Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: Your Science is Stuck in My Mystical (SF Gate)
Look! Here are some scientists. Are they not cute? Are they not totally adorable like angry pfffting kittens as they scoff and furrow their brows and make many dismissive sounds with their pursed mouths, all in the general direction of the very idea of ESP, or psychic ability, or pretty much anything related to the mystical and the weird, the unquantifiable and the supernatural? Man, they really hate that.
Henry Rollins: Don't Blame Sarah Palin, Just Stop Paying Attention! (Vanity Fair)
America has a new name to splash across the front pages of its newspapers and Web sites: Jared Lee Loughner, age 22, accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others last Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.
Joanne Barkan: Got Dough? Public School Reform in the Age of Venture Philanthropy (Dissent Magazine)
Stanford University's 2009 study of charter schools-the most comprehensive ever done-concluded that 83 percent of them perform either worse or no better than traditional public schools; a 2010 Vanderbilt University study showed definitively that merit pay for teachers does not produce higher test scores for students; a National Research Council report confirmed multiple studies that show standardized test scores do not measure student learning adequately.
Froma Harrop: Whipping Health Care Reform, in a Nice Way (Creators Syndicate)
Following the attack against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and bystanders, Republicans put off action to scuttle the Democrats' health care reforms. The GOP House leadership is now back, determined to repeal a law that gives Americans health care security while cutting budget deficits - but in a nice way.
PAUL KRUGMAN: HEALTH CARE BASICS (NEW YORK TIMES)
Given that House Republicans are going to pass the Repealing the Job-Killing Health Law Act this week, I thought it might be useful to remind readers about how Obamacare/Romneycare is supposed to work.
Andrew Tobias: Tax Questions
How is it patriotic to be opposed paying taxes required to keep our nation healthy and strong?
Jim Hightower: "Cocky" Tom DeLay Gets Three Years
You know you're in trouble when you're reduced to calling Dennis Hastert as a character witness.
Matt Miller: My secret, definitive (and unpublished) profile of Gene Sperling! (The Washington Post)
In the summer and fall of 1999, while a senior editor at 'The New Republic,' I worked on a profile of Gene Sperling, then the chairman of the National Economic Council, a position to which President Obama is appointing him again.
Matt Miller: Unpublished profile of Gene Sperling (from November 1999)
Originally rejected by the 'New Republic' because it was "too favorable," then run in shorter form.
Stanley Fish: "Exceptionalism, Faith and Freedom: Palin's America" (New York Times)
Echoes of Capra in a Palin book.
Joanne Kaufman: How Authors Move Their Own Merchandise (Wall Street Journal)
In an increasingly crowded marketplace, writers are taking matters into their own hands and promoting their own books, sometimes with the help of iPods and sex toys.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Prejudice (Athens News)
Ellen Cornish wasn't allowed to run distance events in high-school track meets because she was a girl. In 1972, she was finally told that she could run in one track meet, but that any points she scored would not be counted. However, at the end of the seventh lap she was pulled off the track and not allowed to finish the race because the officials were afraid that she would win and embarrass the boy competitors.
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."
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and a bit more seasonal.
Visitor Again A No-Show
Edgar Allan Poe
Telltale hearts beat with anticipation during a rainy, midnight dreary and beyond, hoping the mysterious visitor to Edgar Allan Poe's grave would return after a one-year absence.
But once again, the unknown person who for decades has left three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe's grave on the anniversary of the writer's birth failed to appear Wednesday, fueling speculation that he may have died.
Four impostors came and went overnight. The real one never showed. Around 5 a.m., the dozen Poe fans who were left began to wonder if the eerie ritual is indeed nevermore, so they walked to Poe's tombstone and performed their own tribute by leaving roses and drinking a cognac toast.
A fascinating tradition that ran for some 60 years and was never fully explained appears to have ended at the downtown Westminster Hall and Burying Ground.
Edgar Allan Poe
Give Sartre Back His Cigarette
French Politicians
French politicians on Wednesday voted to overturn rules that saw iconic comedian Jacques Tati lose his beloved pipe and existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre ditch his trademark cigarette.
A parliamentary commission voted for a bill that would exclude cultural heritage from the stringent health legislation passed in 1991 that forbids any direct or indirect promotion of smoking.
Last year posters for a Tati retrospective in Paris showed the late actor and director with his pipe replaced by a yellow toy windmill -- which critics slammed as an overdose of political correctness.
In another example in 2005 the National Library airbrushed a cigarette from Sartre's hand in a photograph used in a poster to advertise an exhibition.
On Wednesday the cultural affairs committee almost unanimously backed the new bill -- which must now go before parliament -- that would exclude cultural heritage from the anti-smoking law.
French Politicians
Sets Record For Lowest Selling No. 1 Album
Cake
The year is off to a rotten start for the music industry, with the new No. 1 album setting a new record for the smallest sales total.
Alternative rock band Cake debuted at No. 1 for the first time in its career after selling just 44,000 copies of its new album "Showroom of Compassion" during the week ended January 16, according to Nielsen SoundScan data issued Wednesday.
It's the smallest week for a No. 1 album since the tracking firm began recording point-of-sales data in 1991, and beats a record set only last week when Taylor Swift's hit album "Speak Now" led the field with 52,000 units in its 11th week of release.
Overall album sales totaled 4.9 million units, down 11% compared with the previous week, and down 15% compared with the comparable sales week of 2010. Year-to-date album sales stand at 10.3 million, an 11% drop compared with the same total at this point last year.
Cake
Appearing On NBC's 'The Office'
Ricky Gervais
NBC says Ricky Gervais (jur-VAYS') will make a cameo appearance on "The Office" next week, reprising the role he played in the original British version that he helped create.
NBC said Wednesday that Gervais' brief appearance on Jan. 27 will be as David Brent. That's the smart-alecky paper salesman who inspired the character of Michael Scott, portrayed by Steve Carell on NBC's successful adaptation of the comedy.
Gervais, who caused a stir as the insult-slinging host of the Golden Globes earlier this week, serves as an executive producer of NBC's "The Office." It airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
Ricky Gervais
Phony Hollywood Producer Gets 4 Years
Joseph Medawar
A judge has ordered a nearly four-year prison term for a man who posed as a Hollywood producer and fleeced investors out of $3.4 million for a phony show about the Department of Homeland Security.
Joseph Medawar pleaded guilty in May 2006 to tax evasion and conspiracy for the TV show investment scam. He was sentenced to jail for a year and community service.
But the Los Angeles Times reports Medawar padded his community service hours to go to movies and the gym.
On Tuesday, a Los Angeles federal judge sentenced Joseph Medawar to 45 months in prison for violating probation.
Joseph Medawar
UK Bars
Pastor Terry Jones
An American Christian preacher who caused global uproar by threatening to burn the Koran has been barred from visiting Britain, the British government said on Wednesday.
Florida Pastor Terry Jones, whose threat to burn Islam's holy book on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year provoked widespread condemnation, had been invited to visit Britain by an anti-immigration group.
"The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded Pastor Terry Jones from the UK. Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behavior," a spokesman for Britain's Home Office (interior ministry) said.
"Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good," he said. "The use of exclusion powers is very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate."
Pastor Terry Jones
Irish Abuse Letter 'Misunderstood'
Vatican't
In a new round of damage control, the Vatican insisted Wednesday that a 1997 letter warning Irish bishops against reporting priests suspected of sex abuse to police had been "deeply misunderstood."
The Associated Press on Tuesday reported the contents of the letter, in which the Vatican's top diplomat in Ireland told bishops that their policy of mandatory reporting such cases to police "gives rise to serious reservations of both a moral and canonical nature."
The newly revealed letter, obtained originally by Irish broadcaster RTE from an Irish bishop, has undermined persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never told bishops not to cooperate with police.
"The letter confirms that the cover-up goes as far as the Vatican, that Vatican officials knew exactly what was going on, and that they proactively sought to deter Irish bishops from cooperating with civil authorities in Ireland," said Andrew Madden, a former Dublin altar boy who was raped repeatedly by a priest, Ivan Payne, in the 1980s.
Vatican't
Just Christians
Alabama
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley told a church crowd just moments into his new administration that those who have not accepted Jesus as their savior are not his brothers and sisters, shocking some critics who questioned Tuesday whether he can be fair to non-Christians.
"Anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother," Bentley said Monday, his inauguration day, according to The Birmingham News.
Speaking at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Church after the official inaugural ceremony, Bentley told the crowd that he considered anyone who believed in Jesus to be his brothers and sisters regardless of color, but anyone who isn't a Christian doesn't have that same relationship to him.
After his speech, Bentley said he did not mean to insult anyone.
Alabama
Governor Apologizes
Rap On Supreme Court Docket
Michigan
Rap and hip-hop veteran Dr. Dre is on the docket at the Michigan Supreme Court.
The court plans to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit by a Detroit councilman and others who say they were illegally videotaped backstage at a 2000 concert at Joe Louis Arena.
Gary Brown was a police official at the time. He warned concert organizers that power would be turned off if they showed a sexually explicit video. The confrontation was taped and later included in a DVD of the "Up In Smoke" tour, featuring Eminem and other artists.
Brown says his privacy was violated by the video. Dr. Dre lawyer Herschel Fink says there's no privacy when police are doing their job. Dr. Dre is a defendant but won't be attending the Supreme Court arguments.
Michigan
Mansion On Market
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband are selling their Los Angeles mansion for an asking price of $28 million, putting on the market a home once lived in by Elvis Presley, her spokesman said on Wednesday.
The hillside house in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air was built for the late aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes, said John Blanchette, a publicist for Gabor.
Presley lived in the house -- which has 26 rooms and a pool -- decades ago when he was acting in movies filmed in Los Angeles, Blanchette said. It is built into a hillside and overlooks the city.
"We only use two rooms, all the other rooms are locked up. It doesn't make sense for two people to live in such a big place," her ninth husband, Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, told Reuters.
Zsa Zsa Gabor
French Church Window
Stained Glass Resistance
A stained glass window in a small church has caused a sensation in France. Unveiled in 1941, it depicts Adolf Hitler executing a saint who symbolizes the Jewish people. Local priests have praised the work as a brave act of resistance against the Nazi occupiers.
In the popular imagination, the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation of France is associated with heroic acts of guerrilla warfare, such as blowing up bridges or derailing trains. But in one small town near Paris, two artist brothers also resisted the occupation in their own quiet way -- with a politically charged stained-glass window.
Local historians in the town of Montgeron have rediscovered a stained-glass church window that criticizes the Nazi occupation by depicting Adolf Hitler as an executioner. The dictator is shown in the act of killing St. James, who was one of Jesus' 12 apostles.
Although Hitler's distinctive hairstyle can easily be recognized in the portrait, his trademark moustache has been left out. "The glassmakers hid it behind his arm, to avoid any trouble," local priest Dominique Guérin told the French newspaper Le Parisien.
Stained Glass Resistance
Sun Rose 2 Days Early
Ilulissat, Greenland
Residents of a town on the western coast of Greenland may have seen the sun peek over the horizon 48 hours earlier than its usual arrival on Jan. 13, sparking speculation, and disagreements, over possible causes.
The town of Ilulissat sits just above the Arctic Circle, meaning its residents had been without any sunlight for a good chunk of the winter, and traditionally they'd expect to see their "first sunrise" on Jan. 13.
News that the sun had peeked over the horizon on Jan. 11 appeared online in British and German-language publications and it appears to trace back to a story by the Greenland broadcasting company KNR that quotes residents who noticed the change.
Of about half a dozen scientists contacted, most were unaware of the report, which was circulating on the Internet. They offered a number of hypothetical explanations, including an illusion caused by an atmospheric effect and conflicting opinions about whether global warming might be to blame for melting along the edges of Greenland's ice sheet. With less ice, Greenland's elevation may take a dip such that the sun would have less distance to travel before appearing over the horizon.
Ilulissat, Greenland
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by the Nielsen Co. for Jan. 10-16. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership.
1. "AFC Divisional Playoff Post-Game Show" (Sunday), CBS, 31.24 million.
2. NFL Playoff: Green Bay vs. Atlanta, Fox, 30.82 million.
3. "NCIS," CBS, 21.93 million.
4. "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 18.13 million.
5. "60 Minutes," CBS, 17.4 million.
6. "Golden Globe Awards," NBC, 17 million.
7. "AFC Divisional Playoff Post-Game" (Saturday), CBS, 14.59 million.
8. "Undercover Boss," CBS, 13.79 million.
9. "The Good Wife," CBS, 12.29 million.
10. "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 12.15 million.
11. "Modern Family," ABC, 11.12 million.
12. "CSI: Miami," CBS, 10.91 million.
13. "Wipeout" (Thursday), ABC, 10.64 million.
14. "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 10.42 million.
15. "The Mentalist," CBS, 10.32 million.
16. "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 10.27 million.
17. "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 10.25 million.
18. "(Bleep) My Dad Says," CBS, 10.14 million.
19. "The Middle," ABC, 10.1 million.
20. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 9.71 million.
Ratings
In Memory
Alex Kirst
Drummer Alex Kirst, a member of The Nymphs glam rock band who became a member of Iggy Pop's band, was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash in the California desert. He was 47.
Cathedral City police say a white Chevrolet Tahoe or GMC Yukon struck Kirst, who was on foot, on Jan. 13. Sgt. Paul Herrera says someone spotted Kirst on the side of Date Palm Road at about 11:45 p.m. and called police, thinking the man was intoxicated.
The sergeant tells the Palm Springs Desert Sun that there was no evidence the vehicle braked.
The Nymphs had their heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s and disbanded after one album. Alex and his brother Whitey joined Pete Marshal to form The Trolls, backing up Iggy Pop on his albums "Beat 'Em Up" and "Skull Ring."
Alex Kirst
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