Politically correct gypsies

While counting down the hours to “Borat’s” release — and, though I detest hyperbole and worship Peter Sellers, I’m becoming convinced that Sacha Baron Cohen is a worthy heir to my idol’s throne — the easily offended have already begun lodging complaints:

A human rights group campaigning for gypsies has filed a complaint against British comic Sacha Baron Cohen over his “Borat” film featuring a spoof Kazakh journalist who calls himself a former “gypsy catcher,” German prosecutors said.

The state prosecutor’s office in the northern city of Hamburg said the European Center for Antiziganism Research had brought the complaint accusing Cohen of slander, inciting violence against the Sinti and Roma gypsy groups and violating Germany’s anti-discrimination law.

Science damn you!

(Nihilism alert)

Another pointed "South Park," brilliantly debunking the hopelessly naive argument that, without religion, we’d have no cause for conflict. Man is, by nature, territorial, and world peace is a juvenile illusion that can never be achieved. I’d like to be wrong, but history is on my side. Or was I sick the day we studied the Utopian period?

It came from 1982 (cont’d)

I sure had crappy taste in music when I was a child. More evidence here, compliments of Steel Breeze.

Devil made me do it the first time …

Second time I done it on my own. Watch Billy Joe Shaver sing “Black Rose,” from an old episode of “Austin City Limits.” God bless them Texas outlaws!

Noted and quoted, pathological edition

I wouldn’t expect him to say anything else, but still …

President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain with him until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most-vilified members of his administration.

"Both those men are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them," Bush said in an interview with The Associated Press and others.

Meanwhile, in Iraq …

In a sign of how violent the month was, an unusually large number of October’s deaths occurred in combat. Ninety-nine of the troops were killed in action, compared with 63 in September, 58 in August and 38 in July. Only two other months had more U.S. troops killed in action — November 2004 (125) and April 2004 (126). …

The Reuters news service, citing data from Iraq’s Interior Ministry, reported that 1,289 Iraqi civilians died last month in political violence — nearly 42 people per day — up 18 percent from the 1,089 such fatalities in September.

Madonna, the victim

Pity poor Madonna. She truly is the Material C–t:

"I have people say to me when I’m walking down the street, ‘Why did you adopt a black child?’ I don’t dignify their question with a reply. But there is a lot of racism in the world. I think that’s underneath a lot of people’s prejudice about me adopting David. A lot of people have a problem with the fact that I’ve adopted an African child, a child who has a different color skin than I do."

Admittedly, there’s plenty of bigots out there, but nowhere in the coverage of Madonna’s abduction, er, adoption, has race been mentioned. And does anyone actually believe she strolls down the street among the masses? Not without a phalanx of bodyguards, each of whom would likely clothesline anyone who dared offend Dame Ciccone.

When are people — my people, in particular — going to stop falling for this shit? 

This is the same woman who distributed copies of her children’s book, "The English Roses," to AIDS orphans in Malawi. I guess everyone’s a potential customer —

"My parents died of AIDS and all I got was this crappy book written by an old Anglophile hag."

Noted and quoted, self-loathing homosexual edition

It’s a badly kept secret in Hollywood that Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser," for those over 21) is gay. I’m not sure why he feels the need to stay in the closet — it’s not like he’s a leading man, a la Cruise or Travolta, who stand to lose much more if they were to be honest about their sexuality — but, regardless, that’s his choice. Still, I would make sure my publicist was a little more delicate with the denials:

"He’s not of that persuasion."

Oh, so it’s a persuasion now? Sounds like something Falwell or Robertson would say.

Believe the hype

Forrest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” is every bit as good as advertised. There should be no debate — Whitaker deserves Best Actor honors for completely embodying the late Ugandan dictator. He wasn’t afraid to humanize Amin, which makes the performance so fascinating. The duality of the engaging tyrant makes Dada (who massacred 300,000 Ugandans during his reign) even more terrifying.

As for the movie, James McAvoy, as Amin’s personal physician, gives a stout performance, though the last third kind of falls apart when the focus drifts from Amin. The ending seems straight out an implausible action flick, but none of that detracts from Whitaker’s bravura turn.

Grade: B+

Believe the hype

Forrest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” is every bit as good as advertised. There should be no debate — Whitaker deserves Best Actor honors for completely embodying the late Ugandan dictator. He wasn’t afraid to humanize Amin, which makes the performance so fascinating. The duality of the engaging tyrant makes Dada (who massacred 300,000 Ugandans during his reign) even more terrifying.

As for the movie, James McAvoy, as Amin’s personal physician, gives a stout performance, though the last third kind of falls apart when the focus drifts from Amin. The ending seems straight out an implausible action flick, but none of that detracts from Whitaker’s bravura turn.

Grade: B+

Happy Halloween (a day late)

Have you seen "Jesus Camp" yet? These clips break my heart, particularly when I hear some of the snide remarks made towards the children in the film (who, in essence, are given no choice but to believe). That makes them victims, not punchlines: 

REALLY fearing the Lord;

"I don’t want candy, I want the meat";

"Way to be obedient";

"Warlocks are enemies of God" — that means you, Harry Potter!

There’s something quite sinister about stealing a child’s innocence, whether it be sexually, mentally or even spiritually.

Site of the nite

Some stirring live performances, via "Austin City Limits," can be found here (the clips from Guided by Voices and Bright Eyes are especially recommended).

Ode to Billy Joe (Shaver)

From "Ain’t No God in Mexico":

If I’d never felt the sunshine
Hell, I would not curse the rain
If my feet could fit a railroad track
I guess I’d been a train

A Spalding Gray in a Rick Dees world

Dreams so real –

Last night I found myself in the middle of a media firestorm, accused of stealing nude pictures of Nicole Kidman from her mailbox and then selling them to a tabloid. Strangely, Miss Kidman lived in the same crappy apartment building I used to inhabit in Hollywood, across the street from the headquarters of her ex-husband’s cult. I ended up defending myself on Rick Dees‘ (Rick Dees?!?) show, though no one was buying my claim that it must’ve been the Scientologists. Not sure if I had any evidence, but I was convinced it wasn’t me.

A Spalding Gray in a Rick Dees world

Dreams so real –

Last night I found myself in the middle of a media firestorm, accused of stealing nude pictures of Nicole Kidman from her mailbox and then selling them to a tabloid. Strangely, Miss Kidman lived in the same crappy apartment building I used to inhabit in Hollywood, across the street from the headquarters of her ex-husband’s cult. I ended up defending myself on Rick Dees‘ (Rick Dees?!?) show, though no one was buying my claim that it must’ve been the Scientologists. Not sure if I had any evidence, but I was convinced it wasn’t me.

Cap du jour, houndstooth hat edition

Yep, that’s a Bear Bryant tatoo on Alabama football freak Nathan Davis’ back. For more on Mr. Davis, visit Syntax of Things:

“They showed a picture of Bear Bryant, and my grandfather said, `That’s one of the greatest men to ever walk this earth beside Jesus Christ and General (Robert E.) Lee,” Davis recalls. “Then I heard the coach talk, and I fell in love. I’ll never forget it.”