By Staff
The Rolling Stones broadside the American right in a new song, "Sweet Neo Con," from their new album, "A Bigger Bang."
The track contains the line, "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of s--," according to Newsweek magazine.
In an interview for broadcast Aug. 10 on the syndicated TV show "Extra," Jagger said the song is not aimed at anyone specifically, such as President Bush.
The 16-track album comes out in the United States on Sept. 6. "Sweet Neo Con" was not featured on a 12-track advance CD circulated to critics.
The band was rehearsing in Toronto ahead of a world tour that begins Aug. 21 in Boston.
The Stones played a club show for 1,000 fans at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre.
Tickets were priced at just $8.26, well below the tour's $478 top price.
In their 43-year career, the Stones have not exactly been in the vanguard of rock-n-roll activism, but they are capable of rising to the occasion when controversy will draw attention to their tour.
You can count on one hand their "political" songs: "Street Fighting Man," 1968; "Undercover (of the Night)," about Latin America civil rights abuses, 1983; and "Highwire," during the Gulf War, 1991.
Worst summer ever: The latest in a series of tragedies to strike Scouting-related activities killed an 8-year-old Pennsylvania girl and injured three other girls ages 9, 10 and 16 Aug. 10 in New Jersey.
A 31-foot oak tree snapped during first aid class, crashed through a tarp over a picnic table and landed on her head.
The girls were among 17 children at a weeklong "Learning for Life" program at 600-acre Joseph A. Citta Scout Reservation.
Four adult Scout leaders died in a July electrical accident at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia. Five other people died this summer from drowning and lightning during Scout outings in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and California.
Whatever happened to Marc Cohn?: Never knew the Grammy-winning musician married ABC reporter Elizabeth Vargas until he got shot in the head during a carjacking after a Denver show.
He was treated and released Aug. 8, the day after being struck in the temple when a man who missed a drug and weapons charge court date July 15 fired into his band's van in a parking garage.
Cohn, who hit with "Walking in Memphis," won the 1992 Grammy Award for best new artist.
Too much fun: A South Korean man, 28, died of an apparent heart attack after playing computer games nonstop for 49 hours in an Internet cafe. He collapsed Aug. 5 after eating little and not sleeping. He had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work. He refused to leave his keyboard during Starcraft, a battle simulation game.
Grinch sentenced: David Lee Ellisor, 52, who sold tickets to thousands of children for a non-existent Christmas pageant, got more than seven years in prison Aug. 10.
Ellisor was convicted in February of eight counts of mail fraud for a December 2003 scam in which he sold $10 tickets to more than 2,700 Miami-Dade County, Fla., schoolchildren and parents for a "Christmas Around the World" show he claimed would be attended by ambassadors from 28 countries and even feature live reindeer.
But on the day the show was to begin, trial evidence indicated Ellisor emptied the bank account and bought a Jaguar.
Learning there would be no show left hundreds of children crying outside the Coconut Grove Convention Center. There was evidence Ellisor pulled similar scams in Utah, California, Missouri, Colorado and Arizona.
Far side of the moon, $100 million: A Virginia company is selling round-trip tickets for lunar orbit, which has been experienced by only 27 people and not in 33 years. Space Adventures' first mission could happen in 2008 or '09. CEO Eric Anderson announced the first private moon mission aboard a modified Russian spacecraft in Manhattan Aug. 10 - the day after space shuttle Discovery's safe return to Earth.
Anderson said, "This mission will inspire countries of the world, citizens … our youth."
Majority minority in Texas: Texas, with its Hispanic population, joins Calfornia, New Mexico and Hawaii as the fourth state with a non-white majority population, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Aug. 11.
Non-smoker Dana Reeve has lung cancer: Christopher Reeve's widow announced Aug. 9 she's looking to her husband "as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage and hope. I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery." She won worldwide admiration for her steadfast support during the movies' "Superman's" nine years as a quadriplegic. The actress lives in Westchester County, N.Y., with their son, Will, 13.
Tough on extremism: Britain cracks down on foreign-born Islamic ideologues Aug. 11, arresting 10 and announcing they will be deported as national security threats.
Runaway bride serving community: Jennifer Wilbanks, 32, is done cutting and running. Now she's just cutting grass.
Wilbanks was ordered to perform 120 hours of community service for lying to police about disappearing four days before her April wedding. She completed the first 24 hours scrubbing toilets in probation offices, picking up trash and washing public vehicles. Aug. 9 in Lawrenceville, Ga., she attempted to mow the lawn of a government building stalked by a media throng.