'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Harry Potter
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth installment in the series, is the longest book, and the shortest movie. Many of the characters are not introduced by name, and most get very short scenes and no background. Much of the plot, even the direct references to the previous movie, flies by quickly. While I don't disagree with most of the editing decisions, it makes for a very spare film that won't make a lot of sense to those who haven't followed either the movies or the books. What's left is a very good series entry for fans only.
The very first scene will serve as a non-spoilerish exampls. The film starts, without credits or preamble, in the obvious place -- the attack of the Dementors -- but if you don't know that Harry's tormentor is his cousin Dudley you don't get the depth of the "family" scene, and that Dudley knows of magic (while being a muggle) is a mitigating factor later. The movie skips over all this for the visuals, which are properly chilling.
One theme comes through: loyalty. Much of the movie is about bonding, and what it means to be a friend, and how a trusting group is stronger than an individual. And how misplaced loyalty can lead you astray. Even this is given short shrift, all too often. The daubs of characterization illustrate the need to read the book (and resonate in today's political climate). Further, the related theme of family is honored in the breach. The important thematic subplots around Harry's mother and aunt are gone.
I don't really have a lot to say about the Order of the Phoenix. If you liked the previous series entries, you'll like this one. If you didn't, you won't.
On the Shockwave Radio Theater scale of 9 to 23, where 9 is low 23 is high, I'd rate Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with these conditions:
If you've read the books and seen the previous movie: 17.
If you've seen the movies: 14.
If you haven't seen any of the movies or read any of the books: Don't bother going.
Non-spoiler non-comment: There is nothing after the credits.
Conservative Republicans in a Daisy Chain of Sexual Misconduct
Consider Republican Family Values: At the same time that Conservative Republican Newt Gingrich was cheating on his second wife, at the same time that Conservative Republican Mark Foley was desperately beating off to e-mails from Congressional pages while the page's complaints fell on the deaf ears of the Republican leadership, at the same time that Conservative Republican and Bob Jones University alumnus Tim Hutchinson (brother of Loyal Bushie Asa Hutchinson) was cheating on his wife of 29 years, at the same time that Conservative Republican Bob Livingston was cheating on his wife... at the same time, all these Conservative sexual deviants were lying to the public about their own moral outrage over Bill Clinton's consensual liaison that were much milder than anything the right wing moralists were doing.
You can never believe a conservative ever again, until they have the cojones to admit they were completely wrong and apologize to Clinton and the American public. Since the hallmarks of conservatism are the utter lack of honesty or integrity, this will never happen and conservatives will ever bear this mark of shame.
Let's look at how bad the Conservative Republicans are. It's not that any individual has a major lapse in the exact morality they stand on a soapbox to decry. It's that when they're caught, their replacement is worse. It's a Daisy Chain of Sexual Misconduct.
We go from adulter Gingrich, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives. He had to give up his job when he affairs were uncovered (much to the surprise of the conservative news media). Newt's replacement was Rep. Bob Livingston, who was cheating on his wife. This story was missed (deliberately?) by the conservative news media but uncovered by Hustler Magazine. When you're scooped by a porno king, any real journalist would either quit and find an honest profession or vow to do better. But not today's mainstream media. The Conservative Republican who replaced Rep. Bob Livingston was David Vitter.
Vitter won a special election in 1999, and (according to the DC Madam's phone records), immediately began cheating on his wife. We only know about the cheating on his wife in Washington. We don't know anything about any previous affairs, since the conservative news media just doesn't want to do any hard work. I don't find it credible at all that Vitter would arrive in Washington and suddenly have a craving for prostitutes and find the sleazy phone number by looking in the phone book. Who directed Vitter to the DC Madam? A cab driver? How did he know how much to pay for which services? Was he a big tipper?
Vitter subsequently became Senator, and only this month (July, 2007) did the new chapter in his story unfold. See below for more.
Personally, I don't think that personal affairs should be the benchmark on which to judge a public official... but Gingrich, Livingston and Vitter do. By their own stated views on morality and politics these three are going to hell. Not mine, not yours, theirs.
And the Daisy Chain of Sexual Misconduct continues. Who will replace Vitter? What other Conservative Republican, who spoke out against the morality of others, be forced to come out of the closet? Republicans are soft on crime when it's theirs. Here we see a perfect example of the far right inventing a Culture War, then finding themselves on the wrong side of it.
Pathetic.
Heartland Pervert file update
I keep a file on Heartland Perverts, a list of right-wingers who claim the conservative values of the heartland but who don't live up to any minimum standards of decency and don't change their opinion of others while begging forgiveness for themselves. (Not unlike the people who love Big Brother in Orwell's 1984.) The Heartland Pervert File is very large, and keeps growing. The GOP is so arrogantly sleazy that it's, um, hard to keep up.
(This feels a little like piling on, but until the far right are cowards and won't admit that they've been so wrong for so long. Until they realize the frailty of their own human condition, conservatives have no credibility and -- by their own religious views -- will wind up in haitch eee double hockeysticks.)
David J. Garner Utah Deseret news May 26, 2007:
Former Utah County Commissioner David J. Gardner was charged Friday with sexual battery in the alleged fondling of a 26-year-old Payson woman.The 2007 story avoids mention of Garner's party affiliation, but in this older story from the Utah Deseret News, Dec. 31, 2000:
Gardner, 52, served two terms as county commissioner from 1995 to 2002, during which time he was charged with misdemeanors three times.
Now he faces a class A misdemeanor for allegedly rubbing the woman's thigh and kissing his fingers and touching them to her face, according to the woman's statement to Springville police.
Gardner's previous legal troubles include two DUIs and a charge of disorderly conduct for allegedly attacking a neighbor boy over a broken flashlight.
A justice court judge ruled that Utah County Commissioner David Gardner, who pleaded no contest to drunken driving in 1999, violated his plea-in-abeyance agreement when he was convicted of disorderly conduct for berating a 9-year-old Springville boy. Gardner appealed the ruling, so the case will be decided anew at the district court level. In October, Gardner was charged with theft and a second DUI after an incident at a Provo massage parlor. Despite pressure from other commissioners and the county GOP, the Republican refuses to resign.
As above, David Vitter: Another Victim of Gay Marriage, Jon Swift, July 2007:
In 2004 when David Vitter was running for Senator in Louisiana, he warned of the terrible toll gay marriage would have on our society. In statement on "Protecting the Sanctity of Marriage" he said, "The Hollywood left is redefining the most basic institution in human history, and our two U.S. Senators won't do anything about it. We need a U.S. Senator who will stand up for Louisiana values, not Massachusetts's values. I am the only Senate Candidate to coauthor the Federal Marriage Amendment; the only one fighting for its passage." Vitter once compared the devastation of gay marriage to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which as someone from Louisiana should know is pretty destructive, and said during the debate on the amendment, "I don't believe there's any issue that's more important than this one."I wonder if Vitter's 100% rating from the Christian Coalition will suffer?
Here in Minnesota, Conservative Republicans are also a sleazy lot. After split verdict, Rep. Olson says he still loves his wife, Mpls Star Tribune July 13, 2007:
ELK RIVER, MINN. - After being convicted Friday of causing his wife fear, but not harm, in a domestic dispute, state Rep. Mark Olson told reporters he loved her and hoped to reconcile.Olson can now answer the question, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
After hearing two days of often conflicting testimony from Olson and his wife, Heidi, a Sherburne County jury took less than two hours to find the Big Lake Republican guilty of intending to cause her to fear bodily harm. But he was found not guilty of the more serious charge of harming or intending to harm her when they collided and fell to the ground behind their garage in November. Both domestic assault charges are misdemeanors. A first offense carries a typical sentence of probation with conditions set by the judge.
Told that his wife had issued a statement forgiving him, Olson said he was grateful for that and he forgave her, too.
Asked about the divorce petition filed by his wife, Olson said he would work to reconcile, even if they are divorced.
Answer: "Officially, on Friday the 13th, 2007."
What gets me about this sad story is the part where he would work to reclaim is divorced wife. Not unlike OJ.Also on Friday the 13th, in a story that might have had national repercussions if McCain hadn't sold out to the Bushies, Bob Allen, co-chair of McCain's campaign in Florida, fighting prostitution charges. Lakeland Florida Ledger July 13th, 2007:
TITUSVILLE - A Republican state lawmaker charged with offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer vowed Thursday to defend himself in court and said he would not resign from office.If he weren't a Republican, I'd say "innocent until proven guilty", but since he's a Conservative Republican, merely being charged is proof that he should be sent to Guatanamo Bay or suffer extraordinary rendition. As one headline puts it Fla. State Representative Accused Of Soliciting Sex In Men's Room. Think of the children!
"I am filing a not guilty plea. I am vigorously going to fight this," State Rep. Bob Allen, a co-chair of Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign in Florida, said at a news conference. "I am not resigning my office because the people elected me and want me to do a good job. I am going to do a good job for them in finishing this term.
Former SD Legislator Arrested on Sex Charges Keloland Television, Sioux Falls, SD, May 18, 2007:
A former South Dakota lawmaker is accused of molesting his own foster children and legislative pages.I just want to harp on that last bit: Your taxpayer dollars went to this perv. This is why we need strong federal regulations and competent, honest liberals to run the programs.
Ted Klaudt, 49,¬Ýa Republican rancher from Walker, faces a long list of charges:¬Ýeight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16, and stalking.
Court documents mention five possible victims. Three were foster children between the ages of 15 and 19 who lived with Klaudt's family.¬ÝOne is a cousin of one of those girls,¬Ýand the fifth is a friend of Klaudt's daughter.
In the most disturbing accusation, the girls say Klaudt had them convinced they could earn up to $20,000 by donating their eggs to a fertility clinic. And even though he has no medical training, the girls say Klaudt did all the supposed "exams" and "procedures" himself.
Former State Representative Ted Klaudt is accused of manipulating, molesting, intimidating and threatening teenage girls who the state of South Dakota paid him to raise.
Quick Thought: Executive Privilege or Another Bush Cover-Up?
In 2005, White House Counsel Harriet Miers was Bush's nominee Supreme Court. On July 12, 2007, she obeyed the command of George W. over "executive privilege" and refused to answer a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee, setting the stage for contempt charges and ultimately for Bush's impeachment. This adds a dash of speculation to the proceedings. If she had made it to the Supreme Court, she would have to recuse herself from any case involving the Bush administration. But she probably wouldn't have, like the judges in 2000. Was the choice of someone who might be in the thick of an impeachment hearing a deliberate attempt to cover-up high crimes and misdemeanors? Roberts and Alito haven't distinguished themselves as independent thinkers on the High Court, but we'll see.
Research question: during the Whitewater hearings and eventually the impeachment proceedings, how many times did Bill Clinton invoke "Executive Privilege"? If I recall, it was very few... and was denied in the Starr debacle. The Republicans wouldn't let him talk in private to his lawyer. Washington Post May 6, 1988:
Clinton invoked both executive privilege and attorney-client privilege to prevent Starr from asking deputy counsel Bruce R. Lindsey, communications adviser Sidney Blumenthal and other top officials about conversations regarding the Lewinsky case. According to the lawyers, Johnson also dismissed the attorney-client privilege claim on the grounds that Clinton could not use government-paid White House lawyers to aid his defense in a criminal probe.Of course, Republicans are soft on crime when it's theirs, and we can't even see e-mails which are, by law, public millions of them, perhaps five million "missing" e-mails. Back in Iran-Contra. Ollie North tried to erase e-mails and failed. Now, Conservative Republicans are much better at erasing incriminating evidence.
I've been saying this for over ten years, and it gets truer and truer: The shame of being a conservative has never been greater.
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
Froma Harrop: Anxiety in the Empire (creators.com)
Now and then, a conservative columnist wonders why Americans have grown so sour about the country's future. After all, unemployment is low and stocks are rising. Sure, there's anger over the Iraq war and immigration, but things can't be that bad with the economy humming happily in the background. The implication: There's little troubling you that a trip to Circuit City couldn't fix.
Froma Harrop: Keep Blue Dogs Barking (creators.com)
"Go ahead!" the gremlins hiss into Democratic ears. "Spend and borrow. The Republicans did it. Don't be a goody-two-shoes about this 'pay-as-you-go' stuff."
Paris is still burning (advocate.com)
The early-'90s documentary Paris Is Burning brought the excesses and heartaches of the ball scene to national attention. More than 15 years later, writer Clay Cane and photographer Michael Temchine finds that world still vibrant but much changed.
Review: "That Tender Touch" (planetout.com)
If you've ever had dirty little feelings about being homosexual, "That Tender Touch" is the movie for you. Beneath a plethora of bouncing boobs, booze-swigging and huge teased-up piles of hair, "That Tender Touch" packs more anguish into 75 minutes than can be found in an entire week-long Lifetime Network movie marathon.
Jenny Sherwin: "That Tender Touch" star Susan Bernard talks (planetout.com)
As a teenager, Susan Bernard was a delicious dichotomy. At home, she was the girl next door who didn't smoke, drink, take drugs or have sex with her boyfriend. As an artist, she was a free spirit who took professional risks and chances.
Review of "Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World" (afterellen.com)
The new half-hour comedy pushes boundaries.
Juliette Terzieff: Harry's the Star but Girlfriends Also Shine (womensenews.org)
As legions of rabid fans gather around the world to await the stroke of midnight and the July 21 release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book, there is little doubt that the women on the page will shine as they stand alongside author J.K. Rowling's hero.
Loren King: An Interview with Sarah Silverman (planetout.com)
Q: Does it bother you when people compare you with comic legends like Lenny Bruce?
A: It doesn't bother me at all. It's flattering, and I'm not of that generation. When I hear him, I understand his importance in the context of his time, but it's like, I love poetry but my experience with it is so post-beat poetry. When I finally read Jack Kerouac, it read like some drunk college girl's diary.
Corey Scholibo: Tips for Eco Living (advocate.com)
GreenDimes.com conquers your most hated enemy-junk mail.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
GETTING PHYSICAL WITH THE DICK$TER
SECRET LOCATION, SECRET RELATIONSHIP AND WHAT WE ALWAYS SUSPECTED?
Purple Gene - An Obit
Jim Mitchell
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze.
Urges Better Care For Troops
Dave Matthews
The Dave Matthews Band is urging fans to push Congress to do more to ensure that U.S. troops coming home traumatized by combat get the help they need.
A petition on the band's Web site has 23,000 signatures so far, singer Dave Matthews said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
"It just struck me as a profound injustice that someone who had given so much of themselves and clearly showed such a quality of personality that the gratitude we're showing them was basically a dishonorable discharge," Matthews said.
The effort is nonpartisan, the Grammy-winning musician said. "It's only about how we treat people who have given their, essentially, their lives, put their lives in the hands of our country."
Dave Matthews
Wedding News
Gore - Lee
Al Gore's youngest daughter Sarah was married Saturday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel, according to a family spokeswoman. Sarah Gore, 28, married Bill Lee, 37, a Los Angeles businessman, said spokeswoman Kalee Kreider.
The daughter of the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee is a Harvard graduate and a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco.
Sarah is the third youngest child of Al and Tipper Gore. Their oldest daughter, Karenna, 34, is married to Drew Schiff. Kristin Gore, 30, is married to Paul Cusack. Al Gore III, 24, is single and lives in Los Angeles.
Gore - Lee
Unite Israelis And Jordanians
Barn Owls
For years, Ibrahim Alayyan watched in frustration as rats devoured the date palms at his lush family farm. Having no luck with pesticides, the retired Jordanian heart surgeon was only too eager to try a pest control agent widely used in fields just across the Jordan River in Israel - owls.
"There used to be so many rats," Alayyan said. "But after we put in the owls, thank God, this is the first time we have had a full date harvest."
To the world, the symbol of peace may be a dove, but to farmers on either side of the Jordan, it's Tyto alba, the common barn owl.
Alayyan is one of dozens of Jordanians working in cooperation with Israeli colleagues, targeting rodents with a natural predator instead of with chemicals.
Barn Owls
Turkish Punk Band
'Deli'
As punk rock goes, a song bemoaning a high school exam hardly sounds like the stuff of anarchy. But in Turkey it can land you in court, as an Istanbul rock band has discovered.
All the song does is lash out against Turkey's equivalent of the SAT, the exam that all Turkish high-schoolers must pass to have a shot at getting into college. High-schoolers the world over may sympathize, but to Turkish prosecutors it's an insult to the state and its employees.
The troubles besetting the five-man group called "Deli," or "Crazy," as they head to trial Thursday are typical of the extremes endured by a country historically torn between cultures - Islam and secularism, Europe and Asia, democracy and military dictatorship, and a reverence for institutions of state that frequently collides with basic civil liberties.
Now the musicians, along with their manager and a former band member, will go on trial on July 19 in the Turkish capital, Ankara. If convicted, they face up to 18 months in jail, although they could get off with a fine or a warning.
'Deli'
Wedding News
Romijn - O'Connell
Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connell have married, a spokesman for the "Ugly Betty" star said. Romijn, 34, and O'Connell, 33, tied the knot at a small ceremony in their home Saturday, spokesman Lewis Kay told People magazine.
Romijn, the former model who played the title role in the WB sitcom "Pepper Dennis" before joining the cast of ABC's "Ugly Betty," divorced actor John Stamos in 2005 after five years of marriage.
It's the first marriage for O'Connell, who appears in the NBC medical crime drama "Crossing Jordan," and acted in the films "Stand By Me" and "Jerry Maguire."
Romijn - O'Connell
Man Behind Boba Fett
Jeremy Bulloch
Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett has such a cult following that even actor Jeremy Bulloch is astonished at his mysterious, scum-of-the-universe baddie's enduring popularity.
The well-spoken Englishman behind the battle-scarred helmet is amazed at the way his fringe character has become a firm fans' favourite.
Dozens of websites are dedicated to the cool gunslinger and Fett memorabilia are among the most expensive stuff traded among fans.
Even Star Wars creator George Lucas admits that had he known how popular Bulloch's character would prove to be, he would have given him more screen time and even contemplated showing him escape his apparent death scene.
Jeremy Bulloch
Rapper Arraigned In NYC Shooting
Remy Ma
Grammy-nominated rapper Remy Ma pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other counts Sunday in the shooting of a woman in a trendy Manhattan neighborhood.
At the rapper's arraignment, a judge granted the prosecution's request for bail to be set at $250,000. Remy Ma was jailed while the judge reviewed her bail offer.
Police found a woman with a gunshot wound to her lower torso early Saturday in the Meatpacking District, which is usually crowded with late-night revelers on weekends.
Three blocks away, officers discovered a luxury SUV owned by Remy Ma, whose real name is Remy Smith. The vehicle was involved in a single-car crash and abandoned, police said.
Remy Ma
Kids Killing Kids
Long Beach
Looking at the case of a recent gang fight at the 14th Street Park, and the history of violence that preceded that deadly confrontation, it becomes hard to distinguish the victim from the suspects.
Almost all those involved in the killing of 13-year-old José Cano, including the victim himself, have criminal records, according to police, family and friends.
Eva Daley, 30, is accused of driving her 14-year-old son and six of his friends to the park to kill Cano as payback for a fight between the victim and her son.
And although more than a dozen people agreed to speak to the Press-Telegram about the ongoing war between the victim and the suspects' gangs, none wanted their names printed out of fear of retaliation.
Authorities say the fear is justified judging from the extensive criminal file on Cano as well as the criminal histories of the other youths.
Long Beach
Nation Of Runts
U.S.
America used to be the tallest country in the world. From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans literally towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth.
But just as it has in so many other arenas, America's predominance in height has faded. Americans reached a height plateau after World War II, gradually falling behind the rest of the world as it continued growing taller.
By the time the baby boomers reached adulthood in the 1960s, most northern and western European countries had caught up with and surpassed the United States. Young adults in Japan and other prosperous Asian countries now stand nearly as tall as Americans do.
U.S.
Give Twins Festival Millions
John and William Reiff
A donation that the Twins Days festival is getting from the estate of two frugal bachelor farmers is enough to make some people do a double-take: as much as $5 million.
John and William Reiff, once recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most identical twins, left most of their estate to the festival in Twinsburg, about 15 miles southeast of Cleveland. John Reiff died in 2005 and William five years earlier, but only recently have plans to develop part of the twins' suburban Philadelphia farm been worked out.
The Reiffs, who attended their first Twins Days festival in the late 1970s, always dressed alike, talked alike and enjoyed dating other twins, said neighbor John Bechtel, who is also executor of their estate. The wiry, bespectacled pair won many "most identical" competitions over the years.
The Reiff brothers, who never married, gave most of their fortune to the Twins Days festival but also left $250,000 to four churches. None of their four living sisters was named in their will.
John and William Reiff
Impact Debris Found in Minnesota
Meteorite
A forest fire has led to a chance discovery of debris from the impact of a meteorite 1.85 billion years ago, more than 450 miles away at Sudbury, Ontario.
Geologists had scheduled a field trip in May along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota, but most areas they wanted to explore were closed because of a wildfire that charred more than 118 square miles.
Geologist Mark Jirsa of the Minnesota Geological Survey went up the trail to scout new locations and, in a spot he had never visited before, stumbled across debris now linked to the Sudbury impact.
Previously, material thrown out by the impact had been found as far from Sudbury as Hibbing, about 125 miles farther to the southwest from Grand Marais. However, the tiny fragments at Hibbing were found in core samples from 800 to 1,000 feet below the surface, while the rock layer containing larger chunks at the Gunflint site lies exposed.
Meteorite
Zanzibar Fishermen Land Ancient Fish
Coelacanth
Fishermen in Zanzibar have caught a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct when it disappeared from fossil records 80 million years ago, an official said on Sunday.
Researcher Nariman Jidawi of Zanzibar's Institute of Marine Science said the fish was caught off the tropical island's northern tip.
Coelacanths are the only living animals to have a fully functional intercranial joint, a division separating the ear and brain from the nasal organs and eye.
Coelacanth
Weeknd Tally
Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," $77.4 million.
2. "Transformers," $36 million.
3. "Ratatouille," $18 million.
4. "Live Free or Die Hard," $10.9 million.
5. "License to Wed," $7.4 million.
6. "1408," $5.01 million.
7. "Evan Almighty," $5 million.
8. "Knocked Up," $3.7 million.
9. "Sicko," $2.65 million.
10. "Ocean's Thirteen," $1.9 million.
Box Office
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