'Best of TBH Politoons'
Freshly Updated!
Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Juan Cole:: What the Number 3000 Hides (juancole.com)
Iraqi guerrillas killed 6 more GIs and AP put the total dead in combat at 2998. The dreadful milestone of 3000 is upon us. Like all statistics, this one is deceptive. It does not include US troops killed in Afghanistan, that oddly forgotten war where the US still has a division engaging in active combat. Nor is it nice to ignore NATO dead in Afghanistan, including French and Canadians (yes). The number does not include ...
Tom Engelhardt: "Fixing" the War (tomdispatch.com)
At the cost of a quarter-billion dollars, the Pentagon launched the most elaborate war games in its history, immodestly entitled "Millennium Challenge 02." These involved all four services in "17 simulation locations and nine live-force training sites." Officially a war against a fictional country in the Persian Gulf region -- but obviously Iraq -- it was specifically scripted to prove the efficacy of the Rumsfeld-style invasion that the Bush administration had already decided to launch.
Aaron Delwiche: Game Theory: Torture's Banner Year
As we gear up for the 2008 presidential elections, politicians will try to shore up their moral credentials by criticizing the never-ending tide of violent video games -- yet isn't it more important to stop the real torture of real human beings that happens in our name?
Bill Gallagher: Bush Now Overruling Own Generals (Niagara Falls Reporter; Posted on smirkingchimp.com)
We are now spending $2 billion a week on the war, and next year the total could top $170 billion. Before the bloodshed is over, U.S. taxpayers may drop $1 trillion into Bush's hole. Working-class people whose payroll checks are taxed are paying inordinately for the war that is largely financed through deficit spending. Fifty million Americans have no health insurance, while we pay for state-sponsored coverage in Iraq.
JOHN M. SHALIKASHVILI: Second Thoughts on Gays in the Military (nytimes.com)
Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.
What About Marriage? (abouthomosexuality.com)
Gay marriage is a shocking idea to many. But it's to be expected from people who do care about relationships.
Emily Amick: Not Afraid of the F-Word: A Feminist in Command (Campus Progress; Posted on AlterNet.org)
Feminist Linda Hirshman on women in the workplace, why men should be forced to take parental leave, and the ethics of abortion up until birth.
Guilt-free pleasures (guardian.co.uk)
It's nonsense to applaud acts such as Borat and Little Britain for being 'non-PC', says Stewart Lee. It's the fact that the writers are truly aware of what's offensive - and what life was like before political correctness made things better - that makes them so funny.
Purple Gene Remembers...
Dennis Linde
Dennis Linde died last week. He was eulogized as the songwriter responsible for Elvis Presley'y huge last hit in 1972......."Hunk a Burnin' Love"
But lo and behold this hillbilly was a true Hick Poet....."Goodbye Earl" (Dixie Chicks)
He had a Knack for describing the absurdly rural....."Queen of my Double-Wide" (Sammy Kershaw)
But we cant stop there...remember this charmer......"Janie Baker's Love Slave" (Shenandoah)
Or the totally toe tapping dance tune......"Bubba Shot the Juke Box" (Mark Chesnutt)
And finally....a love song.... "John Deere Green" (Joe Diffie)
Open up your Shakesperian gray matter and feast upon the words of a true genius!
Purple Gene gives Dennis Linde his "Greatest Down Home Hick Lyrics Lifetime Achievement Award" for his earthy and ribald writing!
PS. He's written stuff way better than Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue"!!!!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny day, cold night.
Favorite Literary Guilty Pleasure
Stephen King
Stephen King has beaten JK Rowling to the title of the UK's favourite literary guilty pleasure. A survey carried out on behalf of the Costa Book Awards 2006 has shown that the thriller writer is the most popular choice among readers looking for an indulgent read, with the adventures of Harry Potter coming a close second.
85% of those surveyed admitted to having an author they turn to for sheer gratification, but whom they might not admit to reading in pubic. Third place in the survey was tied between John Grisham and Dan Brown, while the fourth position was split between Danielle Steel and Catherine Cookson. Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels were placed fifth.
The survey also reveals that nearly a third of Britons read every day. At 41%, Scotland had the highest proportion of daily readers, compared with 30% in the north of England and 28% in London. 13% of those surveyed said they read books every couple of days, with 11% claiming to read books only rarely. Only 3% stated that they never read books at all.
Stephen King
Awards Nominees Unveiled
Producers Guild
The Producers Guild of America announced the nominees Wednesday for its annual awards handout, with an Oscars-worthy list of films leading the way.
The five contenders for best theatrical picture: "Babel," "The Departed," "Dreamgirls," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."
The other nominees:
• Animated theatrical motion pictures: "Cars," "Flushed Away," "Happy Feet," "Ice Age: The Meltdown," "Monster House."
• Long-form television: "Bleak House," "Elizabeth I," "Flight 93," "High School Musical," "Mrs. Harris."
• Nonfiction television: "The Amazing Race 9," "American Idol," "Dancing with the Stars," "Project Runway," "60 Minutes."
• Episodic television, comedy: "Arrested Development," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "My Name is Earl," "The Office," "Weeds."
• Episodic television, drama: "Grey's Anatomy," "House," "Lost," "The Sopranos," "24."
• Variety television: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "The Late Show with David Letterman," "Real Time with Bill Maher," "The XX Olympic Games: Opening Ceremony."
Producers Guild
Fogg Art Museum Gets Political
Dissent
Before the 2004 election, artist Richard Serra chose one of the most startling images of the Iraq war to convey his opinion of the Bush administration: a hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner standing with his arms spread wide.
The provocative black-and-white pictures - which Serra first labelled with "STOP BUSH," then dropped two letters to spell "STOP B S" - anchor a new exhibit of prints at Harvard's Fogg Art Museum that balance anger with beauty, resistance with design and politics with art.
This show, featured through Feb. 25, is a collection of prints created to challenge society's status quo, from the powers of the pope in the 16th century to the United States' recent obsession with gas-guzzling SUVs.
Dissent
First Female
Beefeaters
The guardians of Britain's historic Tower of London are enlisting girl power for the first time in their 522-year history.
The Tower's Yeoman Warders, commonly known as Beefeaters -- whose ceremonial dress is a distinctive scarlet and gold tunic, white ruff, red stockings and black patent shoes -- have appointed the first female member to their ranks.
Spokeswoman Natasha Woollard said the woman, whose name has not yet been made public, was serving in the armed forces and "will join her new colleagues in the Yeoman Body at the Tower of London in summer 2007."
To apply to become a Beefeater, candidates must have a minimum of 22 years' service in Britain's armed forces and have earned medals for long service and good conduct.
Beefeaters
Hospital News
Teri Garr
Teri Garr is on the mend and "recovering nicely" after undergoing surgery last month to repair a brain aneurysm.
The health scare began early on Dec. 21, when Garr's 13-year-old adopted daughter, Molly, was unable to rouse the 62-year-old actor.
Molly and one of Garr's house staff called 911 and the Close Encounters of the Third Kind star was rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital, where physicians performed a non-invasive procedure called a coil embolism. The operation involves the insertion of a microcatheter through the cerebral arteries at which point platinum coils are used to stop blood from entering the aneurysm.
Garr, who announced in 2002 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a chronic degenerative disease of the nervous system, remained in the hospital over Christmas and New Year's with her family at her side.
Teri Garr
Talk Show Cancelled
Megan Mullally
Karen Walker would have a few choice words about this: Megan Mullally's syndicated talk-variety show is finished after less than five months.
The low-rated "The Megan Mullally Show" has been canceled and production has been halted, NBC Universal Television Distribution said Wednesday. Original and repeat episodes of the show, which debuted last September, will air through January.
A replacement for her show was not announced Wednesday.
Megan Mullally
Officials Knew Statue Was Looted
Getty Museum
Officials at the Getty museum knew a famous statue of the Greek goddess Aphrodite was possibly stolen when they acquired it for a record $18 million in 1988, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
The article cites former Getty executives and archeologists who said they warned museum officials not to acquire the 2,400-year-old statue that is now considered the centerpiece of the Getty's antiquities collection.
Current Getty director Michael Brand has said the museum was willing to return 26 of 46 disputed pieces that Italy wants back, including the Aphrodite, pending a final check on its provenance.
Getty Museum
Union Sets Strike Deadline
Canadian Actors
The union representing Canadian performers has set a strike deadline of midnight Monday amid last-ditch talks with producers to settle a dispute over wages.
The union received an overwhelming 97.6 per cent strike mandate from its membership in December.
If no agreement is reached this week, ACTRA will be striking against producers in most of Canada except British Columbia. Producers who have signed continuation letters with ACTRA - the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists - will be spared a strike.
Canadian Actors
Hosting Miss America Pageant
Mario Lopez
Mario Lopez will host this year's Miss America pageant in Las Vegas, event organizers said Wednesday.
Lopez replaces James Denton, a star from ABC's "Desperate Housewives," who hosted last year's 85th annual pageant in Las Vegas.
Mario Lopez
New Restoration
Classic Movies
When watching the DVD re-release of "Gone With the Wind," what once appeared as simply a green cloth shawl worn by Vivien Leigh is revealed as a garment of dark emerald velvet so rich it beckons touching.
Likewise, when Errol Flynn rides horseback into Sherwood Forest in 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood," the detailed pattern embedded on his and other soldiers' armor is so vivid that the number of small metal rings can be counted.
These elements have been made clearly visible through a patented technology created by Warner Bros. in collaboration with AOL. The process involves digitally realigning and sharpening the older film negatives of these classic movies shot on Technicolor three-strip film.
Known as Ultra Resolution, the technique has been nominated this year for a Scientific and Technical Academy Award and has restored films in the studio's vast library including "Singing In the Rain," "The Searchers" and "The Wizard of Oz" -- prints that over time have suffered blurring or "color fringing" as well as shrinkage, stretching and other damage.
Classic Movies
Storage Auction
Whitney Houston
Few people can sing like Whitney Houston. But next week, anyone with some spare cash can dress like the Grammy winner, right down to one of her black velvet bustiers, and croon into one of her microphones.
Those items and more than 300 others from a 1999 world tour, including grand pianos, drum kits and a forklift, will be auctioned Tuesday in an effort to cover unpaid storage fees on the gear and clothing, said Jeffrey Campisi, a lawyer for Speed of Sound, a company that has been tending to the equipment.
Speed of Sound went to court in May after not receiving payments from Houston's company, Nippy Inc., for a year. The company is now owed $175,000 to $200,000, Campisi said Wednesday.
Whitney Houston
Irritated By Coke Commercial
7 Seconds of Love
Coca-Cola Co. may be making an unsigned London ska band famous in Argentina, but the band isn't happy about it.
The band, called 7 Seconds of Love, says Coke used their song "Ninja" and the video that goes with it without permission in a South American commercial for Coca-Cola Light.
The band learned of the advertisement when a fan asked about it. The discovery, lead singer Joel Veitch said, led to "righteous fury followed by deep irritation."
"Initially, we didn't think much about it, because we don't get Argentine television here," Veitch said. "It was when it turned up on the Internet that we went, `Oh my god.'"
7 Seconds of Love
Former Brando Aide Settles Claim
Angela Borlaza
A former assistant to Marlon Brando has settled a lawsuit with executors of the late actor's estate over claims she was cheated out of a home bought for her by the Hollywood idol, her lawyer said.
Angela Borlaza had claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that executors of Brando's estate had changed the actor's will shortly before his death in 2004 and evicted her from a house he had promised to leave to her.
Borlaza had sought 627,000 dollars in actual damages and 2 million in punitive damages from Brando estate executors Morris Medavoy and Larry Dressler, along with unspecified general and compensatory damages.
According to papers filed in a related case in Los Angeles on December 22, Borlaza agreed to settle all the claims in exchange for 125,000 dollars.
Angela Borlaza
'Sunset' The Jargon
Brit Speak
Office workers who use phrases such as "blue sky thinking" and "singing from the same hymn sheet" are being urged to drop the jargon. A survey of 1,600 staff revealed the best and worst phrases as well as the "downright ugly" which are guaranteed to be a huge turn-off for colleagues. The essential buzzwords for this year include "thought grenade", meaning an explosive good idea, and "let's sunset that", meaning a bad idea will never see the light of day, said recruitment firm Office Angels.
Worst phrases included "thinking outside the box" and "park that thought" as well as the now hated blue sky thinking.
Staff also came up with the ugliest phrases.
They include "getting down with the kids", which means trying to interact with junior staff, "open up your kimono", which translates as putting your cards on the table, and "let's raise the anchor and let this one drift", which means forgetting about a bad idea.
Brit Speak
Metal Object Crashes Through Home
New Jersey
A metal, rock-like object about the size of a golf ball and weighing nearly as much as a can of soup crashed through the roof of a Monmouth County home, and authorities on Wednesday were trying to figure out what it was.
Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces, crashed into the home and embedded itself in a wall Tuesday night. Federal officials sent to the scene said it was not from an aircraft.
Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of a single-family, two-story home, damaged tiles on a bathroom floor below and then bounced, sticking into a wall.
New Jersey
Nielsen Top-20
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Dec. 25-31. Listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses. An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (X) "Deal or No Deal," NBC, 16.33 million viewers.
2. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 13.84 million viewers.
3. (7) "NBC Sunday Night Football: Green Bay at Chicago," NBC, 13.36 million viewers.
4. (16) "NCIS," CBS, 11.88 million viewers.
5. (X) "1 Vs. 100," NBC, 11.76 million viewers.
6. (34) "NFL Postgame Show," Fox, 11.06 million viewers.
7. (9) "CSI: NY," CBS, 10.57 million viewers.
8. (9) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 10.03 million viewers.
9. (X) "Kennedy Center Honors," CBS, 9.94 million viewers.
10. (21) "Shark" CBS, 9.72 million.
11. (X) Criminal Minds" (Thursday, 8 p.m.), CBS, 9.68 million viewers.
12. (18) "House," Fox, 9.13 million viewers.
13. (21) "Law & Order: SVU," NBC, 9.11 million viewers.
14. (19) "NFL Postgame Show," CBS, 8.91 million viewers.
15. (X) "Cold Case," CBS, 8.72 million viewers.
16. (X) Movie: "Pirates of the Caribbean," ABC, 8.6 million viewers.
17. (30) "Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick," NBC, 8.52 million viewers.
18. (X) "Without a Trace," CBS, 8.43 million viewers.
19. (X) "New Year's Rockin Eve," ABC, 8.25 million viewers.
20. (34) "60 Minutes," CBS, 8.17 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Frank Campanella
Frank Campanella, the hulking character actor who played tough guys in 100-plus films and television shows, died Saturday. He was 87.
One of Frank Campanella's most distinctive roles was his first - Mook the Moon Man on the TV series "Captain Video and His Video Rangers" in 1949. "Guardian of the Safety of the World", private citizen-scientist Captain Video, was assisted by teenage helper The Ranger in fighting off the evil Dr. Pauli of the Astroidal Society and other bad guys, including Nargola, Mook, Kul and Clysmok.
His movie credits included "Dick Tracy," "Pretty Woman," "Beaches," "Overboard" and "The Flamingo Kid."
On television, he appeared on such shows as "The Fall Guy," "Hardcastle and McCormick," "St. Elsewhere," "The Love Boat," "Barnaby Jones," "Maude," "The Rockford Files," "All in the Family," "Kojak," "Route 66" and "Quincy M.E."
Born in New York on March 12, 1919, Campanella enrolled at Manhattan College as a drama major. During World War II he worked as a civilian interpreter, deciphering Italian and Sicilian dialects for the U.S. government.
Frank Campanella
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