When we were young, we assumed "The Hamptons" had something to do with a cartoon pig—now we are older and wiser and we know that it's a place on Long Island where rich people go, even though they can surely afford to go somewhere other than Long Island. Turns out, they're just going there to get away from all the goddamn Jews!
Not being well tuned in to the Catholic outrage circuit, we missed the big controversy this week over Bill Maher calling the Pope the head of a "child-abusing religious cult," and saying "he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats." That sounds fairly accurate, no? Not to Catholic League president and perpetually outraged man Bill Donohue, who demanded an apology on behalf of all Catholics worldwide who care about trivial things. And now Donohue says that he's been assured that Maher plans to apologize tonight for "falsely accusing the pope of once being a Nazi." Because in fact the Pope was just "conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could)." Is Bill Maher now expected to be nuanced when it comes to the objects of his hate? Doesn't really sound like him. If you're reading this, Mr. Maher, and I know you are: just shout "Jesus loved whores!" at the end of your apology, to maintain your cred. The clip of his original Pope rant, after the jump.
Slate, the online magazine that exists to tell you why you were right—but not for the reason you think, today tackles the sensational Nazi orgy scandal of British auto racing exec Max Mosley. And in typical Slate fashion, they ask the knowing, highbrow, we're-already-over-the-interesting-parts-of-this-scandal question, "Mosley's bedroom habits may be distasteful, but are they pathological?" Well, Slate would like to give you a long disquisition on psychiatry to answer that question!
Opening today at New York's Film Forum: Stalags, a new documentary about pornographic paperbacks that were quite popular in Israel in the 1960s. They took place in Nazi concentration camps. They were full of pervy sado-masochism. They made the Holocaust sound like kinky fun. They were written by, and for, Israeli Jews, under American-sounding pseudonyms. The books were all about male prisoners being raped and tortured by "curvaceous female Nazi guards." The film argues that they perhaps helped Israeli Jews "discuss" the Holocaust for the first time since the war ended. So: Holocaust porn, for Holocaust survivors. Surely this beats cancer jokes for uncomfortable discussion topics. How does it stand up against American Marines killing puppies? What does it mean that as a culture it took us almost a decade longer to laugh about the Holocaust than to jerk off to it? [NYT]
If you've been following the real news, you'll recall that Max Mosley is the British Formula 1 racing president who is currently involved in a slight tiff over a video of him having an hours-long Nazi-themed orgy with five hookers. A bit embarrassing for him personally, yes. It's also caused some grumbling among the Formula 1 teams. And now, this sex scandal is reaching its absurd logical conclusion, as its ripples extend into the highest reaches of the world's corporations: BMW and Mercedes-Benz have jointly condemned Mosley's sexual taste as "disgraceful." [BBC]. Because they are the arbiters of morality in sexuality! They're also a bit sensitive about the whole Nazi angle, because, you know, they're from Germany themselves.
You think our governor paying a few hookers is a scandal? Well, FIA and Formula 1 president Max Mosley was just caught in a completely depraved Nazi-roleplaying-S&M-hooker video. London's News of the Wolrd has the five-hour tape, and Jalopnik made a best-of reel. (Other depraved Brits: Stephen Milligan, the auto-erotic asphyxiation enthusiast and cross-dresser, who died while practicing such things in 1994, an orange wedged firmly in mouth.) [Jalopnik]
Fabulous new idea for a video game: the destruction of New York City! You're just one man with a bunch of guns, and the Nazis are bombing Manhattan. They're blowing up the buildings! They're blowing up the Statue of Liberty! It'll be great. Who doesn't want to see NYC's violent demolition played out in digital graphics? I do! No, seriously, I might buy this one. But I will swear off the "violent demolition of NYC" movies. One medium at a time. After the jump, the full trailer for the new game, "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty," the latest in the disconcerting procession of entertainment based on Gotham's death. See if you can find your home exploding!
This Obama mailer has greatly upset Clintonites, who feel (quite rightly) that it evokes that classic anti-Hillarycare ad "Harry and Louise" from way back in 1993. "It is as outrageous," said Len Nichols, head of the New America foundation and former Clinton White House employee, "as having Nazis march through Skokie, Illinois." [HuffPo]
There's an ulterior motive to opening an official backchannel at a tech conference. It pulls all the dissenters into a virtual room, where they disseminate their snide remarks safely away from the real discussion.
Did AOL exec Jason Calacanis attend the same conference everyone else did? Because he says:
Shervin Pishevar, president of web hosting site Freewebs, called for a boycott on Yahoo in a phone conversation. Pishevar called me from an airport and chatted about the now infamous incident this week when he asked Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, "Would you have cooperated with Nazi Germany?" and Terry refused to say no. Among other things, Shervin said he wants to start a nation-wide boycott of Yahoo in America.
So Neville Chamberl— wait, sorry, Terry Semel — spoke at D Conference this week, and an attendee asked the Yahoo CEO if he would have cooperated with Nazi Germany. (Terry's answer: Well...yes.) That cheeky attendee is Shervin Pishevar, COO of the Freewebs hosting service. His question, and Terry's cop-out, pissed off bloggers mad at Yahoo's lousy human rights record in China.
The Wall Street Journal buries this tidbit in the middle of a blog post about Terry Semel's talk at the D Conference. The Yahoo CEO went all Vichy France when asked about Nazi collaboration:
Third Reichers — they're just like Us!
We sometimes wonder: what, exactly, does one have to say to no longer be welcome on our television sets? Especially before we've had our coffee?
