'Best of TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Link
Sick Of This Crap!
6 weeks and 2 days until Operation Freedom-Eagle-Martial-Law-Kristalnact-for-Queers is announced. In the meantime, help us perpetuate the fantasy of a Bushless America.
This week's issue features:
* The Iraq War is Over
* The Forged Memos
* A Rare Correction
* Pooty Poot Goes All Stalin
* The Long Lost Axes of Evil
Join us won't you join us? We're just a click away....
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The Santa Ana's are starting to blow, so the cooler weather will be a fond memory by morning.
This is my week for the 6th grade car pool.
Have to run out to the Valley & visit Uncle Jimmy some time this week. He sure is good at eyetalian guilt - but he was trained by masters.
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is joined by his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, left, and actress Uma Thurman at the 7th Annual Redbook Mothers & Shakers awards luncheon, in New York, Monday Sept. 20, 2004. Mrs. Kerry received an award for inspiring Americans to help others, Thurman was honored for nurturing kids born into poverty, and the candidate gave the keynote address.
Photo by Richard Drew
Fans Brave Bad Weather
Farm Aid
Fans braved cold, wet weather to be part of the 19th annual Farm Aid concert held on Saturday, which included performances by founders Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young.
Dave Matthews, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Trick Pony and Jerry Lee Lewis also performed at the annual fund-raiser, which raised more than $1 million to call attention to the plight of U.S. farmers.
According to Nelson, farmers need all the help they can get to avoid becoming extinct.
"Honestly, I thought we'd do one Farm Aid and some smart guy in Washington would say, 'Oh, I didn't know there was a problem,' and it'd all be worked out," he told AP Radio. "19 years later, here we are, still trying to keep the small family farmer on the land."
He says he didn't think the event would be around for so long - nor did he think it would still be necessary.
Farm Aid
Piano Man, Billy Joel touches his star in Los Angeles September 20, 2004. Joel was awarded with the 2,262nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Photo by Kimberly White
Returning to Airwaves Unrepentant
'Spider-Bui'
A student disc jockey who was fired after celebrating Ronald Reagan's death on his radio show has his job back, and no regrets about his comments.
Scott Hornyak was reinstated Monday as business manager of the University of Alaska Fairbanks radio station, according to the university. He was to be back on the air Tuesday morning.
Hornyak, who is known as "Spider-Bui" to listeners of KSUA-FM, said on his June 6 radio show that he wanted to "walk over the newly laid dirt" on Reagan's grave and that he was sick of the media glorifying the ex-president.
Hornyak said the experience won't change his approach to his show, but he will remember to read a disclaimer stating that his opinions are his own.
'Spider-Bui'
Loaned to Exhibit
Dali Artwork
Roy Disney said he had heard the myths at Walt Disney Co. for a long time - that Salvador Dali's artworks from a long-forgotten project were somewhere in the studio's archives. It turned out not to be a myth.
The surrealist master had worked with Disney's uncle, Walt Disney, from 1945-46, producing seven paintings and hundreds of ink drawings for an animated film that never got made, Disney said.
The artwork - which Disney valued at $5 million to $10 million - sat in the studio unseen by the public for 58 years. That is, until now.
"It is truly the only Dali stuff in the world that was never seen up until this year," Disney said in an interview.
Dali Artwork
New York Dance and Performance Awards
The 'Bessies'
Teacher Mary Anthony, composer Philip Hamilton and Merce Cunningham Dance Company member Holley Farmer were among those honored at the 20th annual New York Dance and Performance Awards.
Nicknamed the Bessies for educator Bessie Schonberg, the dance world's humbler, funkier equivalent of the Tonys featured mini-performances by the Cunningham company and Ben Munisteri Dance Projects, lots of self-congratulatory applause and its trademark kookie, adjective-laden citations.
Hosted by Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project and the Joyce Theater, and held Friday night at the Joyce, the 20-member Bessie committee recognized 28 individuals for the 2003-2004 season. Categories included visual design (Christophe Draeger, Brenda Gray, Kathy Kaufmann, Douglas Stein), performance installation and new media (Deborah Warner) and, for the second year, the Time Out New York Dance Audience Award (Saba Dance Theater). Recipients received between $500 and $3,000.
The 'Bessies'
Tim Thibodeaux is perched precariously atop' Big Tex' as he prepares the 52-foot-tall talking cowboy figure for the opening of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, Monday, Sept. 20, 2004. Big Tex made his debut in 1952 and began greeting fairgoers in 1953. The 2004 State Fair of Texas runs from Friday, Sept. 24 through Sunday, Oct. 17.
Photo by Donna McWilliam
70th Birthday
Leonard Cohen
First We Take Manhattan. Everybody Knows. Tower Of Song. Those are but a few of Leonard Cohen's songs that musicians across the world will be performing at various tributes celebrating their idol's landmark birthday.
The poet-turned-novelist-turned-singer turns 70 on Tuesday. From Barcelona to Toronto and Australia's Toowoomba, admirers will gather to recreate his work and sip on the Montrealer's signature cocktail, the Red Needle.
For his part, Cohen is keeping mum on where he'll be festing. The singer, who calls Los Angeles home, remains busy with his various projects. He'll release a new record, Dear Heather, on Oct. 26. He's also said to be working on a book called Book of Longing, a collection of previously unpublished poems and drawings, some of which were written during a six-year retreat at the Zen Center at Mount Baldy, Calif.
Leonard Cohen
Hospital News
Rodney Dangerfield
Comedian Rodney Dangerfield slipped into a coma while recovering from heart surgery in recent weeks but "is starting to show signs of awareness," his wife Joan said on Monday.
The 82-year-old performer, who was reported by his spokesman to have been hooked to a respirator in intensive care since undergoing a heart-valve replacement on Aug. 25, was able to breathe on his own for the past 24 hours, she said.
Dangerfield fell into a "light coma" a couple of weeks ago, but "after recent visits from his family and close friends, Rodney is starting to show signs of awareness, and we are all hopeful that he will regain full consciousness soon," she said in a statement issued through his publicist, Kevin Sasaki.
She said Dangerfield remains in stable condition overall, and that "Our family remains optimistic that Rodney will make a complete recovery ..."
Rodney Dangerfield
Opera in Toronto
'The Handmaid's Tale'
It was considered a far-fetched idea at the time, but 20 years later, people are asking Margaret Atwood: How did you know?
Her eerily prescient novel The Handmaid's Tale foretold of rightwing religious ideology overtaking the White House, the erosion of constitutional rights in the name of national security and of widespread environmental disasters. Of course, unlike the novel, women today aren't enslaved to procreate for the elite, but when it comes to public paranoia, the book Atwood refers to as "speculative fiction" practically reads as a commentary on the times.
She began writing her dystopia in 1984 - itself a year laden with George Orwell's predictions of Big Brother and frenzied displays of rage and hate - and her rule for the book was to put nothing in it that hadn't already happened somewhere at some time.
Adapted by Danish composer Poul Ruders, The Handmaid's Tale makes its Canadian premiere Thursday, with a six-night run in Toronto.
'The Handmaid's Tale'
Images of resident Bush, top, and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, make up a corn maze Monday, Sept. 20, 2004, in Pleasant Grove, Utah. The maze will be open to the public on Sept. 24. The labyrinth is eight acres in size and has more than three miles of twists and turns.
Photo by Douglas C. Pizac
German Box Office Hit
'The Downfall'
A German film about Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's final 12 days leapt to the top of the country's box office with nearly half a million tickets sold in its opening weekend, distributor Constantin Film said on Monday.
"The Downfall" starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz that shows Hitler's diabolical nature as well as a softer side that is foreign to most Germans attracted 480,000 viewers in its first four days -- one of the strongest starts for any film this year.
"Der Untergang," as it is known in Germany, is told from the point of view of Traudl Junge, one of Hitler's secretaries in his Berlin bunker and also based on eyewitness accounts from a book of the same name by leading German historian Joachim Fest.
It was released on 400 screens, one of the biggest releases this year. Costing 13.5 million euros ($16.38 million), "The Downfall" is also one of the most expensive productions in German history. ($1=.8239 Euro)
'The Downfall'
New Product
Kalashnikov Vodka
The creator of one of the world's most famous guns, the AK-47 assault rifle, launched another weapon in Britain Monday -- Kalashnikov vodka.
Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who invented the AK-47 after being shot by German soldiers during World War II, said he wanted to continue "the good name" of his gun.
"I've always wanted to improve and expand on the good name of my weapon by doing good things," he told Reuters Television.
"So we decided to create a vodka under my name. And we wanted that vodka to be better than anything made, up until now, in both Russia and England."
Kalashnikov Vodka
French actor Pascal, holds a bucket of exploding firecrackers against his naked genitals as part of his theater group's Kamikaze show to close out the 1st International Tattoo and Corporal Art Convention Lima 2004, in Lima, Peru, early September 20, 2004. More than 40 tattoo studios from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, France, Peru, Spain and the USA participated in the first event of this type in Peru.
Photo by Pilar Olivares
Exhibit Draws Large Crowd in Germany
Museum of Modern Art
An exhibition of masterpieces from New York's Museum of Modern Art closed in Berlin the same way it began seven months ago - packed with enthusiastic visitors and plagued by long lines.
The show opened in February and has attracted some 1.1 million visitors - some 400,000 more than expected. The exhibition has been a boon to Berlin tourism, with about 70 percent of the visitors from out of town.
Since it started, long lines have snaked around the Mies van der Rohe-designed Neue Nationalgalerie, with waits sometimes reaching as much as eight hours.
Museum of Modern Art
Celeb Quotes to Appear on Bottles
Heinz Ketchup
What do Mia Hamm, Terry Bradshaw, William Shatner and Lindsay Lohan have in common? The answer: ketchup.
They have signed on with Heinz to "Say Something Ketchuppy" on limited-edition bottles of the condiment. The bottles will feature labels with quotes from each celebrity. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the bottles will benefit charities chosen by each celebrity, the company said recently.
Bradshaw, former quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has a label saying "Served at the Immaculate Reception," a reference to his 1972 pass to Franco Harris.
Heinz Ketchup
Election Bellwether
Elk County, Pa
Here in the hills of northern Pennsylvania, far from the turmoil of the campaign, is the unlikely weather vane of American politics.
When it comes to voting for president, sparsely populated Elk County always knows which way the wind is blowing.
Of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, only Elk County, with 35,000 people and 20,402 registered voters, has voted for the winning presidential candidate eight elections in a row. In this swing state, this is the swingingest county.
The last time Elk County voters got it wrong was in 1968, when they voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey over Republican Richard Nixon. And the last mistake before that was in 1940, when they narrowly preferred Republican Wendell Willkie to incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Straddling the crest of the Allegheny Mountains, far from any big city (Philadelphia is nearly 300 miles away and Pittsburgh about 135), Elk County is, in many ways, a relic of an earlier America.
Steeped in conservative, blue-collar, hardworking traditions, it still has many factories, producing auto parts and paper products and lightbulbs by the millions daily. The 140-year-old Straub Brewery is a local institution, making small batches of lager and giving samples away to visitors to its "eternal tap."
Hunting is popular. Abortion is opposed. The population is older, whiter, less college-educated, and less likely to be in poverty than the national average. Most residents are Roman Catholic. Young people are leaving. Doctors are hard to get and hard to keep. Union jobs, though dwindling, are more common here than in most places.
This is the part of the country where people drink "pop," not "soda."
Democrats outnumber Republicans, by about a 10-7 ratio. But party bonds are not especially strong, especially in statewide and national contests.
Since the county has so few voters to galvanize, neither candidate has made it over Boot Jack Summit to campaign in Elk County. (Bush has been as close as Johnstown, and Kerry has been to Erie.) But then, officials can't remember any presidential candidate who has ever been here.
For a lot more, Elk County, Pa
This is where I grew up - St. Marys is the largest town in
Elk County,
Ridgway is the county seat,
Wilcox is the village to the north,
and my little town, the borough of
Johnsonburg.
Holds Ancient Civilization Secrets
Range Creek
The newly discovered ruins of an ancient civilization in remote eastern Utah canyon could reveal secrets about the descendants of the continent's original Paleo-Indians who showed up before the time of Christ to settle much of present-day Utah.
Archaeologists estimate as many as 250 households occupied this canyon over a span of centuries ending about 750 years ago. They left half-buried stone-and-mortar houses and granary caches, and painted colorful trapezoidal figures on canyon walls.
As a culture, the Fremont were distinguished by their style of basket weaving, animal-claw moccasins and farming and hunting skills.
Their everyday tools and pottery were different from the farming-dependent Anasazi south of the Colorado River - even as they shared a similar fate. Both cultures packed up and left about the same time for reasons not fully explained. What became of the Fremont and Anasazi also is a mystery.
Until recently, Range Creek was all but unknown. An expedition from Harvard's Peabody Museum made a stop in 1929, but visited only a few sites. In recent summers, archaeologists and graduate students have quietly conducted a labor-intensive survey - keeping the area's full significance under wraps until news reports surfaced about the land transfer in June.
For a lot more, Range Creek
More of the Fremont
A female baby meerkat, born Aug. 3, sticks close by her mother, Monday, Sept. 20, 2004 as she adjusts to her new surroundings at the San Diego Zoo, in San Diego. The baby meerkat is estimated to weigh about a 1/2 pound and according to the Zoo's animal care is growing and developing at a good rate. The addition of the baby meerkat represents the fifth member to the family, which is now defined as a social group. A social group of meerkats usually consist of five to 30 members and are referred to asa mob or gang.
Photo by Ken Bohn
