Books for the investor on your holiday gift list (flagship.vanguard.com)
With the holiday season in full swing, you may be looking for a stocking stuffer or other gift for friends and loved ones who are-or should be-interested in investing. You might even have investing and retirement planning guidance on your personal wish list. If so, consider one or two of these engaging, informative titles.
zEN mAN (observing the method of crowd control that farmers use at open driveways.....the cattle and sheep refuse to walk over the bars out of fear that their hooves will fall between...cattle guards act as silent sentinals for bovine bondage...who said cows were dumb?)
This is a nice story - I think it's sort of a miracle. Okay, in this crappy part of Passaic, NJ, full of abandoned buildings, alleged "Crack Houses," and streets full of sleeping wino's, most of the trees started rotting a few years back. The city went thru and hacked them down to prevent disease from spreading into the "neighborhoods" which COUNT...
One day, an old Spanish lady said she "saw" the Virgin Mary's image appearing in a rotting tree trunk. (She never said that Mary "appeared" in person, or anything, BTW.)
With the help of a "retarded" man, she started placing candles around the tree trunk with other religious articles. And, while they did look very tacky (remember, this is an extremely poor part of town) I'd say they brought that which the had in order to fashion out a place of worship in that decaying area. And, they "maintained" it everyday; in the heat, and in the rain, and in the cold too.
Our local newspaper ran a piece about it, and by then some makeshift "seating" had been added such as milk-crates and cinderblocks - plus a big piece of plywood to shade the area which was in the direct sun and high summer temps. It did look like a sorry sight, but I remember thinking to myself, "To each his/her own."
After the article ran in the paper, however, other people started coming around to pray there. People who, prior to this shrine, would not have been caught dead in that part of town. One photo showed street-people with business people side-by-side staring at the stump. It was funny and sad at the same time. But the city didn't like it! They inspected the place and declared it "unsafe..." Of course, the whole area is "Unsafe," but for some reason they honed in on the makeshift shrine. By the end of last summer, it was all over for them - the city moved in and took all the stuff away. That woman was just heartbroken.
The reporter went back and interviewed the woman - she was such a sad sight. Here she had invested a lot of her time and energies into this shrine, and now it was being taken away from them.
But that isn't the end of the her shrine. After the paper reported on the dismantling of the place, many people became, "Up in arms" about this story. "Who the Hell is she hurting by salvaging a tree-trunk growing in the middle of the trash?" someone wrote into the "Letter's To The Editor." Letters continued trickling into the paper - and, believe it of not, nary a one in protest of her or her endeavor.
Now see what has happened there: Guess Hillary was right: It does take a Village to make a community. Hurray for the little guys.
I traveled a few years ago to the Yucatan Peninsula with my lovely wife Sharon. We stayed at a Palapa on a white sandy beach. We went out into the jungle and visited the ancient ruins of Tulum and Coba and then we drove across to Cichen Itza which is the ancient Mayan capitol where virgins were sacrificed for crops and stone platforms were built to cut out human hearts...and the solar eclipse turned into a snake that crawled down the steep steps (a trick devised by the priests and rulers to keep the masses in check). Now Mel Gibson has attempted to bring that violent culture back to life in his latest bloody blockbuster..."Apocalypto"!
When I first heard about Mel Gibson's new epic movie, I misunderstood the title...I thought it was "A-POX-CALYPSO" and would have Harry Belafonte, bongo drums and a deadly disease...boy was I wrong! "Apocalypto" means "A New Beginning" in Greek...and it meant truckloads of gory, gushing crimson make-up for Mel Gibson...I've never seen so much blood...WAY MORE BLOOD THAN:
I mean Mel gives you full frontal throat slitting...Knives, spears and arrows graphically piercing flesh...stone clubs bashing brains out and blood pulsing into mid air...a black jaguar chomping out one side of a skull...Mayan daggers digging out beating hearts (to the cheering throngs)...severed human heads bouncing down the stone temple steps...and that's just the beginning...
I saw this movie at 11:15 AM...and the opening scene was of a huge Tapir (South American pig) being skewered, skinned and dismembered and one lucky native got to eat the fresh testicles...I kept munching on my hot, fresh popcorn.
So we find ourselves in a pre-Columbian rainforest somewhere in South America , with a small indigenous tribe scratching out an innocent existence...hunting and gathering and having kids...we have the handsome Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood) and his lovely, pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernandez) living at one with the earth. Enter the evil Mayan slave hunters...Zero Wolf and his massive leader Snake Ink...looking for fresh fodder for their "Culture of Corruption"...more strong men to quarry stone and build temples...more healthy women to cook and clean...and more bodies for human sacrifice.
As the camp is raided, ravaged and burned to the ground, Jaguar Paw manages to hide his pregnant wife and young son in a deep Cenote (vertical cave well) as he and the rest are tied up to poles and marched off to the Big City...all along the way we are entertained with unbelievable brutality and token violence...finally they make it to the massive Mayan metropolis writhing with thousands of half-naked natives and their blood crazed captors.
Jaguar Paw and the others from his village all get painted blue and led up the temple steps for the sacrifice to appease the Gods...hearts get cut out...heads get cut off...the crowd roars with delight (not unlike the days of the guillotine) and finally its J.P.'s turn…but suddenly the skies darken and we see the great darkening occur as an eclipse takes place...J.P. will be freed...to become part of another bloody game that the Mayans play...Tag...you're IT...the fortunate few who are released must run a gauntlet of spears, arrows and clubs...if they get past this onslaught to the corn field they can go back home...Jaguar Paw somehow eludes all the slings and arrows...but has to kill one of his captors to leave...the Mayan men don't like this and suddenly...the chase is on.
Right here they should have cued up Credence Clearwater's "You Better Run Through the Jungle"...doo doo doo doo...sorry Mel...I'll try to stay serious here (I haven't said "Sugar Tits" once...have I?)
How on earth one man could actually elude 15 ferocious and well armed Mayans...led by Zero Wolf and Snake Ink is beyond me but the "Jag" man does it...he makes it all the way back to his village, pulls his wife, son and new born (Lavoisier underwater childbirth) baby out of that hole and then...together...they stand on the shore of the ocean to witness the White European Colonists just landing with the cross bearing Christian priest leading the way. Seven says to Jaguar Paw..."should we go to them?"...to which he replies..."No...let's go back to the forest...for a new beginning." We all know the rest of the story.
Mel Gibson has given us a mind boggling, unrelentingly bloody, heavy handed, cynical and pretentious view of the world of the Mayan just before Christianity and Civilization changed it forever.
Purple Gene give "Apocalypto" 6 bloody severed heads bouncing down the stairs out of 10 for being gruesome, gory and regaling...if only for the ambitious cinematography.
CBS starts the night with '60 Minutes', followed by a FRESH'Amazing Race 10', then a FRESH'Cold Case', followed by a FRESH'Without A Trace'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Sunday Night Football', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
ABC begins the night with a FRESH'America's So-Called Funniest Home Videos', followed by a FRESH'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition', then a FRESH'Brothers And Sisters'.
The CW offers 'Reba', followed by another 'Reba', then a FRESH'7th Heaven', followed by a FRESH'America's Next Top Model'.
Faux has a RERUN'American Dad', followed by a RERUN'Simpsons', then a FRESH'Simpsons', followed by a FRESH'American Dad', then a RERUN'Family Guy', followed by another RERUN'Family Guy'.
MY has the movie 'Evelyn', followed by the movie 'Rush Hour'.
A&E has 'Flip This House', another 'Flip This House', still another 'Flip This House', and 'Intervention'.
AMC offers the movie 'Miracle On 34th Street', followed by the movie 'Prancer', then the movie 'Prancer', again.
BBC -
[2:00 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[2:30 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[3:00 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[3:30 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[4:00 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[4:30 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[5:00 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[5:30 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[6:00 pm] Best of BBC America - Makeover;
[7:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Burrington-Wheatley;
[8:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Edwards;
[9:00 pm] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 8;
[10:00 pm] Footballers Wives Overtime - Episode 6;
[10:30 pm] Footballers Wives Overtime (repeat);
[11:00 pm] Cash in the Attic - Burrington-Wheatley;
[12:00 am] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 8;
[1:00 am] Footballers Wives Overtime - Episode 6;
[1:30 am] Footballers Wives Overtime - Episode 7;
[2:00 am] Cash in the Attic - Edwards;
[3:00 am] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 8;
[3:30 am] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 4;
[4:00 am] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 10;
[4:30 am] Whose Line Is It Anyway? - Episode 9;
[5:00 am] Just For Laughs - Episode 4;
[5:30 am] Just For Laughs - Episode 3;
[6:00 am] BBC World Newss. (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has all 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent' all night.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie', followed by 'Last Laugh '06 Starring Lewis Black'.
History has 'Infamous Murders', another 'Infamous Murders', and 'Modern Marvels'.
IFC -
[08:35 AM] Loves of a Blonde;
[10:00 AM] Mr. Hulot's Holiday;
[11:30 AM] Knife in the Water;
[01:05 PM] Loves of a Blonde;
[02:30 PM] The eMusic Dozens: Indie Local;
[02:40 PM] Mr. Hulot's Holiday;
[04:10 PM] Knife in the Water;
[05:45 PM] Loves of a Blonde;
[07:10 PM] Critical Care;
[09:00 PM] Super Troopers;
[10:45 PM] Broken Lizard's Club Dread;
[12:30 AM] Patti Rocks;
[02:00 AM] Super Troopers;
[03:45 AM] Broken Lizard's Club Dread;
[05:30 AM] Patti Rocks. (ALL TIMES EST)
SciFi has the movie 'The Mummy', followed by the movie 'The Mummy Returns'.
Sundance -
[06:00 AM] Checkpoint;
[07:20 AM] The Match;
[09:00 AM] Dame La Mano;
[11:00 AM] Iconoclasts Season 2: Episode 1: Eddie Vedder + Laird Hamilton;
[11:45 AM] The Tree Officer;
[12:00 PM] It's All Gone Pete Tong;
[01:35 PM] Broken Column;
[02:30 PM] The Hill: Episode 4: What Should Democrats Be Saying?;
[03:00 PM] Kath & Kim - Season 3: Kicking Up a Stink;
[03:30 PM] Hermitage-niks: A Passion for the Hermitage: Episode 2 - Guardian Angels;
[04:00 PM] The Other Side of the Street;
[05:45 PM] Sixteen Years of Alcohol;
[07:30 PM] Gettin' Square;
[09:15 PM] The Tree Officer;
[09:30 PM] Kath & Kim - Season 3: Kicking Up a Stink;
[10:00 PM] Reconstruction;
[11:30 PM] Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave;
[12:00 AM] Memento Mori;
[01:45 AM] Topsy-Turvy;
[04:30 AM] The Mothers' House. (ALL TIMES EST)
In response to attacks on Michael Richards' use of the n-word during a performance at the Laugh Factory, the black owner of another club has welcomed comics who use the term.
"Someone had to stand up for comics and freedom of speech has to rule the day," said Enss Mitchell, owner of Comedy Union. "No matter if you agree or disagree with what someone says, you have to allow them the opportunity to say it."
Mitchell said he wasn't encouraging anyone to use the word but wanted to create an atmosphere in which performers feel comfortable talking about anything they want.
"This was not billed as 'N-Word Night.' Some comics used it, some didn't. I just wanted to make the point that it's a slippery slope when anyone wants to start banning a word," he said.
Actor Alec Baldwin has lent support to New Jersey residents worried about the relicensing of a southern New Jersey nuclear power plant.
Baldwin moderated a Friday night discussion at Rutgers University Law School in Newark about the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which is seeking a 20-year renewal for its license; the license is set to expire in 2009.
Area residents have expressed concern about the plant's safety. The 630-megawatt plant, which is owned by Chicago-based Exelon Corp., is the oldest commercial nuclear power plant in the United States.
"The people who are in favor of the license renewal are looking to line their pockets," Baldwin, who has a leading role in the NBC prime-time comedy "30 Rock," told the Asbury Park Press of Neptune for Saturday's papers. "We don't stand to make any money. Our goal is purely public health and safety."
Forty years after it was made, The Velvet Underground's first recording has become a financial hit - in cyberspace.
Bought for 75 cents four years ago at a Manhattan flea market, the rare recording of music that ended up on the influential New York band's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," sold on eBay for a closing bid of $155,401.
The buyer is a mystery, only identified by the eBay screen name: "mechadaddy."
But a greater mystery endures: How did the 12-inch, acetate LP end up buried in a box of records at a flea market?
An Iranian photographer will be recognized as the previously anonymous winner of the 1980 Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography, the panel overseeing the prestigious U.S. journalism awards said on Thursday.
Jahangir Razmi's picture of a firing squad in Iran was first published in an Iranian newspaper in August 1979. The editor withheld Razmi's identity because he was concerned for the photographer's safety, and it later circulated around the world anonymously.
Razmi's identity was only revealed, with his consent, by the Wall Street Journal on December 2.
From junior high kids performing a play in Latin to Nobelist Orhan Pamuk and author Martin Amis reading from their own work, the homegrown "Thacker Mountain Radio" embraces everything from the quirky to the sublime.
It's a Southern-fried version of "A Prairie Home Companion," minus the skits - think cornbread instead of powder-milk biscuits.
On the air now for nine years, "Thacker Mountain Radio" is a weekly one-hour show that reflects the literary and musical heritage of this north Mississippi town that, five years ago, elected a book store owner as mayor.
Oxford - with 13,600 residents and just over 14,000 University of Mississippi students - is a magnet for countless bar bands. One of its part-time residents is bestseller John Grisham, who owns a sprawling yellow house on the western edge of town. One of the top tourist attractions is Rowan Oak, home of the late Nobel laureate William Faulkner.
Former President Bill Clinton, left, and Secretary General Kofi Annan pose for a photograph prior to attending the Annual United Nations Correspondents Association Dinner Dance at U.N. headquarters in New York, Friday Dec. 8, 2006.
Photo by Tina Fineberg
News Corp.'s Fox, Viacom Inc., CBS Corp.. and NBC Universal are in talks about creating a video Web site to compete with Google Inc.'s YouTube, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
While a deal is still far off, the four media companies envision a jointly owned site that would be the primary Web source for videos from their television networks, the paper said in an online report on wsj.com, citing people close to the situation.
Walt Disney Co., owner of the ABC television network, is not joining in the talks, because it wants to rely on the strength of its own brands, the paper said.
Tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crime rates have contributed to the United States having the largest prison population and the highest rate of incarceration in the world, according to criminal justice experts.
A U.S. Justice Department report released on November 30 showed that a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of last year. Of the total, 2.2 million were in prison or jail.
According to the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College in London, more people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. China ranks second with 1.5 million prisoners, followed by Russia with 870,000.
Scottish actor Sir Sean Connery, left, and U.S. colleague Nicolas Cage talk to reporters upon their arrival to the third annual Bahamas International Film Festival at Atlantis Paradise Island, in Nassau, Friday, Dec. 8, 2006. Connery presented a Career Achievement Tribute to fellow Bahamas resident Nicolas Cage.
Photo by Tim Aylen
Pierre-Auguste Renoir wrote to his friend Claude Monet to share his joys and pains, from the birth of a child to the suffering of his final years. Auguste Rodin praised Monet's art for helping him understand light, the clouds and the sea.
More than 1,000 letters to Monet from his friends and admirers will be auctioned Wednesday in Paris. Many are by Monet's fellow impressionist painters - including Renoir, Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Gustave Caillebotte, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley and Mary Cassatt - offering an intimate glimpse into a close circle of artists.
Monet carefully preserved the letters until his death in 1926 at age 86, and they became a family treasure, passed down through the generations. The artist's great-grandson Michel Cornebois has turned them over to the Artcurial auction house, which expects the sale to bring in $666,000.
An October 2006 photo, date not known, provided by Heritage Auction Galleries shows the whistle used a century ago at the University of Kansas by James Naismith, founder of the game of basketball. The whistle was purchased for $13,145 in an auction conducted by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas on Friday, Dec. 8, 2006.
At Jinja pier the rusty red hull of a Lake Victoria freighter sat barely afloat in water just six feet deep - and dropping. "The scientists have to explain this," said ship's engineer Gabriel Maziku.
At 27,000 square miles, the size of Ireland, Victoria is the greatest of Africa's Great Lakes - the biggest freshwater body after Lake Superior. And it has dropped fast, at least six feet in the past three years, and by as much as a half-inch a day this year before November rains stabilized things.
The outflow through two hydroelectric dams at Jinja is part of the problem - a tiny part, says the Uganda government, or half the problem, say environmentalists. But much of what is happening to Victoria and other lakes across the heart of Africa is attributable to years of drought and rising temperatures, conditions that starve the lakes of inflowing water and evaporate more of the water they have.
Romanian models presents lingerie by French designers during an exhibition of luxury goods in Bucharest Romania Saturday Dec. 9 2006. The show displays top end automobiles, boats and furniture. The average income in Romania, a country who will join the European Union on Jan. 2007, is around 200 euro (US $265) a month.
Photo by Vadim Ghirda
It's a name that needs no address. Everyone knows Santa Claus lives at the North Pole. So letters sent to the roly-poly icon find their way to the small town of North Pole deep in Alaska's interior, including those simply addressed to Santa. Last year, 120,000 letters arrived from 26 countries, not counting the thousands with no return address.
Those that do have return addresses usually get a reply and a North Pole postmark in a holiday effort that has delighted children all over the world for decades.
Letters trickle in year-round in the community of 1,600, where light poles are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Santa Claus Lane and Kris Kringle Drive. Around Thanksgiving, they start pouring in by the thousands each day as Christmas approaches. Even stampless letters get through, a rare exception for the U.S. Postal Service.
Archbishop and Mrs. Emmanuel Milingo bless married priests and their wives at the Third International Married Priests Now! convocation in Parsippany, N.J., Saturday, Dec. 9, 2006. Milingo, the former Archbishop of Lusaka, founded the organzation and led approximately 200 married priests and their wives in a ceremony to reaffirm their marriage vows.
Photo by Jackie Schear
Condoms designed to meet international size specifications are too big for many Indian men as their penises fall short of what manufacturers had anticipated, an Indian study has found.
The Indian Council of Medical Research, a leading state-run center, said its initial findings from a two-year study showed 60 percent of men in the financial capital Mumbai had penises about 2.4 cm (one inch) shorter than those condoms catered for.
For a further 30 percent, the difference was at least 5 cm (two inches). A poor fit meant the prophylactics often didn't do the job they were bought for, and led to some tearing or slipping off during use.
The Times of India reported the ICMR survey had studied 1,400 men between 18-50 years of age in cities like Mumbai and New Delhi as well as in rural areas in a report. It entitled its story "Indian men don't measure up."
A foraging Emperor penguin preens on snow-covered sea ice around the base of the active volcano Mount Erebus, near McMurdo Station, the largest U.S. Science base in Antarctica, December 9, 2006.
Photo by Deborah Zabarenko
You have reached the Home page of BartCop Entertainment.
Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
Vile, filthy rumors about Republican musicians?
Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
This is your place.
