Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: High Plains Moochers (NY Times)
At the heart of the Cliven Bundy standoff was a perversion of the concept of freedom.
Robert Evans, Hännah Ettinger: 5 Insane Lessons from My Christian Fundamentalist Childhood (Cracked)
My name is Hannah Ettinger, and I was raised in the Quiverfull movement. The term is taken from a verse in Proverbs, which says: "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of arrows." We interpreted this to mean: "Blessed is the man who dies with the most kids."
David Bruce: Wise Up! Alcohol (Athens News)
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is aware that Jesus' first miracle - turning water into superb wine at a wedding celebration when the wine has run out - is not politically correct. However, he does think that the miracle is significant. He believes that the miracle is a way for Jesus to say, "(L)ook, although I will go through moments of great pain, the way is the way of joy and not of pain."
Hilarious Infomercial Struggles Compilation (YouTube)
"Why can't those unbelievably bad actors in infomercials ever seem to perform even the most mundane tasks without the help of some fancy newfangled product? Is it because working as a product shill has made them lose their minds, or is there some other sinister force at work in their lives? The easiest explanation - they're actors paid to follow a script to the letter, and if that means pretending you don't know how to properly swab your ears, or brush your hair, without causing yourself excruciating pain then so be it" - Neatorama
Mark Strauss: Patrick Stewart on His Craft, 21st-Century Science and Robot Ethics (Smithsonian)
The actor whose leading roles in "Star Trek" and "X-Men" have taken him into the far future, reflects on where present-day society is headed.
Frazier's Celebrity Callers (YouTube)
"The TV sitcom Frazier ran from 1993-2004. Frazier Crane was a psychiatrist with a radio show featuring call-ins. The people that called in were often celebrity voices that few recognized, but the actors on the phone were credited only at the end of each season. Here, we know who's talking in each one. We also get to see Dr. Crane (Kelsey Grammer) age ten years over just a few minutes." - Neatorama
Amazing Pool Trick Shots (YouTube)
"Florian Kohler didn't play pool until he received a miniature pool table as a gift for his eighteenth birthday. Since then, he's become an incredible pool trick artist. But, really, I think that using telekenesis is cheating, which is clearly how he makes these shots--especially the one at 2:01. While shooting this video, a rather rude woman just sprawled over his pool table without so much as a hello. Did Kohler get mad? Nope. He just shot around her." - Neatorama
Henning Mankell: A bad night before my cancer test results (Guardian)
As chemotherapy for the cancer in his neck and lung continues, the Wallander author has an anxious wait for news.
Nicholas Barber: "Up Pompeii: how disaster movies took over cinema" (Guardian)
Razed cities, tsunamis, zombie plagues - annihilation is where it's at in cinemas. As Pompeii erupts, we explore our love affair with the disaster movie - and asks if it's doing us any good.
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
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David
Thanks, Dave!
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
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.
So - to let you know what's going on, the guestbook on bartcop.com is
still open for those who want to write something in memory of Bart.
I did an interview on Netroots Radio about Bart's passing
( www.stitcher.com/s?eid=32893545 )
The most active open discussion is on Bart's Facebook page.
( www.facebook.com/bartcop )
You can listen to Bart's theme song here
or here.
( www.bartcop.com/blizing-saddles.mp3 )
( youtu.be/MySGAaB0A9k )
We have opened up the radio show archives which are now free. Listen to
all you want.
( bartcop.com/members )
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
Thanks, Marc!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a lot like summer.
Leaving 'Late Late Show' In December
Craig Ferguson
Craig Ferguson will step down as host of CBS' " The Late Late Show" in December when his contract with the network expires after nearly a decade as David Letterman's companion in the 12:35 a.m. slot.
Ferguson broke the news to his studio audience at the 5 p.m. PT taping of Monday's edition of "Late Late Show." In a statement issued by the network he quipped: "CBS and I are not getting divorced, we are 'consciously uncoupling,' but we will still spend holidays together and share custody of the fake horse and robot skeleton, both of whom we love very much."
Ferguson's decision comes less than a month after Letterman announced his intention to retire next year, and about two weeks after CBS tapped Stephen Colbert as his successor. Ferguson's move was not a surprise given CBS' decision to turn elsewhere for Letterman's replacement. Ferguson's last contract with CBS ensured him a windfall payout of an estimated $8 million-$10 million once the Eye opted against giving him "The Late Show" slot.
Even before the Letterman-Colbert shuffle became official, Ferguson telegraphed his restlessness by taking a gig as host of the syndicated game show "Celebrity Name Game," which bows in the fall from distrib Debmar-Mercury. His CBS-based Green Mountain West production banner has grown busier during the past two years, developing unscripted projects for Discovery ("Naked After Dark"), Science Channel ("I F*cking Love Science") and Comedy Central ("Porn Project").
Craig Ferguson
Religious Group Files
North Carolina
Same-sex marriage bans have faced a number of legal challenges over the years, but a new lawsuit from the United Church of Christ is
apparently the first challenge in the courts to invoke religious liberty. The suit will ask a district court in North Carolina to strike down the state's laws barring same-sex marriages, in part because a provision that makes it a misdemeanor for clergy to perform the ceremonies violates the church's religious freedom. A number of same-sex couples have also joined the suit, petitioning for the right to marry.
This is the 66th challenge to a same-sex marriage ban currently making its way through the courts, as the
Charlotte Observer explains. It joins many of those other challenges in also citing the equal protection and due process provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment in its challenge against state laws.
The suit reads:
"By denying same-sex couples the right to marry and prohibiting religious denominations even from performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples, the State of North Carolina stigmatizes same-sex couples, as well as the religious institutions and clergy that believe in equal rights."
Attorney John Martel said in a statement that "marriage performed by clergy is a spiritual exercise and expression of faith essential to the values and continuity of the religion that government may regulate only where it has a compelling interest." In other words,
a North Carolina law that makes it a misdemeanor to perform a same-sex marriage ceremony violates the religious freedom of clergy members who believe those unions are an expression of faith. In other other words, conservative opponents of same-sex marriage aren't the only religious people in the country.
In other words, the UCC's lawsuit represents both an expansion of the legal arguments against same-sex marriage bans, and a challenge to the conservative supporters of religious freedom. Although the UCC's complaint here is genuine, the suit itself is also something of a troll on religious liberty champions who consistently cite the protection to limit LGBT rights.
North Carolina
It's All Greek
Homer's 'Odyssey'
It's all Greek, and then some: $1K offered to decipher strange notes in Homer's 'Odyssey'
Once upon a time, somebody read this 1504 edition of Homer's "Odyssey," and, apparently taken by it, wrote in the margins of Book 11, which describes the journey to the underworld of Hades.
The man who donated the book to the University of Chicago wants to solve the mystery of what was handwritten around the text, and is offering $1,000 to whoever can successfully decipher the notes.
The unidentified donor suspects the script is a kind of 19th-century shorthand, possibly French, but "he acknowledges that this hypothesis remains unsupported by any evidence offered to date," according to the University of Chicago. The notes appear on only two pages.
Homer's 'Odyssey'
Prehistoric Hunting Structures
Lake Huron
Archaeologists have discovered sophisticated prehistoric stone walls deep beneath the surface of Lake Huron that give the clearest portrait yet of the mysterious people who lived in the Great Lakes region at the end of the Ice Age.
"It's just way more complex than anything we've seen before," said John O'Shea, a University of Michigan archeologist who published his findings Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Since 2008, O'Shea and his colleagues have been investigating an underwater ridge in Lake Huron that runs roughly between Alpena, Mich., and Point Clark, Ont. As the glaciers were beating their final retreat about 9,000 years ago, water in the lake was about 100 metres below today's level and the Alpena-Amberley Ridge was exposed.
The paleo-Indians who were moving onto land the glaciers were slowly exposing made good use of the animals. O'Shea has found more than 60 stone constructions under the water that are likely to have been used as hunting blinds.
But his most recent discovery is far and beyond his other finds.
Lake Huron
Defenders of Donald
Sterling
Let it not be said that Donald Sterling (the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers whose weird, racist conversation with his girlfriend has attracted some attention) lacks defenders. Among them? Donald Trump, who thinks Sterling was "set up," and Infowars' Alex Jones, who, surprisingly, sees this as part of a vast conspiracy. Nor is that list complete.
We shall start with Trump who, again, should be encouraged to talk as much as possible. Stopping by Fox News on Monday, Trump declared that Sterling was "set up by a very, very bad girlfriend," as The Root reports. "Let's face it: That whole thing is - she's called the girlfriend from hell." And: "She was baiting him, and she's a terrible human being." And: "The way she led him along. He should know, if he were there, if he was with it, he would know after one or two of those questions that she was answering and asking that there's something going on here." It is a fundamental tenet of American law that if someone gets you to admit something embarrassing or horrible but doesn't explicitly tell you in advance that they will use that information against you, it is not you who is the bad person. Tell us more, Mr. Trump!
On ABC's This Week, conservative commentator Bill Kristol recommended a different sort of caution, as Talking Points Memo reports
Rush Limbaugh (R-Drug-Addled Sex Tourist) spent some time on his radio show today indicating that everyone knew about Sterling's past transgressions, so the new revelations shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, he said, according to Politico, Sterling is "a typical Hollywood Democrat." For what it's worth - almost nothing! -Sterling has given money to Democrats. It appears, however, that he is a Republican.
Sterling
Democrats In Trouble
Demographics
According to complex voter models and updated theories of voter psychology, we can now state: Democrats are in trouble in 2014, particularly in the close Senate race in North Carolina. Thanks, science!
OK, that's a little unfair. Two new reports from The New York Times and The New Republic offer a lot more context to the known travails of the Democratic Party. The endpoint is the same - unless Democrats manage to turn more friendly voters out in November, they're doomed - but the path to get to that conclusion has gotten more interesting.
In North Carolina, the problem for Democrats is younger voters, as Nate Cohn reports at the Times' new blog The Upshot. When incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan won in 2008, she did so by winning 71 percent of the vote from 25-and-under voters who comprised 10 percent of the electorate. She won handily, but that strong support from young voters puts her reelection at risk. Young people tend to vote less frequently in midterms; in 2010, the last midterm, only 4 percent of the electorate in North Carolina was 25-and-under. But the split for Hagan in 2008 leads Cohn to conclude that the problem "is twice as damaging to Democrats in North Carolina than it is nationally."
Nationally, the problem is slightly different. UCLA's Sasha Issenberg (author of The Victory Lab) has the cover story at The New Republic, spelling out the reason Democrats are in trouble everywhere else. Voter turnout peaks during presidential elections, thanks to the importance of the office and the attention paid to the race. During midterm elections, turnout falls. The people who vote tend to be people who are older and wealthier: retirees, people with more flexible work schedules, etc. While that has in the past been Democrats, older and wealthier voters are now more heavily Republican. Psychology plays a role at the edges - independents use midterms as a referendum on the president; partisans either vote from enthusiasm or stay home - but the core fight is over who is and isn't likely to vote.
Demographics
Lodges $150 Million Claim Against Egypt
Al Jazeera
The Qatar-backed, pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera said Monday it has lodged a formal complaint against Egypt demanding $150 million in compensation to cover what it says are damages to its investments in the country since July.
The move is certain to deepen a rift between Egypt's interim government and the small Gulf nation of Qatar, which was a strong supporter of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood.
Al-Jazeera said in a statement posted on its website that it lodged a formal "notification of dispute" with Egypt's interim government based on a bilateral investment treaty between Qatar and Egypt dating back to 1999. That pact calls on both governments to provide "fair and equitable treatment" to investors, according to the network. It did not say where it was lodged.
It threatened to seek international arbitration if it the two sides do not reach a settlement within six months.
Al Jazeera
Domestic Dispute
Connecticut
Paul Simon and his wife, Edie Brickell, were arrested on disorderly conduct charges by officers investigating a family dispute, but the couple held hands in court Monday and said they did not feel threatened by the other.
Simon told a Norwalk Superior Court judge that he had a rare argument with his wife Saturday night at their home in New Canaan.
A caller from the singers' home dialed 911 Saturday night and hung up, police chief Leon Krolikowski said at a news conference Monday. Officers who responded found minor injuries and believed it was a case of domestic violence, he said.
Simon and Brickell, who have been married for more than two decades, were each given a misdemeanour summons and one of them agreed to leave and go to another location, Krolikowski said.
"There was aggressiveness on both sides," he said. "They're both victims and they have children involved and we're trying to be very cautious of that."
Connecticut
NRA's 2014 Convention Theme
FEAR
The annual NRA convention was held this weekend in Indianapolis, and its message was clear: you should be terrified of everyone and everything, and only guns can protect you.
Sarah Palin returned after last year's triumphant performance to talk about how our rights are being stripped away from us at every turn. Also, Muslims are bad: "That evil Muslim terrorist Major Hasan massacres his fellow U.S. military soldiers at Fort Hood," she said. "His Allah Akbar-praising jihad. They call that workplace violence. Calling that devil a disgruntled employee!"
Palin did not mention the much more recent massacre at Fort Hood, possibly because it came at the hands of someone who was not Muslim and thus did not fit her narrative of Muslims being bad and deserving of torture. Later in the speech, she said the United States is too nice to suspected terrorists.
"If I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists," she said.
Palin also encouraged people not to "waste a bullet" on a warning shot but to blow any potential threat away because "ammo's expensive." She added that mothers should carry guns on them at all times to protect their children from the bad guys apparently lurking around every corner.
FEAR
Where German Neo-Nazis Go To Party
France
German neo-Nazis, hamstrung by tough laws back home, are increasingly organising bashes across the French border, including a recent commemoration of Adolf Hitler's 125th birth anniversary.
Facing intense media scrutiny in Germany and a slew of tough legislation, many neo-Nazis have turned to surrounding countries to stage concerts and other events, including France's northeastern border regions of Alsace and Lorraine.
The area, which was under German control for about 40 years and only reverted back to France after World War I, was the venue of a recent ceremony to mark Hitler's birthday.
The local officials were in the dark until after it was held as the organisers had kept their plans a close secret. They had even banned participants from bringing cameras and mobile phones.
France
Gulf of Maine Population Drops
Baby Lobsters
The number of baby lobsters in the Gulf of Maine has dropped by half since 2007, a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists as the population of adult lobsters remains near a record high, contributing to robust catches.
Scientists note that baby lobsters take eight years to reach harvestable size, meaning the dip could yet be felt by the state's 4,200 lobstermen, who last year hauled in a record catch worth $365 million, representing nearly 70 percent of Maine's total seafood harvest.
Despite the record hauls, scientists, including University of Maine researcher Rick Wahle, who founded the baby lobster study in 1989, contend over-fishing is not likely the culprit. The lobster industry, they note, is among the country's most closely regulated.
Instead, Wahle and other researchers believe shifting ocean currents, wind and weather patterns may have led drifting lobster larvae astray, contributing to the decline.
Baby Lobsters
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