I have no words to add.
These are excerpts.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Charlie Sheen Has Tiger Blood and Adonis DNA (Also, He's a Rock Star from Mars That Can't Be Processed w/a Normal Brain)
Yikes! Worse Than I Thought ::: Film of John Galliano’s racist rant in bar | The Sun |News
Okay... so Nic Kidman had two very good reasons to ditch the dress she wore to the Oscars.
1) It was damn ugly.
2) Galliano is damn ugly.
Not just an anti-Semite... but a Hitler sympathizer, too.
Unbelievable.
FASHION guru John Galliano was filmed having a vile racist rant during which he declared: "I love Hitler."
The British designer - an alleged Jew hater - then tells a horrified woman: "People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers, would all be f****** gassed."
Dior Designer (and anti-Semite) Made These Perfections of Confections and Nicole Kidman Picked THIS?!
Yes, Galliano is apparently a Jew-hating bastard, but he can design a dress, that's for darned sure.
So with these incredible designs available...
So with these incredible designs available...
Nicole Kidman wore this to the Oscars?
Clearly, saying it looks like she took down the curtains is too easy. But there you have it.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Unacceptable ::: Video Outrage: Utah Police Kill Marijuana Smoker in Own Home
It's really past time to end this war.
Excerpt:
EGYPT Military uses force against Egypt’s Coptic monasteries, wounding many - Asia News
From yesterday:
EGYPT Military uses force against Egypt’s Coptic monasteries, wounding many - Asia News
Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) –Egyptian soldiers attacked for the second time the Monastery of Saint Bishoy Alexandria in Wady el-Rayan, Fayoum, 110 km from Cairo. Two monks and six Coptic labourers were wounded. Four people were arrested, three monks and a Coptic lawyer who was visiting the monastery to investigate a similar incident the day before.
Monk Aksios Ava Bishoy told Nader Shoukry, of Free Copts, that the army stormed the monastery using five tanks, armoured vehicles and a bulldozer to demolish the fence built by the monastery last month to protect the building and its residents from the lawlessness that has prevailed in Egypt since the 25 January uprising. In fact, the monastery since that day has been attacked by common criminals who escaped from prisons.
“We contacted state security and they said there was no police available for protection,” Fr Bemwa said. “We were put in touch with the military personnel who told us to protect ourselves until they reach us.”
In order to protect themselves, the monks built a low fence on the borders of the one side of the monastery that is vulnerable to attacks, on land that belongs to the monastery. Both monks and monastery labourers have kept watch over it 24 hours a day.
Last Monday, the army issued an ultimatum to the monastery, demanding the wall be torn down within 48 hours; otherwise, it would act. The monastery did not heed the order.
After the attack, the military issued a statement on their Facebook page denying that it had attacked the monastery. Instead, it claimed that soldiers simply tore down a fence built on state land.
EGYPT Military uses force against Egypt’s Coptic monasteries, wounding many - Asia News
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Brilliant Insight? From Joe Klein at Time? ::: Wisconsin: The Hemlock Revolution - TIME.com
A really great read.
Revolutions everywhere--in the middle east, in the middle west. But there is a difference: in the middle east, the protesters are marching for democracy; in the middle west, they're protesting against it. I mean, Isn't it, well, a bit ironic that the protesters in Madison, blocking the state senate chamber, are chanting "Freedom, Democracy, Union" while trying to prevent a vote? Isn't it ironic that the Democratic Senators have fled the democratic process? Isn't it interesting that some of those who--rightly--protest the assorted Republican efforts to stymie majority rule in the U.S. Senate are celebrating the Democratic efforts to stymie the same in the Wisconsin Senate?
An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that. There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can't be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter. We hold elections to decide those basic parameters. And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker's basic requests are modest ones--asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do. He is also trying to limit the unions' abilities to negotiate work rules--and this is crucial when it comes to the more efficient operation of government in a difficult time. When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year) had negotiated the "right" to mop the cafeteria floors only once a week. And we all know about the near-impossibility of getting criminal and morally questionable--to say nothing of less than competent--teachers fired. The negotiation of such contracts were acts of collusion rather than of mediation. Government officials were, in effect, bribing their most activist constituents.
Public employees unions are an interesting hybrid. Industrial unions are organized against the might and greed of ownership. Public employees unions are organized against the might and greed...of the public? Despite their questionable provenance, public unions can serve an important social justice role, guaranteeing that a great many underpaid workers--school bus drivers, janitors (outside of New York City), home health care workers--won't be too severely underpaid. That role will be kept intact in Wisconsin. In any given negotiation, I'm rooting for the union to win the highest base rates of pay possible...and for management to win the least restrictive work rules and guidelines governing how much truly creative public employees can be paid.
But we've had far too many state legislatures, of both parties, that have been cowed by the political power of the unions and enacted contracts that force state and city governments to be run for the benefit of their employees, rather than for their citizens. This situation is most egregious in far too many school districts across the nation. The events in Wisconsin are a rebalancing of power that, after decades of flush times and lax negotiating, had become imbalanced. That is also something that, from time to time, happens in a democracy.
Dear Drew, Time To See The Colorist ::: Drew Barrymore enjoys a very happy birthday with her brand new beau | Mail Online
Really? Millions of dollars and time on her hands and she looks like this?
Pick it up, honey... you'll thank yourself. (Tell Tracey I sent you.) Or just cut it off.
(shudder)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
RIP ::: 4 Americans [Missionaries] on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia - CBS News
Super intense story. Here's an excerpt:
4 Americans on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia - CBS News
On Monday, two pirates had peacefully come aboard the USS Sterett to negotiate with naval forces for the release of the hostages, and remained aboard overnight.
But on Tuesday, pirates aboard the Quest unexpectedly fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Sterett. Shortly afterward, gunfire erupted inside the Quest cabin, and U.S. special forces responded, approaching the Quest in small boats and boarding the vessel, Vice Adm. Mark Fox, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a Tuesday press conference.
Some pirates moved to bow and put up their hands in surrender. The U.S. forces killed two pirates in the course of clearing the vessel - one with a handgun and one in a close-combat knife fight. There were no injuries to U.S. forces or damage to U.S. ships, Fox said.
The Quest was the home of Jean and Scott Adam, a couple from California who had been sailing around the world since December 2004 with a yacht full of Bibles. The two other Americans on board were Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, Wash.
Adam, in his mid-60s, had been an associate producer in Hollywood when he turned in a spiritual direction and enrolled in the seminary a decade ago, said Robert K. Johnston, a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and a friend of Adam's.
"He decided he could take his pension, and he wanted to serve God and humankind," he said.
Johnston and Adam worked together to start a film and theology institute. Adam also taught a class on church and media at the school.
Since 2004, the Adams lived on their yacht in Marina Del Rey for about half the year and the rest of the year they sailed around the world, often distributing Bibles in remote parts of the Fiji Islands, Alaska, New Zealand, Central America and French Polynesia, Johnston said.
Scott and Jane Adam documented their maritime missionary work on their website, S/V Quest Adventure Log.
4 Americans on hijacked yacht dead off Somalia - CBS News
Friday, February 18, 2011
I Am In Awe. Our President Is A Rabble Rouser ::: Obama joins Wisconsin's budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill
Unbelievable.
MADISON, WIS. - President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin's broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits and planning similar protests in other state capitalsObama accused Scott Walker, the state's new Republican governor, of unleashing an "assault" on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would change future collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers.
The president's political machine worked in close coordination Thursday with state and national union officials to get thousands of protesters to gather in Madison and to plan similar demonstrations in other state capitals.
How many state governors has he gone against now? He is out of control.
On Second Thought... ::: Egypt OKs Iran warships through Suez Canal - msnbc.com
CAIRO — Egypt has agreed to let two Iranian naval vessels transit the Suez Canal, a move that comes despite expressions of concern by Israeli officials, the Egyptian-government's MENA news agency reported Friday.
Authorities approved a request from Iranian diplomats who offered assurances that the two ships won't have weapons or nuclear or chemical material, MENA stated.
The move had been widely expected and Iranian officials have insisted the request is in line with international regulations. They say the two vessels are headed to Syria for training.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
LOL... It's A Senatorial APB ::: Dems missing from Wis. Capitol ahead of union vote | Chron.com
MADISON, Wis. — Police officers were dispatched Thursday to find Wisconsin state lawmakers who had apparently boycotted a vote on a sweeping bill that would strip most government workers of their collective bargaining rights.
The lawmakers, all Democrats in the state Senate, did not show up when they were ordered to attend a midday vote on the legislation.
The proposal has been the focus of intense protests at the Statehouse for three days. As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed "Freedom! Democracy! Unions!"
Republicans hold a 19-14 majority, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before taking a vote on the bill.
Democrats pulled that before in Texas. Absolutely ridiculous.
Dems missing from Wis. Capitol ahead of union vote | Top AP Stories | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
WWIII Averted Once Again ::: Iran Withdraws Suez Canal Request | The Blaze
CAIRO (AP) — Two Iranian naval vessels withdrew a request Thursday to transit the Suez Canal after Israel expressed concerns over the plans, a senior canal official said.
The official said no reason was given for the decision to withdraw the application.
The reason was their up-and-coming ass-kicking from Israel.
The Suez Canal official identified the two vessels as the Alvand, a frigate, and the Kharq, a supply ship, and said they were en route to Syria. He said they were now in an area near the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jiddah.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that Iran was about to send two naval vessels through the Suez Canal for the first time in years, calling it a “provocation.”
Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its disputed nuclear program, ballistic missile development, support for militants in the region and its threats to destroy Israel. While Israel has pressed for international sanctions to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, it has not taken the possibility of a military strike off the table.
Anyway, apparently Ahmadinejad is slightly lucid, and not quite yet ready, or willing, for war. Hope it stays that way.
(And also, long live Stuxnet.)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Screw Post-Racial... Halle "One Drop" Berry Should Really Stop Talking :: Berry should feel proud to call her daughter Nahla mixed-race | Mail Online
Okay, Halle Berry is now in a custody battle with her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Aubry (the most beautiful person in the world. Halle is drop-dead gorgeous, but when they're photographed together she almost looks like a dog in comparison... here's the proof), over their equally insanely beautiful daughter, Nahla.
Here are some recent statements from Ms. Berry:
‘I feel she’s black. I’m black and I’m her mother, and I believe in the one-drop theory.’
Niiiice. The one-drop theory:
The one-drop theory (or one-drop rule) is the colloquial term for the standard, found throughout the USA, that holds that a person with even one drop of non-white ancestry should be classified as "colored", especially for the purposes of laws forbidding inter-racial marriage.
Now, if you're unaware, Halle's mother, who raised her, is white. I felt quite badly for her during Halle's Oscar-night thank-you speech, filled with her tears for black women as her white mom sat in the audience.
Halle says:
'I identify as a black woman, but I've always had to embrace my mother and the white side of who I am, too.
'By choosing, I've often [wondered]: "Well, would that make her feel like I'm invalidating her by choosing to identify more with the black side of myself?"'
Here's her plan for her daughter:
When asked to define her daughter's race, Berry - who has both white and African-American heritage - tells Ebony: 'What I think is that that's something she's going to have to decide.
'I'm not going to put a label on it. I had to decide for myself and that's what she's going to have to decide - how she identifies herself in the world.
'And I think, largely, that will be based on how the world identifies her. That's how I identified myself.
'But I feel like she's black.'
So the problem with her ex is that it made him crazy when she identified their child as black. To him, at the very least, she's mixed. And she is... 75% white, 25% black.
And if Halle would have shut up at this point I'd probably leave her alone (or maybe not).
I understand how those with African heritage choose to identify with it on a political level to remind and shame others about how blacks were treated in America. I. Get. It.
But it's enough. We certainly shouldn't be passing on that idiocy to yet another generation, especially a generation as post-racial as the youths currently growing up in America.
(For a great take on post-raciality, and an excellent slam on Obama's own racialist obsession, read this excellent WaPo OpEd by Elizabeth Chang: Why Obama should not have checked 'black' on his census form)
And anyway, the only race Halle is is the beautiful race... she doesn't just make top 10 gorgeous black women lists, but just top 10 gorgeous women lists. Make-up contracts, feature films, magazine covers, starring roles... she has got to start just being grateful and at peace with who she is.
But anyway, here's where Halle goes right off the rails... just ridiculously self-obsessed and silly...
She says: 'Well, first thing I want to say is that I'm very connected to my community and I want black people to know that I haven't abandoned them because I've had a child with a man outside of my race and I'm dating someone now outside of my race who is Spanish and French.
And then someone should remind her that a white man isn't any more outside of her race than a black man is. Good grief. Just because she has convinced herself that she is black doesn't make it so.
Poor thing. And then I immediately think, "Which one?"
Poor Halle.
Poor Gabriel.
Poor baby.
Poor all of 'em. What a ridiculous mess.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Is Linda Gray The Best Looking 70 Year-Old Ever?! :::Linda Gray prepares to return to small screen in Dallas remake | Mail Online
I don't care how much work she's had done... whatever it was, it was invisible. She's an absolute knockout, without any of that freakish pulling or plumping or whatever.
Take a bow, gorgeous.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Republicans Give It Like They Get It ::: "Like Waxman, I Yield Back My Time." [Video]
Okay... this is an EPA hearing thingy, and it's a thumping.
Enjoy.
EPA Chief Lambasted at Hearing: 'Do You Believe in the Law of Supply and Demand?!' - Lisa Jackson - Fox Nation
Monday, February 07, 2011
Someone I Forgot I Loved ::: What Would Tyler Durden Do (On Aguilera's Thrashing of The Anthem)
I think this may be my favorite internet guy, he's at least as good as the best page in the universe, with the added bonuses of a great looking website and a steady stream of comedic brilliance.
As a gift I give you his take on Christina Aguilera's Super Bowl disaster:
The National Anthem is 8 lines long. And it’s not some random collection of flowery words. It’s a story. The American flag was flying above Fort McHenry during fighting with the British in the War of 1812. It was there as the sun went down. As fighting went on it could be seen as the sky was lit up by explosions. At dawn, the flag was still there. Fort McHenry had been defended. It’s really not that tough to understand, or remember.
Unless you’re Christina Aguilera, who messed up the lyrics last night at the, uh, do I have to say “the Big Game”. Are they gonna sue me if I say Superbowl? Fuckers. But instead of singing, “O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” she sang, “What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last gleaming?” But at least she’s apologized…
“I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through.”
Obviously this isn’t really a big deal. She made a mistake, and she probably feels terrible. It happens. But she should have had a teleprompter. If nothing else than to block her big ass hips. I bet she wouldn’t just try to wing it if it was really important to her, like a recipe for double chocolate bacon brownies.
Obama Goes Commie... Again: Corporate Profits "Have To Be Shared By American Workers"
He forgets two things, it seems.... 1) Workers get their share before the profits... it's called "wages". 2) If workers would like to share in the profits, they can get stock like everybody else that wants to share in another's profits.
Restrepo (A 5-Star Must See)
My yearly Oscar marathon is in full swing, but I think I just ruined the field by watching a Best Doc nomination so early in the game -- narrative film can rarely compete with an excellent documentary.
And Restrepo is excellent. Perfect, even. Currently available for streaming on Netflix, every man, woman, and teenager can only gain from watching it. It is a gripping thriller and an emotional ride that shows just how hard our troops work, and how dangerous it can be for them out there in these crazy places. (Also... it reminds you how much the politics of war suck.)
I've only seen 4 of the 10 Best Picture noms, but so far not one of them compares story-wise to Restrepo. And no filmmakers worked as hard... no matter how many fussy actors or brilliant effects they had to master. (I'll blog on the bunch of them at some later date.)
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Is Sarah Palin The Tiger Mom That America Needs?
I get a lot of questions from people about why I like the former Alaskan Governor so much... especially from friends and acquaintances of mine who think that they can't stand her. I think my affection is easy to understand.
When John McCain was still looking for a VP candidate, I was still quite irritated with the departure of Fred Thompson and the poor showing for Ron Paul. They would have been my dream ticket for the Rs in '08. I had no use for McCain. Thought all the visible VP potentials were lame. And then I thought of Sarah Palin, that knockout mom-of-five self-made success story kicking butt in the northern frontier.
Everything about her screamed "My people!"... the simple roots, the hard work and tenacity, the principles, the passel of progeny. She wasn't "my people" because I'd done any of those things - well... except for lots of babies - but she really represented the type of American I've always admired. She did a great job for her constituents... rooting out corruption, taking on old boy networks, securing equitable policies, and aiming for prosperity. I still can't believe McCain could see this and picked her.
Of course we don't talk about these things anymore. Instead, Palin has been attemptively corralled into a pen of shame and defeat, beaten relentlessly by a media whose hopes lie in her disappearing. Anyone else would have been intimidated and cowed by their sneers and harsh treatment. Silenced. But that's not what happened. Thankfully. Because Sarah Palin isn't just a pitbull, or a mama grizzly, she'a a Tiger Mom. And, frankly, I think we could use one just about now.
I've come to the conclusion that, more important than a leader's background or education or family, the most crucial factor in a President is the way he (or she) views the people, the mindset that is projected. We currently have an individual that seems to see little more than helpless misery, or terrible greed; sees himself as an ephemeral salve to the wounds of the weak and the punisher of the strong. Maybe it's because he lived a generally gilded life, warm and exotic, padded and coddled and callous-free, that it seems that he doesn't have a sense of challenge. Life is a zero sum game for him. Haves and have-nots. And those folks in the middle? Bitter. Clinging. Stupid.
Tiger Moms are super tough. They know life is hard. They seek not to protect their young as much as prepare their young. They "assume strength, not fragility". They demand hard work, and the accomplishing is its own reward.
(In case you missed it... the Tiger Mom's WSJ piece. And the Time cover story.)
In the beginning of Sarah Palin's first book she recounts her growing up in the man-cave of Alaska... smelling winter on an August evening. Chopping wood every day. Every day! As a means of survival! Catching or killing to eat! Often! Crazy demands to the rest of us, but, to those who meet them, a recognition of the ability of the individual to overcome life's struggles. To toughen up, and to take pride in victory.
We are a nation risen up from the toilings of hard working simple folk. People of faith and strength who forged an empire out of rough and rocky and dangerous territory. Yeah, they really could. And they could without a bureaucracy or a smarmy salesman telling them that if they didn't it was somebody else's fault.
That's not how a person, or a nation, succeeds. That's not what we need projected. I kind of like a person who looks for helping hands at the ends of their own arms, who sees people as individuals, capable and resourceful, who knows that life isn't easy or fair, but that the human spirit is resilient and capable of being inspired.
I don't want politicians that think that we need them. I prefer a leader that knows that we don't.
J. Paul Getty made an awesome statement about the secret to success: "Rise early. Work hard. Strike oil." Hilarious, seemingly cocky, yet true. It still so happens that if one rises early and works hard in America they're bound to strike something... maybe not a geyser, but certainly a shot of contentment, a sense of personal accomplishment.
I remember a while back the president was looking for an "ass to kick". I know... the jokes write themselves. But the butt to be kicked is none other than our own. And if we don't do it, there are a bunch of folks just lining up to do it for us. I'd rather it be Sarah Palin snapping us out of our slumber than the rest of them.
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