'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: A Crisis of Faith (nytimes.com)
Why has a crisis that began with loans to a limited group of home buyers ended up disrupting so much of the financial system?
Mark Morford: Retail therapy saves America (sfgate.com)
It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel ... like buying a new iPod and a boat
SUSAN ESTRICH: Beware What You Wish For (creators.com)
A century ago, actually about 26 years ago, the powers in the Democratic Party decided it was time to take back control of the nominating process from the often derided crazies who had been leading the Party straight down the tubes with their choices of McGovern and Carter. Of course, Carter did win, but that was in 1976.
Tom Danehy: Independents who felt entitled to vote in the presidential primary are bad Americans (tucsonweekly.com)
You people who think you're too good for political parties but then want to vote in their primaries are simply despicable. Your selfishness is bad for democracy and bad for America.
FROMA HARROP: Treating Nature-Deficit Disorder (creators.com)
Attendance has been falling at America's National Parks since 1987. Blame videophilia, says a Nature Conservancy report.
CONNIE TUTTLE: We all need more than love; we also need to keep our expectations in check (tucsonweekly.com)
When I was a mere slip of a girl, back in the 1960s, the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" was hummed, strummed, sung and eventually immortalized as iconic for a generation knowing a lot about narcissistic self-absorption, but not a whole lot about love.
Patt Morrison: Between 'crazy' and 'committed' (latimes.com)
The idea of a Britney's Law struck a nerve with families in similar situations.
JOEL STEIN: Peter Principle of award shows (latimes.com)
A night at the Christian Oscars.
WILLIS G. REGIER: Aesop's translators have had varied agendas (chronicle.com)
A few years ago, I needed to cite an English translation of an Aesop fable. Obedient to lessons learned in graduate school, I looked for the best. That turned out to be a winding road with distracting detours.
Roger Ebert: Repo Man (3 stars, 1984)
"Repo Man" is one of those movies that slips through the cracks and gives us all a little weirdo fun. It is the first movie I know about that combines (1) punk teenagers, (2) automobile repossessors, and (3) aliens from outer space. This is the kind of movie that baffles Hollywood, because it isn't made from any known formula and doesn't follow the rules.
Contributor Comment
Re: Jericho
You said:
"Thanks, Kevin!
I watched an episode early last season, and then kept up on the
viewers peanut protest.
You'd have thunk CBS would have recycled the first season again during
the strike, but I guess Les Moonves prefers we watch his wife in prime
time. "
CBS reran the entire series on Friday Nights during the summer (and it
did poorly there too), and SciFi started running it on Monday...but to
rerun a low rated series twice on a network is just a bad decision,
IMHO.
Cory!! Strode
The Best Dressed Man In Comics
And soon returning with graphic novel reviews now that the new job is calming down
Thanks, Cory!! !
Glad to hear you're back.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and still on the cool side.
Tells Huckabee To Lay Off Song
Tom Scholz
The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission.
A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense.
Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee's candidacy.
"Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for," wrote Scholz, adding that he is supporting Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. "By using my song, and my band's name Boston, you have taken something of mine and used it to promote ideas to which I am opposed. In other words, I think I've been ripped off, dude!"
Tom Scholz
Urges Safer Oceans
Ted Danson
The star of the long-running hit TV show "Cheers" on Thursday called for better practices to protect the world's oceans from overfishing and mercury contamination.
"This is not about saving fish from the goodness of our hearts or taking care of our oceans because we want to be thought of as environmental. It is economic. It is moral, and it is public health," Ted Danson, a board member of the advocacy group Oceana, told the National Press Club.
Most famous as the bartender Sam Malone on NBC's 1982-93 Emmy-winning sitcom "Cheers," Danson founded the American Oceans Campaign in 1987 to bring national attention to ocean environmental issues. The group later merged with Oceana to bring the cause to a global level.
Danson also said the issue of overfishing and ocean contamination is competing against global warming for the public's attention. But, he said, both equally deserve the spotlight.
Ted Danson
Sold To Ripley's
Guinness World Records
The Guinness World Records brand, which bills itself as the authority on record-breaking achievements, has been sold to the company behind Ripley's Believe It or Not museums, famous for their unusual exhibits.
Canada's privately owned Jim Pattison Group, which owns the Ripley's "odditoriums" through a unit, said on Friday it had bought Guinness World Records from Britain's HIT Entertainment.
It declined to disclose the price tag, but newspaper reports put the sale at around 60 million pounds ($118 million).
Guinness World Records
Shift Affects Minorities Most
Digital TV
Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to be left without television service following the nationwide transition to digital broadcasting next year, according to a new survey.
Beginning in February 2009, full-power broadcast stations will transmit digital-only signals, meaning people who get their television programming over an antenna and do not have a digital set won't get a picture without a special converter box.
The Nielsen Co. survey released Friday estimates that more than 13 million households in the U.S. receive television programming over the air on non-digital sets, meaning they will need converter boxes. Another 6 million households contain at least one television that fits that description.
Nielsen researchers found that 10.1 percent of all households would have no access to television signals if the transition occurred today. Broken down by race, 8.8 percent of whites would be unready; 11.7 percent of Asians; 12.4 percent of blacks; and 17.3 percent of Hispanics.
Digital TV
Musicians Sue For Lost Royalties
Universal Music
More than a dozen recording artists, including the estates of Count Basie and Benny Goodman, sued Universal Music on Friday, saying they had been cheated out of more than $6 million in royalties since 1998.
The artists, many of whom signed with recording companies that were later bought by Universal, sued the world's largest music label for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty in a lawsuit filed in New York State Court.
The lawsuit alleges that Universal, which is required to submit at least biannual reports of sales and earnings for each artist, provided false information throughout the accounting period of May 1999 through February 2007.
Other artists included in the lawsuit, either individually or through their estates, were Les Brown, Richard Hayman, Dick Hyman, Woody Herman, Kitty Kallen, Frankie Laine, Tony Martin, John Mills, Jerry Murad, Patti Page, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Sarah Vaughn.
Universal Music
NY Judge Tosses Lawsuit
DEA Agents
A judge has tossed out a lawsuit alleging that about 400 retired federal drug agents were defamed by a false statement on screen at the end of the film "American Gangster."
The statement suggested that a notorious Harlem heroin dealer, Frank Lucas, cooperated in the prosecution of some high level drug dealers. It said Lucas' "collaboration (with law enforcement) led to the conviction of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency."
In a written ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed the $50 million lawsuit filed last month against NBC Universal by three former federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents on behalf of agents who worked in the city between 1973 and 1985.
At no point in the film is a DEA agent identified, the judge said, and there is no suggestion that any federal agent is corrupt.
However, she did take a shot at NBC Universal, saying it would "behoove a major corporation like Universal (which is owned by a major news organization, NBC) not to put inaccurate statements at the end of popular films."
DEA Agents
Stops Using Bodies From China
'Body Worlds'
The doctor behind the "Body Worlds" exhibits that show cadavers in different poses says he has stopped using bodies from China for fear that some of them may be executed prisoners, ABC News reported on Friday.
Dr. Gunther von Hagens told ABC's "20/20" that he had to destroy some bodies he had received from China because they had injuries that made him suspect they were execution victims.
The doctor invented a liquid plastic process that preserves bodies. He has put many of them on display in museum exhibits that show them in poses like playing poker or throwing a football.
'Body Worlds'
Dumps HD DVDs For Blu-Ray
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores Inc has decided to exclusively sell high-definition DVDs in the Blu-Ray format, dealing what could be a crippling blow to the rival HD DVD technology backed by Toshiba Corp.
The move by the world's largest retailer, announced on Friday, caps a disappointing week for HD DVD supporters, who also saw consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc and online video rental company Netflix Inc defect to the Blu-ray camp.
In a statement on its Web site, Wal-Mart said that over the next few months it will phase out sales of HD DVD systems and discs. By June, it will sell only products in the Blu-ray format which was developed by Sony Corp.
The move affects 4,000 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the United States, as well as related online sites. The stores will continue to sell traditional DVD players and movies.
Wal-Mart
Fears Avalanche Of Water
Leadville, CO
More than 1 billion gallons of contaminated water - enough to fill 1,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools - is trapped in a tunnel in the mountains above the historic town of Leadville and threatening to blow.
Lake County Commissioners have declared a local state of emergency for fear that this winter's above-average snowpack will melt and cause a catastrophic tidal wave.
The water is backed up in abandoned mine shafts and a 2.1-mile drainage tunnel that is partially collapsed, creating the pooling of water contaminated with heavy metals.
County officials have been nervously monitoring the rising water pressure inside the mine shafts for about two years. An explosion could inundate Leadville and contaminate the Arkansas River.
Leadville, CO
Not Quite Undiscovered
"American Idol"
The integrity of "American Idol" as a contest for raw, undiscovered talent was called into question again after an Irish singer who once had a major-label deal, and solo album that flopped, advanced to the top rung of the competition this week.
Dublin native Carly Smithson, who formerly recorded for MCA Records under her maiden name, Carly Hennessy, was one of the 24 "Idol" contestants who made it on Wednesday to the semifinal rounds voted on each week by the show's home TV audience.
"Idol" bars anyone with a current talent-management deal or recording contract from competing, but contestants are permitted to have signed professionally in the past.
Still, critics suggest that "Idol" producers appear to be deliberately obscuring Smithson's background.
"American Idol"
Jack Rabbits Disappear
Yellowstone
A jack rabbit found throughout much of the West has disappeared from the Yellowstone area, although the reason why remains a mystery, a new study concludes.
Whatever the cause, the study suggests the white-tailed jack rabbit's disappearance has wrought major changes to Yellowstone's food chain. Coyotes and wolves, which could have depended on the rabbit as a significant food source, apparently turned their attention instead to larger prey including young elk, pronghorn antelope - even domestic livestock.
However, because the rabbit's decline went relatively unnoticed until now, quantifying that shift is virtually impossible, said the study's lead author, Joel Berger with the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The white-tailed jack rabbit - also known as the prairie hare - was once a common sight in and around Yellowstone National Park. About two feet long, the animal is distinguished by exceptionally long ears and its change in color during winter months to a stark white.
Yellowstone
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