Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Susan Estrich: Nancy Pelosi, Superhero (creators.com)
Really, what did you expect? The first woman speaker of the House, a tough, smart, rich and attractive pro, the most powerful woman in the world, helps get a Democrat elected president and then helps that Democratic president get his ambitious agenda through amid very difficult economic times and two wars. Did you think someone would send her flowers to say thank you? Of course not. She's a witch and worse. Unprintable.
Mark Shields: "Democrats 'In Recovery'" (creators.com)
In December 2009, long before the recent voting in which Democrats would lose more House seats than they had in any election since 1946, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank alerted his fellow Democrats of the insurmountable political problems they faced if the economy did not improve. Frank bluntly warned Democrats they could not campaign successfully on a slogan that somehow "things would have sucked worse" if our party had not been in power.
Nica 24: Updated -We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, Now you get mad!?
I visit Rosie O'Donnell's blog almost every day, I enjoy her. I am always amazed at the nasty, sometimes violent reaction she brings out in some people. But I want to pass this on, Rosie printed it on the home page of her blog, it was sent to her. I'm sending it as a reply to every anti-Obama email I get. It's civil and just a little frightening to see in print. Most of the comments are amazing! I am adding a few to the diary, but read the comments, well worth the time!
Don Lee: Young workers' careers to carry lifelong scars of Great Recession (Tribune Washington Bureau)
As the nation struggles with the aftermath of the Great Recession, few groups have suffered greater setbacks or face greater long-term damage than young Americans - damage that could shadow their entire working lives.
Jim Hightower: PROTECTING AMERICA BY PULPING BOOKS
One especially-ugly word an author never wants to hear is: "pulp." To pulp a book is not merely to remove it from sale, but literally to destroy it, reducing the paper itself - and all of your words and thoughts - to a goopy chemical mash.
John Timpane: Spanish singer Buika's unifying mix of the muses (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Buika's smoky, throaty voice rises up from her superb new album, "El Ultimo Trago" ("The Last Drink"), and the names of other incredible singers pass through your mind.
Bruce Bennett: Cutting Through the 'Bull' (Wall Street Journal)
Thirty years after the release of "Raging Bull," the film's Oscar-winning editor, Thelma Schoonmaker talks about how it was made and why it's remained a pinnacle of the form.
Joe Utichi: "Robert De Niro: 'A good critic is helpful to me'" (The Guardian)
The garlanded actor is candid about his motivation and sanguine about criticism in an interview at the Doha Tribeca film festival.
From Tennessee Williams to Sergio Leone: Actor Eli Wallach at 95
From his iconic role in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' in 1966 - he was the Ugly - to apperances in 'Wall Street 2' and 'The Ghost' in 2010, Eli Wallach is the actor who never stops. He talks to Rob Hastings.
Roger Ebert: MEGAMIND (PG; 3 stars)
"Megamind" was the third 3-D movie I'd seen in a row, and as I struggled to free my glasses from their industrial-strength plastic envelope, I wasn't precisely looking forward to it. Why do 3-D glasses come so securely wrapped they seem like acts of hostility against the consumer? Once I freed my glasses and settled down, however, I was pleased to see a 3-D image that was quite acceptable. Too dim, as always, but the process was well-used and proves again that animation is incomparably more suited for 3-D than live action is.
Roger Ebert: FAIR GAME (PG-13; 3 stars)
It seems to come down to this: The Bush administration had decided to go to war in Iraq. Scrambling to find reasons to justify the war, it seized on reports that the African nation of Niger had sold uranium to Iraq. Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger, was sent to seek evidence. He found none. In fact, he found such sales would have been physically impossible.
Jim Hightower: WALL STREET'S "MOM & POP" BANKERS
Don't cry for Jamie Dimon, America. As CEO of JPMorgan Chase, this ruling mogul of Wall Street must now cope with the recently-enacted financial reform bill, which imposes a host of new regulations meant to rein in the rip-offs, frauds, and other excesses of Wall Street bankers.
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," "Religious Anecdotes," and "Maximum Cool."
The Weekly Poll
Current Question
The 'Conspiracy Theory... or Fact?' Edition...
"The Vietnam War was fought over a bet that Howard Hughes lost to Aristotle Onassis."
--Jerry Fletcher (Mel 'Sugar Tits' Gibson) - Conspiracy Theory
As you will see at the following website... Conspiracy Planet - The Alternative News & History Network
There's no end to the topics covered. Some are new, some not so much. Some are interesting. Some are outrageous. Some are frightening. Some are merely entertaining... but, make no mistake, each one is believed by someone, somewhere.
Do you have a favorite 'Conspiracy Theory' that you believe in, find hilarious or just would like to know more about?
Send your response to
took the day off.
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
BadtotheboneBob
Chess
Ann Arbor high-schooler faces 43 in chess
Preparing to play 46 chess matches at the same time Friday night, Atulya Shetty admitted he was a little nervous. After all, he's only 14. The chess whiz has played other multiple matches, but never with this many players. "I always feel nervous when I go into a match," he said. "After a little while, I get over it." He may only be 14 but, chess-wise, it's an old 14...
Ann Arbor high-schooler faces 43 in chess | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Smart Kids... Ya gotta love 'em!... Were that we had more of 'em, I'm sayin'...
BadtotheboneBob
Thanks, B2tbBob!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Cloudy and cooler.
African Rock
Johnny Clegg
In a rehearsal studio one afternoon in 1986, a white South African musician wrote an international hit - partly in Zulu, the language of the largest ethnic group in the country.
"Asimbonanga," which means "we've never seen him," the song refers to the generation of South Africans who grew up under apartheid and had never even seen a photograph of Nelson Mandela, the country's hope for reconciliation who was imprisoned under South Africa's apartheid regime.
Johnny Clegg, later dubbed the "white Zulu," was sure his song's message would be lost. At the time, his new genre of music, a blend of Western pop and Zulu rhythms, was banned from the radio - as Mandela's photo was banned from newspapers. Clegg's concerts were routinely broken up, and he and other members of his multiracial band had been arrested several times for challenging a South African law meant to keep whites and blacks apart.
"Asimbonanga," in which the names of Mandela and other prisoners are spoken aloud in defiance of state radio rules of the time, was released in South Africa in 1986 and abroad a year later. The South African government immediately banned the video and restricted the song from radio programming, so most South Africans only got to hear it a few years after its release. They embraced it.
For the 57-year-old Clegg, the pinnacle of his career occurred while performing in Frankfurt a few years after Mandela was released and became the country's first black president in 1994. Clegg began to sing "Asimbonanga," which had quickly risen to the top of the charts. In the middle of the song, the Frankfurt crowd started cheering loudly. Clegg turned around and to his surprise, saw Mandela dancing on the stage.
Johnny Clegg
Ancient Gladiator House Collapses
Pompeii
The 2,000-year-old "House of the Gladiators" in the ruins of ancient Pompeii collapsed on Saturday, sparking fresh debate on whether the Italian government is doing enough to safeguard a world treasure.
The stone house, on the main street of the famous archaeological site and measuring about 80 square m (860 square ft), collapsed just after dawn while Pompeii was closed to visitors, officials said.
The structure was believed to be where gladiators gathered and trained and used as a club house before going to battle in a nearby amphitheatre in the city that was destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
The building was damaged by bombs during World War Two and was restored in the late 1940s. Officials speculated the collapse was caused by heavy rains but most commentators said longstanding neglect was probably the root cause.
Pompeii
Disney Theme Park
Shangha World Expo
Just days after Shanghai wrapped up its role as host to the World Expo, China's commercial capital is setting its sights on another big tourism draw, a long-awaited Disney theme park.
Walt Disney Co. and the city government agreed Friday on plans for a joint venture to manage the project, expected to cover 4 square kilometers (1.5 square miles) out of a total 20 square kilometers (nearly 8 square miles) for the entire resort, the city government said Friday in a statement.
The cost is reportedly estimated at 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion).
Plans call for the theme park to be a "strong international tourism resort," with a pleasant, low-carbon environment, the city said. A joint venture between local companies and Disney will be responsible for construction, management and operation of the Disneyland theme park, it said without giving any details about ownership or investment.
Shangha World Expo
Sells $1.3B Of Stock
Steve Ballmer
Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer has sold about $1.3 billion worth of his company shares recently, the first time he's done so in seven years.
Ballmer confirmed the stock sales Friday and said they were made to diversify his investments and aid his year-end tax planning. He said he plans to sell as many as 75 million shares by year's end. Securities and Exchange Commission filings by Ballmer this week show he sold about 50 million shares.
Ballmer still holds about 350 million shares, worth some $9 billion at Microsoft's current price of around $26. Ballmer issued a statement "to avoid any confusion," saying he was excited about the Microsoft's new products and is fully committed to the company.
In a rare move, Microsoft issued the statement on Ballmer's behalf, likely looking to head off any speculation that the sale of a substantial block of his shares indicated anything negative about the company. Ballmer heads the powerful software giant and is also one of the biggest names in U.S. business
Steve Ballmer
Making An Example
RIAA
A Minnesota woman ordered to pay a recording industry trade group $1.5 million for illegally sharing music online doesn't plan to pay those damages as her attorneys continue to argue the amount is unconstitutional, she said Thursday.
A federal jury found Wednesday that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, of Brainerd, must pay $62,500 per song - for a total of $1.5 million - for illegally violating copyrights on 24 songs. This was the third jury to consider damages in her case, and each has found that she must pay - though different amounts.
"I can't afford to pay any amount. It's not a matter of won't, it's a matter of 'I can't,'" Thomas-Rasset said Thursday. "Any amount that I pay to them is money that I could use to feed my children. Any amount that I pay to them is money I could use to clothe my kids, and pay my mortgage so my kids have a place to sleep."
The Recording Industry Association of America has said it found Thomas-Rasset shared more than 1,700 songs on the file-sharing site Kazaa, but it sued over 24 of them. RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said the association made several attempts to settle with Thomas-Rasset, at first for $5,000, but Thomas-Rasset refused.
RIAA
Under House Arrest
Ai Weiwei
Prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said on Saturday he had been put under house arrest in connection with an argument with the government over the planned demolition of his studio in Shanghai.
"The police have announced that I am not allowed to leave my house," Ai told Reuters by telephone from his Beijing residence.
"It's to do with what's happening over my studio. They say that it has been illegally built and want to demolish it," he said, adding he did not know when that might happen.
Some of Ai's supporters and friends plan to hold a "party" at the studio in Shanghai on Sunday to mark the demolition, but it was not certain if authorities would allow that to happen.
Ai Weiwei
Sweden Says...
Secret Surveillance
People linked with the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm have performed surveillance activities in Sweden without the knowledge of the host nation's authorities, a government officials said Saturday.
The surveillance has been going on since 2000, but Swedish authorities are still not aware of how widespread the practice was, said Justice Minister Beatrice Ask.
"It seems as though we haven't been fully informed and that's not good," Ask said.
Ask said the activities "seem to be similar" to those unveiled in Norway earlier this week, which included photographing and gathering information about individuals for surveillance and security purposes. That information was then sent to the United States.
Secret Surveillance
Scientists Find Damage
Coral
For the first time, federal scientists have found damage to deep sea coral and other marine life on the ocean floor several miles from the blown-out BP well - a strong indication that damage from the spill could be significantly greater than officials had previously acknowledged.
Tests are needed to verify that the coral died from oil that spewed into the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, but the chief scientist who led the government-funded expedition said Friday he was convinced it was related.
"What we have at this point is the smoking gun," said Charles Fisher, a biologist with Penn State University who led the expedition aboard the Ronald Brown, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel.
For the government, the findings were a departure from earlier statements. Until now, federal teams have painted relatively rosy pictures about the spill's effect on the sea and its ecosystem, saying they had not found any damage on the ocean floor.
Coral
Upsetting Benny The Rat
Spain
Pope Benedict XVI warned Saturday of the return of a 1930s-style "aggressive" anti-clericism in Spain and called on Europe to rediscover its Christian roots.
The 83-year-old pontiff, fighting a slide away from the Roman Catholic Church's core beliefs, recalled the years when Republican forces killed priests and nuns and burned churches before and during the Spanish Civil War.
"Spain saw in the 1930s the birth of a strong and aggressive anti-clericism," he told reporters on the plane from Rome to Spain's holiest city, Santiago de Compostela, ahead of a giant open-air mass in front of thousands of pilgrims.
The Church was an all-powerful presence in the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, who defeated the Republicans in the Civil War and died in 1975, but with democracy came an end to restrictions on politics, behaviour and sexual mores.
Under the Socialist Party of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero the country has gone much further, allowing gay marriage, speedier divorce and easier abortions.
Spain
In Memory
Shirley Verrett
Shirley Verrett, an acclaimed American mezzo-soprano and soprano praised for her blazing intensity during a career that spanned four decades, died Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich. She was 79.
Verrett, one of the top opera singers of the 1970s and 1980s, had been suffering from heart trouble, said Jack Mastroianni of IMG Artists, who was notified of her death by the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
Born in New Orleans, she was renowned for a blazing intensity in her performances as a mezzo for much of her career and a soprano in her later years. She battled racial prejudice in a predominantly white European-centered art form during a 40-year biracial marriage, according to her autobiography.
Verrett studied at the Juilliard School in New York and was a 1961 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Known early in her career as Shirley Verrett-Carter, she made her professional debut in 1957 and a year later appeared for the first time at the New York City Opera as Irina in Weill's "Lost in the Stars." She also appeared in the first televised Young People's Concert by conductor Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
A debut followed at London's Royal Opera in 1966 as Ulrica in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera," and two years later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Bizet's "Carmen," a role she has sung to acclaim at the Spoleto Festival in 1962.
A year later, she appeared at Milan's Teatro alla Scala in Saint-Saens' "Samson et Delilah." In 1988, she opened the San Francisco Opera season with Placido Domingo in Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine."
Verrett was part of the second generation of black opera singers who followed Anderson's breakthrough at the Met in 1955. Coming after Leontyne Price, she was in a small group of black headliners that included George Shirley, Grace Bumbry, Reri Grist and Martina Arroyo.
Verrett's Met career lasted until 1990, and she sang soprano roles that included Puccini's "Tosca" (opposite Luciano Pavarotti), Bellini's "Norma," Leonore in Beethoven's "Fidelio" and the title role in Verdi's "Aida" and Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello."
In 1999, she appeared off-Broadway in the musical-comedy "In Dahomey." Three years later, she sued the recording company BMG Classics, alleging her performance was used in the Oscar-winning foreign movie "Life is Beautiful" but she was never paid. The case was dismissed.
She joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in 1996 and was its James Earl Jones Distinguished University Professor of Music when she retired last May.
Shirley Verrett
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