'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Amy Goodman: What A Fearless Journalist Looks Like
At 95 years old, Studs Terkel has been blacklisted, wiretapped and censored, but he hasn't lost his fighting spirit.
David Francis: U.S. Falls to No. 15 in Average Worker Income (Christian Science Monitor; Posted on AlterNet.org)
That ranking would surprise most Americans, who likely consider their nation the most prosperous in the world.
Jim Hightower: SAVE THE GOP FROM SOCIALISM (jimhightower.com)
It's always impressive to see a politician take an unbending stand on principle, so I salute George W for going against popular opinion by vetoing the SCHIP bill, which would have extended health coverage to some six million uninsured children in our country.
Froma Harrop: Pay-Go Is Good Politics (creators.com)
Left-wing Democrats often grumble about their party's affection in recent years for fiscal discipline. Their argument goes as follows:
Froma Harrop: Americans' Anxious Love of Flattery (creators.com)
Not many Americans follow women's bridge - or that used to be the case. A spotlight of anger has fallen on the U.S. winners of a recent bridge tournament in Shanghai, China. Their "crime"? At an awards dinner, a team member held up a hand-scribbled sign reading, "We did not vote for Bush."
DAVID BIANCULLI: COMEDY RAMBO (thephoenix.com)
A gladiator of mockery, Stephen Colbert is dismantling American society from the inside.
JOEL STEIN: How I duped the paparazzi (latimes.com)
With a little work, the unfamous can be stars of the red carpet.
Jeremy Estes: Review of "Ramones: It's Alive 1974-1996" (popmatters.com)
Unlike the band it celebrates, this compilation is anything but stripped down.
WILL LAYMAN: "JAZZ TODAY: A Laughing Dilemma, Revealed" (popmatters.com)
Jazz and its fans have grown all too serious. The genre could use a clown prince or two.
ROGER EBERT: Japanese Story (3 1/2 stars: Overlooked DVD of the Week)
Toni Collette can have an angular presence on the screen; she can look hard and tough, and is well cast in "Japanese Story" as an unmarried geologist whose idea of dinner is a can of baked beans poured over two slices of toast. But then there comes another side that is tender and dreamy. Her body becomes sensuous instead of distant, and her eyes are seeing from a different part of her soul.
Reader Recommendation
"My Dinner With Andre"
Hi Marty,
I just saw "My Dinner With Andre" (directed by Louis Malle) for the first time! It's from 1981 but the dialogue is as fresh as anything out there today.
Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory sit in a restaurant over the course of a meal and discuss everything under the sun. Shawn represents the 'everyman' just trying to make a living and survive day to day and Gregory, who has traveled the world questioning that very existence is full of stories and experiences to challenge Shawn's thinking.
It just plain sparkles! Please tell your readers not to miss it.
Sara
Thanks, Sara!
added:
Reader Comment
Re: P-38 Fighter
Marty
On Thursday, November 15th you had a story about the P-38 Fighter that the sands of a beach in Wales gave up. It reminded me of the B-25 Bomber that disappeared into the Monongahela River , forever, in 1956.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and toasty.
The kid & I attended the Poly High play off game against Santa Margarita at Veteran's Stadium tonight.
The Poly Jackrabbit's stomped the Eagles, 39 - 7.
Donates $25,000 For Strike Relief
George Clooney
George Clooney has donated $25,000 to the show business charity the Actors Fund to provide emergency relief for workers facing financial hardship due to the strike by Hollywood screenwriters.
Clooney was quoted in Friday's edition of the entertainment trade paper Daily Variety that he planned to make periodic donations to the fund, and urged fellow stars to follow suit.
He said he chose the New York-based nonprofit agency, which assists workers in all walks of the entertainment industry, because relief is provided in the form of grants, not loans, and eligibility does not depend on union membership.
George Clooney
Pledges $30 Million To UCLA
Herb Alpert
A $30 million gift from Herb Alpert will fund a new music school at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The money will bring the university's departments of ethnomusicology, music and musicology under a single umbrella for the study and performance of world, popular and classical music, jazz and other genres.
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will be housed in existing facilities in the university's Schoenberg Hall.
Herb Alpert
"SNL" & "30 Rock" Going Unplugged
WGA Strike Fund
The cast members of two New York-based TV shows that have been crippled by the writers strike, "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live," will deliver one-time-only live performances this weekend in Manhattan.
The sold-out shows will take place at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater on West 26th Street, with proceeds going to a strike fund established by the Writers Guild.
"Saturday Night Live" will be performed at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, and "30 Rock" at 8 p.m. Monday. "Superbad" and "Arrested Development" star Michael Cera will be the guest host of "SNL," and the musical guest is alternative rock band Yo La Tengo.
At least two stars of the shows, Tina Fey of "30 Rock" and Seth Meyers of "SNL," have been fixtures on the picket line.
WGA Strike Fund
Schools Benefit From Comment
Stephen Colbert
All it took for a charity to raise money for South Carolina schools was a brief mention by Stephen Colbert.
When Colbert announced last month that he was running for president, the Charleston native and host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" also asked viewers to give to DonorsChoose.org, which helps fulfill teacher wish lists for books, globes or other classroom materials in schools in the United States.
The brief comment by the 43-year-old talk-show host - who has since dropped his bid for the White House - raised $59,000 in 10 days and reached 13,000 public school students in South Carolina, said Peter Bloom, the group's national chairman.
Stephen Colbert
'Hanging Heart' Sets Auction Record
Jeff Koons
A sculpture of a stainless steel heart hanging from a golden bow sold Wednesday for $23.6 million, becoming the most expensive piece by a living artist ever auctioned, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.
The bright magenta "Hanging Heart" sculpture, considered one of Jeff Koons' most important works, also set a records for Koons at auction, Sotheby's spokeswoman Lauren Gioia said.
The previous record for a living artist was Damien Hirst's "Lullaby Spring," which sold for $19.5 million at Sotheby's in London in June. Hirst's piece was a stainless steel cabinet containing 6,136 handcrafted and painted pills.
Jeff Koons
Historic Whiskey Could Go Down Drain
Jack Daniel
Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.
Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.
Tennessee law requires officials to destroy whiskey that cannot be sold legally in the state, such as bottles designed for sale overseas and those with broken seals.
The estimated value of the liquor is $1 million, possibly driven up by the value of the antique bottles, which range from 3-liter bottles to half-pints.
Jack Daniel
Mocks Dan Rather
Katie Couric
Though battles between news anchors have historically been between rival networks, today's ripest feud is a purely CBS affair: Katie vs. Dan.
The rivalry took a humorous turn Thursday when a video was posted on the Web showing Katie Couric (R-Fluffer) mocking Dan Rather while preparing to anchor a broadcast from Nashville, Tenn., last week.
"I'm going to be like Dan Rather on YouTube," joked Couric in her video, alluding to Rather by fiddling with her coat. "Geez, don't you think he deserves a little payback?"
The video of Couric was posted by comedian Harry Shearer on MyDamnChannel.com, a video Web site he co-founded. He also posted the video of Rather, taken from his anchoring days, last month.
Katie Couric
Convicted Of Kissing Painting
Rindy Sam
A woman who left a lipstick kiss on an all-white painting by the American artist Cy Twombly was convicted Friday of "voluntarily damaging a work of art" and ordered to do 100 hours of community service.
The court in Avignon, southern France, also ordered Rindy Sam, a 30-year-old artist of Cambodian origin who lives in France, to pay damages. She must hand over $1,465 to the painting's owner, $730 to the Avignon gallery that showed it and $1.50 to the painter.
The owner, Yvon Lambert, had asked for more than $2.9 million in damages, which included the value of the painting and the $47,000 restoration cost.
During the trial, Sam argued that she had committed an "act of love" - not vandalism. "I didn't think," she said last month. "When I kissed it, I thought the artist would have understood."
Rindy Sam
Allies Sentence Rape Victim
Saudi Arabia
A Saudi court sentenced a woman who had been gang raped to six months in jail and 200 lashes - more than doubling her initial penalty for being in the car of a man who was not a relative, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The decision by the Qatif General Court came in a case that had sparked rare debate about the kingdom's justice system when it surfaced more than a year ago.
According to Arab News, the court said the woman's punishment was increased because of "her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media."
She had initially been sentenced to 90 lashes after being convicting her of violating Saudi's rigid laws on segregation of the sexes.
Saudi Arabia
Sets World-Record
Red Diamond
A rare purplish-red diamond ring has sold for 2.97 million Swiss francs ($2.6 million), setting a world record for a red diamond, Christie's said.
British jeweler Laurence Graff bought the ring whose octagonal stone weighs 2.26 carats and is the largest red diamond to appear at auction, it said.
The previous record for a red diamond, considered the rarest of colored diamonds, was a 1.92 carat gem that sold for more than $1.6 million in 2001, according to the auction house which held a semi-annual jewelry sale in Geneva on Thursday night.
Red Diamond
Repugs Best & Brightest
Dr. Alan Doerhoff
Dr. Alan Doerhoff, a surgeon once barred from participating in state executions because of a federal judge's concerns about his dyslexia and lack of expertise has been hired for a federal government execution team, according to court records.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. called for reforms to Missouri executions and ruled that Doerhoff, 63, of Jefferson City, could not participate "in any manner, at any level" in the state's lethal injection process.
The doctor said in a deposition hearing that he is dyslexic, transposes numbers, and mixed and administered lethal drugs without a written lethal injection protocol, despite his lack of training in anesthesiology. A federal appeals court overturned Gaitan's ruling.
According to the newly revealed court records, Doerhoff was brought on at Terre Haute to develop execution procedures, place and monitor intravenous lines, assess a condemned inmate's level of consciousness after anesthesia is administered, and make a determination of death.
Dr. Alan Doerhoff
Meet Pasta Monster
Religion Scholars
When some of the world's leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They'll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame get laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.
The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion's annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school sciences classes.
An Oregon State physics graduate named Bobby Henderson stepped into the debate by sending a letter to the Kansas School Board. With tongue in cheek, he purported to speak for 10 million followers of a being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster - and demanded equal time for their views.
Between the lines, the point of the letter was this: There's no more scientific basis for intelligent design than there is for the idea an omniscient creature made of pasta created the universe. If intelligent design supporters could demand equal time in a science class, why not anyone else? The only reasonable solution is to put nothing into sciences classes but the best available science.
Religion Scholars
In Memory
Peter Zinner
Peter Zinner, who co-edited the first two "Godfather" films and won an Academy Award for editing the 1978 Vietnam War film "The Deer Hunter," has died. He was 88.
The Austrian-born Zinner's numerous credits as a film editor since the early 1960s include "The Professionals," "In Cold Blood," "Darling Lili," "Crazy Joe," the 1976 version of "A Star Is Born" and "An Officer and a Gentleman," for which he received an Oscar nomination.
Zinner also edited a number of television productions, including co-editing the TV miniseries "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance."
His work on the latter miniseries earned him an Emmy Award in 1989, and he won a second Emmy in 1993 for editing the HBO movie "Citizen Cohn."
Zinner already had shared an Academy Award nomination for editing Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film "The Godfather" when he picked up his Oscar for "The Deer Hunter." The film won five Oscars, including best picture and best director (Michael Cimino).
When Zinner was 60, he directed his first -- and only -- film, "The Salamander," a 1981 political thriller filmed in Italy with a cast that included Anthony Quinn and Claudia Cardinale.
Zinner was born July 24, 1919, in Vienna. He studied piano, composition and theory before fleeing the Nazis with his parents in 1938.
He arrived in Los Angeles from the Philippines in 1940 with dreams of working in motion pictures.
After working as a taxi driver and playing piano in theaters that showed silent movies, he began his career in 1943 as an apprentice film editor at 20th Century Fox. He was an assistant sound-effects editor at Universal from 1947 to 1949 and a music editor at MGM from 1949 to 1960.
His most recent credit was "Running With Arnold," a 2006 documentary about Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger, which Zinner worked on with his daughter, film editor Katina Zinner.
Peter Zinner
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