“…Disturbing images of Holocaust atrocities including graphic nudity.” These are the elements cited by the Motion Picture Association of America in giving an R-rating to Israeli director Yael Hersonski’s intense-looking documentary, A Film Unfinished, which opens widely this month.

Produced and distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories, A Film Unfinished centers around the making of the unearthed last reel of Ghetto, a Nazi propaganda film shot in the Warsaw Ghetto and proffered as a document of life there. The reel contains multiple takes of staged, exoticized footage of Jewish life, including a fictionalized depiction of the contrast between “rich” and poor ghetto dwellers.

The R-rating ensures that the film can’t be shown in public school classrooms, a situation ludicrous enough to be called out by Oscilloscope owner and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch a.k.a. MCA. From what I understand, the “graphic nudity” that the MPAA cites refers to female ghetto dwellers entering a mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. As for the atrocities, well, kids seem to be exposed to plenty of gratuitous and stupid violence on TV, movies and video games. Maybe it would be worth whatever trauma they may go through watching and discussing A Film Unfinished to not only viscerally understand genocide, but also get a classic lesson in media manipulation.

Nice work, MPAA.
 

 
Oscilloscope Laboratories will also release the Allen Ginsberg biopic Howl and the doc William S. Burroughs: A Man Within this fall.

 
OK, America, here’s how it seems to be going down in Tuscon, AZ as of earlier today, despite the standing federal injunction against SB1070, the state of Arizona’s attempt to enforce national border laws.

Run a stop sign, get detained potentially by Border Patrol.

What now, America? What do we got?
 

 
Hat tip Charlie Bertsch.

 
Nothing like a good banning to warm an old gay punk’s heart—especially in the internet age. Looks like Australia’s classification of Toronto-based filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s latest bit of hardcore underground gay gore, L.A. Zombie as pornography has prevented it from being screened at the Melbourne Film Festival. According to Melbourne talk-radio station 3AW, LaBruce couldn’t be happier:

‘‘My first thought was ‘Eureka!’… I’ll never understand how censors don’t see that the more they try to suppress a film, the more people will want to see it. It gives me a profile I didn’t have yesterday.’’

Virtually all of LaBruce’s films—from the skinhead-fetishizing No Skin off My Ass from 1991 through to the political-porno-zombie flick Otto; or Up With Dead People—have managed to shock and scandalize straights and gays alike with their violence and satirical stereotyping. It’s good to know there are some areas in the Western world that aren’t immune.
 

LA Zombie trailer
Uploaded by blankytwo.

 
For a Catholic country that’s endured more coups in the past century than a Tea Party rank-and-filer can conceive of, Argentina seems to have come into its democratic own this week as it joined the other nine nations that have legalized same-sex marriage.

Andrés Duque’s great Blabbeando blog has provided great coverage, including some enlightened sport-star involvement in the issue and the segment below featuring baby-dyke blogstar Cumbio. In a report for Buenos Aires TV magazine Vertigo, homegirl and her camera crew walk right up to participants in an anti-gay marriage demonstration and starts engaging them, taking in a bunch of the usual insulting arguments against equality. But in a startling scene that you couldn’t imagine in a similar segment here in the US, she’s actually embraced and kissed by some of the maternal types among the evangelicals who insist on the old cliché that “it’s the sin, not the sinner.” Cumbio comes out of it a little annoyed, but notes later that they “didn’t treat [her] badly.”

Kinda refreshing, eh?
 

 
Bonus clip after the jump: Federacion Argentina LGBT’s simple and powerful ad for marriage equality…
 

 
After I watched this video, stunned and laughing heartily, I was considering how to best showcase it here. One thought I had was the title: “It’s only 30 seconds long, just watch it first and read this later.” which I thought was a pretty good one, but in the end, I think it’s best to use the text of DM reader Tyler who sent us this link and the following note:

I want to thank you for your article on dangerousminds the other day about the news stories covering i-dosing in Oklahoma. Unfortunately that kind of news seems to be fairly normal here in Oklahoma. So I really enjoyed reading how shocked people were in the comments. If you are interested in some additional Oklahoma scary/wacky things, consider this commercial from an Oklahoma siding and window company. I thought somebody did a (fake) voice over at first but the same video is posted on the company’s website. In the video you will see the company’s owner somehow transition from talking about their windows to how we should end this “secular socialism right now.” Thank you for your time.

No, Tyler, thank you! This could be the next in line as an Internet meme if you ask me. I’m gonna post this one and then email it to Xeni, stat!

What a friggin’ kook!

 
With all of these nutty Bastille Day celebrations going on (huh?) I nearly forgot to mention that Dangerous Minds officially turns one year old today. You can stroll through the very first week’s posts here.

Photo by Gage Skidmore.

It is often said that a liberal arts degree only prepares the holder of said degree for a life of waiting tables, but just how valuable would a, well, conservative arts degree be in today’s jobs market? Especially one from Glenn Beck University?

This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom - from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.

Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

Mother Jones had some possible (probable?) course listings for BU.

Theories of Self and Other in the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan
Mythology 101: Fossils
Presidential History From Harding to Coolidge
Fundamentals of Spelling and Grammar CANCELED
Great Military Heroes: John Wayne
Intro to Theology: Ayn Rand
Advanced Marketing Seminar: Rare Gold Coins
Psych 301: Paranoia as Therapeutic Alternative
Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans
Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What’s Up With That?
Studies in Moral Courage: Joe McCarthy
Hermeneutics and Homosociality in The Overton Window
Political Science 300: Reverse Racism and the Modern Presidency
Colloquium on Great Filmmakers: Mel Gibson
Gym Crow
Underwater Conspiracy Weaving

If some good ones occur to you,  #BeckUCourses is a trending hashtag on Twitter. Here in an un-embedable video clip (with the comments wisely disabled) is Beck himself telling his er, flock, why everything they know is wrong.

 
Wicked Lasers have released a new “toy” laser, except that it’s not really a toy, you see. More like a weapon.

In fact, it’s exactly like a weapon! Wicked removed the laser from a Casio video projector and placed it into a casing resembling something out of “Star Wars.” Witness The Spyder III in action above.

It will blind permanently and instantly and set fire quickly to skin and other body parts, use with extreme caution and only when using the included eye protection. Customers will be required to completely read and agree to our Class IV Laser Hazard Acknowledgment Form.

Worrywarts! What could possible go amiss with a laser beam capable of burning flesh and causing blindness?

Better than a silly old BB gun, eh? Be the first kid on your block to be arrested!

 
A “science” class in Dayton, Tennessee, from the BBC1 documentary Science Friction: Creation from 1996. These kids have been skull-fucked by superstition and generational ignorance. Fourteen years later and I wonder what some of these kids are doing now: if they ever escaped fundamentalist dogma or if they’re running for Congress as a Tea party candidate… Stick with this for the last line, it’s a classic.
 
I saw the above clip at Religious Douchebags, a great site that Christian Nightmares introduced to me. And check out this stupidly paranoiac and tres cheesy ‘80s ditty called Cathy Don’t Go that was posted on Christian Nightmares. Don’t go where, you ask? Listen to the song and find out!
 

 
(Religious Douchebags)

 
Tara and I got a new puppy today. Meet Winslow. Or Tong Tong. We can’t decide what to call him. Help us decide between the two names.

We were going to call him Gorby, but that mark on his forehead faded away already so that name wouldn’t make any sense.

He’s been in our lives exactly 3 hours now and we are totally smitten with him. He is only eight-weeks old. He’s an overdose of cute and he hops like a frog. But we can’t decide on what to call him. We’ve narrowed it down to two names:Winslow and Tong Tong. Which do you like better? Tell us in the comments.

(Here is a picture of his “older brother” (AKA our other dog Paul AKA “Jude Law” (don’t ask). Paul has been amazing so far, super sweet. He’s been king of the hill (a super-spoiled pooch he is) for seven years now, so this could have come as a shock. So far so great. He even brought in his toys and laid them down next to Winslow/Tong Tong. How cute is that? Maybe he was just trying to con me into giving him lots of treats, but it sure worked.)

Vote!