'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Nat Hentoff: Saving Free Speech and Jesus (villagevoice.com)
Religious and conservative groups support the 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' banner under fire at the Supreme Court
Margy Waller and Shawn Fremstad: Spirit-Crushing 'McJobs' Are Putting an End to Upward Mobility (Philadelphia Daily News. Posted on AlterNet.org)
If we want to save the middle class, it's time to focus on what's happening in the low-wage labor market.
PAUL KRUGMAN: For God's Sake (The New York Times)
In 1981, Gary North, a leader of the Christian Reconstructionist movement - the openly theocratic wing of the Christian right - suggested that the movement could achieve power by stealth. "Christians must begin to organize politically within the present party structure," he wrote, "and they must begin to infiltrate the existing institutional order."
Andrew Ross: The Teen Commandments (villagevoice.com)
Acht, the wild cliques! Jon Savage documents the pre-history of youth subculture.
Harvey Wasserman: May Peace Be with You, Kurt Vonnegut
As the media fills with whimsical good-byes to one of America's greatest writers, lets not forget one of the great engines driving this wonderful man---he HATED war. Including this one in Iraq. And he had utter contempt for the men who brought it about.
Morris Dickstein: Going Native (theamericanscholar.org)
When American literature became good enough for Americans, what happened to the literary canon?
Froma Harrop: What's Sick About "The Secret" (creators.com)
Karl Rove has been accused of many things. Writing the bestseller "The Secret" is not among them. But it would have been a masterstroke had Bush's political brain done it. "The Secret" is a splendid strategy for neutralizing Democratic voters.
Henry Blodget: Spend Every Dime! (slate.com)
Why U.S. tax policy makes saving a sucker's game.
Timothy Noah: The Deeper Fakery of Couric's Plagiarism (slate.com)
Why original thought is harder to steal.
DINITIA SMITH: Kurt Vonnegut, Counterculture's Novelist, Dies (NY TIMES)
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died [recently] in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
Commentoon: Imus Comments (womensenews.org)
Reader Comment
Roscoe Lee Browne
Thanks for the bio.
You're one of the very few sources I've checked that covered the death of Roscoe Lee Browne. Kurt Vonnegut's death was definitely worth reporting, but I fail to understand why so many chose to report his death and not Browne's. Thank you so much for the write up you did on Browne. It was well done.
Linda >^..^<
You're welcome, Linda!
Aldous Huxley and
C. S. Lewis were also
overlooked when they both died on 22 November, 1963.
Wikipedia:
Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 - November 22 , 1963 )
On his deathbed, unable to speak, Huxley made a written request to his wife for "LSD, 100 µg, i.m.". According to her account of his death (in her book This Timeless Moment), she obliged with an injection at 11:45am and another a couple of hours later. He died peacefully at 5:20 that afternoon, November 22, 1963. Media coverage of his death was overshadowed by news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on the same day, as did the death of the Irish author C. S. Lewis.
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November, 1898 - 22 November, 1963 )
On November 22 , 1963, Lewis collapsed in his bedroom at 5:30 pm and died a few minutes later, exactly one week before what would have been his 65th birthday. Media coverage of his death was overshadowed by news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, which occurred on the same day, as did the death of Aldous Huxley.
OTOH, with all the hours to fill, the MSM could do better.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and cool morning, overcast afternoon.
The kid & I finally got the garden planted.
7 kinds of tomatoes, 2 kinds of onions (red & white) and shallots, too. Some banana peppers, yellow wax beans, lettuce and basil.
ASCAP Founders Award
Melissa Etheridge
It has been quite a year for singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge.
At the behest of former vice president Al Gore, she wrote the song "I Need to Wake Up" for the environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," and ended up with an Oscar for her efforts.
Come July 7, Etheridge will lend her voice to Live Earth, Gore's seven-continent concert to raise awareness for what he has coined SOS, Save Our Selves: A Campaign for a Climate in Crisis.
On Wednesday, Etheridge will be receive the ASCAP Founders Award during the performing rights group's 24th annual Pop Music Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony is part of ASCAP's "I Create Music Week" to celebrate songwriters and music-makers. Other festivities surrounding this event include the Film & Television Music Awards honoring composer Marc Shaiman, and the second annual ASCAP "I Create Music" Expo, a three-day conference dedicated to songwriting and composing, at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel.
For an interview: Melissa Etheridge
Grandmother Blogs From Baghdad
Jane Stillwater
Jane Stillwater is an unlikely war correspondent. She's 64, a self-described Berkeley "flower child, 40 years later" and broke.
So how did this mother of four grown children end up in Baghdad, churning out commentary ranging from shock at Thursday's bombing of the Iraqi parliament cafeteria, to the weirdness of touring Saddam Hussein's bathroom?
Inspired by a sense of outrage and determined to blog from inside the war zone, Stillwater ate peanut butter sandwiches for months to save up for a ticket to Kuwait. She got a small Texas newspaper to help her secure press accreditation, and eventually boarded a troop transport to Baghdad.
Jane Stillwater
Cast May Reunite On Stage
'Frasier'
The cast of the long-running hit television comedy "Frasier" could reunite, but on the stage rather than the small screen, David Hyde Pierce, an actor who starred in the show, said.
Pierce, who is starring in a new Broadway musical "Curtains," told Reuters late on Thursday he had met other members of the cast recently while they were in New York. They included Kelsey Grammer, who played psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane, and John Mahoney, who played his father, retired policeman Martin Crane.
"Absolutely, we talked about it," the 47-year-old actor said in an interview. "We got together and had breakfast and all we talked about is what plays we might do together."
Pierce, who played Frasier's brother Niles, said any reunion would likely be a play rather than a musical.
'Frasier'
Barred By Clerics
Genie Shows
Malaysian Islamic scholars have called for a halt to popular exhibitions billed as featuring ghosts, genies and other supernatural beings, saying they are forbidden and could undermine the faith of devout Muslims.
Many Malaysians are willing to suspend disbelief when dealing with the supernatural, and the exhibitions capitalise on a widespread fascination with the ghouls and goblins that populate Malaysia's legends and folklore.
But supernatural beings should not be played up in exhibitions, state news agency Bernama quoted the chairman of Malaysia's National Fatwa Council as saying.
"They are beyond the comprehension of the human mind as they involve the invisible world," Abdul Shukor Husain said.
Genie Shows
Simpson Book-Rights Auction On Hold
'If I Did It'
An auction for the rights to the canceled O.J. Simpson book "If I Did It" was put on hold after the company that struck the book deal with HarperCollins filed for bankruptcy Friday.
The filing in a Florida bankruptcy court by Lorraine Brooke Associates - said to be owned by Simpson's children - means no further action can be taken in regards to the book rights until a federal judge reviews the case.
"As far as we know the auction will not be held on Tuesday," said attorney David Cook, who represents slaying victim Ron Goldman's family, which has tried to collect a $33.5 million civil judgment from Simpson for about a decade.
No date has been set for the bankruptcy hearing, but Cook hopes to get an order from the judge that would allow the auction to continue.
If I Did It
Suds Fill Streets
Boise
City streets got an unscheduled cleaning as a sudsy citrus-scented foam erupted from manhole covers like geysers.
The bubbles spewed from a three-block stretch on the city's east side Thursday after American Linen accidentally released detergent into the municipal sewer lines. The combination of gravity and churning water whipped the soap into a sudsy foam.
Officials say the company had a malfunction, caused by human error, in its automated detergent loading device, releasing 167 gallons of a harmless but concentrated detergent.
Crews worked during the day to disperse the suds before they reached the treatment facility, then used soft-spray hoses and yard blowers to reduce foam levels closer to the plant.
Boise
Restaurant Closing
Taboo by the Delta
Local diners with adventurous palates have less than two months to try rattlesnake, alligator and other exotic meats.
The restaurant Taboo by the Delta is closing its doors June 1 when its owner retires after 10 years in business.
The name of the restaurant reflects the hidden allure of "things that are forbidden. Things that would hurt you," owner Jesse "Boo" Burkett said. "People just buy into it."
"People are so curious to things that are different," said Burkett. However, he acknowledged, "you do get negative reactions from people sometimes."
Taboo by the Delta
Pieces Transformed Into Watches
Titanic
Steel and coal from the Titanic have been transformed into a new line of luxury wristwatches that claim to capture the essence of the legendary oceanliner which sank in 1912.
Geneva watchmaker Romain Jerome SA billed its "Titanic-DNA" collection as among the most exclusive pieces showcased this week at Baselworld, the watch and jewellery industry's largest annual trade fair.
To make the watches, which were offered for sale for the first time in Basel for between $7,800 and $173,100, the Swiss company created an alloy using the slab from the Titanic with steel being used in a Harland and Wolff replica of the vessel.
The gold, platinum and steel time pieces have black dial faces made of lacquer paint that includes coal recovered from the debris field of the Titanic wrecksite, offered for sale by the U.S. company RMS Titanic Inc.
Titanic
In Memory
Don Ho
Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died. He was 76.
Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show - a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.
Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.
Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.
When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.
Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots at Hawaii, and soon, he was packing places such as the Coconut Grove in Hollywood and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.
Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."
Don Ho
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