'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Lou Dobbs: Warren Buffett: 'There are lots of loose nukes around the world' (CNN)
... there's no question in my mind that the number one problem with mankind is the spread of nuclear knowledge.
ROGER EBERT: Here's to Anne Bancroft (1931-2005)
[An actress' body is her instrument.]
"'Don't you dare touch my instrument'!" she raged, in her highest Actors Studio dudgeon.
"'Oh, so this is your instrument?'
"'Yes. This is my instrument!'
"'Okay. Play 'Melancholy Baby'."
Two Cheap Bastards (aka Brent Hartinger & Michael Jensen): The Big Gay Picture: Revenge of the Right-Wing Wackos
If the political history of the United States corresponded to the six Star Wars films, we think the country would currently be at the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith, wherein the evil Sith Lords sweep into power, using treachery and brutality to pretty much eviscerate the forces of decency and good.
Uncyclopedia
Uncyclopedia, which aims to be "[the] encyclopedia of politically incorrect non-information", is a parody of Wikipedia. Its entries are nonsensical, with little or no resemblance to the truth.
Bad Jokes and Deleted Nonsense from Wikipedia
Depleted Uranium Factsheet (Federation of American Scientists)
Depleted Uranium Article (Wikipedia)
Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator
No Evolution, Please. We're Kansans
Welcome to Kansas! Please check your brain at the state line.
Sign John Conyers' Letter
Weekend Night
Erin Hart Show
I don't hate to say I TOLD YOU SO. The Democrats won the
Republicans' challenge of the election of Christine Gregoire as Governor of
Washington. What will Rossi do now? Who knows? Are his supporters
disappointed? How will our election process be reformed? A look back to
look forward.
Bush & Blair sat in a press conference and said a lot about NOTHING to do
with the questions about that Downing Street Memo--you expect it from Bush,
but Blair has sadly deteriorated so much over time. Will consequences ever
be paid for the illicit war? Ah, well, Bushie is sinking in the polls and
the public for the first time doesn't believe Iraq is making us safer.
Okay, I will resist saying I told you so, this time.
Howard Dean is being pilloried for being partisan--whaaaa??? Are we
Democrats going to eat our young AGAIN when the pubbies all around us stay
on message even into the depths of insanity???? Nay, I say. Be supportive
and get the message out. Should Howard be muzzled??? NOOOOOOOO--though I
have heard moderate Dems espouse that view.
All that and more.
Let me know how often you'd like Marty, entertainment
editor of Bartcop.com
on as a feature--the choice is monthly, bi-monthly or
weekly.
Listen LIVE online to the Erin Hart Show
tonight & Sunday on
KIRO in Seattle.
Contributor Comment
'Stable School Funding'
Stable School funding means:
If you shovel enough shit then you get some funding.
JD
Thanks, JD!
Another Rant
Avery Ant
The Wall Street Poet
2 Poems
©2005
**********
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the government's most comprehensive measure of inflation, rose at a 4.8 percent rate in the first four months of 2005. But by trimming out price changes in food and energy, which together account for about a quarter of the CPI, you get a 'core rate' that rose just 2.7 percent. And these days, the Federal Reserve and most economists have chosen to focus on this core rate as the truest measure of inflation. Say what? ©2005 **********
Beating Inflation The Core Rate Way
If you want to beat inflation
Here's a sure and easy way,
Live your life to match the core rate
Then few extra costs you'll pay.
Food and energy? Bad habits!
They're what's running up your bills;
Stop your eating, don't go driving,
This will cure inflation's ills.
Feel a morning pang of hunger?
Feed it with computer chips;
Since chip prices keep on falling
Breakfast chips check price hike blips.
Don't commute in cars on workdays
Such behavior is dead wrong;
Tell your boss it's just too pricey,
He will surely go along.
If you want to beat inflation,
All its worries to defray,
Live a core life at the core rate,
Watch the monster fade away.
For more financial verse:
www.wallstreetpoet.com
Purple Gene Reviews
'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'
Purple Genes' review of the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956) Directed by Don Siegel view trailer:
I had a nightmare….I dreamed that Americans were being silently and surrepticiously turned into faith based, Zombie like, emotionless clones….one by one…. Pod shaped Bibles were being distributed from the backs of trucks….one by one….we were being taken over by a born again Krystian Kult caught in a cosmic plot to end all human life on this beloved planet….If you fell asleep or let your guard down they would take you over…first it was the women and children…then the men….and they all looked like……Tom Delay…..all the people started running to the West Coast….people screaming…"they're here - you're next"…I woke up in a cold sweat…WHEW !
Well I decided to turn on the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" just to re-insure myself that it was just a nightmare that I was having…not the "Real Thing"!
Dr. Miles J. Bennell (Kevin McCarthy - "Death of a Salesman" - "The Misfits" - "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978 version - he's a running man)) has just returned to his little home town of Santa Mera….where he finds a long waiting list of patients with the same complaint…something has happened to their friends and relatives…something strange and frightening….they are acting very different. Things get more serious when peoples lifeless bodies start showing up on pool tables and in basements….who are these new people that are acting sooo "taken over"????
So Dr. Bennell hooks up with his old sweetheart Becky Driscol (Dana Wynter - "Lady Godiva Rides Again" - "Airport" - "Santee") and they start seeing first hand the extent of the seeming "brainwash" as friends they used to know start talking in monotones with glazing hollow eyes (like Born-again Christians). The paranoia begins to build as Miles and Becky look out the window and see a mob like town meeting where the "Pod People" start taking over. Soon the chase is on as Santa Mera is falling under….Miles and Becky are being chased to a cave…but they hide under some planks as the mob passes over them…."Becky, we've got to keep going and warn people on the outside…Becky, don't fall asleep…Becky…wake up…OH NO.."
Miles has to get out to the Highway and start warning everyone about what's going on in Santa Mera …and in a chilling scene, as Miles is running through traffic, he sees a truck full of pods heading for San Francisco!!!!
This is still a great movie to watch…if you can accept it as Sci-Fi Fiction!!!!!!
Purple Gene gives "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" 10 bible shaped pods out of 10 for being such a great allegorical nightmare….still !
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, but cool & pleasant.
Thursday night Triumph the Insult Comic Dog reported from the
Michael Jackson Trial Base Camp
on Conan.
Struck me as the funniest thing I've seen in months. Lewd, rude, crude & hysterical.
If you're on a crappy dial-up (like me), the show will rerun next Thursday night (OK, technically Friday morning) after the late rerun of Leno. Here it starts at 3:07am.
Repukes Out To Kill Big Bird
Public Broadcasting
A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster."
In addition, the subcommittee acted to eliminate within two years all federal money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting -- which passes federal funds to public broadcasters -- starting with a 25 percent reduction in CPB's budget for next year, from $400 million to $300 million.
In all, the cuts would represent the most drastic cutback of public broadcasting since Congress created the nonprofit CPB in 1967. The CPB funds are particularly important for small TV and radio stations and account for about 15 percent of the public broadcasting industry's total revenue.
Small public radio stations, particularly those in rural areas and those serving minority audiences, may be the most vulnerable to federal cuts because they currently operate on shoestring budgets.
Public Broadcasting
Veteran Rockers On Queen's Birthday List
Queen Elizabeth
Veteran rockers Jimmy Page, Brian May, Midge Ure and John Mayall are on Queen Elizabeth's annual birthday honours list.
For at least two of the honourees, it marked a big step up in recognition since March, when the Queen encountered Page and May at a Buckingham Palace reception and asked; "What do you do?"
May, the guitarist with rock group Queen, was being made a commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, for services to the music industry. He played a prominent role three years ago in celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, playing God Save the Queen from the roof of Buckingham Palace.
Page, a founding member of Led Zeppelin, was to be named an officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, for services to disadvantaged children in Brazil.
Queen Elizabeth
Pulls Out of Wetlands Campaign
Mr. Bill
"Saturday Night Live" icon Mr. Bill is saying a resounding "Nooooo!" to further appearances in a public awareness campaign aimed at saving Louisiana's wetlands.
In recent months state residents have watched as Mr. Bill, the animated clay character famous for his 1970s appearances on the comedy show, lent a hand to ads for the America's Wetland campaign.
But now Mr. Bill's creator, Walter Williams, is yanking his character from the campaign, saying he believes it is selling out to big oil companies - the very people accused of having a hand in destroying wetlands in the first place.
Williams said Shell Oil Co. is using the campaign - to which the company donated $800,000 - as a public relations move to masquerade as a green-friendly business. The last straw, he said, came when TV spots featuring Mr. Bill showed up in Shell-sponsored kiosks at tourist centers throughout Louisiana.
Mr. Bill
On The Road
Sean Penn
Hollywood actor Sean Penn, adopting the role of a journalist, scribbled in his notebook as Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran chanted "Death to America."
Penn, 44, in Iran on a brief assignment for the San Francisco Chronicle ahead of presidential elections on June 17, may be one of the best known faces in film, but he went unrecognized by the 6,000 faithful at Tehran University.
The actor, who visited Iraq before and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and wrote an account of his second trip for the Chronicle, told Reuters he had decided to come to Iran because of growing tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Sean Penn
VH1 Names No. 1 Child Star
Gary Coleman
VH1 has named Gary Coleman No. 1 on its list of the top 100 child stars ever. "Home Alone" star Macaulay Culkin was second, and the Olsen twins were third.
Coleman, now 37, was the precocious star of the hit sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes," which ran from 1978-86. Coleman played Arnold, who along with his older brother Willis (Todd Bridges) moves from Harlem to live with an affluent white family in Manhattan.
Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, Emmanuel Lewis, Ron Howard, Corey Feldman, Maureen McCormick and Danny Bonaduce round out the top 10 on the VH1 list. Virtually every actor who made a splash in his or her younger days gets a mention, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixo, Brooke Shields, Alyssa Milano and Jason Bateman.
Gary Coleman
Helps Break Ground on Museum
B.B. King
Blues icon B.B. King joined local and state dignitaries Friday for the groundbreaking of a $10 million museum honoring him in a Mississippi Delta town where he used to live.
King said he was "happy and nervous" about festivities and said he hopes the museum, as a whole, will inspire a new generation of musicians and artists.
Riley King was born Sept. 16, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Berclair, outside Itta Bena. He moved to Indianola in 1943.
King earned the nickname "B.B." - for Beale Street Blues Boy or just Blues Boy - during his early career in Memphis, Tenn.
B.B. King
Hosting ESPY Awards
Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry, a former junior tennis player in his native Canada, is going back to the sports world as host of the ESPY Awards.
He takes over from comedian and Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx, who hosted the previous two years.
The ESPYs will be taped at the Kodak Theatre on July 13. The awards show will air four days later on ESPN.
Matthew Perry
Receives Order of Merit Award
David Attenborough
TV naturalist David Attenborough received the prestigious Order of Merit award Friday from Queen Elizabeth II.
The order is a special distinction awarded by the queen to people who have shown exceptional merit in the arts, learning, literature and science or public service.
Attenborough, 79, can now use the letters "OM" after his name.
David Attenborough
Gay-Pride Parade Grand Marshals
Hiltons
Paris Hilton and her mother, Kathy, will be grand marshals for the annual gay pride parade, one of the city's biggest celebrations.
They will greet tens of thousands of people expected Sunday at the Los Angeles Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual & Transgender Pride Parade.
Hiltons
Village Must Move
Shishmaref
With sea ice shrinking, permafrost thawing and sea storms becoming more frequent, residents of a remote Eskimo village in Alaska are preparing to move their entire community to more solid ground within four years, officials said on Wednesday.
Located on a narrow Chukchi Sea barrier island, the Inupiat village of Shishmaref has lost so much ground in recent years that it has become an internationally famous case study into the effects of global warming. It is likely to become the first U.S. community to move because of a warming climate, many scientists have said.
Erosion at Shishmaref, an Inupiat island village of 600, is so dramatic that residents plan to start moving to a new site about 13.5 miles inland by 2009.
In all, 184 Alaska villages are in serious danger of erosion or flooding, according to a government report issued last year. Four, including Shishmaref and Newtok, already have relocation plans, according to the report.
Shishmaref
Contract Sells for $996K
Babe Ruth
The "cursed" 1919 contract that shipped Babe Ruth from Boston to the Bronx sold at auction Friday for a staggering $996,000, delighting its new owner - a die-hard Yankees fan - and a hunger-relief group designated to receive a financial windfall from the sale.
"I was prepared to pay almost whatever it took," said Pete Siegel, head of Manhattan-based Gotta Have It Collectibles, after his winning offer. "I'm not saying a billion dollars, but whatever price I needed to secure it."
The price was nearly double the presale estimate for the Dec. 26, 1919, contract, signed by owners Harry Frazee of the Red Sox and Jacob Ruppert of Yankees, and nearly 10 times the $100,000 cost of purchasing Ruth.
Babe Ruth
Spark House Fire
Two Kittens
Two kittens picked the wrong place to relieve themselves when they urinated on a fax machine, sparking a fire that extensively damaged their Japanese owner's house.
Investigators in the western city of Kobe have concluded that the fire in January was caused by a spark generated when the urine soaked the machine's electrical printing mechanism.
"If you have a cat, or a dog for that matter, be careful where they urinate," Oyabu said. "Especially keep them away from electrical appliances and wires."
Two kittens
In Memory
Dana Elcar
Dana Elcar, the round-faced, balding actor whose real-life struggle with blindness was written into his role on the TV adventure series "MacGyver," has died. He was 77.
"MacGyver" ran on ABC from 1985 to 1992. Elcar played the best friend and boss of the crime-fighting title character, played by Richard Dean Anderson.
Elcar, who suffered from glaucoma, told producers he was going blind after four seasons with "MacGyver," so they adapted his character to match his medical condition. By the end of the show's run, he had become almost completely blind.
Elcar's television career spanned 50 years. He played in other drama series, including "Baretta" opposite Robert Blake and the Robert Conrad series "Black Sheep Squadron."
Elcar also appeared in at least 40 films, including "The Sting," "2010," "All of Me" and "The Learning Tree."
He starred in off-Broadway plays, including the first American productions of Harold Pinter's "The Dumb Waiter" and "The Caretaker," Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood" and Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot."
In addition to his son, Dane, Elcar is survived by three daughters, a stepdaughter, a sister, a half sister and longtime companion Thelma M. Garcia.
Dana Elcar
