Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Ted Rall: TOO PIG TO JAIL?
What would happen to you if you got caught forging a mortgage application? You'd go to jail. And rightly so. In one case in Florida, an employee of GMAC Mortgage admitted under oath that he personally forged 10,000 foreclosure affidavits.
Susan Estrich: Politically Correct Radio (creators.com)
"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage of my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery - then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved." Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking at the PUSH convention in 1993.
Mark Shields: The One Memorable Speech of the 2010 Campaign (creators.com)
As we, mercifully, approach the end of this depressing campaign season that has done about as much for serious public debate as the Boston Strangler did for door-to-door salesmen, a campaign year when to call one's opponent an "incumbent " was grounds for libel, when we've been reminded again that apparently the only president who resisted pinning all his problems on the previous administration was George Washington, we should take note of the one memorable speech of this relentlessly dismal political year.
Jim Hightower: MONSANTO TAKES A TUMBLE
Poor Monsanto - the mighty and haughty manipulator of Mother Nature has tripped on its own hubris, falling far, fast, and hard this year.
DAVID BROOKS: The Flock Comedies (nytimes.com)
The Bunkers, Huxtables and other TV families have been replaced by groups of friends hanging out. It's happening throughout our culture, too.
Andrew Tobias: Not Nothing
"Facts behind Obama's accomplishments. Please consider carefully prior to 11/2/2010. Remember, many of these accomplishments are only achieved with a Democratic majority: 1. Signed an Executive Order on government contracting to fight waste and abuse: …" -- from an unattributed email hurtling around the Internet
Gail Collins: The Fury Failure (nytimes.com)
In Delaware, the Republican voters were so angry that they rejected a popular congressman and gave their Senate nomination to an apparently unemployed 41-year-old woman whose major life success had been an ongoing performance as Wacko Conservative Girl on late-night talk shows. In Alaska, they were so mad that they tossed out their incumbent senator for Joe Miller, a lawyer who believes unemployment compensation is unconstitutional, except when his wife is receiving it.
Dan Kois: The Black Cauldron (slate.com)
Is the movie that almost killed Disney animation really that bad?
Roger Ebert: review of "THE BOSTON STRANGLER" (3 stars; An Overlooked DVD)
"The Boston Strangler" requires a judgment not only on the quality of the film (very good), but also on its moral and ethical implications. There have been lots of movies about murders, but very few about real murders, using real names, while they are still a daily memory for the living.
AJ Tigner: Yojimbo (1961) (popmatters.com)
Yojimbo is often contrasted with Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars-not just for the obvious fact that the latter is a remake of Yojimbo, but also that both films are by and large considered each directors' most accessible works for modern American audiences. Similar to A Fistful of Dollars, Yojimbo has plenty of action, despicable yet colorful enemies, a pervasive sense of dark humor, a witty protagonist and, perhaps most importantly, it clocks in at a relatively short 110 minutes (at least compared to the three-hour epics so common of both directors' later works).
David Charpentier: Sanjuro (1962) (popmatters.com)
In 1960, on completion of Yojimbo, Akira Kurosawa found himself in quite a predicament. He had a few projects he was testing the water for, but Toho Studios was breathing down his neck for a sequel to his ever-popular sword-swinging Western. He eventually relented but, not wanting to do a sequel that simply rehashed the original, he decided to mix things up.
ROGER EBERT: REVIEW OF "HERAFTER"
Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" considers the idea of an afterlife with tenderness, beauty and a gentle tact. I was surprised to find it enthralling. I don't believe in woo-woo, but then neither, I suspect, does Eastwood. This is a film about the afterlife that carefully avoids committing itself on such a possibility. The closest it comes is the idea of consciousness after apparent death. This is plausible. Many near-death survivors report the same memories, of the white light, the waiting figures and a feeling of peace.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Call it as ya See it' Edition...
The 2010 Mid-term Elections. No media intro or links are needed, I'm thinkin'...
We all know what's at stake here... So, gaze into yer Crystal Ball, break out the Ouija board, shuffle the Tarot cards, read yer tea leaves or just take a wild-ass guess and make yer prediction on the outcome, if'n ya dare...
The Democrats will:
1.) Retain the majority in both the House and the Senate
2.) Lose the House, but retain the Senate
3.) Retain the House, but lose the Senate
4.) Worse case scenario... and you know what that is, dagnabbit!
Predictions will be posted the morning of November 2nd.
... and may The Force be with us!
Send your response to
responded:
wrote:
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Gold-digger
Kerkorian to pay $10M in back child support
LOS ANGELES -- Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian agreed Friday to pay more than $10 million in back child support plus $100,000 a month for a child his ex-wife has admitted is not his biological daughter. Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who was married briefly to the casino mogul after a long relationship, acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian's adult daughter. She said the biological father actually was Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing... The agreement also provides for Kerkorian to pay expenses including school costs, equestrian expense, clothing, housing, travel, hobbies, automobile, food, beauty treatments, tutoring, entertainment, parties and pets.
Kerkorian to pay $10M in back child support | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
...and the whore-dog morals of men are so talked about? Jeesh... This is an outrage! $100K a month plus all the those other BS expenses? He was married to that slut for a total of 28 days... Bing has to be LHAO... OMG!
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Glad you're back!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rainy morning, gray afternoon.
Had the wrong date on yesterday's page, but nobody seems to have noticed (the archived page has been corrected).
Unveils Lennon Plaque
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono has unveiled a commemorative plaque on the London home she shared with John Lennon.
The blue English Heritage plaque adorns a Georgian row house at 34 Montagu Square, where the couple lived in 1968.
The ground floor and basement apartment was home to several rock legends. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr bought the property in 1965, and he sublet it to Paul McCartney and later Jimi Hendrix before Lennon and Ono moved in.
It was the setting for the nude photo of the couple on the cover of their "Two Virgins" album.
Ono said Saturday she was honored by the decision to erect the plaque, one of hundreds across London marking the homes of prominent figures.
Yoko Ono
African Music Recordings
Hugh Tracey
Hugh Tracey came to southern Africa in the 1920s to become a tobacco farmer but ended up compiling the largest known archive of traditional African music, recording performers from Congo to Zimbabwe over nearly five decades.
Now hundreds of CDs featuring Tracey's recordings are on exhibition in South Africa along with traditional instruments he collected from across the continent, from Malawian gourd resonators to ingalaba drums played in Uganda.
The Hugh Tracey archives are a valuable resource that could contribute to dignity and restoration of African culture, said Luvuyo Dontsa, an arts and culture professor at Walter Sisulu University in South Africa.
"White colonialists saw our music as being heathen and they tried to kill it because they did not understand our culture. The recordings of Hugh Tracey are a valuable resource that could explain the missing parts of our culture," says Dontsa.
The exhibition organized by the International Library of African Music based at Rhodes University features musical performances recorded between 1928 and the 1970s and will run until next January. It includes lullabies, funeral songs, battle cries and melodies women sang while grinding maize.
Hugh Tracey
No Party Animal
Levi Johnston
Levi Johnston says he hasn't decided whether he'll run for mayor of his Alaska hometown as a Democrat or a Republican.
Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, plans to run for the office in Wasilla as part of a reality TV show.
He said on "Real Time with Bill Maher" Friday that he's been talking to residents about his candidacy and is working on building a platform, although he didn't offer specifics.
Johnston says the appearance on Maher's HBO show would be his last interview for a while.
Levi Johnston
Wedding News
Perry - Brand
British comedian Russell Brand and U.S. pop singer Katy Perry married on Saturday in a closely guarded traditional Hindu ceremony at an exclusive hotel resort in India's Rajasthan.
While the festivities commenced on the grounds of the Amaan-i-Khas resort in the deeply wooded Ranthambore National Park, a tiger reserve some 100 kilometers south of the fort city of Jaipur, the world's media strained to catch a glimpse.
As the sounds of traditional Rajasthani music drifted from the dozen specially erected tents across the moonlit resort, over 80 international journalists, including 15 British photographers, jostled for space with their telephoto lenses at the gates of the complex, more than 150 meters away.
Private security guards, black screens and a mobile phone ban ensured a veil of secrecy over the wedding after exclusive publicity rights were sold to a London magazine.
Perry - Brand
Engagement News
Maria Sharapova
Russian tennis player and model Maria Sharapova and Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Sasha Vujacic are engaged, Vujacic told sports reporters on Friday.
Vujacic said before a Lakers exhibition game in San Diego that the three-time grand slam champion had said "yes' to his "old-school" proposal, adding that they were both "really happy."
Vujacic, 26, proposed on the couple's one-year anniversary of meeting at a friend's barbecue. No date has been set for the wedding.
Sharapova, 23, who moved to the United States when she was a child, won the Wimbledon tennis title in 2004, the U.S. Open crown in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008.
Maria Sharapova
Baby News
Stella Zavala Damon
Matt Damon is a dad again. The Hereafter star's wife, Luciana, gave birth to a baby girl on Wednesday named Stella Zavala Damon, People reports.
Damon and his wife, who married in 2005, are parents to Isabella, 4, and Gia, 2, and Barrossa has an 11-year-old daughter named Alexis from a previous relationship.
"My wife is about to have our fourth kid and we've drawn a line in the sand," Damon who turned 40 earlier this month, told Parade magazine in an interview to promote his latest film, Hereafter, which is directed by Clint Eastwood."This is it. Our lives are full and wonderful and we're done having kids. Lucy is in her third trimester for the fourth time and I think that's about enough to ask of any woman. I don't want to turn her into Ethel Kennedy."
Stella Zavala Damon
Baby News
Celine Dion
Grammy-winning singer Celine Dion gave birth on Saturday to twin boys, her representatives said.
Dion, 42, had the twins by Caesarean section shortly after 11 a.m. at a Florida hospital.
The Canadian-born singer and husband Rene Angelil also have a 9-year-old son.
The babies were born healthy but premature and will spend the next few days in an incubator, People reported.
Celine Dion
Ditch WWE Garb At The Polls
Connecticut
Local election officials in Connecticut are being told they can ask people wearing World Wrestling Entertainment garb to cover it up while voting because it could be considered political advertising for Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon (R-Steroids), the company's former CEO.
State election law prevents political advertising within 75 feet of the polls.
Av Harris, spokesman for the secretary of the state's office, said the state's advice doesn't mean that voters wearing WWE apparel will not be allowed to vote.
"But if the local officials feel it's becoming an issue, they can tell someone to cover that up or come back wearing something else. It will be handled on a case-by-case basis," Harris said.
Connecticut
Appeal Denied
OJ Simpson
The Nevada Supreme Court refused Friday to overturn O.J. Simpson's armed robbery and kidnapping convictions, rejecting a claim that prospective jurors were dismissed because they were black.
Simpson attorney Yale Galanter planned to take Simpson's appeal to federal court after his 2008 conviction in the gunpoint heist in a Las Vegas hotel room was upheld.
"This is but the first step in a very long line of appeals that Mr. Simpson has before him," Galanter said.
The court said all eight separate issues raised in the appeal - some alleging misconduct by prosecutors and the judge - were without merit.
OJ Simpson
Sea Ice Melting
Arctic
The temperature is rising again in the Arctic, with the sea ice extent dropping to one of the lowest levels on record, climate scientists reported Thursday.
The new Arctic Report Card "tells a story of widespread, continued and even dramatic effects of a warming Arctic," said Jackie Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility in Hanover, N.H.
Atmospheric scientists concerned about global warming focus on the Arctic because that is a region where the effects are expected to be felt first, and that has been the case in recent years.
There was a slowdown in Arctic warming in 2009, but in the first half of 2010 warming has been near a record pace, with monthly readings over 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) above normal in northern Canada, according to the report card released Thursday.
Arctic
Bounty Hunter Looking For Free PR
Quaids
Racist bounty hunter Duane 'Dog' Chapman (R-Loves Tancredo) issued a public ultimatum to fugitive actor Randy Quaid on Thursday night - urging him to turn himself into police or face capture by the TV tough guy.
A California judge issued warrants for the arrests of Quaid and his wife Evi after they failed to show up for arraignment on a felony vandalism charge in a Santa Barbara courthouse on Monday.
The Dog The Racist Bounty Hunter star appeared on comedian George Lopez's US late night show Lopez Tonight on Thursday, and called out the couple for fleeing justice.
He said: "I hope Randy Quaid and his wife are watching right now because on the (wanted criminals) list, this morning, they just popped up. We're announcing he has the chance to call authorities and turn himself in - and at least do it for your wife and for how you were raised. If not, the Chapman family is coming after you."
Quaids
Poor Speller
Jane Austen
She's renowned for her precise, exquisite prose, but new research shows Jane Austen was a poor speller and erratic grammarian who got a big helping hand from her editor.
Oxford University English professor Kathryn Sutherland studied 1,100 handwritten pages of unpublished work from the author of incisive social comedies such as "Pride and Prejudice." She said Saturday that they contradicted the claim by Austen's brother Henry that "everything came finished from her pen."
She said the papers show "blots, crossings out, messiness," and a writer who "broke most of the rules for writing good English."
Sutherland said letters from Austen's publisher reveal that editor William Gifford was heavily involved in making sense of Austen's sensibility, honing the style of her late novels "Emma" and "Persuasion."
Austen's handwritten manuscripts will go online Monday at www.janeausten.ac.uk, the result of a three-year project to digitize the author's unpublished work.
Jane Austen
In Memory
Denis Simpson
Actor and singer Denis Simpson, one of the hosts of the long-running Ontario children's show Polka Dot Door, died in Toronto on Friday following a brain hemorrhage, with his family by his side.
He was one of several hosts of the popular show which featured beloved children's character Polkaroo.
The 59-year-old Vancouver native was in Toronto to start rehearsals for another children's production at a local theatre.
Simpson had a long career in show business, including hosting a cooking show, and being a live eye reporter for CityTV.
He was also the original bass singer for a cappella group, The Nylons.
Denis Simpson
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