'Best of TBH Politoons'
Reader Comment
Re: Hot Dalek Action
Here's an updated story on this scandalous event
. This one even has pictures.
~ Mr. Hawk
Evolution is only a theory but so is gravity. Let's see you jump out
that
window and pray you don't fall.
Thanks, Mr. Hawk!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Joan Ryan: A lifelong Republican's long winter (sfgate.com)
He said he had to hang up. He was going to be late for Mass. I asked if he would be offering up prayers for Bush's wisdom. "I believe in the power of prayer," he said. "But it can only do so much."
Stephen Pizzo: The GOP's Culture of Corruption (News for Real. Posted on Alternet.org)
Only now is the general public starting to learn how corruption swept through the GOP after the party's rise to majority status in the '90s. But it didn't happen suddenly.
Annalee Newitz: Men's Place (alternet.org)
Norwegian scientists have discovered that male-dominated societies are doomed to extinction. What does this mean for feminism?
Joan Ryan: Kids who make fatal mistakes (sfgate.com)
Be careful. Isn't that what I say when my son walks out our door? I love you. Be careful. Isn't that what the Van Hootegems and the Hunts said to theirs on Friday night?
Jim Emerson: The lives of Pat Morita (rogerebert.suntimes.com)
He had a comic's perspective and sense of humor, and would play his parts -- Chinese, Japanese, Korean, whatever -- with relaxed professionalism. As a standup comedian in the 1960's, he called himself "the Hip Nip," and he once told a group of Pearl Harbor survivors in a Waikiki nightclub that he was sorry about messing up their harbor.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
CASUAL DEATH
Another Rant
Avery Ant
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The Campaign Rants:
Vote for Avery
The Solution To Homelessness
A Modest Military Proposal
ELECTION FEVER!!!! 
Meet The Clowns
Oh, and this week's rant...
Recent surveys indicate that one
out of three people have insomnia
Insomnia Insanity
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, clear & colder than seasonal.
No new flags.
Pulls Out Of Nobel Events
Harold Pinter
Ill health has forced British playwright Harold Pinter to cancel all public appearances linked to his Nobel Prize for Literature, the Nobel Foundation said on Wednesday.
Pinter had already pulled out of the award ceremony and banquet, but had been due in Stockholm to give the traditional Nobel literature lecture. This was canceled too.
"His doctors have forbidden him to travel at this time," the Foundation said in a statement. A pre-recorded speech will instead be shown on a big screen on December 7.
Harold Pinter
Woodward Is No Hero
Judy Belushi Pisano
You've heard the uproar over famed Watergate sleuth Bob Woodward taking two years to reveal that he was leaked the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Now the widow of John Belushi has recruited a gang of the late comic's friends to pay back Woodward for "Wired," his grim 1985 bio of her husband.
After the "SNL" player OD'd, Judy Belushi Pisano encouraged all of his pals to talk to Woodward, who, like John, had grown up in Wheaton, Ill.
She now tells us: "Woodward was the wrong guy [to write that book]. I was foolish."
"It was my first experience of getting tricked by a journalist," says Belushi's "Continental Divide" co-star Blair Brown. "I really felt betrayed, and it made me question all of his other work."
Writer Tony Hendra says Woodward "certainly gave the impression he didn't like Belushi very much. He wasn't interested in the guy's achievements in any way. He was out to prove that Belushi was symptomatic of some generational defect, which I felt was contemptible."
Judy Belushi Pisano
Stolen Star Replaced
Gregory Peck
In a simple ceremony, a new star honoring Oscar winner Gregory Peck was unveiled Wednesday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame to replace one that was stolen by a brazen thief.
Peck's original star had been part of the Hollywood Boulevard celebrity shrine for more than four decades until someone with a cement saw cut the bronze-and-terrazzo marker out of the sidewalk.
The crime occurred sometime in late November and apparently drew no one's attention.
Gregory Peck
Halts Free Downloads
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead, the psychedelic jam band that toured for three decades, has angered some of its biggest fans by asking a non-profit Web site to halt - at least temporarily - the free downloading of concert recordings.
Representatives for the band earlier this month directed the Internet Archive, a site that catalogues content on websites, to stop making recordings of the group's concerts available for download, band spokesman Dennis McNally said Wednesday.
Fans, who for decades have freely taped and traded the band's live performances, quickly initiated an online petition that argued the band shouldn't change the rules midway through the game.
Grateful Dead
From PBS To Faux
'Journal Editorial Report'
After being caught in a storm over political influence at PBS, a weekly talk show featuring members of the Wall Street Journal editorial staff is shifting to Fox News Channel.
It was the "Journal Editorial Report" that was cited last month by an internal investigator at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting when he accused the CPB's former chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, of meddling in PBS programming to promote a conservative agenda.
The last PBS edition of the conservative-leaning talk show anchored by Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot will air on Friday. A new season will start on Fox News Channel on Saturdays in January.
Gigot said that Fox chief Roger Ailes and his team "have proven they can attract viewers with serious news programming, propaganda and commentary. I look forward to working with them to make the `Journal Editorial Report' part of their successful lineup."
'Journal Editorial Report'
Releasing Song
Alicia Keys & Bono
Alicia Keys and Bono are hoping to save the lives of children through song. The two superstars have collaborated on "Don't Give Up (Africa)," and will donate all proceeds to Keep A Child Alive, which provides medicine to families infected with AIDS and the HIV virus.
The song will be available exclusively on iTunes starting Tuesday. The pair first sang the tune at a Nov. 3 fund-raiser in New York City for the charity (Keys performed onstage while Bono crooned via satellite from a remote location).
"Don't Give Up" was originally performed by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush in 1986, and was titled, "So."
Alicia Keys & Bono
Baby News
Mariska Hargitay
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" star Mariska Hargitay and her husband, actor Peter Hermann, are expecting their first child, her publicist said on Wednesday.
"I can confirm that she is expecting," publicist Erwin More said of the actress. He said no further details were immediately available.
Mariska Hargitay
Original At eBay
Hollywood Sign
It loomed over the dawn of Tinseltown as one of the world's most recognisable monuments, but what remains of the original Hollywood sign is now on the block for 200,000 dollars, its owner said.
The tattered sign, dismantled and put into in storage when it was replaced by the current version in 1978, is on sale on online auctioneer eBay with a reserve of 200,000 dollars and has received bids of up to 82,000 dollars.
Built for an initial cost of 21,000 dollars, the sign was replaced following a celebrity fundraising drive in 1978 and was sold for scrap metal to the nightclub promoter Hank Berger for 10,000 dollars, who stored it in a warehouse for 25 years until he sold it to Bliss.
Hollywood Sign
Trial Goes To Jury
Lorenzo Brothers
Prosecutors accused rap moguls Irving and Christopher Lorenzo of laundering cash for one of New York's "biggest, baddest" drug lords, but defense lawyers countered they were victims of guilt by association.
The closing arguments were made on Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal courthouse where the brothers stand accused of laundering up to $1 million in cash they are accused of receiving in shopping bags and shoe boxes.
The Lorenzos had an array of rap stars sitting behind them in a show of support including Jay Z, Ashanti, Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Russell Simmons.
Lorenzo Brothers
List of Highest-Paid
Actresses
Julia Roberts, who didn't star in a film this year, is again at the top of Hollywood's highest-paid actresses - at $20 million per movie - according to an annual power list.
The 38-year-old star tops The Hollywood Reporter's annual list of the highest-paid actresses for the second straight year.
Nicole Kidman is second, with a $16 million to $17 million per-film price tag, followed by "Walk the Line" star Reese Witherspoon and actress-producer Drew Barrymore, who each command $15 million per project.
Renee Zellweger, Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz each have a $10 million to $15 million asking price, followed by Jodie Foster ($10 million to $12 million), Charlize Theron ($10 million) and Jennifer Aniston ($9 million).
Actresses
Names Democrat Top Aide
$chwarzenegger
California's Republican Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger named a Democrat in a same-sex marriage as his chief of staff on Wednesday in an apparent political shift on the heels of a major electoral defeat.
Susan Kennedy, 45, was the confidant and number two to ousted Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, whom $chwarzenegger beat in a bitter recall election in 2003. She married her lesbian partner in 1999.
"I love Susan, I think the world of her," $chwarzenegger told a news conference at the state capitol. "She is willing to take her Democratic philosophy aside and implement my vision."
$chwarzenegger
Caught in Sonogram Squabble
Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise hasn't made many friends within the medical community lately.
First the American Psychiatric Association slammed the actor for referring to psychiatry as a "pseudoscience," calling Cruise's remarks "irresponsible." Now the American College of Radiology is up in arms over Cruise's admission that he purchased a sonogram machine and uses it to perform at-home ultrasounds on fiancee Katie Holmes.
"This is a patient safety issue. Untrained people, even if they have the financial means, should not buy, or be allowed to buy and operate, ultrasound machines which are, in fact, medical devices and should not be used without a medical indication," said Dr. Carol M. Rumack, chair of the ACR Ultrasound Commission.
The ACR isn't the only organization concerned about Cruise's personal sonogram machine. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the actor may even be violating the law by possessing the device.
Tom Cruise
Big, Fat Greek-Brazil Wedding
Athina Roussel Onassis
She likes watching TV soap operas and shops at the supermarket like ordinary Brazilians. He swears he is marrying her for love, not money.
But any pretense that Athina Roussel Onassis and Alvaro Affonso de Miranda are just a normal couple will be cast aside on Saturday when the 20-year-old sole heiress to the Onassis fortune and the 32-year-old Brazilian equestrian champion marry in a lavish wedding in Sao Paulo.
Around 750 guests are expected to attend the wedding in the lush gardens of the Maria Luisa and Oscar Americano Foundation, an art museum in the posh Morumbi district.
Athina Roussel Onassis
Found in Scotland
Water Scorpion Fossil
A scientist in Scotland has discovered tracks made by a huge water scorpion 330 million years ago, the first of the species ever discovered and the only evidence showing it could survive outside of the water, according to the journal Nature's edition to be published Thursday.
Martin Whyte, a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield, discovered the fossil of a hibbertopteroid - a type of scorpion - in Scotland's Midland Valley.
According to Whyte's analysis of the fossil, the creature was a six-legged water scorpion measuring 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. The length of its stride indicates that the animal was crawling extremely slowly. Evidence that it was dragging part of its body suggests that it was probably moving out of water, Whyte said.
Water Scorpion Fossil
Guilty Of Trespassing
Horse-Sex
A man has pleaded guilty to trespassing in connection with a fatal horse-sex case.
James Michael Tait, 54, of Enumclaw, was accused of entering a barn without the owner's permission. Tait admitted to officers that he entered a neighboring barn last July with friend Kenneth Pinyan to have sex with a horse, charging papers said. Tait was videotaping the episode when Pinyan suffered internal injuries that led to his death.
Tait pleaded guilty Tuesday and was given a one-year suspended sentence, a $300 fine, and ordered to perform eight hours of community service and have no contact with the neighbors.
Horse-Sex
In Memory
E. Cardon "Card" Walker
E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who led the Walt Disney Co. for more than a decade after the deaths of co-founders Roy O. and Walt Disney, died this week in Los Angeles, the company said on Wednesday. He was 89.
Walker started at Disney in 1938, and rose from the mailroom to collaborate with the Disney brothers on iconic projects such as Walt Disney World, and the classic animated films "101 Dalmatians," "The Jungle Book" and "Mary Poppins."
He became Disney's president in 1971 after Roy O. Disney died, and added chief executive duties in 1977. He was elected chairman of Disney's board of directors four years later, and retired in 1983.
Under his leadership, the company developed the futuristic EPCOT attraction at Walt Disney World, opened Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 and created the Disney Channel.
Walker was born on January 9, 1916 in Rexburg, Idaho and moved to Southern California in 1924. He is survived by Winnie, his wife of 59 years, three children and five grandchildren.
E. Cardon "Card" Walker
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