I don't see a link for a Mr. Himbo anywhere. (Or Taking Barbie Seriously)

Just click on it...ugh.

I grew up with Barbie. Most little girls did, though I also had train sets and Hess Trucks, anything that had lights and moved of its own accord was big fun to me. Barbie was fun too, but even as a child, I knew she was not a depiction of reality, that she was hardly an inspirational toy for me, and my friends as future women. Real people do not look like Barbie dolls, nor should they aspire to be impossibly proportioned plastic women only capable of wearing sky-high heels. I liked all her costumes. What shocked and amazed me, as I grew older was that not every girl got that simple fact of life-Don't take Barbie Seriously.

I was born very pretty, but have never been, nor did I try to be that unhealthy thin girl the fashion world promotes as a beauty ideal. I never assumed my entire value as a human being centered around being attractive. Now don't get me wrong, I'm vain. I have beautiful skin, and I have pampered it since I was 12. When I look good to myself I'm quite pleased, however it is certainly not the center of my life. Not even when I worked in the fashion or cosmetics industry. I never had the drive to be perfect, whatever that might be, or the fear that I would be nothing if I refused to conform to a societal norm.

Somehow, though when we women were supposed to be gaining more and more rights, our girl children began to think less and less of themselves. They began to admire, and emulate women-girls really, known not for their accomplishments, or intelligence, or true beauty, but for snotty attitudes, and dressing like millionaire streetwalkers while racking up DWIs and Casanova levels of lovers.

If Miss Bimbo, or Ma Bimbo (the French site) were some joke set up by Maxim, just juvenile guy humor, a silly Paris Hilton joke, it would irritate me, but I would not find it so incredibly revolting. This is aimed at kids, little girls who are still playing with Barbie are invited to take a trip into a world where one wins by becoming the biggest bimbo around. Surgery, diet drugs, whatever it takes.


Good looks are in some hands, a currency, in others a truncheon. It all depends on what is going on behind those luminous eyes. Sexiness should not be a focus for girls under 10. Sexiness as a competitive sport? All this will only fuel future insecurity, and benefit the bank accounts of therapists everywhere.

Insecurity is a cancer in female society.


Internet Miss Bimbo game for girls attacked by parents

* Karen McVeigh


Parents' groups have condemned a new internet game in which girls as young as nine are encouraged to "buy" their virtual dolls breast operations and facelifts.

The aim of the Miss Bimbo beauty contest game, which was launched in Britain last month, is to become the "hottest, coolest, most famous bimbo in the whole world", and contestants who compete against each other are told to "stop at nothing", even "meds or plastic surgery", to ensure their dolls win.

Children are given a naked virtual character to look after. They compete against other players to earn "bimbo" dollars so they can dress her in sexy outfits and take her clubbing. They are given missions, including securing plastic surgery at the game's clinic to give their dolls bigger breasts, and they have to keep her at her target weight with diet pills.

Although it is free to play, when the contestants run out of virtual cash they have to send text messages costing £1.50 each or use PayPal to top up their accounts.

Bill Hibberd, of parents' rights group Parentkind, said the game sent a dangerous message to young girls.

He said: "It is one thing if a child recognises it as a silly and stupid game.

"But the danger is that a nine-year-old fails to appreciate the irony and sees the bimbo as a cool role model. Then the game becomes a hazard and a menace.

"Children's innocence should be protected as far as possible. It depends on the background and mindset of the child but the danger is that after playing the game some will then aspire to have breast operations and take diet pills."

He added that the game also posed a financial danger for parents if they did not keep an eye on the texts that were sent.

In France, where Miss Bimbo's sister website was condemned by dieticians and parents when it began last year, one parent threatened the creators with legal action after his daughter ran up a £100 mobile bill sending texts without his knowledge.

The British version already has nearly 200,000 players, most of whom are girls aged between 9 and 16. There are 1.2 million players in France.

One parent said the website's creators were irresponsible. Nick Williams, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, said he was appalled when he saw his daughters Katie, nine, and Sarah, 14, playing the game.

Williams, 42, an accountant, said: "I noticed them looking at possible breast operations and facelifts for their bimbos at the game's plastic surgery clinic.

"Katie is far too young for that kind of thing and it is irresponsible of the site's creators to be leading young girls astray. They are easily influenced at that age as to what is cool."

The creators of Miss Bimbo insist it is "harmless fun". Nicolas Jacquart, the 23-year-old web designer from Tooting, south London, who created it, said: "It is not a bad influence for young children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals are morally sound and teach children about the real world.

"If they eat too much chocolate in the game it is bad for their bimbos' bodies and their happiness levels compared to if they eat fruit and vegetables, which reinforces positive healthy eating messages.

"If they are having problems with boyfriends or at work, the bimbos can talk through them with a psychiatrist.

"The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not encouraging young girls to have them, just reflecting real life."

What the...? Did the Wolves Raise Hillary as well?

Has 2008 become the year of the ridiculous lie? Hillary's Bosnia story is as far-fetched a lie as Mischa's wolfy childhood. (sigh) At least the media, caught on to this whopper pretty quickly.

Hoppy Easter...and yes I know I have a warped sense of humor.

Just Click the link...(this is for you Mir and Sean.)
generalzod.net/

A More Perfect Union...

We may just have witnessed the return of oratory to American politics. Obama actually wrote this speech himself. I was an Edwards supporter, and I've always been skeptical of anyone around whom a cult of personality grows. I worried about the possibility that he didn't have enough experience. However, one can grow up in a political family, with a senator for a grandfather, a president for a father, and still be an incurious fool whose reverse Midas Touch turns everything to shit. Anyone who has a character this thoughtful to respond to Hillary and her surrogates race-baiting in this manner deserves my vote.

This is a speech about race, and that even more ignored problem of American Society...class. The Land of Social Mobility. Horatio Alger. One of the greatest and most enduring myths of America is that we are a classless society. We carry the mutated vestiges of our Puritan Founders ideas, and their worship of Calvinist Predestination. Simply put, rich people are good, and poor bad, because God rewarded the rich by making them rich, and punished the poor by making them poor. God wants you to side with the rich, good people. Pretty damned stupid, and I think Jesus would beg to differ, but still this is an undercurrent in the racial and class divisions we see today. Anybody can get ahead in America, if they don't there must obviously be something wrong with them.

Oh, wait there's angry Black people? Still? Why? That this needs to be explained to a good portion of this country is astounding.

African Americans as a group have tended to be poorer than Whites. Why? Because of the policies of the American government plain and simple.


"A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us."

I'll write more about this later. I'm just so glad that he is talking about healing wounds instead of opening them wider.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

These were some of my late father's favorite movies...I can't count how many times we watched them together.

Oy Vey, THIS is actually getting Air Play.

Although I'm loath to discuss very soon to be ex- Governor Spitzer's Big Fat Indiscretion again. There are still a few things left to say.

1. Interest in the hooker is at best nosiness, at worse journalistic filler in order to avoid doing real reporting. Do we really need to know everything about a 22 year old whore from South Jersey. Come on, she was simply doing her job, although an illegal, and skanky one. Stop camping outside of her building, haunting her hometown, no story here-move on people.

2. Radio stations are actually PLAYING this shit?!!! Notoriety is used to great monetary advantage all the time, and I don't begrudge someone having their 15 minutes. However, the radio stations playing her music-have you heard her? All the musicians who can't get a second of air time and Ashley's third-rate club music is what you chose to promote?? It's derivative. It's run-of the-mill. It's like dance music heard in Guido clubs in 89, 90, 91, 92...well, you get the drift. Check out her collaborators on Olbermann and Dan Abrams. True artists all of them.



And to all the chowderheads paying for her songs on Amie Street...you wouldn't have bought it before she fucked a Governor so why are you now?

Some People more Vile than Spitzer

When I was in college and my twenties, I loved HRC. She wasn't this little woman attached to this Great Man, as many First Ladies seem to be, she had ambition and drive, and great intelligence. She had a career of her own. Her husband, the Great Man, admired her. They were partners like John and Abigail, and Franklin and Eleanor.

Long before I could vote, there was Geri Ferraro. I was so proud that finally a woman, and a Catholic woman at that was being given the chance to be on a Democratic Presidential ticket. This was big stuff to someone who had spent ten years of her young life in a Catholic girls prep school...


You both should be ashamed of yourselves.


Keith says it far more eloquently than I have the heart to...

Vile Little Man

My sensitive stomach-there are certain foods, and spices I just have to stay away from, has me at home today, so I thought as I'm lying in bed with my laptop, I'd address The Scandal. We all know what happened in Albany yesterday. I'm astonished, but not shocked. Astonished by the stupidity and hubris of it all, but not by the hypocrisy, or by his inner freakishness. I first met our illustrious governor at Drinking Liberally at the very beginning of his run for office. He came looking for support, and staffers for his campaign, as did the candidate I later took a job with, Tom Suozzi.

Spitzer was this stiff, awkward, slight little man with ears that had distracting points to them. All through our conversation, I kept thinking he looked like some sort of goblin or Orc. That's what I mean by distracting. Then I felt guilt for being distracted by his looks-after all it wasn't his fault his appearance had a mythic creature ugliness to them. Perhaps, he sensed this, or even worse he had been encountering some form of this reaction all his life, and expected it from each new person he met...or new women. I noticed that he was the most uncomfortable around women. His visit was brief and awkward, he didn't relax for a minute, didn't have a drink with us, and was gone rather abruptly. I recall thinking, wow, how was a guy that socially inept going to handle the smoozing, social-butterfly side of politics? He spoke in demanding, entitled-bratty tones to his staff, and lacked charm. I got bad vibes from him. There is supposedly a psychic/intuitive streak in my mom's mother's side and I have learned that when I get a feeling of sudden revulsion to go with it. If I ignore it, it usually spells trouble for me.

When Suozzi came, he was friendly and charming, drank with us, truly listened to our responses, and I and several of my fellow DL members got our jobs with his campaign out of that visit. I was won over. Also I felt morally, I couldn't vote, or work for the election of someone pro-death penalty.

During the campaign, there was an incident I'll never forget, and one that definitely cemented my initial negative impression of him: the debate at Pace University. His campaign had played all sorts of silly, dirty tricks, stealing our signs from trees and buildings and throwing them away, actually snatching some from younger, weaker supporters, and running away with them. Taking the local reporters aside, and telling them to film only the crowd shouting for Spitzer, not our people. A Spitzer organizer told one of our modern orthodox organizers that he was a bad Jew for working for Suozzi. It felt like my junior high class president election in the hours before the debate.

When we finally got inside, I was simmering from the idiocy that had been going on outside. The Republican John Faso's campaign staff had been equally irritating, as his people rehearsed the dramatic anti-abortion statements they planned to slip into almost any question. They didn't even care that we heard them as they went through their various scenarios for confronting pro-choice candidates. It was like watching a read-through for a Passion Play. I wanted to slap all their faces-hard. Regardless of what your personal feelings are about the issue, it's a serious thing. One could tell that they were more psyched by the prospect of the attention they personally would receive than debating their cause. One kept calling people to tell them to watch them on TV. Half of this repulsive group looked to be in their fifties. Only two were chosen to ask questions, the wild-haired woman who appeared to be the leader of the group, and a stout, guy so nerdy I doubt he will ever have to worry about impregnating anyone.

Back to Spitzer, he held up the start of the debate. Why? He threw a tantrum. The binder. Tom Suozzi had been told he could have notes prior to the debate, and the man is super-prepared. He was the kid who excitedly started his essay the night the assignment was given, tweaked it up until the day of the oral presentation, and brought an armful of visual aides with him. So of course, when finally getting the chance to face Spitzer, he showed up with a full binder of notes.

Apparently, Elliot is binder-phobic and threw a fit worthy of Bette Davis on the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Now as a young child, I saw a great deal of childishness from adults, NJ politics seem to routinely operate on an alternate reality plane, but I had yet or since to encounter any behavior on the level of this: Spitzer refused to come out, refused to debate unless Suozzi threw away the notes.

Offended, and puzzled, Suozzi and his handlers refused. That caused ES to storm off, and begin a furious tirade backstage. Know how I know? Because we HEARD him in the audience. As my dad used to say, the NY1 people and ES's staff didn't know whether to shit or go blind. It was very loud, and very profane. The audience was at first silent, then began to murmur uncomfortably. He threatened to cancel the debate, called Suozzi a few more names, as his elderly parents, wife and siblings sat shocked in the front row, finally stopping only when Suozzi gave in and lost the notes.

I used to teach, my mother was a teacher, my godbrother was the worst brat I have ever encountered in life. I've seen brattiness. Spitzer's mother and father should be ashamed. That incident sent a chill through me, and the unease grew even worse after TS described what had happened to his staff and supporters at the post-debate party. He mocked ES a bit, but looked shaken. One of his top staffers said he had never seen a meltdown like that over nothing before. The consensus of those who were backstage seemed to be that Spitzer didn't care if his tantrum was overheard, he was going to win anyway. He didn't need to do a debate, he was the next governor no matter what. Spoiled Brat, of the highest magnitude.

So I'm not surprised that he feels that rules of normal conduct do not apply to him, but shocked that his entire CAREER has been as a prosecutor, that he would do something so incredibly stupid! He has led investigations such as this is entire career, and yet he left a trail a mile wide to his own illegal, illicit activities.

This from the NY Times:
[I]n the Hauppauge offices of the Internal Revenue Service, investigators conducting a routine examination of suspicious financial transactions reported to them by banks found several unusual movements of cash involving the governor of New York, several officials said.

The investigators working out of the three-story office building, which faces Veterans Highway, typically review such reports, the officials said. But this was not typical: transactions by a governor who appeared to be trying to conceal the source, destination or purpose of the movement of thousands of dollars in cash, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The money ended up in the bank accounts of what appeared to be shell companies, corporations that essentially had no real business.

They followed the money, and it led to The Emperor's club.

I do question the timing of this investigation, he was scheduled to meet with Pro-Choice groups on keeping abortion legal the very morning that this story broke. Spitzer's dad is a very, very rich man over 500 million, I believe. Once they had determined that the money was legitimately his, and not embezzled funds, why were Federal prosecutors, and the FBI still bothering with him? Did they really need to spend the time to find out what he was purchasing? Secure the ports, catch some serial killers, turn away some terrorists, oh and FBI, what the fuck did happen to D.B. Cooper?

Pontificator, at The Albany Project, put it this way:

At this point, rather than continuing its investigation under the seldom used Mann act (which makes it a crime to bring prostitutes across state lines), it would have made more sense from a priority and resource standpoint to refer the matter to State prosecutors. Spending resources on taking down a prostitution ring is just not something that "public integrity" prosecutors need to be doing, especially when the only involvement by the original government target was that he was a customer, who used his own money.

And that's why this particularly stinks:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not excusing what he has done, and it would be best for the NY Democratic Party if he resigned...this isn't run of the mill cheating this is being Charlie Sheen, this is breaking the law, this is a mind-blowing level of a case of bad judgment, and we certainly don't need anymore politicians with a lack of common sense in power. But still...these days you have to be suspicious of anything that comes from the Department of Justice.

Are the creators of the West Wing Psychic?

I don't know why but I was surprised by this-apparently the writers of the West Wing modeled Matt Santos on Barack Obama.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/21/barackobama.uselections2008

The best summation of the CW I've read

Obama has won the Wyoming caucuses. Already HRC is spinning this as another state that is little so not a big deal that she lost it. The following diary from Granny Doc at Kos is the best explanation I've seen of some really confusing events. Well, confusing if you listen to the MSM and can't count.

1. Barack Obama won the delegate race in Texas by picking up 4 more delegates than Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton did NOT win Texas, inspite of CNN's constant repetition of her "3 state sweep" meme. The results of last Tuesday were Clinton 2 states (Ohio and Rhode Island), and Obama 2 (Vermont and Texas). Each candidate won one large and one small state. It was a tie.

(I am using a technique of small words, oft repeated, because they keep telling us how complicated it is, how we don't understand, and how unfair this damned caucus process is. In other words they're stupid so we must be stupid too.)

2. NAFTA-gate is a prime example of chanting the media line, having settled on a script and being unwilling to adjust that script, in spite of the many conflicting bits of information that keep leaking out of the Canadian Government. Senator Obama's unpaid campaign economic advisor told the Canadian consulate that the Senator was not going to abandon NAFTA, but would require renegotation of several aspects of the treaty.

Someone took some variant of "minutes" of that conversation which were then leaked as a "memo" at the instigation of a fellow in the Prime Minister's office. When challenged PM Stephen Harper denied any intentions to interfer with the US elections. Turns out that was not true. Those minutes were written to contain statements that all of the principals have denied, but served to give a boost to uninformed voters who favor the Clinton campaign.

3. The Clinton campaign has cast this primary as one of experience. Senator Clinton has no more experience with the day to day details of running the Executive Office than any other Presidential spouse. Standing around with Chelsea while dance groups perform in exotic costumes, staying in palaces, and using the military and Secret Service agencies in droves to protect their persons, and generally making her way around the stage of public appearances, is NOT experience in executive management. It does provide diplomatic experience, however. Maybe Hillary could be made Ambassador to Urdustan?

Hillary Clinton has brow beaten the media into recasting her failures as success. Hillary Clinton does not lead in the popular vote, she did not win Michigan, as she was the only name on the ballot, and her name recognition in Florida (in early January) does not constitute a "win". Given that tens of thousands of voters did not participate in either state since they knew that the primaries, and subsequent delegate selections, would not count at the convention, to claim these as wins is the height of arrogance. Senator Clinton spins reality with the same lack of respect for truth as George Bush. And, the media continues to repeat her fantasies, unquestioningly.

5. Hillary Clinton is the ultimate example of the "old politics". She brings nothing new to the table. She has been in the pocket of big pharma, the health insurance industry, and the MIC for the past 20 years. She has taken much of her financing from these industries, and she will not be able to effect change that cuts off the spigot to the contracts, activities, and control of the legislative agenda, that these power players demand. Her compaign is working valiently to conceal and distort this record, and present Ms. Clinton as an agent of "change". Can't happen, media. Get out there and track down her real history. Not just the spin of Penn and Wolfson.

You are failing us once again.

You screwed around with your love affair with George Bush, destroyed Al Gore, and are directly responsible for the past 7 years of horror. It's on your head. But, you can redeem yourselves, if you revert to journalism, rather than these Heather infatuations that float your boat.

I couldn't have said it better.

Reason 2,335,000 not to vote for this Man

"It's harder and harder trying to do the Lord's work in the city of Satan," McCain said of Washington.

ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE2JCSH5p9r2GBkQWS9TWAMzmuvQD8V8QK2O1

Womenfolk in the Cowboy State?

Ok first comment, and it will be snarky, I freely admit, but here goes. The Cowboy State? More recent connotations of the word have made that nickname cringe-worthy since the Napoleon of Crime-Master of Disaster-Darth Sidious himself has risen to power. His foreign policy certainly is cowboy. The Democratic party in the home state of Dick Chaney is actually going to matter and is energized for the Democratic process. And even more shocking, energized to vote for either a bi-racial man with a Muslim dad, or a patrician white woman with a husband like Bill. A husband with a past.

I am not a Hillary supporter for many reasons, but I am heartened to see that we are past the days of Geraldine Ferraro. I was not old enough to vote then, but I have a long memory...nearly photographic. I recall how the press and the people treated her. Ferraro was a brilliant woman, an ex-teacher, a lawyer, District Attorney with the Special Victims Bureau, and three term congresswoman. In congress, she served on the Public Works Committee, the Budget Committee, and the Post Office Committee. She served a term as the Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, the first woman in that position. She was the Chairwoman of the Platform Committee for the 1984 DNC Convention. A serious candidate with real experience.

So what happened? Redneck men and their womenfolk appearing all over newscasts saying they couldn't vote for a woman because she couldn't be tough enough with the Soviets, by virtue of being a woman. Then Red Dawn. Chinese paratroopers dropping in on Kansas! Be very afraid of a girl answering the big red phone!!! These people were unaware of Iron Lady Thatcher, Indira Gandi, And Golda Meir. One guy who to my shame, was in NJ, said something like well, making the excuse that those women were foreign and raised tougher some bullshit like that.

But what seemed the most unfair was that she like other female candidates, Jeanine Piro for example, was held responsible not simply for everything she herself did, but for her husband as well. Ferraro's husband John Zaccaro, had a past. And questions were raised about his real estate business-possible mob connections and tax returns. Men running for office are not expected-if their wives have an actual job, to know everything she does, everyone she does business with, and every dime she spends. Apparently they believe women monitor their men to such an obsessive extent that there NO way a wife can be fooled by her husband.

Following this line of illogic...wouldn't that make us not only castrating bitches, something GAF was called by Ma Barker-Barbara Bush. I would call her a she-wolf but I like wolves, and after Micsha, and the Bush Administration's call for mob hits on wolves this week, I just can't. Wouldn't this mean that WE were the smarter sex then?

As of now Obama is far ahead. Something I'm pretty happy about. But I'm very glad Bill isn't the anchor around her leg pulling her under, and that's there's very little snickering about a woman in, near around the Oval Office. Go Cowboy State!

Now we know why it took 40 years to get out of the desert

Tue Mar 4, 7:02 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

Most ancient religions employed some form of mind-altering substances to help mystics explore the the spirit world. This was commonplace. What's amazing here-other than the wealth of High Moses jokes, is that the likelihood of Judeo-Christian prophets-mystics-leaders doing this as well is surprising to anyone! Though we don't really teach history well, now do we? Rock on, Moses. Say hi to Jerry Garcia for me, eh?

Radio is dead.

Yeah, like we all didn't know that. I forgot that I had my clock set to radio for some mad reason and not Ipod, and heard the most god-awful tripe the last two mornings. How sad. The choices offered the public narrow more and more each year as Clear Channel, and its ilk goggle up stations and dictate what is allowed airplay.

When I was a teacher my kids would come downstairs into my art room and when they were well-behaved, we would wind up discussing music. This was mostly afterschool projects with gifted students, i.e. the art club. They would get me to put on CD's that they were curious about. I introduced some of them to Elvis Costello and Nirvana, and The Cult. One kid told me he found out about The Who because of CSI. They were only eleven and twelve but I was horrified that their initial exposure to many of the Golden Gods of Rock, and Rap, and New Wave, and Alternative, and Reggae. I had to explain what Ska was, and that Gwen Stefani did not invent it. I had to inform them that Rick James was so much more than the SuperFreak, I'm Rick James, bitch guy. They were unaware that Rap did not begin with Biggie. The only student of mine who knew all of this stuff...his father and favorite aunt were in the music industry.

We're going backwards. If we weren't bands like The Mars Volta would be household names.

This is my friend Tad's band, East Village Pharmacy. I went to see them first out of curiosity and wound up loving the originality of the show. They are playing again at the end of the month. Reggae, Ska, and Reggaeton from a band from Minnesota.

You can check them out.

www.eastvillagepharmacy.com/videos.html

Raised by Wolves

No I'm not talking about Bush, or his far too numerous relations. Who would have expected rich, malevolent WASPs to have such large families? Ma Barker-Barbara Bush gave birth to five? I'm referring to everyone's favorite offensive crazy lady, Mischa Defonseca. My friend Brooke e-mailed me with a good question: Wouldn't the wolves have made a snack of her before sundown? No, as crazy as it seems there are many instances of wolves, and other animals taking in human children. However, the habits of the wolf pack certainly would have left their mark on a seven year old child in their care. Think Tarzan. And by the way, for those who haven't read the books, Tarzan was most accurately portrayed in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984). Tarzan was taught to speak by the French explorers who found him on the Escarpment so after Apish (Apese?), his first language was French. Christopher Lambert's accent was totally in character, Johnny Weissmuller's "Me Tarzan-you Jane!" was not. Though, unfortunately these real-life Feral Children are usually about as proficient with language as in Weissmuller's portrayal.

I found this on FeralChildren.com :

Wolf children

There are a large number of wolf children in the list, in particular from India. One explanation is that women with young children or babies would leave their infants at the edge of a field while working, and wolves would emerge from the forest and steal them.

Specifically, it's believed that a she-wolf whose cubs have been killed (and this is the specific theory put forward in the sources for Kamala and Amala) might be attracted to human babies, her maternal instincts all-powerful.

So it seems wolves might have adopted her, if she was less annoying then she is now. I had a dog whose breed had a great deal of Arctic wolf in them. My Andrew even howled at the moon-from the tip of the diving board of my pool though. He had a real affinity for babies, picking them up if they fell over toddling, watching them anxiously when they swam, even getting in to swim with them. He once tried to drag me up by my suit when I spent too much time for his comfort swimming underwater. He would however find other wolf-doggy activities to occupy his time if you annoyed him. In my opinion, the wolves would have abandoned her.


I was incorrect, last post when I said that this God-awful book was first published by foolish Europeans. They certainly ran with the defective ball, 30,000 copies in France and Italy, a French film,and I swear-an opera in Italy. Barnum was right about us...the original foolish publishers were in Massachusetts. Amazingly, incredibly, she starts out telling her story in a temple, suckering a really gullible rabbi and congregation.

This article in Slate. com perfectly sums up what I feel, the more I read about this woman. Why did it take so long for her to be called out for her lies? Don't we research anything anymore? Are we so afraid of being called bigots that any story dealing with the Holocaust is accepted? Allowing things like this to go unchallenged insults all those who suffered and died.

www.slate.com/id/2185493/pagenum/all/#page_start

So was Mme. Defonseca Romulus, or Remus? Mowgli maybe?

I was taking a break at work today, and came across the most insane story I have read this week. I laughed out loud then had to read part of this ridiculous article to my friend, Shaun so he would stop looking at me funny. I saw on CNN.com the headline: Author: My best-selling Holocaust book is a hoax. I thought, well, OK, another James Frey. Umm...no. This woman wrote a Holocaust memoir that seems like it should have appeared in the pages of the Onion. How this book was EVER published as anything but fiction is proof that it is not just American publishers who are gullible fools. Shame on them for not having researchers with more than two working brain cells.

Oh, and Mischa exploiting a tragedy is vile, and Kipling, and the ancient Romans got there before you and their versions were laughable is well. Shame on you as well even though you are clearly quite mad.

Author: My best-selling Holocaust

book is a hoax

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- A Belgian writer has admitted that she made up her best-selling "memoir" depicting how, as a Jewish child, she lived with a pack of wolves in the woods during the Holocaust, her lawyers said Friday.

Misha Defonseca's book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," has been made into a French film.

Misha Defonseca's book, "Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years," was translated into 18 languages and made into a feature film in France.

Her two Brussels-based lawyers, siblings Nathalie and Marc Uyttendaele, said the author acknowledged her story was not autobiographical and that she did not trek 1,900 miles as a child across Europe with a pack of wolves in search of her deported parents during World War II.

"I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed," Defonseca said, according to a written statement the lawyers gave to The Associated Press.

Defonseca, 71, now lives in Dudley, Massachusetts. Her husband, Maurice, told The Boston Globe on Thursday that she would not comment.

Defonseca wrote in her book that Nazis seized her parents when she was a child, forcing her to wander the forests and villages of Europe alone for four years. She claimed she found herself trapped in the Warsaw ghetto, killed a Nazi soldier in self-defense and was adopted by a pack of wolves that protected her.

In the statement, Defonseca acknowledged the story she wrote was a fantasy and that she never fled her home in Brussels during the war to find her parents.

Defonseca says her real name is Monique De Wael and that her parents were arrested and killed by Nazis as Belgian resistance fighters, the statement said.

"This story is mine. It is not actually reality, but my reality, my way of surviving," the statement said.

"I ask forgiveness to all who felt betrayed. I beg you to put yourself in my place, of a 4-year-old girl who was very lost," the statement said.

The statement said her parents were arrested when she was 4 and she was taken care of by her grandfather and uncle. She said she was poorly treated by her adopted family, called a "daughter of a traitor" because of her parents' role in the resistance, which she said led her to "feel Jewish."

She said there were moments when she "found it difficult to differentiate between what was real and what was part of my imagination."

Nathalie Uyttendaele said she and her brother contacted the author last weekend to show her material discovered by Belgian daily Le Soir, which questioned her story.

"We gave her this information and it was very difficult. She was confronted with a reality that is different from what she has been living for 70 years," Nathalie Uyttendaele said.

Pressure on the author to defend the accuracy of her book had grown in recent weeks.

"I'm not an expert on relations between humans and wolves but I am a specialist of the persecution of Jews and they (Defonseca's family) can't be found in the archives," Belgian historian Maxime Steinberg told RTL television. "The De Wael family is not Jewish nor were they registered as Jewish."

Defonseca had been asked to write the book by U.S. publisher Jane Daniel in the 1990s, after Daniel heard the writer tell the story in a Massachusetts synagogue.

Daniel and Defonseca fell out over profits received from the best-selling book, which led to a lawsuit. In 2005, a Boston court ordered Daniel to pay Defonseca and her ghost writer Vera Lee $22.5 million.

Lee, of Newton, Massachusetts, said she was shocked to hear Defonseca made up the story.

"She always maintained that this was truth as she recalled it, and I trusted that that was the case," Lee said.

Defonseca's lawyers said Daniel has not yet paid the court-ordered sum.

Daniel said Friday she would try to get the judgment overturned. She said she could not fully research Defonseca's story before it was published because the woman claimed she did not know her parents' names, her birthday or where she was born.

"There was nothing to go on to research," she said.