'Best of TBH Politoons'
Baron Dave Romm
Vacation
By Baron Dave Romm
I'm on vacation, or something like a vacation, and won't have a
column this week. I'ts been a long weeked, and it's not over.
TTFN, Baron Dave
--////
"What doesn't have credibility today is the truth."
-- Bill Moyers,
The Daily Show 6/22/05
Thanks (again), Baron Dave!
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Garrison Keillor: Don't go mum on us, Obama (chicagotribune.com)
I was at a playground with my daughter the other day, reading "The Two Kinds of Decay" by Sarah Manguso (good book) and watching my girl as she stood at the perimeter of children playing and studied them, exactly as I did when I was a kid, working up the nerve to plunge into the fray. She is braver than I-she plunges. I tended to retreat and have been backpedaling ever since.
Nat Hentoff: Judging the Torture Presidency of George W. Bush (villagevoice.com)
Building a case for a prosecution that likely won't happen.
Ted Rall: CONSTITUTION À LA CARTE (uexpress.com)
But practical arguments aren't legal, much less constitutional, arguments. Either you agree with the Bill of Rights--all of it--or you don't.
Froma Harrop: Dominators Decline With Dollar (creators.com)
Paris was hardly empty of U.S. visitors last week. But there were far fewer American voices than in past years, and the ones you heard were saying things like, "It's so ex-PEN-sive!" The U.S. dollar - which once carried the adjective
Froma Harrop: The Politics of Foreclosure (creators.com)
What are the politics of the housing meltdown? Foreclosure agony is undoubtedly a campaign issue, but the political question remains: What do the voters want their leader to do about it? Then there's the economic question: What can a president do Š
Richard Roeper: Should cops lie to teens about friends dying? (suntimes.com)
You're supposed to trust your teachers and the cops almost as much as you trust your parents. You don't expect them to lie to you, even if it's "for your own good."
Susan Estrich: "The Disease Has Exploded" (creators.com)
It was the headline you never wanted to see. For nearly two years, I have started my day by checking in on Leroy Sievers to see how he is doing. His "My Cancer" blog on npr.com has become a family of sorts for people living with cancer, for people taking care of family and friends with cancer, and for anyone who has been touched by the disease or who hasn't.
Nation Buys Porn With Stimulus Package (Huffington Post)
President Bush's economic stimulus package, which appears so far to have been ineffective in stroking the economy to life, is giving an unexpected raise to the porn industry.
Brian McCollum: R&B and its offshoots deliver a message that crosses racial boundaries (Detroit Free Press)
It fused the heart of the blues, the energy of jazz and the transcendence of gospel music to become one of the most formidable musical forces in American history.
Will Harris: A Chat with Cy Curnin, lead singer of The Fixx (bullz-eye.com)
"Young kids growing up today have a different way of promoting themselves. They start locally - they always did in America, start locally - and get a ground swell going, and now they've got their own sites and they're able to sort of follow the ripples of their music a little bit more closely. They do shows for nothing, sell CDs for very little or even give CDs for nothing, and do shows for a price. It's however you want to make your living; you can do it any way you like."
PAUL CONSTANT: Humor Isn't Funny (thestranger.com)
But Steven Seagal Is. (Kind of.)
Roger Ebert: Car Wash (3 1/2 stars; from 1976; an Overlooked DVD)
The boss is named Mr. B. and he walks around with a dead cigar stuck in his face, pleading "Wash the cars! Wash the cars!" But that's the last thing they get around to in "Car Wash," a sunny, lively comedy.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
Shame of SHAD
Will the bipartisan efforts of Congressmen Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Dennis
Rehberg (R-MT) finally solve the lingering puzzle and scandal of Project
SHAD and Project 112 for deceived American veterans?
A: Aston Martin
Marty (Kinda) Reviews A Movie
'1776'
The kid really liked John Adams, and when he saw
1776 (1972) listed on
TCM, he set the DVR.
In Robert Osbourne's introduction it was mentioned that a song had been cut as a favor to Richard Nixon, but it was in the newly restored version they were about to air.
Dug around at IMdB and found this:
President
Richard Nixon was given a private screening of the movie before its release by his friend
Jack L. Warner, the producer. The song "Cool, Considerate Men" offended Nixon, so Warner removed it at his request.
And
Although the "Cool Cool Considerate Men" number was cut from the original print as a favor to
Richard Nixon by
Jack L. Warner, it was not destroyed as Warner had done before in similar circumstances, because he was no longer a studio head. For that reason only, the excised segment was found and could be restored to the DVD. Nixon asked the writer
Sherman Edwards to cut it out after seeing the play at the White House, but the author steadfastly refused.
Well, we were intrigued by the song that offended Nixon.
Here are the lyrics:
'Cool, Cool, Considerate Men'
Dickinson:
Oh say do you see what I see?
Congress sitting here in sweet serenity
I could cheer; the reason's clear
For the first time in a year Adams isn't here
And look, the sun is in the sky
A breeze is blowing by, and there's not a single fly
I sing hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna, hosanna
And it's cool
Come ye cool cool conservative men
The likes of which may never be seen again
We have land, cash in hand
Self-command, future planned
Fortune flies, society survives
In neatly ordered lives with well-endowered wives
We sing hosanna, hosanna
To our breeding and our banner
We are cool
Come ye cool cool considerate set
We'll dance together to the same minuet
To the right, ever to the right
Never to the left, forever to the right
May our creed be never to exceed
Regulated speed, no matter what the need
We sing hosanna, hosanna
Enblazoned on our banner
Is keep cool
What we do we do rationally
We never ever go off half-cocked, not we
Why begin till we know that we can win
And if we cannot win why bother to begin?
Rutledge:
We say this game's not of our choosing
Why should we risk losing?
All:
We are cool
To the right, ever to the right
Never to the left, forever to the right
We have gold, a market that will hold
Tradition that is old, a reluctance to be bold.
Dickinson:
I sing hosanna, hosanna
In a sane and lucid manner
We are cool
All:
Come ye cool cool considerate men
The likes of which may never be seen again
With our land, cash in hand
Self-command, future planned
And we'll hold to our gold
Tradition that is old, reluctant to be bold.
We say this game's not of our choosing
Why should we risk losing?
We cool, cool, cool
Cool, cool, cool
Cool cool men.
1776 - Cool, Cool, Considerate Men
After reading the lyrics, 1776 (1972) HAD to be added to our video collection.
And the refrain, "To the right, ever to the right
Never to the left, forever to the right" has been the catch phrase of our 4th of July weekend.
If you're not a fan of musicals, but like history, or if you're not a fan of history, but like musicals, or if you just plain like a smart, well-done movie (with some incredible hand-held camera work, back when it was an artform) or fabulous costumes and sumptuous sets, this movie rocks.
The newly restored version of 1776 (1972) is highly recommended.
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Nice summer day.
Takes Sides
Sean Penn
Sean Penn has joined the acting unions battle in Hollywood, urging his fellow Screen Actors Guild members not to vote for a new deal proposed by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
The movie star's thoughts about the deal - aimed at avoiding a summer strike - were sent in email form to all 44,000 SAG members on Thursday, after Penn had recorded a 30-second phone message, which hit union members earlier this week.
In the email, the actor/director writes, "AFTRA's deal not only falls short of fair compensation and protection for actors but just as significantly reflects corporate appeasement that will have an irreversible negative effect on the integrity of the show and the films we perform in.
"They're trying to buy us out, bully us down and, in so doing, they will destroy the very purpose of our work."
Sean Penn
Raises Awareness
Cindy Crawford
Supermodel Cindy Crawford has been making appearances this weekend in Madison, Wis., to raise awareness of pediatric cancer.
Crawford's younger brother, Jeff, was a patient at University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital. The boy died of leukemia in 1975 just before his fourth birthday.
Crawford is the honorary chair of Kids with Courage, which had its fourth reunion of childhood cancer survivors Saturday in Madison.
The University of Wisconsin says Crawford has been contributing time and money to the UW Pediatric Oncology program for nearly 20 years.
Cindy Crawford
NBC Universal To Buy
The Weather Channel
NBC Universal and two partners said Sunday they have reached a deal to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications Inc., ending a drawn-out process that had attracted interest from several major media companies.
Financial terms weren't disclosed, but a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity said the purchase price was $3.5 billion in cash. NBC was joined in the deal by the private equity firms The Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LLC.
In addition to The Weather Channel, which can be seen by 97 percent of U.S. cable subscribers, the deal also includes several related assets such as weather services for newspapers and radio stations and the widely used Web site Weather.com.
The Weather Channel was launched in 1982. Its Web site has about 37 million monthly unique visitors, putting it in the top 15 Web sites, according to the company. The Weather Channel has 1,300 employees and estimated annual revenues of $550 million.
The Weather Channel
Enters The Public Eye
Cookie Johnson
Magic Johnson's normally publicity-shy wife Cookie is emerging as a spokeswoman in a campaign urging black women to get tested for HIV.
Cookie Johnson is appearing with the former LA Lakers star in a five-year, $60-million public service campaign with ads directed by moviemaker Spike Lee.
She was two months pregnant when her husband tested positive for HIV in 1991.
Cookie Johnson, who tested negative for the virus, says part of the community still has the attitude that "it can't happen to me."
Cookie Johnson
Toyota To Add Solar Panels
Prius
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) plans to install solar panels on its next-generation Prius hybrid cars, becoming the first major automaker to use solar power for a vehicle, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.
The paper said Toyota would equip solar panels on the roof of the high-end version of the Prius when it redesigns the gasoline-electric hybrid car early next year, and the power generated by the system would be used for the air conditioning.
Toyota plans to use solar panels made by Kyocera Corp (6971.T), the Nikkei said.
The Prius, the world's first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car, first went on sale in Japan in late 1997 and in other markets in 2000, and its cumulative sales have topped 1 million units worldwide.
Prius
Free Speech & Other Constitutional Rights
The Internets
Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative.
Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.
Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.
The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services - from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video - become more central to public discourse around the world. It's a fallout of the Internet's market-driven growth, but possible remedies, including government regulation, can be worse than the symptoms.
The Internets
Implicated In "Suitcase Scandal"?
Hugo Chavez
A lawyer for a defendant in the Argentine "suitcase scandal" said a U.S. government witness has sworn that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was personally involved in the affair, according to a U.S. court filing.
The government witness, Carlos Kauffmann, pled guilty in March to U.S. charges arising from the seizure of $800,000 in a suitcase in Buenos Aires and agreed to testify against former associate Franklin Duran in exchange for lighter punishment.
U.S. prosecutors have indicated that they had been told the $800,000 was intended for the election campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the former first lady who won Argentina's presidential election in October.
The case set off a torrent of corruption allegations in Argentina and raised diplomatic tensions between Washington, Caracas and Buenos Aires.
Hugo Chavez
US Wanted Human Guinea Pigs
Nerve Gases
The United States military wanted to test deadly nerve gases on Australian troops in a remote area of far north Queensland in the 1960s but Canberra refused, a report said Sunday.
In 1962, then US defence secretary Robert McNamara wrote to Australian officials asking that the US and Australian military conduct secret joint testing of several nerve agents, including sarin, the report said.
"The United States proposes to use the agents GB (sarin), a non-persistent nerve gas, and VX, a persistent nerve gas -- both to be disseminated by aircraft delivered by bombs and tanks," it quoted one document as reading.
Some 200 Australian soldiers would have been involved in the testing to "determine persistency of chemical agents on jungle foliage and pick-up of such agents by personnel traversing area under simulated military operation."
Nerve Gases
Blamed For Brucellosis
Yellowstone Elk
Federal officials are considering a tentative proposal that calls for capturing or killing infected elk in Yellowstone National Park to eliminate a serious livestock disease carried by animals in the area.
Government agencies have killed more than 6,000 wild bison leaving Yellowstone over the last two decades in an attempt to contain brucellosis, which causes pregnant cattle to abort their young.
Cattle in parts of Wyoming and Montana where bison haven't roamed for decades are being infected, and livestock officials in both states are now targeting elk as the cause.
A tentative proposal, drafted by federal officials, sets a goal of eliminating the disease - not just controlling it in bison and in elk.
Yellowstone Elk
Ancient Royal Burial Ground Found
Egypt
Archaeologists have uncovered ancient wooden coffins in what appears to be a royal burial ground near the necropolis of Abydos in southern Egypt, the state-run MENA news agency reported on Saturday.
The agency said that the discovery, made by a team from the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, could be dated back to the Old Kingdom (3,000 B.C.) -- the golden age of pyramid building in ancient times.
The team "has found what could be a royal complex of 13 tombs of different shapes and sizes that could have belonged to high officials from that period or people who contributed to building these tombs," MENA said.
Objects made out of ivory similar to pieces used for playing chess were also found. MENA said only one other similar board game has been found in Egypt and that was among the fabled treasures of the legendary boy king Tutankhamun.
Egypt
International Championship
Cherry Pit Spitting
Brian "Young Gun" Krause has out-spit his father to claim his seventh championship at the International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship.
Krause's winning spit on Saturday was 56 feet, 7 1/2 inches.
That's 6 1/2 inches better than his father, the second-place finisher and defending champion, 54-year-old Rick "Pellet Gun" Krause of Tuba City, Ariz., who spit 56 feet, 1 inch.
Thirty-year-old Brian Krause, of Dimondale, currently holds the Guinness World Record after spitting a pit 93 feet, 6 1/2 inches in 2003.
Cherry Pit Spitting
Weekend Box Office
'Hancock'
Will Smith's box-office superpowers remain intact. Smith's "Hancock" - the story of a boozing, foul-mouthed superhero who dresses like a street bum - led the Fourth of July weekend with a $66 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The previous weekend's top flick, the Disney-Pixar animated tale "WALL-E," slipped to second place with $33.4 million. Its 10-day total is $128.1 million.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Hancock," $66 million.
2. "WALL-E," $33.4 million.
3. "Wanted," $20.6 million.
4. "Get Smart," $11.1 million.
5. "Kung Fu Panda," $7.5 million.
6. "The Incredible Hulk," $5 million.
7. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," $3.9 million.
8. "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," $3.6 million.
9. "Sex and the City," $2.3 million.
10. "You Don't Mess With the Zohan," $2 million.
'Hancock'
In Memory
Eric Lieber
Eric Lieber, whose television production credits include the long-running dating show "Love Connection," has died. He was 71.
Lieber created "Love Connection" in 1983 after decades producing other game shows, as well as the talk shows of Dick Cavett, Sammy Davis Jr. and Mike Douglas.
"Love Connection," hosted by Chuck Woolery, aired until 1995. Lieber also was executive producer of the 1998-1999 reprise of the series, hosted by Pat Bullard.
Lieber was born April 7, 1937, in Vienna and came to the United States as a baby. He grew up in New Jersey and launched his TV career in New York City in the 1950s.
Eric Lieber
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
