BadtotheboneBob
The Weekly Veterans Report
Senator Patty Murray (D-Angel) has been named chairwoman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. She replaces Senator Daniel Akaka who leaves to chair the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Senator Murray is the daughter of a disabled World War II veteran. As a 22-year-old college intern, she worked with Vietnam veterans at a psychiatric hospital ward in Seattle...
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: How to Rule for Five Minutes (SF Gate)
There are many ways to have national or even international media attention heaped upon your head for a short burst of time, if you so desire. Why you would desire such a thing is, of course, between you and your demons. Choose wisely.
Jim Hightower: Pulling the Curtain on the Koch Brothers
Until now, Charles and David Koch have kept their extensive political operation a secret from the media and us hoi polloi. Over the years, they have quietly funneled tens of millions of dollars from their industrial fortune into hundreds of right-wing front groups set up to advance their goal of establishing a corporate plutocracy in America. From behind their plush curtain, they've operated as the right-wing's Wizard of Oz - only Ozzier.
Bob Herbert: A Terrible Divide (New York Times)
With too many condemned to shrunken standards of living, the U.S. needs new ideas on a grand scale.
Froma Harrop: Where Spanish Is A Threatened Language (Creators Syndicate)
The ice, snow and sleet that paralyzed American aviation last week forced upon me two extra days in tropical Puerto Rico. Somehow I managed. And so did the legions of other Americans and Canadians sharing stories of canceled flights as they contentedly drank cafe con leche in the warm sun of Plaza de Colon.
Stanley Fish: What is Academic Work? (New York Times)
In academic debate for academic debate's sake, the pleasures are as palpable as they are esoteric.
Pia Catton: Separating Fact From Film (Wall Street Journal)
New York City Ballet's principal dancer, Sara Mearns, talks about the reality of creating "Swan Lake" versus the dramatized insanity of the film "Black Swan."
Germaine Greer: "Artists have always glamorised prostitution. Manet savaged all their delusions" (Guardian)
Manet's 'Olympia' is an enduring emblem of apathy, not desire.
Susan Estrich: That Scene (Creators Syndicate)
I had never seen anything like it. I sat in the movie theater holding my breath as Marlon Brando wielded the stick of butter. For the sake of families who might be reading, I'll say no more, except that "Last Tango in Paris" was, depending on your perspective, either a very sexy movie or a very scary one.
Susan King: "Classic Hollywood: Donald Sutherland's mark on Hollywood" (Los Angeles Times)
The actor looks back on the early years, including a fortuitous loan and the film that made him a star ('MASH').
Kira Cochrane: Laura Linney: 'Comedy is a way to survive' (Guardian)
Laura Linney's father has just died of cancer and now she's starring as terminally ill Cathy in TV comedy 'The Big C.' She talks about how the show has touched her, and the viewers.
David Bruce has 40 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $40 you can buy 10,000 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
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Michael Moore
Michael Moore Announces Plans to Reopen Manistee's Vogue Theater
Peace --Joe
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and warmer.
Awards Announced
GLAAD
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is honoring Ricky Martin and Kristin Chenoweth.
The organization announced Wednesday that Martin will receive the Vito Russo Award at GLAAD's 22nd annual Media Awards on March 19 in New York City. The award is presented to an openly LGBT media professional who made a significant difference in promoting equal rights.
The 39-year-old Puerto Rican pop singer announced last year that he is gay. GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios called it "a game changer for many gay and transgender Latino children."
Chenoweth will be presented with the Vanguard Award at an event in Los Angeles on April 10. The award is given for increasing the visibility and understanding of the LGBT community.
GLAAD
Concerts Raised $5M
Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks' December concert series at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena is expected to bring in $5 million for flood relief in Tennessee.
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee on Wednesday announced the expected total take from the nine sold-out concerts. The nonprofit already has received $4.35 million and the money is still coming in.
The proceeds will go to The River Fund, a charitable fund within the Community Foundation. The fund already has given out $1.4 million to Hands on Nashville, the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Committee on Relief and the Community Resource Center.
Garth Brooks
Comedy Central Picks Up Series
Norm Macdonald
Norm Macdonald is returning to the news, specifically sports news.
The former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and "Weekend Update" anchor will star in "Sports Show with Norm Macdonald." Comedy Central announced Wednesday that it's picking up the series and ordering eight episodes.
The network said the show will feature Macdonald's "comedic take on the most topical and controversial stories from the sports world."
The show will be taped in front of a live studio audience. It's set to premiere in April.
Norm Macdonald
Musical Astronaut
Catherine Coleman
Musical astronaut Catherine Coleman has plenty of flutes to pick from aboard the International Space Station.
At the space station, Coleman is the only flutist among the six-member crew. So while she prefers creating music with other people, she puts flute music on in the background and plays along whenever she has spare time.
The penny whistle she took up belongs to the Chieftains' Paddy Moloney. There's also an old Irish flute from the Chieftains' Matt Molloy and a flute belonging to Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull.
Coleman said part of her astronaut job is to share "how amazing it is up here and relate to different groups of people."
Catherine Coleman
Happy 200th
Franz Liszt
He was the world's first musical superstar, a bigger-than-life personality with a wild mane of hair who seated adoring women around his piano onstage and had his own "mania" cult long before the Beatles.
This year marks the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, that demon of the keyboard who made women swoon, men gape and rivals jealous. But his music is often deemed second rate, and while his piano works and concertos are played, many casual listeners may know him best from Tom & Jerry television cartoons ("Cat Concerto").
"I think he's criticized too many times considering that he was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century," said pianist and conductor Zoltan Kocsis, music director of Hungary's National Philharmonic Orchestra and the country's Liszt year "ambassador."
Liszt, the grand man of Hungarian music, who in Hungary goes by the first name Ferenc, was born in the then-Hungarian, now Austrian, village of Doborjan, on Oct 22, 1811.
Franz Liszt
Accident On Set
'NCIS'
Authorities say a security guard on the Los Angeles County set of the CBS television show "NCIS" has died after being struck by a van whose driver apparently blacked out.
Sheriff's Sgt. Michael Konecny says the van had just dropped off passengers Wednesday in Valencia when the driver suffered an unspecified medical condition and it accelerated suddenly, striking the guard.
The victim, who was not immediately identified, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The network says production on the show has been suspended while investigators try to determine what caused the accident.
'NCIS'
Pleads Not Guilty
Lindsay Lohan
Actress Lindsay Lohan pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to stealing a $2,500 necklace from a Los Angeles jewelry store, but was warned not to "push her luck" with any further slip-ups.
Dressed all in white for a brief court appearance, Lohan, 24, was charged with a single count of felony grand theft. If convicted, the "Mean Girls" star could be sent to prison for up to three years, prosecutors say.
Lohan is accused of walking out of a Los Angeles jewelry store without paying for a gold designer necklace in January -- just three weeks after ending her fifth stint in drug and alcohol rehab in three years.
Lohan, who was dressed in a long-sleeved white dress and sat calmly during the hearing, later posted bail of $20,000 and left the courthouse by a side door, media reports said.
Lindsay Lohan
Chances Narrow For Malibu Proposal
The Edge
A coastal development agency has recommended officials reject U2 guitarist The Edge's vision for a cluster of mansions that would look like nothing more than scattered leaves on a ridgeline overlooking Malibu.
The proposal by The Edge includes five homes ranging from 7,220 to 12,785 square feet to be built on a ridgeline in the Santa Monica Mountains. In a statement, the guitarist has said the mansions will be some of the most environmentally sensitive ever designed in the world.
But the pitch has not gotten far with neighboring residents, environmental groups and even the National Park Service, which raised concerns about biological and visual impacts in such sensitive habitat.
Staff for the California Coastal Commission, the coastal development agency whose permission is critical for the project to move forward, issued a final recommendation saying the board should reject the project at its meeting this week.
The Edge
Lawsuits Filed
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley Enterprises said it's suing men in Florida and England on claims of copyright infringement and illegal sale of a DVD and CD box set of recordings and footage of the singer's performances.
The Memphis-based company said it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Chancery Division of the High Court in England and Wales against Joseph Pirzada, alleging he is the source of the box set.
Company lawyers and computer experts, with authorization by the court, searched Pirzada's home Jan. 25 for evidence of the sale and distribution of the set.
On Feb. 2, Elvis Presley Enterprises sued Bud Glass, who has previously published an Elvis book and DVD series, on claims he illegally sold and distributed the Pirzada box set in the United States.
Elvis Presley
Film Stolen A Second Time
"Khodorkovsky"
The finished version of a German documentary about jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was reported stolen last week in Berlin.
Director Cyril Tuschi told Reuters it was the second time that material for his film "Khodorkovsky" has been stolen in the past few weeks. The first time the film was taken from his hotel room on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
"I booked a flight to Bali...to do the final editing on my laptop," he said. "And after four days, when I had just finished, it got stolen out of my hotel room."
Berlin police are investigating the second theft in which two hard drives and two laptops containing the film were stolen from the office of Tuschi's production company. So far police have no leads.
The film will still premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 14 as planned after Tuschi delivered an earlier version to the festival, should the material stolen in Bali not be recovered.
"Khodorkovsky"
Iconic Video Game Gets The Ax
'Guitar Hero'
These days, guns are more popular than guitars, at least when it comes to video games. The company behind "Guitar Hero" said Wednesday that it is pulling the plug on one of the most influential video game titles of the new century.
Activision Blizzard Inc., which also produces the "Call of Duty" series, is ending the "Guitar Hero" franchise after a run of more than five years. The move follows Viacom Inc.'s decision in November to sell its money-losing unit behind the "Rock Band" video games. Harmonix was sold to an investment firm for an undisclosed sum. Harmonix, incidentally, was behind the first "Guitar Hero" game.
Game industry analysts have long lamented the "weakness in the music genre," as they call it - that is, the inability of game makers to drum up demand for the products after an initial surge in popularity in the mid-2000s. Music games are often more expensive than your typical shoot-'em-up game because they require guitars, microphones and other musical equipment. While extra songs can be purchased for download, this hasn't been enough to keep the games profitable.
Activision's shares tumbled after the announcement, but investors appear more concerned with the company's disappointing revenue forecast than the demise of the rocker game. As far as investors go, discontinuing an unprofitable product isn't the end of the world, even if "Guitar Hero" fans disagree.
'Guitar Hero'
Conservative Family Values - Shirtless Edition
Christopher Lee
A New York congressman is abruptly resigning his seat, saying he regrets actions that have hurt his family and others.
A gossip web site reported Wednesday that Rep. Christoper Lee (R-Philanderer), a married two-term Repuiblican lawmaker, had sent a shirtless photo of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist.
Lee said in an e-mailed statement that his resignation was effective immediately. The statement offered no confirmation or details of a Craigslist posting.
Christopher Lee
No Adults Left In Fort Wayne, IN
Harry Baals
A former Indiana mayor who won four terms in the 1930s and 1950s is proving less popular with modern-day city leaders, who say they probably won't name a new government center for him because of the jokes his moniker could inspire.
Harry Baals is the runaway favorite in online voting to name the new building in Fort Wayne, about 120 miles northeast of Indianapolis. But Deputy Mayor Beth Malloy said that probably won't be enough to put the name of the city's longest-tenured mayor on the center.
The issue is pronunciation. The former mayor pronounced his last name "balls." His descendants have since changed it to "bales."
Supporters said it's unfair that the former mayor can't be recognized simply because his name makes some people snicker. But opponents fear that naming the center after Baals would make Fort Wayne the target of late-night television jokes.
Harry Baals
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Jan. 31-Feb. 6. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses:
1. "Jersey Shore" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 5.52 million homes, 8.25 million viewers.
2. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10:30 p.m.), History, 5.46 million homes, 7.73 million viewers.
3. "Pawn Stars" (Monday, 10 p.m.), History, 5.19 million homes, 7.3 million viewers.
4. "American Pickers" (Monday, 9 p.m.), History, 4.57 million homes, 6.61 million viewers.
5. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.483 million homes, 5.33 million viewers.
6. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.48 million homes, 5.23 million viewers.
7. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.2 million homes, 4.74 million viewers.
8. "NCIS" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.18 million homes, 4.2 million viewers.
9. "NCIS" (Saturday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.17 million homes, 4.44 million viewers.
10. "The Game" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), BET, 3.13 million homes, 4.82 million viewers.
11. "NCIS" (Saturday, 7 p.m.), USA, 3.09 million homes, 4.37 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.07 million homes, 4.26 million viewers.
13. "NCIS" (Saturday, 5 p.m.), USA, 3.059 million homes, 4 million viewers.
14. "NCIS" (Saturday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.053 million homes, 4.31 million viewers.
15. "Victorious" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.05 million homes, 4.4 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Marvin Sease
Marvin Sease, a blues and soul singer known for his 1980s hit "Candy Licker," has died after a lengthy illness. He was 64.
James Jefferson, owner of Jefferson Funeral Home in Vicksburg, Miss., says Sease died Tuesday at River Region Medical Center.
Sease was born in Blacksville, S.C.
Brett Bonner, editor of Living Blues Magazine, says Sease started in gospel music in South Carolina before moving to New York and eventually playing rhythm and blues. Bonner says after "Candy Licker" was released in the late 1980s, Sease became popular for his live performances in the South. Bonner says many of Sease's song were too dirty for airplay.
Marvin Sease
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