'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
BBC Tonight
'The Avengers' & 'The Prisoner'
On the Avengers this week, those evil Ruskkies have developed a WMD. Its an invisible man. Personally I would have just followed Emma around a lot (I'm a dirty old man) but they for some reason want to use it on the Brits. Which always bring up a sore point. While I'm sure the Brits have tons of secrets locked away, wouldn't this have been best used on the Pentagon?
Oh well, this episode is more about Steed than Emma. But it's good for a few chortles.
I am not a number I am a free man.
A new number 2 has arrived with a devilishly cunning plan. He knocks 6 out and procedes to do some slight brainwashing. When he is finished 6 is now left handed. Awaking in #12 he is told that he is #12 and must break #6. He faces this person only to see a duplicate of himself.
Our hero never doubts himself but how to take advantage of this? Let's say #6 almost gets away.
On a personal note, I moved into my current place almost 2 years ago. Something has been bothering me ever since but I never could put my finger on it. Last week I pulled into my parking spot and realized what it was. I now live in unit # 6. I am not a number, I am a free man (John Ashcroft laughs in the backround).
~ Mr. Hawk
Kerry/Edwards
At stake is our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor
Thanks, again, Mr. Hawk!
Links from Bruce
Paul Krugman Links
Reader Follow Up
Re: Slim-Fast
Hi Marty,
I sent this E-mail to you (see BartCop Entertainment - Monday, 26 July, 2004) and now you won't believe what I got from SlimFast today in my Email.
Dear SP,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We want to provide the best support possible to help you achieve your goals with The Slim·Fast Plan. Please don't hesitate to call us toll free at 1-800-SLIM-FAST as e-mail responses may take 1-2 days.
On 07/15/2004 you wrote: I have been a customer of Slim Fast for several years and have purchased many, many 'meal option' bars. Since you have shown your Right-wing management by firing Whoppi Goldberg as your spokesperson, I will no longer buy one thing from your company. Free Speech for America, not Right-wing control! Please tell your friends about Slim-Fast.com, and be sure to visit us again soon!
Sincerely,
The Slim·Fast Consumer Support Team
~SP
Thanks, Sally!
Gee, what happened to 'Kathi'?
At least she actually read her mail...
Yeah, that letter just screams sincerity.
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Reader Comment
Mercury Retrograde
Dearest Y'all,
This is a heads up for the upcoming Mercury Retrograde. It begins Monday 8/9 at 8:32pm (EDT) and ends Thursday 9/2 at 9:09am. Realize though, that the ramifications of such begin a few days earlier and end a few days later.
When Mercury is retrograde, it is a time to be wary of 4 facets of life:
1. Communication. Take no piece of communication for granted. Make sure you understand and that you are understood. Do not assume. Double or triple check all pieces of communication. It is the posterchild time for: "Ooops! I thought you meant......."
2. Travel. Avoid traveling long distances. If you MUST do it in this time, triple check all information and be ready for delays, frustrations and breakdowns.
3. Electronic/Mechanical Devices. Expect trouble with those you have. Do NOT purchase these items in this time. Be ready for breakdowns and glitches.
4. Legalities. Do not sign legal documents or initiate legal proceedings in this time. If you HAVE to, triple check all information to which you are signing your name. Ignoring this usually leads to legal regret.
The Mercury Retro effects everyone, but Geminis and Virgos (and those with those signs rising or ascending) are especially hard hit. Virgos lose their logic and Geminis, who usually expert at communication, get flummoxed. This Retro starting in 8 degrees of Virgo and backing into 25 degrees of Leo means that those born from 8/16 thru 9/2 should be particularly prudent in this time. Those born opposite this time (2/14 - 3/1) would be wise to be wary (Aaaaahhhh!! It's gonna be opposite my Venus and Mercury! Good thing i'm ready...lol)
What this period is excellent for is to review or reassess that which is already done. It's a good time for editing and rewriting.
Whatever it brings you, my sweet young'uns, i wish you the best and just hope to give you info to help you avoid trouble.
Reading the stars with my feet on the ground,
gare
Thanks, Gare!
Reader Comment
Bumper Stickers
Bumper Stickers I'd Like to See:
Bush/Cheney: Caveat emptor.
Bush/Cheney: I got mine, you get yours.
Bush/Cheney: Never give a sucker an even break.
Bush/Cheney: Adios, chumps!
Thanks, Bruce!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Temperatures are still below 'normal,' and quite pleasant.
Got a couple of funny stories in the mail today, but they had no links for sourcing, so I couldn't use them. Please include links.
On occasion, I will track a story down for a link, but today there was too much to do.
A pal sent a picture that shows some recycled history in Florida - hope to have it on tomorrow's page.
Former President Bill Clinton autographs copies of his book 'My Life' in Toronto on Thursday August 5, 2004.
Photo by Frank Gunn
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Gets Political
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen has stayed out of party politics for 25 years, but now he says the stakes are too high and he's urging fellow Americans to vote resident Bush out of office in November.
A day after he announced he would join two dozen other stars in nine "battleground" states for a rock 'n' roll tour aimed at ousting Bush, the man known as "The Boss" explained his decision in a sharply worded editorial.
"Personally, for the last 25 years I have always stayed one step away from partisan politics," Springsteen wrote in The New York Times, noting he built a career singing about universal issues like human rights, dignity and freedom instead.
"This year, however, for many of us the stakes have risen too high to sit this election out."
Springsteen, whose blue-collar roots have resonated through his music for 30 years, making him the quintessential American rock hero to the working class, is taking sides.
Bruce Springsteen
Thousands Line Up for Glimpse in Canada
Bill Clinton
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is so popular with Canadians that hundreds of people lined up overnight outside a downtown Toronto bookstore for his only book tour stop in Canada.
Many arrived as early as 4 p.m. the previous day, with sleeping bags and lawn chairs in tow. The line swelled to several thousand by the time Clinton arrived on Thursday.
Seventh in line, Les McIlroy was one of the lucky few who received a personal dedication in his book. Clinton told fans he would only sign his name, but McIlroy told him, "If you sign that 'To Ruth' I'll stay married."
"He said, 'That's very important', so he signed it 'To Ruth'," said McIlroy.
Bill Clinton
Would Revamp Cross-ownership Rules
John Kerry
Answering questions at the Unity 2004 joint convention of minority journalists associations Thursday morning, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said he would reimpose the ban on same-city ownership of broadcast stations by daily newspapers.
Kerry said he understands that all media have more competitors, but that cross ownership is "a concentration of power that, I think, remains a serious issue." The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 2003 lifted the 29-year-old cross-ownership ban, but a federal appeals court overturned that action in June, ruling that the commission had not sufficiently justified its decision.
About three-quarters of the audience greeted Kerry with a standing ovation, and his remarks on media concentration were vigorously applauded.
Kerry said if he were elected president, "I will appoint FCC commissioners who are commited to enforcing equal employment opportunities, and ensuring that small, minority (owned) broadcasters are not consolidated into extinction."
John Kerry
Japanese children look up at the gutted A-bomb dome in Hiroshima Japan August 5, 2004. The city observes the 59th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb used in warfare, which devastated Hiroshima and instantly killed 70,000, with a death toll rising for generations from radiation-induced illnesses.
Photo by Eriko Sugita
Broadway Bound
Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'
Pink Floyd's "The Wall" is coming to the Great White Way.
Miramax Films has pacted with former Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola to develop and produce a Broadway musical based on the seminal rock opera.
Roger Waters, who co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965 and conceived the semi-autobiographical 1979 concept double album, will write the Broadway show's book and arrange and orchestrate music for the stage production.
Waters, who acrimoniously left Pink Floyd in the 1980s, sold the stage rights to the project to Miramax and Mottola, who runs his own Universal Music-based label, Casablanca Records.
Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'
Voldemort in Next 'Potter'
Ralph Fiennes
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been named. Ralph Fiennes, who played memorable evil guys in "Red Dragon" and "Schindler's List," has signed on to portray the wicked warlock Voldemort in the next "Harry Potter" movie, Warner Bros. announced Wednesday.
Voldemort is so bad that the magical characters in author J.K. Rowling's stories do their best not to speak his name aloud.
In the first three installments of the saga, a deadly magic spell meant for a baby Harry Potter backfired and deprived him of a body. So only his spirit wrought havoc in "The Sorcerer's Stone," "The Chamber of Secrets" and the recent "Prisoner of Azkaban."
But Voldemort finally returns in the flesh in part four: "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
Ralph Fiennes
Back on Satellite Radio
Opie and Anthony
Shock jocks Opie and Anthony are returning to the airwaves. The irreverent radio duo, yanked off the air in August 2002 after broadcasting a live account of a couple having sex inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, announced Thursday that they would join XM Satellite Radio beginning Oct. 4.
The big difference: On XM, Greg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia will operate free of the Federal Communications Commission restrictions that forced their ouster from WNEW-FM and the loss of their syndicated radio program. Their show will air weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., opposite fellow shock jock Howard Stern.
The pair were dumped by Infinity Broadcasting following the St. Patrick's stunt, and a clause in their contract kept them off the air - until now. Their new deal was announced at a Manhattan news conference.
Fans of O&A will pay a little bit extra to hear their often crude antics. Besides XM's monthly fee of $9.99, Opie and Anthony will appear on a premium channel that costs an extra $1.99 per month.
Opie and Anthony
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Plans Move Ahead for Pool
Sheryl Crow
The Grammy-winning singer pledged last fall to help her hometown in southeast Missouri put in a new pool just off the town square.
The community had a pool when Crow was growing up where she liked to swim and had swim team practice. She has said she wanted the pool to give children the opportunity to swim and to draw more people downtown.
"The preliminary design is a competition pool, interactive splash area and a kiddie pool with a park atmosphere," said Jan McElwrath, executive director of the Kennett Chamber of Commerce.
Sheryl Crow
A woman displays a replica of Wilma Rudolph's athletic shoe at the opening of an Olympic exhibition in Marathon 42 km east of Athens, August 5, 2004. Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman runner to win three gold medals in the Olympic games. Her performance was all the more remarkable in light of the fact that she had double pneumonia and scarlet fever as a young child and could not walk without braces until age 11.
Photo by John Kolesidis
Renews Wedding Vows
Kevin Smith
Filmmaker Kevin Smith, who often casts himself as the verbally-challenged stoner in his raunchy comedies, renewed his wedding vows on Monday in a suprise ceremony arranged by his wife as a birthday present.
Smith turned 34 while visiting Las Vegas to shoot one of his regular "Roadside Attraction" comedy segments for "The Tonight Show," and found himself at the city's notorious Little White Chapel (where Britney Spears started her famously short-lived marriage) for some unexpected nuptials.
The first time Smith married his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, was in April 1999.
Kevin Smith
Hospital News
Ronald Isley
Soul veteran Ronald Isley, the lead singer with the Isley Brothers, has suffered a minor stroke, but hopes to resume performing as soon as possible, a spokeswoman for his record label said on Thursday.
Isley, 63, felt unwell while walking along a street in London last Friday, checked into a local hospital for a few days, and has since returned to his home in St. Louis, Mo., said the spokeswoman at Def Soul Classics.
She said his speech did not appear to be affected, and he had assured the label that he would be fine and wanted to get back on the road quickly.
Ronald Isley
Jewelry to Be Sold at Auction
Maria Callas
Jewelry that once belonged to the famed soprano Maria Callas will be sold at auction, Sotheby's said Thursday.
The sale, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in November, will include 11 pieces given to the opera diva by her husband, wealthy Italian industrialist Giovanni Battista Meneghini, in the 1950s.
Callas and Meneghini married in 1949, but she eventually left him for Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, with whom she had a stormy relationship until he wed Jacqueline Kennedy in 1968.
Maria Callas
Bad Boy in 'Herbie' Redo
Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon has signed on to play the heavy in Disney's "Herbie: Fully Loaded," opposite Lindsay Lohan and Michael Keaton. Additionally, sources said Breckin Meyer is in negotiations to join the cast of the revamped franchise.
In "Herbie: Fully Loaded" -- which will set the mysteriously strong-willed Volkswagen Beetle, Herbie, in the world of NASCAR -- Dillon takes the role of Trip, the bad boy of the racing circuit. Meyer would play Lohan's brother; Keaton is playing the duo's dad.
Matt Dillon
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Adds 3 More Years to Show
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey can start making big anniversary plans. Winfrey signed with King World Productions to continue her top-rated "The Oprah Winfrey Show" through the 2010-11 television season, which would be its 25th year in syndication.
Her new three-year contract, announced Thursday by Winfrey's Harpo Productions and King World, calls for more Winfrey each year: Starting with the 2004-05 season, the number of new episodes will increase from 130 to 140.
Oprah Winfrey
Baba Ganoush, left, plays with her cloned sibling Tabouli Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004, in San Francisco. The cloned kittens are the first two cats cloned by chromatin transfer, a new cloning technology developed by Genetic Savings & Clone, a pet gene banking and cloning company, who produced the kittens as a precursor to production of the first batch of cat clones for the public. It will cost $50,000 to have your cat cloned.
Photo by Ben Margot
Activist Sues Talk Show
'Dr. Phil'
A mental health activist sued the "Dr. Phil" talk show, claiming it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act in its treatment of him.
Neal David Sutz of Mesa, Ariz., filed suit in federal court in Phoenix last week in connection with his effort to attend a taping of psychologist Phil McGraw's syndicated series in 2003.
Sutz and other prospective audience members were asked to sign a waiver attesting that they didn't suffer a mental illness and weren't under psychiatric care, according to the suit.
Sutz, who's been treated for bipolar disorder, informed a show representative of his condition and was told he could watch the taping if he didn't talk to McGraw or participate in the program.
'Dr. Phil'
Show in Los Angeles
Grammy Awards
Next year's 47th annual Grammy Awards, the music industry's top honors show, will be held again in Los Angeles, on Feb. 13., the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences on Thursday.
The Grammys have traditionally shifted between New York and Los Angeles, but in recent years have been held more frequently in California after a feud between former Grammy head Michael Greene and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who accused Greene of verbally berating one of his staffers in 1998.
Following the feud, the Grammys were held for four straight years, from 1999-2002, in Los Angeles before moving to Madison Square Garden in New York in 2003 following overtures by Giuliani's successor, Michael Bloomberg.
Greene resigned and was replaced by Neil Portnow in 2002.
Grammy Awards
A Dalek, one of the metallic enemies of science fiction hero Doctor Who, is pictured in London in this March 26, 1991 file photo. The British Broadcasting Corp. announced Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004 that it had resolved a dispute with the estate of the Daleks' creator that had threatened to keep the tinny villians out of a new series of the popular sci-fi program, currently filming and due for broadcast in 2005. The program originally ran on the BBC between 1963 and 1996, building up a huge following among generations of British children.
Photo by Martin Keene
Angers Arab Community
Charlie Daniels
Charlie Daniels, the man who wrote and sang "This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag," is drawing heat from Arab-Americans who say it refers to a derogatory term used against them.
Daniels, 67, is scheduled to perform Saturday in Dearborn, the center of southeastern Michigan's 300,000-member Arab-American community.
"Someone who is trying to get popular through bigotry, bias and hatred should not be welcome, especially in a city like Dearborn with its rich diversity," Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told the Detroit Free Press.
Daniels says the song is not directed at Arabs and Muslims in general, just at turbaned terrorists like Osama bin Laden.
Charlie Daniels
Shows Islamic Influence
Online Exhibit
Though East is East and West is West, the twain do meet in a virtual exhibit the National Gallery of Art has mounted only on its Web site.
"Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World" - offers 24 works in full color, all from its own collection, to show how Islam influenced European art over 600 years.
The gallery wants the online exhibit to complement a show of more than 100 masterpieces of Islamic art that it has borrowed from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and put on display in Washington. Both opened at the same time last month.
Online Exhibit
A pair of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, a type native to the area, perch on a butterfly bush at The Butterfly Place in Westford, Mass., Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004. The Butterfly Place is a 3,100 square foot glass atrium containing up to 500 butterflies representing up to 50 species at any one time, who enjoy a humid 80 degree environment no matter what it's like outside.
Photo by Julia Malakie
'The Osbournes'
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