Here's the
thing. Robert Gates didn't DECIDE to fight the war in Iraq, he was
ordered to, and he did a damn fine job of following orders. He got us deep in
the shit, and when he's ordered to get us OUT of the shit as fast as possible, I
trust he will follow those sane orders just as effectively as he followed the
insane ones. He is, in fact, the best possible person to follow those orders.
Nobody knows better where everything is and where it needs to go. The logistical
problems of how we got there are precisely the same as the logistical problems
of getting us out, only in reverse.
And who's the best possible person to deal with the big three? Can I ask
you for a second to imagine what Ralph Nader would do as "Car Czar" with
billions of bucks and a car industry on its knees? And once you've imagined
that, can you imagine anyone else who would better suit that position? Not
likely. It's a no-brainer. Nobody else on the planet earth knows the ins and
outs of the car industry more than the man who gave us seatbelts and has
literally saved thousands of lives.
Who else will take into consideration the fact that General Motors
deserves to die for crushing all those electric cars so eloquently in the film
"Who Killed the Electric Car?"
Will anyone else consider the air car? I bet Ralph
Nader will. He understands that every new technology doesn't have to put the
workers for the old technology out of work, and that one simple switch can not
only save jobs but the environmental movement, at least as far as automobile
emissions are concerned.
Anyone who watched 60 minutes this week knows we're not running
out of oil, the Saudis have got this brand new oil extracting monstrosity in the
middle of the desert that's completely useless if we stop buying their oil.
Sounds like payback time to me. Let's stop buying it. Wouldn't that be the
biggest plus of getting rid of the oil guy in the oval office?
What will we replace it with? Name something more plentiful and
free than air. Hydrogen is clean but demands millions of new hydrogen stations.
Simple hydraulic air cars emit nothing different from what goes in. The only
pollution they emit is the pollution already in the air they're filled with. Gas
stations already have air compressors. All they have to do is keep those
replacement tanks of air full, and everyone can go 200 miles on a cheap fill-up.
There are other ways of retooling. Who knows what's best. I do know I would
trust Ralph Nader to do precisely what the job entailed, free from
corporate interest and in the public interest.
Liberals have complained that Obama's appointments are way too
conservative. As the most popular third party candidate, Nader's appointment to
this position would validate the entire concept of third parties. It would be
the perfect counterpoint to the Republican appointments, though Nader isn't
so much "left" as above the fracas, simply protecting the public against the
persistent greed and lies of the transportation industry.
So I've posted a question to the blog on Nader's site. "Would Ralph Nader
accept the position of 'Car Czar' if it were offered by Barack Obama?" I await a
reply.
MARTHA IRVINE AND LINDSEY TANNER: "Youthfulness: An American Obsession, At Any Cost"
It's one of those photos that make you do a double-take. Dr. Jeffry Life stands in jeans, his shirt off. His face is that of a distinguished-looking grandpa; his head is balding, and what hair there is is white. But his 69-year-old body looks like it belongs to a muscle-bound 30-year-old.
Gretchen Rubin: Happiness Tip: Don't Perform Random Acts of Kindness (huffingtonpost.com)
The fact is, the sight of someone performing a generous or kind act always makes me feel happy. Especially if it's me! The spectacle of virtue inspires the feeling of elevation--one of the most delicate pleasures that the world offers. As Simone Weil observed, "Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating." That's true no matter who is performing that real good.
By Troy Patterson: Coulda Been Faulkner (slate.com)
The foremost burnout of the Paris Review generation.
Harold Louis Humes Jr.-H.L. Humes on the jackets of his two novels, Doc to peers and pals-is the man standing just left of center in Cornell Capa's famous Life photo of a swell party at George Plimpton's place.
On what TV series did Sean Penn get his first on-screen credit for an acting role?
A Baa Baa Black Sheep
B Banacek
C Barnaby Jones
D Battlestar Galactica
E Bosom Buddies
Source
MAM was first, and correct, with:
C Barnaby Jones
Made professional acting debut in the CBS series "Barnaby Jones" in 1979
mj wrote:
Pure guess
A. 'Cause he is a bit of a black sheep.
Marian the Teacher responded:
Barnaby Jones
Kappy, in rainy Philly replied:
Well Marty, for one, this I needed I lifeline, so I went to the web. According to IMDB, it was actually Little House on the Prairie, but since that wasn't a choice, I will have to say, Barnaby Jones, starring Buddy Ebsen, who had an allergic reaction to the makeup after he was first cast as The Scarecrow, in the Wizard of Oz. He was also a great tap dancer! Yee doggie.........
Kip ("I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
- Pablo Picasso) answered:
Was Barnaby Jones. I didn't even know that was still on the air in 1979.
Did you get the answer I sent this morning? 16,000.
Adam in NoHo noted:
IMDB makes this far too easy, C- Barnaby Jones (though Penn had one uncredited
VO credit before that).
I'd have guessed Banacek or Baa Baa Black Sheep; I had no idea Barnaby
Jones ran so many seasons (or that Banacek ran so few).
Charlie responded:
Fishing around on this one. Best I can tell, the answer is
C Barnaby Jones
If this is the correct answer, it is interesting to note that Penn, whose political work has been outstanding, won Best Actor in a movie directed by Clint Eastwood, and got his start in a TV series featuring the reactionary (though very talented), Buddy Ebsen.
Joe S ("Well, look at all of these summer blockbusters. You can't help but laugh a little, because you've already seen a lot of these movies 482 times."
~ Sean Penn) wrote:
Of course I knew this right off the top of my head, C: Barnaby Jones.
In 1979 Sean Penn appeared as "Sam" in a Barnaby Jones episode titled School of Terror.
Alan J answered:
C Barnaby Jones
Sally said:
In the interest of time, I am going to vote for "C" and say that in 1979, Sean Penn made his professional acting debut in the CBS series "Barnaby Jones."
And, ~ Tony In Philly replied:
C: Barnaby Jones
Milk - In Limited Theaters Now - WIDE Release on December 12th
After moving to San Francisco, the middle-aged New Yorker, Harvey Milk, became a Gay Rights activist and city politician. On his third attempt, he was elected to San Francisco's Board of Supervisors in 1977, making him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the USA. The following year, both he and the city's mayor, George Moscone, were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White, who blamed his former colleagues for denying White's attempt to rescind his resignation from the board.
Mr. Milk had been the subject of several books and the Academy Award-winning documentary feature, The Times of Harvey Milk (1984); but Milk (2008) is the first fictional feature to explore private aspects of the man's personal life and career.
Milk was filmed on location in San Francisco. Many of Mr Milk's real-life surviving friends and former associates participated in the making of this film, several appearing on camera.
Prizes:
4 prizes in all - 3 first-prizes:
Levi's Canvas Tote Bag filled with:
o Hat
o T-shirt
o Soundtrack
o Milk: A Pictorial History of Harvey Milk
And, 1 grand prize:
Levi's Canvas Tote Bag filled with:
o Sweatshirt (made from recycled materials)
o Script Book
o Hat
o T-Shirt
o Soundtrack
o Milk: A Pictorial History of Harvey Milk
The first one was incomplete, so if your response to the trivia question was missing, it should be there now.
I'm trying to get back to posting in the middle of the night, so the plan is this page will stay up til around noon (pst) Saturday, and then be replaced with a Saturday page.
Saturday's page will be replaced with the Sunday page around 3am Sunday.
Tonight, Friday:
CBS begins the night with the chestnut 'Frosty The Snowman', followed by 'Frosty Returns', then the FRESH'The Flight Before Christmas', followed by a RERUN'NUMB3RS'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Meryl Streep and Jeff Altman.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Carrie Fisher and Julie Benz.
NBC starts the night with the FRESH'Greatest Holiday Moments: Songs OF The Season Countdown', followed by a FRESH'Lipstick Jungle', then 'Dateline'.
Scheduled on a FRESHLeno are Jamie Foxx and David Gregory.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Don Rickles and Erran Baron Cohen.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 11/13/08) are Kathy Griffin, Gideon Yago, and 3OH!3.
ABC opens the night with a FRESH'Wife Swap', followed by a FRESH'Supernanny', then another unwatchable '20/20'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Amanda Peet, jet pack pilot Eric Scott, Freddy Rodriguez, and Barry Manilow.
The CW offers a FRESH'Everybody Hates Chris', followed by a RERUN'Everybody Hates Chris', then the FRESH'Family Entertainment Awards'.
Faux has a FRESH'Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?', followed by a FRESH'Don't Forget The Lyrics!'.
MY fills the night with a FRESH'WWE Friday Night Steroid SmackDown!'.
PLEASE check local PBS listings for a FRESH'Bill Moyers Journal', and a FRESH'NOW With Bill Moyers David Brancaccio'.
AMC offers the movie 'Star Trek: Nemesis', followed by the movie 'Hannibal'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 22
[12:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 13
[1:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 3 Sebastian's
[2:00 PM] Cash in the Attic - Episode 2
[3:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 1
[3:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 14
[4:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 1 La Parra de Burriana
[5:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 4
[6:00 PM] Dragons' Den - Episode 2
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America
[8:00 PM] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Ep. 5 Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century
[8:40 PM] Little Britain - Episode 6
[9:20 PM] The Catherine Tate Show - Episode 4
[10:00 PM] BBC World News America
[11:00 PM] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Ep. 5 Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century
[11:40 PM] Little Britain - Episode 6
[12:20 AM] Catherine Tate Show, The - Episode 4
[1:00 AM] Monty Python's Flying Circus - Ep. 5 Man's Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century
[1:40 AM] Little Britain - Episode 6
[2:20 AM] The Catherine Tate Show - Episode 4
[3:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 5 Elle Macpherson, Frankie Boyle and KT Tunstall
[4:00 AM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 10
[4:30 AM] You Are What You Eat - Episode 11
[5:00 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 23 Morris
[5:30 AM] Cash in the Attic - Ep. 24 Pender
[6:00 AM] BBC World News (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has the movie 'The Princess Bride', followed by the movie 'Bridget Jones's Diary', then the movie 'The Princess Bride', again.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', last night's 'Jon Stewart', last night's 'Colbert Report', 'Jeff Dunham: Spark Of Insanity', then 'Jeff Dunham: Arguing With Myself'.
FX has the movie 'Shallow Hal', followed by the movie 'The Benchwarmers'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', another 'Modern Marvels', 'Gangland', and a FRESH'Shadow Force'.
IFC -
[6:25 AM] A Hard Day's Night
[8:00 AM] The Assassination of Richard Nixon
[9:45 AM] The Princess and the Warrior
[12:00 PM] IFC Short Film Showcase
[1:00 PM] At the Death House Door
[2:45 PM] Quiet Cool
[4:15 PM] The Princess and the Warrior
[6:30 PM] Stay
[8:15 PM] Death and the Maiden
[10:00 PM] Darkness
[11:30 PM] Hell Girl
[12:00 AM] Dahmer
[1:50 AM] Failure
[2:30 AM] Hell Girl
[3:00 AM] Dahmer
[4:45 AM] Spaghetti West
[5:45 AM] The Princess and the Warrior (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has 'Star Trek: TNG', 'Stargate Atlantis', followed by a FRESH'Stargate Atlantis', then a FRESH'Sanctuary'.
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] Dying at Grace
[08:30 AM] Eramos Pocos
[09:00 AM] Flying: Confessions...: Part 5
[10:00 AM] Big Ideas for a Small Planet - Season 2: Gadgets
[10:35 AM] Eco Documentaries - Season 2: Contested Streets
[11:35 AM] The Sierra Club Chronicles: Episode 5
[12:05 PM] Site Specific: Olivo Barbieri
[01:00 PM] Iconoclasts - Season 4: Tony Hawk + Jon Favreau
[02:00 PM] The Milagro Beanfield War
[04:00 PM] Play It As It Lays
[06:00 PM] The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle: Episode 2
[06:30 PM] Eramos Pocos
[07:00 PM] The Beguiled
[09:00 PM] Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash & Herbie Hancock
[10:00 PM] You're Gonna Miss Me
[11:35 PM] Harvie Krumpet
[12:00 AM] Fido
[01:30 AM] The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
[02:00 AM] Live From Abbey Road - Season 2: Rascal Flatts, Kate Nash & Herbie Hancock
[03:00 AM] John Safran vs. God: Episode 7
[03:30 AM] Pulling: Episode 3
[04:00 AM] Architecture School: Episode 5
[04:30 AM] Love Songs (ALL TIMES EST)
Michael Caine (L) and Scarlett Johansson greet Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari during the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo December 11, 2008.
Photo by Ints Kalnins
"Hellboy" director Guillermo del Toro says he is unlikely to make another film in Mexico because his father's kidnapping 10 years ago left him fearing for his safety, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Del Toro's father was eventually released, but the family says it later received death threats.
Del Toro said he does not feel safe directing films here because his daily routine becomes public.
He described his situation as a "forced exile" and said it saddens him to think he may never film again on Mexican streets.
Britain's state-funded BBC unveiled a wide-ranging set of proposals for partnerships with other free-to-air broadcasters designed to ensure the survival of the public-service model of which they are all a part.
As advertising-funded terrestrial rivals battle the twin threats of new digital competition and an advertising slump, the BBC offered on Thursday to share resources including its popular iPlayer catch-up service and to help bring Web services to TV.
"What you're seeing in these proposals is a BBC ... that knows that its relative certainty of funding, its scale and its technology place it in a privileged position to potentially assist the rest of the industry," Director-General Mark Thompson told a news conference.
Public-service license holders in Britain are obliged to show a certain amount of programing such children's shows and local news in exchange for tax breaks on analog spectrum and near-universal access to UK homes.
Hollywood actor Josh Hartnett has won 20,000 pounds ($30,000) in libel damages from a British newspaper that claimed he engaged in "steamy shenanigans" in a public area of a London hotel.
The tabloid Daily Mirror claimed in a September article that Hartnett and an unknown woman had a steamy encounter in the library of the Soho Hotel that was caught on CCTV.
Lawyer Victoria Jolliffe for the newspaper's publisher acknowledged Thursday that the allegations were false. Jolliffe told London's High Court that the newspaper apologized for any "distress, hurt and embarrassment" it had caused.
Hartnett's lawyer says the actor plans to donate the damages money to charity.
With data showing a growing underclass and food lines now in most major cities, the Italian government has come up with a way to help the needy while propping up one of its iconic industries.
Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia has committed to buying 100,000 66-pound (30-kilogram) wheels each of Parmigiano Reggiano and the very similar Grana Padano cheese to donate to the needy.
Producers sought government help in the face of prices that have fallen some 25 percent over the past five years, said Giorgio Apostoli, who represents dairy farmers for the Coldiretti agriculture lobby. The producers faced pressure from distributors who offer sharp discounts on the grateable cheeses to lure shoppers into supermarkets,
The government said it will buy 3 percent of the annual production at market prices. The Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano consortia put the value at euro50 million ($66 million).
A longtime reviewer sued his newspaper and the Cleveland Orchestra Thursday, charging that he was removed from his beat because of critical coverage of the conductor.
The lawsuit filed by Donald Rosenberg said the orchestra lobbied to get him reassigned and The Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, breached its commitment to independence by caving into outside pressure.
The suit seeks more than $50,000 in damages in county court. It stopped short of asking for his return to the orchestra beat.
Rosenberg, who was the newspaper's orchestra critic for 16 years, was reassigned in September to cover other music groups. His removal from the beat caused a stir in the highbrow arts community, with The New York Times warning the reassignment would "send shivers down the opinionated spines of critics everywhere." The Music Critics Association of North America asked the paper to reinstate Rosenberg.
Actor Eric McCormack, left, and his wife Janet Holden pose together at the launch party for the photography book 'Paperthin' by photographer Deborah Anderson in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008.
Photo by Dan Steinberg
An Iraq war veteran who waved a gun and an American flag on a Highway 101 overpass and stopped traffic for hours in Santa Barbara last month has been ordered by a judge to stay away from Tom Cruise.
Edward Van Tassel, 28, with help from his sister, has appeared at Cruise's Beverly Hills home three times with hopes of delivering a letter, authorities said.
The order came at a Wednesday hearing where prosecutors were trying to have Van Tassel's bail revoked for leaving a veterans facility where Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge George Eskin believed he would be locked in.
A private investigator who works for Cruise told Eskin that Van Tassel was in a different veterans facility than the judge had expected, one where he could leave freely. The judge did not immediately rule on revoking bail, but said he was leaning toward having Van Tassel returned to jail.
U.S. actress Goldie Hawn (C) poses with Emirates staff as she arrives for the opening ceremony of the 5th edition of the Dubai International Film Festival December 11, 2008.
Photo by Jumana El Heloueh
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to portions of a report released on Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The report's executive summary, made public by the committee's Democratic chairman Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and its top Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said Rumsfeld contributed to the abuse by authorizing aggressive interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay on December 2, 2002.
He rescinded the authorization six weeks later. But the report said word of his approval continued to spread within U.S. military circles and encouraged the use of harsh techniques as far away as Iraq and Afghanistan.
The report concluded that Rumsfeld's actions were "a direct cause of detainee abuse" at Guantanamo and "influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques ... in Afghanistan and Iraq."
Bettie Page, a 1950s pinup model who helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, has died. She was 85.
Her agent Mark Roesler says Page died Thursday night at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a heart attack nine days ago. He says she never regained consciousness.
Page attracted national attention with magazine photographs of her sensuous figure in bikinis and see-through lingerie that were quickly tacked up on walls across the country. Her photos included a centerfold in the January 1955 issue of then-fledgling Playboy magazine, as well as controversial sadomasochistic poses.
Roesler says Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia and was about to be released when she suffered the heart attack Dec. 2.
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican musicians?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
Here's the
thing. Robert Gates didn't DECIDE to fight the war in Iraq, he was
ordered to, and he did a damn fine job of following orders. He got us deep in
the shit, and when he's ordered to get us OUT of the shit as fast as possible, I
trust he will follow those sane orders just as effectively as he followed the
insane ones. He is, in fact, the best possible person to follow those orders.
Nobody knows better where everything is and where it needs to go. The logistical
problems of how we got there are precisely the same as the logistical problems
of getting us out, only in reverse. 
was first, and correct, with:
4 prizes in all - 3 first-prizes:
