Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bollywood acts Hollywood at Newark

I just can't make myself get worked up over THIS INFORMATION, can you?

A BIG, FAMOUS Indian actor I have never heard of (have you?) is said to have had the same name as someone on a list with Homeland Security, he's detained for an hour at an American airport to check that out and wait for a bag that was lost, and now he's NEVER coming here with his family and will cut down on his business travel due to an incident HE himself said was no big deal?

"Khan told reporters Tuesday after returning to Mumbai that the incident had been "blown out of proportion." But he said the questioning — which included requests for the names of people who could vouch for him — embarrassed him." Embarassed him if he's not guilty? WHY?
The Muslim actor was promoting his latest film, "My Name is Khan," about racial profiling after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. (I just can't wait to see that...)

They're burning flags in India over this (there's India again threatening China's status as the biggest polluter in the world).... What can we do to make it up to someone who is just another citizen whose name is similar to some bad guy's, and who spent one hour waiting to get that cleared up and figure out where a piece of baggage was, right? The articles haven't stopped since the day it happened. Man, America can just do NOTHING right these days, can it? I hope Mr. Obama doesn't pass up yet another opportunity to apologize for America.......I'll bet you do, too.
Do you get the sense people around the world are suddenly a bit more happy to pile it on America these days, especially now that we're appeasing and apologizing? Why can't people just say "Stuff happens, it wasn't fun, but so what?" THOSE were the days. geeeeeeeZ!
z

77 comments:

elmers brother said...

you tell him if he doesn't want to come back...big deal.

Steve: The Lightning Man said...

Wow...I was *so* hoping to catch that flick at the local cineplex.
I saw his other classics..."Khan I Get a Witness?", "The Khandyman Khan", and "International Lampoon's Mumbai Vacation".....

I laughed, I cried....it was better than "Cats"...I'll see it again and again.....
What a douchebag. No one knows who he is, and no one particularly cares, except him. And a billion crazed Indians with nukes.

Chuck said...

Your right, yawn.

Two things though:

-Why hasn't the press jumped on the Obama administration for this horrendous violation of civil liberty? All of a sudden the President has nothing to do with this?

-These same media people would be raising Hell if there were not checks and a terrorist got through and did something. Who would get blamed for this? You guessed it, George Bush.

Ducky's here said...

On one level it shows how insular we are.

He is know to more of the world than any American "actor" except maybe Brad Pitt. India sees it as an insult and you get some pent up hostility released.

You get a lot of folks who say no one knows who he is and demonstrate just how ignorant Americans are.

Jess said...

Khan who?

See, no big deal!

Ducky's here said...

No, Jess, it is a big deal.

Americans don't understand that the landscape is changing. There are other cultural centers in the world. The American dollar is losing it's position as the world reserve currency. We no longer have an important manufacturing position in anything but weaponry.

It's something we can come to grips with and adjust to (to everyone's advantage) or we continue our decline.

Steve Harkonnen said...

At the very same airport a few weeks ago - where we landed from Brussels, I watched a Muslim family get searched after a drug dog discovered they had brought oranges into our country, which is illegal. They were detained and the Muslim woman kept on rolling her eyes n disgust. At that moment I said to the agent "glad you guys are making these checks, I feel more secure already" while I glanced at the grimacing Muslim woman with a cold stare.

Yep. Sucks to be you, lady.

Steve Harkonnen said...

Oh! Don't you people know who Khan is? He's famous! I thought you'd all know who he is. He's only been in like, all of India's great films.

See, this means you all aren't spending enough time down at the Noir, where most of us hang out in our birkenstocks, where beforehand we're usually found mingling at the local Starbuck's reading the New York Times.

Oh, they showed Harvey Milk the other week down there. A must see for all. He was the greatest gay man ever and even got a medal last week from our prethident.

elmers brother said...

yeah it sucks duhkkky when people are trying to kill us and we have to protect ourselves...now he'll go back to India where it's ten times as bad

Ducky's here said...

I'm curious, Steve. What do you think of Satyajit Ray's use of bounce lighting and it's influence on French cinematographers like Coutard? Or have you ever seen one of Ray's or Ghatak's films?

Just a rhetorical question.

I notice you mention "Milk". Man you guys are predictable. And your lack of awareness is astonishing.

Right Truth said...

I never heard of him. Hey, that's the price you pay for traveling to America these days. I've been pulled over for full body scan and I don't have a name that sounds dangerous, I'm a woman, White, Southern, didn't matter. I didnt' complain, it's part of our security now.

Our friend married a man whose name is Ali Mohammed Kahn, he's indian, born in America, completely americanized, runs the local Bar-Grill-Restaurant where hubby's band plays. I'm more dangerous to the country that he would ever be, ha. His wife won't use his last name when traveling. She uses her maiden name.

Deborah F. Hamilton
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

Deborah F. Hamilton
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

FrogBurger said...

Ducky once again thinks we're idiots b/c we don't know anything about Indian cinema. Well we can't know about everything.

Also he's famous to a lot of people. That's right. India has a billion people.

But you're right on America's decline with the dollar and manufacturing. That's why your goons want to make it worse by over taxing and over regulating.

I'm predictable too. I'm French and I dislike Coutard and all that nouvelle vague cinema or Godard. It's oftentimes boring and pretentiously intellectual. I'm sorry to say this again but I think America makes better movie. I've seen better acting, better story telling and better production quality in American movies. That's why they've dominated the industry.

Z said...

Elbro, that was my feeling.

Steve...I LOVE "The Khandyman Khan"...!

Chuck..they'd be all OVER Bush for HIS DEPARTMENT making these 'awful errors'....THE ONE is impervious.

Ah, Ducky, I bow to your amazing breadth of knowledge. It's humbling to know that an American knows who Khan is! And to THINK no American actors but Pitt are THIS BIG! I'd love proof of that, of course, but....
No, Ducky, I hate to remind you but American film have always had quite an influence on the world (psst, I think Bollywood is fashioned AFTER Hollywood..)
I know it's very hard for you to admire anything American but some of us just can't help it.
And yes, the cultural center will change; the Left's made it pretty difficult for America anymore....the constant negativity HERE has translated THERE, we know that. The Europeans I know are shocked; the TElegraph asks how a sitting president can apologize for AMerica, etc. Ya, it's changing...the miserable America-hating left is getting its way. Congratulations.


Steve..they know they should be above being checked because they're Muslims...POOR things. They earned that right when 9.11 gave THEM the victim card. Go figure. "..at the Noir"..~! LOL! LOVE that.

Debbie, it's okay for YOU to get scanned, but let a foreigner and their country's burning our flags.

And WE have such a "lack of awareness!" heh

Z said...

FrogBurger...a billion Indians love Khan. Good point.
And, yes, I saw a lot of French films and liked some while living there, but the lines are at the American theaters..you know that, too.
But,now we'll be told we like PeeWee Reese because he's the lowest common denominator and that's how some people try to make points here.

elmers brother said...

just a reminder -

duhkkky's more of a conservative then he likes to admit. Supposedly he's working hard editing commercials or whatever it is he does and earning 6 figures...hardly an example of a leftist sucking on the public teat.

AND if he had any REAL conviction about the things he says he'd leave that 6 figure income and make propaganda films in Cuba. Instead he's benefitting from the free market and trying to cut off his nose to spite his face.

who can have respect for a hypocrite like that?

the man/it has no courage.

namaste said...

who?!! is he a blogger? ugh. well, never mind.

elmers brother said...

duhkkky's more of a conservative then he likes to admit. Supposedly he's working hard editing commercials or whatever it is he does and earning 6 figures...hardly an example of a leftist sucking on the public teat.

not to mention the fact that he's stayed married to a woman he hasn't lived with for years because it goes against the CHURCH.

The man is a walking contradiction.

elmers brother said...

I notice you mention "Milk". Man you guys are predictable. And your lack of awareness is astonishing.

duhkkky you're usually the one who uses the Pee Wee Herman school of calling someone gay.

"...I know you're gay but what am I?"

so stuff it

elmers brother said...

Enjoy a picnic once in awhile duhkkky, it's amazing what a little freedom can do to a person.

Z said...

Elbro, I just read that picnic piece and sent it to a dear Hungarian friend of ours.
Everyone LOVES socialism so much it's a wonder they'd want to escape, isn't it? :-)

Ducky's here said...

not to mention the fact that he's stayed married to a woman he hasn't lived with for years because it goes against the CHURCH.

---------------------

Actually no elmo, we have a civil divorce. However, the marriage was not annulled by the Catholic church.

elmers brother said...

I stand corrected duhkky when it comes to marriage you're typical

Ducky's here said...

I'm amazed that you brought the Hungarian event up, z.

Hungary had been an exponent of "The Third Way" for some time and pretty much puts the lie to the idea that communism fell because of St. Ronnie Raygun.

I've always stated that one of the most disgusting aspects of Raygun worship is the failure to admit how much of the heavy lifting was done by resistance movements like Solidarnosc and others in Eastern Europe and inside the Soviet Union.

Once again you inadvertently demonstrated the virtual irrelevance of the American far right.

FrogBurger said...

The good thing about Puky's comment is that it highlights there's a correlation between economic development and the flourishing of arts. So would that mean that growth spurred by a more capitalistic society allows arts to develop?

Thanks Ducky for reminding that a capitalistic and free society is better for the arts.

We agree for once.

Z said...

Oh, DUCKY! You show your cards so easily.

GEE, all us lunkheads thought Reagan was the ONLY reason the wall fell. We all thought everyone hated Socialism but was just WAITING for AN AMERICAN PRESIDENT to say KNOCK DOWN THAT WALL!!

WHO KNEW there were unsatisfied people IN those countries dying to get out and that others in the same situation would understand and HELP THEM! (yes, not a 'bit' of sarcasm here..TONS)

Thanks for making MY point that more than just Americans hate Socialism, Ducky.
The Third Way isn't loved by too many leftards here in America, Ducky..you'd better be careful; they don't like it because it's not LEFT enough.

Of course Eastern Europeans believed in a Third Way....they couldn't bring themselves to dream that capitalism would finally thrive there and they'd become so used to socialism they were a bit uneasy about leaving it completely.

Ducky's here said...

... and remember, z, one thing they sure DID NOT dismantle was public option health insurance.

FrogBurger said...

and what's the point? Does that mean it works?

elmers brother said...

Once again you inadvertently demonstrated the virtual irrelevance of the American far right.

Yeah duhkkky all those right wingers trying leave Communist East Germany...irrlevent.

FrogBurger said...

Ducky has no sense of logic at all, Elmer. And no sense of the political spectrum. He's using "far right" as he would use the word "bad". That's how he proves his points. Because so far all my questions to him to make his points get unanswered. I feel like I'm talking to a teenager and he's 55 according to his profile.

elmers brother said...

Once again you inadvertently demonstrated the virtual irrelevance of the American far right.

and the policies of the American left prompted Gorbachev to promote Glasnost and freedom throughout Eastern Europe.../sarcasm

which BTW was the reason those people felt they could meet for a picnic in the first place

Anonymous said...

There is an obvious difference in the attitude of those manning the border crossing points since 9/11. I've certainly cut back on the number of times that I've crossed into the USA from Canada since then, and mostly because of this detectable attitude which I find disgusting and offensive. Kind of the attitude of the jack-booted Nazi, IMO, and it's flaunted because these apparent zeroes relish their moment of power and glory, I guess.

Waylon

elmers brother said...

Kind of the attitude of the jack-booted Nazi, IMO, and it's flaunted because these apparent zeroes relish their moment of power and glory, I guess.

You mean those running security at the border?

elmers brother said...

They do have the power and authority.

elmers brother said...

you should go places like South Korea Waylon, where you have to go through three levels of security to GET OUT of the airport.

FrogBurger said...

Waylon my worst experience at a border was when my family entered into Canada when we visited both the US and Canada when I was a teen. We didn't feel welcome at all and we were just tourists.

And there was no terrorism at all at that time.

Z said...

Great, Ducky...next time anybody in Europe's sick, I know they'll go dashing to Budapest or Bucharest for help instead of the American Hospital in Paris (where they DO go, incidentally)

thanks.

FrogBurger said...

Z, actually more and more Europeans, including French, now go to Thailand for healthcare b/c you get it quick and cheap. At my last trip back home, I was watching the French equivalent of 60 minutes about that.

Z said...

Man, FrogBurger, the LAST place I'd go is Thailand for healthcare..thankfully, we didn't need it when we were there but NO WAY.
There are Americans who go to Mexico for cheaper work, too. That'll be the DAY for me. Maybe all these French and Americans are just braver than I am...or more trusting. Give me my American doctors ANY time!

FrogBurger said...

I'd go if I get free massages. JOKING :)

Anonymous said...

The point is that there is too much inconsistency. The southern border remained practically open allowing unimpeded entry to the country, and IMO, there is much more danger in those crossing from Mexico into America since they travel all the way from South America and Central America to get there. With more countries involved in processing potential enemies and having different attitudes to America, it just seems ridiculous to impose even tighter restriction on the northern border, and Canada and the USA are each others biggest markets for the goods that cross the border. More and more time is wasted by trucks crossing either direction, since it only follows that if one country imposes tighter restrictions that the other will follow suit.

FrogBurger, My experience is not from one trip across but several Anybody could have one agent who is having a bad day and that forms the basis for the conclusion. What I've experienced has been at more than one border crossing and involves several crossings. The difference in attitudes is obvious to any who have enjoyed the previous relatively easy access between the two countries in the years before 9/11.

I agree, Elmer's Brother, they do have the power and authority to deny you entry to the country, and people have the choice not to go. I've even heard of some people being so pissed about be interrogated for several hours that instead of continuing into the country on their trip, they've said 'screw it' and returned home after the interrogation was over.

Waylon

FrogBurger said...

I agree. The Southern border should be much more monitored or at least as much. But see we have politicians who are more interested in importing poverty to get voters or cater to their lobbies.

I must admit I don't like coming back from overseas and checking in at customs in the US. I dislike the questioning very much about why I went on a vacation.

But it's only once in a while and it's a detail in the greater scheme of things.

And the welcome back is nice. You should see the French border agents. There's no difference between those guys and people who work at the US Post Office.

Joe said...

Hold it! Hold it! Everyone's piling on Ducky! We should be so very grateful for the depth of his insights, the bredth of his factoids and the width of his ego!

Why, just when we need a good lecture on the evils and ignorance of America, along comes Ducky to set all of us idiots straight.

The rest of the world is wonderful and we Americans are so ininformed and shallow. Why we don't even know who the movie stars are in India.

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I don't even know who Brad Pitt is. I've heard the name, but I wouldn't recognize him if he bit me on the butt.

I can guarantee you this, though, if he DID bite me on the butt he would know who I am almost immediately.

He would also know what poor taste I am.....have.

Thanks, Ducky. May you get what you deserve.

Z said...

FrogBurger, as long as the 'massages' aren't in cages! : -)
And, you're right about French customs, but we girls can smile and they KIND OF 'wake up'!! Heh heh!

Joe! I know LOTS of women who'd love to have Brad Pitt bite them on the butt (LOL!)
It only speaks volumes for your character and breadth of interests that you DON'T know exactly who he is..bravo, Joe! But, DO NOT tell me you didn't know who this Indian actor KHAN was, when "more people know him in the world than any actor than Pitt!" When India has a BILLION people (smile!)

elmers brother said...

Waylon I couldn't agree with you more. The state I live is the largest port of entry for illegal immigrants. There are ranchers on the border who can't even use their property for all the filth and human excrement left behind.

It should be tougher to get in.

Z said...

Elbro, the fact that this country's putting up with that says a LOT more about US than it does about the illegals, don't you think?

And ALL in the name of leftard POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. God FORBID we DEMAND they stop and put some teeth in our methodology to GET them to.

But, of course, when WE don't appear to mind, why should they?
We give the free healthcare instead......on US, of course. "WHAT A COUNTRY"

Ducky's here said...

... and yet Joe you probably join elmo in talking about the ubiquitous "they" who "want to kill us" while virtually admitting that you know virtually nothing about "them".

No, I make no apologies for being a very strong proponent of experiencing some world culture and discovering that "they" seem to have the same concerns that we do.

FrogBurger said...

What kind of concern? Concerned by the fact we're checking on some people because of terrorism? Or concern about terrorism? Please specify. Mucha gracias. Merci beaucoup. Danke Schon. Cam on.

elmers brother said...

and duhkkky as I recall you didn't even know the difference between Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism

elmers brother said...

No, I make no apologies for being a very strong proponent of experiencing some world culture and discovering that "they" seem to have the same concerns that we do.

I bet I'm more of a world traveler and understand this far better than you ever could.

I won't apologize for using "they" because it refers to anyone who wishes to do us harm.

Anonymous said...

Oh for heaven's sake. Burning flags over an actor being questioned?

Ducky, they have the same concerns we have? Would you burn an Indian flag if an American actor were questioned in an Indian airport?

I'd say they don't have big concerns at all if they'd riot over something so trivial.

Actually, I can think of a few American actors I'd ask them to keep!

You know Ducky, the minute I wake up every morning I think about "bounce lighting". I just can't get it off my mind!

Pris

Chuck said...

"I'd say they don't have big concerns at all if they'd riot over something so trivial."

LMAO

IMHO most of these "riots" are manufactured so that idiots in the US (not mentioning any names) can get so excited they wet their pants over the hatred for America around the world.

Z said...

OH, darn..you're all so much smarter than I am :-(

Great remarks..thanks SO much. I keep saying THE VERY BEST thing about blogging is the great comments. Thanksxx

Anonymous said...

Can't we just let this guy have a beer with the President and then be on his way, end of story?


tiob

Anonymous said...

Judging from that picture, Jose Canseco looks like he's lost a lot of weight since getting off the sauce.

tio b

Z said...

tio, he DOES look like Canseco!
And yes...have a BEER SUMMIT...or a RAITA SUMMIT, how's THAT?

I think the Indian drink is TAN, isn't it? :-)

Anonymous said...

Gosh. If knowing Indian actors is a measure of intellect or sophistication, I'm FLUNKING!

I don't recognize many 'hot hollywood' celebs.

bboooo hoooo...

guess I'm paying attention to the wrong things.

elmers brother said...

no Jen you're not, it's just duhkkky's measure of culture is between the fours walls of a museum or a cinema

hanging out with real people isn't in the cards for duhkkky (lacks people skills, if you know what I mean)

Ducky's here said...

You know Ducky, the minute I wake up every morning I think about "bounce lighting". I just can't get it off my mind!

------------------------

I know Pris, it's pretty arcane. Myself, I prefer natural light and a fast film stock. I've still got my old 35mm Eclair but it's tough getting parts. I took down the motor and cleaned it a few months ago.

It was written in reference to an particularly ignorant poster. I've just kinda had it with the way these guys have trashed our popular culture.

elmers brother said...

why shouldn't our pop culture be trashed. The Marcusians have screwed us and we've taken it in the a**. We have to fight every step of the way to protect our children and you think we should embrace it?

Ducky's here said...

Protect your children from what, elmo?

I know what's coming but the extent of the paranoia is always a shock.

elmers brother said...

PC bulls**t.

William S. Lind has argued that "cultural marxism" is a dominant strain in American left, and associate it with a philosophy to 'destroy Western civilization.'[8] Buchanan has asserted that the Frankfurt School commandeered the American mass media, and used this cartel to infect the minds of Americans.[citation needed] Lind makes a bolder claim when he writes, "Political Correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economic into cultural terms. It is an effort that goes back not to the 1960s and the hippies and the peace movement, but back to World War I. If we compare the basic tenets of Political Correctness with classical Marxism the parallels are very obvious."[9] Lind is making an explicit charge that changes in language standards in recent decades have made US citizens "afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic" and that such changes can be attributed to the influence of cultural Marxists

elmers brother said...

duhkkky you still lack the courage of your convictions? Still reap the benefits of captialism while at the same time try to bring it down?

go on with your bad self

elmers brother said...

On the one hand duhkkky you've trashed movies that for some reason you associate with conservatives and then tell us that we should appreciate a culture that argues for a politics based on the striving towards pleasure.

elmers brother said...

You know every time I see anything to do with Paul Bart Mall Cop, I think of you.

elmers brother said...

how about a society that promotes unbridled sex? or not taking responsibility for the consequences of all that hedonism?

or the moral relativism so prominent in that school of thought?

you've said yourself that you have a pantheon of gods

you think that's paranoia?

then I suggest you go watch Breathless and escape into real life

elmers brother said...

so do you think Gramsci was wrong duhkkky? that Chrisitianity does not have to be destroyed for the people to rise up and throw capitalism on its ear?

The West would have to be de-Christianized, said Gramsci, by means of a "long march through the culture."

Ducky's here said...

That's odd elmo. Your blessed free market controls the distribution venues and films them with unadulterated crap and you blame the left.

Fascinating.

Also, if you are using the gospels to defend capitalism you are practicing a really strange Christianity.

Have to admit I was surprised that you didn't bring up homosexuality.

elmers brother said...

well duhkkky the long march to 'multiculturalism' is paved with the likes of Lukacks radical sex education and cultural terrorism tactics.

Gramsci's ‘long march' was added to the mix, and then all of this was wedded to Freudian psychoanalysis and psychological conditioning techniques. The end product was Cultural Marxism, now known in the West as multiculturalism.

Hungary's youth, having been fed a steady diet of values-neutral (atheism) and radical sex education while simultaneously encouraged to rebel against all authority, easily turned into delinquents ranging from bullies and petty thieves to sex predators, murderers, and sociopaths.

I can use the Bible to defend against those.

elmers brother said...

it was your 'free love' generation duhkkky that brought us the sexual revolution...so yes I can blame the Left and those like Gramsci and Lukacks whose goal is/was to separate us from our Judeo/Christian values through the use of cultural terrorism.

elmers brother said...

BTW duhkkky you'd find it much much more difficult to defend Gramsci using scripture

elmers brother said...

see if this mantra isn't familiary duhkkky:

"I believe in nothing and am tolerant of everything!"

FrogBurger said...

"Also, if you are using the gospels to defend capitalism you are practicing a really strange Christianity. "

Defending the left, which has killed Christians, Jews and others is not practicing Christianity either.

I understand that having Christian faith may lead to believe in government intervention to help the poor, but defending the American scientific left, which despises religion*s*, God, family values, civil society support networks, private property, life i.e. the foundations for human survival is directly against Christin beliefs.

Ducky's here said...

Damn, before the 60's nobody had sex. Who knew.

Girls never got pregant out of wedlock (but they were always mysteriously disappearing from high school). Yeah, the good old days, right elmo. Everything was great when they didn't show Elvis's hips on TV. Bore me later.

Gramsci certainly is correct stating that popular culture can treat people like a bunch of suckers. That is true elmo.

Z said...

Ducky, culture works better, children thrive better, with two different-sex parents.
Christian societies have thrived better, too...more innovation, more kindness, conscience, dare I say SHAME?

Yes, people had sex before the Sixties but not in the street.

We're a bare level above dogs in America anymore..and Television and film is taking that to an art. We have Oregonian woman running outside their house to was the car naked because they FEEL LIKE IT...damn the children in the nieghborhood..WHO CARES ABOUT THEM?

Decency is better. It just IS. Sex is fabulous and should stay fabulous...but the kind of sex the Sixties promoted was debauched and hasn't done anything good for our country.

elmers brother said...

Girls never got pregant out of wedlock (but they were always mysteriously disappearing from high school). Yeah, the good old days, right elmo. Everything was great when they didn't show Elvis's hips on TV. Bore me later.

I wasn't the one decrying the fact that somehow 'we' 'us' or 'them' don't appreciate pop culture.

Pop culture reeks.

elmers brother said...

so duhkkky you agree with Gramsci? Christianity has to be destroyed?

elmers brother said...

so duhkkky you think we should 'appreciate' pictures of a pantiless Britany Spears getting out of a limo?