'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Charity
By Baron Dave Romm
Shockwave Radio Theater
Podcast now up and running!
Paste the following string in your podcast software:
www.romm.org/podcast.
All podcasts also on the Shockwave Radio audio
page.
Because of Katrina and other natural disasters over the past two years, the US tax laws regarding how much you can deduct for charitable giving has been changed. The short of it: Between Aug. 27 and Dec. 31, you can donate up to 100% of your adjusted gross income and deduct the whole amount. That is, you have this week to give it all to charity and take it all off your taxes.
Your donation doesn't have to be related to Katrina; any non-profit can be the recipient. Many have donated millions of dollars. While Bartcop-E readers may not need quite that much of a deduction, even smaller incomes can benefit morally and financially. I am not a tax expert: Consult an accountant for specifics. Still, it's time to add up your charitable donations and see if you can take advantage of the tax code while there's still time. A few suggestions:
Laughter Is A Powerful Weapon Vol. 2 has earmarked all profits for Katrina victims. Now is a chance to get many, many gifts for people you forgot during the buying frenzy. Order lots of them now! I'm a contributor, as are most of my demented musician friends. See last week's column for full review.
If you're not a member of your non-profit radio or tv station, join now! Naturally, I encourage people to become a member of the station that airs Shockwave, Fresh Air Radio, KFAI-FM. Become a member here. KFAI is available locally to the Mpls/St. Paul area, or as streaming over the net, and all locally produced shows are archived for two weeks. What a bargain!
All synagogs, churches, mosques, and any tax-exempt religious institution are eligible.
All tax deductable political organizations should get a look. I don't know if contributing to moveon.org's new Civic Action 501(c)(4) is tax deductable, so check first. Similar non-partisan groups are tax-exempt. Still worthy, even if not.
Last thought: You can make a donation to charity in someone's name which makes a great (if belated) gift. Don't let this opportunity pass by!
A letter to the editor the Minneapolis Star Tribune didn't print:
A short one this week to end the column for the secular year. Happy New Years Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve.
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia with a radio show, a Live Journal demi-blog, 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 , and you can hear the last two Shockwave broadcasts in Real Audio (scroll down to Shockwave). Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
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Special Holiday Bonus
Disinfotainment Today
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Mike Hudson: O'REILLY'S FRAUDULENT 'WAR ON CHRISTMAS' (niagarafallsreporter.com)
Or could it be that his phony campaign to save Christmas is nothing more than a cynical ploy to get people to think about something other than how badly the war is going, how poor President George W. Bush's approval ratings are, or how miserable Christmas will actually be for the tens of thousands of American workers laid off in recent months by General Motors, Delphi, IBM, Kodak and other multinational corporations?
Karman Kregloe: Top Gay and Lesbian TV Writers Profiled in Created By (afterellen.com)
Writers of queer interest profiled in the book include Alan Ball, out creator of the gay and lesbian-inclusive Six Feet Under (who also won an Academy Award for writing American Beauty); The L Word creator and out lesbian Ilene Chaiken; the straight-but-not-narrow Joss Whedon, who brought together two of the first teenage lesbian lovebirds-Willow and Tara-in Buffy the Vampire Slayer; out writer Max Mutchnick, who created Will and Grace with his straight writing partner David Kohan, and Tom Fontana, creator of gay-inclusive HBO prison drama Oz.
Sarah Warn: What's Next, Expelling Teenagers for Having Lust in Their Hearts? (biggaypicture.com)
Another Christian high school is getting sued for outing and expelling two queer teens - but this time, they didn't expel the girls for doing anything (like kissing or wearing a gay pride t-shirt to school), but for having "a bond of intimacy... characteristic of a lesbian (relationship)", according to the letter the school sent the teens' parents.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah: Merry Xmas, Reverend Grinch (Advocate.com)
The religious right's outrage over the greeting "Happy Holidays" is Grinch-like in its obsession with the trappings of Christmas instead of its meaning. As a gay Muslim, the author finds the season's true spirit in respectful pluralism
Once again this year, the religious right has taken offense at the so-called wa ROGER EBERT: A telephone call with Spielberg
He repeated that he was wounded by the charge that he is "no friend of Israel" because his film asks questions about Israeli policies. "This film is no more anti-Israel than a similar film which offered criticism of America is anti-America," he said. "Criticism is a form of love. I love America, and I'm critical of this administration. I love Israel, and I ask questions. Those who ask no questions may not be a country's best friends."
Interview by Rebecca Phillips: 'Heaven Is a Place Where You Are Happy' (beliefnet.com)
Barbara Walters explains what heaven means in different religions, whether she'll go to heaven or not, and what happens there.
Daily Wisdom from the Dalai Lama (beliefnet.com)
A message from the Buddhist leader
Tonight
Erin Hart Show
Please join
Erin Hart
9pm to 1am PST tonight on 710 KIRO
as she sits in for Mike Webb.
Also, Erin fills in on Boulder's Progressive Talk AM760.net on Dec 27th and 28th, from 5am to 9am PST.
Audio streams live - 710KIRO.com.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
JAMES BYRD'S BODY: TRUTH MARCHES ON
ONCE MORE FOR THIS POLITICAL wHORE WE ALL ABHOR!
WOULD YOU - AND NSA - LIKE TO KNOW
JUST HOW LOW w WILL GO?
USING A HATE CRIME
TO BUY TIME FOR THIS SLIME?
A DILIGENT SLEUTH
WAS ABOUT TO UNCOVER THE LONG CONCEALED TRUTH -
A MOST COWARDLY, DESPICABLE YOUTH?
Reader Comment
Re: Christmas Present
Hey, Marty!
Just want to say that you are my Christmas gift every day of the year. You amaze me. A wonderful page every day. Always dependable. Your dedication astounds me.
Thanks.
Linda >^..^<
Thanks, Linda!
You made me blush.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly cloudy day.
The reason for the change in background is this snowy pattern goes with the Michael Dare bonus above.
Between a surplus of holiday stuff to accomplish and a raging head cold, I couldn't figure out how to make it show up just in Michael's piece.
Not that I wasn't already cranky...
Had a great time (as usual) on a Erin's Show last night. Her links page is freshly updated. Give it a look.
No new flags.
Lighter Side Available on DVD
Bill Clinton
One of the most popular attractions at the Clinton Presidential Library is available to anyone who wants to see the former president poke fun at himself.
Excerpts from President Clinton's appearances at the White House Correspondents Association dinners and other lighter speeches are part of the 22-minute video "A Time to Laugh" that has played at the library since it opened last year. The video is now available on DVD.
The DVD includes "The Final Days," a short video produced for Clinton's appearance at the 2000 White House Correspondents dinner.
The segment shows Clinton mowing the White House lawn, washing the presidential limousine, and watching his clothes dry - activities to keep busy while his wife campaigned for the Senate and the vice president campaigned for president.
Bill Clinton
Honeymoon in Venice
Furnish - John
Sir Elton John and David Furnish are honeymooning in Venice after tying the knot in a civil union ceremony in Britain last week, Italian news reports said.
The couple took a water taxi to St. Mark's Square, lunched at Harry's Bar and shopped in the romantic canal city, the ANSA news agency and the Venice daily "The New Venice and Mestre" reported Saturday.
ANSA said John and Furnish arrived Thursday and were staying at John's home on Giudecca, one of the islands of Venice's lagoon.
Furnish - John
UMass Library Book Story
Hoax
The story of the student who received a visit from homeland security agents because he had checked out Mao's Little Red Book has now been confirmed to be a fabrication.
From the newspaper that originally broke the story
NEW BEDFORD -- The UMass Dartmouth student who claimed to have been visited by Homeland Security agents over his request for "The Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong has admitted to making up the entire story.
The 22-year-old student tearfully admitted he made the story up to his history professor, Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, and his parents, after being confronted with the inconsistencies in his account.
Had the student stuck to his original story, it might never have been proved false.
Hoax
Celebrates 80th Birthday
Winnie The Pooh
The nation's favourite "bear of little brain", Winnie The Pooh, is celebrating his 80th birthday.
Author AA Milne's first Pooh tale appeared in a short story in the London Evening News on December 24, 1925.
The book Winnie The Pooh was first published in 1926, followed by the volume of verse, Now We Are Six, in 1927 and The House At Pooh Corner in 1928.
Winnie The Pooh
City Swaps Gifts for Guns
Compton
"Big Daddy" Willis came to Compton to turn an illegal homemade pistol into Christmas dinner. Charlene Watt planned to turn three shotguns into a plasma TV.
The two were among dozens of gun-toting residents who converged on a shopping center parking lot Saturday to anonymously swap firearms for gift certificates as part of a program aimed at reducing violence in this crime-plagued city.
Each was rewarded with a $100 gift card for Circuit City or the Ralphs supermarket chain, the program's co-sponsors.
Authorities created the program after a sharp spike in Compton's crime rate this year. Sixty-eight homicides have been recorded so far in 2005, up from 39 in 2004, according to sheriff's Capt. Eric Hamilton.
Compton
Mom Fights Downloading Extortion
Patricia Santangelo
It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court.
Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks.
"I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and that I wasn't a computer downloader, it would just go away," she said in an interview. "I didn't really understand what it all meant. But they just kept insisting on a financial settlement."
The drain on her resources to fight the case - she's divorced, has five children aged 7 to 19 and works as a property manager for a real estate company - forced her this month to drop her lawyer and begin representing herself.
"There was just no way I could continue on with a lawyer," she said. "I'm out $24,000 and we haven't even gone to trial."
Patricia Santangelo
Researchers Seek to Bring Back
Chestnuts
A group of researchers have a message for those who want to confine the chestnut to a holiday open fire: They aren't just for Christmas anymore.
Agricultural researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia's Center for Agroforestry are experimenting with more than 50 varieties of chestnuts at a research farm. The goal is to create a new nut industry and bring back the American chestnut.
A century ago - before an Asian blight devastated most of the country's millions of chestnut trees - marketing the chestnut wasn't necessary. Chestnuts were a staple of American diets, particularly for recent immigrants. The trees' rot-resistant timber was used to build barns and beams, its bark providing tannin for leather.
Chestnuts
Faces Eviction by NYC
Boys Choir of Harlem
The choir has been asked to leave the public school where it practices for free by Jan. 31, 2006. The Boys Choir also provided some instruction at the school, called the Choir Academy of Harlem, as part of a 12-year collaboration with the Department of Education.
The choir failed to fulfill a 2004 agreement to find a new chief executive to replace founder Walter Turnbull, said department attorney Michael Best in a letter Thursday. Turnbull was demoted to artistic director after an investigation concluded he did not act on reports that an employee was sexually abusing a student.
Turnbull has continued to run the organization, the attorney said.
The department also said the choir staff failed to report to the school when expected - apparently because the staff was not being paid due to the choir's financial problems.
Boys Choir of Harlem
Birthplace Gets Makeover
Cole Porter
The birthplace of composer Cole Porter is getting a winter makeover.
The 1860s-era house, which has about 21 rooms, had fallen into disrepair over the years. It had been split into several apartments, and police found a methamphetamine lab in one of the apartments two years ago.
The renovations will include repairing the foundation, rebuilding four porches, replacing wiring and plumbing and installing heat and air conditioning.
Porter was born in 1891 and lived in the house until he was 10. The town of Peru is about midway between South Bend and Indianapolis.
Cole Porter
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