By Debbie Schlussel
On Friday, a reader sent me a link to an article by an allegedly “moderate” Muslim, Ahmer Muzammil, on the Pakistani website, Chowk.
Friday is always a particularly busy day for me, especially in the winter because the Jewish Sabbath starts early (at sundown). While that is no excuse at all, I quickly looked over Muzammil’s article, reading the excellent first paragraph intently and merely skimming over the rest, as with some of his other articles.
I mistakenly recommended Muzammil as “A Pakistani Muslim I Dig” and posted links to his work, calling him a “moderate.” As reader “JBarSimson” pointed out in a comment, this man is no moderate and his hateful work is not worthy of recommendation by me. I made a mistake. And I have since removed the post.
As a result of my haste, I missed the full point of Muzammil’s writings, which is that he still hates Israel, America, etc., and is not the moderate he seemed at the beginning of the piece. This is a lesson to me, which I should have learned by now, about how “haste makes waste.” And I am certainly not immune to that fact. It’s also a lesson we’ve all learned time and again: that so-called “moderate” Muslims are generally not moderate at all when you actually read closely what they are saying.
My credibility is important, and I usually read every word very intently before I recommend or post something. This was one of those lapses, and I apologize.
I screwed up. Mea culpa.

By Debbie Schlussel
Thanks to all of you who sent me or posted questions for my interview, today, with stars Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen and director/writers Mike and Mark Polish of “The Astronaut Farmer,” a movie I liked a lot. I used some of your questions.
I will write up the interviews, sometime between now and the release of the movie (late February). For now, though, I will say this, the young Polish brothers are very impressive and have a lot of the same kind of values and views I try to portray on this site. They wrote, directed, and produced the film, as well as personally designing the movie poster. You may not have heard of them, but you will. I see them doing even bigger things. They have a very interesting background, which I’ll detail in my write-up.

“The Astronaut Farmer” Actors Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen
As for Madsen and Thornton, they were very nice, and I liked what they had to say. If all celebs were like them, we wouldn’t have cause to hate Hollywood so much. I can say the same for this movie, which I liked a lot, and to which you can take your whole family.
Billy Bob was very thin. And Virginia Madsen was extremely beautiful, way better looking in person (not that it matters, but since looks are important for women in showbiz, figured I’d comment on it). Refreshing was that they tried very hard to stay away from politics. Billy Bob paraphrased Elvis, saying, “I don’t talk about politics because I’m just an entertainer. I don’t know enough about it.” That’s the kind of thing I like to hear.
(Madsen wanted to make clear that she has never seen “Paradise Now” and didn’t even know what it was about. I noted this yesterday. She says she was not at the “Golden Globes” when the movie won, but I have a tape of her clapping for the movie at some awards show (from when I discussed the movie on Al-Jazeera), which I’ll chalk up to politeness–she is NOT political.)
Stay tuned.

By Debbie Schlussel
While we hear so much about how advanced the apartheid-practicing United Arab Emirates are (their skyscrapers, indoor skiing mountains, and skyhigh tennis courts), we rarely see Mainstream Media coverage that shows how backwards they actually are.
Al-Ain Dairy of the UAE has launched the world’s first (and hopefully, last) camel-milk ice cream. The “civilized” anti-Semites and America-haters (unless it’s American tourists’ dollars they’re taking) of the UAE also consume camel milk cheese–“camelbert”–chocolate.
Yum. NOT. (For me, it is, thankfully, not kosher.)

Al-Ain Dairy is headed by a member of the anti-Semitic, anti-American royal family of the UAE, Chairman H.E. (His Excellency) Saeed Khalfan Matar Romaithi. Read my previous work on the UAE to learn about the Emirates’ hatred for America and Jews here, here, here, here, and here.
What’s next . . . dog’s and cat’s milk ice cream and cheese?! Eeuuww.

By Debbie Schlussel
Check out my column in today’s New York Post about the Democrats’ strange new imam, Husham Al-Husainy. Read the longer version of my work about him.
Thanks also to nationally syndicated columnist Cal Thomas and New York Times best selling author Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch for citing me in their columns on Al-Husainy, today.
On another note, thanks also to Rush Limbaugh for citing me and playing clips of my comments, from my appearance last week on CNN, regarding Joe Biden’s racial comments regarding Barack Obama.

Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theorist Imam Husham Al-Husainy
Delivers Invocation @ DNC Meeting

By Debbie Schlussel
Tomorrow (Tuesday), I’ll be interviewing actors Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen, and Director/Writers Michael and Mark Polish about their new movie, “The Astronaut Farmer,” which I liked a lot.
Any suggestions for questions you’d like me to ask (nothing on Skankelina Jolie, please)? Post them here.
Would love to know why Madsen vehemently applauded the People’s Choice Award to the pro-homicide bomber/terrorist movie, “Paradise Now.” I have clips, and she’s clearly smiling and applauding. Simply good form, or earnest comraderie?

“The Astronaut Farmer” Actors Billy Bob Thornton, Virginia Madsen

By Debbie Schlussel
On the upcoming Valentine’s Day, what do you get for that special woman (guys don’t care about Valentine’s Day gifts, right?) in your life who has everything?
Well, something unique–something she doesn’t already have, like a . . . tattooed goldfish?!
Okay, well it’s not really a goldfish, but, rather, a “parrot cichlid”–a fish that looks like a goldfish.
The fish are imported from China and injected with a dye or burned with a laser with messages like “I (heart) you.” They cost $39-$50 a pop.

This has to be the most ridiculous gift I’ve heard of yet. Who wants a fish with a message on it. The fish will eventually die, anyway. And while I’m not for animal rights, why be cruel in the name of a stupid gift?
Find me a woman who wants to receive this for V-Day, and I’ll show you a bizarrette. And apparently, there are no shortage of those. The Detroit Free Press reports that three Detroit-area pet shops have sold out of the tattooed fish.
Oy. Those who find these amusing are likely cold fish, themselves.

By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, I’ve detailed some of the “jobs Americans just won’t do.” You know “back-breaking” work for “little pay” like the position of Head Hockey Coach at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.
Now here’s the latest “job Americans won’t do.”
Meet Bianca Gomez. Her life is tough. She goes on so many interviews and gets very little work. Like many Mexicans, she hopes jobbers will pick her for a day’s work for very little pay.
Except Gomez–the subject of a front-page story in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal–is not a Mexican illegal alien. She’s an American (of Mexican descent), and she is having a hard time finding work in her chosen profession: runway model. Yes, fashion houses like Ralph Lauren and Nicole Miller–both of which promote an “all-American” image, don’t want American models. They’re too fat, too big.

American Model Bianca Gomez:
Doing the Work “Americans Just Won’t Do”
At 5’11” and 120 pounds, the twiggy American, Ms. Gomez, is having a hard time finding runway work, which pays a few hundred dollars.
Designer Nicole Miller told the Journal:

There’s [sic] so many models now. It used to be the Americans, Europeans and Candians. Then we got the influz of Brazilians, Russians, Eastern Europeans. There are just thousands every year.

The WSJ reports that not a single one of the 22 models, walking down the Calivn Klein runway at last season’s fashion week in New York, was an American.
Says the 18-year-old Gomez:

I am not trying to say they are taking over the world or anything. But they did get a lot of jobs.

Don’t tell me–like the many Americans who’d love to be a college hockey coach–that being a fashion model on the runway is work “Americans just won’t do.” Tell that to the thousands of American girls and women, each day, that flock to modeling agencies. There’s a reason for the song, “I Want to Be a Supermodel.”
Yet, America is bringing in 1,000 foreign models, each year, on H1-B visas, which are supposed to be for those with special talents, unfound among American citizens.
So, what was that the President was saying about the “work Americans won’t do”? More like work Americans will do, but aren’t being given the chance.
High-fashion models, meat-packers, or computer programmers, amnesty won’t help that. It will only make it worse.

By Debbie Schlussel
As readers of this site know, I’ve been following the career of Shi’ite Imam Husham Al-Husainy, the Democrats new fave Islamist cleric. I’ve written about his Zionist conspiracy theories. On Friday, he delivered the “invocation” at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting.
And I’ve written about his Sunni friend, “former” Islamic terrorist Imad Hamad. Today, both of them come together.

Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theorist Imam Husham Al-Husainy
Delivers Invocation @ DNC Meeting
Paul M. Barrett, a Jewish dupe whose career I’ve also followed, is promoting his new Islamo-pandering book in the L.A. Times, today. He’s telling us that Muslims don’t hate Jews. The proof? America’s Muslims welcomed this idiot–who unfortunately once populated the pages of the Wall Street Journal (where his “reporting” on Islam in America was always sympathetic, biased, and inaccurate)–into their home to eat . . . and be their ready and willing tool:

I had a series of long interviews with Imam Husham al-Husainy, a voluble Shiite Iraqi emigre who leads the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center. Initially a backer of the U.S. invasion of his homeland, Al-Husainy had come to believe that the bedlam that has followed had to be intentional ‚Äî the result of a conspiracy. He explained to me that even as a Jew, I might not understand the extent of Zionism’s reach.
At the heart of the conspiracy, he told me, is “the Zionist special group” that opposes “the improvement of the relationship between Christians and Muslims.”
“America itself is a victim of a special-interest group that doesn’t want it to have a good relationship with the Muslim world,” Al-Husainy said. “Bush himself is a victim, I believe.” . . .
Imad Hamad, a Michigan civil rights organizer of Palestinian descent, admitted that when he married his first wife, a Jewish American woman some years back, her family had taken it better than his. (She and he divorced amicably.) Hamad has been praised by the FBI for serving as an honest broker between U.S. law enforcement and Muslims. . . .
My Jewish grandmothers would have smiled and nodded.

Uh, NO, Paul, the FBI REVOKED an award to Hamad. Hamad’s Jewish first-wife was a ’60s radical who married him in a sham marriage so he could stay in this country. They divorced when he found a Muslim wife to pick up the slack. And the government fought for decades to deport him–all facts Paul M. Barrett forgot to mention.
No-one sees Hamad as an honest anything. They merely suck up to him to appear like they like Muslims and work with them. Federal agents tell me he’s just a one-man bitch-fest, who’s never helped them in the least. But Paul M. Barrett is easily fooled. And they feed him all the fertilizer he’ll consume.
As for Paul M. Barrett’s unfortunate use of Judaism to promote and apologize for those who hate Jews, I doubt his Jewish grandmothers are smiling. More like turning over in their graves.
Unfortunately, the Jewish enabling branch of Islamo-fascism ink, the American Jewish Committee, is holding an event honoring Islamo-apologist Barrett, right after he holds a book-signing at Dearbornistan’s Hezbollah Social Club. Predictably, Detroit’s Monica Lewinsky to radical Islam, Sharona Shapiro, is promoting this idiot.
Not-so-great panderers think alike.

By Debbie Schlussel
In my opinion, last night’s Superbowl was among the worst for creative, good ads. Most were gross or stupid or both.
Two guys eating a Snickers bar who end up kissing. No thanks. Naked, scrawny guys washing a car with women inside. Yuck. Men slapping each other in the face. Not funny. A guy throwing a rock at another guy, knocking him out for a Bud Light? Was he trying out for rock- and molotov-cocktail throwing Palestinian boy terrorists brigades in Ramallah . . . as brought to you by Anheiser-Busch?
Ironically, two of my five picks for best ads were created by amateurs–both for snackchips. So here’re my picks for:

Ricardo Montalban & Oprah: People We Liked, Didn’t Like in Superbowl Ads
(Oprah Artwork by David Lunde/Lundesigns)
Most Annoying Ad: HOprah Watch Extraordinaire–Oprah and David Letterman on an ad for his Late Show. Only 10 seconds long, but each second was painfully annoying. Do we really have to see Oprah even on the Superbowl? Can’t she leave us alone for one day, one Big Game? Those two declaring that they’re in love with each other was just dumb. Now, if it were Oprah and Gayle, then it would be more believable and interesting.
Dumbest Move: Emerald Nuts ad with Robert Goulet–Memo to Emerald, most younger consumers don’t know or care who Robert Goulet is. Those that do are in dentures and can’t eat your product. Something to keep in mind for next year.
Most Questionable Value: McDonald’s for Ronald McDonald House (during “Kickoff Show”)–No question that Ronald McDonald House does great things accommodating families of seriously ill kids. But wouldn’t it have been better to donate the gazillions it cost for the ad to the cause? Perhaps the ad was donated.
Best Ads:
* Budweiser: Stray dog gets dirty and looks like Dalmatian. Gets to live out his dream of riding next to beauty queens on float fronted by Clydesdales.
* Doritos: Check-out girl. We’ve all had nosy or annoying check-out cashiers commenting on our purchase choices. This one reminded me of that in a humorous way. This is one of the ones that was created by an amateur who won a contest, NOT an overpaid Madison Avenue advertising exec.
* Doritos: Car-crash couple. Another one created by an amateur who won a contest. Fire Madison Avenue and hire these Doritos contest winners.
* Taco Bell: Lions and Ricardo Montalban rehearse rolling “R”s and tout best qualities of the fast food chain. Would have been better if when Montalban finally did the voiceovers, he mentioned something about “fine Corinthian leather.”
* Bud Light: Hitchhiker with ax, hitchhiker with chain saw. Echoes of horror thriller, “The Hitcher” (now in theaters).

By Debbie Schlussel
**** UPDATE: Well, I was wrong. As you know by now, the Bears got shellacked by Manning & Company. And I, for one, am glad that my prediction, for once hasn’t come true. Tony Dungy overcame tremendous personal hardships (the suicide of his son and many years toiling in the NFL without a Superbowl ring), and he deserves it. Good for him. And as for Tank Johnson, hopefully he’s already been to Disney World–travelling all over to play in the Superbowl, when you’ve violated parole and have a long rap sheet is like being in your own personal amusement park. Glad to see that, this time, at least, crime did NOT pay. Stay Tuned for my commentary on this year’s lackluster ads. ****
Well, of course, Da Bears will win, complete with criminal thug, Terry “Tank” Johnson. Can’t wait until they win, and he gets asked,

Tank Johnson, You just won the Superbowl. What are you going to do next?
Tank: I’m going to Disney World . . . right after I’m finished with my jail sentence for violating probation and new gun charges.

Crime Pays . . . Just Win, Baby.

Tank Johnson:
Criminal Thug and Chicago Bear Who Should Be in Prison, Not Miami