AdamSmith

The absence of a Food Porn section is thrown into high relief.

November 4th, 2013 08:40 AM ET Maine gubernatorial candidate comes out as gay Posted by CNN's Ashley Killough (CNN) – Democratic gubernatorial hopeful and U.S. Representative Mike Michaud of Maine announced Monday he's gay, writing about his personal life in an opinion piece for newspapers in his state. If Michaud wins in 2014 and unseats Republican incumbent Gov. Paul LePage, he would become the first openly gay candidate to be elected governor. The six-term U.S. Congressman's announcement makes him the 8th openly gay member of Congress, with seven in the House and one in the Senate. Michaud, who announced he was running for governor in August, says he made his decision to come out in response to "whisper campaigns, insinuations and push-polls" from his political opponents. "Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: 'Yes I am. But why should it matter?'" he writes. He's not the only "out" candidate running for governor next year. Others include Democratic state Rep. Heather Mizeur in Maryland and independent Todd Giroux in Rhode Island. Both states allow same-sex marriage. While Michaud says his opinion piece may "seem like a big announcement to some people," he adds "it's just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation mill worker or a lifelong Mainer." "One thing I do know is that it has nothing to do with my ability to lead the state of Maine," he writes. Michaud first served in the Maine state legislature, before being elected to the U.S. House in 2002. "I write this now merely to let my opponents and the outside interests who fund them know that I am not ashamed of who I am," he says in the opinion piece. "And if seeing someone from my background, in my position openly acknowledge the fact that he's gay makes it a little bit easier for future generations to live their lives openly and without fear, all the better." Some of Michaud's fellow members of Congress welcomed the news on Monday. "My #gaydar missed it, but happy to welcome @RepMikeMichaud to team," Rep. Jarid Polis, D-Colorado, wrote on Twitter. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, wrote on Twitter that she was "so proud to serve with" Michaud and linked to his opinion piece. Same-sex marriage became legal in Maine in December, and the state voted for President Barack Obama over Republican nominee Mitt Romney by a wide margin in November, 56%-41%. The 2014 governor's contest in Maine will be a big race to watch. Nonpartisan political handicapper Stuart Rothenberg rates the race as a "toss up/tilt Democrat," while Charlie Cook, another leading nonpartisan political observer, rates the race as a "toss up." In additional to Michaud, two other Democrats have announced their candidacy, while three independents have pledged to run. LePage, who's become known for his outspoken, sometimes off-color comments, won his election bid in 2010 with 38% of the vote in a crowded gubernatorial race. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/04/maine-gubernatorial-candidate-comes-out-as-gay/

The Queer Irony of Ender's Game Despite the antigay views of Orson Scott Card, his most popular novel is an empowering story for LGBT youth. BY Jase Peeples July 31 2013 6:00 AM ET The Advocate 91 “It’s dreadfully ironic,” says Gavin Hood, director of the forthcoming film adaptation of Orson Scott Card's iconic sci-fi novel Ender's Game. “Orson wrote a book about compassion, and empathy, and yet he himself is struggling to see that his position in real life is really at odds with his art.” When Hood set out to bring the science fiction classic to the big screen, he had no idea the movie would become a flashpoint in the battle for LGBT equality. “Frankly, that’s not unusual,” he continues. “Great art usually rises above the weaknesses and failings of its creators.” Nevertheless, the antigay views of Card, a man who once sat on the board of the National Organization for Marriage, and called for the criminalization of homosexuality, have begun to eclipse any merit his award-winning story may offer to Hollywood’s pantheon of science fiction films. The organization Geeks OUT launched its Skip Ender’s Game campaign in July, urging supporters of LGBT equality to boycott the film when it lands in theatres on November 1, in hopes of sending a message that moviegoers will not tolerate antigay activism. It’s a viewpoint Hood agrees with on a personal level, but he’s quick to point out the controversy now surrounding the film provides an even greater opportunity to positively affect the future of LGBT equality, thanks to the conversation it sparked. “I fully understand the position of those seeking a boycott. I really do,” says Hood. “However, let us have the conversation for what it is, which is that it’s so ironic that the themes and positions in the film are completely the opposite of what its author is now saying. I think that is a healthy and important discussion to have on those terms. I would far rather engage in a debate from an honest point of view, than have it suggest that audiences may stay away.” Those who call for a boycott of Ender’s Game may note that their motivation has more to do with the artist than the art. After all, it’s difficult to support a story from which an antigay activist like Card profits. But the effect of one of Card’s most celebrated works may actually be to advance the message of equality. Long before Card’s personal views on homosexuality made headlines, many LGBT fans who read Ender’s Game were enamored with the story. Not only is the tale a great work of science fiction, but protagonist Ender Wiggin's struggles also closely parallel a number of common experiences had by gay youth. As the third child in his family, Ender is born an outsider in a society with strict population control laws. Though his birth is a special case approved by a government desperate to find the ultimate military leader, he still carries the shame associated with being a “Third” in a culture which enforces a two-child limit. “No one wants a Third anymore,” Colonel Graff says to Ender in the novel. “[Your parents] do love you Ender, but you have to understand what your life has cost them. They were born religious.” Those words written in the first few pages of Ender’s Game would be more than enough to make the main character’s tale resonate with many LGBT people from religious families who have struggled to reconcile their sexuality with the beliefs of their loved ones. But the parallels between Ender’s story and that of gay youth don’t end there. In fact, Ender’s tale of empowerment works best when its young protagonist is interpreted as a gay character. With the exception of his sister, Valentine, Ender shows no affection toward females throughout the book. Though he does build a friendship with Petra, the only girl named at the Battle School he attends, their relationship is purely platonic. Instead, he is most affectionate with his male peers like Alai, who kisses Ender on the cheek after a private exchange between the two boys one night in the barracks, and Bean, whom in turn appears to have deep affection for Ender as well. Additionally, a number of boys in the Battle School who clash with our young hero seem to hone in on Ender’s queer sensibilities by the ways in which they choose to bully him. In one scene, the character Rose de Nose lays naked on a bed as he taunts Ender with an animated, wagging penis displayed on the computer tablet resting across his waist. But are the people behind the film aware of just how easily Ender's Game can be interpreted as a queer story? “No doubt about it,” says producer Roberto Orci. “When I read the book, I was kind of a geeky kid. I was less of an athlete and more of a student. I definitely experienced bullying, and so I can totally imagine how Ender’s journey would relate to anyone in similar circumstances, be it being bullied for the things that I was bullied for, or for who they are. I think the movie reflects that journey as well.” Hood notes that no matter what Card believes, the people who created the upcoming film resonated with what he actually wrote. “The story of Ender is really a young person in search of his identity and in search of his own moral compass,” says Hood. “And so for me, it is so ironic that the writer of the work that has helped so many [young] people, gay and straight, to find empowerment, to feel empowered, to find their own moral compass — it’s very sad that he, himself, is struggling with these issues. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that in struggling with these issues, he wrote a great book. I think what would be far more helpful is if audiences knew that the makers of this film, and the film itself, holds the polar opposite point of view to the current thinking of Orson Scott Card on gay issues.” That self-reflective irony is a sentiment echoed loud and clear by Harrison Ford, who plays the part of Colonel Graff in the upcoming film. “The question of gay marriage is a battle that [Card] lost,” he says. “I think we all know that we’ve all won. That humanity has won.” “Regardless of its author’s clearly bigoted point of view on gay marriage and homosexuality, this book was worth bringing to the screen,” says Hood. “The irony is that we would not be having this conversation if we hadn’t made Ender’s Game, and that's the way you change societies, when you engage in meaningful conversation. So I’m thrilled we’re having this conversation and it really does raise the very tricky question of, ‘Is art something that we can view of independent of its creator?’” “As stressful as this is, it’s achieving, in a twisted way, exactly what we set out to do,” Hood says. “And wouldn’t it be amazing if we could turn this thing into what the book is really about?” http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/film/2013/07/31/queer-irony-enders-game

Well, why not? Justin Bieber busted sneaking out of brothel By Natalie O’Neill November 2, 2013 | 3:13pm Page Six Justin Bieber is pulled out of a Brazilian brothel in a bed sheet. Photo: AKM-GSI Blame it on Rio! Justin Bieber tried to sneak out of a brothel in Brazil while covered in a sheet Friday — but photographers caught him red-handed. The 19-year-old pop star and a friend spent more than three hours in the popular whorehouse Centauros in Rio de Janeiro — before leaving with two women, sources said. He jumped into the back seat of a car while the women, who covered their faces, were put in SUVs and escorted back to his hotel. Bieber’s security team covered him with a bedsheet bearing the sex den’s logo as he walked out of the establishment — and one of his handlers sprayed photographers with water, demanding they stop snapping, sources said. The fotogs, who had been tipped off about Bieber’s visit to the whorehouse, confirmed it was the singer through his security team. The Biebs was also identified by his gray wraparound wrist tattoo, which is visible in some photos, and his signature sneakers, sources said. Bieber was later kicked out of the hotel for breaking rules, the Brazilian news Web site EGO reported. But another source insisted that Bieber left because hordes of fans mobbed the place, a creating a “security issue.’’ Sources at the hotel claimed he and his crew had for days been partying, doing drugs and disturbing people, according to EGO. The singer, who had been staying at the upscale Copacabana Palace hotel in southern Rio, moved his entourage to a rented mansion in a gated community, the site ¬reported. A spokesman for Bieber declined comment. Bieber’s trip to the brothel comes after he allegedly spent the night with a hooker in Panama last week, the Panamanian newspaper Cronicas reported. A prostitute told the paper that Biebs paid her $500 for sex after the two met at a nightclub in Panama City. He took her back to his hotel room and the two smoked weed, she told the paper. After the sex, he returned her to the club, where she met back up with friends, she said. Fans slammed the star via Twitter on Saturday, saying he’s too caught up in partying and sex. “Justin bieber has officially lost it,” tweeted @Nessa1Glee. Said @zeenieinabottle: “Don’t wanna hear him, see him, nothing. So done. This is absolutely disgusting.” The singer also took to Twitter, denying he hired hookers. “Please stop believing rumors, they are just that. bs rumors, getting tired of it, no truth to them. moving on now. seriously moving on,’’ he tweeted. http://pagesix.com/2013/11/02/justin-bieber-busted-sneaking-out-of-brothel/

Hope you are applying your prescience at Ladbrokes.

Good WaPo review: http://m.washingtonpost.com/opinions/review-double-down-on-the-2012-election-by-mark-halperin-and-john-heilemann/2013/11/01/8bf4f050-3fdd-11e3-a751-f032898f2dbc_story.html "...The two presidents slowly warmed to each other throughout the race. 'He's luckier than a dog with two d----,' Clinton told his friends of Obama."

http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304200804579161720691285060

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/04/politics/double-down-2012-campaign/index.html?c=politics

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/cia-doctors-torture-suspected-terrorists-9-11

John Waters: 'Doing the show is an effective anti-Alzheimer's exercise' The film-maker talks about hitchhiking, his one-man show in Liverpool and what his parents thought of Pink Flamingos Saturday 2 November 2013 20.05 EDT 57 comments Tim Teeman William Burroughs called the film director John Waters "the pope of trash". Waters, 67, was born, raised and still lives in Baltimore, Maryland where his close friend Divine, whom he made a star, also grew up. Waters's best-known movies include Pink Flamingos (in which Divine ate dog faeces), Polyester, Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom. He is also a writer, artist and art collector and will perform his one-man show, This Filthy World about film, his fascination with true crime, exploitation films and "fashion lunacy" at this year's Homotopia arts festival in Liverpool. Waters is writing a book about hitchhiking across America last year. How was the road trip? I hitchhiked from my front door in Baltimore to my flat in San Francisco. I last hitchhiked when I was 16. It's a bit different when you're 66. Before, I had fantasies about both how brilliant it could be and how horrible. The reality was nowhere near either extreme. The indie band Here We Go Magic tweeted about picking me up in the middle of Ohio. That was so exhilarating: you'd be waiting in the rain for 15 hours for someone to stop, then someone does. Nobody hitchhikes now. I only saw one other hitchhiker the whole time. Do you like performing? Doing the show is an effective anti-Alzheimer's exercise. I talk about running an amusement park, the stars in my movies, drugs, religion, everything. I've never been to Liverpool but it sounds a lot like Baltimore so my kind of town. Liverpool boys are kind of good-looking and the girls are kickass. What kind of boy were you? My mother was Catholic, my father not. I went to Catholic high school. Every form of education failed me. I was trouble. When I was eight or nine in kindergarten, I told stories about this weird kid in class who drew with black crayons. One day my teacher called my parents to inform them: "That's your son." I was creating characters early. People didn't beat me up. I scared them. I hated authority. I could also get people to do things, I was quite the early director. I could make people laugh, enough to get their defences down, and then brainwash them. Were you into drink and drugs? I got arrested for underage drinking at a drive-in. There were all these girls puking from drink outside my car. I wanted to be a beatnik, then a hippie, then a yippie. I took LSD which gave me the courage to be the person I wanted to be. My parents were scared but supportive. They were horrified by my behaviour but my father paid for Pink Flamingos. He never saw it. I paid all the money back. He taught me business. He sold fire-protection equipment and built it into a big business which my niece now runs. I sold shock, which is also a product. I never had a real job except in a bookstore. I still drink. I smoke pot once in a while, but I used to smoke it every day. I was addicted to cigarettes. It's been 3,926 days since I had my last one, although I fell off the wagon recently and had three. Did your parents watch your films? My dad saw A Dirty Shame (2004). I felt bad about my father knowing what "felching" was. He said: "It's funny but I hope I never see it again" a great review from a parent. My mother asked what it was about. I said: "Sexual addiction," and she said: "Maybe we'll die before that one comes out." They liked Hairspray, Cry-Baby and Polyester, the ones that weren't quite as hideous. My mother is 89 and a great anglophile. We called her the Queen of Lutherville (the Baltimore suburb where they lived). How was your coming out? Before I told them I was gay they were scared I was about to say I was a necrophiliac or something. "Do you have to say it to USA Today?" my father said. They were fine about me being on the cover of [gay magazine] Out, just not the publications their friends read. My parents were married for 60 years. They never had a fight. They were the perfect example of a good marriage. Now my mother wants me to get married. She'll say: "Why aren't you married to that nice friend?" who is usually a successful guy. But the successful gay men I know rarely have other successful gay men as boyfriends. They have hustlers. Marriage equality is a hustler's feeding frenzy of gold-diggers. I campaigned for marriage equality in Maryland because I believe we should have the right to it, but I personally don't want to get married. I don't want to imitate the traditions of heterosexual people. I hate weddings: they make me uneasy. Are you single? I have been in love. Whether I'm good at it is another matter. It's a job. I have "regulars" I see, let's put it like that. Living alone is a great luxury. I love going out. Tonight I'm going to this really cool night where young people dance to the music of my generation. I play colleges. I connect to young people: they see me as their slightly insane uncle. You don't have much choice when it comes to ageing: I don't want plastic surgery and end up looking like those people in LA who look like aliens or science projects. You last made a film in 2004. Why? It didn't make any money. They want you to make independent films for half a million bucks, and for me a film would cost around $5m. It's a great time to be a first-time film-maker, but not me. For the last five years I've been trying to get finance for a movie, Fruitcake. Johnny Knoxville is signed up to play the father, and if someone called tomorrow and said "Here's the money", I'd do it. I'm friends with nearly all the stars of my films Kathleen Turner, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords and Johnny Depp. Divine hated being called Glenn [Milstead, his birth name], and didn't respond to anything but Divine which I named him in 1966. I'm so glad he experienced some success before he died [in 1988]. Do you miss directing? I've made 16 movies, it's not like I haven't spoken. I write, my last book was a bestseller. I create art. Thank God I didn't depend on the movie business to make a living. This Christmas I'll tour my show to 15 US cities. I'd love to write a novel. I'm proud I've been able to do all this, happy to work in my boxer shorts and T-shirt every day. I'm very sharp in the morning and get dumber as the day goes on. John Waters performs This Filthy World on Friday at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as part of Homotopia's 10th birthday celebrations http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/03/interview-john-waters-pink-flamingos-liverpool

I am a former escort. Trust me, criminalising prostitution doesn't helpRhode Island and rural Nevada used to offer protections for adult sex workers. Now it's illegal in RI and more dangerous for all Matthew Lawrence theguardian.com, Sunday 3 November 2013 07.30 EST Today marks an interesting anniversary in Rhode Island. On 3 November 2009, Governor Donald Carcieri signed a bill criminalizing indoor prostitution and overturning a 29-year-old statute which allowed consenting adults to conduct sexual transactions for money behind closed doors. While some rural counties of Nevada allow brothels, Rhode Island laws were more liberal, with escorts working legally in homes, hotel rooms, and spas located in cities and towns across the Ocean State. Rhode Island wasn't a lawless free-for-all, as some anti-prostitution advocates now contend. Pimping – sexual exploitation for the financial benefit of a third party – has always been a felony, and anti-trafficking laws were already in place to guard against forced prostitution. Streetwalking, a public nuisance and a far riskier type of sex work, was considered a misdemeanor, and minors already had legal protection thanks to pre-existing laws pertaining to statutory rape, sexual assault, and coercion. In reality, the passage of the 2009 anti-prostitution law only affected adult sex workers who were either self-employed or working in spas of their own free will. So what was the problem? Most people thought there wasn't one. Anti-prostitution bills had been introduced in the state legislature every year since 2005, unceremoniously fizzling out each time. In 2009, a local television reporter Bill Rappleye canceled a report on the anti-prostitution bill – intended to include comments from irate viewers who visited his blog – after it became clear that most people were ambivalent about the legislation. Rappleye later blogged wistfully that it "doesn't seem like a lot of [viewers] are worried about the exploitation of women here". His equation of prostitution with exploitation of women is a common one, though my own experience as a gay male sex worker runs counter to that misconception. I escorted briefly after college, and several friends – some in graduate school, some with careers – also turned to prostitution for extra cash. None of us felt exploited; we were self-employed men and women, working where and when we wanted. We advertised online and charged what we considered reasonable rates. Rhode Island traditionally has among the highest unemployment rates in the nation, and escorting provided a convenient way for us to manage hefty student loan bills. In one hour with a client I made as much money as I made in a whole week at my part-time retail job; I may have felt financially exploited, but for reasons completely unrelated to sex work. The crusade for criminalization was spearheaded by Donna M Hughes, a socially conservative women's studies professor who founded the organization Citizens Against Trafficking specifically to gather support around this legislation. She and Melanie Shapiro, one of her undergraduate students, led the frenzied charge with a series of emotional but factually challenged newsletters (for example, blaming "spa-brothels" – their own term – for gang stabbings at local nightclubs). Their "organization" seems to have dissolved (or at least stopped doing much) at some point in 2011, making it clear that trafficking was never their real concern. Former Representative Joanne Giannini, who sponsored all five anti-prostitution bills, recently wrote an editorial praising her own legislation with respect to a lurid case involving a Boston man who allegedly kidnapped two Massachusetts teenagers and held them captive in Providence; he is also accused of sexually assaulting one of them. It's sad that someone can equate the behavior of consenting adults with allegations of kidnapping and statutory rape. I testified in opposition to the anti-prostitution bill, presenting myself as a concerned citizen, which I was, and not as a retired sex worker. Hughes, Shapiro, and state police officers favored criminalization; those opposed were a more motley crew, including everyone from professional sex educator Megan Andelloux to Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale. It probably looked like the "good guys" versus the lewd ones, but that's not a fair characterization. We tried to show how this bill would make things more dangerous. And that's exactly what has happened. Bella Robinson, an escort affiliated with sex workers rights group COYOTE, moved to Rhode Island specifically for the legal protection here. "I've never been more terrified than when I had that SWAT team bust through my door," she says in reference to an earlier arrest at a New Jersey home. Within four hours I pled guilty. The judge told me that I'd go to jail unless I paid $310 a month for a year. In other words he was essentially telling me to go out and turn some more tricks to pay the court. Indoor prostitution hasn't gone anywhere. A spa – easily found on several adult review sites – currently operates near the Providence Journal building on a busy thoroughfare in downtown Providence. And a quick search of popular escort sites reveals both male and female escorts working in the Ocean State, as they do in every other state where prostitution is illegal. The main difference now is that they have no protection. One case from early 2009 illustrates why I think criminalization was such a bad idea. A young attorney from North Providence was moonlighting as an escort, and one evening she was attacked at knifepoint by an unstable client. Knowing that she had the protection of the law, this woman – whose name I don't use to respect her own wishes – called the police and the man was swiftly apprehended. Had this incident happened a few months later, she might have never made that call and her appalling attacker might never have been caught. "Escorts from across the country call me for advice", Robinson says. "And I only have one thing to really tell them: do not call the cops. No matter what." http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/03/rhode-island-indoor-prostitution-now-illegal

An old man calls his son and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough." "Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams. “We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her," and he hangs up. Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, "Like hell they’re getting divorced!" She calls their father immediately. "You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?” She hangs up the phone. The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

When you invite your welder friend over and get him drunk before having him fix your downspout...

A lesson my divorce outcome ought to have taught me already.

Ah! As I just posted in the Joke thread...

Certainly when it passes from our wallet to theirs.

Sometimes the only thing to do...

How a war game brought the world to the brink of nuclear disasterFormer classified documents show how close the Soviet Union came to launching an attack in 1983 Jamie Doward The Observer, Saturday 2 November 2013 08.28 EDT Chilling new evidence that Britain and America came close to provoking the Soviet Union into launching a nuclear attack has emerged in former classified documents written at the height of the cold war. Cabinet memos and briefing papers released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that a major war games exercise, Operation Able Art, conducted in November 1983 by the US and its Nato allies was so realistic it made the Russians believe that a nuclear strike on its territory was a real possibility. When intelligence filtered back to the Tory government on the Russians' reaction to the exercise, the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, ordered her officials to lobby the Americans to make sure that such a mistake could never happen again. Anti-nuclear proliferation campaigners have credited the move with changing how the UK and the US thought about their relationship with the Soviet Union and beginning a thaw in relations between east and west. The papers were obtained by Peter Burt, director of the Nuclear Information Service (NIS), an organisation that campaigns against nuclear proliferation, who said that the documents showed just how risky the cold war became for both sides. "These papers document a pivotal moment in modern history – the point at which an alarmed Thatcher government realised that the cold war had to be brought to an end and began the process of persuading its American allies likewise," he said. "The Cold War is sometimes described as a stable 'balance of power' between east and west, but the Able Archer story shows that it was in fact a shockingly dangerous period when the world came to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe on more than one occasion." Able Archer, which involved 40,000 US and Nato troops moving across western Europe, co-ordinated by encrypted communications systems, imagined a scenario in which Blue Forces (Nato) defended its allies after Orange Forces (Warsaw Pact countries) sent troops into Yugoslavia following political unrest. The Orange Forces had quickly followed this up with invasions of Finland, Norway and eventually Greece. As the conflict had intensified, a conventional war had escalated into one involving chemical and nuclear weapons. Numerous UK air bases, including Greenham Common, Brize Norton and Mildenhall, were used in the exercise, much of which is still shrouded in secrecy. However, last month Paul Dibb, a former director of the Australian Joint Intelligence Organisation, suggested that the 1983 exercise posed a more substantial threat than the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. "Able Archer could have triggered the ultimate unintended catastrophe, and with prompt nuclear strike capacities on both the US and Soviet sides, orders of magnitude greater than in 1962," he said . The exercise took place amid heightened international tension. In September 1983 the Russians shot down a Korean Airlines Boeing 737, killing all 269 people on board, after the plane had mistakenly strayed into their airspace. There is evidence to suggest that the Russians thought the Boeing was an American spy plane. Earlier in the same year the US president, Ronald Reagan, made a high-profile speech describing the Soviet Union as "the evil empire" and announced plans to build the "Star Wars" strategic defence initiative. With distrust between the US and USSR at unparalleled levels, both sides were operating on a hair trigger. As Able Archer commenced, the Kremlin gave instructions for a dozen aircraft in East Germany and Poland to be fitted with nuclear weapons. In addition, around 70 SS-20 missiles were placed on heightened alert, while Soviet submarines carrying nuclear ballistic missiles were sent under the Arctic ice so that they could avoid detection. Nato and its allies initially thought the Soviet response was the USSR's own form of war-gaming. However, the classified documents obtained by the NIS reveal just how close the Russians came to treating the exercise as the prelude for a nuclear strike against them. A classified British Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) report written shortly afterwards recorded the observation from one official that "we cannot discount the possibility that at least some Soviet officials/officers may have misinterpreted Able Archer 83 and possibly other nuclear CPXs [command post exercises] as posing a real threat." The cabinet secretary at the time, Sir Robert Armstrong, briefed Thatcher that the Soviets' response did not appear to be an exercise because it "took place over a major Soviet holiday, it had the form of actual military activity and alerts, not just war-gaming, and it was limited geographically to the area, central Europe, covered by the Nato exercise which the Soviet Union was monitoring". Armstrong told Thatcher that Moscow's response "shows the concern of the Soviet Union over a possible Nato surprise attack mounted under cover of exercises". Much of the intelligence for the briefings to Thatcher, suggesting some in the Kremlin believed that the Able Archer exercise posed a "real threat", came from the Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky. Formerly classified files reveal Thatcher was so alarmed by the briefings that she ordered her officials to "consider what could be done to remove the danger that, by miscalculating western intentions, the Soviet Union would over-react". She ordered her officials to "urgently consider how to approach the Americans on the question of possible Soviet misapprehensions about a surprise Nato attack". Formerly secret documents reveal that, in response, the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence drafted a joint paper for discussion with the US that proposed "Nato should inform the Soviet Union on a routine basis of proposed Nato exercise activity involving nuclear play". Information from the JIC report and Gordievsky was shared with Reagan, who met the spy and was apparently so swayed by the arguments that he pushed for a new spirit of detente between the US and USSR. However, Burt stressed that the end of the cold war did not mean that the risks had gone away. "Even though the cold war ended more than 20 years ago, thousands of warheads are still actively deployed by the nuclear-armed states," Burt said. "We continue to face unacceptably high risks and will continue to do so until we have taken steps to abolish these exceptionally dangerous weapons." http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/02/nato-war-game-nuclear-disaster

So the nuttiness among the Repub far right is moving even such as GWB to speak up as a voice of humane reason. Noticed this pro-immigration video from The George W. Bush Center on (don't ask ) George's personal facebook page... (Have to wonder if GWB, watching current Repub lunacies, now begins to understand something of how his father must have felt when he warned, via Scowcroft's editorial, Do Not Go Into Iraq.)

Here is a great reminiscence of working with Lou Reed by Lars Ulrich... http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/30/metallica-lars-ulrich-lou-reed-rocknroll-poetry