I think this is what they call being "full-breasted."

FWIW, I don't want to leave Blogger.com, but if they keep giving me reasons...

Here's the latest. Presently, if I click on the "Request Unlock Review" link, I get a message which says both

Your blog is in violation of the terms of service

and

Blogger is a free service for communication, self-expression and freedom of speech.

This would seem inconsistent.

I could all but choke on the bitter irony.

wolf hunting opened in many areas of Idaho Tuesday, Sept. 1

--that is, on my 38th birthday. And many of you long-timers may remember how I feel about wolves--for any newbies, they're my third favorite animal after cats and dolphins.

And who's so eager to hunt wolves? Big men. Big men like-

Robert Millage of Kamiah said he was surrounded by a pack of wolves before dawn and waited until light to call them with a hand call that sounded like a wounded coyote. The 80-pound female wolf came to him yards before Millage shot her with his .243 rifle in the Lolo Zone. The wolf was around 30 yards from the hunter when she was shot.

I. Fucking. Hate. Hunters.

You should also know that wolves threatening humans is much more unusual than, say, the other way around:

In a news release, Defenders of Wildlife states, “The scheduled wolf hunts would cripple the regional wolf population by isolating wolves into disconnected subgroups incapable of genetic or ecological sustainability. The wolf hunts would also allow the killing of the breeding alpha male and female wolves, thereby disrupting the social group, leaving pups more vulnerable.

Aggressive hunting plans in Idaho and Montana will dramatically reduce gray wolf populations and jeopardize the future of gray wolves in the northern Rockies.” Melanie Stein, Associate Regional Representative, Sierra Club.

The only good news is:

Idaho hunters will have their work cut out for them to reach the 220-wolf limit set by Fish and Game commissioners earlier this month, experts say.

Becky Schwanke, a wolf biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and a hunter whose husband and father trap wolves, was more blunt about Idaho hunters' chances for success.

Wolves aren't going to remain naive for long.

Schwanke said wolves will be cagey even if they haven't been hunted.

...a wolf encountered is not a wolf killed.

Here's to a lot of encounters that are not kills.

You've heard of a deal with the devil? How about a deal with an angel?

I admit it freely: I watched the season premiere of Tyra Banks' syndicated talk show today. I was curious about the much-hyped "reveal" of her real hair.

Minus wigs, extensions, and so on, Tyra Banks looked like...she looked like a sexy angel. She's still Tyra Banks, for crying out loud.

I sort of love Tyra, and it's not just because according to one of those blog quizzes, if I were a Victoria's Secret model, she's the one I'd be. Although that doesn't hurt.

Later in the show, she had Perez Hilton on as a guest. Tyra proposed to him a deal: If he would refrain from talking trash about celebrity kids (she specified: under 18) for six months, she would put him on her America's Next Top Model show.

Sounds good to me. And not just because the prize was hanging out with Tyra Banks and some aspiring models for a few days, either.

I try never to talk trash about children--celebrity or otherwise--anyway. Of course, maybe that's why I'm not a celebrity and Hilton--tho I can't quite believe it--is.

I'm not a regular reader of Hilton's blog; I don't think I ever have been. I hold not much brief for him one way or the other. Or at least, I didn't, until I found out that he lied to Tyra when he agreed to her deal.

Hilton, who reportedly taped the episode last month, was only willing to take a one-month hiatus from kid bashing, but after an on-camera negotiation with Banks that started with her asking for a year-long freeze, the duo agreed that he’d avoid catty comments about underage kids for six months. Ironically, the episode aired only a few weeks after Hilton took Demi Moore’s 15-year-old daughter Tallulah to task on his Twitter page for wearing a low-cut top.

Lying to a Victoria's Secret Angel...there's a special place in hell for people like that.

Get 'im, Tyra!



PS: And for pete's sake, why would you pick on a 15-year-old kid when Demi "my breasts are 100% real!" Moore is right there?

Even going after Rumer Willis--seen at left with her mother--would be a bit more defensible.*

There is still some legitimate question about her acting ability (call it a hunch, but Sorority Row is not going to help) and she's a grown woman.

*I wouldn't, tho. I'm feeling all peace-and-love towards Rumer Willis tonight because she's expressed-

disgust [with] "young Hollywood" because it promotes the idea you need to "see your bones through your skin" to be considered beautiful.

The girls I will probably love forever

Just because of who they were when I was who I was, if you know what I mean.

Lea Thompson. Many may try, but few will ever be as cute.



Ally Sheedy and Molly Ringwald. Face it, ladies, this is who you're competing with in my head, pretty much 24/7.


...(now, and Then)

Who totally would've played Hermione Granger if the Harry Potter movies'd been made about 25 years earlier.



Granted it didn't last long-no more than three years, tops-but there was a time there when Rae Dawn Chong was a godess.

Speaking of which...

Madonna.

Still, yeah, when all is said and done.

Kelly McGillis. BTW, did you know that according to at least one source, Madonna and the recently out McGillis had an affair?

And finally, of course, Brigitte Nielsen.

...no, I'm kidding about that one.

Imagine no posessions, indeed

Alyssa Milano got married recently too, but has yet to follow in Milla's fottsteps further by taking off her clothes for the camera.

I guess whe know who really cares about her fans.

Per People Magazine:

The “Who's the Boss?” alum walked down the aisle to John Lennon's iconic song Imagine, wearing a custom made Vera Wang gown...

That strike anybody else as ironic?

Dear Mr. Obama...who did we elect president?

...and I call him "Mr." Obama, not "President" Obama for a very real reason which I will get to in a moment. I see in the AP that:

As Obama talked strategy with Democratic leaders at the White House, the one idea that most appeals to his party's liberal base lost ground in Congress. Prospects for a government-run plan to compete with private insurers sank as a leading moderate Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, said he could no longer support the idea.

BTW, the plan Sen. Baucus does support will fine Americans who cannot afford health insurance.

Yes, you read that right. The American dream has gone from quality health care for all, to let's put a double tax on people who are already leading loveless, undignified lives.

Do you ever get the feeling that the ghost of Dick Cheney (I know, you say, he's not dead, I say, I are you sure of that?) has a shotgun trained on Obama in the Oval Office?

The fast-moving developments put Obama in a box. As a candidate, he opposed fines to force individuals to buy health insurance, and he supported setting up a public insurance plan.

Democrats are considering a fallback: using the public plan as a last resort if after a few years the insurance industry has failed to curb costs. That approach is also being pushed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate whose support could be critical to any health legislation.

Here's where we get to why I refer to him as "Mr." Obama, sir. In his speech tomorrow, one of the things which I will be looking to him to answer is this: Just who did my country elect president last November?

Did we elect Max Baucus? We damn sure did not. Did we elect Olympia Snowe president? We did not.

We elected Barack Obama. Lately I've been wondering if he realizes that. I ask because for a couple of people who were not chosen to lead their country, people like Baucus and Snowe seem to carry a lot more weight than the person who was.

And he looks like a Steppin' Fetchit running to curry their favor:

"[Obama]'s been receptive, recognizing that there's difficulties with the public option," Snowe said.

No, there aren't problems with the public option, Mr. Obama...Senator Snowe. Not according to...oh, what is the phrase...the public:

What there are, is problems with most of the Republican lawmakers...and just too many of the Democratic ones.

Damnit.

Name That Tune

Thanks to Mark Evanier for including this clip on his blog, thereby informing me it was on YouTube so I could include it on mine. This is one of the classic Sesame Street songs.



Just the other day my mother and I were singing it to my nephew in the car on the way to go swimming.

Growing up, I knew and loved the song best through its appearance on the Bert & Ernie Sing-Along: Original Cast SS album.

Which was, itself, one of the best-loved albums of my childhood...

Point of order: On Greek, Calvin and Mike are not bisexual.

Here's a short piece purportedly about how

Some of our favorite mainstream [TV] characters are embracing their bisexual sides (well, the writers are).

Now same-sex smooches are as commonplace as opposite-sex ones. In May, on ABC frat romp "Greek," college boys Calvin and Mike played tonsil hockey

As I say above, (at least) one thing demands a correction, at least as far as I'm concerned (and that's all we're really concerned with around here, after all): Calvin and Mike are both gay, Calvin openly, Mike less so.

What's weird is that the Rebecca-thinks-she-might-be-a-lesbian storyline on Greek is a much better fit for what this article is talking about--but then, I'm not convinced that the article knows what it's talking about.

As usual, what it's really about is the use of hot-and-(same) sexy girls (mostly) as an attempt to pull viewers.

Emma Watson and two would-be worshippers whom she has bewitched

Or: If Wishes were Horses

You'd think being in Pearl Harbor would be embarassing enough

Kate Beckinsale says she won't be appearing in another Underworld movie for fear that seeing her mother in such tight costumes would embarass her daughter, Lilly.

The fact that by most accounts, the Underworld movies suck has nothing to do with it, of course.

Look what's off the market, boys

Milla Jovovich got married recently. As if to commemorate the occasion, she also decided to pose in the nude--totally, completely in the nude--for some magazine called Purple.

(Pictures via Egotastic--and yes, there's more.)



Beautiful girl, that.



Though maybe I shouldn't say girl-these pictures remind me of those early Madonna ones I like so much because she looks like a real, grown-up, adult woman.

Best-named campaign for early breast cancer detection ever.

Touch A Tit, Save A Tit, starring Jaime King, Katherine McPhee; Emily Deschanel (all pictured).

These are just photos from the set of a first of a series of PSAs (more at the link including Minka Kelly, Alyson Hannigan and Taryn Southern). I'll try to bring you the full things when they become available.

And I should hope this goes without saying but all easy jokes aside, obviously this is a very good cause.

Spam defined

My Dancing Girls blog has been temporarily (I hope) "locked" by Blogger. You might understandably think this is because of its "adult" content but you'd be so wrong.

The Blogger TOS explicitly permit adult content and anyway the content on that blog leans towards the PG-13.



No you see, DG "has been identified as a potential spam blog" by "The Blogger Team."

A "spam blog" is thusly defined:

The ease of creating and updating webpages with Blogger has made it particularly prone to a form of behavior known as link spamming. Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site.

Ok, "irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text." Granted that's a judgment call, but I'm prepared to concede any time that I have written about Kim Kardashian, it's irrelevant.

However, "The Blogger Team" can tell the likes of Lisa Edelstein and Eva Mendes about that "repetitive and nonsensical" crack themselves. I can't be held responsible for how they might react.



"Lisa, did you see what they just said about what Ben writes about us?"













"Yes, I did. I'll go warm up the car."



"Hold on, I'll want to wear heels for this..."

But seriously(?)...I don't think that blog has what anybody could describe as a large number of links--and the ones that are there certainly don't all go to the same site.

I've requested a "review" and with any luck, that blog will be "unlocked" in a couple of days.

even while admitting that this individual image does rather touch my heart...

...as always, I feel compelled to reassert my aversion to Japanese animation.

(It's from Hayao Miyazaki’s film Ponyo)

An educated guess

When she grows up, if she wants to, Ireland Baldwin is going to rule all of Hollywood. Why do I say this? Well, first of all, take a look at the statuesque beauty--already taller than her mother, Kim Basinger, who is not a short woman.



And Ireland Baldwin (she of the famous voicemail from her father, Alec) is only 13. Young, beautiful, tall; good acting and comedy genes? Talk about the world being your oyster...

Well shake it up baby, now...

The new Entertainment Weekly has one of those "50 best" lists; this time, it's Best Songs of The Beatles.

As an EW blog says,

Is there even such a thing as the best Beatles song of all time? ...Whichever song you personally think is the Beatles’ best, chances are you’re right.

That said, their list is actually pretty good, as those lists go. They hit most of my high points: "A Day in the Life" (No.2), "Strawberry Fields" (No. 4), (No. 30) "Help!" (No.13), "She Loves You" (No. 6), "All You Need Is Love" (No. 50).

I guess the "song" category leaves out "Twist & Shout" because none of the Beatles actually wrote it, but if you want to talk about a record, or a vocal...

Conversely, while I might buy that "Helter Skelter" (No.47) or "Let It Be" (No.7) belong on such a list as songs, I think the recordings The Beatles actually made of them are a bit of a bust.



One of the only ones on their list I would've left out, if this were just my list, is "I Saw Her Standing There." But I realize that's a personal thing--it just hasn't been a part of my life the way it has for others (and other songs have for me).

And for our "What? No..." category, there's "Here, There and Everywhere," which is found nowhere on EW's list, even tho it's one of McCartney's most graceful.

As an aside--a pet theory of mine is that if you really want to know the best McCartney songs and the best Lennon songs, read what they've said about each other's work.

Competitors as well as collaborators, they were also each other's best critics. My point being, Lennon always said "Here..." was one of his favorite songs of the Beatles, which means it was good.

Also among the missing: I'm not sure, but it seems like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" should be on here somewhere. And neither version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is on? (Personally I like the reprise--their best "rock" recording IMO).

Just to get cute EW decided to add choices for the five "worst" Beatle songs, too ("All You Need Is Love" makes both lists). I find it hard to imagine anyone getting too worked up about defending "Dig It," "Don't Pass Me By," or "Wild Honey Pie."

But I do feel a twinge of guiltorsomethinglikeit that leads me to want to stick up for "Flying." See, I could've done a post about the top five most-underrated Beatles songs, only it would've read a lot like the track listing to Magical Mystery Tour.

Plus "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite"--altho, even tho that's a brilliant production, as a song perhaps it can left off on the grounds that Lennon took virtually the whole lyric from an antique poster. And maybe "Think For Yourself."

Speaking of Josh Marshall, as I was, or...

...actually Bill Moyers was, just a moment ago, this:

Another Obama First

Barack Obama definitely the first black man to get attacked by the right for telling kids to study hard and stay in school.

Come on, Mr. President.

Tina Turner notwithstanding, we need another hero.

Via Daily Kos, this from Bill Moyers (excerpts):

Come on, Mr. President. Show us America is more than a circus or a market. Remind us of our greatness as a democracy. When you speak to Congress next week, just come out and say it. ...

Here's a suggestion, Mr. President: ask Josh Marshall to draft your speech. Josh is the founder of the website talkingpointsmemo.com. He's a journalist and historian, not a politician. He doesn't split things down the middle and call it a victory for the masses. He's offered the simplest and most accurate description yet of a public insurance plan — one that essentially asks people: would you like the option — the voluntary option — of buying into Medicare before you're 65?

God forbid that while talking to 60,000 public school students, the President should appear smart

Okay, the 'Obama speaks to schoolchildren, conservatives inexplicably threatened' thing. I haven't had anything to say about this yet because all I could think of was the above quote from the sadly fictitious President Bartlet in The West Wing. I figured I've been to that well at least one time too many.

Oh, that, and the obvious explanation for conservatives feeling threated (racism) but that was, well, obvious.

But then I found this piece by Jason Linkins on Huffington Post.

It starts:

Yesterday, I noted that Florida's GOP Chair Jim Greer had heard about President Barack Obama's intention to address the schoolchildren of America on the occasion of the start of a new school year, and went quite mental, warning darkly that the address was nothing more than a dastardly inculcation into socialism and a viral spread of liberal propaganda. Naively, I imagined this would be a derangement confined to a few weird nobodies, but, duh, I forgot: everyone is crazy now.

--which of course made me think of the songtitle "Mama Weer All Crazee Now." But this is the 'graph that made my brain light up:

Oh, and there are also examples of fringey types equating the outreach effort to the Civilian National Security Force and "Hitler youth brigades" and admonishing, "Leave our kids alone!" It's like the right wing blogosphere went home, dosed themselves with mescaline and sat around watching History Channel reruns on mute while Pink Floyd's The Wall played in the background.

Emphasis mine. Gotta admit, that would explain a lot...