Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Zeke Miller: Romney Campaign Exaggerates Size Of Nevada Event With Altered Image (Buzzfeed)
At best, the official Romney Instagram account posted a really bad panorama.
Dr Brian Moenc: Mormon Mitt in Bed with Big Tobacco (TruthOut)
Mitt Romney's religious hypocrisy and lack of moral scruples are most tellingly exemplified by his personal involvement in Bain Capital's work for big tobacco - which included hooking millions of Russians on the drug that is anathema to Mormons.
The Whedon Endorsement (Neatorama)
"Geek Overlord" Joss Whedon has endorsed Mitt Romney. He makes logical points, backs up his opinion, and comes to a pragmatic conclusion. He suggests, if you want a zombie apocolyse as he does, you must vote for the Zomney. Well played sir, well played.
Andrew Tobias: The Emperor's Clothes
This time, we're not gonna fall for it. The last time a Harvard-MBA-'75-former-governor-son-of-a-prominent-Republican ran for president promising A HUGE TAX CUT THAT WOULD NEITHER ADVANTAGE THE RICH NOR EXPLODE THE DEFICIT, we got President Bush, whose huge tax tax wildly advantaged the rich and exploded the deficit. (I wasn't keen on his humble foreign policy, either.)
Jeremy Bird: "Inside the early vote numbers: Early momentum" (BarackObama.com)
Early voting is giving us a solid lead in the battleground states that will decide this election. Two polls in the last two days have us up in Virginia. Three more in Ohio, New Hampshire, and Florida show movement in our direction. And in states like Iowa and Nevada, we're racking up early vote margins so large that, if it continues at this rate, Mitt Romney will have to beat us by a 20 percent margin on Election Day to win.
Alexandra Topping: "Rape in the military: exposing the shocking truth" (Guardian)
The groundbreaking film The Invisible War exposes the shocking level of sexual abuse against women in the US military. Its concerns about rape are echoed in the UK.
Dorian Lynskey: The tyranny of cultural choice is making my brain gasp (Guardian)
These days we are endlessly bombarded with lists of 'must-read' articles and books, and reviews of 'must-see' box sets. It all makes me want to sigh: must I?
John Crace: "Jo Nesbř: 'If Salman Rushdie had been Norwegian, he'd have written a thriller'" (Guardian)
The bestselling author explains why Scandinavian writers are drawn to crime fiction - and why he can't help torturing the hero of his books.
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David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
(Infographic)
Invisible Blood Suckers
Thanks, Peter!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Hurricane Sandy: After Landfall
Hurricane Sandy -- the largest Atlantic tropical system on record - made landfall just south of Atlantic City, New Jersey, bringing winds up to 90 mph (150 kph), and pushing a massive storm surge onto beaches and shorelines. . Collected here are images of Sandy's aftermath, many from New York City, which suffered widespread blackouts and a record-setting high tide early this morning. See yesterday's entry: Hurricane Sandy in Photos
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Figure about 150-160 kids stopped by for candy.
Donates $100K
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt has agreed to donate $100,000 to help the Human Rights Campaign raise money for its efforts to support same-sex marriage initiatives in several states.
The nation's largest gay rights group announced Wednesday that Pitt agreed to match contributions from the group's members up to $100,000.
In an e-mail to members of the Human Rights Campaign, Pitt wrote that it's "unbelievable" that people's relationships will be put to a vote on Election Day.
Same-sex marriage will be on the ballot in Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington state.
Brad Pitt
Syndication Deal
"Anger Management"
Here's a deal Charlie Sheen isn't mad at: the FX series "Anger Management" is getting syndicated to Fox Television Stations beginning in September 2014 - after airing for just one season.
The Fox stations will have plenty of episodes to re-air. Under an unusual deal, the series was picked up for 90 episodes after meeting a ratings threshold set by FX in its first season, which premiered in June. Fox Television Stations acquired the off-network rights from Debmar-Mercury in a cash and barter deal. No terms were disclosed.
The show will air on nine Fox stations. FX will retain the exclusive cable rights to its reruns.
"Anger Management" will join Fox Television Stations' other off-network comedies, including syndication's No. 1 and 2 top syndicated shows of the past five years, "The Big Bang Theory" and "Modern Family." Fox will offer double airings of "Anger Management" Monday through Sunday.
"Anger Management"
January Return Dates
USA
USA has announced that its sunny dramas "Suits," "Necessary Roughness" and "White Collar" will return within days of each other in the dead of winter.
The top-rated cable network will bring back "Suits" for the second half of its second season on Thursday, January 17 at 10/9c. Six episodes remain in the season.
"White Collar" will be back for the second half of its fourth season on Tuesday, January 22 at 10/9 c. It will also air six episodes.
"Necessary Roughness" will wrap its second season with five episodes beginning Wednesday, January 23 at 10/9c.
USA
3rd Season From FX
'Wilfred'
"Wilfred" will bark once more.
FX has given the series, which stars Elijah Wood as a struggling young man who befriends his neighbor's curiously human-like dog, a third season, the cable network said Wednesday.
The 13-episode third season will debut in June 2013.
In addition to the third-season order, writers/producers Reed Agnew and Eli Jorné have been promoted to executive producers and showrunners for the show. David Zuckerman, who adapted the series for American television from the Australian show of the same name and served as executive producer/showrunner for the first two seasons, will remain as executive producer.
'Wilfred'
George Wendt
Chest pains will keep actor George Wendt from performing as Oscar Madison in a Chicago-area production of "The Odd Couple."
Northlight Theatre announced Tuesday that the actor famous for playing Norm Peterson on the TV show "Cheers" checked into a hospital Sunday and is receiving medical attention. Northlight Theatre executive director Timothy Evans says Wendt "will eventually make a full recovery."
The 64-year-old Wendt was to perform in the show from Nov. 2 through Dec. 9 in the Chicago suburb of Skokie. He will be replaced by actor Marc Grapey, who previously performed in "The Odd Couple" on Broadway with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
George Wendt
Another Pro-Incest Conservative
"Rape Thing"
A Republican congressional candidate says abortion should not be legal, even when it involves "the rape thing," according to audio provided Wednesday to The Associated Press.
An activist working on behalf of liberal group FUSE Washington asked questions of Republican hopeful John Koster during a Sunday fundraiser. Koster said he does not oppose abortion when the life of the mother is in danger but then explains he would oppose it when it involves rape or incest.
Koster twice uses the phrase "the rape thing" when describing his views, first saying that he knows a woman who was raped and gave up the child for adoption without any regrets.
"But on the rape thing, it's like, how does putting more violence onto a woman's body and taking the life of an innocent child that's a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better?" Koster said in the exchange.
"Rape Thing"
Graphic Vegas Poster Draws Criticism
Guns N' Roses
A county commissioner in Las Vegas says she regrets the board temporarily renamed a street in honor of Guns N' Roses after finding out about the band's suggestive publicity artwork.
Ads promoting the band's four-week run at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino depict a disheveled woman who appears to be sexually assaulted beneath the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign.
Commissioner Mary Beth Scow represented Clark County at a ceremony Monday that renamed Paradise Road to Paradise City Road, after the band's famous 1987 song. The county prepared street signs with the new name, on a promise that the band's promoters would reimburse the $300 cost of doing so.
Scow said she'd done her due diligence before the renaming, even listening to the song beforehand. She said she liked the line in the chorus, "Take me down to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty."
But she later learned about the graphic posters, which are a sanitized version of the much-criticized cover from Guns N' Roses' debut album "Appetite for Destruction." The original artwork featured an apparently unconscious woman with a breast exposed and underwear pulled below her knees. A robot stands by, and a monstrous flying creature descends on the scene as if to avenge her.
Guns N' Roses
Nader Wants Super PAC Cash
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert's super PAC is sitting on nearly $778,000 in cash, and five-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader knows exactly where to spend it.
The longtime consumer advocate told TheWrap in an exclusive interview that he has been trying to get the "Colbert Report" host to donate the money remaining in Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow's coffers to the nonprofit American Museum of Tort Law he plans to build.
Dedicated to personal injury and other tort cases, the museum will go up in Nader's hometown of Winsted, Conn. Nader announced the plans, and started fundraising, 14 years ago.
There's just one problem: Nader can't get to Colbert, even though Nader feels responsible for the Comedy Central host's success.
Stephen Colbert
Rumors Cost Campaign Manager Job
ComfortablySmug
The congressional campaign manager who confessed to spreading falsehoods on Twitter during Hurricane Sandy has resigned from Christopher Wright's New York City congressional campaign.
Shashank Tripathi, under the guise of his Twitter handle @ComfortablySmug, sent out several pieces of misinformation during the worst of the storm Monday.
He is being blamed for spreading the now-widely debunked rumor that the New York Stock Exchange trading floor had been flooded with 3 feet of standing. The rumor was eventually picked up by CNN and New York Magazine until NYSE officials shot it down.
Tripathi was first outted by BuzzFeed.
ComfortablySmug
Sentences 2 Songwriters
Vietnam
Two musicians in Vietnam whose topical songs are popular among overseas Vietnamese were sentenced to prison Tuesday, prompting criticism from the United States and international rights groups.
Vo Minh Tri and Tran Vu Anh Binh were sentenced to four and six years in prison, respectively, on charges of spreading propaganda against the state, said Tri's lawyer, Tran Vu Hai. They faced possible sentences of up to 20 years.
Tri, 34, known as Viet Khang, has composed songs criticizing the government for not taking a more aggressive position against China in the potentially resource-rich South China Sea, where Vietnam, China and other Asian nations have competing territorial claims. A video of his song "Where is My Vietnam?" (Viet Nam Toi Dau) has been viewed more than 700,000 times on YouTube.
Binh, 37, is credited with writing the music for "Courage in the Dark Prison" (Nguc Toi Hien Ngang), a song that encourages nonviolent protest and expresses support for imprisoned blogger Nguyen Van Hai.
Vietnam
Skeleton Found
New Haven
New Haven police say superstorm Sandy has revealed a skeleton beneath the town green that may have been there since Colonial times.
Police spokesman David Hartman says a woman who was with other bystanders looking at a fallen oak tree called police Tuesday after she saw bones in the upturned roots.
Hartman says the tree was planted on the green in 1909 on the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. He says the remains likely belong to one of thousands of people buried there in Colonial times. The remains will be evaluated by the state medical examiner.
Katie Carbo, who called police, tells the New Haven Independent she saw something in the tree roots, and found the bones when she removed some dirt. She says the skeleton "should be given a proper burial."
New Haven
Adios
Buckyballs
Buckyballs, the popular magnetic desktop toy (for grown-ups!), are being discontinued. Maxfield & Oberton, the company behind the minimagnets, released a snarky statement explaining why.
"Due to baseless and relentless legal badgering by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Maxfield and Oberton is discontinuing production of the world's most popular adult desk toys this week to focus on new products and our popular Bucky Bigs and Buckybars lines."
The feud began after the CPSC alleged that Buckyballs were a health risk to children, who might (and in some cases, did) swallow them. The CPSC sued the makers of the desk toys, a legal tactic that the agency had used only once before in the past decade, according to the Washington Post. In one instance, a young child swallowed three of the magnets, thinking they were candy. In some cases, surgery was required to remove them.
The company's other products, Buckybars and Bucky Bigs, are larger than the troublesome Buckyballs and will remain on the market. According to spokesperson Andrew Frank, the bars are about an inch long and the Bigs are "almost the size of a quarter." The CPSC has "not said or asked anything about them," Frank said.
Buckyballs
In Memory
Bill Dees
Bill Dees emerged from his days as an out-of-cash young songwriter to pen tunes for Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and other country music greats, but the centerpiece of his career was his work with Roy Orbison, including co-writing "Oh, Pretty Woman."
Dees, who died in Arkansas last week at age 73, had said writing that song with Orbison in 1964 changed his life. In a 2008 interview with National Public Radio, Dees recalled that the night they penned the hit song, Orbison told him he wouldn't need to go to work that Monday if he didn't want to.
"He said, 'Buy yourself an electric piano, and I'll take you on the road with me.' And he said, 'I'll pay you what the band's getting,'" Dees said during the NPR interview, which is posted on his Dees' website.
He went on to tour Europe and perform on the Ed Sullivan Show with Orbison, with whom he also co-wrote numerous other songs, including "It's Over," which also was a No. 1 hit.
The Texas native left home to seek work in Nashville, Tenn., where he went on to write songs recorded by performers who also included Glen Campbell. But working with Orbison defined his career.
Dees moved with his family to the town of Ozark in western Arkansas in 1971, and he lived in the Ozarks region of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri for more than 20 years.
A memorial is planned Saturday in Mountain Home, the northern Arkansas city where he died on Oct. 24, according to the Kirby and Family funeral home. Details about his death weren't released. Another gathering will be held next month in Branson, Mo., home to the late Andy Williams' famous Moore River Theater.
As a child, Dees lived with his family in Borger, Texas, where his father worked as a sand and gravel supplier, where Dees went on to work. Dees recalled listening to barrelhouse piano music at house parties and getting bit by the music bug, according to his biography.
Dees is survived by his wife, Nancy Decker-Dees of Kissee Mills, Mo.; four children and two step-children, a brother and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to the funeral home's obituary.
Bill Dees
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