'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Three-Card Maestro
(Click on "Columns," then on "Three-Card Maestro.")
Bill Maher: Kids Say the Darndest, Most Stalinist Things
Dr. Mark H. Shapiro: Integrity - Scientific, Academic, and Public (The Irascible Professor)
The Prime Minister of Canada: In Support Of Gay Marriage
The Simpsons: For the first time in the show's history, the episode bears a "Viewer Discretion" warning." - Andrew Tobias
ROGER EBERT: Nobody Knows
The Simpsons
Calculator: How Much Will You Lose If Bush "Reforms" Social Security?
Another Rant
Avery Ant
Avery Cookies Baked by Spud!!!
the teeth are marshmallows
(we think they look absolutely delicious)
A New Savory "Joyce's Inane Head"
'once-in-a-lifetime' chance to win a fun-filled
week at Avery's Ant Farm & Spa.
That or win a t-shirt. It could go either way.
For all the jiggy details, check out:
Purple Gene Reviews
HBO Middleweight World Championship
Purple Genes' review of the HBO Middleweight World championship fight between British challenger Howard Eastman (40W - 1L - 35 KOs) and reigning 40 year old 19 time champ Bernard Hopkins (45W - 2L - 1D - 32 KOs) at the Staple Center in Los Angeles on February 19th, 2005:
"He gonna "OBLIVIATE" him - He gonna absolully "OBLIVIATE" him" ….These are the actual words of former heavy weight champion of the world "Iron" Mike Tyson when asked how Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins would do tonight against the challenger Howard Eastman. Then the Suave sage of the "Sweet Science" Larry Merchant weighed in…….."Bernard will start out slow with his long loping left, go inside in the middle rounds and methodically and mundanely master the opponent in a non-crowd pleasing decision". The Promoter of the fight Oscar de la Hoya - "The Golden Boy" - (who lost to Hopkins) said he expected "An exciting Bout"…he better hope that the 13,500 paying fans have an exciting at $100 a head to get in. And Finally, Roy Jones Jr. - the retired "Pit Bull of Pugilism" - and a fighter who has actually defeated Bernard Hopkins….gave the highest praise……"Bernard will start slow and establish himself in the middle rounds and take it home in the late rounds…..Knock out?????...dunno !!!!!
The ring announcer Michael Buffer steps to the center of the canvas and in a $50,000 per fight echoing bravado get the crowd on their feet with …."Are you ready to Ruuummmmble????"
Bell rings for the first round with cat and mouse "getting to know you" little lefts and "look how long my arms are" little rights….. rounds two and three and four…all the same….Then round Five and Eastman land two strong rights and wins the round…..That was it for him…..slowly Hopkins began to dominate and control….round after round establishing clear ring conrol to the boos of the fans who came for the blood lust of a nasty Knock-out…….Hopkins gets a unanimous decision winning his 20th title defense and all I could remember was Mike Tyson saying …"He gonna "OBLVIATE" him" !!!!!
Who says boxing doesn't cause brain damage???????????
Purple Gene gives tonights fight 5 Mike Tyson style gold teeth out of 10 for being all HYPE and no Happening!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Quite a thunder & lightning storm last night.
Honoring Keith Knudsen
Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers will donate proceeds from their Doobie Red Wine to the National Veterans Foundation for the next five years in memory of late drummer Keith Knudsen.
Knudsen, who played with the band on a string of hits including "Taking It to the Streets" and "Black Water" and who is credited with pushing the band to re-form in 1987, died of pneumonia Feb. 8. He was 56.
"The National Veterans Foundation and founder Shad Meshad were very close to Keith, the band and me," manager Bruce Cohn said in a statement Thursday.
Since 1987, the band has given more than $1 million to the foundation.
Doobie Red, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cab Franc from Sonoma County, is produced by Cohn's B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen. Doobie Red is packaged as a three-bottle collector's set featuring Doobie Brothers album and CD artwork.
Doobie Brothers
SEC Subpoena
Chaunce Hayden
A self-described celebrity journalist who is a frequent guest on raunchy radio host Howard Stern's shows said on Saturday that U.S. securities regulators have subpoenaed him in a probe of possible insider trading in Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. stock.
Chaunce Hayden told Reuters the Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered him to appear on Wednesday in New York to give information about trading in shares of Sirius, Stern's future radio home.
Hayden said he had made an on-air prediction that Stern would leave broadcast radio for satellite radio and then coincidentally had been in the studio when the shock jock, a frequent target of federal radio regulators over decency issues, announced in October he would move to Sirius in 2006.
Hayden said that the first few times the SEC attorney called he hung up. "I thought it must be a prank from one of the Howard Stern guys so I kept hanging up the phone. Then when I got the subpoena I realized it was not a prank, it's for real."
Chaunce Hayden
Hold Mock 'Da Vinci' Trial
Art Experts
Art experts and conservative clerics are holding an unusual "trial" in Leonardo da Vinci's hometown aimed at sorting out fact from fiction in the "The Da Vinci Code" after many readers took the smash hit novel as gospel truth.
The event in Vinci, just outside of Florence, began Friday with an opening statement by Alessandro Vezzosi, director of a Leonardo museum. He said he will produce photographs and documents as evidence of the mistakes and historical inaccuracies contained in Dan Brown's best seller.
The book portrays Roman Catholic leaders as demonizing women for centuries and covering up the truth about the Holy Grail, which the novel says is Mary Magdalene herself.
A representative of Opus Dei is participating in the mock trial in an attempt to reassess the historical truth about the movement, Bellini said.
Art Experts
Wins Top Berlin Film Prize
South African 'Carmen'
An exuberant film that transports Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen" to a South African township and translates the libretto into Xhosa won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival Saturday.
Rank outsider "U-Carmen eKhayelitsha" was the first feature film to be made in Xhosa, a language which features click sounds, and the first African movie to win Berlin's coveted Golden Bear award.
In the other main categories, Julia Jentsch was voted best actress for her portrayal of Sophie Scholl, a real-life heroine of the German resistance during World War II who was executed by the Nazis.
"Sophie Scholl - Die Letzten Tage" ("Sophie Scholl - The Final Days") scooped another award when the Silver Bear for best director went to Marc Rothemund.
The best actor Silver Bear was awarded to "Thumbsucker" star Lou Taylor Pucci, playing a 17-year-old whose attempt to stop sucking his thumb reveals deeper, underlying fears. He appears along side Hollywood star Keanu Reeves in the film.
"Peacock," a tale of rural China in the late 1970s to early 1980s, picked up the "Jury Grand Prix" award.
South African 'Carmen'
Returns to Atlanta to Find New Voice
TLC
TLC group members Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas are returning to the city where they got their start to find a new voice to sing with.
Auditions have been held across the country for UPN's new reality show, "R U The Girl with T-Boz & Chilli," but Atlanta's stop Saturday was the first the singers were to attend in person.
The person chosen through the show will perform with the duo during a one-time concert and for a recorded song on their greatest hits project.
No air date has been set for the show.
TLC
Warns About Fake News Videos
Government Accountability Office
Congressional investigators warned federal agencies this week that the promotion of government policies through video news releases meant to look like TV news stories may violate federal rules against propaganda.
In a letter sent Thursday to heads of government departments and agencies, the Government Accountability Office noted that "prepackaged news stories have become common tools of the public relations industry."
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was criticized last year for a series of video news releases in which a narrator, sometimes identified as "Karen Ryan" or "Mike Morris," said she or he was "reporting" on the office's activities. The tapes were sent to local television stations for use in news programs.
In a second case criticized by the GAO last year, the Health and Human Services Department's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services produced video news releases touting changes to Medicare. Those productions were also narrated by "Karen Ryan" and were offered to local TV news operations.
Government Accountability Office
Leaves Questions
'Contender' Suicide
Plucked from a tough neighborhood in Philadelphia, Najai Turpin tried to emulate the "Rocky" story and rise from unknown boxer to inspirational star fighter.
Turpin even jogged the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as an homage to the fictional fighter for Sylvester Stallone's boxing reality show, "The Contender."
Days after police say Turpin, 23, shot himself in the head in a parked car outside the gym where he trained, those closest to him remained baffled about why he took his life. Stallone, Sugar Ray Leonard and NBC executives were among the mourners who packed a Baptist church on Friday.
NBC started a trust fund for the boxer's daughter, and viewers can contribute. Stallone said he never could have imagined this ending for Turpin.
'Contender' Suicide
ABC Included Paid Interviews
Jackson Special
ABC News on Friday defended its decision to include paid interviews from a British TV documentary mixed with its own original reporting in a prime-time special about Michael Jackson and his relationships with young boys.
In an unusual disclaimer run twice during Thursday's two-hour special, ABC said its program contained "excerpts from a documentary made by a British production company" and that "some of the individuals who appeared in that documentary received compensation for their participation."
The disclaimer added: "No payment was made for any of the interviews conducted by (ABC News correspondent) Martin Bashir or ABC News."
ABC-produced segments were interspersed with the British footage throughout the special and the program did not specify which interviews had been paid for and which had not.
Jackson Special
Worked On A Scottish Sheep Farm
Young George
Young George W. Bush once worked on a sheep farm in Scotland and was mistaken by an American tourist as a "little Scottish boy."
The resident disclosed his presence in Scotland as a youth in talking to European journalists during a round-table interview on Friday looking ahead to his Europe trip next week.
"I worked there as a 14-year-old kid. I left Texas for Scotland to work on a sheep farm. And I'm riding a bike, taking this one sheep, you know, from here to there and I said OK, fine, and a big tour bus stops. And they got off and a woman with a Texas accent said, 'look at the little Scottish boy.'"
Bush, who himself has a Texas twang, said he did not let on that he was an American.
Young George
