By Debbie Schlussel
TMZ says it’s a rental surf board (people rent surf boards?), but so what? If it were me, I would reject a surf board with a swastika on it. Foxx has bragged that his father is Muslim (which means by Islamic law, he is, too), and it looks to me like this surfboard has all the Muslim symbols on it–a swastika next to a Jewish star (since Muslims outrageously equate the two and like swastikas, since they–Muslims–are the new Nazis), a faux peace sign, and references to the awful “Hedwig and The Angry Inch,” a musical about a gay German eunuch transsexual. Yup, I’d definitely ask for a different surfboard and ask that this one be “retired.” Presumably, if he saw the $30.00 rental pricetag, written on it, he also saw the swastika. But took that surfboard anyway.
Apparently, Jamie Foxx doesn’t have a prob with swastikas. Remember that, the next time you think of going to his lousy movies.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’m glad the mainstream media finally exposed–if kicking and screaming–the hypocrisy of John Edwards. That said, even though I’ve made a couple of snide references to him on this site, his affairs are not the biggest issue with him. First of all, we know that this is Democratic family values, and sometimes, Republican ones (Newt Gingrich, David Vitter, etc.).
But second, the most objectionable thing to me about John Edwards will still and always be what an incredibly leeching, scumsucking trial lawyer he was and how he amassed his fortune off the backs of doctors and other professionals who actually provided something of substance to society. What he did in his marriage I just don’t care about so much as I do what he did to America and would have done more of had he been elected to the White House.

John Edwards & 2 Talk Show Hosts Have Something in Common
However, almost as objectionable to me are two very prominent, fraudulent conservative talk show hosts who’ve been going on and on and on and on over the last few weeks about Edwards, when both are currently married and both are known philanderers. I won’t say their names here for obvious reasons, but I will tell you about them, because hearing them carry on makes me see visions of giant black pots.
* First, there is the local conservative talk show host in a major market, on whose show I used to appear and whose show runs on a station that carries Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. This senior fat pig–an uber-panderer of Sean Hannity’s–repeatedly called me at home and asked me about my dating situation, telling me,

You know, I’m really in love with you, and you know, my wife and I–even though we’re still married–our marriage is over and we’re just together for convenience, and we both have an understanding to do our own thing, so if you’re interested . . . .

Disgusting. Whenever they tell you they have an “understanding” with the wife, it’s a unilateral, imagined “understanding.” This person repeatedly called me and hit on me in this piggish manner. It creeped me out.
Yet, this hypocrite has been gloating over John Edwards. Hello . . .? And this scumbag recently guest-hosted a nationally syndicated radio show of another conservative. Sad. And gross.
* Then, there is the married nationally syndicated conservative talk show host who only hires female interns, assistants, and producers because he likes to proposition them. To my shock, this person once got very upset with me when I briefly colored my hair red, as if this person had some vital, personal interest in me being blonde. It was a very weird, dark energy and gave me the creeps. To make matters worse, a local conservative radio talk show host out West tells me he lost his job at one radio station because an awful female radio host this national talk show host is extremely close with and rumored to be seeing on the side wanted the slot. This national host told the station that if she didn’t get so-and-so’s show slot, “I’ll pull my show from your station.”
This person has been going on and on and on and on about John Edwards for weeks. He even talked about how you never cheat on your wife or go to a hotel room with someone who is not your wife. Well, duh. Too bad this person can’t tell it to his mirror.
So, while it’s a good thing that the mainstream media–again, kicking and screaming–is finally (though unwillingly), at least with John Edwards, applying the same scrutiny as they do with conservative politicians, I just wish the couple of hypocritical, philandering talk show hosts I know are cheating–or trying desperately to–would shut the heck up.
You don’t have to be a Christian to know what they say about glass houses.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES ****
Whoa. This is creepy. Apparently a common spider, found in houses across America, can severely disfigure and kill you. Yup, it’s not just the rare, exotic tarantulas and black widows you need to worry about.
When I was a kid, my dad always taught me to take bugs I found inside the house and set them free outside, but–being worried they’d bite me on the way out–I often killed them and flushed them down the toilet. Now, I have more justification, especially in the case of spiders.

A 4-inch scar stretches across 6-year-old Barron Bowling’s face, a road map to the venom that seeped through his cheek when he was bitten by a brown recluse spider last September. Crushed cartilage makes his right ear fold in half, and a tiny chunk of that ear is missing.

Beware the Brown Recluse Spider

“People say, ‘What happened? Were you in a car accident? Were you burned?’ ” says Barron’s mother, Elisa Bowling of Kansas City, Mo. “It’s amazing how something so small can be such a big deal.”
Brown recluse bites are on the rise across the country, especially in the Midwest and Southeast, says Gary Wasserman, chief of toxicology at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo. Last year, the hospital treated 29 patients who had been bitten by a brown recluse ‚Äî the usual rate is 10 to 12 a year. Since April, the hospital has treated 12 patients; three were admitted to the intensive care unit.
“We’re gradually seeing more and more, in worse and worse cases,” Wasserman says. “I suspect that’s because they’re getting used to being around humans.”
The brown recluse spider prefers to hide in dark, quiet areas like basements and attics. It typically avoids people and is aggressive only when provoked. It is dormant part of the year, which means bites usually occur from April until October.
Within hours, the spider’s venom will begin to kill surrounding tissue, Wasserman says. That creates a bruise that resembles a target.
What makes the bite life-threatening are systemic effects such as hemolysis, or the breakdown of red blood cells, clotting abnormalities and secondary infections.
When Barron was bitten, his face swelled, almost closing his throat. He breathed via a ventilator for four days.
Rick Vetter, a research associate in the department of entomology at the University of California-Riverside, warns that skin lesions are often misdiagnosed as brown recluse bites. They could actually be caused by cancer, Lyme disease, bacterial infections, diabetes or chemical burns.
“There are probably bucketfuls of these spiders in your home, and it’s very rare to be bitten,” Vetter says. “You shouldn’t ignore them, but you also shouldn’t freak out about them.”

Yikes.
Here are the symptoms of a Brown Recluse Spider’s bite:

* Severe pain at the site of the bite.
* Itching.
* Muscle and joint pain, coupled with weakness.
* Nausea, vomiting and fever.

Double Yikes.
Read more about the Brown Recluse Spider, also known by its scientific name, Loxosceles reclusa.
**** UPDATE: Reader “Sue Denemme” posted links–here and here–to grotesque but important photos showing what a bite from this spider can do. Needless to say, stay away from these critters.
Reader Howard sends advice on a possible treatment, but we are not doctors and are not giving medical advice, so don’t sue us, if it doesn’t work. We recommend calling 911 or rushing to the hospital, if G-d forbid, you are bitten:

In his newsletter “Alternatives”, Dr. David Williams claims that the liberal application of DMSO [Dimethyl Sulfoxide] will inhibit the damage to skin and tissue caused by the bite of the Brown Recluse spider.
He wrote that a number of home repairmen, air conditioning service people, and plumbers are aware of this effect of DMSO and carry it with them when working in attics or wherever the Brown Recluse may be found.
I cannot attest to the efficacy of DMSO for anything other
than reducing inflamation in tendons and muscles, but Williams is usually on the right track.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Or is there something VERY wrong with “2 Live Crew”‘s Luther “Luke Skywalker” Campbell’s new set-up as a fatherhood role model? That’s what VH1 is pimping on America, starting tonight on “Luke’s Parental Advisory“–a “family values” show (if you’re talkin’ John Edwards family values).
Remember him? Luther Campbell is the has-been best known for the grotesque, “Me So Horny,” with lyrics, such as “My D-ck So Hard,” which they, sadly, played uncensored on MTV and MTV2 (full disgusting lyrics below). Every song by this guy was obscene and basically X-rated, and all of his “albums” (if you can call them that) carried Parental Advisory warnings.
Now, Campbell has continued in his path of filth by taking up as a pornography company owner.

Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew:
VH1’s New PG-Rated “Fatherhood Role Model”
Oh, and he’s debuting tonight on VH1 as the epitome of “fatherhood . . . a role model for his kids.” (They don’t mention that his two kids we’re had out-of-wedlock from a past “relationship.”)
That’s the VH1 press release BS, but in reality, Luther Campbell is one of those rare cases where kids would be better off withOUT their father. In this case, he’s a nasty, filthy cesspool of garbage. The only lesson in fatherhood and role-modeling he can teach them is the obvious: “Do as I say, not as I do.”
VH1 also describes him as a “Constitutional rights activist,” because he fought for the right to use a woman’s orgasmic scream sound effects from “Full Metal Jacket” in his filthy “Me So Horny.” Wow, a bastion of American patriotism, this guy.
By the way, most of the newspaper articles on this show describe Campbell as a “businessman,” but they don’t say that his “business” is porn. Kudos to the New York Times for at least having the guts to tell the truth in its coverage of this waste of time, trashy show. Sadly, while pointing out what a crummy show it is, even the NYTimes pimps it as a “guilty-pleasure classic”:

“Luke’s Parental Advisory,” belongs to the wild-parent genre of reality family shows . . . . Luther Campbell, who made his name with “Me So Horny” two decades ago and now runs his own pornography production company, tries to keep his teenage son and daughter on the straight and narrow. But he doesn’t try all that hard. “You call yourself a player?” he asks upon learning that his 14-year-old son has only one girlfriend.
With its pole-dancing auditions, blustering admonitions (“The girlfriend with the baby, she gotta go”) and constant apologias for the family business, “Luke’s Parental Advisory” may become a guilty-pleasure classic. The show it is most reminiscent of, in some ways, is “The Sopranos,” with Mr. Campbell as a more avuncular Tony, forced by his profession to hang out at strip clubs. [DS: Methinks Tony Soprano is turning over in his pay-cable grave; this show is on regular prime-time cable, where kids can easily tune in.] . . .
[There] is a forthright emphasis on cleavage. It’s Mr. Campbell’s job.

Sorry, but there’s a line between “guilty pleasure” and “depraved outrage.” Campbell long ago crossed that line. Hard to believe, but this show is only rated TV-PG. Unfortunately, too many Ps won’t give the proper G, and a lot of American kids will think the Campbell Family values are the way to go.
I’m not posting the disgusting, orgasmic scream “Me So Horny” video here. But here are the “lyrics”–if you call this crap, “lyrics”. With “role models” and “fathers” like this, why doesn’t VH1 just do a show, “Bin Laden’s Family Values,” or “Ron Jeremy: America’s New Role Model”? Oops, I just gave them some ideas they might act on.

“Me So Horny” By 2 Live Crew
What’ll we get for ten dollars?
Every ting you want
Everything?
Everyting
Ooh! don’t do that, baby! ahh!
Hold on this! oh, sock it to me! aaahh!
Ooohh!
Chorus (repeated during breakdowns):
Ahh! me so horny!
Me love you long time!
Verse 1: [Brother Marquis]
Sittin at home with my d–k on hard
So I got the black book for a freak to call
Picked up the telephone, then dialed the 7 digits
Said, yo, this Marquis, baby! are you down with it?
I arrived at her house, knocked on the door
Not having no idea of what the night had in store
I’m like a dog in heat, a freak without warning
I have an appetite for sex, ‘cuz me so horny
Chorus
Ahh! me so horny!
Me love you long time!
Verse 2: [Fresh Kid Ice]
Girls always ask me why I f–k so much
I say what’s wrong, baby doll, with a quick nut?
‘Cuz you’re the one, and you shouldn’t be mad
I won’t tell your mama if you don’t tell your dad
I know hell be disgusted when he sees your p—y busted
Wont your mama be so mad if she knew I got that ass?
I’m a freak in heat, a dog without warning
My appetite is sex, cause me so horny
Chorus
Ahh! me so horny!
Me love you long time!
Verse 3: [Brother Marquis]
You can say I’m desperate, even call me perverted
But you say I’m a dog when I leave you f–ked and deserted
I’ll play with your heart just like it’s a game
I’ll be blowing your mind while you’re blowing my brains
I’m just like that man they call Georgie Puddin Pie
I f–k all the girls and I make em cry
I’m like a dog in heat, a freak without warning
I have an appetite for sex, cause me so horny.
Chorus
Breakdown(4x):
Ahh! hold on this! oh, sock it to me!
Chorus
Ahh! me so horny!
Me love you long time!
Verse 4: [Fresh Kid Ice]
It’s true, you were a virgin until you met me
I was the first to make you hot and wetty-wetty
You tell your parents that we’re goin’ out
Never to the movies, just straight to my house
You said it yourself, you like it like I do
Put your lips on my d–k, and suck my a–hole too
I’m a freak in heat, a dog without warning
My appetite is sex, cause me so horny
Chorus
Breakdown (repeated till end of track):
F–kie suckie. Me f–kie suckie.

Yup, America, the man who made this vile filth is the new role model for fatherhood. Awesome.
If you let your kids watch this show, they should sue you for malpractice.

By Debbie Schlussel
Today is the Jewish fast day, “Tisha b’Av,” which marks the day, the Ninth of Av on the Jewish calendar, on which both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. Five major tragedies happened to the Jewish people on this day, so we take the day to remember and mourn those and all the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people. (On Tisha B’Av in 1492, the Jews were officially expelled from Spain, for example.) I’ve been fasting since yesterday, and the fast lasts almost 25 hours–no food or drink (the no drinking part is the hard part). Read many more details on the fast day from my entry about it, last year.
I felt that, in light of the Jewish fast day, I would give you an update on the case of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the true moderate Muslim, who is on trial for his life in Bengladesh, because he wrote pro-Israel, pro-Christian, and pro-Jewish sentiments in his newspaper, “The Weekly Blitz“.

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury:
Courageous Muslim Faces Death for Praising Jews, Christians
First, there is this article by our friend Michael Freund of the Jerusalem Post, covering the trial. Read it.
Also, here is an e-mail Shoaib sent me on Friday, prior to the Jewish Sabbath. Note the disgusting way he is being treated and the manner in which this witch hunt is being perpetrated. It is amidst this that I am uplifted that you, my readers, have cheered up this brave man and done a great thing sending moral support to this uniquely righteous and courageous person. I sincerely thank you for that, and I urge you to keep it up. You can also help support this man by putting an ad in his newspaper, the details of which follow his e-mail:

From: Salah Choudhury salahuddinshoaibchoudhury@yahoo.com
Date: 2008/8/8
Subject: From Shoaib
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
Esteemed Debbie Schlussel:
Shabbat Shalom!
I must express sincerest gratitude, admiration and thanks for your precious support to me and my family by bringing my case to your thousands of readers. Such support makes me greatly indebted to you and may I express my sincerest thanks to all, who are continuing to write me after reading in your blog.
As you may know by now, on Thursday my lawyers cross examined the plaintiff of the case, Mohammed Abdul Hanif, former officer-in-charge of Airport Police Station. The next dates are August 31 and September 1, 2008 for cross examination. There are 20 witnesses in this case, all fixed by the government.
Generally, I have to appear in the court by 9:00 am on the court dates and stay till 4-5 pm. Accuseds are not allowed to sit in the court rooms, thus are forced to stand for hours and of course sweat in the extreme hot weather. There is no fan at the waiting portion of the court rooms. Moreover, I am not allowed to drink water, eat anything, unless the trial is over.
On Wednesday, when I went to the court, I was having high fever [103 degree] and severe headache and pain in other parts of the body. So, I went inside the court room and sat at a back bench which is fixed for generally members of press [as you know, I am a journalist too]. But, the additional Public Prosecutor after seeing me asked the police to drive me out of the court room. He was making jokes. I brought this matter to the attention of some high officials in the government, but there is no action for such audacious behavior of the Additional Public Prosecutor. Some of the newspapers in Bangladesh, like Daily Amader Shomoy, published news on the trial saying “after four years of framing the charge, the case has seen the light of trial”. It is evident that these newspapers want to see me convicted.
As you may know, I am facing sedition, treason and blasphemy charges. The charge was framed on 13.11.2006, where the judge said:

I, Md. Momin Ullah, Metropolitan Session Judge do here by accuse you Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury for the following reasons:
The State Prosecution has brought allegation against you, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury stating that, being the editor and owner of Blitz newspaper, you sent an article titled “Hello Tel Aviv” to USA Today newspaper published from Washington. Furthermore, in 2003, while attempting to travel to Israel to attend a conference titled “Education Towards Culture of Peace,” organized between 1st December to 3rd December 2003, you appeared at the Zia International Airport on the 29th November 2003 and the Immigration police arrested you and found the copy of the speech you prepared to deliver in the conference. In that speech, you have made offensive comments on Muslim world, Islam and Muslims in Bangladesh and commented about existence of Al Qaeda and other Islamist militant groups, by which you have tarnished the image of Bangladesh in the outside world. Furthermore, you have made conspiracy of spreading anti-state news through that speech and you by sending that speech to outside world, you have played offensive role to Bangladesh’s security, public discipline and adverse role towards Bangladesh’s relations with the outside world. In you report, you have mentioned about guerilla training in the Bangladeshi madrassas, by which you have influenced the religious sentiments and made imaginary stories abroad about jihadist training in favor of Laden, Arafat and Saddam, by which you have put Bangladesh’s foreign relations to threat and through this you have caused offense under Penal Code Section 505 (A), 295 (A) and 120 (B).
The allegations were read before the accused and he claimed to be innocent (not guilty) and prayed for justice.
Md. Momin Ullah
Metropolitan Session Judge

Please note here, although the judge refers to an article titled “Hello Tel Aviv”, which was reportedly published in USA Today, in reality, there is no such existence of any article, nor did I ever write any article for USA Today. The entire case is based on mere imagination of the police, investigation officer and Bangladeshi authorities. Main reason behind their anger is, I am promoting interfaith understanding, demanding relations between Bangladesh and Israel and confronting radical Islam as well as oppose Holocaust Denial.
As per my own assessment, the trial will conclude in next 2-3 months. If the judge will convict me, Section 120 [Sedition] bears capital punishment [death penalty]. On the other hand, he may convict me for life term or for several years. But, I am mentally prepared to accept any of such adversity. In case, I am executed, my daughter Priyanka [who is now 18 years] and son Hanzalah [who is 8+] will continue my mission.
Weekly Blitz, which is the only Zionist newspaper in the Muslim world [www.weeklyblitz.net] shall also continue its mission. Because of our editorial policy confronting radical Islam and culture of Jihad, local businessmen refrains from advertising in Blitz. But, some of my friends abroad, occasionally accord support to this newspaper through advertisement. This has been the only source of income for my family, for Weekly Blitz and the ongoing legal expenses.
Once again, my profound grartitude to you and your friends and readers, for your precious and kind support.
May G-d bless you all!
Shoaib
SALAH UDDIN SHOAIB CHOUDHURY
Journalist, Columnist, Author & Peace Activist
Editor & Publisher, Weekly Blitz www.weeklyblitz.net
PEN USA Freedom to Write Award 2005; AJC Moral Courage Award 2006
Key to the Englewood City, USA [Highest Honor] 2007; Monaco Media Award, 2007

While I am hungry and very thirsty as I fast today, I think not just of the destruction of the Jewish temples in Jerusalem, the expelling of the Jews in 1492 from Spain, and the precarious position in which Israel and the Jewish people find itself today, but I also think of this brave, courageous man, who could lose his life for daring to speak out, for daring to do what’s right and urge moderation in his religion and love for that of others.
**** HOW YOU CAN HELP: Salah Uddin Shoiab Choudhury is a modest man. He would never ask for financial help, but we need to help him and his family and show our support. Here’s how you can do it, the details of which Shoaib sent me in response to my inquiry:

Esteemed Debbie Schlussel:
Shabbat Shalom!
In fact, as you may know, I never have collected any money from my supporters as donations to cover my legal expenses. Rather, a part of income from my newspaper’s advertisement goes into this matter.
We shall gratefully accept advertisement in Weekly Blitz as per following tariff in the mentioned bank account:
Print Edition:
Front Page, Two Colors [Black & Red], US$ 30 Per Column Inch
Front Page, Colored, US$ 45 Per Column Inch
Back Page, Two Colors [Black & Red], US$ 21 Per Column Inch
Back Page, Colored, US$ 25 Per Column Inch
Inner Page, Single Color, US$ 10.00 Per Column Inch
Inner Page, Colored, US$ 12 Per Column Inch
Internet Edition:
Small Display Advertisement, US$ 500 Per Month,
Small Display Advertisement, US$ 5,000 Per Year.
Banner Advertisement [At the top or bottom of the page]
US$ 1,200 Per Month
Banner Advertisement [At the top or bottom of the page]
US$ 12,000 Per Year
THIS RATE IS VALID FROM MAY 2008
Amount may be wire transferred to:
Account Name: SALAH UDDIN SHOAIB CHOUDHURY
Bank Name: Bangkok Bank
Savings Account Number: 0580062818
Swift Code: BKKBTHBK
Regards
Shoaib

Please help him, if you can.
***
Other past entries about the plight of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, here and here.

By Debbie Schlussel
*** I reviewed new releases, “Pineapple Express,” “Bottle Shock,” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2,” earlier this week. (Click on movie titles herein to read my reviews. ***
One of the worst movies of the year, probably the decade, and possibly the century.
I’ve never understood the cult fascination with the bloody, insufferable “Reservoir Dogs.” It seems like a national movie IQ test. If you liked it, you failed.
“Hell Ride” is in the same vein. Except that it makes “Reservoir Dogs” seem like high-brow Shakespeare.
“Hell Ride”–a complete mess about rival motorcycle gangs has a stupid story (if you call that a “story,” and I don’t)–and lots of blood, gore, topless and full-frontally naked women, and stupid dialogue meant to be funny and cute, but just entirely inane.

This is a movie made by pigs for pigs. The lesser-than-human making the lesser-than-human for the lesser-than-human.
You can’t even tell what the hell is going on, and you don’t want to. If you’re me, you just want to leave and wonder why you wasted valuable life you’ll never get back on this disgusting, vulgar display of cinematic screed. It’s supposed to be a throwback to ’70s grindhouse films, so I should have known better.
It stars a fat, washed up, old Michael Madsen, trying to relive his “Reservoir Dogs” days. Time to move on, Mike. Other stars include Dennis Hopper, who gets his cowboy boots peed upon by another gang member. And then there’s gang leader, Pistolero, played by Larry Bishop, the son of Rat-Packer Joey Bishop. Clearly, the talent DNA ended in the previous generation, as Bishop wrote and directed this giant piece of excrement.
Since there’s no real discernible story, it seems like some out of work, fat and aging actors got together and said, “Hey, let’s make a movie where we wear black leather and ride motorcycles in the desert and look cool, and we’ll add a lot of wanton murder, topless women gyrating around and using four-letter words and film it.”
There’s the “charming” scene, where we see a dismembered human head in a box. And then, there’s the “enlightened” scene, in which a man’s body is cut up and dismembered while he’s alive. At least I think that’s what happened, but I covered my face and eyes, so I wouldn’t have that pleasant memory in my mind for the rest of my life.
Bleeeechhhhh. Skip at all cost.
FOUR MARXES PLUS

By Debbie Schlussel
Longtime readers know what I think of the Olympic Games, even though I represented an Olympic Silver Medalist diver at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta (and got him a centerfold spread in Sports Illustrated). In case you aren’t familiar with my Olympic views, read my three part series on the 2002 Olympics, which applies to them all:
* “What’s So Great About the Olympics? Nothing”: Part I
* Part II
* Part III
Still, while I will mostly ignore the silly hype over meaningless games (where the athletes are now well-funded pros and often not really from the country which they’re representing), I’m always bothered by the fact that NBC goes out of its way not to appear pro-American. Just what do they think the “N” in NBC stands for? And which “Nation” in national is it? In case they forgot–which during the Olympics is very clear–USA Today “Sports on TV” columnist Michael Hiestand has some advice for them:

Don’t fear lapel flag pins:
NBC has been criticized for focusing too much on U.S. athletes. Hello? NBC is less of a homer on the Games than most TV networks around the world. And since you’re probably not betting on the breaststrokes, or you’re not in a gymnastics fantasy league, or wonder how you score in diving anyway, there’s nothing wrong with giving viewers a little old-fashioned nationalism.
With the Olympics, after all, it’s not as if we’re going to end up invading anybody.

And if we were going to invade someone, so what? And trust me, if the Yasser-Arafat-T-Shirt-Wearing Palestinian Olympic team wins any medals (it won’t), Al-Jazeera will be cheering ad nauseam for that latest reward for murdering the entire Israeli Olympic team in 1972.
Oh, and by the way, for all you Mitt Romney supporters, I guess you forgot this offensive BS, when he headed the 2002 Olympic Games, on U.S. soil, just months after 9/11:

Around the world it was like, ‘Boy, those Americans, always beating their chests.’ This is not our time to talk about how great America is. It’s not designed to be a patriotic American display.

He told that to a foreign newspaper, the UK’s Guardian, in 2002, just before the Olympics.
Mitt Happens. And sadly, the Olympics do, too.

By Debbie Schlussel
My dear readers, in the last week or so, I’ve received a number of complaints from you that my site is loading too slowly, that it has caused your computers to crash or other stuff on your computer to freeze, etc.
I’m very sorry about that, and we’ve figured out the problem–my images are too big. We are fixing the problem and hope to have it fixed by early next week.
I really appreciate your readership and your patience, and I appreciate those who took the time to let me know of the problem. I apologize for any problems it may have caused. And I hope you will stay with me, as I change the images to allow you to see my site with ease and to load it quickly.
Thanks for your understanding and continued support.

By Debbie Schlussel
Several years ago, I wrote a column, “Pets: The New People.” I detailed how so many Americans treat their animals like–and actually better than–they treat people, lavishing them with gifts, aromatherapy, massages, and other exorbitant absurdities.
But it’s not just that. If I hear one more person tell me about their “kids”–which I initially believed were human–show me pictures of dogs or cats, or tell me about how well their “kids” treat them, when they are talking about pets, I think I’ll kill myself.
It’s in that vein that I was annoyed when reading the story about Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic (she won’t take his surname, so already there are issues). Yesterday, police raided their home and killed their dogs in connection with a large drug shipment. It was sent to them, but police say they are innocent victims who were among about six unsuspecting recipients.
Calvo and Tomsic held a press conference in which she cried and they showed a giant poster of their dogs:

“Our dogs were our children,” said the 37-year-old Calvo. “They were the reason we bought this house because it had a big yard for them to run in.”

While I feel for this couple and their pets probably shouldn’t have been shot, they need to wake up. I’m not for the wanton killing of animals, but your pets are NOT your children. They are not human. They will not take care of you when you’re old. They won’t have grandchildren named after you (unless you name their pups after yourself–a sad and sick thought). They won’t go to college or work in a job in the American economy. They cannot say your name or express love. They are NOT kids–at least not the kids of anyone with less than four legs.
The Calvo-Tomsics–or is that Tomsic-Calvos? hard to tell–want the Justice Department to investigate. I really hope American tax dollars aren’t going to such a ridiculous endeavor–to investigate the accidental shooting of dogs, who some deluded couple thinks are their kids. What happens when someone’s antfarm is accidentally stepped on by a fireman putting out a raging fire? I mean, aren’t they a little kid’s “kids,” too. Call in the cavalry.
And this couple are not the only ones guilty of this facade, this mental disorder brought on by the success of PETA and other animal rights groups.
So-called conservative Mark Levin has gone on and on and on, on his nationally syndicated radio show, about his dead dog, Sprite. Levin says his dog was a “hero” because it died of an illness. That’s heroic? Puh-leeze. It’s a fricking dog.
You hear so many human attributes given to this feline, I thought he transformed himself into Ingrid Koch of PETA. Frankly, if I were Levin’s real-life, human children, I’d be a little perturbed and jealous.
Memo to the world: Your dogs are NOT your children. Wake the heck up.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
In the midst of far “more important” stories, like the corporate Chi-Comm fraud known as the Olympics, America seems to have forgotten an important and sad anniversary, the bombings of two U.S. embassies by Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda in East Africa.
On August 7, 1998, bombings at American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed more than 200 people and wounded 5,000 in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam (which ironically means “House of Peace”).
Although a U.S. citizen–former Bin Laden secretary Wadih El-Hage–was convicted in the bombings, the main plotter of the attacks, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed a/k/a Haroun Fazul, has never been caught.

U.S. Embassy in Tanzania After Bombing
And another American, Sami Al-Arian associate Tariq Hamdi, provided the satellite battery which enabled Bin Laden to enact the attacks. Hamdi roamed freely around America for years–helping Sami Al-Arian and appearing as a “Middle East Journalist” on Peter Jennings’ ABC Newscasts post 9-11. He was allowed by U.S. authorities to flee the country before they dared indict him. When they finally did indict him in 2005, he was working for “the new Iraq” in Switzerland. From my August 8, 2005 column on Jennings:

According to prosecutors and documents in the 1998 trial of the Bin-Laden bombings of U.S. Embassies in Africa (the 7th anniversary of which was yesterday), Hamdi provided Bin Laden a satellite battery instrumental in those bombings. He’s also an unindicted co-conspirator with Islamic Jihad frontman Sami Al-Arian, who employed him at his Islamic “charity” fronts at the University of South Florida. Hamdi was also an employee of a Saudi-funded charity raided by Customs agents for allegedly laundering billions to Qaeda through the Isle of Man.

U.S. Customs Service agents were investigating and building a case against Hamdi, but when Customs was dumped and became ICE, that–like many important terrorism investigations–was dumped, too.
Yes, little has been done by America–though the Clintons did far more than the Bush Administration–to locate and go after those who mass-murdered Americans and African locals who helped America at our embassies.
Now, go back to the Olympic hype . . . so you can watch the Arafat-T-shirt-wearing Palestinian Olympic team win zero medals.
**** UPDATE: Here is a pic of the mural that bombing victims and their relatives put up, yesterday, to mark the embassy bombing in Kenya. I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, Bin Laden is in the middle of all these pics of injured humans, and that’s good since he caused death and destruction. But, on the other hand, he’s a star in it, as if honored. I also wish they had the guts to put an Islamic crescent in there, which, frankly, should be more prominent than Bin Laden. He’s the man, but not the ideology, behind the attacks. That ideology will long survive him and lead to more bombings.
What do you think of the mural?