'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tim Fernholz: Know Your Right-Wing Speakers: John Gibson (campusprogress.org)
John Gibson is concerned about your children, and your children's children. That is of course, unless your children, like half of all children under five years old, are minorities. In the midst of a heated national debate around immigration, the Fox News anchor was quick to point out the fact that America 's Hispanic population has a higher birthrate than the white population and issue an urgent call to arms. To secure the future of the white majority, Gibson sees only one viable solution: "Make more babies."
BuzzFlash interview: Michelle Goldberg
Christian nationalism inside America's mega-churches
Frank Furedi: Why the 'politics of happiness' makes me mad (spiked-online.com)
Search for happiness and you'll never find it. Search for something else, and it may come your way. As for the notion that the government could supply it to you...
Daniel Gross: Book Clubbed (slate.com)
Why writers never reveal how many books their buddies have sold.
Adelle Waldman: Cents and Sensibility (slate.com)
The surprising truth about sales of classic novels.
Carina Chocano: The allure of illusion (calendarlive.com)
Coiffed and cultivated, Hollywood virtually invented the word. Where has it gone?
Jody Rosen: Funky White Boys (slate.com)
The improbable rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
ROGER EBERT: Chimes at Midnight (1965; A Great Movie)
How can it be that there is an Orson Welles masterpiece that remains all but unseen? I refer not to incomplete or abandoned projects that have gathered legends, but to "Chimes at Midnight" (1965), his film about Falstaff, which has survived in acceptable prints and is ripe for restoration. I saw the film in early 1968, put it on my list of that year's best films, saw it again on 16mm in a Welles class I taught, and then could not see it for 35 years.
The Wall St. Poet
Gay Marriage
Iraq is in flames. The economy is sagging. And the U.S. Congress focuses on gay marriage...
PURPLE GENE
Responds
Re: JESUS FREAK BALL
Purple Gene responds:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL'S CHRISTIAN CRUSADING COLORADO ROCKIES (GENUFLECT) HAVE JUST NOW LOST THEIR 5TH GAME IN A ROW (THANK YOU JESUS) AND HAVE CATAPULTED THEMSELVES INTO THE CELLAR OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST (PRAISE THE LORD).
IN INTERVIEWS AFTER THE GAME, THE HOLY HARDBALL HITTERS WERE QUICK TO POINT OUT THAT THE LOSSES WERE THEIR OWN FAULT...IN SHARP CONTRAST TO WHAT WAS SAID AFTER THEIR WINNING STREAK "WE WANT TO THANK OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR THESE WINS !!)
IT'S REALLY STRANGE HOW THE "HOLY" ROCKIES CAN'T REALLY MAKE UP THEIR MIND ABOUT WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR CALLING THE BALLS AND STRIKES !
I PRAY FOR THEIR CONTINUED UN-SUCCESS!
PURPLE GENE
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lovely coastal eddy - nicely overcast til mid-afternoon.
Today is Election Day in CA -
Very locally, I'd like to see
Peter Mathews replace the incumbent
Juanita Millender-McDonald (CA - District #37). I had a miserable experience with Ms. Millender-McDonald's office a while back.
Her staff excelled at sending form letters. Poorly written, grammatically incorrect, abysmally punctuated form letters that had absolutely no bearing on my situation.
It's time for a change. Peter Mathews wants the job badly enough that he's walked the precinct. And, unlike most of the other candidates,
he has actually read the Constitution. He 'gets' it. So, he gets my vote.
In District #36, I'd like to see
Marcy Winograd replace incumbent DINO Jane Harmon.
California Online Voter Guide
No new flags.
65th Annual
Peabody Awards
With Jon Stewart hosting and "South Park" as one of the honorees, the 65th annual Peabody Awards ceremony Monday had a comedic bent.
But with four awards recognizing the challenges of covering Hurricane Katrina, the humor was balanced out by examples of journalists' highest calling to provide news and vital information to the public in times of crisis.
Stewart called the ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria "less entertaining than the Emmys," and said the honorees were "good, but not Latin Grammys good." He also quipped that he didn't want to see the statuettes being handed out ending up on eBay.
Martin Scorsese was honored for his PBS "American Masters" documentary "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home." FX's "The Shield" and ABC's "Boston Legal" also received awards, with Glenn Close and Candice Bergen accepting the statuettes, respectively.
For the rest, Peabody Awards
Knox College Graduation
Stephen Colbert
Comedian Stephen Colbert said he was not sure whether Knox College wanted the real person or his satirical television persona when he was booked to deliver the 2006 commencement address.
The host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report decided to address the 250 graduates Saturday with a bit of his TV character - a pompous, clueless commentator - "who says things with a straight face that he doesn't mean," Colbert said.
The commentator's suggestions for securing the U.S.-Mexico border began with fences. He quickly upped the effectiveness of his security plan with moats, fiery moats and fiery moats with fire-proof crocodiles.
He said even the East and West coasts are not safe because immigrants can swim, but he offered a plan: a dome built over the entire United States.
Stephen Colbert
Parents Sell Photos
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt will give the world its first peek at their newborn daughter by releasing photos of Shiloh Nouvel, with profits going to charity.
The images, taken at a private photo shoot, will be distributed by Getty Images, the photo agency said Monday. All profits will be given to charity, though no specific foundation was announced.
Deb Trevino, a spokeswoman for Getty Images, told The Associated Press the family would later name the charity that will receive the funds. She would not disclose how much the photos were being sold for, or when they would be distributed.
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt
Dilemma Solved
'Deadwood'
HBO has reached an agreement with David Milch, the creator and executive producer of 'Deadwood', to wrap up the show as a pair of two-hour movies rather than as full-blown fourth season.
HBO had offered Milch a six-episode pickup for Season 4 rather than the 12-episode norm for the show since its premiere in 2004.
Milch was said to have not been in favor of a six-episode final season because of the show's emphasis on each episode representing a day in the life of the lawless camp in late-1800s South Dakota, where the show is set. The shift of the final "Deadwood" installments to a two-hour movie format will allow for a clean break with that day-in-the-life format and allow the rest of the story to unfold on a broader narrative canvas.
'Deadwood'
Wedding News
Phoenix - Affleck
After six years of dating, actor Casey Affleck and actress Summer Phoenix have taken the next step.
The couple were married last weekend, Affleck's publicist, Rebecca Feferman, told The Associated Press on Monday.
The pair became engaged in 2003. They have a 2-year-old son, Indiana August.
Phoenix - Affleck
Oz's Daggy Answer
Barry Manilow
Following a successful experiment where Bing Crosby music was used to drive teenage loiterers out of an Australian shopping center several years ago, Rockdale councilors believe Barry Manilow is so uncool it might just work.
Councilor Bill Saravinovski said local authorities plan to install a loudspeaker and pipe in Manilow music, interspersed with classical pieces, over a car park favored by car "hoons," or hooligans.
"Daggy music is one way to make the hoons leave an area because they can't stand the music," he said.
Feuding Producers Battle On New Film
'Crash'
A feud involving the producers of the Oscar-winning movie "Crash" has spread to their next movie, "The Illusionist," starring Edward Norton.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Friday granted a temporary restraining order to Cathy Schulman and Tom Nunan preventing real estate investor-turned-filmmaker Bob Yari from stripping them of their producer credits.
Earlier this year, the three were involved in a series of high-profile legal battles related to "Crash." The film won a best picture Oscar for Schulman but not for Yari, who was denied producing credit by the Producers Guild of America.
'Crash'
Tribune Selling To Gannett
WATL-TV
Tribune Co. said Monday it is selling WATL-TV in Atlanta to Gannett Co. for $180 million, part of the media company's strategy to boost its stock price.
Tribune, whose holdings include the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune newspapers and 26 television stations, said last Tuesday it would use debt to buy back up to 75 million shares of stock, sell at least $500 million in noncore assets, and reduce operating expenses by $200 million over the next two years.
Gannett said it will continue to own and operate WXIA-TV, its NBC affiliate in Atlanta. The WATL-TV purchase will mark its third television duopoly - two stations in the same market. It also owns a pair of television stations in the Jacksonville, Fla., and Denver markets.
WATL-TV
Another Distraction At The Pump
Gas Station TV
The next time U.S. drivers fill up their tanks they may have a new distraction from watching the rising price of fuel at the pump: news and traffic reports on high-definition television screens.
Gas Station TV, which was created by media and advertising executives, said it would bring programming to 500 Murphy's Oil stations by January. The program has already launched at stations in Dallas.
Gas Station TV said it will air national and local news segments from the ABC network on 20-inch screens installed onto gas pumps. Walt Disney-owned ABC will also help sell advertising on the screens, the company said.
Gas Station TV
New Production Deal
Shonda Rhimes
The creator of "Grey's Anatomy" has renegotiated her production pact at Touchstone Television for at least three years, extending it through the 2008-09 season.
Shonda Rhimes had just completed the first year of a two-year deal, which also included a one-year option, that she signed with the Disney-owned studio in May 2005. The new three-year deal is said to be worth about $10 million, vaunting Rhimes into the top echelon of TV writer-producers. Touchstone TV declined comment Friday.
Rhimes' rich pact reflects the importance of her red-hot medical drama to the studio as well as ABC, which is also owned by Disney. The network is banking on the show to revive its fortunes on Thursday night next season. "Grey's" was an out-of-the-box hit for the network as a midseason entry in the 2004-05 season. This past season, "Grey's" thrived in the Sunday 10 p.m. slot behind "Desperate Housewives," giving ABC the confidence to relocate the show to the competitive Thursday 9 p.m. berth in the upcoming season opposite CBS' "CSI.."
Shonda Rhimes
Missing Boyfriend Sited In Mexico
Olivia Newton-John
Mystery surrounding the disappearance of Australian entertainer Olivia Newton-John's longtime boyfriend Patrick McDermott deepened following a report he was alive and living in Mexico.
As a US grand jury prepares to investigate the disappearance, a report in Sydney's Daily Telegraph said that McDermott had been identified by three separate witnesses as hiding out on Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
McDermott, who worked as a cameraman, was thousands of dollars behind in child support when he disappeared and faced the possibility of going to jail over the debt to his ex-wife.
Olivia Newton-John
Turned 60
Sylvester Stallone
It was a Hollywood - and a Planet Hollywood - reunion at a 60th birthday celebration for Sylvester Stallone.
The "Rocky" and "Rambo" star was joined by fellow Planet Hollywood founders Bruce Willis and California Gov. Arnold $chwarzenegger (R-Steroids) for the bash Sunday night at Stallone's soon-to-open Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.
Other celebrities in attendance included John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, David Spade and James Caan.
Sylvester Stallone
Idaho Ranch Up For Sale
Carole King
Carole King has put her 51-hectare ranch in the White Cloud Mountains up for sale, with a $19 million US asking price.
The secluded Robinson Bar Ranch compound includes a 630-square-metre lodge, the singer-songwriter's two-bedroom home, a caretaker's home, a professional recording studio, guest cabins and horse barns. The property also includes two natural hot pools, and several buildings are heated by geothermal springs.
King, 64, says she is not leaving Idaho, where she has lived since 1977. She has a condominium in Ketchum and homes in California and New York, where she was born.
Carole King
Spreading Freedom, The Monsanto Way
Agent Orange
The United States won't compensate Vietnam's Agent Orange victims but will offer advice on dealing with the wartime defoliant, a US official said, during a visit by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
A New York court last year rejected a Vietnamese lawsuit against US chemical giants Monsanto and Dow Chemical, who manufactured the herbicide during the war. The Vietnamese side has appealed.
Agent Orange
Pentagon Goes Primal
Geneva Convention
New policies on prisoners being drawn up by the Pentagon will reportedly omit a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment."
Citing unidentified but knowledgeable military officials, the Los Angeles Times said the step would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift by the US government away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.
Geneva Convention
Kiev Zoo
Lioness
A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.
"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."
Lioness
In Memory
Alex Toth
Alex Toth, a maverick comic artist who designed classic Hanna Barbera adventure cartoons such as "The Superfriends" and "Space Ghost," has died.
Toth died while sitting at his drawing table at his home in Burbank on May 27, his son Eric said. He was 77.
Before working in animation, Toth was a comic book artist, widely regarded as brilliant, who had some success but even more frustration.
But Toth's forms would prove influential in underground comics and graphic novels in later decades. Comic artist Will Eisner called him "a mastery of realism within a stunning illustrative style."
Toth was born in New York, where he lived and worked until settling in San Jose in the late 1950s. While living there he worked for Dell Comics on titles derived from television shows like "Sea Hunt" and "Zorro." That led to animation work in Southern California, where he moved in 1964.
Drawing for Hanna Barbera in the 1960s and 1970s, Toth designed characters for adventure cartoons "Jonny Quest" and "The Herculoids" in addition to "The Superfriends" and "Space Ghost," and he achieved the wider recognition and commercial success that had eluded him.
Toth is survived by sons Eric and Damon Toth, daughters Dana Palmer and Carrie Morash, and four grandchildren.
At Alex Toth's request, no memorial service was planned.
Alex Toth
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