Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Oct 13, 2011

Iraq:

SADDAM HUSSEIN’s bronze buttock is finally going up for auction!
The relic, which broke off a statue of the former Iraqi dictator during the 2003 invasion led by the U-S, has for the past eight years been cared for by a former British soldier who’d been working with reporters in Baghdad at the time of the invasion.
An auctioneer expects the buttock to sell for at least $15,500 at a British auction house later this month.
Editor's note: Not quite what I was looking for when I Googled "$15,000 piece of ass."
--Might look good in the Bush Library --right next to the crayons. (Maiman)

Guilty Pleasures:

Love chocolate? You'll really love this!
A chocolate maker in the UK has created the world's largest chocolate bar. Thornton's Chocolate crafted the enormous six-ton candy bar to celebrate its 100th birthday. It's over 170 square-feet of pure chocolate bliss and was inspired by "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." It's creation also coincides with Chocolate Week, which runs from October 10th to the 16th. (Still)

Bid'ness is Bid'ness:

CNN reports that billionaire investor WARREN "If I Pay More Taxes Will You Like Me?" BUFFETT pulled in $62.8-Million-dollars last year. His total federal tax bite? About 17.4-percent --$6.9-billion-dollars-- because most of his earnings are from investments, which are taxed at the lower capital gains rate.
But as some outlets reported in late August, Buffett might owe as much as $1-billion-dollars in back taxes to the IRS! (Pacelli)
Editor's note: For him? Drop in the Atlantic! (Maiman)
FYI: Capital gains tax 30 years ago: 35 percent. Today: 15 percent.

Autistic girl beats bullies at their own game:

Here’s a great warm-fuzzy for you: An autistic teen in California was recently voted Homecoming Princess at her high school. In the process, she beat her bullies at their own game.
Fourteen-year-old RACHEL SAMPSON has a high-functioning form of autism that a lot of people call Asperger’s Syndrome. As a joke, some students at her high school in Poway, California, nominated Rachel for homecoming princess.
But Rachel’s mom, KATHLEEN got suspicious that this was actually meant to be a mean joke, and clued Rachel in. Autism causes a wide range of odd behaviors and actually impairs your ability to make friends and pick up on social cues --like when a friend is actually a “frenemy.” But when Rachel found out, she turned the tables on them. She told an A-B-C news station: “I decided that if it was a mean joke, it would drive those kids really nuts if I actually won and had a lot of fun with it.”
So Rachel and her mom mounted a Facebook campaign. They told everyone what happened. And the community rallied around her. The students at Poway High School voted Rachel into the court as a freshman homecoming princess!
Rachel said that she hopes “other kids who have been bullied... get a message from this, and other kids who are bullies realize what they're doing is wrong."
FYI: Coincidentally, October is Anti-Bullying Awareness Month. Other facts: Kids with high-functioning autism are four times more likely to be victims of bullying. And a 2009 study found that kids with high-functioning autism are less likely to realize they are being bullied. (Source: theautismeducationsite.com) (Bartha)