03 Sep Today on Dan Abrams’ Sites
Well, this is weird: Mediaite announces today that MSNBC darling Rachel Maddow used to be a pretty big Glenn Beck fan during his radio days. Daily Intel reports that at a benefit last weekend, Maddow was surprisingly glowing in her praise of Beck. She did qualify that she enjoyed him at a time in his life when his claim to fame was not a direct line to God, but rather his theatrical brand of angry political posturing. To read the full article, which includes an amusing anecdote about revealing her Beck love to liberal radio station Air America, click here.
Geekosystem has the bizarre story of an optical illusion designed by the Vancouver BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation. Designed to slow down speeding drivers, the image is indistinct at first but becomes a little girl chasing a ball when the car approaches within 30 meters. The display cost thousands of dollars, and the rationale behind it is to teach drivers to “expect the unexpected.” There are a couple of immediately visible flaws in the plan, though — what if the driver swerves to avoid the illusion and hits something else? And why does the little girl chasing the ball have the largest feet I’ve ever seen? To see for yourself and read the full post, click here.
On Styleite today: man, get it together, Abercrombie! The company is being sued for refusing to hire a Muslim girl because of her hijab. For the second time. It’s 2010, for crying out loud. Unfortunately for the applicant, Abercrombie felt that her headscarf didn’t mesh so well with the brand’s commitment to ubiquitous shirtlessness and heavily perfumed stores. Then again, in light of the $40 million Abercrombie has already paid to other minority employees, the odds just might be in the spurned girl’s favor. Get the full post here.
Now, it might be because I am from Phoenix, and thus required to be a Suns fan by default (despite knowing literally nothing about sports), but this Sportsgrid post on San Antonio Spurs announcer Mike Lavender sure makes him look like a jerk. The story has it all — a reporter allegedly betraying his subject, vicious harassment via a fake Twitter account…it’s a regular Shakespearean drama. Lavender has been charged with one count of “online harassment-spoofing,” which might turn out to be a practical joke (“Harassment-spoofing”? What does that mean?). The charge may hold more water, however, in light of a new law designed to combat online harassment that was recently passed by Texas lawmakers. To see some screengrabs of what poor anger management looks like, click here.
In news that merits a resounding “yuck,” Gossip Cop reports that “Entertainment Tonight’s” website, ETonline.com, recently boasted of having pictures of ailing star Zsa Zsa Gabor in the hospital. The pictures, which depict her on a gurney next to her husband, will certainly cause a stir — but at what point are celebrities, even celebrities that willingly embrace the fame circus, entitled to their privacy? No matter how newsworthy their condition, there are some places that are still sacred; Gossip Cop argues that hospitals are among them. To read the full post, click here.