Because Woody Allen's early films are about as funny as any ever made, it is often assumed that his temperament is essentially comic, which leads to all manner of disappointment and misunderstanding. Now and then, Mr. Allen tries to clear up the confusion, insisting, sometimes elegantly and sometimes a little too baldly, that his view of the world is essentially nihilistic. He has announced, in movie after movie, an absolute lack of faith in any ordering moral principle in the universe - and still, people think he's joking.
In "Match Point," his most satisfying film in more than a decade, the director once again brings the bad news, delivering it with a light, sure touch. This is a Champagne cocktail laced with strychnine. You would have to go back to the heady, amoral heyday of Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder to find cynicism so deftly turned into superior entertainment. At the very beginning, Mr. Allen's hero, a young tennis player recently retired from the professional tour, explains that the role of luck in human affairs is often underestimated. Later, the harsh implications of this idea will be evident, but at first it seems as whimsical as what Fred Astaire said in "The Gay Divorcée": that "chance is the fool's name for fate."
Mr. Allen's accomplishment here is to fool his audience, or at least to misdirect us, with a tale whose gilded surface disguises the darkness beneath. His guile - another name for it is art - keeps the story moving with the fleet momentum of a well-made play. Comparisons to "Crimes and Misdemeanors" are inevitable, since the themes and some elements of plot are similar, but the philosophical baggage in "Match Point" is more tightly and discreetly packed. There are few occasions for speech-making, and none of the desperate, self-conscious one-liners that have become, in Mr. Allen's recent movies, more tics than shtick. Nor is there an obvious surrogate for the director among the youthful, mostly British and altogether splendid cast. If you walked in after the opening titles, it might take you a while to guess who made this picture.
After a while you would, of course. The usual literary signposts are in place: surely no other screenwriter could write a line like "darling, have you seen my copy of Strindberg?" or send his protagonist to bed with a paperback Dostoyevsky. But while a whiff of Russian fatalism lingers in the air - and more than a whiff of Strindbergian misogyny - these don't seem to be the most salient influences. The film's setting is modified Henry James (wealthy London, with a few social and cultural outsiders buzzing around the hives of privilege); the conceit owes something to Patricia Highsmith's Ripley books; and the narrative engine is pure Theodore Dreiser - hunger, lust, ambition, greed.
Not that the tennis player, Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), seems at first to be consumed by such appetites. An Irishman of modest background, he takes a job at an exclusive London club, helping its rich members polish their ground strokes. He seems both easygoing and slightly ill at ease, ingratiating and diffident. Before long, he befriends Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), the amiable, unserious heir to a business fortune, who invites Chris to the family box at the opera. From there, it is a short trip to an affair with Tom's sister, Chloe (Emily Mortimer), a job in the family firm and the intermittently awkward but materially rewarding position of son-in-law to parents played by Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton.
When "Match Point" was shown in Cannes last spring, some British critics objected that its depiction of London was inaccurate, a demurral that New Yorkers, accustomed to visiting Mr. Allen's fantasy Manhattan, could only greet with weary shrugs and sighs. Uprooting a script originally set in the Hamptons and repotting it in British soil has refreshed and sharpened the story, which depends not on insight into a particular social situation, but rather on a general theory of human behavior. London is Manhattan seen through a glass, brightly: Tate Modern stands in for the Museum of Modern Art; Covent Garden takes the place of Lincoln Center. As for the breathtaking South Bank loft into which Chris and Chloe move, it will satisfy the lust for high-end real estate that has kept the diehards in their seats during Mr. Allen's long creative malaise.
In this case, though, what happens in the well-appointed rooms and fashionable restaurants is more interesting than the architecture or the décor. Mr. Rhys-Meyers has an unusual ability to keep the audience guessing, to draw us into sympathetic concord even as we're trying to figure him out. Is he a cipher or a sociopath? A careful social climber or a reckless rake? The first clue that he may be something other than a mild, well-mannered sidekick comes when Chris meets Tom's fiancée, an American actress named Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), in a scene that raises the movie's temperature from a polite simmer to a full sexual boil. (The scene also quietly acknowledges a debt to "A Place in the Sun," George Stevens's adaptation of Dreiser's "American Tragedy." The parallels don't stop there. Mr. Rhys-Meyers's hollow-cheeked watchfulness recalls Montgomery Clift. Which makes Ms. Johansson either the next Elizabeth Taylor or the new Shelley Winters. Hmm).
What passes between Chris and Nola is not only desire, but also recognition, which makes their connection especially volatile. As their affair advances, Ms. Johansson and Mr. Rhys-Meyers manage some of the best acting seen in a Woody Allen movie in a long time, escaping the archness and emotional disconnection that his writing often imposes. It is possible to identify with both of them - and to feel an empathetic twinge as they are ensnared in the consequences of their own heedlessness - without entirely liking either one.
But it is the film's brisk, chilly precision that makes it so bracingly pleasurable. The gloom of random, meaningless existence has rarely been so much fun, and Mr. Allen's bite has never been so sharp, or so deep. A movie this good is no laughing matter.
"Match Point" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has some steamy (though not explicit) sex scenes and a few moments of shocking violence.
Match Point
Opens today in New York and Los Angeles.
Written and directed by Woody Allen; director of photography, Remi Adefarasin; edited by Alisa Lepselter; production designer, Jim Clay; produced by Letty Aronson, Gareth Wiley and Lucy Darwin; released by DreamWorks Pictures. Running time: 124 minutes.
It is commonplace to read each day in the most prestigious newspapers (Financial Times, New York Times, London Times, Washington Post) of Israeli "retaliation"/ The reportage frequently mentions a Palestinian attack on an Israeli colonial settlement in the West Bank or urban population center in Israel. The action and reaction always is located in a limited time frame. Palestinian action is always the initial moment and the Israeli military attack is always described as a response or "retaliatory" and therefore, presumably a form of defensive action, "justifiable". Thus what appears as objective reportage on two sets of military actions, is in fact an arbitrary selection of time frames which lays the basis for a highly biased interpretive framework. The pro-Israeli tilt, evident in the chosen time sequence, and the framework, are derived from the general ideological argument which portrays Israel as a democracy, defending itself from Arab-Muslim terrorists and not an expansionist colonial power engaged in violent ethnic cleansing and large-scale long-term forced population expulsion.
What is absent from the reportage of the prestigious "news" accounts is the sequence of events preceding the Palestinian attacks. Here we are likely to find a series of Israeli military incursions, bombings and killing of non-combatants, summary executions of political prisoners, as well as arbitrary arrests, home demolitions and illegal (even by colonial standards) land seizures.
An examination of readily available, well-documented weekly reports by Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), throws a wholly different light on the context and framework for understanding the sequence of events and, equally important, the nature and goals of the Israeli state.
For the week of December 8-14, 2005, the PCHR recorded:
- 10 Palestinians killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of which 7 of victims were extra-judicially executed by the IOF in the Gaza Strip.
- 34 Palestinian civilians, including 17 children were wounded by the IOF.
- IOF attacked civilian targets in the Gaza Strip
- IOF conducted 40 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank
- Houses were raided and 91 Palestinian civilians; including, university professors, parliamentary candidates and 4 children were arrested.
- The closure of the Moslem Youth Association in Hebron for 2 years
- A Palestinian house was seized, its occupants evicted and it was transformed into an IOF military site.
- IOF continued a total siege on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
- IOF arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including 6 children, at various checkpoints in the West Bank.
- IOF used rubber-coated metal bullets to disperse peaceful demonstrations protesting the Annexation Wall wounding a child and 6 demonstrators.
- Israeli settlers continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property in the OPT, while the IOF confiscated land from several Palestinian villages, near Bethlehem, Hebron and Jerusalem evicting 30 Palestinian families.
In this context Palestinian military actions are clearly defensive of community, family and livelihood.
A survey of previous reports covering 2005, indicates that the data for the week of December 8-14, 2005 was fairly representative of Israeli activity. If we were to multiply the weekly findings by years: 52 X 5 X military assaults???? We would capture the magnitude of Israeli offensive military action. The overwhelming evidence, both in terms of scale, scope and time frame of Israeli military attacks clearly points to persistent Israeli offensive activities linked to territorial expansion, colonial oppression and ethnic cleansing.
The indiscriminant attacks on civilians and children, the systematic destruction and blockage of essential transportation and travel routes, and the vigorous application of policies of collective guilt (arresting family members of suspected guerrillas, the blowing up of family homes of suspects) have everything to do with destroying the basis of economic activity, the social fabric of civil society and family networks.
The empirical evidence provides the basis for concluding that Israeli military attacks on Palestinians, by their systematic and continuous nature, are not retaliatory; they are clearly detonators of Palestinian military responses. Israelis are not victims rather victimizers, as it evident from a multiplicity of actions: seizing homes, land, prisoners, transport routes etc. The initiative and design of the Israeli actions are directed at intimidating and impoverishing Palestinians and ultimately forcing them to abandon their country to achieve the goal of a "pure Jewish state" based on rabbinically approved "blood ties" not dissimilar from previous racialist clerical regimes.
The respectable media's constant reiteration of the colonialist "retaliatory" rhetoric can be seen as a propaganda weapon designed to obfuscate Israeli ethnic cleansing and its military expansion, and the underlying racialist-clerical underpinnings of its strategic goal of a pure Jewish state. The media's choice of works – adjectives and verbs – is part of a cultural war, which is embedded in the structural hegemony of pro-Israeli followers and supporters.
New York Jets fans hold up a sign during the last ABC Monday night NFL football game, Dec
'Monday Night Football' Ends 36-Year Run
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 12:15 AM EST The Associated Press By CONNOR ENNIS
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Al Michaels turned to Frank Gifford, patted his former broadcast partner on shoulder and said simply: "I can't thank you enough."
Football fans feel the same way about "Monday Night Football."
After 36 years on ABC, the television phenomenon concluded its network run with a game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets.
The best highlights, however, were provided not by players in helmets and pads — but characters in yellow blazers and outdated hairdos, talking into ancient microphones and chomping cigars.
The 555th broadcast opened with — who else? — the most recognizable voice in "Monday Night Football" history: Howard Cosell.
Thus began a night that was less a football game than an excuse to queue up the highlight reel. ABC sprinkled in bits of footage that defined the show through the years, from Cosell's outrageous pontificating to Don Meredith's drawling serenades.
Meredith even saved one last rendition for this show: "Turn out the lights, the party's over ... " came the familiar strains as the fourth quarter began. Standing before a black backdrop, Meredith pumped a fist and shook his head as he finished the verse.
"Monday Night Foobtall," he said softly, smiling with a twinkle in his eye.
Famous faces such as John Lennon, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Richard Simmons appeared during a halftime montage that illustrated how the program was as much entertainment as sport. The segment even featured a few seconds from last season's controversial pregame skit featuring Eagles receiver Terrell Owens and a towel-clad Nicollette Sheridan from "Desperate Housewives."
The series switches networks next season, when ESPN begins an eight-year deal in which it will pay $1.1 billion per year for Monday night rights.
"The game will continue," Michaels said. "But the ABC era of 'Monday Night Football' comes to an end tonight."
And it concluded with yet another stinker of a game, a problem that came to plague "MNF" year after year. But that's how it goes when the schedule is set months in advance, and ABC used halftime and other breaks to showcase the show's legacy rather than talk about the meaningless game between the playoff-bound Patriots and dismal Jets.
New England won 31-21 — the same score the Jets lost by in the first "Monday Night Football" against the Cleveland Browns in 1970.
"Obviously we're celebrating a 36-year legacy on ABC and the end of an era but we're also celebrating the start of a new era with this great property on ESPN," George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN and ABC Sports, said before the game. "It's a bit of mixed emotions."
Michaels called the program "the perfect marriage of sports and prime time." In the booth, partner John Madden reminisced how, even as coach of the Oakland Raiders, he sensed there was "something special about this."
How right he was.
The show came a long way from its beginnings as a risky experiment that defied the American football tradition of high school on Friday, college on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday.
On Sept. 21, 1970, "MNF" kicked off what would be the longest prime-time sports series in television history with the New York Jets at Cleveland. Keith Jackson, Meredith and Cosell were in the booth and, it soon became evident, America was watching.
It became appointment television, with the interplay between the Cosell and Meredith providing almost as much entertainment as the play on the field. A clip shown during the game had Cosell describing Meredith as "uniquely qualified" to talk about a moribund team because he had once quarterbacked a team to an 0-11-1 record. "I could have done better than 0-11-1," Meredith growled back after correcting that he hadn't been the quarterback of that team.
"That was one of the craziest dynamics — in fact, the craziest in broadcasting," Michaels said after the clip. "I can't think of anything like it."
When Gifford replaced Jackson in the booth for the show's second season, the ratings only went up.
"It seemed to work," Gifford said. "People seemed to like it."
Those announcers have long been gone — though Gifford was at Giants Stadium for the finale Monday night and joined Michaels in the booth at halftime — but the program has retained a distinct position in the landscape of American culture.
"'Monday Night Football' and the bubble-gum card — that was kind of important being in the league if you could do that," Jets coach Herman Edwards said.
It's provided many memorable moments, from Tony Dorsett's record-setting 99-yard touchdown run in 1983 to Brett Favre's emotional 399-yard, four-touchdown performance the night after his father's death. On Dec. 8, 1980, it was Cosell who announced that Lennon had been shot and killed.
Even the show's misses were interesting: When ratings began to dip, comedian Dennis Miller was hired to be part of the announcing team. He lasted two seasons, though a clip showed Monday night proved he did predict Arnold Schwarzenegger would one day be the governor of California.
"You look at the body of work that has been completed here over 36 years: the great games, the stars, the story lines, the part of Americana that 'Monday Night Football' is, it's really a magnificent piece of work," Bodenheimer said.
With the fracturing of television and the viewing options that have developed in the era of cable, "Monday Night Football" no longer holds the same position it once did. But it is still a top ratings performer week in and week out and its intro — capped by Hank Williams Jr.'s rhetoric "Are you ready for some football?" — are instantly recognizable.
And players still realize its significance. After all, Monday night is still a prime-time showcase, a place to show the country what a team, or a player, is made of.
"It's good to know we're going to be the last one," linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. "That makes it that much more special for us. We're going to be in the history books as the last Monday night game on ABC."
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 4:29 AM EST The Associated Press By ANDREA ADELSON
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — When Mike Vrabel trotted onto the field for the second time with the Patriots offense, everyone knew what to expect. Another touchdown.
Somehow, Jets cornerback David Barrett missed the memo. The standout linebacker scored two touchdowns on Barrett, taking the spotlight in the "Monday Night Football" finale on ABC as the Patriots beat the uninspired Jets 31-21.
Vrabel is known for his touchdown prowess on offense. He had already scored on a 1-yard catch in the first quarter. His 2-yard grab in the second quarter came on the same exact play. Barrett said he goofed both times.
"One touchdown's awesome, but two," Vrabel said.
Exactly why Barrett was so frustrated.
"It's not like me to make stupid mistakes like that, but if you weren't human you wouldn't make mistakes," Barrett said. "I was frustrated about it. You don't want the same thing to happen two times in a row."
The game marked the end ABC's 35-year "Monday Night Football" run. It began with a 31-21 Jets loss to Cleveland on Sept. 21, 1970. Next year, the Monday games move to ESPN and NBC takes over the showcase telecast on Sunday nights.
There was plenty of nostalgia to go around. The Jets' Vinny Testaverde became the first quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in 19 straight seasons with 2:10 remaining, when Laveranues Coles made a leaping 27-yard catch and bounced into the corner of the end zone.
The 42-year-old Testaverde came into the game late in the fourth quarter. He was not the oldest player on the field. Doug Flutie, 43, took over for Tom Brady when the game was out of hand. Afterward, Testaverde went over to Flutie and spoke to him, "just two old guys reminiscing."
It was that way all day, with announcers John Madden and Al Michaels reflecting on the impact "Monday Night Football" made on the country, to its place in history.
"They can take football away from ABC on Monday night," Madden said after the game, "but they can't take away the memories."
Vrabel certainly made many of those. He has three touchdown catches this season, tied for second on the AFC East champion Patriots (10-5). He now has eight career catches, all for touchdowns, including two in Super Bowls.
"A lot of it is just good play calling at the right time," Vrabel said.
Vrabel also had a sack, making him the first player with two TDs and a sack in a game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"We're happy for him," fellow linebacker Willie McGinest said. "We want for him to make those plays and come to the sideline with a smile."
The Patriots had plenty of smiles to go around. Brady continued his amazing season, going 18-of-29 for 185 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception that former teammate Ty Law returned 74 yards for a touchdown. He went over 4,000 yards passing for the first time in his six-year career.
Corey Dillon had two 1-yard runs and finished with 77 yards on 26 carries.
New England is hitting its stride at the perfect time. They have won four straight, and 18 of their last 19 games after Dec. 1.
"I knew we could play better than we did early in the season," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "It's a credit to the players that they've turned things around."
About the only thing that went wrong for the Patriots was a left leg injury to linebacker Tedy Bruschi late in the first quarter, but he walked out of the locker room on his own after the game.
The Jets (3-12), meanwhile, looked completely outmatched and overwhelmed. They had 171 yards of total offense and held the ball for a paltry 16:39. They got their initial first down on a Patriots penalty at the 5:17 mark of the third quarter. Derrick Blaylock got the initial first down on an actual Jets play, a 6-yard run later in the drive.
In all, the Jets ran 40 plays to 83 for the Patriots. The Jets defense gave up three drives that lasted over 7 minutes.
"That's kind of ridiculous," Jets defensive end John Abraham said. "I'm not blaming anybody but ourselves on that."
New York Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde steps back to pass during the fourth quarter against the...
Testaverde First in TD Passes
Tuesday, December 27, 2005 1:32 AM EST The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Vinny Testaverde became the first player in NFL history to throw at least one touchdown pass in 19 straight seasons, connecting on a 27-yard score to Laveranues Coles in the fourth quarter of the New York Jets' 31-21 loss to New England on Monday night.
"Just to get in and play, for me you couldn't have scripted a better ending," Testaverde said.
Testaverde, 42, signed with the Jets off his couch earlier this year after season-ending injuries to Chad Pennington and Jay Fiedler. He started four games before being replaced by Brooks Bollinger in Week 9.
Bollinger started against the Patriots, but Testaverde came in with 3:20 remaining. Coach Herm Edwards promised last week he would get the veteran quarterback into a game for the final time.
Testaverde was 3-for-7 for 63 yards on the scoring drive. Coles made an outstanding leaping catch over Eugene Wilson in the corner of the end zone with 2:10 left. After the touchdown, Testaverde thanked Coles for making the great crab.
Testaverde also received congratulatory handshakes from coaches and teammates on the sideline, and received a hand from the sparse crowd remaining at Giants Stadium.
Though Edwards maintained he wanted Testaverde to go out in front of his adoring fans, the decision to put him in with so little time left and so few fans in the game was questioned. Testaverde said he would have wanted to go in earlier, but Edwards said the timing was "right" to put Testaverde in at the end.
Nonetheless, Testaverde was happy to be back on the field.
"They can't take this away. Even though the season hasn't gone the way the team would want it to go, it's been more than I can ask for," Testaverde said. "The way the fans reacted to me going on the field this year, it's something I'll always remember."
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this." -- Isaiah 9:6-7 (KJV)
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support of RightMarch.com this year. It's thanks to you and your fellow conservative activists that we're making such progress in America today -- even if we do have a long way to go.
May the joy that this season represents bring love, peace and joy to you and yours this year. Merry Christmas!
Noted U.S. Psychologists Condemn Gay Activist Influence on APA
Accuse mental-health associations of allowing gay activists to distort research
By Gudrun Schultz
LOS ANGELES, United States, December 20, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senior members of the psychological community delivered a scathing condemnation of the American Psychological Association (APA), at the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) conference last month.
Dr. Nicolas Cummings, Ph.D, a former president of the APA, said pro-homosexual social activist influence has undermined the scientific legitimacy of psychological research within the organization.
Dr. Cummings charged that research by the APA is now limited to projects where “they know what the outcome is going to be…only research with predictably favorable outcomes is permissible.” (reported by Linda Ames Nicolosi for the NARTH website).
Cummings expressed his concern over the APA’s backing for legalized gay marriage, which was recommended by the APA in 2004 because it would “promote mental health,” among members of the gay community. That decision, said Cummings, was based upon vague research which indicated “loving relationships are healthy’’ in a general sense.
“That was one of the worst resolutions, ” Cummings said. “ When we speak in the name of psychology we are to speak only from facts and clinical expertise.” Otherwise “very soon the public will see us as a discredited organization—just another opinionated voice shouting and shouting.”
Dr. Rogers Wright, Ph.D, co-author with Cummings of their newly released book Destructive Trends in Mental Health, criticized the APA for failing to live up to the organization’s long-held ideal of openness to diversity. The organization deliberately avoided issuing a response to the book and, at first, forbade its member-publications from reviewing it.
“So much for diversity and open-mindedness,” said Wright.
Psychiatrist Jeffrey Satinover, M.D., spoke at length on the ethical misuse of scientific literature in recent legal cases that have laid the foundation for major changes in family-law policy.
Satinover accused mental-health associations of allowing gay activists to distort research in order to support their own social and political agendas, on a scale he finds “appalling beyond imagination.”
Among the methods used to falsely support the gay agenda, he identified researchers who used their own work as references, who used active members of pro-paedophilia groups as sources, and who ignored current conflicting research in favor of obsolete, discredited work.
Dr. Dean Byrd, Ph. D, Chairman of NARTH’s Scientific Advisory Committee, read from a letter he sent to the APA, criticizing the organization for exercising a double standard toward individuals who express a desire to return to heterosexuality:
”Though not all of the patients that NARTH members treat are religious, many are. Is it not a blatant disregard for their religious values and an affront to real diversity to marginalize these individuals by failing to acknowledge their right to choose how they will adapt sexually?
APA’s continuous message of respect for diversity rings hollow if it does not represent different worldviews…either you support client autonomy or you do not; either you support client self-determination or you do not; either your actions reflect diversity, or they do not.”
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, and is the world’s largest association of psychologists.
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - While seven new wide releases will jostle for the attention of moviegoers on Christmas weekend, reigning champ "King Kong" and former chart-topper "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" will for the No. 1 spot.
"Kong" grabbed the crown last weekend with a debut of $50.1 million to "Narnia's" sophomore-frame gross of $31.8 million. But with each passing day, more kids are out of school for vacation, and the midweek numbers for "Narnia" have been edging closer to those of "Kong," actually overtaking Peter Jackson's ape picture Wednesday.
The numbers were close: "Narnia" captured $4.94 million for the day, and "Kong" claimed $4.87 million.
"Brokeback Mountain" expands to 217 theaters, hoping to exploit award nominations in order to cross over to more mainstream audiences. The Western drama from directorAng Lee about an affair between two male ranch hands has picked up $3.5 million to date.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gay and political films are dominating this year'sAcademy Awards race with some experts expecting that Oscar will wind up wearing pink, either for left-leaning politics or sexual preference.
As Hollywood starts its annual awards season leading to the March 5 Oscars, key front-runners in main categories are either gay-themed or political films, with Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," a drama of love between cowboys, leading the pack in the all-important best picture race.
"It could be the gay Oscars this year because gay-themed movies could win almost all the major awards," said Tom O'Neill, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.Com., referring to the sudden dominance "Brokeback Mountain" has gained so early in the race.
"'Brokeback' is going to be hard to beat. Rarely do we have this kind of award consensus for a movie, and its director (Taiwan's Ang Lee) is long overdue for an Oscar," O'Neill said.
"Brokeback," the first gay romance to make a bid for mainstream respectability, has already won the top awards handed out by critics in New York and Los Angeles and copped seven nominations for the January 16 Golden Globes, often a key indicator as to which way the Oscar wind might be blowing.
As for political films -- the field is crowded with potential winners: "Munich," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Syriana," and "The Constant Gardener."
Many experts predict that "Brokeback's" toughest competition could come from either George Clooney's "Goodnight, and Good Luck," a steely-eyed examination of the McCarthy era, or "Munich," Steven Spielberg's study of the price Israel paid for its reprisals for the murder of its athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
Can great art withstand great commerce? Can genius triumph over cute? Rembrandt 400, an array of birthday celebrations scheduled in the dozens across his homeland of the Netherlands, should be an opportunity to showcase and explore the genius and the mystery of Holland's greatest Old Master painter. Instead, the 2006 event teeters precariously close to becoming comical, a farce of itself.
Gloriously inspired exhibitions in Amsterdam, such as "Rembrandt- Caravaggio" (at the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum) and "The Jewish Rembrandt" (at the Jewish Historical Museum), are seated, like wedding guests, uncomfortably close to events like the Rembrandt Ice Sculpture Festival, Make Your Own Rembrandt and Rembrandt: The Musical. Peter Greenaway has even created an installation at the Rijksmuseum entitled Nightwatching, based on the characters who appear in Rembrandt's most famous work, The Night Watch. It occurred to me that the only thing missing is Rembrandt: The Comic Book, until I realized there probably were trademark issues to be had with Rembrandt: The Ninja Turtle.
But for those willing and able to brave--or ignore--such events as a citywide waving of banner-sized reproductions of Rembrandt's paintings in Leiden, or life-sized bronzes replicating The Night Watch on the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam, Rembrandt 400 promises treasures in the form of spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime exhibitions--as "Rembrandt-Caravaggio" is sure to be--that offer new insights and inquiries into almost the entire oeuvre of Holland's seventeenth-century "master of light."
While most of these exhibitions will not travel, others are planned worldwide, with surveys of Rembrandt's etchings in Germany, Denmark and the United States, along with exhibitions of other Dutch Master painters like Frans van Mieris, opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, on February 26. The Dutch spectacle, however, is by far the largest, expected to bring about 1.5 million tourists to the Netherlands--several hundred thousand more than usual--and some 90 million euros along with them.
Born in Leiden on July 15, 1606, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn settled in Amsterdam in 1631, setting off a rivalry between the two cities that is clearly being re-enacted during this anniversary year. He set up shop in Amsterdam's Jewish quarter, painting commissioned portraits and teaching. In 1634 he married Saskia Uylenburgh, the cousin of his neighbor and patron, the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh. Saskia, believed to have been the model for his painting of the goddess Flora, bore Rembrandt four children, only one of whom, Titus, survived childhood. When Saskia died in 1642 at the age of 30, Rembrandt immediately took up with his newly hired nanny, Geertje Dircx--a move that alienated him from his patron and did not exactly resonate well with the community. When he later left Geertje for a younger woman, Hendrickje Stoffels, courts ordered him to pay alimony to Geertje; instead, he had her committed to an institution. Soon after, Hendrickje bore him a daughter, Cornelia.
Though these troubles wore on Rembrandt's artistic and commercial successes, he continued to spend flagrantly, and landed himself in bankruptcy in 1656. Seven years later, Hendrickje died in a plague epidemic, followed soon after by Titus. Rembrandt survived a year longer than his son--he died in October 1669 and was buried in an anonymous grave in Amsterdam's Westerkerk.
Rembrandt 400 recaptures that life in all its drama in what Rembrandt scholar Gary Schwartz calls the painter's "catch-up operation" to Vermeer--who, says Schwartz, has "overtaken" his Amsterdam contemporary in general popularity. "Rembrandt doesn't touch people the same way Vermeer does," he acknowledges.
Schwartz, currently at work on what he describes as "the Rembrandt book of first resort" (to be published by Harry N. Abrams in late 2006), takes a positive view of Rembrandt 400. Despite such productions as Rembrandt: The Musical, which performs more than a few contortions on the truths of Rembrandt's life for the sake of a good story, Schwartz takes heart in the fact that many museums are now beginning to study their Rembrandt holdings more closely and to "trot them out" for communities that rarely get a chance to see them.
The full array of exhibitions in Holland alone proves dizzying: From January 26 to February 19, the Rijksmuseum will feature "All the Rembrandts," an exhibition of the museum's entire collection of Rembrandts, many of which will then travel across town to be part of "The Jewish Rembrandt" or to be absorbed into "Rembrandt-Caravaggio." Those works included in the latter exhibition, however, will therefore not be part of "Really Rembrandt?" a comparison of real Rembrandt paintings with others, previously attributed to the master and since determined fakes, which runs from March 9 to May 24, also at the Rijksmuseum. Others will travel to the United States as part of "Rembrandt and the Golden Age: Masterpieces From the Rijksmuseum" at the Dayton Art Institute, Phoenix Art Museum and Oregon's Portland Art Museum.
The jewel of Rembrandt 400, however, will not travel. "Rembrandt-Caravaggio," which examines the Italian painter's influence on Rembrandt, spotlights such works as Caravaggio's The Supper at Emmaus (1600) and Amor Vincit Omnia (1601-02), as well as Rembrandt's The Blinding of Samson and Saskia as Flora. Juxtaposing the two "masters of chiaroscuro," the exhibition aims to define the distinctions between Northern and Italian Renaissance paintings and to highlight the respective glories of each. (A last-minute bonus addition to the exhibition, "Rembrandt and Van Gogh," also at the Van Gogh Museum, presents twenty-five paintings, drawings and letters by the two artists that reveal the younger Dutchman's indebtedness to his predecessor.) Other exhibitions, such as "The Jewish Rembrandt" and "Rembrandt's Mother: Myth and Reality," offer viewers a more personal look at the artist and the figures who comprised his world, and examine various legends surrounding Rembrandt's relationships with women and with the Jews who were among his most important patrons and friends.
But with so much taking place, will people even see the exhibitions? Or will they be overwhelmed--even turned off? Is what's good for Holland tourism, in the end, what's good for Rembrandt?
Schwartz believes it is. "Exhibitions of works by lesser-known masters will get attention because they'll also have the name 'Rembrandt' on them," he says. "So people who get sucked into a Rembrandt exhibition will hopefully be so taken in, they'll come back for something more specialized. It's like poker: You play your hands. When the cards aren't there, you toss it in; and when you have a good hand, you play it for all it's worth."
Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof, The Electronic Intifada, 21 December 2005
A waterstation in front of an unrecognized village, 5 km from Bir Saba. Bedouin do not have access to this waterstation. (Photo: Ameer Makhoul)
Eighty thousand Palestinian Bedouin Israelis live in unrecognised villages in the Negev desert in the south of Israel. The villages are deprived of basic services like housing, water, electricity, education and health care. With the adoption of the Israeli Planning and Construction Law in 1965, 45 villages in the Negev were not declared as existing. Recently, Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof visited the region. They write about the serious consequences this has had for villagers in these "unrecognised villages".
The majority of the villages existed at the time of the creation of Israel in 1948 and some were established in the early 1960's when Israel evacuated Bedouins from northern Negev to the south of Beersheba. Comparisons between the experiences of Palestinian Bedouins in the unrecognised villages and black South Africans in the informal settlements in apartheid South Africa is striking. Apartheid policies in South Africa were adopted to ensure the priviliged position of white South Africans. Israeli government policies are targeted to secure the priviliged position of Jewish Israelis. A government that divides its people and deprives part of its citizens of basic human rights does not show a serious commitment to peace.
Unrecognised villages in the Negev
The 80,000 Palestinian Bedouins living in unrecognised villages in the south of Israel are citizens of Israel. They have the right to vote in national elections and when they have a job or operate a business it is their duty to pay taxes. The majority have lived for generations in villages on their land in the Negev. Following the adoption of the Planning and Construction Law of 1965, the villages did not appear on any Israeli map. They were not recognised by any official government and ignored by all government planning projects.
As there is no municipal authority that governs the villages, the Bedouin Palestinians cannot vote or be elected for municipal representation. Villagers are deprived of basic infrastructure and services like roads, sewage, running water, electricity, clinics, kindergartens and welfare services. The families in the villages mostly live in shacks under zinc roofs where the temperature can reach as high as 55 degrees Celcius. There is no authority that can decide upon permits for the construction of properties. The building of houses in the villages is therefore unlicensed and they are at all times under threat of demolition. A former captain of the Negev police remarked that "there is an imbalance since there is only a destroying authority and no authority issuing construction permits".1
Children
Half of the population of the Bedouins - about 40,000 - in the unrecognised villages is under the age of 18. In 2002, the infant mortality rate was 17.1 per 1000 births, as compared to the rate of 4.5 among Jewish infants. The absence of sewerage and garbage collection systems leads to unhygienic living conditions, a major cause of diseases among children.
Children of the unrecognised villages have to travel sometimes between 40 to 60 kilometres to school. They have to walk from the village to the main road to wait for transport. The majority of the children do not attend kindergarten, because there is no one in their village. This is against a law that rules that education is compulsory for four year old children. Specifically, the Compulsory Education Law requires the government to provide free and compulsory education for every child aged between 5 and15 years, regardless of whether a child has been registered in the Ministry of Interior's Population Registry or even if the child's parents are illegal residents. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs proudly claims this as part of its commitment to social and welfare rights.2
Yet 40 per cent of the children drop out before finishing high school, and of the children who manage to go to high school only 27 per cent pass the matriculation exams.
Policy of removal
The policy of removal of Palestinians from Israel is as old as the creation of the state in 1948 and is illustrated by Prime Minister Ben Gurion, who said during a visit to Nazareth, "Why are there so many Arabs here? Why didn't you chase them away?"3
After lifting the military rule that was in force from 1948 to 1966 in the Negev and the Galilee, Israel's policy continued to target the removal of the Bedouin population. During this period, over 50,000 Bedouins were transferred to seven townships that were planned specifically for this group. The townships are densely populated and uprooted the Bedouin families from their traditional way of life. The "concentration towns" are the poorest and most neglected towns in Israel. In the process of removal the land belonging to the Bedouin families was confiscated.
In April 2003, a six-year plan was approved by Sharon's government with the stated aim to change the population's condition, settle land disputes and bolster law enforcement in relation to the Bedouin sector in the Negev. The plan was developed without consulting the Bedouin community in the Negev. In practice, the focus of activities within the plan for the coming years is "enforcement", which means massive house demolitions.
Large sums of the budget are allocated to the Israeli police force. The cabinet of Sharon approved a $250 million budget to force Bedouins from 45 unrecognised villages to leave their homes. At the same time, the government is planning the development of new Jewish settlements throughout the Negev. According to fieldworkers of the Regional Council of Unrecognised Villages in the Negev, every week a few shacks are demolished by Israel's giant Caterpillar bulldozers. The strategy is to demolish a few houses there, avoiding large scale demolition of villages. The message to the Bedouins is that they had better move soon or be removed forcefully.
Informal Settlements in South Africa
The existence of informal settlements in South Africa today reflects an apartheid legacy that stripped Africans of their right to live where they wished. It will take the present government years and significant amounts of capital investment to address the housing backlogs.
There are disturbing similarities in living conditions between unrecognised villages and informal settlements under apartheid. These include lack of access to adequate potable water, lack of proper sanitation facilities, absence of proper road infrastructure, the lack of educational facilities, houses built of corrugated iron sheets (in some cases of black plastics and cardboard) etc.
The similarities are striking between racially based policies that lay behind the creation of white settlements under the apartheid regime in South Africa then and the estabslishment of Jewish settlements by the Israeli government.
Policy Rationale in Apartheid South Africa
The policy of influx control was introduced in South Africa in the 1960's as a mechanism for limiting the number of black Africans within 87 per cent of the land area that was designated as "white South Africa" under the 1913 Land Act. This policy had three components: (a) the Group Areas Act, which prohibited Africans from being present in South Africa for more that seventy two hours without official permission; (b) labour bureaus, which matched African workers with specific jobs and then granted them the required official permission to work for a specific employer and live in a designated township; and (c) strict enforcement of the Group Areas Act.4 This policy was implemented with zeal by the apartheid regime, with an extraordinary number of 5.8 million prosecutions under laws restricting movement in the decade between 1966-75. Effectively, this policy restricted African citizenship to 13 per cent of the poorest land area that was declared as part of its so-called "homeland" policy.
Forced Removals
The influx control policy was pursued in South Africa through expulsions. These saw the forced removal of over 3.5 million black people (Africans, "Coloured" and Indians) during the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. In the 1950's, over 600,000 people were forcefully removed from Johannesburg and dumped in a labour reserve/township, known as the Southwest Township (SOWETO) in overcrowded conditions. SOWETO was located 10 kilometres away from Johannesburg, initially with no amenities.
Forced removals also happened in Cato Manor (Mkhumbane) in Durban and District Six in Cape Town where 55,000 people were forcefully moved. The influx control policy meant that only those Africans that had permits to be in South Africa could remain within these reserves. Those who were found without such permits were regularly rounded up, detained and then trucked to the borders with homelands where they were dumped. This was effectively a measure to secure the demographic imperative of ensuring a white majority in the so called "white" South Africa. It was a policy similar to that of the Israeli government in securing a Jewish majority in Israel through mass expulsions.
The emergence of the informal settlement phenomenon
The repeal of influx control legislation during the last years of apartheid saw a movement of African people from the impoverished rural areas (homelands) to urban areas (which were erstwhile reserved for "whites") in search of a better life (employment, education etc). From 1976, the apartheid regime did not construct any new housing stock to accommodate black people in urban areas as part of its racial policies of limiting black movement. The result of this urbanisation phenomenon was the creation of shanty towns where people settled informally, in the backyards of township dwellings, in open spaces adjourning townships and closer to cities and in border towns next to homelands. In 1994, when the African National Congress government came to power in the country's first democratic elections, there was one housing unit for every 43 Africans as opposed to one for every 3.5 whites. The housing backlog was estimated at 1.3 million housing units, with between 7.5 and 10 million people in informal dwellings.5
The future of Israel lies in the end of apartheid
Apartheid policies in South Africa were adopted to ensure the privilaged position of white South Africans, as Israeli policies are targeted to secure the priviliged position of Jewish Israelis. A government that divides its people and deprives some of its citizens basic human rights does not show a serious commitment to peace. With the continuation of these divisive policies, it is difficult to take Sharon's rhetoric about working for peace seriously. The challenge for Israel is to arrive at a solution that will guarantee equality for all its citizens regardless of race, gender, religion and so on, within a democratic state. Pressure must be put on the state of Israel to abandon its apartheid policies, including its refusal to recognise the existence of villages composed of its own citizens living within its national borders.
The material conditions of Bedouins living in unrecognised villages brings into sharp focus the sense of outrage that moved Nelson Mandela who, on the occasion of the Rivonia trial in 1964 at which he and other ANC leaders faced the possibility of the death penalty said,
"I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunties. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and wish to achieve, but if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die".
Bangani Ngeleza and Adri Nieuwhof are independent consultants from respectively South Africa and the Netherlands. Ngeleza participated in the liberation struggle of the ANC to overcome apartheid in South Africa, and Nieuwhof supported the struggle as a member of Holland Committee on Southern Africa the ANC in achieving its goals.
[2] See Yoram Rabin, A Free People in Our Land: Welfare and Socio-Economic Rights in Israel, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1 April 2005); CRC factsheet: Israel, CRC/C/8/Add. 44 (27 February 2002)
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.
Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S., the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war.
Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”
Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”
He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.
“The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” wrote Bernklau. “He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts, but now, thanks to Moret’s report, (it) ... is far too big to hide or to cover up!”
“Terry Jamison, Public Affairs Specialist, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, at the VA Central Office, recently reported that ‘Gulf Era Veterans’ now on medical disability, since 1991, number 518,739 Veterans,” said Berklau.
“The long-term effects have revealed that DU (uranium oxide) is a virtual death sentence,” stated Berklau. “Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers (from the 2003 Iraq War) as ‘spectacular … and a matter of concern!’”
When asked if the main purpose of using DU was for “destroying things and killing people,” Fulk was more specific: “I would say it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people!”
Principi could not be reached for comment prior to deadline.
2. Veterans for Constitutional Law, 112 Jefferson Ave., Port Jefferson NY 11777, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director, (516) 474-4261, fax 516-474-1968.
3. Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter. Email Gary Kohls, gkohls@cpinternet.com, with “Subscribe” in the subject line.
Costco Fires Catholic Who Denied Knights of Columbus Hall for Lesbian "Marriage"
Man Stuggling to Support Three Small Children Faces Loss of Home
LifeSiteNews.com Exclusive
PORT COQUITLAM, BC, November 30, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A member of the Knights of Columbus who is in charge of renting the fraternity's hall for weddings and other events alleges he was fired from his day job at Costco for his involvement in denying two lesbians the facility for their same-sex "wedding." The human rights case in which the lesbian couple successfully sued the Knights of Columbus over the denial of the hall made international headlines. (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05113006.html )
LESBIAN WAS A CO-WORKER WITH KNIGHT OF COLUMBUS
David Hauser told LifeSiteNews.com in an exclusive interview that Tracey Smith, one of the lesbians involved in the human rights complaint against the Knights, was also a co-worker of his at Costco. Hauser related that Smith and many of the management at the Port Coquitlam warehouse were openly homosexual. He related that for months before Smith and her same-sex partner approached his wife for the hall rental, these same individuals had been asking him about his involvement with the hall, and knew that he was in charge of bookings.
"In retrospect, they picked a time when they knew I would be at work to call my wife Sandra, who shows the hall when I am unavailable," Hauser said. He is convinced the entire fiasco was orchestrated before the event. However, in the human rights complaint against the Knights the lesbian couple claimed they did not realize the hall was affiliated with the Catholic Church.
Chymyshyn claimed to the Vancouver Sun in November that, "If they would have let us know up front who they were, we probably would have never even gone there."
Terry Kidwell, State Deputy of the B.C. Knights of Columbus, told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview Dec.12 that Chymyshyn "said that 'she just happened to be driving around and saw the sign'" for the rental of the hall. "Well, that's a dead end street," Kidwell said. He indicated "you don't just happen to drive around" and find that hall and that one would have to deliberately drive to that location and stop to see the small 8 1/2 X 11 sign on the door.
"You can't see it from the street," Kidwell stated, adding "You would have had to get out of your car and go right up to the hall to see the sign. There is not a great big sign saying, 'hall for rent.'"
A big question therefore is how the two women would actually have known that the hall was for rent. All of this appears to support Hauser's contention that the two women knew about the hall and its connection to the Knights and their Catholic co-worker's involvement prior to their visit to the location.
Kidwell says these questions were probably not brought up in the human rights trial against the Knights because the focus of the defence was that, "because of our core religious beliefs we were entitled to not rent the hall to them."
Hauser said he and his wife were not initially aware of the couple's intention to wed each other, because the two had vaguely referred to a "wedding" without saying it was their own that they were planning. Hauser did not suspect anything when he read the names on the rental agreement, because he only knew Tracey at work by her first name.
Hauser alleges, "They [Smith and Chymyshyn] knew exactly what they were doing." The three-acre parcel where the Knight's hall is situated is also the location of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church and Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic School. "There's a huge cross on that Church," Hauser said. "There's a huge picture of the Pope in the hall . . . there's no way they didn't know we were connected to the Church." (see coverage: http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/dec/05120901.html )
FIRED BY HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVIST MANAGER
Hauser was fired from Costco November 3, 2004 - one year and two days after Smith and her same-sex partner Deborah Chymyshyn rented the hall.
Hauser's boss, Mike Checko, also a homosexual rights advocate and a friend of Smith's, fired Hauser. Hauser contends that his firing was completely without cause. He said his letter of release cited "violence in the workplace," allegedly committed in early August 2004. Hauser related that he and his wife were on vacation for two weeks during the early to mid-weeks of August. Another homosexual co-worker alleged in writing that Hauser had said he wanted to meet a fellow worker outside after work for a brawl.
"The workplace was absolute trouble for me - the warehouse manager constantly badgered me about it [the hall issue]." Hauser said the homosexuals in management at the store "constantly tried to lure him into arguments."
Hauser's claims to unfair treatment are supported by other former supervisors at Costco. One letter, from co-worker Jared Gilles who was also Hauser's former supervisor, dated August 4, 2004, said, "In my view, Dave was sunk before all this ever happened. Our management isn't open and objective towards him," Gilles explained. "They get hourly [employees] to write hearsay letters of certain instances - whether it's true or not and whether they are witnesses or not. Dave's guilty because he's blacklisted. People can just write letters about people they don't like and if management doesn't like you, you're in trouble. No one will support Dave's views, whether he's done something or not."
"He told me to watch out because this guy was after you from the day you walked in," Hauser added.
Events at Costco following Hauser's firing suggest that there was some problem with the supervisor who fired Hauser. Checko was demoted two weeks after Hauser's firing, "from a $120,000 per year position, to a checkout clerk," Hauser said.
On November 23, 2004, Human Resources Canada, after initially refusing Hauser's claim for employment insurance payments, responded to Hauser's appeal of the refusal. After HRC asked for clarification from Costco, a letter was returned that stated a different reason for Hauser dismissal that the one given on his dismissal letter.
"[Costco's] statement contradicts the letter of dismissal," stated L. Bell, an insurance benefit officer with HRC, in a letter in Hauser's possession. "In the letter of November 3, 2004, the employer states that the employee was dismissed because of an incident that occurred in August. The incident involved allegations of threats made by the claimant to a co-worker. The employer has not provided detail of the alleged incident."
"Given the lack of clarification from the employer, we'll conclude that the claimant was dismissed due to a series of minor incidents. Some of the incidents may have been genuine violations of company policy, but there is also a sense that there was some friction between the claimant and the employer. Fault is sometimes difficult to define, but it is often mutual. Clearly the employer was not happy with the claimant, and although the violations of company policy may or may not have been genuine, there is an indication that they were looking for reasons to terminate his employment. It is not even clear what the final incident was that ultimately led to the claimant's dismissal and therefore we cannot conclusively prove there was misconduct involved in the final incident. Under the circumstances, we have no choice but to allow the claim."
Hauser further explained that he "was fighting a 90-day demotion for allegedly driving a fork-lift at a guy's head," in June-August of 2004. "I should have been arrested for something like that," Hauser said. "I got three fellows to write statements who had seen the whole thing. I then went to the regional manager, Patrick Noon - Mike Checko's boss."
The suspension was over-ruled by Costco's regional office.
"The day I walked in [Checko] wanted me out," Hauser emphasized. "It went on and on - he treated me terribly. In the end, he blackmailed me into this gay thing and fired me for kicking them out [of the K of C hall]."
CAN'T FIND OTHER WORK WITH DISMISSAL ON RECORD - MAY LOSE HOME
Hauser said he had hoped his 14 years at Costco would lead to life-long employment. "The company is doing very well," he said. Because of the circumstances of his firing, Hauser has been unable to find other work. "It's hard to get a job when your reference letter says you were fired for violence in the workplace," he said. He has focused on home painting, something he did part-time to support his stay-at-home wife and three young children before. His business is called "Passion for Painting."
Hauser, who initially re-financed his mortgage after the job loss, faces the prospect of losing his home if nothing changes in the next few months. "It's pretty degrading and humiliating for Sandra and I . . . and all for that cause."
Michael A. Wagner, the lawyer representing Mike Checko, had his office call to say Checko was unable for comment.
Several calls put into Costco for comment were not returned. Calls placed to Costco's lawyers were also not returned.
