'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Nintzel: Why Are Politicians Suddenly Afraid of Project Vote Smart? (Tucson Weekly)
John McCain was kicked off Project Vote Smart's board after he refused to return the Political Courage Test. But he has plenty of company among politicians who refuse to take the survey, including Clinton and Obama.
Paul Krugman: Clinging to a Stereotype (nytimes.com)
Barack Obama's "bitter" comments combined assertions about economics, sociology and voting behavior. In each case, his assertion was mostly if not entirely wrong.
Tom Danehy: Trash-talking gone too far is marring online video-game worlds (tucsonweekly.com)
I've got a friend; we'll call him James (not his real name). James is around 30, a professional man with a solid career. He is both intelligent and educated, two things that, as we all know, don't always go hand in hand.
CATHERINE O'SULLIVAN: The incorrect usage of some words has Catherine annoyed (tucsonweekly.com)
I've been thinking about words lately, and how popular culture so consistently corrupts what some of them actually mean. It used to annoy me a little; now, it annoys me a lot--particularly when it trivializes some fairly Godzilla-esque concepts.
Jim Hightower: A CEO PERK FOR CEO PERKS (jimhightower.com)
You know what really PO's me? Having to pay taxes on the free personal trips that I take on my company's corporate jet.
Oh- wait. We don't have a corporate jet.
FROMA HARROP: McCain's Economics: Pass the Dramamine (creators.com)
John McCain admits that economics are not his passion, and that's fine. His past instincts were mostly good. He voted against tax cuts not paid for by savings elsewhere. He fought earmarks, earning the wrath of big-spenders in his own Republican Party. As president, he could hire some economic brain to do the big thinking about money.
SUSAN ESTRICH: Uncle Bobby (creators.com)
Unless you shopped at his stationery store, played golf with him or cheered for the Patriots and Dartmouth next to him, you've probably never heard of my Uncle Bobby. He died suddenly on Sunday, although the last time I saw him, at my mother's funeral, her older brother suddenly looked old. No, he wasn't famous: He didn't appear on television or hang out with stars. He wasn't infamous either: He never violated the law, always paid his taxes and was one of those guys you could just count on.
Joel Stein: Home cooking the books (latimes.com)
Grocery prices are skyrocketing, but is it yet more affordable to eat out?
PAUL CONSTANT: The Man from Knockemstiff (thestranger.com)
The characters in Knockemstiff are nasty and violent little slaves to ego. They huff Bactine and get into ill-advised fights and fuck like animals when the mood strikes them. It's surprising, then, to meet Donald Ray Pollock in person.
Michael Deeds: Work ethic helps newcomer Sarah Johns find country music success (McClatchy Newspapers)
If Sarah Johns has one piece of advice for hopeful young country singers, it's this: Move to Nashville. Bust your rear. Never stop.
Barry Miles: Creation of the Beatles song "Paperback Writer" (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
How Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song 42 years ago.
ADRIEN BEGRAND: "BLOOD AND THUNDER: Into the Void: John Darnielle on Sabbath, Extreme Metal, and Indie Rock" (popmatters.com)
Begrand dives into metal fandom with the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle, who discusses the Mighty Riff, the uneasy relationship between indie and metal camps, and the life experiences behind his new book on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality.
Lindsey Millar: Bobby Bare Jr. is the King of Funny/Sad (Arkansas Times)
With an infectious and ever-shifting oddball sensibility, Bare has released three albums over the last six years filled with lyrics barbed, melancholy, sly and droll.
Gene Armstrong: "Portugal. The Man is Wildly Creative" (Tucson Weekly)
Just don't ask them to explain anything.
Project Vote Smart
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and a lot cooler.
Speaks Out
Quincy Jones
It's been more than a year since Quincy Jones was tapped to serve as a culture and art consultant for the 2008 summer Olympic games in Beijing. But instead of artistic planning, he's been focused on human rights.
"I don't pretend to be a politician," the music impresario and longtime humanitarian told The Associated Press. "I'm just a musician who cares."
Jones, 75, has met with the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations and was scheduled to address a group of Chinese-American business and cultural leaders in Los Angeles Saturday to discuss his position on China's role in the Darfur crisis.
"It's not my intention to withdraw from the Olympics," he was to say in his speech. "I care too much about Darfur and China and if I can stay in the game with others like us, I feel we can make a difference."
Jones hopes to have a role in assembling an ad-hoc committee to "go to Khartoum to sit down and try to get something done," he said. "The whole world has got to start taking responsibility for each other. With communication, you can no longer afford the luxury of thinking of national kinds of issues. Everything that's done anywhere is a world issue, and together there's lots of things we can do that nobody can do alone."
Quincy Jones
Olympic Boycott Would Be 'Excessive'
George Clooney
Boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games to try to pressure China into taking action to stop the violence in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur would be "excessive", said US actor George Clooney in an interview published Saturday in Spain.
"It seems excessive to boycott the Games because China does business in Darfur. It's always more important to keep a line of communication open," the Oscar-winning thespian told the El Pais newspaper.
The star, who owns a villa on Italy's Lake Como, also said in the El Pais interview that he though Europe was more ecologically friendly than the United States.
"What is certain is that there is less consumption (in Europe) than in the United States and people recycle more. Things work in a much more intelligent way," he said.
George Clooney
Seeks Delay in Malawi Adoption
Madonna
Madonna has asked a Malawian court to delay a hearing to finalize her adoption of a boy from the southern African nation, a lawyer close to the case said.
The singer's law firm in Malawi filed an application requesting the High Court in Lilongwe to hear her adoption of David Banda on May 15 instead of April 22, as originally scheduled, the lawyer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Madonna's need to travel to the United States for business reasons was cited as the reason for the delay, the lawyer said.
Madonna
Unhurt In Car Accident
Sandra Bullock
Actress Sandra Bullock and her husband were unhurt after a head-on collision in Gloucester with a suspected drunk driver.
Police Lt. Jerry Cook said Bullock and husband Jesse James were being driven in an SUV at about 9:50 p.m. Friday when a car driven by Lucille Gatchell crossed the center line and hit them.
Cook said both vehicles were totaled but no one was hurt. He said both vehicles were traveling about 15-20 miles per hour.
Cook said Gatchell tested .20 on an alcohol breath test, more than twice the legal limit.
Sandra Bullock
Photog Wins Damages
Zsa Zsa's Husband
A photographer who said he worried he would be killed when Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband punched him in the face on a Beverly Hills street was awarded $4,510 in damages Friday.
The eccentric hubby, Frederic Von Anhalt, said he initially wanted to give the man much more for busting open his lip.
In his complaint, Dirk Smeten claimed Von Anhalt, 62, angrily approached and began punching him while Smeten tried to photograph him in May 2005. The blows caused Smeten to fall to the sidewalk, according to the complaint.
"I knew I had to pay something. His lip was bleeding. The bleeding lip was probably when I pushed the camera in his face," Von Anhalt said.
Zsa Zsa's Husband
Monologue Behind The Orange Curtain
Jenna Jameson
This is the story of a bizarre burglar, an adult erotica shop and a sex toy from Jenna Jameson's line. Not just any toy, but a $250 model of Jameson's naughty bits. The product has an official name, but as you may have guessed, it's entirely too inappropriate to mention on a family-friendly Web site.
Tawny Marshall, the manager of The Erogenous Zone (2449 E. Orangethorpe), could hardly believe it when police informed her that a thief had targeted her store earlier this week. But she was even more surprised when she saw the surveillance tape.
At about 4 a.m. on April 15, a man threw a large rock at the store's front door. Twice. When he failed to break the glass, he moved on to one of the front windows. He then used the same rock to shatter that window, break a neon light and gain access to the store. Footage shows him nonchalantly walk over to the cash register, which he was unable to open. You would think he would have shown signs of frustration at this point, but no, he casually picks up a life-size model of Jenna Jameson's mid-section and walks out of the store. At least he didn't leave empty-handed.
Sgt. Mike MacDonald of the Fullerton Police Department agrees and speculates that the thief left with the one thing he really wanted.
Jenna Jameson
Cracks Down On Foreign Musicians
Japan
Japanese concert promoters say the country's immigration authorities are taking a tougher stance on international touring acts.
Japan remains a key touring market -- such acts as the Police, Kanye West and Rihanna have already played here this year. But the government last November refused to issue visas to Velvet Revolver, even though the rock band had toured in 2005 without incident. The rejection was something of a watershed moment for the industry.
Insiders said there have been many similar -- if lower-profile incidents -- although, due to their confidential nature, they declined to name specific examples.
Japan
Sold At Auction
Titanic Ticket
A ticket for the Titanic's ill-fated voyage that belonged to the last survivor with memories of the disaster sold to a collector from the United States at a British auction Saturday.
Lillian Asplund, who died in 2006 at the age of 99, was 5 years old when the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank during its maiden voyage from England to New York. Her father and three siblings were among the 1,500 people who died.
She was the last American survivor of the disaster and the last with memories of it. Others had been too young at the time of the sinking to recall their experience.
Asplund's ticket sold for $65,772 auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said.
Titanic Ticket
Sea Dog Rescued
Snickers
Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he's already an old salt.
The 8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a cargo vessel.
Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.
As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin.
Snickers
In Memory
Germaine Tillion
French anthropologist, feminist, resistance fighter, concentration camp survivor, Algeria peacemaker and writer Germaine Tillion died Saturday aged 100, the chairman of the foundation named after her announced.
Born to a prosperous family in mountainous central France on May 30, 1907, Tillion trained as an anthropologist in the 1930s and cultivated a life-long interest in Algeria.
Between 1934 and 1940, she made four trips to Algeria, travelling on horseback and camping with Berber nomads as she gathered her firsthand observations.
But it was her wartime experiences that first brought her to wider public attention as a founding member of the "Museum of Mankind" intellectual resistance network at the start of German Occupation during World War II.
In 1942 she was betrayed by a priest working for the Gestapo and arrested at the Paris' Gare de Lyon station.
At the same time her mother -- also in the group -- was picked up for hiding a British airman, and the two were sent to the all-woman concentration camp of Ravensbruck in late 1943.
Tillion used her academic training as a tool for survival, treating the camp as a case-study for observation -- and after the war bringing out two definitive books on Ravensbruck.
Some 50,000 out of 132,000 inmates died from fatigue and disease as well as lethal injection and gassing -- with Tillion's own mother sent to the gas chamber in 1945.
After the war, Tillion returned to Algeria and at the request of the French government mediated during the years of crisis and war.
She created social centres for displaced rural Muslims, and in 1957, at the height of the battle of Algiers -- which led to the country's independence from France -- negotiated a ceasefire during one secret meeting with the regional military commander.
Tillion was one of France's most decorated people, being one of just five women awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d'honneur.
Tillion also wrote two autobiographies, but her seminal work remains "The Republic of Cousins: Women's Oppression in Mediterranean Society," in which she examined the social position of women across North Africa and along much of the Mediterranean's eastern shore.
Germaine Tillion
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