This Month’s Sign of the Apocalypse

Blood Red Sludge

Posted by Diana Newby on Sunday, October 10, 2010 11:55 pm

After discovering the latest omen of the world’s coming demise, the Clog encourages Berkeley students to put down their books and enjoy their short-lived time on Earth.

Hungary’s major national disaster was by far the most disturbing thing to register on our radar over the last few days. If you’re not in the know, here’s what’s up: a week ago tomorrow, a reservoir filled with poisonous waste — an unfortunate byproduct of alumina refining (which seriously sounds like a mediocre superhero movie plot device) — broke loose upon several villages.

At least seven people are dead and 150 injured in the wake of 180 million gallons of the sludge, which has made its way into the multiple rivers and contaminated thousands of acres of agricultural soil that can never be utilized again. Many of the injuries are due to chemical burns, as the waste is comprised in large part of alkaline and thus incredibly caustic. The current and future environmental damage is staggering to conceive.

Which makes it totally horrifying that the whole thing might happen all over again. The Hungarian environment minister is now calling the collapse of the reservoir’s north wall “inevitable” after a 25-meter crack appeared in the days following the original spill. Efforts to build dams and widen the dyke are underway; in the meantime, at least one town has evacuated and another is prepared to do so. Those villages already flooded are, of course, completely destroyed.

But wait — there’s more.

Environmentalists said high levels of arsenic and mercury, which can cause cancer, had been found in water polluted by the ooze and that, if airborne, this could enter the human respiratory system.

So … to recap: Sludge. More sludge. Dead and chemically burned Hungarians. Polluted rivers. Cancer cloud. And no one’s accepting the blame.

Buhhh.

– Diana Newby

John Travolta’s Gay Spa Scandal

John Travolta Gay

A man named Robert Randolf is putting out a book called You’ll Never Spa in This Town Again about Hollywood’s “secret gay spa culture,” and took a lie detector test when he spoke to the National Enquirer about one of the famous stars in his tell-all: John Travolta.

Randolf claims that he met Travolta in 1998, right after his marriage to Kelly Preston, and that all though he’s never responded to John’s alleged advances, he’s witnessed John shamelessly frequenting the gay spas and trolling for male sex partners. Here’s the snippet from his story:

“I met John in 1998, after he had married Kelly. I believe the marriage is a total fraud because John is totally into guys and has been having sex with them behind Kelly’s back for years. He came on to me a number of times. I always turned him down. But there was always some guy who was willing to have sex with him. And John didn’t stop cheating on Kelly after either of their children was born. John’s a cheating dog. It’s just been wrong, because his wife seems like such a sweet woman. John’s secret gay life is one of Hollywood’s worst kept secrets. He blatantly cruises guys, and doesn’t seem to care who sees him. I saw him with his lover and he couldn’t get enough.”

This isn’t exactly a new rumor for Travolta, people have talked about his secret gay life for many many years. In 2006 when the above paparazzi pic was snapped, there were items about how his marriage to Kelly Preston was a sham set up by Scientology, and that she knew about his male relationships.

The guy in the pic above, Jeff Kathrein, was the male nanny of John and Kelly’s deceased son Jett (who died at age 16 in January 2009 while vacationing in The Bahamas with the family). At that time Kathrein was revealed to be Jett’s main caretaker. John’s publicists told the media that John was simply affectionate with the people he loved in his life.

That may be an explanation, but there’s also a solid history of people claiming that John Travolta is gay and that the Church of Scientology is trying to cover it up. Homosexuality is among the things that The Church will not tolerate, and has methods to “cure” homosexuals. (Autism is another reality the Church of Scientology fails to acknowledge.) If John really is gay, or has dated men in the past, he should be able to be out and proud about it.

Here’s a breakdown of some of John’s past gay rumors:

2001 – A man claims John tried to pick up a businessman in a health club.

1998 – In court papers a former Scientologist, Michael Pattinson, claimed that JT was used as an example of Scientologoy being able to “cure” homosexuals.

1991 – TIME magazine published an article about Scientology, citing Richard Aznaran, the head of security, hearing David Miscavige, the Scientology head, joking about John Travolta’s “promiscuous homosexual behavior.”

1990 – Porn star Paul Barresi got paid $100,000 by the National Enquirer to recount his two-year relationship with John Travolta. He later retracted the story after being strong-armed by Travolta’s legal team, but then told The Guide’s Jim D’Etremont that it made the retraction because he was “having a nervous breakdown,” and “just wanted it to be over,” but “regretted the retraction a lot more than I regretted that initial call to the Enquirer.”