Issue #134
Disinfotainment Today
By Michael Dare
Double Bill of the Week
'TBH Politoons'
Today's Fact: 12/28/04
Strangely Believable But Untrue
As a goodwill gesture to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in
return for his support in the Iraq war, George W. Bush has nominated
Father Guido Sarducci to be the head of his office of Faith Based
Initiatives.
~Jeff Crook
Jeff Crook is the Ceci Connolly of the Left.
- J. Howard Tuft
Untrue Facts are now available online at the Untrue Facts Daily
Calendar! Help spread disinformation and misunderstanding by sharing these
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Recommended Reading
from Bruce
THOMAS B. EDSALL: College Republicans allegedly misled donors
WASHINGTON - The College Republican National Committee is under fire for using front organizations to collect millions of dollars in contributions, including money from elderly people with dementia.
HELEN THOMAS: Bush wants to break promise of Social Security
It seems Bush is obsessed with wiping out the last vestige of the New Deal era -- a safety net that provides a guaranteed monthly government check for the elderly, the disabled, widows and orphans and other dependent children.
The Rev. Bob Chase: Have You Been Turned Away?
The United Church of Christ's ad has received abundant support from faith-based organizations and individuals from all walks of life. However, some groups, specifically the Association for Church Renewal and the Institute on Religion and Democracy--widely identified with the religious right--are calling our ad, "dishonest and insulting to other Christian churches."
Jeannette Batz Cooperman: The Compassion of the Christ
Look a little closer at the "Jesus didn't turn people away" ad and you see the central religious conflict of our time: literal versus metaphorical understanding.
E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Christmas values
(As Mark W. Roche of Notre Dame noted in The New York Times this fall, the abortion rate dropped by 11 percent during the prosperous years of the Clinton presidency.) Shouldn't all who care about abortion be passionately committed to changing the economic circumstances in which women make their choices? Isn't that a question of values?
Roger Ebert: Answer Man
Q. In response to Matt Sandler's query asking you about who is the world's most beautiful woman, you foolishly answered Aishwarya Rai instead of "my wife." I hope you bought a huge bouquet and a box of chocolates for Mrs. Ebert after you realized your mistake.
Vicente Salazar, Espanola, N.M.
A. Matt Sandler asked about women, not goddesses.
The unofficial website of Leelee Sobieski
Runic: This Works For Macintosh
Reader Suggestion
Bill O'Reilly
The Kinky Habits of Bill O'Reilly
Here's a fun 60 second rant about the amorous shenanigans of Bill O'Reilly and his right wing pals.
And here's 60 seconds of Fox Bashing
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lots of rain with some thunder & lightning.
25 Films Added
National Film Registry
Among the 25 films added on Tuesday to the National Film Registry are four featuring some of Hollywood's biggest stars, though it's unlikely that Charlton Heston, Rin Tin Tin, Elvis and Popeye would share equal billing anywhere else.
By choosing "Ben Hur," "Clash of the Wolves," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Popeye the Sailor Meets the Sailor" Librarian of Congress James Billington illustrated the long-term goal of the National Film Preservation Act to recognize "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant motion pictures.
"We realized that a number of cultural icons hadn't been included," said Gregory Lupow, chief of the Library of Congress's motion picture, broadcast and recorded sound division. "It's the first time Elvis, Popeye and Andy Warhol have been selected. These are three of the American filmmaking icons of one kind or another in America. Rin Tin Tin was the biggest star of the 1930s. He saved Warner Brothers."
A complete list of inductees:
1. "Ben-Hur" (1959)
2. "The Blue Bird" (1918)
3. "A Bronx Morning" (1931)
4. "Clash of the Wolves" (1925)
5. "The Court Jeste"r (1956)
6. "D.O.A." (1950)
7. "Daughters of the Dust" (1991)
8. "Duck and Cover" (1951)
9. "Empire" (1964)
10. "Enter the Dragon" (1973)
11. "Eraserhead" (1978)
12. "Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers" (1980)
13. "Going My Way" (1944)
14. "Jailhouse Rock" (1957)
15. "Kannapolis, NC" (1941)
16. "Lady Helen's Escapade" (1909)
17. "The Nutty Professor" (1963)
18. "OffOn" (1968)
19. "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor" (1936)
20. "Pups is Pups" (Our Gang) (1930)
21. "Schindler's List" (1993)
22. "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (1954)
23. "Swing Time" (1936)
24. "There It Is" (1928)
25. "Unforgiven" (1992)
National Film Registry
Writes Musical 'Spamalot'
Eric Idle
Killer rabbits and a legless knight. Are these the makings of a Broadway musical? Yes, says Eric Idle, a member of the zany British troupe Monty Python. He wrote the book for "Spamalot," the stage version of the 1975 comedy film classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," now playing in Chicago.
"Spamalot," directed by Mike Nichols and starring Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce and Tim Curry, will move to Broadway in February. Music and lyrics are by Idle and John Du Prez.
Idle said the other Python members approved the show.
"They're very cautious about what they allow. They've never allowed this sort of thing before. Everyone was enthusiastic and on board because the songs made them laugh," he said.
Eric Idle
Vie For Best Picture Oscar Nomination
267 Films
Nearly 270 feature films have joined the battle for the 2005 best picture Oscar, organisers revealed, but only five will win coveted nominations when they are unveiled next month.
The 5,800 Academy Award voters are faced with a dizzying choice of 267 movies as they begin considering their list of contenders for nominations for cinema's ultimate prize.
Voters now have less than three weeks to sift through the mountain of films before returning their completed ballots no later than January 15.
Nominations for the 77th-annual Academy Awards will be unveiled before dawn on January 25, launching the final frenzied phase of Hollywood's awards season.
267 Films
Back Pain Sidelines
Nathan Lane
Back problems have forced Nathan Lane to quit the London West End run of "The Producers" almost two weeks earlier than planned.
Lane has pulled out of five performances of the Mel Brooks musical since Dec. 16 after suffering two slipped discs. The 48-year-old actor has been advised to cancel his remaining performances, the musical's producers said Tuesday. He was told he should recover in about six weeks.
Lane, star of the Tony-winning Broadway production, had replaced Richard Dreyfuss, who quit three weeks before opening night amid reports that he wasn't up to the job. Producers said Dreyfuss was sidelined by complications from back surgery and a recurring shoulder injury.
Nathan Lane
Florida Resident
Arlo Guthrie
Like many residents of Indian River County, Arlo Guthrie bemoans the speedy growth rate in the Sebastian (Fla) area.
The renowned folk singer, son of songwriting legend Woody Guthrie, bought a home just outside Sebastian 20 years ago. He and his wife Jackie raised their children there.
The Guthrie family moved to this area in part because of the ashram, where all four of Arlo and Jackie's children attended school.
Guthrie has nothing but praise for Ma Jaya, the guru who founded Kashi nearly three decades ago.
"I just fell in love with her 20 years ago," he says. "She's from the same part of Coney Island I come from."
For more, Arlo Guthrie
Thanks, Mr. 2E!
Sue Associated Press Over Iraq Photos
Navy SEALs
Six Navy SEALs and the wives of two of them sued The Associated Press and a reporter on Tuesday for publishing photos taken from a Web site that appeared to show the troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.
The suit, filed in San Diego Superior Court, said the pictures did not depict abuse and instead put the lives of the soldiers at risk by exposing their faces to the world.
The plaintiffs are identified only as "Six Navy SEALs and Two Jane Does," and the suit indicates they have been allowed to file anonymously by court order.
The U.S. Navy said it had nothing to do with the suit.
Navy SEALs
Brings $455 Bid on EBay
Elvis Water
Wade Jones of North Carolina says he snared a plastic cup from which Elvis Presley drank at a concert in 1977 and kept the cup and the water for 27 years before selling the remaining few tablespoons of water on eBay.
The winning bid for the water was $455. He says he won't sell the cup.
A 40-year-old resident of Belmont, North Carolina, Jones said he was 13 when he attended a Presley concert at the Charlotte Coliseum in February, 1977, six months before the death of the rock 'n roll icon.
Jones said he kept the cup and water in his freezer until 1985, when he transferred the water to a vial and sealed it. Over the years, he said, he acquired a photograph of Elvis holding the cup at that concert as authentication for his claim.
Elvis Water
Eugenics in 1939 Toronto
Velma Demerson
More than six decades ago, a pregnant, pyjama-clad Velma Demerson was eating breakfast with her Chinese boyfriend when two policeman arrived at their Toronto apartment with her father.
The 18-year-old was whisked away, locked into a barred cell and grilled about how many men she had slept with. For the next 10 months Demerson was imprisoned under Ontario's Female Refuges Act, which stated that "any parent or guardian may bring before a judge any female under the age of 21 years who proves unmanageable or incorrigible."
At the time of Demerson's arrest in May 1939, young women could be incarcerated for behaviour such as public drunkenness, promiscuity and pregnancy out of wedlock.
For the rest, Velma Demerson
FDA OKs Study in Cancer Patients
Ecstasy
The illegal club drug Ecstasy can trigger euphoria among the dance club set, but can it ease the debilitating anxiety that cancer patients feel as they face their final days?
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones.
The small, four-month study is expected to begin early next spring. It will test the drug's effects on 12 cancer patients from the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in the Boston area. The research is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group that plans to raise $250,000 to fund it.
Ecstasy
In Memory
Susan Sontag
Susan Sontag, the author, activist and self-defined "zealot of seriousness" whose voracious mind and provocative prose made her a leading intellectual of the past half century, died Tuesday. She was 71.
Sontag died at 7:10 a.m. Tuesday, said Esther Carver, a spokeswoman for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.
Sontag called herself a "besotted aesthete," an "obsessed moralist" and a "zealot of seriousness." Tall and commanding, her very presence suggested grand, passionate drama: eyes the richest brown; thick, black hair accented by a bolt of white; the voice deep and assured; her expression a severe stare or a wry smile, as if amused by a joke only she could tell.
She had an insatiable passion for literature, with thousands of books - arranged by chronology and language - occupying her Chelsea apartment in Manhattan. She read authors from all over the world and is credited with introducing such European intellectuals as Roland Barthes and Elias Canetti to American readers.
Unlike many American writers, she was deeply involved in politics, even after the 1960s. From 1987-89, Sontag served as president of American chapter of the writers organization PEN. When the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for Salman Rushdie's death because of the alleged blasphemy of "The Satanic Verses," she helped lead protests in the literary community.
Sontag campaigned relentlessly for human rights and throughout the 1990s traveled to the region of Yugoslavia, calling for international action against the growing civil war. In 1993, she visited Sarajevo and staged a production of "Waiting for Godot."
The daughter of a fur trader, she was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York in 1933, and also spent her early years in Tucson, Ariz., and Los Angeles. Her mother was an alcoholic; her father died when she was 5. Her mother later married an Army officer, Capt. Nathan Sontag.
Susan Sontag
In Memory
Charles Biederman
Artist Charles Biederman, known for his geometric paintings and aluminum reliefs depicting his fiercely held beliefs that art springs from nature, has died, a museum spokesman said on Tuesday.
Biederman, who had grown increasingly blind, was 98 when he died Sunday at his farm in Red Wing, Minnesota, said a spokesman at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis.
Devoted to the work of Cezanne and Courbet, Biederman once said "One cannot go wrong with the truths of nature."
Biederman also wrote extensively about art and art history, often self-publishing works for a limited audience.
Drawn to Paris in 1936, he met the giants of Cubism and modern art such as Picasso, Mondrian, Miro, Brancusi and others but pronounced the city "washed up as an art center" and said America would be the wellspring of "New Art."
Moving to rural Minnesota in 1942, Biederman mounted a hill behind his farmhouse to sit in the same spot nearly every day for decades to contemplate nature. He lived there alone after his wife Mary's death in 1975, though daughter Anna lived nearby.
Born in Cleveland in 1906 to Czech immigrants, Biederman dropped out of high school but talked his way into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working to support himself as a theater usher and janitor.
Charles Biederman
In Memory
Hank Garland
Legendary country, rock and jazz guitarist Hank Garland, who performed with Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, Charlie Parker and many others, has died at the age of 74.
Garland died of a staph infection Monday at Orange Park Medical Center, said his brother, Billy Garland.
In the 1950s and '60s, Walter "Hank" Garland was the talk of Nashville, known for musical riffs that could take a recording from humdrum to dazzling, as he did on Elvis hits like "Little Sister" and "Big Hunk of Love."
In addition to performing with Elvis and other stars in Nashville, Garland was at the forefront of the rock 'n' roll movement, enjoyed a prestigious career as a country virtuoso, pioneered the electric guitar at the Grand Ole Opry and inspired jazz instrumentalists such as George Benson. He jammed in New York City with George Shearing and jazz great Charlie Parker.
Garland worked with Elvis from 1957 to 1961, and was playing on the soundtrack for his movie "Follow That Dream" in 1961 when a car crash put him in a coma for months.
The crash injuries and a series of 100 shock treatments administered at a Nashville hospital left him a shadow of his former self. He had to relearn everything from walking and talking to playing the guitar.
Billy Garland claims the crash was no accident, that it was an attempted killing by someone in the Nashville record scene.
Garland spent the final years of his life fighting ill health, trying to pry royalties out of record companies and talking with Hollywood about a movie based on his life.
Hank Garland
