Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Promises Kept by Obama
roger ebert's journal: The storyteller and the stallion
Bill Nack is a born story-teller. The author of the biography Secretariat has enveloped me time and again in the fascination of his tales. That process began nearly 50 years ago at the University of Illinois, when we were both working on The Daily Illini. I was the editor, he was the sports editor, and then the following year he was the editor. He was also a natural writer -- and, perhaps more significantly, a natural reader. His taste was persuasive.
Mark Morford: I am outraged! Are you not outraged? (sfgate.com)
You surely are, yes? Outraged, that is? Seething and churning and burning up inside, deeply upset about that thing that just happened and which you did not want to occur in that particular way even though it totally did? Damn right.
Sandy Banks: Fostering a new activism (latimes.com)
Alan Weeks came of age when gay meant happy, not homosexual, and coming out was for debutantes.
Clarence Page: Can the black vote save the Democrats? (chicagotribune.com)
Can it be? Polls are showing black voters to be no less excited about the upcoming midterm elections than they were two years ago during the heyday of Obamamania.
Andrew Tobias: HEALTH CARE
Here's a key thing people don't seem to get about the health care bill: it's more than paid for.
Froma Harrop: Sex, Violence and the Female Voter (creators.com)
The line between crazy and creepy is not always a dark one. Voters may tolerate eccentric candidates if they have a good line and fairly coherent worldview. Creepiness is something else. Politicians who threaten violence or question the sexual adequacy of their opponents give people - especially female people - the crawlies.
BOB HERBERT: That Sinking Feeling (nytimes.com)
However the elections turn out, Democrats must focus far more intently on the economic plight of ordinary Americans.
Jim Hightower: WALL STREET'S CONNECTED LOBBYISTS
Old Congress critters never die, they just fade away. Into lobbying firms, that is.
STANLEY FISH: Crisis of the Humanities II (nytimes.com)
A discussion of the humanities crisis in universities continues.
Greg Kot: Bad Religion weds punk, science (Chicago Tribune)
Bad Religion has been a going concern for 31 years, a remarkable achievement for any band, let alone one that remains devoted to the punk ideals of the late '70s.
Randy Lewis: Bad Religion keeps faith with punk rock (from 18 March 2010; Los Angeles Times)
A funny thing happened to punk band Bad Religion on the way to what its members fully expected to be a James Dean existence: They fully embraced the "live fast" part of that manifesto, but somehow forgot to die young.
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."
The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Call it as ya See it' Edition...
The 2010 Mid-term Elections. No media intro or links are needed, I'm thinkin'...
We all know what's at stake here... So, gaze into yer Crystal Ball, break out the Ouija board, shuffle the Tarot cards, read yer tea leaves or just take a wild-ass guess and make yer prediction on the outcome, if'n ya dare...
The Democrats will:
1.) Retain the majority in both the House and the Senate
2.) Lose the House, but retain the Senate
3.) Retain the House, but lose the Senate
4.) Worse case scenario... and you know what that is, dagnabbit!
Predictions will be posted the morning of November 2nd.
... and may The Force be with us!
Send your response to
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
BadtotheboneBob
Entrapment?
Cops used fake patient IDs to buy medical pot; Was it entrapment?
Oakland County Sheriff's deputies used phony Michigan medical-marijuana cards -- created on a county computer -- to trick state-approved medical marijuana providers into selling the drug to the cops, according to documents obtained by the Free Press from defense attorneys. Days after the drug buys, county narcotics agents raided two medical-marijuana dispensaries Aug. 25 in Ferndale and Waterford.
Cops used fake patient IDs to buy medical pot; Was it entrapment? | freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly rainy.
The kid's been on a classics kick, and since his birthday is coming up, started looking for a copy of Faust.
He'd looked for a copy of Faust at the school library, and found their only copy, but it's in Spanish.
I found one, finally, at a local bookstore, but it was part 1, so then had to look for part 2.
Ended up at an online bookstore, and found Faust, parts 1 & 2, in one volume, so I ordered it.
While I was browsing, saw the new Mark Twain autobiography was taking pre-sales orders, so I decided it was time for a treat for me, too.
In spite of what the media has been saying, the Mark Twain book isn't 'dropping' next month - got my copy in the mail today!
I'd do my Snoopy happy dance, but don't want to waste a minute so I can settle in and start reading.
Stars Rally
Broadway
Moved by a recent spate of suicides by teens who were believed to be victims of anti-gay bullying, members of the theater community have lent their support with what they do best: messages from the heart and an uplifting song.
Obama''s "Daily Show" Appearance
Jon Stewart
First he gave an unexpected endorsement to Jon Stewart's upcoming "Rally to Restore Sanity." Now President Barack Obama is giving Stewart's satirical talk show the ultimate television "get" -- himself as a guest.
Obama To Appear
'Mythbusters'
President Barack Obama will appear on an episode of "Mythbusters," a television show that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends.
The White House says the episode will air Dec. 8 on the Discovery Channel.
Discovery says the episode considers this question: Did Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun?
Officials say the president's appearance, which has already been taped, is part of a White House push to promote math and science education. On Monday, Obama hosts a White House science fair celebrating students who have won science, technology, engineering and math competitions.
'Mythbusters'
Opening For Obama In Vegas
Sara Bareilles
Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, singer of the pop hit "Love Song," will open for President Barack Obama at a Las Vegas rally designed to rouse Democratic voters before the midterm elections.
Bareilles performs Friday at a Las Vegas middle school, where Obama will host his latest "Moving America Forward" rally.
Nevada is prime battleground for Democrats, who face losing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid if Republican Sharron Angle's tea party bid is successful. Republicans have painted Reid as the face of Obama's sweeping social and economic policies, including the federal health care law and the $787 billion stimulus.
Sara Bareilles
The Coco Cam
Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien is building the hype for his upcoming TBS talk show with the debut of a 24-hour "Coco Cam" online that shows live video from his office.
The "Coco Cam" is trained on an office stairwell. Its first-day highlights included a dancing man in a taco costume and another who gave a dramatic reading from behind a podium while passers-by threw things at him.
The first hour had an aerobics session with women in 1980s-era workout gear.
O'Brien, former NBC "Tonight" show host, is counting down the days toward his Nov. 8 debut. Other promotional highlights have included a blimp with "Conan" that has drifted around stadiums during Major League Baseball playoff games that TBS is broadcasting.
Conan O'Brien
Band Goes Viral
Atomic Tom
Armed with only iPhones, an inventive rock band has gone viral by way of the subway.
The Brooklyn band Atomic Tom has scored an Internet hit with its self-created video to the song "Take Me Out." In the video, the band members ride a New York City subway while performing entirely on iPhones, with apps for each instrument.
In the video, the four crouch on subway seats, specifically the B train while it crosses the Manhattan Bridge. Singer Luke White clutches an iPhone like a microphone, guitarist Eric Espiritu and bassist Philip Galitzine strum chords across iPhone screens like tiny instruments, and drummer Tobias Smith taps on a drum app.
It has been watched by more than 2 million on YouTube since debuting last week.
Atomic Tom
NZ May Lose Films
"The Hobbit"
New Zealand may lose filming of "The Hobbit" movies, with financial backers Warner Brothers making arrangements to shift the production offshore, director Peter Jackson warned Thursday.
Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films, and the union Actors' Equity have been at loggerheads over pay deals for actors in the New Zealand 660 million dollar (US$500 million) two-film prequel to the highly successful "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.
Wingnut Films said in a statement that the actors' move in threatening to boycott the production had undermined Warner Brothers confidence in the industry "and they are now, quite rightly, very concerned about the security of their $500m investment."
Jackson said while they would fight to keep the films in New Zealand, the decision ultimately rests with Warner Brothers.
"The Hobbit"
Ex-Playmate Channels 'Sunset Blvd'
Angela Dorian
A former Playboy Playmate of the Year who appeared in the horror movie "Rosemary's Baby" has been charged with shooting her boyfriend at their Hollywood apartment.
The district attorney's office says 66-year-old Victoria Rathgeb pleaded not guilty to attempted murder on Tuesday. She remains jailed Wednesday on $1.5 million bail and could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Los Angeles police spokeswoman Norma Eisenman says the man, whose identity wasn't released, remains in critical condition.
Rathgeb was 1968's Playmate of the Year under the name of Angela Dorian. She had TV and movie roles in the 1960s and 1970s and played a recovering heroin addict in the 1968 hit "Rosemary's Baby."
Angela Dorian
Finally Does Something Right!
$chwarzenegger
Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger (R-Meat Puppet) said Tuesday he doesn't just want to defeat the November ballot measure that would suspend the state's greenhouse gas emissions law - he wants voters to trounce it to prompt Washington to create a new national energy policy.
Speaking in San Francisco, $chwarzenegger characterized Proposition 23 as a battle between out-of-state oil interests and environmental progress.
"Now, there's some Texan oil companies, they don't like our environmental laws," the Republican governor told the audience at the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute annual breakfast. "And so I want to ask all of you to do everything you can to make everyone vote 'no' on this proposition."
The petroleum industry has spent millions to promote the measure, which would indefinitely suspend AB32, California's 2006 law mandating significant emissions reductions by 2020. Supporters say such a move is necessary to protect small businesses and save jobs in a state where unemployment is at 12.4 percent.
$chwarzenegger
Racy GQ Photos Upset Prudes
"Glee"
A racy photo shoot for men's magazine GQ featuring three "Glee" cast members raised eyebrows on Wednesday, provoking terms like "creepy" and "pedophilia" and questions over whether the popular TV musical show is becoming over-exposed.
Short skirts, high heels, scanty panties and provocative poses featuring lollipops dominate the November issue photoshoot featuring Lea Michele (Rachel), Dianna Agron (Quinn) and Corey Monteith (Finn) that plays with the high school setting of the Emmy-award winning television show. All three actors are in their mid-20s.
The Parents Television Council watchdog group said the photos "border on pedophilia," given the adult male readership of GQ. "This is just the latest example of the overt sexualization of young girls in entertainment," the PTC added.
Broadcaster Fox on Wednesday declined to comment on the PTC statement. But GQ editor in chief Jim Nelson said that the watchdog group "should learn to divide reality from fantasy."
"Glee"
Retains Good Ole Boy Status
Pixar
The first woman hired to direct a Pixar feature is now off the job.
The Disney-owned animation studio said Brenda Chapman has been replaced on "Brave" by storyboard artist Mark Andrews. Pixar had no comment on the director switcheroo, news of which first broke on animation website Cartoon Brew.
Replacing directors on Disney cartoons is not uncommon, with films such as "Ratatouille," "Bolt" and the upcoming "Tangled" (formerly known as "Rapunzel") undergoing changes at the top.
But the reasons for the focus on "Brave" are two-fold. One, the summer 2102 release is the only non-sequel scheduled by Pixar for the next few years, with "Cars 2" and "Monsters Inc. 2" on the calendar. Two, Chapman rose to the top in a male-dominated field. The Disney veteran worked as a writer on such films as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cars," and co-directed "The Prince of Egypt." "Brave," coincidentally, revolves around a Scottish princess' quest to become an archer.
Pixar
Slappy's Wife Seeks Apology From Victim
Anita Hill
Anita Hill is refusing to apologize for accusing then-Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her, in an issue that Thomas' wife has reopened 19 years after his confirmation hearings.
"I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony," Hill, now a Brandeis University professor, said in a statement released Tuesday night.
Thomas' wife, Virginia, had left a voicemail message on Hill's phone on Oct. 9 asking her to say she was sorry for the allegations that surfaced at Thomas' confirmation hearings for a seat on the high court bench in 1991.
In her statement, Hill said, "I certainly thought the call was inappropriate." She had worked for Clarence Thomas in two federal government jobs before he was selected for the court by President George H.W. Bush for the Supreme Court.
Mrs. Thomas said in a statement that she was "extending an olive branch" to Hill.
Anita Hill
Veteran Political 'Activist'
Virginia Thomas
Virginia Thomas is an experienced political activist with ties to the tea party movement. She's an outspoken opponent of the Obama administration. She's also the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Though Virginia Thomas offered no explanation about the timing of her phone call, The New York Times had published a front-page story on her political activism on Oct. 9, the day she placed the call. Almost exactly 19 years earlier, Clarence Thomas was in an unanticipated fight to be confirmed because of Hill's explosive allegations that he sexually harassed her at the two federal agencies where Thomas was her boss.
Virginia Thomas is easily the most politically active Supreme Court spouse, having worked for the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and at the Heritage Foundation, a Republican-leaning think tank in Washington.
Her latest role is as the founder of Liberty Central, a new nonprofit group that opposes what she has described as a power grab by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
Virginia Thomas
Tops German Charts
Bruddah Iz
With the body of a sumo wrestler and the voice of an angel, a ukulele-playing Hawaiian named Israel Kamakawiwo'ole has stormed to number one on Germany's music charts -- 13 years after he died.
Also known as "Bruddah Iz", his lilting version of "Over the Rainbow", made famous by Judy Garland in the film "The Wizard of Oz", has wowed Germans who have pushed it to the top of hit parade for three successive weeks.
The music by the 350-pound (159-kilogramme) singer was also featured in the film "50 First Dates" starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and "Meet Joe Black" with Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins.
His version of the Wizard of Oz classic seems to have scored particular success in the German-speaking world, reaching the top 20 in Switzerland and in Austria but it is the Germans who have really taken him to heart.
Bruddah Iz
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Oct. 11-17. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Minnesota vs. N.Y. Jets (Monday, 9:05 p.m.), ESPN, 12.45 million homes, 17.31 million viewers.
2. American League Championship Series, Game 1: N.Y. Yankees vs. Texas (Friday, 8 p.m.), TBS, 5.75 million homes, 8.11 million viewers.
3. "Special Report: Chilean Miners Rescue" (Wednesday, 8:16 p.m.), Fox News, 5.3 million homes, 7.06 million viewers.
4. College Football: Ohio St. vs. Wisconsin (Saturday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 4.97 million homes, 7.27 million viewers.
5. MLB Division Series: Texas vs. Tampa Bay, Game 5 (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), TBS, 4.74 million homes, 6.41 million viewers.
6. "ICarly" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 4.47 million homes, 6.69 million viewers.
7. "Jersey Shore 2" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 4.154 million homes, 5.68 million viewers.
8. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), Fox News, 4.152 million homes, 5.29 million viewers.
9. American League Championship Series, Game 2: N.Y. Yankees vs. Texas (Saturday, 4 p.m.), TBS, 4.12 million homes, 5.83 million viewers.
10. "Monday Night Countdown" (Monday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 4.07 million homes, 5.34 million viewers.
11. "Teen Mom 2" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), MTV, 3.94 million homes, 5.55 million viewers.
12. "Hannity" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), Fox News, 3.73 million homes, 5.05 million viewers.
13. "Big Time Rush" (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.47 million homes, 4.91 million viewers.
14. MLB Division Series: San Francisco vs. Atlanta, Game 4 (Monday, 7:30 p.m.), TBS, 3.44 million homes, 4.66 million viewers.
15. "ICarly" (Monday, 7:30 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.37 million homes, 4.76 million viewers.
Ratings
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