'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Andrew Tobias on the DNC (andrewtobias.com)
Andrew Tobias (fairly) briefly explains the primary voting situation in these states that have been disenfranchised by the DNC.
Jim Hightower: THE PRICE OF CHEAP GOODS (jimhightower.com)
WalMart, Dell, Disney, and other corporate giants are profiting enormously by moving the manufacturing of their consumer products to China. Not content to profiteer, however, the top executives of these giants insist that they should get credit for serving the moral good. Look, they say, we are helping American families by bringing cheap products to them.
ANNALEE NEWITZ: Return of blog anxiety (sfbg.com)
Instead of taking the Metafilter ethos mainstream, many blogs are leaving it behind.
Interview: Annalee Newitz (from 2005)
Q: Introduce yourself in one sentence.
A: I can kill you with my mind.
Sydney Spiesel: HOW TO LIVE 14 YEARS LONGER
Question: What are the factors that really could make your life longer and healthier? Every day we are barraged with a huge assortment of confusing and often contradictory medical advice. So, I'm pleased to report some simple advice that is likely to yield reasonable dividends in good health. Keep this checklist, and you can throw out the rest.
Eva Sohlman: "Harold Bloom: 'What We Are Seeing Is the Fall of America'" (The Wip; Posted on alternet.org)
"Political correctness is the death for the mind, for literature. I am terribly outspoken and don't try to hide it. I care passionately and I say so. I want quality when it comes to everything, and insist on it. I believe in the aesthetics, the beauty of good literature and I believe in wisdom. People get angry because of that and think it is an attack on them."
ERIC G. WILSON: In Praise of Melancholy (chronicle.com)
American culture's overemphasis on happiness misses an essential part of a full life.
Connie Ogle: Wondrous Jewish icon inspired Geraldine Brooks (McClatchy Newspapers; Posted on popmatters.com)
But the Haggadah turned up after the war. It had been rescued by Muslim librarian Enver Imamovic and hidden in a bank vault. This wasn't the first time a Muslim had saved the Jewish icon. During World War II, Islamic scholar Dervis Korkut had smuggled it out of the museum right under the nose of a Nazi general.
Michael Granberry: Art Garfunkel explains why and how he sings (The Dallas Morning News; Posted on popmatters.com)
Art Garfunkel loves to walk. His own two feet have carried him (albeit in 40 trips) across the entire United States, from his apartment in Manhattan to the mouth of the Columbia River at the lip of the blue Pacific in Washington state.
Patrick Barkham: It's never been easier to change your name (guardian.co.uk)
Toasted T Cake, Daddy Fantastic and Jellyfish Mc-Saveloy. No, not Darts professionals but otherwise ordinary folk who have changed their name by deed poll.
Olde Frothingslosh Pale Stale Ale originated as a running gag in the early 1950s on a radio comedy show, "Cordic & Co,"
on Pittsburgh's
WWSW-AM. In 1954, "Cordic & Company" moved to
KDKA where the show's ratings grew until, at some points, it had an 85 share (!).
In 1955, Pittsburgh Brewing Company began issuing special Christmas-season cans and bottles of Olde Frothingslosh filled with real beer. The humorous labels changed every year and became favorites of collectors. The brewery released new editions of Olde Frothingslosh even after Cordic left Pittsburgh, continuing until 1982 and then reviving the brand in 1998, and more recently in 2007 (currently available).
replied:
Reader Comment
"Crat Pack" vs. crap pack
Hi Marty,
I just read Digby's comments regarding the new "Crat Pack": Hillary, Obama and Edwards and how they came across as "superstars in their own right", during the debate in Las Vegas. It is refreshing to have our own trendy politicians possibly melding into powerhouse of a team after slogging through 8 years of the "crap pack"...........
Sara
Thanks, Sara!
Reader Observation
Alaska Hooters
Hooters goes under. The Anchorage Hooters restaurant - until this week, the northernmost location of the eatery - abruptly closed its doors Tuesday, leaving many employees unpaid and angry, a KTUU Channel 2 story reports.
"It was Tuesday that they told me, 'Don't come in because no one would be here,' " a waitress, Kelsey Carr, told the station. She said she tried to deposit her latest check "into my account and my bank bounced it and I have been holding it waiting for the funds to be available."
A co-owner in a phone interview blamed the closure on "slumping sales," according to the story. He said he hoped to pay employees by the end of the week. Anchorage Hooters
Vic (back in Alaska)
Thanks, Vic!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, but cooler.
Contract Deal With Studios
Directors Guild
Hollywood directors reached a tentative contract deal Thursday with studios, a development that could turn up the pressure on striking writers to settle their 2-month-old walkout that has idled production on dozens of TV shows. "Two words describe this agreement - groundbreaking and substantial," said Gil Cates, chairman of the Directors Guild of America's negotiations committee. "There are no rollbacks of any kind."
Among other things, the agreement increases both wages and residuals for each year of the contract.
It also establishes guild jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet and sets a new residuals formula for paid Internet downloads that essentially doubles the rate currently paid by employers, the guild said. It also set residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet.
Payment for programs offered on the Internet is a key sticking point between the studios and striking writers.
Directors Guild
Portrait Hangs At Smithsonian
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert was denied when he tried to run for president this year in South Carolina. Now the fake TV pundit is getting some love from the city of his birth.
His portrait was hung Wednesday at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington for a six-week showing in what the museum considers an "appropriate place" - right between the bathrooms near the "America's Presidents" exhibit. Museum officials stress it's only temporary.
The portrait - actually three portraits in one - depicts a debonair Colbert standing at a fireplace in front of a similar portrait of himself posing in front of the same mantel with a third picture of himself.
After the work was rejected by the National Museum of American History, Colbert eventually made his way to the portrait gallery. Museum spokeswoman Bethany Bentley said Colbert wasn't begging so much as "making his case." She said they welcome the conversation about whose portraits are included in the gallery's collection. It was just not Colbert's time, she said.
Stephen Colbert
Shifting Viewers
Late Night
If David Letterman hoped a deal with striking writers would help him in his battle for late-night supremacy with Jay Leno, it hasn't happened yet. Leno's NBC "Tonight" show averaged 5.17 million viewers last week, despite its writers being on strike and big-name celebrities being encouraged not to cross the picket line.
Letterman, who made a separate deal to bring writers back to his CBS "Late Show," had 4.08 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Leno has a 27 percent advantage over Letterman, compared to 33 percent prior to the writers going on strike.
Leno's victory margin of nearly 1 million viewers comes despite Letterman actually winning last Monday, when Tom Hanks visited to watch Letterman shave the beard he grew during two months off the air.
Craig Ferguson's "Late Late Show," which shares Letterman's production company and also has its writers back, inched closer to NBC rival Conan O'Brien. O'Brien's NBC show averaged 2.07 million viewers before the strike, and 1.99 million last week. Ferguson was at 1.75 million before the strike, and 1.84 million last week.
Late Night
Returning To '60 Minutes'
Charlie Rose
PBS talk show host Charlie Rose is returning to CBS News as a correspondent for "60 Minutes," the network said on Thursday. Rose, who will continue his PBS show, will fill the same role at CBS as he did on the spinoff "60 Minutes II" from 1999 to 2005. While on that show, he conducted an interview with Bill Clinton as he was leaving office, and won an Emmy for a story on Internet auctions.
Rose also worked at CBS during the late 1980s as anchor of the network's late-night newscast.
Charlie Rose
Internet Billing Based On Usage
Time Warner
Time Warner Cable Inc said on Wednesday it is planning a trial to bill high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee, the standard industry practice.
The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.
The company believes the billing system will impact only heavy users, who account for around 5 percent of all customers but typically use more than half of the total network bandwidth, according to a company spokesman.
Slowing network congestion due to downloading of large media files such as video is a growing problem for Time Warner Cable. The company said the problem will worsen as video downloading becomes more popular.
Time Warner
Patronizing Oinking
Chris 'Tweety' Matthews
With protests rumbling, MSGOP's Chris Matthews said Thursday that he was wrong to say last week that the reason Hillary Clinton is a senator and a candidate for president "is that her husband messed around."
Matthews discussed those remarks at the opening of his show "Hardball" Thursday, the same day feminist leader Gloria Steinem and the heads of four prominent women's groups complained in a letter to his boss that Matthews had shown a pattern of sexism.
"Was it fair to imply that Hillary's whole career depended on being a victim of an unfaithful husband? No," Matthews said. "That's what it sounded like I was saying and it hurt people I'd like to think normally like what I say (and), in fact, like me."
He said that while he has not always taken the time to say things right or be appropriate, "I will try to be clearer, smarter, more obviously in support of the right of women, of all people, to full equality of respect and ambition."
Chris 'Tweety' Matthews
Sues Rockstar Beverages
Travis Barker
Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker sued the Rockstar energy drink company Wednesday, accusing it of wrongfully using his picture.
The Superior Court lawsuit said the Rockstar Web site published a photo of Barker "holding a can of one of Rockstar's beverages, and identifying him and his endorsement by name" without his consent.
The lawsuit claims invasion of privacy, unfair competition and misappropriating his likeness to promote the product. Barker is "a prominent figure in the rock music world," according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified punitive and statutory damages.
Calls to the Rockstar Beverage Corp. were not immediately returned Wednesday.
Travis Barker
Wants To Be Peace Activist
Omar Osama bin Laden
Omar Osama bin Laden bears a striking resemblance to his notorious father - except for the dreadlocks that dangle halfway down his back. Then there's the black leather biker jacket.
The 26-year-old does not renounce his father, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, but in an interview with The Associated Press, he said there is better way to defend Islam than militancy: Omar wants to be an "ambassador for peace" between Muslims and the West.
Omar - one of bin Laden's 19 children - raised a tabloid storm last year when he married a 52-year-old British woman, Jane Felix-Browne, who took the name Zaina Alsabah. Now the couple say they want to be advocates, planning a 3,000-mile horse race across North Africa to draw attention to the cause of peace.
"Omar Bin Laden is the son of Osama bin Laden and his first wife, Najwa," a U.S. intelligence official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The official confirmed Omar was raised in Sudan and Afghanistan after his father was forced out of Saudi Arabia.
Omar Osama bin Laden
Drug Charge Dropped
David Faustino
Prosecutors have dropped a drug charge against David Faustino, best known for playing Bud Bundy on the TV series "Married With Children."
Faustino was charged in May 2007 with misdemeanor marijuana possession after he was arrested during an argument with his estranged wife. A disorderly intoxication charge was dismissed later that month, and Faustino agreed to complete a drug treatment program.
"He successfully completed the deferred prosecution agreement, which included a drug treatment program," said Linda Pruitt, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office.
David Faustino
May Move In Florence Makeover
Michelangelo's 'David'
The City of Florence is mulling a plan to move Michelangelo's "David" as part of plans to ease crowding in the historic centre of the tourist mecca, Mayor Leonardo Domenici said Thursday.
Florence authorities are considering moving the iconic statue from the Accademia Gallery to a western district in order to decongest the centre of the Renaissance city, he told a news conference in Rome.
The relocation of "David" from the spot where it has stood since 1873 would not take place "in the near future," Domenici said, noting that a music complex that would house it is under construction and set for completion in 2010 at the earliest.
Michelangelo's 'David'
Oldest Mexico Cantina Closes
El Nivel
Mexico's oldest cantina, a classic drinking dive patronized by dozens of past presidents and Cuban leader Fidel Castro when he was in exile here, has closed its doors after more than 150 years.
Nestled in a side street between the National Palace and Mexico City's cathedral, the door of El Nivel (The Level) is now padlocked.
El Nivel's owner, Ruben Aguirre, is looking for new premises after losing a long legal battle against the owners of the building, the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
El Nivel, a dim watering hole, opened in 1855 after being handed the first cantina license a few years after the U.S.-Mexican war. It was named The Level because authorities used to measure the height of the city's flood waters in the building.
El Nivel
Excommunicated Archbishop Still A Moonie
Emmanuel Milingo
Excommunicated African Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo took his campaign for a married priesthood to the Pope's backyard on Thursday at a raucous book presentation where supporters cheered him and critics shouted him down.
Milingo, dressed in the same Catholic clerical robes he wore when he was a Vatican official, sat with his demure Korean wife Maria Sung as he spoke in a Rome bookstore about a new book he co-authored called "Confessions of an Excommunicated Man".
The Vatican excommunicated the 77-year-old archbishop in 2006, when, in a blaze of publicity in Washington, he ordained four married men as priests as part of his group "Married Priests Now".
In 2001, the former archbishop of Lusaka, Zambia, stunned the Vatican when he disappeared and showed up in New York. There, he married Sung, a 43-year-old Korean woman chosen for him by the controversial South Korean-born evangelist Sun Myung Moon.
Emmanuel Milingo
Traumatic Brain Injury
TBI
As many as 20 percent of U.S. combat troops who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan leave with signs they may have had a concussion, and some do not realize they need treatment, Army officials said Thursday.
Concussion is a common term for mild traumatic brain injury, or TBI. While the Army has a handle on treating more severe brain injuries, it is "challenged to understand, diagnose and treat military personnel who suffer with mild TBI," said Brig. Gen. Donald Bradshaw, chairman of a task force on traumatic brain injury created by the Army surgeon general.
It estimated that from 10 percent to 20 percent of soldiers and Marines from tactical units leaving Iraq and Afghanistan are affected by mild traumatic brain injury. The most common cause was blast from an explosion.
The symptoms can include headaches, dizziness, nausea, light sensitivity, sleep problems, memory problems, confusion and irritability.
TBI
Returns Home
Stolen Boomerang
Proving boomerangs really do come back, an Australian town was on Thursday celebrating the return of a boomerang stolen from an outback museum by an American tourist 25 years ago.
The boomerang, a flying blade used mainly by Aborigines to hunt animals, was posted home to the city of Mount Isa in the northern state of Queensland by a Vermont man who named himself in a letter only as Peter.
"I removed this back in 1983 when I was younger and dumber. It was the wrong thing to do. I'm sorry, and I'm going to send it back," according to a note read out to Australian media by Mt. Isa mayor Ron McCullough, who added Peter had also sent a cheque.
Foreign tourists frequently return objects and rocks taken from sites sacred to Aborigines, including from Uluru, or Ayers Rock, believing the so-called "sorry rocks" have brought bad luck.
Stolen Boomerang
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