'Best of TBH Politoons'
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RFK Jr. Working With Lawyers to Devise Litigation Strategies Over Ohio 2004
PRWeek: Why do you think this wasn't covered heavily by major media directly after the election?
Kennedy: I think the mainstream media took up the Republican echo chamber, and just echoed the right-wing talking points.
Jim Hansen: The Threat to the Planet (nybooks.com)
Animals are on the run. Plants are migrating too. The Earth's creatures, save for one species, do not have thermostats in their living rooms that they can adjust for an optimum environment. Animals and plants are adapted to specific climate zones, and they can survive only when they are in those zones.
Jerry A. Coyne: Thirty years of the Selfish Gene (prweek.com)
A coiner of memorable phrases and a ferocious enemy of those who water the dark roots of superstition. But Richard Dawkins is a storyteller too, and the tales he tells are true...
Jacob Weisberg: The Misunderestimated Man (slate.com)
How Bush chose stupidity.
Timothy Noah: Election or Art? (slate.com)
Harry Shearer turns satellite feeds into found objects.
Poor Elijah (Peter Berger): Entitlement (A Commencement Address) (irascibleprofessor.com)
We've taught you to glory in self-expression while we've disdained troubling you with the tedious details like spelling, punctuation, and grammar that make clear expression possible. We've so inflated your grades and your self-esteem that they far exceed your achievements and abilities. American students, for instance, are more confident and comfortable with their math skills and prowess than their international peers, even though their actual math skills and prowess don't rank anywhere near the top of the international heap.
Terril Yue Jones: Teachers Adjust Lesson Plans as Web Fuels Plagiarism (latimes.com)
School term papers may be going the way of the typewriters once used to write them. "It's so easy to cheat and steal from the Internet that I don't even assign papers anymore," said Bobbie Eisenstock, an assistant professor of journalism at Cal State Northridge. "I got tired of night after night checking for cheaters."
Video: Stephen Colbert and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Lots of sun, but not too hot.
Magic Mountain has a special - buy 1 ticket & give them an empty Coke can and get a 2nd ticket free.
A promotion like this is normal during the off-season, but not during tourist season.
Must be that booming economy.
Added a new flag - Reunion 
Twin Confusion
Thom Yorke
Thom Yorke has expressed his confusion at discovering that one of resident Bush's daughters attended Radiohead's recent show in New York City.
Yorke has posted a message on the band's official website commenting on the news that the unnamed member of the Bush family watched the show. Yorke said he was completely unaware that she was in the audience until the group spotted a commotion towards the end of the gig.
He explained: "We were playing 'The Tourist' at the end of the show...and yes we did wonder what the shuffling manhandling fighting was in the distance of the audience. Turns out it was her six bodyguards clearing the way for the first daughter's exit. and some poor soul objected at being manhandled by the secret service. I think I would have to."
He continued: "In fact, if I had known all this my objections would have been more forthright and extensive...if you know what I mean. Which is perhaps why our lot chose not to tell me who was in the building before we went on. Probably a good idea."
Radiohead famously named their last album, 2004's Hail To The Thief, after George W. Bush's controversial appointment as President.
Thom Yorke
Honorary Degree
Michael Douglas
Actor Michael Douglas brought a touch of Hollywood glamour to St Andrews University in Scotland as he was handed an honorary degree for his services to film.
The 61-year-old, wearing a dark lounge suit, white shirt and white bow tie, topped with the traditional black graduate's gown, knelt as he was conferred the Doctor of Letters at the ceremony in the famous west coast golf town on Wednesday.
He was accompanied by his wife, the Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, who clapped and smiled broadly as the orange hood of the gown was placed over Douglas' head after the citation was read.
Michael Douglas
Paints Wall
Roger Waters
Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters, who inspired the rock band's iconic album "The Wall," scrawled "tear down the wall" on the concrete panels of Israel's West Bank barrier on Wednesday.
"I've seen pictures of it, I've heard a lot about it but without being here you can't imagine how extraordinarily oppressive it is and how sad it is to see these people coming through these little holes," he added. "It's craziness."
Waters added to graffiti with red spray paint and a marker pen. Waters was lyricist, songwriter and singer for Pink Floyd, the former British rock group famous for "The Wall" and "The Dark Side of the Moon."
Roger Waters
Criticizes U.S. Priorities
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie says the U.S. government has "strange" priorities when it comes to spending money on war rather than on AIDS or refugees.
"We're missing a lot of opportunities (to do) a lot of good that America used to do and has a history of doing," said Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.'s refugee agency.
Jolie said that when she is in Washington to raise funds for AIDS orphans, she is often told the war in Iraq is the more pressing matter.
Angelina Jolie
Funeral Mix-Up
Harry Belafonte
The elder son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. said it was a "big mistake" that his family did not make sure entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte spoke at Coretta Scott King's funeral, according to a published report.
Belafonte, who has strongly criticized resident George W. Bush, has said that he was invited to speak but that the invitation was rescinded at the insistence of the White House.
Martin Luther King III, whose father was friends with Belafonte, denied that the White House was involved and said he considers the situation a mistake, the Chicago Defender newspaper reported Wednesday.
The mix-up occurred because the invitation to Belafonte came from a person helping to plan the service, not directly from the family, King said.
Harry Belafonte
Ramones Musical To Make U.K. Debut
'Gabba Gabba Hey!'
The new Ramones musical Gabba Gabba Hey! is to make its U.K. debut in London next month, it has been announced.Gabba Gabba Hey! features 18 Ramones songs and has been musically directed by former band member Tommy Ramone.
The show will begin its run on July 31 at Koko in Camden, London, and will conclude on August 5, with Tommy Ramone appearing in a house band led by former Clash guitarist Nick Sheppard.
Among the songs performed in the musical, which has already toured Australia, Germany, and Switzerland, are "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Beat On The Brat," and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker."
'Gabba Gabba Hey!'
Suffers Stroke
Aaron Spelling
Prolific television producer Aaron Spelling, whose shows include "Beverly Hills 90210," "Dynasty," "Charlie's Angels," "Love Boat" and "Melrose Place," suffered a stroke over the weekend and was briefly hospitalized, his spokesman said on Wednesday.
Spokesman Kevin Sasaki said the 83-year-old Spelling, whose series helped shape prime time television and boost the careers of such stars as Heather Locklear and Nick Nolte, was being cared for at home.
Sasaki said he had no details of the extent of the stroke but said that the fact he was released from the hospital was a positive sign.
Aaron Spelling
Republicans Want Media Monopoly
FCC
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched what is expected to be a fierce battle over whether to relax media ownership restrictions on television, radio and newspapers, a move that could spark consolidation in the industry.
A top priority of Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's agenda has been to allow a company to own a newspaper and a radio or television station that serve the same market and he repeated his desire to revamp the 1975 ban preventing such cross-ownership.
The FCC tried to ease ownership restrictions in 2003, but an appeals court put them on hold, saying the agency failed to justify the limits it set. The public comment period will last four months and the effort could take at least a year.
FCC
Sues Florida Over Book Ban
ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to stop the Miami-Dade County school district from removing a series of children's books from its libraries, including a volume about Cuba which depicts smiling kids in communist uniforms.
Last week, the board voted 6-3 to remove "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A Visit to Cuba" from 33 schools, stating the books were inappropriate for young readers because of inaccuracies and omissions about life in the communist nation.
The book, by Alta Schreier, targets students ages 5 to 7 and contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the 1959 Cuban revolution. The district owns 49 copies of the book in Spanish and English.
The school board also decided to remove 24 other books in the series, including ones on Greece, Mexico and Vietnam, "despite not having received a complaint about those books and without having reviewed the books in its administrative process," the suit said.
ACLU
French Literary Collection Auctioned
Pierre Beres
One of France's greatest private collections of manuscripts and rare editions from the giants of French literature fetched high prices late on Tuesday in the most closely watched auction of its type in years.
The sale of the private library of Pierre Beres, a legendary Paris book dealer, aroused unusual interest after he donated the manuscript of "La Chartreuse de Parme," one of the great novels of the 19th century, to the state earlier in the week.
After 80 years in the book trade, Beres, 93, has accumulated an enormous collection of sought-after editions and signed albums that constituted a virtual history of French literature from the medieval poet Francois Villon onwards.
Pierre Beres
When Wingnuts Rule
Gwinnett County
The library system in this suburban Atlanta county says no mas - it won't buy any more thrillers, romance novels or other works of adult fiction in Spanish.
The decision has angered Hispanic leaders and thrust Gwinnett County - where one out of six residents is Hispanic - into the nation's immigration debate.
The budget cut passed without discussion at a June 12 meeting, minutes after reporters and residents rushed out the room because the library director had been fired for reasons the board has not disclosed.
Gwinnett County
Auctions Personal Journal
Angelina Jolie
Auctioneers in Chile opened a gift sent by Hollywood star Angelina Jolie to be put on the block to raise money for refugees.
The gift: her personal journal about her visits to world refugee camps, to be auctioned on the website www.deremate.cl until June 30, to benefit refugees living in the South American country.
"Notes From My Travels: Visits With Refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador" carries Jolie's autograph and a handwritten note that reads "With Love," a picture on the auction website shows.
Angelina Jolie
AOL Co-Producing CBS Saturday
Kids Programming
AOL, the online unit of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc., on Wednesday said it will co-produce television network CBS's Saturday kids programming lineup, bringing together two of traditional media's biggest competitors -- the Internet and video games.
AOL's kids division, KOL, will co-produce part of CBS's Saturday programming schedule with privately held management company DIC Entertainment.
The Saturday programming block will be named "KOL's Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS" and will premiere on September 16, along with a Web site.
Kids Programming
Muse of Music Sculpture Restored
Hollywood Bowl
The massive art deco Muse of Music sculpture and fountain outside the Hollywood Bowl emerged glistening this week from an extensive rehabilitation.
Decades of wear and tear and neglect had left it the 60-metre-long, 6.6-metre-high sculpture in disrepair and overgrown with vegetation.
Commissioned in 1937 as part of the Depression-era federal Works Progress Administration's art projects, it was designed by sculptor George Stanley and completed in 1940 at a cost of more than $100,000 US.
Hollywood Bowl
Staff Cuts
Court TV
Turner Broadcasting slashed 50 jobs at its newly acquired Court TV cable channel on Tuesday.
Pink slips were handed out to staffers in finance, accounting, affiliate sales and public relations. Many of the terminated employees will stay on through summer's end. Some were offered jobs in Turner headquarters in Atlanta but declined.
Additional rounds of layoffs are expected to claim more posts during the next few months in other departments where Turner and Court TV share services, including advertising sales, research and legal.
Court TV
Memory Honored
Billy Preston
Joe Cocker sang, Little Richard reminisced, and hundreds of friends and relatives of Billy Preston celebrated his musical legacy Tuesday during a funeral as vibrant as Preston himself.
A brass band played a rollicking version of "Amazing Grace" during a service filled with tributes to the prolific songwriter and keyboardist who played with the Beatles so often he was sometimes called the fifth member of the band.
"He made that piano walk and talk," said Little Richard, who discovered Preston, then in high school, took him on tour in the early 1960s and introduced the teen prodigy to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Billy Preston
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
