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**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
Yesterday’s Detroit Spews had an interesting article about the Dodge Caliber’s “Anything But Cute” commercials. The gay community is very upset about them.

Some viewers and gay rights supporters have complained the Chrysler Group commercial — dubbed “Too Tough” and featuring a fluttering fairy zapping buildings and trains into cuter-looking gingerbread houses and toy trains — is offensive and borders on homophobic.
The fairy is unsuccessful at transforming a black Caliber and is mocked by a male passer-by walking a dog. “Silly little fairy,” he says.
As retribution, the fairy turns the pedestrian’s button-down shirt and jeans attire into white shorts and a polo shirt draped with a preppy sweater. His black dog leash becomes four pink ones connected to Pomeranians. The suggestion, some say, is the man was turned into a homosexual.

“It directly finds humor with the term fairy, referring not just to the type that flies around with a magic wand, but also the universally recognizable gay stereotype of an effeminate gay man,” the Commercial Closet said in an online review of the ad. The non-profit organizationmonitors marketing tactics that could be offensive to gays and lesbians.

This raises these questions: Are all fairies gay? Even though the word is often used as a derogatory term for gays, probably not. If so, someone ought to tell Disney and children’s authors, so they can censor them out of kids movies and books. Do all gay men dress preppy and use pink leashes? And are all gay men effeminate?
It will be interesting to see whether or not Chrysler drops the ads.
****UPDATE, 04/10/06: Watch the video of the ad here. After seeing it, the 30 second ad is really not the big deal the gay community is claiming. It’s actually fairly innocent, and funny, too. As for the fairy, she’s a glamorous woman, not a gay caricature.

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From the Too Much Information Department:
In an F-word laced interview, Kiefer Sutherland, who plays Counterterorrism Agent told Rolling Stone he thinks he cried at the absolutely horrid, mushy British movie, “Love, Actually.”
“I’m no different than anybody else,” he claims. Uh, speak for yourself, Kiefer. You’re no Jack Bauer.

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From yesterday’s “Motown Lowdown” advice column in The Detroit News a/k/a Detroit Spews:

I am Muslim girl [sic] dating a boy who is of another religion and ethnicity. We have been seeing each other for three years without my parents knowing. My parents are very strict and would disown me if they found out. I am in my mid 20s, and we have discussed getting married. I have met his family , and we get along wonderfully, and they accept me with open arms. I am very fearful to tell my parents the truth for fear of rejection and deep anger. We don’t have an open relatoiinship in which I fell comfortable telling them how I feel. I was wondering if you girls could give me advice as to how to break the barrier between my parents’ religoius convictions and my love for my soon-to-be fiance.
—Distressed in Dearborn

The advice columnists, four Arab sisters who I’m told are Lebanese Muslims, advise her to tell her parents. We’re sure that will go down very well . . . just like it did for .

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It doesn’t matter how much society tries to push fat chicks on us, we’ll–thankfully–never accept the morbidly obese as sexy or even attractive. They’re not.
The latest attempt is perhaps the most disgusting. It’s this weekend’s box office release, “Phat Girlz,” starring fat activist Mo’Nique. We’ve written about And this movie is yet more proof that our world needs a whole lot Less’Nique, not Mo’. It was screened for critics last night, to avoid the zero (or minus a gazillion) star reviews it surely deserves. So far, this is the worst movie of the year (perhaps the decade or century, too).
The most disgusting part is perhaps the beginning, which is just grotesque. Do you want to see the wet dream, sexual fantasy of the morbidly obese Mo’Nique getting oral sex from a group of men on their knees? I didn’t either. But that’s part of the two-hour long punishment I got for agreeing to screen this movie. Blechhh!

Chubby chasers, this is the movie for you. For everyone else, the movie is painful and properly categorized as an ordeal. Fat people having sex in a bathtub; Fat people pigging out with food all over their faces; Fat people trying to fit into clothes. Three giant things we didn’t need to see in even more giant detail on a giant movie screen. It gave new meaning to the words, “The Big Screen.”
Hard to believe someone mortgaged his house to pay for this disaster. But someone did. It’s produced by Mo’Nique’s 10 Times Greater Productions. “Greater” was not the word I was thinking of when viewing this film.
That’s not to mention the racial stereotypes–Black and White–in this celluloid stupidity. If I were Black, I’d hate this movie, too. It’s a contemporary minstrel show. It makes Black women out to be fat, sex-crazed predators and other not-so-appealing characterizations. Yet, the largely Black audience with whom I saw it, just seemed to eat it up. Just watch–this painful viewing experience may be #1 at the movies, this weekend.
Then, there’s the Whites. All White women in the movie were “skinny bitches,” and referred to thusly. The White men were racist and mean jerks. One of them was a loan officer who rejected a loan for the Black Mo’Nique because she lives in an “undesirable neighborhood.” Read “Black.” As if a real bank employee would actually say that. Oh, and did I mention he works for “PLANTATION State Bank”? Subtle.
Even though we’ve, unfortunately, made it easier and more acceptable to be at an unhealthy weight in our society, the fact is America won’t accept the morbidly obese as “hot,” because they just aren’t. That’s why, even though she was probably one of the best singers among finalists on “American Idol,” morbidly obese Mandisa was voted off this week. Her patterned halter top made her large, waddling figure look larger. Fat is just not cool. Or, more important, healthy.
No matter how many stores like “Torrid” selling cross-your-heart hammock bras or Brooklyn Bridge-length thongs for fat chicks, it will never be cool, or physically safe, to be so overweight.
And disgusting, bigoted movies like “Phat Girlz” won’t change that one bit.

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We’re glad that former was not chosen to replace as the new NBC “Today” Co-hostess. Unfortunately, the network chose someone as bad, if not worse. Here’s Meredith Vieira (currently of ABC’s anti-male bitch-fest, “The View”) in pictures:

Anti-War: New “Today” Host Meredith Vieira, Daughter Lily @ Iraq War Protest (Photo from Media Research Center)

New “Today” Host Meredith Vieira’s Lesbian Kiss
w/AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire

Classy Chick: New “Today” Host Meredith Vieira Overflows

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Today, we wrote about “.” Now, we’re writing about Snakes in the Senate and Restaurants.
They’re snakes, in the Senate’s case, because they’re going against the overwhelming majority of the American people in not tightening up immigration, once and for all. And in the restaurants’ case, they’re making life cushy for illegals. Here are two outrageous new bits of info about illegal immigrant protests and Senate Immigration legislation you probably didn’t read elsewhere:
1) Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports National Restaurant Association senior vice president of government affairs and public policy (that means he’s the head lobbyist), John Gay, said the following about huge illegal immigrant rallies scheduled for Monday, nationwide:

Some of the association’s members, hoping to avoid losing the entire staff for the day, are offering some workers the day off with pay so they can attend the event.

Hmmm . . . a paid day off for illegal alien restaurant workers to go protest. And you thought they were doing the jobs Americans won’t do. Whatever.
2) Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal also reported (in a different article) that the “National Immigration Forum . . . supports the bill.” That should tell you everything. As in it’s NOT a good bill. NIF is a creation of big business, ACLUers, and Hispanic, Arab and Islamic groups. It supports loosening, not tightening immigration controls and enforcement.

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What’s up with pop culture’s current, weird obsession with snakes? No, we’re not talking about the inhabitants of Detroit’s U.S. Attorney’s Office or the lying leaders of America’s various Islamist groups, but actual slithering reptiles.
If you hate and/or fear snakes, you’re one of many Americans (and others) worldwide. Ophidiophobia, also known as snakephobia, is the most common fear–more than fear of flying, fear of heights, etc. Some medical experts say fear of snakes is an inherited condition, even though other phobias are mostly psychological and specific to the person. Perhaps it goes back to the original Biblical story of Adam, Eve, the apple, and the snake.
But snakes are apparently like a traffic accident. While many fear and hate them, everyone slows down to look. They elicit a huge gawker effect.

(Thanks to Reader Barry Popppingsly for erasing obscene language from this mock movie poster by a fan of the movie)
Take “Snakes on a Plane.” It is one of the most written about, blogged about movies right now–even though it will not be out until August, when studios run their dud movies. The movie, starring Samuel L. Jackson, is about a plane carrying a federal agent escorting a witness in a major criminal trial. The bad guys want him dead, so they unleash a bevy of highly-poisonous vipers on the plane, in mid-air over the ocean. The passengers must band together to save themselves from the adders.
Sounds charming.
Then, there’s “Rattled,” the much hyped fiction book by Debra Galant. It’s about a woman whose shiny new McMansion is built over an endangered rattlesnake habitat, and killing a snake gets her and her husband into hot water with environmentalists and animal rights activists.
Perhaps she was inspired by USA’s past TV movie, “Rattled,” also about a family whose shiny new McMansion (and entire neighborhood) was built over a rattlesnake nest.
All this snake stuff may give you the chills. But if you’re still reading, it’s because you, like a lot of America, has the gawker fascination with the slithering. After moviegoers see “Snakes on a Plane” in August, though, flying will never be the same again.

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For those who think released hostage Jill Carroll is some sort of saint, read this.
Mayer Abrahams actually did know Jill Carroll. He originally of this site.

I met Carroll in Cairo two summers ago in an Arabic language training school (Kalimaat).
I admit I was struck by her anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments. From the comments she made she seemed to detest America more than Arabs did. She was pleased that I mistakenly identified her as Canadian and expressed a wish to deny being American. I was surprised knowing how proud Americans normally are of their identity. She refused to use the name Israel but called it ‘that state’ with some venom, which made me feel uncomfortable as she knew I was Jewish.
What’s really funny, considering that she works for the CS Monitor, were the comments she made about the Bible “that shit book” . . . .

I asked Mayer to e-mail me with more detail to prove he did attend Arabic school with Jill Carroll. Based on details he gave me–many of which I’ve not posted for security reasons (for Mayer’s safety)–he and his report are very legit. Here’s what he had to say about the newly-beatified free-lance writer:

Debbie:
Since my ancestors are originally from Iraq, I have made an effort to study Arabic intensively and spend as much time as I can in the Arab world.
I spent about five weeks in the summer of 2004 (August) in Cairo. I was staying in downtown Cairo in the Red Sun Hotel (Talaat Harb Street) and went daily for a morning course in Modern Standard Arabic to an Arabic language school called Kalimaat in nearby Mohandiseen (the college was just of Midan Mustafa Mahmoud), which was run by some chaps who used to run courses for the British Council in Cairo.
The college was attended by students mostly from Europe and America. Most of them were of European descent though one or two had ancestors or family from the region. In my class there were two American girls.
One American was a tall friendly blond girl, a Japanese teacher by profession called Jamiliah from New York (notwithstanding her name she was Caucasian and Christian). I got the impression that she was a missionary or a Christian activist as she was active in the Copt community. The other was our friend Jill.
Jill had arrived, I gathered, fairly recently from Jordan having been in Baghdad just before the war started. She was a friendly, personable person. Her Arabic was not that good, though she was trying very hard to improve it. We generally sat next to each other and were, for some of the time, study partners.
She was very anti-American. I was actually shocked by her attitude, having never come across an American with such opinions. She was against the war and did not see America as being a force for good in the world. I recall her upsetting a fellow American student by telling him that she felt Americans were hated by Arabs. He did not feel that was the case. She expressed satisfaction that I mistook her for Canadian saying she would prefer not being identified as American.
She was more than anti-war. She felt that America was culturally imperialist. She viewed the international success of American culture as being a way for America to impose its values on the world. She expressed the sort of opinions which you would hear from . It would be fair to say that she would be classified as somebody from the far left. I can not recall all the details of what she said, but I remember her saying that at the end of the day America was just another empire which would come hopefully to an end.
With regard to Israel, she despised the country with some venom, referring to the country as “that state.” She was practically foaming at the mouth. She knew I was Jewish, and I felt quite shocked and vulnerable at the way she expressed herself about the country. It did cross my mind that she may have been anti-Semitic, though I prefer not to label people.
She was at her wits end with regard to Christian support in America for Israel and referred to the Bible as “that shit book” in regard to it being used as a reason for Israelis holding on to the land.
As you can see, she is a girl of strong opinions and I am sure others will come forth to verify this.
When she was kidnapped, I sent emails to the CS Monitor informing them of what I knew of her opinions. I felt that the information might aid them in presenting her as anti-war and hence save her life. Her opinions were so strongly expressed that I was in no doubt that the terrorists would free her. I can tell you honestly that the opinions she expressed in the video would strike me as being hers alone and I am not surprised that she was freed.

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The group-think chorus of ignorant Jill Carroll cheerleaders and blog/internet bashers grows ever more shrill . . . and hypocritical.
Contrast them with several parties, including Mayer Abrahams, who knew the REAL Jill Carroll. Their encounters with her left lasting impressions of her rabid hatred for America, Israel, and the Bible (she called it “that shit book,” says Abrahams). More about this, below.
The most blatant example of the ignorance and hypocrisy–regarding Carroll–is Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby, who has now sainted and lionized the released hostage/”journalist.” His latest column, scolding columnists and commentators who jumped the gun by taking her captivity video seriously (I was not among them), reads like a fat chick lecturing others about the virtues of diet, exercise, and watching one’s weight.

Is Jeff Jacoby President of Jill Carroll’s Fan Club?
While Jacoby denounced blogs and websites for “rushing to judgment,” the fact is Jacoby is the king of the sloppy rushers. In 2000, The Boston Globe suspended Jacoby for six months for plagiarizing Internet material on the signers of the Declaration of Independence and passing it off as his own work. He did so in his OWN rush to get a column out.
But he didn’t learn his lesson. Next came other big errors, including Jacoby’s absurd 2001 column praising and legitimizing , in Jacoby’s rush after 9/11 to find a “moderate” Muslim. Jacoby was in too much of a hurry (or simply too lazy) to check out Khan, who is closely tied to Al-Qaeda’s Al-Muhajiroun terrorist group, supports homicide bombings (Jacoby said he opposed them) except when they are bad PR for Muslims, and attacked the Dalai Lama.
And don’t forget for it’s use of provocative female interrogators with Islamic terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, a column which is cited with approval by extremist Muslims sites that hate America.
Now, Jacoby writes this about Carroll: “She prefers to think before she vents.” How does he know? He doesn’t even know her. But he rushed to that judgment about Saint Jill, too.
Mayer Abrahams actually did know Jill Carroll. He originally of this site.

I met Carroll in Cairo two summers ago in an Arabic language training school (Kalimaat).
I admit I was struck by her anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments. From the comments she made she seemed to detest America more than Arabs did. She was pleased that I mistakenly identified her as Canadian and expressed a wish to deny being American. I was surprised knowing how proud Americans normally are of their identity. She refused to use the name Israel but called it ‘that state’ with some venom, which made me feel uncomfortable as she knew I was Jewish.
What’s really funny, considering that she works for the CS Monitor, were the comments she made about the Bible “that shit book” . . . .

I asked Mayer to e-mail me with more detail to prove he did attend Arabic school with Jill Carroll. Based on details he gave me–many of which I’ve not posted for security reasons (for Mayer’s safety)–he and his report are very legit. Here’s what he had to say about the newly-beatified free-lance writer:

Debbie:
Since my ancestors are originally from Iraq, I have made an effort to study Arabic intensively and spend as much time as I can in the Arab world.
I spent about five weeks in the summer of 2004 (August) in Cairo. I was staying in downtown Cairo in the Red Sun Hotel (Talaat Harb Street) and went daily for a morning course in Modern Standard Arabic to an Arabic language school called Kalimaat in nearby Mohandiseen (the college was just of Midan Mustafa Mahmoud), which was run by some chaps who used to run courses for the British Council in Cairo.
The college was attended by students mostly from Europe and America. Most of them were of European descent though one or two had ancestors or family from the region. In my class there were two American girls.
One American was a tall friendly blond girl, a Japanese teacher by profession called Jamiliah from New York (notwithstanding her name she was Caucasian and Christian). I got the impression that she was a missionary or a Christian activist as she was active in the Copt community. The other was our friend Jill.
Jill had arrived, I gathered, fairly recently from Jordan having been in Baghdad just before the war started. She was a friendly, personable person. Her Arabic was not that good, though she was trying very hard to improve it. We generally sat next to each other and were, for some of the time, study partners.
She was very anti-American. I was actually shocked by her attitude, having never come across an American with such opinions. She was against the war and did not see America as being a force for good in the world. I recall her upsetting a fellow American student by telling him that she felt Americans were hated by Arabs. He did not feel that was the case. She expressed satisfaction that I mistook her for Canadian saying she would prefer not being identified as American.
She was more than anti-war. She felt that America was culturally imperialist. She viewed the international success of American culture as being a way for America to impose its values on the world. She expressed the sort of opinions which you would hear from . It would be fair to say that she would be classified as somebody from the far left. I can not recall all the details of what she said, but I remember her saying that at the end of the day America was just another empire which would come hopefully to an end.
With regard to Israel, she despised the country with some venom, referring to the country as “that state.” She was practically foaming at the mouth. She knew I was Jewish, and I felt quite shocked and vulnerable at the way she expressed herself about the country. It did cross my mind that she may have been anti-Semitic, though I prefer not to label people.
She was at her wits end with regard to Christian support in America for Israel and referred to the Bible as “that shit book” in regard to it being used as a reason for Israelis holding on to the land.
As you can see, she is a girl of strong opinions and I am sure others will come forth to verify this.
When she was kidnapped, I sent emails to the CS Monitor informing them of what I knew of her opinions. I felt that the information might aid them in presenting her as anti-war and hence save her life. Her opinions were so strongly expressed that I was in no doubt that the terrorists would free her. I can tell you honestly that the opinions she expressed in the video would strike me as being hers alone and I am not surprised that she was freed.

I also received this e-mail from someone who says he attended the University of Massachusetts with Jill Carroll:

I actually know Jill quite well from UMass, where she was a reporter for the school newspaper. . . . She is an extreme liberal [probably more communist/socialist]; she has never been a fan of America [which she used to spell Amerikkka in her articles], she hates the military, and she despises “republikkkans” as she likes to write. I have no doubt that she went to Iraq with a political agenda and wouldn’t be surprised to hear some outrageous things come out of her mouth in the upcoming days. She is an activist way beyond Cindy Sheehan. . . .

Finally, as I’ve noted before, The Jordan Times also knows Jill Carroll well. And here’s what the paper, her former hand-picked, anti-American, anti-Semitic employer, something I’ve had to post now for the FOURTH time for the willfully ignorant:

The kidnappers who abducted her could not have chosen a more wrong target. True, Jill is a US citizen. But she is also more critical of US policies towards the Middle East than many Arabs. . . . Jill has been from day one opposed to the war, to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
More than just being sympathetic with average Iraqis under war and occupation, Jill is a true believer in Arab causes.
From Arabic food to the Arabic language, Jill has always wanted to know and experience as much as possible about Arab identity, and she is keen on absorbing it, learning, understanding and respecting it.
She doesn’t just “like” Arab culture, she loves it. . . . It is simply unconscionable for any Arab to want to harm a person like her.

Remember, Oprah defended fabricator James Frey on Larry King. But she suddenly did a 180 when she saw the negative reaction against her for doing so. That’s probably what happened with Jill Carroll. She won’t call those who kidnapped her, “terrorists,” and won’t say what her real views are.
So whom do we believe about Jill Carroll–plagiarist and Islamist supporter Jeff Jacoby, or people, like Mayer Abrahams, who actually know her? It’s not even a question that needs to be asked.
Unless, like Jacoby, you hate that the blogs and Internet are making you rapidly less relevant and influential.

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Just a reminder, here are the photos , of new “CBS Evening News” anchor, Katie Couric. Not that we took her seriously before, but . . . . Maybe she can wear this when she visits New Orleans on the “Katrina: One Year Later” newscast.

Katie Couric’s Liberal Views