'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Bill Gallagher: BUSH'S PRO-WAR, ANTI-KID STANCE (niagarafallsreporter.com)
... when members of Congress, including many Republicans, decide to spend $50 billion over the next 10 years to provide health insurance for more than six million children from low-income families now in the program and expand its scope, Bush howls about the urgent need to control federal government spending.
George W. Bush Has Health Care Coming Out of His... (Associated Press; Posted on michaelmoore.com)
One colon, eleven doctors.
Jim Hightower: BUSH'S IDEOLOGICAL SNAKE OIL (jimhightower.com)
... three years later, George is now promising to veto a bipartisan bill that would renew SCHIP - the State Children's Health Insurance Program that he was touting back then. Why? Because he says the bill would expand the program to four million children who're not now covered. Yes, President George is presently promising to veto what candidate George had promised to achieve. Logic and integrity are not prized attributes in Bushworld.
Richard Schickel: Rerunning Film Noir (wilsoncenter.org)
Noir, despite its Frenchified name, is a truly American form, as Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward observe in Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style (1979). Yes, many of its leading directors (Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Jacques Tourneur, André de Toth) were born in Europe and well versed in expressionism. But their source- often directly, always at least indirectly- was the American crime fiction of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, W. R. Burnett, and others. Almost all noir actors and many of the directors' significant collaborators (cameramen, editors, etc.) were American born and certainly American trained.
On music: Racist elitists? Tell that to the football crowd (telegraph.co.uk)
Why is classical music always taking the rap, asks Julian Lloyd Webber.
Drew Manroe: The Summer of Monkees (popmatters.com)
The Monkee's Headquarters pulsates with a primitive garage fervor, the joyous sound of four eager musicians taking the wheel after months of riding in the backseat; Pisces, too, has more power under the hood than many listeners may realize.
Dennis E. Powell: The View From Mudsock Heights: The 'cat lady' who became a prominent, nationally known artist (athensnews.com)
It wasn't even a week after I moved here that I heard about Mary Dewey. Of course, her name wasn't mentioned. She was "the cat lady."
Brian Logan: 'I've no regrets,' says Python's only woman (guardian.co.uk)
Carol Cleveland is comedy aristocracy. She was the only female member of Monty Python's Flying Circus. "I'm happy to drag it around," says Cleveland, now 65, "but Python is a ball and chain. People still expect me to be glamorous and silly."
David Bruce: "Bride of The Funniest People in Religion and Families" (mylibrary.us)
The Weld Library District in Colorado now has a copy of this book on its shelves, as well as a copy of my "The Funniest People in Religion and Families." (It's a small victory for me whenever a library adds one of my books its collection. I check out WorldCat once in a while to see how many libraries have my books.)
David Bruce: "Bride of The Funniest People in Religion and Families" (Free Download)
Ed Asner, who played Lou Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," says that the worst mistake he ever made in his life was to play football on Yom Kippur when he was 17. Although the coach said the team needed him, the team would have won without him. Mr. Asner says, "I certainly would have been closer to a man had I obeyed God rather than Caesar."
Gore Vidal on the Media (youtube.com)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still pleasant, but the thermometer is starting to creep upward.
AT&T's Censorship 'Error'
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam fans and Internet watchdogs were up in arms Thursday after it was revealed that AT&T Inc. censored portions of the rock band's live concert cybercast on Sunday.
While performing "Daughter" during the annual Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, the band segued into a portion of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," during which frontman Eddie Vedder sang, "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush, find yourself another home." Those lyrics were missing from the broadcast.
In a statement, AT&T attributed the bleeping to "a mistake by a Webcast vendor" that was "contrary to our policy. We have policies in place with respect to editing excessive profanity, but AT&T does not censor performances. We very much regret that this happened in the first place."
"This event shows that companies like AT&T will risk the appearance of censorship by turning off the sound on a webcast that's being viewed by thousands of people, just because it works counter to their financial interests," said the Future of Music Coalition executive director Jenny Toomey. "What do you think they will do to protect their financial interests on the web when no one is looking?"
Pearl Jam
Anti-War, Pro-Planet Graphic Novel
Neil Young
Outspoken musician and political activist Neil Young is putting his anti-war and environmental convictions into a graphic novel.
The book will be an adaptation of Young's 2003 disc "Greendale," a 10-song concept album that was turned into a film of the same name in 2003 and also spawned an art book and multi-media tour.
The legendary artist, renowned for his strong anti-George W. Bush sentiments, has made it clear that the project will be just as biting politically as the rest of his artistic catalogue, said writer and collaborator Joshua Dysart.
Dysart, who describes his own political leanings as "left of Lenin," says the graphic novel's theme is decidedly anti-war and pro-planet. The story is set in the fictional town of Greendale on the eve of the Iraq invasion in 2003.
Neil Young
Hot New Rookies
Cable Renewals
Two hot new cable series, USA Network's "Burn Notice" and TNT's "Saving Grace," have received orders for additional episodes.
"Burn," starring Jeffrey Donovan as a blacklisted spy, has been given a 13-episode order for a second season, while the Holly Hunter detective series "Grace" has been picked up for 15 episodes. TNT said the "Grace" order was a continuation of the first season, not a second season.
Following a solid premiere with 4 million total viewers, "Burn" delivered its largest audience to date -- 4.4 million viewers -- last Thursday.
In its debut, "Grace" drew 6.4 million total viewers, making it the most-watched basic cable series premiere of the year. Season-to-date, it is averaging 5.5 million viewers.
Cable Renewals
Worried About Translation Networks
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling and her French publisher said on Thursday they were worried about organized groups of translators, not individuals, after a boy was arrested for posting a translation of the last Harry Potter book online.
Gallimard, whose official French translation of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is due out on October 26, said on Wednesday police had arrested a teenager suspected of posting his own translation of the new Potter novel on the Internet.
The 16-year-old schoolboy, from the Aix-en-Provence area in southern France, was taken into custody by a police anti-counterfeiting unit but later released.
Britain's Rowling and Gallimard Jeunesse filed an official complaint, but on Thursday Gallimard spokeswoman Marie Leroy-Lena stressed that their concern was organized networks of translators seeking to profit from the huge interest generated by the books.
J.K. Rowling
Ontario Trial
Tony Rosato
It's long been a fixture of the late-night sci-fi movie: a seemingly normal person is suddenly gripped with the unshakable belief that close friends or relatives have been mysteriously replaced with identical-looking doubles.
Spectators in an eastern Ontario courtroom, however, have witnessed first-hand this week the tragic consequences of a rare, real-life mental disorder that manifests itself in a very similar delusion.
Actor and comedian Tony Rosato - a fixture of Canadian television in the 1980s, best known for his turns on "SCTV" and "Saturday Night Live" - has been held without bail for more than two years on a charge of allegedly harassing his estranged 30-year-old wife, Leah.
Rosato has been diagnosed with Capgras's syndrome, also known as the Capgras delusion - a condition that results in the unshakable belief that an acquaintance, most often a close relative, has been replaced by a substitute.
Tony Rosato
Blaze At Italy's Film Studios
Cinecitta
A large fire broke out late Thursday at the legendary Cinecitta film studios in Rome, with firefighters scrambling to prevent the flames spreading to the nearby historic centre of the city.
The fire started around 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) and destroyed a 2,000 square-metre (21,500 square-foot) hangar where sets for films were stored, before spreading to several other buildings, some built of wood like the sets they hold.
The studios, situated in a vast complex a few kilometres from the historic centre of Rome, celebrated their 70th anniversary last April.
Several Italian media outlets reported the fire started where the Anglo-American television production "Rome" about the birth of the Roman empire had been filmed and had destroyed its sets.
Cinecitta
Parental Demand
Kirk Kerkorian
Kirk Kerkorian wants his 9-year-old daughter to meet her biological father.
The billionaire financier filed papers in Superior Court on Wednesday to lift a restraining order obtained by his ex-wife that prevents the girl from seeing Hollywood producer Stephen Bing. A hearing was scheduled for Oct. 16.
Kerkorian, 90, has joint legal custody of the girl, Kira, even though Lisa Bonder Kerkorian acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian's adult daughter.
The child, who lives with her mother on the East Coast, has known for at least five years that she has "two papas" and that Bing was one of them, court papers stated.
Kirk Kerkorian
Hits, Shops, Runs
Britney Spears
Oops, she dinged it again. Paparazzi took pictures and videos of a puppy-toting Britney Spears steering her car into another one as she tried to turn into a spot in a Studio City parking lot. Then assessing the damage to her own car only. Then heading off to shop.
But the tale of the tape made it clear to the owner of the parked car just who it was who scraped up her silver Mercedes-Benz.
Kim Robard-Rifkin, 59, told the entertainment Web site CelebTV.com on Wednesday that nobody from Spears' camp had contacted her about the damaged car.
"It's sad because I was really hoping she'd step up and be a mensch, be a human being," Robard-Rifkin said. "It was simply like my car didn't matter to her, my inconvenience didn't matter to her."
Britney Spears
`Sopranos' Souvenirs
Bricks
The meats and sandwiches are long gone, but fans of HBO's "Sopranos" can comfort themselves with some of the rocks that made up the facade of the fictional Satriale's Pork Store, one of Tony Soprano & Co.'s favorite hangouts.
The owner of the building is selling the white stones online before the structure is demolished next month. A condominium complex named The Soprano will be built on the site.
Building owner Manny Costeira said the 2,000 bricks will sell for $25 to $50 apiece, and will include a serial number and certificate of authentication.
Bricks
It's A Boy!
Tricolor Cat
He looks like your standard alley cat, nothing to write home about.
But officials at the Escondido Humane Society say he is a rare specimen, "a once-in-a-lifetime" cat like none they have ever seen before. They call him Phinny, for phenomenon.
It wasn't until they were ready to spay Phinny that they found out he needed neutering instead. And that's how he got his name.
Phinny, you see, is a male tortoiseshell, a tricolor cat. He's not quite the missing link in the cat world, but is undoubtedly a rare quirk of nature, for reasons of genetics.
Tricolor Cat
Exhibit On Way To London
Terracotta Army
The largest ever loan of artifacts from China's famed Terracotta Army is on its way to London.
The 120 items include 20 life-sized clay statues of warriors, acrobats and musicians, along with weapons and decorative items in jade and copper, the Xinhua News Agency said Thursday.
They departed their home museum in the western city of Xi'an by truck for Beijing where they were to fly to London to be displayed at the British Museum from Sept. 13 to April 6, 2008, Xinhua said.
Terracotta Army
61 Stars Removed
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Sixty-one stars from the Hollywood Walk of Fame - including those of Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra - have been removed and stored while a $500-million hotel-shopping-housing project is built on Vine Street near Hollywood Boulevard.
The stars were placed in a secure warehouse, where they'll remain until the project is completed in 2009.
The removal of the stars and the closure of a half-block near the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine has angered some people.
"This was done for a private developer. This was not done for the public's interest, like when the stars were removed back in the '90s for the Metro Red Line (subway) construction," said John Walsh, a longtime Hollywood activist. "Closing down sidewalks for years at a time like they do here would never happen in New York City."
Hollywood Walk O'Fame
Yields New Species
Lost Forest
In a once-lost forest in Africa, six animal species new to science have been discovered, members of a two-month expedition now reveal, including a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.
These new species were discovered in an expedition from January and March 2007 into woods just west of Lake Tanganyika, which have been off limits to scientists for more than 50 years. The area is a remote corner of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been gripped by unrest and war for decades.
The scientists found that nearly 386 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of forest, almost the size of all of Hong Kong, remained intact. The woods stretched from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 8,940 feet (2,725 meters) above sea level, or roughly seven times the height of the Empire State Building.
These woods have been isolated from much of the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest in the world, for at least 10,000 years, which explains why they held new species, said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Deo Kujirakwinja. They proved extraordinarily rich, providing a home to chimpanzees, elephants, leopards, monkeys, birds, reptiles, frogs and other amphibians, hogs, jackals, mongooses, porcupines, and antelopes known as bongos.
Lost Forest
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