Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: An Unserious Man (New York Times)
On the spending side, Mr. Ryan proposes huge cuts in Medicaid, turning it over to the states while sharply reducing funding relative to projections under current policy. That saves around $800 billion. He proposes similar harsh cuts in food stamps, saving a further $130 billion or so, plus a grab-bag of other cuts, such as reduced aid to college students. Let's be generous and say that all these cuts would save $1 trillion.
Todd Leopold: "From Adams to Obama: 10 funny political lines" (CNN)
Theodore Roosevelt: "When they call the roll in the Senate, the senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'not guilty.'"
Brennan Center for Justice (New York University School of Law)
The facts on voting and voter suppression.
George R.R. Martin: "Show Us Your Papers"
But I would be remiss if I do not at least make passing mention of how depressed, disgusted, and, yes, angry I've become as I watch the ongoing attempts at voter suppression in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, and other states where Republicans and their Teabagger allies control key seats of power. It is one thing to attempt to win elections. But trying to do so by denying the most basic and important right of any American citizen to hundreds and thousands of people, on entirely spurious grounds... that goes beyond reprehensible. That is despicable.
Marc Dion: What Color is Your Chain? (Creators Syndicate)
No jobs where she lives, so the girl gets not just a nasal piercing while she's in high school, but a waitress chain when she gets out. Maybe a third of the minimum wage and tips buy her chain.
Michael Cragg: "Alanis Morissette: 'I still have PTSD from the Jagged Little Pill era. It was a profound violation'" (Guardian)
The singer on channelling anger in music, having Madonna as her boss and breaking the rules of yoga.
Roger Ebert: The Curators of Dixon School (3 stars)
Can this be a grade school on the South Side of Chicago? With its bright yellow corridor walls and its joyous explosion of art? With paintings to the ceiling, sculpture in the halls, and a fanciful metal sculpture outside in front depicting Hide and Go Seek? Yes, it can, and the artwork seems to have a positive impact on the student body, making the Dixon School one of the most successful in the Chicago school system.
Christopher Borrelli: 'ParaNorman' poses a parental challenge (Chicago Tribune)
Let your children watch creepy movies. Let them experience the harrowing, the uncomfortable. I don't mean the brutal, stupid or soul-crushing; that should be obvious (though I presume for certain parents the "Remove Child Before Folding" sticker on their stroller will always be a necessary reminder too).
David Bruce's Amazon Author Page
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David Bruce's Blog
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
Curious
That idiot Aiken says, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
Is that like when a woman is supposed to hold an aspirin between her knees? Is that what shuts thing down and prevents pregnancy?
And little did I know that my body is like a factory and has settings that I can activate and stop pregnancy! But then doesn't that go against their beliefs that pregnancy, any pregnancy is a blessing? So it's not a sin if my body activates those settings and stops that rape-produced blessing?
Guess it's a whole different ball game for those illegitimate rapes.
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda!
It's obvious these men were never star pupils, but how did they grow the 'nads to be so confident cocksure in their ignorance?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot. Still humid.
New Co-Host Revealed Sept. 4
Kelly Ripa
The producers of "Live! With Kelly" say a new co-host will be revealed on the show Sept. 4.
Disney-ABC Domestic Television said Monday that Kelly Ripa will officially announce her new partner as he or she joins her on stage that morning. By then, Ripa will have welcomed 59 guest co-hosts since Regis Philbin retired from the show last November. The company says the chosen one will come for that large pack.
The day before the big revelation, Ripa will host the show solo for the first time.
Philbin, who created the show, exited was forced out at age 80 after presiding more than 28 years alongside several co-hosts.
Kelly Ripa
Writer In Residence
White Cliffs of Dover
Philosopher Julian Baggini has a high-altitude new assignment - pondering the significance and symbolism of the White Cliffs of Dover, landmarks he likens to Britain's Statue of Liberty.
The National Trust, guardian of the chalk cliffs on England's southeast coast, has appointed Baggini the cliffs' first writer in residence.
Starting Monday, he will spend a week living in a cliff-top lighthouse, writing and speaking about the cliffs and talking to local residents.
Baggini said he hoped to learn "what the white cliffs of Dover mean for British people, including those for whom the cliffs were the first sight of the country which would become their adopted home."
Baggini is blogging about his experience at whitecliffsofdoverwriter.wordpress.com.
White Cliffs of Dover
What Century Is This?
Implied Nudity
A watchdog group says broadcast television is implying a lot more nudity in prime time than it used to.
The Parents Television Council said Monday that its researchers found 76 instances where a person appeared nude, with private parts obscured, in prime time last season. It happened on 37 different shows. The group says that's a sharp rise from the 15 instances the networks aired the season before that.
Examples include a couple skinny-dipping on ABC's "The Bachelor," Howie Mandel jokingly appearing nude in his dressing room at NBC's "America's Got Talent" and a naked man jumping out of a car trunk in the candid camera show "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" on NBC.
In each case, the full nudity is obscured by pixilation or strategically placed objects.
Implied Nudity
Heart Attack
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell says she suffered a heart attack last week and is "lucky to be here."
The 50-year-old comedian detailed the experience on her blog Monday, saying sudden nausea, aches and other symptoms pushed her to do an online search for "women's heart attack symptoms." She took a few aspirin and went to a cardiologist the next day.
She says an artery was 99 percent blocked and a stent was inserted.
O'Donnell writes in a kind of verse on her blog. She says: "Know the symptoms ladies/ listen to the voice inside/ the one we all so easily ignore."
Rosie O'Donnell
Husband Loses Leg
Wynonna Judd
Wynonna Judd's husband has lost his leg after a motorcycle crash in South Dakota.
Michael Scott "Cactus" Moser was riding a motorcycle on U.S. Highway 16 in the Black Hills on Saturday when he crossed the center line and hit a car. He was airlifted to a hospital.
A representative for Judd said Monday that Moser's leg was "severed at the scene of the accident" and that doctors have amputated his leg above his knee. Moser has also had surgery on his hand.
Judd is postponing scheduled concerts in Canada as a result. Moser is a resident of Nashville, Tenn., and the drummer in the country singer's band.
Wynonna Judd
Penicillin Time
LA Porn Industry
A pornography trade group has called for a nationwide filming moratorium while performers are tested forsyphilis and Los Angeles County public health officials investigate a possible outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease.
One performer has tested positive, and the performer's sexual partners are being notified, according to Joanne Cachapero, a spokeswoman for the Free Speech Coalition.
The voluntary, temporary moratorium on production is expected to shutter a multi-billion dollar industry "until the risk to performers in the industry has been properly assessed and all performers have been tested," the trade association said in a statement.
On Friday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced an investigation into at least five possible cases of syphilis that were reported last week.
Cachapero said the group is calling on all performers, more than 1,000, to be tested. Because the illness can be difficult to detect, the trade group's medical experts have ordered preventative shots of antibiotics for performers. After performers get the shots, they can go back to work within 10 days, Cachapero said.
LA Porn Industry
Court Allows "Show Me Your Papers" Laws
Achtung!
A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Alabama and Georgia could enforce key aspects of their laws against illegal immigration that allow police to check the status of criminal suspects.
The decisions were in line with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar Arizona law, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta continued to block other parts of the two Southern states' laws, which have been challenged by the federal government and civil rights groups.
Judges said the laws' opponents were likely to prevail in their fight against provisions in both states that would make it a crime in some cases to knowingly harbor or transport an illegal immigrant.
The court also barred Alabama from requiring schools to check the immigration status of children upon enrollment and from requiring all immigrants to carry a registration document at all times.
Achtung!
Judge Says Priests Aren't Employees
Vatican't
The Vatican won a major victory Monday in an Oregon federal courtroom, where a judge ruled that the Holy See is not the employer of molester priests.
The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman ends a six-year question in the decade-old case and could shield the Vatican from possible monetary damages.
The original lawsuit was filed in 2002 by a Seattle-area man who said the Rev. Andrew Ronan repeatedly molested him in the late 1960s.
The plaintiff tried to show that Ronan and all priests are employees of the Vatican, which is therefore liable for their actions.
Mosman made a previous decision strictly on legal theory and determined that, if all the factual assertions made by the plaintiff's lawyers in the case were true and applicable, then the Vatican would indeed employ Ronan. But on Monday, Mosman said he looked at the facts in the case and didn't find an employer-employee relationship.
Vatican't
9th Circuit Upholds Director's Sentence
John McTiernan
An appeals court has upheld a judgment that "Die Hard" director John McTiernan serve a year in prison for lying about discussing illegally wiretapping a movie producer.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday affirmed the judgment of U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer who sentenced McTiernan in late 2010 to a 1-year prison term.
McTiernan argued the judge erred in denying a motion to suppress a recording in which he and private investigator Anthony Pellicano talked about wiretapping producer Charles Roven.
McTiernan pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements to the FBI and one count of perjury.
John McTiernan
Talking With Fox
Dreamworks
Dreamworks Animation is talking with its new film distribution partner, 20th Century Fox, about a family-oriented cable channel it hopes to create with characters such as its "Kung Fu Panda" and "Casper" franchises, Dreamworks Chief Executive Jeffrey "Sparky" Katzenberg said on Monday.
Katzenberg has been exploring the idea of a cable channel since his company acquired Classic Media, owner of "Casper," "Rocky and Bullwinkle," "Lassie" and other franchises, in July.
"We have had conversations with the Fox team about this," Katzenberg told reporters on a conference call to announce an agreement with Fox to distribute Dreamworks Animation films for the next five years.
Under that deal, Dreamworks has the right to talk with other distributors besides Fox about the cable channel, Katzenberg said.
Dreamworks
Florida Hideout Up For Sale
Ma Barker
The lakefront Florida retreat where FBI agents gunned down gangland legend Ma Barker in 1935 is up for sale - bullet holes and all.
The two-story frame house in rural Ocklawaha, 62 miles northwest of Orlando, is the site of one of the most celebrated raids in FBI history and the suggested starting price on bids for it is $1 million.
There have been attempts to patch up and plaster over the bullet holes but Mark Arnold, an agent with Stirling Sotheby's International Realty, almost makes them sound like part of the attraction of the place.
The house is 2,016 square feet (187 sq meters) with four bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms. The sale includes 9.5 acres shaded by stands of old oak trees and 1.5 acres of sandy beach on Lake Weir.
Ma Barker
Blue 'Meth Candy'
'Breaking Bad'
The owner of an Albuquerque candy store is selling a product she's calling "meth candy" as she tries to play off the popularity of the hit TV-show "Breaking Bad."
Debbie Hall, owner of The Candy Lady, said Monday that the blue-tinted snack is merely sugar rock candy, though it bears a close resemblance to the blue crystal that is central to the plot of the Albuquerque-based TV drama.
In fact, it bears such a close resemblance because Hall said she supplied the "meth candy" for the show as props for the drug during previous seasons.
The Candy Lady isn't the only shop in Albuquerque trying to capitalize on the popularity of "Breaking Bad." A new doughnut shop on the city's northeast section, the Rebel Donut, is selling "Blue Sky Breaking Bad" doughnuts, fully equipped with blue sugar rock sprinkles on top of a vanilla-iced caked doughnut. The two-month old store has been selling it since the shop opened and regularly sells out.
In addition, ABQ Trolley Co. has sold out all tickets through September for "The BaD Tour" - a three-hour tour of "Breaking Bad" locations throughout Albuquerque that are shown prominently in the television series.
'Breaking Bad'
In Memory
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller, the housewife turned humorist who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with her trademark cackle, died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at age 95.
She was a staple of nightclubs and television from the 1950s - when female comics were rare indeed - until her retirement in 2002. Diller built her stand-up act around the persona of the corner-cutting housewife ("I bury a lot of my ironing in the backyard") with bizarre looks, a wardrobe to match (by "Omar of Omaha") and a husband named "Fang."
Wrote Time magazine in 1961: "Onstage comes something that, by its own description, looks like a sackful of doorknobs. With hair dyed by Alcoa, pipe-cleaner limbs and knees just missing one another when the feet are wide apart, this is not Princess Volupine. It is Phyllis Diller, the poor man's Auntie Mame, only successful female among the New Wave comedians and one of the few women funny and tough enough to belt out a 'standup' act of one-line gags."
She didn't get into comedy until she was nearly 40, after her first husband, Sherwood Diller, prodded her for two years to give up a successful career as an advertising and radio writer. Through it all, she was also a busy mother.
A Chicago Tribune columnist, describing her appearance at a nightspot there in 1958, noted she was from San Francisco, hailed her as "the weirdest, wildest yet" - and made sure to mention her five youngsters.
Her husband managed her career until the couple's 25-year marriage fell apart in the 1960s. Shortly after her divorce she married entertainer Warde Donovan, but they separated within months.
Through both marriages and other relationships, the foibles of "Fang" remained an integral part of her act.
She also appeared in movies, including "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number" and "Eight on the Lam" with Bob Hope.
In 1966-67, she was the star of an ABC sitcom about a society family trying to stave off bankruptcy, "The Pruitts of Southampton." Gypsy Rose Lee played a nosy neighbor. In 1968, she was host of a short-lived variety series, "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show."
But standup comedy was her first love, and when she broke into the business in 1956 it was a field she had largely to herself because female comics weren't widely accepted then.
Her looks were a frequent topic, and she did everything she could to accentuate them - negatively. She wore outrageous fright wigs and deliberately shopped for stage shoes that made her legs look as skinny as possible.
She recovered from a 1999 heart attack with the help of a pacemaker, but finally retired in 2002, saying advancing age was making it too difficult for her to spend several weeks a year on the road.
After retiring from standup, Diller continued to take occasional small parts in movies and TV shows ("Family Guy") and pursued painting as a serious hobby. She published her autobiography, "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse," in 2005. The 2006 film "Goodnight, We Love You" documented her career.
Born Phyllis Driver in Lima, Ohio, she married Sherwood Diller right out of school (Bluffton College) and was a housewife for several years before getting outside work.
She was working as an advertising writer for a radio station when a comedy turn at San Francisco's Purple Onion nightclub launched her toward stardom.
She made her network TV debut as a contestant on Groucho Marx's game show, "You Bet Your Life." (Diller, asked if she was married: "Yes, I've worn a wedding ring for 18 years." Marx: "Really? Well, two more payments and it'll be all yours.")
She credited the self-help book, "The Magic of Believing" by Claude M. Bristol, with giving her the courage to enter the business. For decades she would recommend it to aspiring entertainers, even buying it for them sometimes.
Diller is survived by her two children, four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Plans for services are pending.
Phyllis Diller
In Memory
William Windom
William Windom, a 1970 Emmy Award winner for his show "My World and Welcome to It," died on Thursday at home in Woodacre, Calif. He was 88.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, his wife Patricia told the New York Times.
NBC's "My World and Welcome to It" was based on James Thurber's humorous essays and cartoons, and Windom later toured with a one-man show drawn from the program.
He may have been at least as well known for his numerous guest appearances on several TV shows, including "Star Trek," "The Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery." He co-starred with Inger Stevens from 1963-1966 on "The Farmer's Daughter."
But it was a recurring role that began in 1998 and lasted for a decade on the CBS mystery "Murder, She Wrote" that may have brought him the most fame.
He played a doctor, Seth Hazlitt, in the imaginary town of Cabot Cove, Me., who was best friends with Jessica Fletcher, the show's star played by Angela Lansbury.
While Windom made his mark in TV, he played the prosecutor in 1962's Academy Award-winning film "To Kill a Mockingbird," and in 1968 starred in "The Detective" with Frank Sinatra. Sci-fi fans would remember Windom as Commodore Decker in the "Star Trek" TV episode "The Doomsday Machine." He reprised the role four decades later for Star Trek New Voyages."
William Windom
In Memory
Scott McKenzie
Singer Scott McKenzie, who performed "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" - which became a hit in 1967 during the city's "Summer of Love" - has died.
A statement on McKenzie's website says the 73-year-old died on Saturday in Los Angeles. McKenzie battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system, and had been in and out of the hospital since 2010.
"San Francisco" was written by John Phillips, the leader of the 1960s group The Mamas and the Papas. But McKenzie sang it and it has stood as an anthem for the 1960s counterculture movement.
McKenzie also co-wrote "Kokomo," a No. 1 hit for The Beach Boys in 1988, and toured with The Mamas and the Papas in the 1990s.
Scott McKenzie
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