By Debbie Schlussel
I’ve repeatedly warned about this. It’s not just the Muslims overseas. It’s the Muslims in America. They are no different, no less extreme, no more “moderate” than Muslims anywhere else.
Recently, I told you about a Molotov cocktail thrown at a Chicago synagogue and destruction at a Lubavitch synagogue in North Carolina. Now, reader David writes about how, Saturday–the Jewish Sabbath (also called “Shabbos” or “Shabbat”), he walked to synagogue on the way to a special celebration he and his family planned. But they arrived to yellow tape around their vandalized synagogue, complete with anti-Semitic slogans:

Debbie:
I don’t know what happen in other cities, but let me tell you what happened in Chicago early this Shabbos morning.
My father in law passed away a little over a year ago. His name was Morton Pliskin and he was the Chazan [DS: cantor] of a Traditional Synagogue named Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in Lincolnwood Illinois (a suburb of Chicago, near Skokie).

“Religion of Peace” Vandalizes Lincolnwood Synagogue Near Chicago
With “Death to Israel; Free Palestine” Graffiti, Broken Windows

To commemerate the long years of service my father in had to the synagogue, my family dedicated the chair he used to sit in and sponsored the kiddush [DS: a Jewish reception blessing wine (and usually featuring food)].
When we walked to synagogue this morning, we saw yellow crime scene tape around the front steps. On the wall near the door was painted “Death to Israel long live Palestine“. Also, the glass on the front doors was taped. It seems that bricks were used to smash the windows. We are not certain, but we believe an there were plans to enter the synagogue and to destroy everything inside.
There is a couple that lives in the synagogue. In return for a free place to live (I am sure they receive a salary and other expenses but I don’t know the entire agreement), they serve as caretakers for the building and help set up for special events. The husband is also kind enough that whenever it snows he takes care of making sure my Mother-in-Law’s sidewalks and driveway are clean.
The wife heard a noise and woke up. She saw the two perpetrators. They immediately ran away. Unfortunately she cannot identify them because these “heroes of Islam” were wearing ski masks.
The police told us other (I believe 4 but I do not remember) Synagogues in Chicago were also hit.
Something struck me in synagogue today when I was thinking about what happened. Something that myself and I am sure everyone else takes for granted. I was wondering how many mosques in Chicago (or anywhere else) were hit last night.
Sincerely,
David Makowsky

Of course, David is being facetious with that last comment. We Jews–and Christians–don’t attack their mosques. We put the “civilized” in civilization. They take it away and replace it with their own special Greater Barbaria they’ve put in place around the world.
More (thanks to reader Eu Wei for the tip):

Vandals spray-painted the words “Death to Israel” on two synagogues and a Jewish school early Saturday in three separate incidents police say could be linked and are being investigated as hate crimes.
In each case, the vandals – at times donning masks – used orange-colored paint, also shattering glass windows with bricks and rocks at two of the buildings.

That Was Then . . .

This Is Now . . .

A witness and security cameras identified the perpetrators as two men.
Moshe Perlstein, rabbi at Lubavitch Mesivta of Chicago, said cameras captured video of the men damaging his rabbinical school at 2756 W. Morse starting at around 4:40 a.m. The footage shows one man spray-painting the side of the building while the other ran around to the front and threw rocks at the front door, breaking a glass window, he said. The video has been turned over to police.
Similar graffiti was found at Anshe Motele Congregation, 6526 N. California, rabbi Alan Abramson said.
Lincolnwood police said vandals also scrawled “Death to Israel” and “Free Palestine” on the outside walls of Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation, 7117 N. Crawford. Mitchell Sandler, past president of the congregation, said they threw at least two bricks at the front doors, damaging four windows.
Lincolnwood Police Lt. Mark Brines said police were notified at 6:10 a.m. that a caretaker in the building heard a brick crash through a window at the temple. The caretaker saw “two unknown males running from the scene,” Brines said.
Because all three buildings were used by orthodox Jews, Sandler said it appeared the men were targeting more devout Jews.
“This was a cowardly act in the middle of the night,” Sandler said. “Obviously there is dismay because of what’s been happening in the Middle East.”
Local Jewish leaders were alarmed by what they see as a “rash” of incidents targeting Jews.
“It’s disturbing,” said Jay Tcath, senior vice president of the Chicago Jewish Federation.
The incidents come a little more than a week after Ida Crown Jewish Academy, at 2828 W. Pratt, received a mailed bomb threat that also made reference to other Chicago-area Jewish institutions and day schools, said Jay Tcath, senior vice president of the Chicago Jewish Federation.

My sister went to and is a graduate of Ida Crown Jewish Academy, so this hits close to home. What also irks me is the phony Jay Tcath. Jay Tcath is part of the problem. He was bought off by Islamic-owned, terrorism-supporting Caribou Coffee (which boycotts Israel and is anti-Semitic), after they donated thousands to his organization and told Jews to go patronize this bloody coffee chain. Note that he doesn’t chastise the perpetrators of these attacks: Muslims. It’s quite clear that no Samoans or Wiccans are spending their late Friday nights doing this and risking losing their freedoms. It’s obvious who did this.

And police said they are investigating as a hate crime a Dec. 29 incident in which a man hurled a Molotov cocktail at Temple Sholom of Chicago, 3480 N. Lake Shore Dr., after making “derogatory comments” to a passerby.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force has been notified, police said.
No arrests have been made.

Don’t look for Famous But Incompetent’s do-nothing Joint Terrorism Task Force to do anything. It’s like hiring Arthur Andersen and Inspector Clouseau to do your investigation.
Like I said, we need not look at Europe. Islam’s violence is here. Barbarians inside the gate.
We see the new SS, and instead of a swastika and stormtrooper boots, they wear a crescent on their sleeve.
Pamela Geller/Atlas Shrugs has more pics of the vandalism.
***
By the way, I blame the federal government and the unelected “leadership” of the Jewish Community for helping this Muslim vandalism along the way. Especially post 9-11, the feds empowered extremist Muslims and, for example, have yet to prosecute Muslim hate crimes against Jews, like this set of Holocaust-denial Muslim rape, torture, and death threats against me by Dearbornistan Heights, Michigan Muslim Lola Elzein.
The Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils, of which Jay Tcath is a big part, constantly pander to these extremist Muslims and won’t denounce them. They didn’t do a damned thing about the death threats against me and continued to applaud the “moderate” Islamic community around us. In the 1940s, they’d have been doing the same with the German American Bund.
In Detroit, David Gad-Harf a/k/a “Abu Gad-Harf” as head of the Jewish Community Council, now with a New Jersey Jewish Federation, worked with Muslims to make immigration laws more lenient toward Muslims. Now, we are reaping the rewards of that absurdity.

By Debbie Schlussel
We will have more and more of this because we refuse to limit Islamic immigration into America.
Two Seattle Somalian Muslim men kidnapped and forced a 14-year-old girl into prostitution, threatening to kill her and her family if she refused. And, of course, because they’re being prosecuted, we are “racist”–they are Black, and the girl is White. So say the two defendants’ fellow Somalian Muslim buds and relatives livin’ in the ‘hood.
This video news report from Seattle’s KING5 News conveniently doesn’t note that the two are Somalian Muslims. Guess the Religion, Edition #76,998:

Two Seattle men accused of pimping out a 14-year-old girl by threatening to kill her family if she didn’t prostitute herself have been charged with felony sex crimes.
Prosecutors assert that Yonatan Ogube and Samuel Rezene, both 20, forced the girl to have sex with five men on June 28 after abducting her from a Beacon Hill park.
According to police, the men forced the girl into a white Cadillac sedan driven by Rezene. They then took her to Aurora Avenue North and told her “to have sex with people for money or she and her family would be killed,” the investigating officer said in a statement.
Ogube and Rezene were riding in Rezene’s car June 28 when Ogube spotted the 14-year-old walking through Holly Park in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. Ogube, who’d met the girl previously, chased her down on foot and dragged her back to the car by her hair.

Let’s hear it for “Islamic modesty.”
The American soldiers who were murdered by Somalian Muslims are turning over in their graves. The people who burned and dragged their bodies in the streets over there are now “improving civilization” over here on our own soil. Black Hawk Down Seattle.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Michael Moore, that’s who.
The big story in the mainstream media about Michael Moore, today, is that he’s allegedly behind Congressman John Conyers’ opposition to Dr. Sanjay Gupta becoming Barack Obama’s Surgeon General.
But this should be the big story about Michael Moore:

National Theater Chain is pressured to pull movie critical of Michael Moore

Traverse City, Michigan, January 9, 2008. Bowing to pressure from a group organized by Jeff Gibbs, a close friend of Michael Moore and his co-producer on the movie Fahrenheit 911, Carmike Cinemas of
Traverse City has pulled the plug on a new movie critical of the activist filmmaker. “Shooting Michael Moore,” was scheduled to start a one-week run today in Moore’s home town of Traverse City, Michigan. According to Gibbs, the title was a “thinly veiled call to violence” against Michael Moore.
Kevin Leffler, the producer and director of “Shooting Michael Moore” explained that the movie title is only referring to shooting the Oscar-winning filmmaker with a camera, not a gun, and absolutely does
not encourage violence against Michael Moore. Leffler went on to state, “The fact that Michael Moore has the power to pressure a national theater chain to pull a movie critical of him is sad. All sides of an issue should be aired.” To ensure that the public has a chance to see his movie, Leffler even changed the film’s name to “Exposing Michael Moore.” In spite of this, Carmike Cinemas still refuses to air the movie that they were once enthusiastic about showing, simply because Moore has let it be known that he does not want the movie in theaters. The movie has already been aired in both Miami and Detroit.
A protest and press conference is planned for Friday, January 9th, at 4:00 pm. at the Carmike Horizon Cinema 10, located at 3587 Market Place Circle in Traverse City.

More about “Exposing Michael Moore” at the movie’s official site.

By Debbie Schlussel.
Not much to rush to theaters for, this weekend:
* “The Wrestler“: I had mixed feelings about this movie. It’s one of the most depressing films ever. Plus, it features topless strippers, a gross sex scene (after lines of cocaine), shooting up steroids, etc. On the other hand, Mickey Rourke is phenomenal in a role that was perfect for him, and it has a sort of good message. It just took a lot of ugly salami-making to tell it. If you’re nostalgic for the ’80s and/or like pro wrestling, you might like this. But it’s not a feel good film. And it’s not for kids . . . or anyone under 18, in my view.
Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a big-time wrestler in the ’80s who is now down on his luck . . . and still living in the ’80s. He makes his (very little) money in small-time wrestling venues and signing autographs at youth clubs for now adult fans of his from back in the day. He withstands getting stapled by a staple gun and other painful stuff in the pre-planned, but still rough and tough, wrestling bouts. He listens to ’80s metal music, like Ratt’s “Round and Round” and spends his time at a strip club pining for an aging stripper (Marisa Tomei), who is also too old for her “stage” and hasn’t moved on.

Randy lives in a trailer, when he isn’t locked out by his landlord for non-payment of rent. We see him spend his days getting his hair bleached, going to tanning beds, and shooting up with steroids to maintain the wrestler physique in his fifties.
And then, there’s his daughter, whom Randy abandoned along with his wife. He badly wants a relationship with her, but he just can’t get it together. He sacrifices everything to remain a wrestler and to hold on to the past, even though his past might kill him.
Not recommended for a happy, escapist movie experience. But well done for its point, which is: grow up and be a responsible adult, or you will lose everything chasing after a past that can be no longer.
TWO-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

* “Bride Wars“: Completely moronic. It’s an embarrassment even to chick flicks to call this absolutely horrid, completely stupid movie a chick flick. But it is. Guys, do whatever you can to avoid taking your wife or girlfriend to see this two-hour exercise in pain management. Far worse than a visit to the dentist.
Two childhood friends (Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) dream of having the perfect wedding at New York’s Plaza hotel. But when they both finally get the two wimpy, girlie-man they are living with to propose to them, they accidentally have their weddings scheduled on the same day. Neither will bow out, and they become bitter enemies over it, trying to sabotage each other.
But this is no funny catfight. It’s just mean, bitter, and stupid . . . kinda like Kate Hudson, who seems to be quite bitter about Americans. Not fun to watch Just torture. Extremely skipworthy.
FOUR MARXES


* “Revolutionary Road“: An anti-capitalist, far-left attack on America’s middle class, marriage, the nuclear family, and the suburbs. Based on a book of the same name by a man who was basically a communist and didn’t like the fact that Ameica’s suburbs helped Americans become upwardly mobile, self-sufficient, and home-owners.
Leonardo DiCaprio (more like “DiCrapio” here) and Kate Winslet play a young married couple who are both unhappy with their suburban lives and marriage–and, in his case, his corporate job. They both cheat on each other and constantly yell and scream at each other. The end. Completely pointless and a lie. Propaganda Karl Marx would be proud of. Long, boring, and great for insomnia. I fell asleep several times during this hifalutin’ version of melodrama.
A great commentary on this movie is Lee Siegel’s “Why Does Hollywood Hate the Suburbs?”–a must read.
FOUR MARXES

* “The Unborn“: The feel-good post-Holocaust-Mengele-Twins-Experiments Jewish Exorcism thriller movie of the year.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more preposterous, unintentionally hilarious, absurd movie in the last decade. In this how-did-they-get-this-script-greenlit? flick, a beautiful college student is haunted by images of a young boy, and bad things begin to happen all around her.
Oh, and her mother committed suicide after a long bout in a sanitarium. Soon, she finds out that she is a twin, whose twin died in the womb, and that she is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor whose twin brother died in Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele’s twin experiments. So, she gets a Jewish exorcism–new to me–and uses all kinds of Jewish kabbala stuff to get her dybbuk (haunting spirit) exorcised.
It is funny to watch “Rabbi” Gary Oldman (nice yarmulke, dude!) trying to pretend to speak in Hebrew from an obviously transliterated script. Like my friend, reasonable liberal movie critic Cory Hall joked, with all the Jews in Hollywood, they had to cast Gary Oldman as the rabbi?
All of this is accompanies by numerous gratuitous butt, belly, and bikini underwear shots.
What a waste of time, and as a religious Jew, I laughed myself silly in disgust and disappointment at how ludicrous this is.
“The Boys From Brazil” (read my review) was a great thriller invoking Dr. Mengele and the Nazis. This was just dumb schlock.
Please, Never Again.
TWO MARXES


* “Not Easily Broken“: Based on a book by respected conservative Black Rev. T. D. Jakes, this movie wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. And it was actually entertaining. If you wanna see a lot of “No, You di’in’t”s and overbearing wives and mother-in-laws fighting in fun catfights over interracial affairs, etc., this is your movie. I laughed a lot (even though I don’t think that was always the intent). I liked the message, even if it was delivered in a really heavy-handed, somewhat cheesy way.
Talented actor Morris Chestnut plays a Black baseball player, whose career is cut short by an injury. He’s married to a materialistic, self-centered, extremely shrewish Black woman who doesn’t want to have kids yet. Chestnut–who earns a decent middle-class living as a construction company owner–can’t keep up with his wife’s spending habits, while she can’t tolerate his mentoring and coaching of a Black inner city baseball team for boys. He’s a great husband who tries to do the right thing, but isn’t appreciated. Plus, he’s henpecked by his wife’s obnoxious mother-in-law. Soon, Chestnut finds himself infatuated with a White woman who looks like Cindy McCain 20 years ago. And he must decide whether or not to leave his marriage.
This movie has a ton of melodrama and is kind of a “morality chick flick.” Still, it was entertaining, even for the guys.
ONE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS

By Debbie Schlussel
Today, I have a phone interview with Ed Zwick, writer/director of “Defiance” and a number of other movies and TV shows. The interview focuses on “Defiance,” starring Daniel Craig. As I’ve noted on this site, it’s the story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans who fought back against the Nazis and saved hundreds of Jews. They are true heroes, and the movie captures that.
The movie is also important because it betrays the myth that Jews willingly went to the ovens and didn’t try to fight back. The Bielskis and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising are the two most famous instances of many such efforts to stop Nazi evil. I’ve always said, Jews with guns are my favorite combo. Hate to quote America’s most well-known porn star (Paris Hilton), but “That’s Hot.” (Not sure why she gets ownership of that common phrase.)
I’ve not yet posted my review of the movie, which I’m barred from doing until the movie releases in Detroit. But I liked it a lot, and I’ve written about it here and, as a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, I voted for it as one of the year’s best pictures, best ensembles, and Liev Schrieber as one of the year’s best supporting actors, as Zus Bielski. Zus’ son, Jay (who served in the IDF and is a New York doctor), commented on this site that the movie captured his father perfectly.

So, what questions would you suggest I ask Zwick? Please post ’em in the comments section. I’m reposting the trailer as a refresher.

One thing I plan to ask Zwick: Why do the Jews in Hollywood love portraying the bravery of Jews fighting tyranny 65 years ago, but can’t bring themselves to show the bravery of Jews fighting it in Israel today (and instead villainize them)?

By Debbie Schlussel
This is yet another stark example of how the government overreacts to a threat or perceived threat.
I love frequenting second-hand and thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales. I find game pieces and other stuff that I make into jewelry and other cool items. But when you or I go to the store to buy jeans, shoes, or a toy, we don’t automatically think, Oh my G-d, I’m gonna die from lead poisoning and phthalates. That’s only for the uber-neurotic . . . and the government, apparently.

Say Goodbye to Yard Sales?
Big government wants to hold all second-hand retailers accountable for testing every single last such item, and it’ll put ’em out of business. Awesome–just what we need in a sinking economy, in which we need these less expensive thrift retailers more than ever. Yup, let’s make it even harder for the Salvation Army stores to help the poor. Let’s make it impossible for Joe Sixpack to hold a garage sale to make some extra cash in tough times:

Looming federal regulations that could force used-item retailers and thrift stores to trash many children’s toys and clothing are getting a second look from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The regulations, passed under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in August and set to go into effect Feb. 10, are aimed at eliminating lead-tainted products designed for children 12 and younger. They require all such products – clothes, toys and shoes – be tested for lead and phthalates, the chemicals used to make plastics pliable.
The main issue for retailers is the costly testing, which can run from about $400 for a small item to thousands of dollars for larger toys with multiple pieces, according to Kathleen McHugh, president of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association.
Products not tested would be deemed hazardous whether they contain lead or not, under the wording of the law.
Abby Whetstone, owner of Twice as Nice Kids in Denver, said consignment stores such as hers would not be able to afford expensive lead tests.
“It would affect every piece of inventory we have,” Whetstone said. “We’re a little terrified at this point.”
The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted this week to work on exemptions to the regulations and evaluate the way they could impact sales from consignment shops, online retailers and even yard sales.
“We are working on a 30-day comment period where we will hear from consumers, manufacturers, retailers, anybody affected by the act,” commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said. The review won’t be finished by Feb. 10, but the law will still go into effect that day, he said.
Wolfson said there are some obvious holes in the act, which the commission will seek to fill.
Lara Lang, who has helped run consignment sales which raise between $25,000 and $30,000 a year for the Hermitage United Methodist Church preschool in Nashville, says the concept of protecting children is good, but she was critical of the act.
“How on earth are they going to enforce that? They can’t. There are people who have yard sales. Are they going to police those?” she asked.
The changes would also affect toy wholesalers and distributors such as Challenge & Fun, a Massachusetts-based company that imports most of its products from Europe. Company co-owner Rob Wilson said he’d have to cut his 500-product line to 20 or 30 to meet the requirements. “Even there, if I have to spend $20,000 or $30,000 on testing, that’s a big hit,” he said.
Goodwill Industries International, among the charities that could be affected, is waiting for clarification before it starts changing the way it does business, spokeswoman Charlene Sarmiento said.
Carrie Weir, who owns Web-based Los Pollitos Dicen, a children’s clothing line specializing in T-shirts, would be hit both as a clothing designer and a parent.
“We all want regulations to make sure our children our safe, but this law goes too far,” Weir said.

Who are the geniuses who put together this law? Why not just junk it? And, while they’re at it, fire a few people who spent all day at a desk thinking up ways to make simple commerce in America not simple at all.
We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE, 01/09/09, 9:38 a.m.: The link below to the HAMAS Rally report is fixed. Please watch. Also, if someone can copy and send to me, I’d appreciate it. ****
The classy Ron Savage, the only reporter at Detroit’s FOX 2 News who is truly objective, covered the Thursday rallies at the McNamara Federal Building. (Ron is also a fireman.) The thing is that all the news stations only covered the initial rally and most did not cover the parade or the rally inside a Detroit Methodist Church later. The Muslims were not peaceful even at the event Ron covered, as they chanted (in Arabic) their support of Hezbollah and spilling blood and, in English, of establishing Palestine “from the river to the sea.” Plus, there were no “Israelis” in our camp. We were all Americans–Christians and Jews, and the Muslims were mostly not Palestinians.
Still, I think Ron captured the essential difference between the two sides–the Muslims are full of hate and bigotry and the Westerners (again, we had both Christians and Jews in our crowd) just want peace and to be left alone and safe.
Watch the clip.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
I just got back from the pro-HAMAS/Hezbollah rally the Muslims held (and our much smaller counter-rally) at the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit. A lot of very violent, anti-Semitic slogans were shouted, some of which I think I caught on video (am new to this). Will try to edit and put up later.
But for now, please note that once they discovered who I was–which they didn’t detect for hours–the Muslims were surrounding me, wouldn’t leave me alone. They also got an Egyptian Detroit Police officer to ask me to stop filming them on public property. So much for my civil rights, which the National Lawyers Guild attorneys there to “monitor the rights of Muslim-Americans” didn’t seem to care about “monitoring.”
The Muslim HAMAS supporters were deliberately bumping and trying to trip me, then telling police I touched them. They became more and more enraged when I wouldn’t engage them and answer their questions. I feared for my life. So did the Detroit Police Department who had to escort me back to my car, so I could get away safely. One of the two gentleman DPD officers told me he feared for my safety. Many thanks to these chivalrous officers.
“Religion of Peace,” indeed.
**** UPDATE: A little video “taste” of what happened at the HAMAS rally.

By Debbie Schlussel
Like every other segment of society, Disney’s been neglecting boys. But, now, after a gazillion princess movies and stuff about girlie-boy bands, the boys are back. And that’s a good thing . . . depending on the message boys are sent and that’s not clear from Disney’s marketing plans, which sound kind of empty and devoid of anything substantive.

Walt Disney Co. is making a push to crack a market that few media companies have been able to conquer — boys aged 6-14.
Next month, the company will launch a boy-focused entertainment brand called Disney XD, consisting of a new cable television channel, a comprehensive Web site with games, music, videos and social networking.

Disney’s “Aaron Stone”: Will It Send
the Right Message–Or Any Message At All–To Young Boys?

For Disney, the move marks a new push designed to replicate some of the success it has scored in recent years with its largely girl-targeted entertainment franchises such as Hannah Montana, High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers. . . .
But it hasn’t hit the same heights with the similarly aged boy market. “I think boys are just harder, in general, to get galvanized behind any one thing,” says Jane Buckingham, president of the Intelligence Group, a market-research firm in Los Angeles. “And there isn’t a lot out there for the tween boy market.”
Disney has produced properties that attract boys, including the “Cars” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchises. But until now, the company hasn’t tried to package them together in such a way as to consistently target the young boy market.
“We looked at the landscape and feel that girls are being served — if not super-served, and preschoolers are also well served, but boys really haven’t been,” says Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide. “If boys have been served, it’s been mostly in animation, which [is] only a narrow portion of what boys are interested in.”
Using both television and a new Web portal, Disney hopes to introduce boys to a host of new live-action and animated shows, original movies, new music acts and games. And Disney executives also hope to leverage boys’ love of sports, using the company’s ESPN brand, which will likely collaborate on original programming and other sports-themed topics for Disney XD. (Disney says the letters don’t refer to anything.)
On Feb. 13, Disney will rebrand its existing animation channel, Toon Disney, as Disney XD and will launch the new action-adventure show “Aaron Stone,” that it hopes will become the channel’s centerpiece. The show melds aspects of what the company says boys are interested in: action, adventure and videogames. Another new show, “Zeke & Luther” will be a comedy filmed in quasidocumentary style about two best friends trying to become world-famous skateboarders.
Toon Disney is currently available on both basic cable and digital packages in about 72 million households. The Disney Channel is seen in about 97 million U.S. households. Disney XD will air traditional advertising spots, according to Disney officials.
But the launch of Disney XD comes amid a major advertising downturn, which could pose a challenge as the company hopes to attract advertisers both online and television.
Like the Disney Channel, which helped launch the careers of such household names as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Shia LaBeouf, executives want XD to serve as a springboard for fresh faces. Up first is 21-year-old Kelly Blatz, the star of “Aaron Stone,” a Burbank native who was for a time a barista at a Starbucks down the street from Disney Channel headquarters.
Simultaneously, Disney’s online unit will launch DisneyXD.com, an ad-supported Web site that won’t only be used to promote XD television properties, but will focus on action-driven games and video. There will also be social networking and online community sections of the site.

Blah, blah, blah. Where is the magic and wonder, once the hallmark of Disney charm?
Young boys really don’t need more high tech garbage, extreme sports, and computer games. They need to be taught values and how to be good, responsible young men. And they need to have an opportunity to develop an interest in the outdoors, science, and wildlife developed–things that have been neglected, especially with the decline of the Boy Scouts.
This new Disney marketing plan seems devoid of that. It sounds absolutely vapid. But boys have a hunger for the right message. That’s why “The Dangerous Book for Boys” was such a success. I really wish Disney would take a few lessons–and adopt some programming–from those pages. Boys would eat it up.
That marketing chick has it all wrong. Boys aren’t hard to galvanize. . . if you have the right message and content.

By Debbie Schlussel
Bad news about a man who was once seen as a top leader in the conservative movement and a promising Presidential candidate. Jack Kemp, who went from Buffalo Bills QB to Reagan intern in California to rising political star in Washington, has cancer. It is apparently very serious, and I hope he recovers.
When I was a teen, one of my heroes was then-Congressman Jack Kemp. At the time, he was a down-the-line conservative who was pro-America, pro-Israel, and pro-self-empowerment. He championed tax cuts and enterprise zones and got it right,whether it was domestic or foreign policy. He was an important and vocal person in the fight against oppression in the then-Soviet Union and a strong supporter of sanctions against the country. As a high school student, I was one of the many who were involved in Jack Kemp’s campaign for President in 1988, which essentially began back in 1984. I got to know Kemp and was instrumental in his Michigan campaign–at the time Michigan was the first in the nation to pick its Republican delegates. I became a Jack Kemp delegate to the 1988 Republican National Convention.

Jack Kemp Cards–Rookie Card at Right (Schlussel Collection)
But after that, Jack Kemp started to go liberal. He opposed propositions in California and elsewhere that limited affirmative action and stopped benefits for illegal aliens. And he endorsed a number of other liberal ideas. That’s not to mention that as HUD Secretary under President George H.W. Bush, Kemp granted security contracts in federal housing projects to the Nation of Islam.
Still, I can’t forget the many important things Jack Kemp did that helped build the conservative cause and which were good for America. And regardless of his politics, he’s a good man for whose well-being and recovery from cancer I’ll be praying. I hope you’ll do the same.