'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
Weekly Review
HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
January 21, 2003
United Nations weapons inspectors discovered 11 empty
chemical warheads in southern Iraq; the inspectors said that
the warheads were not included in Iraq's weapons
declaration, but Iraqi officials said that they were.
Inspectors also searched the private homes of two Iraqi
scientists, one of whom was upset that his clothing and his
wife's medical Xrays were examined.
The inspectors later
expressed surprise that the Bush Administration was making
such a big deal out of the empty warheads, which have a
range of 12 miles; Hans Blix, the head of the U.N. team,
said the warheads were not important, and a French diplomat
agreed: "I have only one thing to say -- empty."
Tens of
thousands of peace protesters demonstrated against the
coming war in cities across the United States and Europe;
more than 100,000 people marched in Washington, D.C.
American officials said they thought "the moment of truth"
on Iraq would come in early to mid-February.
After
repeatedly insisting that the United States would not submit
to nuclear blackmail, President George W. Bush indicated
that he might reward North Korea with a "bold initiative" of
aid programs if it dismantles its nuclear program.
A United
Nations envoy said that six to eight million North Koreans
are in danger of going hungry.
Hearings began in the case of
two Air Force pilots who bombed Canadian troops in
Afghanistan; attention was being focused on the practice of
giving pilots amphetamines ("go-pills") to keep them flying.
Thirty vials of plague were reported missing at Texas Tech
University, but investigators later concluded that
researchers had destroyed them without completing the proper
paperwork.
A French yacht sailing in the round-the-world
Jules Verne Trophy was briefly detained by a giant squid.
Continued at www.harpers.org/weekly-review
-- Roger D. Hodge
New Site
from Angela & Johnny
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice weather.
Lost another pal to cancer over the weekend, but only found out today. Robin was one of the good guys, and will be greatly missed.
Tonight, Wednesday, CBS opens the evening with a FRESH 'Star Search', then '60 Minutes II', followed by a
FRESH 'Presidio Med'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave is Jonathan Ames.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Merv Griffin, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Jack Sheldon.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH 'Ed', then follows with a RERUN 'The West Wing', and a
RERUN 'Law & Order'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Drew Barrymore, Adrien Brody, and Nelly.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Claire Danes, Simon Cowell, and Greg Giraldo.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Jerry O'Connell and Kathleen Edwards.
ABC begins with a FRESH 'My Wife & Kids', then a FRESH 90-minute 'Bachelorette', followed by
a FRESH 'Celebrity Mole Hawaii'.
The WB has a FRESH 'Dawson's Creek', and a FRESH 'Angel'.
Faux has a FRESH 'That 70's Show', and a FRESH 'American Idol'.
UPN has a RERUN 'Enterprise', and a RERUN 'Twilight Zone'.
A&E's 'Biography' tonight is Peter Boyle.
Comedy Central has the Series Premiere of 'Chapelle's Show' (Dave Chapelle), at 10:30pm (est).
Anyone have any opinions?
Or reviews?
(See below for addresses)
Rainbow, left, nuzzles the ear of her clone 'cc', for 'carbon copy', on a table at Texas A&M University Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003, in College Station, Texas, a little more than a year after cc's birth.
Even though the cats share the same DNA, each use it differently, leaving them with different markings and individual personalities.
Photo by Pat Sullivan
Continues Criticism
Harry Belafonte
Entertainer Harry Belafonte is continuing his criticism of the Bush administration and some of its more prominent members, saying the president is not a friend to blacks and their aspirations.
Belafonte, 75, said he expects the Bush administration to try to wipe away affirmative action, eliminate abortion and pursue a war with Iraq "that makes absolutely no sense."
Belafonte also took another shot at Secretary of State Colin Powell, who in October, he likened to a slave who sold his principles. Belafonte said Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are hurting the cause of black America.
"In fact and practice ... you are serving those who continue to design our oppression," he said of Powell and Rice. "That is villainy, and I insist you look at it."
Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at a Chicago church on Sunday, Belafonte drew the crowd of more than 1,000 to its feet for raucous ovations several times during his speech.
Harry Belafonte
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
Next To Last Season?
'Frasier'
Even as NBC finally comes to grips with losing its "Friends," the network is also readying to say farewell to another of its comedy anchors: "Frasier."
Don't look for any official announcements just yet, but insiders at both the network and its producer, Paramount TV, confirm it's now highly likely the 2003-04 season will be the last for the Kelsey Grammer-led laffer.
NBC's three-year license fee agreement for the show is up in May 2004, and all parties are operating as if there won't be any talks to extend the show's life beyond that.
Ratings for "Frasier" have taken a hit this season -- in large part because, as NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker admits, the network has done the show "no favors" with weak lead-in programming at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
However, the series is still a solid performer, as well as one of the few things working on NBC's Tuesday schedule. What's more, "Frasier" appeals to an affluent demographic, allowing NBC's sales department to snag a premium for spots on the show.
But "Frasier" is also a very expensive show to produce.
In 2001, NBC agreed to a three-year, $374 million deal to renew "Frasier," a sum that translates into a per-episode license fee of roughly $5.2 million. Soon after, Paramount struck deals with stars Grammer
and David Hyde Pierce paying each man seven-figure salaries to stay with the show until 2004.
'Frasier'
Anti-war demonstrators hold banners outside Parliament in London, January 21, 2003. Alongside the largest deployment of seaborne marines in 20 years, London announced this week that it is sending most
of its main ground fighting force, the 1st UK Armored Division, led by its 'Desert Rats' 7th Armored Brigade.
Photo by Stephen Hird
Critical Date Approaches
Nick's Crusade
Dupree's quest for care reaches critical point
By Nick Dupree
iCan News Service, contributor
My quest to stop Alabama Medicaid from ending my home care services when I turn 21 years old is now reaching a critical point. Nearly two years ago, I began working to end the institutional bias and get all Americans with disabilities the supports they need to live independent, healthy lives, but my efforts thus far have yet to produce a positive outcome. The stress and uncertainty is building even more as I close in on Feb. 23, the day I turn 21 and lose the nursing care available to me under Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) program.
The federally mandated EPSDT program is the only long-term home care program providing enough care hours to avoid institutionalization in Alabama and often in other states like Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, where they have some of the lowest average incomes, poorest state budgets and lowest Medicaid budgets in the country.
For the rest, Dupree's quest for care
Check out Nick's site - Nick's Crusade 2003!
Will Debut New Shows in Summer
Faux
Bucking decades of television tradition, Fox Broadcasting Co. plans to launch some of its new shows in the summer instead of fall.
The move is the most aggressive yet as networks struggle to hold on to viewers who are increasingly switching to cable and satellite — especially during the summer months when networks air mostly repeats.
Fox has struggled with its fall lineup, with ratings down by more than 5 percent this season. Compared with two years ago, Fox's fall ratings have tumbled by nearly 30 percent among its core audience
of 18-to-34-year-olds, according to advertising buying firm Magna Global USA.
To gain a better foothold, the News Corp.-owned network is drawing on its success last summer with "American Idol: A Search for a Superstar."
The network plans not only to air reality-based shows this summer, but also to debut new comedies and dramas in the summer. Later in the fall, after the baseball season is finished, the network plans
to begin new episodes of its more established shows such as "24" and "Malcolm in the Middle."
Faux
Headlining V2003 Festival
Coldplay & Chili Peppers
Rock groups Coldplay and The Red Hot Chili Peppers will headline the V2003 Festival, organizers said Tuesday.
The groups will perform at the festival's two sites, Weston Park in Staffordshire and Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex over the weekend of August 16 and 17.
Tickets for the festival go on sale on March 8.
The Chili Peppers headlined the V festival in 2001 while it is the first time for Coldplay, who performed at V2000 and V2001.
Coldplay & Chili Peppers
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Sometimes Uses Body Doubles
Jackie Chan
Renowned for performing his own daredevil stunts — and breaking bones in the process — action movie star Jackie Chan has started using body doubles, but only when necessary.
"I will use stunt doubles if you ask me to ride an F-16 jet fighter, or to jump over a series of hurdles with a crazy horse, or to perform two 720-degree somersaults," Chan said in remarks that his manager e-mailed to The Associated Press Tuesday.
"But one somersault, I'll do it myself," the 48-year-old said. "I will do what I could do and I won't do anything that is out of my capability."
Chan was responding to a reporter's inquiry about a recent story in the South China Morning Post newspaper that said Chan used at least seven stunt doubles in his recent film, "The Tuxedo."
Chan said in 2001 he could only do his own martial arts stunts for another five years.
Jackie Chan
Father Abt of the Notre Dame de Saint Remy, poses at the brewery room in Rochefort, 60 miles south of Brussels, in this Jan. 24, 2002 file photo. The abbey is one of only a half a dozen monasteries where the monks still follow the centuries old Trappist tradition of beer making and its strong, dusky brews are hailed by connoisseurs as some of the world's best. Seemingly out of the blue, the French government is moving to impose a prohibitive tax on beers with over 8.5 percent of alcohol content, threatening to put many of Belgium's famed specialty brews in serious trouble.
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Teams with Romano for 'Eulogy'
Winona Ryder
In her first screen effort since being convicted of shoplifting charges last November, Winona Ryder will join "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Ray Romano in "Eulogy," a comedy that also features Debra Winger, Hank Azaria, Monica Potter and Rip Torn.
The black comedy follows three generations of a dysfunctional family that come together for the funeral of the family patriarch. A litany of family secrets and hidden relationships becomes evident during the gathering.
Michael Clancy wrote the script and will make his directing debut in the Artisan Pictures project. Filming begins Feb. 21.
Winona Ryder
'The Mad Max of Conservative Catholicism'
Mel Gibson
Here's an unlikely Hollywood pitch: a $25 million biopic about a guy who died 2,000 years ago, shot in two languages that have been dead nearly as long, with no subtitles.
Of course, there are some mitigating factors here. "The Passion" traces the day Jesus Christ was crucified. It's already been filmed, with Jim Caviezel playing Christ and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene.
And the producer-director-financier is Mel Gibson, who may become the Mad Max of conservative Catholicism, based on comments attributed to him in a Time magazine article this week about the otherwise hush-hush project.
In the article, Gibson confesses that he has great distaste for Vatican II, the transforming shift in church policy that, among other things, translated the Latin mass into local languages. Gibson will have none of that
for his picture, which is being filmed in Latin, the language of Palestine's Roman conquerors, and Aramaic, the main language of the region's Semites back in the day.
And no cheating with subtitles, either: "The audience will have to focus on the visuals," Gibson is quoted as saying. "But they had silent films before talkies arrived, and people went to see them."
There should be plenty of visuals to watch, including realistic depictions of the way Christ was tortured before his excruciating crucifixion. Caviezel, also a practicing Catholic, spent 15 days on the cross during
shooting and was scourged so realistically that he dislocated a shoulder at one point.
Mel Gibson
Hospital News
Anastacia
Pop singer Anastacia revealed Tuesday that she's been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The cancer was discovered last week during a routine checkup, the 29-year-old said in a statement.
"My doctor was insistent that I have a mammogram even though it was not required. He saved my life!" she said.
In May 2002, she performed on "VH1 Divas Las Vegas," sharing the stage with Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Cher and the Dixie Chicks at the MGM Grand.
The singer, who was born Anastacia Newkirk in Chicago and grew up in New York, got her start as a dancer on "Club MTV." Her albums include "Not That Kind" and "Freak of Nature."
When she was 13, Anastacia was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammation of the digestive track. She has said she would never hide a large scar on her midriff, instead showing it off with formfitting cropped tops.
Anastacia
Anastacia Web site
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
Darth Vader, Uri Geller & Michael Jackson
David Prowse
Darth Vader is set to become an honorary director of English third division soccer outfit Exeter City, club co-chairman Uri Geller says.
British strongman David Prowse, who epitomised the dark side of 'The Force' in the first Star Wars trilogy, will join pop superstar Michael Jackson and US magician David Blaine on Exeter's board of honorary directors.
"He's a positive power now," Geller said. "There is a psychological value ... you can imagine when the players of an opposition team go out knowing that Darth Vader is watching them."
Geller had been friends with cult actor Prowse for several months when he found a room at the Exeter's ground stacked high with Star Wars memorabilia and realised co-chairman John Russell was "obsessed" with The Force.
"Out of all the chairmen of all the clubs, I don't know one who is such a Star Wars fan," said Geller, an Israeli psychic best known for bending spoons.
Prowse, 67, will be cheering for Exeter at Saturday's away match against Macclesfield Town but not behind Darth Vader's chilling black mask.
David Prowse
A small section of Buell's Creek in Brockville, Ont., Canada is covered by the hundreds of ducks that have decided to stay the winter Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003. The flock, almost entirely mallards,
doesn't stray far from the water and is fed regularly by residents.
Photo by Darcy Cheek
Must Reveal Internet Song Swapper
Verizon
Recording companies won a victory in their fight against online piracy on Tuesday when a U.S. court ordered Verizon Communications to turn over the name of a customer suspected of downloading more than 600 songs in one day over the Internet.
U.S. District Judge John Bates said Verizon must cooperate with recording industry efforts to track down online song swappers, rejecting the telecommunications giant's assertion that such a move would violate customer privacy and turn it into an online copyright cop.
Verizon said it would appeal the decision.
The case could set an important precedent as the recording industry asks schools, businesses and Internet providers to help them track down individuals who they believe are cutting into CD sales by trading digital songs through "peer to peer" services like Kazaa.
Recording-industry investigators, using automated software, have been able to track down the numerical Internet addresses of file traders, but have not been able to match those addresses with individual names.
Investigators asked Verizon last summer for the name of one customer believed to have downloaded more than 600 songs in one day, but Verizon said they would have to jump through a few more legal hoops because the alleged infringer
did not store the songs on Verizon servers but only used its wires to transfer the material.
For the rest, Verizon
Police Claim She's Not Cooperating
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin didn't cooperate with authorities investigating a fire that destroyed her $1.6-million mansion, according to a police report.
The Bloomfield Township police report shows officers were rebuffed repeatedly while trying to interview Franklin after the Oct. 25 blaze, The Detroit News reported.
On the morning of the fire at the vacant home used for storage, according to the report, Franklin twice told detectives by phone that she was "too tired" to talk and would call back.
When she did not, detectives left a message and were contacted by attorney Elbert Hatchett of Pontiac, who said the 60-year-old singer declined to be interviewed, the report said Monday.
During the most recent conversation between police and Hatchett on Thursday, the report said Franklin "was upset with the way this matter was being handled and would not be interviewed."
Aretha Franklin
Sonny (Bono) & The Supremes
Disney & Pigopolists vs Science & Culture
By Andrew Orlowski
In a decision marked by much internal dissent - bordering on outright cattiness - the United States' Supreme Court voted 7-2 to uphold the decision to give copyright holders a 20 year rights extension.
It doesn't quite merit up there as a crime alongside book-burning, but it does isolate the public from a vast body of literature, art and information we could otherwise freely enjoy and appears to point the intellectual thermostat in the United States to "permafrost". The original copyright law provided works of the "sciences and useful arts" with a protection for 14 years. Congress "may" extend this protection if a justification to the arts could be proved.
The Supremes ruling yesterday confirmed that Congress can and damn well should extend it as long as it sees fit. The challenge to the Sonny Bono Copyright Act - the most recent in a succession of extensions to US copyright legislation which brings the term up to 70 years - was brought by an Internet book publisher, Eric Eldred of Eldrich Press, who challenged the right of Congress to extend the legislation willy-nilly.
But why is this so surprising?
A partisan high court composed of Judges that could readily discard lifelong convictions when the time came to install a President (as they did in December 2000, in arguing that halting the Florida ballot recount would be unnecessary interference in States' rights) would surely lose little sleep over defending "property owners". While the decision robs Internet users of the works of F.Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Sherwood Anderson, not to mention America's greatest composers - Robert Johnson, Louis Armstrong and George Gershwin - it preserved the Disney Corporations claim to the market the Mouse™.
And while the heavens wept, the Judges fought it out.
For the rest of this great read - Disney & Pigopolists vs Science & Culture
Sent to Hospital
Bobby Brown
Bobby Brown, who was sent to jail last week for drunken driving, has been hospitalized, authorities said Tuesday.
The singer was taken from the county jail to Grady Memorial Hospital around 3 a.m., DeKalb County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Mikki Jones said. She declined to provide details, saying inmates' medical information is confidential.
Brown, the husband of Grammy-winner Whitney Houston, entered the DeKalb jail Friday after pleading guilty to a 1996 drunken driving charge.
He was sentenced to eight days, but Jones said Brown is eligible for release Wednesday under a "good time" policy that reduces sentences by 25 percent for good behavior.
If Brown is still in the hospital Wednesday, he could be released from custody without returning to the jail, she said.
Bobby Brown
Making A Federal Case Out Of It
Ed Rosenthal
An author of how-to books and columns on growing marijuana and getting away with it went on trial Tuesday on federal charges of illegally cultivating pot.
The case against Ed Rosenthal represents the latest clash between federal agents and state and local authorities over the medical use of marijuana.
Rosenthal, a former columnist for the pro-marijuana magazine High Times, has said he was growing pot to help the sick, which is legal under California law. But marijuana is still illegal under federal law.
Prosecutor George Bevan told the jury that agents seized some 3,000 plants growing in Rosenthal's warehouse in Oakland.
Rosenthal, 58, could receive a life sentence if convicted.
California and seven other states - Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and Washington - allow the sick to receive, possess, grow or smoke marijuana for medical purposes without fear of state prosecution.
Ed Rosenthal
Stray cattle, crows and a wild elephant eat garbage in the northeastern town of Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, Monday, Jan. 20, 2003. Environmentalists say the lack of proper waste management in Sri Lankan towns
is threatening the lives of human beings and animals.
Photo by Gemunu Amarasinghe
'The Osbournes'
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