Okay, let's get this straight. They didn't attack us because they don't like our freedom. Freedom's got nothing to do with it. Switzerland's free. Why didn't they attack Switzerland? Denmark's freer than we are, with legal prostitution, drugs, and euthanasia. Why didn't they attack Denmark?

    One reason only: foreign policy. Anyone want to defend our foreign policy? I didn't think so, which gives us the same dilemma. What if the terrorists had demanded higher MPG standards for SUVs? What if George W. Bush replied by standing tall and saying "We will not give in to terrorism. SUV standards will remain the same." Good thing? Bad thing? Welcome to the wonderful world of conflicted feelings.

    If (and that's a big if because they didn't leave a note) the terrorist attacks were an attack on U.S. foreign policy, then despite the fact I abhor their tactics, despite the fact I consider the hijackers the scum of the earth, despite my repulsion over Islamic fundamentalism, despite the pain I still feel over the loss of the WTCs, I'm on their side. Bin Laden and all his minion can get rectal cancer and die screaming in agony, but as far as the ideological debate over current U.S. foreign policy, I want them to win. 

    I want the U.S to stop being the self-centered bully of the world, ruthlessly forcing the planet to bow before our consumer needs. The U.S. has turned the whole world into a game of Monopoly in which the game never starts over so the properties are never given back to the bank. No new player has got a chance of ever owning anything. 99% of the planet is just circling the board, paying rent, and picking up their $200 every time they pass GO. 

    U.S foreign policy is an abomination. The central paradox of the war on terror is that the only way it will ever end is if the U.S alters it's foreign policy, but any alteration in foreign policy is seen as giving in to the terrorists, which we obviously can't do. Like the war on drugs and the war between Arabs and Jews, we've created another war that can't possible end until we're all dead.

    What's the way out of this hideous Catch-22? How can we change the way we do business without looking like we're giving into, and therefore encouraging, more terrorism? Right now, the U.S is responding to the attacks by reaffirming every aspect of our foreign policy that must have pissed the terrorists off in the first place. Let's take a quick peek at U.S. foreign policy in Uzbekistan. Here are some quotes from an article by Simon Churchyard which you can read here.

    "It is ironic that one of the USA's most valuable allies in 'Operation Enduring Freedom' was Islam Karimov, who presides over Uzbekistan -- one of Asia's most entrenched dictatorships. Karimov allowed US forces to use Uzbek bases against its southern neighbor, Afghanistan. Washington rewarded this support with an historic joint US-Uzbek memorandum, signed on 30 November. Hailed by both sides as announcing a 'qualitatively new relationship,' it promises Uzbekistan significant military and economic backing. A likely legacy of the war will be the bolstering by the US of yet another corrupt and repressive regime that performs useful strategic services."
    "In the face of poverty and social decay, the autocratic government of former-Communist ruler Islam Karimov maintains power through a dense network of security agents and informers. Dissent is not tolerated, and most opponents have been jailed or driven into exile. This security complex is bankrolled by the country's main cash export, cotton. Harvested with the coerced labor of students and school children, this "white gold" is procured by the government at knock-down prices and sold internationally at a hefty profit." (The need for cotton would plummet if hemp were legalized, so our war on drugs is helping Uzbekistan too. One war washes the other. MD)

    Okay, simple question. Is our support of Karimov, who's clearly another Hussein, another Pinochet, another Suharto, going to get us more friends or more enemies? You don't have to answer. The U.S relationship with Uzbekistan is probably being used in recruitment posters for al-Qaeda as we speak.

    So that's our definition of "winning," refusing to deal with our faults, actually glorifying them, so we can declare that the terrorists have lost because they haven't changed us at all. Good thing? Bad thing? All depends on your definition of the word "loser."

Hidden Agendas - The films and writing of John Pilger. Amazing 1 & 2 minute Real Player documentaries out of Iraq.

The ownership of the Federal Reserve.

From the Wall Street Journal, here's a map of all the oil pipelines proposed by Bush Sr. in business with the bin Laden family conglomerate through the Carlyle Group.

Dear Dr. Hollywood,

Seems to me about 99 percent of the "entertainment reporting" I see could've been written by studio publicity departments. Why is there so little serious reporting on the entertainment industry?
- Harold -

Dear Harold,

I don't know about you, but I'll never forget the first time I gave a film a bad review and the studio immediately called my paper to cancel $50,000 worth of advertising. No, I wasn't fired, but my editor DID point it out to me. Then there was the time I gave a film a good review and the studio immediately called my paper and bought $100,000 worth of advertising, making the advertising executive a hot $5,000, exactly 100 times the $50 I got for my review. Should I mention the time I gave a film a bad review and the studio refused to supply my paper with screening passes for the next six months? I didn't think so.

Which is to say that advertising controls everything. Big magazines like Premiere and EW are pretty much just extensions of the studio publicity departments. Don't even THINK of pitching them a cutting edge story about corruption at a major studio. Sure, there are critics and journalists with integrity who actually write what they think, but they need strong editors to protect them from the advertising department. Smaller publications scrambling to survive invariably follow the cash. Newspapers can afford to occasionally alienate a studio because they're more dependant upon department and grocery store advertising than anything else. Ever read anything negative about Robinsons or Ralphs in the L.A. Times? Not likely.

Studio publicists have long memories. If a magazine or newspaper promises one of their clients a cover story in exchange for an interview and then gives the cover to someone else, that outlet will find themselves without a single interview the next time there's a blockbuster from the same studio they want to cover.

MD

Send your questions to "Ask Dr. Hollywood" at disinfotainment@earthlink.net

 

WHO’S GOING TO HELL THIS WEEK?

by Helen A. Handbasket

You never know who’s going to trade their soul away or what they’re going to get for it unless you’re Helen A. Handbasket, ex-executive chief in charge of operations for the burning flames of hellfire. Who are her sources? Wouldn’t you like to know? Sorry, all communications are confidential and the property of Helen A. Handbasket, whose opinions do not necessarily reflect those of this or any other publication. 

July 15, 2002

10. Why did they cryogenically freeze Ted Williams? How else could John Walker Lindh get away with pleading guilty and facing a maximum 20 year sentence?

9. Four Islamic militants were convicted in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl but NBC still won't cancel "Friends." Satan's pissed. David Schwimmer watch out.

8. Satan says "Engage in illegal stock trading." Satan says "Let your company go belly up but keep a fortune for yourself." "Take the fifth." Unh-unh, Satan didn't say.

7. Harvey L. Pitt, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said today that he would not resign despite numerous pokes in the buttocks from lawmakers with pitchforks who say he has been lax in enforcing commission rules and shares responsibility for the nation's corporate accounting scandals. Obviously vying for a position in Satan's administration.

6. Now they're saying that Michael Jackson's 9/11 charity single "What More Can I Give?" was never released because producer F. Marc Schaffel used to make gay porn films. Gimme a break. If that's true, then why won't they cancel "Friends?" Besides, Satan's heard it and he tells me it's crap.

5. Phil Donahue returns to TV on MSNBC this week, but what's he been doing for the past decade or two? Let's just say he'll be sharing a cell on the 3rd level of hell with F. Marc Schaffel.

4. Judge Emmet G. Sullivan is a bad boy. The Bush Justice Department was just trying to prevent any inquiry into the operations of Cheney's Energy Task Force and he wouldn't let them. Now thousands of documents are going to be released and somebody's going to have to read them, probably Satan's minions, who are all dyslexic.

3. "Oooh, I hear George Michael's new video shows him romping in bed with Tony Blair wearing nothing but a leopardskin thong," exclaimed Adolf Hitler from the 2nd level of hell. "I can't wait to see it."

2. Palm Beach, Florida, held a mock election this week to test it's new voting machines. Seymour Mock beat out both Bush and Gore.

And the number one person going to hell this week?

1. Jamie Lee Curtis just so there won't be a sequel to Halloween Resurrection.

Personal to Mona: How's that?
Personal to Carl: Are you dead?

Satan for President in 2004

ARITHMETIC FROM HELL

$133 million for Men in Black II divided by 439 points the Dow was down times 95% of Americans who want answers from Dick Cheney regarding Halliburton accounting plus $13 billion in revenue generated by Halliburton last year times 15 dead Saudi schoolgirls equals $60 billion Pfizer Inc. is paying for Pharmacia Corp. plus 3 million teens contemplating suicide divided by 4,305 teenage drivers in America saved by seatbelts in the past 5 years.

GOSSIP FROM HELL? NOT EXACTLY

Early politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars to "go sip some ale" and report back on people's political concerns. The two words "go sip" were eventually combined when referring to local opinions and thus, we have the term - "gossip."
- Thanks to Phil Proctor -

BELLYBUTTON TATTOO FROM HELL

LABEL FROM HELL

"Not to be used for the other use."
- warning on a Japanese food processor -

HISTORY LESSONS FROM HELL

Dick Cheney was one of only two US Congress members who voted against a resolution calling for the release of Nelson Mandela from prison.

"Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or 'disappeared,' at the hands of governments or armed political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame," said Amnesty International in 1996. If you ever wondered where the terrorists learn their moves - just glance through Uncle Sam's war history. In fact the modus operandi that terrorist employ or we fear they might employ today are just reflections of U.S. "war crimes" in other nations. Read Terrorism begets terrorism: what the U.S. teaches terrorists – Part 1.

QUOTES FROM HELL

"Taking account of the unconsciousness of the tactic employ (no legal assistance, no phone, no information, 24 h light and surveillance.) I expect anything from the US government. Lee Harvey Oswald end is a distinct possibility. Alexandria jail is constantly having new Deputy, it will be easy to claim that a distraught Sept 11 family member gain employment and shoot me. Or they might claim that I committed suicide after all they already have done the ground work by claim that I was mentally unstable, paranoid." 
- Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, in his latest Federal Court Motion -

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
- H.L. Mencken -

"Maybe there's just one revolution, the good guys versus the bad guys. The question is - Who are the good guys?"
- Dolworth (Burt Lancaster) in The Professionals -

"Just one mistake by a biotech company and we'll be eating other people's prescription drugs in our corn flakes."
- Larry Bohlen, Director of Health and Environment Programs at Friends of the Earth -

"Did it ever occur to you that wherever you are, an instantaneous no-fly zone is created?  I didn't think so, but let me clue you in on something.  Firefighters risk their lives fighting wildfires.  One of the strategic methods employed to guard THEIR safety is flyovers.  These flyovers provide valuable information to these people: such as, whether a wildfire is doubling back on them and cutting off their only means of escape!! Can we say, "DUH?!" So your solution is to keep them from fighting the wildfire while you're here on official business? Thanks, but no thanks.  Our firefighters nearly lost what little containment they had the day you visited."
- Letter to Bush from a firefighter in Arizona -

"We need to throw America's best minds and most dollars into research into wind, solar, fuel cell, geothermal and other alternatives to gas and oil as sources of our energy. We need to consult with our French allies on how they have been able to harness nuclear power so safely.
"We need to curb gas-guzzling, polluting vehicles. We need to consult with our Japanese allies who are leading the world in developing alternative fuels for vehicles. 
"We need to step up Superfund cleanups and standards for water safety. We need to assure that future power plants do not pollute our atmosphere and that existing ones are cleaner. Let us point to this decade as among the most progressive and life-saving in man's history." 
- What Bush Could Have Said: from an editorial at delawareonline -

"Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing."
- Henry Miller -

"Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved."
- Soren Kierkegaard -

"Life is a mystery, not a problem, and the difference is vast. The problem has to be solved, can be solved, must be solved, but the mystery is insoluble; it has to be lived, experienced. Encountering a mystery, you have to dissolve in it."
- Osho -

"Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered."
- Thomas Paine -

JOKE FROM HELL

One cold, but sunny winter morning, George W. Bush is out jogging in the park. He is running past a big pile of snow, when he notices something strange. In the snow, "George W. Bush is an idiot" is written in urine. Furious, he hurries back to the Oval Office, and contacts his Chief of Security, asking him to solve the mystery.

A few days later, George's Chief of Security returns. He tells George that their scientists have concluded their testing on the matter, and that there is good and bad news.

"Well, give me the good news first," George says.

"The good news is that it was Osama bin Laden's urine."

"That's the GOOD news?" the President shouts. "What's the bad news then?"

"It was Dick Cheney's handwriting," the chief says.

LEGISLATION FROM HELL

An anti-fraud bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday is an attempt to protect - rather than punish - the corporate criminals responsible for the recent rash of Wall Street scandals.

In a misguided attempt to stop teenage drug use, S. 2633 and HR 3782 are two bills that make private property owners, concert promoters, or anyone holding an "entertainment event" criminally liable for any drugs used or sold during the event. Totally asinine. Help stop these bills by going here.

SITES FROM HELL

Apology: Last week there were two bad links. The interview with Gore Vidal is here and cat boxing is here. Those responsible have had their buttocks flayed.

Mandatory reading: Inanimate Objects, my ultimate article about the war on drugs, has just been published by TOTSE. Then there's a little piece by James Ridgeway called Mondo Washington and/or Nitwit Scion Turns Avenger and/or George Bush, Failed Corporate Crook, depending upon what headline you believe.

As Americans move from dial-up Internet access to logging on via cable broadband networks, they're also moving from the open, regulated telephone network to proprietary cable networks that are controlled by a few large companies. Which means cable providers are in a position to control free speech on the Internet. Not good.

You too can rid yourself of media toxins.

Was Diane Keaton really in Hair? Go to the IBDB, which does for Broadway what the IMDB does for film.

It would seem there's evidence that almost 5,000 Taliban prisoners were killed by Northern Alliance commanders, perhaps with the help of U.S. soldiers. Serves them right?

Is a rogue element within our own government using illegal surveillance, harassment with sound projection and microwave hearing, and attacks with acoustic and microwave nonlethal weapons, just to promote their own agenda? That's what this guy says.

The anti-Ann Coulter site is the "sweet balm of reason slathered on in heavy layers over her strident inanity and deplorable narrow-mindedness." 

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups. The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity."

You gotta ask how Bush can go after corporate criminals without going after himself.

Could you use one million dollars? It's easy all you have to do is prove you have paranormal powers.

Check out Tattletales for an Open Society for statements from dozens of history professors against the war on terrorism.

Better to be fat than eat and drink diet foods with aspartame.

How the Bush family benefited from the Holocaust.

Ahah, the Democratic plot against Bush is starting to materialize. Obviously they're simply waiting for him to self-destruct. It's working. Bush's description of corporate criminals who belong in jail seems to describe himself and his whole administration.

How can conservative Christians worship a man who was a liberal? Good question. 

At brainchill, you scroll through sites and rate them. Fun and useful.

What happened to Enron and WorldCom will never happen to the Colombian cocaine cartels. Why? Because they've got an IT infrastructure that actually works.