'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Froma Harrop: The Creepy Debate on SCHIP (creators.com)
One of the less pleasant debates in Washington has been over SCHIP. The State Children's Health Insurance Program covers children whose families make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own coverage. In other words, it's for the working stiffs.
Froma Harrop: Rich Suburbs Move to Democrats (creators.com)
GREENWICH, Conn. - You'd think that Greenwich would be solid Bush-loving turf - what with all those tax cuts for the rich. It is not. The voters are roughly 40 percent Republican, 40 percent unaffiliated and only 20 percent Democratic, but Bush won the town by only a sliver in 2004, even though his father grew up here.
Sanford Pinsker: Should That College Course Come With a Warranty? (irascibleprofessor.com)
It's been slightly more than a decade since I first pointed out that a college education ought to last at least as long as the warranty on an eight-speed blender.
Mark Morford: The Great Hello Kitty Humiliation (sfgate.com)
Late for work? Hello Kitty! Cheat on your taxes? Hello Kitty! Kill some guy? Hello Kitty!
Nathan Lee: The Super Fun of It (villagevoice.com)
David Lynch's Inland Empire comes out on DVD this week. Nathan Lee chats with the director about digital video, putrefied experiences, and tapioca.
Jeff Niesel: The Bat Is Back (freetimes.com)
Meat Loaf Prides Himself On Being A Performer.
MUSTAFA MUTABARUKA: A tear for Lindsay (nowtoronto.com)
I can't hate Lohan like media does. She reminds me of my alcoholic sis who took her own life.
Tom Danehy: What's that smell? It's just Tom, driving around listening to commercials (tucsonweekly.com)
I despise the [ad] with the guy who says, "I got popped for DUI and I was charged with 10 different crimes. (The lawyer) got all of the counts dismissed, and I didn't even have to go to court."
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir (jewishworldreview.com)
Understanding the Torah's obligation of tithing. It's more than fighting poverty
Commentoon: Abortion (Cartoon; womensenews.org/article.cfm)
Nicole Hollander: Sylvia (Cartoon; womensenews.org/article.cfm)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Less marine layer, but still cooler than seasonal.
Stars Promote Rights
'Y Tu Mama Tambien'
"Y Tu Mama Tambien" stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna said a gala dinner they are hosting Saturday will raise money to support human rights and shine light on poverty and injustice in Mexico.
The $300-a-plate meal in the capital will benefit Mexico's Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights as well as Witness, an organization founded by singer Peter Gabriel that promotes the use of video and film to document human rights abuses.
The actors, who starred in the 2001 road movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien," have vocally backed other social and political causes such as Mexico City's new law legalizing gay civil unions.
Garcia Bernal also criticized a U.S.-Mexico border fence as "absurd," while promoting the 2006 film "Babel."
'Y Tu Mama Tambien'
Fan Seeks To Refurbish CA Home
Elvis Presley
An Elvis Presley fan wants to give Graceland a run for the money by refurbishing the King's old desert home as a tourist attraction.
Reno Fontana and his wife, Laura, bought the Palm Springs home site unseen in November.
The Spanish-style white stucco home has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, with a sunken tub and a pool. Elvis and Priscilla Presley bought the home in April 1970. The family, including daughter Lisa Marie, lived there part-time.
After his death, Presley's lawyer took control of the estate. It was not immediately known whether anyone lived in the house before the Fontanas bought it.
Elvis Presley
French Teen Translator Update
Harry Potter
A French high-school student who posted a rogue French-language translation of the latest Harry Potter book on the Internet will not be sued, the French publisher involved said Saturday.
The decision to not seek compensation from the 16-year-old boy was made in agreement with author J.K. Rowling, the company, Gallimard, said.
The unnamed teenager, from the southern city of Aix en Provence, had told police after being arrested and briefly detained a week ago that he had not sought to make money off his unauthorised translation.
Investigators were reportedly struck by the "near-professional" quality of the boy's work. The website that had hosted the translation has since been taken offline.
Harry Potter
Cancels Hometown Show
Aretha Franklin
The Queen of Soul is cooling her heels. Aretha Franklin announced she has canceled her hometown concert Sunday night at an outdoor amphitheater in suburban Detroit, citing heat exhaustion. With temperatures forecast to climb above the 90 degrees, Franklin decided to call off the show at DTE Energy Music Theatre and hopes to reschedule it at a later date.
Franklin, 65, said in a statement Friday that the heat at recent East Coast shows has been "sweltering and all but overwhelming."
"Following the Weather Channel and the daily reports in the news via television and newspaper publications, I see that the temperatures in Detroit have been very similar," she said in the statement. "I am exhausted from the heat and cannot tolerate heat in these extremely high numbers and being in concert simultaneously."
Aretha Franklin
Co-Executor Of Will Quits
James Brown
A trustee accused of misappropriating $350,000 of James Brown's money resigned and handed over a check for that amount during a court hearing, a newspaper reported.
David Cannon also resigned Friday as co-executor of the late soul singer's will during a four-hour hearing before Circuit Judge Jack Early, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle reported Saturday.
A follow-up hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 24 as various people wrangle over the late soul singer's estate.
It's not clear how much money is left in the estate, said Louis Levenson, an Atlanta attorney representing several of the singer's children. Before he died Christmas Day at age 73, Brown had been on an allowance of $100,000 a month.
James Brown
Celebrity Money Manager Surrenders Book Rights
Dana Giacchetto
Former celebrity money manager Dana Giacchetto surrendered his share of a book deal and rights to his story to a bankruptcy trustee to satisfy about $3 million owed to former clients and others, according to federal court documents filed on Friday.
In a settlement filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Giacchetto relinquished any rights to a movie, TV show or serialization of the book, "You Will Make Money in Your Sleep: The Story of Dana Giacchetto, Financial Advisor to the Stars."
He also surrendered any intellectual property rights to the book, and his life rights, until his creditors receive full repayment, said Bob Wolf, special litigation counsel to bankruptcy trustee Robert Geltzer.
Giacchetto pleaded guilty to fraud in 2000 for taking money from accounts of non-celebrity clients to finance a high-flying lifestyle and give extraordinary returns or mask losses to star clients like Tobey Maguire, Courteney Cox and Cameron Diaz.
Dana Giacchetto
A Merc By Another Name
Iraq Contractors
There are now nearly as many private contractors in Iraq as there are U.S. soldiers - and a large percentage of them are private security guards equipped with automatic weapons, body armor, helicopters and bullet-proof trucks.
They operate with little or no supervision, accountable only to the firms employing them. And as the country has plummeted toward anarchy and civil war, this private army has been accused of indiscriminately firing at American and Iraqi troops, and of shooting to death an unknown number of Iraqi citizens who got too close to their heavily armed convoys.
Not one has faced charges or prosecution.
They operate in a decidedly gray legal area. Unlike soldiers, they are not bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Under a special provision secured by American-occupying forces, they are exempt from prosecution by Iraqis for crimes committed there.
Iraq Contractors
Lags Behind 41 Nations in Life Span
U.S.
Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
Researchers said several factors have contributed to the United States falling behind other industrialized nations. A major one is that 45 million Americans lack health insurance, while Canada and many European countries have universal health care, they say.
U.S.
Church And State
Colorado City
One by one, police officers in Colorado City are being stripped of their law-enforcement certification because they cannot serve two masters: a polygamous church and their oath to uphold the law.
In a police department normally staffed with just six full-time officers, four have lost their badges in recent years. Two more, including town Marshal Fred Barlow, are awaiting decertification rulings from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, or Arizona POST.
All the ousted officers belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that teaches salvation is attained through plural marriage. Authorities from Utah and Arizona have cracked down on FLDS child marriages and fraud in this isolated red-rock country.
Last names suggest the insular nature of life in Colorado City: Most of the lawmen who have faced Arizona decertification hearings are named Barlow.
Colorado City
In Memory
Tony Wilson
Tony Wilson, a music impresario credited with guiding a crop of bands from industrial England to the international stage, died Friday. He was 57.
Wilson promoted a host of influential musicians from his native city of Manchester in northern England, including Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays.
Wilson's influence on the city, and on British music, is documented in the 2002 movie "24 Hour Party People," which charts the rise - and eventual fall - of Wilson's empire, which included Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub.
Manchester-born and Cambridge-educated, Wilson's record label and nightclub were credited with making the city Britain's most vibrant music center through the 1980s and 1990s, spawning bands including the Smiths, the Stone Roses and Oasis.
Though Factory Records and the Hacienda closed down in the 1990s, Wilson remained a passionate advocate for his city, presenting a radio show for the local British Broadcasting Corp. station.
Tony Wilson
CURRENT MOON lunar phases |