'Best of TBH Politoons'
Freshly Updated!
Dick Eats Bush
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
The future of the world economy lies increasingly in female hands (economist.com)
"WHY can't a woman be more like a man?" mused Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". Future generations might ask why a man can't be more like a woman. In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men are and females are filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth.
Jack Lessenberry: The ugly truth about the layoffs (metrotimes.com)
Thirty million full-time American workers have lost their jobs since the 1980s.
Ruth Rosen: Talking Taxes (TPMCafe. Posted on Alternet.org)
Contrary to what the right would have you believe, our tax dollars really are hard at work.
Message understood? (education.guardian.co.uk)
Convoluted academic language is OK for the initiated, but the rest of us need plain English, says Michael McCarthy
Stephenie Hendricks Reminds the Fundamentalists: 'Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit' (A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW)
I want to implore your readers to go out there on Easter or Passover, and when they have their relative get-together, really, really get into it with their fundamentalist relatives.
RICHARD ROEPER: Wide-open MySpace.com filled with teens, danger (suntimes.com)
'News Corp. is set on Tuesday to name a security czar to oversee child safety measures on MySpace.com, the popular teen dating and music site that has provoked an outcry among parents who fear they have not done enough to thwart sexual predators." -- From Reuters
Cristina Cardoze: They're in love. They're gay. They're penguins... And they're not alone.
Wendell and Cass, two penguins at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, Brooklyn, live in a soap opera world of seduction and intrigue.
RICHARD ROEPER: Are you a Good Guy? Let's put it to the test (suntimes.com)
In "As Good as It Gets," when Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt, "You make me want to be a better man," she's floored. That's maybe the best compliment of her life, she tells him.
On Easter
Avery Ant
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
JD took the day off.
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and much warmer.
While picking the kid up at school, UPS left the new Dish® receiver on the porch.
As the kid did his version of the Snoopy happy-dance, I swapped some cables, let it download and all was back to what passes for normal in the living room.
No new flags.
Quietly Killing Kyoto
Oh Canada
A scientist with Environment Canada was ordered not to launch his global warming-themed novel Thursday at the same time the Conservative government was quietly axing a number of Kyoto programs.
The day began with what was supposed to be the low-key launch of an aptly titled novel, Hotter than Hell.
Publisher Elizabeth Margaris said that Mark Tushingham, whose day job is as an Environment Canada scientist, was ordered not to appear at the National Press Club to give a speech discussing his science fiction story about global warming in the not-too-distant future.
The scientific, or literary, muzzle was put on Tushingham just as the Tory government was preparing to quietly confirm it is killing off over a dozen research programs related to the Kyoto protocol.
Oh Canada
Creators Skewer Own Network
'South Park'
Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of "South Park" skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon's most recent episode.
The comedy - in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians - instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on resident Bush and the American flag.
In an elaborately constructed two-part episode of their Peabody Award-winning cartoon, "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker intended to comment on the controversy created by a Danish newspaper's publishing of caricatures of Muhammad. Muslims consider any physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous.
'South Park'
Concert Canceled
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
The Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert scheduled for April 23 at the University of Tennessee has been canceled because of safety issues.
The Soul2Soul II concert was supposed to be held in Thompson-Boling Arena, but officials with the school and Beaver Productions determined the lighting, sound and special effects were too heavy to be suspended as planned from the ceiling.
The arena is where the Tennessee men's and women's basketball teams play.
Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
Pakistan TV Diva Is Man In A Dress
Ali Salim
Born a boy, Ali Salim long prayed to God to make him a girl. Years later, he is the most famous female TV identity in this devoutly Muslim, male-dominated country, even if his physiology remains unchanged.
Salim's chiffon-wearing alter ego, Begum (Mrs.) Nawazish Ali, has become an overnight star, using style and pomp to confront prickly topics with Pakistani politicians, Islamic religious figures and celebrities, posing questions that more established journalists routinely steer clear of.
He's reminiscent of Dame Edna, Australian Barry Humphries' famous alter ego of stage and TV, but says his character was not inspired by the more slapstick Australian.
But like Dame Edna, Salim's teasing, sarcastic and docile style has allowed him to tackle head-on the discrimination women face in Pakistan's male-dominated society.
Ali Salim
David Hare's New Play
'Stuff Happens'
David Hare's Stuff Happens is robust political theatre - on the surface, a fascinating, step-by-step account of how the United States and Britain built their case for the current war in Iraq.
But the play, which opened Thursday at the Public Theater, is really more than that. It's a skilful, cogent examination of power, how it is used and misused, celebrated and accommodated. That its large cast of characters is still very much in the news - and in control - makes Stuff Happens all the more unnerving.
All the big names from the daily headlines are here - from George W. Bush to Tony Blair to Colin Powell to Condoleezza Rice to Dick Cheney to Donald Rumsfeld and more.
Hare, author of such fine dramas as Plenty and Racing Demon as well as the screenplay for The Hours, doesn't pretend to have written a documentary, although the evening is awash in facts. His interpretation of history is naturally selective, and theatregoers of a left-leaning sensibility will not be disappointed in his presentation.
For more, 'Stuff Happens'
Reaches Refinancing Deal
Michael Jackson
Pop star Michael Jackson, in a bid to stave off insolvency, said on Thursday he has reached a deal with creditors to refinance more than $200 million in loans secured by his prized stake in the Beatles' song catalog.
The loans, which formally came due in December 2005, are held by the Fortress Investment Group, a New York private equity fund that stood to gain Jackson's 50 percent interest in Beatles publishing rights, valued at some $500 million, in the event of a default.
A statement issued from Jackson's representatives in the Persian Gulf state of Bahrain, where he currently resides, said the singer has "restructured his finances" with help from Sony Corp., which jointly owns the collection of more than 200 Beatles tunes through Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
But terms of the new financing deal were not disclosed, and it was not immediately clear whether Jackson was forced to give up any of his stake in the song catalog.
Michael Jackson
Death At Epcot
Mission: SPACE
A 49-year-old German woman died after riding a rocket simulator at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park in Florida, the second person to die in less than a year after riding on Mission: SPACE, state officials said on Thursday.
The victim was identified as Hiltrud Bluemel from the town of Schmitten, said Sheri Blanton of the medical examiner's office in Orlando. An autopsy would be conducted on Friday to determine the cause of death, Blanton said.
Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Disney closed the ride for an inspection overnight after the woman was taken to the hospital. The attraction uses spinning centrifugal force to create the sensation of a rocket launch.
Mission: SPACE
Vows To Stay At Old Vic
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey defended his leadership of London's Old Vic on Thursday, but acknowledged the theatre's latest production had been a disappointment.
Spacey, who took over as artistic director in 2004, told British Broadcasting Corp. radio that he was "more determined than ever" to serve out his 10-year contract.
The theatre will be dark through the summer, with Spacey scheduled to star in a production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten in September.
Kevin Spacey
Set to Live in Aquarium
David Blaine
David Blaine intends to sleep with the fishes - but only for a week, and in full public view.
The 33-year-old magician will perform his latest stunt by living underwater for seven days and nights in a "human aquarium" in front of New York's Lincoln Center.
He will conclude by attempting to hold his breath underwater longer than the record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds.
The finale of his latest stunt will air live in a two-hour ABC special on May 8 (8 p.m. EDT).
David Blaine
Where Are The Celebs?
Immigration Debate
When it comes to immigration reform - a controversy in Hollywood's own backyard - stars have largely been unseen and unheard. Fear of career damage, confusion over a complex issue abruptly supercharged by waves of countrywide protests, and historic detachment from Hispanic realities are among the explanations offered by industry insiders and observers.
One person unsurprised by the white-dominated industry's inability to connect with the issue is Lisa Navarette, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization.
Stars jump into debates over global warming and the Iraq war because their friends and peers are talking those subjects up, Navarette said. Most in the industry don't deal with Hispanics beyond their presence as domestic help.
"You drive by your gardener, you walk by your maid, but you're not necessarily connected to them in any way," she said.
Immigration Debate
Sent Back With 1956 Postmark
Postcard
Talk about lost in the mail. A postcard sent from a Stetson home to a man in Riverside, Calif., was returned this week with a "return to sender" stamp - and its 1956 postmark.
Mack McCormick, 59, did not send the postcard, but he lives in the home where the postcard originated. It was delivered to his mailbox Monday.
He used the Internet to track down the author of the note, George Hitz, 64, who now lives in Sudbury, Mass.
Hitz, a former ham radio operator included his age on the postcard and information about a radio contact he made in February 1956 with someone he called "Chief Operator Dave." No street address was included for Dave, which may explain why the postcard was not delivered, postal officials said.
Postcard
Beans Make You Fart
Factual Reality
It's a "factual reality" that beans make you break wind, says South Africa's advertising watchdog.
A TV advert for sweet onions showed a rugby player eating beans that made him smell "stinky". The advert claims that "with sweet onions there are no tears, no burn and definitely no stink".
The country's Dry Bean Producers Organisation complained about the advert on the basis that the "stinky" charge was untrue but the Advertising Standards Authority threw out the charge and said it was widely known that beans produce gas.
Factual Reality
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