Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Marc Dion: Me and Frosty, We're Gonna Be Fine (Creators Syndicate)
For the newspaper columnist, the Christmas effort is fraught with peril. Is he/she writing about Christmas because there are warm feelings to be conveyed, because the babe was warmed by the breath of oxen, because Jesus may come back before global warming finishes off the last of those cute-as-hell penguins? Or... Is the writer just looking for a cheap column?
Mark Shields: What This Current Crisis Tells Us About 2020 Voters (Creators Syndicate)
In these Washington hours of genuine bipartisan panic after the principled resignation of the nation's thoroughly respected secretary of defense, James Mattis, American voters are forced to confront the real-life consequences of what it means to have elected an amateur-outsider - with no governmental or military experience - to be president of the United States.
Froma Harrop: May You Be Healthy and Covered in 2019 (Creators Syndicate)
Americans have seen the Promised Land of health care security, and one can't expect them to be shuttled back to the desert quietly. They spoke loudly in the recent midterms. If Republicans could lose 40 House seats in good part because of their threats to take away ACA benefits, imagine the results in 2020 if they actually did. What happens to health coverage in 2019 will be a big, big deal for everyone. May you keep yours.
Froma Harrop: Are We Taking Our Security for Granted Amid Trump Chaos? (Creators Syndicate)
Now would be the time for our enemies to hit us - a cyberattack would do - as the White House trashes the intelligence agencies and as the finest military minds quit the administration. We've almost forgotten that chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who imposed order in the White House, is also leaving.
Froma Harrop: Judge Sullivan Confirms That We're Not Crazy (Creators Syndicate)
Thank you, Judge Sullivan, for certifying the nation's sanity - that ice is cold, rain is wet and the inhabitants of Trump world are also subject to the law. When U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said "I'm not hiding my disgust" for Michael Flynn's criminal conduct, he gave voice to what was obvious to all but Donald Trump's most unquestioning supporters. The offenses were especially serious coming from, of all people, a national security adviser. Flynn had admitted he lied to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador. He also lied about his lobbying for a foreign government during the election and after.
Ted Rall: Liberals Used to Feel Your Pain. Now They Inflict It. (Creators Syndicate)
True, we should reduce air pollution. (Though it's probably too late to slow down climate change.) But if consumers have no choice but to consume, a tax designed to reduce consumption only serves one purpose: to increase government revenue while making citizens miserable. Yellow-vesters who live in the sticks don't have a mass-transit alternative. They can't carpool. They've got to drive, and, with a carbon tax, they have to pay. No wonder they're angry. Wouldn't it make more sense to tax shareholders whose portfolios include stocks with big carbon footprints?
Ted Rall: What Does NY Times Have in Common With the National Enquirer? They Both Love Anti-SLAPP Laws (Creators Syndicate)
Now we have anti-SLAPP. If you live in a state with one of these pretzel-logic statutes, the odds of getting justice are very low. It doesn't matter how brazen the lie about you was or how much it hurt you or your livelihood. Even if you can prove the paper knew what they said about you wasn't true when they decided to print it, an anti-SLAPP motion will probably stop you dead in your tracks - assuming you can find a lawyer willing to represent you in a state with an anti-SLAPP law in the first place. As a defamation law expert in California told me, "Defamation law is effectively dead. There is no redress."
Greg Sargent: It looks like Democrats will hold firm for now. Then what happens? (Washington Post)
Earlier Friday, President Trump claimed that "it's totally up to the Democrats as to whether we have a shutdown." Which is funny, because for the moment, Republicans control both Congress and the White House.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
answered:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
sheesh
Personal Net Worth / salary:
Ann Coulter - $10 M / makes about $500K/year speaking fees, book royalties
Laura Ingraham - $45 M / salary $15M/year?
Sean Hannity - $90M / salary $36M/year?
Rush Limbaugh - $550 M / salary $70M/year?
Donald Trump - $3.1B (supposedly) / $60M/year?
. . . these people demanded the Trump Government Shutdown?
Over funding to build Trump's border wall - for which he PROMISED Mexico was to pay?
About 750,000 federal employees will go without a paycheck?
Over Christmas and beyond?
sheesh
Randall
Thanks, Randall!
Effing appalling, ain't it.
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• According to Leviticus Rabbah XXXIV, 3, after Hillel the Elder had finished a session with his students, he left the House of Study. His students asked where he was going, and Hillel replied, "To fulfill a religious obligation." The religious obligation was to have a bath in the bathhouse. The students asked if having a bath really was a religious obligation, and Hillel replied, "Yes! If the statues of the kings that are placed in theatres and circuses are daily cleaned and washed, … how much more does this apply to me, seeing that I have been made in the image and likeness of God! For it is written in Genesis 9:6, 'In the image of God did He make man.'"
• Some Christians believe that dancing is a sin. American dance pioneer Ted Shawn once preached a guest sermon on a text from Psalms: "Praise ye the Lord in the dance." Mr. Shawn told the congregation, "You believe in the Bible. It is not to be interpreted allegorically. It is explicit and you must believe in it as it is worded. Now here is a clear, curt, concise command, 'Praise ye the Lord in the dance.' Have you done so today? Then if not you have committed a sin of omission." A member of the congregation shouted, "Amen, brother!"
• Muhammad Ali is a Muslim. Christian televangelist Jimmy Swaggart once tried to convert him, but Mr. Ali declined to be converted, saying, "Think about it. If Jimmy Swaggart can convert the best-known Muslim on earth back to Christianity, what would that do for Jimmy Swaggart?" Soon afterward, Swaggart was involved in a sex scandal. One of Mr. Ali's friends suggested, "You really ought to write Jimmy Swaggart a letter, saying that God still loves him and Jimmy Swaggart should accept Allah as his only lord and savior."
• "The Ten Buddhist precepts, which are not killing, not stealing, not misusing sex, not lying, not giving or taking drugs, not discussing faults of others, not praising yourself while abusing others, not sparing the Dharma assets, not indulging in anger, and not defaming the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are guidelines rather than commandments etched in stone." - Quoted from the book Crazy Clouds, by Perle Besserman and Manfred Steger.
• Sometimes Catholics and Protestants can work together, despite past differences. For example, Rev. Vincent Heier, a Catholic in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, once invited some Missouri-Kansas Lutherans to meet in St. Louis Cathedral. He welcomed the Lutherans by saying, "We are pleased to provide the cathedral. Please don't nail anything to the doors."
• Sometimes, students told meditation teacher Munindra that they wished to leave him in order to study other religious traditions or that they wished to leave him in order to study under another teacher. Munindra always let them go without argument. When asked why he did so, he replied, "The Dharma doesn't suffer from comparison."
• "If I am broad-minded in any way, I do know that I am broad-minded in a religious way. Which way you serve your God will never get one argument, or condemnation, out of me. There has been times when I wished there had been as much religion among some of our creeds as there has been vanity." - Will Rogers.
• A Hindu watched Mother Teresa caring for an ill person. He told her, "Since it gives you the strength to do what you do, I have no doubt that your religion has to be true."
• "Judaism begins not with an idea but with a community ... We believe God cares more about how we treat each other than he does about our theology." - Rabbi Harold Kushner.
• Buddhist monks all over the world get up before dawn each morning and renounce all the bad karma that they have ever committed.
• "My religion is kindness." - the Dalai Lama.
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Updates 'Santa Baby'
Miley Cyrus
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Miley Cyrus put a feminist spin on the Christmas classic, "Santa Baby."
Cyrus was uncomfortable with the outdated words to the song, which were written in 1953. "I'm asking for a car, and a yacht and checks, and literally the deed to a platinum mine. Plus, am I saying that I'm going to hook up with Santa if he buys me all this stuff?" Cyrus asked Jimmy Fallon. As she was not down with those lyrics, she changed them and made magic.
"Santa baby, I don't need any fancy jewelry. Not me. I've got something else in mind. Santa baby, and I don't need your presents tonight," sang Cyrus, while a confused Fallon danced around her. The changed lyrics included, "No more fluff, I've had enough and I can buy my own damn stuff!" and "Listen, Santa, to what I say - a girl's best friend is equal pay."
Basically, Cyrus is doing more than spreading holiday cheer this season. She's empowering women, and we are totally here for it.
Miley Cyrus
MGM Grand Las Vegas
Lady Gaga
When Lady Gaga's much-anticipated residency at MGM Grand Las Vegas kicks off Dec. 28, she will play to a nearly sold-out theater of 5,200 seats where fans have paid somewhere between $54 and $5,950 for each ticket. She's expected to take home just over $1 million that night, according to Variety - and possibly every night of the 74-show stint over the next two years.
It's a number so high - more than twice what Britney Spears reportedly brought in from her 2017 residency, and double the $500,000 reigning Vegas queen Celine Dion reportedly makes for each performance of her seven-year Caesars residency - that it gives many familiar with the economics of such shows pause.
"These shows don't become profitable until they hit 70-75% occupancy," said one industry insider on a condition of anonymity. "I haven't looked into the pricing on [Lady Gaga's] tickets, but I can tell you the economics of that room, 5,000 seats and change. In my mind, it's hard to pay more than $750,000 as a guarantee." See, there's a sum that a headliner is guaranteed (a number often speculated on but rarely revealed), and what they actually take home, which can be more. The $1 million Lady Gaga will reportedly earn is supposedly a guarantee, but neither Gaga nor MGM has confirmed. "It's not that she couldn't make $1 million if the shows are sold out, but the artist guarantees for rooms of about 4,000 to 5,000 seats are [usually] in the $300,000 to $750,000 range."
Even if it's an optimistic number, the fact that Lady Gaga, a pop star in the height of her career and whose last 49-show tour grossed $95 million, has chosen Las Vegas illustrates just how far the residency has come. From the 1970s to early-2000s, Las Vegas became a place where aged acts like Wayne Newton, Donny and Marie Osmond, and Barry Manilow went to retire, riding out the twilights of their careers before white-haired audiences on a timeout from the slots. Cher once described it as rather depressing.
Lady Gaga
"Expendable" Items
Abraham Lincoln
The acquisition of 1,500 documents and artifacts for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum a decade ago firmly established Illinois as a leading repository of all things Lincoln, the prairie lawyer who led the U.S. through the Civil War.
So forgive the handwringing over the possibility that some of it might have to be sold. The Lincoln museum's fundraising foundation , which borrowed $23 million in 2007 to buy the trove from private collector Louise Taper, still owes $9.2 million on a note due in October 2019. Donations have slowed and state officials are reluctant to chip in.
In Christmas-season parlance, the museum's predicament reminds Kathenes of "The Gift of the Magi," the O. Henry short story of an impoverished couple trying to buy gifts for each other: "You sell off the reason you exist to exist."
Museums' code of ethics prohibits the sale of items in collections for anything other than buying additional items.
Yet the Lincoln museum foundation says such a sale may be necessary. A foundation statement released last week says negotiations and fundraising - including a GoFundMe page - continue while material is culled for potential debt reduction "without selling off core items." The foundation's attempts for a state grant have met resistance.
Abraham Lincoln
Surprises Teacher
Student
Washington State elementary school teacher Rachel Uretsky-Pratt received an extra special gift from one of her students this year - and it definitely puts life in perspective.
On the last day of school before holiday break, Uretsky-Pratt says she received chocolate, handmade notes, and jewelry from some of her students, but it was a plastic bag filled with Lucky Charm marshmallows that stood out to her the most.
"You see, 100 percent of my school is on free/reduced lunch," she wrote on Facebook. "They also get free breakfast at school every day of the school week. This kiddo wanted to get my something so badly, but had nothing to give."
Rather than give her nothing, the student sacrificed some of the breakfast cereal she received from the school. Uretsky-Pratt says her student separated the marshmallows out of the cereal and wrapped them in the packaging from her utensils.
Uretsky-Pratt hopes her story - which has now gone viral - will inspire others to be thankful this holiday season. "Be grateful for what you have, and what others give you," Uretsky-Pratt wrote. "It all truly comes from the deepest parts of their hearts."
Student
T-rump's Third
Government Shutdowns
Federal government shutdowns are not new to Washington, but it's unusual for them to happen when one party controls the White House and Congress.
That's what's occurred under the Republican Trump administration - and it's happened three times during his nearly two years in office. No other previous administration since the Budget Act of 1974, which started the modern budget process, has overseen a government shutdown that included federal employees being furloughed all while being in power on Capitol Hill and on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The latest shutdown went into effect midnight Friday after the House and Senate failed to reach a compromise on a short-term funding plan to keep the government running through early next year. The key stumbling block: Senate Democrats opposed President Donald Trump's $5.7 billion request for building a wall on the southern border.
In the 1970's, President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, is the possible exception since Democrats had the majority in the House and Senate. But unlike recent shutdowns in which federal employees were furloughed, including the current shutdown, no employees were left without a temporary loss in pay under Carter, according to Business Insider.
In the current shutdown, more than 380,000 federal workers have been put on furlough and another 420,000 employees were forced to work without pay.
Government Shutdowns
Not Getting Taller
US Adults
A new report released Thursday shows U.S. adults aren't getting any taller but they are still getting fatter.
The average U.S. adult is overweight and just a few pounds from obese, thanks to average weight increases in all groups - but particularly whites and Hispanics.
Overall, the average height for men actually fell very slightly over the past decade. There was no change for women.
CDC records date back to the early 1960s, when the average man was a little over 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 166 pounds. Now, men are almost 1 inch taller and more than 30 pounds heavier. But today's average height of 5 feet, 9 inches is about a tenth of an inch shorter than about a decade ago.
The average woman in the early 1960s was 5 feet, 3 inches and 140 pounds. Now, women are a half-inch taller and about 30 pounds heavier, on average. The average height is about the same as it was a decade earlier: 5 feet, 4 inches.
Adults
14,000 Tons Of Water Per Second
Melting Arctic Ice
A new scientific survey has found that the glaciers of the Arctic are the world's biggest contributors to rising seas, shedding ice at an accelerating rate that now adds well over a millimeter to the level of the ocean every year.
That is considerably more ice melt than Antarctica is contributing, even though the Antarctic contains far more ice. Still, driven by glacier clusters in Alaska, Canada and Russia and the vast ice sheet of Greenland, the fast-warming Arctic is outstripping the entire ice continent to the south - for now.
However, the biggest problem is that both ice regions appear to be accelerating their losses simultaneously - suggesting that we could be in for an even faster rate of sea level rise in future decades. Currently, seas are rising by about 3 millimeters each year, according to NASA. That's mainly driven by the Arctic contribution, the Antarctic, and a third major factor - that ocean water naturally expands as it warms.
For Arctic ice loss, "the rate has tripled since 1986," said Jason Box, first author of the new study and a scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. "So it clearly shows an acceleration of the sea level contribution."
"Antarctica will probably take over at some point in the future, but during the past 47 years of this study, it's not controversial that the Arctic is the largest contribution of land ice to sea level rise," he said.
Melting Arctic Ice
Emperor Marks Birthday
Japan
Japan's Emperor Akihito, marking his 85th birthday - his last before his upcoming abdication - said he feels relieved that his reign is coming to an end without having seen his country at war and that it is important to keep telling younger people about his nation's wartime history.
"It gives my deep comfort that the Heisei era is coming to an end, free of war in Japan," Akihito, his voice trembling with emotion, said at a news conference at the palace that was recorded this past week and released Sunday. "It is important not to forget that countless lives were lost in World War II and that the peace and prosperity of postwar Japan was built upon the numerous sacrifices and tireless efforts made by the Japanese people, and to pass on this history accurately to those born after the war."
Akihito's 30-year reign of the Heisei is the only era without war in Japan's modern history. Praying for peace and making amends for a war fought in the name of his father, Hirohito, has become a career mission for Akihito, who succeeded the throne in 1989.
Akihito is set to abdicate on April 30, to be succeeded by his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, on May 1. Sunday's birthday celebration is Akihito's last in his reign.
As emperor, Akihito has made unprecedented visits to the Philippines and other Pacific islands conquered by Japan early in World War II and devastated in fierce fighting as the U.S.-led allies took them back. Though Akihito has avoided a direct apology, he has subtly stepped up his expressions of regret in recent years in carefully scripted statements on the war.
Japan
Sucks Toxins From The Air
Houseplant
Your home is likely a hotbed of toxins, with everything from formaldehyde to chloroform finding its way into the air you breathe daily.
It's common knowledge that houseplants can remove some of those toxins from the air, but not in dramatic amounts. Experts estimate you'd likely need two large houseplants per every 100 square feet to effectively detoxify the air in your home.
But now, researchers from the University of Washington have found they could boost the detoxing ability of a common houseplant by splicing in a bit of DNA - from a plain old bunny.
In a study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the team describes how it introduced the mammalian gene CYP2E1 to the plant pothos ivy. This gene encodes an enzyme that breaks down many toxins commonly found in the home, including benzene and chloroform.
After three days, the concentrations of gas in the containers with the plants modified with rabbit DNA dropped dramatically. After eight days, the researchers could barely even detect the chloroform. The concentrations of toxins in the containers with the unmodified plants or no plants at all, however, remained unchanged.
Houseplant
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