Recently Read Books

  • A Delicate Truth- John Le Carre (fiction)
  • Perfect - Rachel Joyce (Fiction)
  • The Expats - Chris Pavone (Fiction)
  • An Event in Autumn - Henning Mankel (Fiction)
  • Winter in Madrid - C.J.Sansom (Fiction)
  • The Brothers - John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles - non-fiction
  • LIfe Among Giants - Bill Roorbach (Novel)
  • Empty Mansions - Bill Dedman (non-fiction)
  • Woodrow Wilson (non fiction)
  • Lawrence in Arabia (Non-Fiction)
  • In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helpren (Fiction)
  • Lesson in French - Hilary Reyl (fiction)
  • Unbroken- Laura Hillenbrand (Non-Fiction)
  • Venice, A New History- Thomas Madden - (Non- Fiction)
  • Life is a Gift - Tony Bennett Autobiography
  • The First Counsell - Brad Meltzer (Fiction)
  • Destiny of the Republic - President James Garfield non-fiction by Candice Millard
  • The Last Lion (volume III)- William Manchester and Paul Reid (non-fiction, Winston Churchill)
  • Yellowstone Autumn -W.D. Wetherell (non-fiction about turning 55 and fishing in Yellowstone)
  • Everybody was Young- (non-fiction Paris in the 1920's)
  • Scorpion - (non fiction US Supreme Court)
  • Supreme Power - Jeff Shesol (non-fiction)
  • Zero day by David Baldacci ( I read all of Baldacci's Books)
  • Northwest Angle - William Kent Krueger (fiction - I have read 5 or 6 books by this author)
  • Camelot's Court-Insider the Kennedy Whitehouse- Robert Dallek
  • Childe Hassam -Impressionist (a beautiful book of his paintings)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Recent News

If you have read this blog before you probably can tell  that I enjoy the news.  I enjoy the serious news, the political news, the sports news, the hard hitting news, the financial news.  I especially enjoy the weird stuff that is in the news every day.  Here are a few recent beauties:

Hatch Act vs. Mann Act. In the Salt Lake Tribune  a couple of days ago, there was a story about one political candidate for office in Millcreek, Utah (suburban Salt Lake City) filing a complaint against another candidate for violation of the federal law called the “Hatch Act”. I had thought that the Hatch Act concerned the prohibition of taking people across straight lines for sexual purposes. After reading the article, I realized I had mixed up the Hatch Act with the “Mann Act”. The Mann Act‘s primary purpose was to address prostitution and immorality across state lines. It appears to me that Hatch Act prohibits politicians from crossing state lines to screw the public. Wait, maybe I am still mixed up.

The Dog has always been such a little darling. Yahoo News. "A pit bull is on probation after ripping the bumper off a police car and chewing the tires on three other cars flat as two other dogs barked and wagged their tails, local media reported Friday.The brown and white mixed breed named Winston spent two weeks locked up in the Chattannooga, Tennessee animal shelter after the bizarre attack was captured on a police surveillance camera. His owners said they had no clue why he went wild that day, chewing through two fences and attacking four different cars. He'd never shown any aggression before that day, owner Nancy Emerling told the Chattanooga Times Free Press."

Swan Lake by Dwarfs. I read a story today about a theme park in China called the Little People's Kingdom of dwarfs. Dwarfs perform in fairytale costumes for tourists. The park, near Kunming city in Yunnan province, employs 108 dwarfs from across China, who twice daily gather on an artificial hillside to dance and sing for tourists. Tourists can watch skits, sentimental group dances and acrobatics. The show's centerpiece, a rendition of Swan Lake, sees performers both male and female dressed in pink tutus and pretending to be little swans. The owner of the theme park said he had "always wanted to do good for society". Some people do good by funding projects to eliminate disease or provide health care and education to orphans. Until I read this article I never considered how humanitarian it might be to put dwarfs in pink costumes to perform Swan Lake.

Rip Torn.  Actor Rip Torn pleaded not guilty to burglary and firearms charges in connection with his arrest in January for allegedly breaking into a bank because he was drunk and thought it was his home. Connecticut cops said the veteran actor was so intoxicated on Jan. 29 that he broke into the bank that night with a loaded gun thinking it was his Salisbury home. Oh so he was trying to break into his own house with a loaded gun. I wonder if his house has ATM in front and a sign on top that says “Bank?. If so I could see how he could get mistake the bank for his house.

Bobcat.  You got check out this link. A bobcat goes into a house and gets comfy on the sofa. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/31/bobcat-walks-into-home-in_n_519615.html

Oh Joe. Here is another one from Huffington Post. We are all aware of Vice President Biden’s statement a couple of weeks ago that the passage of healthcare was a big f***ing deal. Well whether you were in favor of passage or opposed to passage of the bill, it was a big f***ing deal. But only Joe would say so on national TV. Yesterday or the day before, the President gave a speech at a community college where Mrs. Biden teaches. She was introduced the president and as he thanked her for the introduction,  he also thanked her for “putting up with Joe”. I thought it was pretty good. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/30/obama-jokes-with-jill-bid_n_518893.html

Family Values. I have to mention the recent news about the expenditure of $2,000 at a lesbian bondage club in California by the Republican Natiional Committee.  I don't why I like this story so much but I just love it. I don't know if its because of the lesbian component of the story, the bondage component or the Republican component.  It might be the image that is in my head of two old white guys (like me) sitting in dark business suits in a lesbian bondage bar being served drinks by topless waitresses while they discuss family values.  Beautiful.

Well it its 5:00 a.m. and I need to get ready for work.

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