'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Robert Verkaik: Wikipedia and the art of censorship (independent.co.uk)
Voting-machine company Diebold apparently excised long paragraphs detailing the US security industry's concerns over the integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's chief executive's fundraising for President Bush. The text, deleted in November 2005, was very rapidly restored by another Wikipedia contributor, who advised the anonymous editor, "Please stop removing content from Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism."
ROBERT WEINER and JOHN LARMETT: Presidential economics: myths, facts (jsonline.com)
Bush inherited from President Clinton an annual federal budget surplus of $236 billion, the largest in American history. Clinton balanced the budget for the first time since 1969. Budget surpluses were expected to total $5.6 trillion between fiscal year 2002 and 2011.
'I start my day in a condition of rage' (guardian.co.uk)
With another bestseller under her belt, crime novelist Val McDermid should be celebrating. Instead she is mired in a controversy involving Ian Rankin, extreme violence and lesbianism. She talks to Julie Bindel.
Britney and the Grim Reaper: US gossip magazines go into meltdown (guardian.co.uk)
As part of its ongoing commitment to haemorrhaging neurons so you don't have to, Lost in Showbiz this week turns its attentions to the world's finest celebrity magazines.
Kai Bandele: "Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace" by Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman (popmatters.com)
Becoming the "iPod of your industry" requires more than mimicking a "cool" brand.
The Bourne Ultimatum (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Matt Damon is back as the amnesiac target of the CIA - and critic James Christopher is blown away.
Roger Ebert: Ace in the Hole (1951; A Great Movie)
There's not a soft or sentimental passage in Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" (1951), a portrait of rotten journalism and the public's insatiable appetite for it. It's easy to blame the press for its portraits of self-destructing celebrities, philandering preachers, corrupt politicians or bragging serial killers, but who loves those stories? The public does.
John Kiely: "The 5-Minute Interview: Hilary Duff, Actress and singer" (independent.co.uk)
Q: I'm very bad at ...
A: Driving. My garage sometimes jumps out at me. The other day I heard a scratch as I was pulling my car out. I thought I just ran over some bubble wrap so I kept going. When I got out, I saw my mirror was hanging off. Everyone is scared to get in the car with me.
Reader Suggestion
hitler's champagne
Busch picked this up for Roves going away bash
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still too hot, and way too humid.
Uncut Edition Of 'On The Road'
Jack Kerouac
When "On The Road" came out in 1957, Jack Kerouac became the voice of the Beat Generation almost overnight. "Jack went to bed obscure and woke up famous," was how his girlfriend Joyce Johnson put it.
Now, 50 years on, the tale of disaffected youth struggling to find a place in post-war America is to be re-released in its original form, unedited, cruder and more erotic, and with the real names of Kerouac's traveling companions restored.
The novel recounts drug-fueled road trips Kerouac took across America with fellow writers, poets and artists, all narrated in a spontaneous stream of consciousness and set to the strains of bebop jazz.
But when it was first published on September 5, 1957, a good bit of the most explicit sexual content was sliced out and the real names of the characters were swapped for pseudonyms.
Jack Kerouac
Hundreds Pose Naked On Shrinking Glacier
Spencer Tunick
Hundreds of people posed naked on Switzerland's shrinking Aletsch glacier on Saturday for U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick as part of a Greenpeace campaign to raise awareness of global warming.
Tunick, perched on a ladder and using a megaphone, directed nearly 600 volunteers from all over Europe and photographed them on a rocky outcrop overlooking the glacier, which is the largest in the Alps.
Later he took pictures of them standing in groups on the mass of ice and lying down. Camera crews were staged at five different points on the glacier to take photographs.
The environmental group Greenpeace, which organized the shoot, said the aim was to "establish a symbolic relationship between the vulnerability of the melting glacier and the human body."
Spencer Tunick
Missile Launcher Exchanged For Shoes
Orlando
Police were hoping for a good turnout at their "Kicks for Guns" sneaker exchange, but they weren't expecting a surface-to-air missile launcher.
An Ocoee man showed up and exchanged the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.
Taking advantage of the exchange's no-questions-asked policy, the man was not identified. He told the Orlando Sentinel that he found the weapon in a shed he tore down last week.
"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," he told the newspaper. "I took it to three dumps to try to get rid of it and they told me to get lost."
Orlando
Tourism Pitch Altered
Virginia
Virginia is still for lovers, but the state's tourism agency will eliminate images of people making heart symbols with their hands in its upcoming advertising campaign because the gesture is also used by a violent street gang.
The Virginia is for Lovers "Live Passionately" campaign will remove images of models making the hand gesture, one of several signs associated with the Gangster Disciples, Virginia Tourism Corp. officials said Friday. The gesture shows thumbs and index fingers formed into a heart.
At first, tourism officials thought the gang was a small group in South Carolina and continued with the ads.
Then the agency received e-mails this week pointing out that the gesture is flashed by members of Gangster Disciples, also known as Black Gangster Disciples. The Chicago-based group is known for its large-scale crack-cocaine operations, and was featured in a chapter of the best-seller "Freakonomics" in which a sociology graduate student gained the trust of gang members to learn about the group's operational structure.
Virginia
Resumes Planning Medical Marijuana Program
New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson ordered the state Health Department on Friday to resume planning of a medical marijuana program despite the agency's worries about possible federal prosecution.
However, the governor stopped short of committing to implement a state-licensed production and distribution system for the drug if the potential for federal prosecution remains unchanged.
The department announced earlier this week that it would not implement the law's provisions for the agency to oversee the production and distribution of marijuana to eligible patients. That decision came after Attorney General Gary King warned that the department and its employees could face federal prosecution for implementing the law, which took effect in July.
On Friday, Richardson directed the department to plan for full implementation of the program, such as preparing the regulations that will permanently govern how it operates.
New Mexico
Pirated Copy Tracked To Australian
`Simpsons'
The first known pirated copy of "The Simpsons Movie" to make it onto the Internet was tracked to a home raided by Australian police Friday, authorities said.
Police ordered a 21-year-old Sydney man to appear in a Sydney court in October when he will be formally charged, the Australian Federal Police said. Details of the likely charge and penalties have not been made public.
The Motion Picture Association industry group said the investigation involved News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox movie studio, Australian police and the private investigation group Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft.
The federation said the illegal "Simpsons" copy was the first on the Internet and was recorded by a cell phone in a Sydney cinema on July 26 - hours before its release in most of the world. Officials said the movie was uploaded to a video-sharing site based in the United States before it hit U.S. theaters July 27.
`Simpsons'
Bailing Out GOP Debts
California
Two wealthy businessmen with close ties to Governor Schwarzenegger have agreed to donate $3 million to the California Republican Party to help erase debts remaining from the 2006 election.
The GOP reported that it had $4.4 million dollars in debts and just over $1 million in cash on hand on June 30th. In contrast, the California Democratic Party had more than $5 million dollars in cash and about $300,000 in debts.
But GOP officials say Paul Folino and Larry Dodge have agreed to give the party $3 million dollars by next February to help erase its red ink.
California
Jewelry Stolen
Hulk Hogan
A burglar has made off with approximately $100,000 worth of jewelry from the home of professional wrestling champion Hulk Hogan, authorities said.
Hogan's family was moving out of the home when the theft of a platinum diamond watch and two dog tags was noticed, according to a Miami Beach Police Department report.
Hogan's son, Nicholas, told officers he had left the items wrapped in a T-shirt in an upstairs closet. When he went to get them at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, they were gone.
Hulk Hogan
What Will We Tell The Children?
Arkansas
A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age - even infants - to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may have to call a special session to fix the mistake, lawmakers said Friday.
The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Rep. Will Bond said. An extraneous "not" in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.
The bill reads: "In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."
A code revision commission - which fixes typographical and technical errors in laws - had tried to correct the mistake, but a group of legislators said Friday the commission went beyond its powers.
Arkansas
Former Film Commissioner Charged
Louisiana
Louisiana's former film commissioner has been charged with taking $65,000 in bribes by abusing a system of tax credits meant to lure film production to the state, federal prosecutors said.
Mark S. Smith was charged Friday with accepting bribe money from the Louisiana Institute of Film Technology, a New Orleans production company, in exchange for approving the company's inflated budget.
The allegations come just days after New Orleans City Councilman Oliver Thomas pleaded guilty to taking bribes. Thomas was once widely viewed as a shoo-in to become the next mayor.
Louisiana
Sets Up Christian Center
Alice Cooper
Shock-rocker Alice Cooper has a surprise for those who see him only as the man in haunting black eye makeup whose a stage show features mock hangings, real snakes and plenty of fake blood.
The self-styled "Prince of Darkness" is throwing his energy into building a Christian teen center in Phoenix for at-risk youths from the area, hoping to break ground by November.
The rocker, who is known for songs like "School's Out" and "Welcome to my Nightmare," became a born-again Christian more than two decades ago after overcoming a drink problem.
Alice Cooper
Set To Be Demolished
Canada's Last Igloo
The last igloo in Canada's far north, which housed a family restaurant for 27 years, is set to be demolished to make room for offices, amid a flurry of economic activity in the remote Arctic.
Purchased in May by an Edmonton-based hotel operator, the Kamotiq Inn restaurant is to be replaced in the coming months by a 4,645 square-meter (50,000 square-foot) office building.
The eatery at the main "Four Corners" intersection of Iqaluit, just 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, is the only extant example of modern igloo architecture, inspired by the igloo shape and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s, in the North.
It was actually built in 1980 by two schoolteachers with the help of local townsfolk out of normal building materials. The couple was fascinated by the "igloo shape," said Suzie Michael, a former student who pitched in, hammering nails and painting the exterior.
Canada's Last Igloo
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