Recommended Reading
from Bruce
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Anonymous Takes On A Mexican Drug Cartel (Video)
Keith Wagstaff: Hacker Collective 'Anonymous' Goes After Mexican Drug Cartel (Techland)
First it was child-pornography sites. Now the hacker collective known as Anonymous is going after a Mexican drug cartel.
Froma Harrop: Keeping the Silent Majority on the Occupiers' Side (Creators Syndicate)
Conditions at some of the "Occupy" tent sites started going downhill at a most inopportune time. A New York Times/CBS poll had just reported that 47 percent of the public said that the movement's views reflect those of most Americans (with only 34 percent saying they do not). On the ground, the homeless were moving into several encampments, joined by various hangers-on drawn to the excitement.
Paul Krugman's Column: Graduates Versus Oligarchs (New York Times)
The big gains have gone to the top 0.1 percent. So income inequality in America really is about oligarchs versus everyone else. When the Occupy Wall Street people talk about the 99 percent, they're actually aiming too low.
A Cuban Immigrant in the Top 1%
"I am one of the fortunate 1%. I am a Cuban immigrant that came with my parents in 1960. My father was in the top 1% in Cuba but lost it there due to Castro. He came here, started from scratch and once again made it to the 1%. In the 60's, when my father first got here, he did not complain about how high the tax rates were nor did he use it as an excuse not to work or become wealthy. He was happy as hell to have the opportunity just to be all that he could be."-- Carl Granados
Rebecca Bigler and Lise Eliot: The Feminist Case Against Single-Sex Schools (Slate)
No, the studies don't show that girls' schools are better for girls. But they're sure great at perpetuating sexist attitudes.
Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes boy -- if he thinks he's a girl (LA Times)
"We feel it is important to include all girls, so when a family says, 'This is my daughter and she wants to be a Girl Scout,' we are not going to question that," Rachelle Trujillo, vice president of communications for Girl Scouts of Colorado told The Times.
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."
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Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Santa Ana's blowing hot and dry.
Naomi Watts ,Valerie Plame Wilson Craft PSA
"No-Nukes"
Actress Naomi Watts and former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson presented their message to Congress Wednesday: no nukes, please.
The pair released a public service announcement, urging a bi-partisan Congressional "super committee" to slash the nation's nuclear weapons budget.
The PSA was produced and distributed by Global Zero, an international organization advocating nuclear-weapons elimination.
In the video, Watts and Plame Wilson challenge the committee, charged with finding $1.2 trillion in federal spending cuts, to divert billions of dollars the U.S. currently spends on its nuclear arsenal and use it to shore up education and other priorities.
"No-Nukes"
Appeals Panel Win
CBS
In the latest court battle over the steamy 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday that CBS should not be fined $550,000 for Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction."
During the act, Justin Timberlake ripped off Jackson's bustier, exposing her breast for nine-sixteenths of a second. It was explained away as a "wardrobe malfunction," a term that has since become part of the lexicon.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held its ground even after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a review after its ruling in a related Fox television case. In that case, the high court said the Federal Communications Commission could threaten fines over the use of even a single curse word uttered on live TV.
But Circuit Judge Marjorie Rendell said the Fox case only "fortifies our opinion" that the FCC was wrong to fine CBS over the halftime show.
The three-judge panel reviewed three decades of FCC rulings and concluded the agency was changing its policy, without warning, by fining CBS for fleeting nudity.
CBS
Loses Extradition Appeal
Julian Assange
Time seems to be running out for Julian Assange, whose long battle to avoid extradition to Sweden over suspected rape and molestation cases appears likely to end in failure unless he can get Britain's highest court to hear an appeal.
In a major setback Wednesday in London's High Court, two British judges rejected Assange's move to block extradition to face questioning in Sweden. Court officials said Wednesday that Assange plans to try to take the case to Britain's Supreme Court.
"He has indicated that he plans to launch an appeal," a spokeswoman for the Judicial Office said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to give her name. It is possible his request for an appeal will be turned down, making extradition virtually inevitable.
Wednesday's ruling is the latest reversal for Assange, whose secret-spilling organization is on the brink of financial ruin. The group has suspended publishing the sensitive government documents that drew the ire of governments worldwide because of money woes.
Julian Assange
Wins Top French Literary Prize
Alexis Jenni
A high school teacher won France's top literary prize Wednesday for his first novel, which deals with France's colonial wars in Algeria and Southeast Asia.
The Prix Goncourt was awarded to Alexis Jenni for "L'Art francais de la Guerre" - "The French Art of War." Jenni teaches biology at a high school in the French city of Lyon.
As is tradition, the award was announced at Paris' Drouant restaurant, where the prize committee meets each month during the year to discuss the selection.
The prize comes with just a €10 ($13) purse, but guarantees acclaim and significant sales for the winning author. Past recipients have included Marcel Proust, Simone de Beauvoir and Marguerite Duras.
Alexis Jenni
Focuses On Cable Profits, Not Hacking
Rupert
News Corp tried to focus attention on its strong quarterly business performance on Wednesday and away from the ongoing fallout from the phone-hacking scandal at its UK newspaper unit, which has rocked the company since it erupted in July.
Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch, often guilty of sparking headlines with off-script comments, was absent again from a conference call with Wall Street analysts and journalists. Murdoch, 80, now only takes part in end-of-year calls, according to an aide.
Chase Carey, Chief Operating Officer, said he wanted investors to focus on the media conglomerate's operational strength being "wide and deep" and that the company had made progress despite the "UK issues".
But after nearly two-thirds of non-Murdoch affiliated News Corp B shareholders voted against the reelection of Murdoch's sons James and Lachlan to the board last month there are now serious questions about the future of a Murdoch-controlled News Corp and its board.
Rupert
T-Rump Spins
Jon Stewart
Donald Trump took to YouTube to complain about Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" routine about Herman Cain's sexual harassment accusations, accusing Stewart of a "very, very racist rant" -- and critics of a double standard.
n a segment Monday, Stewart mocked Cain's response to the harassment allegations, first raised in a Politico article over the weekend. It said the National Restaurant Association paid two former staffers who accused him of inappropriate remarks when he was the organization's president.
Asked by Fox News if he had ever had to pay anyone to resolve harassment claims, Cain responded, "outside of the Restaurant Association, absolutely not."
Stewart ridiculed the response, saying it was like answering a question about whether you've ever kidnapped a baby by saying, "Well, other than the Lindbergh boy, no." He made the joke in a voice Trump interpreted as an imitation of Cain's.
Jon Stewart
Suing Wynn Over Vegas Debt
Joe Francis
The founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire has upped the ante in a legal dispute over a $2 million casino debt with Las Vegas Strip casino mogul Steve Wynn and the Wynn Las Vegas resort.
A civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that an effort to criminally prosecute soft-porn impresario Joe Francis for failure to pay a casino debt in 2007 amounted to malicious prosecution, conspiracy, abuse of process and defamation.
Francis' lawyer, David Houston in Reno, said Wednesday he'll seek millions of dollars in general and punitive damages.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Wynn, top Wynn aide Barbara Conway, and Wynn Resorts LLC. It does not blame prosecutors in the Clark County district attorney's office.
Joe Francis
French Weekly Firebombed
Charlie Hebdo
A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover.
This week's edition shows a cartoon of Mohammad and a speech bubble with the words: "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter." It has the headline "Charia Hebdo," in a reference to Muslim sharia law, and says Mohammad guest-edited the issue.
Charlie Hebdo's website on Wednesday appeared to have been hacked and briefly showed images of a mosque with the message "no God but Allah," after which the site was blanked.
Many Muslims object to any representation of Allah or Mohammad, or to irreverent treatment of the Koran, and such incidents have inflamed protests in the past, sometimes violent.
Charlie Hebdo
Sentences To 30 Days
Lindsay Lohan
A judge sentenced Lindsay Lohan on Wednesday to 30 days in jail and warned the actress there would be plenty more time behind bars if she violated further court orders.
Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner imposed the complicated new sentence, telling Lohan she would have to serve more than 400 hours of community service at the county morgue, undergo counseling sessions and report to court frequently to avoid further jail time.
In all, Sautner sentenced Lohan to 300 days in jail for violating a court order, but said the actress would only serve the additional 270 days if there was another violation.
In reality, however, the initial 30-day sentence will be significantly shortened by jail overcrowding, with Lohan likely serving only about six days. The actual length of the term will be set by the Sheriff's Department, which oversees county lockups.
Lindsay Lohan
Vanity Fair: Story
Rupert
As the British phone hacking scandal unraveled this summer, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch told his son James that he should take a leave, but he changed his mind after a sleepless night, according to a new article in Vanity Fair.
The article, in the December issue due out Thursday, says Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth pushed the suggestion. It also says the family has been undergoing psychological counseling over who will succeed 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch to run the media conglomerate.
The article on the family's struggle comes as James Murdoch, News Corp.'s 38-year-old deputy chief operating officer, faces increasing pressure over his handling of the affair. He is due to testify before British lawmakers for a second time on Nov. 10.
Questions over whether the Murdochs can maintain control of News Corp. have been the dramatic undercurrent in the phone-hacking scandal, which broke in July after it was revealed the company's News of the World tabloid had hacked into the cellphone voicemail of Milly Dowler, a missing 13-year-old later found murdered.
Rupert
Conservative Family Values
Judge William Adams
Police launched an investigation Wednesday into a Texas family law judge whose daughter posted a YouTube video of him savagely beating her with a belt during a tirade several years ago when she was a teenager.
The nearly 8-minute video, viewed more than 950,000 times as of late Wednesday, shows Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams lashing his then-16-year-old daughter in the legs more than a dozen times and growing increasingly irate while she screams and refuses to turn over on a bed to be beaten. The video was uploaded last week.
"Lay down or I'll spank you in your (expletive) face," Adams screams. His daughter, Hillary, wails and pleads for him to stop.
A few minutes into the video, a woman appears and barks at the girl to "turn over like a 16-year-old and take it! Like a grown woman!" For about a minute, the ordeal appears to have ended after both adults leave the room and shut the door. But the judge then storms back into the room and the beating resumes.
Hillary Adams said she set up the camera because she knew "something was about to happen." Toward the end of the video, her father shouts that he plans to beat the girl "into submission" and rants about having a computer in the house and the problems it causes. The video ends with the adult woman telling her to leave the room and sleep on the sofa.
Judge William Adams
Reading & Plotting
"Absolved"
In the violent underground novel "Absolved," right-wing militia members upset about gun control make war against the U.S. government. This week, federal prosecutors accused four elderly Georgia men of plotting to use the book as a script for a real-life wave of terror and assassination involving explosives and the highly lethal poison ricin.
The four suspected militia members allegedly boasted of a "bucket list" of government officials who needed to be "taken out"; talked about scattering ricin from a plane or a car speeding down a highway past major U.S. cities; and scouted IRS and ATF offices, with one man saying, "We'd have to blow the whole building like Timothy McVeigh."
Federal investigators said they had them under surveillance for at least seven months, infiltrating their meetings at a Waffle House, homes and other places, before finally arresting them Tuesday, just days after discovering evidence they were trying to extract ricin from castor beans.
The four gray-haired men - Frederick Thomas, 73; Dan Roberts, 67; Ray Adams, 65; and Samuel Crump, 68 - appeared in federal court Wednesday without entering a plea and were jailed for a bail hearing next week. They apparently had trouble hearing the judge, some of them cupping their ears.
Thomas and Roberts were charged with conspiring to buy an explosive device and an illegal silencer. Prosecutors would not say whether the men actually obtained the items. Adams and Crump were charged with conspiring to make a biological toxin.
"Absolved"
Cable Nielsens
Ratings
Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen for the week of Oct. 24-30. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:
1. NFL Football: Baltimore at Jacksonville (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 6.97 million homes, 9.27 million viewers.
2. "Walking Dead" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), AMC, 3.82 million homes, 6.09 million viewers.
3. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup (Sunday, 1:43 p.m.), ESPN, 3.53 million homes, 4.92 million viewers.
4. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.49 million homes, 4.92 million viewers.
5. College Football: Michigan St. vs. Nebraska (Saturday, 12:01 p.m.), ESPN, 3.43 million homes, 4.33 million viewers.
6. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 8 p.m.), USA, 3.21 million homes, 4.11 million viewers.
7. College Football: Wisconsin vs. Ohio St. (Saturday, 7:58 p.m.), ESPN, 3.15 million homes, 4.54 million viewers.
8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.09 million homes, 4.42 million viewers.
9. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 10 p.m.), USA, 3.08 million homes, 4.5 million viewers.
10. "NCIS" (Wednesday, 9 p.m.), USA, 3.06 million homes, 3.92 million viewers.
11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.05 million homes, 4.46 million viewers.
12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.986 million homes, 4.13 million viewers.
13. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 11 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.985 million homes, 4.15 million viewers.
14. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Sunday, 10:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 2.86 million homes, 3.77 million viewers.
15. "NCIS" (Monday, 8 p.m.), USA, 2.74 million homes, 3.59 million viewers.
Ratings
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