Posted on 11/28/2004 7:25:47 AM PST by BigWaveBetty
Celebrate the holidays with HGTV's 12 Days of Christmas Specials, featuring all things festive, from decorating on a budget to finding the perfect gift. On HGTV.com, expanded coverage of each special includes videos, slideshows, step-by-steps and more to guide you through this busy season.
Hey Remember! Christmas
Premiere: 11/28 at 8 pm/7c
See how home products have been marketed to American consumers over the past 50 years. More...
Outer Spaces for the Holidays
Premiere: 11/29 at 8 pm/7c
Watch as the exteriors of two homes are transformed into imaginative winter wonderlands. More...
Year 'Round Christmas
Premiere: 11/30 at 8 pm/7c
Meet people around the country who make their yuletide celebrations last all year long. More...
Christmas Room by Room Style
Premiere: 12/1 at 8 pm/7c
Matt and Shari explore unique inspirational ideas for this year's decor. HGTV.com offers instructions for these projects. More...
Divine Design Christmas
Premiere: 12/2 at 8 pm/7c
Candice Olson takes the ultimate holiday challenge as the festive season quickly approaches. More...
Home to Go Holiday Special
Premiere: 12/3 at 8 pm/7c
Explore a whole new way of dressing up your home and table for holiday entertaining. More...
Holiday Design on a Dime
Premiere: 12/4 at 8 pm/7c
Each design team transforms a room with distinctive holiday cheer. Get in-depth instructions, video clips and 10 additional holiday decorating ideas on HGTV.com. More...
A Very Merry Curb Appeal
Premiere: 12/5 at 8 pm/7c
These festive facelifts are filled with tons of ideas to improve the look of any home year-round. More...
Holiday Windows 2004
Premieres: 12/6 at 8 pm/7c
Go behind the scenes as the world's best department store Christmas windows are sketched, built, installed and revealed. More...
White House Christmas 2004
Premiere: 12/7 at 8 pm/7c
HGTV goes inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for a look at how the First Family decorates for the holidays. After the special, visit HGTV.com for a closer look at this year's decorations. More...
Webcam in Christmas grotto to protect Santa from abuse allegations
A young boy sits on the lap of a Santa Claus look-alike who is hesitantly holding the reins of a present-filled sled. the Saint Elli Centre, in Llanelli, has installed a spy camera in its Christmas grotto to protect its Father Christmas look-alike from possible child abuse allegations.(AFP/File/Oka Budhi)
Sad.
"Christmas is a time of wonder, fun and festivities, for young and old. As the nation's premier city ... surely we deserve better," the paper said. Talkback radio programmes were flooded with calls and even conservative Prime Minister John Howard joined in. "This is political correctness from central casting. It is unbelievable," Howard told Sydney radio 2UE. "This is the ridiculous thing about this blanding out of any kind of distinctive identity we might have. Christmas is not only a religious festival ... it is also part of the history and culture of this country," he said.
A single Christmas tree decorates the Town Hall in Sydney. The Lord Mayor Clover Mayor has said that the City council is following a generic approach to Christmas and is cognisant of the fact that Australia is a multicultural society and does not want to favour the Christian religion over other religions.(AFP/David Hancock)
Dang. That tree's not just puny. It's ugly!
Mary Francis Berry's term as chairman of the federal Civil Rights Commission ends Sunday. Of course, as is par for Ms. Berry, she contends her appointment doesn't end until Jan. 21st.
Even if the White House chooses to let her linger, it sounds like the House is preparing to reveal many irregularities after she's gone. Good on them! The "race hucksters" like Ms. Berry have had their day. Time to shine a light on their abuse of the long proud legacy of true "civil rights".
OLIVER Stone plans to explore the possibility of an affair between former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan in his next movie. Stone has apparently always been enamored of Baroness Thatcher, now 79, and wants to cast Meryl Streep in the role in an upcoming biopic, reports the London Sun. An insider told the paper Stone decided to turn his lens on a famous woman after his string of movies about famous men, including Richard Nixon, JFK, Jim Morrison and Fidel Castro. His latest, "Alexander," has been panned by critics and is doing poorly at the box office. (Page Six)
It couldn't be because heterosexual people, in general don't like to watch men make out (or whatever goes on in the film), especially sitting next to your spouse/heterodate. Heck this girl doesn't want to see two guys or girls making out. Doesn't mean I'm afraid of them, it means I don't find it attractive or stimulating or in the least bit interesting. I bet it's the same way when gays watch heteros kiss on TV and in the movies.
Militant Gays and their accommodating promoters like Stone will continue to rewrite history. We have to keep reminding the youngsters around us they must wear tin foil hat when watching an Oliver Stone movie.
Oliver is just lashing out over Kerry's election trouncing like any other 14 year boy would. Inside Stone's mind race thoughts like, I'll show the moral upstanding holier than thou republicans! I'll make a movie where their hero Regan is a lying, thieving, cheating womanizer! (Oliver: Wait, that sounds familiar - oh never mind...) Ron will cheat on Nancy with their Queen of conservatism, Marget Thatcher! When Nancy finds out she starts a covert war on our atmosphere and water. Getting the CIA to shred all environmental safe guards to turn America into a cesspool, except of course for her and her rich friends. Ronnie will take all the blame for destroying the Earth, all because the bond of love between Maggie and Ronnie were too great to be stopped by mere human willpower.
Oliver: I'll name the movie WOBBLY!
(no, I haven't been drinking....)
This may be the most bizarre information - ever.
Is Stone trying to make the case for the National Mental Health testing?
"It also comes from the fact that over the years, this commission has not been held accountable on a number of levels," Ms. [Mindy] Barry said, adding that while the commission is not "large on the radar screen" of oversight with a $9 million budget and 70 employees, "it is seen by so many as giving a bad name to civil rights, to that cause."
People like MFB are so foreign to me, why work so hard to make life so unpleasant?
Here are but a few of Ms. Berry's glad tidings:
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Assails Bush Administration Record on Civil Rights Use link for links in the "record".
U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS ASSAILS BUSH ADMINISTRATION RECORD ON CIVIL RIGHTS Washington, DC - In an assessment of the civil rights record of the Bush administration, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a draft report that concludes the administration has failed to exhibit leadership or define a clear focus, relegating civil rights to a low priority.
The report, Redefining Rights in America-The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration, 2001-2004, analyzes scores of policy reports, scholarly papers, briefs and executive orders to chart the administration's responses to a broad spectrum of civil rights issues. Similar criteria have guided evaluations of previous administrations, including the civil rights review on former President Clinton released in 2000.
Some highlights of the report include:
Voting Rights: The Bush administration did not provide leadership to ensure timely passage and swift implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. As a result, Congress did not appropriate funds for election reform until almost two years into the administration.
Equal Educational Opportunity: The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) does not sufficiently address unequal education, a major barrier to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students.
Affirmative Action: Instead of promoting affirmative action in federal contracting and education, the administration promotes "race neutral alternatives," in many instances not applicable and in others not overly effective at maintaining diversity.
Environmental Justice: EPA has taken few actions to ensure disparate impact of minority communities to environmental contamination.
Racial Profiling: The administration responded to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by instituting regulations that facilitate profiling rather than prevent it. Immigrants and visitors from Arab and Middle Eastern countries were subjected to increased scrutiny, including interviews, registration, and in some cases removal.
This one I'm saving for one of those sleepless nights:
Sorry JL, Stone is much too far gone, there is no hope of him ever regaining sanity again.
Although, a tough case like Stone's could keep NMH testing busy for quite a while.
Here's an idea. We'll get our minions in the republican congress to pass a bill so that NHM tests all America hating pacifists, actors who think they're smarter than their audiences, bad movie makers (Spike Lee and Michael Moore, not mention Stone), hip-hop artists turned political, singers a with mission and rich-do-nothing glamor girls/boys, religious intolerants, and those with über arrogance first. That should keep them busy leaving the rest of us to lead normal, happy lives for many, many years.
Well, a girl can dream can't she?
Here's a review of his latest film:
Oliver Stone, absent from theaters for five years (his last theatrical release, Any Given Sunday , found him uninspired and weary), returns with what is not only his lousiest movie, but an immediate contender for the year's absolute worst. Alexander , Stone's three-hour biopic of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell beneath a dyed mop) is bloated, disjointed, unintentionally funny, bloody -- and bloody awful. Immediate example: couldn't anyone persuade Angelina Jolie, as Alexander's spooky mum, to abandon an accent which sounds exactly like Natasha from Rocky and Bullwinkle ? No one here gets out alive: Jared Leto, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson and Val Kilmer (star of Stone's The Doors , where he was terrific) all work well below their expected levels. The script, by Stone and two lesser lights, is a bungle. Every sentence is an exclamation! No one talks like a real human being! Ever!
***
Sounds as though he should have gone directly to the video stores with this puppy.
Any bets on whether or not our friend from Iowa took her digital camera to DC?
(I'm betting the under.)
Be more optimistic with Gran! I got my camera to the event in Michigan with HLL to see Laura. My downfall was, I didn't practice enough using it and then on the day of the event left my reading glasses in my purse (can't take those in you know), so it was impossible to see what I might be taking a picture of. No matter how I adjusted the lens everything was blurry or was that just my eyesight? argh!
You'll be happy to know I now wear REAL glasses, not just reading glasses (I was using them to see everything) so the next time the occasion calls for a picture I'll be ready. Oh, and I'd better get more practice on that new digital camera. Wish me luck! ;-)
IG's a much smarter and more experienced cookie than me at these sorts of things, she won't disappoint.
Good luck with the new cameras - as with most acquired skills, the time spent practicing makes the difference in the performance.
We're getting my father one of those picture viewers things that use the telephone line so that he can get daily digital pics of his great-grandson, and hopefully keep him perked-up in the nursing home.
That sounds pretty neat, do you have a link that would direct me to some info on it?
I have seen it operate
and it is VERY cool for the computer averse.
Sightings - (Can't you just feel the love?) SENATORS John Kerry, Jon Corzine and Hillary Clinton at the surprise birthday party for outgoing Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle at The Four Seasons restaurant ... (Page Six)
Dame Edna says John Kerry should be happy he lost the election. "He needs a little more time now to learn the names of his children's pets and spend his wife's money," she told me. ... (Ben Widdicome, NY Daily News)
This certainly is encouraging:
PARIS (AP) -- Police at Paris' top airport lost track of a passenger's bag in which plastic explosives were placed to train bomb-sniffing dogs, police said Saturday. Warned that the bag may have gotten on any of nearly 90 flights from Charles de Gaulle, authorities searched planes upon arrival in Los Angeles and New York. French police said the explosives were harmless and there was no chance of their going off, since no detonators were connected to them. More than 300 passengers were evacuated and their luggage searched when their Air France flight from Charles de Gaulle arrived in Los Angeles late Friday the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said .... rest of story
Kerry, in NH visit, sounds a lot like a candidate
MANCHESTER — It sounded like the opening bars of a new campaign song, not an elegy to a lost election. U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry last night delivered a rousing call to action to a room filled with hundreds of supporters at the Center of New Hampshire Radisson Hotel.
“Keep up the fight. Keep New Hampshire blue forever,” Kerry shouted, referring to the red/blue color code that television networks used to differentiate between states won by Republican President George W. Bush and those where Democrat Kerry was victorious.
In the Nov. 2 election, New Hampshire was the only state won by Kerry that had been carried by Bush four years ago. Kerry defeated Bush here by about 9,300 votes. ...
The Massachusetts senator, slightly more than a month after the election he had felt sure he would win, came out swinging, in a call to keep up the fight for the issues that characterized his campaign.
“I feel so passionate about these issues that I am going to use all the energy God gives me to pursue them,” Kerry said. [It's okay, Effin, the election's over and you don't have to fake that religious thing any more]
Referring to GOP voter registration challenges in Ohio that may have cost him that state’s vital electoral votes, Kerry said, “We’re going to clearly bring (attention to) the rights of American people to vote without being harassed.” full story
And as if that weren't disgusting enough:
Former U.S. presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry (2nd L), D-MA, and fellow Senator Ted Kennedy (L), D-MA, carry flowers as they walk to the military funeral of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dimitrios Gavriel at Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington DC, December 2, 2004. Gavriel, from Haverhill, Massachusetts, died November 19 while fighting in Al Anbar Province in Iraq, and his funeral is the 99th 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. REUTERS/Jason Reed
Thanks JL, I'll have Mr. look into it to see if it's something his did might want.
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