'Best of TBH Politoons'
M Is FOR MASHUP - October 10th 2007
Early October Compilations
By DJ Useo
I've just barely time for a'cuppa & to tell you about
some new collections you might enjoy.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Jim Hightower: "NEXT: IRAN" (jimhightower.com)
The London Telegraph reports that the Pentagon has already identified some 2000 targets to bomb in Iran, and that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated campaign of escalation to provoke a military showdown. Even though Iran's leaders pose no imminent threat to us, Bush is said to be determined to launch a preemptive strike on that country before he leaves office.
Helen Thomas: The Democrats Who Enable Bush
President Bush has no better friends than the spineless Democratic congressional leadership and the party's leading presidential candidates when it comes to his failing Iraq policy. Those Democrats seem to have forgotten that the American people want U.S. troops out of Iraq, especially since Bush still cannot give a credible reason for attacking Iraq after nearly five years of war.
Will Durst: Why Christian Conservatives Are Threatening to Abandon the GOP
If Giuliani gets the nod from the GOP a whole group of the party's base it threatening to jump ship.
Germaine Greer: An un-Turner prize - for those spared a shortlist nomination - would be more interesting (arts.guardian.co.uk)
When the Turner prize was set up, established artists could find themselves shortlisted, foredoomed to be runners-up in a contest they had never entered.
NATASHA COURTNAY-SMITH: Is your make-up killing you?
Women absorb 5lb of chemicals from cosmetics every year - from cancer-causing compounds in face cream to arsenic in eyeshadow. We tested two beauty junkies to reveal the shocking toll on their bodies
GREG HAMBRICK: David Sedaris is Taking Notes (charlestoncitypaper.com)
"People give you stuff along the way," he says. "I don't know what they're thinking. People give me coffee table books. ... One time somebody gave me a big baked salmon. I can't bring a big wrapped fish on the airplane."
Roger Ebert: Look, there's Charlie Chaplin! (From December 26, 1977)
Let me tell you two stories about Charles Chaplin, who died on Christmas Day. Both stories take place in Venice, where every one of Chaplin's dozens of films was shown during a tribute at the 1972 Venice Film Festival.
Roger Ebert: Why John Belushi died (From March 7, 1984)
Who is right about John Belushi? Bob Woodward has written a book named "Wired" that portrays Belushi as a man out of control, whose life came to be ruled by cocaine and other drugs. Judy Belushi, his widow, has attacked Woodward's book for a number of reasons, of which the most heartfelt is: That's not John in the book. Woodward's portrait doesn't show the life, the humor, the courage, the energy. He wasn't just a junkie.
Anthony Kaufman: Brian De Palma Explains Himself (villagevoice.com)
The divisive director's controversial new film [Redacted] is, he says, just one man's attempt to stop the war
Rotten Tomatoes: Redacted
Reader Complaint
Spelling
Marty:
I have long marveled at Purple Gene's keen political insight and his unique command of the English language, but today's Weird Word of the Week entry left me puzzled. One would think someone who spends as much time (as he apparently does) playing with himself would at least be able to spell the word.
However, I grudgingly admit his movie and TV knowledge is fairly thorough, which probably explains what he does with the rest of his time.
EJ2E
Thanks, Mr. 2E.
I should have caught the mis-spelling earlier.
Noticed it after the page was up, but thought it to be a minor infraction, so, was going to let it slide til today, when the page is archived.
On my crappy dial-up, with my quirky, dated computer, it currently takes about 16 minutes to upload anything.
When I have to be up before 7am, and it's after 4am, and if it's a minor error, sleep wins.
PURPLE GENE'S WEIRD WORD OF THE WEEK - Corrected
WANKER
"WANKER"
ON LINE DEFINITION: A worthless contemptable person or one who constantly masturbates.
ON THE STREET: A British slacker who beats off in a burned out sub-let in London to the beat of the "Clash" .....all the while shooting heroin like Sid Vicious.
IN A SENTENCE: "Bullocks ya Wanker......you know I was so bored once, I fucked a dog..." (Sid Vicious from "Sid And Nancy" (1986)
(Read BartCop Entertainment and learn a useless new word each Tuesday)
An Alert From Erin Hart
Facebook
My old pal Erin Hart sent this note:
"Facebook is getting an online scolding after the social networking site
deleted pictures of nursing babies it considered "obscene content" and
closed the account of at least one Canadian mom. Source - Toronto Star
Breastfeeding activists are emailing, posting and instant messaging their
outrage. A new Facebook group set up to petition for a change in site policy
called "Hey Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!" has swelled from
7,000 members to more than 10,200 in the past few days.
In response to this outrage, as well as the general attitude towards nursing
moms in this country, a popular mom blog, the "League of Maternal Justice"
is speaking out, and encourage an event they're calling "The Great Breast Fest," scheduled for October 10th.
Here is a video montage of pictures they've got up on YouTube:
Jeff Crook Comments
them bees
Marty,
If anyone is looking for honeybees, they can find them swarming around the garbage cans at the Memphis Zoo.
Also, I counted six honeybees in my lantana Sunday morning. That's the most honeybees I've seen at one time in my garden in five years.
Jeff
Thanks, Jeff!
We've seen a lot fewer bees in our backyard.
The kid is allergic to their sting, so we try to keep tabs.
PURPLE GENE POLITICAL ALERT
MRS. DICK
EVIL MRS. DICK ON THE "DAILEY SHOW" !!!!!
DO NOT MISS LYNNE CHENEY'S (THE WIFE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES) APPEARANCE ON JOHN STEWART'S COMEDY CENTRAL TONIGHT.
WILL THE NORMALLY ACERBIC JOHN STEWART THROW SOFT BALLS OR SLAM THE BITCH? IS SHE MERELY ON TO PROMOTE HER NEW BOOK "KINGS OF THE HILL"!
WILL JOHN ASK ABOUT HER GAY DAUGHTER ....HER HUSBAND'S BAD AIM AND HER OWN FRIGID RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY?
I WANT EVERYONE'S OPINION ON THE 30 MINUTES OF HISTORY!
pURPLE gENE
Don't get your hopes up too much about Mrs. Dick's visit to Jon.
Seeing as how she was softballed by Rita Braver,
and comedy central is a part of the big happy Viacom family.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Still sunny and a bit cooler.
Tower Of Light In Lennon's Memory
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono called on the world to imagine living life in peace as she unveiled a tower of light on Tuesday dedicated to the memory of her husband John Lennon on what would have been his 67th birthday.
Ono and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr lit up the chill night with the broad shaft of blue light as about 200 people sang along with Lennon's song "Imagine", playing in the background.
The "Imagine Peace Tower", a light sculpture created by Ono, will illuminate the sky of the Icelandic capital each year from Lennon's birthday until December 8, the anniversary of his murder in New York in 1980.
The tower will be powered entirely by geothermal energy, which is plentiful on the volcanic island.
Yoko Ono
New Documentary
Granny D
At 89, Doris Haddock walked 3,200 miles across the country to draw attention to campaign finance reform. At 94, she waged a quixotic campaign for U.S. Senate. Now, at 97, she will see those feats on screen in a documentary.
"Run Granny Run" depicts Haddock's 2004 decision - with no money and no campaign experience - to go from an activist for voter registration to actively seeking votes in a campaign against the powerful incumbent Republican Sen. Judd Gregg.
The documentary initially had been planned as a road-trip film chronicling Haddock's efforts to register women and minorities in swing states during a critical election year. But when the presumptive Democratic nominee dropped out of the Senate race, Haddock jumped in on the last day to file.
"Run Granny Run" won the audience award at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. It will be broadcast on HBO at 9 p.m. on Oct. 18.
Granny D
Phoenix Philanthropist
David Spade
David Spade has donated $25,000 to the family of a slain Phoenix police officer.
The 43-year-old comedian said that after reading about Officer Nick Erfle's death last month, he was "hit out of the blue" by the shooting and the fact that Erfle had overcome cancer to return to duty.
"I'm from Arizona so I'm always a little aware of things that are going on there," Spade, a Scottsdale native, told The Associated Press on Monday. "It just struck me as such a rough situation just because cops in general get kind of a bad rap lately and people forget it is the scariest job out there."
Besides his wife, Erfle left behind two sons, ages 5 and 3.
David Spade
Baby News
Sabrina Sakae Mottola
Mexican pop star Thalia has welcomed her first child, a girl named Sabrina Sakae.
Sabrina was born Sunday to the singer-actress and her husband, Tommy Mottola, the former chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, Thalia's publicist, Kim Jakwerth, said Monday.
"Mother, father and baby Sabrina are all healthy and very happy and will be residing at their ranch in Colorado," said Jakwerth, who said the baby weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.
Sabrina Sakae Mottola
More Baby News
Baby Girl Nolte
It's a baby girl for Nick Nolte and his longtime partner, Clytie Lane.
The baby, who hasn't been named yet, was born Oct. 3 in Los Angeles. She weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces, the actor's spokesman, Paul Bloch, said Tuesday in a statement.
Nolte, 66, has a son, Brawley, from a previous marriage. The baby is Lane's first child.
Baby Girl Nolte
Jail Time On DUI Charge
Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer Sutherland pleaded no contest Tuesday to a charge of driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit and will serve 30 days in county jail under terms of a plea agreement.
Attorney Blair Berk entered the plea on behalf of Sutherland, who was not present.
As part of the arrangement, Sutherland must also enroll in an 18-month alcohol-education class and attend weekly alcohol-therapy sessions for six months.
Kiefer Sutherland
Cool With Torture
Supreme Court
A German man who says he was abducted and tortured by the CIA as part of the anti-terrorism rendition program lost his final chance Tuesday to persuade U.S. courts to hear his claims.
The Supreme Court rejected without comment an appeal from Khaled el-Masri, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments that state secrets would be revealed if courts allowed the case to proceed.
El-Masri, 44, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers and was detained while attempting to enter Macedonia on New Year's Eve 2003.
He claims that CIA agents stripped, beat, shackled, diapered, drugged and chained him to the floor of a plane for a flight to Afghanistan. He says he was held for four months in a CIA-run prison known as the "salt pit" in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
After the CIA determined it had the wrong man, el-Masri says, he was dumped on a hilltop in Albania and told to walk down a path without looking back.
Supreme Court
NBC Universal Buying
Oxygen
NBC Universal said Tuesday it will buy Oxygen Media, a cable TV network featuring programming for women, for about $925 million in a move to attract more advertisers targeting female viewers.
The acquisition is in line with previous deals by NBC Universal to build female audiences. Last year, it bought the iVillage group of women-oriented Internet sites for $600 million.
Oxygen was founded in 2000 by current Chairman and CEO Geraldine Laybourne, Oprah Winfrey and television producers Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach.
Oxygen
Five Suspects Detained
Claude Monet
One of the five suspects detained over a break-in at the Musee d'Orsay that left a Monet painting damaged, knew how to gain access to the museum because of his job, Culture Minister Christine Albanel said Tuesday.
Officers questioned four men and a woman early Tuesday after one of them admitted to punching the painting while drunk, a source close to the investigation said.
The damage was done to the Impressionist painter Claude Monet's "Le pont d'Argenteuil" (The bridge at Argenteuil), which was on display on the ground floor of the Musee d'Orsay, on the Left Bank.
Claude Monet
Shipwreck Found Off Alaskan Coast
The Torrent
A private dive team has discovered the wreckage of an American ship that sank off the south-central Alaska coast 139 years ago. The Torrent sank in Cook Inlet in 1868 after tidal currents rammed it into a reef south of the Kenai Peninsula. Documents from the period show that all 155 people on board survived.
The U.S. had purchased Alaska from Russia less than a year earlier, and about 130 Army soldiers had come north on the Torrent to build the first U.S. military fort in south-central Alaska.
A four-man dive team led by Steve Lloyd, owner of Anchorage's largest independent book store, found remnants of the wreckage in July. They kept the discovery secret at the request of state officials, who wanted more time to document the site before any looters arrive. Its discovery was announced Monday.
The Torrent
Doesn't Pass In Pittsburgh
$1M Bill
Change for a million? That's what a man was seeking Saturday when he handed a $1 million bill to a cashier at a Pittsburgh supermarket. But when the Giant Eagle employee refused and a manager confiscated the bogus bill, the man flew into a rage, police said.
Police arrested the man, who was not carrying identification and has refused to give his name to authorities. He is being held in the Allegheny County Jail.
Police believe the $1 million note seized at the supermarket may have originated at a Dallas-based ministry. Last year, the ministry distributed thousands of religious pamphlets with a picture of President Grover Cleveland on a $1 million bill.
$1M Bill
Spotted With Companion
Escaped Flamingo
After two years on the lam, a pink flamingo that escaped from the Sedgwick County Zoo has been spotted in Louisiana with a wild Caribbean flamingo in a ship channel area of southwest Louisiana.
The latest sighting three weeks ago was in the Calcasieu Ship Channel on private land accessible only by boat. Officials with the zoo in Wichita learned of the wayward flamingo's whereabouts late Friday because the birds were identified by numbers on their leg bands.
The zoo's flamingo was still traveling with the same companion that was with it during an earlier sighting. The two birds were seen at the Arkansas National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast of Texas in December 2006.
The other bird, a rosy red wild greater flamingo, came up from Mexico during hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The discovery excited bird watchers in Louisiana because it was the first documented sighting of a wild greater flamingo in the state.
Escaped Flamingo
Prime-Time Nielsens
Ratings
Prime-time viewership numbers compiled by Nielsen Media Research for Sept. 24-30. 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) "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 25.22 million viewers.
2. (2) "Dancing With the Stars" (Monday), ABC, 21.25 million viewers.
3. (3) "Grey's Anatomy" (Thursday), ABC, 20.93 million viewers.
4. (4) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 19.32 million viewers.
5. (X) "Dancing With the Stars" (Tuesday), ABC, 18.51 million viewers.
6. (5) "House," Fox, 18.31 million viewers.
7. (6) "Heroes," NBC, 16.97 million viewers.
8. (X) "Dancing With the Stars" (Wednesday), ABC, 16.81 million viewers.
9. (8) "Without a Trace," CBS, 16.68 million viewers.
10. (9) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 15.08 million viewers.
11. (6) "NBC Sunday Night Football," NBC, 15.01 million viewers.
12. (10) "Private Practice," ABC, 14.41 million viewers.
13. (10) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 14.25 million viewers.
14. (12) "Survivor: China," CBS, 14.15 million viewers.
15. (12) "Bionic Woman," NBC, 13.91 million viewers.
16. (12) "NCIS," CBS, 13.89 million viewers.
17. (16) "Cold Case," CBS, 13.71 million viewers.
18. (15) "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 13.58 million viewers.
19. (17) "Brothers & Sisters," ABC, 12.83 million viewers.
20. (20) "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.82 million viewers.
Ratings
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