Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Inequality is a Drag (NY Times)
The gap between the rich and poor in the United States has grown so wide that it is inflicting a lot of economic damage and makes a new case for trickle-up economics.
Jordan Weissmann: The Unbelievable, Unknowable Wealth of the World's Super-Rich (Slate)
The lesson is that economists are still evolving their sense of how much wealth the world's elite possess. Researchers have come up with smart, indirect ways of measuring money that's carefully hidden from view. But it's very possible that the rich are still worth more than even our wildest guesses.
Andrew Tobias: "Monsanto: Best Letter I Ever Read"
So I started reading this, by the estimable Michael Specter, which basically just offers up a letter from a young centi-millionaire to his employees - perhaps the most interesting letter I've ever read not to have come out of, say, a Birmingham jail.
Peter Bradshaw: To Catch a Thief review - Hitchcock at his most witty, elegant and insouciant (Guardian)
Reissue of jewel-heist caper with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly revives long-lost vision of American super-rich.
Sarah C. Andersen: Bras Exist (Cartoon)
I had a conversation about this subject just today, over shopping for school clothes. So many shirts just don't work. I said, "These shirts just want to advertise the fact that you're not wearing a bra."??My teenager says, "But girls wear bras with these. They just show."
Chris Morran: "Jerk Or Genius: Burger King Customer Buys 23 Apple Pies Just So Loudmouthed Kid Can't Get One" (Consumerist)
In a post on Reddit (cue the disclaimer that his entire story may be B.S., but it's worth discussing anyway), a man claims that he was just trying to end his bad day on a good note by treating himself to some BK.
Scott Burns: Is Inflation Coming Back? (AssetBuilder)
This suggests that an inflation rate of 2 percent is behind us. A higher inflation rate, closer to 3 percent, may be coming our way. Is it inevitable? No. But the most telling place to watch is shelter, the Big Dog in expenses for most Americans.
Kristi Harrison: 4 Terrible Messages That Girl-Centered Ads Are Sending (Cracked)
The Internet has exploded in an estrogen-charged fury of pro-girl viral ads, each more emotionally manipulative than the last. And it's a good thing, because prior to the summer of 2014, American girls were languishing in princess towers, completely clueless that they had any value beyond their homemaking and boob-flashing skills.
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David Bruce has approximately 50 Kindle books on Amazon.com.
"Doug's Most Shared Facebook Post" Today
wrote:
took the day off.
has retired(?).
Reader Suggestion
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
from Marc Perkel
BartCop
Hello Bartcop fans,
As you all know the untimely passing of Terry was unexpected, even by
him. We all knew he had cancer but we all thought he had some years
left. So some of us who have worked closely with him over the years are
scrambling around trying to figure out what to do. My job, among other
things, is to establish communications with the Bartcop community and
provide email lists and groups for those who might put something
together. Those who want to play an active roll in something coming from
this, or if you are one of Bart's pillars, should send an email to
active@bartcop.com.
Bart's final wish was to pay off the house mortgage for Mrs. Bart who is
overwhelmed and so very grateful for the support she has received.
Anyone wanting to make a donation can click on this the yellow donate
button on bartcop.com
But - I need you all to help keep this going. This note
isn't going to directly reach all of Bart's fans. So if you can repost
it on blogs and discussion boards so people can sign up then when we
figure out what's next we can let more people know. This list is just
over 600 but like to get it up to at least 10,000 pretty quick. So
here's the signup link for this email list.
( mailman.bartcop.com/listinfo/bartnews )
Marc Perkel
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and breezy.
Artwork Up For Auction
Bill Watterson
Artwork from "Calvin and Hobbes" creator Bill Watterson's three-day return to comics will be auctioned to benefit Parkinson's disease research.
Watterson collaborated with "Pearls Before Swine" cartoonist Stephan Pastis for the three comic strips in June after a long absence from the funny pages. The strips will be sold Friday by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, with each expected to sell for more than $10,000.
Heritage says the three-strip arc follows Pastis' alter-ego as he turns the drawing of the comic over to a second-grader.
At Watterson's request, the artwork is being sold on behalf of Team Cul de Sac, a charity established in honour of cartoonist Richard Thompson, who has Parkinson's. The proceeds will go to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Bill Watterson
Library of Congress Acquires Archive
American Ballet Theatre
The Library of Congress has acquired the archive of the American Ballet Theatre and plans to open an exhibit celebrating the dance company next week.
The library says the ballet donated its archive of more than 50,000 items from its history. The company is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The archive includes photographs, notes, scores, music manuscripts, touring files, business papers and other memorabilia.
Susan Vita, the chief of the library's music division, says the dance company's archive will be a centerpiece collection. She says the archive connects with some of the top composers, choreographers, designers and musicians.
On Aug. 14, the library will open an exhibit on the American Ballet Theatre's history as an international touring company. The exhibit will be shown in Los Angeles in 2015.
American Ballet Theatre
Cultural Changes In Attitude
TV
Manjula Stokes has twice sworn off television, once throwing a set off her deck in a fit over an ex-husband's sports obsession. Now she's a devotee of programs like "Downton Abbey," ''Mad Men," ''Survivor" and "Masters of Sex."
The teacher from Santa Cruz, California, illustrates a subtle change in society's attitude toward television. The medium is growing in stature, propelled by both art and technology. More worthy programs are available at a time when viewers are becoming more comfortable setting up their own schedules to watch.
A CBS survey of 700 people in the U.S. with Internet and television connections last year found that 28 percent said they're watching more television than they did a year ago. Seventeen percent say they're watching less, with the remainder indicating their habits are unchanged.
That may not seem like much, but there's a long history of people saying they are watching, or plan to watch, less TV - even as Nielsen measurements proved the opposite is true.
In other words, liking television is becoming more socially acceptable.
TV
Pawtucket, R.I.
Woody Allen
Legendary director Woody Allen has added his handprints to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but not the one in California.
It's in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Allen was in town Thursday filming a new movie that stars Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix.
Local officials say they worked with Allen's crew as he filmed at a newsstand and elsewhere, and the director agreed to add his handprints to Pawtucket's so-called "Hollywood Walk of Fame."
Allen put his prints and signature into wet cement Thursday afternoon while filming in neighbouring Providence. The panel will be installed later.
Woody Allen
Monument Must Go
Ten Commandments
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that a New Mexico city must remove a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lawn in front of Bloomfield City Hall.
Senior U.S. District Judge James A. Parker said in his ruling in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that the monument amounts to government speech and has the "principal effect of endorsing religion."
Because of the context and history surrounding the granite monument, Parker said Bloomfield clearly violated the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. He gave a Sept. 10 deadline for its removal.
City attorneys say private individuals erected and paid for the monument under a 2007 city resolution. That resolution allows people to erect historical monuments of their choosing.
Bloomfield Mayor Scott Eckstein said he was surprised the judge would rule against "a historical document."
Ten Commandments
Judge Banned After Disclosing Adoption Details
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron's ongoing legal drama surrounding the adoption of her now 2-year-old son, Jackson, has finally come to an end.
In what amounts to the ultimate breach of trust, an Arkansas Circuit Court judge who leaked confidential information online about the actress's 2012 adoption has been banned for life from serving on the bench.
Judge Michael A. Maggio, who was not involved with Theron's adoption case but worked in the same district, leaked several pieces of confidential information about the adoption, including Jackson's skin color.
Using the screen name "geauxjudge," Maggio posted details regarding the Academy Award winner's adoption on the Louisiana State University sports fan forum tigerdroppings.com. When asked if Theron had adopted a baby, he wrote, "I don't know if [this is the] right board but I have a friend who is the judge that did her adoption today. It was a single parent adoption. I offered to be the baby daddy," he wrote.
Amongst other offenses made by Maggio in the online forum, as detailed in documents obtained by The Insider With Yahoo, were jokes about having sex with women who are bi-polar, suggesting a gift of "lube, beer and blow" as a wedding gift, saying that "all women have an agenda," saying that "women look at 2 bulges on a man A) the front and/or B) the back [wallet]," saying "how sex with teachers is like trophy hunting for teenage boys," and several additional racist, homophobic, and sexist comments.
Charlize Theron
Irony In Action
Campaign Liability
Elaine Chao, former secretary of labor under resident George W. Bush and current spouse of Sen. Mitch McConnell, has been trying to help her husband's campaign. It's not going great.
Yahoo News reported Friday that Chao was on the board of an organization that gave millions to anti-coal environmentalists. She's also been criticized for appearing in an ad that "oversimplifies" her husband's work to end violence against women.
A key part of McConnell's attacks against his opponent, Alison Lundergan Grimes, is that she's anti-coal, a big liability in a big coal state like Kentucky. But as Yahoo New's Chris Moody pointed out Friday, the war on coal is being fought much closer to home - Chao is on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies, an organization that invested $50 million in the Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal" initiative in 2011. The Sierra Club has taken action against 16 coal plants in Kentucky.
Chao joined the board in 2012. Depending on one's interpretation, that means she joined after the decision was made to support the Sierra Club, or that she joined despite an earlier decision to invest in the Sierra Club. "Sen. McConnell has a longstanding, principled record of defending coal families and jobs," a McConnell spokesman told Yahoo News. "Decisions made by a board before Sec. Chao ever joined do not change that."
Campaign Liability
Remains ID'd
Florida
In December 1940, Owen Smith's mother wrote the superintendent of the then-Florida Industrial School for Boys about the welfare of her 14-year-old son, who had been sent there months earlier for being with a friend in a stolen car.
Frances Smith received a letter from superintendent Millard Davidson that said no one knew where Owen was. A month later, the family was summoned to the Florida Panhandle school and led to an unmarked grave. Owen was in it, they were told - he had escaped and was found dead under a house. Frances Smith never accepted the story. She waited for him to come home.
On Thursday, University of South Florida researchers said they had identified George Owen Smith as the first of 55 bodies they exhumed from the grounds of the renamed Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, an institution with a troubled history where the facilities were often decrepit and guards were accused of brutality. The researchers were unable to determine how Owen died, and they will probably never know.
Official records showed 31 burials at the Marianna school between its opening in 1900 and its 2011 closure for budget reasons, but researchers found the remains of 24 additional people between last September and December.
Some former students from the 1950s and 1960s have for at least a decade accused employees and guards at the school of physical and sexual abuse, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded after an investigation that it couldn't substantiate or dispute the claims because too much time had passed. Many former Dozier inmates from that era call themselves "The White House Boys" after the white building where they say the worst abuse took place.
Florida
Former Television Judge
Joe Brown
Former TV judge Joe Brown has lost his bid to become the district attorney for the Tennessee county that includes Memphis.
Brown, a Democrat, challenged Republican Amy Weirich, the incumbent district attorney for Shelby County. She claimed victory late Thursday.
With 96 per cent of precincts reporting, Weirich had 65 per cent of the vote compared with 35 per cent for Brown.
Brown was a Criminal Court judge in Memphis before stepping down in 2000 to dedicate himself to the TV show. The show is no longer on the air.
Joe Brown
Loses Bid
Victoria Jackson
Former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Victoria Jackson (R-One Trick Panty Pony) has lost her bid as an independent candidate for a seat on a county commission in Tennessee.
Jackson, who calls herself a tea party conservative, moved to Thompson's Station last year and said she filed as an independent to run for the Williamson County Commission because she's "very disappointed with the Republican Party."
The Tennessean reports Jackson received 632 votes. Two others received more votes: Judy Lynch Herbert with 1,422 and Betsy Hester with 1,380. The County Commission has two commissioners in each of its 12 districts.
Jackson had made appearances at multiple political events in Middle Tennessee since making her home there.
Victoria Jackson
'Fairly Balanced'
Bill O'Really
Bill O'Reilly put the Fox News slogan to the test on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Thursday, but never really came to a definitive conclusion. After a viewer said that he was tired of seeing "smug liberals like Kirsten Powers and Alan Colmes" on the network, O'Reilly jumped to their defense.
"Fair and balanced is the Fox News motto. If the liberal view were not represented, we'd be liars, so that's ridiculous," he said. O'Reilly then asked "Fox & Friends" host Heather Nauert how many liberal contributors the network had.
She came up with 19 paid left-leaning contributors. She did not, however, specify how many paid right-leaning contributors the network has, instead saying simply that they "have a mix of both."
If 19 is the number, as O'Reilly concluded, and the list on the site is the total number of paid contributors for Fox News, then 11 percent of the network's paid contributors are liberal. Without knowing how many of the 175 listed personalities are right-leaning, it's impossible to extrapolate the percentage of conservative contributors.
Bill O'Really
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