The Weekly Poll
New Question
The 'Call it as ya See it' Edition...
The 2010 Mid-term Elections. No media intro or links are needed, I'm thinkin'...
We all know what's at stake here... So, gaze into yer Crystal Ball, break out the Ouija board, shuffle the Tarot cards, read yer tea leaves or just take a wild-ass guess and make yer prediction on the outcome, if'n ya dare...
The Democrats will:
1.) Retain the majority in both the House and the Senate
2.) Lose the House, but retain the Senate
3.) Retain the House, but lose the Senate
4.) Worse case scenario... and you know what that is, dagnabbit!
Predictions will be posted the morning of November 2nd.
... and may The Force be with us!
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman's Blog: Why Have Deficits Exploded? (nytimes.com)
Government spending has continued to rise more or less on its pre-crisis trend. Revenue has plunged, because the economy is deeply depressed.
Paul Krugman: Rare and Foolish (nytimes.com)
China's rare-earth monopoly is yet another example of its refusal to play by the rules.
Lyndon B. Johnson -- A Righteous Gentile?
Historians have revealed that Johnson, while serving as a young congressman in 1938 and 1939, arranged for visas to be supplied to Jews in Warsaw, and oversaw the apparently illegal immigration of hundreds of Jews through the port of Galveston, Texas.
Connie Schultz: The Accused Are Still Human (creators.com)
Last week, Phillip Morris, a colleague of mine at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, wrote a column objecting to the amount of taxpayer money being spent on Anthony Sowell's murder trial.
Paul Constant: Can the Internet Make You a Better Writer? (thestranger.com)
Writing Sites Typetrigger and 750Words Were Born in Seattle.
Paul Constant: A Book Club It's Okay to Join (thestranger.com)
The big, unspoken question at The Novel: Live! launch party at Elliott Bay Book Company last Sunday night seemed to be: Can 36 authors (including Garth Stein, Stacey Levine, Jennie Shortridge, and Erik Larson) write a good novel in six days? Here's the answer: No.
Geoffrey O'Brien: The Grandest Duke (nybooks.com)
Music was not a predestined career choice for Ellington. He liked to draw and attended a commercial art school, and in his teens ran a sign-painting business. But by age fifteen he had discovered the profits and pleasures of music, acquiring the musical knowledge he needed …
Gerrick D. Kennedy: Lil Wayne 'didn't want to disappear' while behind bars, debuts new album (Los Angeles Times)
Though he's been behind bars for the past seven months, Lil Wayne still manages to put his fans first.
Alan Sculley: Fairground Romance (csindy.com)
Chrissie Hynde finds the thin line between love and art.
George Varga: The Grass is Always Blue for Banjo-Playin' Fool Steve Martin (creators.com)
Steve Martin is a much funnier person than either Sting or Liza Minnelli, as befits one of the world's most acclaimed comedic actors. But when Martin was told the same joke that inspired hearty laughter from Sting and Minnelli during their recent interview with this writer - Q: What do you call a drummer in a coat and tie? A: "The defendant." - he was baffled.
David Bruce has 39 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $39 you can buy 9,750 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," and "Maximum Cool."
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From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Link from RJ
Cannonball Tree
Hi there
I thought you might like this!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Gray and overcast, but still no rain.
Forced To Skip 2012
Glastonbury
Glastonbury festival will not be held in 2012 because of the clash with London's Olympic Games, which will lead to a shortage of policemen -- and toilets.
Organisers said they had decided to make the Olympic year one of their regular "fallow" Summers which aim to let the land recover on founder Michael Eavis' Somerset farm where the world's largest open air festival is held.
The next fallow year was originally going to be 2011 but the Games clash decided matters.
Some 600 officers who usually police the festival are expected to be on duty in London for the Games and Eavis has said he expects severe competition from London for trains and essential infrastructure like portable toilets.
Glastonbury
Sick Of Poirot
Agatha Christie
Murder mystery writer Agatha Christie was fed up with Hercule Poirot but kept on penning stories about the Belgian detective under pressure from her publishers, her grandson has revealed.
Christie considered the diminutive, stiff-moustached gastronome as her "bread and butter" but would grumble about having to churn out "yet another Poirot," Mathew Pritchard told Radio Times magazine.
"She was never short of ideas for books but some of these ideas were inappropriate for Poirot, so she was very keen to exorcise herself of him by writing different stories with new characters," he said.
Christie signed over the rights of her favourite works to her daughter and grandson before her death at the age of 85 in 1976.
"She was a very generous person and when I was nine she signed 'The Mousetrap' over to me," Pritchard said.
Agatha Christie
Gets Bosnia Filing Permit Back
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie has been given back a permit to film in Bosnia that was briefly withdrawn because of rumors that her movie featured a rape victim who falls in love with her assailant, her producer said Monday.
Jolie was given back the permit for her first project as a director after the country's culture minster was given the script in an attempt to assure him the rumors were false, said Edin Sarkic, Jolie's Bosnian producer. The minister did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Mass rape was a taboo topic in the immediate aftermath of the country's 1992-95 war between Serb and Bosnian Muslim forces but since then victims have formed a group to campaign for their rights, which has become one of the country's most powerful lobbies.
The Association of Women Victims of War protested Jolie's production after hearing rumors that the film's main characters - a Bosnian woman and a Serb man - were a rape victim and rapist.
Angelina Jolie
Full-Season Pickups
NBC
NBC is giving three freshman series, including "The Event," a full-season pickup.
Besides the much-hyped thriller "The Event," the network gave a vote of confidence Monday to "Law & Order: Los Angeles" and the sitcom "Outsourced."
None of the series has posted stellar ratings in a season in which new shows have struggled to attract viewers.
But NBC noted that "The Event" and the Los Angeles-set "Law & Order" have improved ratings in their time slots, while "Outsourced" is doing well with advertiser-favored young adult viewers. The network finished fourth last season.
NBC
Fans Mourn Closing
Liberace Museum
The financially depleted Liberace Museum has closed, with no ceremonial toast or parting words from any museum official.
Hundreds of visitors admired the feathered capes and bejewelled costumes of Liberace during its final hours Sunday, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
The move came as its finances decreased to the point that the attraction was in danger of draining the Liberace Foundation scholarship account.
Outgoing museum director Tanya Combs, a 10-year employee, says closing the museum was like losing a family member.
Liberace Museum
Rejects 'Tiny Todger' Jibe
Jerry Hall
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is "very well-endowed", his ex Jerry Hall has said in response to his bandmate Keith Richards's claim that the singer had a "tiny todger".
Hall stepped in after Richards used his autobiography, "Life", to cast aspersions on the size of Jagger's manhood and give details of how the pair shared trysts with glamorous women.
"Mick is very well-endowed," Hall told BBC radio. "I should know -- I was with him for 23 years. Keith is just jealous."
Richards's no-holds barred memoir, being published later this month, details his fraught relationship with songwriting partner Jagger, whom he calls "Your Majesty" or "Brenda" -- also a nickname for Queen Elizabeth II.
Jerry Hall
Fox Fluffer Apologizes
Brian Kilmeade
Fox News Channel host Brian Kilmeade is apologizing for saying on the air that "all terrorists are Muslim."
Kilmeade, a host of the "Fox & Friends" morning show, said Monday that he misspoke on Friday when he and his colleagues were discussing the appearance last week on "The View" of Fox's Bill O'Reilly. Two hosts walked off "The View" after they objected to the Fox News Channel host saying that "Muslims killed us on 9/11." They returned after O'Reilly apologized.
Kilmeade said that "not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslim."
On Monday, Kilmeade said on Fox, "I don't believe all terrorists are Muslims. I'm sorry."
Brian Kilmeade
No-Show For Felony Vandalism Case
Quaids
A judge issued arrest warrants Monday for Randy Quaid and his wife after they failed to show up at a court hearing stemming from their arrests last month on suspicion of illegally squatting at a home, a prosecutor said.
Santa Barbara Senior Deputy District Attorney Lee Carter said the $50,000 warrants were issued after the couple failed to appear for an arraignment Monday on a felony vandalism charge. Carter said the couple may turn themselves in sooner, but their case will be called again on Oct. 26.
Randy and Evi Quaid each face a felony vandalism charge. Deputies arrested the couple last month on suspicion that they were living in the guest house of a Montecito home they previously owned. Authorities said at the time the Quaids were suspected of causing more than $5,000 in damage.
The Quaids frequently missed court appearances in an earlier case involving charges they defrauded an innkeeper. That case was resolved in April with Evi Quaid pleading no contest to a misdemeanor count. The charges against her husband were dropped.
Quaids
Accused Of Exploiting Filmmakers
PETA
Few organizations have created more hot viral videos on the web than People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
The animal rights group has created confrontational spots that featuring celebrities, ambushed consumer brand products, and disrobing supermodels. In many of these videos, a bit of eye-candy is delivered with some hard medicine. For example, in PETA's famous spot, "State of the Union Undress," a woman talks about animal cruelty while taking off her clothes, before a montage of animal brutality is shown to the viewer, such as beaks removed from chickens.
But where does PETA get these nasty images? One would hardly expect the group to participate in the activity it deems repellant, right? Here may be a partial answer.
In 1982, Victor Schonfeld and Myriam Alaux created a controversial and critically acclaimed feature documentary, "The Animals Film," narrated by the actress Julie Christie, about the exploitation of animals. The documentary is widely credited for raising awareness for animal cruelty, and since then, animal rights organizations like PETA have been using some of the film's scenes.
In September, the rights-holder of the films, Beyond the Frame Ltd, wrote to PETA, quite angry about the group's alleged exploitation of the "Animals" film.
PETA
Files For Bankruptcy
Crystal Cathedral
Crystal Cathedral, the megachurch birthplace of the televangelist show "Hour of Power," filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.
In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.
The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart, church officials said.
The church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr., has already ordered major layoffs, cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat. In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.
Crystal Cathedral
List Of Looted Art Goes Online
Nazis
A long register of some 20,000 art works looted by the Nazis in World War II from Jewish families was put online Monday in the hopes of reuniting the paintings and objects with their rightful owners.
The project is a joint initiative by an organization called the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, begun in 2005 with the aim of cross-referencing existing records to build a searchable database.
The website www.errproject.org/jeudepaume is freely accessible and was drawn up using the archives of the German agency tasked with cataloguing the plundered art works from 1940 to 1944 -- the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR).
The online database was drawn up using the dossiers which are today housed in the archives of the French foreign ministry, the US National Archives and the German Federal Archives.
Nazis
Another Foot Sandwich
Angle
Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle told dozens of Hispanic high school students last week that "some of you look a little more Asian to me," inducing gasps from the crowd and marking the latest eyebrow-raising remark she has uttered on the campaign trail.
Angle, a Republican in a close contest against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, met Friday with the group at a Las Vegas high school after students expressed anger with her campaign's anti-illegal immigrant message.
In a video of the private meeting obtained by The Associated Press, Angle defends a series of campaign advertisements that lean on images of dark-skinned men. Angle, who is white and has Mexican grandsons, claims she did not know the people in the TV spots were Hispanic and makes the case that it can be difficult to pinpoint someone's race.
"You know, I don't know that all of you are Latino. Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don't know that," she is heard telling the students, who respond with a flurry of gasps and whispers.
"What we know, what we know about ourselves is that we are a melting pot in this country. My grandchildren are evidence of that. I'm evidence of that. I've been called the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly."
Angle
Vatican't Claims Him
Homer Simpson
The official Vatican newspaper has declared that beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer Simpson and son Bart are Catholics -- and what's more, it says that parents should not be afraid to let their children watch "the adventures of the little guys in yellow."
"Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it's true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic", the Osservatore Romano newspaper said in an article on Sunday headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics."
The newspaper cited a study by a Jesuit priest of a 2005 episode of the show called "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star". That study concludes that "The Simpsons" is "among the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion and questions about God are recurrent themes."
The middle class U.S. family prays before meals, and "in its own way, believes in the beyond," the newspaper quoted the Jesuit study as saying.
Homer Simpson
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