Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joy Resmovits: Duncan Boosts Merit Pay At Teaching Conference (Huffington Post)
Teachers should have salaries starting at $60,000 and have the opportunity to make up to $150,000 based on performance, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards conference on Friday, according to prepared remarks.
Susan Estrich: The Nazi from Norway (Creators Syndicate)
They were texting their parents as they were being killed.
Jim Hightower: Shoving America back to the Great Recession - or worse
The core economic problem we're facing today is that both unemployment and underemployment are rampant, stifling any hope for real recovery and threatening the very survival of our essential middle class.
Robert Reich: "Don't Fall for the GOP Lie: There is No Budget Crisis. There's a Job and Growth Crisis"
Repeat after me: The federal deficit is not the nation's biggest problem. The anemic recovery, huge unemployment, falling wages, and declining home prices are bigger problems. We don't have a budget crisis. We have a jobs and growth crisis.
Paul Krugman's Blog: The Truth About Federal Spending (New York Times)
Now, pointing out the Obama spending binge is a myth generally produces rage: people know that it happened, because Rush Limbaugh and the Wall Street Journal say so. But that doesn't make it true.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Lawyers, Coins, and Money (New York Times)
So if something does pass the House, it will demand a constitutional balanced-budget amendment as the price of a second vote next year. I think we can safely say that the political process has failed. Now what?
Mark Shields: Welcome to the 'Loser's Circle' (Creators Syndicate)
Rep. Mike Capuano, D-Mass., was not pleased at reports that Obama in his private sessions with Boehner had been offering major cuts in Medicare and other domestic spending. After the president's end-of-the-session capitulation on the extension of the Bush tax cuts last December, Capuano observed that if Obama had been negotiating the purchase of a new car for him, Capuano "would end up paying sticker price" and get a model "with no radio."
John Doyle: New York Public Library grants amnesty to 143K kids with outstanding fines to get them reading again (New York Daily News)
More than 140,000 kids have been barred from taking out books from city libraries because they owe hefty fines - but officials want to get them reading again.
Amanda Schaffer: What Can Our Telomeres Tell Us? (Slate)
Buzzy new DNA tests claim to reveal how "old" our bodies really are.
Michelle Hanson: The mice have reached plague level (Guardian)
As I write this, I can see two pootling about just outside the open french window, in search of morsels left over from the dogs' dinner. Ahh! There's a weeny one sitting up nicely with a rice grain in its paws. Yesterday, while two were snacking outside, another was scampering across the cooker. And I've just picked up a pear from the fruit bowl, but a mouse had already had a portion.
When the Music Stopped (Wall Street Journal)
Preoccupied with the sounds and ideas of the past, contemporary pop music is fast becoming stale. Michael Azerrad reviews "Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past."
Greg Kot: "Wild Flag: 'It just sort of exploded'" (Chicago Tribune)
Carrie Brownstein is rolling on the stage while simultaneously trying to play her guitar and break it. The normally reserved Mary Timony is right there with her, grinning while playing her guitar behind her back. Rebecca Cole keeps the keyboard bass line pumping while pogoing. And Janet Weiss, behind the drums, is rolling and tumbling with her sticks while doing her best not to crack up.
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."
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3 4 5 6 7 CaterpillarsGulf Fritillary Butterfly
Here are today's pictures:
Caterpillar #1 - pupated (but not looking so good, but still alive)
Caterpillar #2 - pupated
Caterpillar #3 - preparing to pupate
Caterpillar #4
Caterpillar #5
Caterpillar #6
Caterpillar #7 - the newest addition
Group shot - Caterpillars 6 & 7
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Statue Dedicated
Chuck Berry
The image is timeless Americana: Chuck Berry hunched over, ready to launch into his famous Duck Walk, picking his Gibson guitar and wailing a song.
It's the image captured in the statue of the man considered by many to be the father of rock and roll, dedicated Friday in the University City Loop area of suburban St. Louis.
Berry, now 84, still performs monthly at Blueberry Hill, a club and restaurant across the street from the new statue. He spoke only briefly at the dedication ceremony on a sweltering day as hundreds paid tribute to the St. Louis native.
The 8-foot-tall, 1,200-pound statue was sculpted by Harry Weber, also a St. Louis native, whose other works include a Bobby Orr statue in Boston, a statue of Lewis and Clark on the St. Louis riverfront and sculptures of sports figures at Busch Stadium and 11 other stadiums. About $100,000 was raised for the project, funded entirely with private donations.
Chuck Berry
Launches Youth Football In Chicago
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg says his youth football league isn't just about teaching kids sports, but about giving them a positive release for their energy and introducing them to role models.
The rapper and actor launched the inaugural season of the Snoop Youth Football League in Chicago on Saturday.
He danced and high-fived his way through the crowd at the Chicago Indoor Sports Facility and seemed intent on meeting all of the 100 kids who showed up.
The Chicago season will begin in August. The Chicago chapter is a division of the league Snoop Dogg established in California in 2004.
Snoop Dogg
Tight-Lipped On Telethon Role
Jerry Lewis
Veteran entertainer Jerry Lewis on Thursday brushed aside questions about media reports that he was retiring as host of the annual U.S. telethon for muscular dystrophy, suggesting they were false.
Lewis, 85, announced in May that he would be making his final performance this September on the telethon he has hosted since 1966, and would sing his signature song "You'll Never Walk Alone."
At the time, the comedian and actor did not give a reason for the final appearance, but a spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association said the program would be changing its format from a 21-1/2 hour telethon on the U.S. Labor Day holiday to a six-hour broadcast.
Asked to reflect on his upcoming final telethon appearance, Lewis told TV journalists here at a bi-annual gathering of critics that they should not believe everything they read.
Asked to clarify what his role would be on the telethon, Lewis refused to specify, telling another reporter. "It is none of your business."
"I didn't mean to sound rude but on September 5, the day after that program, I will have an international press conference... and I will have plenty to say about what I think is important and that is the future, not the past," he added.
Jerry Lewis
Barber Shop Tribute
Beatles
Beatles fan Gerardo Weiss ran a typical Buenos Aires barber shop until he had a dream that the Fab Four dropped in for a haircut.
Seven years later, Weiss has made Beatles-inspired cuts his specialty.
"The dream got etched on my memory," he said at the modest salon, the walls plastered with photos of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
At first, the salon's Beatles-inspired makeover was a little too radical for many locals in the working-class city neighborhood of Flores.
Beatles
Reporters Told To Preserve Documents
NY Post
Rupert Murdoch's New York Post has ordered newsroom staff to keep all documents related to questionable reporting methods involving phone hacking or unlawful payments to government officials in light of the fire storm in the UK engulfing the newspaper's owner, News Corp.
The company's legal department said in a memo on Friday: "As you have undoubtedly seen, there have been press accounts of inquiries into whether employees or agents of News Corporation or its subsidiaries have (a) accessed telephone and/or other personal data of third-parties without authorization, and/or (b) made unlawful payments to government officials in order to obtain information.
In a separate memo on Friday, the New York Post's Editor-in-Chief, Colin Allan, told the staff they had been asked to save documents "in light of what has gone on in London at News of the World, and not because any recipient has done anything improper or unlawful."
The memo, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, went on to say: "As we watched the news in the UK over the last few weeks, we knew that as a News Corp tabloid, we would be looked at more closely. So this is not unexpected.
NY Post
Huge Pot Bust
Mendocino National Forest
Law enforcement officials said Friday they struck a major blow against illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands in the heart of Northern California pot country.
The two-week operation to purge the Mendocino National Forest of illicit pot gardens uprooted 460,000 pot plants and led to more than 100 arrests, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said.
About 1,500 pounds of processed marijuana, 27 guns and 11 vehicles were also seized.
The 900,000-acre forest - larger than Rhode Island - spans six counties in a region of mountains and forests known as the Emerald Triangle for its high concentration of pot farms. Agents raided more than 50 gardens teeming with trash, irrigation pipes and chemicals that damage forestland and waterways, authorities said.
The operation was part of an annual summer effort to eradicate marijuana from public lands across the state. Six sheriff's departments, the state anti-narcotics bureau and at least a half-dozen federal agencies took part in the effort in the forest.
Mendocino National Forest
DWI Charge In NYC
Julie Pacino
The 21-year-old daughter of actor Al Pacino has been arrested on a drunken driving charge in New York City.
Police say Julie Pacino was stopped at a traffic checkpoint on West Houston Street in Manhattan at 1:05 a.m. Saturday.
Police say Pacino's blood-alcohol level was over the legal limit for driving. Her exact blood-alcohol level was not immediately available.
Julie Pacino is Al Pacino's daughter with acting coach Jan Tarrant. An agent for the actor didn't immediately return an email seeking comment.
Julie Pacino
Sunny Afternoon Strike
Lightning
An 11-year-old western Pennsylvania girl is recovering after she was struck by a bolt from the blue.
Lisa Wehrle tells the Observer-Reporter newspaper of Washington, Pa., that the sun was shining when her daughter, Britney, was struck by lightning Friday, apparently from a storm several miles away.
The lightning hit Britney as she was walking down a hill in North Strabane Township with a friend about 2:30 p.m. that day. The bolt hit her on the left shoulder, leaving a burn-like mark and exited her wrist, where it left another mark.
She was treated at a Pittsburgh hospital. Doctors discovered her arm was broken, but otherwise she's OK.
Lightning
Wants To Limit Chopper Traffic Over LA
Howard Berman
It's a sound that can set windows to rattling, dogs to barking and babies to crying, and it's one that's instantly recognizable to pretty much anybody who lives or works in Los Angeles.
It's that whumpah, whumpah, whumpah sound of helicopter blades tearing through the air, coupled with the steady whine of a powerful aircraft motor hovering right above you.
Depending on where you are, hearing it may mean Charlie Sheen has just left his house, Paris Hilton is headed into a courtroom or some sort of fender-bender accident has blocked freeway traffic in all directions.
A congressman, spurred on by numerous complaints from constituents, some of them neighbors of Sheen, says it's time to put a stop to the noise.
"Residents deserve relief from the thunderous clacking of helicopter blades hovering directly over their homes, and instead all they've been getting is the runaround from government agencies," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles, whose district includes Sheen's neighborhood.
Howard Berman
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