Recommended Reading - Monday, 07/18/11
from Bruce
Paul Krugman's Column: Letting Bankers Walk (New York Times)
Ever since the current economic crisis began, it has seemed that five words sum up the central principle of United States financial policy: go easy on the bankers.
Paul Krugman's Blog: Penny-Wise Policy (New York Times)
A weak stimulus together with caution on other fronts, including mortgage relief, led to a weak economy in 2010. This led to a big GOP victory in the midterms. And this led to Republican success in getting the high-end Bush tax cuts extended for two years and quite possibly indefinitely - which will do far more damage to the US debt position that a bigger stimulus in 2009 would have done.
Paul Krugman's Blog: The Political Economy of the Lesser Depression (New York Times)
But why do such arguments have so much traction, while everything economists have spent the last three generations learning is brushed aside? One answer is that macroeconomics is hard; the idea that if families are tightening their belts, the government should do the same, is as deeply intuitive as it is deeply wrong.
Jim Hightower: MICHIGAN LOCALS FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
This law allows him to seize control of any city, county, school district, etc. that he decides is in fiscal trouble, authorizing him to appoint an "emergency manager," which may be a private corporation, to run the entity. This autocratic regent is empowered to cancel labor contracts, repeal the public budget, privatize government assets, dismiss elected officials, and even dissolve the local entity.
Scott Burns: The Sublime Benefits of Death (assetbuilder.com)
When it comes to retirement and living without a paycheck, older people have a sublime advantage. It's called death.
Connie Schultz: Her Memory Is Gone, but His Love Remains (Creators Syndicate)
Every once in a while, 86-year-old Sue Williams looks in the mirror and is startled by the stranger staring back at her. "Who is that?" she'll ask. Chuck, her husband of 56 years, always gives the same answer. "That's you, Susie," he says. "That's what you look like now."
Reg Pomphrett: "Experience: My wife has a 90-second memory" (Guardian)
'She might look and sound like her old self, but the lively, intelligent personality that made her who she is isn't there.'
What I'm really thinking: The unpaid intern (Guardian)
'I'm in my mid-20s and still living with my mum - hardly the graduate dream.'
JOE QUEENAN: Can LaBeouf Pull a Connery? (Wall Street Journal)
At a time when 14.1 million Americans are out of work, millions more are underemployed and even more millions have stopped looking for gainful employment, Shia LaBeouf has announced that he is ditching the Transformers franchise, seeking to grow as an actor. Well, at least that frees up one job.
Roger Ebert: Review of "TABLOID" (UNRATED; 4 stars)
If "Tabloid" is a love story, it is one only Errol Morris could film. He says its subject, Joyce McKinney, is his favorite protagonist, which means she places ahead of Robert McNamara, Stephen Hawking and the expert on naked mole rats. Certainly she is the most enigmatic.
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Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Hot & sunny - the marine layer seems to have gone on vacation.
Performs At Tribute
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen returned to his musical roots to remember a friend.
Springsteen performed a 45-minute set during a "Tribute to the Late, Great Clarence Clemons" at Asbury Park's Wonder Bar Sunday night.
Clemons and Springsteen were friends for more than four decades.
Springsteen joined J.T. Bowen, who was the lead singer of Clemons' band in the 1980s, The Red Bank Rockers. Bowen was singing with The Soul Cruisers when he called Springsteen to the stage.
Bruce Springsteen
Season Premiere Breaks Records
"Breaking Bad"
Sunday night's Season 4 premiere of "Breaking Bad" broke quite well in the ratings. In fact, it broke several records for the AMC series, which stars Bryan Cranston as high school teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White.
According to AMC, Sunday's premiere at 10 p.m. set new high marks for the series in the total viewers, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 demographic.
It also handily improved over last March's Season 3 premiere, growing 32 percent in total viewers with 2.6 million, 21 percent in the adults 18-49 viewership with 1.4 million, and jumping 26 percent in the adults 25-54 demo with 1.4 million.
"Breaking Bad"
Getting Broadway Treatment
Proposition 8
A new play about the battle over same-sex marriage in California by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Milk" is slated for a one-night-only reading on Broadway.
Dustin Lance Black's play "8'' about Proposition 8 will be performed for a fundraiser at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre on Sept. 19. Casting will be announced later.
Proposition 8 is the measure approved by California voters in 2008 that bans gay marriage in the state. A federal judge struck the law down last year. That ruling is being appealed.
The play, which is based on the trial transcript and interviews, will be directed by Tony Award-winning actor and director Joe Mantello.
Proposition 8
"Anger Management"
Charlie Sheen
He's "winning" -- again. Charlie Sheen, who had a spectacular fall from TV grace on his former sitcom "Two and a Half Men," confirmed on Monday reports that he will return to television in a new comedy, "Anger Management," based on the 2003 movie of the same name.
The film starred Adam Sandler as a man who is forced into anger management counseling only to meet an instructor (Jack Nicholson), who is more than a bit angry himself. Sheen will take the Sandler role in the TV show and retain an ownership stake in the series, the producers said in a statement.
"I chose 'Anger Management' because, while it might be a big stretch for me to play a guy with serious anger management issues, I think it's a great concept," Sheen said.
"Who better than Charlie Sheen to tackle Anger Management," said Joe Roth, who heads up Revolution Studios, which produced the movie and backed the TV show. "With Charlie's incredible talent and comedic gifts, he remains the leading man of TV sitcoms. I'm excited to collaborate with him once again."
Sheen and Roth had worked together on previous films including "Major League" and "Young Guns."
Charlie Sheen
Target Rupert-Owned Paper
Lulz Security
A group of internet hackers claims to have tampered with the website of Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper.
Visitors to The Sun's website late Monday were redirected to a page featuring a story saying Murdoch's dead body had been found in his garden.
Lulz Security took responsibility via Twitter, calling it a successful part of "Murdoch Meltdown Monday."
Lulz Security has previously claimed hacks on major entertainment companies, FBI partner organizations and the CIA.
Lulz Security
Escape As Ottawa Stage Collapses
Cheap Trick
Veteran U.S. band Cheap Trick escaped unharmed when a storm blew down much of the stage they were performing on at a major rock concert in Ottawa, Canada, late on Sunday.
The band were about 20 minutes into their set at the Ottawa Bluesfest when the storm suddenly swept over the area. The band left the stage seconds before a particularly strong gust destroyed most of the structure, pushing it back onto an adjacent road and away from the thousands of spectators.
Three people were injured, including the band's bus driver. Police are investigating the incident, which happened on the event's last night.
Ottawa mayor Jim Watson, who was present at the event, said he did not feel organizers could have prepared for the strength of the storm.
Cheap Trick
Plagiarism Case Dismissed
Harry Potter
A lawsuit which accused J.K. Rowling of copying the work of another children's author when writing "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" has been dropped in Britain after the claimant failed to come up with the cash ordered by a judge as security.
The estate of late author Adrian Jacobs said that the plot for the Potter novel, the fourth of seven boy wizard stories that have sold more than 400 millions copies, borrowed parts of his book "Willy the Wizard."
"The case is dead for now," Max Markson, spokesman for the estate, said on Monday. "Can it be revived? Yes, it could be taken up in another country, another jurisdiction," he added.
The lawsuit had already been dismissed in the United States, and a judge at London's High Court said last year that the assertions of the claimant were "improbable."
Harry Potter
Iranian Blogger Arrested
Pegah Ahangarani
A dissident Iranian actress and blogger was arrested as she prepared to leave for Germany to write a blog for the Deutsche Welle radio station about the women's football World Cup, the semi-official ISNA news agency said Monday.
Pegah Ahangarani, 27, was arrested last week, ISNA said, citing the prosecutor's office in Tehran. She had been arrested briefly in 2009 after the disputed presidential elections over charges of playing a role in the postelection riots.
Ahangarani is the daughter of Iranian filmmakers Manijeh Hekmat and Jamshid Ahangarani.
Deutsche Welle said Monday it has learned from people close to Ahangarani that the actress is being detained in Tehran's Evin prison.
The actress was to write a blog on the World Cup for the radio's Persian-language section but decided against going to Germany after being warned by Iranian authorities not to go a day before her planned departure, Deutsche Welle said. She vanished shortly thereafter.
Pegah Ahangarani
Sentenced In Tax Case
Ja Rule
Rapper and actor Ja Rule was sentenced Monday to more than two years in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns, and said a combination of youthful inexperience, bad advice and an inability to manage fame and fortune lead to his financial troubles.
The multiplatinum-selling artist, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, admitted in March that he failed to pay taxes on more than $3 million that he earned between 2004 and 2006 while living in Saddle River. Although he pleaded guilty to three counts of unfiled taxes, he admitted he hadn't filed for five years, according to U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
Ja Rule was sentenced in New York City last month to up to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to attempted criminal weapon possession. The case stemmed from a gun found in his car in 2007. Police said they stopped Ja Rule's $250,000-plus Maybach sports car for speeding and found a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun in a rear door. The gun wasn't registered. He was charged under a New York law that generally bars people from having firearms outside their homes or workplaces.
In the federal case, U.S. Magistrate Patty Shwartz in Newark ruled that the majority of his 28-month federal sentence could be served at the same time as the New York state prison sentence.
Ja Rule
What's A 'Right Of Way'?
James Hetfield
Work is under way on a Northern California hiking trail being built at a cost of more than $650,000 to bypass the home of Metallica front man James Hetfield.
The Marin Independent Journal reports that the 3-mile trail connecting two open space preserves north of San Francisco is set to be finished as early as September.
The new path stems from a 2008 dispute in which Hetfield erected a metal fence blocking a portion of the old trail running through in Marin County land. He complained trail users were damaging his property.
Marin officials say the rocker has been accommodating to the new project, allowing trail builders to use his road for access to the site.
The newspaper says the trail's high cost resulted from environmental reviews, design work, materials and equipment.
James Hetfield
Was Bedeutet 'Redneck'?
Pixar
Pixar Animation's "Cars 2" went out this summer in 44 different languages. And every country faced the same problem when it came to dubbing the aw-shucks ramblings of one of the movie's lead characters - the country bumpkin tow truck Mater, voiced in the movie by Larry the Cable Guy.
"Mater's kind of a redneck, but that means nothing to anyone overseas because they don't have that particular vocal culture," says Rick Dempsey, senior vice president of Disney Character Voices. "So we had to figure out what region of Germany, for example, has more of an uneducated population without being offensive."
Playing that fine line while lessening what's lost in translation so that movies work globally is a delicate yet increasingly important business as Hollywood relies more on international audiences to bolster profits.
Subtitles have been around since the age of silent film. When Hollywood converted to sound in the late 1920s, several European countries - notably Germany, France, Spain and Italy - decided to substitute the voices of their own actors in place of their American stars.
Pixar
In Memory
Jerry Ragovoy
Jerry Ragovoy, a songwriter credited with songs made famous by the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin and others, has died at the age of 80.
Ragovoy died last week at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. Jim Steinblatt, a representative for the performance rights group ASCAP, says he died of complications from a stroke.
Among some of Ragovoy's most famous tunes were "Time Is On My Side" by the Rolling Stones, "Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin and "Pata, Pata" by Miriam Makeba.
Some of his songs were credited to a pseudonym, Norman Meade.
Over the years, his songs were recorded by greats like Elvis Presley, B.B. King and Aretha Franklin.
Ragovoy also was a producer for artists including Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick.
Jerry Ragovoy
In Memory
Sean Hoare
Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead.
Police said Hoare's death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association news agency.
Hoare was quoted by The New York Times as saying that phone-hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then-editor Andy Coulson.
Coulson - who most recently served as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief, was arrested as part of the widening investigation into phone hacking and police corruption.
Sean Hoare
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