'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Baron Dave Romm
Musings
By Baron Dave Romm
Please forgive the scattershot contents of this week's column and the lack of links. As I prepare to fast for Yom Kippur, let me just ramble on a bit on various subjects.
Religion teaches us that people are more alike than we are different. If a set of spiritual values doesn't come up with that conclusion, I don't respect it.
Rush Limbaugh "resigned" from his ESPN slot. He got the job in the first place because the media wanted a white guy to succeed. Try to imagine a black/hispanic/Pacific Islander with no knowledge of football and a right-wing political agenda becoming a commentator on ESPN. It just wouldn't happen. Dennis Miller was bad enough; what was ESPN thinking? Oh yeah... ratings. They sold out. We've got to stop this kind of affirmative action for hatemongers.
Still, one cannot but pity Rush for his drug addiction. I hope he spends his jail time in a recovery program. On a side note, just how much jail time he'll get is not certain and I hear Bill Bennet is taking side bets.
Perhaps the season is too young to really judge, but so far none of the new tv shows I've seen has done much for me. Joan of Arcadia's second show was good. Happy Family finally had a funny episode. We'll see about Cold Case. The season premier of Saturday Night Live was okay, but no better than okay. Two and a Half Men might develop into something good, but it's still feeling out the characters.
Wouldn't it be great if the relatives of sucide bombers took all the money they get from having their child die ingloriously and gave it to the families of the victims?
And, of course, the reason that they're so poor despite the millions pouring in is the sheer corruption of their "leaders". Yassir Arafat alone is accused by the IMF of embezzling at least $750 million from the Palestinian Authority budget.
Why does Robert Novak still have a job? His legal defense is: if he can cite "sources" than he hasn't done anything illegal. Somehow, I'd like to see that tested. In any event, Novak's outing of a CIA agent, placing lives in jeapardy, is unethical at best. Five other reporters didn't print the story. Why did Novak's editors let his column see daylight? There are several people who might escape a firing squad but who should be given the boot by any reputable news institution. Ah, but the conservative news media doesn't mind leaks that come from Karl Rove... And be sure to read John Dean's advice to Wilson and Plume about the leak which is More vicious than Tricky Dick.
I'm not a big believer in coincidences. They happen, but when patterns emerge more careful questions should be asked. Three times in the past 15 years, potential problems for the Bush family have died in small plane crashes just before an election. In 1988, Salem bin Laden, brother of Osama and George W's first business partner, died in a plane crash in Texas. He was, at minimum, involved in the October Surpise in 1980, where (it is alleged) Poppy Bush met with representatives for Ayatollah Khomeini in Paris. Poppy was running for president that year, and a talkative bin Laden would have been a major disaster for him. In 2000, Governor Mel Carnahan died in a small plane in Missouri while campaigning against Calico John Ashcroft. Were Ashcroft to win, the Senate would be in the hands of the GOP (instead of the 50-50 split they were pared down to). Of course, Ashcroft lost to a dead guy and the Bushies rewarded him by making him the Grand Inquisitor, and that seat eventually went to a Republican two years later. In 2002, Paul Wellstone died in a small plane crash, handing the election to a guy who didn't have a chance a few days earlier, finally giving George W. a fully GOP senate (and prompting dittoheads to threated Democratic candidates with other crashes). Now, all three of these were investigated and found to be accidents, and that's still the most likely set of scenarios. On the other hand, who would know more about how to make a plane crash look like an "accident" than the former head of the CIA? I'd like to see a more in-depth investigation into the possible connections of the three crashes that came at such convenient times.
Speaking of death... what would happen if the ghost of a vampire were to bite a zombie werewolf? Just asking...
Roy Zimmerman wrote a couple of songs about the California recall. They're great, and I normally don't print the whole song but they'll only be funny for another day or so. Both have lyrics and mp3s on his website. Enjoy.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. He reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E here, and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio here (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air, and I'm collecting extra-weird stuff for a possible CD compilation.
Reader Comment
Re: Hack
Did you see Hack this week (10/5/03 episode)? I'm sure that Ashroft and the BFEE weren't too thrilled with it!
They ruined a guys life through profiling even though he was innocent, let him go, yet continued to keep him under surveillance.
Do you think CBS will pressure the show to lighten up? The right wing will call it fiction while the rest of us know the truth.
jh
Thanks, J! Missed this one - rather like the Philly setting, though. Will keep an eye out for it in reruns.
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still not a lot of sun, but quite pleasant.
Someone dumped 3 kittens out front today. They're probably between 6 & 9 months old, & female - one all black, one tiger striped, and one that looks siamese-ish (white with blue-blue eyes) and a
raccoon-like striped tail and ears. Any takers?
Will deliver one or all, 'fixed' & with shots, most anywhere south of Santa Maria, north of the Baja border or west of Vegas.
Calling them 'Wynken', 'Blynken', and 'Nod' for now.
Tonight, Monday, CBS starts the night with a FRESH 'Yes, Dear', followed by a FRESH
'Still Standing', then a FRESH 'Raymond', followed by a FRESH '2½ Men', then a
FRESH 'CSI: Miami'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Jessica Simpson, "Survivor" castoff Lillian Morris, and Rufus Wainwright.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Dennis Franz, Amanda Bynes, and Pete Yorn.
NBC begins the evening with a FRESH 'Fear Factor' (part 2 of 2), followed by a FRESH
'Law Vegas', then a FRESH 'Third Watch'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Katie Couric and Cirque du Soleil.
On a traditional Monday-night RERUN Conan are Carson Daly, Jennifer Coolidge, and Josh Kelley.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Max Kellerman, Fat Joe and his basketball team, and Ween.
ABC has 'MNF'. On the east coast it'll be 'Primetime Monday', followed by 'MNF'. On the left coast, it's football first.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Cedric the Entertainer, Teri Polo, and Terrell Owens, with this week's guest co-host Bobcat Goldthwait.
The WB offers a FRESH '7th Heaven', followed by a FRESH 'Everwood'.
Faux has 'MLB Baseball', so it's RERUN 'Simpsons' and 'King Of The Hill''s on the left coast.
UPN has a FRESH 'The Parkers', followed by a FRESH 'Eve', then a FRESH
'Girlfriends', followed by a FRESH 'Half & Half'.
A&E has 'Biography' (Charles Bronson), 'Cold Case Files', and 'City Confidential'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Two Jakes', followed by the movie 'The Bounty', then the movie 'King Kong' (the Jessica Lange/Jeff Bridges version).
BBC -
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Smith;
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Bournemouth;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - East Dulwich;
[8pm] 'Murder in Mind' - Flame;
[9pm] 'The Vice' - Daughters;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Kiefer Sutherland;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Heath Ledger;
[12am] 'The Vice' - Daughters;
[2am] 'Murder in Mind' - Flame;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Kiefer Sutherland;
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Heath Ledger;
[4am] 'The Vice' - Daughters; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', followed by the movie 'The Red Violin', then 'Queer Eye', and 'West Wing', again.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Quentin Tarantino.
History has 'Modern Marvels', 'Mail Call', 'Guts & Bolts', 'The Real Attila The Hun', and 'Lionheart: The Crusade'.
SciFi is all 'Stargate SG-1' all night.
TCM celebrates Janet Gaynor (she would have been
97 today) all morning, the fabulous Carole Lombard (she would have been 95 today) all afternoon, and 4 great movies all night.
[6am] 'Small Town Girl' (1936);
[8am] 'A Star Is Born' (1937);
[10am] 'Three Loves Has Nancy' (1938);
[11:30am] 'The Gay Bride' (1934);
[1pm] 'For Scandal' (1938);
[2:30pm] 'In Name Only' (1939);
[4:15pm] 'Vigil In The Night' (1940);
[6:15pm] 'To Be or Not to Be' (1942);
[8pm] 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967);
[10pm] 'The Swimmer' (1968);
[12am] 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' (1967);
[2am] 'To Kill A Mockingbird' (1962); and
[4:30am] 'Man With A Million' (1954). (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actor Danny Glover, center, laugh as he speaks to the press about his experience working with Republican Gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger and why he is campaigning with California Governor Gray Davis on his tour of California on a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles, Sundya Oct. 5, 2003.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Web Site Helps New Talent
Transom
Jonathan Menjivar volunteered at a local station trying to break into public radio. But after months of stuffing envelopes, he still had no clue how to produce a piece, much less get it on the air.
Then he found a Web site that helped him accomplish both.
Transom.org is an online workshop where material is refined and offered up to broadcasters in a virtual "shopping mall." Transom staff, listeners and even radio professionals provide hopefuls with feedback.
The goal, founder Jay Allison said, is to get new and unsolicited voices on the radio.
Transom, based in Woods Hole, Mass., gets about $100,000 in funding each year, primarily from a foundation headed by public TV journalist Bill Moyers.
For a lot more, Transom
Comedian Robin Williams performs at the eighth annual Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation Grand Slam for Children benefit concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 4, 2003. The event raises money to assist less fortunate children in Agassi's hometown of Las Vegas.
Photo by Ethan Miller
MacArthur Foundation Awards
'Genius' Grants
The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation on Sunday announced the winners of its $500,000 "genius" awards, 24 scholars, scientists, artists and human rights campaigners.
The foundation's no-strings-attached five-year grants can be used any way the recipients choose and are aimed at freeing them to pursue their work.
Among this year's winners are a former Reuters photographer who is now a human rights activist in Sierra Leone, a San Francisco advocate for troubled teenagers, a Boston-based gynecologist who helps victims of female circumcision, a short story writer, and a biomedical engineer specializing in the science of human locomotion.
'Genius' Grants
List of 2003 MacArthur Foundation Fellows
To Play Paganini Violin in NYC
Regina Carter
Jazz violinist Regina Carter made history when she played Niccolo Paganini's famous violin at its home in Genoa, Italy. Now, she'll be able to repeat the feat in the United States.
Carter, the first black, nonclassical musician to play the 18th-century virtuoso's revered instrument, is set to play the violin once again in a special performance at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall next month.
The violin is usually played only by the winners of the Paganini competition. Although there was strong opposition by some classical purists who thought only a classical musician should play the Paganini violin, Carter performed with it in Genoa in December 2001, then later returned there to record her album "Paganini: After a Dream" (Verve).
Regina Carter
www.lincolncenter.org
www.vervemusicgroup.com
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Man With An Opinion
Val Kilmer
Val Kilmer, who has a ranch in the mountains south of Pecos, was asked about living in rural New Mexico in an interview published in a recent edition of Rolling Stone.
Kilmer told the magazine he carries a gun in his car.
"I live in the homicide capital of the Southwest," Kilmer said. "Eighty percent of the people in my county are drunk. So driving home on the highway, especially with kids, it's (carrying a gun) just a precaution."
Kilmer was also asked how he spends his time. After talking about feeding the animals and going to the watering hole, he put on a hick accent and said: "We shoot the automatic weapons at the trespassers and people a different color than us."
Val Kilmer
The Dave Brubeck Quartet, from left, Dave Brubeck, Bobby Militello, Michael Moore, and Randy Jones, perfom at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003. Fifty years ago, Dave Brubeck, and his quartet performed at Oberlin College in a performance captured in the landmark album 'Jazz at Oberlin.' Tonight Brubeck returned to play at Oberlin to mark the album's anniversary.
Photo by Jamie-Andrea Yanak
Set to Open Art Gallery
Danielle Steel
An art collector for most of her life, best-selling author Danielle Steel is opening a gallery of her own, full of the kind of art she loves best.
For paintings and sculpture to be displayed in steel gallery, the author says they "must speak" to her. Artists who create dark and depressing works need not apply.
"I established the gallery to present bright, exciting, well thought-out pieces that will bring the viewer joy and happiness and which are fun to live with," Steel says.
Danielle Steel
www.steelgalleryinc.com
Felt Slighted by Sorkin
Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe says he quit "The West Wing" because he felt slighted by the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin, over the size of his role and the money he was making.
Lowe was irked when his part as a White House staffer was cut back and he continued to take home $70,000 an episode, while co-star Martin Sheen, playing the president, got a raise to $300,000 a show.
"Why didn't (Sorkin) know how much I loved him, how much I loved that show?" the actor told TV Guide for its Oct. 11 issue. "Why didn't he love me like I loved him? It's weird, considering it's another man, but that's as close as I can put it."
Rob Lowe
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Idea Crosses the Atlantic
'Gay Day'
Annual Gay Days have attracted thousands of gays and lesbians to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida since their launch in 1991, but have angered religious conservatives who consider homosexuality immoral.
On Saturday, a similar event took place at Disneyland Paris, with participants mobilized by Dutch magazine Gay Krant, which told them to wear white T-shirts so they could recognize each other.
Park operator Euro Disney, majority-owned by Walt Disney Co, said it did not organize the event -- the first of its kind in Europe -- or any special related events and that the guests were treated the same as any others.
'Gay Day'
Bhavai dancer Chanda Gurava performs while balancing on a block of nails at a folk dance exhibition in Bombay October 5, 2003. Bhavai, one of India's most spectacular dances, requires performers to balance up to nine brass pitchers on their heads while dancing on a bed of nails or glass or on the edge of swords.
Photo by Sherwin Crasto
Spy Pictures Revealed
Suffragettes
Photos uncovered by the National Archives show how the police spied on the suffragettes. These covert images - perhaps the UK's first spy pictures - have gone on display to mark the centenary of the votes-for-women movement.
Ninety years ago, a Scotland Yard detective submitted an unusual equipment request.
It was passed up the chain, scrutinised, reviewed and finally rubber-stamped in Whitehall itself. Scotland Yard duly became the proud owner of a Ross Telecentric camera lens. And at a cost to the taxpayer of £7, 6s and 11d, secret police photographic surveillance was born.
Within weeks, the police were using it against what the government then regarded as the biggest threat to the British Empire: the suffragettes.
Documents uncovered at the National Archives reveal that the votes-for-women movement probably became the first "terrorist" organisation subjected to secret surveillance photography in the UK, if not the world.
For the rest, Spy pictures of suffragettes revealed
A lone balloon drifts near the foothills of Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday, Oct. 4, 2003, in front of a small storm passing through, during the first day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Over 700 balloons are participating in this year's fiesta, which ends Oct. 12.
Photo by Jake Schoellkopf
DWI Trial Postponed Again
Diana Ross
The drunken driving trial of singer Diana Ross has been postponed again. The trial, originally set for Sept. 9 and then Dec. 9, has now been moved to January 14.
Ross, 59, was arrested last December after a woman reported seeing a car driving on the wrong side of the road.
Police said Ross had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20 percent, more than twice Arizona's limit of 0.08 percent. According to a police report, officers at the scene said the singer was unable to walk a straight line and fell while trying to stand on one leg and count to 10.
Diana Ross
All-Night Arts Party In Paris
'Nuit Blanche'
An estimated one million people thronged the streets of Paris for a dusk-to-dawn celebration of arts and culture organised by the capital's mayor that, now in its second year, has been emulated by other European cities.
The "Nuit Blanche" -- literally "White Night", meaning a night without sleep -- was greeted enthusiastically by residents and tourists alike.
Long lines formed at many of the 120 free attractions scattered across the city as the curious filed in to see imaginative works that ranged from the folkloric to the resolutely modern, with detours through the truly bizarre.
For a lot more, 'Nuit Blanche'
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist, center, is escorted down the stairs of St. Matthews Cathedral by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, right, and an unidentified man, left, on Sunday Oct. 5, 2003 in Washington. Rehnquist and fellow Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia attended the 50th annual Red Mass, a tradition for the Supreme Court justices, judges, attorneys and senior government officials to attend before the start of the year's Supreme Court session.
Photo by Evan Vucci
'The Osbournes'
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