Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mark Morford: The Dick Cheney School for Heartless Bastards (SF Gate)
Thank you, Mr. Cheney. For your refreshing honesty, for your brutally - some might say nauseatingly - forthright character, for not disappointing a single harried soul on God's ravaged Earth by pretending to be even the slightest bit ashamed, contrite, a mite horrified by the findings in the Senate's unprecedented torture report - a massive, rot-infused document in which you figure prominently, a 6,000-page beast of moral burden so full of American-bred cruelty and ignominy, it makes ISIL look like a kiddie play.
Mark Morford: Come, superstorm, and wash away our precious pain (SF Gate)
We are a crass oligarchy disguised as a peacekeeper. We are, in many ways, just as bad, if not worse, than those we claim to abhor - as evidenced by just how viciously Bush/Cheney raped the soul of the nation, far worse than anyone suspected (and we suspected a lot), all manner of truly unspeakable acts of CIA torture so repellant, inhumane and anti-Christian as to be the work of the Devil himself - except, of course, it was all performed in the name of a righteous, heartless American God.
Kevin Phelan: 5 Real Coincidences That Prove God Has a Sick Sense of Humor (Cracked)
Even if you're an atheist of Dawkinsian proportions, there's a good chance that at some point in your life, you've encountered a set of circumstances that made your eyebrows do that weird scrunchy thing that they do. You know, a story so full of irony and/or karmic justice that not only does it suggest the existence of some higher power pulling our strings for its own tepid amusement, but that said higher power's sense of humor is completely fucked up.
Michael Koresky: "Eclipse Series 41: Kinoshita and World War II" (Criterion)
It's all too easy to be reductive when discussing the careers of filmmakers, and thus the great Japanese directors are often slotted into categories: Yasujiro Ozu was the precise sculptor of the domestic drama, Akira Kurosawa the creator of the philosophical action spectacular, Kenji Mizoguchi the master of the tragic woman's picture. The popular, prolific, and eclectic Keisuke Kinoshita, however, has never been so simple to sum up.
Jessica Valenti: Bill Cosby's wife wants to know who the real victim is. There are all too many options (Guardian)
People tell themselves the most outrageous stories, just so they can keep living their lives - even just to make it to the next day.
Best of Web 7 - HD - Zapatou (YouTube)
"Zapatou (Luc Bergeron) is back with another mesmerizing compilation of the crazy, scary, and amazing things that people (and animals) do, culled from 233 viral videos of 2014. It's not only the action that amazing, it's also the new way we get to see them, as this collection is heavy on POV and mounted cameras, so we are extremely close to the action and can even put our feet in someone else's shoes. Take that as a warning that some these clips may induce vertigo. You'll recognize a lot of them." - Neatorama
Mackenzie Patel: 7 Reasons Why 'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings' Should Be Required Reading in School (Huffington Post)
1. Both novels teach the importance of loyalty, friendship and honesty (i.e. the classic trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione and the Fellowship). For example, in chapter 5 of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, "He [Harry] knew that Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of him... was worth more than he could ever tell them."
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
David Bruce's Smashwords Page
David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce's Lulu Storefront
David Bruce's Apple iBookstore
David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
returned to semi-retired status.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Jeb in 2016
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
In The Mail
Google Is Evil
Response Requested for Link Removal
Hello,
We wish to thank you for linking to our site from www.suprmchaos.com/bcEnt-Sun-060913.index.html. Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that this link is against Google's Webmaster Guidelines.
It is important for us to bring our site into compliance with Google's terms.
Please remove our link from this page and any other page on your site.
Thank you,
Jerry
The response:
Hi Jerry -
That's one helluva letter there, espcially for a blog post on sports promotions that went south.
As a matter of curiostiy, why should I honor your request?
You thank me for doing something to your advantage, and then ask me to make it disappear? Not kill the link, but make it disappear?
That's some pretty heavy-handed censorship.
And you want me to do this 'favor' at my own expense, in an effort to further your bottom line? All to keep your site in google's vision of 'compliance'?
You will kindly notice I have no corporate advertising on my little site - meaning I don't have to fluff google. You know what they call people who specialize in fluffing, don't you?
As a matter of internet courtesy, I will remove your link, but it will be at my convenience, because you are costing me time and money which I will never recoup.
Yours is not the first request like this I've received, and I'm sure it won't be the last, especially so long as good citizens are economically prodded into censorship on behalf of your corporate masters.
Happy Fluffing,
Marty
Regular readers will remember a spate of these requests last year about this time. And, yes, they upset me, probably more than they should.
Google demands that they be allowed to control content on 3rd party sites. I don't know this site - just found something useful or funny there, and linked to it.
That's all.
Now, that site demands that I remove the link so their site complies with Google's Webmaster Bullshit.
THIS IS HOW GOOGLE CONTROLS CONTENT.
FWIW, the link has been removed - this is the replacement:
15 Sports Promotions That Went Horribly Wrong
This link has been removed at the request of ad magic dot com because they claim it violated Google's webmaster guidelines. Google is not your friend. This is how they control content on the 'net.
ad magic dot com, a blog I don't know, but linked to, had to write a letter to a stranger (me), at Google's request, to ask me to remove (not kill, REMOVE) this link, beause Google claims it violates their webmaster guidelines, or Google will mess with their ad revenues.
So, I get to work (for free) in order that others may prosper, and also assist Google in controling what you may read.
Why should I comply, you might ask.
If I don't, the Google-bot "overlooks" my site, and throttles my traffic.
Google is evil - Duck Duck Go isn't.
M Is FOR MASHUP - bonus link
Christmas
From DJ Useo
Hey Y'all- My pal, Mr. Fab, has some great novelty Christmas music links on his long-running Novelty music blog, "Music For Maniacs".
You'll be glad you heard them. Music for Maniacs: Krazy Krustmas Kollections
( musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/2014/12/krazy-krustmas-kollections.html )
Music for Maniacs: "Christmas Memories Played on Antique Musical Boxes"
Music for Maniacs: Krazy Krustmas Kollections
Happy Holidays to each & every one of youse.
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Rainy night, damp day.
Class Of 2014
National Film Registry
"Saving Private Ryan" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" are among 25 movies being inducted this year into the National Film Registry for long-term preservation, the Library of Congress announced Wednesday.
The library selected films for their cultural, historic or aesthetic qualities. This year's selections span the years 1913 to 2004. They include such familiar and popular titles as "The Big Lebowski" and "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," while others were milestones in film history.
The oldest selection dates to 1913 and is believed to be the earliest surviving feature film starring black actors. Vaudevillian Bert Williams gathered with black performers in New York City to make the film "Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day." The film was discovered 100 years later in the film vault at the Museum of Modern Art.
The silent films selected for preservation this year include "The Dragon Painter" from 1919, starring Hollywood's first Asian star, Sessue Hayakawa, and the 1916 silent film "Shoes," which examined poverty and prostitution, curators said.
National Film Registry
Sues HarperCollins Over 'Sniper'
Jesse Ventura
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura has sued HarperCollins Publishing, saying he was defamed in passage from a book it put out from an ex-Navy SEAL who claimed the two were in a bar fight.
Ventura, who in July won more than $1.8 million in damages from the estate of former SEAL Chris Kyle, filed suit in federal court in Minnesota on Monday against HarperCollins over the best-selling book "American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History."
HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, said in July the passage in the best-seller would be removed, without offering further details.
A feature film based on Kyle's book, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper, is due out later this month.
Jesse Ventura
First Woman Bishop
Church of England
The Church of England appointed its first female bishop on Wednesday, overturning centuries of tradition in a Church that has been deeply divided over the issue.
It named Reverend Libby Lane, a 48-year-old married mother of two, as the new Bishop of Stockport in northern England.
After long and heated debate, the Church of England governing Synod voted in July to allow women to become bishops and formally adopted legislation last month.
Women have served as priests in the Church since 1994, a decision that prompted some 470 male priests to leave in protest, many for the Roman Catholic Church.
Church of England
Stanford University To Restore
Reproducing Pianos
Stanford University wants to unlock the secrets of the player piano - the high-tech music machine of the early 20th century.
Stanford researchers have launched an ambitious effort to restore and study instruments known as reproducing pianos that recorded major composers performing their own work.
The researchers also plan to preserve and digitize thousands of perforated paper rolls that recorded and played back piano performances with impressive accuracy. They eventually hope to put the recordings online.
Stanford recently acquired an important private collection of 10 reproducing pianos and more than 7,500 rolls that include recordings of composers such as George Gershwin, Scott Joplin and Claude Debussy.
Reproducing Pianos
Secretive Groups In State Races
Ads
Shadowy outside groups broadcast an estimated $25 million worth of political ads on local TV stations with a goal of shaping state-level elections this year, and their full roster of donors is unlikely to ever be known, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
While the $25 million is a small slice of the $850 million spent on ads in statewide races, the amount is still almost twice what outside groups shelled out during the last midterm elections in 2010. The Center for Public Integrity analysis also showed that the secretive outside groups were quite successful, exceeding the victory rates of groups that disclose their donors.
Overall, mysterious groups ran twice as many ads as they did in 2010, the first election after Supreme Court cleared the way for the ultra-rich, corporations and unions to quietly bankroll campaigns through anonymous groups that form and disperse without any meaningful disclosure. As a part of the total advertising landscape, roughly 40 outside groups doubled their share of all advertising in state races.
For instance, the utility-backed Save Our Future Now spent $1.4 million on television ads against a Democratic candidate for the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities. Ads criticizing Sandra Kennedy ran almost 1,400 times.
Nationally, those groups got their desired outcome in 63 percent of the races where they ran ads. All independent groups, including those that disclose donors, prevailed less than 50 percent of the time when they ran ads. The overall victory rate for advertisers - candidates and super PACs that disclose their donors, as well as secretive outside groups that do not - was 51 percent, according to the Center for Public Integrity's analysis.
Ads
Bans Fracking
New York
New York state will ban hydraulic fracturing after a long-awaited report concluded that the oil and gas extraction method poses health risks, Governor Andrew Cuomo's administration said on Wednesday.
New York Environmental Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a cabinet meeting he will issue an order early next year banning fracking, which has been under a moratorium since 2008. Once that happens, New York will join Vermont as the only states to completely prohibit fracking.
The decision ends what has been a fierce debate in New York over the benefits and pitfalls of fracking, a process that involves pumping water, sand and chemicals into a well to extract oil or gas. Many in the state saw gas drilling as a key economic resource while others argued it was too dangerous.
The state's health commissioner, Howard Zucker, said there is not enough scientific information to conclude that fracking is safe.
New York
Half of Anti-Net Neutrality Comments
Koch Bros.
When the second round of the FCC's call for comments on net neutrality ended this past September, something seemed a little off. Sure, the 1.6 million submissions fell about a million short of the first round, but that wasn't the weird apart. This time, instead of the vast majority of comments arguing for net neutrality, 60 percent were fighting against it. The reason for this marked shift? A "shadowy" campaign powered by Koch Brothers' funds and form letters.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, American Commitment-the group heading up the conservative form letter campaign-has both received money from and given money to a number of groups associated with the billionaire benefactors to conservatives everywhere, brothers David and Charles Koch. According to Sunlight's recent report on the FCC's second round comments.
As for the non-form letter submissions, only one percent stood opposed to net neutrality, a distribution almost identical to what it was during the first round. For their part, American Commitment could not be more delighted with the Sunlight Foundation's findings, with president Phil Kerpen saying in a press release.
As it just so happens, Kerpen is also the head of the Internet Freedom Coalition which has"a desire to keep the Internet free from government interference" and which proudly counts Americans for Prosperity-a group founded with the help of none other than Koch Industries-as one of its more active members. It gets pretty convoluted, but the Sunlight Foundation untied the various Koch-backed groups behind American Commitment, and rest assured, the ties run deep.
In other words, when and if the FCC actually goes through the comments, that significant majority of anti-net neutrality sentiments will have come from one of several conservative, Koch-backed forms. It's just like choose-your-own-adventure, manufactured outrage edition
Koch Bros.
Two Pharmacists Charged With 25 Murders
Meningitis Outbreak
Two pharmacists from Massachusetts were charged with second-degree murder in connection with a deadly 2012 meningitis outbreak that killed at least 64 people and injured about 750, according to an indictment made public on Wednesday.
The 131-count indictment accuses 14 people who either worked or acted as owners of New England Compounding Center (NECC), a specialty pharmacy that went into bankruptcy after the outbreak.
Barry J. Cadden, 48, a pharmacist and part of NECC's ownership group, and pharmacist Glenn A. Chinn, 46, have been charged with 25 murders in seven states, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said officials at Framingham, Massachusetts-based NECC knowingly shipped contaminated steroids across the country. The drugs typically were injected in patients suffering from back pain.
The pharmacy escaped harsh punishment from health regulators several times in the years leading up to the outbreak, according to hundreds of pages of documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request.
Meningitis Outbreak
My cousin George was one of their victims. Oddly, his father was a pharmacist.
Without Passports
Quaids
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evgenia are suing John Kerry and the State Department to recover passports that the government revoked three years ago.
The State Department said it takes U.S. passports for reasons including issuance of a felony arrest warrant, fraud, failure to pay child support or a criminal court order barring departure from the country.
Randy Quaid said the revocation involved an issue over "an insurance policy that we did not take out," but declined to discuss it further.
"Randy can't take a film job," said Evgenia Quaid. "He had to turn down the Cannes Film Festival last year. We can't proceed with our life."
The Quaids have had a string of legal problems, including accusations of vandalism of a home they once owned and a California felony warrant issued over an unpaid hotel tab.
Quaids
New Coalition Opposes Right To Work
Wisconsin
A newly formed coalition of more than 300 construction-related private businesses in Wisconsin announced Wednesday that it will work to defeat a right-to-work proposal being discussed by Republican leaders in the Legislature.
Formation of the group comes as talks proceed behind the scenes among Republicans who control the Legislature about the timing of a right-to-work bill and what form it may take.
Gov. Scott Walker (R-Kochsucker) repeated his message Wednesday, during a brief speech to Republican state senators in the Capitol, that he sees right-to-work as a distraction from his agenda. He told lawmakers he wants them focused on his legislative agenda, but he also didn't promise to veto a right-to-work bill should it pass.
The coalition does not list any unions among its members, even though they are the strongest opponents of the right-to-work laws that prohibit workers from being required to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment.
Wisconsin
Free Trip Around World
Elizabeth Gallagher
A Toronto man who made headlines last month by offering a free round-the-world air ticket to a woman with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has found Ms. Right.
Jordan Axani, 28, and his then girlfriend, named Elizabeth Gallagher, booked heavily discounted round-the-world air tickets in May, but their relationship ended and he didn't want her ticket to go to waste. The ticket had a strict no-transfer policy, but since passport information was not required when booking, it can be used by any Canadian named Elizabeth Gallagher.
Axani posted his offer last month on the popular Reddit social media website, and received thousands of emails, including 18 from actual Elizabeth Gallaghers with Canadian passports.
He's now chosen his travel mate, Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher, a 23-year-old student and part-time office administrator from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia.
Elizabeth Gallagher
In Memory
Wowzer Morgan
Wowzer was MAM's faithful 4-legged companion of the last eight years.
He was smart, he was loving, and he was photogenic as hell.
He will be greatly missed.
In Memory
Richard C. Hottelet
Richard C. Hottelet, the last of the original "Murrow's Boys," the pioneering group of wartime journalists hired by CBS radio newsman Edward R. Murrow, has died. He was 97.
Hottelet was a foreign correspondent for the United Press in Berlin at the start of World War II - and even spent several months in a Nazi prison - before joining CBS in London in 1944.
He reported from many battlefronts, and went on to become CBS' correspondent for the United Nations, an assignment he began in 1960. He resigned in 1985 to join the U.S. Mission to the U.N. as its public affairs counsellor, leaving that post in 1987 over differences with Ambassador Vernon A. Walters.
The legendary "Murrow's Boys" were recruited by Murrow, then London-based director of CBS' European bureau, starting in 1937 and continuing through the war years. They included such eminent figures as Eric Sevareid, William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Larry LeSueur, Winston Burdette and Howard K. Smith.
"It was not our job to inspire people, to educate, to move them," Hottelet recalled in an interview with The Hartford Courant in 2003. "It was our job to tell them what was going on."
Decades before journalists were embedded in military operations, Hottelet moved forward with troops and circled back to file his reports. He flew with the U.S. Air Force before the D-Day operation in 1944 and was in an Air Force bomber that attacked Utah Beach just minutes before the start of the Allied invasion.
From the start, Murrow insisted on good reporters, not professional announcers, and they became legends to radio audiences for their bravery and eloquence.
"Nowadays, facts are drizzled over people in a news cycle that's 24 hours a day," he told the Courant. "To appeal to more people, news sometimes goes down to the lowest common denominator. Print isn't so bad, but they do tend to featurize a good deal. People don't feel stimulated to respond in terms of their own interest or what is said."
He remained active even in recent years, guest lecturing every semester at George Washington University journalism classes, according to a 2008 news release from the university.
Hottelet had his own daily television news broadcast, "Richard C. Hottelet With the News," a 15-minute morning program in 1959, and a regular weekend radio broadcast.
He was named U.N. correspondent in 1960 and that fall reported on the celebrated when Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, during a visit to the United Nations, banged his shoe on his desk.
For the following 25 years, Hottelet appeared regularly on CBS News programs such as the "CBS Evening News" and "Face the Nation," covering the diplomatic aspects of conflicts in Cuba, Congo, Bangladesh, Vietnam and the American hostage crisis in Iran.
Hottelet, born in New York in 1917, first travelled to Germany as a student in 1937 and joined the United Press bureau in Berlin.
Caught up in World War II, he survived four months in a Nazi prison in 1941 following his arrest by the Gestapo on false charges of espionage. He was released after he was exchanged for a Nazi newsman held by the United States.
After a stint in the U.S. Office of War Information in Washington and London, he was hired by CBS.
His wife, Ann Delafield Hottelet, died in 2013. He is survived by four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Richard C. Hottelet
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
