of Dublin Castle, where the official result was declared, chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
The crowds cheered and popped champagne corks as the result was announced. Women and men wearing "Repeal" tops and "Yes" badges waved Irish flags and placards reading "Thank you", with love hearts on.
Speaking through tears, Stasia Clancy, 64, said: "This is like an explosion of the repression and the suppression of the last 100 years."
Ireland
The NFL In The 1960s
David Meggyesy
On Wednesday, the NFL announced that players must either stand for the national anthem when it is played at their games or remain in the locker room; if they come onto the field but don't stand, their teams will be fined. The decision comes more than a year after San Francisco 49ers then-quarterback Colin Kaepernick decided to sit and kneel during "The Star-Spangled Banner" as a protest against police brutality, inspiring other players to do the same.
The anthem had become a mainstay at professional football stadiums shortly after the end of World War II, when NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden called for teams to play the national anthem at the beginning of games, continuing what had been seen by some as a temporary wartime show of patriotism. "The National Anthem should be as much a part of every game as the kick-off," he declared. "We must not drop it simply because the war is over. We should never forget what it stands for."
But as the anthem stuck around, the song also became a focus of protest. More than two decades later, millions around the world watched as Olympic sprinters Tommie Lee Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads and raised black-gloved fists during the national anthem at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, in protest against racial inequality.
Shortly after, hoping that something similar wouldn't happen during a football game, the NFL commissioner at that time, Pete Rozelle, announced that players had to hold their helmets in their left hands and salute the American flag during the anthem. (Previously, some players had simply stood around casually or used the time to get ready for the game.)
The kind of rebel Rozelle about whom was clearly worried, was David Meggyesy, a linebacker for the St. Louis Cardinals (now the Arizona Cardinals). League officials had already gotten wind of 37 players signing an anti-Vietnam War petition that he was circulating and planning to send to Congress. Meggyesy described what irked him about Rozelle's directive in the book Generation on Fire: Voices of Protest from the 1960s, An Oral History: "I became increasingly aware about how the game was being used by the establishment forces to sell the war, with things like patriotic half time demonstrations and military jets flying over the Super Bowl… It was like the military."
David Meggyesy
Wedding News
Hugh Grant
Congrats look set to be in order for Hugh Grant and Anna Eberstein, who appear to have tied the knot.
The Love Actually and A Very English Scandal star was reported to be engaged to Swedish producer Eberstein earlier this week.
However, according to People, they got married yesterday (May 25) at the Chelsea Register Office in London, and were seen with friends and family outside the venue.
Speculation first amounted over their engagement after wedding banns were posted at the register office, suggesting that they had a date set.
The pair have been dating for six years, and have three children together.
Hugh Grant
Sell For $100,000
Classic Levi's
A buyer with a penchant for vintage denim has plunked down nearly $100,000 for a pair of truly vintage jeans that come from the American Old West.
The 125-year-old Levi Strauss & Co. blue jeans, which failed to sell at auction in 2016, now have a new owner somewhere in Southeast Asia.
"It's somebody who loves old Levis," said Daniel Buck Soules from Daniel Buck Auctions, who worked for 11 years on public television's "Antiques Roadshow."
The price puts it near record territory for old Levis. But the private sale agreement prevents Soules from disclosing the exact price or the buyer's location, he said. The buyer sent a representative to Maine to inspect the jeans before buying them on May 15, he said.
A pair of 501 jeans manufactured in the 1880s sold for $60,000 to a Japanese collector, Soules said, and another pair, from 1888, sold for six figures.
Classic Levi's
Turns Out To Be ...
'Phony' Source
President-for-now Donald Trump (R-Fabulist) accused The New York Times on Saturday of inventing a source for a story who, in fact, was a White House official conducting a briefing for reporters under the condition that the official not be named.
Trump tweeted that the Times quoted an official "who doesn't exist" and referenced a line in the story about a possible summit with North Korea, which read: "a senior White House official told reporters that even if the meeting were reinstated, holding it on June 12 would be impossible, given the lack of time and the amount of planning needed."
Said Trump: "WRONG AGAIN! Use real people, not phony sources."
The Times reported in a story about the tweet that it had cited "a senior White House official speaking to a large group of reporters in the White House briefing room."
Trump has repeatedly criticized the use of unnamed sources and labeled information related by unnamed officials "fake news." Still, his White House regularly arranges briefings with officials who demand anonymity before relaying information, a practice also used by previous administrations.
'Phony' Source
Administration Opposes
'Reasonable' Airline Baggage Fees
The U.S. Department of Transportation told Congress it opposes a Senate bill that would require new rules prohibiting airline fees that are not "reasonable and proportional," along with many other new consumer protections that the administration deems "unnecessary and wasteful," according to a letter seen on Friday by Reuters.
The U.S. House in April passed a bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration by a 393-to-13 vote. It now moves to the Senate, which could take up the issue as early as next month. The Senate Commerce Committee in July 2017 passed a version of legislation to extend the FAA.
The DOT said the Senate airline fee provision requiring rules barring "unreasonable" cancellation, baggage, seat selection and same-day change fees would mark a return to the pre-1978 era before airline deregulation.
The provision "represents a giant step backwards, presents a risk of even wider re-regulation of the airline industry, and ultimately would harm air carriers and consumers alike," the DOT's deputy general counsel, James Owens, said in the May 23 letter.
U.S. airlines' revenues from baggage and reservation change fees increased from $5.7 billion in 2010 to $7.5 billion in 2017. Other fees are not reported to regulators.
'Reasonable' Airline Baggage Fees
Among EPA, Climate-Change Deniers
Cooperation
Newly released emails show senior Environmental Protection Agency officials working closely with a conservative group that dismisses climate change to rally like-minded people for public hearings on science and global warming, counter negative news coverage and tout Administrator Scott Pruitt's stewardship of the agency.
John Konkus, EPA's deputy associate administrator for public affairs, repeatedly reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute, according to the emails.
"If you send a list, we will make sure an invitation is sent," Konkus wrote to then-Heartland president Joseph Bast in May 2017, seeking suggestions on scientists and economists the EPA could invite to an annual EPA public hearing on the agency's science standards.
Follow-up emails show Konkus and the Heartland Institute mustering scores of potential invitees known for rejecting scientific warnings of man-made climate-change, including from groups like Plants Need CO2, The Right Climate Stuff, and Junk Science.
The emails underscore how Pruitt and senior agency officials have sought to surround themselves with people who share their vision of curbing environmental regulation and enforcement, leading to complaints from environmentalists that he is ignoring the conclusions of the majority of scientists in and out of his agency especially when it comes to climate-changing carbon emissions.
Cooperation
Vandalised Painting
Ivan the Terrible
Russian police on Saturday said they arrested a man for vandalising one of the best known works of 19th century painter Ilya Repin, depicting Ivan the Terrible killing his son, at a gallery in Moscow.
Police said the man used a metal pole to break the glass covering Repin's world famous painting of the 16th century Russian Tsar, titled "Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan on November 16, 1581."
The Tretyakov Gallery said the work was "seriously damaged" as a result.
"The canvas has been ripped in three place in the central part of the Tsar's son. The original frame suffered from the breaking of the glass," the gallery said in a statement.
"Thankfully the most valuable part was not damaged," it added, referring to the face and hands of the Tsar and his son, the Tsarevich.
Ivan the Terrible
Very Embarrassed Dinosaurs
World's Oldest Dandruff
You are a Microraptor - a carnivorous, crow-size dinosaur that lived 120 million years ago. You have wings on all four limbs, a body covered in iridescent black feathers and a penchant for swallowing birds whole. You are, to summarize, totally awesome - and yet, you will be remembered primarily for your dandruff.
At least you are not alone. In a new study published May 25 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers detected tiny flakes of fossilized skin on the bones of three feathered dinosaurs - Beipiaosaurus, Sinornithosaurus and the aforementioned Microraptor - as well as a primitive bird called Confuciusornis. All four creatures date to the Jurassic period (about 56 million to 200 million years ago), and all four had dandruff, the study found.
"This is the only fossil dandruff known," lead study author Maria McNamara, a paleobiologist at University College Cork in Ireland, told The Guardian. "Until now, we've had no evidence for how dinosaurs shed their skin."
Of these four specimens, the Microraptor fossil - which dates to about 125 million years ago - represents the earliest known evidence of dandruff ever detected, according to The Guardian.
For the study, McNamara and her colleagues borrowed four fossils from the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. The team removed small chips of soft-tissue samples from what would have once been densely feathered regions of the animals' bodies, then scanned the samples under an electron microscope so the fossils could be compared in detail to similar flakes taken from modern birds.
World's Oldest Dandruff
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