January 12, 2004 by s.z.

Even MORE Quotes from All Over 1.  Michael Medved gets cranky because Viggo Mortensen made all those anti-war statements, and thus spoiled Michael's favorite fantasy about he and Aragorn being best friends, and watching movies and invading countries together.  This fall, with the distribution of the biggest movie of his career just weeks away, [Mortensen] appeared at a Washington anti-war rall [snip]. No one who witnessed this embarrassing and befuddled performance could put it entirely out of mind when watching Viggo impersonate the fearless, regal warrior Aragorn in The Return of the King. Maybe Michael should just avoid all exposure to the outside world, to be able to better enjoy the film experience.   I also enjoyed this part: Nevertheless, Mortensen believes that he had no choice but to distract attention from his martial role with his pacifist preening. As he told USA TODAY's Susan Wloszczyna: "It is not something I would normally go out of my way to do at all. But it was in response to what I'd been hearing in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, and what happened the year following when The Two Towers came out. A lot of people misrepresented what we had done in the films and Tolkien's work, saying they justified the actions of the U.S. government and war in general. I didn't think that was the case." In all of the hundreds of statements by Bush administration officials attempting to explain our battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, I don't recall any references, ever, to Middle Earth to "justify" U.S. policy. Well, maybe not YET, but since the White House has admitted that it wasn't actually Osama connections, imminent threats, or WMDs that caused us to invade Iraq, how long can it be before they tell us, "We had to attack because Saddam was THIS CLOSE to locating the One-Ring"?  2.  Our friend Mark from Fried Green al-Qaedas provides us with this quote from a legal commentary on the German cannibal case: After all, if human rights law cannot be applied to instances of willful flaying, dismemberment, quasi-human sacrifice and cannibalism, when can it be applied? You know, he has a point there. Oh, this reminds me, the new issue of Virtual Occoquan just came out.  Lots of good stuff from the Salon blogs.  So far I've read and admired Leslie Talbot (of Singular Existence)'s piece "Heroine Chic," and Paula Steinbacher's "Of Pugs and Viking Funerals and Roses."  Added bonus: when I went to Paula's site, Paulapalooza, I got some useful-sounding cold medicine advice.  3.  From that Meet the Press transcript that everyone keeps talking about (you know, the one where Chuck Todd explains what a blog is, and says that Dean's folks, who are very anti-media, are upset because they think Lisa Meyer took Dean's comments out of context, and Tim Russert says that she didn't, of course -- see Atrios for the story).  Anyway, I kinda liked this part, in which the guys discuss the difference between Gephardt and Dean supporters, and then happily imagine a rumble: [David BRODER, Washington Post]: I saw the same kind of contrast when I was out there earlier this week.  Gephardt gave a pep talk to about 175 union business agents and staff people who’d come in from around the country. I’d say it was about 98 percent male and the median size of these guys, about 6’3”, 250 pounds. Then I went over to... MR. RUSSERT: My kind of guy. MR. BRODER: Then I went over to the Dean headquarters, they’re young, they’re female, they’re gay, and they’re small. And I thought to myself, I hope those Gephardt guys don’t run into the Dean people. You know it would be a bad scene. [Chuck TODD, The Hotline/National Journal]: You know, it’ll be interesting at the caucuses, on caucus night, if there is some physical intimidation, or not, I mean... MR. RUSSERT: Punch everybody out. Mr. TODD: Yeah. Yes, it sure would be interesting if those, big, masculine, middle-aged Gephardt supporters beat the crap out of those small, young, female and gay Dean supporters.  Yup, really interesting. And then there's this fun bit, where Roger Simon of U.S. News & World Report tells why it's a real accomplishment that Dean supporters actually turn off their computers and show up for his rallies.  Mr. SIMON: Dean has been—I’m sorry. Dean has been accused for a long time of being just an Internet phenomenon, and his response has always been, “If you think that’s true, come out and see my crowds.” You know, the Internet may have gotten 12,000 people to come out to a rally in Washington state, but people actually had to go and do it. They had to leave their basements and push aside their Burger King wrappers and actually get out in life, in public, which some of them don’t want to do. And they do that for Howard Dean. His crowds are almost always overflow crowds. Because most of those young, little, female & gay Dean supporters are  computer geeks who live in dank, dark basements, surrounded by hamburger wrappers and pizza boxes, and who are scared of life.  But they fight down their fear of real, life people and actually leave the house and go out in public, for Howard Dean. And the media wonders why the Dean crowd is anti-media. 3:01:20 AM

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Quotes From All Over 1.  Rabbi Shmuley Boteach chides Britney Spears for ruining the culture for his 5-year-old daughters, then gives her some romantic advice: We are having to become much more strict with how our daughters dress, what music they listen to, who their friends are – all because we would rather be mauled by Rottweilers than ever allow our daughters to grow up dressing and acting like you. [snip]  A man who really loves you – and not just your stardom – would provide the necessary balm for your aching heart. Flashing your underwear at a husband would be as appropriate as it is inappropriate to be flashing it at complete strangers. Hopefully, the Rabbi prevents his daughters from being exposed to WorldNet Daily, because I'd hate to think of them having to learn about martial underwear flashing from the media. 2.  And here's some practical Sex Advice from Anka Radakovich: Here's an interesting item from the NY Post.  Seems NYC artist James Tully hooked up with Details magazine sex columnist Anka Radakovich at Bret Easton Ellis' Christmas party.  It was hot and heavy until Tully mentioned to Radakovich that he might run into conservative Ann Coulter (whom he once dated) when he visited his parents in Denver.  End of romance.  She dropped him like a safe.  As a sex expert, Anya knows that when you sleep with someone, you sleep with everybody they've slept with.  So, when you learn someone used to date Ann Coulter, well, it's time to start practicing abstinence. 3.  Fortunately, Bill O'Reilly groupies have SOME sense, as indicated by this article titled O'Reilly's Fans Get Shot At Intimate Encounter.  See, if you're going to have intimate encounters with Bill, just get the penicillin injection right then.  Saves time. After the encouters, Bill updated the group on his ongoing quest to sell more books than Hillary Clinton in 2003. O'Reilly said "Who's Looking Out for You" has sold more than 800,000 copies and will be on the New York Times best-seller list again this week. O'Reilly told the crowd, many of whom had a copy with them, he hoped his latest book would surpass the sales of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs, "Living History." O'Reilly said it shouldn't be hard because many of Clinton's books were bought by the Democratic National Committee and he would not count those copies in the comparison. Well, if the DNC bought 600,000 copies of Hillary's book, then indeed it won't be hard for Bill to beat her (playing by his rules). "We've done very, very well in a tough climate," O'Reilly said of his hardcover sales during a lagging economy. But I thought the economy was good!  At least, that's what you told us a couple of weeks ago, when recounting how it was Another Win for the Folks that A&F had pulled its Teen Group Sex catalog. Abercrombie and Fitch has raised the white T-shirt and surrendered. It is pulling its soft-core porn clothing catalog because the outcry has hurt the only thing that matters to A&F: the bottom line. Same store sales in November were down 13 percent in an approving economy. Apparently showing naked people in the catalog was stimulating, just not to clothing sales. So, maybe it's not the economy, Bill -- it's just that people don't want to read your book.  Yet ANOTHER win for the folks! 1:04:34 AM