'TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
James Ridgeway and Michael Roston: The Would-Be Cherry Picker (villagevoice.com)
If Bush had the line-item veto he wants, that pesky torture ban would be the first thing to go.
PAUL KRUGMAN: The Right's Man (The New York Times)
It's time for some straight talk about John McCain. He isn't a moderate. He's much less of a maverick than you'd think. And he isn't the straight talker he claims to be.
George Clooney: I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It! (huffingtonpost.com)
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.
The Science Of Sexual Orientation (cbsnews.com)
There are few issues as hotly contested - and as poorly understood - as the question of what makes a person gay or straight. It's not only a political, social, and religious question but also a scientific question, one that might someday have an actual, provable answer.
Annalee Newitz: Oh, Octavia (AlterNet.org)
Octavia Butler forced me to rethink contemporary American politics in ways that Thomas Pynchon never will.
A Laughing Matter (newyorker.com)
... one thing that was interesting in talking to the students at this panel was that a lot of them said, "You know, when I first started watching 'The Daily Show,' I didn't get all the jokes, because I didn't know what all the references were, and that actually made me start reading the news."
Stanley Crouch: Miles Davis, Romantic Hero (slate.com)
Assessing the trumpeter's legacy as he enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
John Pritchard: Stiff Punishment (memphisflyer.com)
Abortion is murder and should be punished with a sentence of death, but men are also guilty of a crime just as great: masturbation.
Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: SMILING EACH DAY (jewishworldreview.com)
It is well known that a sick person's attitude can have a major effect on the course of his illness.
Reader Comment
Re: Rocky & Bullwinkle
Mart,
I know it was 2000…that doesn't make it any easier. NPR should have a program…"All Things Rocky and Bullwinkle." I need more R & B…you must help me…I can't get enough!
love,
Willow
Well, my dear Willow - looks like there's a new
Rocky and Bullwinkle movie on the horizon.
Now, if you're having a 'snow day' - here are enough links to kill a wintery afternoon -
Hokey Smoke! Rocky and Bullwinkle
Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show - Wikipedia
Rocky & Bullwinkle Episode Guide
The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show
Rocky and Bullwinkle - Sounds, Pictures, Cartoons, and Videos
Rocky and Bullwinkle (eps 4) - Google Video
Coloring World - Rocky and Bullwinkle Page
And, of course, Moose & Squirrel Info One Stop
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny, windy & warmer.
Talked to dear old Dad - he was pretty disgusted.
Was in the 70°s there on Monday, and Tuesday it was in the 20°s, with a fresh foot of snow.
Beware, the Ides of March.
Added a new flag - Belarus 
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
2006 Inductions
The Sex Pistols didn't show up, Blondie had a public row and Black Sabbath asked another band to play their music at an awkward night of inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Other inductees were the late jazz icon Miles Davis, who was cited for his contribution in helping create a fusion of jazz with rock and roll, soul, funk and hip hop, beginning in the 1960s.
A and M Records co-founders Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss received a lifetime achievement award in the non-performer category.
The evening began with a tribute to late soul legend Wilson Pickett, featuring Solomon Burke, and ended with a salute to hurricane ravaged New Orleans featuring Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint and The Band's Robbie Robertson.
2006 Inductions
Peeved About Oscar Loss
Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film "Brokeback Mountain," has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss.
Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.
Academy members who vote for the year's best film are "out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city," Proulx writes.
"If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices," Proulx advises.
Annie Proulx
Lobbies for Arts Funding
Alec Baldwin
Actor Alec Baldwin joined other professional artists on Capitol Hill Tuesday to kick off Arts Advocacy Day and lobby Congress for arts funding.
Speaking to a standing room only crowd of members of lawmakers and state arts officials, Baldwin commended Congress for several years of funding increases to the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1996, the Republican-controlled Congress slashed the agency's budget by 39 percent and voted to phase out all funding.
Americans for the Arts, along with the Congressional Arts Caucus, organized the breakfast event. Other speakers included Tony Award-winning actor Brian Stokes Mitchell and American Ballroom Theater founder Pierre Dulaine.
Alec Baldwin
'Correspondent Emeritus'
Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace, the hard-driving reporter who has been with "60 Minutes" since its start in 1968, said Tuesday he will retire as a regular correspondent on the show this spring.
A television news legend who was the last person an accused wrongdoer would want to see on his doorstep, Wallace said he'll still do occasional reports for the show. CBS News President Sean McManus referred to him as a "correspondent emeritus."
Wallace said that "CBS is not pushing me" and that he'll keep an office at the CBS News headquarters.
Mike Wallace
Fans Want Statue
Wallace & Gromit
Fired by news that Wallace and Gromit have won a fourth Oscar for their creator, fans in the pair's hometown called Tuesday for a statue to be erected of the balding cheese lover and his long-suffering canine companion.
Matthew Symonds, a local councilor in Bristol where Nick Park and Aardman Animations created the now-famous pair, said it was time to recognize the contribution that Wallace and Gromit have made to the city in southwest England.
Wallace & Gromit
Commuting, Vegas-Style
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow soars high above the traffic five days a week on his commute to the Las Vegas Hilton.
From his home in Palm Springs, the 59-year-old singer travels by jet to Sin City.
"There's just no quiet in Vegas," Manilow told the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday.
Barry Manilow
A Heartfelt Tribute
Wendy Wasserstein
Family, friends and the theater community came together Monday for an emotional, yet often joyous memorial celebrating playwright Wendy Wasserstein, "an extraordinary woman, who led an extraordinary, exemplary life."
Scenes from several of Wasserstein's plays, including "Uncommon Women and Others" (Wasserstein's first success), "Isn't It Romantic," "An American Daughter" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Heidi Chronicles," were performed, some with their original casts. Among the actors appearing were Meryl Streep, Swoosie Kurtz, Jill Eikenberry, Linda Lavin, Robert Klein, Joan Allen and Boyd Gaines.
Other speakers ranged from Mary Jane Patrone, a friend from her college days at Mount Holyoke, to playwright Christopher Durang to Daniel Sullivan, who directed four of Wasserstein's plays, including "The Heidi Chronicles" and "The Sisters Rosensweig" to her niece, Pamela Wasserstein.
Wendy Wasserstein
Computer Hard Drives Seized
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
In an unusual and little-known case, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office has seized four computer hard drives from a Lancaster newspaper as part of a statewide grand-jury investigation into leaks to reporters.
The dispute pits the government's desire to solve an alleged felony - computer hacking - against the news media's fear that taking the computers circumvents the First Amendment and the state Shield Law.
The state Supreme Court declined last week to take the case, allowing agents to begin analyzing the data.
"This is horrifying, an editor's worst nightmare," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Washington. "For the government to actually physically have those hard drives from a newsroom is amazing. I'm just flabbergasted to hear of this."
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
Band Members Reunite
New Cars
Two former members of the defunct new wave rock band the Cars have refueled the group, installing singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren in the driver's seat and will hit the road as the New Cars, they announced on Tuesday.
The new model, featuring Cars lead guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, will be accompanied on tour by fellow classic pop refugees Blondie, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday.
Also aboard the New Cars are bass player Kasim Sulton, who has played with Rundgren, and former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince.
New Cars
Sues Country Club for $1M
Sean Connery
Sean Connery is suing a country club for allegedly using his "worldwide celebrity" to fatten its reputation and refusing to pay money owed him after he ended his membership.
Connery is seeking more than $500,000 for breach of contract and more than $500,000 for "unjust enrichment" from the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Superior Court.
The suit claims the golf club was aware of the actor's lucrative status as an "internationally renowned celebrity and famously avid golfer" when it invited him to join in 1990 at a special initiation fee of $35,000.
Sean Connery
Claims Antitrust Probes Over
Clear Channel
Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest radio station owner, says the Justice Department has closed two antitrust investigations into its broadcast and concert business without taking action.
Separately, the company disclosed Tuesday that during 2005 its chief executive and chief financial officer received restricted stock awards worth $5.84 million apiece and options to buy 355,000 more shares apiece.
Chief Executive Mark Mays was paid $879,107 in salary, Chief Financial Officer Randall Mays got $787,441, but neither received bonuses, which had amounted to $1.7 million each the previous year. They are the sons of Chairman L. Lowry Mays, who was paid $750,944 last year, plus $1.17 million in restricted stock and 505,000 options, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Clear Channel
Gets Delay on Neverland Wages
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson got a day's reprieve on a deadline to pay a $100,000 fine and $306,000 in wages he owes Neverland Ranch employees.
Jackson now has until 5 p.m. Wednesday to pay the penalty and remit back wages owed dozens of workers, who complained to the state that they hadn't been paid since Dec. 19.
Michael Jackson
Rate Federal Attention
Pittsburgh Pacifists
FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an "unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.
FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.
One of the FBI documents, unveiled at a news conference by the two groups, carried the headline "International Terrorism Matters" and referred to the FBI's work with an anti-terrorism task force that includes several agencies.
The memo called the Merton Center "a left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism."
Pittsburgh Pacifists
Pot Calls Kettle
Michael Douglas
"I don't know about Brad Pitt, leaving that beautiful wife to go hold orphans for Angelina," Michael Douglas snipes in GQ's April issue, hitting newsstands March 21.
The 61-year-old Douglas also took swipes at actresses Renee Zellweger and Julia Roberts: "I mean, don't ask me what happened with Renee Zellweger. I don't know how you get married for four months. And Julia with Lyle."
As for his marriage to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, Douglas says he's "been fortunate. You learn to respect something of value and nurture it and treat it well."
Michael Douglas
Bleachings Haunt World's Reefs
Coral
When marine scientist Ray Berkelmans went diving at Australia's Great Barrier Reef earlier this year, what he discovered shocked him -- a graveyard of coral stretching as far as he could see.
"It's a white desert out there," Berkelmans told Reuters in early March after returning from a dive to survey bleaching -- signs of a mass death of corals caused by a sudden rise in ocean temperatures -- around the Keppel Islands.
Australia has just experienced its warmest year on record and abnormally high sea temperatures during summer have caused massive coral bleaching in the Keppels. Sea temperatures touched 29 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit), the upper limit for coral.
"My estimate is in the vicinity of 95 to 98 percent of the coral is bleached in the Keppels," said Berkelmans from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Coral
Woman Tuba Player
Carol Jantsch
It was 9:30 on a Saturday night and Carol Jantsch was at an ultimate Frisbee tournament when her cell phone rang with an audition invitation from the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of America's finest symphonies.
Almost one year later, after beating out 194 other musicians during an arduous tryout process, the 21-year-old University of Michigan senior is the first woman - and perhaps the youngest person ever - to earn a tuba seat with a top-five U.S. symphony.
Carol Jantsch became interested in low brass when she was 9 at an arts camp. She picked up a euphonium, the tuba's smaller cousin, and could play it immediately.
Carol Jantsch
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