'Best of TBH Politoons'
But Untrue
Strangely Believable
Homeland Security Director nominee Michael "Sonny" Chertoff is well known in
~Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook is the Ceci Connolly of the Left. ~ J. Howard Tuft
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Reader Comment
Red-Tailed Hawks
Marty
I liked the picture of the Sparrow Hawk at the bottom of Thursday, Jan. 13th page, and thought you might be interested in the pictures at the site below.
I loved the book by Marie Winn, "Red-tails in Love" and followed 'Pale Male's' eviction and then reinstatement this winter. A friend of mine is an avid 'birder' in upper NY State, and sent me these pictures of red-tailed hawks. I have NEVER seen so many together at one time before!
My granddaughter and I have been watching a pair of red-tailed hawks for about four years that live in our neighborhood. They are fascinating. Imagine my surprise, when one landed on the railing of our deck. I later realized why. I have a bird feeder out there, among several others in the yard. One day a pair of mourning doves were out there, picking up the seeds that the other birds had dropped on the floor. Along came the red-tail and scooped one dove up, and off it went with it! I felt as if I had lured the dove to its death, but know that that is the way of the birds in the wild.
Red-tailed Hawks (9) at the Reynolds Game Farm, Ithaca, NY. 17 January 2004 - Photo by Jay and Kevin McGowan
Marianne M
Thanks, Marianne!
A long time ago I had a 'lost' summer - spent it working part-time at Mission Soaring Center, a hang gliding shop in Fremont, CA. Spent a lot of time at Fort Funston and up at Bodega Bay, hanging with the hang gliding crowd.
One of the pros, Fred, was famous for his lengthy flights - and he said his secret was to look for hawks 'thermalling'.
The hawks are hip to warm updrafts, and they soar upwards in them. So did Fred.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The British Evasion (Click on "Columns," then on "The British Evasion")
We must end Social Security as we know it, the Bush administration says, to meet the fiscal burden of paying benefits to the baby boomers. But the most likely privatization scheme would actually increase the budget deficit until 2050. By then the youngest surviving baby boomer will be 86 years old. Even then, would we have a sustainable retirement system? Not bloody likely.
Norma Cohen: A Bloody Mess. How has Britain's privatization scheme worked out? Well, today, they're looking enviably upon Social Security
A conservative government sweeps to power for a second term. It views its victory as a mandate to slash the role of the state. In its Şrst term, this policy objective was met by cutting taxes for the wealthy. Its top priority for its second term is tackling what it views as an enduring vestige of socialism: its system of social insurance for the elderly. Declaring the current program unaffordable in 50 years' time, the administration proposes the privatization of a portion of old-age beneŞts. In exchange for giving up some future beneŞts, workers would get a tax rebate to put into an investment account to save for their own retirement.
Kate Meier: Tsunami catastrophe hits home
When Teuku Zulfikar awoke to hear that an earthquake had struck near Aceh, he thought it was business as usual. "I didn't really have a reaction at first because almost every year there are earthquakes and floods," he said. But when he turned on the TV to see footage of Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city that sustained catastrophic damage from the tsunami, his heart broke.
Jim Phillips: Noted social critic to analyze why so many states went red
Writer Thomas Frank Š tackles one of the burning questions of our day: How did conservatism, a political outlook tailored to the rich and powerful, get so big among those who are neither? Frank actually hales from the Sunflower State (where, according to the brief biography on his Web site, he "pulled himself up by his bootstraps, learned to read, write and cipher."). He's familiar with the Kansan legacy of radical populism, dating from a time when working people could still recognize that their interests weren't the same as those of their bosses.
ROGER EBERT: Critics are fighting it out: It's 'Baby' vs. 'Sideways'
In an era of multimillion-dollar Oscar campaigns, Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" may be heading for success with an old-fashioned formula: Keep a poker face until you reveal your winning hand. Although Alexander Payne's "Sideways," itself a wonderful picture, seemed on track to burst out of the indie ranks and lead the Oscar parade, now the momentum seems to be shifting to "Million Dollar Baby."
Recommended Reading
Rack Jite
"The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty
to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will
preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been
built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national
morality, and the family as the basis of national life." No, that was
not George Bush or the RNC platform preamble, it was Adolph Hitler,
February 1, 1933. Source: Rack Jite Blog 1-14-2005
Shithead of the Year 2004
Reader Comment
KKKoulter, She-Wolf of the SS
"I think the other countries in Europe are Hitler's bitches. They know we finally have a Fuhrer who does whatever he feels like. We should attack Russia as soon as possible, to show the world we mean business."
--Mistress Ann Coulter, SS dominatrix and party favor, interviewed last weekend (...in 1935).
From the January 10 (2005) New York Observer:
[Coulter] "I think the rest of the countries in the Middle East, after Afghanistan and Iraq, they're pretty much George Bush's bitch," she said. "I think they know we're serious: We have a President who can do what he thinks is right..."
[Gurley] After we bomb North Korea, what's the next country we should invade?
[Coulter] "Iran. Though that's the beauty part of Iraq: It may well not be necessary. Because precisely what I'm saying with nuking North Korea ...They're a major threat. I just think it would be fun to nuke them and have it be a warning to the rest of the world."
If you want to read even more right-wing hate speech from the Neocon Nazis
--Paul in LA
Still protesting after all these years
Thanks, Paul!
Reader Comment
Re: Huygens
The first images from Huygens are scheduled to come out about 3:45 PM
today. Telemetry as of 11:00 AM today showed that Huygens performed almost
flawlessly, landed safely on Titan, and transmitted data for 2 hours
(design was for 30 minutes). One telemetry channel is acting weird, but
systems are redundant so the other channel is carrying everything but a
doppler wind experiment.
Maybe I make a big deal of this, but it is probably as significant as the
manned landing on our moon was. Sagan and the Planetary Society lobbied
their little hearts out to get nations to share the expense of unmanned
probes, and this is one of their grand success stories.
Ray
Thanks, Ray!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Bright, sunny, dry day.
The crickets for Jo, the lucky lizard, are chirping nicely.
Tonight On NBC - MSGOP - Telemundo - Bravo - USA - Pax - Trio - Sci-Fi - CNBC
Tsunami TV Benefit
The two-hour benefit for tsunami victims is scheduled to air live at 8 p.m. EST Saturday on NBC and on its parent NBC Universal cable stations, including MSNBC, Telemundo and Bravo.
George Clooney, who responded to NBC's call for help in organizing the event, will be working a celebrity phone bank at NBC Universal along with fellow actors including Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Renee Zellweger, Robert DeNiro, Andy Garcia and Goldie Hawn.
Madonna, Mary J. Blige, Norah Jones, Elton John and Stevie Wonder are among the performers in London, New York and Los Angeles. Rapper Nelly and country singer Chesney illustrate the variety of singers who volunteered.
Bruce Willis, Clint Eastwood and others will call for donations for victims of the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami, which killed more than 150,000 people in Asia and Africa.
Viewers will be invited to call 1-800-HELPNOW. Other channels carrying the telethon are USA, Pax, Trio, Sci-Fi and CNBC.
Other stars scheduled for the benefit include Meg Ryan, Lucy Liu, Josh Groban, Jay Leno, Natalie Portman, Nicolette Sheridan and Naomi Watts.
Tsunami TV Benefit
Minnesota Man Donates Early Recordings
Bob Dylan
A Minneapolis man has donated some of the earliest recordings made by Bob Dylan to the Minnesota Historical Society.
Cleve Pettersen said he made the reel-to-reel tape at a Minneapolis apartment in 1960 after getting to know Dylan at coffeehouses in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota.
Pettersen, a teenager when he invited Dylan to the apartment to record the songs, has been the sole owner of the tape ever since. But the tape's existence has been well-known by music buffs and Dylan aficionados who have come to know it as the "Minnesota Party Tape."
The public can listen to the tape, copied onto CDs and cassettes, for free at the Minnesota History Center library in St. Paul, but making copies won't be allowed.
Bob Dylan
FCC Probes
Armstrong Williams
Federal communications regulators have opened an investigation into whether conservative commentator Armstrong Williams violated a ban on "payola" in promoting the Bush administration's education plan.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said on Friday he had ordered the agency to look into whether the financial arrangement between a firm owned by Williams and the Department of Education had violated federal communications law.
Powell said the decision to investigate responded to recent reports "regarding potential violations of the 'payola' and sponsorship identification provisions."
U.S. law requires that radio or television stations, as well as individuals, disclose on air when they have received compensation to talk about a product or issue.
Armstrong Williams
MTV's Gay Channel Delayed
Logo
MTV Networks has pushed back the launch date of Logo, its nascent gay and lesbian-themed cable/satellite channel, to June from February, in order to secure additional carriage commitments and develop more original programing, executives said Thursday.
The Viacom-owned cable giant initially had projected a launch date of Feb. 17, but the new target is June 30. By then, the channel should launch with an initial subscriber base of at least 10 million cable households. MTV Networks confirmed it has struck carriage agreements for Logo with Time Warner Cable in Manhattan, RCN and Atlantic Broadband, and it is in final negotiations for an agreement with Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable-system operator.
Logo
Signs Book Deal with U.S. Publisher
Shirin Ebadi
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi's memoirs will be published in the United States after a change in U.S. regulations on publication of authors from embargoed countries, Random House said on Friday.
Last month the United States eased a controversial ban on publications from Iran, Sudan and Cuba in order to allow dissidents and others not linked to the governments of those countries to be heard, while maintaining an embargo on official documents.
The rule change by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control came after Ebadi sued the United States because its embargo blocked U.S. publication of her memoirs.
Shirin Ebadi
Ethiopian Marley Tribute
Reggae Stars
Music stars from around the world will converge in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa next month to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the birth of reggae icon Bob Marley, organizers said on Friday.
Stars including Danny Glover, India Arie, Angelique Kidjo, and Shaggy will appear alongside members of Marley's family at events to celebrate his birthday on February 6.
Meskel Square, the major parade ground in Addis Ababa, is undergoing a facelift for the concert to mark the birthday, which is also expected to draw stars such as Mali's Baaba Maal, Senegal's Youssou n'Dour and Teddy Afro from Ethiopia.
Reggae Stars
Get New Hairdos
Cartoon Moms
Marge Simpson has surrendered her towering blue coiffure to help market a new hair care line. The animated mom from "The Simpsons" is part of new magazine ads staring next month for Dove Styling. Also featured in the ad campaign are fellow cartoon characters Wilma Flintstone ("The Flintstones"), Jane Jetson ("The Jetsons") and Velma Dinkley ("Scooby-Doo").
The characters got a temporary makeover for the promotion, trading their usual helmet hair for "beautiful styles that move naturally," the company said in a statement.
Cartoon Moms
Speaker Touts Stripping
Career Day
The principal of a Palo Alto middle school may not invite a popular speaker back to an annual career day after he told girls they could earn a good living as strippers.
Management consultant William Fried told eighth-graders at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School on Tuesday that stripping and exotic dancing can pay $250,000 or more per year, depending on their bust size.
"It's sick, but it's true," Fried said in an interview later. "The truth of the matter is you can earn a tremendous amount of money as an exotic dancer, if that's your desire."
Career Day
Denies Deer-Poaching Claim
'Simple Life'
Paris Hilton's reality show "The Simple Life" is disputing allegations that a deer was illegally killed so that it could be gutted by the socialite and her sidekick, Nicole Richie.
State officials said the deer was killed Tuesday night and they believe it was to be gutted for the show. Investigators are looking into accounts the deer was shot by someone firing a gun from inside a car.
Two men working for the Fox show could face fines of between $100 and $500 for permit violations and hunting out of season, said Elaine Makatura, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
'Simple Life'
Art Trafficker Duped U.S. Museums
Giacomo Medici
An Italian antiquities trafficker running a thriving business out of Switzerland duped some of the world's most famous auction houses and museums with illegally acquired artefacts, authorities said on Friday.
The scam was the centerpiece of a yearly presentation by Italy's art and archaeology police, who displayed dozens of ancient works traced to Giacomo Medici, an Italian dealer who was sentenced last month by a Rome judge to 10 years in jail.
According to a Culture Ministry statement, works traced to Medici ended up in New York's Metropolitan Museum, the J.P. Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Sotheby's auction houses, Toyko's Antike Mittelmerkultur Museum and others.
Giacomo Medici
Collection Gets First U.S. Show
Berthe-Marie-Pauline Morisot
When French Impressionist artists held their first show, a critic called them "five or six lunatics, one of whom is a woman, and a group of unfortunates deranged by ambition."
The woman described as a lunatic, Berthe-Marie-Pauline Morisot, is getting her biggest U.S. show, beginning Friday at Washington's National Museum of Women in the Arts.
More than 75 works from the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris, including drawings and water colors, will go on display. The exhibit will move later in the year to Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn.
Berthe-Marie-Pauline Morisot
In Memory
Thelma White
Thelma White, whose portrayal of a hard-boiled addiction queen in the 1936 movie "Reefer Madness" was largely forgotten until the film resurfaced in the 1970s as a cult classic, died of pneumonia Tuesday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills. She was 94.
Born in 1910, White was a carnival performer as a toddler, progressed to vaudeville, radio and movies, then worked as an agent and producer for many years. During her heyday as an actress, she appeared alongside such legendary performers as W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Red Skelton and Jack Benny. What secured her place in Hollywood history, however, was a movie so awful that its memory still made her shudder 50 years later.
"Reefer Madness" was a low-budget propaganda film written by a religious group to broadcast the dangers of marijuana. It was relegated to the cinema waste heap for almost 40 years until 1972, when Keith Stroup, founder of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws discovered it in the Library of Congress archives and paid $297 for a print. He then screened it in New York as a benefit for the advocacy group, unwittingly launching it on the road to cult-film history.
Today the film that critic Leonard Maltin calls "the granddaddy of all 'Worst' movies" still commands a loyal audience on the cult circuit. Amazon.com ranks it No. 35 on its list of 100 bestselling cult-movie videos, and it has been viewed free more than 19,000 times in recent years at http://www.archive.org/movies.
Born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, Neb., White was the daughter of itinerant carnival performers who traveled throughout the Midwest. She made her debut at age 2 when her parents stuck her in a line of dolls and at the appropriate moment cued her to start cooing and wiggling.
After stints with the Ziegfeld Follies and Earl Carroll revues, White turned to movies, signing in 1928 with RKO Studios, which cast her in B movies such as "A Night in a Dormitory," "Sixteen Sweeties" and "Ride 'Em Cowboy!"
Despite her unwholesome role in what became one of the most notorious exploitation movies of the 1930s, White continued to earn featured parts in traveling revues in the United States and abroad.
Misfortune struck at the end of World War II, when, as a USO performer in the Aleutian Islands, she contracted a crippling illness and was told she would never walk again. After several years, she recovered sufficiently to embark on a new career as an agent for such actors as Robert Blake, James Coburn, Ann Jillian, Dolores Hart and Robert Fuller.
Wed three times, she said her third marriage, in 1957, to actor and costume designer Tony Millard was her happiest. Until his death in 1999, they lived in a modest Panorama City bungalow with a collection of 300 videotapes, including two copies of "Reefer Madness."
The movie also inspired an award-winning musical play by the same name that ran off-Broadway after opening in 1999 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre in Hollywood.
White, despite her reliance on a wheelchair and oxygen tank, saw the show twice. Any discomfort caused by the notoriety of the movie was dispelled by the play, which unreservedly spoofed it.
The production "was campy and over the top, and she loved it," Michael Homeier, her godson and only survivor, said Wednesday.
Thelma White
In Memory
Earl Cameron
