zEN mAN (observing an absolutely amazing scene along highway 121 in Sonoma county where a bank robber stole an SUV and sped out of Napa and went off road and crashed and the car caught fire and he ran and I pulled up....and got the shot (they got him to...and the Oaks were fine)
PAUL KRUGMAN: They Told You So (The New York Times)
Shortly after U.S. forces marched into Baghdad in 2003, The Weekly Standard published a jeering article titled, "The Cassandra Chronicles: The stupidity of the antiwar doomsayers." Among those the article mocked was a "war novelist" named James Webb, who is now the senator-elect from Virginia. The article's title was more revealing than its authors knew. People forget the nature of Cassandra's curse: although nobody would believe her, all her prophecies came true.
Stephen Moss: Man v Machine (guardian.co.uk)
The world chess champion was defeated this week by a £36.50 computer program. ... Deep Fritz, Kramnik's conqueror, is a piece of software, usable on any PC.
Why are pregnant lesbians scary? (guardian.co.uk)
Dick Cheney's daughter has just announced she is to have a baby, and America's Christian right is appalled. Of course lesbians actually make brilliant mothers, writes Julie Bindel - although she does wish her friends would stop breeding
Roger Ebert's 2007 Video Yearbook
From the Introduction: In six decades there have been three revolutions in the way movies are distributed. The first was in 1948, when the Supreme Court found the big studios in violation of antitrust laws and ordered them to sell their theater chains. Until then, the majors owned theaters and booked their own movies into them; afterward, the playing field was more level for independent producers.
Think back. Roosevelt and Churchill meeting during World War II. Then fast forward to Bush and Blair meeting yesterday in Washington to discuss Iraq. Once mighty nations, mightily led. How hath the mighty fallen...
Bush and Blair Confer About Iraq (Again)
Here meet a pair of statesmen wannabes Who sought a way to cut the Mideast knot; Their aim - from posts of power tyrants squeeze, Bring freedom to replace the local rot.
Long they planned, and prayed hard to their heaven For a cause that would their war empower; Until the Pit bequeathed them 911, Allowing shock and awe to finally flower.
Three long years on, the plotters once again confer, Once more to gloss the foolish game they've lost; While watchers round the world would just prefer, To see these bunglers from their jobs get tossed.
"FRANK BAUER" GETS HIS ASS KICKED BY "JUNE CARTER CASH"!
Before their Emmy's and Oscars, Keifer Sutherland ("The Lost Boys" (1987) - "Flatliners" (1990) - and Frank Bauer in "24" (2005) and Reese Witherspoon ("Cruel Intentions" (1999) - "Legally Blonde" (2001) and June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line" (2005) both gave award winning performances in a little known Indie movie called "Freeway" (1996). It happens to be my most favorite post "Pulp Fiction" (1994) flicks... with attitude, dialogue and a bunch of really wacky characters. It has also landed on my Hollywood all time top 10 list.
Little 5' 2"" potty-mouthed trailer trash chick Vanessa Lutz (Reese Witherspoon) is nothing but trouble...she has a tough life...her mom, Ramona (Amanda Plummer - "Honey Bunnie" in "Pulp Fiction" (1994) is a drugged out skinny street walker and she lives with her husband (Vanessa's step-dad) Larry (Michael T. Weiss - "Jarod" in "Profiler" (2000) in a cheesy flat in East L.A. Vanessa comes home from Drop-Out High everyday to be molested by her step dad...who's always drunk and on dope. One day the cops come and arrest Ramona and Larry and take Vanessa off to Foster care with Mrs. Sheets (Conchata Ferrell - Big Berta the housekeeper on "2½ Men" (2006)...but Vanessa ties her up and steals her station wagon and she's off to see her granny...just like "Little Red Riding Hood"!
But the Big Bad Wolf is lurking about in the form of "The I-5 Killer"...picking up unsuspecting young women and torturing and murdering them...and of course Vanessa's vehicle breaks down and catches fire. A good Samaritan shows up to help her get her car running...but the car is dead so he offers her a ride to Fresno where granny lives...The man claims to be a high school psychologist and his name is Bob (Keifer Sutherland). Off they drive into the night and Bob is all the gentleman...until suddenly he changes and he calls Vanessa a pathetic little loser with a whore for a mother and pulls a knife on her and cuts off her pony tails and tells her he's gonna kill her and screw her dead body...but before you know it, she leaps into the back seat and grabs the gun her boyfriend Chopper (Bokeem Woodbine - Richard in "Crooklyn" (1994) gave her before he got killed...she shoves into Bob's neck and say's "Now settle down Bob...tell me...do you take Jesus Christ as your own personal savior?" Then she shoots him 5 times, leaves him for dead and goes to grab a bite to eat at the local Denny's.
Well Bob just happens to survive the shooting but half his face and both his balls have been blown off. Vanessa gets arrested and they all show up to court where she is charged with attempted murder (nobody believes her story about Bob being the I-5 Killer). Bob's wife Mimi (Brooke Shields - Jade in "Endless Love" (1981) shows up in a blue and white sailor suit looking rather loony.
Then all hell breaks loose as Vanessa goes on a rampage...she breaks out of prison after brutally beating the jailhouse bully bitch. She heads to Mexico to make some money hooking...when she finds out that her boyfriend had been murdered, she becomes a one woman pissed off at the whole world fuck you femme fatale. Meanwhile back at police headquarters, one of the cops assigned to her case (Vanessa kicked the shit out of him at the station) goes back to I-5 near where Vanessa shot Bob...and sure enough he finds her cut off pony tail...they get a search warrant for Bob's house and find Kiddie Porn overflowing in the garage...Mimi takes one look and goes upstairs and blows her brains out...now the chase is on...Bob finds out that the cops are after him and so he's off to find grannies house and kill Vanessa...Vanessa's off to grannie's house too...and so are the cops!
Of course, Bob gets there first and kills granny and dresses up in her nightie and hides in her bed. Then Vanessa shows up and walks in and says "Granny, them are some mighty big fuckin' teeth ya got there...Bob?" Well Vanessa wastes little time jumping all over Bob and bashing his head on every hard surface until there's nothin' left to hit...the cops show up and see how really tough this little girl is and with total awe and complete admiration...light her cigarette...end of Fairy Tale!
Purple Gene gives "Freeway" 9 "you're just a big old shit bag, aren't ya Bob's" out of 10 for being rude, righteous and rockin'.
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'Criminal Minds', followed by a 2-hour '48 Hours'.
NBC starts the night with a 2-hour 'Dateline', followed by a RERUN'Law & Order'.
'SNL' is FRESH with Annette Bening hosting, music by Gwen Stefani.
The late, late 'SNL' is from 11 December, 1999, with Danny DeVito hosting, music by REM.
ABC opens the night with the FRESH'Holidaze: The Christmas That Almost Didn't Happen', followed by the movie 'Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas'.
The CW offers 'American Idol Rewind', followed by 'The Shield'.
Faux has the traditional 'Cops', 'Cops', and 'America's Most Wanted'.
MY has a FRESH'Wicked Wicked Games', followed by a FRESH'Watch Over Me'.
AMC offers the movie 'Hidalgo', followed by the movie 'Conan The Barbarian', then the movie 'Commando'.
BBC -
[2:00 pm] Changing Rooms - Ealing;
[2:30 pm] House Invaders - Episode 6;
[3:00 pm] Everything Must Go - Episode 22;
[3:30 pm] Everything Must Go - Episode 23;
[4:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Pile;
[5:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Clarke;
[6:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Cooke;
[7:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Hinton;
[8:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Lidstone;
[9:00 pm] Doctor Who - Ep 3 The Unquiet Dead;
[10:00 pm] Afterlife - Ep 2 Lower than Bones;
[11:00 pm] Hex - Episode 2;
[12:00 am] Doctor Who - Ep 3 The Unquiet Dead;
[1:00 am] Afterlife - Ep 2 Lower than Bones;
[2:00 am] Hex - Episode 2;
[3:00 am] Peep Show - Episode 1;
[3:30 am] Peep Show - Episode 2;
[4:00 am] Peep Show - Episode 3;
[4:30 am] Peep Show - Episode 4;
[5:00 am] Peep Show - Episode 5;
[5:30 am] Peep Show - Episode 6;
[6:00 am] BBC World News. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'Gangs Of New York', followed by the movie 'Gangs Of New York', again.
Comedy Central has 'Scrubs', another 'Scrubs', followed by the movie 'Trading Places', then 'Chappelle's Show'.
History has 'Engineering Disasters 20', 'Race To The South Pole', and 'Alaska: Big America'.
IFC -
[06:30 AM] Rashomon;
[08:00 AM] Samurai 7 Episode #19: The Mutiny;
[08:25 AM] Samurai 7 Episode #20: The Execution;
[08:50 AM] Cry, the Beloved Country;
[10:40 AM] The Grey Zone;
[12:30 PM] Rashomon;
[01:55 PM] Cry, the Beloved Country;
[03:45 PM] The Grey Zone;
[05:35 PM] Short: Wrestled;
[05:55 PM] Rashomon;
[07:20 PM] Human Nature;
[09:00 PM] Greg the Bunny: Wacky Wednesday;
[09:15 PM] Being John Malkovich;
[11:10 PM] Greg the Bunny: Wacky Wednesday;
[11:25 PM] L'Auberge Espagnole;
[01:30 AM] Human Nature;
[03:10 AM] Greg the Bunny: Wacky Wednesday;
[03:25 AM] Being John Malkovich;
[05:20 AM] Greg the Bunny: Wacky Wednesday;
[05:35 AM] L'Auberge Espagnole. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has the movie 'Final Destination', followed by the movie 'Final Destination 2'.
Sundance -
[06:45 AM] Yves St. Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris;
[08:10 AM] Yanks;
[10:30 AM] Zero Degrees of Separation;
[12:00 PM] Hamburger America;
[01:00 PM] The Alcohol Years;
[02:00 PM] Iconoclasts Season 2: Episode 1: Eddie Vedder + Laird Hamilton;
[02:45 PM] By Hook or By Crook;
[04:30 PM] Bound For Glory;
[07:00 PM] The Alcohol Years;
[08:00 PM] The Parole Officer;
[09:35 PM] Bedouin Sand;
[10:00 PM] The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things;
[11:45 PM] Resonance;
[12:00 AM] City of Men - Season 3: Episode 4: Hip Sampa Hop;
[12:30 AM] In the Name of the Father;
[02:45 AM] Mail Order Wife;
[04:20 AM] Things To Do Before You're 30. (ALL TIMES EST)
A tile mosaic memorializing John Lennon is seen in the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park on the 26th anniversary of the death of the singer, in New York, December 8, 2006.
Photo by Chip East
After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is . . . "truthiness."
The word - if one can call it that - best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. "Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
Other Top 10 finishers included "war," "insurgent," "sectarian" and "corruption." But "truthiness" won by a 5-to-1 margin, Morse said.
Colbert first uttered "truthiness" during an October 2005 broadcast of "The Colbert Report," his parody of combative, conservative talk shows.
O'Brien Cellars, a brand of O'Brien Family Vineyard, said Tuesday it's started a "progressive" philanthropic program to donate 20 percent of revenues from its online Equality Wine Store to a civil rights group that supports an end to California's ban on same-sex marriage.
The family-owned Napa vineyard and winery said it will automatically donate those funds to Equality California, a San Francisco-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization. Winery owners Bart and Barb O'Brien said their goal is to help wine lovers support equal opportunity.
Other business-related supporters of Equality California, listed on the advocacy group's web site, include Contempo Homes, the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Foundation, Proteus Fund Inc., Olivia Cruises and Resorts, Atlantis Events, Century Crowell Communities LLP, MTV Networks/Logo, Shadowrock Development Corp., AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, Edison International, Foley & Lardner LLP, Gap Inc., Latham & Watkins and Wells Fargo.
The California State Automobile Association and Comcast have also signed up recently as sponsors of Equality California.
Hip-hop artist Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (L) and music composer Quincy Jones are interviewed at the world premiere of 'The Pursuit of Happyness' at the Mann Village theater in Westwood, California December 7, 2006. The movie is based on the true story of a struggling salesman who takes custody of his son as he begins a life-changing professional endeavor. The movie opens in the U.S. on December 15.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
Civil-rights groups seeking greater ethnic diversity in the TV industry said Thursday the major broadcast networks are making improvements but it's time for greater progress - and pressure.
In annual "report cards," ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are graded in areas including their hiring of minority actors, writers and directors, development of programs with ethnic diversity and overall commitment to diversity issues.
This year, for shows airing from fall 2005 to fall 2006, the National Latino Media Coalition gave ABC the highest overall grade, A-minus, followed by a B-plus for CBS and a B each for NBC and Fox.
The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition gave NBC, ABC and Fox a C-plus each, while CBS earned a C.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie visited Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece, where they celebrated the actor's upcoming birthday, Fallingwater's curator of education said.
The unique home spans Mill Run, a creek that flows through woods about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Wright built the home for department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann Sr. in the 1930s. The American Institute of Architects voted it the "Building of the 20th Century."
Curator Cara Armstrong said she led Pitt and Jolie on a two-hour tour Thursday that was followed by a private birthday celebration for Pitt in Fallingwater's living room. The actor will be 43 on Dec. 18.
Elvis Costello and wife Diana Krall are the parents of twin boys. The new arrivals - named Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James - were born on Wednesday, according to a statement from the couple. "We are ecstatic!" the statement continued, going on to add that "mother and sons are doing splendidly."
The births came on the couple's third wedding anniversary. The statement provided no other details on the twins.
Middle Tennessee State University geographer Tom Nolan, front, displays artifacts Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, at the university in Murfreesboro, Tenn., that he and Tennessee Tech historian Michael Birdwell, left, along with National College history professor Jim Deppen, behind, found at a location in France that they believe to be the World War I battlefield where Sgt. Alvin C. York's valor earned him a Medal of Honor.
Photo by Christopher Berkey
The opera house that dropped a production featuring the severed head of Muhammad over security fears suffered an embarrassing setback shortly before the disputed show resumes: It lost the offending prop.
The head of the Islamic prophet as well as those of Jesus, Buddha and Neptune that were used in the three-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" have gone missing, Deutsche Oper Berlin spokesman Alexander Busche said Friday, confirming a report in the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
"We can't find the heads at the moment, but that doesn't mean they have been stolen. We don't think that's the case," Busche said. "Either they will show up in the next few days, or we will have new ones made."
A court hearing in Mexico that could drop charges against TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman or order his criminal case to proceed has been rescheduled to Dec. 22.
The hearing was to begin Monday in Guadalajara but was postponed because a report from a lower court was not received.
The 53-year-old star of the A&E reality series "Dog the Bounty Hunter" is charged under Mexican law with deprivation of liberty for his June 2003 capture of convicted rapist Andrew Luster, the Max Factor heir, in Puerto Vallarta. Luster is serving a 124-year prison term.
A November 1894 letter from painter Paul Cezanne to painter Claude Monet is seen at auction house Artcurial in Paris, Friday Dec. 8, 2006. Monet carefully preserved the letters until his death in 1926 at age 86, and they became a family treasure, passed down through the generations. The artist's great-grandson Michel Cornebois has turned them over to the Artcurial auction house, which expects the sale to bring in Euro 500,000 (US $ 666,000).
Photo by Jacques Brinon
An Alaska lawmaker accused of getting thousands of dollars out of a corrections-company consultant in exchange for his help in the Legislature has been charged with extortion, conspiracy, bribery and money laundering, federal officials said Friday.
State Rep. Thomas T. Anderson was arrested Thursday, a day after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said. The Anchorage Republican was being held at the city jail.
The most serious charges Anderson faces - three money-laundering counts - each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. He was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, prosecutor Joseph W. Bottini said.
Anderson is married to former state Rep. and now state Sen.-elect Lesil McGuire, who did not return messages left on her cell phones Friday. His father, Tom Anderson, former director of the Alaska State Troopers, declined to comment.
A woman claims in a lawsuit that "Superman Returns" producer Jon Peters sexually harassed her and exposed himself to her and her 3-year-old daughter while she worked as his personal assistant.
Peters created a hostile work environment that eventually forced Shelly Morita to quit, according to the suit filed this week in Superior Court. It seeks unspecified damages.
According to the lawsuit, Peters frequently grabbed Morita's breasts, buttocks or legs, hugged and kissed her and made "rude, sexual and disparaging comments."
The suit also claims that last December, while on a trip to Peters' ranch in Santa Barbara, Peters exposed himself to Morita and her daughter, commenting, "Look what boys have!"
Across the country, half a dozen federal libraries are closed or closing. Others have reduced staffing, hours of operation, public access or subscriptions.
In Washington, books are boxed at an Environmental Protection Agency library that helped toxicologists assess health effects of pesticides and chemicals. The General Services Administration headquarters library where patrons conducted research on real estate, telecommunications and government finance was shuttered this year, as was the Department of Energy headquarters library that collected literature for government scientists and contractors.
Officials say the cutbacks have been driven by tight budgets, declining patronage and rising demand for online services. And they say leaner operations will improve efficiency while maintaining essential functions. "We are trying to improve access and … do more with a little less money," lied Linda Travers, acting assistant administrator for the EPA's office of environmental information.
Although hundreds of federal libraries remain open, critics say the downsizing, especially at the EPA, demonstrates the Bush administration's indifference to transparent government and to scientific solutions to many pressing problems.
In what was likely her final legislative act in Congress, outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney announced a bill Friday to impeach resident Bush.
The legislation has no chance of passing and serves as a symbolic parting shot not only at Bush but also at Democratic leaders. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has made clear that she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against making political hay of impeachment.
McKinney has long insisted that Bush was never legitimately elected. In introducing her legislation in the final hours of the current Congress, she said Bush had violated his oath of office to defend the Constitution and the nation's laws.
Producers of the Jean-Paul Sartre play, "The Flies," at Brown University will subject the audience to 40,000 fruit flies to bring to life the existentialist work about flies sent to plague the city of Argos in ancient Greece. Production Workshop, the student-run theatre producing the play, built a "cage" of netting three-metre-high by five metre by seven metre to surround the stage and about 70 audience members, and to keep the flies from infesting the theatre.
"There's a sense of containment and quarantine and pestilence, which ties in with the play very well," said James Rutherford, a senior theatre arts major who is directing the play.
Rutherford hit on the idea a long time ago, he said, but finally decided to do it when he talked with a friend who studies drosophila fruit flies at Brown's Biomed Center.
Actor Wesley Snipes pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges he illegally claimed millions of dollars in tax refunds and was allowed to quickly return to an African movie set, U.S. prosecutors.
A Florida court released Snipes, who starred in the vampire-hunter movie series "Blade," on a $1 million bond and allowed him to return to Namibia where he is filming the horror western "Gallowwalker."
He must return to the United States and surrender his passport by January 10 with a trial date in March, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a statement.
Snipes arrived on Friday morning by private jet from Namibia in southern Africa to Orlando International Airport in Florida, where he was arrested and taken to Ocala for an initial court appearance.
Three Hollywood chimpanzees, said to have been punched and beaten to make them perform, will spend the rest of their lives in an animal sanctuary in a cruelty lawsuit settlement, an animal rights group said on Thursday.
Sable, Cody and Angel, who have appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials and movies including "That '70s Show" and "The Craig Kilborn Show," were named in a federal lawsuit alleging cruelty by their California trainer Sid Yost, whose stage name is Ranger Rick.
Under the settlement terms, Sable, Cody and Angel will leave Yost's San Bernardino, California, facility on Saturday for sanctuaries in New Mexico and Florida.
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