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Actor Omar Sharif was once a pariah in the Arabic and Muslim worlds for kissing evil Jew Barbra Streisand on-screen in “Funny Girl.” (Well, she is evil, and I don’t like him for kissing her, but not because she’s a Jew.)
Now, though, Sharif is welcomed back onto the Arab Street and is in Egypt. That’s why his sentence, yesterday, for beating a parking valet (for refusing to accept Euros in payment of his parking bill) in Beverly Hills is troubling. (He broke the guy’s nose.)
Sharif, who pleaded no contest in absentia, was sentenced to an anger management course, which he’s allowed to take in Egypt. As my friends, Detroit morning radio hosts Drew Lane and Mike Clark (“Drew & Mike”), asked: Do they really have acceptable anger management courses in Egypt that are legit?

Omar of Angerabia:
Dr. Zhivago Goes to Egyptian Anger Management
Well, yes. Anger management in Egypt is when you shoot just two Jews, not bomb more of them at Sharm El-Sheikh. Or when you spit in one American tourist’s salad, rather than a whole family. Or when you edit your normal greeting to simply, “Death to America,” rather than your usual, additional inclusion of “Death to Israel.” Or honor killing your sister and not also your wife.
But, seriously, do they really have anger management courses in Egypt as taught by the Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood)? Or at Hate U–Al-Azhar University a/k/a Al-Azhar Al-Sharif? Doubtful.

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With all of the unfair, negative attention brought on three Duke Lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, another Duke Lacrosse player–Sgt. James John Regan–and his story got lost.
Regan was a star on the Duke Lacrosse Team and had a scholarship to go to law school and an offer to work at a financial company. But he felt he had a higher calling. He joined the Army Rangers. He served double tours of duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq, earning a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and several other medals.
He was killed in action in Iraq, last week. He was 26 and engaged to be married. His fiancee, Mary McHugh told Newsday why he felt it was imperative to join the Army and serve rather than taking one of the other safer, more lucrative offers:

Sgt. James John Regan, RIP

He said, ‘If I don’t do it, then who will do it?’ He recognized it as an option and he couldn’t not do it.”

Kudos to Newsday and USA Today sports columnist Mike Lopresti for telling his story. Here’s an excerpt from Lopresti’s column, “Here’s a Duke Lacrosse Player You Need to Know“:

Jimmy went from his Long Island roots to Duke as a determined athlete and student.
“Just a terrific personality. Always a smile on his face. His teammates just loved to be around him,” his coach, Mike Pressler, said over the phone Monday. “He was the kind of kid that every coach in America would be proud to call his own. I can’t imagine a better teammate or a better friend.”
By the spring of 2002, Jimmy was a senior and close to graduating with a degree in economics. He was on the all-ACC Academic team as a midfielder. In the conference championship game, against No. 1 Virginia, he scored four goals and the Blue Devils won 14-13. Pressler still remembers how the press flocked around him afterward. How happy Jimmy was. The star of the game. The hero.
“It was just his day in the sun,” Pressler said. “I’m sure it was something he never forgot.”
Jimmy had a scholarship to go to law school after Duke. Also an offer to work at a financial company. “But he felt like he had a higher calling,” Pressler said.
Jimmy joined the Army Rangers. Later, he figured, he’d come back to his life. One day, he would coach a lacrosse team, and help kids find the happiness he had that spring day against Virginia. So he left Duke behind, just as the class of 2006 – when the world caved in the Blue Devil lacrosse team – was entering.

Sgt. James John Regan, Rest In Peace.

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Because it’s Valentine’s Day, the movie, “Music & Lyrics” is debuting in theaters, today.
This is a chick flick that–at least for the first 2/3rds–even guys will like. It’s a light, fun date movie. Despite two leads–Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant–whom I normally dislike intensely (he’s a girlie-man, she’s annoying), this one was actually entertaining, amusing, and even charming. In a movie industry full of sequels and predictable plot rip-offs, the plot in this one is original and novel. And for those of us who grew up in the 1980s, it’s got its funny moments making fun of ’80s pop bands with moussed asymmetrical hair and tight leather pants.

The story: A has-been pop singer (Grant) from an ’80s band–think Wham!, Duran Duran, A-ha!–is desperate for new gigs to keep afloat. A Christina Aguilera-style current pop star, who is a fan of his, wants him to write a new duet that he can sing with her at her upcoming concert at Madison Square Garden. His plant-watering girl (Barrymore) accidentally becomes his lyricist, and together they write the song. Those are really Grant’s and Barrymore’s voices doing a decent job of singing on-screen.
The funniest part of this movie is at the beginning when we see the ’80s video of his pop group. It makes fun of all the cheesiness of ’80s pop videos made for MTV. And the rest is funny, too–seeing the washed up, Rick-Springfield-style has-been performing at high school reunions and getting ogled and pawed by aging women who were his fans.
The romantic part in this movie–the last third of the film–is the only part that didn’t work for me–hard to believe a washed up, aging ’80s guy pop star and a young woman from today falling in love over a song they created.
Overall, I recommend this one. I liked it. As chick flicks go, this is one of the rare good, very bearable ones.

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If you are male and reading this, then this very likely does NOT apply to you, as I believe the girlie-man segment of my readership is very minute.
But, still I have to point out the latest, ridiculous Valentine’s Day behavior from some “men.” I thought Valentine’s Day was really for women–and that men didn’t care about getting anything on the day–but I was mistaken, according to The Indianapolis Star:

Men pretend they want power tools. Deep down? A sterling silver, black- diamond-studded bracelet is their valentine wish.

OK. Maybe not all men. But this Valentine’s Day, put aside the stereotype of a woman gasping over the latest gemstone tucked inside an elegant box and picture a man opening up a little bling.
It’s happening. Men are getting jewelry for Valentine’s Day.
“Women like to come in and buy men things they can personalize. That way we can get mushy,” said Sherry Miller, assistant manager at Miller’s Jewelry in Greenfield. “Guys think they just want more practical gifts like Craftsman tools. This is a way to dress up your man.”
In some cases, a man sporting jewelry is the woman’s idea. But a 2006 jewelry report by Pennsylvania-based Unity Marketing shows men’s jewelry is a growing segment of the industry. And about 50 percent of the time men are buying it for themselves.
Sales of men’s costume and fine jewelry reached $7.4 billion in 2005, a 10 percent jump from 2003. Watches and nonbridal rings made up the largest share of purchases. While nontraditional jewelry is still just 11.5 percent of the total market, it’s something retailers can’t afford to ignore.
“There is a reason more designers are focusing on men — because there is a huge opportunity,” said David Shano, who launched his Arizona-based company, Shano Designs, three years ago. He creates what he likes to call lifestyle luxury fine jewelry with urban elegance for men. A lot of black diamonds, geometric shapes and pendants strung on Greek leather or titanium chains.
“It used to be men wore a wedding ring and maybe a watch,” said Shano, who sells online as well as at several retail locations. “It’s OK now. Men can wear jewelry.”
Some experts attribute the growth in men’s jewelry to that metrosexual revolution — men being more comfortable with grooming, getting massages and indulging in “girlie” things.

Sad. Well, no wonder Barry Manilow got into the jewelry biz.

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For the record, I’m not into the silly Valentine’s Day hype. But still, because it’s a big part of American pop culture and business, I have to follow the story.
I thought there could not possibly be a worse Valentine’s Day gift than the . But I was wrong.
Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company has developed a gift that is even worse. Guys, if you give this gift, you are in the dog house . . . big-time. From today’s USA Today:

Perfume promotion sends a message: You could get a call from Britney Spears, sort of
By Laura Petrecca
USA TODAY

NEW YORK – Elizabeth Arden will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a novel, and fast-growing, plan to woo potential customers.
This week, consumers will be able to send personalized recorded messages from Britney Spears hyping her new signature fragrance with Elizabeth Arden, Midnight Fantasy, says Derek Goldberg, president of technology company VariTalk.
Consumers can go to www.midnightfantasybritneyspears.com and enter information such as a recipient’s first name or home state as well as a phone number or e-mail address.
Armed with that information, VariTalk will assemble Spears’ pre-recorded blurbs to create a tailor-made message that can be sent by phone (land line or cell) or e-mail.
For instance, if Tom sends his friend Stacy a message, it would go like this: “Stacy, what’s up? This is Britney Spears. I’m over here with your friend Tom. We were just celebrating the release of my new fragrance called Midnight Fantasy.”

Hilarious. Again, if you give this–or even just Crotch-woman #2’s new perfume (Crotch-woman #1 is )–to that special woman in your life, say good-bye.

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The photo shows U.S. Navy Corpsman Ray Shirkey near Fallujah, Iraq, making a giant Valentine to his wife, Diana. It was on the front page of today’s Detroit Free Press. He e-mailed the Free Press, asking if the paper would do this, saying:

Being so far from home makes it very difficult to be spontaneous and romantic. There is not a day that has gone by that I do not dream of the day we are reunited.

Shirkey is with the 1st Battalion of the 24th Marine Regiment.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR IMPORTANT UPDATE ****
More “Religion of Peace” peacefulness. Remember last night’s shooting murder of at least five people at Salt Lake City, Utah’s “Trolley Square”? Five other victims are holding onto life–in critical or serious condition–including a pregnant woman.
Well–surprise! surprise!–the shooter/murderer is a Bosnian Muslim “refugee,” Solejman Talovic. No word on his immigration status. And whenever the Mainstream Media calls someone a “refugee,” it’s generally a euphemism for illegal alien.
Although the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that authorities–predictably–have no motive for the shooting, let’s face it. This guy is an Islamic terrorist. Terrorism expert and private investigator Bill Warner–whose site I read often–believes this terrorist attack was

some sort of payback for Muslim executions in Bosnia, with the payback influenced by Al-Muhajiroun web sites [featuring film of the Nicholas Berg and Daniel Pearl execution murders]. During the course of the attack, members of the attacking forces executed a group of approximately nineteen (19) Bosnian Muslim men on the main road near the centre of the village where the Glogova villagers were gathered. This first group of executed men included . . . Uzeir Talovic. At least two Muslims executed in this incident in the Bosnian-Serb conflict were surnamed “Talovic.”

(Bill Warner is the real thing and has done a lot of extensive work on Al-Qaeda offshoot Al-Muhajiroun’s presence in the U.S. You’ve probably seen a lot of it used, uncredited, by a certain red-headed so-called terrorism expert. The real expert is Bill.)
So much for President Bush’s and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff’s repeated claims that there hasn’t been another terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
Tell that to the victims of Trolley Square, LAX’s El-Al shooting by Hesham Mohammed Hedayet, and countless other incidents by “lone shooters” who all happen to be Muslim.
To those who’ve frequently wondered aloud why Muslims have never attacked an American shopping mall, there’s no longer any need to wonder. It has happened.
Thanks to Bill Warner and reader Misha for the tip.

**** UPDATE, 02/14/07: Bill Warner finds that more of Talovic’s Muslim relatives died in fighting. He points out that AP identifies Trolley Square terrorist Sulejman Talovic’s aunt–also a Muslim “refugee” from Bosnia–as Ajka Omerovic. Warner reports:

In the report I sent you, yesterday (see above), concerning the Bosnian Muslims who died in fighting with Serbs in Srebrenica, I listed Uzeir Talovic. Look at the list again and note all the names with the surname of his aunt, Omerovic. There are eight listed.

Yes, this is what we get for helping the Bosnian Muslims against the Serbs–terror, murder, and mayhem in U.S. malls. The Muslims blame us anyway.
Thanks, Bill Clinton.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Named more monuments and buildings after himself during his lifetime–Terrorist Dictator Yasser Arafat or Klansman Democratic U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd? (This is the Halal kind of pork.)
Judging by this graphic chart from the February issue of GQ (which only shows 11 of 30-plus Robert C. Byrd self-named installations and monuments), I’d say it’s Byrd (and he’s still alive). “West-Byrd-ginia”!

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . an agency that loses three or four laptops per month (and roughly the same amount of firearms)–and is unable to say whether the information stored within is sensitve or classified–is the lead agency on all terrorism investigations.
Just asking. . . . Famous But Incompetent.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Mayor Bill Purcell of Nashville, Tennessee.
On Monday, he vetoed a measure that would have made English the official language of Nashville. He claimed the bill was unconstitution, unnecessary, and mean-spirited:

If this ordinance becomes law, Nashville will become a less safe, less friendly and less successful city. And as mayor, I cannot allow that to happen.

Yes, it’s always less safe when firemen, police, doctors, rescue workers, EMS, etc. speak English. Thanks for the tip, Mayor Purcell. And Bill Gates, because he speaks English, is “less successful.” Warren Buffett, too.
And the splendid new brand of logic.

Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell:
“English = Unsafe, Unfriendly, Unsuccessful & Mean“