By Debbie Schlussel
It must be tough coming from a family of Sixties Hippies. Your parents teach you to brag about things that should actually embarrass you. Like they never got married. Or like they toked with you on your inaugural joint.
Or, in the case of actor Joaquin Phoenix (yes, his parents were Sixties Hippies, thus the names of his siblings–sister Summer, and the late River, etc.), bragging about crying (in the December issue of Playboy). And not crying over the loss of a close family member or a friend or something worthy of tears:

I have no problems with not being manly. I’m content to cry while having a tattoo placed on the inner part of my arm.

Joaquin Phoenix: Proud to Be Unmanly
That’s his explanation to Playboy for why he broke down weeping while getting tattooed with brother-in-law Casey Affleck. They got matching tattoos (isn’t that what a stupid romantic couple does?). Affleck videotaped it.
But don’t worry. If you get stuck in a burning building with Phoenix, he’ll come to your. . . . Oh wait, he’ll break down and start sobbing.
So, this was in Playboy? More evidence that men don’t “read it for the articles.”
Johnny Cash (whom Phoenix portrayed on-screen) is turning over in his grave.

By Debbie Schlussel
Yesterday, 60 U.S. soldiers who were foreign aliens got naturalized and became U.S. citizens at the American military base in Bagram, Afghanistan.
The soldiers came from countires like Cuba, Philippines, Vietnam, and Ethiopia. But strangely, there were many countries that weren’t mentioned: Like anywhere in the Muslim Mid-East. No Saudis. No Lebanese. Syrians, nada. Egyptians, zilch. Etc., etc., etc.
An earlier ceremony of 150 U.S. soldiers getting naturalized happened Sunday in Iraq at the Balad Air Base. Taking bets on how many were from Arab and/or Muslim nations. I’d bet very, very few, if any. Will get the exact breakdown, but most of them are Latino.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . That dogfighting is part of the Southern Culture? (She said it in September on “The View,” in defending Michael Vick’s torture murder of at least nine dogs.)
Of course, we knew she was lying or grasping at straws (take your pick). I know a lot of Southerners, and none of them engage in dogfighting, cultural or otherwise. And last time I checked, Detroit was not in the South:

Detroit: Seven men agree to fines on dogfight charges

Hey Whoopi: It’s NOT a “Southern Thing”

Six of eight men charged with attending a dogfight in Inkster this year pleaded no contest Friday, and a seventh pleaded guilty. They agreed to fines that will net the Michigan Humane Society $25,000 and Inkster animal control $10,000. Halbert Rogers, his brother Marlon Rogers, William Barker, Kendric Gray, Jamie Williams and Shaun Woods pleaded no contest in Wayne County Circuit Court. Derrick Hall pleaded guilty. Jessie McDaniel will have a jury trial Dec. 13.

It’s not a Southern thing. It’s a hip-hop, urban thing. Nice try, Whoopi.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Looks like I’m not the only one who feels this way. An AP columnist agrees. ****
The NAACP chapter in Winston, Georgia rally knows how to create role models. The group not only gave a hero’s welcome to a former sex offender, but on Saturday Night, honored him with a Youth Award. And gave him a standing ovation.
Who’s the guy? Genarlow Wilson. You’ve probably heard of him because he received a 10-year prison sentence for an allegedly consensual session of receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl and having it videotaped. Yes, the sentence was way out of proportion for the crime, but there are statutory rape laws on the books all over the country. It’s not a novel occurrence. And most teenagers know at least that law.
Whether or not he should have been released from prison because of the outrage by race merchants claiming this typical statutory rape case was racially-motivated is one thing (yes, the sentence was far too long for the offense, but the then-Georgia law was not based on race). But honoring this guy as some sort of Black role model for inner city kids, merely because he received an underaged Lewinsky and managed to ultimately beat the charges after two years in jail, is entirely another: patently absurd.

Not Deserving of Honors or Role Model Status
If they willingly, enthusiastically choose honor are guys who participated in statutory rape BJs as their new civil rights heroes, then no wonder the Black community is in trouble. If it expects to receive respect, it must respect itself and not hand out awards for such questionable feats. Aim low, and you will be treated as lowly. There are so many Black Americans doing great things that actually deserve awards. But they don’t get them.
Hey, it ain’t the first time something like this has happened. After all, the most prominent illicit Lewinsky recipient was known as “The First Black President.” And his wife, Hillary Rodham Cankles, will become the first Black Female President very soon.
Regardless, the bottom line on Genarlow Wilson: This guy is no hero. Not even close. Too bad the NAACP is too blind to see something so simple.

By Debbie Schlussel
Until idiotic Jewish gazillionaire donors pull their money and stop donating to the University of Michigan, outrages like these will continue to happen. Until taxpayers get outraged enough to get their Congressmen and Senators to stop funding this it will repeat over and over. If you give or know someone who gives money–of any size–to the University of Michigan, ask if this is the kind of miseducation and falsehood that the school should perpetuate:
* “Jerusalem, Palestine“: The University of Michigan-Dearbornistan’s website repeatedly identifies “Jerusalem, Palestine” on its Center for Arab American Studies page.
You must ask yourself, first of all, why a “Center” that is supposed to be studying Arabs in America is focusing on Jerusalem at all.

University of Michigan Islamofascism by David Lunde
Answer: The university is running a joint program with Al-Quds University a/k/a HAMAS U and is bringing students from this embrionic hotbed of terrorism to this country. Lovely. Yup. The school has a joint program with Al-Quds: “Connecting Dearborn and Jerusalem: Collaborative American and Arab American Studies Programs.” It exchanges students and “scholars.”
Oh, and it has a radical joint program with Palestinians: “Writing Across BordersFor Dignity, Justice, and Peace.” Gee, why fight terrorists when we can help them with their PR campaign?
Then ask why this tax-funded department of the tax-funded university refuses to identify a city in the country in which it actually is.
The answer is that Jewish high-dollar donors keep giving and don’t give a damn. And American taxpayers who fund this university continue to allow their money to go there, no matter what.
So why should this Islamo-fascist, Dearbornistan branch of the school care?
* Detroit is an “Islamic City.”: I knew this was coming, but I didn’t think it was official yet. But, according to my alma mater, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Detroit is an Islamic City.
As part of its November diversity programming, last week the school hosted a colloquium: “Detroit, The Islamic City: Middle Eastern Cities Colloquium,” sponsored by the U-M Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
So, there you have it. Your tax dollars are educating students at the University of Michigan that:
* Jerusalem is in “Palestine”; and
* Detroit is an Islamic City.
Your high-quality top-20 University education in America.

By Debbie Schlussel
Recently, I told you about how one distant relative of Notre Dame football great George Gipp okayed the exhumation of his body, 87 years after the man was buried. As you probably know, Gipp’s death of pneumonia in his senior year in 1920 was the inspiration for the phrase, “Win One for the Gipper.” His story was made even more famous when Ronald Reagan played him in “Knute Rockne, All American.”
Why, I asked, would they dig this guy up 87 years after his death? He’s nothing more than bones and any family quarrel over rights to his name and story would have been decided long ago.
Well, it turns out Gipp’s body was dug up for a paternity test to determine if Gipp had an out-of-wedlock daughter with his girlfriend. And this was done for profit and to promote a book. I understood why Gipp’s relatives were upset about this. Now, I understand it even more so. They should be furious. And they are. George Gipp should have been allowed to rest in peace.

George Gipp: Dug Up After 87 Years . . . For Nothing
More details:

[Gipp] had been exhumed for a genetic test to determine whether he had had an illegitimate daughter nearly a century ago, a family member said Friday.
The test’s results, which compared Gipp’s DNA with that of a recently deceased 87-year-old woman from Crown Point, Ind., were released Friday and found there was no connection.
While the exhumation was approved by a Gipp family member, other relatives, already irate over the disinterment, were doubly angry when they learned about the empty results.
“It’s just a disgusting thing,” said Ron Gipp, 62, a distant cousin who lives in Gipp’s hometown of Laurium.
Another cousin, Karl Gipp, 70, of nearby Skanee said the DNA test was done solely to promote an upcoming book about the football player’s life.
“It’s gruesome is what it is,” he said. “It’s a disgrace to the community, to Calumet (where Gipp attended high school) and it definitely disgraced the Gipp family.”
Even the Crown Point woman’s family, who unwittingly spurred the exhumation by telling the book’s author about their suspicions of Gipp’s paternity, was aghast over what followed.
Eva Bright’s two daughters have stopped talking to the author, Mike Bynum.
“I know one of them is pretty upset at me because the body got exhumed,” Bynum said.
The women, Ellen Easton and Paula Krebes, couldn’t be reached for comment.
Bynum, who helped set up the exhumation and DNA tests, said he was just trying to bring two families together, not promote his book. [DS: Riiiiight.]
“That’s the least of anyone’s interest,” he said about the tome, which will be published in the fall.
Rick Frueh, the Gipp relative who approved the exhumation, is working with Bynum on the book and will receive royalties from it, Bynum said.
Frueh, in a written statement that Bynum helped prepare, said he was trying to help a family that may have been related to him as it tried to solve a mystery.
“Helping family is the strongest act of love that we can offer each other,” Frueh wrote.

If the sisters–the daughters of this woman–were so upset, why did they provide their mother’s DNA to do the test?
The whole thing is sickening.
Brings new meaning to the phrase “shameless self-promotion.”

By Debbie Schlussel
In yet another useless study, researchers learned that rats prefer water sweetened with saccarin to cocaine.
The scientists, in a study presented last week in San Diego at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, said that this demonstrates the addictive potential of sweets, which might explain the rise in human obesity. Yes, like coke versus sugar is the eternal choice for humans and they must choose between the two. On what planet?
They needed a study to determine that rats like sugary water over coke? PUH-LEEZE.
Exit Question: How much tax money went to fund this?

Oh, wait, the study was conducted by Magalie Lenoir of the University of Bordeaux in France. Cool. French tax money was wasted on it.
Pity.

By Debbie Schlussel
I like Howie Long, one of the coolest former NFL linemen and current TV football commentators there is. He’s one of those pro-athletes that didn’t get into criminal trouble, didn’t file for bankruptcy (he charges upward of $50,000 per speaking engagement), has remained married to his college sweetheart and mother of his three sons (one of whom is Chris Long–on the way to becoming a first-round pick at Defensive End), and is an all-around good guy, at least from my own personal experience.
When my high school classmate Torin Dorn played Defensive Back (Corner) with the L.A. Raiders, I met and hung out with Howie Long after lots of different games, etc. (see very, very, very bad pic below from a 1990 Raider vs. Detroit Lions game–I weighed all of 91 pounds at the time but doesn’t look that way). And he was always a gentleman, a super nice guy, and very affable and friendly.
But in trying to make a joke, Howie made an ignorant gaffe on Sunday’s NFL on FOX/FOX NFL Sunday coverage, yesterday:

Howie Long of Fox NFL Sunday referred to colleague Jay Glazer’s copy of the Patriots spy tape as the “Magruder” film of the NFL. Host Curt Menefee asked if he meant the “Zapruder” film. Long made up for the blunder with his humorous attack on critics who want Belichik to wear a hair shirt forever.
“People say, ‘He’s not remorseful, he’s not contrite enough.’ What do you want him to do? Go on Oprah and cry? Bill Belichick is Bill Belichick,” Long said.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

A history historian, not so much.
During Fox’s Rapid Fire segment this morning, the first question was about Don Shula‚Äôs comments that the Patriots would need an asterisk.
Howie was steamed: “You’d think we were talking about the Magruder film here. We’re talking about the Jay Glazer video.”
This set Terry Bradshaw laughing. (Quick guide: When Terry can laugh at your book-learnin’, not a good sign. Curt Menefee played straight man.)
Curt: “Magruder?”
Howie: “Yeah.”
Curt: “Zapruder?”
Howie, acknowleding his error: “Gruder.”
Curt: “Za-pruder.”
Howie: “Five plays into this game, that video was confiscated.” He went on and on.

We don’t watch football for history lessons. But if you’re going to make a historical reference, get it right or you’ll get laughed at.
In Howie’s defense, at least he’s aware of the Zapruder, er . . . “Magruder” film (the famous 8 mm film of the JFK assassination taken by a guy named Abraham Zapruder and ultimately worth more than $18 million in royalties and licensing fees to Zapruder’s family).
I’d bet 95% or more of today’s pro athletes, these days, don’t. My fave story is when NBA player Voshon Lenard was in a college history class. When his prof asked him why George Washington was considered a founding father, he responded:

George Washington . . . . Sounds familiar. . . . Can you give me a hint?

Howie Long & Me in 1990 After Raiders-Lions Game

By Debbie Schlussel
Good news coming out of Iraq. Aside from the current declining violence over there, Central Command–which had been blocking this website there in Greater Shia-stan–has now unblocked DebbieSchlussel.com.
The former high-ranking federal agent/current contractor in Iraq–who originally informed us that CENTCOM had blocked access to this site–notes:

Strangest thing, I have my access to Schlussel back effective about an hour ago.

That was sent on Thursday morning. Glad to hear it. Not sure why they blocked me in the first place.
This . . .

Is No Longer This . . .

Censor Command (CENSCOM) By Boycott Watch

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: It appears the Veterans poem is from the Good Old Dogs Website. ****
Yes, I know yesterday was the real Veteran’s Day. But since the federal government is celebrating it today, I am, too. This little poem has been making its way around the Internet. I wish I knew the identity of the author (if you, please let me know), so I could give proper credit. It is 100% correct, and I think it encompasses what Veterans’ Day is about.
They say Veterans’ Day is about the living soldiers and Memorial Day is about those who died serving our country. But I think both days should celebrate both, since they give so much so that we can be free and I can continue having this site. (Today, I also recognize my favorite veteran, my late father, who proudly served in the Army, Army National Guard, and Reserves, all during Vietnam.):

Sgt. Chris Moore Changes the Guard @ The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier, Where Soldiers From Both World Wars & the Korean War Are Buried

It is the VETERAN , not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN , not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN , not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN , not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN , not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN , not the politician,
Who has given us the right to vote.
It is the VETERAN ,
who salutes the Flag.
It is the VETERAN ,
who serves under the Flag,
whose coffin is draped by the Flag.
[For Those Veterans Who’ve Passed On,] ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.
VETERANS KNOW THAT THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE.

Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke, Jr., Iraq War Vet, Hugs Pearl Harbor Survivor/WWII Vet Houston James (Graunke Lost a Leg, Hand, and Eye Defusing a Bomb in Iraq)