By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, I’ve written about the repeated marketing of women’s products and services to men and the ever steepening downward slope in the blurring of the genders in America. But this one takes the cake (for now).
I’ve repeatedly written about moisturizer and make-up being pushed on men. But when women start borrowing men’s makeup, you know we’ve really gone off the deep end.
This was in the February 2008 issue of Lucky Magazine, a popular women’s magazine that’s all about the latest fashions and make-up and little else. Krisana Jaritsat, manager of New York’s Elite modeling agency, was asked by the magazine to discuss her favorite beauty products. Check out her description of this product pick:

Forget borrowing your boyfriend’s leather jacket. Time to borrow his (or, is that, “her”?) make-up. Up next: borrowing his girdle . . . or Hello Kitty clothes and string of pearls.
Here’s a tip, girls: If your man shops at Sephora, better check his chromosomes.

By Debbie Schlussel
Hey, at least Carla Bruni isn’t Jewish . . . or Israeli and Jewish. That would be a real no-no.
But Saudi officials are urging French President Nicolas Sarkozy not to bring his girlfriend Carla Bruni to the country during his visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Sunday, after several Egyptian officials criticized Sarko for sharing a hotel room with Bruni in Egypt.
It’s not that, with so many “boyfriends” (euphemism) like Mick Jagger and assorted others, Ms. Bruni is the most used piece of equipment in the international gym. That wouldn’t bother Saudis, who have their own stable of concubines, in addition to their twelve-plus wives.

Former Model/Eternal Bim Carla Bruni
& BoyToy/French Prez Nicolas Sarkozy
It’s that Sarkozy–like all of Bruni’s other paramours–is not married to Bruni, and that he isn’t a Muslim Saudi of the upper classes. And that’s a leh-leh [no-no] in the Islamo-fascist bastion of Saudi Arabia–you know, our “moderate” “ally” in the War on Terror in the Middle East. Even though, Saudi royals and bigshots can always violate Islamic law at their leisure, infidels cannot. By now, you–and Monsieur Sarkozy–should be used to the hypocrisy. “Do as I say, not as I do,” is the cardinal rule of Islamists.
Sarkozy was warned–and the warning was publicized to the Associated Press and other mainstream media outlets–that he should leave the Bruni bim behind, since sharia a/k/a Islamic law does not permit unmarried couples to be alone together.
And, as I noted above, that Islamic law applies more to infidels, than it does to the Saudi elite class that is warning Mr. Sarkozy. It’s all a show for the Bin-Laden fans who comprise the Saudi masses. They must see that their unstable leaders–whom they’d overthrow if they could–are telling outsiders, “You must obey Islamic law in our land,” even if those uttering the warning don’t obey it in their land, themselves.
And Sarkozy, ever the suck-up that conservatives like to pretend he isn’t, will pander and leave Ms. Bruni in some nearby emirate, instead–close enough to be convenient for le pandering booty call, after he departs the oily Saudi “paradise.”
So, what was that about Islam being a “tolerant” religion and Saudi Arabia being “moderate”?

By Debbie Schlussel
As readers of this site know, I have a lot of concerns about mainstream media reporters who wear their biases . . . and stupidity on their sleeves, or who make things up or otherwise engage in journalistic anti-ethics.
But the winner of the DebbieSchlussel.com Janet Cook/Jayson Blair/Gregg Krupa/Jack Lessenberry “Journalist” of the Year Award goes to The Boston Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer, who described how thrilling it was for her–“I was almost giddy about the whole encounter”–to pay $5 to a group of Maoist terrorists for a souvenir and access to certain areas while in Nepal.
In fact, not only was Ms. Pfeiffer “almost giddy” about donating money she knew would go toward weapons to kill other people in the name of Communism, she says that American tourists shouldn’t really be concerned about where their money goes because, hey, it’s a forbidden pleasure to give to terrorists and get a cool new anecdote to tell your friends when you return home. Nauseating.

Boston Globe’s Sacha Pfeiffer:
“I Gave To Terrorists & I Got This Cool Souvenir”
While I try to advise people how NOT to support terrorists, Ms. Pfeiffer thinks it’s cool to give them cold, hard American cash. These were Maoist terrorists in Nepal, but they could easily have been Hezbollah or HAMAS or Al-Qaeda terrorists elsewhere–if they have the right beach/souvenir for Sacha Pfeiffer, the price is right. They’re so nice and “amiable” and they even write you a receipt.
Pfeiffer even has the chutzpah to compare herself to World War II soldiers who brought Nazi memorabilia home. Um, how many wars did you fight, Ms. Pfeiffer? How many camps did you liberate? And how many terrorist groups did our World War II heroes pay money to in order to get Nazi memorabilia? PUH-LEEZE.
And, BTW, even though it’s a designated terrorist group, Homeland Security told her not to worry about her donation. Good to know they’re taking terrorism-funding so seriously.
Here’s more of Pfeiffer’s “wit” and “wisdom”:

On a foot-worn path in the Himalaya Mountains, there is a small checkpoint. Set up alongside a busy trekking route banked by terraced fields of grain, it consists of a stone wall used as a table and a red hammer-and-sickle flag drooping from an old shed. It demands money to pass: 300 rupees, the equivalent of about $5.
Aside from that Communist flag, the makeshift operation has all the menace of a high school car wash. The young Nepalese who staff it – three men and a woman no older than their 20s – are an amiable bunch, greeting hikers with smiles and making small talk with trekking guides. They even issue handwritten receipts, documents thanking the bearers for their “voluntary donation.”
The name at the top of the receipt, printed in bold red lettering, is the United Revolutionary People’s Council. The $5 payment funds a Maoist insurgency group formed to wage a guerilla-style “people’s war” in Nepal.
For the growing number of tourists who visit this Asian nation each year, encountering Maoists on the popular Himalayan backpacking circuits has become a rite of passage of sorts. The checkpoint fee is a minor expense, like a tip for a cabbie or a trip to Starbucks. The experience becomes a travel war story; the receipt goes in the scrapbook of cool, adventurous things.
I was one of those tourists.
Six hours into a three-day hike in the Annapurna Circuit in October, accompanied by a friend and a Nepalese guide, I hit the checkpoint. . . . My friend, a government health worker fluent in Nepali, negotiated a two-for-one rate. After handing over the cash, she was given a payment slip torn from a small booklet. Then we hiked on.
At the time, I was almost giddy about the whole encounter. I’d never felt unsafe, and I now had a sensational souvenir: a personalized memento from guerilla fighters! [DS: Like way totally cool. I’m sure plenty of others will get a different kind of “sensational souvenir” and “personalized memento” when their legs are blown off.] The leaf of paper wasn’t just from another place; it was a sliver of obscure political history. The Maoists, barely past puberty, even let me snap a few pictures of them wearing their red lanyards and holding their receipt book. [DS: The HAMASniks, barely past puberty, even let me snap a few pcitures of them wearing their kefiyehs.] . . .
That little receipt really did mean we had kicked in funds to an armed insurrection.
To me, five bucks is small money, but it’s a significant sum in Nepal, and the Maoists aren’t exactly a charity. Their decade-long civil war, fought with the help of child soldiers, ultimately claimed about 13,000 lives. Their arsenal includes self-loading rifles, hand grenades, and light machine guns. I wondered: Would our $5 purchase a firearm for a 12-year-old? [DS: Ya think?] . . .
Thinking optimistically, my checkpoint fee could end up buying a warm meal for a hungry Nepali family. Or it could be used to acquire an AK-47.
When I tried to boil it down to strictly legal terms, my $5 receipt remained murky. The US government sees the Maoist rebellion as flat wrong, and the State Department considers the Communist Party of Nepal a terrorist group. In theory, this could expose me to prosecution, since multiple laws, including the USA Patriot Act and something called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, prohibit US citizens from funding terrorism.
I made a round of calls to the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the State Department to ask about my legal status. They squirmed a bit, told me Americans are advised not to travel to Nepal, mentioned the Maoists’ terrorist status, and noted the relevant statutes. But their underlying message was this: Don’t worry about it.
Ethically, though, I didn’t feel in the clear. I was flaunting my Maoist receipt to co-workers like a show-and-tell item, but then wringing my hands – not quite because I felt guilty, but because I didn’t think I felt guilty enough.
I started to realize I had brought back another souvenir, an invisible one: the lingering uncertainty about what, exactly, I should be feeling about that money and my decision to pay it.
Maybe I should chalk it up to the mind-expanding effects of travel. That’s the value of going to new places, right? To discover the unfamiliar and, in that discovery, learn more about yourself? Or maybe I needed to put this in wider perspective. After all, whether it’s a carbon footprint or a payment to a Maoist, the effect of traveling is never purely neutral. . . . Occasionally paying to grease the skids is “part and parcel of travel”. . . .
Allied soldiers brought home Nazi memorabilia after World War II.
My hiking companion suggested that the Maoists know this. They offer a receipt not because they’re meticulous record-keepers, but because they’re savvy marketers, and they’re aware tourists will want the souvenir. Those kids on the stone wall, posing for my camera, knew that I would pay if I got something out of the deal, and, at some level, I did too.
Ultimately, my encounter with the rebels was a little creepy, a little unresolvable, and – as my receipt still reminds me – a little thrilling. . . .
Truthfully, my family, friends, and co-workers would rather hear about my illicit mountaintop payment to Maoists than my predictable reminiscences about Himalayan vistas.
After all . . .”the villain is always much more interesting than the hero.”

Nice. She funds terrorists and their murders of innocents, but since she feels a tiny sense of guilt and is “torn” but it gives her an exciting story, that makes it all okay.
Um, here’s a tip: A real human with a conscience wouldn’t feel guilt or be torn. A person with a conscience or any sense of decency would not wonder “how to feel” about this. A humane individual would never have paid the money to terrorists in the first place–thrill or otherwise.
And that’s why airhead “journalist” Sacha Pfeiffer of The Boston Globe is the DebbieSchlussel.com Janet Cook/Jayson Blair/Gregg Krupa/Jack Lessenberry Journalist of the Year for 2007.
She has the ethics of a mushroom and proudly writes about it. (With all due apologies to the fungi of the world.)
E-mail Sacha Pfeiffer and let her know what you think about her “giddy” donation to Communist terrorists.

By Debbie Schlussel
I’ve written a lot about Imam Hassan Qazwini (see here, also), the extremist Imam and friend of President George W. Bush, who runs the largest mosque in North America, the Islamic Center of America in Dearbornistan.
In 1998, the mosque–then in Detroit–was the first mosque to which I went undercover. I wrote about it in The Detroit Newsistan, before the paper became Muslim-occupied territory under such boneheaded individuals as editorial page editor Nolan Dhimmi Finley. At the time, the mosque hosted Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who delivered a long hate-filled rant against Jews and Christians (and in praise of Saddam Hussein). When Farrakhan called Jewish Americans “forces of evil” with a “Satanic mentality.” Imam Qazwini and his congregants gave him a standing ovation. That’s not to mention that the Imam and other Muslim officials introduced Farrakhan as “our dear brother” and “a freedom fighter.”

Bush’s Fave Imam Hassan Qazwini (right)Hangs
w/Hezbollah Spiritual Leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah (left)
Imam Qazwini is also tight with Hezbollah spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who issued the fatwa to blow up 300 U.S. Marines and embassy officials in 1983. Qazwini is tight with the Ahmadinejad government of Iran and is an open supporter of Hezbollah, HAMAS, and every other terrorist group you can think of (though he claims–like they all claim–that he is against Al-Qaeda).
That’s why I was disgusted when I learned in late 2000 (right after he was declared the winner of the Presidential elections), that President Bush invited Imam Qazwini (more than once) to his Crawford, Texas ranch to help design his “faith-based funding” program. Qazwini’s background was well known, but the Bush camp–including the President, himself–did not care. They embraced Qazwini, anyway. And they put Qazwini front and center, next to Bush, at his January 2001 press conference announcing the faith-based funding tax-money giveaway. I wrote about this here.
Now, Qazwini has a new book out, “American Crescent,” to which I am not linking because I do not want to help the sales of this extremist (or the clickover rate to his book listing online, which helps in the sales rankings). While Qazwini is a BS artist, there are items in the book which I believe–the parts about Qazwini’s buddy, President George W. Bush.
Qazwini details to him how Bush compared Christian “extremists” with Muslim terrorists and how Bush agreed to appoint Spencer Abraham (now one of three “National Co-Chairs” of Fred Thompson’s Presidential campaign) to his cabinet to serve yet again (as he had in the U.S. Senate) as the Muslims “emissary” a/k/a waterboy:

The book Qazwini describes meetings with Bush, including one in 2000 that was held weeks before the presidential election. Qazwini writes that Bush told him and others at the meeting that it was wrong to stereotype Muslims as extremists.
Bush also talked about his love of Lebanese food, Qazwini wrote, and said there was no division between Muslims and Christians.
“There are some Muslims who create trouble, but the majority are good people, just as there are some Christians who create trouble even though most are good,” Qazwini quoted Bush as saying. “People talk of Muslim extremists? Come with me to Texas, and I’ll show you the Christian extremists.”
In the same meeting, Qazwini said he asked Bush to name a liaison to the Muslim community if he were to be elected. Bush replied that he would appoint Spencer Abraham, a Lebanese-American Christian who was then a U.S. senator from Michigan.
“He will be your key to the White House,” Qazwini wrote, quoting Bush.
After the election, Bush named Abraham as his secretary of energy.
“The president had kept his word,” Qazwini wrote.

It is because of hundreds of actions like these in Bush’s first administration that I now feel I can reveal that I did not vote for George W. Bush in 2004. I was so disgusted with his “outreach” to–and even White House employment of–Muslim extremists and open terrorism supporters that I chose to throw my vote away and vote Libertarian.
No I am not a Libertarian. I considered the vote the same as voting for Mickey Mouse or Daffy Duck. But I could not vote for Bush twice in a row. And I certainly would never vote for John Kerry. But I would not vote for a man who not only hangs with the man who cheers Hezbollah and thinks Jews are “forces of evil” with a “Satanic mentality,” but invites him to the ranch to design the giveaway of millions of U.S. tax dollars. It’s unconscionable. And it’s how I will remember George W. Bush. (I live in Michigan, where I knew both Gore and Kerry would win resoundingly anyway, so it didn’t matter that much and wouldn’t decide the election.)
Frankly, with GWB in the White House, we didn’t do much better than Kerry. Did we? I don’t know about you, but I don’t think we deserved a President–of ANY party–who compares Christians to Muslim extremists.
Sickening. Which of the Republicans running this time won’t act like this? Hard to tell if there are any (other than Duncan Hunter who isn’t really in the running).

By Debbie Schlussel
Last week, I was the first blog to write about and call the murder of two girls, Sarah and Amina Said, by their father, Yaser Abdel Said, an honor killing. I also correctly guessed that it was likely about their infidel dating habits.
Last night, their aunt, Gail Gartrell, wrote me this e-mail. She concurs with what I wrote. Also, for those who read press accounts of the words of their brother, Islam Said, who says this is not about Islam, read what she says about him and how he lured the girls back to their Muslim father and their deaths. Sounds like he may have been in on it.
This is truly tragic. Do we want more of this? Keep issuing more visas and citizenships to Muslims and we will get more of it.:

From: Gail Gartrell
Date: Jan 6, 2008 7:30 PM
Subject: Pertaining to the Said Family
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
Debbie,
I am an aunt to these two beautiful girls! I am from the mother’s side. YES! This was an honor killing! You nailed it sweety! My sister tried to get those baby’s away years ago and you know…she was never allowed to see them again…well, they were brought to the hospital…only after she was comatose! My sister was punished for trying to tell the world what was going on! She died four years ago! But, these girls had no honor in life and no honor in death! Amina and Sarah both, told their mom if their dad killed them…they DID NOT WANT A MUSLIM funeral! Well, they had one anyway! Yeah, there was a “baptist” funeral before the muslim funeral….PLEASE, get out the word it was a farce! They were placed in a Muslim funeral home. The son, Islam…he walked out and went to get the Imam to stop it! My nephew got up and took him outside! The funeral proceeded but, many spoke and all but one…was a MUSLIM!

The Muslims who ran the funeral home…they had us all in a room a little larger than my walk-in-closet! The friends from school…..they could not fit in that room so, they lined them up, against the wall, and in front of the freezers for dead bodies! When it came time for the first song…we sat, sat, and finally, my husband told them he had a system just like theirs and would run it himself…OH…they miracuously got the music going! Then, they set it up so that they same song would play, instead of the other two. My hubby caught this and demanded it be paused, so that the other songs would play!!
As soon as the funeral was over, there was trouble, outside with the brother of Amina and Sarah, ISLAM, is his name! He got into it with one of his aunts and was telling her…get the f —, out of here and then started running through the parking lot yelling….this f-ing funeral is over ….LEAVE!
Yes, this was an honor killing and I believe with all my heart that ISLAM, the brother, is just as guilty as his dad. Why? Because Amina would not go back home! He went over, where she was staying and was crying. “Please come home Amina and talk things out with Dad! He will not hurt you, I give you my word! I promise, you will be safe!” She trusted those words and went with him. Not an hour later….Sarah made that infamous call! She died immediately after she called as he took his time killing her. In fact, all we have been told is, “she had multiple gunshots”…..I still have no clue how many bullets he fired at her. I do know she fought for her life as there is a bruise on her forehead which shows that she did not go out without a fight…one this precious and beautiful girl lost…to a man she knew as daddy!
Please feel free to contact me as I want their story told. They could not tell it but, Aunt Gail is making sure they are honored….even if it is by mere strangers!
Sincerely,
Gail

“Religion of Peace”?

By Debbie Schlussel
For those of us who fought for and supported conceal and carry legislation in Michigan, this development is not news. But for the opponents of the Second Amendment, it’s a resounding defeat to their shrill cries and those of gun control advocates all over America.
Over the weekend, Dawson Bell–one of only two reporters worth reading at the Detroit Free Press–wrote this front-page story that says it all. Six years after Michigan’s conceal and carry permit law went into effect, there are FEWER gun deaths in the state. Gee, I wonder why. Yet gun-grabbers won’t face the facts . . . or the statistics:

Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.

But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.
The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.
More than 155,000 Michiganders — about one in every 65 — are now authorized to carry loaded guns as they go about their everyday affairs, according to Michigan State Police records.
About 25,000 people had CCW permits in Michigan before the law changed in 2001.
“I think the general consensus out there from law enforcement is that things were not as bad as we expected,” said Woodhaven Police Chief Michael Martin, cochair of the legislative committee for the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. “There are problems with gun violence. But … I think we can breathe a sigh of relief that what we anticipated didn’t happen.” . . . .
Opponents remain convinced that it has contributed to an ongoing epidemic of firearms-related death and destruction.
Shikha Hamilton of Grosse Pointe, president of the Michigan chapter of the anti-gun group Million Moms March, said she believes overall gun violence (including suicide and accidental shootings) is up in Michigan since 2001. Many incidents involving CCW permit holders have not been widely reported, she said. . . .
Hamilton said that even if gun violence has ebbed, it remains pervasive, tragic and unnecessary. At the least, a more liberal concealed weapons law means there are more guns in homes and cars and on the street, she said, and more potential for disaster.
Advocates for the law argue that there is nothing equivocal about the experience of the CCW permit holders who have warded off threats and, in a few instances, saved themselves from harm.
In September, a 36-year-old Troy man killed an armed 18-year-old assailant who, with three other suspects, attempted to steal his car outside Detroit Police headquarters. . . .
Mark Cortis of Royal Oak, who conducts concealed weapons license training and sits on the Oakland County gun board, said he believes the benefits of an armed citizenry are evident in small ways almost every day, as permit holders deter trouble and live more confidently.
“The police just can’t protect you,” Cortis said. “If you have to call 911, it’s probably already too late.”

Exactly. Yet, to the gun control crowd–the ones who argue a woman has a right to decide what she wants to do with her own body, when it comes to abortion, but not if she wants to own a gun–facts are stubborn things.

By Debbie Schlussel
The holiday shopping season may be over, but demand for video games never is. If you are a parent, thinking twice and/or limiting time playing computer games might be in order. That’s not new advice. But it’s made all the more vivid by Wall Street Journal editorial writer Stephen Moore in his scary column, “Teenage Zombies.” He writes about what happened to his kids after they got sucked into the cult of Nintendo–Xbox, Wii et al. He says video games have sucked the lives out of his kids.
Some excerpts:

My new year’s resolution is to get my two teenage sons back. They’ve been abducted–by the cult of Nintendo. I’m convinced that video games are Japan’s stealth strategy to turn our kids’ brains into silly putty as payback for dropping the big one on Hiroshima.

The trouble began last summer when my sons started spending virtually every unsupervised hour camped out in front of the computer screen engaged in multiplayer role games like World of Warcraft and Counterstrike. At the start of this craze, I wrote it off as merely a normal phase of adolescence. I was confident that, at 14 and 16, they would soon be more interested in chasing real-life girls than virtual video hoodlums.
Boy, was I wrong. Their compulsion became steadily more destructive. They grew increasingly withdrawn, walking around like the zombies from “Night of the Living Dead.” Unless I pried them (forcibly) from the computer, they would spend five or six hours at a time absorbed in these online fantasy worlds. . . .
I’m not one to blame every human frailty on some faddish psychiatric disorder. But I’m persuaded that computer games are the new crack cocaine. The testimonials from parents of online gamers are horrific: kids not taking showers, not eating or sleeping, falling behind in school. Some parents are forced to send their kids to therapeutic boarding schools, which charge up to $5,000 a month, to combat the gaming addiction. . . .
I am pleading that parents take this social problem seriously and intervene, as my wife and I wish we had done much earlier. . . . I’m proud to report that we rejected our youngest son’s pleas for a PlayStation for Christmas. He pouts that we’re the meanest parents in the world. Someday he’ll thank us. A mind really is a terrible thing to waste.

Read the whole thing.

By Debbie Schlussel
Last year, I told you about a top Central Command official/David Letterman lookalike, Brig. Gen. Robert Holmes, and his pandering meeting in Dearbornistan with a “former” Islamic terrorist and a host of Islamic extremists.
Well, it’s part of an orchestrated plan by the Pentagon to reach out to extremists and shun criticism of Islam’s dominant radical cloud. The attitude seems to be: Hey, if the FBI, ICE, and the Department of Justice–and even the dopey President–can do it, why can’t we?
Yes, we’ve lost the war domestically, as indicated by the firing of Pentagon Islam expert, Stephen Coughlin:

Stephen Coughlin, the Pentagon specialist on Islamic law and Islamist extremism, has been fired from his position on the military’s Joint Staff. The action followed a report in this space last week revealing opposition to his work for the military by pro-Muslim officials within the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.
Mr. Coughlin was notified this week that his contract with the Joint Staff will end in March, effectively halting the career of one of the U.S. government’s most important figures in analyzing the nature of extremism and ultimately preparing to wage ideological war against it.
He had run afoul of a key aide to Mr. England, Hasham Islam, who confronted Mr. Coughlin during a meeting several weeks ago when Mr. Islam sought to have Mr. Coughlin soften his views on Islamist extremism.
Mr. Coughlin was accused directly by Mr. Islam of being a Christian zealot or extremist “with a pen,” according to defense officials. Mr. Coughlin appears to have become one of the first casualties in the war of ideas with Islamism.
The officials said Mr. Coughlin was let go because he had become “too hot” or controversial within the Pentagon.
Misguided Pentagon officials, including Mr. Islam and Mr. England, have initiated an aggressive “outreach” program to U.S. Muslim groups that critics say is lending credibility to what has been identified as a budding support network for Islamist extremists, including front groups for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr. Coughlin wrote a memorandum several months ago based on documents made public in a federal trial in Dallas that revealed a covert plan by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian-origin Islamist extremist group, to subvert the United States using front groups. Members of one of the identified front groups, the Islamic Society of North America, has been hosted by Mr. England at the Pentagon.
After word of the confrontation between Mr. Coughlin and Mr. Islam was made public, support for Mr. Coughlin skyrocketed among those in and out of government who feared the worst, namely that pro-Muslim officials in the Pentagon were after Mr. Coughlin’s scalp, and that his departure would be a major setback for the Pentagon’s struggling efforts to develop a war of ideas against extremism. Blogs lit up with hundreds of postings, some suggesting that Mr. England’s office is “penetrated” by the enemy in the war on terrorism. . . .
A Joint Staff spokesman had no immediate comment.

With a “defense” department like this, who needs enemies? Thanks to my friend, the great Ruth S. King, for the tip on this latest tragedy and loss for freedom-loving Americans.

By Debbie Schlussel
What happened to three U.S. Navy men on New Year’s Eve in their Ghana hotel?
Patrick Mack and Lonnie Davis were found dead in their hotel room, and a third Navy man was found injured and taken to a hospital. The cause of death remains unknown:

The bodies of two U.S. Navy sailors who were found dead in a hotel room in the West African nation of Ghana on New Year’s Eve have been flown to Germany for a post-mortem examination, a top Ghanaian police official said Friday.
Frank Adu-Poku, the director-general of Ghana’s Criminal Investigation Department, also said a third sailor who had been with the two has been hospitalized since their bodies were discovered. Adu-Poku would not comment further on the third sailor’s hospitalization, which had not previously been reported.
Adu-Poku said the investigation included a review of closed circuit television footage from the hotel and following leads provided by the third sailor.
“We are working on so many clues and hope to find the cause of their death,” he said. “Two able-bodied men cannot enter a hotel and be found dead the next day.”
The U.S. Navy had no comment on the investigation or on the third sailor’s hospitalization.
The three were assigned to the USS Fort McHenry, which is on a seven-month voyage through the Gulf of Guinea, and had left the ship for a night in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
A U.S. Navy statement earlier this week identified the dead sailors as Patrick Mack, 22, of Warren, Mich., and Lonnie Davis Jr., 35, of Riverdale, Ga. The third sailor has not been publicly identified.
Mack and Davis died of “unknown causes while on liberty,” the Navy statement said. “The exact causes of the deaths for both sailors is currently under investigation.”

More on this tragic story:

Puzzled relatives of a fourth-generation U.S. Navy sailor who hailed from Warren are mourning his death after his body and that of another sailor were found in a hotel room on New Year’s Day in the West African nation of Ghana.
Engineman 1st Class Patrick Brendan Mack, 22, a 2002 graduate of Center Line High School, died of “unknown causes while on liberty,” the Navy said in a statement. Navy officials identified the other sailor as Engineman Fireman Lonnie Lee Davis Jr., 35, of Georgia, who also was on shore leave.
“The exact cause of the deaths for both sailors is currently under investigation,” the Navy said.
The bodies were found at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, a luxury hotel in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, approximately 18 miles from the Tema Naval Base.
“He always kept on the ball,” Mack’s uncle, Patrick Sean Mack, 51, of Fraser, said Thursday. “When he set his mind to do something, he did it.”
That included deciding in his junior year at Center Line High School on joining the Navy. He felt great pride in following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. About a year-and-half ago, he re-enlisted for another four years.
“He’s about 8 feet tall when he had that uniform,” his uncle said.
Mack and his wife, Stefanie, married in July in Maryland. A reception was held in August at The Gazebo banquet hall in August.
He was an honor student at Center Line High School, where he was a member of the wrestling squad and active in the school’s Junior ROTC program, said Superintendent of Schools Judy Pritchett. Pritchett quoted JROTC instructor 1st Sgt. William Stirrett in describing Mack as a “very nice, quiet, polite, conscientious young man” who did very well in the program.
“In fact, Patrick had been back a couple times since enlisting in the Navy and spoke to the ROTC classes,” Pritchett said.
Mack’s father, Daniel Mack of Warren, spent 18 years in the Navy. The elder Mack met his first wife, Linda, while both served in the Navy in Guam. Patrick was born in Guam.

Please pray for their families.

By Debbie Schlussel
Traditionally, the weekend after the holidays has few new releases and those are usually bombs. This weekend is no exception. The only new release is “One Missed Call”. “The Bucket List” and “There Will Be Blood” are opening in other parts of the country, today, but debuted on Christmas.” Read my reviews of both of those movies here.

“One Missed Call” was not screened ahead of time for film critics, usually a sign that the movie stinks. And this is no exception. (But I went and saw it, this afternoon, so I could review it for you.) When a movie has horrid “comedienne” Margaret Cho (she’s a cop in this one) in a serious role, you know it’s going to be bad. Starring Shannyn Sossamon and Edward Burns, it’s a sort of sci-fi thriller. But it’s hardly thrilling. Based on a Japanese horror movie, it’s silly, messy, and nonsensical.
The plot: One by one, college students and others receive calls and videos from the future on their cellphones. The messages and videos come from the cellphone of someone who just died mysteriously, but the voice is that of the recipient of the call. That person will be next–marked for death at the time and day of the call from the future. Soon, police detective Ed Byrne–whose sister is one of the victims–and Sossamon–a friend of several of the victims–team up to find out what is going on and who is the killer.
The plot is silly, the identity of the murderer even more preposterous, and the whole thing is a messy mishmash of stupidity. Mostly, it’s not scary. Just laughable. Plus, it breaks the cardinal rule of mysteries: there is absolutely no hint of the culprit anywhere leading up to the disclosure of the identity.
I like the sexy and smart-alecky Edward Burns, but some of his movies are so ridiculous, they are clearly done solely for a paycheck. And this is one of ’em. The only good thing about this movie is that it’s short–just under 1.5 hours. But it’s still that amount of time from your life that you are deducting and can never redeem.
“One Missed Call” is One Movie Best Missed. Skipworthy. Save your ten bucks.