Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joe Bob Briggs: Is There a Vaccine for Vaccine-Haters? (Taki's Magazine)
Okay, here's the bad news. Smallpox was eradicated from the planet, but not until 1979. That's how long it takes to get everybody vaccinated in every country even when we all agree it's a good thing. Polio, malaria, hookworm, measles, rubella have all been almost eradicated. But they keep coming back because of the Village Idiot Factor. There's always a Village Idiot who believes the vaccine is harmful. He endangers the rest of the village. And he won't shut up.
Paul Waldman: "Let's be honest: Nobody knows how impeachment would turn out" (Washington Post)
Which leaves us with this: The judgment should be made on the merits. If you think Trump's conduct merits impeachment, that's what you should support. I have yet to hear a single Democrat argue that it would be wrong to impeach Trump; those who don't want to do it think it's politically misguided, but almost none of them believes he doesn't deserve it. That's another thing about the uncertainty of politics: Sometimes doing the right thing hurts you, and sometimes it helps you. You might not be able to tell in advance. So why not make the choice you can be proud of?
Sophie McBain: Why so many American women are ordering abortion pills online (New Statesman)
There is, however, a safe way for women to self-administer abortions, one that was pioneered by Latin American women seeking to circumvent strict anti-abortion laws in the 1980s and that has since entered the medical mainstream in many countries. For women who are up to 10 weeks pregnant, a medical abortion, commonly using two drugs - misoprostol and mifepristone - is over 95 per cent effective at terminating a pregnancy, and the risk of serious complications is extremely low.
Jason Bailey: The Pleasurable Brutality and Stylized Comic Violence of 'John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum' (Flavorwire)
Keanu Reeves and company go for broke in the third installment of this inventive action franchise.
Rebecca Shapiro: Taylor Swift Shuns Question She Says Interviewer Wouldn't Ask A Man (Huffington Post)
"I'm not going to answer that now," the star said during an interview with Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur, according to a translated version of the article.
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Presenting
Michael Egan
replied:
has returned to semi-retired status.
In memory.
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
from Bruce
Anecdotes
• When he was a very young man who had just graduated from Harvard, future music critic Henry T. Finck decided to attend the first Beyreuth Festival, with Richard Wagner himself conducting. He arrived several weeks before the festival began, and he wanted to attend the rehearsals of the great works of opera written by Wagner. No one was supposed to be admitted to the rehearsals, but he found a convenient keyhole and put his ear up to it. Someone discovered him doing this and said, "Nobody allowed in here." Henry pointed out that he had spent a great amount of money for tickets to all the public performances of the festival, but to no avail. The attendant said, "I am extremely sorry, sir, but I have strict orders to make no exceptions. Fortunately, Henry met Mr. Wagner himself. He took the opportunity to ask the great man to allow him to attend rehearsals. At first, Mr. Wagner declined, thinking that Henry was a critic. (Henry became a critic - as which he was a defender of Wagner - later.) Henry said, "But I am not a critic, only a young man of 22 who has come simply to describe the new works." (True. Henry could write, and he had arranged to send articles about the festival to the New York World and Atlantic Monthly.) This pleased Mr. Wagner, who asked him, "Have you a Patronatsschein?" Henry replied, "Three!" Mr. Wagner then did a good deed. He said, "I had made up my mind to admit no one to the rehearsals, not even Liszt. But he has gone in and I have admitted a few others, so you might as well come, too." Mr. Finck wrote in his autobiography that he "had the time of my life watching the great master superintending every detail of the performances."
• For a while, Michael Moore, who now directs documentaries, published an investigative newspaper in Flint, Michigan: the Flint Voice. Some of the investigative stories, such as exposing racism in businesses, resulted in a major lack of advertising revenue, and so getting enough money for the newspaper was difficult. One person who helped start the newspaper and supported it until his death was folksinger Harry Chapin. After a Harry Chapin concert, Mr. Moore went backstage to see him. A security guard asked him what was doing, and Mr. Moore replied, "I'm just stopping by to see Harry." The security guard replied, "The hell you are!" But Mr. Chapin appeared at his dressing room and decided to see Mr. Moore, who told him that he and some friends wanted to start an alternative newspaper and asked him to please do a benefit concert for them. Mr. Chapin listened to Mr. Moore's plans for the newspaper and said, "Sounds like a worthy effort. Here's my manager's number. Give him a call and I'll see what I can do." A few months later, he did a sold-out benefit concert, and Mr. Moore and his friends started the newspaper. Mr. Chapin then did annual benefit concerts for the next five years until his death in an accident on the Long Island Expressway in July 1981. Mr. Moore kept the newspaper going until 1985, when he shut it down to become editor of Mother Jones, which turned out to be a bad idea. He has never forgotten Mr. Chapin's generosity.
• Nickelback has its fans; Nickelback also has its non-fans, including Josh Gross, who writes for the Boise Weekly in Idaho. When Nickelback came to the Idaho Center to play a concert, this is what Mr. Gross wrote: "You can spend $45 to go see Nickelback this week. Or you could buy 45 hammers from the dollar store, hang them from the ceiling at eye level and spend an evening banging the demons out of your dome. That $45 would also buy you a lot of pickles, which have more fans on Facebook than the band. It would also buy you an introduction to rock guitar video course that would allow you to surpass the band's skill level in five hours or less.$45 is also enough to see Men in Black III five times, buy a dozen Big Macs, do 10 loads of laundry or so many other experiences as banal and meaningless as seeing Nickelback but that come without having to actually hear Nickelback. But if you must, the band is playing the Idaho Center on Wednesday, June 13, [2012,] at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $45."
• David L. Ulin is a critic for the Los Angeles Times (California). When he was in high school, he was a fan of Neil Young - he still is. One day, he was playing one of Mr. Young's albums - loudly - in his bedroom. His mother came to his bedroom and told him to turn down the volume. Mr. Ulin wrote much later, "When I protested that Young was a genius, my mother looked at me as if I were speaking a language she didn't understand.'If he was a genius,' she told me, 'he wouldn't be playing electric guitar.'" By the way, Mr. Young undertakes what seems to be constant renovation, and he seemingly always eventually breaks up with whatever band he's playing in. In the middle of a tour with Stephen Stills in 1976, he sent Mr. Stills this telegram: "Funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil."
• Ernestine Schumann-Heink was a kind woman as well as a great operatic contralto, and she imparted her musical wisdom to others. Music critic Henry T. Finck once introduced to her one of his female students at the Brooklyn Master School of Music. Ms. Schumann-Heink extended an invitation to the pupil: "Come to see me at my hotel tomorrow morning." The student went, but Ms. Schumann-Heink had read a notice in a newspaper and was depressed, so she asked the student to instead stay with her all weekend at her place in New Jersey. Mr. Finck writes, "The girl did so and what she learned in those three days was worth more than a whole year's course in the best conservatory."
• "A German woman in a coma was taken to a Bryan Adams concert and woke up. She looked around and said, "The coma wasn't that bad." - Conan O'Brien
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© Copyright Bruce D. Bruce; All Rights Reserved
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Bonus Links
Jeannie the Teed-Off Temp
Reader Comment
Current Events
And because there's a tweet for everything that shows what a monumental hypocrite he is, friend Janet shared this link:
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD is on vacation.
Visit JD's site - Kitty Litter Music
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still cool, no rain.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
Di$ney
The force will be strong this week when Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge officially opens at Disneyland in California.
On Friday, May 31, thousands of guests will travel to a galaxy far, far away and enter the highly immersive and interactive world that's been years in the making.
And of course, a visit wouldn't be complete without your very own lightsaber and droid.
According to Disneyland's website, you can build a custom lightsaber at Savi's Workshop for $199.99, plus tax. The experience is so authentic and is expected to be so popular, you may need to book a reservation.
In addition, you can build your own custom droid at Droid Depot for $99.99, plus tax.
Di$ney
AP FACT CHECK
Takes Credit
Boastful on the occasion of Memorial Day, President Don-Old Trump (R-Bone Spurs) and his Veterans Affairs secretary are claiming full credit for health care improvements that were underway before they took office.
Trump said he passed a private-sector health care program, Veterans Choice, after failed attempts by past presidents for the last "45 years." That's not true. The Choice program, which allows veterans to see doctors outside the government-run VA system at taxpayer expense, was first passed in 2014 under President Barack Obama.
Trump's VA secretary, Robert Wilkie, also is distorting the facts. Faulting previous "bad leadership" at VA, Wilkie suggested it was his own efforts that improved waiting times at VA medical centers and brought new offerings of same-day mental health service. The problem: The study cited by Wilkie on wait times covers the period from 2014 to 2017, before Wilkie took the helm as VA secretary. Same-day mental health services at VA were started during the Obama administration under Wilkie's predecessor, David Shulkin.
The half-truths and exaggerations came in a week when selective accounting was a norm in Trump's rhetoric, extending into his trip to Japan , where he inflated the drop in the U.S. unemployment rate for women.
A look at the claims, about the Russia investigation, the border, drug prices and more: Takes Credit
WHO Recognises Medical Condition
'Burn-Out'
The World Health Organization has for the first time recognised "burn-out" in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD), which is widely used as a benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers.
The decision, reached during the World Health Assembly in Geneva, which wraps up on Tuesday, could help put to rest decades of debate among experts over how to define burnout, and whether it should be considered a medical condition.
In the latest update of its catalogue of diseases and injuries around the world, WHO defines burn-out as "a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed."
It said the syndrome was characterised by three dimensions: "1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and 3) reduced professional efficacy."
"Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life," according to the classification.
'Burn-Out'
Slashing Tires, Breaking Windshields
Masked Man
Deputies patrolling businesses near the border of Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills early Monday said they caught a man wearing a Don-Old Trump (R-Crooked) mask causing damage to at least one parked vehicle.
The officers were conducting checks in the Cabot-Vista Viejo area at around 4 a.m. when "they had to do a double take" after spotting somebody "resembling President Trump slashing tires and breaking the windshield of a parked vehicle," the Orange County Sheriff's Department said.
The person had a loaded handgun, body armor, an airsoft shotgun and a helmet, according to the Sheriff's Department. His car also had fake license plates and amber "takedown" lights attached to the windshield, the agency said.
The suspect, 56-year-old Rory Zimmerman, was safely arrested for a possible felony vandalism charge, the Sheriff's Department said. Bail was set at $100,000.
Zimmerman previously worked in the area, according to the businesses in the complex where he was arrested. At least two vans parked on Monday afternoon appeared to have their tires slashed.
Masked Man
82% Of Voters
Ireland
Ireland has overwhelmingly backed proposals to make it easier for married couples to divorce.
More than 82 per cent of people voted in a referendum to reduce the minimum separation period from four years to two years.
Just 17 per cent of the 1.7 million voters opposed liberalising the nation's divorce laws.
Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan is now set to bring forward a Bill to amend Section 5 of the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996.
Couples currently have to prove to a court that they have been separated for four of the previous five years before they can secure a divorce.
Ireland
Big Bear
Bald Eaglet
A bald eaglet has died about six weeks after he and a sibling were born in a Big Bear nest watched by thousands on livestream video, a local nonprofit organization said.
"We are very sad to say that it looks like Cookie died just a little bit ago," Friends of Big Bear Valley said in a statement Monday morning, adding that hypothermia was likely the cause. "He was up earlier but looked weak; he also seemed less energetic yesterday."
According to the organization, a recent storm soaked the nest and subsequent snow stuck to the feathers of the chicks' mother, Jackie. The growing eaglets were unable to fully fit underneath the mother on Sunday.
The survival rate of bald eagles is 50 percent in their first year.
"We will all be rooting for Simba to stay strong and healthy," the statement said, referring to Cookie's surviving sibling.
Bald Eaglet
Wolong National Nature Reserve
Albino Panda
A rare all-white panda has been caught on camera at a nature reserve in southwest China, showing albinism exists among wild pandas in the region, state media reported.
The spotless, red-eyed animal was photographed while trekking through the forest mid-April in southwestern Sichuan province, said official news agency Xinhua on Saturday.
The panda is an albino between one to two years old, said Li Sheng, a researcher specialising in bears at Peking University, who was quoted in Xinhua's report.
The Wolong National Nature Reserve -- where the animal was spotted -- told AFP it had no further details about the albino panda.
More than 80 percent of the world's wild pandas live in Sichuan, with the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu province.
Albino Panda
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