'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: Stranded in Suburbia (nytimes.com)
With rising oil prices leaving many Americans stranded in suburbia, it's starting to look as if Berlin, a city of trains, buses and bikes, had the better idea.
Nat Hentoff: Keeping Jazz Makers Alive (villagevoice.com)
Evicted or with no medical insurance, musicians playing their last chorus are saved by the Jazz Foundation.
Mike Diamond: Ma Vie En Rose (advocate.com)
Leslie Jordan's new one man show, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet, premiered at Gay Fest in New York City and this week comes to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The show chronicles his journey to celebrity status with a slightly colorful twist
Trish Bendix: And now, a little something for the ladies (afterellen.com)
I like their advocation of soldiers putting down their weapons and instead picking up a woman, and "brunettes not fighter jets." While you probably won't want to take them up on their offer of making love to you ("it's the least we can do"), you'll appreciate that some dudes want to "show you some gratitude."
Dara Nai: A Quickie With Cathy Shim (afterellen.com)
The "3Way" star talks about playing Roxie and kissing Jill Bennett.
Michael Jensen: Interview with "Dancing with the Stars" Judge Bruno Tonioli (afterelton.com)
The charismatic judge talks about growing up gay in a small town, whether same-sex duos belong on DWTS, and more!
Celebrate Margaret Cho Day (curvemag.com)
"I'm so proud that this day is my day. I'd like to dedicate this to my parents," she said, as she looked to the front row where her mother and father sat. Cho explained how her parents came here from Korea with $25 and then did the gayest thing-opened a bookstore on Polk Street. They hired gay people to work for them and raised Cho in this environment.
Why I had to lie to my dying mother (books.guardian.co.uk)
American writer Susan Sontag was terrified of death. She beat cancer in the 1970s, and again in the 1990s, but third time around she wasn't so lucky. In a tender account of her final illness, her son David Rieff recalls how he colluded with his mother's fantasy that she wasn't dying - and what this ultimately cost him after she had gone.
Dave Zirin: Erasing Barry Bonds from baseball history (latimes.com)
The former slugger hasn't just been sidelined from baseball, it's as if he has never played.
A film script? No, this is my life (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
Cynthia Nixon's personal life is as dramatic as Miranda Hobbes's, or any "Sex and the City" plot, Will Lawrence discovers.
Ed Potton: Malcolm McDowell's lucky movie break (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk)
When the film "O Lucky Man!" appeared in 1973, no star of British film burnt brighter than Malcolm McDowell.
Nicole Hollander: Sylvia (womensenews.org)
Aram Sinnreich: "Liberty: A New Comic Strip"
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Not quite as hot.
'Herblock's Presidents: 'Puncturing Pomposity''
Herblock
Political cartoonist Herblock went after those he considered the biggest bullies in society - and they often included U.S. presidents.
Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon got so upset with his work that they canceled their subscriptions at times to The Washington Post, the cartoonist's employer, said Sidney Hart, a curator and historian at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery who has organized a new show of Herblock's work.
Herbert L. Block, who combined his first and last names for his more famous pen name, drew cartoons that appeared in American newspapers over seven decades, beginning at the Chicago Daily News in 1929 and continuing at The Washington Post, where he remained until his death in 2001.
"Herblock's Presidents: 'Puncturing Pomposity'" opened in May and is hard to miss, appearing next to the gallery's more regal portrayal of presidents in traditional paintings. It will remain on view through November.
Block was extremely critical of Nixon and Eisenhower on the issue of desegregation. Nixon, of course, took more than a few hits for Watergate. And he wasn't gentle with Lyndon B. Johnson, either, skewering LBJ for diverting funds from the war on poverty to Vietnam and poking fun at a real-life episode where Johnson griped that his portrayal by a painter wasn't "glorious enough," Hart said. (Visitors can see that Johnson portrait at the Portrait Gallery, too.)
Herblock
Honored At Notre Dame
Martin Sheen
The University of Notre Dame has honored actor and activist Martin Sheen with its Laetare Medal for his humanitarian work.
The 67-year-old Sheen received the award Sunday during the school's commencement. The award is Notre Dame's top honor and is given annually to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church, and enriched the heritage of humanity."
"While acting is what I do for a living, activism is what I do to stay alive," Sheen told the crowd during commencement Sunday at Notre Dame.
Sheen describes himself as a Catholic peace activist. He has been arrested for taking part in nonviolent demonstrations against various U.S. military policies, and has donated money and time to such causes as the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, human rights for migrant workers and environmental protection.
Martin Sheen
Favorite Things To Auction
Bob Hope
A foot-high cowboy hat from the movie "Paleface." An autographed photo of Lucille Ball with some teeth blackened out. A money clip from Jack Benny. These were a few of Bob Hope's favorite things.
Nearly 800 items of Hope history, from foolishness to fine art, will be sold to fans and dealers alike at a mid-October charity auction in Los Angeles commissioned by the family of the famed comedian, who died in 2003 at age 100. The auction will be televised live and online by the Auction Network, allowing viewers worldwide to participate in real time.
"Dad was a pack rat," daughter Linda Hope told The Associated Press. "He loved to collect things. Even when he wasn't conscious of collecting, people would give him things. They would be brought home, listed, photographed and placed in storage. There are 11,000 items in his memorabilia collection."
Now keeper of the family flame, Linda Hope, 68, made the first public announcement of the Bob Hope Estate Auction on a recent sunny morning at the comedian's longtime compound in North Hollywood - 7 acres of mansion, office building, swimming pool, greenery and short-hole golf course. A selection of the items to be auctioned were spread atop two large tables.
Bob Hope
Looted Art On Display
Bruce Museum
A major art collection looted by the Nazis is on display for the first time, an exhibition that tells the tragic story of a pre-eminent art dealer who died fleeing the Nazis and the successful fight by his heirs to win back the paintings.
The show at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, "Reclaimed: Paintings From the Collection of Jacques Goudstikker," features about 40 of the finest paintings from his collection. It runs through Sept. 7.
Goudstikker was the Netherlands' biggest art dealer in the 1930s, influencing the tastes of collectors and museums while entertaining lavishly in his country home and castle.
But Goudstikker, who was Jewish, was forced to flee Amsterdam with his wife and young son just ahead of the Nazi invasion in May 1940, leaving behind about 1,400 works of art. He died after falling through a trapdoor on an outbound ship.
Bruce Museum
Japan Tourism Ambassador
Hello Kitty
Hello Kitty - Japan's ubiquitous ambassador of cute - has built up an impressive resume over the years. Global marketing phenom. Fashion diva. Pop culture icon. Now the moonfaced feline can add "government envoy" to the list. The tourism ministry on Monday named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women.
Officials hope that tapping into that fan base will lead to a bigger flow of tourists into Japan, and closer toward their goal of attracting 10 million overseas visitors every year under the "Visit Japan" campaign.
Last year the number of foreign tourists traveling to Japan hit a record high of 8.35 million, up 60 percent since the government began the marketing effort in 2003.
Arrivals from China and Hong Kong, who accounted for 16.5 percent of visitors to Japan last year, are poised this year to become the second-largest group of tourists after South Koreans.
Hello Kitty
Complains About Edit
White House
The White House on Monday called on NBC News to set the record straight on "deceitful" editing of an interview with resident Bush, in which correspondent Richard Engel asks whether comments about the president of Iran were directed at Barack Obama.
Bush aides were angered by how the resident's answer was portrayed when Engel questioned him about his condemnation of "the false comfort of appeasement" in an address last week to the Israeli Knesset. NBC stood by its treatment of the interview Monday.
As it appeared on "Nightly News" Sunday and the "Today" show Monday, Bush's response was: "You know, my policies haven't changed, but evidently the political calendar has ... And when, you know, a leader of Iran says that they want to destroy Israel, you've got to take those words seriously."
But the White House said NBC edited out these words that Bush said between those two sentences: "People need to read the speech. You didn't get it exactly right, either. What I said was that we need to take the words of people seriously."
White House
SEC Charges Eight Ex-Execs
AOL Time Warner
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged eight former executives of AOL Time Warner, now known as Time Warner Inc, in a fraudulent scheme that overstated company advertising revenue by more than $1 billion.
Four of the defendants settled with the SEC and the other four are facing fraud-related charges in federal court in New York.
The former executives participated in a scheme from mid-2000 to mid-2002 to artificially inflate the company's reported online advertising revenue, the SEC said in a statement. Online advertising revenue was a key measure analysts and investors used to evaluate the company.
The scheme involved fraudulent transactions in which AOL Time Warner effectively funded its own advertising revenue by giving purchasers the money to buy online advertising that they did not want or need, the SEC said.
AOL Time Warner
Mounts "Assault" On GE
Bill O'Really
Bill O'Reilly, who hosts a show on U.S. news channel Fox News, is mounting an "extraordinary televised assault" on Jeffrey Immelt, the chief executive of General Electric, the Washington Post reported on its Web site on Monday.
On the surface, O'Reilly's charges revolve around GE's history of doing business with Iran, the newspaper reported.
But the attacks grow out of "an increasingly bitter feud between O'Reilly and the company's high-profile subsidiary, NBC," it said.
O'Reilly and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann have engaged in an increasingly nasty battle in the past few years, with O'Reilly often appearing in Olbermann's nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment.
Bill O'Really
Back To
UPN MyNetworkTV`SmackDown'
Pro wrestling makes its move to MyNetworkTV on Oct. 2 with broadcast highlights from WWE's "WrestleMania."
Then Oct. 3, the network begins its Friday "WWE SmackDown" airings, MyNetworkTV announced Monday.
Those dates pin down a notable transition for World Wrestling Entertainment, whose "SmackDown" series premiered on UPN in fall 1999. The past two years it aired on The CW. In February, the CW and WWE announced the end of their partnership after this season.
`SmackDown'
Spread Footprint In U.S.
Wind Farms
At 265 feet tall, four gleaming white wind turbines tower over the tiny farm town of Rock Port, Missouri, like a landing of alien intruders.
But despite their imposing presence and the stark contrast with the rolling pastures and corn fields, the turbines have received a warm welcome here.
As Eric Chamberlain, who manages the wind farm for Wind Capital Group, eats lunch in a local restaurant, local people greet him with a "Hey Windy!" and many say they are happy to be using clean electricity.
"It doesn't pollute the environment, it provides tax revenue, creates jobs. I don't see a downside," said Chamberlain, who is something of a celebrity in this town of 1,400 people.
Wind Farms
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