But the real question is, is Springsteen bigger than Jesus?

The Israeli embassy last night became the latest critic of George Galloway after it denounced him for choosing Interpal as his nominated Big Brother charity, claiming it is a front for Palestinian terrorists. The organisation vehemently denies the charge.

[ . . . ]

However, UK ministers are coming under increased pressure to ban Interpal. In August 2003, the US administration claimed it was “a principal charity utilised to hide the flow of money to Hamas”, branded it a “specially designated terrorist” organisation and froze its assets in America.

Interpal was also banned by Israel in 1997.

Surprised? Nah, not really. Galloway’s true colours have been clear for a long time, and this is far from the most shocking thing he has done. Then again, raising money for terrorists who blow up innocent Israelis is probably considered a good thing in Galloway’s twisted mind.

(Hat tip: Tom).

What was that Springsteen song again? Oh yeah: 57 channels and nothing on…

More importantly, how many Canadians will tear themselves away from “Survivor” to watch the Canadian-politics version of the game: who gets voted out of office?

Update: I guess this occurred to Martin’s handlers too; they moved his speech earlier, to 7pm, presumably to avoid competing with prime time.

C’mon guys, please tell me you won’t stoop to that level!

Yes, we’re proud of living up to our stereotypes.

• Letters like this one are encouraging and nice to see. But they’re also easy. Too easy. It’s simple to act upset and shocked when assholes firebomb an elementary school. It’s harder to face down other forms of antisemitism that aren’t so obvious but are just as harmful. I’d like to see a flooding of support for the Jewish community when there’s a suicide attack in Israel. Instead, we get finger-pointing and Israel-bashing.

• Speaking of the UTT fire, Geoff has photos (via Celestial Blue). Disturbing to see the building that way. I can’t bring myself to drive by. Though the attack happened in the elementary school’s library, the high school is attached and so I spent 5 years of my life inside that building on a near-daily basis. I’m too used to remembering it as the place I dreaded seeing as we drove up every morning… and was happy to be let loose from every afternoon … only because it meant long days trapped inside boring classes. It meant a school that was falling apart, with leaky toilets and an ever-present smell of rotten fish. It meant all the things that are a normal part of high school. It never meant fear of being harmed or attacked. What will the building mean to the current students?

• Lynn has the latest about the Mel Gibson movie, and its convenient messages in the Arab world. Here’s a hint: It’s not a hit in Muslim countries because of Monica Belluci’s breasts.

• Michele has done a lot to restore my faith in the education system. It seems that there are actually teachers out there who encourage kids to think for themselves and debate!

• In the meantime, I’ve concluded that Passover must be sponsored by the gyms and fitness centres. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt in such need of exercise.

Finally, let’s just pause for a moment and appreciate the wonderful thing that is a LONG WEEKEND!!!

Now, I’m not disputing the findings of all the experts who say that trans fats are bad for us, or are a health hazard even. But I am a little wary of attempts to ban unhealthy foods. Even if fat is “the new tobacco”, as the Heart and Stroke Association sensationally warns, well, heck, even tobacco’s legal.

Every day, we’re assaulted by shocking warnings about different kinds of food. One day, it’s watch out for the water – it’s polluted and will kill you. The next day, don’t touch that protein. The day after, protein is king (thanks Atkins) and it’s the carbs that’ll kill ya. Sugar is bad so sweeten artificially… no, artificial sweetener will cause cancer; use real sugar. It’s an eternal yoyo going by with such dizzying speed that nobody can possibly keep it all straight.

In the end, everything’ll kill you. But that’s ok cause life will kill you. Death is one of the only two certainties in life. You can eat only vegan all-natural vegetables your entire life and get hit by a car.

As long as they are eaten in moderation, most foods won’t do you grievous amounts of harm. So if I want to be bad and occasionally eat something that’s bad for me, that’s nobody’s business but my own. It’s certainly not the government’s. If these interest groups get their way, every guilty pleasure will be illegal, and all the causes of death will drop drastically… but when people realize what kind of dry existence they’re left with, suddenly the suicide rate will spiral out of control. After all, what is life if you can’t indulge in a slice of triple-chocolate mousse cake on occasion?

I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. But I have the occasional drink, I’m positively addicted to chocolate, and I don’t always eat my recommended daily intake of the four food groups every day. Even more shocking: Sometimes I read romance novels, watch cheesy movies, and I’ve even caught an episode or two of bad reality TV. And the guilty pleasure derived from doing each of those is the same as the guilty pleasure derived from eating greasy onion rings.

So to the NDP and their proposed bill outlawing trans fats, I say try being bad once in a while. Sometimes, it just feels good.

My latest guilty pleasure is watching “Project Y,” the local reality show, which is a hybrid of “Big Brother” and “American Idol.” With a little bit of “Fame” mixed in.

The 20-somethings are all trapped in a house, and the viewers vote them off one by one, but they’ve all got show biz ambitions and spend their daytime hours in the house taking acting, voice and dance lessons — with the usual gossiping, partying and casual sex in the evenings.

The winner — the sole survivor — gets a contract for their own TV show.

So, I’m unloading the dishwasher and I’ve got it on in the background, and suddenly I hear screaming, “You Arab dog, you Palestinian terrorist! Go ahead blow yourself up, you suicide bomber! I dare you!” and a response, “I’ll kill you, you shiksa Russian whore sleazebag!”

Thinking that things are heating up in the house, I head over to the TV screen.

There were two of the show’s participants, Camilla, a Russian immigrant, and Fares, an Israeli Arab, engaged in a massive tickling and wrestling match on a bed and laughing their heads off. They were completely joking with each other.

Interviewed afterwards, they said that getting all this stuff out in the open and joking about it defused the tension. Hey, whatever works.

But I’d love to put THAT clip on Peter Jennings newscast and let him sort it out.

Does Israel have equivalents to raspberry awards?

Still, it’d be worth it to air a few episodes here, just to see the heads of the ultra-politically-correct wackos explode.

People like [music journalist Kerry] Doole don’t believe a televised contest, one built around cover versions, is the best way to find Canada’s next musical star. “It can assess a very limited type of musical talent – the talent of mimicry,” Doole says. “The stress appears to be on vocal ability, rather than any kind of originality or creativity.”

For Canadian Idol’s detractors, that’s the central issue – since the contestants only do cover songs, it’s impossible to assess how much raw talent they have. After all, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell and Neil Young didn’t become music legends by singing covers.

“Ultimately, the only way you make music is by listening to your own voice, certainly not putting yourself in front of a panel that’s trying to create hit songs,” says Jim Cuddy, one of Blue Rodeo’s two front men.

In other words, it’s nothing but a glorified karaoke contest. Which is why I don’t watch it.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court, accuses the network of copying the “unique aspects” of a Stern radio segment in which members of his crew and guests evaluate the bodies of in-studio contestants.

Stern claims that some of the tactics used on his show were duplicated by ABC’s version. Some of the alleged similarities include blunt criticism of contestants and the use of a laser pointer to highlight areas of the contestant’s body.

This might just be my utter disgust showing, but to me, it’s really sad that a radio personality and a network would be falling over themselves competing to claim this idea as their own. If I were them, I’d be fighting to disclaim it.

Between “Reality TV” and prime-time soap operas, I thought I’d seen it all. But this hour of TV just set a new low. In the show – which is about the CIA – the Americans travel to Israel to attempt to broker a deal between the Israeli Mossad and the Palestinian Authority. (Yeah right!)

Even more ludicrously, an assassination attempt on the CIA staff is traced back to “extremist Israeli settlers” – including an IDF captain and a high-ranking Israeli security officer – who, according to the script, are so against peace efforts that they liaised with Hamas in order to make and detonate bombs. The entire scenario is so ridiculous, I had a hard time keeping a straight face. Never mind that right-wing Israelis, although portrayed by the media as fanatics, have never been involved terrorism, as the show suggests. And they would never in a million years dream of working with a Palestinian terror group like Hamas.

I guess the scriptwriters were afraid of seeming as though they were taking sides. But attempting to paint both sides with the terrorism brush is incorrect and unfair.

The scenes where one of the characters, ostensibly a high-ranking member of the Israeli Mossad, was speaking the most awful Hebrew I’ve ever heard, were rather amusing. (Although his boss seemed to be fairly fluent). The thing that made me literally laugh out loud, though, was when the CIA – in attempt to stop a cell phone from being used as a bomb detonator – decided to block all cell phone signals in Jerusalem. Anyone who knows how reliant Israelis are on their cell phones would understand.

Only on TV.

What ever happened to the days when fame was based on talent, rather than the other way around? When artists were expected to be able to sing, write music, and play instruments? When image was a consequence, not a cause, of fame? When music had depth?

For those unaware souls, packaged music is a pet peeve of mine. But, combined with another pet peeve (reality television), it’s all that much worse.

I know it sounds strange for me, as a marketing person, to complain about this. But come on, American Idol is nothing but a glorified karaoke contest. We’re already so close to the point where creativity and art stop mattering in music. The “day the music died” doesn’t seem so far off anymore, and it’s a really dismal prospect to think what music will sound like in another ten years.