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Ron Paul is also going to make it in the movies, where he will be playing the punkee to Sasha Baron Cohen’s Bruno. The scene, as described in Slate, is really funny. Bruno’s character is the flip side to Borat, a very heterosexual character who punked his way across America on the way to being a film sensation. Heck, the full title says it best about Bruno: Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-shirt.

Evidently Cohen, playing Bruno, talked Paul into an interview in a suite at a Washington hotel. When a light blew out on the set Cohen and Ron Paul retired to another room while the engineers set about fixing the problem. That’s when Bruno went to work, with soft lights and mellow music. The story, according to Slate, is that Ron Paul stormed out of the room when he realized Bruno/Cohen was attempting to seduce him, muttering the word “queer” several times ont he way out. Lew Rockwell is all angry, of course, as are many Ron Paul supporters. And there’s the usual litany of Republican whiney excuses and recriminations. From Slate:

A spokeswoman for Paul confirmed that the episode took place but declined to provide details. “We don’t want it to distract from his message,” said press secretary Rachel Mills. “Now is the time when people need to be listening to him on economic issues.”

Mills, who was present at the taping, did elaborate on the “queer” line. “I heard him say –weird,’ ” she wrote in an e-mail. “In any case, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Queer as Folk … it’s not exactly a shocking term if that’s what he did say.”

Mills also noted that Cohen’s people were “very deceptive in their tactics.” At the time, she thought they were “legitimate,” but now confesses to some concern. “I’m familiar with his work, so you can imagine how I feel about it,” she said.

Look, I’m not going to get into anything about the ideas of Ron Paul. But let’s face it. When he did this interview in early 2008 he was trying to convince the country that he could be President of the United States. Sure, Sasha Baron Cohen is good, but it is ridiculous for a Presidential candidate, with all the layers of campaign and PR people surrounding him, to be so thoroughly fooled. He disqualifies himself as Presidential material, and that’s the bottom line.

Now I’m going to get all sorts of comments on here defending Mr. Paul. His people are all about that. But I want to warn them that they are now targets of investigators in Missorui. Yeah, that’s the “Dangerous” part of the title up there. The State of Missouri recently put out a report called the “Modern Militia Movement,” and it gives out telltale signs of what to look for in a homegrown terrorist. That Ron Paul Bumper Sticker? It’s on the list. From KansasCity.com:

A new document meant to help Missouri law enforcement agencies identify militia members or domestic terrorists has drawn criticism for some of the warning signs mentioned.

The Feb. 20 report called “The Modern Militia Movement” mentions such red flags as political bumper stickers for third-party candidates, such as U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for president last year; talk of conspiracy theories, such as the plan for a superhighway linking Canada to Mexico; and possession of subversive literature.

Of course this is getting blown all out of proportion by the Paul people. There’s whining at the American Conservative, at Right Side News, at Gather.com, and at Prison Planet. I particularly like Lew Rockwell’s frothing at the mouth, titling his blog post, “If you’re reading this blog, you could be a terrorist…”

Let’s get real. Police need to compile ways of keeping track of the possibility of homegrown terrorists. It is pretty clear in this country that those folks share some of the beliefs of Ron Paul, coming as it does from trend data about milit

Sitemeter, which is the service that we use to track traffic on ASZ, is having a nervous breakdown today. Anyone visiting ASZ using Internet Explorer over the past several hours has been receiving an error due to a broken Sitemeter script on their server. This problem does not occur in Firefox. We’ve removed the offending code from ASZ, and will reinstall when the folks at Sitemeter get the problem fixed.

Note to Blogmasters: If you use Sitemeter, you’re having the same problem. Simply remove the Sitemeter code from your blog, and the issue will go away.

Note to Zonebots: If you’re still using IE, do you need another reason to switch to Firefox? Why not download and install it today? Browse happy…

Update, 8/3: The problem at Sitemeter has been resolved. All is well in blogtopia (and yes, Skippy coined that phrase).

h/t to Case Wagenvoord for the head’s up! I would have never noticed the problem, because I use Firefox…

As any long time reader of ASZ should probably know, I am adamantly anti-drug prohibition and don’t think any should be illegal. However, as long as the entire law enforcement industry is dependent upon drug prohibition money, there should be an even higher standard set, and greater punishment for police breaking the laws they’re sworn to uphold.

But, y’know they’re also known for

From the “law of unintended consequences” file…

There’s a perfect storm brewing in the food supply chain, and it centers on grain products. A portion of the issue (skyrocketing corn prices and lack of availability) is being blamed on 1) corn being diverted into the more lucrative ethanol production market rather than into the food consumption chain, and 2)

Faux outrage always amuses me, particularly when it’s projected for media / public consumption. Here’s how it works: someone (say, a politician) will make an outrageous or insulting accusation; hyperbole to emphasize a point. Someone on the opposite side of the political fence takes public umbrage – “Gasp! How can you say that? Oh, my tender sensibilities!” – without disputing the main point of the accusation.

Such an occasion occurred yesterday at World Trade Organization (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. According to reports, in advance of a WTO meeting this week, Brazil’s trade minister Celso Amorim accused “rich countries” of engaging in Goebbel-esque propaganda in attempting to ram through the Doha trade accords:

Brazil sought to play down a spat with the United States on Sunday that threatened to sour a week of key World Trade Organisation talks after its foreign minister likened arguments of rich countries to Nazi propaganda. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters on Saturday that “misinformation” about the WTO talks recalled the comment of Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels that a lie repeated often enough will be accepted as truth.

A spokesman for U.S. trade chief Susan Schwab said Washington regretted the comment. “We are here to negotiate on substance and that kind of venomous name-calling does not have a place in these talks,” spokesman Sean Spicer said on Sunday…

By way of background, the Bush administration has been trying to hammer out an overarching WTO deal (many core issues in dispute, at least in terms of agricultural trade).

In the end, though, Celso Amorim probably accomplished what he intended to do with such inflammatory remarks. He made the point that the U.S. is controlling the WTO “message” in a manner that does little more than amplify the interests

Many Americans like to look at Europe as an example of the moral decay we can expect if we continue to alter our values and ignore our long standing Christian principles. Implicit in this belief, amongst many on the religious right, is the presumption that one’s morality is directly correlated with one’s sexuality…and that goes beyond any consideration of one’s orientation. It also includes a belief that sexual activity is only acceptable under the umbrella of a marriage. That means that sex before marriage is unacceptable and it also infers that both parties are expected to be virgins.

Along with these sexual mores and our disdain for Europe is a growing belief that Islam is an unacceptable religion…or at the very least a religion that will not lead to salvation and therefore it cannot lead to one’s admittance into heaven. Fortunately, life often provides the contrasts and comparisons necessary to illuminate the absurdity and/or hypocrisy of our beliefs…and our predisposition to judge others while ignoring the need for self-examination.

An article in The New York Times provides the backdrop for some measure of reflection…and an illumination of the slippery slope that moral certainty often becomes. The prevalence of Islamic immigrants in Europe has served to pit a strict religious ideology against a far more secular society…and that has led to some rather convoluted interpretations of propriety.

It seems that a number of the Islamic women (note that we don’t focus on the Islamic men) who have partaken in the sexual freedoms afforded by European culture now find themselves in the unenviable position of being unacceptable marriage partners. Islamic teaching require that a bride be a virgin, and should that not be the case, she can be rejected and the marriage can be nullified