i heart don zirkel

no, this isn't an april fools joke either
(question: this mall was in AMERICA, right? it wasn't in cuba, right? it wasn't in north korea, right? it wasn't in saudi arabia, right?)

80-Year-Old Church Deacon Arrested for Refusing to Remove His Anti-War T-Shirt


Posted by GottaLaff , Cliff Schecter's Blog


He's 80, but he was wearing the wrong tee shirt. One must never wear the wrong tee shirt. That's just unacceptable. Especially if one is at the mall:
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.
Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
That is disturbing! Especially if you're one of the 4,000 Americans or 1,000,000 Iraqis who died.
Police said in a release last night that Zirkel was handing out anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on "civilian arrest" and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release said.
Good lord, he sounds dangerous. Hide the kids!.........

grace is gone

john cusack tells tavis smiley all about his new movie. john cusack appears to have both a HEART AND A SOUL
(video of the interview at the link)

Cusack: Bush photo ban one of 'most cowardly political acts' in my lifetime
David Edwards and Jason Rhyne
When the Bush administration began enforcing a controversial policy banning photographs of military caskets returning from Iraq, the move provoked outrage -- and now, a film -- from actor John Cusack, who calls the media ban "one of the most cowardly political acts" of his lifetime.
Appearing on PBS with host Tavis Smiley, Cusack explained that his new movie, Grace is Gone, is the result of a storytelling interest largely inspired by the Bush photo policy.
"The screenwriter, James Strouse, had approached my company and I had been looking for a story, a human drama to tell about the Iraq conflict," said Cusack. "It stemmed from a place of outrage for me when the Bush administration banned the photos of the dead coming home." That directive, ordered in 2003 at Dover Air Force Base, was technically on the books prior to Bush's presidency, but was seldom enforced. .........