By Debbie Schlussel
. . . New York Giants star Michael Strahan’s pre-nuptial agreement.
Not like we’re shedding any tears for this multi-millionaire NFL player. But . . . isn’t the idea of a pre-nup to protect your assets and limit your spouse’s take? In Strahan’s case, it’s the exact opposite.
He must give his soon to be ex-wife, Jean Strahan, $15.3 million, more than 50% of his assets. Under this generous pre-nup, the estranged Mrs. Strahan gets 50% of her husband’s assets, plus 20% of his annual income for each of the seven years they were married.
Call this pre-nup the reverse-cha-ching for Mr. Strahan. It gives new meaning to the phrase, “seven-year itch,” since he must be scratching his head . . . and tearing his hair out.

Feminism?: The Divorcing Mr. & Mrs. Strahan’s Lopsided Pre-Nup
Here are the details from the New York Daily News:

What Jean Strahan gets
Prenup payout
$7.5 million plus $1.2 million in interest
Half of all assets
$6.6 million

Strahan Mansion

Dream house
She can buy the family’s $3.6 million “dream house” in Montclair, N.J., from her husband for $1.4 million
Luxury car
A leased Cadillac Escalade
Property
She gets half of the money from the sale of 256 pieces of furniture and other property
Child support
$214,745 a year; Michael Strahan also must pay 91% of the cost of their children’s private schooling, camp and higher education fees. She will cover the rest.

Ka-ching. That’s a lotta coin for a few years non-work.
From Deadspin, here’s the very apropos cover of the New York Post. (Plus, Burberry gets a free front-page plug–“Wear our coat, and you, too, could get a $15 mill-plus payday.”)

She got paid. He got fleeced.

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . “Jonestown: Paradise Lost,” at 9 p.m. Eastern, on the History Channel. “Paradise”? Kind of a misnomer, even had Jim Jones’ multiple, deluded victims lived. Hey, Kool-Aid!
I feel sorry for the kids who innocently imbibed and for Congressman Leo Ryan (D-California), whose “crime” was going to Guyana in November 1978 to investigate what was going on. He rescued those Americans who wanted to leave Jones’ cult, but was shot by Jones’ armed guards while boarding the plane. He was a liberator and a hero.
In case you didn’t figure it out, this bizarre story/tragedy is where the phrase, “Drinking the Kool-Aid,” comes from. A marketing nightmare the drink never fully overcame, or as Detroit Free Press TV Critic Mike Duffy calls it, “Recalling the worst ad ever for Kool-Aid.”

Rep. Leo Ryan Murdered by Cult Leader, Mass Suicide-Inspirer Jim Jones

By Debbie Schlussel
I and many others often employ comparisons between the way the media and pop culture treat Islamic terrorists versus the way they treated the Nazis. I frequently write something like this:

Can you imagine them doing that with Hitler/the Nazis?

Well, now leftist novelist Norman Mailer has made that imagination a reality. Yes, the ultra-ludicrous continues to be realized–in this case with the publication of his “The Castle in the Forest,” out next week.

Norman Mailer & His New “Novel”:
One Toy Short of a Happy Meal (Sorry, McDs)
In this absurdity on paper, Mailer writes a fiction book about how Hitler was abused as a child, molested, and was the son of an incestuous relationship. And it’s not even true. Mailer made it up. But he uses this phony account to get us to understand the reason why Hitler turned out the way he is–to excuse it all.
And this is the novel Mailer says he’s wanted to write for 50 years. Not sure if he’s currently in a mental state to really remember the last 50 years accurately. But one thing’s for certain: At age 84, he ain’t all there. Clearly, dementia or Alzheimer’s or some other sort of mental disability has set in.
As I previously wrote, during the Zacarias Moussaoui death penalty trial jurors were given a book by Moussaoui’s brother, claiming that Moussaoui had an abusive childhood. Nine jurors said it influenced their decision to spare Moussaoui’s life. I believe that book was a carefully crafted fiction written just for that purpose by his loving brother.
Now, Mailer is acting as Hitler’s modern day Frere Zacarias Moussaoui, trying to absolve Hitler. And it’s all made up–even though Mailer is now trying to claim there’s some truth in it. Pop psychobabble absolves the Holocaust?! OY.
Here are some ridiculous excerpts from today’s USA Today French kiss to Mailer and his absurd book:

In the novel, incest runs strong in Hitler’s family. His mother is his father’s daughter. “Adi” is beaten by his father, adored by his mother, treated cruelly by an older stepbrother. He doesn’t do well in school. He excels only at playing war in the forest with other boys. He has no girlfriends and masturbates frequently.
The novel has a seven-page bibliography listing books that, as Mailer writes, “enriched many a fictional possibility.”

Whatever that means.

He spent two years reading about Hitler because “you should know how someone turns out if you’re writing about him as a child.” . . .
What’s true in Castle and what’s made up? Mailer circles the question like a veteran prizefighter sizing up a younger opponent: “Look at it like this: I’m a novelist. I can take three facts and write a story. Is that story factual? No. But it’s based on facts. It can get at the truth.”
As for the incest in Hitler’s family, Mailer says “that can’t be proven, but the facts of his life suggest it. There’s a great likelihood that Hitler was a ‘first- or second-degree incestuary,’ ” a word Mailer made up for the novel. “It sounds good. It sounds German.”
All of the novel’s major characters actually existed, with one exception (a beekeeper with a passion for honey and young boys). Mailer says he finds it easier to “make up something about a person than to conceive the person.” . . .
Mailer also may have contemporary political leaders in his sights.
In the novel, DT discusses wartime leaders “who have installed in themselves an ability not to suffer sleepless nights because of casualties on the other side. They now possess the mightiest of all social engines of psychic numbification – patriotism! That is still the most dependable instrument for guiding the masses, although it may yet be replaced by revealed religion. We love fundamentalists. Their faith offers us every promise of developing into the final weapon of mass destruction.”
Is that a slap at President Bush, who Mailer has said has surpassed Ronald Reagan as “the most ignorant president we ever had”?
“To ask the question,” he replies, “is to answer it.”

Just one thing to say to all of this. PUH-LEEZE.
Remember, this guy is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for non-fiction. Which tells us all we need to know about Pulitzer Prize-winning “non-fiction.”
Unfortunately, Mailer says he is already writing a sequel. USA Today calls him the “Devil’s Advocate,” but I say they can drop the “advocate” part.

By Debbie Schlussel
I first heard this entertaining clip from Congress’ newest left-wing Trekkie geek on the Rush Limbaugh Show. But watching it makes it even more entertaining. (My apologies for the left-wing website advertised on the end. Don’t go there.)
The second video features Captain Kirk, himself, directing the proper message back to Congressman David Wu, “Get a Life.” Unfortunately, it’s the only version of William Shatner’s legendary SNL performance I could find online. So, my apologies for the Trekkie propaganda mixed into it. You get the point. (If anyone has a link for a full version of the Shat speech without the Trekkie mix-ins, please send or post it.)
“Faux Klingons”? . . .

Captain Kirk: Get a Life . . .

Hey, Congressman Wu, “it’s just a TV show!” (Please, no e-mails to me about “24” being “just a TV show.” That’s different. And I am not a “Jackkie”.)
Bonus Video: E! on Shatner “Get a Life” (features more footage from SNL skit–I think I spotted Congressman Wu in the trekkie audience, right behind Dana Carvey). Hey, David Wu, Shatner’s right: “You’ve turned an enjoyable little job that I did as a lark for a few years into A Colossal Waste of Time” . . .

Schlussel Trekkie Trivia: My mom, as a public school teacher in New York, taught Leonard Nimoy’s (“Spock”‘s) son.

By Debbie Schlussel
Recently, I wrote about Larry Stewart, the Secret Santa who, for years, anonymously handed over $1.3 million to the poor and homeless all over America. USA Today’s Nancy Hellmich did a series of articles on Stewart.
He never wanted to be known, but outed himself around Christmas because a tabloid was about to do so. Sadly, it was Stewart’s last Christmas on earth. He died of esophageal cancer at age 58 on Friday.
Stewart was the embodiment of everything great about America. He, too, was once one of those down-and-out-on-his-luck people. But a diner owner, Ted Horn, was kind to him, handing him a $20 to cover a meal, pretending to find it on the floor, and suggesting that Stewart had dropped it. Stewart promised G-d he’d repay the favor. He became a successful businessman and a millionaire, with his own long-distance phone company.

Secret Santa Larry Stewart, Angel Among Us, RIP
In 1979, he began by giving a big tip to a poor carhop at a hamburger drive-in. He felt so good by giving to her, he want to the bank, got more cash, and gave it out. While he sometimes worked with social service bureaucracies, he usually did it the direct way–handing money to those he saw on the street, in diners, pawn shops, and fast food places.
Ted Horn, the man who originally gave him the $20 to cover breakfast at the Dixie Diner in Tupelo, Mississippi, said of Stewart:

I think he was an angel. The Lord needed another angel, so he called Larry home.

Larry Stewart–Secret Santa, Angel on Earth, and Great American–Rest in Peace.
More on Larry Stewart from USA Today here and here.

By Debbie Schlussel
On this Martin Luther King, Jr. day, it’s important to remember that Dr. King did not just fight for the rights of Black Americans.
He was concerned about anti-Semitism and the State of Israel. As I wrote in January 2005, in “Radical Islam Wishes You a Happy MLK Day“:

King was adamantly opposed to the views of [Islamists including Imad] Hamad and ADC [American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee]. At a 1968 Harvard appearance, King rebuked a student who attacked Israel. “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism,” King said.

(Although an oft-cited “Letter to an Anti-Zionist Friend,” purportedly by King, may be fabricated, his Harvard quotes are well-documented, in Seymour Martin Lipset, “The Socialism of Fools-The Left, the Jews and Israel,” Encounter, (December 1969), p. 24.)

Unfortunately, desperate extremists always try to glom on to the reputations and memories of great Americans. And the Islamist glomming continues each year with King’s memory. As I’ve written, every year the 501(c)(3)-status ADC has an essay contest in King’s name, which apparently violates laws pertaining to that tax-exempt status visa vis federal and state civil rights laws (it’s NOT open to Blacks, but only to Arabs).
And the latest is even more outrageous. Wednesday, HAMAS terrorists on trial in Chicago are invoking King’s name in their defense, as pointed out by Jihad Watch. He’s turning over in his grave:

In an emotional appeal to jurors on Wednesday, [HAMAS terrorism fundraiser Abdelhaleem] Ashqar attorney William Moffitt likened Hamas to movements around the world led by such champions of human rights as Martin Luther King Jr.

Sorry, but Martin Luther King Jr. believed in peaceful resistance to achieve equal rights for all, not violence against innocents to achieve an Islamofascist state, where only those who praise Allah are full citizens. There’s a reason why what King and his followers did was called CIVIL disobedience.
It’s hard to compare the statement of a man having a dream that one day his children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin to a group of extremists who dream of the day their children will be martyrs against innocents, including children, whose philosophies and ethnicities they do judge them by.
To those who would invoke King’s name in the name of Islamic terrorism, ask them to explain King’s statement about Zionists, Jews, and anti-Semitism.
They simply can’t do it without a lot of fertilizer to make their lies grow.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
PREVIOUS:
Radical Islam Wishes You a Happy MLK Day
I Have a Scheme: Islamists Hold Phony Martin Luther King Jr. Contest

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
I’ve already written about the multiple “hints” that this season’s “24” will be more PC than ever, here (multiple links) and here.
Well, the MPAC/CAIR crowd really got to “24” producers because it looks like American Muslims (and even “former” terrorists) will be portrayed as terror-fighting superheroes, beginning tonight.
From “US Weekly’s” review:

Helping him [Jack Bauer] chase the bad guys: . . . An Arab militant (Alexander Siddig) who has learned the error of his ways.

PC “24” Artwork by David Lunde/Lundesigns
Uh-huh. Like there are any of those helping Homeland Security, in real-life. Aside from the fact that there are few Arab terrorists who have “learned the error of [their] ways,” you don’t exactly see the DHS folks recruiting Walid Shoebat or Tawfik Hamid. Nope, they’re too busy brown-nosing CAIR/MPAC/ADC and other pan-Islamist, pro-terrorist organizations.
It’s interesting they chose actor Siddig, since, as I’ve written on this site, his real name is Siddig El-Fadil, and he is the real-life nephew of the Islamist former Prime Minister of Sudan, under whom mass-murder, rape, and torture of Black Christians in the Sudanese South went on, en masse. From my August 16, 2005 post about Siddig, who also co-starred in the pan-Islamist propaganda film, “Kingdom of Heaven“:

Siddig’s real name is Siddig El Fadil, and he has ties to the terror-sponsor government of Sudan (on the State Department Terrorist List). Siddig’s uncle, Sadiq Al-Mahdi, is a former Sudan Prime Minister, who helped oversee the wholesale Muslim torturous slaughter of Sudan’s Black Christians. Al-Mahdi is president of the Sudan’s Islamist Umma party and Imam of Sudan’s extremist Al-Ansar religious group. These groups made Bin Laden a welcome resident of the Sudan, from which he planned the bombings of the U.S. embassies in East Africa.
Siddig not only won’t denounce his terrorist uncle, he’s proud of him and put him in his Hollywood bio.

I get it–in real-life, the well-connected nephew of a terrorist-state leader, but on TV, we get to see the sanitized version–an Islamic terrorist who saw the error of his ways and is now helping fight terrorists. Talk about whitewashing.
More from US Weekly:

Indeed, judging by the first hours, 24 seems to be sagging a bit. The main plot is a retread, story lines involving ethnic profiling and a Muslim family are ham-fisted.

Yes, we are the evil profilers of innocent Muslims who love America, hate terrorism, and would never ever protest in favor of Hezbollah and against America. Never.
Then, there’s this from yesterday’s Detroit Newsistan. There are three characters who don’t exactly behave the way their real-life counterparts do:

Walid Al-Rezani: The articulate-but-combative head of a Muslim association who is working with CTU to bring down terrorists.

The head of CAIR, MPAC, or ADC working with Homeland Security to take down Islamic terrorists?! Excuse me while I try to stop laughing. The phony role is played by actor Harry Lennix (who-whaddya know?–resembles new Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison; coincidence?).

Nadia Yassir: CTU analyst helping to translate and disseminate information.

After the myriad of news stories we’ve had (including by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball in Newsweek) over the last 5.5 years about Arab and Muslim translators lying and deliberately not translating documents accurately for the government, I doubt the Yassir character will be true to life. Actress Marisol Nichols plays this phony persona.
But Sibel Edmonds, herself a non-religious Muslim translator with the FBI, could tell you a thing or two about what really goes on–and what happened to her when she complained (she was fired). She was the rare patriotic translator among a lot of traitors. They kept their jobs; she did not.
If both Al-Rezani and Yassir turn out to be traitorous liars on a taqiyyah (deception of infidels) gig–and don’t hold your breath for that to happen–then I’ll revise my review.
And last, but not least, the evil, militant Homeland Security employee who wants to surveil America’s Muslims (who is that guy? and why don’t we really have any at DHS?):

Tom Lennox: A slimy White House advisor and villainous foil.

Of course, the guy who wants to enforce the law, have a real Homeland Security (as opposed to the limp, do-nothing agency we have in real life), and investigate the extremist Muslims who dominate American life–Of course, that guy would be the “slimy . . . villainous foil.”
Remember, as I wrote previously, executive producer and star, Kiefer Sutherland said that, this season, the show will

take a strong political point of view. It’s a major point in a way the show’s never taken before.

Add to that, that this week, he told PBS’ (a/k/a “Palestinian Broadcasting System”) Charlie Rose:

Me–I see things from a left perspective. So, I’m always amazed when it’s [“24” is] galvanized by someone on the right.

“PC 24” begins tonight.
**** UPDATE: “24” executive producer Howard Gordon tells Detroit Free Press TV critic Mike Duffy a/k/a “Captain Video” that this season is all about focusing on the civil rights of Muslims:

The new President Palmer is being counseled to round up and detain Muslim Americans.
The chief proponent of that controversial tactic is Thomas Lennox (Peter MacNicol, “Ally McBeal”), a conservative senior adviser who one character in the show says “treats the Constitution like a list of suggestions.”
So in addition to delivering a gangbusters contemporary thriller, executive producer Gordon aims to focus even more this season on such hot-button, post-9/11 topical issues as torture, ethnic profiling and the erosion of civil rights.
“All the terrible byproducts that come from a desperate population is what we try to convey,” notes Gordon.
Of course, in addition to being the scarred victim of torture, Jack Bauer has often been the one delivering agonizing pain in an attempt to extract vital information.
“Sometimes in the rare ticking time bomb context of ’24’… some sort of coercive interrogation is sometimes called for,” explains Gordon. “That said, Jack pays a terrible price. We see the cumulative wear on his soul, and never more than this season.”

Wearing on his soul? If we didn’t have people who used coercive and tricky means to interrogate terrorists, our souls wouldn’t just be worn. They’d be all we had left, since our physical bodies would long ago have been attacked by the enemy.
Enough of this pyschobabble “wear on his soul” gobbledygook. What’s next–Jack Bauer goes to the salon for hair-frosting, manicure, and “guy-liner“?

By Debbie Schlussel
Regular readers of this site know that I’ve tracked the doings of Dr. Smith (of “Lost in Space”) look-alike, Michigan FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel Roberts, for some time.
His four biggest achievements are: 1) Wasting millions of dollars in a two-week dig for the body of Jimmy Hoffa at a Michigan farm (we had a daily count, “American Farm Held Hostage“); 2) Pandering ad absurdum to Islamofascists, terrorism supporters, and even a “former” Islamic terrorist; 3) allowing America’s largest Hezbollah financier to flee the country; and 4) working bankers hours for taxpayers, while spending the rest “chasing” terrorists on the treadmill at a local gym.

FBI Michigan SAIC Leaves IslAmerica for Bigger Place to Screw Up, Suck Up
Well, as I’ve written, for these achievements, Roberts got a promotion to the highest echelons of the FBI, as Deputy Director of the FBI’s Criminal Division. That’s how they do things in this dysfunctional, overhyped federal law enforcement agency. You do bad, but you get a ton of press and suck up to extremist Muslims–you da’ man!
Earlier this week, The Detroit Newsistan feted Abu Roberts’ tenure and how he sees his time here. On the big-time Hezbollah financier, restaurateur Talal Chahine, whom Roberts allowed to flee the country, after twice raiding his homes and offices:

“Chahine I’d love to see come back, if he had the guts to do it,” Roberts said.

Hilarious. This man who allowed a man who gave Hezbollah $20 million to flee the country is now saying the Hezbollah donor needs “the guts” to return and face charges? If only this man, Roberts, “had the guts” to arrest him or seize his passport before Chahine left the country. Guts? It’s pretty clear who has them . . . and who does not.
Incredibly, the “reporter,” Paul Egan didn’t mention the Hoffa dig. That’s major journalistic malpractice, as it’s one of Roberts’ biggest, most publicized debacles–millions spent, all for PR on his behalf.
Then, there’s this jewel from Abu Roberts:

“Because of my 20 years in the FBI, I’ve had a chance to be assigned across the country,” Roberts said. “The law enforcement community gets along better here than anywhere else I’ve ever worked.”

That’s because they’re all so far up the butt of extremist Muslims in town, there isn’t room or time for them to disagree on other things–they never even get to them.
Yes, you can learn a lot about how to make it and move up in the FBI from Daniel Roberts. Hoffa, Extremist Islam, Bankers Hours, and A Lot of Time at the Gym. That’s how it’s done.
And that’s why Andrew G. Arena a/k/a “Abu Arena” is taking Roberts’ place in D-Mecca (Detroit). He makes the hajj, shortly.

By Debbie Schlussel
Since this week marks the fifth anniversary of Islamic terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, I highly recommend “The Gitmo High Life,” by Robert L. Pollock in today’s Wall Street Journal about the treatment the detainees there get.
While guards are in uncomfortable straight-back chairs, these terrorists are treated to La-Z Boys, Harry Potter and the best medical care money can boy from the U.S. mainland.
Some excerpts:

in the interrogation room it’s the Americans who may have to suffer long hours in straight-back chairs, while the detainees — I kid you not — get a La-Z-Boy. I was shown a Syrian under interrogation via closed circuit television. His questioners were two pleasant-looking young women. He was smiling. . . .

The Perks of Gitmo: Two Examples of “Torture” @ Guantanamo Bay

Detainees in Defense Department custody are treated according to the restrictive rules of the Army Field Manual, which bans all forms of coercive interrogation. . . . Not only does that mean no “torture” is going on. Your average good-cop bad-cop routine isn’t allowed. Cooperative detainees get rewards like movies. “Harry Potter” is one of their favorites. . . .
Maybe terrorism is stressful work. But whatever the reason, [Saifullah] Paracha . . . suffers from heart disease. So late last year — at an expense of some $400,000 — the U.S. government flew down doctors and equipment to perform cardiac catheterization. Mr. Paracha’s response was to refuse treatment and file a petition in U.S. federal court. . . .
The medical care at Guantanamo seems state of the art. All detainees over 50 are offered colonoscopies; at least 16 have been performed. . . .
Guantanamo detainees don’t lack for legal representation. A list of lead counsel released this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request reads like a who’s who of America’s most prestigious law firms: Shearman and Sterling; Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr; Covington & Burling; Hunton & Williams; Sullivan & Cromwell; Debevoise & Plimpton; Cleary Gottlieb; and Blank Rome are among the marquee names.
A senior U.S. official I spoke to speculates that this information might cause something of scandal, since so much of the pro bono work being done to tilt the playing field in favor of al Qaeda appears to be subsidized by legal fees from the Fortune 500. “Corporate CEOs seeing this should ask firms to choose between lucrative retainers and representing terrorists” who deliberately target the U.S. economy, he opined. [DS: Great point!] . . .
The picture of Guantanamo usually painted by the press and human-rights activists is a terribly distorted one. Americans should rest assured that the men held there are probably getting better treatment than they deserve.

AMEN.

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember all of those celebrities campaigning for Gore and Kerry, who said they are so rich they don’t want or need the Bush tax cut?
Well, they really didn’t mean it. You see, celebrities like to fight off the IRS and keep more of their money, too.
Why else are they all whining about having to pay taxes on goodie bags worth more than $60,000, given out at the “Golden Globes,” Monday? They’re lucky that–unlike average Americans who win prizes in contests, lotteries, etc.–the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which runs the “Globes” paid their taxes for the 2004 and 2005. Regular Americans must pay these taxes, themselves.

Actor Greg Grunberg Upset About Taxes on “Golden Globes” Freebies
Yup, welcome to reality, Hollywood. The IRS has caught up with you, finally enforcing the tax laws that are enforced against the rest of America. USA Today has an article about it, featuring a whiny people who make more per episode than most Americans make in a year or two:

“I’ve been acting for 20 years now,” jokes Greg Grunberg of NBC’s Heroes. “Of course, the year a show I’m on is nominated, Uncle Sam decides to start handing out traffic tickets.”

Doesn’t sound like a joke to me. More like a whine. And not a very fine whine, at that.

A backstage celebrity gift “retreat” will be set up during Golden Globe rehearsals at the Beverly Hilton, where nominees and presenters can grab Fendi sunglasses and a trip to French Polynesia. Or, perhaps, they’ll want only a pair of cashmere socks and toothpaste. “They can take it all, or take nothing,” says Backstage Creations’ Karen Wood, who will have tax forms on hand for stars.
Private, off-site gifting suites – which have no official link to the Golden Globes – are still taking place. Suite organizer Kari Feinstein, who’s hosting one at a private mansion, will provide stars with tax paperwork. She hopes this will encourage A-listers to accept presents such as Tacori diamond necklaces, Villa Malibu vacation rentals and Moni Moni leather handbags.
“The IRS has called and faxed me information, but they have not called to see who received what product,” says Feinstein, who had a suite for the Emmys in August. “I don’t even know what each celebrity received unless each sponsor gives me a detailed account.”

The taxman cometh for everyone. Nice that Hollywood is finally getting theirs.
So, what was that they were saying about having enough money, not needing a tax cut, and needing to pay more? Well, now that they’re getting their chance, looks like they really didn’t mean it.