'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garry Wills: A Country Ruled by Faith (nybooks.com)
The right wing in America likes to think that the United States government was, at its inception, highly religious, specifically highly Christian, and even more specifically highly biblical. That was not true of that government or any later government-until 2000, when the fiction of the past became the reality of the present.
Dan Weissmann: What Does the GOP Know About You? (chicagoreader.com)
The Republicans' secret weapon is your credit card bill.
ANDREW C. REVKIN: Budgets Falling in Race to Fight Global Warming (nytimes.com)
In a conversation with Henry Ford and the tire tycoon Harvey Firestone in 1931, shortly before Edison died, he said: "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that."
Luke Y. Thompson: Radical Chick (miaminewtimes.com)
You can't tell Natalie Maines to Shut Up & Sing.
'You need to shine if you're going to be a star' (guardian.co.uk)
As she prepares for her biggest ever tour of Britain, Dolly Parton tells Paul Sexton why she feels naked in plain clothes - and why she still loves to shock.
Adam Doster: The Crazy Kazakh Correspondent (inthesetimes.com)
How Borat reveals American bigotry and foreign policy double standards.
Chris Addison, comedian (guardian.co.uk)
Q: Do you know your carbon footprint?
A: I know that I'm carbon-based and that I have a footprint. Size 10, then. I have a size-10 carbon footprint. Is that bad? Should I buy special shoes? Do they have to be Birkenstocks?
The man who saw tomorrow (guardian.co.uk)
Nigel Kneale created reality TV without realising it. Comedian Mark Gatiss recalls his turbulent relationship with the 'TV colossus' who died this week.
David Bruce: Wise Up: Politics (athensnews.com)
Republican Theodore Roosevelt was making a speech when he was interrupted by a man who shouted, "I'm a Democrat!" Mr. Roosevelt asked the man why he was a Democrat, and the man replied, "My grandfather was a Democrat, my father was a Democrat, and I am a Democrat." Mr. Roosevelt then asked, "Suppose your grandfather had been a jackass and your father was a jackass. What would you then be?" The man replied, "A Republican politician."
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Hubert's Poetry Corner
MADONNA'S ADOPTION CHOICE
THE REAL STORY?
Reader Suggestion
Make My Red State Blue
Marty
I am not sure just who is singing here, but it is a pretty good clip!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and fall-like (for these parts).
Griffith Observatory reopens today after 4 years of renovations - Tour The New Griffith Observatory.
Children Take Up His Cause
Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve's children are carrying on their dad's crusade: finding a cure for paralysis. Alexandra and Matthew Reeve both serve on the board of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, which Reeve established to fund research for therapies and a cure, People magazine reports in its Nov. 13 issue.
"Our dad's accident really did connect us to this community: 4 million people in the U.S. who are suffering from paralysis," Alexandra Reeve tells the magazine. "We understand how important it is not only to find a cure but also to improve quality of life."
She and brother Matthew will join their half brother, Will Reeve, 14, at the foundation's annual gala on Nov. 6 in New York.
Christopher Reeve
Bookstore Opens In St. Paul
Garrison Keillor
You won't find "The Da Vinci Code," Harlequin romance novels or the "Dummies" series of how-to books in Garrison Keillor's new bookstore, and if you find the latest John Grisham novel, it could be on the "Quality Trash" table.
There's a special focus on local and regional authors and Keillor's favorite poetry. The works of another Keillor favorite, and St. Paul native, F. Scott Fitzgerald, fill an entire shelf.
"We're not trying to be all things to all people," said store manager Sue Zumberge. "It's not because we look down on those; it's just because you can find them elsewhere."
Garrison Keillor
Weighs In For Lamont
Paul Newman
Ned Lamont may be trailing in the polls, but he's got one of America's biggest celebrities going to bat for him: Paul Newman.
"It's tough times out there, and Connecticut needs someone who is young, fresh and spunky," Newman, a longtime resident of Westport, Conn. urges voters. Lamont is 52. Incumbent Sen. Joseph Lieberman (news, bio, voting record) is 64.
"Eighteen years ago, when Joe Lieberman was running against Lowell Weicker, Joe's battle cry was, `18 years is enough,'" Newman says. "I suppose Joe said that because he knew that after 18 years the good old boys club trumped good government. Voters should take your advice Joe, 18 years is enough. Vote for Ned Lamont."
"When the voters in the primary chose Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman, they were sending a message," Newman says. "But Mr. Lieberman wasn't listening. He turned his back on the very party that had supported him for 18 years. Entitlement - that's what 18 years in the Senate does to you."
Paul Newman
Weekends In Vegas
Prince
Prince fans, fire up that Little Red Corvette and head for Las Vegas: the purple one will be performing there every weekend starting Nov. 10.
The diminutive rocker will play Friday- and Saturday-night shows at 3121, a nightclub inside the Rio hotel, according to a Wednesday news release by P R Plus, a Vegas firm representing the club.
Tickets for the 21-and-over shows cost $125 and will be available beginning Nov. 2.
Prince will also host Wednesday-night concerts at the club by other artists.
Prince
Lacking In US
'Sexual Literacy'
U.S. efforts to promote abstinence as a cornerstone of sexual education have not lowered levels of sexually transmitted diseases, two former U.S. surgeon generals said on Thursday.
Joycelyn Elders and David Satcher told a news conference in San Francisco that a broad effort was needed to promote the "sexual literacy" of Americans to counter unacceptable levels of sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies, especially among teens and young adults.
"The vows of abstinence break far more easily than latex condoms," said Elders, who was fired by President Bill Clinton after she suggested that schools teach children about masturbation.
'Sexual Literacy'
Joining `The Producers'
David Hasselhoff
From the surf and sand of "Baywatch" to the flamboyant Roger DeBris. David Hasselhoff will appear in the Las Vegas production of "The Producers," portraying the outrageous director who wears a dress that makes him look like the Chrysler Building and gets to tap dance as a show-biz-loving Adolf Hitler.
"The Producers" begins performances Jan. 31 at Paris Las Vegas. Brad Oscar will play the opportunistic Max Bialystock in the production. No word yet on who will be nebbish accountant Leo Bloom in this stage version of Mel Brooks' 1968 movie about a pair of con artists who overfinance a Broadway musical in the hopes of producing a flop. The Broadway production has been playing at the St. James Theatre since April 2001.
David Hasselhoff
Hospital News
Shirley Temple Black
Child actress-turned-international diplomat Shirley Temple Black broke her wrist in a fall "a few weeks ago," her publicist said Wednesday.
Black, 78, is still wearing a cast on her right arm, said Rick Ross.
"She's fine," he said. "She's doing great."
Shirley Temple Black
Painting Sells For $140 Million
Jackson Pollock
A painting by artist Jackson Pollock has been sold for about $140 million, which would make it the highest price ever paid for a painting, The New York Times newspaper reported on Thursday.
Citing experts who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Times reported that Hollywood mogul David Geffen had sold the painting "No. 5, 1948" to Mexican financier David Martinez in a deal brokered by Sotheby's Tobias Meyer.
If the Pollock painting sale is confirmed, it would surpass the previous world record price paid for a painting, which was set in June when cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder paid $135 million for a 1907 portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.
Jackson Pollock
Republican Family Values
Don Sherwood
A Republican congressman accused of abusing his ex-mistress agreed to pay her about $500,000 in a settlement last year that contained a powerful incentive for her to keep quiet until after Election Day, a person familiar with the terms of the deal told The Associated Press.
Rep. Don Sherwood is locked in a tight re-election race against a Democratic opponent who has seized on the four-term congressman's relationship with the woman. While Sherwood acknowledged the woman was his mistress, he denied abusing her and said that he had settled her $5.5 million lawsuit on confidential terms.
The settlement, reached in November 2005, called for Cynthia Ore to be paid in installments, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is confidential. She has received less than half the money so far, and will not get the rest until after the Nov. 7 election, the person said Thursday.
Sherwood, a 65-year-old married father of three who is considered a family-values conservative, had one of the safest seats in Congress until Ore sued him in June 2005, alleging he physically abused her throughout their five-year affair.
Don Sherwood
More Republican Family Values
Rev. Ted Haggard
The leader of the influential National Association of Evangelicals, a vocal opponent of the drive for same-sex marriage, resigned Thursday after being accused of paying for sex with a man.
The Rev. Ted Haggard also stepped aside as head of his 14,000-member New Life Church while a church panel investigates, saying he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations."
Haggard, a married father of five, denied the allegations in an interview with KUSA-TV late Wednesday: "Never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife, I'm faithful to my wife."
Mike Jones, 49, told The Associated Press that Haggard paid him to have sex nearly every month for three years. His allegations were first aired on KHOW-AM in Denver.
Rev. Ted Haggard
Role In Action Flick
Mark Foley
Mark Foley is being cast as a lot of things these days. But a B-movie actor?
In the wake of his resignation from Congress, people are rediscovering Foley's little-known role in a straight-to-DVD action flick.
During a short role as a congressman who hires mercenaries to recover his kidnapped daughter, Foley shows an acting range that politely could be called limited. But with the disgraced Fort Pierce Republican now a household name, the movie is generating new buzz.
Filmed in Palm Beach County and released in 2001 as The Librarians, the flick did not make much of a splash on its first go-round. Ditto for round two, when it was re-released two years later as Strike Force.
Mark Foley
Thanks, EJ2E!
Cruise Control
United Artists
Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have been put in charge of United Artists, a film studio that was formed by Hollywood actors including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.
Wagner will serve as chief executive of the company, which is owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Cruise will appear in UA films, but also be allowed to star in films from rival studios, MGM announced Thursday.
The development is a major comeback for Cruise and Wagner. They were unceremoniously dumped in August from their 14-year producing deal at Paramount Studios after Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., blamed Cruise's public antics for hurting the box office performance of "Mission:Impossible III."
United Artists
Turns Music Fans Into Investors
'Sellaband'
There's no telling what a $10 investment in U2 in 1985 would be worth today, but a start-up Web site called Sellaband is offering music fans the chance to put their money behind artists they think can climb the charts.
The Amsterdam-based company allows fans -- or what Sellaband calls "believers" -- to invest in unsigned acts in $10 increments. Once an act reaches $50,000, it is given access to a recording studio and professional production, song-writing and marketing expertise.
Investors will get a free copy of the CD, a cut of any CD sales and a share in the advertising revenue generated for the site, www.sellaband.com. Sellaband keeps 40 percent of any music publishing revenue, but none of the recording proceeds.
Sellaband
Casino Closes
Stardust
The Stardust, the neon-wrapped casino with a mobbed-up past whose 1,065 rooms once set the standard for size on the Las Vegas Strip, witnessed its last roll of the dice Wednesday.
Wistful longtime employees and loyal gamblers gathered for a last farewell to the iconic 48-year-old institution, which is to be razed early next year to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s planned $4 billion Echelon Place resort.
The Stardust opened July 2, 1958, as the world's largest hotel and catered to middle America with $6-a-night rooms and low-minimum stakes gambling.
Stardust
Nearly 80 Discovered
Garden Gnomes
Some 79 garden gnomes snatched by a so-called gnome liberation group, were discovered along the banks of a stream in the central Limousin region, police said.
The gnomes were hidden in some underbrush with a banner that read, "gnome mistreated, gnome liberated," police said.
Last month 86 gnomes were found in the yard of a Limoges high school. Others, stolen last summer, were discovered along the edge of a swimming pool on the outskirts of the city.
"Because of the heat wave, they wanted to get some air," read a letter that appeared in gnome owners' mailboxes.
Garden Gnomes
$chwarzenegger Dolls
Derrell Brown
A California man who gambled that Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger's bid for re-election on Nov. 7 would fail is stuck with a product he cannot sell.
Derrell Brown said he paid a toy maker in Taiwan about $6,000 to create 1,400 talking $chwarzenegger action-figure dolls that mock the actor-turned-governor's trademark line from the Terminator movies.
Brown, 75, ordered the dolls a year ago, when things were looking down for $chwarzenegger's re-election campaign.
But with polls showing the Republican governor going into next week's election with a double-digit lead over his Democratic rival, Phil Angelides, Brown's not finding much of a market for his wares. He said even charity groups won't take the dolls off his hands to give to needy children on Christmas.
Derrell Brown
Back For The 3rd Time
Russian Tea Room
It was amid the crimson-green-and-gold splendor of the Russian Tea Room that Dustin Hoffman, dressed as a dowdy, middle-aged woman in "Tootsie," sidled up to his apoplectic agent, played by a sputtering Sydney Pollack.
Madonna once worked the coat check there. And boldface names such as Michael Douglas, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Barbara Walters, Woody Allen and Henry Kissinger went to the restaurant for their tete-a-tetes and trysts. It was the ultimate power meal, spiced with romance, until it closed in 1995. Then reopened. Then closed again.
On Friday, the Russian Tea Room opens yet again, after a more than $19 million takeover and makeover. The new owner is real estate developer Gerald Lieblich.
Russian Tea Room
Warrant Issued
Snoop Dogg
Rapper Snoop Dogg, who was found carrying a collapsible baton through security at a southern California airport, has been charged with possession of a deadly weapon in the case, prosecutors said on Thursday.
An arrest warrant was issued for the 35-year-old rapper under his real name, Calvin Broadus, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office said. He faces a maximum sentence of three years in state prison if convicted.
"He either turns himself in or he gets picked up by law enforcement," spokeswoman Susan Schroeder said, adding that prosecutors had contacted the entertainer's representatives and asked that he surrender.
Snoop Dogg
Lavish Wedding Video Sparks Outrage
Burma
A leaked video of the lavish wedding laid on by Myanmar junta supremo Than Shwe for his daughter has sparked outrage among ordinary people in the military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation.
In a 10-minute clip posted on the Internet, bride Thandar Shwe is seen decked out in layers of pearls and sparkling stones that appear to be diamonds, and standing beside her husband as he pours champagne over a cascade of wine glasses.
After a reception for hundreds of guests at which a five-tiered wedding cake is cut, the happy couple are seen posing before an ornate gold-braid bridal suite bed, complete with red canopy stretching up to the ceiling.
Even before the video surfaced, the July wedding was the talk of the town in Yangon, the former Burma's leafy, colonial-era capital, amid reports of gifts including luxury cars and houses worth $50 million -- nearly three times the 2005 health budget for a population of 53 million.
The video can be seen at www.irrawaddy.org/bur/thandar_shwe.html.
Burma
Now On eBay
Austrian Urinals
Four urinals shaped like a woman's lips went on sale on eBay on Thursday after being removed from a public toilet in Vienna following protests from women's groups who said they were sexist.
Designed by Viennese artist Rudolf Scheffel for the "toilet-bar Vienna" next to the National Opera, the urinals featured lips covered in red, orange or blue lipstick, a bright red tongue and gleaming white teeth.
"Each urinal will, of course, be meticulously cleaned," the seller said. "The artist himself will sandblast it, brush the mouth's teeth, and give them a new varnish."
Austrian Urinals
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