June 2007 Archives

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-Aziz on TV a few days ago:

"Brother, are you aware that your sons who go to Iraq are used only for bombings? They are the ones who carry out the bombings. It is not just me who says this, but also the Iraqi officials, including the Iraqi interior ministers that I have met.

...The Saudis are brought [to Iraq] in order to carry out bombings. ... Who are the ones who die? Are they senior officials? Are they soldiers in any army? No. The ones who die are innocent men, women, and children. Would you be pleased if your sons became tools of murder? This is the reality. Moreover, those who escape being killed come back here with deviant ideas, and they try to implement them in our society. Hence, security activity is insufficient if it is not accompanied by ideological activity. This is a virus in the body of this nation, and if we do not kill this virus, if we do not reach, diagnose, and kill it – it will remain. The men of the security agencies amputate a decaying organ in this body, but who should fight this deviant ideology, if not clerics and sheiks like you? I refer especially to the preachers and imams of the mosques."

And who would be president of a newly joined continent? Why, fearless -- er, feckless -- leader Moammar Gadhafi, of course, who has said Africa must "unite or die."

Still crazy after all these years...

Well, Bridget, I would say you and I really don't disagree. It was the Germans' obstructing the filming of "Valkyrie" that I objected to. But now, it seems, they've given that up. Which is to say, they're no longer using the powers of the state to discriminate against someone (Tom Cruise) on the basis of his religion. They just think Cruise and Scientology are creepy. No argument there.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call to revoke King-Harbor Hospital’s license is nothing but crass political granstanding. Arnie didn't lift a finger to help King when he had the chance now he wants to jump on the popular, but silly, and misguided Dump King bandwagon. His grandstanding is even more ludicrous in light of the fact that the hospital management has taken major steps to correct the deficiencies in the care and treatment of patients many of which have not been publicized or acknowledged. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also gave King-Harbor a passing grade on the actions it’s taken to date and have not cut-off funding.

Schwarzenegger has offered no viable alternative for the thousands of poor, underserved residents of South L.A. that rely on King for medical needs. Schwarzenegger should back off from his call to revoke King’s license and support the ongoing efforts of King’s management and staff to further improve services. After all, Arnie, don't you have more important things to worry about, like running a state!

Off biking through the beautiful Bay Area, then on to Napa and the Anderson Valley. Going to practice our Boontling. As we spin along on our tandem bike, under blue skies and with gentle breezes, under soaring gulls and improbably stately snowy egrets (Egrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention), my wife, the Fair Helenkela, murmurs, “Why do terrorists issue warnings on the net before trying to trigger explosions?” Kind of breaks the mood, but it is a fair question. It has a good answer, though not “good” in the moral sense.

Terrorists, aside from being cruel, violent and sociopathetic, are also terrible liars. They know that other terrorists are also terrible liars. There is no honor not only among thieves but also among terrorists. They do know, however, that their fellow terrorists would take credit (a perverse concept itself for the destruction of innocent lives) and rob them of their hard-earned achievements in destruction.

If I issue a threat to do a specific act, it is not so that society can be on alert or defuse the bomb. It is simply that by predicting the event, I can attach the name of my outfit to the carnage without fear of some other sociopaths grabbing the billing. It’s all about credits.

I don’t want to think about terrorists while getting away from it all. But there really is no getting away. As Joe Louis said, “You can run but you can’t hide.” But I’m going to try anyway.

We know that some time, some day we will get hit again. We just don’t know when, where or how hard. We also don’t know how this will make us feel or what we will want to do. All the pundits in the world cannot accurately predict whether when hit we will do what Spain did and retreat, withdraw and all but apologize or if we will more resemble England and keep going about our business.

Will we run towards the anti-war movement believing that neither Iraq nor homeland security has made us safer or will be go into full battle mode and look for some place to bomb?

I don’t know the answer. I do know that the chatter level is high and the 4th of July is an attractive and iconic moment. We will not be biking across the Golden Gate on Wednesday.

... or at least sympathize with the German position on the Scientologist playing anti-Nazi hero Colonel Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg. The German defense ministry now says it has no qualms about allowing shooting of the film "Valkyrie" at German military sites. The International Herald Tribune has some feedback from Germans, including Josef Joffe, a German journalist: "Stauffenberg for Germans is like Jefferson and Lincoln, motherhood and apple pie all rolled into one. Germany is a country of established churches, and so Scientology is viewed as a cult and, worse, totalitarian and exploitative. A professing Scientologist in the role of Stauffenberg is like casting Judas as Jesus. It is secular blasphemy."

And, probably of more profound influence, Berthold Graf von Stauffenberg, the eldest son of Count von Stauffenberg: "Scientology is a totalitarian ideology. The fact that an avowed Scientologist like Cruise is supposed to play the victim of a totalitarian regime is purely sick."

Furthermore, I understand the Germans' sensitivity to cults. Why, they believe, replace one sordid history of fascism and mind-control by opening the door to more fascism and mind-control? It's for this reason that until recently they banned (along with several other EU nations) Sun Myung Moon from coming into the country to brainwash youths. Whereas the West goes with the PC term "new religious movements" for some of these groups that preach some sort of eventual world takeover or goal of ideological uniformity, the Germans, because of history, look at the cults in a whole different light. From a thought-provoking piece on the anti-cult movement in Germany:

"They are far too reactive; they see all new religions as bad; but, there is good reason, in Germany, for seeing some new religions as bad. This needs to be remembered, and taken into account, when we try to assess what is happening in Germany. Anyone who wants to persuade the Germans that they ought to treat Scientology, the Unification Church, or any other group better than they do, has got to remember the past. In pleading for tolerance, it is important to make very clear that the groups for which one is pleading are not genuine enemies of the constitution, who are trying to destroy the constitution, because these people do exist."

... and it might as well be me.

I'm amazed at the lack of a public outcry over the German government's efforts to stop the making of "Valkyrie" -- a film about the life of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Berlin's objection is that Stauffenberg, a German hero, would be played by Tom Cruise -- who is a Scientologist. And the Germans don't like Scientologists.

Now l make no apologies for the cruel joke that is L. Ron Hubbard's ridiculous sect. And I could understand why Deutschland would forbid shooting the film on government property if it were a promotional video for "Dianetics." But there is no church-state separation issue here. "Valkyrie" isn't about Scientology, it just so happens to star a Scientologist. Instead, this is a matter of religious freedom, with the German government discriminating against Cruise -- and everyone working with him on this project -- because of his religion.

Somehow, all this gets a pass from the chattering classes, probably because Scientology does little to elicit much sympathy. But imagine the hue and cry if, say, the Bush Administration tried to block the making of a film because its star were a Muslim, or even an atheist.

For a country with a vile history of mistreating religious minorities, you would think Germany would try a lot harder to respect religious freedom now. Or that the world would be more quick to condemn its intolerance.

If you were worried about the absence of FF blogger Earl Ofari Hutchinson, fear not. Earl just wrote in:

got so bogged down with King and Hilton that my blogging slipped as Arnie says I'll be back!

And that's good news. FYI, Jonathan Dobrer and Mariel Garza, both getting some well-deserved rest, will also return shortly!

We're sorry to report that Farfour, Hamas TV's answer to Mickey Mouse, has martyred his mouse self, thus moving on to meet up with 72 furry virgin rodents in the hereafter. From AP:

"A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode Friday.

In the final skit, 'Farfour' was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a 'terrorist.'

'Farfour was martyred while defending his land,' said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed 'by the killers of children,' she added."

MEMRI documented a previous, less fatal Farfour show, where the Mickey ripoff advocated the caliphate while his human counterparts blabbered " We will annihilate the Jews."

This would be insanely funny if it wasn't so sad that Palestinian kids' heads were being filled with this crap on a daily basis.

Haaretz, by the way, had a good piece last month on "Hamas' latest conquest: The Walt Disney Co."

Our friends at one of our NorCal sister papers, the San Jose Mercury News, are floating an idea so hideous we can only hope it fails to migrate down this way. The idea is "Drive the Speed Limit Day," which should be pretty self-explanatory.

Drive the speed limit? Drive the freaking speed limit?!? I wish I could drive the speed limit! As it is, I'll be lucky if I can go 30 mph on the 101 Freeway tonight, fighting holiday-weekend traffic.

Rest assured, on the rare chance I am able to (safely) exceed the legal limit, I won't be listening to the good folks at the Merc, but to the legendary Sammy Hagar:

When I drive that slow, you know it's hard to steer.
And I can't get my car out of second gear.
What used to take two hours now takes all day.
Huh - It took me 16 hours to get to L.A.!

Go on & write me up for 125
Post my face, wanted dead or alive
Take my license n' all that jive
I can't drive 55!

... had no idea that it was physically as well as monetarily. This from the Houston Chronicle --

Four women who worked for Houston-based Halliburton Co.'s former subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root have filed federal lawsuits against the companies, claiming they endured sexual harassment and, in two cases rape, while working in Iraq. Attorneys say their clients encountered a sexually-charged atmosphere where women were repeatedly demeaned and solicited for sex despite reporting harassment to supervisors. The lawyers for women in the alleged rape cases say they are turning to the civil courts in part because they haven't been able to determine whether federal authorities are pursuing criminal prosecutions. KBR would not comment specifically on the cases, but a spokeswoman said sexual harassment is barred. Before being deployed to Iraq, all KBR employees are briefed on the company's code of business conduct, which "strictly prohibits sexual harassment by KBR employees," said KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne.

P.S.
It's good to know that KBR has a policy against sexual harassment, now if we could get them to work on that rape thing.

... any regime that sits atop an ocean of oil, yet still needs to ration gas to its rioting citizens, should have no trouble crumbling all by itself.

So while our mayor is out saving the world, the mayor of Philadelphia is up to something somewhat more pedestrian: He's waiting in line to buy an iPhone. And his constituents are taking advantage of the opportunity to give him an earful -- chewing him out for standing in line on a workday, rather than doing the city's business. The mayor, however, swears that, thanks to modern technology like the iPhone, he can do his work just as well on a street corner as he can in City Hall. (Great! Let's shut down City Hall!)

Oh, how fun it would be to see Antonio face his constituents in a similar manner. Of course, that would never happen here in L.A., where city pols have staffers to go wait in line (or babysit, right Rocky?) for them.

Come on, Philly, you call that a mayor?

Patrick's take on the death of immigration reform reminds me of this classic:

"Their boots make a cracking sound when they walk. Why don't we call them crackers?"

Over in the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Graham has a theory as to why Nancy Drew -- aged 16 to 18 in the original novels -- was made to be just 13 in the new movie: So she wouldn't have to be a skank. Writes Graham:

When Edward Stratemeyer invented the character in the 1930s, Nancy Drew followed the formula of the other books in his fiction factory: no touching, kissing or violence, according to Marvin Heiferman, co-author of "The Mysterious Case of Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys," which chronicles the series' success. But when was the last time you saw a chaste 18-year-old in any Hollywood production? Quick, Nancy: Look 13.

In the books, Ned Nickerson, Nancy's "special friend," is a hunky college football player. Theirs is a chaste relationship; they dance sometimes and take strolls in the moonlight, but rarely do they even kiss. In the movie, there is no mention of college, and boyish Ned is little more than a sycophantic satellite for Nancy. They share one kiss, and it's fleeting and sweet, in one of Mr. Fleming's few nods to the original. But for a movie heroine to be sexually innocent these days, she can't have graduated from ninth grade yet.

What's more, Graham notes, whereas in the novels, Drew was celebrated within her community for being virtuous and smart, in the movie -- set in today's L.A. -- her exceptional ways make her an outcast:

At Hollywood High, with all her virtues, Miss Drew is a dweeb; this is a fundamental change in the character, even more so than her shifted age. Though she triumphs over the multiply pierced mean girls by the end of the film (Hey, I can perform an emergency tracheotomy with a pen, can you?), the young impressionable sorts to whom the film is marketed get this message: If you are a child of virtue, you will never fit in.

A sad message, although probably a realistic one that teens would do well to ponder: In today's youth culture, it's hard, if not impossible, to be both good and cool. So choose wisely. Would that our teens produce a lot more Nancy Drews, and far fewer Britney Spears.

The smoking-gun, slam-dunk evidence of Phil Spector's guilt came forth in in his trial yesterday, and, surprisingly, it was offered by the defense. I refer, of course, to the pathetic testimony of "expert" defense witness Dr. Vincent DiMaio, who delivered this exceedingly lame argument:

Look at Mr. Spector," DiMaio said at one point, drawing jurors' attention across the courtroom to the frail, diminutive defendant. "He has Parkinson's features. He trembles."...

"She was 25 years younger, 7 to 9 inches taller," DiMaio said. "She outweighed him by 25 pounds and was in better health than he was. ... Her reflexes would have been greater. Her strength greater."

Um, yes, doc, she was taller, younger, stronger. But he had a gun. I don't care if Lana Clarkson was built like Arnold, if Phil could pull a trigger, she would be no match.

If this is the best the defense can offer, it might as well throw in the towel now. The "Lana was stronger than Phil" line of reasoning is about as persuasive as this crazy picture above, which I found here.

Another advocate for local government from Friday's Daily News' letters ...

Mayor AWOL
Re "Mayor lobbying for immigration" (Briefly, June 27):

I understand that our stealth mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, and his entourage were in Washington, D.C., again — this time to support the Senate immigration bill. Isn't the L.A. mayor supposed to stay at home and take care of local matters?
I recall when Antonio was spending a lot of time in Florida working with the Kerry campaign while he was being paid to be a full-time L.A. councilman. I hope all of this is remembered when he is looking for votes again.

Gordon Brown just took over from Tony Blair as British prime minister, and just got his first shot across the bow with an attempted car bombing in Piccadilly Circus (above). From what they're saying on Sky News right now, the driver of the Mercedes that carried an explosive device crashed into a Dumpster just as nightclubs in the neighborhood were about to let out for the evening, then jumped out and ran away. They also noted that the anniversary of the 7/7 tube/bus bombings is swiftly approaching, and that this weekend is the big Concert for Diana. Scotland Yard won't comment on reports (which apparently are circulating widely, as I got such reports in my e-mail before I even knew about the story) that in addition to the confirmed gas cannisters in the vehicle, it was also packed with nails for maximum impact.

Of note to me is how the terrorists stepped up to the Mercedes. It attracts less attention from residents who probably expect terrorists to blow up a Dodge Neon, and shows greater cash access than some wayward wannabe terrorist kid crying in his malt vinegar while working at the fish-and-chips stand. Plus, it pretty much rules out the IRA -- no self-respecting Irishman would blow that much money on a demolition vehicle when he could spend it on suds.

I'm a big fan of scary films, and "1408" tends to evoke one of the best ones, "The Shining" (both being Stephen King stories). Besides offering lots of good, genuine frights, this film proves two very important points:

a) Carpenters music IS the root of all evil. I knew it!

b) Samuel L. Jackson can still drop a silky, lyrical F-bomb like no one else.

(That's star John Cusack, by the way, listening to James Blunt's "You're Beautiful"...)

So the James Blunt song that my last boyfriend had christened as the top radio tune that made him think of me has just been named the "Most Irritating Song Ever."

There are no words...

In her Larry King interview, Paris Hilton complained that her jail strip search "was ... the most humiliating experience of my life. I never had to do that in front of somebody you don't even know. It's pretty embarrassing."

Surely it is, Paris. But more embarrassing than starring in a widely released, widely viewed sex tape?

"It's pretty gross taking your clothes off in front of someone," Hilton told King, evidencing a new-found sense of modesty. Well, better late than never.

In his thoughtful reflection on the Supreme Court's affirmative-action ruling, Jonathan raises the prospect of people trying to fake membership in this or that race in order to achieve certain benefits. Jonathan writes:

If you think that I am being unrealistic and people won’t petition to change race to get benefits, you haven’t been paying attention to highly motivated parents who are getting their kids diagnoses of attention deficit disorder in order to get them more time on tests.

True enough. Also witness those who suddenly decided they were "Native Americans" after tribes were allowed to open casinos. Or, personally, I have a friend who has one white parent and one Asian one. When he applied to college, he carefully kept the Asian parent a secret -- and marked "white" on all the forms -- knowing that Asians, generally, are discriminated against in admissions, for fear that there are "too many" of them in higher education.

Is this healthy? Getting people to obsess over ethnicity, to deny their own family members and heritage? I'm with Jonathan, I don't want a government that looks at me as a member of a race, rather than as an individual.

Whatever happened to the content of our character?

Former spy + judo champ = bad boy for wonkettes! But the polonium 210 thing was a definite turnoff -- I mean, you couldn't even feel comfortable drinking a Diet Coke next to the guy...

P.S. Viktor Yushchenko was hot -- especially with that orange scarf -- until he got poisoned.

I marched for integration, picketed for fair housing and contributed time and money to the Congress of Racial Equality. I may shock you in writing that I think the Supreme Court got it right today in ruling that the use of race to determine admissions or placement in public education is the wrong way to advance the agreed upon social benefits of integration. I believe that Justice must be blind and the scales should not be tipped by considerations of race. When the blindfold slips, history indicates that Justice is diminished.

I grew up in a liberal household and was taught that racial discrimination was wrong. I grew up being taught that the use of race or religion (we didn’t know the word “ethnic” back then) in public accommodations, school admissions or employment was both wrong and dangerous.

I saw the films of the bodies being bulldozed in the Nazi death camps following WWII and knew that most were Jews and had been murdered because they were Jews. I was taught that Jim Crow was a symbol of great and continuing evil and that Negroes (this is way before Black and Afro-American came into use) were oppressed and had every bit the talent, intellect and potential as any other group.

My very first act of civil disobedience occurred in junior high school when I applied for a summer job and the form asked for a picture. I knew that pictures were used to discern the race of an applicant and so I refused. I have continued to refuse to check the box, now apparently legal, asking my race. I always check “other” and write “human.”

The question of race was always used to keep minorities and the less powerful out. Quotas made sure that even liberal institutions didn’t get too “dark” or Jewish. Back then, the establishment didn’t worry about Asians or Hispanics. Today, they do. They worry about universities being too Asian and not Hispanic enough. Tragically, there is still the problem that our major institutions of learning and industry fail in outreach to African Americans.

As a matter of fairness it seems instinctively right to try to make good, to remediate our all too real sins of commission against people of color. But there are two very major problems with our good intentions. One has to do with the logic of learning.

I wish Bridget would find better heartthrobs. Benjamin Netanyahu is just another failed politician. No land for peace he says during elections, then he gives Hebron to Arafat. No negotiating with terrorists he howls and negotiates with Arafat in the Wye River Accords. Terrorists are scum he says and goes to the Israeli celebration of the 60th anniversary of the King David Hotel terrorist bombing by the Irgun (organized by former Prime Minister Menachem Begin).

Nope, Bridget can do a lot better than Bibi.

Well, never mind that Congress is too inept to craft a passable immigration-reform bill, even though the need for some kind of reform couldn't be more clear. Neither that august body's ineptitude nor its dismal public-approval ratings -- 14 percent, according to Pew -- was enough to dissuade our pols from taking a pay raise. In its typical backwards way of doing things, the House voted yesterday against not giving itself a raise -- that is, it voted for a pay hike -- $4,400 per pol, bumping up salaries to about $170k a year.

Only politicians could think: "Hmmm, we do nothing, and our constituents hate us. Clearly we deserve more money!"

Ah, remember when Democrats were promising that things would be different when they took over, that we'd get a more honest, less self-serving government?

Remember the immortal words of The Who: "Meet the new boss -- same as the old boss."

I may be a little behind the times, but thanks to the Daily Show I just discovered Conservapedia , the right-wing fundamentalist Christian version of Wikipedia, started by homeschool students in 2006 to counter the rampant "liberal bias" (what most of the world calls "common knowledge") of the popular online encylopedia. In fact, Conservapedia's own study found that Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the American public. Six, people! That's, like, a lot.

Conservapedia is filed with information with Christian values and fun facts such as:
"Anal sex can be an important risk factor for intestinal parasitism." Who knew?

The page operates with this mission: Principals first, facts later.

We have certain principles that we adhere to, and we are up-front about them. Beyond that we welcome the facts

Senaturd: (noun) An elected U.S. representative characterized by political craveness; a person whose actions helped stall immigration reform for another year, a politican whose fear of pissing off one group of angry constituents acheived the result of takign an action that pleases absolutely no one.

Another year, another failed attempt at immigration reform.

A reluctant warrior from Thursday's letters to the editor.

Conserving water?

Re "Dealing with drought, sizzling summer" (June 7):

We have been asked to start being more conservative in our water usage. I think that any effort to further reduce the water used by my family will be put on the back burner until there is some sort of a moratorium on building in this city. We are asked to conserve, but it seems that those efforts are only to feed into the new apartments and condominiums that are springing up in every square inch of open space left in this city.

What good is conservation when the influx of new people will only further burden our diminishing water supply? I will not further reduce my water usage in order to squeeze more people into our already overburdened landscape.

I have just a few words for Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, pictured left: Head On -- apply directly to the forehead!

Hugo, by the way, is in Russia to go submarine shopping. And he's just been analyzed as a malignant narcissist with a messianic complex. Big surprise there!

(In the case of his chin fur, literally.) From the Moscow Times:

"A man formerly held in the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was killed Wednesday in a shootout with security agents in Kabardino-Balkariya, the Federal Security Service said.

...The statement said (Ruslan) Odizhev was a suspect in the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk and that he took part in a 2005 attack on police and government facilities in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkariya. That attack left 139 people dead, including 94 militants.

The FSB said Odizhev was the 'spiritual leader' of Yarmuk, an Islamic extremist organization connected to an array of violence in the region.

The regional prosecutor's office said Odizhev was killed in Nalchik and that three homemade explosive devices were found on his body. ...Odizhev was one of seven Russians released from Guantanamo Bay in 2004."

Late Tuesday, before my column on Daniel Pearl went to press, I double-checked the Reporters Without Borders Web site, confirming the statistic of 47 reporters killed thus far this year. Peeking at the site a few moments ago, I saw the number had gone up to 50.

Hey, I didn't say it was about something serious or anything like that...

Goof on Dick Cheney as you will, but Wonkette observed a few years back that Lynne Cheney appears to be a pretty lucky woman...

And I wouldn't call Bibi Netanyahu a "strongman"; I'd call him a "realist". Now that's hot!

A NY TImes/CBS poll found that young Americans between 17 and 29 are much more likely to lean left and are crazy optimists. Gives an old Gen X liberal-lite slacker like myself hope for the future.

Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll. The poll also found that they are more likely to say the war in Iraq is heading to a successful conclusion.

Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee writes ab