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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
BEN STEIN: In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning
NOT long ago, I had the pleasure of a lengthy meeting with one of the smartest men on the planet, Warren E. Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, in his unpretentious offices in Omaha. We talked of many things that, I hope, will inspire me for years to come. But one of the main subjects was taxes. Mr. Buffett, who probably does not feel sick when he sees his MasterCard bill in his mailbox the way I do, is at least as exercised about the tax system as I am.
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BEN STEIN: In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning
NOT long ago, I had the pleasure of a lengthy meeting with one of the smartest men on the planet, Warren E. Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, in his unpretentious offices in Omaha. We talked of many things that, I hope, will inspire me for years to come. But one of the main subjects was taxes. Mr. Buffett, who probably does not feel sick when he sees his MasterCard bill in his mailbox the way I do, is at least as exercised about the tax system as I am.
Max Boot: The Paradox of Military Technology (thenewatlantis.com)
While various setbacks in the war on terror underscore the limits of American power, it is important not to lose sight of the bigger picture: we live in the age of American supremacy. ... Although the dominance of U.S. forces can still be challenged when they come into close contact with the enemy on his home turf, they are undisputed masters of the "commons" (sea, air, and space), which allows them to project power anywhere in the world at short notice.
ROBERT WELLER: Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign (Associated Press Writer)
DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.
In Praise of Athletic Beauty (mentalhelp.net)
Professor of Literature Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht is a sports fan. Not only a sports fan; Professor Gumbrecht is a fan of sports fans, so much so that he has written In praise of athletic beauty to describe, and to make respectable, the hours spent watching baseball, football, tennis and other sports.
Daniel A. Bell: The Politics of Sports: Watching the World Cup in Beijing (dissentmagazine.org)
China did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup, yet there was almost fanatical enthusiasm for the games in Beijing. Because the matches were played in the middle of the night, many Beijingers slept during the day. This gave a brief respite from Beijing's notorious traffic jams, and the number of emergency calls to the city hotline decreased by 11 percent during the hours of the games. My son's end-of-year examinations were scheduled during the three-day interval between two rounds. I was told that the dates were purposefully chosen.
Tim Harford: I Want It Now! The curious economics of temptation (slate.com)
One of my daughter's favorite bedtime stories is A Birthday for Frances. I like it, too, for the charming illustrations, hilarious dialogue, and instruction in cutting-edge behavioral economics.
Bryan Curtis: Christopher Guest: A mighty whimper (slate.com)
Only someone truly uncharitable could resist the charms of Christopher Guest, the ringleader of an agile troupe of mockumentarians. After watching Guest's oeuvre, including his latest, For Your Consideration, I am afraid I am that man.
Steven E. Landsburg: Why God Created Junk Food (slate.com)
The rationality of Big Macs, cashews, and unlimited sex appetites.
Robia LaMorte (robialamorte.com)
Robia LaMorte Official Home Page. Bruce says enter the site and check out the Reel section.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
PAMELA ANDERSON AND KID ROCK ON THE ROCKS
FOUR MONTHS OF 'LOST WEEKENDS' - AND MORE - OR LESS!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but cold for these parts.
Tour Breaks 14 Venue Records
Barbra Streisand
Despite talk in the early going of slow ticket sales, Barbra Streisand's first live performances in six years put up record-setting box office numbers. The 20 concerts grossed $92,457,062 and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour.
In the other two arenas, Madison Square Garden in New York and the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, she already holds the building record, according to tour producer CPI. Streisand now has the top three grosses in the Garden and the top two at the MGM.
Tour producer Michael Cohl had predicted as much earlier, scoffing at industry scuttlebutt that the tour was not performing up to par at the box office. Now that the trek is done, Cohl is happy. "I say 'nay' to the naysayers," he told Billboard.com. "That was probably one of the most satisfying parts of the whole thing. But the most satisfying part for me was how amazing the show was. I watched every night and I loved it. I'd never seen her in concert and she was sensational."
Barbra Streisand
Wins Trademark Settlement
Jimmy Buffett
Singer Jimmy Buffett has settled his trademark infringement suit against an online merchandise retailer who agreed to stop selling Buffett-related items after a brief stay in jail, the performer's lawyer said on Tuesday.
Buffett's suit, the latest in a long-running legal battle that began in Nevada, had accused Robert Akard of Galveston, Texas, of selling T-shirts, CDs and other Buffett-labeled items over the Internet without the singer's permission.
At a hearing on the case on Monday, the judge found Akard in violation of the restraining order, cited the retailer for contempt of court and had him thrown in jail, according to Erin Powers, a spokesman for Buffett's lawyer, Anthony Buzbee.
A few hours later, Akard reached an out-of-court settlement with the entertainer, promising not to sell Buffett-labeled items in the future, Powers said. The judge then allowed Akard to reopen his Web site selling other beach-themed merchandise.
Jimmy Buffett
HOA Changes Tune
Peace-Sign Wreath
A Colorado woman can display her Christmas wreath shaped like a peace sign after all.
The homeowners association in the Pagosa Springs subdivision where Lisa Jensen lives has withdrawn its threat to fine her $25 a day unless she removed the wreath from the front of her home.
Jensen said she was overwhelmed Monday with hundreds of calls of support and offers to help her pay the $1,000 fine that would be due if she kept the wreath up until after Christmas.
Jensen said she put up her wreath to show support for another resident who was asked to remove a peace sign made of a pie plate held up by two skis. She said residents have previously complained to the American Civil Liberties Union about the interpretation of the association's rules.
Peace-Sign Wreath
Didn't Boff Pigboy
Mary-Lynn Rajskub
The actress that plays Chloe on the Fox mega-hit '24' wants to set the record straight. Mary-Lynn Rajskub tells a popular men's magazine the straight dope - at least when it comes to her alleged relationship with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
The blonde actress and Rush sent tongues wagging over the summer when they were spotted smooching it up at the Heritage Foundation.
Rajskub, who in the past has been romantically linked to the decidedly liberal likes of David Cross and Jon Brion, is as odd of a match for Rush as one could likely make.
Rush Limbaugh has not bedded her, nor will he ever. "Last summer, I was on a panel about terrorism that [he] was moderating," the blonde tells FHM.
"He said hello to everyone and kissed me full on the lips. I was like, 'Oh, that was odd.' Then the picture was on the Internet and people thought I was going out with him.
See the smooch picture here
Mary-Lynn Rajskub
New Stockholm Museum
ABBA
A museum featuring the music, original clothes and instruments of the Swedish pop group ABBA will open in Stockholm in 2008, organizers said on Tuesday.
The planned museum has been endorsed by all four members of the group, who shot to fame when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo."
"It's great that someone feels like taking on our musical history and making it accessible," the four ABBA members Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Reuss, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus said in a joint statement.
ABBA
Baby News
Thijs Lauer
Matt Lauer now has another reason to look bleary-eyed on the set of the "Today" show. His wife, Annette, gave birth to a son, the couple's third child, Tuesday.
In honor of his wife's heritage, the boy was given the Dutch name of Thijs (pronounced tice). Born in a New York City hospital at 9:37 a.m. (EST), Thijs weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces.
Thijs Lauer
Blamed For Pam's Break Up
Borat
Borat Sagdiyev is learning a lesson many celebrities have learned before him: with superstardom comes trouble.
The fake Kazakh documentarian, the brainchild of British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, has faced a litany of accusations since "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" hit theatres earlier this month to become one of the top-grossing films of the year.
And now he's been cited as the reason behind Hollywood's latest high-profile split: the New York Post reported Tuesday that Canada's own Pamela Anderson is divorcing Kid Rock because of his angry reaction to her scripted part in the film.
The long-haired singer's outburst at a private Hollywood screening of "Borat" - he is reported to have publicly called his new bride a "slut" and a "whore" for appearing in the film - is an odd one.
Borat
Charged With DWI
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan, a former "Saturday Night Live" regular who co-stars on NBC's "30 Rock," was arrested Tuesday in Upper Manhattan on drunken driving charges, the district attorney's office said.
The 38-year-old comedian was stopped around 4:30 a.m. while driving a Cadillac Escalade on the Henry Hudson Parkway near West 158th Street, said Edison Alban, a spokesman for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Last Dec. 2, Morgan was arrested in Hollywood, Calif., on impaired driving charges after police stopped him for speeding. Authorities there said his blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent, over the legal limit of 0.08 percent.
On Feb. 17, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving. He was sentenced to 36 months' probation, fined $390 and ordered to attend an alcohol education program, authorities said.
Tracy Morgan
Officer Training For CBS Show
Erik Estrada
Erik Estrada carried a gun but rarely used it to stop bad guys in his 1970s TV police drama "CHiPs." Now, the 57-year-old Estrada and other celebrities are training to carry guns for real, along with badges as Muncie reserve officers as part of a reality CBS TV show.
Estrada, La Toya Jackson, Jack Osbourne, Wee Man and Trish Stratus spent part of Sunday listening to Muncie police officer Scott O'Dell bark orders at them in front of City Hall.
"You the new recruits?" O'Dell asked the recruits, standing in front of a black limousine. "You got what it takes to be Muncie's finest?"
Erik Estrada
Max Bialystock In 'The Producers'
Tony Danza
Tony Danza (R-Bully) as relentless theatrical reprobate Max Bialystock?
Danza, best known for his roles on the TV sitcoms "Who's the Boss?" and "Taxi," will star in the Broadway production of "The Producers" beginning Dec. 19.
He will be joined by Roger Bart, who will play mild-mannered Leo Bloom in the Tony-winning Mel Brooks musical at the St. James Theatre. Danza will be in the show through March 11, while Bart's engagement will end a month earlier - on Feb. 11.
Bart created the role of Carmen Ghia in the original company of "The Producers," which opened on Broadway in April 2001.
Tony Danza
Paris Tribute To Tintin's Creator
Georges Remi
An exhibition devoted to the "father" of comic book hero Tintin will open at the Pompidou Centre here next month to mark the 100th anniversary of the author's birth.
Hundreds of drawings and original plates in tribute to Georges Remi -- better known as Herge -- go on display at the Paris-based contemporary art mecca from December 20 until February 19.
It aims to outline the life and work of the man who died in 1983 and was the creator of the blond-haired boy reporter whose tales have been translated into 60 languages and sold more than 200 million copies.
Georges Remi
Revokes Point Thomson Oil Leases
Alaska
Exxon Mobil Corp. is reviewing its legal options in the wake of Alaska's decision to strip it and other oil companies of their leases in the North Slope's Point Thomson oil and gas field.
The state said Monday it was revoking the leases after finding Exxon Mobil failed to come up with a viable plan for developing the field's vast reserves.
Other oil companies being stripped of their leases include BP PLC, Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips.
Over the last three decades, Exxon Mobil has filed 22 development plans for the 106,200 acres unit. No commercial oil or gas operations have begun in that time.
Alaska
Name Stands Out In Nazi Archive
Anne Frank
The lists run into the tens of thousands - men, women and children tossed into the Nazi machinery of death from just one small country, Holland. Most are unknown, lost in the ashes of the Holocaust.
But buried in List No. 40 in a frayed ledger in the world's largest storehouse of documents on Holocaust victims, the name Anne Frank is quickly recognizable.
After World War II, the Dutch Red Cross collected the deportation lists from the Westerbork transit camp and sent the names to the International Tracing Service, or ITS, the repository of Nazi papers set up to help trace missing people in the postwar chaos.
More than six decades after the war ended, the International Committee of the Red Cross is due to open the vast ITS archive to survivors, their relatives and to Holocaust researchers for the first time.
Anne Frank
Starts to Think for Itself
Major Media
Something important in the overall scheme of the American experiment happened this week.
On Monday morning, MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer appeared on cable television screens across the United States and announced: "The news from Iraq is becoming grimmer every day. Over the long holiday weekend bombings killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. And six Sunni men were doused with kerosene and burned alive. Shiite muslims are the majority, but Sunnis like Saddam Hussein ruled that country until the war. Now, the battle between Shiites and Sunnis has created a civil war in Iraq. Beginning this morning, MSNBC will refer to the fighting in Iraq as a civil war -- a phrase the White House continues to resist. But after careful thought, MSNBC and NBC News decided over the weekend, the terminology is appropriate, as armed militarized factions fight for their own political agendas. We'll have a lots more on the situation in Iraq and the decision to use the phrase, civil war."
The statement followed a similar decision by the Los Angeles Times to drop the pretense of referring to the fighting in Iraq as something other than the civil war it has obviously been for some time.
What is important about this development is that, for the first time since the debate about Iraq began, some--though certainly not all--major media outlets in the United States are making their own judgments based on developments in the Middle East. Up until now, major media has, with few exceptions, failed to embrace that most basic of journalistic responsibilities. Rather, it has served as a stenography service for the Bush-Cheney administration.
For the rest - Major Media
Prime Time Nielsen's
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Nov. 20-26. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (2) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 21.43 million viewers.
2. (6) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 18.54 million viewers.
3. (1) "Grey's Anatomy," ABC, 18.51 million viewers.
4. (X) "Fox NFL Sunday Postgame," Fox, 17.59 million viewers.
5. (X) "Fox NFL Thursday Postgame," Fox, 17.19 million viewers.
6. (3) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 17.17 million viewers.
7. (15) "NCIS," CBS, 17.00 million viewers.
8. (14) "Deal or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 16.97 million viewers.
9. (8) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 16.56 million viewers.
10. (25) "Heroes," NBC, 16.03 million viewers.
11. (9) "CSI: NY," CBS, 15.31 million viewers.
12. (7) "NBC Sunday Night Football," NBC, 15.22 million viewers.
13. (16) "House," Fox, 15.20 million viewers.
14. (11) "Two And a Half Men," CBS, 15.04 million viewers.
15. (25) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 14.65 million viewers.
16. (69) "Saturday Night Football," ABC, 14.64 million viewers.
17. (18) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 14.20 million viewers.
18. (X) "Boston Legal" (Special 11/26), ABC, 13.47 million viewers.
19. (12) "60 Minutes," CBS, 13.18 million viewers.
20. (X) "E.R." (Special 11/23), NBC, 13.04 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Dave Cockrum
Comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum, who in the 1970s overhauled the X-Men and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics title into a publishing sensation and eventually a major film franchise, died Sunday. He was 63.
In his Superman pyjamas and with his Batman blanket, Cockrum died in his favourite chair at his home in Belton, S.C., early Sunday morning. He had suffered a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife, Paty, said Tuesday.
At Cockrum's request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property.
At Marvel Comics, Cockrum and writer Len Wein were handed the X-Men. The comic had been created in 1963 as a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants, but the premise failed to capture fans.
Cockrum and Wein took the existing comic, added their own heroes and published "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1" in 1975. Many signature characters Cockrum designed and co-created, such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus, went on to become part of the "X-Men" films starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
Cockrum received no movie royalties, said family friend Clifford Meth, who organized efforts to help Cockrum and his family during his protracted medical care.
Cockrum was born in Pendleton, Ore., the son of an air force officer. He set aside his interest in art while serving in Vietnam for the U.S. navy. He moved to New York after leaving the service and got his big break in the early 1970s, drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics before moving to Marvel.
Meth said Cockrum, who will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt, will be remembered as "a comic incarnate."
Dave Cockrum
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