'Best of TBH Politoons'
political, religious, topical - apply liberally
Jeff Crook
Marty,
My very short story "
Intermission Between the Opening of the Sixth and Seventh Seals
" is now up at Bewildering Stories. It's a Left Behind story with something of a twist. Join us for a moment in the Oval Office with the president at the End of the World as We Know It.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
WAYNE ROBERTS: From field to prophet (nowtoronto.com)
John Kenneth Galbraith learned his Canuck-style radical economics down on the farm
Ben Adler: A conversation with writer and urbanist James Kuntsler (campusprogress.org)
We have a railroad system in America that the Bolivians would be ashamed of. There isn't one thing we could do in this country that would have a greater impact on our oil use than restoring the American rail system to something like a European level of service. It's something that we know how to do, the infrastructure is laying out there waiting to be fixed and re-used, and the Democrats are not even talking about it-and I'm a registered Democrat-and it ticks me off. I would like to see the politically progressive kids out there start militating to restore the American railroad system.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Rising Latino Numbers, Rising Black Fears (AlterNet.org)
Latinos are now the country's largest minority -- a fact that bothers some blacks.
KATE CARRAWAY: Do I Look Old in These Jeans? (ocweekly.com)
Dressing like your daughter doesn't make you look hotter--just stupider
Andrew Varnon: I Don't Get TV (valleyadvocate.com)
And I'm pretty sure that the Nielsen TV Ratings people don't get me.
ANDREW GUMBEL: BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (lacitybeat.com)
Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan committed plagiarism with the help of an invisible, and ruthless, marketing machine
Tom Toles Cartoons
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nicely overcast most of the day.
Starting to get a lot of stuff for the election next month.
Wonder why, after 12 years, my polling station has been changed? Not only is it (easily) twice as far away, it's now at a small car dealership with very limited parking.
My old polling station, at the community center in the park, 3 very walkable blocks away, is still open.
I haven't moved, or re-registered. Hmmmmmm.
Added a new flag - Zimbabwe 
No Movie Stars
L.A.'s Top 10 Richest
Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian was named the richest man in Los Angeles on Monday by a local newspaper that also ranked filmmaker Steven Spielberg among its 50 most wealthy citizens but largely omitted Hollywood stars.
Kerkorian, an 88-year-old investor, topped the list of the 50 richest people in America's second-largest city, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, which estimated his wealth at $9.3 billion.
He was followed by Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. executive chairman Sumner Redstone, 82, whose fortune the newspaper put at about $7.4 billion, down 11 percent after stock in both companies fell during the past year.
In fact only Mel Gibson, who amassed much of his fortune from producing 2004's religious blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" was able to crack the top 50, landing at No. 47 with a net worth estimated by the newspaper at $850 million.
L.A.'s Top 10 Richest
U.N. Representative on AIDS
Naomi Watts
Naomi Watts has been named a special representative to the U.N. program for HIV/ AIDS. The "King Kong" actress just returned from a trip to Zambia, where she saw hospitals, homes and schools where lives have been destroyed by AIDS.
Her appointment came as UNAIDS unveiled a new campaign called, "4 for Everyone," which seeks to give everyone the right to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support.
The program estimates that 40 million people now live with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and that 25 million people have died from AIDS.
Naomi Watts
Tops Maxim's 'Hot 100' List
Eva Longoria
Eva Longoria tops Maxim's seventh annual "Hot 100" list of the most successful women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion for the second year in a row.
Jessica Alba is No. 2, followed by Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler ("Dancing With the Stars"), Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, Kate Bosworth, Keira Knightley and singer-actress Christina Milian.
The list also includes "Desperate Housewives" stars Nicollette Sheridan (No. 48) and Teri Hatcher (No. 73).
Eva Longoria
Delta State University
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman accepted his honorary degree from Delta State University with a simple "thank you."
Later at a reception, the Academy Award winner acknowledged Leola Gregory Williams, an elementary teacher in his native Greenwood.
Williams later became the first black instructor in English at Delta State. The university awards The Leola Gregory Williams Award annually to students who have written outstanding papers in general education classes.
Morgan Freeman
Quotes Eminem at Penn Graduation
Jodie Foster
You can add rapping to the list of Jodie Foster's talents. The Oscar-winning actress spoke Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies, ending her address with the chorus of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile," the semi-autobiographical 2002 film in which he starred.
She earned laughs from the graduates by taking pictures of them from the podium and then by recalling her own years at Yale. But she struck a serious note later, saying the country and world are worse off than they were four years ago, and challenging graduates to change that.
The U.S. "squandered" the goodwill and sympathy other nations offered after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Foster said. She also criticized officials for the "disastrous and shameful" handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Penn seniors had expressed skepticism and seemed underwhelmed by her selection as commencement speaker when it was announced earlier this year, but she received a standing ovation after her speech.
Jodie Foster
Gives Speeches for Pot Arrest
Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel made up for last summer's arrest for marijuana possession in Woodstock by speaking to students at two local high schools about keeping a healthy lifestyle.
Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams said the singer, who was found with a marijuana cigarette in his ashtray after being pulled over for running a stop sign, spoke at the two Hudson Valley schools in late March.
Art Garfunkel
Afterlife At CW Network
'7th Heaven'
Despite all the misty-eyed talk of farewells last week, the long-running WB Network drama "7th Heaven" is expected to move to the new CW Network for an 11th season in the fall.
Sources said CW executives hammered out a deal during the weekend with series creator and executive producer Brenda Hampton to return for another season. Sources said the sticking point -- needed to be resolved in time for CW's "upfront" presentation to advertisers Thursday -- was reaching terms with the family drama's primary cast members, including Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks.
It's understood that while WB's old "Heaven" contract had options on key cast members for another season, the network and its sibling studio, CBS Paramount Network TV, which produces "Heaven" through its Spelling Television unit, are asking cast members to take a pay cut from the salary levels already spelled out in those option agreements. The salary bill was cited as one reason for the show's axing in the first place.
'7th Heaven'
Gets Key to Namesake City
Alice Cooper
The key to this city, with just a feed store, fire hall and a bar, won't open much for rock legend Alice Cooper.
Officials from this town of about 60 people presented the aging shock rocker with a marble plaque and a gold-plated key Sunday to commemorate Cooper's visit to the city that bears his name.
Cooper arrived in Alice the day before he was scheduled to perform at the Fargo Civic Center. About 1,000 people cheered as his limo rolled into the town, one of several in southeast North Dakota named for the daughters of a railroad surveyor.
Alice Cooper
Former Wailer Loses Lawsuit
Aston "Family Man" Barrett
The longtime bass player for Bob Marley's group The Wailers lost his lawsuit Monday seeking a share of the late reggae legend's royalties.
Aston "Family Man" Barrett was seeking the equivalent of up to $115 million he claimed he was owed since Marley died in 1981 without making a will.
Justice Kim Lewison agreed with arguments by the Island-Universal record label and the Marley family that Barrett surrendered his rights to any further royalties from Wailer recordings in a 1994 settlement in exchange for $500,000.
Lewison made an order barring Barrett, 59, from taking any further action without the court's permission. Barrett, who sued on behalf of himself and his late brother, Carlton, the band's drummer, now faces a bill for legal costs estimated at nearly $3.8 million.
Aston "Family Man" Barrett
Arrested After Flight Disturbance
DMX
Police arrested DMX after the rap star refused to put on a seat belt and became abusive on a flight from New York to London, authorities said Monday.
DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, received a caution and was released after his American Airlines flight landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, police said on condition of anonymity in line with departmental policy.
The 35-year-old rapper completed a 70-day sentence late last year in New York City after pleading guilty to violating his parole following a 2004 incident in which he crashed his sport utility vehicle through an airport security gate.
DMX
First House Sold
Elvis Presley
Psychic Uri Geller and two partners have bought the Tennessee house Elvis Presley lived in before moving to Graceland, with a winning bid of $905,100 on eBay, he said on Monday.
"We intend to restore it to its old glory. We would like to bring sick children there (for tours), Palestinian children, Israeli children, American children," the Israeli-born Geller said. "Hopefully one day we might get approval to turn it into a museum."
Elvis Presley
'Springtime for Mussolini'?
Mel Brooks
If one of Hollywood's leading studios had its way, it would have been "Springtime for Mussolini," not Hitler, or so says Mel Brooks.
"Universal sent the scripts to Lew Wasserman and (the other executives) and they said, 'We love this movie,' but we just want to make one small change.'
"I said, 'Fine, what is it?' They said that instead of making a Broadway play about Adolf Hitler, make it about Mussolini instead because we couldn't possibly make a movie about Hitler," Brooks said in an interview with Reuters last week.
Brooks, 79, said his reaction to Universal's request was a simple: "'What, are you crazy?' But they insisted they could not make a picture about Hitler. I was going to entitle the film 'Springtime for Hitler.' So I took it to Joseph E. Levine of Embassy Pictures, and he said, 'You want Hitler, you got Hitler. Just don't call it 'Springtime for Hitler.' So I came up with the ironic title of 'The Producers."'
Mel Brooks
Los Angeles Auction
Kustom Kulture
A cache of artwork and memorabilia by Von Dutch and Ed (Big Daddy) Roth, icons of the so-called Kustom Kulture pop art style, was a hit with collectors at an auction.
Such pop culture items as a sign featuring the late Dutch's trademark flying eyeball prompted spirited bidding during Saturday's RM Auctions' Brucker Collection sale at the Petersen Automotive Museum. The sign fetched $149,500 US.
Dutch's painting Good-Bye Cruel World, created long before the Von Dutch brand became an overused clothing label, sold for $110,000. It shows a man turning the crank on a meat grinder that is consuming his own body.
Also triggering a bidding frenzy Saturday was the late Roth's iconic Rat Fink sketches, including the Rat Fink's Revenge drawing. It brought in $9,775.
Kustom Kulture
Travels Lead to Criticism
$chwarzenegger
Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger has been out of state all or part of 163 days since his inauguration in November 2003 - nearly one of every five days he's been in office.
While many of $chwarzenegger's trips on official business are extensively publicized, he also can slip away on a private jet with an e-mail from his office: "Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger has left the state."
In April, an emergency flood declaration sought by Merced County was held up when he left for several days on unexplained business, according to the office of Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
While the governor funds his own air travel through a private jet service, the public pays airfare, hotels and other expenses for $chwarzenegger's security detail.
$chwarzenegger
Sloth Bears Make Lunch
Barbary Macaque
Bears killed and ate a monkey in a Dutch zoo in front of horrified visitors, witnesses and the zoo said Monday. In the incident Sunday at the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, several Sloth bears chased the Barbary macaque into an electric fence, where it was stunned.
The park confirmed the killing in a statement, saying: "In an area where Sloth bears, great apes and Barbary macaques have coexisted peacefully for a long time, the harmony was temporarily disturbed during opening hours on Sunday."
The park plans now to move the Barbary macaques - which are large monkeys but often inaccurately called "Barbary Apes" - to another part of the park, it said.
Barbary Macaque
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