Ralphie Boy

What a great article

The Nader of election 2000 is
threatening to rise again

David Sarasohn had in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Uh - "many would regard" Nader as an incredibly scary, crazy, dangerous, egomaniacal jackass.

-M!

Laugh at the News

Clever, insightful stuff:

Despite threats of legal action by her parents, the Paris Hilton sex tape is now available on the World Wide Web. But there already is a place where you can watch rich and spoiled people doing lewd and disgusting things on camera all day... it's called C-Span. (Jacob Novak)

It turns out that a several protected, rare birds in Germany have been feeding on a species of protected, rare fish. In response to this dilemma, exasperated German officials have decided to do the only thing that makes sense in this kind of a situation - kill all the environmentalists. (Novak)

Playboy.com's released its "Women of Wal-Mart" feature this week. One of the feature's models called it a "once in a lifetime opportunity to pose for a magazine known for showcasing women, with beautiful hair, hard bodies, and most of their teeth." (Novak)

An opera about Jerry Springer has opened in London. General admission tickets are available. The seats are first come, first throw. (Dr. Alan Ray)

-M!

When Showbiz Wins the Election

Oooooh, here's a fun story from the AP.

This is what happens when a nation of morons goes to the polls and elects unqualified people to important positions just because they're in show business.

California, read carefully: you're next!

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Book paints tacky picture of former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura
Wed Nov 12, 3:13 PM ET

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A tell-all book released Wednesday paints former Gov. Jesse Ventura as a gloomy recluse who was often rude and spent much of his time at the governor's residence watching TV.

The former manager of the governor's residence says he decided to write the book after Ventura dismissed the entire staff when a couple of workers made observations about the Venturas to reporters.

"I felt compelled to set the record straight," Dan Creed said.

Ventura has not said why the staff was fired, but accused them of disloyalty for talking about parties thrown by his son, Tyrel.

In Governor Ventura (The Body) Exposed. The Man. The Mansion. The Meltdown, Creed says Ventura seldom acknowledged those who laboured on his behalf and often shunned visitors. He slept on a "1970s-throwback waterbed," and sometimes left his pink feather boa on the bed, a sight Creed said "still unnerves me for reasons I can't really put my finger on."

Ventura wore a boa in his pro-wrestling days as The Body.

Creed, speaking in freezing rain near the residence, was joined by four other former staffers wearing pink feather boas.

Ventura is not commenting on the book, said spokesman John Wodele, but it's clear the Venturas are not happy about it. The book's official release came just before Thursday's unveiling of Ventura's official portrait in the State Capitol.

"I spoke with the (former) first lady and she is obviously very disappointed and sad that Dan would betray the family's confidence," Wodele said.

In the 170-page paperback published by Hunter-Halverson Press in Madison, Wis., Creed praises Ventura's wife and children, though he writes that Tyrel frequently had parties when his parents were away.

"More than once, we also found telltale signs that someone had enjoyed a night of passion in the governor's bed. I began to wonder if I was manager of the governor's mansion or the Playboy mansion," Creed wrote.

The Venturas are particularly distressed that the book uses snapshots taken at private family functions, Wodele said. One picture shows Ventura at his 50th birthday party dressed in a pink hula skirt and flowered headdress. Another shows the Venturas' pink bedroom, with what Creed describes as "Pepto-Bismol walls, trimmed in cough-syrup fuchsia."
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-M!

Fair Use Notice

Laughing at CBS

In his daily email and on his Borowitz Report site today, humourist Andy Borowitz reports...

"In other news, CBS denied that
it was caving in to right-wing pressure groups
on Monday when it announced its new miniseries,
'Those Goddamn Clintons.'"

-M!

Quick, Someone Check This Woman for Balls

Hey, there's some good news in this article from today's Sydney Morning Herald: George Soros pledges $15.5 million to oust Bush.

Soros is a bajillionaire, the kinda friend the Democrats need.

Best part of the article is a quote from Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, who said Mr Soros was an example of the small group of people with special interests who fund the Democratic Party. Here's the quote - no joke:

"It's incredibly ironic that George Soros
is trying to create a more open society by using
an unregulated, under-the-radar-screen, shadowy,
soft-money group to do it," she said. "George Soros
has purchased the Democratic Party."

Is this woman in another galaxy?
Does she think we're all idiots who have never heard of Richard Mellon Scaife, the angry, greedy, obscenely wealthy SOB who single-handedly funds all kinds of divisive, selfish, uncaring, hateful Republican causes all over the country?

Just amazing.

-M!

Gutless TV Exec Rolls Over

Well, here's a fun story from the Associated Press.
Les Moonves, the same TV programming prostitute who seems to take delight in humiliating people any number of ways on numerous shows, who insults the intelligence of even the simplest of Americans every single nite, denies - absolutely denies - that Republican pressure had anything to do with him pulling the show.

Bullshit.

How stupid does this guy think we are?
Obviously, network execs read the script before they bought the project and had people watching it like hawks throughout production. Now they plead ignorance.

How does someone like this look in the eyes of his children or in a mirror?
I have more respect for the skrankiest sex workers than this kind of loathsome, lying asshole.
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CBS Denies Pressure Led to Axing of 'Reagans'
Mon Nov 10, 3:32 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said it is "an absolute lie" to allege he yielded to political or corporate pressure in yanking "The Reagans" miniseries.

"It was a moral decision, not an economic or a political one," Moonves said in an interview with Daily Variety. "And I don't know how more plainly I can state that."

The film failed to live up to expectations and did not present a balanced view of former President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, Moonves said in the interview in the trade paper Monday.

"Unfortunately, in this instance, some of the criticisms, although coming from obviously one political perspective, I felt were somewhat well-founded," he said.

But the decision to pull the miniseries was his alone and was not influenced by the conservative outcry over the miniseries or pressure from Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone or president Mel Karmazin.

The drama, which was to have aired on Nov. 16 and 18 as part of the key November ratings sweeps, has been sold to Viacom-owned cable channel Showtime. CBS was left to fill in with series reruns.

Critics blasted the film's fairness and timing, airing as Reagan, 92, struggles with Alzheimer's disease, and lauded CBS' decision.

Others, who questioned attacks on a film based solely on scripts excerpts and brief clips, said it appeared CBS had capitulated to pressure and set a dangerous precedent.

Some noted that Viacom is awaiting federal action on rules to restrict ownership of local TV stations. The company needs help from Republicans in the White House and Congress who might not like seeing Reagan portrayed negatively, they said.

Moonves said CBS would continue to pursue shows that "are on the edge, that create controversy," asserting that the film's cancelation would not have a chilling effect on creative freedom.

Asked if he intended to make changes to CBS' executive structure, Moonves replied: "The structure at CBS is as good as the structure anywhere in the world."
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-M!

Fair Use Notice

Broken Glass

When I was a kid, on many Sundays, the family would pile into the car and make the 5 or 10 mile trip to another part of town to vist my dad's cousin Sam, his wife and daughter.

Sunday was usually pizza nite for dinner and I was often very antsy as the adults yakked and I counted the minutes to when we'd be headed out for home and stretchy cheese. I did pay some attention, though. Sam and wife, like my dad, are Holocaust survivors. Unlike dad, they actually have numbers burned on their arms by the Germans. We're not talking "body art" here. This was how they kept an inventory. Like cattle...or worse. Quite a souvenir, eh?

Sam always told me that a Holocaust could happen again.
I always said he was wrong. People learned from it, now, we are too smart, too sophisticated for that, I thought, back then in the late '60s and early '70s.

Last Monday nite, I called Sam.
We hadn't talked in at least 15 years. I called to tell him I was wrong...and he was right: it could happen again.

Today, November 9, 2003, is the 65th anniversary of Kristallnacht, "the night of broken glass" in Germany that many regard as the start of the Holocaust that killed six million Jews and three million gays, gypsies, and others the German people didn't like.

Anti-semitism is on the rise again.
See the 11/7 entry here, Graffiti On History's Walls.

Hate should scare us. The new choreographers of hate, the radio talk show hosts and Fox News Channel people and other assorted naive and ignorant and calculating want us to be mad about people who are not like us or not as fortunate as we are...or maybe are more fortunate and studied and worked hard and honestly to get there. Get 'em mad, make 'em afraid, blame people, build yourself up at the expense of others. That's the way holocausts start. Not by learning and talking and caring; examining both sides of a story, not just the one that gets you the angriest or gets big ratings for hatemongers on the air.

Learn more about Kristallnacht at
The Museum of Tolerance,
The Virtual Holocaust Museum,
Yad Vashem and
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

"Never again."

-M!