'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
The Book of Life
By Baron Dave Romm
The Return of the Podcast!
Shockwave Radio Theater
Podcasts
for iTunes and iPods, with pictures
Even newer!
Shockwave Radio
broadcasts on archive.org. Bookmark my bookmark page.
Recent
additions include:
2006
More Marscon
Music
1996
Questions
I'm sorry, but not for everything.
Yom Kippur is 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 that right now, in the year 5767, 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. America has lost its soul.
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.
I have been unable to track down the original quote so I'm indebted to a friend for passing on this observation: Earlier, the modern Republican coalition was split into two camps -- those who wanted to undo the Great Society and those who wanted to undo the New Deal. Then, as the Bush agenda became clearer, it became split between those who wanted to roll back Reconstruction and those who wanted to roll back the Reformation.
As of the passage of the bill allowing torture, it is the opinion of the US Senate that we should undo Magna Carta.
Here are some of the links to recent stories/commentary: 14,000 Detainees Held in US Wartime Prisons and Tracking the Torture Taxi. Thanks to conservative Republicans who don't believe in America, we are becoming more like the Soviet Union every day.
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. It may be the end of John McCain's political aspirations.
I'm not going to apologize to Mark Foley or any of the Republicans who knew about his pedophelia.
I've been tracking Heartland Perverts for quite some time. Every year I get to say: The shame of being a conservative has never been greater. The far right has no morals just as they wag their collective finger at anyone else who transgresses the law they so blithely ignore. Disgusting.
This year alone, we've seen a Homeland Security Press Aide arrested on felony sexual predator charges. Read the 23-count indictment. Oswego ex-mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of using a city cell phone to persuade minors to engage in sexual activity. Scroll down or search for "Gosek" and you'll find several stories in the Syracuse newspaper's archives. (I suppose it would have been okay if he hadn't used a city phone...) Anti-gay pastor Lonnie Lathan was arrested for propositioning a male cop. (Oh, those Southern Baptists...) Here's a longer list of Republican Pedophiles, and yet another List of Political Sex Scandals.
The latest Republican sex scandal involves (former) Representative Mark Foley R-FL.
Mark Foley is a pedophile. Worse for the Culture Warriors, he's a gay pedophile. He's still listed as The Honorable Mark Foley by the House of Representatives.
He, of course, denied it. Liar. He's yet another Nine Commandment Christian: He broke the Commandment about bearing false witness. Just as bad -- or worse -- many in the Republican leadership knew about his sleazy criminal activity and protected him. Apparently, they got a memo entitled "Mark Foley Determined to Attack the US" and promptly went on vacation. For a year.
It gets worse: Foley was Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. Even knowing his sexual deviance, Hastert and company put him in charge of handling sexual predator laws. Why isn't the Christian Right up in arms? No, don't bother to answer.
Mark Foley is wicked. Republicans who knew about his pedophelia and put him in charge of sexual predator laws are wicked. We can't let these people continue to run the House of Representatives. Zero tolerance for Republicans.
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. Their sphincters 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.
And lastly, I have the sad duty to report the death of John M. Ford, Minneapolis writer. Much of what needs to be said has been said better by others, so I'll just point you to the podcast of PBS Liavek, in which he plays the lead role of E'Murrow.
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.
--////
Real Estate Agents
Avery Ant
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Judy Shepard: If you don't vote, you can't bitch (advocate.com)
Voting was an exciting privilege and responsibility to young activist Matthew Shepard. With Matthew gone, it's up to you to make a difference. Here are five easy steps for beginners. ...
1. Register to vote.
2. Educate yourself on the issues. Find out what candidates want to do for you-and to you.
3. Volunteer for a local, state, or national campaign.
4. Actually vote in the election.
5. And, finally, no matter who is elected, hold your elected officials accountable!
Matt Stoller: Final Tally on the McCain Torture Act, 65-34 (mydd.com)
Democrats in favor (12) - Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.)
Republicans against (1) - Chafee (R.I.)
Independents against (1) - Jeffords
This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like
Rod Dreher, Conservative: What are we doing? What have we done? (beliefnet.com)
This is a waterboarding device, or as our Christian president would say, "a proper tool." How can Christians in good conscience support this?
MICHIKO KAKUTANI: A Portrait of Bush as a Victim of His Own Certitude (The New York Times; Posted on makethemaccountable.com)
There's the president, who once said, "I don't have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy," deciding that he's going to remake the Middle East and alter the course of American foreign policy. ... There's the president's national security adviser whining to him that the defense secretary won't return her phone calls. And there's the president and Karl Rove, his chief political adviser, trading fart jokes"
Jim Emerson: The U.S. vs. John Lennon (3 stars; rogerebert.suntimes.com)
Not all he was saying was "Give peace a chance." When John Lennon and friends sang that song, and millions of anti-war protesters took up the chant, they were also saying "power to the people" (the name of another Lennon tune). And that, strangely, worried some of the nation's top crooks: J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, and various officials in the Nixon White House.
Richard Roeper: Steve Irwin not the only parent to think life's risks are worth it (suntimes.com)
When "Crocodile Hunter" and father of two Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray, I asked readers if they had changed their thrill-seeking ways after becoming parents. Thanks to all who weighed in. Tap Duncan: "I'm 41, and I've rodeoed for 25 years, and I've ridden bulls and broncs, wrestled 500-pound steers and roped anything with hair on it. I've also worked as a cowboy all my life. I've had 38 broken bones. I have a titanium shoulder that I call the $50,000 arm. I'm down to nine fingers from a bad day roping. . . .
Jim Baxter: Making it Legal (indyweek.com)
With gay marriage still far off, there are steps same-sex couples can take to get similar legal protections -- but you'll probably need an attorney.
Joe Donnelly: Citizen Beck (laweekly.com/)
Coming to terms with our native son now is like coming to terms with Los Angeles now -- some of my wide-eyed wonder is gone, but L.A. is home now more than ever.
Mark Galli: Was Jesus Mean? (beliefnet.com)
When Jesus speaks or acts sternly, it seems like a far cry from nice. But it isn't a far cry from love.
Rabbi Joshua Waxman: What's Behind Fasting, Anyway? (beliefnet.com)
As Rabbi Grossman reminds us, the Torah tells us that on Yom Kippur we are to "afflict our souls" as a part of the way we make atonement. We don't bathe, we don't eat, we don't drink, we abstain from sexual intimacy. It can feel foreign, like someone practicing self-flagellation to cleanse himself or herself of sinfulness which, in a way, it is.
Megan Reviews
'THE GUARDIAN'
'The Guardian'
Directed by Andrew Davis
Written by Ron L. Brinkerhoff
[view trailer]
It's hard to explain how I knew from the first trailer that this would be my next recap. It just had all the perfect elements. Kevin Costner as the grizzled, world-weary Coast Guard veteran! Ashton Kutcher in his first "dramatic" role as the brash newcomer! Nearly triple the maximum daily recommended allowance of cliché! And let us not forget, the Sea, the Angry, Angry Sea.
First things first. Why are there so many people here? If my husband had seen his way through his white-hot hatred of Kevin Costner and come with me, we actually wouldn't have had seats together, it's so crowded. I hate Texas. Perhaps everyone is seeing this for ironic reasons like myself. I brandish my notepad in an exaggerated fashion and sigh loudly so everyone knows I am not watching this for amusement purposes.
We are introduced to Kevin Costner's character. He is a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer. You know, the ELITE of the ELITE. God, I hate Kevin Costner too. My mom likes to say some people have a face you just want to hit. And he looks stupid in his little wetsuit hoodie and orange kneepads. He is chewing gum as he rescues people, which conveys the idea that it ain't no thang.
He goes home and finds his wife Sela Ward carrying lamps to and fro outside a moving truck! Wait a minute. Are they trying to tell me he could save everyone and everything….but his own shattered marriage? He monotones how "sorry" he is that "saving lives doesn't mesh with their SOCIAL calendar." That self-righteous oh-look-at-me-I-save-LIVES shtick can get old fast. I don't blame Sela Ward for ditching.
Uh oh. Time for some banter with the black co-rescue swimmer. He is so dead. I actually wrote in my pad "black coworker-DEAD" at this point. Call me a soothsayer. They rush out for another rescue scene with some kickass waves and a pretty awesome shot of a ship sinking behind a helicopter. Debris flies up and knocks down the copter! There is a fiery copter-wave explosion! Kevin Costner has to wait in a life-raft with his black friend who is all burned and stuff, and they huddle and bond, but he dies. He appears resigned to the fact that this is Hollywood, and it was the blackness, not the burns, that killed him.
Kevin's captain boots him out to take an Instructor Position at the training school, you know, to piece together his fragile, tormented soul.
Here come the new recruits on their Bus of Apprehensive Expectation. There's Charlie from the West Wing! Charlie, you're black! Save yourself while you still can! And there's pointless waste of space Ashton Ku-oh, my. Okay, apparently the rest of the movie will be spent trying to soothe my own fragile, tormented soul as I realize I have never before seen him without a) being close to brain-damaged on That 70s Show, b) wearing his hat sideways and lunging at the camera like a deranged pigeon in Punk'd, or c) making my mom happy by being Demi Moore's Kabbalah-bracelet-wearing contented puppy in In Touch Weekly. Not that I read that. Instead, he has undertaken the Tobey Maguire Bulk-up Superstar Challenge and is completely, pretty undisputedly effing HOT. As a matter of fact, he's making my knees weak. This is not good.
So, apparently Ashton Kutcher is a Champion Swimmer. In a hilarious moment, he says "Who's that guy whose name is on all the records? Because I'm going to be knocking it off every one!" I am sure his bravado will not come back to haunt him. He is told Kevin Costner is behind him. The sheep around me in the theater chuckle appreciatively. Duhhhhh. Ashton Kutcher concentrates hard and you can practically see his thought-waves. EMOTE. EMOTE.
There are many training scene montages in which we learn that Kevin Costner is an instructor of a Different Sort, the kind that makes all those thinking-in-the-box stick-in-the-muds that he works with scratch their heads at his Unconventional Methods. But he'll teach them what's really in store for them! He'll be hard on them because he has to. Because they're in the business of saving LIVES. This isn't chess camp, people. Stop picking pussy-willows and weaving them into pretty little necklaces, and holding hands while you skip in circles.
Ironically, there is then a hot gay shower scene after their hypothermia lesson goes awry. Ohh, all huddling together in the steamy shower pretending to be cold! Silly boys. Tee hee. Okay, maybe that part was worth my eight bucks.
We continue to be bombarded with training, and heroic music, and hot boys in goofy orange vests and those terrible hoodies, and Kevin Costner takes every opportunity to pop Vicodin washed down with Wild Turkey á la All That Jazz.
He is also having a lot of angsty nightmares about his doomed black friend. Strangely enough, all of my recent dreams have involved me wearing no pants, and spending most of the dream looking for pants, and my cat follows me everywhere no matter what I'm doing. Aren't other people's dreams interesting? Anyway, what's he so upset about? They just pointed out to us how many containers of Vicodin he has lying around. That would make me pretty happy.
There is a subplot involving Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend but nothing about it is worth mentioning other than some horrid sex puns involving the breaststroke and the butterfly. Oh, and she's a schoolteacher. I hate the word schoolteacher. It sounds very demeaning for some reason. I'm a schoolteacher! It's so cute and I wear my hair in a bun, and I live in 1845! Anyway.
At some point they get in a fight at a Navy bar when the guys call them "Puddle Pirates." Ha. That sounds dirty. Ashton Kutcher is thrown in jail. The lady next to me, who the filmmakers would love because she has appropriate responses to every scene, gasps in distress at the sight of his girlfriend waiting sadly for him at the restaurant for their Big Date.
Kevin Costner bails him out-"Uh oh!" says the Lady of Perpetual Empathy-and they bond, and we learn about how all of Ashton Kutcher's swim team friends died in a fiery car crash, and he feels responsible, and wants to save the world now because of it. Zzzzz. It's time for you to get back into the water in your tight gray T-shirt, Ashton Kutcher. All his saucy belligerence from before has vanished, unfortunately, and now he and Kevin Costner are totally gay for each other and spend the rest of the movie making out. In a manner of speaking.
It is in this scene that I notice Ashton Kutcher is wearing eyeliner. I'm not sure how I feel about this but I become fixated on it. He spends 80% of the movie wet, in swimming pools, the crashing ocean, the shower, the hot tub, with his glistening muscles and..um..oh yes, in god's good name what eyeliner is he using that stays put through all that? How do I wind up with eyeliner halfway down my face by 11 am? And here I am a schoolteacher who only gets wet when students spit at me.
So Ashton Kutcher graduates, and Kevin Costner's all ohh, ohh, please come up to Kodiak, Alaska to work side by side with me so we can shower together after our frigid rescues. Their first mission together is a couple of brilliant kayakers who were swept into a cove in the raging, crashing ever-angry sea. One hits his head. KLONK. "Oh my!" says the Lady. In education-speak, what she is doing for me is modeling. Kevin Costner's all "he's dead! Oh well, and look at the time." In a scene straight out of Holy Grail's "Um, I'm not quite dead yet. I'm feeling better, actually," the guy immediately hacks up a lung. Ashton Kutcher is appalled that Kevin Costner has lost his nerve, and Kevin Costner quits. I wonder whether he will consider coming back for a final climactic scene? No, probably not. He seemed pretty definite about it.
But this is That Kind of Movie, and in a final rescue mission, Ashton Kutcher daringly performs a save and then stupidly manages to get trapped in a hold in a sinking ship. Déjà vu, anyone? Kevin Costner rushes to his aid so they can make out some more. Now they are dangling from a cable. (Lady: "Gasp!") The cable is fraying! Cables and ropes and harnesses are so undependable with their constant flights of fancy in movies, always fraying and snapping with the slightest provocation. "I won't let go!" Ashton Kutcher says desperately. "You and I have so much in common, with our inability to find significant others in our own respective age brackets!" "I know you won't let go," Kevin Costner says gravely, and unsnaps his glove to plunge to his icy death. I wonder how that feels, knowing you've killed yourself to save Ashton Kutcher? Not that he's not hot, because he is, says the Queen of Unpopular Opinions who is apparently the only person on the planet who paid to see Titanic according to many snooty emailers. Ashton Kutcher cries. Boohoo. His eyeliner bravely remains intact.
They don't find his body. Some months later, Ashton Kutcher rescues some guy who's all "There was someone in the water with me! He said he wouldn't let go!" and Ashton Kutcher's all, aahhh. My beloved is still out there somewhere, being a creepy legendary merman who clings to drowning people's ankles. PUKE.
This movie is "Dedicated to the United States Coast Guard." I'm sure they were very honored by that sentiment. This recap is dedicated to the hubris of making a crappy action movie and then pretending like it's a History Channel documentary on Our Military Servicemen.
~ Megan T
"One's mind must not be so open that one's brain falls out." --Richard Dawkins
Thanks, Megan!
Hubert's Poetry Corner
CRAWFORD RANCH FATE
THE ULITMATE BUSH LEGACY EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD SEEK!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast and gray.
Unveils Statue Of Richard Harris
Russell Crowe
Actor Russell Crowe unveiled a statue in memory of his hell-raising "Gladiator" co-star Richard Harris in Ireland.
Crowe, famed for his bad-boy reputation as well as performances such as "A Beautiful Mind," described Harris as "a very good friend" as he performed the ceremony in Kilkee, County Clare, in the west of Ireland.
The two actors first met on the set of "Gladiator," for which New Zealand-Australian Crowe won a best actor Oscar, in 1999.
Russell Crowe
Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Slumping Fox
Fox News Channel will mark its 10th anniversary this week in an unusual position: knocked back on its heels. The network is in the midst of its first-ever ratings slump. Cable news' most stable lineup is being juggled. And the blow-up over President Clinton's interview with Chris Wallace suggests that Democrats are attacking Fox because they perceive the same vulnerability in the network as they do in the Bush administration.
Loved by some, loathed by others, Fox News Channel has been the biggest success in the cable industry and profoundly changed television news since its signal turned on Oct. 7, 1996.
Theories abound on the ratings decline, and include simple rules of gravity: Ratings can't go up forever.
Some believe there's a correlation to the declining popularity of resident Bush and concern about the Iraq war. "The rah-rah enthusiasm that was there in 2002, four years later has dissipated," Sorenson said.
Slumping Fox
Wedding News
Peet - Benioff
Actress Amanda Peet, a star in the new NBC series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," married her fiance, screenwriter David Benioff, in New York on Saturday, People magazine reported.
Earlier this month, Peet said she was pregnant with her and Benioff's first child. She announced her wedding plans on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" on Wednesday and said she was about four months' pregnant.
People said Peet, 34, and Benioff, 36, were married at her alma mater, Friends Seminary, a Quaker school founded in 1786.
Peet - Benioff
Wedding News
Dufresne - Hanson
Isaac Hanson, 25, the oldest member of the group famed for the 1997 hit "MMMBop," wed his 22-year-old girlfriend, Nicole Dufresne, in his Tulsa, Okla., hometown on Saturday, the magazine said on its Web site.
The nuptials came just weeks after middle brother Taylor Hanson, 23, and his wife of four years had their third child. The youngest of the group, Zachary, 20, tied the knot in June.
Dufresne - Hanson
Eyetalians Next?
FBI
The FBI's top counterterrorism official harbors lots of concerns: weapons of mass destruction, undetected homegrown terrorists and the possibility that old-fashioned mobsters will team up with al-Qaida for the right price.
Though there is no direct evidence yet of organized crime collaborating with terrorists, the first hints of a connection surfaced in a recent undercover FBI operation. Agents stopped a man with alleged mob ties from selling missiles to an informant posing as a terrorist middleman.
That case and other factors are heightening concerns about a real-life episode of the Sopranos teaming with Osama bin Laden's followers.
Organized crime syndicates could facilitate money transfers or laundering, human smuggling, identification fraud or explosives and weapons acquisitions, officials said.
FBI
Searching For Lost Art
South Africa
South Africa is scouring the globe to recover lost works by black artists that depict the turbulent apartheid era in a drive to educate young people about the struggle against white rule.
Vivid paintings of Zulu warriors and strife-torn black townships were shunned as too controversial, or simply too African, by mostly white South African art collectors under apartheid, and some were even banned.
But many paintings were quietly snapped up by foreign diplomats or visitors and spirited out of the country to adorn the walls of homes and boardrooms around the world.
The Ifa Lethu foundation, supported by the ministry of culture, is trying to bring those works back to South Africa to display them in a touring exhibition of schools and community centers.
South Africa
Live-Ammo Training In Great Lakes
Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard has started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and is conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat.
Since the beginning of the year, the Coast Guard have conducted 24 drills, each time firing about 3,000 rounds of lead bullets about a third of the size of a fishing-line sinker from light-weight machine guns in waters at least eight kilometres from the Canadian border and U.S. shores. Two more target practices are scheduled for this year.
"It was a big surprise on both sides of the border. At first I thought it was an Internet hoax," said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ont., who has written a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to intervene.
Coast Guard
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