'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Noam Chomsky: Starving The Poor (thenews.com; Posted on commondreams.org)
and
Noam Chomsky: Starving The Poor (thenews.com; Posted on commondreams.org)
The chaos that derives from the so-called international order can be painful if you are on the receiving end of the power that determines that order's structure. Even tortillas come into play in the ungrand scheme of things. Recently, in many regions of Mexico, tortilla prices jumped by more than 50 per cent.
Mark Morford: Oh Right, We're Still At War (sfgate.com)
How horrifying is it when Bush's unwinnable disaster becomes so dreary and forgettable?
Amy Goodman: Give 'Em Hell, Mr. Terkel (King Features Syndicate)
Studs Terkel, the great journalist, raconteur and listener, turns 95 this week.
Patricia McGuire: Rank this, U.S. News (latimes.com)
Why Trinity College's president opted out of the magazine's education rankings.
Christian John Wikane: Stevie Nicks: Dreams Unwound (popmatters.com)
Alternately revered and ridiculed, Stevie Nicks has impacted an entire generation of artists with her bewitching tales and stirring stage theatrics. Crystal Visions traces the tangled web of her solo career.
Tom Spurgeon: More Marvel-ous movies? (latimes.com)
With its top-tier heroes all spoken for, the comic book icon looks to its bench for box-office hits.
Simon Maxwell Apter: The Simpsons Reaches 400th Episode (TheNation.com. Posted on AlterNet.org)
Over 18 seasons and three presidential eras, The Simpsons has paid badly animated homage to all that sucks in America.
Julie Bindel: Finally, butch lesbians get their own cookbook (guardian.co.uk)
Food is a difficult issue for lesbians. The assumption that we are all vegetarian, or even macrobiotic, can lead to some awful meals cooked for us by heterosexuals.
Hilda L. Solis: TV à la Carte? I'll Take the Buffet
and
Hilda L. Solis: TV à la Carte? I'll Take the Buffet
In 2002, arch-conservative civic groups joined with consumer groups to fight the Federal Communications Commission-proposed "media concentration" rules that would have given large media companies the right to gobble up local print and television outlets. It was a watershed moment - the kind of left-right consensus rarely seen but fused together over the populist issue of diversity in media.
Aaron Barnhart The case of the disappearing TV viewer
Some 2.5 million people have suddenly stopped watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, according to David Bauder in a much-discussed Associated Press story, who called it "TV's worst spring in recent memory."
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely marine layer hid the sun til mid-day.
Dear old Dad has requested an appearance in PA, mid-July. It was more than a request.
Too late in the summer for lightnin' bugs, and too early for local corn.
But just right for the humidity festival.
New Song For Charity
Madonna
Madonna, one of the headliners at this summer's "Live Earth" concerts, released a new digital song for the musical event on Wednesday.
The global concert series, taking place July 7, is designed to raise awareness about climate issues. "Hey You," which Madonna produced with Pharrell Williams, doesn't specifically talk about earth issues, but the ballad's lyrics refer to loving and saving each other.
"Hey You" is available on MSN.com. The first million downloads are free, and Microsoft is pledging to donate 25 cents per download to the Alliance for Climate Protection.
Madonna
CBC Set To Honour
Bob & Doug McKenzie
The Trailer Park Boys may be Canada's latest low-rent darlings, but beer-swilling hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie were blazing a proud trail of loserdom when Ricky, Julian and Bubbles were mere children.
And so CBC-TV is celebrating the SCTV favourites, portrayed by comics Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis, this Sunday with its so-called "Two-Four Anniversary Special."
The title is an homage to three beloved Canadianisms: the country's May 24th holiday weekend, the beverage of choice for Bob and Doug - an ice-cold case of 24 beer, colloquially known as a 2-4 - and the 24th anniversary of the Bob and Doug movie, "Strange Brew," a film that became something of a campus cult classic in the U.S. upon its release in 1983.
The special - airing on Thomas's 58th birthday - features a long list of personalities paying tribute to Bob and Doug, including Canadians Martin Short, Tom Green, Paul Shaffer and Dave Foley. But there are also some longtime American fans like "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and actor Ben Stiller, who remembers lining up with his mother for hours at a New York City record store as a child to get Bob and Doug's autographs.
Bob & Doug McKenzie
Hometown Honour
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne is to be become the first inductee in The Birmingham Walk of Stars.
The West Midlands' answer to Hollywood Boulevard has been created along Broad Street to honour the city's most famous people.
The former Black Sabbath singer, who grew up in Aston, will attend the induction ceremony on July 6.
He said of the honour: "I have a star in Hollywood on their Walk of Fame but having a star in my home town means so much more to me."
Ozzy Osbourne
Another Makeover
Air America
Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Democratic opponent who traded insults with him during the 2001 mayoral race met again Thursday under friendlier circumstances, with talk quickly turning to another campaign - the race for the White House.
Mark Green, who lost to Bloomberg when the former CEO made his first run for City Hall in 2001, is now running Air America radio with his brother, Stephen L. Green. The family took control this year in an attempt to revive the liberal talk network, which was created in 2004 and had been losing money.
Bloomberg and his former competitor taped an interview on Thursday as part of the radio network's hyped relaunch, a multimedia blitz that will feature radio spots with a lineup of political newsmakers and celebrities, including several presidential candidates.
Green was the public advocate under another presidential candidate, former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and has worked as a public interest lawyer with Ralph Nader, who made his own third-party bids for the White House.
Air America
Sotheby's Auction
Cree Coat
An extremely rare Canadian Indian Cree costume, cut in the style of an 18th-century English frock coat, is going to auction on Friday at Sotheby's in New York.
Priced at between US$250,000 to $350,000, the costume, which includes leggings and mittens, is believed to be one of only 14 known to exist in the world.
The coat is made of hide, probably elk skin, and is painted down the back and along the hemline with very traditional rectilinear designs and circular medallions that represent the sun.
Across the shoulder there are epaulettes, which are clearly inspired by European fashion, but they are constructed of beautiful loomed panels with porcupine quill work and beads.
Cree Coat
Hospital News
Jenna Fischer
Jenna Fischer of "The Office" has fractured her back in four places, but it could've been a lot worse.
Her publicist tells the New York Daily News that Fischer fell down some stairs at a bar where a party for "The Office" was being held. The publicist says Fischer "avoided anything scary near the spine and she'll make a full recovery in time to shoot season four of "The Office" this summer
She plays Pam Beesly, the mousey, sweet receptionist in the NBC adaptation of the British sitcom.
Jenna Fischer
Wrongly Jailed On Old Warrant
Ike Turner
Ike Turner spent a night in jail after he was arrested on a 1989 narcotics warrant that turned out to be invalid, police said.
The 75-year-old musician and ex-husband of Tina Turner was spotted on Interstate 405 in the San Fernando Valley about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday night.
Police officers saw his 2002 silver Mercedes-Benz S-50 doing more than 80 mph and straddling lanes, Officer April Harding said Thursday.
The car was stopped after it left the freeway and officers ran a check for warrants, which is routine. They found he had an old felony narcotics warrant and Turner was arrested and booked into a downtown jail, Harding said.
Ike Turner
The CW Cancels
`Veronica Mars'
The CW network canceled the cult hit "Veronica Mars" and will try to pick up steam in its second year with series about the snobby rich, transplanted families and a bounty hunter for the devil.
The network, created out of the ashes of the former WB and UPN, had already ended the long-running family dramas "7th Heaven" and "Gilmore Girls." On Thursday the ax fell on "Veronica Mars," which starred Kristen Bell as a wisecracking teenage private eye.
Corporate parents CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc. had hoped the CW could become a fifth major network by combining the best of its predecessors, but it has often slipped behind Univision in the ratings during a disappointing first year.
`Veronica Mars'
New Record Set
Andy Warhol
An Andy Warhol painting sold for more than $71 million, more than quadrupling the previous top auction price for the pop artist's work, an auction house said.
The Wednesday auction of postwar and contemporary art took in a total of nearly $385 million, making it the second most lucrative art auction ever held, according to Christie's. The auction was to continue Thursday.
Warhol's painting "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," went for $71.7 million to an anonymous buyer. The previous auction record for a Warhol work was $17.4 million, set when "Mao" sold at Christie's in November, the auction house said.
"Green Car Crash," painted in 1963, is part of a series of Warhol works that drew on photographs of fatal accidents. Silkscreened over a green background, the painting uses a news photograph of a grisly crash in Seattle. It had been in a private collection for decades, the auction house said.
Andy Warhol
Ignore Songs
Lost California Whales
Two wounded humpback whales that swam 92 miles up rivers and a man-made canal into California's Central Valley are not responding to recorded whale calls aimed at luring them back to sea, scientists said on Thursday.
The roughly 45-foot (13.7-metre) female and her 20-foot (6-metre) calf had swum to California's Port of Sacramento and meandered in the same area on Thursday as rescue officials played recorded sounds from a boat aimed at luring them downstream.
Both whales were injured by boats during their journey upstream.
Scientists said they are likely next to try a new approach of blasting noise from boats on the upstream side in an effort to inspire them to move in the other direction.
Lost California Whales
Abstract Cataracts
Claude Monet
Claude Monet, the father of impressionist painting, didn't change his style to something more abstract at the end of his career, he just suffered from cataracts, a new study showed on Thursday.
According to an experiment by Michael Marmor, professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, Monet (1840-1926) and fellow impressionist Edgar Degas (1834-1917), both suffered severe eye problems affecting their later works.
Marmor recreated computer images showing how the two painters would have seen the world using a system of filters and documents from the time, a statement from the US university said.
"Contemporaries of both have noted that their late works were strangely coarse or garish and seemed out of character to the finer works that these artists had produced over the years," Marmor said.
Claude Monet
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