Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Learning to Work (Creators Syndicate)
And look, it's not like I hate education. I have a Master's Degree. And I'm not unfamiliar with discipline, either. I went to school with nuns - real, old-fashioned, black habit, white veil nuns. Getting in trouble with a nun was like getting hit by lightning.
Connie Schultz: Gene Wilder Loved Karen, Too (Creators Syndicate)
But it is neither accurate nor decent to diminish Karen Webb Boyer's loss during what is surely one of the saddest times of her life. It also, quite simply, isn't a fair accounting of Gene Wilder. In the wake of unspeakable grief, he found hope among the ruins and the courage to love again. That, too, is who he was - and who doesn't need to hear that story?
Froma Harrop: Main Street Shopping and the Internet (Creators Syndicate)
Take me. I'm one of Amazon Prime's valued customers. I click away for moth traps and patio lights and color printers that get delivered to my doorstep. I know exactly what a Lego Elves toy is and would not sacrifice a half-hour driving for something I can order online in five minutes.
Leonore Skenazy: Halle Berry and the War on Moms (Creators Syndicate)
Now the researchers' hope - and mine - is that we will start to recognize the difference between real danger and our unconscious condemnation of moms who don't live up to some 1950s ideal. And then we'll stop arresting the ones who give their kids some unsupervised time, either out of necessity or free-range choice.
Mark Shields: Democrats Really Need White Blue-Collar Voters (Creators Syndicate)
… for the Democrats to ever again become the nation's governing party with working majorities in statehouses and in Congress - and not just a coalition that comes together every four years to elect a president - then white blue-collar voters must be courted and welcomed as an active, indispensable partner in that party.
Terry Teachout: Is It Here to Stay (Commentary)
Rock'n'Roll considered.
Mike Jay: Paranoid Android (Literary Review)
Across dozens of novels and well over a hundred short stories, Philip K Dick worried away at one theme above all others: the world is not as it seems.
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took the day off.
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Michelle in AZ
Reader Suggestions
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For Your Listening Pleasure…and amusement.
Bicycle Remix Of Sia's 'Cheap Thrills' Will Send You Spinning
In Honor of Labor Day
My mother was a telephone operator. She told the story of hearing her dad and his mistress have a conversation in which he was criticizing her weight. Her response: "I'm built for pleasure, not for speed." I can't imagine eavesdropping on a private conversation like that involving my dad.
Deborah
Thanks, Deborah!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
RED WHITE AND BLACK.
CLINTON BY THE NUMBERS.
WRITING A CHECK WITH AN EPIPEN!
OWN A HEDGE! HAVE LOTS OF FUND!
PUT THE KIBOSH ON THIS CRAP!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Visited the Lakewood Mall.
Have I mentioned how much I hate shopping?
Breitbart's Racist Twitter Troll Has No Regrets
Leslie Jones
Leslie Jones was having an amazing year until it all came to a crashing halt in August.
The hilarious comedienne found success with Saturday Night Live and then transitioned to the big screen with Ghostbusters. She became such a success on Twitter and Snapchat that NBC invited her to Rio to become a commentator for the 2016 Olympic games. She even came up with a tagline that immediately went viral: "Slay all day."
But at some point the Internet decided to make Jones the subject of a vicious Twitter attack. In 140 characters or fewer, trolls tweeted offensive comments about her looks and racial slurs. Jones fought back by exposing some of the hateful tweets she received. "It's not called a meltdown when [you're] defining yourself. Pay attention," she wrote to one Twitter hater before adding, "So sad, these people have mothers and sisters and aunts. So f--king sickening."
A famous Internet troll, Milo Yiannopoulos, was one who went after Jones on Twitter during the racial slur spree, but he told ABC News' Nightline that he had no regrets about what he had done.
"Trolling is very important," Yiannopoulos said. "I like to think of myself as a virtuous troll, you know? I'm doing God's work."
Leslie Jones
The Miracle Dog
Romeo
A golden retriever called Romeo has been pulled from the rubble of Italy's earthquake, more than nine days after he was given up for dead.
Touching footage filmed by the firemen who saved him shows the shaggy dog being lifted out from under a pile of masonry that is all that remains of his owners' house.
Appearing completely relaxed, Romeo slurps his first drops of water in more than 230 hours from a bottle held by one of the firemen.
As it becomes clear he is unscathed, the fireman holding him puts him down. Romeo then tiptoes gracefully down the pile of rubble to be reunited with tearful owners who had given up hope of finding him alive.
All hope of finding Romeo alive appeared to have disappeared until Friday evening, when the couple returned to their home in the company of a group of firemen assigned to help them recover key belongings from the rubble.
Romeo
Decision Imminent
Red Wolves
The fate of the world's remaining wild population of red wolves will be decided soon.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to announce in September whether it will maintain, modify or abandon a 30-year effort to return the wolves to the wild in eastern North Carolina.
Meanwhile, conservationists say the wildlife service is already neglecting its duty and have asked a federal judge to step in. A Sept. 14 hearing is scheduled on their efforts to block what they say are harmful or lethal ways of removing wolves from private land.
Conservationists say the preliminary injunction is needed to halt population declines that have left between 45 and 60 animals roaming the wild. The wild population peaked at approximately 130 a decade ago and stayed above 100 for years, according to court documents.
Once common around the Southeast, the red wolf had been considered extinct in the wild as of 1980 because of factors including hunting and habitat loss. Releases of red wolves bred in captivity started in 1987.
Red Wolves
Vandals Decimated 'Fancy Camp'
Burning Man
One of Burning Man's luxury camps was ransacked by vandals on Wednesday night, according to a post on the camp's Facebook page.
The White Ocean camp hosts dozens of free techno-music concerts at its stage on the outskirts of the playa, while also providing lodging and food for its star-studded lineup of DJs.
Sometime during or after the group's famous "white party," where ravers dress in all white, vandals entered the camp. They allegedly pulled and cut electric lines, causing food to spoil, stole personal belongings, glued trailer doors shut, and flooded the camp with 200 gallons of potable water, the Facebook post from Thursday reported.
White Ocean was founded in 2013 by DJ Paul Oakenfold and funded by entrepreneurs Timur Sardarov (the son of Russian billionaire and oil magnate Rashid Sardarov) and Oliver Ripley. The pair also launched a New York-based private holding company called Ocean Group.
The camp has drawn criticism over the years for engaging in behavior counter to the "self-reliance" spirit of Burning Man. It's considered a "plug-and-play" camp, where burners from London, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco drop in and enjoy luxury accommodations, rather than rough it in a tent on the desert floor.
Burning Man
5.6 Earthquake
Oklahoma
A record-tying earthquake in the edge of Oklahoma's key energy-producing areas rattled the Midwest from Nebraska to North Texas on Saturday and likely will focus fresh new attention to the practice of disposing oil and gas field wastewater deep underground.
The United States Geological Survey said a 5.6 magnitude earthquake happened at 7:02 a.m. Saturday in north-central Oklahoma, on the fringe of an area where regulators had stepped in to limit wastewater disposal. That temblor matches a November 2011 quake in the same region.
Pawnee County Emergency Management Director Mark Randell said no buildings collapsed in the town of 2,200 about nine miles southeast of the epicenter, and there were no injuries, either. "We've got buildings cracked," Randell said. "Most of it's brick and mortar, old buildings from the early 1900s."
An increase in magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma has been linked to underground disposal of wastewater from oil and natural gas production. State regulators have asked producers to reduce wastewater disposal volumes in earthquake-prone regions of the state. Some parts of Oklahoma now match northern California for the nation's most shake-prone, and one Oklahoma region has a 1 in 8 chance of a damaging quake in 2016, with other parts closer to 1 in 20.
Oklahoma was late in imposing volume limits in its effort to reduce earthquakes, taking a different approach than Kansas after both states had an uptick in quakes in the first half of this decade. Kansas moved quickly to limit volume while Oklahoma concentrated on the depth of the disposal. Kansas saw a 60 percent drop while the frequency of quakes in Oklahoma continued to climb.
Oklahoma
Police Department Launches Investigation
Philadelphia
A Philadelphia police officer is under investigation after photos showing alleged Nazi-themed tattoos popped up on social media, authorities said.
In the photo circulated on social media by activists Wednesday, an officer identified as Ian Hans Lichtermann is seen standing by his bike, wearing a short sleeve uniform shirt that exposes the tattoos on his forearms.
On his left arm is the word "Fatherland," above a tattoo of a spread-winged eagle resembling a symbol used by the Nazis known as the Parteiadler.
Distinct from the Reichsadler, an eagle looking over its right shoulder that was used to symbolize Germany since medieval times, the Parteiadler looks to the left..
The picture is said to have been taken on July 26 at a Black Resistance March held during the Democratic National Convention.
Philadelphia
Liar
Mark Burns
A black televangelist who has been a campaign surrogate for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (R-Pendejo) has admitted he "overstated" his accomplishments in a biography posted on his church's website.
Mark Burns walked off the set of a CNN interview that aired Saturday after being confronted with questions about claims made on the website about his educational background and military service.
Burns issued a statement Friday declaring he was being attacked "because I am a black man supporting Donald Trump for president."
In the CNN interview, Burns acknowledged he had not graduated from North Greenville University as stated on the church website page nor was he admitted to a historically black fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, as claimed.
Other discrepancies raised in the CNN interview were that Burns served in the South Carolina National Guard, not in the army reserves as the website said, and that he had enrolled but never advanced in a master's program at Anderson Theological Seminary.
Mark Burns
Fiesta Draws Ire
New Mexico
It's a week-long event that draws together generations of northern New Mexico Hispanic residents, some who can trace their roots to the 1600s.
For centuries, northern New Mexico Hispanic residents have held an elaborate festival in Santa Fe to honor Spanish conquistador Don Diego De Vargas, who reclaimed the city following an American Indian revolt. There is music, dancing, a parade and the reenactment of De Vargas's "peaceful reoccupation" of what is now New Mexico's capital.
But after 301 years, an emboldened group of Native American activists said it's time to change a celebration centered on the conquest of New Mexico's Pueblo tribes. They say the annual Santa Fe Fiesta ignores the horrors inflicted on the indigenous population during the colonial era.
"I would like to see fiesta celebrated as a reconciliation of all the different groups of people who make up Santa Fe today, and less Eurocentric (and) less focus on settler colonialism on conquest," said Elena Ortiz, of group Spirit of Po'pay that is planning to hold a protest at the event that begins Friday. "We should welcome all community members."
Hispanic residents say the fiesta is more about honoring their Spanish heritage and paying homage to their Catholic faith. "We'd like to just make it something that's just peaceful now," said Santa Fe Fiesta council member Cecilia Tafoya. "I think so many people were hurt both on the Native American and on the Spanish side of it."
New Mexico
Vacationland Boycott Call
Maine
Protectors of Maine's image as Vacationland - an identity so dear that it's on the state's license plates - want to make sure their outspoken governor doesn't turn off tourists.
The concern over Republican Gov. Paul LePage has cropped up among people who make their living persuading people to come to Maine - either to work or to play - since he made racially charged remarks and left an obscene, threatening voicemail last week for a Democratic lawmaker.
Tourism is vital to Maine's economy, employing nearly 100,000 people. The sector is riding high, having grown during LePage's administration to a $5.6 billion industry last year, according to the Maine Office of Tourism. The state has also struggled to attract major employers, and employment has been slow to recover since the recession.
The words "Worth a visit, worth a lifetime" appear on highway road signs near the state border, projecting an attitude that is friendly toward relocating workers. The governor's comments could damage that reputation, said Charles Colgan, professor emeritus of economics at University of Southern Maine.
David Goldberg, an advertising and public relations executive for a firm in Portland that manages some prominent Maine brands, said the LePage controversy represents a "brand crisis" for the state. But he said it's one Maine is prepared to weather if business leaders put the state's best face forward to potential newcomers.
Maine
In Memory
Fred Hellerman
Fred Hellerman, a founding member of the influential folk music quartet the Weavers, has died. He was 89.
Hellerman died Thursday at his home in Weston, Connecticut, after a lengthy illness, his son, Caleb Hellerman, said Friday.
The Weavers were formed in the late 1940s by Hellerman along with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Ronnie Gilbert. They helped to popularize folk music in the United States with recordings including "Goodnight Irene" and "On Top of Old Smoky." The group disbanded after they were black-listed by anti-Communists in the early 1950s, but performed again into the 1960s and then at a reunion concert at Carnegie Hall in 1980.
Hellerman also produced Arlo Guthire's 1967 record, "Alice's Restaurant," and worked with several artists over his career as a composer, arranger and songwriter.
Hellerman was born in Brooklyn, New York, and his first displayed his love for music by collaborating on stage plays in the Yiddish theater, his son said. He learned to play guitar while serving in the U.S. Coast Guard and teamed up with the other musicians while living in New York City's Greenwich Village.
He moved to Weston in 1969, installing a recording studio in the home that would often be visited by Seeger and other artists.
Fred Hellerman
In Memory
Jerry Heller
Jerry Heller, the manager of gangsta rap pioneers N.W.A. who brought mainstream audiences to the controversial group before a still-bitter falling-out, has died, his record label said Saturday. He was 75.
Heller, who was active in public in recent months and last year filed a lawsuit over the N.W.A. biopic "Straight Outta Compton," died Friday of undisclosed causes, a representative for Ruthless Records, which Heller co-founded, said in a statement.
A Cleveland, Ohio native, Heller moved to Los Angeles and handled a wide range of artists, including Elton John on an early US tour, before his career fell into a rut.
In 1987, Heller met young rapper Eazy-E and started working to market his group N.W.A., which would shock white America with their brutally frank tales of street life.
N.W.A., which stood for Niggaz Wit Attitude and spawned the solo careers of rap legends Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, became best-known for "Fuck tha Police," an anthem denouncing law enforcement's treatment of young African Americans.
But Heller became embroiled in a dispute with Eazy-E's bandmates who accused him of sowing division in N.W.A. so he could maximize his own profit.
Ice Cube vented in a 1991 diss track, "No Vaseline," in which one lyric said in reference to Heller: "You let a Jew break up my crew."
Heller, who endured anti-Semitic bullying as a child, voiced outrage at the song. In an unlikely intervention in the gangsta rap scene, the far-right Jewish Defense League provided bodyguards to Heller and Eazy-E, who died in 1995 of complications of AIDS.
"Straight Outta Compton," last year's box office-topping biopic, renewed the band's allegations against Heller, who was played by Paul Giamatti.
Heller told Rolling Stone magazine that his portrayal in the film was "very hurtful" and that he was "always a champion of the minority, of the underdog."
Jerry Heller
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