Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

As a loyal Conan O’Brien fan who has even dragged his three younger brothers to a live Christmas holiday taping, I enjoy how far Conan can go out on a limb. Previously it was a look alike Finnish stateswoman, and now an accidental dot com, HornyManatee.com.

I will not go into how this came about. The results are an outpoouring of repressed manatee love and expression that perhaps only a manatee and the humanity of the Internet can provide.

If you feel hurt and wronged by this, then go to the alternative manatee web site, TammyFaye.com and you will surely be soothed.

I love Christmas music, don’t you? God’s rested gentlemen, Comfort, Joy, JosieAnna in the highest, Chest hairs roasting on open fires and all that joyous stuff. Coping through Christmas. Right, gotcha. Click the stoned Santa to celebrate, but be forewarned, it’s not exactly Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. I highly recommend the Bah Humbug mix which includes Tiny Tim’s strange warning of Santa Claus Has Got The AIDS This Year.

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Here is SNAFUPERMAN! From the YouTube posting by videolicious… “This is one of 26 Private SNAFU (Situation Normal, All Fouled Up) cartoons made by the US Army Signal Corps to educate and boost the morale the troops. Originally created by Theodore Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Phil Eastman, most of the cartoons were produced by Warner Brothers Animation Studios – employing their animators, voice actors (primarily Mel Blanc) and Carl Stalling’s music.”

Also, this is a test of the mytube WordPress plug-in.

If you’re a redneck, from the South, or even a Red State Republican, you may be asking yourself, “What’s a chutzpah?” And what’s beyond it if we haven’t gotten to it yet? Well shmedricks and shmeges, the online dictionary.com definition of chutzpah is:

chutz‧pa [khoot-spuh, hoot–] –noun Slang.

n : (Yiddish) unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity; unmitigated effrontery or impudence; nerve.

You can look up colorful, funny Yiddish words you’ve heard in a Mel Brooks comedy movie, or maybe on The View, at the online Yiddish Dictionary.

So what’s the big idea? Just that a professor of Political science at DePaul University in Chicago, Norman Finkelstein, has written a book by this title, Beyond Chutzpah. The basic idea from what I heard today on Democracy Now’s radio broadcast, is that many who criticize Israel are quickly labelled anti-Semetic by the Jewish Anti-Defamation League… in a League of their own, no doubt.

Norman Finkelstein: “Every time Israel comes under international pressure, as it did recently because of the war crimes committed in Lebanon, it steps up the claim of anti-Semitism, and all of Israel’s critics are anti-Semitic. 1974, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, puts out a book called The New Anti-Semitism. 1981, the Anti-Defamation League puts out a book, The New Anti-Semitism. And then, again in 2000, Abraham Foxman and people like Phyllis Chesler, they put out these books called The New Anti-Semitism. So the use of the charge “anti-Semitism” is pretty conventional whenever Israel comes under attack, and frankly it has no content whatsoever nowadays.

If you open up, like, Phyllis Chesler’s book, The New Anti-Semitism, she says Jewish feminists are anti-Semites, NPR is anti-Semitic, BBC is anti-Semitic, Los Angeles Times is anti-Semitic, New York Times is anti-Semitic, Washington Post is anti-Semitic. Everybody is anti-Semitic. The term is devoid of any content. Anyone who ever criticizes Israel is anti-Semitic.”

Finkelstein continued by pointing out many rampant comparisons by US war hawks of their favorite terrorist bad guys of the week to Hitler and Nazis is actually a form of Holocaust denial.

NF: “You heard the speech by Rumsfeld, where he says that Iraq is like the Nazis in the 1930s. Now, remember, the tenet of the Holocaust industry is, never compare the Holocaust to anything else. Never compare, and if you compare, they say you’re a Holocaust denier. But that side is always comparing. The Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler. Nasser was Hitler. Saddam Hussein was Hitler. Hezbollah is now Hitler. Iran is Hitler. Hamas is Hitler. Iraq is Hitler. They’re the worst Holocaust deniers in the world, by their own definition. They’re always comparing.”

from the Democracy Now! interview, August 30, 2006 

It takes some chutzpah to report the facts of today’s news, and maybe Don Asmussen BAD REPORTER is the solutionator. The Bad Reporter mangles current events in illustrated comic format twice a week with all the bloody chutzpah of news in a blender. In Asmussen’s world, the planet pluto could be a Holocaust Denier. Who knows? The Bad Reporter may be the illegitimate hier to the Dave Barry humor columnist throne. Whatever he is, I find the flavor of his chutzpah maztoh balls very good and refreshing.

Everyone in Tinseltown is buzzing about the war Israel is waging against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrians, Iranians, Moslems, and perhaps Scottish Highlanders. Hollywood news sources report that a single malted Mel “Braveheart” Gibson declared, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world, and Jews have just invaded Scotland! That’s it! I’ve had it!”

Could Braveheart 2 be far behind?

More blog news on malty Mel: Huffington, Markoe.

This Mister Borat dude is one crazy TV reporter man from Kazakhstan in this fall’s movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. See the funny video trailer online here.

It’s hard to know Sacha Baron Cohen‘s true identity: Borat, Ali G, or what? He also is the voice of King Julien in Madagascar and the upcoming Madagascar 2.

While the government is busy stripping you of your Constitutional rights, wildly spending your money in Iraq, and monitoring your private banking, telephone and internet activity, you may as well be a good American and distract yourself. If you complain, you’re just the enemy. Run along and play, Dorothy. Don’t pay attention to that man behind the curtain.
Silly things done in Flash:

• oooooouch.com: Here’s a virtual xylophone of sunbathing girls moaning out your own tune or a jukebox of tunes, such as Beethoven’s Ode To Joy.
• Treasure Box: a strange little puzzle with Rube Goldberg interactivity.
• Online Doodling

Funny Amusing Videos:

• Futurama’s Terrifying Message From Al Gore
• Star Wars and The Holy Grail
• Animusic – Pipe Dream
  
• Diet Coke and Mentos reaction
  
• More Mentos + Diet Coke videos

Art and Photography:

• Cool Text: create a logo online in a variety of graphics styles
• Mikons: create little black and white icons and share them.
  
• Elvis Visits Nixon: In case you feel that you are escaping too far from whatever reality may be, check out the National Security Archive and their collection on Nixon-Presley meeting documents. It is enough to convince you that Presidents do not live in reality either.

If you are a commuter by car, rail or any other means, there are many chance moments after leaving your home and entering the myriad world of random people. You enter a mixture of their goals, concerns and pressures, and you hope their problems will not spill over onto yours. Such as when driving to the train station this morning and a lady passed me in a sleek black car steering while balancing a bowl of cereal in her free hand. Here’s an answer for a question I frequently ask myself, “Why do so many drivers not make turn signals?”

Riding the BART, when I hear a cell phoner bitching loudly about her problems, as if the entire car needs to know, I move to another seat out of ear shot. Ear plugs or iPods just don’t solve the problem entirely. Attempts to remain aloof and nonjudgemental are a great mental exercise, but ultimately you’re enduring a funky cell mate for the ride.

So, it is no shock that a video on YouTube.com “Bus Uncle” has grown very popular, since it captures this kind of commuter interaction and confrontation Hong Kong style. The angry uncle yells, “I face pressure! You face pressure!” and rap versions have sprouted forth. And for an encore here’s Billy Joel’s music video, “Pressure.” Happy travels and get home safely.