'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Barbara Ehrenreich: Reclaiming What Makes Us Human (inthesetimes.com)
Through the ages, the killjoys of governing elites have been threatened by public expressions of collective joy
Barbara Ehrenreich: A $210 Million Tip? Nice Work If You Can Get It (The Progressive; Posted on Alternet.org)
Home Depot salesclerks get about $8-$10 an hour for lifting heavy objects and running around the floor all day with no tips while its departed CEO got $210 million bonus for sinking the value of the company's stock.
Scott Burns: Love for Home Depot has run its course (dallasnews.com)
Today it is hard to find a staff person at a Home Depot. Personally, I've left the store empty-handed after a hopeless wait. ... My wife has gotten so frustrated waiting - while trying to buy carpeting for an entire house - that she has taken her business elsewhere. I know we're not alone. One of my friends started to seethe when I mentioned Home Depot. He'll buy things almost anywhere except Home Depot. He hates having his time abused. And that's what Home Depot does by short-staffing. It abuses our time. We can't get the help we need, and we can't make our purchases quickly.
Froma Harrop: Stopping the Creepy Creditors (creators.com)
"I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves," Ronald Reagan said. I do. And my position seems the more attractive one these days. As congressional reformers turn the spotlight on widespread and abusive lending Š
Scott Burns: Hearing different drummers (dallasnews.com)
One of the great things about writing a newspaper column is that you'll never develop a swollen head. If you're wrong or off the wall or simply bend the language too much, readers will tell you, point-blank.
Brad Mackay: Hero deficit: Comic books in decline (thestar.com)
The superhero comics that kids once knew (and perhaps loved) are in trouble. Notwithstanding Hollywood's recent infatuation with big-budget superhero movies, for much of the past 30 years the monthly comic book adventures of Spider-Man, Batman and their kind have been suffering from shrinking readership and slumping sales.
LENNARD J. DAVIS: Huckleberry Who? (chronicle.com)
The University of Paris literature professor Pierre Bayard's best seller How to Talk About Books That You Haven't Read is flying off the shelves in France. Not only does Bayard tell readers how to fake literary orgasm, but he admits to giving lectures on books he hasn't bothered to read.
Jonathan Kiefer: All the Things That Make Us Laugh and Cry (newsreview.com)
Seth McFarlane's success with "Family Guy" and "American Dad" might make him a contender to succeed Kurt Vonnegut as America's resident ironic wit -- if it weren't for "The Winner."
I Wish I Were a Lesbian Anime (youtube.com)
Pigboy Tribute
Pokin' The Bear
Mistake in the "Rush Limbaugh" song, "POKIN' THE BEAR"
I just discovered I left the last TEN SECONDS of Rush's rap off that POKIN THE BEAR song, so I've remixed it and replaced it where the song was, on the www.bluecanyonsatire.com page.
So if you plan to play it (again), please download the newer version for full comic effect.
Pleased to report the "Please Impeach Me" video is almost at 8,000 views on YouTube! That's also available in MP3 audio on the satire page.
Jim
Blue Canyon Satire
Baron Dave
No Deer's Behind Left
Marty:
Republican pedophelia put in perspective, crisis handled by Wisconsin:
TTFN,
Baron Dave
-- "You're more delusional than you think I am." -- Duck Dodgers
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny but cooler.
Added a new flag - Ethiopia 
Benefiting Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Charity Auction
An online auction sponsored by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial is giving bidders a chance to fulfill their celebrity fantasies, including a walk-on role on "Desperate Housewives" or lunch with Richard Gere at his new restaurant. The auction, which started Tuesday and runs through April 6, also includes tickets to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and set visits to "House," "24" and "Boston Legal."
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said auction organizers, including her mother, Ethel Kennedy, hope to raise at least $600,000. The human rights organization is named for Townsend's father, Robert Kennedy, the former U.S. senator and attorney general.
Fashionistas can bid on a visit to Oscar de la Renta's showroom and design studio. For science junkies, there's a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Those with a more political bent can bid on lunch with former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, at an unofficial, secret location jokingly dubbed a "Safehouse" by auction organizers.
Charity Auction
Home Town Visit
Halle Berry
Even in the rain, Halle Berry draws a crowd when she returns home to the Cleveland area. About 800 people waited in drizzle Thursday night in this Ohio suburb to catch a glimpse of the Oscar-winning actress before a screening of her new film, "Perfect Stranger."
Onlookers snapped photos with cameras and cell phones as Berry made her way from a sport utility vehicle to the movie theater. She signed autographs, talked to fans and conducted interviews with local media.
"I swear this is true. No matter how many countries I've been to, no matter how many warm receptions I've gotten, my heart was beating when I pulled up. Nothing feels better. The voices all sound familiar in some weird way. I'm of here. I'm from here. And I'm one of you."
Halle Berry
Racist Over Reacts - Again
Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson exchanged angry words with a university professor who challenged the accuracy of his film "Apocalypto" at an on-campus screening. Gibson was answering questions from the crowd at California State University, Northridge, Thursday night when Alicia Estrada, an assistant professor of Central American studies, accused the actor-director of misrepresenting the Mayan culture in the movie. Gibson directed an expletive at the woman, who was removed from the crowd.
"In no way was my question aggressive in the way that he responded to it," Estrada said. "These are questions that my peers, my colleagues, ask me every time I make a presentation. These are questions I pose to my students in the classroom."
Gibson's publicist, Alan Nierob, characterized the professor as "a heckler."
Mel Gibson
Billionaire Opens Mansions To Homeless
Genshiro Kawamoto
Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families.
Tears spilled down Kahale's cheeks as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto the key to a white, columned house with a circular driveway, a stone staircase and a deep porcelain bathtub. Her family will live there rent-free, but must pay utility bills.
Kawamoto, one of Japan's richest men, said he plans to open eight of his 22 Kahala homes to needy Hawaiian families. They will be able to stay in the homes for up to 10 years, he said. He also gave each family 10 $100 bills to help them move in.
Some neighbors are unhappy with Kawamoto's plan, speculating that he is trying to drive down real estate values so he can snap up even more homes.
Genshiro Kawamoto
Historic Housing Project
Hollywood
The nation's first low-cost housing development aimed specifically at gay, lesbian and transgender retirees opened its doors in Hollywood on Thursday with a promise to provide a dignified haven for elderly homosexuals to live out their days.
Calling it a historic day for the gay and lesbian community in both Los Angeles and the United States, officials opened the 104-unit affordable housing complex, built around a pool and open courtyard and complete with an activity center and disabled facilities.
According to a recent study by the University of California, Los Angeles, the city has a gay population of 442,000 -- the second highest in the United States after New York. West Hollywood has a 40 percent gay or lesbian population, making it one of the largest gay scenes in the world.
Yet even in Los Angeles, gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender adults face daunting challenges in what can often be a lonely and isolated old age, the nonprofit Gay and Lesbian Elder Housing group said.
Hollywood
Czech Tennis Academy
Martina Navratilova
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova said Thursday she wants to open a tennis academy in her native Czech Republic, although not one along the lines of those in her adopted America.
"I'm not too keen on the way tennis is taught, particularly in the United States," said Navratilova, who dislikes the concentration on the power side of the game.
"I want to concentrate on a more varied form of tennis, more subtle than the style displayed by Martina Hingis, Justine Henin or Roger Federer."
Martina Navratilova
TV Reunion
Donny Osmond
Polish your platform boots, squeeze into those flared pants. Donny Osmond and his five brothers may be planning a comeback -- at least for one night.
Osmond, a 1970s teen heart-throb who is back in the British charts with his 55th album, said on Friday the brothers are considering a reunion special on television.
"I haven't done a show with my brothers for 25 years or so. We are talking about doing a TV special, and maybe something with (sister) Marie, but nothing is locked in yet."
Donny Osmond
Zsa Zsa's Odious Husband
Frederic von Anhalt
Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband provided a DNA sample Friday in the ongoing dispute about the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith's infant daughter, and said he wanted to raise the child if he was the father. Frederic von Anhalt said he's "almost sure" the test will prove he's the father of 6-month-old Dannielynn. He says he carried on a decades-long affair with the former Playboy Playmate of the Year.
"I'm almost sure the baby's mine, almost sure," von Anhalt, 59, said after having a cotton swab brushed along the inside of his mouth. He added he hopes to gain custody as soon as possible.
"Oh yeah, if it's my baby, it belongs in my home," von Anhalt said. "I'm going to take good care of it. I will be a good father."
Frederic von Anhalt
TSA Thieves
LAX
Eleven people have been charged with the theft of passenger property at Los Angeles International Airport, prosecutors said on Friday, including a baggage screener accused of stealing a $100,000 watch from Paris Hilton's bag.
Prosecutors say George Penaranda, a 27-year-old TSA screener, was spotted by a co-worker taking a Paris Hilton Limited Edition watch from the hotel heiress's bag, slipping it into his glove and then his pocket in May of 2006. Penaranda replaced the watch, which was valued at $100,000, after he realized that he had been observed.
The eight other people charged included five TSA screeners, two employees of an airport subcontractor and a transient.
LAX
Ex-CIA Agent Claims
Che Guevara
A former CIA agent reportedly claims he personally buried leftist revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and challenged Cuba to allow a DNA test to prove that the remains it interred are Guevara's.
Miami Cuban emigre Gustavo Villoldo, 71, a veteran of the failed US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, told the Miami Herald he buried Guevara and two colleagues in October 1967 in a pit in Vallegrande, Bolivia, after cutting a lock of the hair of the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary hero.
The communist Cuban government in 1995 announced it had located Che's remains and returned them to Cuba in 1997 for a pomp- and parade-filled extravaganza, ending in their interment at a mausoleum in Cuba honoring Guevara.
Villoldo said he had the exact coordinates of the grave, and would only give them to the Guevara family if they requested them, the report said.
Che Guevara
Estate Sues Over Chair
Marlon Brando
Representatives of Marlon Brando's estate are suing two furniture companies and a retailer over the sale of a home theater chair called "The Brando."
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims misappropriation of the name of a deceased celebrity. The actor died in July 2004 and permission wasn't obtained to use his name, the estate claims.
Jason Brainard, vice president of City Leather, said officials at his stores were told to stop using the Brando name when selling the chair. No decision has been made yet on what to rename the chair, he said.
Marlon Brando
Jefferson Airplane Sues - Again
Paul Kantner
Is this a flashback? One faction of the 1960s psychedelic band Jefferson Airplane is again suing founding member Paul Kantner, alleging that he's using the band's name without permission.
Singer Grace Slick and Bill Thompson, former manager of the Jefferson Airplane and the Jefferson Starship, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court, charging that Kantner is violating both trademark rights and an $80,000 legal settlement he signed in 1985.
Kantner promised never to perform as Jefferson Starship or use the names "Jefferson" or "Airplane" without consent from Slick, majority shareholder in Jefferson Starship Inc., the lawsuit said.
Kantner, 66, has been performing for years under variations on the names. He started touring in 1991 as Paul Kantner's Starship, while Mickey Thomas, another ex-Starship vocalist, has been touring under the name of Mickey Thomas' Starship. Kantner's and Airplane vocalist and co-founder Marty Balin's use of the Airplane name in a 2000 concert tour brought another lawsuit and an injunction.
Paul Kantner
Wins Musical Script Dispute
ABBA
Former ABBA stars Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson won a court battle Friday over who wrote the script for one of their musicals.
The feud between Ulvaeus and Andersson and writer Carl-Johan Seth concerned "Kristina fran Duvemala," viewed by more than 1 million people in Sweden and expected to be cast on Broadway. Ulvaeus and Andersson wrote the songs and music for the play.
Seth argued that he should be considered the main writer, but Ulvaeus and Andersson said his work was unusable. They said they used a script by director Lars Rudolfsson and dramatist Jan Mark.
ABBA
Are GM Crops To Blame?
Bees
Is the mysterous decimation of bee populations in the US and Germany a result of GM crops?
Walter Haefeker is a man who is used to painting grim scenarios. He sits on the board of directors of the German Beekeepers Association (DBIB) and is vice president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association. And because griping is part of a lobbyist's trade, it is practically his professional duty to warn that "the very existence of beekeeping is at stake."
The problem, says Haefeker, has a number of causes, one being the varroa mite, introduced from Asia, and another is the widespread practice in agriculture of spraying wildflowers with herbicides and practicing monoculture. Another possible cause, according to Haefeker, is the controversial and growing use of genetic engineering in agriculture.
Bees
In Memory
Milton Wexler
Milton Wexler, a prominent Hollywood psychoanalyst whose efforts to find a cure for the disease that killed his wife led scientists to pinpoint the Huntington's gene, has died. He was 98.
Though trained in law and psychology, Wexler spent much of the past three decades unlocking the mysteries of Huntington's disease, a rare, incurable genetic disorder that slowly killed his wife, her father and three brothers.
Wexler launched what is now known as the Hereditary Disease Foundation in 1968, when his wife, Leonore Wexler, got the Huntington's diagnosis. That meant the couple's daughters, Alice and Nancy, had a 50 percent risk of also inheriting the disease.
In 1983, scientists nurtured by Wexler - and later also by Nancy, a clinical psychologist - found the genetic marker for Huntington's. In 1993, they located the gene itself.
Wexler was born in San Francisco in 1908 and grew up in New York City, where he trained as a lawyer before becoming a psychoanalyst in the 1930s.
In 1946, he joined the staff of the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kan., where his success treating schizophrenics gained attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1951.
More recently, Wexler appeared in Sidney Pollock's documentary, "Sketches of Frank Gehry," and was described in a Los Angeles Times review as, "a winning, charismatic presence."
His daughter Nancy Wexler, a professor at Columbia University, succeeded her father as foundation president. Alice, a historian, wrote "Mapping Fate," a 1995 memoir of her family's struggles. They are Wexler's only survivors, after choosing not to have children when they learned they may have inherited their mother's defective gene.
Milton Wexler
In Memory
Herman Stein
Herman Stein, who composed music for many of Universal's 1950s science-fiction and horror films, died of congestive heart failure March 15 in Los Angeles. He was 91.
As a staff composer at Universal, Stein contributed music to nearly 200 films, but was most famous for his contributions to such genre classics as "It Came From Outer Space," "This Island Earth," "Creature From the Black Lagoon," "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "Tarantula."
During the 1930s and '40s he composed and arranged for radio programs and jazz orchestras, including work for Count Basie, Bob Crosby, Red Norvo, Fred Waring and others. He moved to Los Angeles in 1948, studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and joined Universal in 1951.
Stein's other films included "City Beneath the Sea," "The Great Man," "Backlash," "No Name on the Bullet" and Roger Corman's anti-racism film "The Intruder."
Stein composed for television from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, including scores for "M Squad," "Here Come The Nelsons," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Lost in Space."
He also composed for cartoons and commercials. His concert work included the "Mock March" for brass quintet and "Sour Suite" for woodwind quintet.
His wife Anita, a violist for many years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, died in 2001. There are no survivors.
Herman Stein
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