'Basic Instinct' Director Paul Verhoeven: Jesus Was Son of Mary and Roman Rapist

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

In his upcoming biography of Jesus, "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven will make the shocking claim that Christ probably was the son of Mary and a Roman soldier who raped her during the Jewish uprising in Galilee.

An Amsterdam publishing house said Wednesday it will publish the Dutch filmmaker's biography of Jesus, "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait," in September.

It will be translated into English in 2009, Marianna Sterk of the publishing house J.M. Meulenhoff said. Verhoeven hopes it will be a springboard for him to raise interest in making a film along the same lines, she said.

The 69-year-old director, who also directed "Showgirls" — starring Elizabeth Berkley in one of the most panned films of the '90s — and sci-fi action hits like "Total Recall" and "RoboCop," as well as the sci-fi bust "Starship Troopers," claims he and co-biographer Rob van Scheers have written the most realistic portrayal of Jesus ever published.

In addition to suggesting that the Virgin Mary may have been a rape victim, the book will also say that Christ was not betrayed by Judas Iscariot, one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus, as the New Testament states.

Catholic League President Bill Donohue called Verhoeven's claim about Mary "laughable."

"Here we go again with idle speculation grounded in absolutely nothing," Donohue told FOXNews.com. "He has no empirical evidence to support his claim, which is why they say 'may have.'"

Donohue also mocked the fact that Verhoeven — best known for directing the famous Sharon Stone crotch scene in "Basic Instinct" — reportedly worked on the book for 20 years, only to come up with a "probably."

"He's been working 20 years trying to sell this argument and hasn't come up with anything," Donohue said. "This won't make a dent with Christians, nor with scholars somewhat wary of the biblical account.

"It's a European version of Hollywood. He should go back to Sharon Stone's legs."

Kirk Bingaman, director of the pastoral counseling program at Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion, said the idea that Mary was raped and that the rapist was Jesus' father is not new.

"The idea goes back to ancient sources from the 1st or 2nd century; I personally don’t put a lot of stock in it. How would we ever know? We don’t have any empirical proof. I subscribe to the Apostles' Creed that Jesus was conceived of the Virgin Mary," he said.

Over the years, Verhoeven, who is Catholic and holds a doctorate in mathematics and physics from the University of Leiden, was a regular attendee of the Jesus Seminar, which was co-founded by the late religion scholar Robert W. Funk. The seminar called into question miracles and statements attributed to Jesus.

"The Jesus Seminar was big in the '80s and somewhat in the '90s," Donohue said. "They have been very controversial in challenging the accepted biblical account of Jesus. The goal is to question the divinity of Christ — to say he was nothing but a happy carpenter who worked at Lowe's or Home Depot."

Calls to Verhoeven's representatives were not immediately returned.

The Adolf Hitler doll which comes with a change of clothes - and a spare head with a kind face

An action-man style doll of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has gone on sale in the Ukraine, with saleswomen comparing the doll to Barbie.
Supermarkets in the capital Kiev are stocking the 40 centimetre high figure of the fuhrer, complete with jackboots, leather trench-coat and swastika armband.

The £100 figure has a spare head "with a kind expression on it," glasses and several changes of clothes.

It comes in a presentation box with the dates of Hitler's birth and death on it.

The decision to market the figure comes at a time of growing extreme right political sentiment in Ukraine.

There are also reports of increasing xenophobia and racism, and of some extremists supporting racism similar to that of Nazi Germany under Hitler.

Critics believe a cult of Hitler could spring up among disaffected youths, too young to remember the ravages Nazism wreaked on the country.

Around three million people died as a result of the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine, including 1.5 million Jews.

Hitler wanted to turn the country into a buffer zone with Russia peopled by slave workers working for the Third Reich.

Although Ukranian laws prohibit any form of fascism or propaganda, the dolls are already on sale and will be mass marketed this summer.

One saleswoman said: "It is like Barbie. Kids can undress fuhrer, pin on medals and there's a spare head in the kit to give him a kinder expression on his face.

"He has glasses that are round, in the manner of pacifist Jon Lennon".

The doll will also come with accessories like a miniature Blondi, Hitler's faithful Alsatian who died alongside the Nazi in his bunker in Berlin in 1945.

The doll is dressed in long light-brown cloak, military uniform and jackboots.

According to the saleswoman, should the demand be high, manufacturers will go further and launch a series of themed Third Reich toys, including interiors of Hitler's chancellery, toy concentration camps with barbed wire, barracks and operating models of gas chambers and crematoriums.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=5615...

Michael Moore: Americans Pay More Taxes Than French, Most of Europe
By D. S. Hube | May 1, 2008 - 18:25 ET

As noted earlier today on Newsbusters by Matthew Balan, Michael Moore appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" last evening. I caught a good portion of the "interview" (if King's constant agreement and sucking up qualify as an interview) and one little segment in particular got my attention. The subject was taxes:

MOORE: You were asking me a serious question. I'm sorry. Actually, you know what I would do is I would get -- I would try to lower Americans' taxes to the rate that the French pay. The French pay less taxes than we do, less.

KING: Socialist country?

MOORE: That's right, most of Europe pays less than we do. That's not the way we're told in this country. We're told, oh, they pay all these horrible taxes; 40 percent of their income goes to income taxes. Actually, the French federal income tax is around 10 percent. That 10 percent covers everything, the road, the cops, the military.

What they do is they have these other taxes. Here's your tax for your health care. Here's your tax for education. Here's your tax -- it's listed on your payroll stub, where it pays for these things.

KING: What's the total?

MOORE: Hear this out. In France, you have free health care, free college, and free or near free day care. The average America, if they don't have their health care covered, it's 12,000 dollars a year out of their pocket. That's a tax. If they're paying day care, 200 bucks a week, a month, whatever. That's a few thousands a year. College loans, people are paying their college loans at 40 years old, thousands of dollars in college that you don't pay in France.

If you added up tonight what every American, what you're paying right now out of your pocket for your college education, for day care, for health care, add that on to the taxes you pay, you're paying a lot more than what you're paying in France.

We don't call it a tax in this country. We have other words for it. That's what we're doing. We're being taxed to death. The French, for all that they riot and get out in the street and protest and whatever, you never see them out in the street saying, we pay too many taxes. They never complain about that because they get something for it. They get to go to a doctor when they're sick. Their kids get to go to school and college, not have to worry about it. They have help with their kids if they have kids and have to work.

That's all taken care of. They don't complain about their taxes. We complain about our taxes because we can't get a pothole fixed.

Moore, of course, harbors some absurd notions (he has many, to say the least) about what constitutes a "tax." So, let's examine the record on taxes as understood by 99% of the rest of the planet: Moore's "facts" about what the French and other Europeans pay in taxes -- less than Americans, he says -- are just plain laughable. For example, from where did Moore get his "fact" that the French pay 10% in income taxes? He doesn't say. Like the U.S., France has a progressive income tax with their rates ranging from 0% to 46.75% and intermediate brackets of 7.5%, 21%, 31%, 41%. (Source.) This source notes that the French income tax begins at Moore's stated 10% and ranges as high as 48.1%. (It also notes that the French have to pay a sizable 19.6% VAT.) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calculates that the "combined effects of personal income tax, employee and employer social security contributions, payroll taxes and cash benefits" facing the French are quite larger than that facing Americans. For a single French individual the combined total is 50.1%, while for a married couple it's 41.7%. For the same in the U.S. it's 29.1% and 11.9% respectively. (See also this chart.) Be sure to also compare taxes of the other European countries to those of the United States in the previous links.

And notice how Moore delves into his typical labyrinthine word-smithing: He says that the supposed 10% French income tax "pays for everything," and that each thing that that 10% pays for is itemized on a Frenchman's paycheck. But at the same he states that "what they (the French) do is they have these other taxes." Hmm. I'm left scratching my head -- does the supposed 10% French income tax "pay for everything" ... or are there "these other taxes" as well? It's pretty obvious it's the latter (since there's that French 19.6% VAT in addition to income taxes) but when it comes to Moore playing it straight, well that's quite a bit to ask now, isn't it?

http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/d-s-hube/2008/05/01/michael-moore-claims-americ...