'TBH Politoons'
(from 13 March, 2002)
Thanks, again, Tim!
More Fresh Content!
the worried shrimp
Admit One WingNut...
Reader Comment
Re: Leni Riefenstahl
from Anna H
Hello,
It's Anna again. I'd like to say a thingie about Leni Riefenstahl and
popular beliefs.
First of all, I completely admire that woman. She really lived her whole
life through and every success she gained she completely deserved. After the
2nd World War she was publicly prosecuted because of her bondage to Hitler
and for more than 10 years she lived in poverty, unemployedness and
anonymity. It was only her spirit and will that made her rise up again from
it all, take up the scooba-diving classes at the age of 72 (needing to forge
her age in documents to be able to participate) and now stand side by side
to people as great as Jacques Cousteau.
If people knew that Hitler was devil's spawn right from the start, there
wouldn't have been anyting like WWII. Today, everybody's mouth is full with
disgust toward Nazism, but among them there are even those who praised Nazis
throughout the war.
It's easy for the people who just sat at home listening to the radio and
thinking "What a fine chap that Adolf is!" to wash their hands from it now.
But Leni has a problem. She was photoed and taped, she taped herself. All of
those evidences are now against her and she can't just say: "I didn't do it"
when she did. She herself openly says that she admired Hitler. But she
emphasizes that it was personal and that she had no interest in politics. By
the time she would've found out what was REALLY going on, what would've she
done? She's a survivor and I think at that time she only wanted to survive.
So she went along.
I still believe that she didn't know as much as her prosecutors think she
did. If she has so much guts today to abandon the omnipresent hypocrisy and
say "Yes, I admired Hitler."
I wish her, at this fine age of 100, to finally get a break from it all.
Thanks,
Anna H
Anna lives in Frankfurt, Germany, but originally hails from Bosnia. Thanks, Anna!
Check out Anna's Historical Costumes
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
So, on Thursday morning, I got this link -
Joseph Perkins -- Democratic hands are not all clean in corporate scandals
The article opens:
'' M oney . . .
Liabilities now total $1.6 billion in the Adelphia restatement.
WorldCom is thought to owe its banks approximately $4.5 billion....
That's the text of the latest attack ad rolled out by the party of Terry McAuliffe. The Democratic National Committee chairman plans to air them in selected battleground states and
congressional districts throughout the country.
The obvious aim is to somehow tie the Bush administration to the recent rash of corporate scandals.....
and, it goes on..... ''
There has been a '?' floating at the bottom of this page for awhile (and if you've clicked on it), you've seen what the incredibly lazy, nationally syndicated
Joseph Perkins, who failed to check his facts, felt worthy of comment. Hell, he thought it was worth a whole column.
The clip in question was most definitely NOT produced, or paid for by the Democratic party, or any representative of the Democratic party (yes, this is a fact).
One would have thought that the San Diego Union-Tribune, being a 'real' newspaper (and national syndicator), would have corrected, or at least acknowledged the errors in
Joseph Perkins column in a timely fashion. After all, Mr. Perkins is on their payroll.
To keep up to speed on how 'liberal' the media is, follow the writings of 'Editor' at
Blah3.com: Free Speech for the New Century, who is quite on top of the entire situation. : )
Tonight, Saturday, CBS has 'NFL Preseason' - where the 49's are gonna cross the Bay and visit the Raiders in Oakland. On the west coast, reruns of 'The District' and 'The Agency' follow.
NBC has reruns of 'Meet My Folks', 'Dog Eat Dog', and 'Crime & Punishment'.
ABC taped coverage of 'Little League Baseball' from Williamsport, PA. It's followed by another rerun of 'America's Funniest Home Videos'.
The WB has the movie 'Rambo: First Blood, Part II'.
Faux has the usual 2 reruns of 'Cops', and then 'America's Most Wanted'.
UPN has the movie 'Epicenter'.
TCM celebrates Humphrey Bogart tonight. Starts with
Tokyo Joe (1949), then the Sam Spade classic,
The Maltese Falcon (1941), followed by the timeless
Casablanca (1942), and wrapping with
the under-rated The Petrified Forest (1936).
AMC has one of the best spaghetti-westerns of all time -
C'era una volta il West (1969), as it was titled in the
original Italian, 'Wo Die Wilder Westen War' in German (the language in which I first saw the film), and
'Once Upon A Time In The West' as we know it here. Directed by Sergio Leone,
it stars a badass Henry Fonda. Jeez, when Mr. Roberts blows away
the little boy, orange Fanta spewed from my nose! Charles Bronson plays
a harmonica player, too.
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
'Get Your War On' Artist
David Rees
What's a nice boy like David Rees doing with a cult hit comic strip like "Get Your War On"?
By David Rees' own accounting, he had an idyllic childhood. Growing up in Chapel Hill in the '70s and '80s, he played Rainbow Soccer, helped his parents tend a vegetable garden, attended theater
and the N.C. Symphony, went to Chapel Hill High School, and hung out with close friends, who encouraged him in his artistic endeavors. In conversation today, the polite 29-year-old artist sounds
for all the world like someone who in youth always ate his vegetables and never had any overdue fines at the library. Like someone your mother might describe as "a nice boy."
That makes it all the more difficult to account for the wall-to-wall expletives, drug references, world-weariness and free-floating angst of his popular online comic strip "Get Your War On," which
tackles current events with the kind of insouciant vengeance that would have made Rees' high school history teacher blanch. Rees says the strips were inspired in part by Vanity Fair's editor, Graydon
Carter, who prematurely pronounced irony dead after Sept. 11. The cartoonist wanted to prove Carter wrong.
Rees' scatological strips have achieved a kind of cult status of late. Members of the band Fugazi are fans. Television commentator and political firebrand Arianna Huffington (whom Rees politely refers
to as "Ms. Huffington") has e-mailed him with praise. Rees has even been featured on NPR, and in April, the paper of record in his new hometown of New York City (that would be The New York Times) ran a
lengthy profile of Rees on Page One of its "SundayStyles" section.
The strips that have brought him such attention (available online at www.mnftiu.cc) are crudely assembled from public domain online clip art, and follow the conversations of a group of disaffected office
workers as they weigh in on the war on terrorism and the Enron scandal. The officeworkers' profanity-laced repartee has more than forbidden four-letter words to recommend it, however. Often the commentary
includes spot-on satire, going places where popular comedians have yet to venture.
For the rest, from a hometown paper, David Rees
Would You Buy A Used Car From Either Guy?
Stockton, CA
President Bush shakes hands with GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon before making remarks at a fund-raiser luncheon Friday, Aug. 23, 2002, in Stockton, Calif. On the same day he called for corporate crooks to serve hard time in jail, Bush
campaigned for the Republican gubernatorial candidate whose family firm was fined almost $80 million in July for fraudulent business dealings.
Photo by Rick Bowmer
Useful Links
Follow The Money
'The Political Money Line'
AND
opensecrets.org
Reality Challenges Real Life
Osbournes
Producers of reality shows are used to dealing with the unexpected, but the problems MTV is facing with "The Osbournes" defy precedent.
Family matriarch Sharon Osbourne has colon cancer, introducing a host of potential complications, both for the Osbourne family and for the show's second and third seasons.
Her husband, rocker Ozzy Osbourne is understandably distraught over his wife's illness. He canceled concert dates to be with her, then rejoined the tour at her insistence.
"The Osbournes" became the biggest hit in cable history -- and at times drew more adults 18-34 this spring than many network shows -- largely because of its unique ability to play as a real-life sitcom.
The challenge now is finding what's so funny about the reality of the family's situation. And the consensus is that everyone's up for the task.
It's not clear when the second season of the show will be ready to air. When MTV confirmed that it ordered 20 more episodes, or two additional seasons, of the show, the network indicated it would be for a fall
debut. A more likely scenario now is a winter debut, insiders suggest.
Reality Challenges Osbournes
Radio Pranksters On The Prowl
Britney Spears
Canadian comics posing as singer Celine Dion persuaded Britney Spears to sing a duet with golfer Tiger Woods called "Let's Make a Hole in One" for a bogus charity event.
Their radio clip airs on the Internet later on Friday at www.radiopranks.com.
Montreal comic Marc Audette, deftly imitating the voice of French-Canadian diva Dion, chatted with Spears on the telephone about each woman's charity foundations.
After a few minutes of mutual admiration, Audette got down to business and invited Spears to come to Montreal and visit "her club" -- in reality, a popular Montreal strip joint.
"We certainly won't be distracted there," Audette said. "Of course, Boy George won't be invited, just to be sure."
The pair played an April Fool's Joke on Bill Gates earlier this year when they pretended to be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
For more details, Britney Spears
Snarky Gossip
Snipes v. Rhames
There seems to be a real fight brewing between on-screen pugilists Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames. The duo - longtime friends who attended the New York's HS
of Performing Arts together - boxed each other filming "Undisputed," opening this weekend. Now they want to fight for real. When Snipes appeared on ESPN's "Mohr
Sports," he told Jay Mohr he was sure he could take Rhames because he's trained in martial arts. A few days later, on Fox TV's "Good Day Live," Rhames issued a
challenge to Emmanuel Steward, who trained Snipes for "Undisputed." "Emmanuel, set up the fight. I bitch-slapped him in the film and I'll do it in real life,"
Rhames said. "Name the time and place."
Snipes v. Rhames
What Is Left Of The 'Media'
Who Owns What
Who Owns What
San Francisco Zoo
Magellanic Penguin Chicks
A half dozen Magellanic penguin chicks walk and waddle through the San Francisco Zoo while making their way to Penguin Island where they joined 40 adult penguins in San Francisco, Friday
Aug. 23, 2002. The annual walk is called the Black and White Crawl with six 3-month-old penguin chicks making their way from the zoo's Avian Conservation Center to their permanent home.
The names of the penguin chicks are Noodles, Ravioli, Pepper, Biscuit Brown, Naughty and Whatever.
Photo by Eric Risberg
In Plea Talks
Winona Ryder
Lawyers for actress Winona Ryder, who is accused of shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue, met with prosecutors and a judge on Friday behind closed doors amid speculation that a plea deal was in the works to settle the high-profile case.
Participants in the hastily arranged meeting were not immediately available for comment. A spokeswoman for the District Attorney's office said that plea negotiations had been ongoing for some time but did not know if that was the
subject of the hearing in the chambers of Superior Court Judge Elden Fox.
After the closed-door meeting, which was held with little notice, Fox set Ryder's next pretrial hearing for Sept. 5. At that hearing he was expected to set a date for her trial.
Ryder, who appeared alongside Adam Sandler in the comedy "Mr. Deeds," has pleaded innocent and is free on $20,000 bail. Her lawyer, Mark Geragos, claims she is being prosecuted because of her celebrity and has declared her innocence.
Winona Ryder
SCOTUS Speeder
William Rehnquist
Get the children off the streets! Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has put his pedal to the metal again.
In his latest brush with the law, America's top judge picked up a speeding ticket on July 16 while driving through the upstate New York town of Sidney.
Wild Bill copped to the rubber-burning when reached yesterday at his getaway home in Vermont.
"My hearing date was on Aug. 9," he added. To save himself a needless confrontation with another judge, he said, he'll mail in his payment of the fine.
Rehnquist wouldn't reveal how fast he was going. Officer Tara Gregory of the Oneonta Police Department, who pulled him over, couldn't be reached for comment.
And there have been other tickets.
In 1986, police clocked him doing 41 mph in a 30-mph zone in Arlington, Va. He was also cited for failing to have his car registration papers with him and for not updating his driver's license. In 1977, a state trooper in Richmond, Vt., gave him a ticket for going 66 mph on Interstate 89. He paid his fine both times.
William Rehnquist
Important Link
Chickenhawk Database
The Chickenhawk Database
Finally Opens In LA
'Puppetry of the Penis'
Some actors use their eyes. Others perform from the heart. In "Puppetry of the Penis," David "Friendy" Friend and Simon Morley rely on an organ not previously known for its acting skills.
In their wildly popular stage show, the well-endowed Australians twist and shape their penises into a series of "installations" -- a hamburger, the Eiffel Tower, the Loch Ness monster -- to the
gasps, guffaws and sometimes pained expressions of audiences on three continents.
The show opened last week in Los Angeles with performances sold out in advance despite up-and-down reviews that spent a lot of time making puns and revealing plot twists and turns.
As Daily Variety critic Timothy Gray reported: "In the history of theater, there have been some great titles -- 'The Tempest, 'A Doll's House,' 'Death of a Salesman' -- but few names have
summed up the content of a show as succinctly as 'Puppetry of the Penis;' anyone buying a ticket will pretty much know what they're in for. It's not exactly theater and it sure ain't high art,
but it's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience. Something to tell the grandchildren about."
Wearing nothing but shoes, socks and fantastically decorated capes, Morley and Friend practice what they call "The Ancient Art of Genital Origami," or "dick tricks." The show originated in
their native Australia as a series of barroom tricks.
The contorted creations are projected onto gigantic 16-foot screens behind the performers to give every audience member a front-row peep.
The men consider themselves a sort of perverse alternative to "The Vagina Monologues," the hit play about women musing about their sexual organ. "We're the men's version because girls
like to talk about it and boys like to show it," Friend said.
For a lot more, 'Puppetry of the Penis'
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
They're Going To Disneyland
ABC's Fall Lineup
Celebrity sightings will be taken to a new level this weekend as entire casts from ABC Television's fall primetime lineup descend on the Disneyland Resort for a two-day campaign to attract viewers to the ailing network.
More than 70 stars, from John Ritter and Eric Roberts to Drew Carey and Dylan McDermott, will ride in parades, answer questions from park guests and, in the case of actor/musician Jim Belushi, sing the blues.
The unprecedented gathering is part of a companywide effort mounted by The Walt Disney Co. to drive viewers to its sagging ABC network this fall.
Primetime ratings have slipped badly at the network, which just two years ago was riding the success of the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
ABC's Fall Lineup
Ozzy & Anna Nicole
Miramax
Miramax, following its success at buying the home video/DVD rights to "The Osbournes," has just acquired rights to E! network's "Anna Nicole Smith" show. "Miramax will
produce and distribute the tapes for sale," said one E! insider. Miramax and E! are also in talks to team up on the Miramax cable channel. "E! has five channels they
have access to and Miramax wants to have one for their own use," the spy continued. A rep for Miramax said "there are no formal negotiations going on."
Miramax
Useful Link
Identifont
Identifont - identify fonts and typefaces
Greta's Pet Cat?
Ozzy Says
Fox News Channel has brushed aside a threat of legal action by Ozzy Osbourne's lawyer for airing an interview with the rocker.
Part of Osbourne's lengthy chat with Greta Van Susteren aired on the Fox network's "Pulse" newsmagazine Thursday and the rest was scheduled for Van Susteren's Fox
News Channel show on Friday.
Osbourne's lawyer, Orin Snyder, said the rocker-turned-reality TV star sat down with Fox only because he was told the interview was for a special it was planning
on the anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.
"It is particularly disturbing that Fox would employ such improper journalistic techniques to take advantage of Mr. Osbourne and his family in an effort to sensationalize Sharon Osbourne's
recent illness," Snyder wrote in a letter to Fox News Channel executives.
No word on what this does to the budding friendship between Van Susteren and the Osbournes. The Fox News Channel host invited heavy metal's first couple as her guest this spring to
the White House Correspondent's dinner in Washington.
Sharon, in turn, gave Van Susteren a cat that she named "Ozzy," Fox lawyers said.
Ozzy Says
Toronto, Canada
Wayne Robinson
Wayne Robinson, who suffers from chronic arthritis, smokes marijuana at a protest in downtown Toronto Friday, Aug. 23, 2002. Protesters calling for Canada's government to fully implement a
medical marijuana program that started last year marched peacefully Friday in downtown streets, many openly smoking joints.
Photo by Kevin Frayer
New Book Tells Tales
'A Long Strange Trip'
The song "Truckin'" is a famous song by the Grateful Dead, but band member Bob Weir cannot sing it without making a mistake, according to biographer Dennis McNally.
"The audience frankly loved those mistakes, because they knew they were in on the secret," McNally said.
McNally's book, "A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead," is in stores now. The story about Weir's trouble with "Truckin'" is just one of the many tales it tells.
McNally also relates how Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann got married while a junior in high school. By senior year, he had a wife and a baby at home.
McNally said because Kreutzmann's wife was a year ahead and had already finished school, she was considered an adult, so she'd write notes for her husband to explain his unexcused absences.
McNally also writes about how singer-guitarist Jerry Garcia was missing part of a finger from a boyhood accident. It didn't cause him many problems with the kind of music the Grateful Dead played, McNally said.
"The major way it affected him is he once said to me that if he had a full hand, he probably would have played classical guitar at some point," McNally said. "If you want to play Bach, you need five fingers."
For a bit more, 'A Long Strange Trip'
BartCop TV!
Another Spin
Ozzy & Fox
Ozzy Osbourne tried at the last minute last night to derail a two-part, exclusive interview he gave to Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren in which he anguishes over wife Sharon's cancer.
It appears the interview - the first part of which aired last night on Fox's newsmagazine "The Pulse" - conflicts with an upcoming "exclusive" with Barbara Walters.
Sources say Osbourne's wife, Sharon, had already promised an exclusive interview to ABC's Walters - meaning Ozzy broke the deal by talking to Van Susteren about Sharon's battle with colon cancer.
Fox refused to pull either last night's interview or Part 2, which is set to air tonight on Van Susteren's FNC show, "On the Record," at 10 p.m.
Ozzy & Fox
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Carpet
A carpet found in a shop in Kandahar, Afghanistan depicts jumbo jets smashing in to the World Trade Center in this Aug. 6, 2002 photo. The twin towers carpet is not being
mass produced. It was made by a Herat carpet weaver who visited New York after Sept. 11.
Photo by Tomas van Houtryve
For more on the topic, Afghan War Rugs
Orders More Episodes of 'Meet My Folks'
NBC
The folks have spoken and so has television network NBC, which said on Friday it has ordered eight more episodes of its summer dating reality series "Meet My Folks."
The show has been one of a handful of reality hits to emerge over the summer, alongside NBC's "Dog Eat Dog," a new rendition of CBS' "Big Brother," and Fox's big success, "American Idol: The Search for a Superstar."
Seven of the original "Folks" episodes have involved three bachelors meeting a woman and her parents, while only one been the opposite situation. The next eight episodes will be more balanced, with half involving
three bachelors vying to date one woman and half with three bachelorettes vying for one man.
In each episode, the winning couple receives a free trip to Hawaii.
NBC
* ADULT CONTENT WARNING *
Authentic WWII bomber nose art.
The 489th Bombardment Squadron in Corsica
Pleads Guilty in Car Crash
Lizzie Grubman
Lizzie Grubman, a New York publicist with a star-studded roster of clients, pleaded guilty Friday in a hit-and-run crash that injured 16 people outside a Hamptons nightclub.
The judge indicated that Grubman, 31, will receive two months in jail, 280 hours of community service and five years' probation. Grubman, who pleaded guilty to third-degree
assault and leaving the scene of an accident, had faced a maximum sentence of seven years behind bars if convicted of all 26 charges in the original indictment.
She remains free on bail pending formal sentencing on Oct. 23.
According to witnesses at the Southampton club, Grubman became upset on July 7, 2001, when a bouncer asked her to move her Mercedes SUV from a fire lane. The bouncer, Scott
Conlon, claimed Grubman called him "white trash" before slamming her SUV into reverse and driving into the crowd.
With 16 people injured outside the now-closed Conscience Point Inn, Grubman was whisked away in another vehicle. Police later tracked her down. The victims were treated
for injuries ranging from broken bones to cuts and bruises.
The crash exacerbated tensions between locals on the east end of Long Island and the out-of-towners who arrive every summer. The seasonal crowd is often regarded as rude and condescending to year-round residents,
with Grubman held up as the poster child for such behavior.
Lizzie Grubman
In Memory
Hugh Lytle
Hugh Lytle, whose teletype message provided The Associated Press and the world with the first account of the attack on Pearl Harbor, died on Aug. 16. He was 100.
Lytle, the AP's Honolulu correspondent and a reserve Army officer, was awakened by the Army on Dec. 7, 1941 as Japanese planes bombed the U.S. fleet, according to his son, David Lytle.
He quickly left for his AP office at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, where he filed a brief account of the attack in progress, then reported for military duty with the Army.
Military censors clamped down shortly after Lytle's dispatch, and virtually no official accounts of the Japanese attack were sent from Hawaii until much later that Sunday.
"Hugh Lytle heard twin calls to duty as Associated Press correspondent and Army reserve officer. Before the day was over and censorship clamped down, the Army won. Lytle was in uniform and on active duty," the AP recalled in its 1941 annual report.
David Lytle said his father "felt it was important to get the story out, but also important to protect the country."
Lytle joined the Army's intelligence unit, and spent much of the war as a military censor on the island of Oahu, his son said. He later earned a Bronze Star for risking his life when he led the 10th Army Information and Historical Service on Okinawa, a covert project documenting American military strategies.
Lytle also served as the co-administrator of the Hawaiian territory with Harry Albright. In 1945, Lytle and Albright joined the Honolulu Advertiser as co-managing editors, where Lytle was known as a conservative voice as opinion page editor until the early 1960s.
"He certainly had high ideals. He had strong opinions about right and wrong and was not loathe to express them," said Albright's wife, Janet.
Lytle left the paper to become press secretary for Hawaii Gov. William Quinn, then retired in 1968 and moved to the island of Hawaii with his wife, Druzella "Drue" Lytle.
He is survived by his son, David, of Sea Ranch; a grandson, Douglas, who heads the Dow Jones news bureau in Prague, Czech Republic; and two great-grandchildren.
Hugh Lytle
Gauhati, India
Leopard Cat
A six-month old leopard cat growls at a cage at a zoological park in Gauhati, India, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002. The endangered leopard cat was among the wildlife
displaced by floodwaters in the northeastern Indian state of Assam. This six-month old leopard cat was recovered Wednesday by Indian forest officials in Champak
Nagar, 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Gauhati.
Photo by Anupam Nath
'The Osbournes'
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 3
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 2
'The Osbournes' ~ Page 1
