Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tom Danehy: Tucson is kind of like a Coen brothers movie. Or a lot of them ... (Tucson Weekly)
Tucson city voters: Do you ever feel like you're stuck in the middle of a Coen brothers movie, where the good guys are hopelessly flawed, and the bad guys (with the exception of Anton Chigurh) are far more inept than evil, prompting the victims to laugh even as they're being ripped off?
Roger Ebert's Journal: Friends don't let friends drink and drive
To begin with, I offer my sympathy to Ryan Dunn's family and friends, and to those of Zachary Hartwell, who also died in the crash. I mean that sincerely. It is tragic to lose a loved one. I also regret that my tweet about the event was considered cruel. It was not intended as cruel. It was intended as true.
KATIE MOISSE: N.C. Man Allegedly Robs Bank of $1 to Get Health Care in Jail (ABC News)
Verone said he asked for $1 to show that his motives were medical, not monetary, according to news reports. With a growth in his chest, two ruptured disks and no job, Verone hoped a three-year stint in prison would afford him the health care he needed.
Connie Schultz: A Grim Landscape in Wal-Mart Nation (Creators Syndicate)
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the 1.5 million female workers for Wal-Mart who claimed - in the largest civil rights class-action suit in history - that the company favored men over women in pay and promotions.
Ros Wynne-Jones: "Rwanda heroes: 17 years on" (Guardian)
In 1994, against huge odds, two men saved hundreds of Tutsis during the genocide in Rwanda. Finally reunited, they recall the extraordinary story of their first meeting.
"Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV" by Ben Shapiro: A review by Gerry Donaghy
Were you aware that television has been trying to turn you into a latté-sipping, pro-gay, recycling Trotskyist? Did you know that 'Friends' was not about a bunch of photogenic 20-somethings frolicking in New York, but rather an entertaining piece of agitprop designed to promote promiscuity? Did you know that Norman Lear was (gasp) a Jew?
Barton Swaim: Don't Blame Mary McCarthy (Wall Street Journal)
In "Just Words," Alan Ackerman traces a decline in American public discourse to a certain insulting crack about Lillian Hellman. But reviewer Barton Swaim notes a problem: Almost everything Hellman wrote other than "and" and "the" was false.
Mary McNamara: Olbermann comes out swinging on Current's new 'Countdown' (Los Angeles Times)
"In the briefest of special comments ... this is a newscast of contextualization, it is to be presented with a viewpoint, that the weakest citizen of this country is more important than the strongest corporation, that the nation is losing its independence through the malfeasance of one political party and the timidity of another and that even though you and I should not have to be the last line of defense, apparently we are so we damn well better start being it." - Keith Olbermann
Roger Ebert: Review of "Matinee" (An Overlooked DVD; 3 ˝ stars; from 1993)
I've looked at a couple of 1950s monster movies lately, and was struck by their innocence. Sure, they showed death rays from outer space, and great cities trampled by giant grasshoppers. But it was so optimistic, in a way, to assume that doom would arrive in such a comprehensible form: That we would die of things we could see coming, instead of from invisible viruses, and poverty, and global pollution.
Marshall Fine: Review of "Bad Teacher" (Huffington Post)
If the title of Jake Kasdan's 'Bad Teacher' calls to mind 'Bad Santa,' the resonance is deliberate: Here is a comedy full of inappropriate humor about someone filling a familiar role who couldn't be further from the figure of benevolent authority we expect.
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."
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Cowturdulance and Secession"
Gingrich Implosion - Who Benefits? America loses - Again!
nailed it:
answered:
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
In The News
Little Ricky Santorum
BadtotheboneBob
5 questions for Hall & Oates
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The lovley 'June Gloom' continues. : )
Hits Broadway
Obama
President Barack Obama turned to the bright lights of Broadway and celebrity backers Thursday night to raise money for his re-election bid.
The presidential motorcade crisscrossed Manhattan as Obama worked his way through three events that raised money for the Democratic Party and his 2012 campaign. Key Obama fundraisers have been asked to raise $60 million for that effort by the end of June.
The fundraisers included an event on a Broadway stage, where Obama spoke to supporters who bought tickets, starting at $100, to watch a performance of the musical "Sister Act."
Obama opened his fundraising trip with a quick stop at the upstate New York military base Fort Drum, where he defended his freshly unveiled plans to bring 33,000 troops home from Afghanistan by September 2012.
But in New York City, his agenda was all about raising money and urging ambivalent supporters to open their wallets again, even though they may be dissatisfied with some of his policies over the past two years.
Obama
Resolution Demanded
Syria
Oscar-winning film director Woody Allen on Thursday joined two Nobel prize winners in a petition demanding that the UN Security Council condemn the Syrian government crackdown on opposition protests, organizers said Thursday.
Allen, Nobel literature prize winners Wole Soyinka of Nigeria and Orhan Pamuk of Turkey and leading writers such as Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco and Bernard-Henri Levy are all calling for a UN resolution.
An open letter on Syria was started by Levy on his Regle du Jeu (Rules of the Game) web site. The letter says demonstrators in Syria have "faced a death machine aware of the heavy price they would pay."
The signatories say it would be "tragic and morally unacceptable" for the Security Council to do nothing.
Syria
Jack White Collaboration
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert and Jack White are cutting a record together.
Colbert has featured the former White Stripe on "The Colbert Report" all week during his "rock odyssey" series, "Dr. Pepper Presents StePhest ColbChella `011 - Rock You Like a Thirst-Icane."
On Wednesday's program, White agreed to produce a song for Colbert through his record label, the Nashville-based Third Man Records.
This is White's second collaboration with a late-night talk show host. Last year he released a live rockabilly album with Conan O'Brien.
Stephen Colbert
Series Sold As E-Books
Harry Potter
Harry Potter battled the forces of evil and now is set to conquer the web - coming to e-books in a groundbreaking deal that has delighted fans but alarmed the book industry that helped make creator J.K. Rowling a billionaire.
Rowling announced Thursday that her seven novels about the boy wizard will be sold for the first time as e-books, beginning in October, exclusively through a new online portal to her wizarding world called "Pottermore."
The deal brings longtime e-book refusnik Rowling into the digital fold, but comes as a bitter potion to established booksellers, who will be shut out of the latest chapter of a vastly profitable saga.
"You can't hold back progress," Rowling told reporters in London. "E-books are here and they are here to stay."
The Potter novels will be available as audiobooks and e-books in multiple languages, initially including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese. Prices have yet to be set. The "Pottermore" website, meanwhile, is an immersive online environment that combines elements of a role-playing game and a digital encyclopedia with social networking and an online store.
Harry Potter
Named National Geographic Explorer
James Cameron
Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron achieved a teenage dream Thursday as he added the title of National Geographic explorer to prestigious awards he has received, including Oscars for blockbuster movies like Avatar and Titanic.
"Based on where I thought I'd be as a teenager, being named an explorer is a great honor and as amazing an outcome as being an Academy Award-winning director," Cameron told AFP after he and Spanish marine ecologist Enric Sala were inducted into the small circle of National Geographic explorers.
As a teen, Cameron said, "I could think of nothing better than to be an ocean explorer."
As a National Geographic explorer in residence, Cameron will pilot a one-man submarine down to depths as deep as 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) below sea level, exploring "part of the ocean that's never been explored by humans and has only been very very briefly glimpsed by robotic eyes," he said.
James Cameron
Indirect 'informant' For 'The Departed'
James 'Whitey' Bulger
James "Whitey" Bulger was an FBI informant. His life also informed one of modern Hollywood's more-memorable crime stories.
Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" was hardly the life story of Bulger, yet the aura and influence of the Boston mob boss permeates the Academy Award-winning gangster saga.
Adapted from the Hong Kong crime tale "Infernal Affairs," 2006's "The Departed" co-stars Jack Nicholson as a Boston gang leader whose life parallels that of Bulger, the Irish mob chief arrested Wednesday after 16 years as a fugitive.
Scorsese and his collaborators say Bulger and the crime operation he ran around Boston helped localize the story and add credibility to the plot, which centers on an undercover cop who infiltrates the mob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a policeman (Matt Damon) who's really a mole for the mob.
James 'Whitey' Bulger
St. Louis Statue Sparks Opposition
Chuck Berry
An 86-year-old former city official said on Thursday she and dozens of supporters would try to delay installation of a statue of rock pioneer Chuck Berry because he "is a felon and not a friend of women."
An eight-foot statue of the 84-year-old St. Louis native and member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame is ready to be erected in a public plaza near the suburban University City club where Berry still performs every month to sold out crowds. Installation is scheduled for next week unless it is stopped.
Elsie Glickert, who has lived in the area all her life and served 11 years on the University City council, said she would ask the council to delay the installation "until it can be reviewed. I'm dumbfounded how it got this far."
The city confirmed the issue was placed on the agenda for Monday's meeting, but the city manager Lehman Walker has said the statue was approved properly and plans for the installation and a July 29 dedication will go ahead.
Chuck Berry
Court Rules Against Estate
Anna Nicole Smith
The Supreme Court has ruled against the estate of Anna Nicole Smith in its quest to capture some of the $1.6 billion estate left behind by her late Texas billionaire husband.
The high court on Thursday ruled that a bankruptcy court's decision to give the now-deceased Playmate $475 million from the estate of oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall was decided incorrectly.
Smith and Marshall were wed in 1994, and he died the next year.
His will left his estate to his son, E. Pierce Marshall, and nothing to Smith. A California bankruptcy court awarded Smith part of the estate, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal said that a bankruptcy court could not make a decision on an issue outside of bankruptcy law.
Anna Nicole Smith
Prosecutors Urge Extradition
Bruce Beresford-Redman
Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to ignore efforts by a reality television producer charged with killing his wife in Mexico to present testimony from his 6-year-old daughter to fight extradition.
A prosecution brief filed Thursday calls Bruce Beresford-Redman's efforts to call his daughter as a witness during an upcoming extradition hearing an effort to distract the court from overwhelming evidence that he killed his wife.
Lawyers for the former "Survivor" producer have introduced statements from the couple's 6-year-old daughter into their opposition paperwork, and said at a news conference on Tuesday they hope to call her as a witness.
The U.S. government's brief states that the girl's statements contradict other statements by her father, including one to a hotel clerk who called to inform that other guests complained about loud noise coming from the family's room the night Monica Beresford-Redman was apparently killed.
The producer told the clerk he and his wife had been fighting and that it wouldn't happen again, although his daughter said she recalled them playing a loud game. Tourists in an adjacent room described the noise as coming from a woman who sounded like she was in distress.
Bruce Beresford-Redman
Gets 10 Years
Buju Banton
A federal judge sentenced Grammy-winning reggae singer Buju Banton to 10 years in prison Thursday, the lowest sentence legally allowed for his role in a large cocaine trafficking deal in 2009.
The 38-year-old Jamaican recording artist got a break when U.S. District Judge James S. Moody threw out a gun conviction, which would have added another five years to the minimum sentence. Banton's attorney, David Markus, said with time already served and good behavior, he could be out in six years.
In a statement he wrote after the sentencing, Banton - whose given name is Mark Myrie - thanked family, fans and supporters from around the world who flooded the court file with letters of support.
In his Caribbean homeland of Jamaica, radio stations played his songs nonstop Thursday, including "Not an Easy Road" and "Untold Stories."
Buju Banton
Settles Lawsuit Over NY Club Shooting
Sean "Diddy" Combs
Rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs has settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit with three people in a 1999 shooting involving his protegee at a Manhattan nightclub, one of the victim's attorney said on Thursday.
An attorney for one of the victims, Natania Reuben, confirmed the settlement but declined to give further details, saying the settlement that occurred earlier this year was bound by a confidentiality agreement.
The civil lawsuit stemmed from a December 27, 1999 incident in which Diddy, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez and rapper Jamal "Shyne" Barrow were taken into custody following a shooting scuffle at the now-defunct Club New York in Times Square.
Barrow, who began shooting a gun in the melee, was later convicted of assault in shooting two bystanders who were wounded, while Reuben was wounded in the face by bullet fragments and in 2008 filed a $130 million lawsuit for compensation.
The New York Post quoted former Club New York Owner Michael Bergos - who did not sign the confidentiality agreement - as saying that Reuben received $1.8 million in the settlement and that the other two victims received $50,000 and $500,000.
Sean "Diddy" Combs
No More Parties
Lindsay Lohan
The house party is over for Lindsay Lohan, at least while she's on house arrest.
Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner chided Lohan for having rooftop parties at her home while serving house arrest on a probation violation but said the actress hadn't violated any other rules.
"If you are guilty of some violation of your probation, I don't see it," Sautner said. "What you are guilty of is extremely poor judgment."
The judge said Lohan didn't violate her probation by testing positive for alcohol during a recent test because probation officials were unclear about whether she still had to undergo drug and alcohol testing.
Lindsay Lohan
Musical Shaken
"How to Succeed in Business"
The musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" will go on as scheduled Thursday night, a day after the cast and crew were shaken by a death backstage that scrubbed a performance.
A stagehand was found dead Wednesday night just before the curtain was to rise for the 8 p.m. show at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Stars Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette announced the cancellation from the stage.
Police say they responded to a report of a 29-year-old male in cardiac arrest. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. His name was not released.
The show that was canceled was to be the show's 100th performance.
"How to Succeed in Business"
Reluctant Heiress Leaves Millions
Huguette Clark
A reclusive American heiress, who for decades chose to live in hospitals instead of lavish homes in New York and California, bequeathed her fortune to the arts, a hired nurse and a handful of close associates.
Huguette Clark, 104, died last month. Married briefly in 1928, the heir to a copper, timber and railroad fortune had no children, shunned the social limelight and the trappings of wealth, preferring to tend to her extensive doll collection said to be worth millions.
Clark's estate was valued at about $400 million when she died, according to the law firm Holland & Knight.
In the will Clark stipulated the establishment of a foundation to promote and foster the arts, to be called the Bellosguardo Foundation after her 24-acre oceanfront home in Santa Barbara.
Clark left nothing to any members of her family. Instead she lbequeathed more than $30 million to Hadassah Peri, a nurse assigned to her in 1991 who became Clark's closest companion.
Huguette Clark
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