Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: What I Believe At Christmas (Creators Syndicate)
In my 20s, I dated a girl who said she didn't understand my love of Christmas lights. "You don't know if nice people live in that house," she'd say as I pointed out a lovely, jolly plastic Frosty the Snowman in someone's yard. "Some guy could be in here beating his wife." I did not marry her.
Marc Dion: Assassinating Donald Trump (Creators Syndicate)
You know the old question. It's 1930. You're in Germany, standing behind Adolf Hitler in a dark alley. No one else. Just you two. You have a pistol in your hand. No one will ever know what you did. Do you shoot him? If you shoot him, you'll save millions of lives, but you'll be a murderer.
Ted Rall: In Defense of Donald Trump's Namecalling (Creators Syndicate)
In France, where the life of the mind is prized so much that one of the nation's top-rated TV shows featured philosophers and auteurs discussing politics and culture over cigarettes, there are few things worse than being called stupid and having it stick. A society that ranks "stupid" as of its worst insults lets it be known that being smart is at least as important as being tough or hot or buff.
Lenore Skenazy: Who Is a Sex Offender? (Creators Syndicate)
A guy you might be scared to meet, Galen Baughman, gave a talk at a TEDx event in New York City recently. TED is known for introducing new speakers with new ideas on everything from tech to society to teaching. But Baughman was the first presenter who happens to be on the registry. The sex offender registry, that is. His crime? He had sex with a teen when he was a teen. He was 19; his boyfriend, 14. They had sex once. It was consensual. The younger teen did not want to prosecute, but his parents did.
Connie Schultz: This Is No Time for the Soft Rebuke (Creators Syndicate)
Earlier this week, I was wandering around a department store in suburban Cleveland, when a clerk spotted me and mercifully offered to help. When I told her what I was trying to find, she laughed and said, "You are definitely in the wrong department." Then, almost immediately, her smile vanished and she took a step back. "I didn't mean-."
Clive James: I would like to go back and do things right (The Guardian)
The writer reflects on big names and little books.
Bim Adewunmi: "Crush of the week: Jessica Jones" (The Guardian)
Krysten Ritter plays the super-strong title character, a bracing mix of abrasive, irritable, funny and disappointed.
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has returned to semi-retired status.
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Michelle in AZ
The Flooded Apartment - Update
The Useos
Hi Marty and readers,
So, we're about half done moving back into our previously flooded home.
Never would have got this far without help from caring "donors".
Thanks especially to Dale. ( & also for the Christmas females )
Konrad, Patricia, and the four wee ones, Belle, Jammie, Nadia and Mara.
Thanks for the update!
Gotta love a happy ending!
from Marc Perkel
Patriot Act
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
REPUBLICANS WANT TO BOMB A FICTIONAL DISNEY COUNTRY!
"ALL HONOR TO HIM"
"PROVEN IN BATTLE"
WORSE THAN TRUMP.
"THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND"
SHAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL!
HILLARY STEPS IN IT!
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT!
GIVE THIS MAN A DOLLAR!
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Had an incident out front involving gun fire and the police this afternoon.
Life in the big city. Sigh.
Ray and Dave Davies Reunite
The Kinks
Kinks fans, rejoice - the British rock band's founding members Ray and Dave Davies performed together on stage for the first time in nearly 20 years on Friday night (Dec. 18).
The unexpected reunion took place at Dave Davies' concert at London's Islington Assembly Hall, where the brothers joined together for a performance of the Kinks' classic hit "You Really Got Me."
Friday evening marked the Kinks' first performance together since the finish of the group's 1996 summer tour, Rolling Stone points out. Kinks fans have been hoping for a reunion ever since. Earlier this year, Ray Davies discussed a possible reunion with Billboard.
"This is always my answer: If we make it relevant to new music," he said in December during an interview about his solo album, Americana. "Not saying we need a new album, but it's got to relate to new music. Because it's impossible just to do the hits. I like playing the hits, I just did a solo tour, but when the Kinks get back together, I need to be inspired to write new material."
The Kinks
FBI Files
Pete Seeger
As Army Pvt. Pete Seeger eagerly waited for a chance to fight for his country during World War II, military investigators quietly built a case that the young folk singer was "potentially subversive."
In a security investigation triggered by a wartime letter he wrote denouncing a proposal to deport all Japanese-Americans, the Army intercepted Seeger's mail to his fiancee, scoured his school records, talked to his father, interviewed an ex-landlord and questioned his pal Woody Guthrie, according to FBI files obtained by The Associated Press.
Investigators concluded that Seeger's association with known communists and his Japanese-American fiancee pointed to a risk of divided loyalty.
The investigation, forwarded to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, is detailed in more than 1,700 pages from Seeger's FBI file, released by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.
Pete Seeger
U.S., French Navies Differ
Wine
French and U.S. officials boast of the closeness of their military alliance, as highlighted by Saturday's visit from U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter to a French aircraft carrier in the Gulf.
But even at sea, some cultural differences are apparent: French sailors can imbibe alcohol within moderation while on ship, while American sailors follow a policy of almost total abstinence.
There are no fewer than four bars on the Charles de Gaulle, where troops can purchase one alcoholic drink per day.
On Saturday morning, French sailors prepared and served coffee behind a large curved bar outfitted with wooden stools. A wall sign advertised available drinks, including Heineken or draft beers for 1.25 euros ($1.36), or Baileys, Johnnie Walker or wine for 1.50 euros ($1.63).
Not so within the U.S. Navy, which has a strict no-drinking policy aboard its ships, with few exceptions. For instance, if a vessel has been at sea for 45 consecutive days or more, sailors are allowed to have two beers, on a one-time basis.
Wine
Mountain Lion Kitten Discovered
L.A.
From being hit by cars to ingesting rat poision, it's been a rough year for mountain lions living in Santa Monica Mountains National Park in Los Angeles County, California. Just in time for the holidays, a new kitten has been discovered, much to the delight of biologists tracking the big cats.
The National Park Service shared a video of the young cat on Thursday. All the other kittens born to the mother, called P-23, have met early, grisly ends.
P-23's first litter of kittens was cannibalized by a male mountain lion in the area, while an unknown predator killed two kittens from her second litter in September. Researchers didn't realize P-23 had any remaining offspring, but some of the female cougar's movements indicated that she was still caring for a kitten. Biologist Jeff Sikich set up a camera near where she left a deer kill to make sure.
Lo and behold, part of that meal went to a previously unrecorded kitten, whose little squawk and movements suggest that he or she is about six months old and from P-23's second litter. The kitten has yet to be captured and outfitted with a tracking device, so it does not yet have an official name. P-46 is the next number available.
L.A.
Fined $100M For Lapses
LifeLock
A company which sells identity-theft protection services agreed Thursday to pay a fine of $100 million for failing to protect consumer data in the largest settlement on record, officials said.
The US Federal Trade Commission said its settlement with LifeLock came after the company failed to comply with a 2010 federal court order requiring it to secure consumers' personal information and prohibiting deceptive advertising.
It is the largest monetary award obtained by the commission in an order enforcement action, the FTC said.
Under terms of the settlement, the company will pay $100 million which may be used to reimburse customers claiming they were deceived by LifeLock. Some $68 million of the total will be paid to participants in a class-action lawsuit.
LifeLock
Jackpot-Fixing Investigation Expands
State Lotteries
The allegations read like a movie plot: a lottery industry insider installs undetectable software giving him advance knowledge of winning numbers, then enlists accomplices to play those numbers and collect the jackpots. And they secretly enrich themselves for years - until a misstep exposes them.
Eddie Tipton, former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association, has been convicted of fraud for fixing one jackpot in Des Moines, but prosecutors say his high-tech scheme extended far beyond Iowa. He's accused of tampering with lottery drawings in four states over six years, and investigators are expanding their inquiry nationwide.
Investigators have asked states to review jackpots produced by the number-generators Tipton had access to, and whose winning numbers were specifically requested by the ticket buyer. They hope to talk with anyone aware of such payouts being collected by someone other than the person who ends up with the money, said Rob Sand, a state prosecutor in Des Moines who is leading the probe.
The inquiry is sending a chill through state governments that depend on public confidence in contests that generate $20 billion annually in lottery revenue.
Thirty-seven states and U.S. territories use random-number generators from the Iowa-based association, which administers games and distributes prizes for the lottery consortium. So far, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma have confirmed paying jackpots valued at a total of $8 million allegedly linked to Tipton and associates.
State Lotteries
Son Found Guilty
Moosehead
Dennis Oland, the son of a wealthy Canadian brewer, was found guilty on Saturday of murdering his father following a long and sensational trial in the eastern province of New Brunswick.
Oland, 47, had been accused of the second-degree murder of his father, Richard Oland, who was part of the locally prominent family that owns Moosehead Breweries.
The 69-year-old father was found dead in a pool of blood in his office on July 7, 2011. His body bore numerous stab and blunt-force wounds to the head, neck and hands. Police said his son was the last person to see him alive.
Dennis Oland burst into tears, shouting "Oh no, oh my God!" when the jury delivered its verdict in a Saint John courtroom. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Oland's family said in a statement that they were stunned by the verdict, adding that all of the relatives were certain that Dennis had nothing to do with his father's death. The statement was issued by an uncle, Derek Oland.
Moosehead
Lawyers Fight Deposition
Cosby
Lawyers for Bill Cosby said Friday they will fight an attempt to require his wife to give a sworn deposition in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who accuse the comedian of sexually assaulting them decades ago.
A lawyer for the women has subpoenaed Camille Cosby to be deposed on Jan. 6. at a hotel in Springfield, Massachusetts.
But Cosby's lawyers filed a motion Friday to quash the subpoena, saying she has no firsthand, non-repetitive knowledge of issues in the lawsuit. They also argue that any confidential communications between Cosby and his wife are protected by the Massachusetts spousal disqualification rule.
The women's lawyer, Joseph Cammarata, had argued that he should be able to question Camille Cosby because she was her husband's business manager.
Cosby's lawyers said Camille Cosby does not have any information about the accuracy of the women's allegations. They also allege that the attempt to subject her to a deposition is "nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to pressure defendant in the face of subjecting his wife to the shame and embarrassment of responding to questions about his alleged infidelities and sexual misconduct."
Cosby
Mixed Bag
Mild Weather
For now, the El Nino-driven mild weather is a boon to some wildlife, which are able to forage for more food and are using less energy surviving, experts say. But for some species - like snowshoe hares, whose white fur makes them conspicuous to predators - the lack of snow isn't good news.
Access to food, such as nuts and apples, which have been abundant but are now getting scarce, has kept some black bears active and out of their winter dens. The bear activity has prompted officials in Vermont and Massachusetts to urge residents to wait for snow before putting up bird feeders to avoid attracting bears.
In Maine, the bears stayed out later than normal this year, but most seem to be denning up now, said Judy Camuso, director of wildlife for the Maine Department of Inland, Fisheries and Wildlife. In Colorado, which this week was blanketed with snow, bears started to hibernate on schedule this fall, according to Mat Robbins, spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The mild fall also has delayed the annual migration of some geese and other waterfowl, according to Geoff LeBaron, director of the Christmas Bird Count for the National Audubon Society. Some species that winter in the U.S. move with the weather, or just in advance of it, so geese and waterfowl, especially in the East, stay north for as long as they can in mild winters, he said. Once things start to freeze up and there's snow cover, they'll head south, he said.
Mild Weather
In Memory
Kurt Masur
Kurt Masur was a conductor who knew how to use his authority.
He used it to tame orchestras - notably the unruly New York Philharmonic, which he led for 11 years - and to historic effect in his native land, when his call for calm helped prevent violence during tense 1989 pro-democracy protests in East Germany.
Masur died Saturday at age 88 in a hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut, from complications from Parkinson's disease, the New York Philharmonic said, issuing a statement praising his "profound belief in music."
His move to ward off violence in East Germany was, Masur later acknowledged, a belated move in a country that many artists had long turned their backs on but in which he held a position of rare international renown as the director of Leipzig's storied Gewandhaus Orchestra, where his predecessors included Felix Mendelssohn.
By 1989, Leipzig had become the focal point for the demonstrations that would culminate in the opening of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule. As tensions rose on Oct. 9 - and with the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in China still fresh on people's minds - Masur and five others - a satirist, a cleric and three party officials - issued a public statement calling for calm and promising dialogue.
A month later, the embattled East German authorities gave in to popular pressure and opened the country's border with the West. When Germany was reunited on Oct. 3, 1990, Masur directed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the official celebrations.
After German reunification, Masur took charge of the London Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, among a slew of engagements that spanned three continents, but spurned the political role that some suggested for him. When his name surfaced during the search for a new German president in the early 1990s, Masur said he wasn't interested.
Born on July 18, 1927, in what was then the German town of Brieg - now Brzeg, Poland - Masur studied piano, composition and conducting at the Music College of Leipzig. He was appointed in 1955 as conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic in East Germany.
Masur made his U.S. debut in 1974 with the Cleveland Orchestra and took the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig on its first American tour that year. After being chosen as music director of the New York Philharmonic, some critics worried that his intense work ethic and conservative German musical style weren't suited to the U.S. orchestra.
He defied them by taming the Philharmonic, an orchestra seen as an unmanageable ensemble of egos when he took over from Zubin Mehta in 1991.
He is survived by his third wife, Tomoko, a soprano from Japan; and five children, including Ken-David Masur, the San Diego Symphony's associate conductor.
Kurt Masur
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