Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lucy Mangan: "Why can't women be left to drink alone in peace?" (Stylist)
So off you go.
Joe Bob Briggs: Why It Was So Easy to Nuke the White House Media Stuffed-Shirt Dinner (Taki's Magazine)
Leave it to a bunch of self-important self-righteous self-serious journalists to miss the whole point. (That's what they call themselves. They prefer the French word instead of the word that was used for 150 years-"reporter.")
Joe Bob Briggs: "'New York Times' Reveals: Men Like Sex!" (Taki's Magazine)
(And since we're on that subject, if you get sexually harassed and then settle out of court for what used to be called "hush money," and then years later you talk to the media anyway, do you have to pay the money back? I think Bill Cosby could basically guarantee an income for his twilight years based on reports of how much he's already paid.)
Andrew Tobias: From the Cradle of Democracy
Do Republicans care? "Obama lied too," they retort. But the New York Times found Trump told 103 separate untruths in his first 10 months (repeating one 20 times still counted as just one), versus just 18 in eight years for Obama - "an average of about two a year for Obama, 124 a year for Trump."
Claire Armistead: Should a museum dump its Warhols to buy up work by artists of colour? (The Guardian)
Should a museum dump its Warhols to buy up work by artists of colour? Baltimore Museum of Art is breaking a taboo - auctioning work by Rauschenberg, Warhol and Kline in order to acquire more work by women and artists of colour. Is 'deaccessioning' the future?
Kate Hutchinson: 'There's this idea that mothers are completely selfless': Diablo Cody on Tully - and the Juno backlash (The Guardian)
The Oscar-winning writer's new film is about an exhausted mother slowly unravelling. She talks about the impact of motherhood, facing middle-age - and what she'd now change about Juno.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
Reader Comment
Current Events
Be Best my ass
If she's referring to the gross, disgusting, vile, racist, misogynistic, corrupt Predator she's married to, it's Be Beast!
Codependent much?
I plead guilty to more than one of these:
Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
from Marc Perkel
Marc's Guide to Curing Cancer
So far so good on beating cancer for now. I'm doing fine. At the end of the month I'll be 16 months into an 8 month mean lifespan. And yesterday I went on a 7 mile hike and managed to keep up with the hiking group I was with. So, doing something right.
Still waiting for future test results and should see things headed in the right direction. I can say that it's not likely that anything dire happens in the short term so that means that I should have time to make several more attempts at this. So even if it doesn't work the first time there are a lot of variations to try. So if there's bad news it will help me pick the next radiation target.
I have written a "how to" guide for oncologists to perform the treatment that I got. I'm convinced that I'm definitely onto something and whether it works for me or not isn't the definitive test. I know if other people tried this that it would work for some of them, and if they improve it that it will work for a lot of them.
The guide is quite detailed and any doctor reading this can understand the procedure at every level. I also go into detail as to how it works, how I figured it out, and variations and improvements that could be tried to enhance it. I also introduce new ways to look at the problem. There is a lot of room for improvement and I think that doctors reading it will see what I'm talking about and want to build on it. And it's written so that if you're not a doctor you can still follow it. It also has a personal story revealing that I'm the class clown of cancer support group. I give great interviews and I look pretty hot in a lab coat.
So, feel free to read this and see what I'm talking about. But if any of you want to help then pass this around to both doctors and cancer patients. I need some media coverage. I'm looking for as many eyeballs as possible to read these ideas. Even if this isn't the solution, it's definitely on the right track. After all, I did hike 7 miles yesterday. And this hiking group wasn't moving slow. So if this isn't working then, why am I still here?
I also see curing cancer as more of an engineering problem that a medical problem. So if you are good at solving problems and most of what you know about medicine was watching the Dr. House MD TV show, then you're at the level I was at when I started. So anyone can jump in and be part of the solution.
Here is a link to my guide: Oncologists Guide to Curing Cancer using Abscopal Effect
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
'AMLO'
MONEY FOR NOTHING!
GOING DARK!
THE NOXIOUS MONSTER.
BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
REPUBLICAN GUN NUTS!
THE WAR LOVERS.
HOW DO YOU MILK AN OAT?
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sure do like the Ed Sullivan reruns on Decades TV Network.
Today the first show had The Doors and the second one had Spanky & Our Gang.
Fans Freak
John Oliver
John Oliver said "goodbye forever" on Sunday night, packed up his "Last Week Tonight" set and walked off. Now some fans are worried that he might not be coming back.
Given that HBO renewed the show last year to run through 2020, however, it was almost certainly just a joke involving Russell Crowe, koalas and chlamydia.
Oliver made headlines last month after he purchased a bunch of Russell Crowe memorabilia - including a jock strap worn during the 2005 film "Cinderella Man" - in the actor's divorce auction. He then sent the jockstrap to one of the last Blockbuster video stores in Alaska.
When Crowe got wind of it, the Oscar-winning actor announced that the money from Oliver's purchases would be used for wildlife. Specifically, it would help koalas with chlamydia. And so, the Irwin family released a video formally unveiling The John Oliver Koala Chlamydia Ward.
"That may honestly be the greatest thing I've ever seen," Oliver said on Sunday night, explaining that a koala chlamydia ward was actually his goal from the very beginning. "What I'm essentially saying here is, we've accomplished everything we set out to do on this show. Which means thanks very much everyone, but we are fucking done here."
John Oliver
Bid For Senate
Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Manning is no longer living as a transgender woman in a male military prison, serving the lengthiest sentence ever for revealing U.S. government secrets. She's free to grow out her hair, travel the world, and spend time with whomever she likes.
But a year since former President Barack Obama commuted Manning's 35-year sentence, America's most famous convicted leaker isn't taking an extended vacation. Far from it: The Oklahoma native has decided to make an unlikely bid for the U.S. Senate in her adopted state of Maryland.
Manning, 30, filed to run in January and has been registered to vote in Maryland since August. She lives in North Bethesda, not far from where she stayed with an aunt while awaiting trial. Her aim is to unseat Sen. Ben Cardin, a 74-year-old Maryland Democrat who is seeking his third Senate term and previously served 10 terms in the U.S. House.
Manning, who also has become an internationally recognized transgender activist, said she's motivated by a desire to fight what she sees as a shadowy surveillance state and a rising tide of nightmarish repression.
"The rise of authoritarianism is encroaching in every aspect of life, whether it's government or corporate or technological," Manning told The Associated Press during an interview at her home in an upscale apartment tower. On the walls of her barely furnished living room hang Obama's commutation order, and photos of U.S. anarchist Emma Goldman and British playwright Oscar Wilde.
Chelsea Manning
'Day To Remember'
Paris
No shoes, no shirt, no problem: A Paris gallery gave nearly 200 people a rare chance for a clothes-free visit this weekend, the latest opportunity for the city's flourishing nudist scene.
The Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary art museum in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, offered the guided tour before opening to the general public on Saturday.
"What a day to remember. A new chapter in naturism is opening," the Paris Naturists' Association said on Twitter after the visit, which the museum called the first of its kind in France.
The participants, who snapped up the tickets in just two days after the event was announced last March, were able to take it all off for the show "Discordia, Daughter of the Night".
The French capital has become increasingly attentive to fans of baring their all, with the city last year setting aside a designated patch for nudists in the Bois de Vincennes park to the east of the city.
Paris
NY Auction Houses
'Extraordinary Season'
Six months after selling a Leonardo da Vinci for half a billion dollars, New York art auction season is back, gearing up to break new records with a magnificent Rockefeller collection and a Modigliani.
The collection was amassed by the late billionaire banker David Rockefeller, who died last year aged 101, and his wife Peggy.
In all, Christie's is selling 1,600 items over three days, with an expected take of $600 million. The proceeds are going to charity.
The jewel in this collection's crown is Picasso's 1905 masterpiece "Fillette a la corbeille fleurie" ("Young Girl With a Flower Basket"). Its purchase by Gertrude and Leon Stein, along with two other Rose Period paintings, helped jumpstart the artist's career.
The Picasso alone is valued at $100 million, but the combined total is expected to smash the previous record for a collection set by that of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge, which fetched $484 million in 2009.
'Extraordinary Season'
NRA President
Ollie
Television host, pardoned felon, and retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North has been named president of the National Rifle Association, the group announced on Monday.
"This is the most exciting news for our members since Charlton Heston became President of our Association," said NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre (R-Draft Dodger). "Oliver North is a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader. In these times, I can think of no one better suited to serve as our President."
North won't become president immediately but instead will take the helm after a formal process by the lobbying group, which is expected to take several weeks. He will replace outgoing president Pete Brownell, who declined to seek another term in order to spend more time with his family, according to a press release.
North, a longtime fixture in the conservative media, was convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal of 1991 in which senior officials of the Reagan administration secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran. He has most recently worked as a host on Fox News, a role from which he will be retiring "effective immediately" according to the release.
Ollie
Left Behind
Afghanistan
As the pre-dawn twilight crept over an Afghan mountainside, an Air Force commando named Jay huddled in the snow, listening to a distressed voice crackle over his radio, then fade away. Moments later, he says, the voice came again, breaking through the static in little more than an anguished whisper: "This is Mako Three Zero Charlie.... This is Mako Three Zero Charlie…." The same six words, over and over, each time dissipating before Jay could hear anything else.
Jay was part of an elite reconnaissance team operating behind enemy lines, and he immediately recognized the call sign and voice. They belonged to his counterpart on another team: Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman. From his hidden perch, Jay responded again and again on his powerful satellite-capable radio. But he received no reply. The voice continued for about 40 minutes, he says, like a plaintive mantra-"This is Mako Three Zero Charlie…. This is Mako Three Zero Charlie…." Then it fell silent. It wasn't until the next evening that Jay learned Chapman had died, that he was the last American to hear him alive.
Today, some 16 years after Chapman's tragic death, fierce disagreement over what happened on that snowy peak threatens to overshadow two Medal of Honor recommendations that-as of publication-await White House approval. The bitter dispute pits members of the Navy SEALs against Air Force special operators and Army Rangers. It has entangled numerous senior military leaders, several of whom had personal links to the desperate fight on Takur Ghar mountain.
The controversy revolves around Operation Anaconda, a March 2002 attempt to surround and destroy a large Al-Qaeda force. It took place in eastern Afghanistan and cost the lives of eight Americans, seven of them on Takur Ghar. Chapman was among the dead. Using Predator drone footage and other evidence, the Air Force has argued that a SEAL Team 6 unit mistakenly left him for dead while retreating under heavy fire. Afterward, the Air Force claims, Chapman fought on for an hour, badly wounded and alone, before Al-Qaeda militants killed him as he provided cover for an approaching helicopter.
The SEALs, however, reject the claim that Chapman was alive when they fled. "The SEALs did not want to be told-officially-that they left a comrade on that mountain alive," says a former defense official, who, like most sources mentioned in this story, requested anonymity for security reasons or to describe sensitive high-level discussions about members of classified units.
Afghanistan
GOP Senate Candidate
California
A California Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who praises Adolf Hitler and believes Jewish representation in government should be limited was booted from the state's GOP convention on Saturday.
Patrick Little hopes to become the Republican candidate to face off against Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who'll be running for a fifth term in the fall. In a SurveyUSA poll last month, Feinstein was backed by 39 percent of the people surveyed in the poll while Little came in second place at 18 percent.
State GOP spokesman Matt Fleming told CBS News that Little has never been active in Republican politics. He added that the GOP condemns "anti-Semitism and any other form of religious bigotry."
In a video posted on BitChute, Little railed against his ejection while standing ? and spitting ? on an Israeli flag. He called participants in the GOP convention "zionist stooges."
The 33-year-old IT engineer is a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan. He describes himself as a "white advocate" who aims to "crush ... anti-white racism in U.S. institutions," and has called Hitler "one of the greatest leaders in history." Little's campaign slogan is: "Liberate the U.S. from the Jewish oligarchy."
California
Carbon Emissions
Tourism
Tourism accounts for around 8 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study that marks the first attempt to quantify the industry's total carbon footprint.
In an ambitious paper published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, an international team of scientists has quantified the environmental impact of everything from transatlantic flights to cheap souvenirs.
The researchers said flying less and investing in payment schemes to offset damage caused by travel will be essential to avoid "unchecked future growth in tourism-related emissions".
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the countries causing the most harm were also among the largest in both wealth and size - with the US, China and Germany topping the rankings.
Air travel was the main culprit, and the researchers suggested the high-polluting industry would become increasingly problematic as the world gets richer and there is more demand for luxury travel.
Tourism
Sinkhole
New Zealand
A new sinkhole on a North Island farm as deep as four double-decker buses and almost the length of two football fields has grabbed the attention of New Zealand volcanologists.
The chasm appeared after heavy rainfall near the town of Rotorua and left a jagged scar on the landscape, exposing rock deposits from 60,000 years ago.
Experts believe rain dissolved underground limestone over thousands of years, eventually causing the ground to collapse and create the canyon.
Farmer Colin Tremain said the sinkhole appeared overnight last week and was spotted by one of his workers during an early morning round to attend the cows.
"(I'll) put a fence around it and forget about it, waste of time filling it in," he told Radio NZ.
New Zealand
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