Kenya

'Paradise: Love' Is a Holiday in Other People's Misery

Ulrich Seidl swipes at greatness—and your summer vacation

In 'Room 237,' 'The Shining' Is a Movie About Everything

Rodney Ascher's documentary allows the viewer to be seduced—or not—by credible theorists

Orly Taitz Defends Her Honesty, Blasts Huffington Post for Defaming Her Character

If Orly Taitz could speak now to U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford, she'd say in her Zsa Zsa Gabor voice, "I did not lie, darling!"I can be sure of this assertion because on Feb. 4, Taitz--the Orange County Republican dentist/attorney from the Soviet Union and a leader of the Birther move ... More >>

Federal Judge Threatens Sanctions Against Orly Taitz For Lying

Orly Taitz, the dotty Mission Viejo dentist who leads fringe group Birther efforts to expose President Barack Obama as a secret Kenyan with a doctored birth certificate, is in trouble yet again.On Wednesday, a federal judge in Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse issued a terse order not ... More >>

Happiness is a Warm Book About Guns: Intellectual Self-Defense

I began writing this on Friday, hours after NRA loon-in-chief Wayne LaPierre offered his predictably over-the-top defense of gun nuts, pimps and apologists for the weapons industry. Hard to imagine the cognitive dissonance required of somebody who can stick to his, yes, guns in the face of ... More >>

Ben Affleck and Loretta Sanchez Need to Get a Room After House Committee Clash Over Congo

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and actor/director/producer/Jimmy Kimmel fuck buddy Ben Affleck (D-Massachusetts) reportedly had a little tussle at a House Armed Services Committee hearing this week.The heart of the matter that split the pair was not the proper use of undocumented fol ... More >>

Dana Rohrabacher Fans Claim "Conniving, Wily Latinos" Who Stole 2012 Election For Barack Obama Were Too Smart To Get Caught

On Dec. 8, I reported that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher claimed Democratic operatives paid poor people and "illegals" to steal the 2012 presidential election for Barack Obama.Rohrabacher offered no proof of his claim and so I challenged him to name just one crony who paid one identified "illega ... More >>

On The Line: David Kesler of Bistro Bleu, Part One

When the establishment you've worked at for so long changes their focus, do you stay? In David Kesler's case, the answer was clear. He took the opportunity to cultivate a CaliFrenchian space of his own. Between a calming color scheme and his charming wife monitoring the dining room, Bistro Bleu pres ... More >>

The Five Most Hilarious Lowlights of '2016: Obama's America'

Distilling Dinesh D'Souza's anti-anticolonialist jeremiads

[UPDATED with Twitter War:] Jenna Jameson Spreads Her (ahem) Wings for Mitt Romney

See the update at the end of this post about the Twitter war between Jameson and supporters of President Barack Obama.ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 3, 3:23 P.M.: Retired porn star Jenna Jameson took a break from proclaiming her innocence in her recent DUI crash in Westminster and running around her Huntington ... More >>

Newport Beach Film Festival News and Notes

Random notes, observations and stuff plucked off the cutting room floor from the Newport Beach Film Festival, which runs through Thursday night.The hierarchy of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion is the main antagonist in Macky Alston's excellent documentary Love Free or Die, which is a ... More >>

Why The Voice Project, America's Latest Anti-Kony Project, is B.S.

​Editor's note: OC Weekly's infamous Kenyan intern, Peter Ngugi, still doesn't have his own blog account, so once again, I'm posting this on his behalf. Take it away, Peter...As former President George W. Bush once said, "Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again."U ... More >>

Tom Zoellner, Chapman University Professor, On the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting

"What is government if words have no meaning?"

Greening the Revolution Feeds Your Head About Farming Around the World

​Agribusiness reaps record wealth. Starving protesters cry for affordable food. Farmers and farm workers find themselves caught in the middle.But, as the documentary Greening the Revolution shows, farmers and workers are organized, fighting back and implementing their own sustainable alternativ ... More >>

Meditation Flash Mob Comes To Long Beach

MedMob Facebook page​​Is it just us or are flash mobs getting lazy? They've gone from full-fledged, song-and-dance spectaculars like this: 

Pat Boone Jumps Aboard Orly Taitz's Birther Crazy Train

​Pat Boone, obviously wanting to have something more embarrassing on his resume when he retires from the singing stage than having kept Wally George on the air as station owner of KDOC/Channel 56 for years, has now jumped about "Birther Queen" Orly Taitz's crazy train. See the photo of the conjoin ... More >>

Discoveries at the San Diego Music Thing: Nico Vega, Developing a Social Media Plan and Flavors of East Africa

This year's San Diego Music Thing, held last weekend, was again an impressive gathering of trade music folks, industry experts and up-and-coming musicians. Held again at the Lafayette Hotel in North Park, there were some changes from last year's event (then called the North Park Music Thing) that we ... More >>

Report: Pasta the Most Popular Dish in the World

​Grand, overarching summations derived from research papers must always be viewed skeptically, but the global organization Oxfam is well-regarded for its research, and its only real agenda is feeding folks, something they've been working on since the 1940s. They know a bit about global food trends ... More >>

[BOMBIER BOMBSHELL:] Shocking Message De-Coded in Barack Obama Certificate of Live Birth

​Through top-secret Army intelligence de-coding methods, a source working exclusively for Navel Gazing has uncovered a shocking revelation in President Barack Obama's Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii.Rather than come right out and say what the secret message is contained on the form no one kn ... More >>

[UPDATED with Orly Cyring "Fraud":] Taitz Admits It's About Time to Put Obama Birth Certificate Issue to Rest (Sorta)

​UPDATE, APRIL 27, 1:36 P.M.: Yes, Virginia, there's still a Birther Movement.Apparently, after a few hours of letting the news sink in that President Barack Obama released his long-form birth certificate and taking a magnifying glass to the image of it on her TV screen, Orly Taitz has concluded t ... More >>

'African Cats' Shows That Lions are People, Too

Kings of the jungle get the 'March of the Penguins' treatment in this Disney flick

Fox News Darling of Trumped-Up New Black Panther Voter Intimidation Case to Speak in Newport Beach

​J. Christian Adams, founder of the McLean, Virginia-based Election Law Center and frequent conservative media talking head, is coming to Newport Beach Wednesday to perpetuate something that has been labeled a right-wing fantasy: that New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense members intimidated P ... More >>

Edible Gardening Workshop Series Debuts This Weekend in Irvine

​The Center for Living Peace in Irvine is hosting a series of workshops focusing on growing a community garden. Urban farmer Eugene Cooke will be on hand to discuss the ins and outs of accomplishing this task, plus our friends at Avanti Cafe are providing refreshments. Details after the jump!

Gendershe Has Bur, Baby, Bur!

[Hole In the Wall] Orange County's first Somali restaurant impresses with its fried bread and other specialties

Proof of Barack Obama's Hawaiian Birth Is Found! Is NOT! Is TOO!

​From the Department of Nothing Important Will Ever Get Done in This Country Because All Sides Cannot Agree on the Facts comes the latest word from Hawaii's new Governor Neil Abercrombie on President Barack Obama's birth in the Aloha State. Those who discount Orly Taitz and fellow birthers as nu ... More >>

Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Day

​Headline: Congresswoman Target of Shooting; 6 Dead Editor's Note: This is really a new low for the loonier regulars of the Register comments section. Amidst a national tragedy, these anonymous hacks saw fit to bemoan the fact the shooter wasn't an illegal alien, for example, or to posit that the ... More >>

Airline Treats Kenyan UC Irvine Professor, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Like A 'Terrorist Menace'

Ngugi wa Thiong'o​Ngugi wa Thiong'o is a celebrated Kenyan author and distinguished professor at UC Irvine. He's 72 years old and married. He's not a terrorist. And yet, for an unexplained reason, he and a group of fellow Kenyans were treated as such upon a detoured flight to Lyon, France.El ... More >>

Distinguished UC Irvine Professor Treated Like a Terrorist by French

Ngugi wa Thiong'o and wife, stranded​After attending a Nairobi literary festival, UC Irvine professor and author Ngugi wa Thiong'o and his wife needed to catch a Virgin Atlantic flight to London in route to LAX, but a snow storm in England forced the flight to land in Lyon, France.The airline arra ... More >>

2010 Bob Dornan Scary OC Hall of Fame Inductee: Orly Taitz!

​After a years-long hiatus, we've decided to bring back Orange County's most prestigious honor: induction into the Bob Dornan Scary OC Hall of Fame! Every year, in conjunction with our annual round-up of the county's scariest people (which you can pick up on newsstands starting today; on-line? Wai ... More >>

The History of the Devil

Garage Theater

Orly Taitz Gets Her Lien On

​Orly Taitz. The woman with more paranoid theories than the Rainbow Conspiracy lady, but half the entertainment value. The queen of the birther's mission to prove that Obama is not an American citizen has been a rollercoaster ride of delusion. Fun for a bit, but nauseatingly painful after a point. ... More >>

Jeff Duggan of Portola Coffee, Part Three

John Gilhooley​Yesterday, we called Jeff Duggan a coffee geek. This, it turns out, was not 100% accurate; he is really more of a coffee mad scientist, the Dr. Emmett Brown of java, except, you know, with better hair. On the Line usually features a recipe from the featured chef on the third day; si ... More >>

Move Over, Orly: Dan Choi Subpoenas Obama

​Lt. Dan Choi wants to drag President Obama into court.But the Tustin High grad, out Army officer and gay activist is not challenging the Kenyan's place of birth with his subpoena. (Sorry, Orly.) Facing the music in the case we wrote about here, when Choi was arrested for chaining himself to a Whi ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Today's Important Unimportant Election, From My TV Screen to Your Computer/Phone Screen

​11:15 p.m.: Don't be surprised if KOCE is accused of turning over its election coverage to that rare Orange County bird known as the "Democrat." The "live, election night edition of Real Orange" came from the Artists Village in Santa Ana, OC's version of Havana. Their election expert was the Voic ... More >>

Meet Orange County's Other Fact-Challenged, Media-Loving Birther Lawyer

Youtube screen captureFrom left: Anderson Cooper (duh), Paul Rolf Jensen, Lt. Col. Terrance Lakin​Paul Rolf Jensen issued a press release last year in which he called himself a "leading Orange County, California trial lawyer." His personal-injury law firm is based in Costa Mesa.On Friday, CNN anch ... More >>

10 Reasons God Hates California

​Considering Sunday's 7.2 earthquake just south of California's border with Mexico, the 4.1 shaker six miles southwest of Malibu and assorted aftershocks felt up and down the state as this is banged out with fingers crossed, it's obvious God is peeved at something. Before Pat Robertston, Wiley Dra ... More >>

Local Muslims Step Up to Help Haiti

American Red CrossA Haitian man in temporary shelter receives earthquake relief in a box.​Orange County Muslims on Friday plan to ship out to Haiti a 40-foot container full of clothes, medicine, medical equipment, bottled water and other basic necessities.

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Whacktacular Orly Taitz Gets ze Last Laugh

​With apologies to Don Michael Corleone, fellow fictional character/dentist/real estate agent/Birther attorney/crooked eyeliner model Dr. Orly Taitz, Esq. might be tempted to utter--in her thick Zsa Zsa accent--"Every time zhey zhink I'm out, I pull me back zin."The Laguna Niguel resident's latest ... More >>

Obama Squares Off Against Gays and Birthers in Carter Country

Photo by Pete SouzaThe Chosen One​U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is working his magic in his Santa Ana courtroom in two cases involving President Barack Obama.One pits The Chosen One against his gay supporters, the other against his nuttiest foes.Carter on Monday dismissed the first of severa ... More >>

Meet Orly Taitz, Queen Bee of People Obsessed With Barack Obama's Birth Certificate

Savannah Homecoming

Bowers Museum

[Hole In the Wall] Savannah Smiles at Kenyan Cuisine

Readings from the Wizard of the Crow

Film: Africa, the Serengeti

Bowers Museum

Buena Park Pastor Wiley Drake Believes He Still Has a Prayer of Unseating Barack Obama

Web Exclusive Extended Play Edition!

Fantastic Voyage

Africa: The Serengeti

Roughed Up on the Waterfront

Never in a million years would we have thought that our August cover boy and esteemed UC Irvine professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o would suffer indignities and racial profiling in that ethnic melting pot San Francisco, but our pal Rick Reiff—the EE at Orange County Business Journal and host of his ow ... More >>

The Homecoming

One terrifying night in Nairobi, UCI professor Ngugi wa Thiongo proved that changing the world means you might have to scream