Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: My Knaidel 'Tis of Thee (Creators Syndicate)
A deli closes. A bodega opens. Down at the church bingo, they start to call the numbers in Spanish. A few years ago, I watched a Russian kid fight in the Golden Gloves. He had the Star of David on his trunks, and his brother stood in the crowd, among the Puerto Ricans, screaming encouragement in Russian. I'm an American. I'll have the taco pizza and a side of french fries.
John Cheese: The 4 Types of People on Welfare Nobody Talks About (Cracked)
#4. People in a Temporary Emergency
25 Most Powerful Songs of the Past 25 Years (Neatorama)
They're not the most beautiful songs, or the most musically important. In fact, a few could literally drive you nuts. But the following tunes-some as old as Mozart, others as current as Beyonce?-have fundamentally altered the world we live in at some point in the last quarter century. They've saved lives, brought glory to America, and gotten teenagers to use deodorant. Somehow, they've made a difference.
Paul Lester: "Black Sabbath: 'We used to have cocaine flown in by private plane'" (Guardian)
The band who laid the foundations of heavy metal are releasing 13, their first studio album with Ozzy Osbourne for 35 years. Black Sabbath speak about drugs, the occult and God.
Catherine Shoard: "Audrey Tautou: 'There is no room for poetry in Thérèse's world'" (Guardian)
The French actor tells Catherine Shoard why she swerved away from sweetness to play a gritty, troubled heiress in the 1920s.
Charlie Jane Anders: "Much Ado About Nothing proves Joss Whedon is still a comedy genius" (io9)
Shakespeare wrote several "comedies," and some of them are still funny today. (As You Like It and Twelfth Night come to mind.) But Much Ado About Nothing is not one of the funny ones. Unless it's being filmed by Joss Whedon, in which case it's fall-out-of-your-seat, holy-shit-can't-breathe funny.
Lucy Mangan: "The Code of the Woosters by PG Wodehouse" (Guardian)
… who cannot fall instantly and irrevocably in love with sentences such as, "I could see that she was looking for something to break as a relief to her feelings and courteously drew her attention to a terracotta figure of the Infant Samuel at Prayer. She thanked me briefly and hurled it against the opposite wall." Or, "If a girl thinks you're in love with her and says she will marry you, you can't very well voice a preference for being dead in a ditch." It was joyful, fluting music in paperback form.
George Dvorsky: How quick and intense workouts can help you get fitter (io9)
It's a commonly-held assumption that getting in shape requires hours and hours of rigorous exercise. But some fitness experts believe all that's really required to stay physically fit are short burst workouts performed at a high level of intensity. Here's why just a few minutes of exercise each day may be all you need.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
wrote:
said:
took the day off.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Marine layer burned off around 3pm, returned a couple hours later.
Low-Profile Lawyer
WikiLeaks Trial
When Private First Class Bradley Manning was seeking a civilian defense attorney to bolster his government-appointed legal team in 2010, he considered a number of lawyers experienced in courts-martial.
His aunt, herself a lawyer, helped vet names of possible lawyers for the case suggested by Army veterans and activist supporters. The family fielded unsolicited offers from attorneys eager to take the high-profile case in which Manning is accused of passing more 700,000 classified files to WikiLeaks in the biggest unauthorized release of secret files in U.S. history.
Eventually, Manning settled on a low-profile choice: David Coombs, a Providence, Rhode Island, attorney who had been in private practice for only a year after more than a decade as an Army prosecutor and defense attorney.
Though Coombs' name was unfamiliar to the public, and even to the defense bar at large, he had built a reputation as a meticulous and thoughtful attorney among his Army colleagues.
As the trial unfolded, Coombs stood out as the only lawyer in civilian clothes, though his closely cropped hair hinted at his military background and his current status as an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel.
WikiLeaks Trial
Prepared Menu
Bobby Flay
When President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) sat down for dinner, they feasted on several dishes prepared by one of America's top chefs.
The White House says celebrity chef Bobby Flay prepared a menu for the two leaders that included lobster tamales, Porterhouse steak and cherry pie.
The meal was served Friday in the dining room at Sunnylands, the sprawling estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where Obama and Xi met for their talks.
Flay is known for his Southwestern cooking. He owns several restaurants around the country and stars in several cooking programs on the Food Network.
Bobby Flay
Back From The Brink Of Extinction
Pocket Mouse
The first critically endangered pocket mouse bred in captivity should be giving birth within the next week at the San Diego Zoo's Pocket Mouse Breeding Facility.
In an in-field interview this morning, pocket mouse researcher Debra Shier, Ph.D. told TakePart that the mouse, named Female #13, mated with another captured pocket mouse, Male #25, back on May 29. On her blog from that day, Shier wrote:
"I was crossing my fingers anticipating the first interaction. Female #13 came out of her tube first and started sand bathing. Male #25 emerged about a minute later. They approached each other a couple of times and then immediately began following each other in a tight circle. They were moving so fast that they looked like a spinning pinwheel with their little tails flying behind them. After only 30 seconds, they were mating. SUCCESS! The whole event was over in about eight minutes, and the next time the male approached the female, she tried to bite him on the head and ran away."
According to Shier, from a genetic perspective, the pocket mouse more closely resembles gophers or squirrels than the invasive house mice. A typical pocket mouse weighs just 7 grams and is size of half of a man's thumb.
Pocket Mouse
March Of Progress
Heidelberg
The volunteer wearing the lion costume demonstrated impressive endurance, as he sat for an hour and a half with a plastic crown on his head before a packed gymnasium still humid from the rain that had only just stopped falling outside.
But someone had to do it. The symbol of the Heidelberg High School and the mascot of its many sports teams is embedded deeply in the hearts of its graduates, something made clear by the effect principal Kevin Brewer's repeated shouts of "We are Lions!" had upon the audience he addressed.
The closing of the school after nearly seven decades was the first in a series of sombrely celebratory events accompanying the closure of the US Army Europe (USAREUR) headquarters in Heidelberg.
Heidelberg is seeing the Americans off in style, bringing to an end a relationship which began in 1945 when US troops entered the city and occupied a Wehrmacht base, today known as Campbell Barracks, on its southern outskirts.
The US headquarters are set to relocate to nearby Wiesbaden, as part of a larger effort to cut the number of American military personnel in Europe from 62,000 to 24,000 by 2015.
Heidelberg
Vielen dank', Stephen!
Pretty Sure This TIme
Pigboy
There is a split among conservatives between those who think the NSA's collection of data about every phone call in America is an important counterterrorism tool, and those who think President Obama is, as usual, trampling on the constitution and the flag and the Founding Fathers. But Rush Limbaugh takes it one step further. He says Obama is leading a coup d'etat. And this time it's for real.
On Friday, Limbaugh added up the evidence -- the IRS targeting of conservatives, plus Fast and Furious and Obamacare, and now the NSA. "The evidence of the totalitarian nature or the authoritarian nature of this administration is on display undeniably every day," he said. What does it add up to? "Herbert Meyer," -- a blogger at American Thinker -- "asserted that essentially what's taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a [militaristic] coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it's being done by the Obama administration." Limbaugh emphatically agrees:
He referred to it as a coup. I don't know if he used the word "peaceful," but clearly there's a coup d'etat going. You know it and I know it. This is what animates us. This is why the Tea Party exists. This country was founded on certain concepts, principles, beliefs -- and they're under assault. Chief among them under assault is the right to privacy, and that's what all this is about. So in the midst of this coup d'etat... I happen to like that formulation.
And that was before all the evidence rolled in! Now all the pieces are falling together. "You know it and I know it," Limbaugh said. "It's peaceful, nonviolent. The military isn't involved. But nevertheless it's a coup."
Pigboy
Slaves Granted Freedom
New Hampshire
Fourteen slaves who petitioned the New Hampshire Legislature for their freedom during the Revolutionary War were granted posthumous emancipation Friday when the governor signed a largely symbolic bill that supporters hope will encourage future generations to pursue social justice.
A group of 20 slaves who had fought in the war submitted a petition to the New Hampshire General Assembly on Nov. 12, 1779, while the war was still being fought. They argued that the freedom being sought by colonists should be extended to them, as well, and maintained that "public tyranny and slavery are alike detestable to minds conscious of the equal dignity of human nature."
"Their plea fell on deaf ears," Gov. Maggie Hassan said before signing the bill emancipating the 14, who were never freed. "It is a source of deep shame that our predecessors didn't honor this request. But today, more than 230 years too late for their petition, we say that freedom truly is an inherent right not to be surrendered."
The original petition was found in state archives nearly 30 years ago, but supporters pushed lawmakers to pass the bill this year in part to bring attention to an African-American burial ground in downtown Portsmouth, where the city is raising money to build a memorial park to commemorate the site. The remains of six African slaves were discovered at the site several years ago during routine street improvements.
New Hampshire
Urges Monks To Shun Internet
Patriarch Kirill
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has urged monks not to use cellphones to access the Internet in order to avoid temptation.
"Many monks act, in my view, quite unreasonably. On the one hand, (monks) leave the world in order to create favorable conditions for salvation, and on the other hand, they take their mobile telephone and start to enter the Internet where, we know, there is a large number of sinful and tempting things."
The monastic tradition is by definition strict and does not need to adapt to modern conditions, he said.
Kirill has in the past warned against "manipulation" on the Internet but an Orthodox Church official, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said the patriarch does use it himself to seek out information.
Patriarch Kirill
Toddler's Death Part of Dark History
Exorcism
A Virginia man was convicted earlier this week in the death of a 2-year-old who died during a 2011 exorcism. Eder Guzman-Rodriguez beat his daughter Jocelyn to death in an attempt to rid her of the demon he believed was inside her.
Police summoned to the scene encountered several people holding Bibles outside the home, where Guzman-Rodriguez stated that he had also become possessed by a "bad spirit" when he punched and choked Jocelyn to death. The girl was found on a bed, wrapped in a blanket surrounded by Bibles.
The belief that demons can possess people is one of the most widely held religious beliefs in the world. The Vatican first issued guidelines on exorcisms in 1614 and revised them in 1999. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, signs of demonic possession in adults include superhuman strength, spitting, cursing, aversion to holy water, and the ability to speak in unknown languages.
As disturbing as this case is, there are many similar historical precedents. A century ago in Ireland, it was not demons but other supernatural, malevolent entities - fairies - that were believed to possess babies and children. Some children were believed by their parents to be changelings, either "false children" or children possessed by an evil spirit that could be driven from the child through abuse and punishment. In her book "The Burning of Bridget Cleary" (about a woman killed by her husband in an attempt to exorcise fairy spirits from her), folklorist Angela Bourke of the National University of Ireland notes that many "accounts can be found in nineteenth-century newspapers and police reports of suspected child-changelings in Ireland being placed on red-hot shovels, drowned, or otherwise mistreated or killed."
Exorcism
Dude Rancher Blocks Road
Grand Canyon
A dude rancher who grew up watching John Wayne movies in England is starring in his own Old West standoff with an Arizona sheriff and an Indian tribe over access to a major Grand Canyon tourist attraction.
Nigel Turner, owner of the Grand Canyon Ranch Resort, this week put up a makeshift gate to block a dirt road used by upward of 1,000 tourists a day to visit the Skywalk, a viewing platform that juts out over the canyon's West Rim. The site is operated by the local Hualapai Tribe.
After running an air tours business based in Los Angeles, Turner, 57, bought the ranch over a decade ago. The resort offers trail rides, a bison safari, a cowboy show and lodging. In a settlement with the federal government and Mohave County in 2007, he granted an easement to allow the building of an improved bypass road to the Skywalk, one mile of which would cross his property.
Diamond Bar Road, which runs through the ranch, is the route currently used. The agreement was to run for four years. Turner was paid $750,000 for the accommodation.
Over Memorial Day weekend, exasperated by delays he says have invalidated the agreement, Turner set up a checkpoint and toll booth on his slice of Diamond Bar, staffed by guards armed with pistols. Tourists were charged $20 each as an "attraction entry fee." The charge was fair, he said, because "for years and years ... people just stopped there taking pictures of cowboys and bison (and got) the show for nothing." The agreement has expired in any case, he argues.
Grand Canyon
In Memory
Dr. Dean Brooks
The psychiatrist who opened the Oregon State Hospital's doors to filming of the 1975 Academy Award-winning movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has died.
Dr. Dean Brooks died May 30 at a retirement home in Salem at age 96, family members said. He had been in declining health for several weeks after a fall.
Brooks' daughter Dennie Brooks said Friday the film's producers were turned down by all the other mental hospitals they approached. But her father, who was the Salem hospital's superintendent, saw the value of the movie in starting a national discussion about mental health and the responsibility of institutions to do no harm.
She said Dean Brooks also thought being part of a movie would be fun for him and for patients. He ended up playing a small role in the film - which was based on a 1962 Ken Kesey novel and starred Jack Nicholson - and making sure patients were involved, too.
Allowing the movie inside the hospital was a big career risk, but Dean Brooks regularly took risks on behalf of the patients, going so far as to take them on mountain-climbing expeditions and teaching them to rappel down cliffs, said Greg Roberts, the Oregon State Hospital's current director.
At the urging of staff, he allowed patients to start wearing regular clothes rather than uniforms long before other state hospitals.
Kesey based the novel on his experiences working at a Veterans Administration hospital while a writing student at Stanford University. But the movie made the story forever part of the history of the Oregon State Hospital, which has since moved to another building.
Dean Brooks played Dr. Spivey, a psychiatrist who initially acquiesces to Ratched's power but later is inspired by McMurphy to stand up for himself and the patients.
Before giving his approval for the movie, Dean Brooks went to every ward and discussed the idea with patients and staff.
Nearly 90 patients ultimately had parts in the movie, or jobs behind the scenes, said Dennie Brooks, who also worked on the film as a location coordinator.
Though Kesey was unhappy enough with the movie's portrayal of his book to sue its producers, owners and distributors, he "got" Dean Brooks and what he was doing at the hospital, Brooks' daughter said. Kesey eventually won an undisclosed settlement.
The writer visited the hospital while working on a screenplay, which was rejected, and he later penned a handwritten note to Brooks.
"What I thought was the greatest innovation was the eye-level way you deal with the men and women under your care, and the affection that created affection," Kesey wrote.
After the movie, Dean Brooks remained friends with Kesey. They did speaking engagements and visited Disneyworld together, even sharing a hotel room, she said. Dean Brooks also remained friends with actress Louise Fletcher, who played Nurse Ratched.
Born July 22, 1916, in Colony, Kan., Dean Brooks put himself through medical school at the University of Kansas playing trombone in dance bands, his daughter said. There he met his wife, Ulista Jean Moser, a nursing student. She died in 2006 after 65 years of marriage.
Brooks went into the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served as a triage officer on ships taking part in the invasions of several islands in the South Pacific, including Iwo Jima, his daughter said.
After the war, while Dean Brooks served at a military hospital outside Medford, Ore., his commanding officer counseled him to become a psychiatrist.
Dean Brooks also worked at a Tacoma, Wash., VA hospital before joining the Oregon State Hospital staff in 1947 as a psychiatrist. He became superintendent in 1955.
After he retired in 1981, Dean Brooks moved to Everett, Wash., to be close to his grandchildren. He continued to advocate for the mentally ill, founding the Dorothea Dix Think Tank to decriminalize mental illness and find better ways of treating patients.
Besides Dennie Brooks, he is survived by two daughters, Ulista Jean Brooks and India Brooks Civey; a brother, Robert; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Dr. Dean Brooks
In Memory
Willi Sitte
Willi Sitte, one of East Germany's most eminent artists and a key representative of Communism's preferred socialist realism painting style, has died at 92.
The head of the Willi Sitte Foundation, Hans-Hubert Werner, told German news agency dpa that Sitte died on Saturday morning after a long illness.
Sitte's paintings depicted factory workers or farmers as glamorized ideals of Communist heroes. Among his famous works are voluptuous, often nude women.
He was the president of East Germany's association of visual artists from 1974 to 1988 and also a member of the ruling party's central committee. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and Germany's unification, Sitte was seen in a more controversial light because of his closeness to the Communist regime.
Willi Sitte
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