'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Memorial Day 2008
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
podcasts
If you're having problems with the
podcasts let me
know.
Honoring the fallen by showing flag-draped coffins
Faces of the
Fallen, Washington Post
4,563 Total Fatalities (officially) as
of May 25, 2008CE
The conservative media does
not allow the nation to mourn.
They make long lists, but rarely,
if ever, pause to show the flag-draped remains of an individual as
they return home.
Here are just a few of the fallen we honor
today.
An Army honor guard carries the coffin
of Staff Sgt. Duane J. Dreasky, of Novi, Mich.
at Arlington
National Cemetery
original
An Army honor guard carries Darrell C. Lewis'
coffin to the grave site
in Arlington National Cemetery
original
Members of the Travis Air Force Base
Honor Guard performs a military flag folding in honor of
Senior
Airman Alecia Sabrina Good
original
An Army honor guard carries the casket of Army
Sgt. Michael C. Hardegree, of Villa Rica, Ga.
during funeral
services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va
original
I wish I could show them all, but even if I could just plunking them all in one place does not do justice to the continuing effort and sacrifice of our soldiers.
We have great differences with the current leaders of the United States, but we must separate the war from the warrior. Those of us who are against the war bear the burden of getting them out of harms way as soon as feasible.
I hope that next year we as a nation have fewer new casualties to add to the list of the fallen. I fear this will not be the case.
Two (of many) YouTube videos as tribute
Tribute To American
Soldiers
Tribute Fallen Soldiers In Iraq and
Afghanistan
Record Burials for Veterans
Cemeteries see record for veteran burials CNN May 24, 2008CE:
An average of 1,800 veterans die each day, and 10 percent of them are buried in the country's 125 national cemeteries, which are expected to set a record with 107,000 interments, including dependents, this year. And more national cemeteries are being built.
The peak year for veterans' deaths will be 2007 or 2008, Tuerk said. An estimated 686,000 veterans died in 2007. Although many World War II veterans are dying, so are an increased number of Korean War and Vietnam veterans.
>
Empty Flag Draped Coffins
original
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
SUSAN ESTRICH: Safe Travels (creators.com)
Here's a news flash you don't need me to tell you about: Airline passengers are getting less and less happy about their experiences with the nation's airlines. Surprised?
Voice of the people (books.guardian.co.uk)
Gore Vidal: 'This country is finished. But, with a new republic like this, if you missed being here at the beginning, the next best thing is to be here at the end'. Interview by James Campbell.
Zephyr Teachout: America's Disappearing 'Upper Class' (The Nation; Posted on Alternet.org)
Apparently, in the United States, we don't have an upper class; we have elites -- a complimentary term that obscures true differences in opportunity.
Froma Harrop: Democrats Should Be More Democratic (creators.com)
There was unfortunate symbolism in Barack Obama's choice of Des Moines as the place to celebrate his delegate milestone on the day of the Kentucky and Oregon primaries. The Iowa caucuses were the first contest of the nominating process, and Obama's success in them launched his campaign into the big time. But they were also the start of a deeply undemocratic process.
TOM DANEHY: "It's one of the seven signs: Tom and PETA see eye to eye" (tucsonweekly.com)
I know just enough about horse racing to not get beat in case it comes up as a category on Jeopardy! I know a few of the Triple Crown winners; I know that they measure the time of the race in delightfully antiquated fifths of a second; and I know that the clothes the jockeys wear are called silks. I know where Pimlico is, because I stumbled across it when looking for Edgar Allan Poe's house in Baltimore.
Andrew Tobias: LITTLE CORPORATE DISHONESTIES (andrewtobias.com)
Or how about FedEx, who would much rather you ship your 10 boxes by three-day ExpressSaver air for $907 - and so make it very easy - than have you ship FedEx Ground for $208, and so make you (or at least me) nuts?
Buffett says he prefers a Democrat for president (breitbart.com)
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Monday he would be happy if either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton were the Democratic nominee because both have what it takes to be president.
Janet Albrechtsen: Credit where it's due (theaustralian.news.com.au)
THERE is a certain familiarity to the concomitant series of actions and reactions when disaster strikes in the world. The US stands ready, willing and able to offer assistance. It is often the first country to send in millions of dollars, navy strike groups loaded with food and medical supplies, and transport planes, helicopters and floating hospitals to help those devastated by natural disaster.
Joan Garry: We Don't Know What We Don't Have (huffingtonpost.com)
Hunter College just released the results of a comprehensive study, touted by the institution as the most comprehensive study of lesbian, gay and bisexual attitudes and behavior to date.
Zoe Williams: I swore I wouldn't be an embarrassing mother. But the key to being a success in life is changing your mind, right? (lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk)
My dad apparently always said that no child of his would ever be harassed for its poor eating habits, and then I arrived, and I was so disgusting that he revised his opinion.
NIKKI TRANTER: "Laughing With Them: An Interview with GoFugYourself Creators Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks" (PopMatters)
PopMatters spoke to Morgan and Cocks about the new Fug book, the snark, and whether or not it's cruel to laugh so heartily at Courtney Peldon.
A: Anjanette Comer
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Weather in LA is generally consistent to the point of being boring - I figure that's why most of the local TV weathercasters have a background in stand-up.
But, the last few days it's been like we're living somewhere else. Somewhere where there's weather.
Was warmer in the backwoods of PA than Long Beach today.
For that matter, have never turned on the heater in May before. Ever.
OTOH, beats the crap out of 100°!
French Classroom Drama Wins Top Prize
Cannes
The French film "The Class," a frank tale about classroom life using real students and teachers at a junior high school, won top honors Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by Laurent Cantet, "The Class" ("Entre les Murs") was the first French film to win the main prize, the Palme d'Or, at Cannes since "Under Satan's Sun" in 1987. The docudrama was shot in a raw, improvisational style to chronicle the drama that unfolds over one school year.
Italian films won the second-place grand prize and third-place jury prize. Matteo Garrone's "Gomorrah," a study of the criminal underworld in Naples, took the grand prize, while Paolo Sorrentino's "Il Divo," a lively portrait of former Premier Giulio Andreotti, won the jury award.
Benicio Del Toro won the best-actor prize for "Che," Steven Soderbergh's four-hour-plus epic about Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara. Presented as two films, "Che" follows Guevara and Fidel Castro's triumphant guerrilla campaign to overthrow Cuba's government in the late 1950s and Guevara's downfall and execution after trying to foment a similar rebellion in Bolivia in the 1960s.
Cannes
Russian Wins Eurovision
Dima Bilan
Russia reveled in the feel-good factor on Sunday after winning the Eurovision song contest, and Germans and Britons wondered why their singers were so unloved.
Dima Bilan, a lithe 26-year-old singer, beat 24 contestants to give Russia its first victory in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with a rock ballad "Believe."
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, rushed to congratulate their singer, who gushed with patriotism as he spoke to state television.
Dima Bilan
Shortage Hitting US Craft-Breweries
Hops
Like apple pie and baseball, beer has achieved favored status in the lexicon of American traditions, with US sales of the drink outstripping purchases of liquor and wine by billions of dollars.
But an international shortage of hops -- the ingredient that adds aroma, body and bitterness -- is causing prices of the agricultural commodity to soar, industry officials say.
The origins of the hops shortage are linked to an oversupply a decade ago of the agent that provides flavors in beer that range from fruity to woody, said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.
The glut sent prices plunging and caused farmers to plant fewer acres to hops. That included hops growers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the states that produce the commercial supply of US hops.
Craft breweries make up 4.0 percent of US beer production by volume, but account for 1,406 of 1,449 breweries nationwide.
Hops
Confirmed For Hobbit Films
Sir Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen will return in the role of Gandalf for two big-budget movies based on the JRR Tolkein book "The Hobbit," the films' director Guillermo del Toro confirmed Sunday.
Both movies would be filmed entirely in New Zealand, where the Oscar-winning Tolkien "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was shot.
Mexican film-maker del Toro and the Hobbit films' executive producer Peter Jackson released details of the latest project during an hour-long live Internet chat with fans.
Del Toro said "Lord of The Rings" stars McKellen and Andy Serkis (Gollum) would return for the Hobbit films but actors for new characters were not yet decided.
Sir Ian McKellen
Tennis Player Poses For Playboy
Ashley Harkleroad
America's Ashley Harkleroad was knocked out of the French Open by Serena Williams on Sunday but stole the headlines from her publicity-conscious compatriot by announcing she has posed for Playboy.
The blonde 22-year-old, who has endured a mediocre career on the women's tour and sits at 61 in the world, revealed she had agreed to the photoshoot while she lay in a hospital bed recovering from surgery to remove a cyst on her ovaries.
Harkleroad, who lost her first round match 6-2, 6-1, believes she is the first tennis player to pose for the magazine and follows American swimmer Amanda Beard in baring all for the cameras.
Ashley Harkleroad
Master Locksmith Cracks Safe
Tom Gorham
A locksmith has managed to open a 159-year-old safe from Oregon that baffled other professional safecrackers and an expert from MIT.
In 2 1/2 hours, Tom Gorham of Longview got the safe open by spinning the dial and feeling for grooves to get the combination, a technique called manipulation.
Gorham trekked to Astoria, a town about 40 miles west of Longview and 70 miles northwest of Portland, Ore., to try his luck with the 1-ton safe found during renovation at a cannery there. The cannery's owner, Floyd Holcomb, wanted it opened without damage.
Gorham and his wife, Kelly, also a locksmith, asked to try after watching a television report on unsuccessful attempts to open the safe. He said an expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had tried, as did another professional locksmith who gave up after 14 hours.
Tom Gorham
Shilling For The Hulk
'American Gladiators'
NBC will next month air a special "Incredible Hulk"-themed episode of "American Gladiators" in which guest star Lou Ferrigno will share the arena with host Hulk Hogan.
Ferrigno played the bulky green avenger in the 1970s TV series version of "The Incredible Hulk." The "Gladiators" episode will include a hulked-out Gladiator Arena and an exclusive 60-second preview from the upcoming movie "The Incredible Hulk."
The effort represents a cross promotion for NBC Universal, whose Universal Pictures is distributing the "Hulk" film.
The "Hulk"-themed "Gladiators" episode airs June 9; the film opens four days later. At the movie's premiere, gladiator Titan will walk the red carpet.
'American Gladiators'
Leads Minor Revolt At Cannes
Sean Penn
Disregarding France's tough new anti-smoking laws yet again, Sean Penn lit up Sunday as his nine-person Palme d'Or jury met the press following Cannes' closing red-carpet awards ceremony.
Penn, along with French actress Jeanne Balibar and Iranian comic-book author and director Marjane Satrapi, happily puffed away as they took questions about their 12-day work watching the 22 films in competition for the prize.
The scene seemed a replay of the jury's opening conference, when Penn led a minor revolt at the festival against the draconian anti-smoking laws brought in this year.
On that occasion, he only took a couple of drags before putting it aside and getting back to answering reporters' questions.
Sean Penn
Oldest Man To Scale Mount Everest
Min Bahadur Sherchan
A 76-year-old Nepalese man reached the summit of Mount Everest on Sunday and became the oldest person to climb the world's highest mountain, a tourism official said.
Min Bahadur Sherchan reached the 29,035-foot summit early in the morning with his climbing guides, said a Nepal Tourism Ministry official, Ramesh Chetri.
He beat the record set last year by Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa, who scaled the peak at age 71. Sherchan was in good health and was descending from the summit, Chetri said.
Min Bahadur Sherchan
Japanese Railway's Stationmaster
Tama
In times of need, Japanese say they can even ask the cat for help. In this town in western Japan, people look to Tama, a nine-year-old cat working as master of an unmanned train station.
The tortoiseshell coloured creature, born and raised at Kishi Station on the provincial Kishigawa Line, wears a formal uniform cap of Wakayama Electric Railway and calmly watches passing passengers who greet her.
"Tama is the only stationmaster as we have to reduce personnel costs. You say you could ask for the cat's help, but she is actually bringing luck to us," Wakayama Electric spokeswoman Keiko Yamaki said.
Tama was born from a stray cat brought to the station by a cleaner and kept by Toshiko Koyama, a local who runs a grocery store next door.
Tama
Weekend Box Office
'Indiana Jones'
Indiana Jones unearthed box office gold at domestic theaters with a performance that puts the film on track to become the second biggest Memorial Day movie opening ever, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Disney's action sequel, "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," slipped to second place with $23 million, for a total of $91.1 million over two weeks. The company expected the movie to continue to play well as school lets out.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $101 million.
2. "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," $23 million.
3. "Iron Man," $20.1 million.
4. "What Happens in Vegas," $9 million.
5. "Speed Racer," $4 million.
6. "Made of Honor," $3.4 million.
7. "Baby Mama," $3.3 million.
8. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," $1.7 million.
9. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay," $900,000.
10. "The Visitor," $800,000.
'Indiana Jones'
In Memory
Thelma Keane
Thelma Keane, the inspiration for the Mommy character in the long-running "Family Circus" comic created by her husband, Bil Keane, has died. She was 82.
Bil and Thelma "Thel" Keane met during World War II in the war bond office in Brisbane, Australia. She was a native Australian working as an accounting secretary, and Bil worked next to her as a promotional artist for the U.S. Army.
The two married in 1948 and moved to Bil Keane's hometown of Philadelphia. They had five children and moved to the Phoenix suburb of Paradise Valley in 1958.
Not only was Thelma Keane the inspiration for the always-loving and ever-patient comic character also named Thel, but she worked full-time as her husband's business and financial manager. Her family says she was the reason Bil Keane became one of the first syndicated newspaper cartoonists to win back all rights to his comic.
Thelma Keane's Alzheimer's disease was diagnosed about five years ago, and she had been at an assisted-living center near the family home for the last three years, said her daughter, Gayle Keane, 58, of Napa, Calif.
In addition to Bil, Gayle and Jeff Keane, survivors include her sons Neal, Glen and Christopher, and nine grandchildren.
Thelma Keane
In Memory
Dick Martin
Dick Martin, the zany half of the comedy team whose "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" took television by storm in the 1960s, making stars of Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin and creating such national catch-phrases as "Sock it to me!" has died. He was 86.
Martin, who went on to become one of television's busiest directors after splitting with Dan Rowan in the late 1970s, died Saturday night of respiratory complications at a hospital in Santa Monica, family spokesman Barry Greenberg said.
"Laugh-in," which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it. Rather than relying on a series of tightly scripted song-and-dance segments, it offered up a steady, almost stream-of-consciousness run of non-sequitur jokes, political satire and madhouse antics from a cast of talented young actors and comedians that also included Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Henry Gibson, Jo Anne Worley and announcer Gary Owens.
After the show folded in 1973, Rowan and Martin capitalized on their fame with a series of high-paid engagements around the country. They parted amicably in 1977.
Martin moved onto the game-show circuit, but quickly tired of it. After he complained about the lack of challenges in his career, fellow comic Bob Newhart's agent suggested he take up directing.
He was reluctant at first, but after observing on "The Bob Newhart Show," he decided to try. He would recall later that it was "like being thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool and being told to sink or swim."
Soon he was one of the industry's busiest TV directors, working on numerous episodes of "Newhart" as well as such shows as "In the Heat of the Night," "Archie Bunker's Place" and "Family Ties."
Born into a middle-class family in Battle Creek, Mich., Martin had worked in a Ford auto assembly plant after high school.
After an early failed marriage, he was for years a confirmed bachelor. He finally settled down in middle age, marrying Dolly Read, a former bunny at the Playboy Club in London. Survivors include his wife and two sons, actor Richard Martin and Cary Martin.
At Martin's request there will be no funeral, Greenberg said.
Dick Martin
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