I read with interest the selection 'from that Mad Cat, JD' on your
June 16th page
, titled "THE DA VINCI CODE" WAS RIGHT about Sam Brownback. I went on to read more about Sam Brownback, who I had not heard of before.
"He was sponsored by his friend in the Senate,
Rick Santorum
(R-Pa.). The ceremony was performed by the Rev. John McCloskey, a member of the controversial and strict Opus Dei sect who has helped convert a number of high-profile people, including columnist Robert Novak and former abortion provider Bernard Nathanson."
Ellen Goodman: Debating the spoiled-brat tax (boston.com)
In 2009, only estates worth more than $3.5 million (or $7 million for a couple) would be taxed. That's three out of every 1,000 estates. After exemptions and deductions, the effective tax rate on average is estimated to be 17 percent. Why exactly should the money handed down to super-rich heirs be tax-free while the money earned by your children be taxable income?
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Phantom Menace (The New York Times)
Over the last few weeks monetary officials have sounded increasingly worried about rising prices. On Wednesday, Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, declared that inflation "is running at a rate that is just too corrosive to be accepted by a virtuous central banker."
Molly Ivins: Does the World See Bush As a Moron?
... Iraq ... is a putrid human, social and political disaster, and getting worse, not better. The people who got us into this should not be forgiven - - they should not even get a "bounce" from it. There is only one thing I want from them -- to get us and our Army out of there, instead of cavalierly announcing that will be left to "future presidents."
Stuart Jeffries: Government tips on how we dads should talk to our children will make us less cool than ever (guardian.co.uk)
It will be a cold day in hell before I tell my daughter: "You're my shining star." Or indeed: "You've got a friend." Not to mention m An Australian colleague tells me that invocations to fathers to praise their offspring only exacerbate the pathos of fatherhood, encouraging dads to be even more daggy. What the hell, non-antipodean readers ask, Are you on about? Thanks for asking, and let me add: "You mean a lot to me!" Let me give you an example. Earlier this month, it was reported that a Sydney councillor was so tired of local roughnecks making his suburb unbearable with their noisy antics that he decided to broadcast "daggy" music (eg Barry Manilow's Mandy) over loudspeakers to drive them elsewhere.
AFI's 100 Most Inspirational Movies (rogerebert.suntimes.com)
"Over the years, the movies have given us something to cheer about," stated Jean Picker Firstenberg, AFI's Director and CEO. "The past few years have not been easy in America--from September 11th to the devastation of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma. AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers will celebrate the films that inspire us, encourage us to make a difference and send us from the theatre with a greater sense of possibility and hope for the future."
Tricia Olszewski: Death Is on the Air (altweeklies.com)
A Prairie Home Companion's real message, however, isn't that no one is promised another sunrise. It's that endings ought not to be merely grieved but also welcomed as opportunities to remember the good times the expired person/job/activity provided. Maudlin? Maybe. But the film confines the sorrow to the backstage as, out front, we get a nearly real-time episode of the show.
William M. Gaines of "Mad" Magazine (wikipedia.org)
Each year, Gaines would pay for the magazine's staff and its steadiest contributors to fly off to some world locale. The first vacation, to Haiti, set the tone. Discovering that Mad had a grand total of one Haitian subscriber, Gaines arranged to have the entire group driven directly to the person's house. There, surrounded by the magazine's editors, artists and writers, Gaines formally presented the bewildered subscriber with a renewal card. Eventually the trips became more elaborate, and the staff would visit six of the world's continents.
Joe Bob Briggs on William Gaines (from 1992)
When William M. Gaines died a couple weeks ago, the media treated him like a harmless old geezer, a jokester who published Mad Magazine and wrote great parodies of movies. Nobody remembers ANYTHING anymore. William M. Gaines was one of the greatest First Amendment guys we had in the whole dang century. He fought censors his whole life, and he usually spent his own money doing it.
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a RERUN'Cold Case', then the movie 'What Women Want'.
NBC opens the night with 'Dateline', followed by the SERIES PREMIERE'Treasure Hunters', then a RERUN of last Thursday's 'Windfall'.
ABC begins the night with a RERUN'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a RERUN'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', then a RERUN'Desperate Housewives', followed by a RERUN'Grey's Anatomy'.
The WB offers a RERUN'reba', followed by another RERUN'reba', then a RERUN'Charmed', followed by another RERUN'Charmed'.
Faux has a RERUN'Malcolm', followed by a RERUN'King Of The Hill', then a RERUN'Simpsons', followed by another RERUN'Simpsons', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by a RERUN'It's Always Sunny In Philly'.
UPN has an old 'Alias', followed by an old 'Fear Factor'.
A&E has has 'Dallas SWAT', followed by the movie 'Touch The Top Of The World', then the movie 'Touch The Top Of The World', again.
AMC offers offers the movie 'Ronin', followed by the movie 'The Last Samurai'.
BBC -
[2:00 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 1 Good Luck Father Ted;
[2:30 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 2 Entertaining Father Stone;
[3:00 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 3 Passion of St. Tibulus;
[3:30 pm 'Father Ted' - Ep. 4 Competition Time;
[4:00 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 5 And God Created Woman;
[4:30 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 6 Grant Unto Him Eternal Rest;
[5:00 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 1 Hell;
[5:30 pm] 'Father Ted' - Ep. 2 Think Fast, Father;
[6:00 pm] 'Bargain Hunt' - MacClesfield 8;
[6:30 pm] 'Bargain Hunt' - Kedleston 15;
[7:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 2;
[8:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 3;
[9:00 pm] 'Hex' - Episode 3;
[10:00 pm] 'Footballers Wives' - Episode 3;
[11:00 pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 9;
[12:00 am] 'Hex' - Episode 3;
[1:00 am] 'Footballers Wives' - Episode 3;
[2:00 am] 'Cash in the Attic' - Episode 9;
[3:00 am] 'My Hero' - Episode 1;
[3:40 am] 'My Hero' - Episode 2;
[4:20 am] 'My Hero' - Episode 3;
[5:00 am] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 19;
[5:30 am] 'The Benny Hill Show' - Episode 20;
[6:00 am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has has nothing but 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' all night.
Comedy Central has has the movie 'National Lampoon's Van Wilder', followed by the movie 'Billy Madison'.
History has has 'The Revolution', 'Modern Marvels', and 'The Revolution'.
IFC -
[6:00 AM] Being John Malkovich;
[8:00 AM] Lulu On The Bridge;
[9:45 AM] IFC In Theaters;
[10:00 AM] Mr. & Mrs. Bridge;
[12:15 PM] Le Divorce;
[2:15 PM] Jefferson In Paris;
[4:45 PM] Mr. & Mrs. Bridge;
[7:05 PM] Le Divorce;
[9:15 PM] Mighty Aphrodite;
[11:00 PM] The Krays;
[1:05 AM] Metroland;
[3:00 AM] The Krays;
[5:15 AM] SXSW: Behind the Badge;
[5:45 AM] IFC In Theaters. (ALL TIMES EDT)
SciFi has has the movie 'Larva', followed by the movie 'S.S. Doomtrooper'.
Sundance -
[07:30 AM] Little Otik;
[09:40 AM] In Short: In Short: Jan Svankmajer;
[10:30 AM] The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam;
[12:00 PM] Safe Men;
[01:30 PM] Silent Running;
[03:00 PM] Kath & Kim: Sport;
[03:25 PM] Funny Ha Ha;
[04:55 PM] Small Faces;
[06:45 PM] Tony Takitani;
[08:00 PM] Slings and Arrows: Episode 6: Birnam Wood;
[09:00 PM] Personal Goals;
[09:30 PM] Kath & Kim: Sport;
[10:00 PM] Tell Them Who You Are;
[11:35 PM] My Dad is 100 Years Old;
[12:00 AM] A Tale of Two Sisters;
[02:00 AM] Slings and Arrows: Episode 6: Birnam Wood;
[02:50 AM] L'eau Froide;
[04:25 AM] Walker. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Catherine O'Hara arrives at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for a private dinner and awards presentation for CineVegas in Las Vegas on Friday, June 16, 2006.
Photo by Jane Kalinowsky
More than a bell is needed to save Dustin Diamond this time around. Diamond, best known as geeky Screech Powers on the 1989-1993 teen comedy series "Saved by the Bell," is selling T-shirts with his photo on them to try to raise $250,000 so he doesn't lose his gray two-story house under a foreclosure order.
Diamond, 29, is trying to sell nearly 30,000 shirts - at $15 or $20 (autographed) each - to supplement the income he makes as a standup comic so he doesn't have to move from his Port Washington home, about 25 miles north of Milwaukee.
The T-shirt has a photo of Diamond holding a sign that says, "Save My House." The back of the shirt reads, "I paid $15.00 to save Screeech's house." The third "e" was added to get around copyright laws, he said.
Verizon Communications Inc. said on Friday it had struck a 10-year deal for its new subscription television service Fios to carry a wide range of programming from public television stations.
The deal is the latest for the No. 2 U.S. telephone company as it expands into the lucrative subscription TV business and tries to lure customers to buy its bundle of communications and video services.
Under the agreement with the Public Broadcasting Service and the Association of Public Television Stations, Verizon will carry up to three digital public television stations in a market, as well their multicast stations.
Where's Reggie? The elusive alligator who became the hero of song, shirt and short story hasn't been seen since the fall, but officials are ready to try more trapping if it rises from the reeds around an urban lake.
Reggie (the name is a convention because nobody knows if it's male or female) was an illegal pet allegedly tossed into the lake by a former Los Angeles policeman when it got too big.
Since first being spotted last August, Reggie has become a celebrity. The gator inspired a zydeco song, two children's books and innumerable T-shirts. Students at Los Angeles Harbor College next to the lake adopted Reggie as a second mascot. The story of Los Angeles' mysterious urban alligator also went worldwide.
But Southern California's pre-summer "June gloom" of alternating hot and cool weather may delay the end of Reggie's hibernation until July, said Russ Smith, curator of reptiles at the Los Angeles Zoo. Alligators at the zoo are only just now starting to perk up, he said.
A tour bus carrying bluegrass artist Ricky Skaggs from a performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival struck and killed a man Friday night, authorities said.
The bus was traveling south on Interstate 24 about a mile from the exit for the festival when the man stepped onto the highway, said Melissa McDonald, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Safety.
His identity was not released, pending notification of his family.
A Namibian tourism official said Saturday he may have been duped into believing that Britney Spears was considering having her baby in Namibia.
Deputy Environment and Tourism Minister Leon Jooste said he made his original public statement after receiving a phone call from the United States on Monday.
But the connection was so bad, he said, that he never got a name or contact information for the person.
Former President Bill Clinton addresses the friends and family of 13 people killed at Columbine High School in 1999 during a ground breaking ceremony for the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colo., Friday, June 16, 2006. Clinton said Friday he would donate $50,000 to help build a memorial to the 13 people killed at Columbine High School, drawing cheers from a crowd gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking seven years after the deadliest school attack in U.S. history.
Photo by Jack Dempsey
David Schwimmer won a $400,000 judgment in a defamation lawsuit against former charity fundraiser Aaron Tonken, the actor's publicist said Friday.
Schwimmer filed the lawsuit last year over statements Tonken made claiming the former "Friends" star demanded two Rolex watches to attend his own charity event.
Tonken, who is serving a prison sentence of more than five years for unrelated charges of defrauding charities of hundreds of thousands of dollars, has retracted the statements and apologized to the actor, according to Schwimmer's publicist, Ina Treciokas.
Bush protesters stand across the street from the Hyatt Regency hotel in downtown Albuquerque, N.M., Friday, June 16, 2006, where President Bush was inside attending a fund raiser for Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., who is seeking her sixth term. Wilson faces Democratic state Attorney General Patricia Madrid in the November general election.
Photo by Jake Schoellkopf
American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has been awarded $2 million in his lawsuit against his ex-manager for misappropriating the singer's money and credit cards.
Studdard, 26, of Birmingham, won the television talent show in 2003 and filed suit last year against ex-manager Ronald W. Edwards and Edwards' promotions company, Sez Inc.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Scott Vowell on Thursday awarded Studdard $500,000 for his actual losses and another $1.5 million in punitive damages, The Birmingham News reported Thursday on its Web site.
Painted in the colors of Italy a woman promotes a local nightclub in Kaiserslautern, Germany before the World Cup Group E soccer match between Italy and the United States Saturday, June 17, 2006. Other teams in Group E are Ghana and Czech Republic.
Photo by Andrew Medichini
Anthropologist Bennet Bronson recalls working on an archaeological dig in Thailand for months, then returning the next year to discover that the site had been destroyed by looters who used backhoes and machine guns.
Cultural heritage expert Patty Gerstenblith relates stories of plunderers in China walking around with auction house catalogs to determine what artifacts they should target to bring in the most money.
Art museums, meanwhile, tell of curators spending months tracking down ownership records for potential acquisitions and trying to verify if documents are legitimate. They point to studies they say prove how little influence American art museums have on the global trade in antiquities and indicate private collectors are driving the black market.
The issue of provenance - or the history of an artwork's ownership - has never before been a more debated topic among archeologists and attorneys, collectors and curators, museum directors and donors, nations and cultural groups.
Bussunda, a Brazilian comedian renowned for his imitations of soccer star Ronaldo and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, died Saturday while covering the World Cup for the country's largest television network. He was 43.
Bussunda, whose real name was Claudio Besserman Vianna, died after having a heart attack, Brazil's Globo TV news channel said.
A Globo TV program director said Vianna had no history of heart problems and played soccer on a weekly basis.
Dusty, 6, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi, races over a jump during a fly ball competition at the Humane Society of Baltimore's Bark in the Park canine games Saturday, June 17, 2006 in Reisterstown, Md.
Photo by Chris Gardner
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