The Real Stories Behind "Playboy Club" & "Pan Am"

Two new dramas hit TV this fall, "The Playboy Club" and the flight attendant drama "Pan Am," both set at in the early '60's. Here's a radio interview done for the Canadian Broadcasting System and Serius Radio; Brent spoke to two women who led these lives for real:  Actress, author and former Bunny at New York's Playboy Club, Kathryn Lee Scott, as well as psychotherapist and Huffington Post contributor Dr. Helen Davey, who worked as a Pan Am flight attendant for twenty years. 

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CBC.ca | Day 6 | The Real Stories Behind "Playboy Club" and "Pan Am"

Why An Image Of An 'Antichrist' Matters in Politics

THE end is near — or so it seems to a segment of Christians aligned with the religious right. The global economic meltdown, numerous natural disasters and the threat of radical Islam have fueled a conviction among some evangelicals that these are the last days. While such beliefs might be dismissed as the rantings of a small but vocal minority, apocalyptic fears helped drive the antigovernment movements of the 1930s and ’40s and could help define the 2012 presidential campaign as well. 

Christian apocalypticism has a long and varied history. Its most prevalent modern incarnation took shape a century ago, among the vast network of preachers, evangelists, Bible-college professors and publishers who established the fundamentalist movement. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and independents, they shared a commitment to returning the Christian faith to its “fundamentals.” 

Biblical criticism, the return of Jews to the Holy Land, evolutionary science and World War I convinced them that the second coming of Jesus was imminent. Basing their predictions on biblical prophecy, they identified signs, drawn especially from the books of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, that would foreshadow the arrival of the last days: the growth of strong central governments and the consolidation of independent nations into one superstate led by a seemingly benevolent leader promising world peace. 

This leader would ultimately prove to be the Antichrist, who, after the so-called rapture of true saints to heaven, would lead humanity through a great tribulation culminating in the second coming and Armageddon. Conservative preachers, evangelists and media personalities of the 20th century, like Billy Sunday, Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, shared these beliefs. 

Fundamentalists’ anticipation of a coming superstate pushed them to the political right. As the government grew in response to industrialization, fundamentalists concluded that the rapture was approaching. Their anxieties worsened in the 1930s with the rise of fascism. Obsessed with matching biblical prophecy with current events, they studied Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, each of whom seemed to foreshadow the Antichrist.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt troubled them as well. His consolidation of power across more than three terms in the White House, his efforts to undermine the autonomy of the Supreme Court, his dream of a global United Nations and especially his rapid expansion of the government confirmed what many fundamentalists had feared: the United States was lining up with Europe in preparation for a new world dictator. 

As a result, prominent fundamentalists joined right-wing libertarians in their effort to undermine Roosevelt. That this mix of millennialism and activism seemed inconsistent — why work for reform if the world is destined for Armageddon? — never troubled them. They simply asserted that Jesus had called them to “occupy” until he returned (Luke 19:13). Like orthodox Marxists who challenge capitalism even though they say they believe it represents an inevitable step on the road to the socialist paradise, conservative Christians never let their conviction that the future is already written lead them to passivity. 

The world in 2011 resembles the world of the 1930s in many respects. International turmoil and a prolonged economic downturn have fueled distrust of government, as has the rise of a new libertarianism represented in the explosive growth of the Tea Party.

For some evangelicals, President Obama is troubling. The specious theories about his place of birth, his internationalist tendencies, his measured support for Israel and his Nobel Peace Prize fit their long-held expectations about the Antichrist. So does his commitment to expanding the reach of government in areas like health care.

In 2008, the campaign of Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, presciently tapped into evangelicals’ apocalyptic fears by producing an ad, “The One,” that sarcastically heralded Mr. Obama as a messiah. Mr. McCain was onto something. Not since Roosevelt have we had a president of charisma and global popularity, who so perfectly fits the evangelicals’ Antichrist mold. 

While Depression-era fundamentalists represented only a small voice among the anti-Roosevelt forces of the 1930s, evangelicals have grown ever savvier and now constitute one of the largest interest groups in the Republican Party. In the past, relatively responsible leaders like Mr. Graham, who worked with Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, and even Mr. Falwell, who reined in evangelical excess in exchange for access to the Reagan White House, channeled their evangelical energy. 

Not now. A leadership vacuum exists on the evangelical right that some Republicans — Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and even Ron Paul — are exploiting. How tightly their strident anti-statism will connect with evangelical apocalypticism remains to be seen. 

The left is in disarray while libertarianism is on the ascent. A new generation of evangelicals — well-versed in organizing but lacking moderating influences — is lining up behind hard-right anti-statists. While few of the faithful truly think that the president is the Antichrist, millions of voters, like their Depression-era predecessors, fear that the time is short. The sentiment that Mr. Obama is preparing the United States, as Roosevelt did, for the Antichrist’s global coalition is likely to grow. 

Barring the rapture, Mrs. Bachmann or Mr. Perry could well ride the apocalyptic anti-statism of conservative Christians into the Oval Office. Indeed, the tribulation may be upon us. 

Matthew Avery Sutton, an associate professor of history at Washington State University, is the author of “Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/opinion/why-the-antichrist-matters-in-politics.html?_r=1&hp

A Salute To L.A.'s Best 'Dive Bars'!

At 5:30 p.m. on a recent Wednesday, the Enabler nursed a stiff vodka and soda at the Backstage bar in Culver City, which calls itself "the best dive bar in the world." She was sitting between an artist named Neil Wax, who was gearing up for a show at Bergamot Station, and a churlish old lady who was on her third martini. The old lady was talking to a beefy, bearded guy who regularly said things like, "This is what the government is going to do: They're going to breed this virus and put us all in cages."

Head bartender Steve Chen mixes a drink for patrons at the Backstage Bar & Grill in Culver City.

This is what the Enabler had come for: the heady eclecticism that flourishes in a good dive bar. While Hollywood's high and mighty sweat over putting the "right" mix of people on their elitist lists, dive bars naturally curate themselves. Here are the rank and file, the locals, the characters, the people. These days, dive bars are also places of creeping irony, as they become discovered by those seeking to capitalize on the hipster thirst for all things trashy and retro and authentic. Which sets off instant alarm bells: Will the dive survive?

To celebrate the unbreakable spirit of the dive, the Enabler spent several weeks visiting her favorites and discovering new ones. She drank 6 a.m. beers at the Drawing Room in Los Feliz; tippled at the Tango Room in MacArthur Park; sulked at King Eddy Saloon near skid row; relaxed at Gold Coast in WeHo and had an unexpectedly licentious night at Sam's Hofbrau, a bizarre and sprawling strip club on the industrial outskirts of L.A.

A good dive has to be "trapped in time," said Tony Lovett, co-author of "L.A. Bizarro: The Insider's Guide to the Obscure, the Absurd and the Perverse in Los Angeles," which has a marvelous chapter on dive bars. "And to people like us they are preferable to the alternatives, which are either meat markets or ridiculously modern."

Yes, it's about cheap drinks — but not only that. It's about the company. The Enabler's research reified what had drawn her to dives since her days as an underage drinker: The people are not trying to be anything they're not. Or, even if one's persona is wildly constructed, at least it's interesting.

At the Gold Coast's marbled bar dotted with brass pig heads, the Enabler chatted with a man named Robert Sherman, who as his drag queen alter ego Constance Cooper, had been the fearsome maitre d' at Bar Marmont in the '90s, when it was among the hottest doors in town.

Sherman, who as a young man in New York City also modeled for Robert Mapplethorpe, said he enjoys Gold Coast for its "earthiness" and because, "You never know who you'll see in here. I brought Angie Bowie in the other night."

The thought of David Bowie's famous ex-wife at Gold Coast was soothing to the Enabler. Just as soothing as the interior of the Backstage, which is fairly adept at mingling old-school earnestness with new-school irony while retaining many essential dive bar prerequisites, including a soiled industrial carpet; Bruce Springsteen on the jukebox; cracked bar stools; a pool table; plastic pitchers of Bud Light; and a toilet that makes you think twice about sitting down.

One of her best nights was spent at King Eddy, which is the last of skid row's many dive bars. (Rest in peace, Craby Joe's.) There she listened to bartenders Nikki Driscoll and Victor Hernandez tell stories while a heavily perfumed homeless woman mumbled into her whiskey.

"Crazy crack heads sometimes come in here and wild out," said Driscoll, pouring the Enabler another $2.50 vodka and soda from a cheap-looking bottle. "I just tell them to go and they do. They know they can come back tomorrow, they just have to go right then."

Driscoll, who is young and attractive with a tough demeanor and a raspy voice, turned down a possible job at the very hip Mas Malo because she was "holding out for King Eddy's."

"I like that weird, grimy side of life," she said and the Enabler nodded, charmed.

Hernandez, who has worked at King Eddy for five years, talked about how Charles Bukowski and John Fante used to sit at the bar. "A lot of artists come in here," he added. "They are trying to refresh the mind."

Still, the bar is busiest during the first two weeks of each month, Driscoll said, acknowledging the dark side of dives. "It has to do with when their Social Security checks come in." She paused, midway through pouring a frozen margarita, "But if this is really your lot on life, I say take it to the bar."

King Eddy is rare in that it's one of a handful of dives the Enabler frequents where you're not likely to stumble across someone secretly composing their next Facebook status update. But perhaps the Enabler's presence was proof these worlds can coexist. If she could be in this place, engaged in what beer blogger and dive bar aficionado Alex Brown happily calls "a Manifest Destiny search for sleaze," then the place could probably absorb a certain number of tourists and adventurers. Yes, there could be a tipping point, when a hipster influx could ruin the vibe. But maybe places like King Eddy were just too hard core.

The Enabler will drink a shot of Canadian Mist to that............
jessica.gelt@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/theguide/bars-and-clubs/la-et-night-enabler-20110923,0,7711468.story

School Bans Makeup & Mirrors To Combat Vanity

Teenage girls at a British secondary school have apparently become entranced by their own heavily made up reflections.

In order to prevent female students from spending school hours primping in the bathroom, Shelley College, a co-ed public school in northern England, has barred students from wearing make-up and spending time in front of the mirror.

According to the Today show, some students had been ignoring the school's old "discreet makeup only" rule, often wearing heavy makeup and spending far too much time socializing around bathroom mirrors. So the school has instituted a no-makeup policy for 13 to 16-year-old students and teachers have been doing daily checks to ensure that they're obeying. The mirrors in the bathroom have also been temporarily taken down, so that girls won't be tempted to congregate around them, obsessing over their appearances.

“The makeup ban is about getting girls to focus on what's important in school, which is learning and not being distracted with makeup and wanting to check it all the time,” headmaster John McNally told Today. Which is, of course, a good thing. However, if the school officials really think that nixing mirrors will stop girls from socializing or that banning makeup will keep them from obsessing over their appearance, we have to question their knowledge of teenage girls in the first place.

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/19/british-school-bans-makeup-and-mirrors-to-combat-vanity/#ixzz1YgW6C4Pd

Coming Out Stories: In Troops' Own Words

 A new book gives a face to the countless number of gay and lesbian service members who have been forced to serve while hiding part of their identity.

Air Force First Lt. Josh Seefried, who went by J.D. Smith

 

We might never know the exact number of LGBT people serving in the military right now, but Air Force First Lt. Josh Seefried (who was, until now, operating under the pseudonym J.D. Smith) at OutServe is hoping to share at least a few of their stories with a new book, Our Time.  

The pages contain the personal recounting of active and retired service members in a range of ranks, and they explain how "don't ask, don't tell" has affected their lives and careers. From gay-friendly commanding officers, to personnel isolated from their families, it's clear that being gay in the military invited a list of concerns, issues, and attitudes that straight counterparts had the benefit of ignoring.

On the first day of a nation post-"don't ask, don't tell," we highlight three stories from the book — of two sailors, and an airman, whose lives have been altered because of the 17-year-old law.

Daniel W. Hill is a petty officer third class and a chaplain's assistant in the U.S. Navy who is currently stationed at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii. He intends to pursue master's degrees in law and financial management in London once he's completed his active service. In his own words:

"Unfortunately, the chaplain I was assigned to protect in Afghanistan had an ugly attitude, a sharp tongue, and a rather foul mouth. I did my best to ignore his comments. When he began to question my sexual orientation with others within my chain of command, however, I could no longer ignore him. I began to document the statements I'd overheard, or that friends had witnessed. I needed to prepare myself for the worst. My mother herself had suffered discrimination within her unit of the Army, and I knew from her example how to handle this situation with grace and professionalism.

"I began to seek the counsel of several senior enlisted leaders and officers outside of my chain of command, as well as legal professionals within our command. This led to the decision to formally file an equal opportunity and harassment complaint. When I sat before my commanding officer and explained the situation, she was appalled that something like this was occurring in her unit. She explained, however, that there was nothing she could do to the chaplain legally, as the military did not recognize sexual orientation  as an equal opportunity issue. This caused me great dismay. I felt it was hard enough to be an African American in the United States, with its still fresh wounds from racism and now I had to deal with the onslaught of gay hatred and bias as well. I felt betrayed by my own country and comrades."

Jenn Brown (pseudonym) is a midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, where she aspires to become a pilot in the Navy. In her own words:

"I remember the day I was accepted into the United States Naval Academy. My mom was so excited she came to the restaurant where I waited tables and made me open the package in front of her. My dad couldn't have been prouder. When I got home, I looked through the package and pulled out my service papers. I remember the document asking me if I had any mental reservations that would keep me from fulfilling my duties. I put the paper down, and my eyes focused on the two words, 'mental reservations.' The truth was, yes, I did have mental reservations. I knew that if I signed that paper, I would not only be fulfilling my dream of service, but I would also be signing away my personal life, sentencing it to years of dishonesty, hiding, and shame. I kept looking at the paper. Should I sign? Is this what I really wanted? The answer was a resounding yes. Did I want to hide who I was for the rest of my career, maybe even the rest of my life? That answer was a resounding no.

"I remember putting the pen down and going outside to get some fresh air. The stars were out that clear Texas night; my thoughts held anything but clarity. I knew if I signed that paper I would be lying, a violation of the very foundation my future school and service were built upon: honor, courage and commitment. Those three words even appeared on the front of the Naval Academy folder all my papers had come in. I knew signing would violate the first, and possibly the most important, of the three. I went back inside. I picked up my pen and signed the paper. I looked at my signature, just barely dried in black ink. I knew I had just committed myself to a life of service and that I would be fulfilling my dream."

Jonathan Mills is a staff sergeant and electronic technician in the U.S. Air Force currently stationed in Washington, D.C. He is the first executive editor of OutServe.  In this excerpt, Mills and his wife decided to separate after he came out to her. The situation got stickier when he tried to notify his supervisor about the separation without sparing any possibly damaging details. In his own words:

"Finally, he told me we were going to drive to my house to talk with my wife and me about it together, just to make absolutely certain we both knew exactly what we were doing. My heart jumped to my throat and my breakfast threatened to follow.... The whole ride there I prayed that his car would somehow go off the road and crash into a tree. Alas, he did not lose control of the vehicle. We made it almost all the way to my house before I worked up the courage to take control of the situation. I told him to stop the car and swallowed back the breakfast that was making good on its threat of a mid-morning reappearance.

"We sat in silence while he looked at me and I looked down at my feet, as if the right words would just materialize there on the floor mats. For what seemed like hours but was actually just minutes, my heart pounded in my ears and my hands sweat and shook. This was the moment where my short-lived Air Force career would officially come to a screeching halt. And then I just said it: 'I want to be honest with you and I know I can trust you. We are getting separated because I’m gay.' His gaze did not shift. He kept looking at me as if to say, 'Come again?' What seemed like another eternity elapsed until he said, 'Oh.'

"I don’t remember what either of us said immediately after that, but he still wanted to talk to my wife and me — to make sure we were both OK. Once we were at my house, just before walking in he turned to me and said, 'Jonathan, it’s okay. It’s going to be all right.'"

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/09/20/Coming_Out_Stories_After_Repeal/

SoCal resident has state's longest tongue!

You may not know this, Southern California, but there is greatness among us.

The latest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records boasts a number of record-breaking feats by Southern Californians.

Los Angeles resident Chanel Tapper, for example, can claim the state's longest tongue. Yup, that's right. Her tongue, according to Guinness, measures 3.8 inches from tip to top lip. She got beat out, though, for the world record by Stephen Taylor of the United Kingdom, whose licker measures 3.86 inches.

Local collectors also top the charts. Denise Tabangui of San Jacinto owns 2,429 cow-related items as of March 2011. The collection began in 1990 when she saw a cow figurine in her mother's kitchen. Now she needs a lot more than a kitchen to hold her own cow menagerie, which includes a life-sized calf that her neighbors gave her as a present.

Charlotte Lee of Huntington Beach owns 5,249 different rubber ducks -– enough for the record books. Her rubber friends are kept in glass showcases in a dedicated duck room.

Then there's W.R. 'Rusty' Haight of San Diego, who owns the dubious distinction of being in the most car collisions. By February 2003, the traffic collision reconstructionist had endured 718 collisions as a human crash-test dummy.

In all, there are 2,500 new records in the Guinness Book of World Records, including 39 Southern California records, a spokesman for the book says. So take heart, there's still hope for the rest of us next year.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/guinness-world-records-tongue.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Factory Farming Industry

On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds and confined to wire cages, gestation crates, barren dirt lots, and other cruel confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root around in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural and important to them. Most won't even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter. The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories.



The factory farming industry strives to maximize output while minimizing costs—always at the animals' expense. The giant corporations that run most factory farms have found that they can make more money by cramming animals into tiny spaces, even though many of the animals get sick and some die. The industry journal National Hog Farmer explains, "Crowding pigs pays," and egg-industry expert Bernard Rollins writes that "chickens are cheap; cages are expensive."

Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals live in extremely stressful conditions:

• Kept in small cages or jam-packed sheds or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can't even turn around or lie down comfortably
• Deprived of exercise so that all their bodies' energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption
• Fed drugs to fatten them faster and keep them alive in conditions that could otherwise kill them
• Genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they naturally would (many animals become crippled under their own weight and die just inches away from water and food)

When they have finally grown large enough, animals raised for food are crowded onto trucks and transported over many miles through all weather extremes, typically without food or water, to the slaughterhouse. Those who survive this nightmarish journey will have their throats slit, often while they are still conscious. Many remain conscious when they are plunged into the scalding-hot water of the defeathering or hair-removal tanks or while their bodies are being skinned or hacked apart. 

You can help end this abuse. Order a copy of PETA's free "Vegetarian/Vegan Starter Kit" for tips and recipes to help you make the transition to an animal-free diet today.

To order a free copy of Meet Your Meat and Glass Walls, email: FreeDVD@peta.org. 

http://www.peta.org/tv/videos/celebrities-vegetarianism/87206203001.aspx

Pat "Traditional Family Values" Roberston Says: Divorce Wife With Alzheimers

On the same "700 Club" program today in which Pat Robertson said that Jews must convert to Christianity in order to enter Heaven, he also took on a question from a woman who was friends with a man whose wife is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and has begun to date another woman and wanted to know what to do.

1:17

Robertson: Divorce Your Wife With Alzheimers Pat Robertson suggests that a man whose wife is suffering with Alzheimers just divorce her and move on.

Robertson's advice [3] was to encourage the husband to divorce his wife with Alzheimer's because she was, for all intents and purposes, already dead.  Co-host Terry Meeuwsen understandably wondered if that would not violate the "til death do you part" provision of the wedding vow, which Robertson just pretty much dismissed, saying "he certainly wouldn't put a guilt trip" on anyone who decided that divorce was the answer:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/print/8109 

Earth-Like Planet Found

European astronomers said Monday that they had found what might be the best candidate for a Goldilocks planet yet: a lump of something about 3.6 times as massive as the Earth, circling its star at the right distance for liquid water to exist on its surface — and thus, perhaps, to host life, as we narrowly imagine it.

An illustration of what the planet orbiting the Sun-like star HD 85512b might look like.

The planet, known as HD 85512b, is about 36 light-years from here, in the constellation Vela. It orbits its star at about a quarter of the distance that Earth circles the Sun, taking 58 days to make a year. That distance would put it in the star’s so-called habitable zone, if the planet is rocky and has some semblance of an atmosphere — “if everything goes right and you have clouds to shelter you,” as Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, summarized it. 

Astronomers cautioned, however, that it would take years and observations from telescopes not yet built before those assumptions could be tested and a search for signs of life could be undertaken.

Neither humans nor their robot helpers are likely to be dispatched toward Vela anytime soon. But the finding did vault HD 85512b to the top of a list of the handful of Goldilocks candidates. 

The Vela planet was part of a haul of more than 50 new exoplanets — as planets around other stars are called — discussed in a news conference on Monday hosted by the European Southern Observatory. They are the newest fruits of an eight-year observing program by astronomers based at the University of Geneva and led by Stephane Udry and Michel Mayor, working from a telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. About 16 of them are so-called super-Earths, with masses less than 10 times the Earth, further encouraging astronomers that they are on the verge of finding planets like ours. A pair of papers — one with Dr. Mayor as lead author and the other with Francesco Pepe, also of Geneva, as lead author — have been submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysics, describing the planets. 

The Geneva astronomers used a sensitive spectrograph known as Harps (an acronym for High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) to detect wobble in the stars’ motions as planets swung around them. The wobble technique, however, only reveals the masses of exoplanets. Without further information like the size — which NASA’s Kepler satellite, also in the exoplanet business, measures by seeing the shadows of planets as they cross in front of their stars — or the composition, the astronomers cannot say for sure whether the Vela planet is made of rock, steam, iron, diamonds or something else. Nor can they tell what, if any, 

atmosphere it has. Kepler will be of no help because its gaze is fixed on a different swath of sky. 

The star that the Vela planet circles is known as HD 85512, or Gliese 370, after Wilhelm Gliese, a German astronomer. The star is orange, about two-thirds as massive and about an eighth as luminous as our Sun.

A study led by Dr. Kaltenegger, Dr. Pepe and Dr. Udry concluded that HD 85512b was potentially habitable if it had more than a 50 percent cloud cover. 

Dimitar Sasselov of the Center for Astrophysics, who has followed this work but is not part of the team, said that Dr. Kaltenegger and her colleagues made reasonable assumptions. He called the result “very solid” and “a major step in the right direction.” 

Others were less impressed by the case for habitability. Sara Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noted that Dr. Kaltenegger’s model atmospheres were limited to water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, like the Earth. 

“A very terracentric view,” she said in an e-mail.

Dr. Seager said, “Would I bet $1 that this is a habitable planet? No. If I had a space telescope that could look at the atmosphere, would I point to the planet? Yes.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/science/space/13planet.html?_r=1&hp

Astronomers Report Seeing Supermassive Black Hole Swallowing Star

For the first time, astronomers say they've borne witness to a supermassive black hole consuming a star.

Two papers released Wednesday by the journal Nature describe powerful blasts of radiation whose brightness and behavior can be explained only by a sun-sized star being torn apart by the gravitational forces of a black hole at the center of its galaxy, the authors say.

Scientists believe they have seen the aftermath of such stellar violence before, in the form of fading glows emanating from distant galaxies, in whose centers supermassive black holes usually reside. But they had never caught one in the act.

"This was the first time we saw one of these big black holes going from quiet and silent to very loud and noisy, producing a lot of light and radiation," said Davide Lazzati, an astrophysicist at North Carolina State University who was not involved in the study.

On March 28, a detector on the Earth-orbiting Swift observatory picked up a sudden burst of radiation from a point in the constellation Draco, 4.5 billion light-years away. It automatically swiveled around to point its X-ray telescope toward the odd activity.

As is routine, it beamed a text message down to hundreds of astronomers, including the X-ray telescope's lead scientist, Pennsylvania State University astrophysicist David Burrows, who was lead author of one of the Nature reports. He and several other Swift astronomers set up a conference call to discuss the discovery.

Swift was designed to quickly pick up evidence of gamma-ray bursts and track the high-energy X-rays that follow on the heels of them. These usually are one-time shots of high-energy radiation caused as a star explodes into a supernova, followed by less energetic "afterglow" radiation.

But before the scientists had even hung up their phones, they received a second text: Another burst of radiation had occurred at the same spot.

Two more bright bursts were to follow before the next day was over.

The researchers soon realized that what they were witnessing was too bright to have come from a supernova, which is a common fate for a dying star.

In addition, the patterns of higher- and lower-energy radiation emitted over the days that followed didn't match well any other space phenomena, such as smaller black holes or spinning neutron stars.

Ashley Zauderer, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who led the second study, which focused on the radio wave emissions, recalled thinking, "This is crazy."

"I didn't believe it," she said. "I called a colleague and said, 'Will you make sure I didn't make a mistake? Look at this data; it's too bright.' "

Zauderer's radio-wave study mapped the location of the burst to the center of the galaxy, right where a black hole ought to be.

The researchers concluded that the strength and recurrence of what they were seeing could best be explained by a supermassive black hole ripping a star apart and shooting out a jet of radiation in the process.

How did it happen? The team's theory is that a star about the same size as our sun ended up too close to the black hole. The black hole exerts a powerful gravitational pull — it contains the mass of about a million suns — and that caused the side of the star nearest the black hole to stretch toward it, in much the same way that the moon causes the tides on Earth.

Eventually, the gravitational forces shredded the star, and chunks of its plasma streamed toward the black hole. But in the process, some of the material was expelled into a jet of high-energy radiation.

That jet was likely responsible for the mysterious burst astronomers picked up in March.

Burrows estimates that within a few months as much as one-fifth of the mangled star's mass might have been swallowed by the black hole.

The astronomers were lucky to witness the event. It so happened that the jet of radiation was blasting straight toward the Swift spacecraft, like a flashlight beamed in the face.

The likelihood of seeing another star get swallowed up is slim, Burrows said, but that won't keep the team from looking — especially now that they have an idea of what to look for.

"It might happen once every 10,000 years in a galaxy with a supermassive black hole in the center," Burrows said. "But there are a lot of galaxies out there in the sky."

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-black-hole-20110825,0,7532003.story

Passenger Dies Eating Inflight Meal

Robert Rippingale, a 31-year old New Zealander, died on a Jetstar flight from Singapore to Auckland after choking on his in-flight meal.

Roughly 90 minutes into the 11-hour flight, Rippingale started shaking and choking, his girlfriend, Vanessa Preechakul, told the New Zealand Herald. 

The couple, who met in Singapore, were en route to Auckland to celebrate Rippingale's mom's birthday.

"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking," Preechakul told the paper. Preechakul said that Rippingale chose the beef meal over chicken on the flight. He was watching the in-flight movie when she noticed he started shaking. "I thought he was laughing very hard; then I looked at his face and his eyes were rolling and he couldn't talk. His lips were turning purple," she said.

A doctor and two nurses on board performed CPR on him in the plane's galley after Preechakul screamed for help. "The doctor came to me and said he was so sorry; he did his best," Preechakul told the paper.

Rippingale's body was then moved to the crew rest area behind a curtain and covered with a blanket. The crew allowed Preechakul to sit with him for the remaining nine hours of the flight.

Andrew McGinnes, a Jetstar spokesman, expressed his condolences and said: "This was a very difficult and sad event and our sympathies are with the passenger's family." He added that the cause of death was unknown at this time and an autopsy will be performed this month.

According to Aviation Herald, passengers said that the flight's captain made an announcement addressing concerns that he spent too much time in the cabin trying to comfort Preechakul, stating that even when he was with her there were two pilots still in the cockpit. 

Rippingale's funeral was held on his mother's 50th birthday, 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/04/robert-rippingale-jetstar_n_948343.html

Competition For 'World's Heaviest Woman' Begins

A 32-year-old woman is attempting to become the heaviest woman ever, but her nearest competitor, a woman who holds the record of "World's Fattest Mom," is having a hard time letting go of her heavyweight claim to fame, even as she says she's going on a diet.

Donna Simpson, 42, who wears XXXXXXXL clothing, is thought to be the world's fattest woman. She is already in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest woman in the world to give birth.

Susanne Eman, a 728-pound woman in Casa Grande, Ariz., is attempting to get into Guinness World Records as the "World's Heaviest Woman," and hopes to reach her goal by the time she's 41. The 2012 edition of the book will be released later this month.

The last woman to hold the title, 1,200-pound Rosalie Bradford, died in 2006.

"The category is currently open," a Guinness representative told HuffPost Weird News. "We've got several claims that we're researching, and we may have a new title holder very soon."

Eman has told reporters that she wants to shatter the record by packing on 1,600 pounds. Her ultimate goal: weighing in at one ton.

One of Eman's high profile rivals, Donna Simpson, of Akron, Ohio, holds the Guinness record for heaviest woman ever to bear children. She won the title by weighing a whopping 532 pounds when she gave birth to her daughter, Jacqueline, in February 2007 -- an event that required 30 doctors.

Simpson just announced to the world via HuffPost Weird News that she's decided to go on a diet, but she's having a hard time letting go of the "prestige" that goes along with the honor of being America's heaviest woman -- and said she views Eman as an upstart trying to usurp her hard-earned fame.

"She's Lady Goo Goo to my Lady Gaga," Simpson laughed, adding that no one in the "feeder" community -- a subculture of men who love large women -- knows who Eman is.

"If she was a serious gainer, the community would know about her," Simpson said. 

Simpson said she suspects that Eman is in cahoots with her ex-manager and is trying to get publicity in order to compete for her fan base. Even worse: She accuses Eman of trying to take away her "World's Fattest Mom" title.

"She says she's surpassed me as the world's fattest mom, but she doesn't understand that Guinness gave me the record because I was 532 pounds when I gave birth," Simpson said. "She wasn't that large when she gave birth to her kids."

Simpson also feels Eman is irresponsible for having her teenage kids feed her, as opposed to the adult "feeder/gainer" relationship she had with her former fiance, Philippe Gouamba, with whom she broke up a few weeks ago.

Eman is chowing down on nearly 22,000 calories daily, including six eggs scrambled in butter, a half-pound of bacon, four potatoes, six pieces of buttered toast and a 32-ounce shake -- and that's just for breakfast.

Eman is under an exclusive contract to Barcroft Media, a British-based news agency, and was unavailable to be interviewed. However, a source close to her camp considers Simpson's comments to be "a load of crap" designed to make Simpson money and get her a reality show.

The source added that while there is a push among the media to get the two into a cat fight, Eman prefers to stay focused on her own career, including a potential appearance on "Dr. Oz," where she will prove she's healthy by submitting to a physical.

"There's no competition," the insider added.

Simpson doesn't deny having dreams of being on TV, but said she has other priorities first.

"I've always wanted a reality show, but I need to be able to get out of the bathtub by myself first," Simpson said. "You know, there are people who are making death threat videos on YouTube."

Although Simpson said she has been fat for most of her 43 years, Eman's mission began two years when she discovered she couldn't stop packing on the pounds. In fact, she was at 490 pounds when she made an important discovery.

"I noticed I actually started attracting more men, and it made me feel good," she told Barcroft media, adding that while she cannot work because of her weight, she claims she is able to stay active by doing simple exercise and by having regular health checks.

"I go for a waddle and do stretches and exercises every day," she said. "My muscles need to hold up to my weight, so I have to stay strong. I take my blood pressure once a week, and every day, after I exercise, I take readings of my other vitals. I use a pulse oximeter to measure the concentration of oxygen in my blood stream. And I take my blood sugar levels just like a diabetic."

Eman's doctor, Dr. Patrick Flyte, has repeatedly told her she is playing Russian roulette with her life, and doesn't recommend anyone follow in her footsteps.

"There are well documented complications that come with morbid obesity," he said. "I would never encourage anyone to be doing what Susanne is doing."

However, Dr. Flyte also admitted that her medical checks show no current problems and that she's of sound mind.

"She's capable of making her own decisions," he said. "I don't see any psychiatric problems or anything else wrong."

Meanwhile, Simpson said she is looking more at her losses than her gains.

At her peak, she reportedly tipped the scales at 730 pounds (although she said that was exaggerated by 100 pounds), and had set a goal of reaching 1,000 pounds. However, she is now trying to get down to 370 pounds -- a weight she said will allow her to remain as fat as she wants to be, but will still allow her to do things herself. She currently weights 540 pounds.

"Unless I meet someone who wants me to be heavier," she said, "I need to lose enough weight so I can do things for myself, like get out of showers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/03/worlds-heaviest-woman_n_942546.html#s337433&title=Donna_Simpson

Woman's Boob Job Explodes Playing Paintball

Here's an unusual risk of playing paintball: A British woman's breast implant reportedly exploded after she was hit in the chest by a paintball, which can travel at 190 mph.

UK Paintball has now adjusted its policies accordingly. "We respectfully ask that any ladies with surgical breast implants notify our team at the time of booking," according to a statement on its website. "You will be given special information on the dangers of paintballing with enhanced boobs and asked to sign a disclaimer."

Just wait, it gets better: "You will also be issued with extra padding to protect your implants while paintballing," the statement says.

This, of course, happened within days of an FDA official reaffirming that silicone breast implants on the market were safe to use.

But then again, when they talk about the dangers of breast augmentation, paintball is not usually one that comes to mind.

But perhaps this particular incident should be filed under "dangers of implants" rather than the "dangers of paintball." After all, it would not be the first time that high-impact events have caused breast implants to explode. Among the odd cases: A Bulgarian woman's implants reportedly ruptured in a car accident, acting somewhat like an airbag and potentially saving her life.

Then there was Lydia Carranza, shot in the chest in 2009 by an assailant while working at a Simi Valley dental office. A Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon claimed that Carranza's implant kept the bullet fragments from reaching her heart and vital organs.

But Scott Reitz, a firearms instructor with 30 years of LAPD experience, was quick to point out: "I don't want to say a boob job is the equivalent of a bulletproof vest. So don't go getting breast enhancements as a means to deflect a possible incoming bullet."

A silicone breast implant. The rupture of one internally is often painful and could be deadly.

Lest we forget, last year a British health agency ordered cosmetic surgeons to stop selling a bestselling silicone implant because it was twice as likely to rupture as other types.

Ruptured breast implants are no joke. The rupture is often painful, and can result in potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome or gangrene.

Moral of the story? If you absolutely have to get breast implants, avoid any potentially high-impact activities.

In the meantime, here's a list of the potential risks of breast implants, courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration. 

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-breast-impant-paintball-explode-woman-20110901,0,4599850.story?track=rss

Where would Alfred Hitchcock be with technology today?

Sorry, Alfred Hitchcock, that script needs a tweak.

Impressive structure, Frank Capra, but about the premise….

Crackling good dialogue, Billy Wilder, but there’s been a technical glitch. Actually, a technology glitch.

Some of the greatest films of all time probably wouldn’t be greenlighted today without some serious script doctoring because the advent of modern technology has removed the feasibility of the plot points that so many of them turn on.

Consider the opening scene of Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959). Roger (a never-better Cary Grant) realizes during a business lunch at the Plaza Hotel that he must relay a message to his mother, and therefore must send her a telegram. (For readers born after the Clinton impeachment, Google “Western Union.”) With unfortunate timing, he flags down a bellboy who is paging someone else, leading to an identity mix-up and his kidnapping by foreign spies.

A very Hitchcockian device, mistaken identity. It sets the entire plot in motion. But Hitch couldn’t have made that movie today. Not set in 2011, at least, because what successful businessman leaves the office without his 4G smartphone?

Take Capra's multiple Oscar winner “It Happened One Night” (1934). In it, Peter (Clark Gable) is a recently fired newspaper reporter (OK, change that to “recently laid off” and that does still ring true in 2011) who meets heiress Ellie (Claudette Colbert), who is on the lam after a fight with her father. Set and filmed during the Depression, the road comedy features Ellie bribing Peter to keep her whereabouts secret.

How quaint. In 2011, Ellie Andrews would be a cottage industry for TMZ, National Enquirer photographers and Nancy Grace. Her photo would be all over CNN and the national news. But come to think of it, nowadays, rich girls who have fights with Dad don’t try to hide, they merely post it on Facebook or blog about it, then let the court of public opinion render a verdict.

“Double Indemnity” (1944): With cellphone records and embedded GPS, it would take Edward G. Robinson’s claims adjuster all of 10 minutes to figure out that Walter (Fred MacMurray) and Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) were having an affair in Wilder’s film noir about a life insurance scam. And the plot to make it look like hubby fell from the train? I’m betting that once Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner builds up enough speed to break your neck in a fall between San Diego and Los Angeles, its doors can’t be opened for that fatal shove.

“Body Heat” (1981): This steamy thriller from Lawrence Kasdan is another take on the faked-death scheme. But with all the forensic science advances, it wouldn’t take long for Abby from “NCIS” and Dr. Warner from “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” to deduce that Matty (Kathleen Turner) had assumed another woman’s identity and that body isn’t hers. Probably a Facebook search of her high school site and a simple DNA test would clear her poor besotted lover Ned (William Hurt) in less than a week.

“Sorry, Wrong Number” (1948): Bedridden Mrs. Stevenson (Stanwyck) is somehow connected to an ongoing phone call between two men planning a murder. Turns out, they’re talking about her murder. So, quick, call 911, right? No, she spends much of the movie on the line to an operator. She has no call waiting. And, of course, she’s in an upstairs bedroom, so when the killer knocks the phone downstairs off the hook, she’s out of luck. Give her a cellphone plan with anytime minutes and unlimited texting, and there’s no movie.

“The Terminator” (1984): One of the first things the futuristic machine (Arnold Schwarzenegger) does after warping back in time (after stealing clothes and those iconic shades off some bikers) is go to a phone booth and tear the Sarah Connor listings out of the white pages. Good luck finding a phone booth in L.A. today ¬— especially one with a current phone book.

Classic period films, obviously, aren’t affected by technology advances — a western is set in the Old West regardless of what year it is made, same with 19th century English dramas and the like. And fantasies are set in an alternate reality so don’t have to adhere to modern rules. And science fiction? Well, yes, many older sci-fi films can be comical in retrospect (you don’t shoot a rocket into space by putting it on tracks that run up a hillside, boys), but they get credit at least for thinking outside the box.

Contemporary movies, though, are a trickier lot. It’s totally possible that future technology would date — perhaps hilariously — some more recent technology-dependent films, such as  “Eagle Eye” (2008), “Enemy of the State” (1998), “Disclosure” (1994), “The Matrix” trilogy (1999-2003), etc. Actually, it’s already happened — the AOL modem dial-up in 1998’s romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail,” anyone?

When you consider all the changes in medical technology, computer technology, social technology in the past couple decades, there are probably plenty of other films out there that would be tripped up by today’s online, linked-in capabilities.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/08/where-would-alfred-hitchcock-be-with-todays-technology.html

Cast For Next 'Amazing Race' Revealed! Premiers Sept. 25th

CBS ANNOUNCES THE CAST FOR THE NEW SEASON OF "THE Amazing Race," PREMIERING SUNDAY, SEPT. 25

This Season’s Cast Includes a Pair of Olympians, Former NFL Tight End, the Youngest Person to Ever Sail Around the World Alone and Two Winners of “Survivor”

Eleven teams will embark on the adventure of a lifetime on the new season of THE Amazing Race, premiering Sunday, Sept. 25 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Emmy Award nominee Phil Keoghan is the host.

This season, the multi-Emmy Award-winning series sends 11 new Teams on a Race around the globe, making first time visits to exotic locations such as Indonesia, Malawi, Belgium and Denmark. Along the way, Teams will travel through four continents and 20 cities and cover nearly 40,000 miles.

Teams will be tested early and often and met with a new penalty called the “Hazard,” which will impact one Team’s future on the Race right from the starting line. The global journey sets off from the foothills of Southern California where the Teams’ problem solving abilities will be put to the test as they search for clues to their first destination, Taipei, Taiwan. Teams fortunate enough to survive the first leg will find themselves amidst an 8th Century Buddhist temple in Indonesia, riding elephants through the rain forests of Thailand, and racing for their lives when they discover they’re facing the series first ever Double Elimination.

This season’s cast includes a pair of Olympic snowboarders, twin Sisters, an ex-NFL tight end, flight attendants, the youngest person to ever sail around the world alone, two winners of SURVIVOR, Ethan Zohn and Jenna Morasca, and many more.

This fall marks the 10 year anniversary of THE Amazing Race, which originally premiered on Sept 5, 2001.

Following are the 11 teams, listed in no particular order:

Ernie Halvorsen
Age: 29
Hometown: Chicago
Current occupation: Project manager

Cindy Chiang
Age: 30
Hometown: Chicago
Current occupation: Brand manager

Connection to Teammate: Engaged
____________________________________________________________________

Justin Young
Age: 31
Hometown: Stone Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Doctor

Jennifer Young
Age: 26
Hometown: Stone Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Special education teacher

Connection to Teammate: Siblings

Liz Canavan
Age: 24
Hometown: Deerfield, Ill.
Current occupation: Marketing Assistant

Marie Canavan
Age: 24
Hometown: Deerfield, Ill.
Current occupation: Soul searching

Connection to Teammate: Twins
____________________________________________________________________

Ron Zeitz
Age: 44
Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Current occupation: American Airlines Flight attendant

Bill Smith
Age: 49
Hometown: Laguna Niguel, Calif.
Current occupation: American Airlines Flight attendant

Connection to Teammate: Domestic Partners
____________________________________________________________________

Ethan Zohn
Age: 37
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Current occupation: Change maker

Jenna Morasca
Age: 30
Hometown: New York, N.Y.
Current occupation: TV host/student

Connection to Teammate: Dating

Bill Alden
Age: 63
Hometown: Albany, Ore.
Current occupation: Farmer/rancher

Cathi Alden
Age: 62
Hometown: Albany, Ore.
Current occupation: College instructor/retired High
School principal

Connection to Teammate: Married for 40 Years/Grandparents
____________________________________________________________________

Andy Finch
Age: 30
Hometown: Truckee, Calif.
Current occupation: Professional snowboarder

Tommy Czeschin
Age: 32
Hometown: Crowley Lake, Calif.
Current occupation: Professional snowboarder

Connection to Teammate: Friends/Former Olympic Snowboarders
____________________________________________________________________

Amani Pollard
Age: 36
Hometown: Pine Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Business owner

Marcus Pollard
Age: 39
Hometown: Pine Mountain, Ga.
Current occupation: Retired NFL player/football
coach

Connection to Teammate: Married
____________________________________________________________________

Kaylani Paliotta
Age: 33
Hometown: Las Vegas
Current occupation: Cocktail waitress

Lisa Tilley
Age: 32
Hometown: Las Vegas
Current occupation: Cocktail waitress

Connection to Teammate: Friends/Former Vegas Showgirls
____________________________________________________________________

Laurence Sunderland
Age: 48
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Current occupation: Yacht manager

Zac Sunderland
Age: 19
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Current occupation: Record setting boat captain
(Zac was the youngest person to ever sail around
the world alone)

Connection to Teammate: Father/Son Adventurers
____________________________________________________________________

Jeremy Cline
Age: 35
Hometown: Alamo, Calif.
Current occupation: Commercial real estate broker

Sandy Draghi
Age: 33
Hometown: Dublin, Calif.
Current occupation: Nurse practitioner

Connection to Teammate: Dating

THE Amazing Race sends 11 teams on a trek around the world. Each Team is comprised of two people who have a pre-existing relationship with one another. At every destination, each Team competes in a series of challenges — some mental and some physical — and when the tasks have been completed, they learn their next destination. Teams who are farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning $1 million.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2011/08/31/cbs-announces-the-cast-for-the-new-season-of-the-amazing-race-premiering-sunday-sept-25/101916/

Is THIS McDonald's Chicken???

PETA's original McCruelty campaign logo

 

Chickens killed for McDonald's are slaughtered using an outdated method that results in extreme suffering. As one of the biggest sellers of chicken meat, McDonald's has the responsibility—and the ability—to reduce this abuse by demanding that its U.S. and Canadian suppliers use a less cruel slaughter method. Learn more.

In the slaughterhouses of McDonald's U.S. and Canadian chicken suppliers, birds are dumped out of their transport crates and hung upside down in metal shackles, which can result in broken bones, extreme bruising, and hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, and birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive and able to feel pain.

In 2000, following the launch of PETA's (original) McCruelty campaign, McDonald's made some basic animal welfare improvements. Since that time, the company has refused to eliminate the worst abuses that its chickens suffer, including abuses during slaughter. This cruelty could be illegal if dogs or cats—or even pigs or cows—were the victims. 

There is a less cruel method of slaughter available today that would eliminate these abuses, yet McDonald's refuses to require its U.S. and Canadian suppliers to switch to it. 

• 1997: Following the McLibel verdict, PETA writes to McDonald's asking the company to take steps to alleviate the suffering of animals killed for its restaurants.
• October 1999: PETA launches its McCruelty campaign after two years of failed negotiations with McDonald's.
• September 2000: Following 11 months of campaigning and more than 400 demonstrations against McDonald's, PETA announces a moratorium on its campaign after the company agrees to make some positive changes for farmed animals. This marks the first time in U.S. history that a major seller of meat agrees to make farmed-animal welfare improvements.
• September 2000 to February 2009: PETA tries to work with McDonald's to modernize the company's animal welfare standards and make further improvements, especially regarding how its chickens are slaughtered in the U.S., but McDonald's refuses.
• February 2009: PETA lifts its moratorium against McDonald's after the company fails to require its U.S. and Canadian chicken suppliers to adopt a less cruel slaughter method.

Help stop McDonald's cruelty now!

http://www.mccruelty.com/why.aspx

Wondering Where 'Consumer Confidence' Went??!

No matter which direction the markets gyrate, no matter what the politicians have to say, one thing has become abundantly clear this summer: Confidence, the very lubricant of both politics and finance, has collapsed. 

It's not just a collapse of public confidence in national politicians; it would be nice if the problem was confined to the Beltway. No, instead, it spreads from Washington to Wall Street, where debt and equity markets are connected to European markets, central banks and policymakers -- who are, in turn, connected to others around the globe. 

And not one of them knows, truthfully, what to do. The dirty, little secret of our era is that the globalized economic and political order is so vast, contains so many variables and moving parts, that nobody really knows how it works. So, here's the answer, in a nutshell: It doesn't. And every day it is destroying the lives  of everyday people. 

We've done some private polling and found shocking levels of pessimism: 95 percent of a group of Americans over 50, with conservative political views, were pessimistic or very pessimistic about the outlook for job creation and economic growth. Nearly 90 percent said they expect to be personally hurt by turmoil in the markets. But it doesn't stop there, even with that demographic. 

Fifty-nine percent of all Americans lack confidence in the U.S. financial system, the lowest level of confidence in the banking sector in three years, according Rasmussen Reports. One-in-three worry that their money will be wiped out in a bank failure. And a similar number thinks the U.S. unemployment rate will be even higher in a year. The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures consumer confidence daily, recently fell to a two-year low. And while investors fret about a double-dip recession, most Americans don't believe the recession ever even ended. 

Politicians -- particularly in the United States -- have triggered this collapse of confidence. A majority of Americans oppose the debt ceiling deal, according to the latest poll by The Washington Post, and eight in 10 are dissatisfied with the way the political system works. Nearly half of all Americans literally view Congress as corrupt, according to Rasmussen, which adds, "That's the highest finding to date." 

The debt ceiling debacle and deal proved so melodramatic and ultimately so much smoke-and-mirrors that it is hard to take either major political party seriously anymore. The notion that the Congress would abdicate the constitutional power of the purse to a "supercommittee" is somewhere between laughable and pathetic. One's political preference in this country essentially comes down to choosing the lesser of two evils.

But bankers and business leaders are now following suit; it is likely no accident that being a member of Congress now ranks as the lowest of professions -- but only just below being a Fortune 500 CEO or a banker. The wild gyrations of the markets only underscore this point: Markets are crashing down and shooting up on every single piece of data because of increased volatility. 

Which is a polite way of saying: No one knows what the hell is going on. Except for hedge funds, of course, and big institutional investors who are making a killing. One hedge fund, in particular, has been shorting European government debt instruments -- waiting for the central banks to pump in more money -- and then buying long and sitting pretty. In other words, the shrewd bankers are playing the panicky politicians. And everyday people? Everyday people are selling low, watching their 401ks evaporate, to big smart, institutional investors. 

This is not bulls versus bears; it is sharks against fur seals. And neither the bankers nor the politicians want to address the core points: The demographic in the United States and Europe is aging and consuming less, and is piled high with debt, public and private. Increased efficiency through technology suppresses job creation. On the other side of the world, China and India are growing like a weed. And a band of instability, predicated on bad or unstable regimes, fluctuating oil prices and soaring food prices, stretches around the middle of the Earth. Look at the Arab world alone. 

So, how can we expect a citizen or individual to have confidence in the globalized economic and political order? It isn't just people who have modest assets who have reason to stop believing in the system. Even younger people who don't have assets struggle to find work and watch their parents' life choices fail. Why should they have confidence in a system that is, after all, collapsing? 

Richard Parker is a contributor to McClatchy-Tribune Information Services and editor and president of Parker Media, where Ramona Flume is editorial director. Researcher Jessica Schwartz contributed to this article.

http://mobile.cleveland.com/advcleve/db_96783/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=8z6yA7BW&full=true#display