Oh, Mel, Mel, Mel

Ken AshfordPopular Culture1 Comment

I was never a big Mel Gibson fan to begin with.  I got tired of his macho films, from Braveheart to The Patriot, and his latest snuff film ("The Passion of the Christ") sent me over the edge.

It looks like Hollywood may be having its own doubts about Mel, following his drunken anti-Semitic rage:

A stunned Hollywood debated the future of one of its biggest stars Sunday as a sheriff’s watchdog launched an investigation into a possible cover up of a leaked report that quoted Mel Gibson unleashing a tirade of anti-Semitic remarks during a drunken driving arrest.

One media expert said Gibson irreparably damaged his career with his "crazy" behavior following his arrest by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Malibu early Friday. Charges of anti-Semitism were also leveled against the actor-director with the release of his 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ."

"It’s a nuclear disaster for him," said publicist Michael Levine, who has represented Michael Jackson and Charlton Heston, among others. "I don’t see how he can restore himself."

The entertainment Web site TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as launching an expletive-laden "barrage of anti-Semitic remarks" after he was stopped on Pacific Coast Highway.

According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Gibson said, "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked the officer, James Mee, "Are you a Jew?"

The report has not been made public, but the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that it had independently verified its authenticity.

It should be remembered that Mel’s father is a known Holocaust denier, and Mel hasn’t exactly disavowed his father’s views.

Update On The Army/Community Theater Question

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Background here.

TPM Muckraker’s Justin Rood follows up:

I posted yesterday about a decorated Army Arabic linguist who was kicked out for being gay. Among other questions posed to him by an Army investigator attempting to confirm his gayness, Sgt. Bleu Copas of the 82nd Airborne Division says he was asked if he was involved in community theater.

I called the Army yesterday and asked: Did someone really ask about Sgt. Copas’ involvement community theater? Is that question standard for homosexuality investigations?

"Asking about involvement in community theater is not a standard question," Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty emailed this morning in response. Hilferty, a senior public affairs official for the Army, added:

"I expect that that question was not actually asked, but there are more than one million Soldiers in the Army and at my level we work Army policy, not specific cases, so I know nothing about this particular case."

So Hilferty doesn’t know and shows no desire to find out. If that attitude had been applied to Copas’ situation, perhaps I would find it refreshing. As it is, I’m a bit surprised: did the Army just call their former decorated Arabic linguist a liar?

2996 Project: A Blogger Tribute To 9/11 Victims

Ken AshfordBloggingLeave a Comment

The 5th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, and the 2996 Project needs your help:

The idea is simple, but powerful: have a special tribute for each victim of 9/11, with each tribute being created by a different blogger. We started 2,996 Project to coordinate the creation of the tributes, and that’s what this site is all about. Here you can sign up to make a tribute yourself, on your blog (we’ll randomly assign a victim to you). You can also browse or search through either the victims that have already been assigned, or those that have not — and you can get pointers to more information on all of them.

As of this writing, 1,070 9/11 victims have been assigned.  If you have a blog and want to participate, sign up here.

Information and resources here.


I Remember
John Levi
WTC

What Fred Says

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

FroM the Slacktivist:

It’s been awhile so it seems again it’s time for a helpful reminder that noncombatant immunity isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law.

In other words: You’re not allowed to kill civilians.

Killing civilians is against the law. Killing civilians makes you a criminal.

Yes, but …

No buts about it. You’re not allowed to kill civilians.

And, also: You’re not allowed to kill civilians.

This is neither new nor controversial, yet putting the matter in such stark terms always seems to upset people.

On the one hand, this isn’t surprising since the killing of civilians has become a scarcely remarkable, dog-bites-man commonplace. Yet it’s still surprising that anyone could find this elementary notion upsetting: You’re not allowed to kill civilians. If you’re one of those people who finds this upsetting, bear in mind what it is that you’re upset about. Apparently someone you feel ought to be immune from criticism has been killing civilians and you feel I’m criticizing them by pointing out — in the most abstract terms, without any mention of particulars — that this is something that no one is allowed to do.

"What you really mean …" people say — because they’re certain that when I say "You’re not allowed to kill civilians" I must really mean something other than "You’re not allowed to kill civilians" — "What you really mean is that you’re not not allowed to target civilians."

No.

What I really mean — and again it’s not just me, or my opinion, or my preference, it’s the law — is that You’re not allowed to kill civilians.

Anti-Smoking Vaccine In The Works

Ken AshfordHealth Care1 Comment

Attention all smokers who would like to quit:

Doctors are testing a radical new way to help smokers quit: a shot that "immunizes" them against the nicotine rush that fuels their addiction.

That pleasurable buzz has seduced Mario Musachia into burning through nearly half a million cigarettes in half a century.

Now the Madison man is among 300 people around the country who are testing an experimental vaccine that makes the immune system attack nicotine in much the same way it would fight a life-threatening germ.

The treatment keeps nicotine from reaching the brain, making smoking less pleasurable and theoretically, easier to give up. The small amount that still manages to get in helps to ease withdrawal, the main reason most quitters relapse.

If it works _ and this has not yet been proved _ the vaccine could become part of a new generation of smoking cessation treatments. They attack dependency in the brain instead of just replacing the nicotine from cigarettes in a less harmful way, like the gum, lozenges, patches and nasal sprays sold today.

Ken Burns vs. The FCC

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

Ken Burns, documentarian extraordinaire (see The Civil War, Baseball) is in a battle with the FCC over his latest project — a 14 hour PBS documentary on WWII.  Apparently, two of the people he interviews somewhere in that 14 hours use — get the fainting couch ready — swear words!

The War, by Ken Burns, which includes veterans using profanities to describe their experiences on the front line, has become a test case in the Government’s crackdown on indecency on the air. The 14-hour series, created by the documentarian known for his epic television histories Jazz, Baseball and The Civil War, is scheduled to be broadcast on public television stations in September next year.

Despite the government clampdown, the defiant new head of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is refusing to bleep out the offending words or to air it after 10pm, when the rules are less stringent.

“The American people need to know this is not about Janet Jackson,” Paula Kerger, the president and chief executive officer of PBS, said in Pasadena, California. “This is about film-makers that have powerful stories that now are not being allowed to tell those stories on public television or broadcast television.”

Ridiculous.

Pot Smoking Greg Brady

Ken AshfordPopular Culture4 Comments

Yesterday’s mystery house was the Brady Bunch house.

And keeping with the Brady theme, here is a clip from the show.  In his biography, Barry Williams (who played Greg) says that he played this scene (where the station wagon pulls into the driveway), like, totally baked, man. 

And it shows.  He just grins a lot, and almost trips over a bike pump.  His bit starts at 1:50.

U.S. Army: “If You’re Involved In Community Theater, You Must Be Gay”

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

From TPM Muckraker:

Here’s a tidbit from an AP article …The story concerns a decorated Army Arabic specialist who was dismissed for being gay:

On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military’s policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater.

Seriously?

Yeah, seriously? 

The viewpoint of the world’s greatest superpower’s military is staggeringly ignorant.  It’s a double dip of stereotyping stupidity, to wit:

  1. Men who do community theater must be gay; and
  2. Gay people cannot serve their country in uniform

Because let’s face it, the last thing you want in a foxhole is a fellow soldier bragging about his collection of hard-to-find original cast albums.

RELATED THOUGHT:  You know, in WWII, captured Americans held in German POW camps passed the time by putting on stage productions.  Here, for example, is the cast of "The Petrified Forest", performed in the South Compound of Stalag Luft I (one of the POWs in the play is Donald Pleasance, who went on to a successful stage and screen career).  The women’s roles were portrayed by men.

Forestplay

Key Neocon Acknowledges Iraq Debacle

Ken AshfordIraqLeave a Comment

David Frum was a former Bush speechwriter, best known for coming up with the "axis of evil" term.  Both in and out of the White House, he has been an ardent supporter of Bush’s foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq.

But today, he’s being candid, writing that Iraq is essentially a lost cause no matter what we do:

Hands up, everybody who believes that the "hundreds" of troops that the Pentagon plans to move from the rest of Iraq into Baghdad will suffice to secure the capital against the sectarian militias now waging war upon the civilian populations of the city? Anybody? No, I didn’t think so.

To take back the capital from the militias that now terrorize it will take thousands, not hundreds, of American plus tens of thousands of Iraqis. . . . So a real plan for success in Baghdad will have to be built upon additional troops from out of area, potentially raising US troop levels back up to the 150,000 or so of late 2005.

Manifestly, neither the administration nor the Congress will contemplate such a move. Which means, most likely, continuing violence in Iraq and a continuing rise in the power of the militias, especially the Iranian-backed Shiite militias: the Hezbollah of Iraq.

***

Seeing as we cannot maintain the peace in Iraq, we have but one overriding interest there today — to keep Al Qaeda from creating a base from which it can plot attacks on the United States. Thus we need to have troops nearby prepared to re-engage in case the Sunni Arabs prove unable to provide for their own security against the foreign jihadists. . . .

Yes, a United States withdrawal from the Shiite and Sunni Arab regions of Iraq would leave behind sectarian conflict and militia rule. But staying with the current force and mission will produce the same result. Continuing a military strategy where the ends far exceed the means is a formula for war without end.

Nice to know that Frum has finally caught up to what most Americans already believe.

Bill Moyers For President

Ken AshfordElection 2008Leave a Comment

Molly Ivins has an idea which isn’t bad at all.

Here’s some background on Bill Moyers.

UPDATE:  Ezra Klein agrees:

I’ve always found Moyers writings and speeches to be closer to prayers than essays, appeals to our better angels rather than for our grudging votes. When I’m depressed with the state of the country or feel overtaken by the enmities rather than the values that animate politics, I crack open Moyers on America to refresh my perspective. I would love to see him run, the race could truly benefit from a conscience candidate. And so, incidentally, could the country.

Bush Administration Worse Than 9/11

Ken AshfordBush & Co.1 Comment

Well that’s one way to look at this:

According to the poll, 65 percent say they feel less confident that life for their children’s generation will be better than it was for them.

The poll was taken July 21-24.

Now that’s pretty bad, but look how people responded to the same question when it was asked three months after 9/11/2001.

In December 2001, the last time this question was asked, respondents — by a 49-42 percent margin — said they were confident life would be better for their children.

Funny Video Of The Day

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

There’s one thing that conservatives and liberals agree on: Fred Phelps and his group are the most incidious people on the planet.

Fred Phelps, if you don’t know, is the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church.  He first came to national attention with his protests in Laramie, Wyoming following the murder of Matthew Shepard, as immortalized in the play and film "The Laramie Project".

He and his flock have a single message: God hates gays, and the war in Iraq is punishment for America’s embrace of "fagdom". 

How do they get this message out?  They attend the funerals of fallen soldiers, and scream epithets at the mourners.

Nice.

Recently, the Phelps group was down here in Greensboro, with another protest.  An Australian "reporter" talked to one of protesters, and then . . . came on to him ("You know, you’ve got a really firm butt").

Watch the results: