But I have no doubt we'll take a big sh*t on imagination and intelligence and freedom yet again by marching headlong into disaster.

Our stupidity, sadly, seems much more powerful than our smarts.

Taking the week off this week; surprise baby shower for younger daughter is next Saturday and I'm doing the food for 30 guests. Will do much of that Thursday and Friday, so a couple days for just hanging out. Got the new Nook Glowlight for my birthday on Thursday, so plan to spend some time reading. Nothing better than losing your self in a good book - well, almost nothing!

Have spent lots of time with my grandson this last week; such a joy - even the mundane is fun again through the eyes of a 21-month old!

There are two, and they both are bloggers. One, Corey Robin of Brooklyn College, is also a political theorist; his book "The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin" provides the most convincing account about what right-wing habits of mind are ultimately all about. His humane and erudite blog -- and its spirited commenters -- deepen that conversation. A favorite theme is the emptiness of right-wing notions of "freedom" that actually leave us less free. See, for instance, his work on "Lavatory and Liberty," which points out that the government doesn't even enforce the right to bathroom breaks at work. What could be a greater insult to liberty than that?

My other favorite political writer, Heather Parton, blogs under the name "Digby." Daily for over 10 years she's been unleashing a fire hose of brilliance on the fecklessness of the Democrats, the craziness of the Republicans and especially the way that what we now call the "culture wars" has been seared into our national DNA at least since the Civil War. In the acknowledgments to "Nixonland," I called her the other half of my brain.

Maybe I can help them solve the Mystery. It's right there in the article:

That charity's directors are Timothy Zoll, a public information officer for the Ferguson Police Department ...

While claiming to conduct an independent investigation of officer Wilson, the public information officer directly involved in that investigation is busying himself raising money for officer Wilson.

You can't make this stuff up.

That must explain the Police Chief's unusual announcement yesterday.

MILWAUKEE -- President Obama on Monday renewed his call to raise the federal minimum wage and to protect the right to equal pay for women as the midterm elections come into sight.

In spite of opposition from Republicans, Mr. Obama said, addressing a crowd of about 6,000 people gathered in Milwaukee at a festival hosted by the local A.F.L.-C.I.O., his goal is to make sure all Americans can meet simple goals, like being able to pay their bills and send their children to school.

That said, here's a body cam vid of a cop over-reacting (imo) and shooting a suspect.

Honestly, the lack of a true wide-angle lens on this cam, like the kind you get on a basic Go Pro, is really limiting.

(Reuters) - Two North Carolina men were declared innocent and ordered freed on Tuesday after spending more than 30 years in prison for the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl that recent DNA tests linked to another man.

Henry McCollum, 50, and his half brother Leon Brown, 46, were teenagers when they were arrested for the 1983 rape and killing of Sabrina Buie, whose body was left in a field in the small town of Red Springs.

McCollum is North Carolina's longest-serving death row inmate. Brown's sentence was reduced at a second trial to life in prison for rape.Brown and McCollum, 15 and 19 at the time, each signed a detailed confession to the crime written by police. They later claimed they had been coerced to do so with promises of release during intense interrogations.

Court records show both men are intellectually disabled with limited abilities to read or write.

None of the DNA collected at the scene was linked to Brown or McCollum.

Mick tells the audience (the firefighters and police who responded to 9/11):

If there's one thing we learned from this whole experience, it's that "You don't f*ck with New York."

I remember well that fateful day quite differently.

I remember that Major Giuliani had presided over a fire department that had such faulty equipment that they couldn't even communicate with each other. Deaths of firefighters resulted.

And as I recall, he topped that off by opposing pay increases for them.

And he, Giuliani, had the gaul to strut around and make political hay from that disaster.

I, having lived within a mile of that disaster, remember that there were no traffic lights, no cell phones, no police on the streets, and a foul odor that lasted for months.

I also remember Bush's Secretary of the Environment telling everybody that it was safe to live in the polluted area, when, in fact, it was toxic.

So, no, Mick. Everybody fked with the the people of New York. And they continue to do so.

About Labor Unions:

I joined the musician's Union, local 802 in New York, at a time when if a musician did not get paid, the other Unions joined in to protect them and put pressure on the club or other establishment. No food. No laundry service - until the musicians got paid.

Union contracts were imperative - obligatory - for just about every venue in town.

The Union also had a good health plan.
Forget about that.

Now, contracts are seldom offered or even required.
The only venues the Union cares about are huge establishments like the Met or other venues in the Lincoln Center complex.
Musicians are on their own.

A few years ago, the union picketed the Blue Note. Management told the picketers to go fk themselves. Literally.

The decline began, imo, with the presidency of Saint Ronnie, the "transformational" president.
First he attacked and destroyed the Union PATCO. And he did it with the cynical veneer that it had something to do with national security.

And the shame of it was that no other Unions came to the rescue. Not the Teamsters. Not the caterers or baggage handlers. Nobody.

And, once a symbol of the left, Unions have become increasingly conservative imo.

The Strain is a show about gross vampires, not zombies, but it has never felt more like that other straight-up TV horror series The Walking Dead than it does this week, in what is mostly one big siege at a gas station, our main characters surrounded by disgusting monsters.

Max Cooper's 'Seething' is a musical version of human intensity, complemented visually in this video by Andy Lomas's presentation of the seething, unstoppable and unrelenting propagation of life.
The simulation work originates from Andy Lomas' study titled 'cellular forms', which uses digital simulation of a simplified biological model of morphogenesis, with three-dimensional structures generated out of interconnected particles to represent cells.
Each form starts with a initial spherical cluster of cells which is incrementally developed over time by adding iterative layers of complexity to the structure. The aim is to create forms emergently: exploring generic similarities between many different shapes in nature rather than emulating any particular organism, revealing universal archetypal forms that can come from growth-like processes rather than top-down externally engineered design.
Cell division is controlled by accumulated nutrient levels. When the level in a cell exceeds a given threshold the cell divides, and various parameters control how both the parent and daughter cells re-connect to their immediate neighbours. New nutrient can be created by photons in cells hit by incident light rays. Nutrient can also be allowed to flow to adjacent cells. The simulation process is repeated over thousands of iterations and millions of particles, with each of the final structures comprising over fifty million cells.

Samuel Johnson isn't exactly a lawyer's dream client. He's a white supremacist with a lengthy rap sheet who a couple years ago was accused of plotting an attack on a Mexican consulate. He ended up drawing a 15-year prison term on a gun charge, and his case is now on his way to the US Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear a challenge to his sentence. Johnson has won the vocal backing of a top gun rights group, but as his case moves forward, it may eventually draw support from some liberals and civil libertarians who oppose harsh mandatory minimum sentences.

Fox News Five Attack Russell Brand Again- His Response Is Priceless

Fox News really go for it in this video trying their best to attack Russell Brand devoting an entire show to "attempting' to tear apart his character on a very personal level.

Russell's response is excellent and highlights some real issues that we should be thinking about . . . The fact Fox News devote so much time to simply trying to attack Russell Brand is very telling , is this really news?

Why is that police inspector after Dr. Powell? What happened in Cyprus? What does this inspector know that is so horrible that Mrs. Powell is giving in to his demands for sex?

Driven to Break Free From an Ordinary Life
`Houdini,' With Adrien Brody, on the History Channel