'TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
BOB HERBERT: The Torturers Win (The New York Times)
Terrible things were done to Maher Arar, and his extreme suffering was set in motion by the United States government. With the awful facts of his case carefully documented, he tried to sue for damages. But last week a federal judge waved the facts aside and told Mr. Arar, in effect, to get lost.
Jane Mayer: The Torture Papers (newyorker.com)
How Pentagon insiders tried to ban abuse-and who stopped them.
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Mensch Gap (The New York Times)
"Be a mensch," my parents told me. Literally, a mensch is a person. But by implication, a mensch is an upstanding person who takes responsibility for his actions. The people now running America aren't mensches.
Stephen Pizzo: Who's Counting Bush's Mistakes? (News for Real. Posted on Alternet.org)
Given how ambitious and wide-ranging the incompetence of this administration has been, it's high time we started keeping track of its many failures.
Will Durst: Simple is as Simple Does
All he had to do was notify the FISA court within three days of when he started eavesdropping. In previous trips to the court, 18,000 wiretaps were okayed and five turned down. Eighteen thousand out of 18,005. Not a bad return. We're talking a .999 batting average here. As an old baseball man, he should know they keep you in the bigs with that.
Daniel Engber: They All Fall Down
Figure skating, the world's least-graceful sport.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
SAGA OF HARRY AND THE DICK$TER
COME ON IN AND REST YUR FACE AND HANZ! SAT DOWN AND POUR'D YURSELF A BIG TALL DRANK, AND I'LL TELL YOU'D STILL'D NOTHER CHAPTUR IN THE KONTINUIN' STORY OF OLD HARRY AND THE DICK$TER. PLEAZ KEEP'N YUR GUNS IN PLANE CITE AND UNLOADED ON THIS HERE BAR!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, clear & cold.
No new flags.
Had a bad link last week - here's the corrected version -
My Guest Map.
Perform at Benefit
Celine, Elton & Jerry
Celine Dion and Elton John sang together for the first time Monday night at a benefit to raise money for Harrah's Entertainment Inc. workers affected by last year's hurricanes.
The pair, who sang duets of "Sorry" and "Saturday Night" before a packed Colosseum at Caesars Palace, also were joined by Jerry Seinfeld to raise $2.1 million for some 8,000 casino workers in the Gulf Coast region.
Some 4,100 people paid $100 to $1,000 each to watch the trio take turns on the stage.
Celine, Elton & Jerry
Honored by L.A. Zoo
Betty White
Actress Betty White, whose many TV roles included domestic guru Sue-Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the 1970s, was honored by the Los Angeles Zoo Monday for her commitment to animals.
The zoo made the Emmy-winning star an Ambassador to the Animals at a ceremony attended by about 50 people, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
White has served for more than three decades on the Morris Animal Foundation and the board of the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, and has been a zoo commissioner for eight years. She also has written two animal-related books and received the Humane Award from the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Betty White
2nd PEN/Faulkner Award
E. L. Doctorow
US author E. L. Doctorow won the 2006 PEN/Faulkner award for literature for his historical US Civil War novel "The March", the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced.
It was the second time the much-lauded Doctorow, 75, captured the prestigious prize, having won it in 1990 for "Billy Bathgate".
Named for writer William Faulkner and associated with the literary and human rights group PEN, the award is one of the few decided by a jury of fellow authors.
The winner gets 15,000 dollars, but also the honor of being singled out by other respected writers for his talent.
E. L. Doctorow
Honorary Sarajevo Citizen
Luciano Pavarotti
Sarajevo's authorities declared Luciano Pavarotti an honorary citizen because of his support for Bosnia during the war here, city officials announced Tuesday.
The award will be presented to the 70-year-old tenor in April, when he will hold a concert in Sarajevo.
After the war, Pavarotti financed and established the Pavarotti Music Center in the southern city of Mostar to offer Bosnia's artists the opportunity to develop their skills and experts to perform music therapy with children traumatized by the war.
Luciano Pavarotti
Appearance On 'Lost' Boosts Sales
'The Third Policeman'
It was a shot that lasted just a second, but the appearance of Irish novel "The Third Policeman" on cult television series "Lost" has thrust one of Ireland's less celebrated authors into the limelight.
The surreal comic novel by Flann O'Brien, an early 20th century author heavily influenced by fellow countryman James Joyce, appeared briefly in an episode of "Lost" screened in Ireland on Monday.
It was first aired in the United States in October. After that outing, 10,000 copies of the book -- unpublished during the author's lifetime -- flew off bookshop shelves in just two days.
"It's been amazing -- in three weeks we sold 15,000 copies, the same number as we'd sold in the last six years," said Chad Post, associate director of the Illinois-based Center for Book Culture, which publishes O'Brien's works in the United States.
'The Third Policeman'
Block Near Central Park Honors
Peter Jennings
A block near the headquarters of ABC News has been renamed Peter Jennings Way, honoring the longtime anchor of "World News Tonight," who died of lung cancer last August.
The portion of 66th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park was renamed Tuesday after the Canadian-born anchorman who worked in the neighborhood and also lived nearby. He even knew shopkeepers and street vendors in the neighborhood, his family said.
Jennings' wife, Kayce Freed, and two grown children, Elizabeth and Christopher Jennings, joined ABC News President David Westin, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer and the mayor for the dedication.
Peter Jennings
'Lipstick Jungle'
Gina Gershon
Gina Gershon, who has provided the voice of Catwoman on the Cartoon Network series "The Batman," is set to star in "Lipstick Jungle," a one-hour pilot for NBC.
Gershon will play one of three powerful New York businesswomen at the center of the comedy-drama.
Gina Gershon
Lawyer Pleads Not Guilty
Terry Christensen
A prominent attorney who represented billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian pleaded not guilty Tuesday in connection with a Hollywood wiretapping scandal.
Terry Christensen, 65, of Beverly Hills is among 13 people facing federal charges in an alleged wiretapping scheme involving Hollywood celebrities and executives.
Prosecutors claim Christensen paid private investigator Anthony Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally wiretap the phones of Kerkorian's former wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, during a child support battle.
Terry Christensen
Posts 4Q Profit of $461.6M
Clear Channel
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest radio-station owner, said Tuesday it swung to a fourth-quarter profit, most of it generated by the company's spinoff of its live-entertainment subsidiary.
Clear Channel reported net income of $461.6 million, or 86 cents per share, in the quarter.
That compares to a loss of $4.67 billion, or $8.15 per share, in the same period a year ago. The loss in the fourth quarter of 2004 was the result of the company's adoption of Securities and Exchange Commission accounting rules for valuing intangible assets.
Clear Channel
Skewers Martha Stewart
Donald Trump
The bleat goes on in the rekindled Donald Trump-Martha Stewart battle.
The domestic diva took aim in an article in the current Newsweek; The Donald blasted back in a letter to Martha delivered Tuesday, and late Tuesday a stunned Stewart returned fire. In his biting letter, Trump wrote that Stewart's version of The Apprentice was "a mistake for everybody - especially NBC."
The real-estate mogul was responding to Stewart's sniping to Newsweek that Martha Stewart: The Apprentice floundered last fall - cancelled after one cycle - because Trump would not take his competing show off the schedule.
Donald Trump
Ravens Moved Indoors
Tower of London
The Tower of London has moved its ravens indoors to protect them from bird flu.
The six birds have been moved from lawns outside the 11th century castle into specially-built aviaries in one of its towers.
Baldrick, Thor, Branwen, Hugine, Gwyllum and Munin will be kept indoors while the Tower authorities take advice on vaccination.
Legend has it the Tower of London would fall without its ravens, so they are protected by a special decree issued in the 17th century by Charles II.
Tower of London
SCOTUS Allows Church
Hallucinogenic Tea
A small branch of a South American religious sect may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a ritual intended to connect with God, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
In its first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said the government cannot hinder religious practices without proof of a "compelling" need to do so.
The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of the sect, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.
Roberts, in writing the opinion for the court, said the government had failed to prove that federal drug laws should outweigh the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Congress passed in 1993 to prohibit burdening a person's exercise of religion.
Hallucinogenic Tea
Gets Dressed After Marathon Walk
'Naked Rambler'
A man attempting to walk the length of Britain wearing nothing but a hat, boots and a rucksack completed his marathon trek and celebrated by putting his clothes back.
"It's nice to get warmed up again," the self-styled "Naked Rambler" Stephen Gough, 46, told the domestic Scottish Press Association news agency from a cafe in John O'Groats, on the tip of the northeast Scottish mainland.
Gough and his partner, 34-year-old hairdresser Melanie Roberts, completed the last 20 miles of their 874-mile (1,363-kilometre) walk from Land's End, southwest England in temperatures of about five degrees celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit).
'Naked Rambler'
Sheared In Half After Crash
Ferrari Enzo
One person was treated at the scene for a minor injury just after 6:15 a.m., where the Ferrari hit an electrical pole and was sheared in half, with the front section separated from the rest of the vehicle.
Stefan Erikssen, 44, of Los Angeles, and a Swedish national, told authorities he was the owner of the destroyed Ferrari Enzo. Erikssen, whose blood-alcohol level was .09, claims he was the passenger at the time of the crash, and that the driver ran off after the crash, Sheriff's Sgt. Philip Brooks said.
The Ferrari was driving in excess of 120 mph when the accident happened. It skidded up the side of the hill and most likely went airborne, Brooks said. The race was allegedly staged following a late-night party in Beverly Hills.
The Ferrari Enzo is a limited-edition vehicle worth between $600,000 and $1 million. It has 650 horsepower and a published top speed of 225 mph.
Ferrari Enzo
In Memory
Robert W. Peterson
Robert W. Peterson, whose book "Only the Ball Was White" chronicled the story of the Negro leagues, died Feb. 11. He was 80.
When Peterson's book was published by Prentice-Hall in 1970, relatively little was known about the Negro leagues. The book traced the history of black baseball from the 19th century, giving first-person accounts and biographies of top players, as well as standings and statistics.
Peterson was picked by baseball's Hall of Fame for the 12-man selection committee that meets Feb. 27 to consider 39 candidates from the Negro leagues and pre-Negro leagues. Minnie Minoso and Buck O'Neil are among those on the ballot.
He worked as an editor for the New York World-Telegram and The Sun.
When the newspaper closed in 1966, he set out trying to chronicle the Negro leagues - which produced star players such as Satchel Paige and Buck Leonard - by interviewing players and studying microfilm of black newspapers.
Robert W. Peterson
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