'Best of TBH Politoons'
PURPLE GENE'S WEIRD WORD OF THE WEEK
DINGBAT
"DINGBAT"
ON LINE DEFINITION: A term for an empty headed person; a printers symbol; a forgotten gadget; a stony missile.
ON THE STREET: A mindless moron who mumbles, muffs and miffles a monologue
IN A SENTENCE: "Monkey headed mike managed to mangle the dialogue in his diatribe today....what a total dingbat"
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: "USDA: A BROTHEL FOR AGRIBUSINESS" (jimhightower.com)
Our federal regulatory agencies - designed to protect consumers, workers, and the environment from corporate profiteers - have instead become brothels on wheels, going to any length to accommodate profiteers.
David Podvin: PSEUDO PATRIOTISM (makethemaccountable.com)
... conservative politics at its most demagogic: "The Senate strongly condemns personal attacks on the honor and integrity Š of all members of the United States Armed Forces." Point of clarification: Are we allowed to condemn the torturers at Abu Ghraib? How about the Marines who slaughtered citizens in Haditha? And what of the GI's who have raped our own female soldiers? Is their honor and integrity also beyond critique?
Don Hazen: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (AlterNet.org)
Mainstream porn has come up with more ways than ever to humiliate and degrade women. Why then, is porn more popular? Includes an excerpt from Robert Jensen's book, "Getting Off."
Sam McManis: Ken Burns stays on march for PBS' 'The War' (popmatters.com)
Another morning's worth of interviews behind him, yet a whole afternoon and evening's worth of personal appearances still ahead, Ken Burns turned away from the TV camera and smiled. "That was my 657th interview for this," the documentary filmmaker joked.
Joe Brother: Fairy Tales (advocate.com)
For one comedic writer, half the battle of being bisexual is proving he exists.
Heather A. O'Neill: "Across the Page: Young Adults" (afterellen.com)
Over the past few years, young adult fiction has made significant strides in representing LGBT teens. This month, we review three young adult books with lesbian story lines: Sara Ryan's family drama, The Rules for Hearts; Julie Anne Peters' short story collection, grl2grl; and Nancy Garden's classic love story, Annie on My Mind.
Karman Kregloe: Interview with Mary Gauthier (afterellen.com)
The singer/songwriter talks about her new album, "Between Daylight and Dark."
Enrique Fernandez: Gloria Estefan returns to her roots with new album (popmatters.com)
The 90-mile marker at the edge of Key West points south to Cuba. The number resonates among Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits; noventa stands for separation, for hostilities and suspicions, for yearnings and pain, for hope. And it's the title of Gloria Estefan's first Spanish-language album in seven years, "90 Millas," released Tuesday.
Jim Emerson: "Elected: 100 Must-See Foreign Films"
Here's the Top 25:
1. "The Rules of the Game" (Jean Renoir)
2. "Seven Samurai" (Akira Kurosawa)
3. "M" (Fritz Lang) ...
Edward Copeland: The Ray Memorial 100
Full listing: 100 Must-See Foreign Films.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny, still cooler than seasonal.
Bolivian Leader Interview
Jon Stewart
Political satirist Jon Stewart, host of the popular mock cable TV newscast "The Daily Show," will interview Bolivian President Evo Morales on the program on Tuesday, the show's network announced on Monday.
The guest spot by Morales will mark only the second appearance on the Emmy-winning show by a sitting head of state, following Stewart's interview a year ago of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan and a key U.S. ally.
In a first for "The Daily Show," Stewart will conduct his interview of Morales through an interpreter, who will translate the host's questions from English to Spanish and the Bolivian leader's answers from Spanish back to English, a network spokesman said.
Jon Stewart
SAG To Honor
Charles Durning
Charles Durning will be honored for lifetime achievement by the Screen Actors Guild.
Durning, 84, will receive the award for fostering the "finest ideals of the acting profession" during the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show Jan. 27, the guild said Monday in a statement.
During World War II, Durning was seriously wounded as a member of the first wave of soldiers to land on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, according to the guild statement.
He was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge and was one of a few survivors of the attack on American POWs at Malmedy, Belgium.
Charles Durning
Decline On Network TV
Gay Characters
The number of gay characters depicted on TV is falling on network series but rising on cable, a study by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation found.
In the 2007-08 TV season, broadcast series will feature seven regularly seen characters who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, down from nine characters in 2006 and 10 the season before, GLAAD said. Most are on one network - ABC.
The new figure represents 1.1 percent of all regular characters on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW, compared to 1.3 percent in 2006, according to the study to be released Monday. A total of 87 comedies and dramas with 650 characters were analyzed.
ABC shows are home to six of the seven, with one on NBC. There were no lead or supporting gay or transgender characters set to appear on CBS, FOX or CW, GLAAD found.
Gay Characters
Charity Auction
Carol M. Baldwin
William Baldwin is auctioning a day on the campaign trail with presidential hopeful John Edwards and a private falconry lesson with Robert Kennedy Jr. to raise funds for his mother's foundation.
Baldwin personally lined up the VIP packages for an online auction to benefit The Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, which his mother established in 1996 after surviving breast cancer. Baldwin and his brother Alec Baldwin sit on the board of the foundation, which provides grants to researchers.
Items also include a walk-on role on NBC's "30 Rock," which stars Alec Baldwin, and backstage passes to concerts by Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow.
Carol M. Baldwin
Won't Go Quietly
Dave Brubeck
A jazz giant for more than half a century, pianist Dave Brubeck has no intention of quietly passing his golden years at home relaxing with his wife, with whom he just celebrated his 65th anniversary.
Asked ahead of his performance at the 50th Monterey Jazz Festival on Sunday night how he spends his time, the 86-year-old Brubeck said: "Working, no matter where or what."
Best known for his quartet's 1959 album "Time Out" with Paul Desmond playing saxophone on hits "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo A La Turk," Brubeck just last month released his latest album "Indian Summer" of somewhat melancholy solo piano.
His return to Monterey this weekend coincided with his 65th wedding anniversary on Friday to Iola, to whom he proposed on their very first date at a fraternity dance. "It is weird," Iola Brubeck said. "Sometimes your intuition is right."
Dave Brubeck
Honored With Trail Marker
Memphis Minnie
Memphis Minnie, a renowned singer and songwriter and one of a few female stars who played guitar, is the latest performer to be honored posthumously with a Mississippi Blues Trail marker.
A sign noting her musical accomplishments will be unveiled Thursday at her gravesite at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in the small town of Walls, about two miles south of Memphis, Tenn.
Minnie, born Lizzie Kid Douglas, was one of the premier blues artists of the 1930s and '40s. She was known for her spirited, street-wise demeanor.
Douglas acquired the name Memphis Minnie when she became a recording artist in 1929, as part of a duo with her guitar-playing husband, Kansas Joe McCoy. The couple's first recording session produced the classic song "When the Levee Breaks," later made famous by Led Zeppelin. The song has most recently been heard as a theme song for documentaries on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.
Memphis Minnie
Library Finds Abolitionist Text
Lydia Maria Child
Volunteers sorting through donated books for a book sale found an abolitionist text and a slave's memoir, both dating back to the 1800s.
The books were discovered together last month in a single leather-bound volume that was clearly an unusual find, said Liza Holzinger, coordinator of the Bethlehem Area Public Library's book sale.
The volume contained a first edition of Lydia Maria Child's 1833 book, "An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called African," and an 1840 second edition of "The Slave: Memoirs of Archy Moore."
Holzinger said Child was a well-known author of popular novels and the advice manual "The Frugal Housewife." In "An Appeal," she wrote about the cruelty of slavery and its contradiction to the nation's founding principles.
Lydia Maria Child
Director Sentenced To Prison
John McTiernan
A federal judge sentenced Hollywood director John McTiernan to four months in prison Monday after refusing to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea to a charge of lying to the FBI about his association with disgraced private eye Anthony Pellicano.
Judge Dale S. Fischer gave the director of such films as "Predator," "Die Hard," "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Thomas Crown Affair" until Jan. 15 to turn himself in to authorities. McTiernan's lawyer said he would appeal.
When he entered his plea last year, McTiernan said he lied when he told an FBI agent the only time he used Pellicano's services was during his divorce. In actuality, he said, he hired Pellicano to wiretap Charles Roven, a producer who had worked with him on the 2002 box-office flop "Rollerball."
John McTiernan
Pleads Guilty
Mike Tyson
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson pleaded guilty Monday to charges of drug possession and driving under the influence stemming from a traffic stop last year as he was leaving a nightclub.
Tyson quietly acknowledged to a judge that he had cocaine and was impaired when he was stopped for driving erratically in Scottsdale on Dec. 29.
He pleaded guilty to a single felony count of cocaine possession and a misdemeanor DUI count and faces up to four years and three months in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 19. A felony charge of possession of drug paraphernalia and a second misdemeanor DUI charge were dropped, according to the terms of a plea agreement.
Mike Tyson
Direct Debut
Smithsonian Channel
The Smithsonian Channel debuts this week after a 10-month delay, bringing the sights of tiny bats, airplanes and Abraham Lincoln's last photos into high-definition sharp focus in a deal with DirecTV.
The new television unit, a joint venture between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks Inc., planned to announce the DirecTV agreement on Monday.
Its shows are to begin airing Wednesday for DirecTV customers who subscribe to HD programming. Network executives said they are working to finalize deals with other carriers soon.
Smithsonian Channel
Staying Put On MSGOP
Scarborough & Abrams
A pair of fill-in MSGOP programs have gotten their official go-ahead: The wake-up broadcast "Morning Joe" and the prime-time "Live with Dan Abrams" are now officially part of the lineup, the network announced Monday.
Continuing to air from 6-to-9 a.m. weekdays, Joe Scarborough had been subbing in that slot since May, shortly after longtime morning host Don Imus was fired for making a racial, sexist remark about the Rutgers University women's basketball team.
The 9-to-10 p.m. slot Scarborough had previously occupied with the program "Scarborough Country" was taken over in July by Abrams, who will continue hosting his weeknight "Live."
Abrams, a former NBC News legal correspondent who was chosen in June 2006 to be MSNBC's general manager, will give up his managerial role, with NBC News Senior Vice President Phil Griffin assuming day-to-day management of MSGOP, the network said.
Scarborough & Abrams
Salmonella From Space
Germs
It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. Except, it really happened.
The germ: Salmonella, best known as a culprit of food poisoning. The trip: Space Shuttle STS-115, September 2006. The reason: Scientists wanted to see how space travel affects germs, so they took some along - carefully wrapped - for the ride. The result: Mice fed the space germs were three times more likely to get sick and died quicker than others fed identical germs that had remained behind on Earth.
The researchers placed identical strains of salmonella in containers and sent one into space aboard the shuttle, while the second was kept on Earth, under similar temperature conditions to the one in space.
After the shuttle returned, mice were given varying oral doses of the salmonella and then were watched.
After 25 days, 40 percent of the mice given the Earth-bound salmonella were still alive, compared with just 10 percent of those dosed with the germs from space. And the researchers found it took about one-third as much of the space germs to kill half the mice, compared with the germs that had been on Earth.
Germs
In Memory
Andre Gorz
Dorine Gorz
French philosopher Andre Gorz, 84, co-founder of the Nouvel Observateur weekly, has committed suicide together with his wife Dorine, relatives told AFP on Monday.
Dorine, who was 83 and of British origin, had been ill for several years. The couple were found by a friend side by side in their home southeast of Paris surrounded by letters written to close friends and relatives.
Born Gerard Horst in Vienna in 1923, Gorz became a naturalised French citizen in 1954 and made his name writing about ecology and anti-capitalism. He co-founded the Nouvel Observateur in 1954.
Last year Gorz wrote of his wife: "You have just turned 82. You are still beautiful, gracious and desirable. We have been living together for 58 years and I love you more than ever."
Andre & Dorine Gorz
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