'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Assist
Re: Hotlinking
Hi Marty,
I enjoy Bartcop Entertainment, and I think you mentioned in a recent issue that someone hotlinked to a photo on your site w/o your permission. I just found this info at work & thought you might like to read it.
Sincerely,
Gwen
Thanks, Gwen!
I handled the MySpace usurper by replacing the file she was stealing with a really
nasty picture that put her in violation of MySpace's TOS. Heh.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
PAUL KRUGMAN: Centrism Is for Suckers (The New York Times)
If you want to understand the state of America today, a good place to start is with the contrast between the political strategies of conservative business advocacy groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and those of more or less liberal advocacy groups like the Sierra Club.
Boortz: Adults earning minimum wage are "incompetent", "ignorant", "stupid", "worthless," and "pathetic" (mediamatters.org)
Summary: ... Boortz also falsely claimed that "most of the people that earn [the] minimum wage are teenagers."
Molly Ivins: No Guts, No Grace
The rest of this crew of moral pygmies are too frightened of Dick Cheney to point out that this entire war is a disaster, or a FIASCO as Thomas E. Ricks, author of the new book "Fiasco" puts it. I think the Bush foreign policy -- when in doubt, send Condi Rice home -- is a public relations ploy to keep the Israeli-Lebanese war going long enough so that Americans won't notice Iraq has completely collapsed in the meantime. And it has collapsed. I suggest our military figure out how to get out of there before they lose an entire effing army on the way.
Nice one, George (commentisfree.guardian.co.uk)
Those of us who support Armageddon have naturally been greatly cheered by way the US president has embraced our cause.
GLENN WHEELER: Queer crusade's bad serve (nowtoronto.com)
Rather than the right to come out, the best hope for repressed sexual minorities may lie in what Louise Arbour, UN high commissioner for human rights, describes in her speech as the "right to privacy" that forms part of international law. It's commonly understood as "the right to be left alone," she says. But cast in a more positive light, it's the line of demarcation across which the state should not step to police sex or peaceful political activity.
KARLA STARR: City Of Slackers (wweek.com)
WWeek takes a joy ride with the self-professed expert on "Doing Nothing" to find out just why Portland is so damn laid-back.
Purple Gene Reviews
'Tarzan the Ape Man'
Purple Gene's review of "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1932) [view trailer]
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke….and a cursory excursion through the annals of "Ape Mandom" :
Due to the overwhelming success and staggering interest in the recent online contest "Who's the BEST Sheena" (the Cartoon Version won and Purple Gene must review a bad, bad "B" movie - to be named later) …and to commemorate the recent death in San Francisco of the "Son of Tarzan", Johnny Weissmuller Jr…….Purple Gene stayed up very late last night and watched 5 time Olympic Gold Medalist Johnny Weissmuller star as "Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)…with Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane….But first…let's go back deep into the darkest jungle and remember Hollywood going "Ape"……
Edgar Rice Burroughs completed "Tarzan the Ape Man" in 1914 to a huge audience of readers…….
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny and breezy.
My niece stopped by and fell in love with the kitten.
She will adopt him after he's been fixed & had his shots.
No new flags.
Plans 9th 'Hole-in-the-Wall' Camp
Paul Newman
Paul Newman's idea in the 1980s to start a camp in Connecticut for critically ill children has grown into an international phenomenon with a ninth "Hole in the Wall" camp opening soon. The camps will host thousands of children, for free, well after the 81-year-old actor speaks his last line before a camera.
"If I leave a legacy, it will be the camps," Newman says.
At the Double H camp, in the woods of the southern Adirondacks, campers climb ropes among tall trees, paint faces, ride horses, swim and play soccer. It's typical summer camp stuff, though campers' diagnoses range from cancer to muscular dystrophy.
Paul Newman
YouTube Spoof Not So Amateurish
Al Gore
A tiny little movie making fun of Al Gore, supposedly made by an amateur filmmaker, recently appeared on the popular Web site YouTube.com.
At first blush, "An Inconvenient Spoof" seemed like a scrappy little homemade film poking fun at Gore and his anti-global warming crusade.
But when the Wall Street Journal tried to find the guy who posted this film - listed on YouTube as a 29-year-old - they found the movie didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement.
The film actually came from a slick Republican public relations firm called DCI, which just happens to have oil giant Exxon as a client.
Al Gore
Bush Pursuing 'Erroneous' Policy
Jimmy Carter
Former President Carter, who helped broker the historic Camp David peace accord, said President Bush has pursued an "erroneous policy" that has fostered violence in the Middle East.
Carter said the United States should work for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the world community should concentrate on a long-term solution, but he is uncertain whether Bush can accomplish a cease-fire.
"In my opinion, maybe the worst ally Israel has had in Washington has been the George W. Bush administration, which hasn't worked to bring a permanent peace to Israel," Carter told the newspaper.
Jimmy Carter
Posthumous Hollywood Walk Star
Stella Adler
Family and former students of Stella Adler gathered in front of the her namesake theater Friday as the actress and acting teacher was honored with a posthumous star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Adler started acting at age 4. In 1949, she founded a school now known as the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Her student list reads like a who's who of Hollywood: Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Candice Bergen, Warren Beatty and Benicio Del Toro, among others. She died in 1992.
"I owe way too much to Stella Adler," Del Toro said at the ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard. "One of the things I owe her for is the seriousness and intensity to how she approached acting."
Stella Adler
Protest Rock Hall O' Fame Snub
Kiss Fans
About 200 Kiss fans protested Saturday in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum to demand that the band be inducted into the hall.
Those participating in the half-hour demonstration were upset that the band, formed more than 30 years ago, has not been admitted, even though it has been eligible since the late 1990s.
A museum spokesman said it was the first demonstration by fans seeking to have a group inducted.
Kiss Fans
Sets Brat-Eating Record
Takeru Kobayashi
Takeru Kobayashi chomped through a record 58 brats at the Johnsonville World Bratwurst Eating Championship on Saturday, easily winning another tasty title and slicing through the record of 34 1/2 set last year by Sonya Thomas.
Kobayashi earned $8,000 for his effort. There was no extra charge for the 16,820 calories, 1,450 grams of fat and 19 days worth of the recommended amount of sodium he consumed in besting Joey Chestnut and Thomas in front of a crowd of about 3,500 people attending Sheboygan Jaycees Brat Days.
The 160-pound Kobayashi, of Nagano, Japan, is a seasoned veteran at 27 and by far the world's best competitive eater. But he narrowly beat 22-year-old Joey Chestnut of San Jose, Calif., in this year's Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest on the Fourth of July in New York.
Takeru Kobayashi
Prime-Time Webcasts Here To Stay
ABC
The Walt Disney Co. is making ad-supported Webcasts of its ABC prime-time TV shows permanently available this fall, following a successful two-month test that drew a younger, more educated audience, a Disney official said on Friday.
Disney offered the prime-time ABC television series "Desperate Housewives," "Commander in Chief," "Lost" and "Alias" on its abc.com Web site in May and June to test whether consumers would watch ads online if the shows were free.
Albert Cheng said Disney would announce later which shows will be available on the free site. Episodes likely will be available for a limited time, and shows may rotate on the site, he added.
ABC
Suits Filed
Courtney Vance
Actor Courtney Vance is being sued by his former talent agency and manager for unpaid commissions for his work, which includes his role on NBC's "Law and Order: Criminal Intent."
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims that in August 2004, Vance terminated his contracts with the Endeavor agency and Dolores Robinson Entertainment after he purportedly was not signed for another year on the NBC drama.
But after he fired his agents and managers, Vance and Studios USA Television, which produces "Law and Order," agreed to extend his original agreement without any changes other than a boost in pay.
The plaintiffs claim Vance fired them to deprive them of the benefits they were entitled to under their contracts. The lawsuit indicates each of the plaintiffs' commissions should have been at least $126,680.
Courtney Vance
Scientist History Forgot
Emilie du Châtelet
A few years ago I was researching a book about Einstein when I stumbled on a footnote about an obscure Frenchwoman of the early 18th century. Her name was Emilie du Châtelet; according to the note, she had played a role in developing the modern concept of energy, and had acquired a certain notoriety in her day.
She had been raised in Paris in the 1710s, growing up in a townhouse of more than 30 rooms overlooking the Tuileries gardens. Her mother had been appalled at having a child who refused to stay politely at children's parties, or to gossip about clothes, but who instead loved listening in when educated guests - especially astronomers - came to visit.
Du Châtelet's father, luckily, doted on his sole daughter. He kept the mother from sending her off to a convent, as was regularly threatened; he hired tutors to teach her Latin, Greek and mathematics. At Versailles, where her black curly hair and rapid-fire speech won her admirers, he merely sighed when she used her skill at mathematics to win at cards, and then used the money to buy more books, rather than more clothes. But he helped her, with family money, to arrange a marriage with a wealthy army officer who - luckily - would be away with his regiment most of the time.
In her late 20s, after an affair with the individual who inspired the character Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (she was the only partner he had who ever willingly dumped him), she met the poet and writer Voltaire, then in his 40s. He was delighted with her youth and intelligence:
For a great read - Emilie du Châtelet
Patty Heaton's Group Buys Birthplace
Susan B. Anthony
The birthplace of suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony was sold for $164,500 at auction Saturday, town officials said.
The two-story, 1,566-square foot home was purchased by Carol Crossed of Rochester, N.Y., according the Adams Historical Commission.
Crossed is president of Democrats for Life of America, an anti-abortion organization. She said a member of Feminists for Life of America, an anti-abortion and feminist organization she belongs to, will live in the house, which she hopes to eventually open to the public.
Susan B. Anthony
Tribute To Lenny Bruce
Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.
The California beermaker who brought the world He'brew, Miraculous Jewbilation and Genesis Ale has come up with a new brew commemorating the late Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce on the 40th anniversary of his death.
Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. has hit more than 1,000 stores in 25 states in a tribute to Bruce, the ground-breaking comic and social critic who died on August 3, 1966, at age 40.
The beer is made with "obscene amounts of malts and hops," says a statement from Shmaltz Brewing Co., in reference to Bruce's arrests for obscenity in his standup act.
A rye India pale ale, or R.I.P.A., it packs a punch with 10 percent alcohol.
Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A.
In Memory
Susan Butcher
Four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher died Saturday in a Seattle hospital of complications from a recent bone marrow transplant. She was 51.
In 1986, she became the second woman to win the grueling race from Anchorage to Nome. She added victories in 1987, 1988 and 1990 and finished in the top four through 1993.
In 1979, Butcher helped drive the first sled-dog team to the 20,320-foot summit of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America.
Butcher ran her last Iditarod in 1994 when she decided to have children. She has two daughters, Tekla and Chisana, with her husband, attorney and musher David Monson.
Three years ago, when she was considering a comeback, doctors found Butcher had polycythemia vera, a rare disease that causes the bone marrow to produce excess blood.
Susan Butcher
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