By Debbie Schlussel
Cruel or cute? I vote the latter. But I post, you decide:

By Debbie Schlussel
As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t posted anything since early this morning. That’s because I’ve been at a special day-long screening of five movies, put on by movie studios for members of the Detroit Film Critics Society.
My cousin Ira describes the state of eating too much as a “food coma.” Well, I’m in a movie coma. After watching movies from literally 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., with a half hour break for lunch and five minutes between the rest of the movies, I’m burnt out. It’s not healthy. I feel gross. But what am I gonna do to relax–watch a movie? Yaaaawn. One movie in a day is fun. Five movies in a day is work.
On the flip side, I’m not whining. There’s no other way for us to see all the movies in time to vote on them. We gotta do it this way. I realize if this is the worst of my problems (it isn’t), I’m batting 1,000 . . . and that plenty of Americans are actually doing real, hard work, and I have it easy. And I really appreciate all the movie studio reps and, especially, our Detroit Film Critic Society volunteer executive director, Ruth Daniels (Vice President of a major movie theater chain), who put this confab together for us.

The movies I screened today included “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Defiance,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Seven Pounds,” and “The Reader.” I’m prohibited from posting a review of any of these until they debut in theaters. But I only really liked one of these (and disliked three of them). I’m sure you can guess which one.
And there are at least two more screenings, tomorrow (though I’ll be posting throughout the day, tomorrow).
You may think it’s cool being a movie critic. But it isn’t that cool. Trust me, I sit through hours and hours of crap–valuable hours of my life I’ll never get back.
Now, I’m getting DVDs every single day from movie studios wanting me to vote for their movie. Tomorrow night, we submit nominations for our Detroit Film Critics Society awards for 2008. (I’ll let you know my pics.) Every major city has one of these, and every studio wants their movie and respective actors to win. Most of the DVDs are of movies I hated, and some of the movie studios tell you, “Ya better destroy this copy or else . . . .” But there are a few gems, like “Gran Torino.” No, I didn’t want or need the “Sex & The City Movie” DVD, but the studio wants me to vote for these hags for something, so they sent me one. They ain’t gettin’ my vote.
Trust me, it’s no big whoop. More than anything, I’m just tired. Tired of movies . . . especially today.
For now, here are the trailers of the movies I sat through, today:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button–guy born old gets younger and younger . . .

Defiance–depicts the real-life Jewish Bielski Brothers militia that fought back against the Nazis . . .

Revolutionary Road–middle-class couple in the ’50s goes through strife . . .

Seven Pounds–IRS agent goes out of his way to help good people in need . . .

The Reader–15-year-old is seduced by older woman, then years later learns she was a Nazi . . .

By Debbie Schlussel
Over the weekend, the hajj–the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, began. Muslims are obligated to make this trek to circle a black stone at least once in their lifetime.
Every year, hundreds of Muslims are trampled to death by other Muslims at this event. It’s an interesting form of natural selection not nearly selective enough. This year is expected to be no different.
Interestingly, while the pinnacle of the hajj is supposed to involve a ritual of forgiveness, Muslims didn’t use it to tell each other, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t trample each other to death here and kill each other everywhere else.” Nope.

Get Out the Violin: Hajj is Anti-U.S./Israel Whine-Fest
Instead, Muslims used the hajj to hold a rally denouncing the cause of all problems big and small: America and Israel, er . . . the “evil Zionist entity.” While the rally was sponsored by Iran, thousands of Muslims–Sunni and Shi’ite–showed a nice little unity in their unanimous denouncement of America and Israel.
In what is, ironically, a “Disavowal of Pagans” ceremony, thousands of Muslims prepared to “throw stones at the Devil.” In this case, “the Devil” is us Westerners and Jews. Here’s a nice little recounting from the Tehran Times, house organ of the sponsor of this event on Saudi soil:

The pilgrims condemned the U.S. hegemonic and war-mongering policies as the manifestation of state terrorism, the axis of evil, and the root cause of waging wars, creating insecurity and economic crises throughout the globe.
They denounced occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by the U.S. forces as well as massacre of defenseless people and torture of innocent prisoners.
Expressing their hatred towards International Zionism, the ralliers condemned the rule of the Zionist regime over . . . conspiracies and interference of that regime in other countries’ affairs and its practices of genocide against Palestinians. . . .
[T]he Hajj pilgrims announced their solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese nations and expressed support with resistance movement of Hezbollah of Lebanon.

Cry me a frickin’ river.
Oh, and then, there are our “Allies in the War on Terror” (who are really our friendly Sponsors of Terrorism), the Saudis. Saudi Arabia said it wouldn’t tolerate the hajj being used to hold anti-U.S. demonstrations. But, as the hypocrites and liars they typically are, they allowed it anyway because the protestors stayed inside tents.
Ah, that makes it so much better.
So, to sum up: Poverty and repression all over the Islamic world because of their backward religious tenets and greedy, despotic leaders. Muslims trampling each other to death at their annual “holy” rite. Muslims murdering each other all over the world.
Solution: Blame America and Israel.

Bodies From Hajj Trampling

By Debbie Schlussel
There might be a reason some Hispanic people like matzoh or other Jewish foods. A study shows that, in the Iberian Peninsula, 20%–or one in five–Spanish (and Portuguese) men has DNA showing Jewish heritage. Since I’ve written about the Secret Jews or “crypto Jews” living in the U.S. Hispanic community, this interests me, as well. It shows that many, many Jews–more than originally thought–were forcibly converted to Christianity around the time of the Inquisition and forcibly converted to Islam before that by the Umayyad Muslim dynasty.
As I’ve written for years, it’s thought that Al-Umayyads’ mass killings and forcible conversions of Jews were greater in number than the Holocaust.

Also, as I’ve noted before, Hispanic women in America show a greater likelihood of having the breast cancer gene, BRCA1, than any other group besides Ashkenazic Jewish women. I surmised then that this may be due to Jewish roots. This study may provide some confirmation of that, although most of the Jewish roots shown here are Sephardic (Oriental/Mideast) Jewish roots:

The genetic signatures of people in Spain and Portugal provide new and explicit evidence of the mass conversions of Sephardic Jews and Muslims to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries after Christian armies wrested Spain back from Muslim control, a team of geneticists reports.
Twenty percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry and 11 percent have DNA reflecting Moorish ancestors, the geneticists have found. Historians have debated how many Jews converted and how many chose exile. “One wing grossly underestimates the number of conversions,” said Jane S. Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York. . . .
The study, based on an analysis of Y chromosomes, was conducted by biologists led by Mark A. Jobling of the University of Leicester in England and Francesc Calafell of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. They developed a Y chromosome signature for Sephardic men by studying Sephardic Jewish communities in places where Jews migrated after being expelled from Spain in 1492 to 1496. They also characterized the Y chromosomes of the Arab and Berber army that invaded Spain in A.D. 711 from data on people living in Morocco and Western Sahara.
After a period of forbearance under the Arab Umayyad dynasty, Spain entered a period of religious intolerance, with its Muslim Berber dynasties forcing Christians and Jews to convert to Islam, and the victorious Christians then expelling Jews and Muslims or forcing them to convert. The new genetic study, reported online on Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, indicates there was a high level of conversion among Jews.
Because most of the Y chromosome remains unchanged from father to son, the proportions of Sephardic and Moorish ancestry detected in the present population are probably the same as those just after the 1492 expulsions. A high proportion of people with Sephardic ancestry was to be expected, Dr. Ray said. “Jews formed a very large part of the urban population up until the great conversions,” he said. . . .
The issue is one that has confronted Dr. Calafell, an author of the study. His own Y chromosome may be of Sephardic ancestry – the test is not definitive for individuals – and his surname is from a town in Catalonia; Jews undergoing conversion often took surnames from place names.

It’s interesting that so many Hispanics in our hemisphere and Spanish natives back on Spanish soil are converting to Islam, the religion that once oppressed many of their Jewish ancestors and forcibly converted them (along with Christians who later controlled Spain during the inquisition). Interesting . . . and sad.
Read more on crypto-Jews–Hispanics (mostly in America’s Southwest) who live outwardly as Catholics and secretly as Jews, dating back to their traditions during the inquisition.

By Debbie Schlussel
Wow! That’s all I can say about the tremendous talent with food-carving that reader Ken displays with his Sideshow Bob Spicy Salmon Salad on his Only Knives site. And he shows how he did it, so you gotta scroll down to the bottom to see all the cool pics. Also check out his Jar Jar Binks Salad (and scroll down). Man, this guy is talented.
A must-see, even if you aren’t a Simpsons fan. Yummy.

By Debbie Schlussel
One good movie and one sorta okay one, this weekend at the box office. I did not review “Punisher: Warzone” or “Cadillac Records.”

* “Slumdog Millionaire“:This is a great, interesting, beautifully shot movie (with a happy ending), but gets taken down a notch by its brief pan-Islamist propaganda. It is almost all in English.
Set in India, this is the story of Jamal, a young boy who rises from poverty to win India’s “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,”, then gets arrested, beaten and harassed by Indian police who think he cheated. He recounts his interesting life as he relays to police how he knew each of the answers. We not only learn how he managed to survive life as an orphan but about his lifelong, unrequited love for the beautiful Latika and how it brings him to this point.
I thoroughly enjoyed co-star Anil Kapoor’s brilliant turn as the smug, condescending “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” host, who tries to make Jamal lose.
As you can tell by the name, Jamal is Muslim, but not religious at all. Whereas Jamal has pulled himself up by his bootstraps and garnered a better life, his brother, a religious Muslim (we see him praying), is a gangster working for an Indian Muslim organized crime kingpin.
My objection to this movie is the scene, close to the beginning of the movie, that shows how Jamal’s mother is murdered in a Hindu mass murder of Muslims living in a poor village. It’s kind of ironic now, given what happened in India last week–in real life, we know who the real aggressors are in India: Muslims. And it’s not just the event of last week, as there have been many Islamic attacks on Hindus, Sikhs, and other non-Muslim Indians.
A few weeks ago, Director Danny Boyle was in Detroit for a reception with the Detroit Film Critics Society. I asked him why he showed only one side. He acknowledged that there was plenty of Islamic violence against non-Muslims in India, but said that it simply wasn’t a part of this script or story. Too bad, since those who are ignorant of what happens in India need to know that the violence of last week wasn’t the first time Muslims attacked innocent civilians.
The film was a little slow at the beginning, but once it gets going, it moves quickly and is very entertaining. There are a couple of disturbing scenes–when police try to torture Jamal into admitting he cheated on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” and when Jamal is kept as a young kid by men who deliberately maim children and make them beg. But other than that, the movie is a beautiful, if small, slice of life in India, with a great story.
Stick around for the credits, when the stars do a cute dance number in a salute to Bollywood.
THREE REAGANS (Would Have Gotten Four, if not for brief Islamic Propaganda)

* “Nobel Son“: This dark caper/comedy movie simultaneously makes fun of the pretentious and is way too pretentious itself. It had its good points, but overall left me cold.
I had mixed feelings about this movie. A flick that begins with completely disgusting, unnecessary, repeated scenes of thumbs being hacked off someone’s hand during the opening credits can’t get much worse. That part was graphic, disturbing, and not for the weak-stomached.
Starring pro-Palestinian, self-hating Jew, Alan Rickman, it’s about a scumbag, philandering chemistry professor who wins the Nobel Prize, so it’s ironic that this movie comes out on the eve of Nobel week. Rickman’s character is about as loathsome as other Nobel prize winners, such as Yasser Arafat and Jimmy Carter. His son–running late to the airport after a night with a beautiful woman he’s admired from afar–is kidnapped and the ransom is Rickman’s $2 million Nobel prize money.
But Rickman doesn’t even care. Only his FBI criminal psychiatrist mother (Mary Steen burgen) does. Who is the kidnapper and what is his motive? I can’t tell you because it’ll be a spoiler.
The movie was definitely different and interesting, which I liked. It wasn’t predictable and kept you guessing, and you didn’t know where it was going until toward the end, which is always a plus. But it tried to hard to be dark and different, which made it just annoying. It was very pretentious and artsy–even if it made fun of the pretentious and artsy, such as people who read horrid “poetry” at coffeehouses.
Some of the plot in this caper-filled movie is fun and interesting. Some of it over the top.
I did like that the Nobel Prize winner was such a creep and undeserving fraud, which is borne out so much in real life with the Nobel Committee’s choices. I like anything that continues to take the Nobel Prize down several notches.
Constant loud synthesizer house music playing over the movie bothered me to no end.
The movie was a little much, and at the same time, not enough at all.
HALF-REAGAN

By Debbie Schlussel
You knew this was coming. From outside the Las Vegas courtroom at today’s O.J. Simpson sentence of nine to 33 years behind bars:

By Debbie Schlussel
She’s made several porn films, in which she’s heard directing camera angles. But apparently that isn’t enough to disqualify Paris Hilton from playing Disney’s “Tinkerbell”.

Paris Hilton wants to play Tinkerbell – not her pet Chihuahua, but the famed fairy from “Peter Pan.” A source tells us the celebutard is lobbying for the title role in Disney’s live-action version of “Tinkerbell,” in which the pixie finally gets a chance at life as a real girl. “Paris has worked on her acting chops lately and showed some comedy prowess in her YouTube spoof of running for president,” our insider said. “Disney suits saw it and think she may be developing some comedic-actress potential.”

Stinkerbell
Hmmm . . . Have those same Disney suits seen her most famous “movies” online, which she later sold DVDs of for profit? Surely, they are aware of them. Is there no edit button at Disney, these days? Does it not give them pause that they are actually considering the star of “One Night in Paris” (put out by Red Light District Video–hello . . .? to play the lead in a Disney film for young kids? You don’t have to be a prude to know that this is completely inappropriate.
Aren’t there any parents who are willing to contact Disney and tell them they won’t let their kids see a movie with a porn star playing a fairy tale character?
There are plenty of more deserving and actually talented actresses without resorting to casting this woman.
Like I said in the headline, Walt Disney is turning over in his grave.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’m sick and tired of the non-stop worship of babydaddy and former drug dealer Robert Ritchie a/k/a Kid Rock. The guy glorifies drug dealers, pimps, and other criminals, and he’s really no different than Black rappers like Ludacris and Snoop Dogg, except that he’s white and some–wrongly–perceive him to be a “conservative” (he said he admired Obama and would probably vote for him). That, and he entertains the troops.
Good for him, but that doesn’t justify his behavior or the worship of the crap he’s peddling. His whole act is based on a convicted drug kingpin and pimp, White Boy Rick a/k/a Richard Wershe, Jr., who was responsible for the murders of a lot of people and helped supply the crack and coke addictions of hundreds of others. Ritchie tried to get Wershe paroled, and thankfully failed.

Spoiled Brat Diva Kid Rock a/k/a Bob Ritchie
Gives One-Finger Salute to Judge Alvin Wong
(By the way, Ritchie’s act is bunk. He never lived in a trailer park as he claims in songs and in interviews. His millionaire father sold his car dealership for millions of dollars.)
And then, there’s Ritchie’s latest outrageous move. On his website, he posted a judge’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address, knowing that fans would harass the judge. What’s DeKalb County, Georgia Judge Alvin T. Wong’s “crime”?
Well, he actually sentenced Ritchie to community service for getting into a fight at a Waffle House in Atlanta. It’s about time–Ritchie has gotten away with other alleged fights and allegedly attacking a woman at his home.
Ritchie is upset because he doesn’t want to have to perform real community service. He wants to do something he enjoys and is doing anyway–and have that count toward community service, while other criminals actually have to clean up roads or help out with the needy for their community service sentences.
Every year, he performs for the troops overseas at Christmas. It’s something this egomaniac enjoys because thousands of patriotic troops inexplicably love this low-class idiot.
He wants his trip, this year, to count as his community service. Judge Wong said no, that Ritchie planned to do this anyway and does it every year and that, therefore, it’s not real community service. I agree with Judge Wong, and I’m glad he didn’t give in to this scumbag from Michigan. Here’s what Judge Wong wrote in his order:

[G]iving him credit for something he would otherwise love to do in front of a camera completely defeats the purpose of performing community service.

Right on.
So, now, spoiled, immature brat Ritchie has posted the judge’s information on his website, implying that fans should contact him. And they have. The judge’s phone has been ringing off the hook and he can’t do his job. Way to go, Kid Rock. You really proved . . . nothing.
Writes the self-important Ritchie:

Apparently he [Judge Wong] thinks its more important that I do something else rather than sing, shake hands, taking pictures.

And this proud high school drop-out calls the judge, “a taste of ignorance.” Um, Bob, look in the mirror.
Here’s a tip, Bob Ritchie: If you don’t want to do real community service–which doesn’t mean performing and acting like a celebrity diva–stop starting fights with people at pancake restaurants.
You pleaded guilty, dude. You’re supposed to be putting yourself on the mercy of the court, not acting like a prima donna . . . regardless of who you are and how much money you have.
***
Read my previous column on Bob Ritchie a/k/a Kid Rock, “Kid Rock Family Values?: Desperate GOP Candidate Pimps Drug & Ho Culture for Votes.”
***
Since he’s getting a lot of hate-mail please e-mail Judge Alvin T. Wong, congratulating him for standing up to this celebrity ingrate who wants special treatment.

By Debbie Schlussel
This video shows everything that’s wrong with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A bunch of mostly overweight, career ICE bureaucrats in Flagstaff, Arizona were holding a management meeting in a hotel conference room. A bunch of far-left, open-borders, illegal alien advocating bozos storm their meeting, and these senior ICE agents just sit there for two minutes doing nothing. The ICE chick doing a presentation just stops her presentation for this whole thing. Incredible.
Questions:
1) Why does ICE management need to waste tax dollars to rent a hotel conference room for a meeting? The conference room at ICE offices in Flagstaff wasn’t big enough or fancy enough? If they stayed at ICE offices, this BS wouldn’t have happened.

2) Why does ICE have a sign on the hotel conference room door advertising who they are and that they are meeting in that room? Do they want the world to be able to listen in on their plans? Love the security at this place, where people in orange jumpsuits walk through a hotel with no questions asked.
3) How did these left-wing bozos know they were meeting at this hotel? Clearly, this was planned in advance, so who told them where and when ICE management was meeting?
4) Why did ICE agents in attendance just sit there for two minutes and allow this crap to continue to go on? What if they had guns or planned violence? If this were any other law enforcement organization, these bozos would have been handcuffed, arrested, and escorted out. It’s kind of emblematic of ICE’s attitude toward the illegal aliens that protest and walk on the American streets right under their eyes, while ICE bureaucrats like these guys (and women) sit back doing little about it.