Enough with the “-gate” stuff, already — especially all you conservatives.

What you mean to say is:

“Cat-aquiddick!”

I won’t be seeing the new one, believe me, but today I sat through the old one on DVD.

The major selling point of Che! (1969) is the casting: Omar Sharif is Che and Jack Palance is Castro. So you’re thinking, Oh man, will this ever be hilARious!!

No.

Che! is a workmanlike production burdened with blaring “dramatic” 1970s soundtrack instrumentals that are “bigger” than the scenes they accompany. Jack Palance’s ubiquitous cigar is the only physical trait he and Castro have in common. Shariff as usual only has one facial expression (this time, it’s “earnest”.)

It will remind most viewers of Woody Allen’s Bananas, which came out two years later, and intentionally looks & feels exactly like Che! with the added bonus of being entertaining. Bananas remains a fine spoof of radical chic stupidity, btw, if you have about 90 minutes to kill.

I was looking forward to writing a really fun, scathing MST3 takedown of Che! but it doesn’t even deserve that. I actually fell asleep at one point. Having seen his name on the opening credits, the only thing keeping me awake was that pastime of 60s/70s B-movie buffs around the world: “Sid Haig Watch”. He finally showed up around the 3/4 mark, in the Bolivian sequences. And was one of the best things about the movie.

Which reminds me:

This film’s only redeeming feature is the mini-monologue delivered by the Bolivian peasant who turned Che in, which went, in part:  

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Everybody meet at Queen’s Park, Room 151, at Noon on February 9. The committe will be going for lunch and we can (I hope!) get in while they are leaving and grab seats.

I’m wearing my Free Mark Steyn t-shirt.

If you have similar Freespeecher apparel, why not wear it?

I had lots of fun talking to Jim Chapman and Bob Metz last week, about my book The Tyranny of Nice: how Canada crushes freedom in the name of human rights.

Jim Chapman had me on twice! You can listen to the archived Jan 27 and 28 interviews here — both times I’m on in the last 30 minutes.

Then I spoke to Bob Metz, over at the college radio station (!). All the ads between my spots were about some “muliticultural” hoo hah, as you might expect.

National Post readers unimpressed by David “Canadian Media Incest Lottery Winner” Frum’s slagging of Rush Limbaugh.

Another day, another illiterate, belligerent Muslim takes a Canadian conservative to the “Human Rights” Commission…

When I was in London talking about my book The Tyranny of Nice, I met lots of wonderful folks, including blogger Andrew Lawton. (If you’ve ever been to CPAC, you might have met Andrew — he’s quite the gregarious guy.)

He told me he’d just received his first Human Rights complaint and was so thrilled. (I’m jealous!) He wasn’t quite sure how far it would go, but for now he was relying on an email he’d just received that read:

Your hateful blog
Mohammed al-Zahar
(mohammad.alzahar@yahoo.ca)

Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 5:48 PM
To: andrew@rightwingcanada.com
Mr. Lawton:

I am writing today to inform you that as of 10:27am EST this morning, I have filed a claim against you under the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Among other hateful and inflammatory remarks made on your blog, www.RightWingCanada.com, you referred to President Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama,” citing that he is an Arab-American. This was made in a hateful and dirogatory manner, and such racist propaganda is forbidden under section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

I hope that you go down in flames like your other Nazi friends.

Ma-Z

As BlazingCatFur notes in the comments: Hey, I thought Arabs liked the Nazis…

Yeah, we’ve got lots of deeply confused Muslims running around Canada these days.  

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It feels like this:

Via HotAir (interesting comments thread)

Warren Kinsella has called me “an unsightly gnome” and much worse. Plus, one of his best friends is taking me and some blogger friends to court in an HRC-related suit.

However, I hope this controversy doesn’t turn into an HRC complaint.

Look, every day on my blog, I insult groups of every ethnicity. Why? Well, because it’s funny, dammit. I grew up watching Don Rickles. What can I say?

But also because I don’t accept the notion of Group Insult.

Political correctness is a threat to national security, not to mention an encroachment on our ordinary lives, where we feel inclined to whisper constantly like we’re living in the Soviet Union. Political correctness must be undermined at every opportunity if we wish to survive.

Should Kinsella fall victim to the Professional Ethnic Victimhood Police, those of us who dislike him may get a little thrill for a moment.

But that makes us just as bad as the censors we’ve spent months and years castigating.

If Iggy fires Kinsella, I feel it is none of my business — it is his staff and campaign. I’ll feel bad for Kinsella’s family, because times are tough. I suspect my political/blogging views and/or obnoxious, irreverent “tone” have/will cost me a couple of “straight” jobs. That’s the risk I take.  

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That stupid movie star called right wing pundit Bill Kristol an “idiot.” Now some internet guy says he’ll pay Matt Damon $100,000 to debate Kristol. Kristol said sure. Matt Damon? Well, he clammed up all of a sudden!

What a pansy! Lord knows Matt could use the money, since he couldn’t even cough up 50 grand to go to his beloved Communist-in-Chief’s Inaugural (which I just heard through the computer machine is Latin for “pagan litter festival.”)

Anyway, I’ve got an even better idea…

doesn’t mean they understand “optics”…

Damian Thompson reports on the existence of one non-idiot in the curia!

Cardinal Schönborn said in a radio interview: “Obviously a mistake has been made here. Someone who denies the Holocaust, Shoah deniers, cannot be restored to an office in the Church. Here there must be also a certain criticism of the Vatican’s staff practice, which obviously did not examine the matter carefully or did not examine sufficiently the case in the information that they had.”

Agreed. While I think the Pope did the right thing in lifting the excommunications, and indeed is making historic progress in healing the Lefebvrist rift, this PR problem should have been anticipated.

Everyone recognises the uselessness of most English bishops’ press officers, but the Vatican isn’t much better. Visiting the press office in the Sala Stampa is like stepping back into the 1950s; maybe I’m doing it an injustice, but my memories are mostly of grumpy monoglot nuns.

It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Williamson’s views came to light at such a late stage. They were on the internet for years, but it wasn’t until the Catholic Herald splashed on them that anyone in the Church took notice. Even then, I bet his comments, in English, weren’t translated for the benefit of the army of non-English speakers who run the Vatican.  

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Your patience is appreciated!

which means I’m on the road between now and Friday afternoon.

Here’s more information about my talk.

Meanwhile, while I’m away, please visit:

FreeCanuckistan

Conservative Grapevine

Weekly World News

Don’t forget to read the first installment of my new series “Islam in America”.