'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
TOM DANEHY: It's time for governments to stop subsidizing private businesses (tucsonweekly.com)
Damned to hell should be the first politician who came up with what he thought was a brilliant idea to stimulate economic activity in his community. That idea: giving away money to businesses that already have lots of money. This policy began almost benignly, with politicians offering companies tax breaks if they would open stores in their towns.
CONNIE TUTTLE: Why is anybody at all surprised about the collapse of companies that treated debts as assets? (tucsonweekly.com)
Pardon my economic disbelief, but can someone please explain why so many people are mystified by the collapse of a financial house of cards built on quicksand? Did anyone with a brain not made fuzzy by dollar signs really think the housing market could sustain the speculation, rampant development, skyrocketing prices and insane lending practices that characterized the industry during the last several years?
A Sobering Census Report: Americans' Meager Income Gains (The New York Times)
The economic party is winding down and most working Americans never even got near the punch bowl.
Jim Hightower: LIFE IN IRAQ (jimhightower.com)
According to the "Dick and George Show," broadcast daily from the White House, things are really looking up in Iraq. Hmmm. They might want to ask the Iraqi people about that. Ordinary folks report that life there is miserable. Violence erupts constantly and unpredictably, fear is everyone's companion, bombings and bodies are everywhere, it's dangerous to leave your house, jobs are scarce, basic services are practically non-existent, and distrust, frustration, and anger rule.
Henry E. Adams, Ph.D., Lester W. Wright, Jr., Ph.D. and Bethany A. Lohr: IS HOMOPHOBIA ASSOCIATED WITH HOMOSEXUAL AROUSAL? (selfhelpmagazine.com)
Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia --the fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empirical evidence that is consistent with that theory.
Sex, shopping and thinking pink (economist.com:80)
The brains of men and women are, indeed, different.
Meghan Daum: American Apparel's ick (latimes.com)
What is it about those unpolished ads featuring young models that makes us so uncomfortable?
Bill Gibron: Review of "South Park: The Complete Tenth Season" (popmatters.com)
This is the season when the series became self-aware, when addressing the constant media scrutiny lead to episodes that pushed the boundaries of satire and taste.
White noise (guardian.co.uk)
Nirpal Dhaliwal grew up in 1980s London listening to bhangra, hip-hop and reggae with his Asian friends. He rarely mixed with white teenagers. But then he fell in love with indie music - and everything changed.
Is September the new New Year? (guardian.co.uk)
The longer you remain in education, the stronger the connection becomes, says Lucy Mangan. It is in the ninth month, not the first, that the real new year begins.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
KICKIN' WITH SENATOR LARRY CRAIG
EXPLAINS EVERYTHING?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
We're having a heat wave, a freaking tropical heat wave...
Yesterday at the kid's high school orientation we were asked where are his parents - seems it was assumed we are his grandparents. Sigh.
Added a new flag - Botswana 
Tribal Leaders Honor
Al Gore
Tribal kings and chieftains in a remote corner of India that is one of the rainiest places on Earth chose former Vice President Al Gore for their first "global award" for bringing attention to the dangers of climate change.
More than 3,000 kings, chieftains and elders from Meghalaya, a northeastern state, decided to honor Gore after watching his Academy Award-winning documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
"We consider Al Gore a champion for putting the issue of climate change on the world's radar," said Robert Kharshiing, a lawmaker who chairs the Grassroots Democracy Advisory Council. "We want the world to know that our tiny state can face disastrous consequences too."
The leaders say there has been significantly less rain in recent years in Cherrapunji and Mawsynram, towns that usually receive as much as 40 feet of rain each year. They worry global warming might be to blame for the change.
Al Gore
Confesses Soft Spot For Hillary
Michael Douglas
Actor Michael Douglas, in the spotlight at the Deauville Film Festival, said on Thursday he would be "very happy" if Hillary Clinton became the next US president.
"I would like my president to have pillow talks with (her husband and ex-president) Bill Clinton," he told AFP in an interview. "I would be very happy with that."
The 33rd annual festival of American cinema will pay tribute to Douglas, whose latest film "King of California" by director Mike Cahill will open the 10-day event.
The festival will also honour director Sidney Lumet, actress Sigourney Weaver who shot to fame in Ridley Scott's "Alien" and Ida Lupino, one of the first actresses to direct movies.
Michael Douglas
Fight Background Checks Ordered By Bush
Scientists
Twenty-eight senior scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging what they call the federal government's invasive background checks into their personal lives, including their sexual orientations.
At issue is a 2004 executive order signed by resident Bush requiring federal agencies and facilities to institute an identification badge.
The plaintiffs -- all long-term California Institute of Technology employees -- allege the Bush administration is requiring them to consent to broad written waivers permitting investigators to obtain records from their past employment files.
Investigators will also be allowed to question the employees' friends and associates about their emotional and financial well-being, as well as their sexual histories, according to Dan Stormer, one of their attorneys.
The JPL scientists and engineers, some of whom worked on the recent space probe sent to Mars, are not employed by the federal government, Stormer said. They have been informed they must comply with the background checks by Sept. 28 or lose their jobs a month later, he said.
Scientists
War Hero Who Saved JFK Honored
Aaron Kumana
Returns To Broadway
JoAnne Worley
JoAnne Worley swirls into Angus McIndoe's, the Broadway theatre hangout, notices a crooked painting on the wall, straightens it and then settles into a back corner table for a light bite.
But then Worley is a take-charge kind of gal, even more so on stage where her raucous comedy style is currently earning cheers in "The Drowsy Chaperone," the hit musical at the Marquis Theatre.
These days, she also is president of Actors and Others for Animals, a California-based organization that promotes the spaying and neutering of pets. She got involved first by doing benefits for the group and then by joining its board. "If we could get everybody to spay or neuter their pets, there wouldn't be so many euthanized," she says.
JoAnne Worley
Diamond Skull Sells For $100 Million
Damien Hirst
A diamond-encrusted platinum skull by artist Damien Hirst has been sold to an investment group for the asking price of $100 million, a spokeswoman for Hirst's London gallery White Cube said on Thursday.
The skull, cast from a 35-year-old 18th century European man but retaining the original teeth, is coated with 8,601 diamonds, including a large pink diamond worth more than four million pounds in the centre of its forehead.
Works by Hirst, who first made his name displaying diced and pickled animals, became the most expensive at auction for a living artist when his "Lullaby Spring" pill cabinet sold at Sotheby's in London for 9.6 million pounds.
Damien Hirst
Changes Mind On Simpson Book
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble Inc. has changed its mind about the new O.J. Simpson book.
After saying it would not stock copies of "If I Did It" in its stores, citing lack of customer demand, the chain told The Associated Press on Thursday that it would indeed carry the book.
Since the initial decision on Aug. 21 against stocking the book, but selling it online, Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it."
For days Simpson's book has been in the top 100 on Barnes & Noble.com and at one point even topped the best-seller list. "If I Did It" has also entered the top 100 on Amazon.com.
Barnes & Noble
Hollywood Power Couple Sues Alarm Company
Lansing & Friedkin
Former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing and her Oscar-winning director husband sued Tyco's alarm company, ADT Security Services, saying burglars have been targeting homes in the Los Angeles suburb of Bel-Air because of the company's slow response.
Lansing and her husband, William Friedkin, said the company took nearly two hours to respond to a burglary at their Bel-Air mansion. They proposed class-action status for their suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday.
Lansing and Friedkin said in the suit the thieves stole jewelry that had "significant amounts of value" and that was "unique and irreplaceable."
The lawsuit demands that company refund the $25,000 the couple spent installing the alarm and pay compensatory and punitive damages.
Lansing & Friedkin
On The Block
KTLA
The historic former Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard, now occupied by television station KTLA-TV Channel 5, has been put up for sale by Tribune Co. amid a wave of high-stakes real estate investment in Hollywood.
No price has been set for the block-size property at the southeast corner of Sunset and Bronson Avenue that also houses Tribune Entertainment and Tribune Studios. In recent years, other studios and historic properties in the neighborhood have sold for millions of dollars as investors race to take part in Hollywood's resurgence.
Television shows filmed at Tribune's production facilities on the property -- but separate from KTLA -- include "Judge Judy," "Judge Joe Brown" and "Hannah Montana."
The studio, situated just west of the Hollywood Freeway, was the site of Warner Bros.' first studio. It is where talking pictures were born when Al Jolson recorded his first words in "The Jazz Singer" in 1927. In later years, Warner used the site to produce musicals and dramas.
KTLA
Government Wary Of TV Talent Shows
China
Inspired in part by "American Idol," Chinese talent shows have captivated millions of viewers in the past two years - and unnerved some Chinese officials.
In August, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) labeled one talent show "coarse" and shut it down. Also this year, it ordered producers of another show to avoid scenes of screaming fans and tearful losers, and to stick to "healthy" songs and a "mainstream" wardrobe, state media reported.
Behind this crackdown, experts say, is official concern that programming standards are deteriorating as the shows proliferate - by one estimate, more than 50 are currently on air. Some also suspect that the government fears that viewer polls, which some of the talent shows use to select winners, could somehow be turned into a platform for public dissent about issues that have nothing to do with electing a pop idol.
China
Quells Evolutionary Quarrel
Orchid Fossil
A bee trapped by a glob of sap inside a come-hither orchid up to 20 million years ago has rewritten the evolutionary tale of a flower with the most fanatical following of any plant in the world.
In a study published Wednesday, biologists say the most recent common ancestor to all modern-day orchids lived in the twilight of the dinosaurs, in the Late Cretaceous period some 80 million years ago.
The finding settles a century-old hothouse debate. Previous estimates, based on mainly circumstantial evidence, ranged from 26 to 110 million years ago.
What killed the dinosaurs -- wiped out, apparently when an asteroid whacked into Earth -- may also have helped orchids.
Orchid Fossil
Caught Revising Wikipedia
Dutch Royals
A Dutch royal couple acknowledges altering a Wikipedia entry about a 2003 scandal that forced the prince to renounce his claim to the throne.
The original scandal broke in 2003 when Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende refused to support Prince Johan Friso's marriage to the princess, then known as Mabel Wisse Smit.
With government approval of the marriage withheld, the prince had to choose between Wisse Smit and his place as second in line to the throne. They married in 2004.
On Jan. 8, 2006, someone using a computer at Huis ten Bosch, the royal palace in The Hague, altered the Wikipedia entry on Wisse Smit that had said she "gave misleading and false information" to Balkenende. The new entry removed the words "and false."
Dutch Royals
No-Contest Plea In Director's Death
Bob Clark
A driver involved in a head-on crash that killed "A Christmas Story" director Bob Clark and his son pleaded no contest Wednesday to two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Hector Velazquez-Nava, a 24-year-old Mexican national, entered his plea before Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz and faces up to six years in state prison when he is sentenced Sept. 27.
Prosecutors said Velazquez-Nava was drunk when he steered his sport utility vehicle into the wrong lane of Pacific Coast Highway in April, striking Clark's sedan. The filmmaker and his son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, died at the scene.
Authorities said Velazquez-Nava had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 percent, three times the 0.08 percent legal limit for driving. Both he and his passenger were treated for minor injuries after the crash.
Bob Clark
Custody Battle
Houston & Brown
Bobby Brown claims in a lawsuit that Whitney Houston has kept him from seeing their teenage daughter.
"I have not seen or spoken to my daughter since early June and I have no prospect of speaking to her anytime soon due to Whitney's actions," Brown declared in Orange County Superior Court filings released last week.
Brown has been trying to overturn a judge's default judgment to nullify the couple's marriage and grant Houston sole custody of 14-year-old Bobbi Kristina.
Houston & Brown
Unusual Mummy Collection
Guanajuato, Mexico
People who lived in the mining town of Guanajuato, Mexico, more than a century ago left behind a scientific mother lode: their own accidentally mummified bodies.
Scientists are conducting what they say is the first intensive examination of more than 100 bodies mummified in the city, while stored in aboveground crypts from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries. The bodies from the Guanajuato's Museo de las Momias (Museum of the Mummies) are believed to be the largest mummy collection in the Western Hemisphere.
Guanajuato Mayor Eduardo Romero Hicks invited scientists from Texas State University and Quinnipiac University in Connecticut in to find out more about the people whose remains are on display at the museum.
According to local legend, the bodies are so well preserved because the city's water is rich with minerals and sulfur. But the researchers believe the hot weather warmed the crypts and the bodies dried out.
Guanajuato, Mexico
In Memory
Jose Luis de Vilallonga
Jose Luis de Vilallonga, an author, aristocrat and actor who shared the silver screen with Audrey Hepburn in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," died Thursday at his home on the island of Mallorca. He was 87.
A colorful character in Spain's high society, Vilallonga worked as a journalist for the national press agency EFE and for the magazines Paris-Match, Marie-Claire and Vogue. He wrote an official biography of Spain's King Juan Carlos that was published in 1993.
A high point in his acting career came when he starred as Jose da Silva Pereira, the dashing Brazilian multimillionaire who Holly Golightly planned to marry in Blake Edwards' 1961 classic movie.
Vilallonga, whose aristocratic surnames included Cabeza de Vaca, was the Marquis de Castellbell and a Grandee of Spain. His death was announced by the government of the island of Mallorca.
Vilallonga wed three times, to British aristocrat Priscilla Scott-Ellis (1945-1972), to Syliane Stella Morell (1974-1995), and in 1999 to journalist Begona Aranguren.
He is survived by children John and Carmen from his first marriage and an adopted son Fabricio.
Jose Luis de Vilallonga
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