'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrett Kamps: Living With Post-War: M. Ward's recipe for political change: Let's ignore the president (villagevoice.com)
Hippies, though admirable and well-intentioned, often compensate for their excellent politics with profoundly lousy art.
Richard Roeper: What's old is news: Media finalists for online honors (suntimes.com)
Take a look at this partial list of finalists for a prestigious ceremony honoring the best in various, time-honored categories of reportage, including General Excellence, Commentary, Breaking News, Enterprise Journalism and Service Journalism ...
Casey Rea: Dorky Dad, Dirty Mind (sevendaysvt.com)
SEVEN DAYS: I have to tell you; it was weird to pick up the phone and hear a familiar voice say, "This is Bob Saget."
BOB SAGET: I called for my carpeting to be cleaned yesterday, and the guy goes, "I've heard this voice before - why do I know you?" I said, "I'm your father."
J. Hoberman: The Science of Bleep (villagevoice.com)
Snappy doc exposes rating-board secrets.
ANONYMOUS: CHICK LIT IS HURTING AMERICA (weeklydig.com)
A former women's books editor unloads.
Rabbi David Aaron: Your Only Choice is Choice (jewishworldreview.com)
Rabbi Eliezar was a very, very poor man. He subsisted on a meager diet of bread and garlic. One day, the rabbi was so hungry that he fainted. While unconscious, he had a dialogue with G-d. When revived by his students, he announced, "G-d spoke to me."
Commentoon: Military Recruiters (womensenews.org)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
No new flags.
Laid-Off Animators Start New Studio
Miracle Studios
Tom Hignite knew something was off when he went to the Disney studios in Florida three years ago and saw empty easels instead of animators working on a film.
Hignite later heard they had been laid off - since fans were going to see more computer-animated movies and box-office sales had been lagging for classic hand-drawn, or two-dimensional, movies.
But he didn't want 2-D films to die. He had been successful owning a home building company in southeastern Wisconsin, and decided to put money into a studio that would make only 2-D cartoons.
So in 2004 he started Miracle Studios in Polk, about 50 kilometres north of Milwaukee. He originally hired 12 animators, who have worked at Disney, Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. They also sometimes work from Hignite's Richfield home.
Miracle Studios
Plane Narrowly Misses
News Chopper
A small airliner coming in for a landing at Los Angeles International Airport early Friday narrowly missed a helicopter flying about 1,200 feet over the city near La Tijera Boulevard and the 405 Freeway, officials said.
The Saab turboprop came within 100 feet vertically of the helicopter and about a quarter of a mile horizontally, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration.
In Friday's incident, a controller cleared the American Eagle pilot to land on LAX's northernmost runway about 6 a.m. Instead of making a routine approach from the Harbor Freeway, the pilot made a sharp turn, descended below 2,500 feet and headed for the airport, Gregor said. Jets typically fly above 2,500 feet in protected airspace around LAX. Smaller airplanes and helicopters routinely use airspace below this level.
A few seconds later, the pilot encountered the helicopter, which was chartered by KABC-TV Channel 7, officials said.
News Chopper
Museum Removes Exhibits For Renovation
Smithsonian
Oscar the Grouch probably won't be happy about his next home: a cold, dark box that is far from "Sesame Street" and his beloved trash can. The puppet is among tens of thousands of exhibits and artifacts that will be carefully stored as the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History prepares for a massive, two-year renovation.
The museum closes Tuesday. Many items in the way of the construction will be relocated to the building's wings, where they will be protected from the dust. They include Oscar, the first ladies' evening gowns and 4,000 lighting devices dating from the early 17th century.
Curators and conservators have been planning for the renovation for months. It can take weeks to move a vast collection of silver tea sets, flatware and ordinary Tupperware into temporary storage.
Smithsonian
Spokeswoman Chides Police
Mos Def
A spokeswoman for rapper Mos Def said police overreacted when they ticketed him for an impromptu performance outside the MTV Video Music Awards this week.
Police officers patrolling the event issued the performer a summons for operating a sound system without a permit Thursday after he arrived at Radio City Music Hall in a pickup truck and hastily set up a portable stage.
He was a few verses into his 2005 song "Katrina Clap," which criticizes resident Bush's handling of the hurricane, when officers made him stop.
"As soon as he was made aware of the police presence, he shut everything down," said Carleen Donovan, a spokeswoman for the rapper and actor. "His staff and team were willing to comply as well, but the police overreacted."
Mos Def
Cruise Apologized
Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields says Tom Cruise has apologized for publicly criticizing her use of antidepressants after the birth of her first daughter.
The two had a public beef last year after the "Mission: Impossible III" star, echoing the position of Scientology, said in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show that depression can be treated with exercise and vitamins rather than drugs.
The 41-year-old actress says Cruise apologized in person Thursday.
"He came over to my house, and he gave me a heartfelt apology," Shields said Friday during an appearance on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "And he apologized for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened.
Brooke Shields
Rear Ended
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres walked away from a three-vehicle collision caused by a suspected drunken driver, police said. "She had a little neck and back pain, but it doesn't look like it was anything serious," said Sgt. Ken Buscarino of the Los Angeles police said after Friday's accident.
The collision occurred just before 4 p.m. on Sunset Boulevard, Buscarino said. The talk-show host stopped her 2006 Porsche Carrera at a light, followed by a 2002 Buick Le Sabre with two men in their 20s.
A 2002 Porsche Carrera driven by a 52-year-old woman slammed into the back of the Buick and caused a chain reaction, police said.
The woman was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and had minor cuts on her leg, police said. The two men in the Buick suffered scratches.
Ellen DeGeneres
Works Damaged
Edvard Munch
The Edvard Munch masterpieces "The Scream" and "Madonna" suffered minor damage after being stolen by masked gunmen in August 2004, but it can be repaired, museum officials said Friday.
Police remained tightlipped over how they recovered the national treasures Thursday.
Munch Museum director Ingebjoerg Ydstie said "The Scream" had been banged hard in one corner and "Madonna" had a roughly one-inch hole and some loose paint.
Edvard Munch
3 Years For Tax Evasion
Ronald Isley
Soul legend Ronald Isley, who sang such hits as "Twist and Shout" and "This Old Heart of Mine" as a member of the Isley Brothers, was sentenced on Friday to three years in federal prison for tax evasion.
Isley, 65, was also ordered to pay about $3.1 million to the Internal Revenue Service, having engaged in "pervasive, long-term, pathological" evasion of federal taxes, according to U.S. District Court Judge Dean Pregerson.
The sentences were handed down after Isley was convicted last October of five counts of tax evasion and one count of willful failure to file a tax return. During the three-week trial, prosecutors said Isley failed to make any voluntary payments to the IRS between 1976 and 1996.
They also said he spent millions of dollars of unreported cash payments for performances on a yacht and two homes, and cashed royalty checks belonging to his late brother, O'Kelly, who died of a heart attack in 1986.
Ronald Isley
Settles Lawsuit
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston and a photographer have settled a lawsuit regarding topless photos shot of the actress late last year. "It's a confidential settlement," Aniston's attorney, Jay Lavely, said Friday. "The matter was amicably resolved."
The 37-year-old actress sued Peter Brandt in December 2005, claiming he invaded her privacy by using a telephoto lens to photograph her inside her home when she was topless or partly dressed.
She alleged that Brandt used "invasive, intrusive and unlawful measures" to capture the images. Brandt said he took the photos while standing on a public street about 300 yards away from Aniston's home.
Jennifer Aniston
Ordered To Hearing
Kim Basinger
Kim Basinger has been ordered to appear in court to explain why she should not be held in contempt for allegedly disobeying a judge's orders concerning ex-husband Alec Baldwin's visitation time with their daughter.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert A. Schnider Friday ordered the Academy Award-winning actress to appear in court Oct. 4.
Court papers filed by Baldwin allege that in 2005 Basinger ignored court orders and did not let Baldwin know she would be out of town working so that he could take care of 10-year-old Ireland until the actress returned.
On one occasion, Basinger also did not tell Baldwin that their daughter was injured and required medical help, according to the actor's court papers. The girl's injuries were not specified.
Kim Basinger
Puzzle Unalaska
Bird Deaths
More than 1,600 sea bird carcasses have washed onto Unalaska shores over the last two days in a mysterious die-off that scientists are scrambling to understand.
Several hundred black, gull-like shearwaters died after flying into a crabbing boat that steamed through the early morning darkness in Unalaska Bay on Wednesday morning, said Forrest Bowers, a fisheries biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game in Unalaska.
It's happened before in Unalaska, but usually not in such big numbers, Bowers said.
Bird Deaths
Making A Killing
Disasters
The red cross has just announced a new disaster-response partnership with Wal-Mart. When the next hurricane hits, it will be a co-production of Big Aid and Big Box.
"It's all going to be private enterprise before it's over," Billy Wagner, emergency management chief for the Florida Keys, currently under hurricane watch for tropical storm Ernesto, said in April. "They've got the expertise. They've got the resources."
But before this new consensus goes any further, perhaps it's time to take a look at where the privatization of disaster began, and where it will inevitably lead.
The first step was the U.S. government's abdication of its core responsibility to protect the population from disasters. Under the administration of George W. Bush, whole sectors of the government, most notably the Department of Homeland Security, have been turned into glorified temp agencies, their essential functions contracted out to private companies.
Largely under the public radar, billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars have been spent on the construction of a privatized disaster-response infrastructure: the Shaw Group's new state-of-the-art Baton Rouge headquarters, Bechtel's battalions of earthmoving equipment, Blackwater USA's 6,000-acre campus in North Carolina (complete with paramilitary training camp and 6,000-foot runway). I call it the Disaster Capitalism Complex.
Disasters
Panty Sniffer Steps Down
L. Brent Bozell
L. Brent Bozell, one of America's best-known crusaders against broadcast indecency, has stepped down as president of the Parents Television Council, the organization said Friday.
Bozell will be replaced as president Jan. 1 by executive director Tim Winter. Bozell, who founded the organization in 1995, will continue to serve on the board.
Bozell said running the PTC combined with other commitments has "simply become too much for me, and with a large family, it's just not healthy for me. More importantly, however, it is not healthy for the PTC."
Winter is a former executive with NBC.
L. Brent Bozell
Biographer Confesses To Hoax
A.N. Wilson
A biographer of English poet John Betjeman has confessed to writing a hoax love letter that duped a rival author, a British newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sunday Times said Bevis Hiller admitted sending the fake letter to A.N. Wilson - complete with a coded four-letter insult aimed at Wilson.
Wilson acknowledged the letter must be fake last week, after the Sunday Times pointed out the first letter of each sentence spelled out "A.N. Wilson is a s-."
A.N. Wilson
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