'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser (mediamatters.org)
As Media Matters has repeatedly documented, the media have largely given McCain a pass on his possible law-breaking -- and even continue to tout him as a paragon of campaign finance virtue.
Graham Hays: Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship (sports.espn.go.com)
Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school's career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement.
Emine Saner: Is brain training really the best way to boost your IQ? (lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk)
According to a new American study, computer-based brain training can improve IQ beyond becoming better at practised tasks.
Annalee Newitz: User-Generated Censorship
Thanks to new, collaborative, social media networks, it's easier than ever for people to get together and destroy freedom of expression. They're going DIY from the bottom up -- instead of the way old-school censors used to do it, from the top down. Call it user-generated censorship.
Mark Morford: Laura Bush, docile doormat (sfgate.com)
Behold, the ideal Republican wife: Prim, sexless, nearly useless, lets the men do the real thinkin'. Hot!
Jim Hightower: IRAQ AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON OUTLAWS (jimhightower.com)
Oh, ye cynics who decry George W's debacle in Iraq, let the news go forth that there has been a tremendous breakthrough for civil order in that war torn society. Yes, the gruesome bombings and kidnappings continue, mass corruption proceeds unimpeded, the fractious sectarian divides are unhealed, and the dysfunctional Iraqi government remains dependent on American largesse for the foreseeable future - but now there is progress in one important area: police authorities all across the country are cracking down on people who violate the seat belt laws.
Nicole Pasulka: Drop that salmon! (salon.com)
With the days of indiscriminate fish consumption long gone, food writer Taras Grescoe explains how to eat seafood ethically. (Hint: Order mussels; skip shrimp.)
Beth Quinn: Matchmaker to the producers, scoopers (recordonline.com)
Talk about stepping in it.
Greg Kot: Sly Stone says he's ready to step back into the spotlight (Chicago Tribune)
The phone rings, and it's Sly Stone.
Margaret Welsh: Nick Lowe, a Maverick at 60 (Pittsburgh City Paper)
For someone who sees himself as relatively obscure, Lowe's been showing up a lot lately. Last June he released his 13th studio album, At My Age, and in February celebrated the 30th anniversary and reissue of his 1978 solo debut, Jesus of Cool.
Brent Baldwin: Behind the Scenes of 'Saturday Night Live' with Comedy Writer Bryan Tucker (Style Weekly)
The unseen workings of SNL are controlled chaos, the result of painstaking detail and hours of writing and rewriting. For Tucker, the funny white kid from the Virginia suburbs with a knack for riffing on hip-hop culture, it's the pinnacle.
Steven Rea: It's Super Year for once-troubled actor Robert Downey Jr., starting with 'Iron Man' (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
On Friday, "Iron Man"-easily one of the smartest, most satisfying comic-book superhero movies since Tim Burton's first "Batman"-opens across America. And Robert Downey Jr.'s the guy: As playboy industrialist Tony Stark, a billionaire inventor who transforms himself into an awesome armor-plated crimefighter, Downey puts the iron in irony. He's cool, he's tough, he's weird.
'We like our Venuses young' (arts.guardian.co.uk)
When Annie Leibovitz's picture of child star Miley Cyrus appeared in Vanity Fair her tween fans - and their parents - went ballistic. The naked back, the satin sheet, the damp hair ... how dare the innocent heroine of the hit series Hannah Montana look so provocative? Germaine Greer dissects the image itself, and we look at the people behind it: the photographer, Annie Leibovitz, and Disney, which markets the billion-dollar actor
responded:
PURPLE GENE.......POLITICALLY SPEAKING
Hillary Faces Bill
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny with a nice breeze.
New Video Campaign
Aung San Suu Kyi
Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston and Ellen Page are among those lending their celebrity status to a new campaign focusing attention on Myanmar's military-run government.
Jim Carrey previously filmed a public service announcement to raise awareness about the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, and human-rights leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined by the government for 12 of the last 18 years.
But starting Thursday, the message will be on a much larger scale. A video will be released each day in May starring Ferrell, Aniston, Page, Sarah Silverman, Sylvester Stallone, Anjelica Huston, Woody Harrelson and Judd Apatow, among others.
The celebs appear solo or in scenes together on behalf of the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi
U.S. Campaign for Burma
Human Rights Action Center
Visits Hong Kong
Mia Farrow
Actress Mia Farrow was briefly questioned at Hong Kong's airport Thursday before officials allowed her to enter the Chinese territory to give a speech criticizing China's relations with Sudan.
Farrow's entry to Hong Kong is seen as one indication of how free the city will be while hosting the torch. Officials here are under great pressure from Beijing to ensure a trouble-free relay, after protests have disrupted the run on several of its international stops.
Officials didn't immediately stamp Farrow's passport because they were concerned she might cause problems during the event, the actress said.
Blocking Farrow from entering Hong Kong would have sparked a firestorm of criticism as China is already taking heat for a recent crackdown on riots in Tibet. But allowing her into the city may attract attention away from the torch relay, which has been disrupted repeatedly by pro-Tibet demonstrators, and embarrass Beijing's leadership.
Mia Farrow
Graffiti "Better Than Sex"
Banksy
For cult artist Banksy, the buzz of creating graffiti murals is "better than sex, better than drugs."
But as pop singers and Hollywood stars clamour to buy his paintings at skyrocketing prices, the reclusive Banksy resolutely refuses to play the celebrity game and give up his anonymity.
"I have no interest in ever coming out. I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is," he once said in an interview.
Quotes from Banksy are as rare as cut-price stencils of his street art -- and Steve Wright, arts editor of Venue Magazine, found the best way to get the artist's friends to open up for a new book on Banksy was to promise not to reveal his identity.
Banksy
'Bed-In' Security Guard
George Urquhart
Retired security guard George Urquhart was on duty when John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their "bed-in for peace" at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel from May 26 to June 1, 1969.
Urquhart says he was asked to sit outside suite 1742, where the "bed-in" and the recording of Lennon's hit "Give Peace a Chance" took place, because he was the only fluently bilingual security guard at the hotel.
"I figured, 'My God, 12 hours, what a boring day that's going to be, for a full week,' but it was anything but, anything but," he recalled in a telephone interview from Calgary, where he now lives.
Urquhart grew nostalgic for the occasion after hearing earlier this week that a Montreal-raised TV writer is putting up Lennon's handwritten lyrics for "Give Peace a Chance" on the auction block in July.
"I've walked with kings, queens, heads of state," he said.
"But this was the week that remains the epic of the whole 32 years that I was there and he was a good man. ... He was terrific. Yoko was more an introvert. John was, my God, he was dancing around that room like you wouldn't believe."
George Urquhart
"Bucket List"
Jack Nicholson
Standing in the shower before the Tokyo premiere of his movie "The Bucket List," Jack Nicholson contemplated his own "bucket list" of last great goals, the three-time Oscar winner said on Wednesday.
Easing tensions between the West and Islam would be a political goal, the actor said, but it was having "one last big love" that topped his list.
"Many of my friends, my own contemporaries, have said in their life that they would like one last big romance to occur, so that would be on my list also," the 71-year-old performer said.
"I thought in the shower today (that) it'd been many political things I'd like, but of course I'm not in control of that."
Jack Nicholson
Long-Lost Opera
Antonio Vivaldi
After a 278-year hiatus, a long-lost opera by the Italian Baroque master Antonio Vivaldi will be performed in Prague Saturday in a tour de force for a young Czech conductor with a detective's nose.
"Argippo", a two-hour drama about a young princess smitten with a dishonest suitor, was scouted out nearly a year-and-a-half ago by 37-year-old Ondrej Macek, who founded and directs a Baroque music ensemble.
The discovery came in November 2006, and word immediately swept the world of opera. Francesco Fanna, director of the Vivaldi Institute in the 18th-century master's birthplace Vienna, waxed a bit more enthusiastic, calling the find "exceptional".
On Saturday, "Argippo" -- the only opera Vivaldi actually wrote for Prague and staged only once, in Prague, in 1730 -- will be revived in the sumptuous setting of the Spanish Hall in the Prague Castle, a room normally reserved for huge official receptions or special parliamentary sessions.
Antonio Vivaldi
Closing Arguments Wrap
Anthony Pellicano
Defense lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments Thursday in the trial of Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano, with two co-defendants' lawyers addressing jurors.
The jury in the two-month federal racketeering trial could get the case later Thursday after prosecutors' rebuttal presentation in the highly publicized case.
Pellicano, the celebrity investigator who is acting as his own attorney, had insisted in closing arguments Wednesday he acted as a "lone ranger" while gathering information for his clients. He denied he led a criminal enterprise as prosecutors allege.
The 64-year-old Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to spearheading a scheme that used wiretaps and ran names through law enforcement databases to dig up dirt on Hollywood's rich and famous and supply it to their rivals.
Anthony Pellicano
Charge Dropped
Joe Francis
A Los Angeles judge has dismissed a sexual battery charge against "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis because prosecutors said they were unable to contact his accuser.
The judge dismissed the misdemeanor count Thursday after city prosecutors said they were unable to proceed because they had not seen or heard from the 18-year-old woman or an alleged witness.
Francis was accused of groping the woman's breasts and buttocks at a birthday party in Hollywood last year. The millionaire founder of the sex video empire could have faced up to six months in jail.
Defense attorney Mark Werksman says Francis never touched the girl and that the case was based on lies and exaggerations.
Joe Francis
Another Ex-Nanny Countersues
Rob Lowe
A former nanny has countersued Rob Lowe and his wife for sexual harassment. The suit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles alleges that Lowe's wife, Sheryl, walked around naked in front of nanny Laura Boyce and made repeated crude comments about her boyfriend's genitals. It doesn't make any sex allegations against the actor.
Boyce also claims she was wrongfully fired and is owed money. She's one of three ex-employees the Lowes sued last month, claiming they spread lies about the couple and broke confidentiality agreements.
One of those sued, former nanny Jessica Gibson, also has countersued, claiming Rob Lowe sexually harassed her.
Rob Lowe
Studios & Actors Remain At Odds
The Next Strike
With two days left before a self-imposed deadline in contract talks with actors, major Hollywood studios said on Wednesday the two sides remained far from a deal and that excessive union demands were to blame.
The statement from the studios' bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, stoked concerns about renewed labor strife in the aftermath of a 100-day strike by screenwriters that ended in February.
The current three-year contract covering 120,000 film and TV actors expires on June 30.
Among stumbling blocks cited were SAG's demand for a doubling of residual fees actors earn from DVDs and changes it sought in a new-media pay structure already embraced by writers and directors. The studios said those demands "would result in enormous cost increases that we are not willing to accept."
The Next Strike
Mouse-Whipped
Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus won't be attending her first scheduled public appearance since Vanity Fair published photos that have thrown her status as a role model for young girls into question, Disney said Thursday.
The 15-year-old star of "Hannah Montana" for weeks has been scheduled to appear at a red carpet event Friday, but is no longer expected, Disney confirmed. Cyrus was to appear at a media party in Orlando on Friday, along with dozens of other Disney Channel stars in town to film the "Disney Channel Games," a charity competition.
Disney did not elaborate on the change in Cyrus' status for the party.
Miley Cyrus
Not An Extreme Fight Fan
Sumner Redstone
That ringing in your ears, Les Moonves, was your boss taking you to task for your plan to bring extreme fighting to CBS.
"Les usually asks my opinion," CBS Corp. executive chairman Sumner Redstone said Wednesday when asked about the four mixed-martial arts fights that will begin airing soon on the co-called "Tiffany network."
This time, Redstone said, the CBS president and CEO did not.
Redstone said the deal, struck with Elite Xtreme Combat, probably was a mistake, not because CBS won't turn a profit from it but because it is not "socially responsible" to air the typically bloody bouts on free, broadcast TV.
Sumner Redstone
Court Ruling Could End Lawsuits
RIAA
A federal court has dealt a body blow to the recording industry's efforts to sue people who use peer-to-peer software to download music from the Internet. In fact, says one copyright lawyer, the P2P decision could mean the end of the Recording Industry Association of America's litigation strategy.
In Atlantic Records v. Howell, U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake rejected the RIAA's theory that the defendants distributed music files merely by making them publicly available through the Kazaa P2P application. Contrary to the music industry's theory, "Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution," the judge wrote.
The facts of the case are fairly typical. MediaSentry, the private investigator that researches these matters for the RIAA, used Kazaa to identify 4,000 files available from the Howells' computer, with 54 of them copyrighted music files. MediaSentry took screenshots showing the files available and downloaded 12 of the songs.
The defendants, Jeffrey and Pamela Howell, say they made legitimate copies of their CDs for personal use and they didn't know Kazaa was making them public. Asked in a deposition if he was sharing music files online, Jeffrey Howell said, "I was not, no. The computer was, but I was not. The computer in some form ... made files that I did not know available on the Internet."
RIAA
Conflicts of Interest
NASA
A board set up to review construction of the spaceship to return astronauts to the moon is loaded with employees of the very contractors they are supposed to scrutinize, breaking federal law, a government watchdog says.
The board chairman, former Skylab astronaut Ed Gibson, and five other members work for companies hired by NASA on the multibillion-dollar space shuttle replacement program.
The NASA inspector general, the agency's in-house watchdog, calls that a conflict of interest and recommends suspending the six board members.
The board consists of 19 members charged with providing "independent" assessments of the project designed by NASA but built by private firms. However, nearly one-third of them work for those firms. Four of the six contractor employees were also stockholders in companies making money off the NASA project.
NASA
500-Year-Old Shipwreck Off Africa
Treasure Trove
The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins - and cannons to fend off pirates.
But it had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable African coast, and it sank 500 years ago.
Now it has been found, stumbled upon by De Beers geologists prospecting for diamonds off Namibia.
The company had cleared and drained a stretch of seabed, building an earthen wall to keep the water out so geologists could work. Archaeologist Dieter Noli said one of the geologists saw a few ingots, but had no idea what they were. Then the team found what looked like cannon barrels.
Treasure Trove
The Man Who Grew A Finger
Lee Spievak
Rarely though would you expect to find a medical miracle working behind the counter of the mall's hobby shop.
That however is what Lee Spievak considers himself to be.
The photos of his severed finger tip are pretty graphic. You can understand why doctors said he'd lost it for good.
Today though, you wouldn't know it. Mr Spievak, who is 69 years old, shows off his finger, and it's all there, tissue, nerves, nail, skin, even his finger print.
How? Well that's the truly remarkable part. It wasn't a transplant. Mr Spievak re-grew his finger tip. He used a powder - or pixie dust as he sometimes refers to it while telling his story.
Lee Spievak
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