'Best of TBH Politoons'
Comment From Mr. Hawk
Rumor
I have done a very detailed investigation and I can say there is no truth to
the rumor Ann Coulter is making a movie about the administration. And it
would not be called Ann Coulter's Bush.
Mr. Hawk
Thanks, Mr. Hawk!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Rex Wockner: EURO MAYORS BLAST LUZHKOV
Homophobic Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov was criticized by the mayors of London, Berlin and Paris as the four men gathered in London, along with the mayor of Beijing, for their annual summit in late February.
Frank Rich: Bring Back the Politics of Personal Destruction (The New York Times)
If you had to put a date on when the Iraq war did in the Bush administration, it would be late summer 2005. That's when the bungled federal response to Hurricane Katrina re-enacted the White House bungling of the war, this time with Americans as the principal victims.
Beth Quinn: It's time to create a little shock and awe in the streets (recordonline.com)
I get occasional e-mail from readers complaining that they're sick of my writing about Bush's war. Well, by golly, me too. I'm entirely sick of writing about it. I'm sickened by it, too. I want to throw up I'm so sickened by it.
Rick Fowler: Why I Hope My Children Won't Become Educators (irascibleprofessor.com)
"Teaching to the tests will help our children learn specific material and plus it could be worth a lot of money if they score well." Though not verbatim, these words are echoing in many state government halls as politicians and administrators seek alternative ways to obtain funding and to look good when the test results come back.
Green and pleasant land? (guardian.co.uk)
Plastic bags flapping in trees, chewing gum on every pavement, fast-food cartons strewn in gutters: Jeremy Paxman can't believe how squalid Britain has become. What does it say about us as a nation?
Stephanie Theobold: Great lesbian songs? Here's our top five (guardian.co.uk)
The story about the lesbian shop worker from Next in Merseyside who was bullied by a colleague playing Morrissey's All The Lazy Dykes every time she went into the stockroom is not just depressing. It also marks out her persecutor as plain unimaginative.
Seth Stevenson: The Girl in the Shower: More cheap feminism from Dove (slate.com)
Dove's appeal to righteous sisterhood is just another flavor of marketing. And it's not particularly grounded in reality. Are we meant to believe that Unilever, the company that makes Dove, is a force for good? How to reconcile this notion with the ads for another Unilever product, Axe body spray, in which nearly every woman shown is a skinny, fashion-model-gorgeous nymphomaniac?
Michelle Tsai: Cherokee Perks: What's so good about being a Native American? (slate.com)
Over the weekend the Cherokee Nation voted to revoke citizenship from the descendents of slaves owned by the tribe more than a century ago. A group representing the 2,800 affected members plans to fight the election results. What exactly do you get for being Cherokee?
Math Fun with the Ramones
Purple Gene Reviews
'Blow Out'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still hot & dry.
Been experiencing some computer problems and last night I had to crawl under the table to turn it off by pulling the power cord. It's a small space and when I twisted the wrong way there was a kind of tearing sensation in the ribs on my right side.
Doesn't hurt quite as bad as when I cracked them in a bathtub accident, but it kinda puts a damper on most things, including breathing comfortably. Ack..
National Recording Registry
Library of Congress
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But what about an original sound recording? Twenty-five culturally important recordings - including an episode of "The Lone Ranger," President Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to Congress the day after the Pearl Harbor attack and one of the Rolling Stones' most famous songs - were selected Tuesday for preservation in a special sound archive.
Every year the Librarian of Congress chooses a variety of sound recordings to include in the National Recording Registry. The recordings are nominated by members of the public and a panel of music, sound and preservation experts, the library's National Recording Preservation Board.
The 2006 additions to the registry are:
_"Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent," Cal Stewart (1904).
_"Il mio tesoro," John McCormack, orchestra conducted by Walter Rogers (1916).
_National Defense Test, September 12, 1924 (1924).
_"Black Bottom Stomp," Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers (1926).
_"Wildwood Flower," The Carter Family (1928).
_"Pony Blues," Charley Patton (1929).
_"You're the Top," Cole Porter (1934).
_"The Osage Bank Robbery," episode of "The Lone Ranger" (Dec. 17, 1937).
_Address to Congress, Dec. 8, 1941, Roosevelt (1941)
_Native Brazilian Music, recorded under the supervision of Leopold Stokowski (1942).
_"Peace in the Valley," Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys (1951).
_Chopin Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 ("Polonaise militaire"), Artur Rubinstein (1952).
_"Blue Suede Shoes," Carl Perkins (1955).
_Interviews with William "Billy" Bell, recorded by Edward D. Ives (1956).
_"Howl," Allen Ginsberg (1959).
_"The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," Bob Newhart (1960)
_"Be My Baby," The Ronettes (1963).
_"We Shall Overcome," Pete Seeger (1963) recording of Pete Seeger's June 8, 1963, Carnegie Hall concert.
_"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," Rolling Stones. (1965)
_"A Change is Gonna Come," Sam Cooke (1965).
_"Velvet Underground and Nico," Velvet Underground (1967).
_"The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake," Eubie Blake (1969).
_"Burnin' The Wailers," Bob Marley and the Wailers (1973).
_"Live in Japan," Sarah Vaughan (1973).
_"Graceland," Paul Simon (1986).
Library of Congress
Turns 80
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Fans of Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, renowned for his classic "One Hundred Years of Solitude," marked his 80th birthday on Tuesday with readings and celebrations from Spain to South America.
Eighty cannon shots rang out in the writer's childhood Caribbean hometown while Spanish politicians, artists and journalists held a marathon reading of his most famous novel in Madrid.
Garcia Marquez, famous for the magic realism style of his books, is one of Latin America's most popular figures and is fondly known as just "Gabo" in Colombia.
The writer has lived for years in Mexico but did not appear in public on Tuesday. He has said he hates television and public spectacles.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Blocks Film Premiere
Yoko Ono
The world premiere of "Three Days in the Life, a documentary about John Lennon, was canceled after lawyers for the slain Beatle's widow, Yoko Ono, warned that she had not authorized any public viewing of the film. The documentary was to have been screened Tuesday night at the Berwick Academy, a private school in southern Maine.
Ray Thomas, the documentary's executive producer, culled raw footage that was shot inside Lennon's apartment down to a two-hour film covering a pivotal time in Lennon's career. The footage was shot by Ono's former husband, Tony Cox, over a three-day period in February 1970, two months before the breakup of the Beatles.
Thomas and his partner, John Fallon, were unable to get an artist release from Ono, whose lawyers contend has a copyright interest in the film. That's why they chose to do a free screenings at high schools and colleges, starting with Berwick Academy.
Yoko Ono
Walk of Fame Inductees
Canada
Alberta rockers Nickelback, actor Catherine O'Hara and newsman Lloyd Robertson are among this year's inductees to Canada's Walk of Fame.
Others who will be immortalized on sidewalk slabs in Toronto's entertainment district are hockey great Johnny Bower, "man in motion" Rick Hansen, actor Gordon Pinsent and TV star Jill Hennessy. Director Ivan Reitman is also slated to attend the June 9th gala ceremony. He was inducted in 2001 but couldn't make it to the ceremony.
This year's induction ceremony will be hosted by funnyman Eugene Levy.
Canada
Movie & TV Auction
Memorabilia
The brown hooded cloak worn by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the "Star Wars" films - and then forgotten for years in a warehouse - sold for $104,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder Tuesday at an auction of movie and TV memorabilia.
Audience members raised their paddles in rapid succession as costumes flashed across TV screens at Bonhams, a British auctioneer, as staff fielded phone bids from all over the world. When the hammer dropped on a Bond girl's cat-suit or Anthony Hopkins' army uniform, men in dark blazers whispered the prices into their cell phones.
Some of the more eye-catching costumes - including Mel Gibson's kilt from "Braveheart" and the James Bond dinner jacket from "Thunderball" - were modeled by Bonhams staff.
Memorabilia
Publisher Kills Magazine
Premiere
Magazine publisher Hachette Filipacchi is shutting down the U.S. edition of its movie magazine Premiere.
The company, which also publishes Car and Driver, Elle and other magazines, said in a statement late Monday that the April edition of Premiere, which is on newsstands until April 16, will be the last for the U.S. edition. The international editions will continue.
Hachette said that Premiere's Web site would continue and will be revamped later in the year. The company had also shut the print edition of Elle Girl but kept its Web site going, a move that Time Warner Inc.'s Time Inc. unit did with Teen People last year.
Premiere
English Version Goes Online
Les Cahiers du Cinema
The influential French film magazine Les Cahiers du Cinema is to get an English remake after nearly 60 years in print.
The monthly review will this week launch e-Cahiers, an English-language version of the entire print magazine available online.
The March issue hits French newsstands Wednesday, with its English translation available on the Web beginning Friday at e-cahiersducinema.com.
Les Cahiers du Cinema
Bilked Buyers Of Millions
TV Art Scam
A couple who sold art through televised auctions admitted selling bogus works and forging signatures of artists including Picasso, Chagall and Dali in a scam that bilked buyers out of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
In court documents filed Monday, Kristine Eubanks, 49, and her husband, Gerald Sullivan, 51, were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and interstate transportation of stolen property.
The couple told authorities they rigged the auctions of art and jewelry by creating inflated bids, and that they purchased fake art, forged art at a print shop and sold the bogus works on their show, according to court documents. Prosecutors said the couple also created false appraisals and certificates of authenticity.
TV Art Scam
Writing Book
Jenna
After years of steering clear of the spotlight, one of resident George W. Bush's twin daughters is writing a book about a teen mother in Central America who has the AIDS virus.
Jenna Bush, 25, will release in the fall "Ana's Story: A Journey of Hope," based on her work as an unpaid intern with United Nation's children's agency UNICEF.
Bush gained a reputation as a party girl in her college days, when she and sister Barbara faced charges of underage drinking.
Jenna
Hits Illinois Home
Meteorite
When Dee Riddle heard breaking glass inside her central Illinois home on Monday morning, she first thought a bathroom mirror had shattered. But what had broken was a bedroom window and what had caused it to break was an object that had fallen from space, scientists called in to investigate concluded.
The small metallic object found near the window was most likely a meteorite, said Robert "Skip" Nelson, a geology professor at Illinois State University.
The grayish object - about the size of a deck of cards - was less likely to have come from a satellite or spacecraft, said Nelson and other experts, who also ruled out that it was thrown by someone standing outside the house.
It also crashed through a computer desk when it struck around 9:30 a.m., Riddle said.
Meteorite
Dutch State Buys Looted Paintings
Netherlands
The Dutch state has bought back four 17th century paintings from a collection of looted works that it is returning to the heirs of the original owner, the Culture Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Netherlands agreed last year to return more than 200 paintings worth tens of millions of dollars to the heirs of Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, who fled the Netherlands shortly before the German invasion in May 1940.
His collection was looted by the Nazis. After World War Two the Allies returned stolen works of art to the nations from which they were taken but it was left to governments to give the works back to the heirs of those who had been robbed.
Netherlands
Bows To Criticism - Pulls Ad
Dolce & Gabbana
Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana said on Tuesday they will withdraw an advertisement which shows a man pinning a woman down by her wrists after widespread criticism it condoned violence against women.
The advertisement showed a bare-chested man holding down a woman by her wrists while other men look casually on.
"It was never our intention to ... offend anyone or promote violence against women," the designers, whose latest womenswear collection featured riding crops and silver eye-masks, added.
Dolce & Gabbana
View From Germany
The Lord's Encyclopedia
Christian fundamentalists in the US have launched two online encyclopedias modelled on the Wikipedia format. Conservapedia and CreationWiki aim to explain the world from a creationist perspective. They make entertaining reading.
"Kangaroos, like all modern animals, originated in the Middle East and are the descendants of the two founding members of the modern kangaroo baramin that were taken aboard Noah's Ark prior to the Great Flood." This sentence is taken from an online encyclopedia. And it is meant seriously.
The encyclopedia in question is not Wikipedia but Conservapedia. Boasting a layout modelled on that of Wikipedia, it is one of the latest coups in the struggle of Christian fundamentalists to ban scientific teachings in school and reinstate the Bible as the definitive, all-explaining text and history book.
Conservapedia is essentially the Christian fundamentalists' answer to Wikipedia. It's an attempt to undermine the supposed hegemony that evolutionary theorists have on the Internet when it comes to explaining the origin of humans and animals. The religious project even has a big sister: CreationWiki spreads words of wisdom like: "God created humans separately from the animals less than 10,000 years ago." Although 45 percent of Americans believe this thesis, evolutionary theory is "taught as fact in schools funded by taxes taken from people who disagree with these views", argues the author of the entry "Creation vs. Evolution."
The Lord's Encyclopedia
Prime-Time Nielsen
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Feb. 26-March 4. 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. (1) "American Idol" (Tuesday), Fox, 30.65 million viewers.
2. (2) "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 29.78 million viewers.
3. (X) "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 27.39 million viewers.
4. (X) "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (Tuesday), Fox, 26.48 million viewers.
5. (3) "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (Thursday), Fox, 23.46 million viewers.
6. (X) "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (Wednesday), Fox, 23.37 million viewers.
7. (7) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 18.31 million viewers.
8. (10) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 17.42 million viewers.
9. (12) "Deal Or No Deal" (Monday), NBC, 17.26 million viewers.
10. (16) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 16.58 million viewers.
11. (17) "NCIS," CBS, 16.16 million viewers.
12. (4) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 15.69 million viewers.
13. (18) "Without a Trace," CBS, 14.88 million viewers.
14. (23) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 14.71 million viewers.
15. (15) "Survivor: Fiji," CBS, 14.67 million viewers.
16. (18) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.5 million viewers.
17. (18) "Heroes," NBC, 14.42 million viewers.
18. (18) "CSI: NY," CBS, 14.33 million viewers.
19. (25) "Rules Of Engagement," CBS, 13.57 million viewers.
20. (23) "Cold Case," CBS, 13.14 million viewers.
Ratings
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