'Best of TBH Politoons'
Freshly Updated!
Humor Gazette
The nation's water coolers are abuzz ...
Cheney implicated in Soprano shooting
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Anya Kamenetz and "Generation Debt" (campusprogress.org)
At age 25, Village Voice columnist Anya Kamenetz is already a prominent voice on the subject of debt for students and other young people. With tuition rates rising by more than 5 percent, with as many as 30 percent of young people uninsured, and with the average college student now graduating with nearly $20,000 in debt, Anya's prescient new book Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time to Be Young looks at the ongoing burden young people face.
Annika Carlson: Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: Grover Norquist (campusprogress.org)
Tucker Carlson calls him "a mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep." Newt Gingrich says he's "the single most effective conservative activist in the country." Meet Grover Norquist: the most influential conservative activist you've barely heard of.
Marc L. Songini: Maryland House votes to oust Diebold machines (computerworld.com)
It would replace $90M worth of e-voting machines with systems offering a paper trail
Quote of the Day (truthdig.com)
Question: Why Does Bush Always Sound Like He's Talking to Five-Year-Olds?
Answer: "He speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him."--Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter
Christianist painter Kinkade urinates on Winnie the Pooh figure while drunk (correntewire.com)
I'm not making this up! Another in the long, long line of xtianists who talk the talk but don't walk the walk (Bennett, gambling; Limbaugh, Oxycontin; O'Reilly, loofah). This time it's heavily marketed, branded, and highly collectible "Christian" "artist" Thomas Kinkade, the "painter of light." The LA Times has the splendidly juicy details ...
Kinkade Defends Self but Says 'Sorry'
They and others also described incidents in which an allegedly drunken Kinkade heckled illusionists Siegfried and Roy; cursed a former employee's wife who came to his side when he fell off a barstool; fondled a startled woman's breasts at a signing party; and urinated on a Winnie the Pooh figure at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
How Islamic inventors changed the world (ws.independent.co.uk)
From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we take for granted in daily life. As a new exhibition opens, Paul Vallely nominates 20 of the most influential--and identifies the men of genius behind
Emily Bazelon: The Little Men Who Love Little House; Why boys like girls books (slate.com)
According to Eden Ross Lipson, the author of The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children, boys read on a need-to-know basis: To generalize wildly, "They don't set out looking for story and relationship. They set out looking for information."
Cartoon "Every Sperm is Sacred!" (mikhaela.net)
Because birth control is MURDER.
mikhaela.net
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Mostly sunny, but cool.
Was warmer in the backwoods of PA today than here in Long Beach, CA.
No new flags.
Faults Democrats on Iraq War
George Clooney
George Clooney has faulted Democrats for their timidity in the months before the start of the Iraq war, saying many party leaders muted their criticism of the Bush administration rather than risk being branded as unpatriotic.
"The fear of (being) criticized can be paralyzing. Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the run up to the war," Clooney said Monday in a profanity-laced posting on The Huffington Post blog site.
"In 2003, a lot of us were saying, `Where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11?'" Clooney wrote. "We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out."
George Clooney
Quits 'South Park'
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes has quit "South Park," where he voices Chef, saying he can no longer stomach its take on religion.
"There is a place in this world for satire, but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins," the 63-year-old soul singer and outspoken Scientologist said.
"South Park" co-creator Matt Stone responded sharply in an interview with The Associated Press Monday, saying, "This is 100 percent having to do with his faith of Scientology... He has no problem - and he's cashed plenty of checks - with our show making fun of Christians."
Stone told The AP he and co-creator Trey Parker "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
Isaac Hayes
Gets Live Pre-Show
'American Idol'
Just like the Academy Awards, "American Idol" now merits its own pre-show. Beginning Tuesday, the TV Guide Channel will present an hourlong, live pre-show before each of this season's remaining "American Idol" telecasts.
"Idol Tonight" will feature appearances by ejected contestants and past "Idol" stars, plus interviews with vocal coaches, casting agents and industry insiders. Exclusive footage, including auditions, outtakes and post-performance confessions, will also be shown on the weekly program, a show publicist said Monday.
Hosted by former "Idol" finalist Kimberly Caldwell and one-time "Popstars" contestant Rosanna Tavarez, "Idol Tonight" will air at 7 p.m. and will capture the red carpet vibe outside "American Idol," said Ryan O'Hara, president of the TV Guide Channel.
'American Idol'
Movie Buffs Bid on Icons
Movieland Wax Museum
Daniel Roebuck went to the Movieland Wax Museum with a goal in mind: "I want their Frankenstein to live in my house."
Roebuck, a 43-year-old Los Angeles actor, writer and monster buff, joined about 400 other movie fans who made bids Saturday in the museum's "Everything Must Go" auction.
The museum was closed last Halloween after 43 years. About 500 items were up for auction, with simultaneous bidding over the Internet.
Chris Doohan, 46, went to the auction hoping to buy the figure of his father, James Doohan, who played Scotty on "Star Trek," but the bidding reached $4,200, which was a little too high.
Movieland Wax Museum
'Grey's Anatomy' Director Gets Promotion
Peter Horton
"thirtysomething" actor-turned-director Peter Horton has been promoted to executive producer status at "Grey's Anatomy" under a deal with the producer of ABC's red-hot medical drama.
His two-year, seven-figure pact with Disney's Touchstone Television also covers his services as principal director next season.
Horton has been on "Grey's" since the 2005 pilot, which he directed, and served as a co-executive producer on the show. His work has earned him nominations for an Emmy and DGA Award.
Peter Horton
Amabassador Blasts Comments
Bruce Willis
Colombia's ambassador to the United States is criticizing Bruce Willis for comments he made during a press conference to promote his new film, "16 Blocks."
The actor said the United States should consider "going to Colombia and doing whatever it takes to end the cocaine trade."
In a harshly worded letter made public, Andres Pastrana told the actor that the source of the lucrative cocaine trade was an "enormous appetite for drugs, in particular in the United States and Europe."
Inviting Willis to visit Colombia, Pastrana said "if you accept, you will see that, beyond Hollywood cliches, 44 million Colombians are waging a real war against drugs."
Bruce Willis
Stages Roast for Husband
Shirley Jones
On Friday night, 100 friends and colleagues of Shirley Jones and Marty Ingels, who have been married for nearly three decades, gathered at the Friars Club to roast Ingels, an actor-comedian who also manages Jones' career.
Jones told Ingels, who turned 70 on Thursday, they were dining with friends at a nearby hotel. But first, she said, they had to stop by the Friars Club for a drink with other friends.
Jerry Lewis appeared by tape from Las Vegas, telling of his 43-year friendship with Ingels. Pat Boone (Jones' "April Love" co-star) also spoke on tape, declaring, "We love you so much but we don't know why."
Boone joked that God had told him that after Ingels was created, "I not only broke the mold, I disinfected the laboratory," and had added: "Tell Shirley her sainthood is coming along very well."
Shirley Jones
Archaeologists Find Ancient Tunnels
Israel
Underground chambers and tunnels used during a Jewish revolt against the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago have been uncovered in northern Israel, archaeologists said Monday.
The Jews laid in supplies and were preparing to hide from the Romans during their revolt in A.D. 66-70, the experts said. The pits, which are linked by short tunnels, would have served as a concealed subterranean home.
Yardenna Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the find shows the ancient Jews planned and prepared for the uprising, contrary to the common perception that the revolt began spontaneously.
Israel
Buying Knight-Ridder
McClatchy
Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. on Monday said it would buy Knight-Ridder Inc. for $4.5 billion in cash and stock, eliciting an initial lukewarm response from Wall Street.
McClatchy, whose own publications include the Sacramento Bee and Minneapolis Star Tribune, said the combined company will become the No. 2 U.S. newspaper chain based on a daily circulation of about 3.2 million people. It will operate 32 daily newspapers and 50 non-daily publications after the sale of 12 Knight-Ridder papers -- including some of its best-known titles such as the Philadelphia Inquirer and the San Jose Mercury News.
McClatchy
Christ & Copyright At Crux
Da Vinci Code Case
The restoration of a Merovingian monarchy descended from Jesus, emperor Constantine's conversion, the Knights Templar and the mysterious Priory of Sion might normally be reserved for rarefied academic debate.
But over the last two weeks, they and other arcane themes from ancient and medieval history or folklore have been thrust into the here and now in a gripping copyright case that enters its third, and possibly final week on Monday.
Millionaire writer Dan Brown, whose "The Da Vinci Code" is one of the most popular novels of all time with around 40 million copies sold, stands accused of lifting extensively from a work of historical conjecture published in 1982.
Historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh are suing Brown's British publisher for copyright infringement, even though the same company, Random House, publishes their own work "The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail."
Da Vinci Code Case
In Memory
Maureen Stapleton
Maureen Stapleton, an Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80.
The longtime smoker died from chronic pulmonary disease in the Berkshire hills town of Lenox, where she had been living, said her son, Daniel Allentuck.
Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star personality and talent, won an Academy Award in 1981 for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's "Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.
Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar, including for her first film role in 1958's "Lonelyhearts"; "Airport" in 1970; and Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978.
Her other film credits include the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie" opposite Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke, "Johnny Dangerously," "Cocoon," "The Money Pit" and "Addicted to Love."
In television, she earned an Emmy for "Among the Paths to Eden" in 1967. She was nominated for "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" in 1975; "The Gathering" in 1977; and "Miss Rose White" in 1992.
Brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family with an alcoholic father, Stapleton left home in Troy, N.Y., right after high school. With $100 to her name, she came to New York and began studying at the Herbert Berghof Acting School and later at the Actor's Studio.
Stapleton soon made her Broadway debut in Burgess Meredith's 1946 production of "The Playboy of the Western World."
Along the way, she led a chaotic personal life, which her autobiography candidly described as including two failed marriages, numerous affairs, years of alcohol abuse and erratic parenting for her two children.
Beside Allentuck, Stapleton is survived by a daughter, Katharine Bambery, of Lenox and a brother, Jack Stapleton, of Troy, N.Y.
Maureen Stapleton
In Memory
Peter & Kathleen Tomarken
A former TV game show host and his wife were killed Monday morning when their small plane crashed into Santa Monica Bay, authorities said. Rescue crews were searching for a third person also aboard the plane.
The bodies of Peter Tomarken, 63, host of the hit 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," and his wife, Kathleen Abigail Tomarken, 41, were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office.
The plane was on its way to San Diego to ferry a medical patient to the UCLA Medical Center, said Doug Griffith, a spokesman for Angel Flight West, a nonprofit which provides free air transportation for needy patients.
"Press Your Luck" was known for contestants shouting the slogan "Big bucks! No whammies!"
Tomarken's agent, Fred Wostbrock, said his client's first game show was "Hit Man!," which ran 13 weeks on NBC, followed by the four-year hit "Press Your Luck" on CBS. He also was on "Bargain Hunters," "Wipe-Out" and "Decades."
Peter & Kathleen Tomarken
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