'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Brad Tytel: Changeallujah: The Reluctant Religion of Reverend Billy (therevealer.org)
Rev. Billy preaches for a reinvention of values: anti-corporate, anti-consumerism, pro-community, pro-spirit. ... He is preaching to believers. Billy sings the praises of "Jesus the peasant revolutionary," of Gandhi, Dr. King and Cesar Chavez. The Choir concludes by singing "democracy is not for sale," and with a sung version of the first amendment. After an hour, Billy brings the house down with his final call to worship: "One issue -- stop shopping -- Changeallujah!" The Choir dances out, down the aisle.
Dan Savage: Ford caves in to the bible thumpers (villagevoice.com; scroll down)
After alleged secret meetings with the right-wing American Family Association (AFA), Ford Motor Company agreed to pull its advertising from gay publications and cease sponsoring gay events in order to avoid a threatened boycott. What does this have to do with straight rights? The AFA fucks intimidating Ford on the gay issue are the same fucks intimidating retailers like Target into denying women access to morning-after pills.
Annalee Newitz: Maui Drowning? (AlterNet.org)
Colonialism is alive and well here, but there's something else here too: a culture of rampant eco-preservationism.
Pimping the soldiers with Photoshop (video) (Posted by Evan Derkacz on alternet.org)
[John] Dickerson points out that this isn't the first time the RNC has doctored ads to lie to America. The last time they made it seem as though there were more soldiers intently listening to the president at a talk than there really were -- a pathetic thing to have to fake when you think about it.
Ed Park: Nobody's Fool: Like a diary elephant: Latest entry in Adrian Mole series takes on the Iraq War (villagevoice.com)
WMD opens with a fawning letter (9/29/02) to Tony Blair. Adrian's canceled his Cyprus vacation (upon hearing the PM's warning about threat to C. from Saddam). All Adrian needs is proof of the WMDs, so he can get his deposit back from the agency.
RICHARD ROEPER: Stern about to prove if pay radio will work (suntimes.com)
For Howard Stern, freedom means more potty humor -- Headline in the Washington Post.
Nina Siegal: Viggo Mortensen Interview (progressive.org)
Cindy Sheehan and how badly Katrina was bungled are two shots to the heart. I hope the beast does fall down soon. What's more shameful than the criminal negligence that made a bad situation much, much worse is the arrogant attitude after the fact. The outright lying-even though we've become accustomed to lying from this Administration-has broken new ground in the field of dishonesty. They're so clumsy in their attempts to come off well. And there is so little heart in what they say. Even the sound of their voices is so false.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
THE BANK TELLERS AND T. S. UMBRA
T. S. ELIOT OR T. S. UMBRA?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, clear & crisp.
The kid woke up with a raging cold, but we still managed to visit another doctor for another poke at his cyst. It was not an afternoon for the needle-squeamish.
Added another flag - Saint Lucia (#95)
Leaving With A Parade
Howard Stern
After plugging his new Sirius satellite radio gig to everyone from Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes to Katie Couric on Today and Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, Howard Stern plans to end his earthbound broadcast career Friday with a P.T. Barnum-like parade through Manhattan.
Ever the showman, Stern's finale on Infinity Broadcasting will get full interactive treatment on Yahoo.com before a Sheryl Crow concert at noon at the Times Square Hard Rock Café. Sirius stablemate Martha Stewart will be a host.
Subscriptions to Sirius, where Stewart and Christian programming also are featured but where Stern is by far the biggest star, stood at 660,000 in 2004 when he announced the move. That number hit 2.2 million in September and is expected to top 3 million by January.
Howard Stern
Criticizes Kazakhstan Over Ali G
Reporters Without Borders
Kazakhstan needs to chill out and leave Borat alone, an international media watchdog group says.
Reporters Without Borders is criticizing Kazakhstan for going too far in its war over the words of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, best known in the U.S. as the title character of the satirical "Da Ali G Show."
The leaders of the Central Asian ex-Soviet nation, fuming over Cohen's brutally satirical portrayal of an ignorant Kazakh journalist, pulled the plug this week on his Web-site use of a Kazakh Internet domain name.
That move led the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders to issue a statement Wednesday saying that the government's decision to block Cohen from a ".kz" domain name is censorship. The group also expressed concern about "the politicization of the administration of domain names."
Reporters Without Borders
Writer's Trial
Orhan Pamuk
Turkey's foremost novelist goes on trial Friday in Istanbul in a free-speech case that has divided the nation, embarrassed its liberals and cast a pall over its dream of joining the European Union.
Pamuk, the critically acclaimed author of "My Name is Red," "Snow" and "Istanbul," faces up to three years in prison for saying to a Swiss newspaper in February that no one in Turkey is willing to deal with painful episodes in the country's past treatment of its Armenian minority or its continuing problems with its 12 million Kurdish citizens.
His remark that "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it," is being prosecuted as a breach of a law against insulting the Turkish Republic or "Turkishness."
In an essay in this week's New Yorker magazine, he wrote that the case against him was thin and he did not expect to be jailed.
Orhan Pamuk
Writers Nominated for Awards
WGA
The writing teams for the new ABC medical show "Grey's Anatomy" and the NBC comedies "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" scored double nominations Tuesday from the Writers Guild of America.
The guild's awards for 2005 for the first time include categories recognizing overall excellence in the writing of episodic series. The awards for dramas, comedies and new series will be presented to all writers of the winning series.
The awards will be presented Feb. 4 at ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
For the nominations, WGA
12th Annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival
Aspen
A Jim Henson puppet improv show and tributes to "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Def Comedy Jam" will be part of the 12th annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. (March 8-12), organizers said Wednesday.
Additionally, there will also be an onstage presentation of Garrison Keillor's popular radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," as well as a special screening of the eponymous feature film that Keillor wrote.
The salute to "The Larry Sanders Show" will include creator and star Garry Shandling and co-star and sidekick Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development"). The parody of life on- and off-camera at a late-night talk show ran on HBO from 1992-98.
Aspen
2006 Awards Announced
duPont-Columbia University
CNN's work on the tsunami in south Asia and ABC's coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II headlined the winners of the 2006 duPont-Columbia University Awards for broadcast journalism.
The 13 awards were announced Thursday in New York for TV news from July 2004-June 2005. They will be handed out January 18 at a ceremony hosted by CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer.
Winners included:
- CNBC for "The Age of Wal-Mart: Inside America's Most Powerful Company," a documentary by reporter-producer David Faber.
- "Frontline" and WGBH Boston for "Al Qaeda's New Front," about terrorist bombings in Europe. "Frontline" and WGBH won again for a "Frontline" called "The Secret History of the Credit Card." The jurors said that episode was "a stunning, fact-filled narrative with information vital to all American consumers."
For the rest, duPont-Columbia University Awards
Criticizes Black History Month
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is "ridiculous."
"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" to air Sunday (7 p.m. EST). "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."
Freeman notes there is no "white history month," and says the only way to get rid of racism is to "stop talking about it."
Morgan Freeman
Been Deaf for Months
Foxy Brown
Foxy Brown says she hasn't heard another person's voice in six months and will have surgery early next year to restore her hearing.
The 26-year-old rapper was diagnosed with sudden hearing loss in May while she was recording her upcoming album, she told reporters Thursday.
Brown's former lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, disclosed her hearing loss last week. He had been asked why they had exchanged notes while waiting in Manhattan Criminal Court for her case to be called on an unresolved 2004 assault charge. The two parted ways just days later.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, has refused at least two misdemeanor plea deals that would have let her avoid any jail time for allegedly assaulting two nail salon workers on Aug. 29, 2004, in a fight over payment for a manicure at Bloomie Nails in Manhattan's Chelsea area.
Foxy Brown
17th Annual International Film Festival
Palm Springs
The 17th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival will open January 5 with Terrence Malick's period drama "The New World," starring Colin Farrell as John Smith and Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas.
The event, which runs through January 16, will feature 232 films from more than 70 countries. The lineup includes four world premieres, 31 North American premieres and 51 U.S. premieres. In addition, the schedule includes 51 of the 56 films submitted for consideration in the foreign-language film category for the 78th Annual Academy Awards.
The Cine Latino program will boast 45 films from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, while the inaugural Focus Italy sidebar will offer 13 films, including six from director Pupi Avati.
The "Gay-la" screening slot will feature Craig Chester's "Adam & Steve."
Palm Springs
PETA Names Worst-Dressed
Paris Hilton
Move over Mr. Blackwell, PETA has issued its own "worst-dressed" list - based on fur, not style. Paris Hilton was named the year's worst-dressed celebrity by the animal rights group Thursday.
Hilton is followed on the 2005 worst-dressed list by her friend Kimberly Stewart ("she and best bud Paris are so clueless about animals" writes PETA), Lisa Gastineau, Victoria Gotti and Tara Reid.
Martha Stewart headed last year's list, but has recently reversed course. In September, the domestic diva hosted a PETA-produced video on fur and said, "I used to wear real fur, but, like many others, I had a change of heart when I learned what actually happens to the animals."
Paris Hilton
New Line Up
'Dancing With the Stars'
Master P will fill the dancing shoes of his teen rapper son, Romeo, who has dropped out of ABC's reality competition "Dancing With the Stars" because of a basketball injury.
The hip-hop mogul, whose real name is Percy Robert Miller, is CEO of No Limit Records. In recent years, he has tried out for different NBA teams, including the Sacramento Kings and the Denver Nuggets.
The second season of "Dancing With the Stars" premieres Jan. 5 (8 p.m. EST). Other contestants include Tatum O'Neal, Drew Lachey, Tia Carrere and NFL great Jerry Rice.
'Dancing With the Stars'
Most-Searched for Item on the Web
Britney Spears
Britney Spears didn't release an album of new material this year, but the new mom is still No. 1 on Yahoo's annual list of the most-searched for terms on the Internet.
Spears, who has topped the list for three of the last four years, lost out to "American Idol" in 2004.
Following Spears were, in order, 50 Cent, the Cartoon Network, Mariah Carey, Green Day, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, Eminem, Ciara and Lindsay Lohan.
Britney Spears
From Berlin To Vienna
'Arnold the Barbarian'
California governor Arnold $chwarzenegger, famous for playing hard men in Hollywood blockbusters such as "Terminator" and "Conan the Barbarian," has lost many fans in Germany and his native Austria by refusing to pardon gang killer Stanley "Tookie" Williams.
Williams was executed on Monday night after spending 24 years on Death Row during which he wrote children's books encouraging kids to shun a life of crime. Newspaper commentators say "Arnie" chose the politically safe route of pandering to his Republican party. In doing so, he has turned his back on religious values and on Europe, where countries have abolished the death penalty.
"Arnold the Barbarian" says Berlin's Bild Zeitung tabloid in a banner front-page headline, and its commentary pulls no punches. "The man who made his fortune portraying axe-wielding warriors and terminators, the man for whom murder and killing symbolized entertainment for years, said 'No'", writes Bild. "$chwarzenegger said 'No' to the idea that bad people can become better people. 'No' to a world view that our intellect yearns for and our religion teaches us. With this 'No' Arnold $chwarzenegger has turned himself into a barbarian. Here, on this side of the silver screen."
For a lot more, 'Arnold the Barbarian'
Library Sold for $2.6M
Edith Wharton
The personal library of Edith Wharton, the aristocratic novelist and confidant of Henry James, has been purchased from a British bookseller by her estate for $2.6 million.
The 2,600-volume library includes a first edition of "Alice in Wonderland" with pages worn by Wharton's fingers as a child, and works with personal inscriptions from James and Theodore Roosevelt.
A benefactor who wants to remain anonymous financed the purchase Monday from George Ramsden, a British bookseller who has cared for the collection since 1984, Copeland said.
Edith Wharton
Restraining Order Against Mental Patient
Nancy Grace
CNN talk show host Nancy Grace has obtained a court order that directs a mental patient she accused of stalking her to leave her alone.
Grace got the temporary restraining order Wednesday, a day after she filed a request for a permanent injunction against the alleged stalker, Joseph Raymond Loegering who, court papers say, has been confined in a Manhattan hospital's psychiatric ward since Dec. 2.
Grace's complaint asks the court to bar Loegering from contacting her, from approaching her, her home or her workplace and from harassing, menacing, stalking or committing any other offense against her.
Nancy Grace
New Round Of Lawsuits
RIAA
A record industry trade group on Thursday said it filed lawsuits against 751 people it claims used online file-sharing networks to illegally trade in copyrighted songs.
Among those targeted in the suits are students at Drexel University, Harvard University, and the University of Southern California, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) said in a statement.
RIAA
In Memory
William Proxmire
William Proxmire, a Democrat who spent three decades in the U.S. Senate battling what he thought was wasteful and senseless government spending, died on Thursday at the age of 90, congressional officials said.
"Senator Proxmire leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a defender of the American taxpayer and one of the hardest working senators in U.S. history," Sen. Russ Feingold, another Wisconsin Democrat, said in a statement.
First elected to the Senate from Wisconsin in 1957 upon the death of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Proxmire rose to head the Senate banking committee.
As a gadfly with an independent streak and a flare for publicity, Proxmire was not afraid of going against his party's leadership, including President Lyndon Johnson. Proxmire had battled Johnson when the Texan was Senate Democratic leader and later turned against Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War.
In his last two campaigns, Proxmire refused to accept campaign donations and spent just a few hundred dollars of his own to be returned to the Senate.
William Proxmire
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