Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Extensive Outsourcing Leads to Trouble
The thing is, any private corporation would have no trouble understanding the argument that you need more auditing, more supervision, to keep costs under control. But when it comes to government, the myth of the useless bureaucrat persists. Of course, that's the way the contractors like it.
Paul Krugman: Renewable Energy's Not-So-Bright Side
The answer is blowin' in the wind, and shining in the sun, too - or so say two papers cited by Brad Plumer in a recent article for 'The New Republic.' The authors argue that we can have a fully renewable-based, nuclear-free economy by 2050.
Mark Shields: General Electric and the Death of American Outrage (Creators Syndicate)
I forgot to mention that GE, according to the Times piece, also claimed it was owed a tax benefit from the Treasury of $3.2 billion on its 2010 taxes. All of this brings to mind the sworn testimony in a New York courtroom of Elizabeth Baum. Baum, a housekeeper, quoted her multimillionaire employer, on trial for income-tax evasion, as telling her: "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes." After that, Leona Helmsley became an enduring object of public scorn. Of course, that was when outrage was still alive in this land.
Jim Hightower: HELP ELIZABETH WARREN FIGHT THE MADNESS
They rant ceaselessly against the bugaboo of Big Government, mindlessly breezing past the fact that it was meek and weak government that only months ago allowed Wall Street to crash our economy, BP to make an environmental and economic mess of the Gulf, and Massey Energy to kill 29 miners in Upper Big Branch.
Stuart Jeffries: "Ronald Dworkin: 'We have a responsibility to live well'" (Guardian)
One of the greatest legal and moral philosophers of the postwar era, Ronald Dworkin argues in his new book, 'Justice for Hedgehogs,' that there are absolute moral values - and that they are built on dignity and self-respect.
Benjamin J. Dueholm: Rules of Misbehavior (Washington Monthly)
Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
Gustavo Turner: "Insane Clown Posse: Exclusive Interview" (Los Angeles Weekly)
"Detroit's not a touristy place, you know?" says Joey Utsler. "But what're you gonna do about it?"
Katy B: One step beyond (Guardian)
Katy B cut her teeth on London's dubstep scene - but now the charts and breakfast TV are calling. The 21-year-old tells Rebecca Nicholson why she'll always be a raver at heart.
20 Questions: Ben + Vesper (Popmatters)
Acclaimed indie-folk duo Ben + Vesper have collaborated with Sufjan Stevens, apprenticed as a midwife, and are currently building "a robot that gives you quarters when you're sad" . . .
Jack White 'Had No Control' Over The White Stripes Before Split (Live4ever)
Former White Stripes songwriter Jack White has explained further the reasons for the duo highlighting their belief that the band 'no longer belonged' to them when announcing their decision to split last year.
David Bruce has 41 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $41 you can buy 10,250 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and cool.
Star On Hollywood Blvd
Penelope Cruz
Oscar-winning actress Penelope Cruz received a coveted star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame on Friday, becoming the first Spanish actress to earn the honor.
Cruz, who won her Oscar for supporting actress playing a fiery artist in Woody Allen's movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," called the unveiling of her pink granite star "a very special day that I will always remember."
"Every time I look at that star, I will see the names of all the people that have helped me make many of my dreams a reality," she said at the unveiling attended by a large crowd, including her husband Javier Bardem and friend, Johnny Depp.
Cruz, 36, thanked her parents, siblings, Bardem and their newborn son, "for making me happy every day."
Penelope Cruz
Drawing Won For $10 Could Fetch $1 Million
Roy Lichtenstein
A drawing by American Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein, which was won for $10 in a 1960s lottery, could fetch more than $1 million when it is auctioned in May, according to Christie's.
"Drawing for Kiss V," the original work for the artist's famous "Kiss V" from 1964, is expected to be among the highlights of Christie's post-war and contemporary art auction on May 11.
The owner obtained the graphite and wax crayon-on-paper work 45 years ago at an Artists' Key Club Happening, which was a type of artistic or performance event. The club was formed by a group of emerging pop artists in the early 60s.
Attendees were told to gather at New York's Hotel Chelsea, a legendary hangout for artists, musicians and bohemians, and register in a lottery in exchange for a key to a locker at Penn Station, which was undergoing renovation.
Each locker held a work donated by artists, including Lichtenstein, Christo and Andy Warhol. One lucky $10 lottery ticket led to the locker holding "Drawing for Kiss V."
Roy Lichtenstein
Academics To Dissect
Bob Dylan
More than three decades have passed since Bob Dylan brought the plight of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter into the public consciousness: "Criminals in their coats and their ties are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise while Rubin sits like Buddha in a 10-foot cell, an innocent man in a living hell."
Dylan championed the case of Carter, a former middleweight boxer convicted twice of a 1966 triple murder. And in the end, Carter was freed after 19 years in prison; a federal judge found that the conviction was tainted by racial bias and that Carter and his co-defendant were denied their civil rights.
Now, academics from around the country will examine the implications of that song and others during "Bob Dylan and the Law," a conference presented by Fordham University's law and ethics center and Touro Law School.
"We basically said to people who write and think about the law and who also happen to like Dylan's music, `find a way to put them together; tell us how Dylan relates to your academic work or your thinking,'" said Fordham professor Bruce Green, one of the organizers.
Bob Dylan
Work To Start April 8
Shanghai Disneyland
Construction of the world's sixth Disney amusement park will start in Shanghai Friday following years of negotiations between the US company and Chinese authorities, the Wall Street Journal said.
Walt Disney Co. and its local partners have issued invitations to "a special event in Shanghai" on April 8, the paper reported Saturday, quoting an anonymous source.
Shanghai's mayor has estimated the amusement park will cost 24.4 billion yuan ($3.7 billion), the Journal said, which would make it one of the largest foreign investments in China.
The park will cover 963 acres (390 hectares), which makes it just a 26th of the size of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, the business paper said.
Shanghai Disneyland
Lawmakers Try To Lift Protection
Gray Wolves
Lawmakers in the West said Friday they will keep pushing to lift federal protections for gray wolves despite a proposed settlement between environmental groups and the Obama administration.
The settlement would end a decade of lawsuits over the animals. But it faces significant legal hurdles that leave uncertain whether court approval will come before lawmakers act.
Approval is being sought from a judge who has twice ruled against attempts to lift wolf protections. Also, the deal faces opposition from some wildlife advocates who say their prior court victories are being squandered in a political compromise.
Given the uncertainties, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, of Montana, told The Associated Press he won't wait to push through his legislation taking wolves off the endangered list in Montana and Idaho.
An identical measure already was approved by the U.S. House, through a provision tucked into the pending budget bill.
Gray Wolves
Crowd Boos
Charlie Sheen
Charlie Sheen and his "goddesses" took the stage to thunderous applause Saturday night for the first leg of his "Torpedo of Truth" tour. The 70-minute show hadn't even ended when the first reviews were in, and they were brutal.
The former "Two and a Half Men" star showed that comedic success on the screen doesn't necessarily translate to the stage, and the capacity crowd at the 5,100-seat Fox Theatre rebelled before he left the stage, chanting "refund!" and walking out in droves.
Fans who gathered outside the theater before the doors opened Saturday - some who had to fly in for the show - said they were hoping to see the increasingly eccentric actor deliver some of the colorful rants that have made him an Internet star since his ugly falling out with CBS and the producers of "Two and a Half Men."
They got the ranting. It just wasn't funny.
The show started well for Sheen, as the crowd stood and cheered as he and the women he calls his "goddesses" took the stage. The women, one a former porn star and the other an actress, carried signs with the words "War" and "Lock," references to one of the catchphrases Sheen recently coined.
Charlie Sheen
Sue To Get Money Back
Investors
A film financing company that put up nearly $6 million for the production of "Stone," a crime drama starring Robert De Niro and Edward Norton, is suing the film's producers for allegedly duping them into losing their entire investment when the film bombed last year.
According to a complaint filed against Nu Image and Millennium Films by Mimran Schur Pictures (MSP) in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 30, David Mimran and Jordan Schur were successful businessmen outside the film realm until they decided to start MSP and invest in filmmaking.
They aren't complete entertainment novices, though. Mimran, an investment banker, was the founder of Savage Records, a label that went bankrupt in 1993 and unsuccessfully sued its one big star, David Bowie. Schur is a former president of Geffen Records.
When Mimran and Schur decided to invest in independent films, they knew enough that foreign sales have traditionally been the life blood of the sector, but apparently not enough to realize how much the sector has dried up in recent years.
Investors
Crisis Spurs Survival Planning
Japan
While the nuclear crisis in Japan unfolds a continent away, Mormon-dominated communities in the western United States say the disaster overseas is bringing close to home a lesson about preparing for the worst.
Emergency planning and the long-term storage of food, water and medical supplies are central practices by the 14 million worldwide members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The tradition stems from doctrine - "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear" - established by Joseph Smith when he founded the church in 1830 in upstate New York. It also stems from the persecution that drove his early followers from the Midwest to the Rocky Mountains in 1847.
Present-day Mormons, concentrated in the United States in Utah, California and Idaho, say preparedness and self-reliance are a way of life and not signs of survivalist leanings or knee-jerk responses to disasters.
Japan
Germany's Legacy Of Chernobyl
Radioactive Boars
For a look at just how long radioactivity can hang around, consider Germany's wild boars.
A quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union carried a cloud of radiation across Europe, these animals are radioactive enough that people are urged not to eat them. And the mushrooms the pigs dine on aren't fit for consumption either.
Germany's experience shows what could await Japan - if the problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant get any worse.
The German boars roam in forests nearly 950 miles (1,500 kilometers ) from Chernobyl. Yet, the amount of radioactive cesium-137 within their tissue often registers dozens of times beyond the recommended limit for consumption and thousands of times above normal.
Radioactive Boars
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