'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater podcasts
Revised for 5768
Rosh Hashanah, New Years Day, began on the first of Tishrei, 5768 (evening of September 12, 2007CE). This marks the beginning of the High Holy Days, culminating on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of Tishri (English spelling varies), evening of September 21, 2007CE.
The High Holy Days, and Yom Kippur in particular, are a time of reflection, and a time when Jews celebrate G_d's goodness and atone for all sins realized or not. We are also supposed to cleanse our spirit and make things right here on Earth; you can't apologize to G_d for an injustice to a fellow human. It's one of the great things about Judaism.
The problem is, as I wrote last year, I don't feel like apologizing to wicked people. Wicked people are inscribed in the book of death and too many in the middle are dangerously close. I'm sorry for any slights or transgressions along the way, whether I know about them or am too thick to get it. But I'm not even remotely sorry for holding up a mirror to the far right. If anything, I'm annoyed at myself for not doing a better job. To use Christian imagery, America has lost its soul.
This year is an important one, religiously and politically. Both Judaism and Islam use a lunar calendar, and the holidays move in and around the solar year. This year, The Muslim observance of Ramadan overlaps the Jewish High Holy Days, and I optimistically hope that this symbolic confluence will help each understand the other better, so we can tread on common ground rather than pry apart the differences.
Politically this year is important as a run-up to a Presidential election in 2008, with various Congressional and local primaries and ballots also to be decided. One of America's great strengths is that faith guides our political decisions; one of our great weaknesses is that too often misguided faith is mistaken for political wisdom. The Bible is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it. We can and should use the lessons of the Bible as well as the lessons of history and the knowledge of science to guide our voting choices.
For pointing this out against the hue and cry of radical Christians, fundamentalist Muslims and ultra-orthodox Jews, I am not sorry. I regret that I sometimes don't express my views more effectively, but at some point I don't suffer fools gladly. I will try to do better, even as the extremes move farther and farther away from the world G_d created.
Flashback: As a youngster in Hebrew School, I asked the Rabbi why Jews celebrate the New Year in the Fall. Many cultures start their new year at the Winter Solstice, when they know (from science) that the days will get longer again. Others celebrate the Summer Solstice, when the days are longest. Yet we start our calendar as the days are getting shorter, just when we need to hunker down for the winter. The Rabbi's answer (paraphrased from memory): "Jews are most optimistic when things look bad." This was not very satisfying. I suspect that the ancient Israelis simply took the time of the Harvest Festival for their major holiday, and the time of abundance as a the major Fast Day to prepare them for potential hard times. I'll note that it worked, as a cultural imperative: Few other peoples have lasted, as a group, for this long.
I'm sorry, but not for everything.
So as we slide into the future, here are a few things I don't regret. Some of these I still don't regret, having talked about them last year. Given that the 2008 elections are after Yom Kippur next year, I might talk about similar issues for 5769. I'm sorry for personal slights to people who don't deserve it, especially the ones I was too uncaring to notice. For people who deserve it, I don't regret telling them forcefully.
I'm not going to apologize to -- and will continue to rail against -- anyone who supports torture, or who votes for anyone who supports torture.
As of the passage of the bill allowing torture, it is the opinion of the US Senate that we should undo Magna Carta. While undoing basic human rights is a Republican initiative, too many Democrats have let the travesty slid by, and continue to vote, however hesitantly, for extensions. I cannot. This is still a sore spot from last year, with few Congressional voices being raised.
We have become what we hate.
In some ways, I'm madder at the Democrats who reluctantly supported the bill and they backed down under threat of the GOP slime machine. But that doesn't change the primary responsibility of Bush or the Republicans who stayed on their knees the whole time. In the same way that the Iraq debacle will is "Bush's War", the erosion of rights is a right-wing plan. Conservatives just don't believe in America.
Portions of the Patriot Act overturned. Sept. 7, 2007CE: "The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret "National Security Letters" to demand e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters, according to today's Washington Post."
Bush's legacy is that of a liar and a coward. Even when his provisions for the FISA bill were passed with many Senate Democrats, Bush lied. His arrogance is the mark of a bully, and he just doesn't have the guts to take the high road.
I'm not going to apologize to gun nuts.
For decades, the NRA and those who love their guns more than they love their family have been whining about the 2nd Amendment. This was never really the issue: Despite their lies, no one seriously proposed any sort of law or regulation that would take guns out of the hands of responsible gun owners. And yet, too many people (including many friends of mine) made this non-controversy the key issue in their voting. They are single issue voters on the wrong issue.
Their final, mom-and-apple-pie-who-could-disagree? defense was the claim that owning guns protected "citizens" against politicians. Well, guess what? They lied. The conservative politicians strongly supported by the NRA and gun owners, notably George W. Bush, are the very ones that took away your rights.
Responsible gun ownership was never the real issue; the issue involving guns was about the rights of drunken idiots. 2nd Amendment Absolutists are on the wrong side of that issue, but that's not what I'm mad about. I refuse to apologize for telling the truth, that the slippery slope of "gun rights" has led to the most repressive laws in US history. As is often the case, conservatives invented a culture war and now find themselves on the wrong side of it.
So even though it won't do any good, and the knee-jerk gun lobby will have crafted their response before they got tot his paragraph, let me reiterate: I'm not against gun ownership, and think that all responsible adults should have the right to own a firearm. I'm against drunken idiots, whether they have a gun or a car or beat their wives with their hands. I'm against the gun nuts who's minds are so befuddled by this one falsely-defined issue that they are solidly behind the poeple who have eroded our rights as American citizens.
I'm not going to apologize to Senator Vitter or Senator Craig or any of the Republicans who demanded Clinton's impeachment while their personal lives were so much sleazier.
Last year I railed against Mark Foley, and Republican leadership in the House that ignored this sexual predator. This year, we have even more Heartland Perverts that have come to light. I don't care if people like Larry Craig are gay, but I do care that he doesn't have the guts to admit it.
These sleazeball conservatives went after Bill Clinton for imaginary crimes. (It's amazing to watch the flip-flops: In the 90s, the White House Travel Office was sacrosanct, and replacing them was too political. Bush fires eight US Attorneys, and all of a sudden all Federal employees serve at the whim of the president. Sad.) They finally caught him doing something that didn't have anything to do with running the country, and pilloried him. Real issues, such as the hunt for Osama bin Laden, were not nearly as important to Republicans as a stained dress. Pathetic.
Sen. Craig voted to impeach Clinton. Vitter replaced Livingston who replaced Gingrich, and famously agreed with their pursuit of nothing. I'm disgusted by the whole party. Republicans have a lot to apologize for, and not just to their wives. Until I start hearing some mea culpas and see real change in their behavior: zero tolerance for Republicans.
I'm not going to apologize coming down hard on the conservative news media.
The media in this country is not only conservative, it's very conservative, to the point where they should be ashamed to call themselves "journalists". Fox "News" is as bad as Pravda under the communists. Too many right-wing media elites think they are the story, and real news falls by the wayside. This is a very big issue, but for now I'm just doing to talk about this one article.
The top 10 big stories the US news media missed in the past year. San Francisco Bay Guardian, September 5, 2007. The article is long and detailed, so here are the headlines (and my quick sub heads):
1. Suspension of Habeas Corpus (they can throw YOU in jail at any time for any reason and you can't say a word)
2. Martial Law (basically repealing the Posse Comitatus Act)
3. AFRICOM (re oil imports from Africa)
4. Secret Trade Agreements (Multinationals making the rules, not elected governments)
5. Slaves Construct Iraq Embassy
6. FALCON (numbers don't add up on arrests of sex offenders)
7. Blackwater (and, presumably, other mercenary armies)
8. Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (captive customer base for genetically modified foods)
9. Privatization of Infrastructure (don't raise taxes: outsource and put unregulated construction in a different budget line)
10. Vulture Funds (Poor countries default on loans to governments, who sell them to companies who sue for more than the amount owed)
I'm not going to apologize for holding Republicans and conservatives accountable, even if I occasionally have to lower myself to their level just to get their attention.
Republicans don't believe in Democracy. Conservatives don't believe in America. That's harsh but true. Further, the right starts whining when you point this out. A further truth: The Sphincter Conservatives are much, MUCH nastier. When they whine about getting a fraction of their own rhetorical style thrown back in their face, they demonstrate their cowardice. They can dish is out but they can't take it. Pathetic.
A prime example is the MoveOn.org ad, General Petraeus or General Betray Us. As usual, the right wing resorts to lies (the NYTimes did not lower their ad rates). Not only do the cowards blame the messenger, they blame the messenger of the messenger. Pathetic.
At no point do they address the issues raised in the ad: That Gen. Petraeus is a man "constantly at war with facts". In point of fact, even Petraeus' superior officer called him an ass-kissing little chickenshit over the surge. Point to MoveOn.org.
Further, they right doesn't have the guts to do right by their nasty ads in the past, from their attack on Sen. McCain (and his wholly made up black baby) to their traitorous attacks on Democrats (morphing war hero Sen. Max Cleland into Osama bin Laden).
Sphincter conservatives need constant stroking by hate radio and Fox "News" just to let them live with lies. Well paid verbal hit men supply the latest right-wing PC rant. The ultra-right will always be better at insults than you. They don't know how to do anything else. Facts aren't on their side, they must rant. They simply can't hear anything that doesn't sound like a drug-addled Rush Limbaugh.
I do not regret seizing the opportunity to show the extremists the error of their ways and take control of the debate. It may save my life; it may save their life.
I'm not going to apologize for pointing out how Bush and co. have made the world a more dangerous place, especially for Americans.
When we're attacked, it's 'You're either with us or with the terrorists'. When London or Madrid is attacked, Bush brags about not having a terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11. Not only is this a major flip-flop, it's wrong. We are less safe, not just from Anthrax spreading anti-government terrorists at home or Christo-Fascists who toss bombs at medical clinics, but from the wrath of G_d. George W. is relatively safe: He doesn't have a first born son.
Bush and company don't live in the world G_d created. During this religious observance, I cannot remain silent. Can you?
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.
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: Green Not Always the Color of Money (creators.com)
The new numbers on consumer confidence are out. They show American consumers very confident that the economy is going down the tubes.
Froma Harrop: Democrats Need to Think Purple (creators.com)
Democrats need their "Sister Souljah moment" with the outer left, and they need it now. The MoveOn.org ad - "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" - was simply unacceptable. Not only was it dumb, but it created a distraction for Democrats trying to challenge Bush policy in Iraq.
Jim Hightower: CANCEL CAMEL NO. 9 (jimhightower.com)
It's sleek and sexy in design, packaged in a shiny black box with an elegant accent of teal or fuchsia, and it's advertised in women's magazines with the alluring slogan of, "Light and luscious." Is it lingerieŠ chocolateŠ perfume? No. It's a box of cancer sticks.
Sam Pizzigati: When the Rich Make Too Much: Is it Time for a Maximum Wage?
One of the world's most honored public intellectuals, writing in a premiere policy journal, is calling for limits on income and fortunes.
CLAYTON SANDELL: Arctic Ice Continues Record Melting (www.abcnews.go.com)
An area of Arctic sea ice the size of Florida has melted away in just the last six days as melting at the top of the planet continues at a record rate.
Morgan Falconer: Sandra Bernhard's trash culture course (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
And then I point out a man at a table nearby wearing a jacket and tie with a pair of shorts. "That's shake," she says. "Shake?" "Yeah. Shake." "Shake. Is that an LA expression?" "No, I just mean he's shake." "You mean sheik?" "No, no. Shake. C-H-I-C." "Ohhh." We smile.
Julie Kavanagh: "Rudolf Nureyev: The Life" (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Beautiful women - not men - were the world's greatest dancer's first passion.
Roger Ebert: "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" (No rating; 4 stars)
I don't know if Pete Seeger believes in saints, but I believe he is one. He's the one in the front as they go marching in. "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" is a tribute to the legendary singer and composer who thought music could be a force for good, and proved it by writing songs that have actually helped shape our times ("If I Had a Hammer" and "Turn, Turn, Turn") and popularizing "We Shall Overcome" and Woody Guthrie's unofficial national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land."
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Hubert's Poetry Corner
OLEB and the Texas Death Master
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Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool. Quite nice.
Wonder what's up with Cal Worthington? For the first time in over 30 years, he's not doing the voice-overs on his commercials.
Complete List Of Primetime Emmy Winners
The Power Of Positive Blogging
Eric Hutchinson
When September started, Eric Hutchinson was just another unsigned singer-songwriter.
He had just self-released an album, "Sounds Like This," scored solid opening spots and was getting kind mentions in a few media outlets. Then, as Hutchinson told billboard.com, "Perez Hilton changed everything."
After the celebrity-gossip blogger, whose site is estimated to receive 3 million unique hits per day, wrote a post praising Hutchinson, the new album has been firmly entrenched in iTunes' top 10.
During the past week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, it sold 4,500 copies -- 97 percent of them digitally, and the rest through Hutchinson's Web site -- and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, No. 5 on Top Digital Albums and No. 134 on the Billboard 200.
Eric Hutchinson
Begins 9/11 March
George Martin
Saying he knows what real heroism is, former New York Giants star George Martin began a cross-country walk to raise money for ailing ground zero workers.
A captain of the 1987 Super Bowl champions, Martin was cheered on by a few dozen volunteers Sunday as he stepped onto the pedestrian walkway of the George Washington Bridge, which connects Manhattan and New Jersey.
"I've been termed a hero for playing a kids' game at a pro level, and that does not rise to the level of heroic," Martin said Saturday as he got ready for his journey. "I think of 9/11, when I saw people respond and put their health, their careers, their lives in jeopardy."
Walking briskly, he hopes to cover at least 30 miles a day in a march that, if all goes well, will end at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in about four months.
George Martin
Controversial Web Site A Fake
'Marry Our Daughter'
Like most girls her age, 15-year-old Ashlee R. is into sports, clothes and current pop music. She's a typical Midwestern teen-except that she's looking for a husband. "She tells us none of the boys her own age are interesting to her because they 'are still little kids' and she is looking for an adult to start a life with," say her parents, who've enrolled her on a new Web site-MarryOurDaughter.com-where they've set the "price" for her hand as $37,500.
Makayla S. is also 15, a traditional girl, a homebody who "cooks like a chef and decorates like Martha Stewart." She has a cheerful, upbeat outlook on life and spends a lot of time laughing. Her bride price? $24,995.
Before you get too upset, stop: MarryOurDaughter.com isn't real-it's a hoax. Nonetheless, the site-which claims to be a matching service for followers of "the Biblical tradition" of arranged marriages-has managed to fool a whole lot of people. With profiles of young girls, outrageous testimonials and solicitations for proposals (as well as a sign-up page to have your own daughter listed) MarryOurDaughter.com has received 60 million hits since it launched last week-and, believe it or not, on top of angry letters, thousands of proposals.
'Marry Our Daughter'
Ancient Climate Records
Einsiedeln Monastery
A librarian at this 10th century monastery leads a visitor beneath the vaulted ceilings of the archive past the skulls of two former abbots. He pushes aside medieval ledgers of indulgences and absolutions, pulls out one of 13 bound diaries inscribed from 1671 to 1704 and starts to read about the weather.
"Jan. 11 was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze," says an entry from 1684 by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and "weatherman" of the once-powerful Einsiedeln Monastery. "Since I've been an ordained priest, the sacrament has never frozen in the chalice."
Diaries of day-to-day weather details from the age before 19th-century standardized thermometers are proving of great value to scientists who study today's climate. Historical accounts were once largely ignored, as they were thought to be fraught with inaccuracy or were simply inaccessible or illegible. But the booming interest in climate change has transformed the study of ancient weather records from what was once a "wallflower science," says Christian Pfister, a climate historian at the University of Bern.
The accounts dispel any lingering doubts that the Earth is heating up more dramatically than ever before, he says. Last winter - when spring blossoms popped up all over the Austrian Alps, Geneva's official chestnut tree sprouted leaves and flowers, and Swedes were still picking mushrooms well into December - was Europe's warmest in 500 years, Pfister says. It came after the hottest autumn in a millennium and was followed by one of the balmiest Aprils on record.
Einsiedeln Monastery
L.A. Radio Character
Don Cheto
The quickest-rising star in Los Angeles morning radio isn't cute or hip or young or remotely trendy. He's Don Cheto (aka Mr. Cheto), a 63-year-old hillbilly from the town of La Sauceda in Michoacan, Mexico, who crossed the border more than 30 years ago, speaks accented English, bickers with his daughters over their boyfriends and complains about the loss of morals.
And yet Don Cheto has managed to drive listenership of his station, regional Mexican KBUE (La Que Buena), taking it from No. 14 in share for audiences age 12-plus to No. 4 in less than a year, according to Arbitron.
Don Cheto, who in promotional appearances sports a mustache, white hat and colorful zarape, is actually 27-year-old programmer/DJ Juan Razo, who created the character four years ago as a sidekick on KBUE's previous morning show.
In the coveted 18- to 35-year-old audience, KBUE ranks second in morning-drive listenership with a 9.6 share, according to Arbitron, almost triple the 3.8 it had in Arbitron's fall 2006 book. In that demographic, the only station in Los Angeles that bests Don Cheto is KSCA, another Spanish-language station, whose morning drive is manned by uber-popular and politically conscious host Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo.
Don Cheto
Ordered Held Without Bail
O.J. Simpson
Police arrested O.J. Simpson on Sunday, saying he was part of an armed group who burst into a Las Vegas hotel room and snatched memorabilia that documented his own sports career, long ago eclipsed by scandal.
The arrest starts a new legal odyssey for the fallen football star who more than a decade ago was acquitted of the slayings of his ex-wife and a friend, and opens the possibility he could spend decades behind bars.
Simpson was taken away from The Palms casino-hotel by plainclothes officers a day after the arrest of a golfing buddy who police say accompanied him with a gun in the Thursday night holdup. Handcuffed and wearing a golf shirt and jeans, Simpson was placed in an SUV. He was later ordered by a judge to be held without bail, police said.
Simpson was at the Clark County Detention Center on Sunday night for booking on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit a crime and burglary with a firearm, police said. The district attorney, meanwhile, said he expected Simpson to ultimately be charged with seven felonies and one gross misdemeanor.
O.J. Simpson
'Ambassador For Judaism'
Madonna
Madonna toasted the Jewish new year with Israeli President Shimon Peres and declared herself an "ambassador for Judaism," local newspapers reported Sunday.
The singer, who is not Jewish, arrived in Israel Wednesday on the eve of Jewish new year to attend a conference on Kabbalah or Jewish mysticism.
Madonna met Peres at his official Jerusalem residence on Saturday evening and the two exchanged gifts, with Madonna receiving a lavishly bound copy of the Old Testament.
She gave Peres a volume of "The Book of Splendor," the guiding text of Kabbalah, inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported.
Madonna
Bendlerblock Filming
Tom Cruise
The German government will allow the makers of a movie starring Tom Cruise as the country's most famous anti-Hitler plotter to film at the site where the hero was executed. Shooting of "Valkyrie," which has attracted controversy because Cruise is a prominent Scientologist, began in July. At the time, the government didn't give permission to shoot at the so-called Bendlerblock - part of the Defense Ministry and now a memorial to the anti-Nazi resistance - citing concerns over "the dignity of the place."
Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said Friday that filmmakers had satisfied officials in recent talks that they were "aware of the particular significance" of the former military headquarters.
United Artists Entertainment LLC said in a statement that it was "extremely grateful to the German government for allowing us to film at the Bendlerblock." It pledged to "take special care to respect its dignity and keep our activities there within the guidelines laid down by the government."
Tom Cruise
Returning Machu Picchu Artifacts
Yale
Yale University has agreed to return thousands of Inca artifacts taken from Peru's famed Machu Picchu citadel almost a century ago, the government said Saturday.
"Finally it has been established that Peru is the owner of each one of the pieces," Housing Minister Hernan Garrido Lecca, who led negotiations with Yale, told Lima's Radioprogramas radio.
The New Haven, Connecticut-based university said in a statement on its Web site that some of the pieces will remain there temporarily for research, but did not specify how many.
Peru demanded the collection back last year, saying it never relinquished ownership when Yale scholar Hiram Bingham III rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. All told he exported more than 4,000 artifacts including mummies, ceramics and bones from what has become one of the world's most famous archaeological sites.
Yale
Weekend Box Office
'The Brave One'
The Jodie Foster vigilante flick "The Brave One" scared up $14 million at the box office to become the weekend's top film.
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. "The Brave One," $14 million.
2. "3:10 to Yuma," $9.2 million
3. "Mr. Woodcock," $9.1 million.
4. "Dragon Wars," $5.4 million.
5. "Superbad," $5.2 million.
6. "Halloween," $5 million.
7. "The Bourne Ultimatum," $4.2 million.
8. "Balls of Fury," $3.3 million.
9. "Rush Hour 3," $3.3 million.
10. "Mr. Bean's Holiday," $2.7 million.
'The Brave One'
In Memory
Augie Hiebert
Augie Hiebert, 90, described as a legend and pioneer in Alaska broadcasting by those who knew him, died early Thursday morning in Anchorage.
Hiebert came to the Alaska territory in 1939 at the request of Austin E. "Cap" Lathrop to work as an engineer at Fairbanks' first radio station, KFAR.
In those days, operating the transmitter was an around-the-clock job and Hiebert lived on the premises. Glen Anderson, the operations manager at KFAR, often spoke with Hiebert about the station's humble beginnings when it was located off Farmers Loop, which was then a dirt road.
It was also during his time in Fairbanks that Hiebert gained a unique place in World War II history. A licensed ham radio operator since the age of 15, Hiebert was the first person in North America to hear of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and the first to notify the military here.
In 1953 Hiebert founded Northern Television Inc. and launched Alaska's first television station, KTVA in Anchorage. Two years later, he brought TV to Fairbanks with KTVF. Bill Wright is the current station manager at KTVF and worked for Hiebert from 1988 until he sold Northern Television in 1997. He says Hiebert believed telecommunications were the best way to connect people over the vast distances of Alaska.
Mentoring young people in TV and radio was important to Hiebert. He often took time to give people advice about the business or just discuss its history in Alaska. And even though he started his career in an age of vinyl records and reel-to-reel tapes, he was well aware of the progress TV and radio had made.
Since 2000, Hiebert also worked to create television programming and a low-power radio station at Mirror Lake Middle School in Anchorage. Higher education was important to him as well. Though he never attended college, he funded scholarships at both the Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses of the University of Alaska.
Hiebert is survived by four daughters. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Augie Hiebert
Augie was one helluva a guy.
He threw great Christmas parties, fabulous company picnics and was one of the best bosses I've ever had.
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