Tom Cruise Kills Oprah

This cracked me up:

http://waxy.org/random/view.php?type=video&filename=Tom_Cruise_Kills_Oprah.mov

-Jean Chen

Yeeee-haaaaaw!!!

I just saw the trailer for the new Dukes of Hazzard movie. When I first heard they were going to film a movie based on the 1980s tv show, all I could think was, "Will the General Lee have a big confederate flag on the top?"

And the answer is... Yes.

- Jean Chen

Major Threat

Nike has been stealing album covers for their ads! The latest one is from political DC punk band Minor Threat. Lead singer Ian MacKaye better have his lawyers ready:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/05-06/23.shtml

-Jean Chen

Snub a pocketbook issue to Oprah

From Lashan Browning of RedMoxie.com:

Oprah Winfrey wants to hit Hermès where it hurts - in its fine leather wallet.

You may have heard that the talk queen was denied entry to the luxury-goods store's Paris branch last weekend at closing time. According to one report, Hermès staffers rebuffed Winfrey because they didn't recognize her and because they'd been "having a problem with North Africans lately."

But friends of Oprah say that's bunk.

"They knew exactly who she was," a pal tells us. "They specifically said, 'We know who you are.'"

The source says Oprah arrived just after 6:30 p.m., when there were still shoppers inside the store. According to the source, Oprah politely asked an Hermès sales clerk if she could dash in. She knew what she wanted: a specific watch for Tina Turner, her dinner partner that evening.

Now if the No. 1 celebrity on Forbes' power list - a woman who earned $225 million last year - knocked on their doors, many shopkeepers would carry her in on a litter, even if it was midnight.

Instead, she was rebuffed - first by the clerk, then by a store manager.

Though Oprah hasn't accused the Gauls of racism, her friend suggests, "If it had been Celine Dion or Britney Spears or Barbra Streisand, there is no way they would not be let in that store."

Hermès' brusque treatment understandably came as a shock to someone who recently bought a dozen of the store's Birkin bags, which can run $6,500. In fact, Oprah had just ordered another one.

After last weekend, she canceled that order.

We also hear she's called Robert Chavez, president of Hermès in America, to inform him that, although she has long enjoyed his stores, she will no longer be shopping there.

We also hear she may share the incident with her 22 million-plus viewers.

"We are calling it Oprah's 'Crash' moment," says the friend, recalling the new movie about race in America.

Our calls to Hermès weren't returned yesterday.

Destroying Homes

This is just shocking and wrong.

"A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development... The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas. As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue."

Read full article in NY Times

People are going to lose their homes to an office complex?? How can that be?

- Jean Chen

Bingo and Jo Stafford records--Is that too much to ask?

If you’re like me, you’re terrified of being destitute in old age. I don’t know what cat food tastes like, and frankly, I don’t wanna know. Everywhere I look, I see articles stressing that I should start saving for my retirement right this exact minute, because SS won’t be enough to pay for my cod liver oil. Heck, most of the people I know think that Social Security will be bankrupt by the time we hit 65. With Congress and Bush in a tizzy about how to prop up the valiant old government program, it's future seems very uncertain right now.

Here’s an excellent article about several disparate people living on Social Security, from a former heroin addict to the guy who invented the Pop Tart. And it’s not one of those “spinach” articles (shut up and read this, it’s good for you). It’s very well-written and quite fascinating—you’ll like it, promise.

Great article from 06-17-2005 New York Times:
Living With Social Security: Small Dreams and Safety Nets

I know old age is scary, but hey, it’s better than the alternative. And hopefully, we'll still have Social Security to pay for those weekly Bingo nights.

Conflict of Interest

The Bush administration has been trying to argue that global warming is not happening. I had always suspected that it was because they were catering to oil companies, but now here's the proof. This is from the Washington Post:

Last week, the New York Times reported that a senior White House official had altered government documents to emphasize the uncertainties surrounding the science on global warming. That official, White House Council on Environmental Quality chief of staff Phillip Cooney, left the administration last Friday to take a public relations job with oil giant Exxon Mobil, a leading opponent of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Wow, can it be any more obvious?

-Jean Chen

Medical Science Restates the Obvious

It's said that lascivious French chanteur Serge Gainsbourg used to defend his wild lifestyle by saying that "Smoking preserves meat, and alcohol preserves fruit." Serge Gainsbourg died of a heart attack at age 65, so you make the call on that one.

Shocking news from the BBC: apparently, smoking and overeating are bad.
BBC NEWS: Smoking and obesity ‘age people’

A study of 1,222 twins revealed that "smoking accelerated the ageing of key pieces of a person's DNA by about 4.6 years. For obesity it was nine years." And here I thought the only way to rewrite your DNA was by standing in front of the microwave.

Still, the study seems a bit repetitive. "Hey, everybody! Smoking and overeating? No good." Well...yeah. Having a study reaffirm that every few months isn't going to keep folks from dipping their French fries in mayonnaise. And this is probably just me, but is anybody else concerned about the plight of all these identical twins we subject to grueling medical research? Where's PETA when you need them?

Public Broadcasting No More

I don't have a problem with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting wanting to make PBS' content reflect more of a "conservative" point of view because we all know that the liberal/conservative bias the media wear depends on who's dressing them and allows us to avoid dicussions about media ownership, but I do have a problem with the fact that Patricia de Stacy Harrison, a high-ranking official at the State Department, is a the front-runner for the top job at CPB, which funds PBS. Here's why, from The Washington Post:

In her State Department role, Harrison has praised the work of the department's Office of Broadcasting Services, which in early 2002 began producing feature reports, some coordinated by the White House, that promoted the administration's arguments for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The reports were distributed free to domestic and international TV stations. In testimony before Congress last year, Harrison said the Bush administration regarded these "good news" segments as "powerful strategic tools" for swaying public opinion.

I could care less if she was a rabid libertarian who wanted dismantle PBS as we know it but someone who openly supports government propaganda to run a publicly funded broadcast station which exists to provide truthful and diverse points of view is just scary.

Downing Street Memo and Bolton Related

This is an extraordinary story from the Guardian this weekend.

"John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

"A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani 'had to go,' particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war."

Defiling the Koran

I can't believe that defiling the Koran is an issue. Yes, it's disrespectful, but look at all the other stuff we are doing in Iraq! We're in a violent and bloody wartime situation... Defiling the Koran is a minor offense compared to all the killing, torturing, looting, etc.

- Jean Chen

Where Computers Go To Die

Gone are the days of dumping that old computer on the neighbor's lawn and running like hell. Spurred by California's mandatory computer and television recycling regulations, Congress is thinking about setting nationwide guidelines for disposing of yesterday's technology.

Computer Recycling

Yeah, it's a sad day for folks who dream of re-enacting scenes from "Office Space" and taking a baseball bat to their demonic electronic devices. But it's a great thing for the environment, with landfills filling up with obsolete computer equipment.

The State of Journalism

The identity of "Deep Throat" has been revealed, but what I want to hear about and learn from are NEW journalistic mysteries and triumphs. I don’t want 30-year-old drama. I don’t want to have to rent a dusty, VHS copy of “All the President’s Men” to feel inspired about journalism. And I’m not alone.

I’ve met high school students writing for their school newspaper who are already jaded by the end of their senior year. “Journalism is alright, but I’m thinking law school or MBA,” I’ve heard some of them say. I’ve met even more frustrated college journalism students recently who say they are “tired” of working so much and don’t know why they are working so hard. One friend of mine, two weeks out of J-school, took an entry level job for a law firm and is considering law school. Another friend fresh out of J-school is heading to Sacramento for a gig in the governor’s office. What’s going on around here? Where is everyone going? And why is there such a shortage of newspaper jobs for those who aren’t jumping ship?

A co-worker commented to me that the best part about the Watergate scandal was that “the bad guys got caught.” In other words, people who did a bad thing got busted, and the underdog (the truth-telling, young journalists) arose victorious. People doing bad things were forced to behave, and the righteous were victorious.

But what’s different now is not that government and big businesses behave, they’ve just gotten savvy about covering their asses. Harper’s Index reports that the Bush Administration spends billions annually to hire public relations firms to assert favorable public opinion.

The hegemony and monopolization of newspaper companies, loss of advertising revenue for newspapers and extreme competition with faster, online news sources are creating a newspaper scene that avoids pissing anyone off like the plague.

Scripted questions and answers during President Bush’s speeches have reached comical levels, but few lambaste the administration for it. We can make light-hearted jokes about Bush’s English language bumbles and his nerdy, snickering laugh, but we can’t or won’t nail him to a cross (figuratively) for fighting a war for right-wing, capitalist profit. Why not?

Dan Rather, after a decades-long career as one of America’s most trustworthy, post-Cronkite journalists, goes down in flames because of one glitch in sourcing while uncovering an important truth. Come on, he was stiff-armed by the administration.

In the 70s we had Woodward and Bernstein. In the 80s we had ‘Fletch.’ Since then we’ve had Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair, for chrisakes. Let’s clear our throats and get it together. Let’s find a new story to get excited about, honestly.

- Gary Moskowitz

Enough Throat!

While I think the coverage of the whole Deep Throat story has swung between idolization of The Post (which the paper has been most guilt of) to just flat out skewering, the better stories have following the long trail of speculation The Throat's identity and how it was apparently a secret to everybody.

Not to miss a beat, Howard Kurtz, The Post's media reporter (known affectionally there as Howie and considered inside the Beltway as the most powerful dude in media), lays out the real the consequences of The Throat and journalism post-Watergate:

"Journalism became a more confrontational, even prosecutorial business, with some of its practitioners automatically assuming that politicians in the post-Nixon era must be lying, dissembling or covering up."

I think that my generation of journalists takes a different view of public figures than the editors and reporters today who came of age in the shadow of Woodstein but they also have a disaffection that may prove to be just as dangerous.

Gay Fruitflies

Scientist have just discovered that a single gene in fruitflies is responsible for determining sexual orientation.

Click here for the article

While I think their findings are interesting, I also hate the fact that it dredges up the age-old question, "Which is responsible for people being gay? Environment or genes?" In other words, can gay people help being gay?

Who cares what causes gayness??!! People are gay, let's just accept them and move on.

- Jean Chen