This blog is dedicated to the memory of David Weintraub, who took on insidious astroturfers and won.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Time to Make the Donuts; Five Blog Entries in One


screenshot to go with blog title

The following were written quite a while ago. I'll lightly edit and add updates to each story.

God bless the audience

#1 The Mother-In-Law From Hell?

This is one of those stories that is tough to look away from.

In the white corner, the bride. In the pink, the mother-in-law from hell...


The last thing any bride-to-be wants is to fall foul of her future mother-in-law - particularly when her damning criticism of your behaviour goes viral on the internet.
Mother-in-law sends worst email ever to bride: forgivable?


Heidi Withers and Freddie Bourne

I'm not suggesting anyone spend too much time on this one. It's interesting, but then one starts to wonder whether the whole thing has been rigged.

Mother in law email from Carolyn Bourne to Heidi Withers
Anonymous said...

Go ahead and laugh, but the joke's on you. This is just a publicity stunt.

They'll have television producers with wads of cash knocking down their door in 3... 2... 1...

Catherine said...

As someone said earlier: "the joke's on you." How easy it is to fool the masses. Clearly, Mrs Bourne has friends in the media. Nice stunt to get her name out there. Sometime soon we'll be hearing about a book deal or a TV prog on "good" manners perhaps. *Yawn, yawn*

BTW did you hear that 121 women were raped by government troops in Congo last month? I know it's trivial compared to the Bourne Identity, but thought I'd let you know....
I've heard a lot of the stories on Jerry Springer and other so-called reality shows were fake. This one smells fishy too.

*** UPDATE: I had forgotten about this one. Apparently it hit the zeitgeist in June 2011 and soon withered. At the time it was an entertaining and juicy flamefest to follow. Yet, after the fact it was a "here today, gone tomorrow" or one-hit wonder. I googled "Carolyn Bourne Heidi Withers" and nothing more recent than that time frame popped up. This one needs to be tossed into the blogospheric shredder. Next. *** END OF UPDATE

#2 Is Roger Ebert a Jackass?

I was viewing that show Jackass a few years ago. I didn't like it. Watching people hurt themselves seemed pointless.

One of them killed himself and a co-worker through drinking and driving.

Ebert tweeted something about friends not letting jackasses drink and drive. I don't think that kind of comment should be causing such a brewhaha, pun intended. Sure it was insensitive, but the degree of backlash against him is unwarranted. He had his facebook removed for a while. He's getting called all sorts of names. This thing has gone viral. Stupid is as stupid does.

There is always more to a story than what's on the surface. It turns out Ebert is an alcoholic who promotes Alcoholics Anonymous.

He says it's totally unfounded to refer to them as a cult. Yet, the truth is they probably are one. Anyone can research this and decide for his or herself.

The moral of the story is we are a lost nation. The educational system has hit an all-time low. As explained by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, we have lost our gumption, an ability to think for ourselves.

We are too absorbed in the cult of personality. We are always seeking out experts. Film critics like Ebert tell us what movies to watch. Politicians authorise illegal wars and wiretapping for our own so-called good. Sports authorities such as Bob Ryan tell us what a great coach Doc Rivers is. Then he must be!

I was okay with Ebert's tweet. It probably would have been better to not refer to the deceased as a jackass, despite that being the title for his movies. The deceased was horrifically irresponsible. (see fact, conspiracy)

Ebert shouldn't have said it. The Devil's Advocate says the dude himself used the word and simply did something Ebert feels strongly against.

The thing was blown out of proportion.

I just watched a very funny Letterman top ten with Justin Bieber. Dave was in total snark mode. If Bieber knew Letterman's history, he could've gone into Cher mode, if you know what I mean.

So Yahoo decides to blow it out of proportion with an article titled, "What Happened to Justin Bieber's Bromance With David Letterman?"

It's crazy what gets passed off for news.

***(UPDATE): Via Rolling Stone Magazine - Selena Gomez and David Letterman on Making Justin Bieber Cry END OF UPDATE ***

#3 ABE VIGODA IS ALIVE!



Yahoo is my homepage. So when I turn on my computer, I usually get at least a glimpse of their various highlighted stories. They also have a feature where they give the top ten yahoo search requests. Today's was very scary. Abe Vigoda was #2. I was like, damn, please no. Fish is meant to live forever.

It turns out the big story is that Abe Vigoda was on The Today Show. Wtf? Just for that, he's the #2 search item?


There is something sick going on called celebrity death pools. Dissemination of false rumours appears to be on the rise. These things go viral and cause a degree of personal distress for each victim. This has happened a bunch of times to Vigoda. It's happened to Bill Cosby, Sinbad and even the lovely and talented Betty White.

10 Celebrities You Think Are Dead But Are Still Alive





Two older celebrities you don't hear much about are the old-school, actress sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. They are both in their nineties, God bless them.

They have been hating on each other since they were little kids and haven't spoken to one other for over 35 years. This article explains that their animosity developed because their mom kept flip-flopping on who was her favorite daughter.
Yet the cause of their estrangement goes far beyond professional sibling-rivalry. Its real roots lie in festering family jealousy and in the desperate battle waged by both women for the love of their mother, Lilian — who switched her affection bewilderingly from one sister to the other for more than half a century.
My theory is the two are hanging on to see who can last the longest in spite of the other. I say the two need to grow up, make up, and perhaps do so on a Barbara Walters or Oprah special. Now that would be must-see tv.

*** UPDATE: Betty White at age 91 is still going strong with appearances in all 71 episodes of Hot in Cleveland.

Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine are still alive. Olivia turns 97 in July. Her last acting credit is from a 1988 tv movie. Fontaine turns 96 in October. Her last acting credit is a 1994 tv movie.

Abe Vigoda turned 92 in February. He is currently involved in a comedy in production titled, Mobster Movie.

Sinbad will be 57 in November. He is rumoured to be starring in a movie in production titled, The Independents.

Bill Cosby turns 76 in July. His Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids was remade in 2012 for approximately seven episodes. END OF UPDATE ***

#4 Memorial Day

I was reading a post from a right wing blogger on the essence of Memorial Day. He had kind words for folks who have lost family due to soldiering. To wingnuts, they have some crazy notion people die in wars for some legitimate cause. The tip of the iceberg is usually they died protecting our way of life. Uhm, no.

The way I see it, someone like this can post what I feel is propaganda and not run the risk of being called out for it. On the other hand, if someone were to write an anti-war essay, they'd probably be attacked for being a commie agitator. The blogger's last sentence was straight out of Orwell's 1984.

I don't get how being a soldier and working for the military-industrial complex protects peace. Now if someone could direct me to any wingnut posts calling out the Bush Administration for its prosecution of an illegal war, I'd be more quick to give such people the benefit of the doubt.

I'm also not some pacifist no matter what. Hitler and fascism did need to be put down through the use of violence.

However, war and the death industry need to be stopped. Imagine all the good that could be accomplished if the money put into death and destruction were instead used for creating job growth, good schools, housing, protecting the environment, and all other bipartisan ideals.

Peace and war are polar opposites. It is the height of doublespeak to proclaim that war protects peace. War by definition is the bane of humanity. Our biggest enemy is perhaps ourselves.

It is true defense contractors and chicken hawk politicians deserve the scorn more than soldiers do. I think most sign up due to the economy and because most schools are bad. The right waves the flag and typically has pledged allegiance from the earliest of ages. It's thus no surprise many end up enlisting. Many feel there is no other opportunity to go to college or have a real so-called career.

For all of Ted Kennedy's flaws, he was against the Iraq War from before it even started. Now his seat is occupied by a Republican, not because the people like Scott Brown, but because they didn't like Coakley's establishment ties. It was a protest vote. Now we have one less "voice of reason" in the Senate.

The House of Reps is always open to corruption due to gerrymandering. I don't know what's up with possible(?) shenanigans centered around Kucinich's seat.

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. We had no right invading Iraq. It should't have been done. It went against the reasoning of why we went into the big wars, to protect human life and borders.

At least with Iraq War #1, Kuwait had been invaded with the U.S. not acting alone.

Plus, there's always this gnawing fact that the U.S. picks and chooses which countries to invade. It ends up looking racist and more to do with greed without even a touch of a humanitarian principle being involved.

Many Americans are fully aware that the U.S. has always been corrupt and full of war profiteers. But we lack any political clout. Guys like Kucinich and Ron Paul are deemed as crackpots.

Maybe they are. I do respect their anti-war stances. Too bad Obama has continued with the previous administration's methods for the most part. The first hints that we are up the creek, to me, was when Pelosi "took impeachment off the table" for GW Bush.

Wtf? And Obama seems to love all that spying and war as much as Bush and Cheney. It all reeks of good cop, bad cop. We need another FDR, someone who's going to strongly point out that the world has hit rock bottom. That to get things back on track, we are going to have to lift up the people. This same old, same old of war and blood sucking capitalism is absolutely destroying the planet.

*** UPDATE: Haha, yes that was a good rant. It is also further documentation of yours truly's truly leftier than thou status.

The Ted Kennedy Senate seat was won back by the good guys. What's her name, Elizabeth Warren or something? I am really out of the loop. END OF UPDATE ***

Let's wrap up this mailed-in entry with journalistic coverage of ...

#5 Kurt Cobain's Daughter's Middle Name Is Bean

Web Searches Surge for Frances Bean

Kurt Cobain gave his daughter the name of Frances Bean. He thought she looked like a kidney bean after looking at the ultrasound. Her godfather is Michael Stipe. Her godmother is Drew Barrymore.

I got this info from Yahoo. They say people on the internet are into finding out more about her. It comes up with these quirky, fun kind of stories Huffington does but their pages load a heck of a lot faster.

Frances Bean Cobain sounds kinda groovy. She seems a mix of goth and hippie. She just turned 18.



She's kind of an internet troll, which is not always a bad thing. I mean, a lot of great people in history have been considered bad news by conformists. Here is what she wrote on her twitter page showing that it's not cool to live off of other's names. Maybe she learned such humility from Drew Barrymore.
She clearly has problems with those who, in her opinion, rely on famous family members. In 2009, she let those thoughts be known on social networking site Twitter. Frances ranted about Lindsay Lohan's younger sister Ali. To Ali, she wrote: "You blatently (sic) don't care how your recognized, its the objective to get famous and that is what makes you replaceable and a recycled idea."
She appears to have a good head on her shoulders, all things considered. We know what happened with Kurt, and her mom appears perhaps a tad unhinged. Maybe in their personal lives, Frances Bean is more of the mom with Courtney role-playing the daughter.

*** UPDATE Frances Bean turns 21 in August.

Wow, I don't know what's up with some of the stories listed at this link. Haha, Courtney and Frances exchange tweets. And omg there is something about a home invasion and attempted murder.

Frances Bean Cobain News END OF UPDATE ***

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