Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The big gay shrug (sfgate.com)
Sorry, enemies of gay marriage. Prop 8 or no, you've already lost.
MATTHEW B. CRAWFORD: The Case for Working With Your Hands (nytimes.com)
If the goal is to earn a living, then, maybe it isn't really true that 18-year-olds need to be imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college (though they certainly need to learn). Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things.
Scott Burns: The Payoff for Low Cost Index Investing (assetbuilder.com)
If Fidelity, with all its savvy and resources, can't pick a winning manager, just what do you think the chances are of you or me doing it? What do you think are the chances that the average investment adviser can do it?
P. W. Singer: Gaming the Robot Revolution (slate.com)
A military technology expert weighs in on 'Terminator: Salvation.'
PHILIP GOUREVITCH: The Abu Ghraib We Cannot See (nytimes.com)
IN mid-October of 2003, Specialist Sabrina Harman of the 372nd Military Police Company was assigned guard duty on the military intelligence cellblock at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. That was the block where prisoners of the American occupation forces were held pending and during interrogation. The M.P.'s had no military training as prison guards, and they were told to do whatever the interrogators - a mix of military intelligence and C.I.A. officers and civilian contractors - asked them to do to the prisoners.
One Less Torture Advocate
"It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that's no joke,"Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. "It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back...It was instantaneous...and I don't want to say this: absolutely torture."
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe: A review by Howard W. French (powells.com)
When it was published fifty years ago, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart caused a stir for its revelation of something hitherto strange and unfamiliar in the world of literature: genuine African voices. Achebe was not the first African novelist, as he has sometimes wrongly been called, but his use of standard English to produce believable characters who inhabited a complex and authentic world marked two existing traditions of writing about Africa as evolutionary dead ends.
Adam Kirsch: Nowhere Man (slate.com)
The secret of Aleksandar Hemon's brilliant satire.
Keegan Hamilton: The Influential Music of St. Louis Sax Legend Oliver Sain Lives On (Riverfront Times)
Oliver Sain was a saxophone player, producer, composer, arranger, talent scout and multi-instrumentalist who reigned over the St. Louis worlds of blues, jazz, soul and R&B for more than four decades.
MICHAEL FRANCO: "Magnificently Not Defeated: An Interview with Jay Bennett" (popmatters.com)
ay Bennett passed away over the weekend and will be sadly missed by all of us. Back in 2006 Michael Franco talked to the former Wilco member about his solo work and we present this PopMatters interview from 28 November 2006 by way of tribute.
BEN SISARIO: Jay Bennett, Ex-Member of Wilco, Dies at 45 (nytimes.com)
The latest on the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia extravaganzas and much more. The cause is still unknown.
20 Questions: Elliott Yamin (popmatters.com)
19. What do you want to say to the leader of your country?
I would ask our current president to be honest with us and to be accountable. It's time for a change. Utilize the tools and resources we have to cure diseases and every citizen should be entitled to health care, no matter their financial situation and every school in America should have a music program!
The Weekly Poll
The 'Guilty TV Pleasures' Edition...
Are there any TV programs that you secretly feel sheepish about watching regularly, but do so anyway because you REALLY like them? C'mon now, fess up! I will!
I double-dog dare ya, haha!
Send your response to
"From out of the clear blue of the Western sky . . .comes Sky King!"
What is the fifth-longest-running American TV Western?
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Another overcast morning with a sunny afternoon.
Rants Against Racist Politics
Eddie Izzard
Funnyman Eddie Izzard is urging his fellow Brits to stand up to a tide of fascism sweeping European politics - amid fears right-wing extremists could gain a foothold in the UK.
Political activists in Britain have launched a campaign after concerns grew over the rise of far right-wing British National Party, whose members expect to pick up thousands of votes in the upcoming European Parliamentary Elections next month.
And comedian-turned-actor Izzard has backed calls for voters to make a stand against the controversial party to stop it gaining ground.
Izzard, who played a German World War II officer involved in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 2008 movie Valkyrie, tells the Daily Mirror, "We all know the BNP is a racist party and racism is active hatred. The BNP talk about racial purity, a concept they learned from Hitler.
"I was in the U.S. for the elections and witnessed Hope's great victory. Yet now, in Britain, we are about to elect racists to represent us in Europe... If you believe in humanity, in our modern, diverse country, I ask you to reject the politics of hate."
Eddie Izzard
19th Anniversary
Aung San Suu Kyi
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and celebrities including actor George Clooney have added their voices to an online petition to call for the freeing of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The "64 for Aung San Suu Kyi" campaign wants her 64th birthday on June 19 to be the last she spends under house arrest.
The campaign has been launched in Britain as Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial behind closed doors on charges of violating the conditions of her house arrest after a US man, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her home.
It also comes as her supporters marked Wednesday the 19th anniversary of the election whose result was annulled by the military regime, leading eventually to her being placed under house arrest in 2003.
Aung San Suu Kyi
'Helpless' Named The Great Canadian Tune
Neil Young
Neil Young's "Helpless" has been named the Great Canadian Tune after an online poll conducted by Toronto arts festival Luminato.
"Helpless" topped nine other Canadian guitar-driven tracks, with 3,701 votes from a total of 19,217.
Now, Luminato organizers are inviting the public to perform the song in unison at the city's Yonge-Dundas Square.
The goal is to break the Guinness World Record for the world's largest guitar ensemble, currently held by a town in Germany that saw 1,802 guitarists assemble to perform Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" in 2007.
Neil Young
Auction Nets Nearly 500,000 Euros
Marcel Marceau
The battered top hat of legendary French mime Marcel Marceau, his signature sailor suit and other belongings have fetched nearly 500,000 euros ($700,000) at a two-day auction.
Marceau's daughter, Camille, organized the auction to settle her late father's outstanding debts that had helped finance his show. Marceau died 2007 at age 84.
His top hat and its single red flower went for 3,201 euros ($4,500), while his white sailor suit with its striped shirt and snug-fitting jacket fetched 5,700 euros ($8,000). Other items included furniture, paintings and art objects.
The sale had been expected to raise some 300,000 euros ($420,000) in total.
Marcel Marceau
Stamp Auctioned
Audrey Hepburn
A rare German stamp depicting Audrey Hepburn with a cigarette holder, an image from the 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's," has been sold for $74,600 (53,500 euros) by a Berlin auction house.
Germany had planned to issue 14 million copies of the stamp in 2001. Instead, it had to destroy them because the family of the actress did not approve of her image being used on the stamp. Just a handful survived.
The starting bid for the stamp, which went to an anonymous collector, was 30,000 euros. The Belgian-born film star and fashion icon died of cancer in Switzerland in 1993.
Audrey Hepburn
Blames Media
"Slumdog" Makers
Once under fire for not doing enough for its impoverished Indian child stars, the makers of "Slumdog Millionaire" said Wednesday they had bought a flat for one of them whose Mumbai shanty home had been demolished.
Director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson flew into Mumbai after pictures of Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali picking through the debris of their homes -- torn down by the civic authorities as illegal -- were splashed in the media.
Smiling and hugging the children, Boyle said a home had been bought for Ismail, 9, who played the character of Salim as a child. He added they would soon buy one for Ali as well, who plays the young Latika.
Boyle, who came under fire for not doing enough for the children who lived in squalor despite the film's success, blamed the media for raising the families' expectations.
"Slumdog" Makers
Mike Polk, Home Town Comic
Cleveland
Come to Cleveland, where the economy is based on LeBron James, the streets are filled with drifters and broken-down homes can be had for the price of a VCR.
A comedian's sarcastic YouTube music videos trashing Cleveland have so unnerved tourism officials that they asked residents to fire back with videos of their own showing the city is not really the "Mistake on the Lake."
But take it easy, Cleveland. Mike Polk, 31, a hometown comic and video producer, said his two videos - which also maligned the city for such things as its abandoned buildings and polluted waters - were all in fun.
"I don't really believe all of the fish in Lake Erie have AIDS," said Polk, whose YouTube contribution to Cleveland's inferiority complex landed him a job judging the mostly feel-good contest videos.
Cleveland
Corporate Sponsor Didn't Rig
"American Idol"
A few overeager AT&T employees brought demo phones to "American Idol" viewing parties in Arkansas and helped fans text their votes, but their actions did not affect the outcome between native son Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, the company said Wednesday.
Allen, 23, of Conway, Ark., won by an undisclosed margin over Lambert, 27, of San Diego, a powerful singer who'd been cast by the show's judges as the front-runner. Host Ryan Seacrest said nearly 100 million votes were sent by phone or text message after last Tuesday's final performance, but did not mention how those votes were divided.
While anyone in the United States could phone in votes, only AT&T customers were allowed to text.
About 20 phones were brought to two separate parties in Arkansas, and two of those phones were capable of sending multiple votes by so-called "power texting," a person familiar with the gatherings said. A second person, with knowledge of the voting results, said Allen won by a large enough margin that a handful of voters could not have swayed the outcome.
"American Idol"
Purchases AmericanLife Network
Robert A. Schuller
Robert A. Schuller, the minister who formerly co-hosted the weekly show "The Hour of Power," is part of the team that has acquired the independent AmericanLife TV Network in an effort to change the face of "family friendly" programing.
Schuller, the only son of Crystal Cathedral founder and current pastor Robert H. Schuller, has partnered with former CBS producer and GodTube.com founder Chris Wyatt at ComStar Networks to purchase AmericanLife for an undisclosed sun.
ALN, formerly owned by the Unification Church, has more than 12.7 million cable subscribers and a library of 700-plus hours of programing. With the slogan "Your Baby Boomer TV choice," it airs mostly reruns. Changes under ComStar will include a network rebranding as a destination for family-values programing and more original content, executives said.
Schuller accepted the "Hour of Power" host role from his father in a public ceremony in 2006 but left abruptly in October, citing irreconcilable differences. "Hour of Power" is said to be the most-watched Christian program in the world, with an estimated 20 million viewers each week. Schuller said he will have a new series for ALN in the fall.
Robert A. Schuller
Cry Poverty
Catholic Orders
The Catholic orders responsible for abusing Ireland's poorest children say they're struggling to come up with money to help their victims. Yet investigations into their net worth paint a very different picture - that of nuns and brothers with billions' worth of carefully sheltered assets worldwide.
Irish government leaders said Wednesday they expect the 18 religious orders involved in abusing children in workhouse-style schools to pay a much greater share of compensation to 14,000 state-recognized victims. They also demanded that the secretive orders reveal the true scope of their wealth for the first time in face-to-face negotiations with the government.
On Wednesday, about half of the 18 orders announced they would meet with the government. All reiterated apologies for their role in harming children - but none said they would contribute more than promised in a 2002 deal with the government that left taxpayers paying almost all of the euro1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) bill to settle the abuse claims.
The orders this week have ruled out paying more compensation, even though the report found them principally to blame and guilty of far greater abuses than they admitted to in 2002. Instead the orders have proposed unspecified contributions to a new victims' welfare fund.
Catholic Orders
ZENIT - Economic Report of the Holy See for 2000
ZENIT - Vatican's 2006 Financial Statement
Sounds Like A Republican
Helping Hand
A Chinese man was pushed off a bridge by an angry passer-by after his threat to commit suicide held up traffic for five hours, Chinese media reported on Saturday.
Retired soldier Lian Jiansheng, 66, broke through a police cordon and reached out to shake the hand of would-be jumper Chen Fuchao before shoving him off the bridge.
"I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interests," Lai was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.
Chen, 2 million yuan ($293,200) in debt because of a failed building project, fell 8 metres (yards) onto a partially inflated emergency air cushion and was hospitalized with wrist and back injuries. Lai was detained by police.
Helping Hand
Found In Siberia
Feral Girl
Russian police have taken into care a 5-year-old girl who has been shut up in a flat in the company of cats and dogs for her entire life, police said on Wednesday.
The girl, who lived in the Eastern Siberian city of Chita, could not speak Russian and acted like an dog when police took her into care.
A police spokeswoman said the girl, known as Natasha, is being monitored by psychologists in an orphanage. Her mother was being questioned but her father has not been found yet.
She appears to be about 2-years-old, though her real age is five, refuses to eat with a spoon and has taken on many of the gestures of the animals with which she lived, police said.
Feral Girl
Louisiana
Pink Dolphin
What's pink, has red eyes and leaps around a Louisiana shipping channel long enough for you to believe your eyes? A rare albino bottlenose dolphin. Bottlenose dolphins are common in the lower Calcasieu Ship Channel, feeding in the deep water and riding on top of boats' waves. And when the pink one jumps amid four dark gray dolphins, it's easy to spot.
The albino is just the 14th reported worldwide, and the third in the Gulf of Mexico, according to biologist Dagmar Fertl of Plano, Texas.
It was first reported by Wesley Lockard of Rayville, La., as a small calf in June 2007. Lockard, 26, said he and family members were fishing when they were stunned by the sight. "Something comes up and you say, `Wow! Did I just ...?' Then he comes up again and you say, `Yeah! I just saw a pink dolphin!'" he said.
Now, the mammal is as much a part of the channel south of Lake Charles as boats and fishermen.
Pink Dolphin
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for May 18-24. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (1) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 28.84 million viewers.
2. (2) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 23.82 million viewers.
3. (7) "Dancing with the Stars Results," ABC, 20.31 million viewers.
4. (3) "Dancing with the Stars," ABC, 19.17 million viewers.
5. (7) "The Mentalist," CBS, 16.82 million viewers.
6. (5) "NCIS," CBS, 16.51 million viewers.
7. (10) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 16.18 million viewers.
8. (13) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.2 million viewers.
9. (12) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 13.99 million viewers.
10. (24) "Rules of Engagement," CBS, 12.87 million viewers.
11. (17) "Without a Trace," CBS, 11.21 million viewers.
12. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 9.88 million viewers.
13. (21) "24," Fox, 9.64 million viewers.
14. (X) "Glee Preview," Fox, 9.62 million viewers.
15. (X) "So You Think You Can Dance," Fox, 8.85 million viewers.
16. (45) "How I Met Your Mother," CBS, 8.73 million viewers.
17. (X) "NBA Playoffs: L.A. Lakers at Denver, Game 3," ABC, 8.73 million viewers.
18. (48) "The Bachelorette," ABC, 8.69 million viewers.
19. (10) "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.14 million viewers.
20. (X) "Dancing with the Stars" special (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), ABC, 7.65 million viewers.
Ratings
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