Remember David Hasselhoff of Baywatch fame? Obviously a great showbiz businessman, but an utterly pathetic actor and such a horribly bad pop singer he became a big star in Germany. Now, aged 51, he has his eyes set on the hip hop world.
His personal friend, the legendary rapper Ice-T, has convinced Hasselhoff to start a career as a hip hop singer, and come out as Hassel The Hoff. This just gotta be a very bad joke.
The radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza has been arrested by British police, and is facing extradiction to the United States where he faces eleven terrorist related charges.
Egyptian born Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri (picture) came to Britian, studied engineering and worked as a bouncer. In 1981 he married an English woman and became a British citizen, which the government is now trying to revoke.
He became more and more radical after divorcing his wife, and travelled to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, like so many other radical Muslims. Fighting the Russians he supposedly obtained the injuries to his hand and eye that gives him such a distinct appearance.
His open support for Islamo-fascist causes and terrorism, praise for Bin Laden and suspected involvment in recruiting and financial support of terrorist groups, have made him many enemies in Britiain, including widespread condemnation from Muslims. He is among other things now suspected for supporting the hostage taking in Mali last year.
I hope the evidence against him is solid enough to stand up in court, but I have some doubts. If they were, I'd expect the Brits to arrest him themselves.
"And if you don't like them, I have other principles..."
It is a strange phenomenon in the current US presidential election. Whenever the focus is on Bush, Kerry rises in the polls. When the focus changes to Kerry, Bush does better.
Mickey Kaus argues (I am not sure if he's really serious) that John Kerry's strange idea not to accept the nomination at the Democratic party convention is really a brilliant scheme to avoid press attention. By not taking the nomination, he can stay out of the spotlight and enjoy happy poll figures! (no permalinks, you will have to browse down to just above Tuesday 25th)
Now, that is a race to the bottom!
Be that as it may, Kerry has now changed his mind and will accept the nomination in July after all. It's not as if changing his mind is not Kerry's trademark.
Catherine Seipp writes a great and important article about Hollywood at War. The focus is on Lionel Chetwynd, executive producer and screenwriter for Ike: Countdown to D-Day, including many of his interesting recollections and observations.
Chetwynd once told the story about the disastrous but important Dieppe raid "during a Malibu dinner party — as a sort of tribute to the men who died there so people could sit around debating politics at Malibu dinner parties" and encounters a reaction that surprised him then, but which we are just too used to now.
"So I went in," Chetwynd told me, "and someone there said, 'So these bloodthirsty generals sent these men to a certain death?'
"And I said, 'Well, they weren't bloodthirsty; they wept. But how else were we to know how Hitler could be toppled from Europe?' And she said, 'Well, who's the enemy?' I said, 'Hitler. The Nazis.' And she said, 'Oh, no, no, no. I mean, who's the real enemy?'"
"It was the first time I realized," Chetwynd continued, "that for many people evil such as Nazism can only be understood as a cipher for evil within ourselves."
To the left, there is no greater evil than the society we live in. Defying all reason and sense, the greatest evils in the world are the western democracies. It is a dogma, true by default, no matter how many people Saddam (or Mao, or Stalin, or Pol Pot)slaughtered.
Here's a very telling exchange showing how Hollywood perceives bias.
Question: "You did contribute to [Bush's] campaign?"
Chetwynd: "Yeah, the limit was $1,000... Would it make a better film if I'd given $1,000 to Gore?"
Question: "Yes."
Chetwynd: "Why?"
Question: "Because it would show less potential bias."
See? "Bias" only refers to that of the other side.
It just had to happen. Every new technology-related phenomenon causes media reports about "addiction", and now the New York Times, often the terget of blogger ire, is reporting about complusive (or is that obsessive) bloggers. The angle is men who abandon wife & family to write that next posting in their blogs.
Nifty way to discredit bloggers: Nobody reads what we write, except the neighbour and his dog. Just a bunch of addicts with an opinion on everything. Move along, folks! No media revolution is happening here.
Blogger Tony Pierce gets the best quote award for this line "If this were beer, I'd be an alcoholic." Of course this piece will also give him loads of traffic. Eh, nice pictures there Tony.
Moqtada al-Sadr has reportedly offered to pull his Mehdi militia out of Najaf after suffering a number of serious setbacks over the past days. He has made the withdrawal conditional on US forces also leaving the holy areas to Iraqi Police.
Well, if he and his thugs leave, there is no need for US forces there.
PS:Reuters says the Mehdi militia has already started pulling out. That story notes that al-Sadr has also added the condition that the murder case against him be suspended.
The radical Islamist cleric 
