What Caught My Eye Today

Sarah Palin - It'll be a real shame if once this election is over, if Governor Palin fades into the background. She provides such a wide range of material for the media and comedians everywhere. Sarah Palin unwittingly took a prank call from a Canadian comedian posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The call was made by a well-known Montreal comedy duo Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel. Known as the Masked Avengers, the two are notorious for prank calls to celebrities and heads of state. Audette, posing as Sarkozy, speaks in an exaggerated French accent and drops ample hints that the conversation is a joke. But Palin seemingly does not pick up on them. Go figure. Of course, before I jump to any conclusions let's see just how easy those hints are to pick up on. He tells Palin one of his favorite pastimes is hunting, also a passion of the 44-year-old Alaska governor. "I just love killing those animals. Mmm, mmm, take away life, that is so fun," the fake Sarkozy says. Well, this is hunting we're talking about. I don't imagine you would do it if you didn't like the idea of killing something. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on that one. When Audette refers to Canadian singer Steph Carse as Canada's prime minister, Palin replies: "Well, he's doing fine and yeah, when you come into a position underestimated it gives you an opportunity to prove the pundits and the critics wrong. You work that much harder." Canada's prime minister is Stephen Harper. In fairness, how many Americans know who the Canada Prime Minister is? Then again, girlfriend is running for Vice President. I'm thinking that she should know who the head of state is for arguably our most important trade partner. So yeah, maybe she should have picked up on that one, but I'm still not convinced that she's a complete moron just yet. Playing off the governor's much-mocked comment in an early television interview that she had insights into foreign policy because "you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska," the caller tells her: "You know we have a lot in common also, because ... from my house I can see Belgium." At this point, I'm thinking she should have recognized something weird was going on. He also tells the Alaska governor that he loved the "documentary" made about her and referred to a pornographic film with a Palin look-alike made by Hustler founder Larry Flynt. She answers tentatively, "Ohh, good, thank you, yes." Okay, I give up. Palin is a moron. You may be wondering how her campaign dealt with this, so here you go... A Palin campaign spokeswoman confirmed she had received the prank call. "Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters." High praise indeed.

Congo - Tutsi-led rebels tightened their hold on newly seized swaths of eastern Congo, forcing tens of thousands of frightened, rain-soaked civilians out of makeshift refugee camps and stopping some from fleeing to government-held territory. European officials offered sympathy but no concrete promise of military reinforcements for the Congolese troops and U.N. peacekeepers routed by rebel forces in the sudden and dramatic escalation of eastern Congo's civil war in the past week. That's nice. I'm sure those refugees will take a great deal of comfort from the fact that Europe feels bad for them but has no plans to do anything to help. The conflict is fueled by festering ethnic hatred from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and Congo's unrelenting civil wars. Nkunda claims Congo's government has not protected Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter a half-million Rwandan Tutsis. All sides are believed to fund the conflict by illegally mining Congo's vast mineral riches, giving them no financial interest in stopping the fighting. I used to read stories like this and wonder why this sort of thing always seems to happen in Africa. But then I got to thinking, it isn't just happening in Africa. The same ethnic conflicts have occurred in Bosnia, Turkey and even Iraq. Perhaps the difference is that the U.S. has taken more active roles in those conflicts than in Africa. Admittedly, we cannot fix every conflict the world over, but isn't it interesting how time and time again, the U.S. seems absent from the Africa scene?

Mexico - Mexico's drug wars are fueling a boom in the funeral industry near the U.S. border as undertakers capitalize on soaring murder rates and gruesome killings. The spike in drug violence means more bodies are bound for funeral parlors. How thoroughly depressing. Then again, can you really fault the funeral industry from doing its job? About 4,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year as gangs vie for control of the cocaine trade amid a crackdown that has thousands of army troops battling drug cartels on their home turf. Gun battles and gangland mutilations are also boosting demand for facial reconstructions. Funeral parlors can charge more than $1,000 to make the dead presentable for their wakes. And because of the rise in decapitations in the city, undertakers offer to hold the body and wait for the head to be found before proceeding with the funeral. Is anyone else getting a case of the heebie-jeebies here? I appreciate that a service is being provided by these ghouls...I mean funeral parlors...and that appropriate compensation is warranted, but I'm not sure I'd want to risk my karma with even the slightest hint of impropriety by taking advantage of a deluge of mutilated and headless corpses. That just ain't right.