The Daily Grand and Sundry

 “EastEnders is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985. It currently ranks as one of the most watched shows in the UK. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End of London. ”
 
One of the characters on EASTENDERS is”Syed Masood, a Muslim property developer with a girlfriend who arrivedin Albert Square six weeks ago, fall for openly gay Christian Clarke. The pair will share an on-screen kiss.”
 
In a scene aired last week, the gay Muslim, SYED MASOOD threw the Koran down.

“Hundreds of angry viewers have complained to the BBC over a scene in ‘EastEnders’, where a Muslim character slams down a copy of the Qur’an on a table.
 
…In the episode, gay character Syed Masood (played by Marc Elliott) was seen to drop the religious text in frustration.”
 
“Desperate not to lose his family, Syed is trying to suppress his homosexuality. He has vowed to read and learn from the Qur’an in an attempt to re-connect with his Muslim faith, hoping it will help him in his quest,” The Sun quoted a BBC statement, as saying.
 
“Feeling unable to reconcile his feelings for another man with his religious beliefs, Syed slams down the Qur’an in frustration.” THE SUN
 
BBC defends EastEnders Koran Outrage

EastEnders chiefs have defended the controversial scene, saying that they had not intended to cause offence, but to demonstrate Syed’s “utter confusion”.” LondonMuslims

 
Memo to American artists, the BBC has guts; they don’t just attack the Amish.
 
 EastEnders: Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott Photograph: BBC
 
The Following Is a Public POSTING FROM A BRITISH MUSLIM 
 
Homosexuality (doing homosexual acts) is forbidden in Islam. So if someone has gay tendencies, they could control
themselves and remain celibate. And he could get married to a woman later if he finds that he’s not so gay afterall. Anyone who loves Allah (subhana wa’a ta’la) more than themselves would be willing to do that. This is their test.

• “Within the context of Islamic thought, this attitude originated from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and since he is considered by all Muslim to be the Uswa Hasana (the perfect example) we find that the majority of Muslims in the East still consider this harsh treatment of homosexuals to be perfectly justified. Muhammad himself had stated, “If you find anyone doing as Lot’s people did, kill the one who does it, and the one to whom it is done.”As if this were not harsh enough,
• he even went so far as to condemn the “appearance” of homosexuality, when he cursed effeminate men and masculine women and ordered his followers to “Turn them out of your houses.” This ruling on homosexuals was naturally adopted by his later successors. The father of Aisha and Muhammad’s first successor, Abu Bakr, had a homosexual burned at the stake. The fourth caliph, Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali, ordered homosexuals to be stoned, and even had one thrown from the minaret of a mosque.
• …” among the Western ‘moderate’ Muslims, homosexuality is seen as something that is vile and unacceptable. For example, a Gallup survey carried out in early 2009 found that British Muslims have zero tolerance for Homosexuality. Not even a single British Muslim interviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally          acceptable. A worrying statistic to be found among Muslims in the UK, is that although they comprise just 2% of the total British population, they commit 25% of all anti-Homosexual crimes.”                                                                                                                  
• So, with the rise of Islam in the UK and the rest of the Western world [through incredibly high birth-rate figures and immigration] we also see the inadvertent return to the morality of seventh-century Arabia, with Muslim gangs scouring the streets of England, carrying out violent attacks on gays and mosques labelled as “moderate” calling for the murder of homosexuals at the hands of their congregation …. as Islam swallows up the culture and freedom of its hosts from the inside-out. “

I love historical dramas, I love costume dramas, I love dramas about British history, I love Robin Hood, I love Russell Crowe, and I love GLADIATOR.

So imagine my joyful anticipation as I set out, in the rain, to view the new Russell Crowe film, ROBIN HOOD. After seeing it, and paying SEVEN dollars for my medium sized popcorn, I still love Russell Crowe, just a lot less.

I admire Ridley Scott, I mean I was one of the three people who saw KINGDOM OF HEAVEN in a movie house.

Mr. Scott directed this version of ROBIN HOOD and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, in both I found something lacking.

My enjoyment of ROBIN HOOD was reduced by playing catch the borrowed scene; I saw scenes borrowed from BRAVEHEART, BECKET,THE LAST SAMURAI, CONAN THE BARBARIAN,THE PATRIOT, GENGHIS KHAN, EL CID, HENRY V (Branagh’s  version), HENRY V(Olivier’s version)  and GLADIATOR. Even scenes from Uwe Boll’s triumphantly horrible  adaption of a video game, IN THE NAME OF THE KING, DUNGEON SIEGE was thrown in. In fact I counted three times that the  famous scene from GLADIATOR, in which Russell Crowe, while on his white horse  is thrown a weapon, was replicated.

Even the white horse from GLADIATOR was replicated.

Two talents I admire do a film about a topic I am entranced by, and it is lacking. Why?

All you movie buffs out there, please do me a favor, go rent the DVD of the 1939 version of ROBIN HOOD starring Errol Flynn, Claude Rains and Olivia de Havilland. Put it on your DVD player, and then walk into the next room.

Don’t watch the film(even though it is visually stunning),listen to it.

The voices from those actors are enthralling; they are melodies from a symphony or a concerto, the bold, defiantly fresh voice of Errol Flynn, the sweet soothing voice of Olivia de Havilland and the slithering evil voice of Claude Rains, playing PRINCE JOHN.

Listen to Claude Rains play the evil PRINCE JOHN, with the tones of a snake come alive and you know the problem with both KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and ROBIN  HOOD. The villains stunk.

In GLADIATOR, Russell Crowe had a great villain, Joaquin Phoenix, who only wanted two things in his life, slaughter and incest.

ROBIN HOOD had the most nondescript villains ever; I assume they figured that the audience would know the bad guy was evil because his head was shaved( like the bad guy in THE MUMMY). But film is not wrestling.

Film is a higher form of art; the villain does not have to be the strongest guy on the screen, or the best fighter. The best villains are never brutes but sophisticates. The best villains are not the ones who will ravish and rape our daughters; the best villains are those that, if you leave them in the room with your daughter, or wife, or mother will seduce and corrupt them.

In KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, Jeremy Irons,with his voice, would have been a perfect villain rather than a throw away second lead. If you were going to borrow anything from that Uwe Boll film, steal Matt Lillard. He played a wonderful villain in it, and would have made a weaselly Prince John. 

What the old film makers knew then, and what  we don’t practice now, is that evil is cool,seductive, fun….evil is the slick who runs the brute.

As I sat there watchng all those nondescript villains in this version of ROBIN HOOD, I hungered for James Mason, George Sanders, Robert Douglas, Henry Daniell, Zachary Scott and Anthony Hopkins from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, actors with voices which could corrupt a convent.Evil is not in the look, or even the attitude,that is video game stuff; evil is in the voice, the mandate of film. Which is why George Lucas used the voice of James Earl Jones to punctuate the great evil of DARTH VADER( hey, I mean how evil would DARTH VADER have been with Woody Allen’s voice?).

I have three other quibbles with the film,  since I am a quibbler.

Catholic bashing, I firmly believe I can Catholic bash with the best of the British atheist class, but I will  not rewrite history to do it.  Medieval Catholics did not  cremate people; they buried people. Vikings cremated people. Hindus cremated people, pagan Romans cremated pecople. But Medieval Catholics, in the most Catholic time in world history, did not cremate people. Anyone interested enough to drag their asses to see a historical drama about medieval England, on a rainy day, knows that.

To see the medieval Catholic Sir Walter cremated in this film is a joke; it would be like showing a Medieval Muslim Salifist eating pork. The  audience cannot be held in contempt.

The female actor who played ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE…Good luck lady…if you are going to follow Katherine Hepburn in one of the great roles ever for women, playing one of the great women of all time, get some verve in your performance. I mean Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of THE Women in history, a combination of Helen of Troy, MEDEA and LADY MacBETH.

Eleanor as a character and historical figure is wonderful, every actress who protrays her, should ENJOY that experience and let the audience share that enjoyment, just look how much fun, FUN Katherine Hepburn had playing Eleanor in THE LION IN WINTER.  Just because you are in an historical drama does not mean you cannot have any fun.

Finally, Cate Blanchett. This is a great actor, I have been totally devoted to her since she had to fight off Dame Judy Dench’s attempts to rape the hell out of her  in that sensationally great film NOTES ON A SCANDAL; which forgive me, I found to be one of the great comedies of all time.

This is the worst performance I have ever seen Ms. Blanchett give; though I tried to enjoy  her playing  peasant, and milking every cow in England.

Russell Crowe is a great actor.

Ridley Scott is a great Director.

Cate Blanchett is a great actress.

Go rent NOTES ON A SCANDAL. 

SIDEBAR

“For much of history the Catholic Church banned cremation as a choice for dead Catholics, but in 1963 the Vatican lifted the ban. Cremation is now an acceptable practice for Catholics, but only if done for the right reasons.”

SIDEBAR II

ELEANOR of AQUITAINE

 Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful and fascinating personalities of feudal Europe. At age 15 she married Louis VII, King of France, bringing into the union her vast possessions from the River Loire to the Pyrenees.  Eleanor, attended by 300 of her ladies, went on a Crusade with her husband King Louis,  to help “tend the wounded.”

The presence of Eleanor, her ladies and wagons of female servants, was criticized by commentators throughout her adventure. Dressed in armor and carrying lances, she went Crusading.

The expedition did fail, and a defeated Eleanor and Louis returned to France in separate ships.

… In 1152 the marriage was annulled and her vast estates reverted to Eleanor’s control. 

Eleanor became engaged to the eleven years younger Henry II, Duke of the Normans. On 18 May 1152, eight weeks after the annulment of her first marriage, Eleanor married the Duke of the Normans. On 25 October 1154 her husband ascended the throne of the Kingdom of England, making Eleanor Queen of the English. Over the next thirteen years, she bore Henry eight children: five sons, two of whom would become king, and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. She was imprisoned between 1173 and 1189 for supporting her son Henry’s revolt against her husband, King Henry II.

Eleanor was widowed on 6 July 1189. Her husband was succeeded by their son, Richard the Lionheart, who immediately moved to release his mother. Now queen mother, Eleanor acted as a regent for her son while he went off on the Third Crusade. Eleanor survived her son Richard and lived well into the reign of her youngest son King John. By the time of her death she had outlived all of her children except for King John and Eleanor, Queen of Castile.”

 Claude Rains as PRINCE JOHN

 The evil George Sanders making a radiant Elizabeth Taylor an offer she dare not refuse.

Dame Judi Dench showing her platonic love for Cate Blanchett in one of the best comedies ever, NOTES ON A SCANDAL.

Robert Douglas

Henry Daniell

 The evil James Mason

The election of Scott Brown to the “Kennedy Seat” is finally cause for the appropriate use of that one word,all those inarticulate young ladies, who give interviews and Tweet, know, AMAZING. Their one word vocabulary finally fits.

Brown’s election is amazing on many levels, one being the current political situation, as a candidate he flat out said he would oppose health care reform, yet he won in a state,Massachusetts, in which Democrats outnumber Republicans, 3 to 1.

Historically, it is even more AMAZING. Massachusetts has always been ground zero in the political war between Protestants and Catholics in this country.  Massachusetts has been our Northern Ireland.

This started in 1834, “The Ursuline Convent Riots were riots that occurred on August 11 and August 12, 1834 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, near Boston in what is now Somerville, Massachusetts. During the riot, a convent of Roman Catholic Ursuline nuns was burned down by a Protestant mob.”

As I did my reesarch for my Civil War saga, THE BURDEN OF HEAVEN, I kept running into this Protestant Scotch/Irish versus Catholic Irish war, symbolized by the infamous NINA signs on job sites, NO IRISH NEED APPLY.

I know of only three films, in popular culture, which have touched this issue. In  GANGS OF NEW YORK, Martin Scorsese touched on it, with the characters played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neesom.

Our great Irish American, New Englander, Director John Ford covered it twice. Once, in the subplot of his masterpiece, FORT APACHE. The tension between the Henry Fonda Protestant Colonel and the Irish Sergeant Major,played by Ward Bond, is a wonderful encapsulation of NINA.

Finally Ford truly explored it in his interesting film, THE LAST HURRAH starring Spencer Tracy as the old Boston pol beaten by the telegenic newcomer.

The Protestant elite in Massachusetts were called the Boston Brahmins; they were not only an extraordinary clique of  bigots but also extraordinarily able and brave men. The finest example was Henry Cabot Lodge Junior, the grandson of the Henry Cabot Lodge who crushed Woodrow Wilson’s hope for a League of Nations.

Lodge Junior was a man who resigned his US Senate Seat to go fight in World War II, the first man to do that since the Civil War. While fighting in that war, he single handed captured a four man German patrol. Cabot Lodge was a great American patriot.

In 1952, this finest example of the Protestant elite, was beaten by John F. Kennedy, the Sir Galahad of Irish Catholics in the battle for Lodge’s regained Senate seat. The Irish Catholics had not only won a Senate Seat, but in winning that seat, had beaten the finest Boston Brahmin ever.

From 1952-2010 that seat was held by Democrats; Ted Kennedy, John’s brother held that seat for 47 years. The seat was more than just one slot among 100 Senators; it was a trophy for Irish Catholics. They had risen from NINA and taken it from the noblest of the Boston bigots.

This election of Scott Brown is totally remarkable in historical terms in that   “ Brown and his family are Protestant Christians, and worship at New England Chapel in Franklin, a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.”.

The people must be pretty angry to seat a Calvinist Protestant in a seat held by the exemplars of Irish American Catholics, the Kennedys. That alone should alert the Democrats to the depth of the anger abroad on the land.

Yesterday was Sunday, so I did the religious thing and watched the Dallas Cowboys on television; they lost.

So I went to see the new British film, THE INVENTION OF LYING, a comedy Directed by and starring  Ricky Gervais. Reading the reviews, I thought it would be a Romantic Comedy like GROUNDHOG DAY. It wasn’t; it was an anti religious, nay, an anti- Christian film, on the order of  the film, DOGMA,(Directed by Kevin Smith) or that lousy network TV program, THE BOOK OF DANIEL.

Then to cap my religious Sunday, I watched FAMILY GUY trash Jesus, mock Judaism and pat Islam on the head.

This is the ninth episode that I have seen,  in which FAMILY GUY has trashed Jesus; once it had Jesus doing a homoerotic shower bathing scene for STEWIE, a la Bathsheba.

All well and  good, free speech and all, I am proud of our anti religious,free thinking artists opposing the venal Christians.

Just for the record, if you truly desire to watch an interesting anti Christian film, which is damn good, rent THE LAST VALLEY. starring Michael Caine and Omar Sharif,  Written and Directed by James Clavell(who also wrote SHOGUN, TO SIR WITH LOVE and THE GREAT ESCAPE). It is about the Thirty Years War in Germany, between Catholics and Protestants, and has SOMETHING to say about the danger of religion.

I have also viewed anti Jewish work, a tawdy little film, A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES and an episode of FAMILY GUY about PETER  GRIFFIN and CHRISTOPHER GRIFFIN going to Las Vegas for a cheap bar mitzvah.

All well and  good, free speech and all, I am proud of our anti religious,free thinking artists opposing the venal Jews.   

I have seen THE SIMPSONS teasingly mock Buddhism and Hinduism, with HOMER, upon seeing APU’s Hindu shrine,state that APU must have been out taking a whizz when religions were handed out. I have also seen a SIMPSON’s episode in which the great Lord Buddha sits along side God, tossing popcorn chicken into God’s mouth.

All well and  good, free speech and all, I am proud of our anti religious,free thinking artists opposing the venal Buddhists and Hindus.

But remarkably, I have never seen any of our free thinking artists attack, mock or tease Islam. Imagine that. In fact, I have never seen a cartoon depiction of either Allah, or Muhammad by American anti religious free thinkers.

I wonder why?

In the old days, we had Americans such as Edward R. Murrow, or Alistar Cooke commenting on American social values. They extolled courage, courage against McCarthyism and Nazism, courage for free speech.

Ever since the Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh had his throat slit on an Amsterdam street, by an Islamic fanatic upset about his attacks on Islam, our brave free thinkers have failed to tease, or mock,or  defile, or attack, or satirize or taunt or doubt Islam.

In a world of venal Catholics, venal Christians, venal Mormons, venal Jews, venal Buddhists,venal Hindus, there  are remarkably No venal Muslims to our free thinking artists.

Yale University, that bastion of free thinking in our nation, the birthplace of DOONESBURY, is self censoring itself when it comes to Islam.

Memo to all you self censoring free thinkers, self censorship and cowardice will not serve you if indeed the Islamic terrorists win, and the Ummah is imposed.

The Ummah is the community in Islamic countries to which every believer belongs ; by definition, Christians and Jews are Peoples of the Book.

“n Islam, the People of the Book (Arabic: أهل الكتاب‎ ′Ahl al-Kitāb)^] are non-Muslim peoples who, according to the Qur’an, received scriptures which were revealed to them by God before the time of Muhammad, most notably Christians and Jews.”

Which means this, that if the ummah does come to the United States, Rev. James Dobson will be honored as one of the People of the Book, just taxed a little more. Whereas Seth MacFarlane and Kevin Smith, if the Ummah comes, will be STONED TO DEATH.

It is so ironic that the only way Jesus, Christians and Jews will get respect from Seth MacFarlane,Kevin Smith and Ricky Gervais is for Islam to win the Clash of Cultures in America.

We now have  young, hip commentators commenting on the American scene,  such as NEWSWEEK editor, Fareed Zakaria. His advice concerning free speech is this;

“Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International, a world affairs columnist and CNN host who serves on Yale’s governing board, said he told Yale that he believed publishing the images would have provoked violence.

“As a journalist and public commentator, I believe deeply in the First Amendment and academic freedom,” Zakaria said. “But in this instance Yale Press was confronted with a clear threat of violence and loss of life.”

• “By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer John Christoffersen, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 8, 6:40 am ET