'Best of TBH Politoons'
But Untrue
Strangely Believable
In a recent column in the New York Times, David Brooks suggested that financially successful men ought to be allowed to keep harems.
~Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook is the Ceci Connolly of the Left. ~ J. Howard Tuft
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Reader Suggestion
Frank Zappa Predicts
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Kelly Hearn: The Good Ship Rebecca (AlterNet)
The confrontational founder of Women on Waves is determined to bring safe abortion services to women living in anti-choice countries - any way she can.
Allison Xantha Miller: Gay Matrimony: Get Used to It (In These Times)
The election was bad enough; the hand-wringing is almost worse. Democrats are in a fugue, strategizing ways to be more conspicuous churchgoers, while radical types talk bravely about moving to Canada. The feeling is particularly acute among queers (on whom pundits started blaming the Republican victory months before it even happened). Plenty are wondering whether the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement pushed for same-sex marriage too fast, before the country was ready, including the most prominent mainstream gay lobbying group, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). It recently asked for the resignation of its executive director and said it would adapt its tactics to be more low-key. (Curious, since HRC's tactics don't exactly include lying down in the street.)
Jim Hightower: The Glass Houses of Right-Wing Moralists (AlterNet)
Money seems to be the most common moral corrupter of those on the far right who so loudly profess to be America's arbiters of proper behavior.
Eric Weiner: The First Nonsmoking Nation (Slate)
If you're indignant that your boss just shut the smoking room and outraged that you have to leave the bar to light up, take heart. Life could be worse. You could be Bhutanese. The tiny, trendy Himalayan kingdom recently became the world's first nonsmoking nation. Since Dec. 17, it has been illegal to smoke in public or sell tobacco. Violators are fined the equivalent of $232-more than two months' salary in Bhutan. Authorities heralded the ban by igniting a bonfire of cigarette cartons in the capital, Thimphu, and stringing banners across the main thoroughfare, exhorting people to kick the habit. As if they have a choice.
TOM LASSETER and JONATHAN S. LANDAY: U.S. in danger of losing the war (Detroit FREE PRESS)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Unless something dramatic changes, the United States is heading toward losing the war in Iraq. A Knight Ridder Newspapers analysis of U.S. government statistics shows the U.S. military steadily losing ground to the predominately Sunni Muslim insurgency in Iraq.
Joseph Nevins: Wolfowitz visited Indonesia for closer military ties, not tsunami relief (Pacific News Service)
Paul Wolfowitz, the Bush administration's deputy defense secretary, has just visited tsunami-stricken Indonesia under a humanitarian guise. But the mission's real significance lies in his effort to strengthen U.S. ties with Indonesia's brutal military (TNI), a role that he has long played.
Diana DeCola: Things go smoothly as local anti-Bush group joins Inauguration protests (The Athens News)
"Every single policy that he stands for, I don't stand for," declared Athens resident Fiona Mitchell, an Ohio University student and InterAct member. Told that some feel that protesting at an Inauguration ceremony is inappropriate, Christie Daniels said, "Any time you stand up for what you believe in, that's never inappropriate, especially in this country."
Bronson R. Hilliar: 'Out of class, in the moment' (Colorado Daily)
At 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning - about the time President George W. Bush was taking the oath of office at the inauguration in Washington, D.C., - Travis Moe and about 100 of his fellow Boulder High School students were making protest signs and their way toward the intersection of Canyon and Broadway. Amid honks of support and friendly waives from motorists, the students gathered in clusters on the Canyon Boulevard median and on all four corners of the Broadway-Canyon intersection and held aloft their cardboard signs and their fingers in peace-signs.
Jack Boulware: Johnny Carson (Salon.com)
On the good nights, he was the second best thing you could do in bed -- but on his best nights, he was the best.
Thomas Delapa: Order in the court? (Boulder Weekly)
In 1999, Los Angeles high-school basketball coach Ken Carter padlocked his gym and forfeited his team's games when he found out his players were skipping classes behind his back. For this act of uncommon valor, Carter netted attention in the national media. Only a few parents at Richmond High School thought Carter a hero. Most wanted to hang him up by the basketball hoop.
Roger Ebert: Eyeing Oscar: Ebert's predictions
This year is a tricky one to handicap, because there are two or three obvious shoo-ins in each of the major categories, and then a list of hopefuls. Everybody is sure, for example, that "Sideways," "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Aviator" will lead in overall nominations, and the only question is, how much does Hollywood really love "Sideways," an indie buddy comedy that came out of obscurity to become an unlikely favorite.
David Bruce: Wise Up! Clothing (The Athens News)
Comedian Larry Miller once opened for Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas. Before showtime, Mr. Sinatra walked into his dressing room just as Mr. Miller was pulling up his pants. As Mr. Miller reached to shake hands, his pants fell to the floor, and he let them remain there until Mr. Sinatra left. Mr. Miller says, "He was very cool -- he didn't say a word about it."
The Bush Crime Family Tree
THE DUMBEST GUY ON EARTH!
Mike Keefe Political Cartoons
Fun Stuff
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Overcast again - more rain on the way.
If you have a DVR/TiVO & TCM, I highly recommend setting it for
5:30am (est) and snagging a copy of 'The House I Live In' (1945).
Frank Sinatra's post-WWII plea for racial tolerance. Written by Albert Maltz (one of the infamous
'Hollywood 10'), it only runs 11 minutes.
Reverses Position, Accepts Ad For New Bible
Rolling Stone Magazine
Rolling Stone magazine has reversed itself and agreed to accept an advertisement for a new translation of the Bible, the largest Bible publisher in the U.S. said Tuesday.
Rolling Stone sent Zondervan a contract for a half-page ad in the rock magazine's Feb. 24 issue, said Doug Lockhart, Zondervan executive vice-president of marketing. He said Rolling Stone gave no explanation for its change of heart.
Other Media outlets that agreed to carry the ad include Modern Bride, the Onion, MTV.com and AOL, Lockhart said.
Rolling Stone Magazine
Films Today Are 'Crap'
Dustin Hoffman
Multiple Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman lamented the state of modern filmmaking, using a promotional session for his latest feature to pan a money-hungry marketing-focused industry.
"The whole culture is in the craphouse", Hoffman told journalists gathered in London to hear him promote his latest comedy vehicle "Meet the Fockers".
"You go to the cinema and you realize you're watching the third act. There is no first or second act," he said.
"There is this massive filmmaking where you spend this incredible amount of money and play right to the demographic.
Dustin Hoffman
MTV Networks Buys Anime Parody
'Kappa Mikey'
MTV Neworks has bought the worldwide rights to broadcast a Japanese cartoon parody, its first acquisition on a global scale as it tries to leverage the reach of its U.S. and international kids channels.
MTV Networks, a division of media conglomerate Viacom Inc., bought 26 half-hour episodes of the animated comedy "Kappa Mikey," about a New York actor who joins the cast of a Japanese anime program, for Nicktoons in the United States and its international Nickelodeon channels.
"It doesn't make sense for us to say MTV Networks is a global brand and then not to act in a global way," Keith Dawkins, vice president and general manager of Nicktoons, said in an interview on Tuesday.
'Kappa Mikey'
Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette
'The Aristocrats'
Saturday night's premiere of "The Aristocrats" was so packed that even the producers of the movie had trouble getting in, but when filmmakers Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (Penn being the larger, talkier half of the magic act Penn & Teller) finally introduced their offering, they looked a little nervous.
Even the notes for the Sundance Film Festival warned, "This is one of the most shocking, and perhaps for some, offensive films you will ever see." "So, ahh, strap in and just have a good time," said Provenza, who suggested that the film was really about love and joy -- and 89 minutes of the most scatological, filthy, disgusting humor imaginable. The prison sentence has not yet been handed down for the crimes against nature herein described by 100 comics, including Drew Carey, Phyllis Diller, Jon Stewart, Richard Lewis, Jason Alexander, Steven Wright, Robin Williams, Don Rickles, Paul Reiser and the cartoon kids from "South Park."
Plus Billy the Mime, a pair of jugglers, Carrot Top, a ventriloquist and his racist, misogynistic dummy, and the Smothers Brothers.
"The Aristocrats" is a documentary about a single joke -- a joke that has circulated among comics since at least the days of vaudeville, and, as Provenza likes to imagine, maybe back to Will Shakespeare getting wiggy in a bawdyhouse in Elizabethan England.
Yet this joke is kind of a secret handshake among comedians, downright Masonic, Da Vinci Code stuff, rarely performed in public, told instead in delis, greenrooms, bars. It is a 4-in-the-morning joke. It is a joke that would make gangsta rappers blush.
For the rest - 'The Aristocrats'
Talker Set for Fall Launch on Fox
Tyra Banks
Tyra Banks' new talk show will debut this fall on 19 Fox-owned TV stations in such major markets as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas and Washington, its syndicator said Monday.
"The Tyra Banks Show" will primarily target women ages 25-35, said Jim Paratore, executive vp at Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution (WBDTD).
The addition of the Fox stations to such previously announced markets as Denver and San Diego means the series is cleared in more than 70% of the country.
Tyra Banks
Metropolitan Opera Chair Resigns
Beverly Sills
Beverly Sills, the hometown diva who became a major fund-raiser for the Metropolitan Opera, resigned Tuesday as the organization's chairman, citing personal reasons.
One of her most important campaigns was to save the Met's Saturday afternoon broadcasts, which reach about 11 million people in more than 40 countries. She said Tuesday she was proud she had raised enough money for the broadcasts to run "for the foreseeable future."
The Brooklyn-born Sills has been in poor health recently, suffering a fall that put her in a wheelchair.
Beverly Sills
Bollywood Bound
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas will co-produce and star in "Racing the Monsoon," an action adventure on the lines of his '80s films, "Romancing the Stone" and "The Jewel of the Nile."
"It will be a thriller about a diamond robbery," Shailendra Singh, founder of the Percept Picture Company, said Tuesday.
Percept Picture Company will co-produce the movie with Douglas' production house, Further Films, and another Indian company, Sahara One Motion Pictures.
Michael Douglas
Arraigned on Tax Charges
Richard Hatch
"Survivor" winner Richard Hatch was arraigned Tuesday in federal court on charges that he never paid taxes on the $1 million he won on the hit CBS reality show.
Hatch did not enter a plea, but told U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond that he understood the charges, and waived his right to a grand jury. Almond released Hatch on a $50,000 bond, which the reality TV star posted immediately following the hearing.
A plea hearing will be scheduled at a later date with U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres. Prosecutors said they expected Hatch to eventually plead guilty as part of an agreement in which they would recommend leniency when Hatch is sentenced.
Richard Hatch
Arrested at Sundance
David LaChapelle
Celebrity photographer-filmmaker David LaChapelle was arrested during the opening weekend of the Sundance Film Festival after a run-in with police.
LaChapelle was in Park City to debut his first full-length feature, "Rize," which chronicles a dance movement in South-Central Los Angeles known as "krumping," a high-energy dance where the performers dress as clowns.
David LaChapelle
May Not Be by Da Vinci
Frescoes
One of the world's leading specialists on Leonardo da Vinci cast doubt Saturday that fading frescoes in forgotten rooms of a Florentine convent might be the work of the Renaissance master or that of his pupils in the early 1500s.
"They look absolutely standard 1480-ish bird studies," Martin Kemp, art history professor at the University of Oxford and a renowned Leonardo specialist, said in a telephone interview from Britain.
He said that although he hasn't seen the frescoes themselves, he has examined "high-quality" photos of them, and "they're obviously late 15th-century frescoes," done in the style of artists working a couple of decades before Leonardo was believed to have occupied the rooms, from 1500-1503.
Kemp's view largely echoed skepticism voiced earlier by other league art historians.
Frescoes
Bilking The United Way?
Boy Scouts
Boy Scout volunteer Tom Willis knew something was wrong when he saw that 20 youngsters on the list for a scouting program all had the same last name: Doe. Willis said it appeared someone was listing fake members to boost enrollment, perhaps to bring in more funding from agencies like the United Way.
"It was just so blatant. They didn't even try to make up names," said Willis, a dentist from Decatur and a former Eagle Scout who serves on the board of the Greater Alabama Boy Scout Council, which runs scouting programs in northeastern Alabama.
"I would say the numbers are probably inflated 30 to 40 percent in our council," Willis said.
Suspicions have led to investigations elsewhere. In Texas, a Scout group removed thousands of names from its membership rolls and a federal grand jury two years ago looked into the matter. No charges were filed.
In Atlanta, independent auditors are investigating claims the metropolitan area's Boy Scouts inflated black membership numbers to 20,000 to gain more donations. A civil rights leader contends there are no more than 500 blacks actively involved.
Boy Scouts
Charged With DUI
Stockard Channing
Emmy-winning actress Stockard Channing was arrested for investigation of drunken driving after she tried to drive around a roadblock on the Hollywood Freeway, authorities said Tuesday.
Channing, 60, who won an Emmy for her role as first lady on NBC's "The West Wing," was stopped by California Highway Patrol officers on Dec. 14. She was jailed nearly three hours before being released without bail, the Sheriff's Department said.
Officers who pulled the car over smelled alcohol and administered a field sobriety test. Delgadillo said Channing's blood-alcohol levels were 0.12 and 0.13. The legal limit in California is 0.08.
Stockard Channing
Prime-Time Nielsen
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Jan. 17 to Jan. 23. Top 20 listings include the week's ranking, with viewership for the week and season-to-date rankings in parentheses.
An "X" in parentheses denotes a one-time-only presentation.
1. (X) AFC Championship: New England at Pittsburgh, CBS, 44.3 million viewers.
2. (1) "American Idol"-Tuesday, Fox, 33.6 million viewers.
3. (3) "American Idol"-Wednesday, Fox, 26.7 million viewers.
4. (4) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 26 million viewers.
5. (X) AFC Championship postgame show, CBS, 25.8 million viewers.
6. (X) "Numb3rs" (Sunday preview), CBS, 25 million viewers.
7. (5) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 22 million viewers.
8. (12) "Lost," ABC, 19.7 million viewers.
9. (8) "Everybody Loves Raymond," CBS, 19.2 million viewers.
10. (2) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 19 million viewers.
11. (10) "ER," NBC, 18.8 million viewers.
12. (22) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 18.3 million viewers.
13. (11) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 18.1 million viewers.
14. (17) "Apprentice 3," NBC, 15.6 million viewers.
15. (20) "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," NBC, 15.3 million viewers.
16. (25) "Boston Legal," ABC, 15.3 million viewers.
17. (22) "Law & Order," NBC, 15.1 million viewers.
18. (18) "NCIS," CBS, 14.5 million viewers.
19. (14) "Medium," NBC, 14.4 million viewers.
20. (6) "Without a Trace," CBS, 13.6 million viewers.
Ratings
In Memory
Patsy Rowlands
Patsy Rowlands, an actress who was a stalwart of the British "Carry On" comedy films, died Saturday of breast cancer, her agent said. She was 71.
Rowlands gained worldwide fame after featuring in nine of the perennially popular, often vulgar, "Carry On" series, including "Carry On Doctor," "Carry on Matron" and "Carry On At Your Convenience."
But she also had a solid history of theater roles and was acclaimed for her performance as Betty, Sid James' dizzy neighbor in the TV series "Bless This House."
Other film credits included the landlady in "Tess" for the director Roman Polanski and Tony Richardson's "Tom Jones" and "A Kind of Loving."
Appearances in London's West End included David Turner's "Semi-Detached" with Laurence Olivier and "Shut Your Eyes and Think of England" with Donald Sinden. Her musical credits included playing Jack's mother in Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods."
Among her television appearances were "Supergran" with comedian Billy Connolly, "A Little Princess," "The History of Mr. Polly" and more recently "Vanity Fair" for the BBC.
Patsy Rowlands
