I did not expect to have more Robin Williams’ posts. The media did wrap things up in good order within a few days—think Michael Jackson, for example, about how awful the media can be—but there was definitely some “over the top” stuff last week. That aside, I saw some material I wanted—and needed—to share. Here it is:

Adam Hills, taking apart the Westboro Baptist Church—the funeral crashers—in Westboro Baptist Church Rant – The Last Leg.

Robin Williams, on the first decade of the century, in We Are Most Amused. (Warning! Degraded video; still “bust a gut” funny!)

A Little Known Robin Williams Story. (Alright, there are still two more links, and the man surely had some faults

It’s Wednesday, and there’s lots to share. Ferguson, MO is weighing heavy on me, for it’s a terrible exemplar of how far we have not come in 50 years. Lots of material out there, but I do try to find what you won’t read elsewhere. Here’s Driving While Black in Ferguson, written by Victoria Bekiempis on August 14 for Newsweek. (Who knew Newsweek still existed?) The story repeats itself in too many places around the country, with government as a business, trying to figure out how to make as much money as it can, and the public be damned. Everyone should be outraged when they finish this story!

Here’s Has an Ebola Corner Been Turned? One Perspective:  “No,

Tough week! Robin McLaurin Williams died on Monday morning, August 11, and Betty Joan Perske aka Lauren Bacall died on Tuesday morning, August 12. I’ve never seen or heard anyone funnier than Robin Williams, and Lauren Bacall was hot, hot, hot in her day! If you haven’t seen To Have and Have Not, watch it now! (If you have seen it, watch it again!!!)

Lots and lots of pieces about Robin Williams. Here’s the one I have liked best; it’s a collection of tweets from Norm MacDonald.

In passing, I simply cannot ignore the distasteful comments from Rush Limbaugh about Robin Williams. I won’t link to his foul rant about unhappy liberals, but I can’t quite get away from

Here’s a really interesting piece, courtesy of my friend Robert Fleming, about a corporate battle in the supermarket industry. The story, The Last Stand for the Middle Class Is Taking Place in a Parking Lot in Massachusetts, was written by Chris Faraone for the online edition of Esquire and posted on July 29. It’s one more “doing well by doing good” story. I will be watching this one to see how it ends.

Rick Perlstein is a terrific historian/writer. The Invisible Bridge:  The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, was published today. (A copy is on its way to me.) Frank Rich’s review, A Distant Mirror (from the Sunday New York Times) has me ready

Welcome!

When Neo-Liberalism Exploded by Michael Clune, first published in the L.A. Review of Books, discusses Masters of the Universe:  Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics by Daniel Stedman Jones. The review provides an excellent overview of recent economic history, and is definitely worth reading.

Here’s a fun little math problem/limerick:  This Math Problem … . Corny for sure, but fun!

Three weeks ago The Wednesday Curator mentioned the Republican push for impeachment of President Barack Obama. It’s back, all twisted and inverted. Here’s Steve Benen’s take, 2.1 Million Reasons Why Dems Love the GOP’s Anti-Obama Push, at Rachel Maddow’s blog on July 29. The quick version. Republicans:  “Charlie, did you use the

Back I am, with apologies to anyone who came up empty earlier on Tuesday. I had a piece up to make the subscriber deadline, but it was not ready. Sorry!

But for children at the border, war in Gaza/Israel, and an airplane blown out of the sky in Ukraine, we’d be hearing about … well, Benghazi, of course, but also about the highway trust fund debacle and possible solutions. Reinventing the American Highway:  The Promise (and Pitfalls) of Learning to Love Tolls, written by Henry Grabar and published at Salon on July 20, provides an overview of one solution for part of the infrastructure problem.

From The Atlantic on July 21, here’s David Frum’s non-ideological, tell it like

They just keep on coming, G-d bless them! One Wednesday after another.

I have driven Prius automobiles since 2004, and no non-Prius has been domiciled in our garage since 2006. Ms. J and I are committed to clean, fuel efficient transportation. So I read with interest John Voelker’s article, Hyundai v. Tesla: Exec Claims U.S. Funds Superchargers, Electric-Car Maker Angrily Rebuts, posted at Green Car reports on July 15. When manufacturers are fighting about who got more bennies from which government, we’re getting closer to the tipping point, when combustion engine behemoths look like the funny old cars many of us saw in the movies when we were children.

I’d never heard of Larry Pratt until I read The

Out of the box, I need to mention www.evernote.com and David “even my mom calls me Griff” Griffis. Griff is an old friend, and a mostly unsung hero for literacy in Tucson. Months ago we had a long lunch, talking about a pre-Mark Rubin Writes project. He shared Evernote as a tool, and for the Wednesday Curator it has become an invaluable tool. Thanks, Griff, for the suggestion, and for all you do and have done for our community. (Check out Evernote as a very versatile tool for having whatever you need, wherever you are.)

Michael Ignatieff, in the July 10 issue of The New York Review of Books, asks Are the Authoritarians Winning? Not a thought to contemplate happily,

I posted last night, completely forgetting the fact that it was Tuesday, which meant I should have been working on The Wednesday Curator. Here goes:

You may have heard the one about President Obama exceeding his Constitutional authority 9X, 6X, 13X, etc. That Obama, just a lawless you-know-what! Well, PolitiFact.com, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, go to the bottom of it here. The answer? FALSE!

Here’s something really depressing:  The New Red State Fad:  Spending Big Bucks to Pollute More? “Yah, I got my truck, I got my rollin’ coal, and life is good.” Rollin’ coal? The piece is short, and worth a quick look, but for those in a hurry, these people get their

Wednesday. Curator duties are at hand, and I think I have some good stuff for you all. So good, in fact, that I’ve posted early, so that you’ll have Tuesday night enrich your mind.

First up, I ran across—where I don’t recall—The course of bigness by Andrei Cherny, published in the Spring 2007 issue of Democracy, the journal he started many years ago. Andrei is a friend, a terrific writer—you should really read The Candy Bombers:  The untold story of the Berlin airlift and America’s finest hour, one of my “best ever” books—and a nice guy. What he says in The Course of Bigness matters, he says it well, and he said it seven years ago!