'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Kevin Maher: Knocked Up's patter of mighty feats (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
A gross-out relationship comedy that's fast, rude and pure box-office gold.
Stephen Dalton: 'I would never survive 26 divorces' (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Is Steve Earle, the much-married former junkie, convict and political activist, America's greatest living songwriter?
The 5-Minute Interview: Christopher Monckton, Policy adviser, journalist, inventor (news.independent.co.uk)
'I'm bad at doing what I'm told. I'm a born free-thinker.'
Should the Stones quit? (telegraph.co.uk)
After more than 40 years, the wrinkly rockers are still at it. Two Telegraph writers debate whether it's time for them to jack it in.
Ron Rosenbaum: The Worst Op-Ed Ever Written? A professor makes you feel sorry for Starbucks (slate.com)
For men of a certain age, used to ordering their coffee and getting it "twenty seconds later, tops," that new coffee chain, Starbucks, can be confusing ...
Emily Yoffe: Lolita's Closet (slate.com)
Unbearably trampy back-to-school clothes.
Michael Agger: Wikipedia Unmasked (slate.com)
A new Web site reveals the sneak attacks and ego-fluffing of your friends and co-workers.
Get Smart Without Going Broke (cbsnews.com)
Thanks to the burgeoning "open courseware" movement, you can take free online classes in subjects as diverse as law and linguistics from some of the country's top-ranked universities.
Open Courseware Consortium
Reader Suggestion
Something Cool
hey marty,
love your stuff. i especially loved the baby panda. little
angels come to us in many packages...heeheeeee.
anyway, i was checking out hats for our one time a year softball team and
you know how one thing leads to another... well, i typed in "design your
own" on google and a snowflake page was at the top of the list.
try it. it's cool on these hot days.
bless your heart
mary
p.s. hope your trip home was fine. we live in pa too. beautiful state.
home of hershey (but soon to move to mexico. which means no more kisses
from pa)
also zippo lighters and martin guitars. that's where i work. martin. i
love it. take care.
Thanks, Mary!
The trip to PA was great - and too short. Here's the work-in-progress
Trip Report
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly overcast and cool - even had a bit of very unseasonal rain this morning. Quite nice.
Contract Problems With Disney
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert has turned thumbs down on thumb reviews for "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper."
Ebert, who is negotiating a new contract with the syndicated TV show's distributor, Disney-ABC Domestic Television, is a copyright holder on the signature "thumbs up-thumbs down" judgment that's part of each film review.
He has "exercised his right to withhold use of the `thumbs' until a new contract is signed," the Walt Disney Co.-owned company said in a statement released Friday.
Health problems have kept Ebert from appearing on the show for more than a year, with guest hosts filling in. In the new season starting this weekend, co-host Richard Roeper will be joined for the first few months by movie critic Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Observer.
Roger Ebert
Sunday Strips Pulled
Opus
The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus' host paper The Washington Post. The strips may be viewed in a large format on their respective dates at
Salon.com.
The Official Berkeley Breathed Website
More Banned TV Content
China
Not content with banning "vulgar" reality TV shows, China's culture guardians have added transsexuals and plastic surgery patients to the burgeoning hit-list of proscribed content on the country's airways.
China's broadcasting watchdog, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), has outlawed shows featuring "public participation" in sex-change operations and plastic surgery.
The order follows the axing of controversial "Beautiful Makeover," a reality show produced by a TV station in China's southern province of Guangdong, showing scenes of plastic surgery operations.
"Happy Boys Voice," China's male-only take-off of U.S. talent show "American Idol," cut scenes involving contestants in tears, with wild hair or singing "unhealthy" songs in its first season to comply with the watchdog's demands.
China
Monument Criticized Over Artist
Martin Luther King Jr
The selection of a Chinese sculptor to carve a three-story monument to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall is raising questions about what part of his legacy should be celebrated.
A loose-knit but growing group of critics says a black artist - or at least an American - should have been chosen to create the King memorial between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials in the nation's capital. They have been joined by human rights advocates who say King would have abhorred the Chinese government's record on religious and civil liberty.
The memorial foundation directing the project seems surprised at the criticism. Ten of the 12 people on the committee that chose the sculptor, Lei Yixin, are black. Lei is working closely on the design with two black sculptors in the U.S., organizers said, and the overall project is being directed by a black-owned architecture firm.
The foundation also points to King's preaching - in a quote that will be incorporated into the monument - that to achieve peace, humans must "transcend race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."
Martin Luther King Jr
Involved In Fatal Car Accident
John Singleton
Oscar-nominated director John Singleton was driving a Lexus SUV when it struck and killed a jaywalker who stepped in front of the car, police said Friday.
Singleton, 39, immediately stopped his car and waited for police to arrive after the accident Thursday night in the city's Jefferson Park neighborhood, said Officer Jason Lee, a police spokesman.
"Mr. Singleton stopped and identified himself as required by law and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol," Lee said. "He was questioned and released."
The woman was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead Friday morning, Lee said. She was identified as Constance Russell, 57, of Los Angeles.
John Singleton
Seeks Financial Support
Ted Haggard
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who left the megachurch he founded after admitting to "sexual immorality," has asked supporters for financial assistance while he and his wife pursue their studies.
The former New Life Church pastor plans to seek a master's degree in counseling at the University of Phoenix while his wife studies psychology, he said in an e-mail sent this week to KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs.
Haggard received a salary of $115,000 for the 10 months he worked in 2006 and an $85,000 anniversary bonus before the scandal broke, The Gazette reported. Haggard's severance package included a year's salary of $138,000, and he collects royalties on his book titles, the newspaper reported.
El Paso County records show Haggard's home, which has been up for sale, has a market value of $715,051.
Ted Haggard
Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Winner Sued
Shirin Ebadi
Iran's 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi was sued by a co-author on Thursday for pulling out of an agreement to publish a new book.
Ebadi, the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the peace prize, had agreed to write "A Useful Enemy," with political analyst Shahir Shahidsaless, according to the lawsuit.
Shahidsaless sued her for $1.3 million in damages after Ebadi's literary agent and her publisher, Random House, recommended that she pull out of the deal out of concern that it would damage future sales of her other books, according to the suit filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Shirin Ebadi
Changing Time Zone By 30 Minutes
Venezuela
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has changed his country's name, redesigned its flag and rejigged its coat of arms in his drive for a socialist state.
Now the leftist reformer, highly popular for redistributing oil income, is seeking to move the country's time zone to offer a more equitable distribution of sunlight.
Next month Venezuelan clocks will be set at Greenwich Mean Time minus 4-1/2 hours, compared to the previous GMT minus four hours, Science and Technology Minister Hector Navarro told reporters at a news conference.
Venezuela
Youth Fined For YouTube Prank
Finland
A Finnish court ruled against a 15-year-old student in a libel case on Friday after he posted a clip of his teacher on YouTube, ordering the youth to pay 800 euros (543 pounds) in damages and a 90 euro fine.
The student had filmed his teacher singing at the school party last May and put the clip on YouTube with English subtitles under the headline "Karaoke of the mental hospital".
The teacher took the boy to court and asked for 2,000 euros in damages.
The court said it had ordered reduced damages because the defendant was under 18 years of age and he had removed the clip from the Internet within two weeks at the request of the school's headmaster.
Finland
First to Build Ship
Maine Colony
It was established the same year as Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, but Maine's short-lived Popham Colony has gotten scant attention.
Still, the 120 settlers led by George Popham who struggled through a cruel Maine winter at Fort St. George before abandoning the site 14 months later can claim credit for something that Jamestown can't.
"This was the first colony to build a ship - an oceangoing vessel," said Jane Stevens, whose home is within the boundary of the site of Fort St. George.
There's even an effort afoot to build a reproduction of the 30-ton pinnace Virginia, the vessel that the Popham colonists set about building within days of their arrival.
Maine Colony
In Memory
Aaron Russo
Aaron Russo, who managed Bette Midler and went on to produce such films as "Trading Places," has died. He was 64.
Russo died from cancer before dawn on Friday, surrounded by family at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Heidi Gregg, his girlfriend of more than two decades. Russo had been battling the disease for nearly six years, she said.
Russo was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn in 1943 and raised in Long Island. He began promoting rock and roll shows at a local theater while still in high school, according to a biography he wrote and posted on his Web site. When he later opened his own nightclub in Chicago, Russo promoted some of the most successful rock acts of the 1960s including Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead, he wrote.
Russo was also a long time political activist, making an unsuccessful run for Nevada governor as a Republican in 1998. In January 2004, Russo declared his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination but lost.
In 2006, Russo finished work on a documentary titled "America: Freedom to Fascism," which was billed as an expose of the Internal Revenue Service.
In addition to Gregg, Russo is survived by their children Sam Russo, 22, and Max Russo, 25.
Aaron Russo
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