Gadhafi accusing UN of not preventing 65 wars

UNITED NATIONS — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is chastising the United Nations for failing to intervene or prevent some 65 wars that have erupted around the world since the organization was founded in 1945.

Gadhafi spoke Wednesday at the opening session of the General Assembly, taking the podium after U.S. President Barack Obama's first speech to the world body.

The U.S. Mission was represented by a couple of low to mid-ranking diplomats, after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice left the chamber before Gadhafi ascended the podium.

Gadhafi welcomed Obama as the leader of the host nation for U.N. Headquarters, and hailed his maiden speech.

But he railed against the "inequality" of U.N. member states, quoting from a copy of the U.N. Charter that calls for equality of nations. He noted that five nations hold veto power on the Security Council and can block actions contrary to their interests: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Speaking rapid-fire Arabic, Gadhafi said the use of military power was contrary to the spirit of the U.N., unless such actions are sanctioned by the United Nations.

Since the world body was founded in 1945, Gadhafi said it had failed to prevent or intervene in dozens of wars around the world.

"But 65 aggressive wars took place without any collective action by the United Nations to prevent them, Gadhafi said.

The Libyan leader wore a shiny black pin in the shape of Africa pinned over his heart, on his brown and tan Bedouin robes.

Obama Calls Kanye “Jackass"

Yesterday, a major slip up by an ABC reporter let it be known that President Obama called Kanye West a “jackass” in an off-the-record conversation. If you had doubts as to whether or not it really happened, well, now there’s audio.

TMZ has once again managed to get the exclusive, posting the audio clip on their blog this afternoon. Although Obama clearly uses the term, the clip does put it into some context, as the conversation started with the reporter asking if the President’s daughters were as upset as his were over the Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident.

This is yet another big celebrity news get for TMZ – earlier this summer, they were first to break the news, by a considerable gap, that Michael Jackson had indeed passed away.

RIP Patrick Swayze

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze: 'It's not tragic to die doing what you love'
Patrick-swayze Another '80s icon has fallen. Patrick Swayze died Monday after long and public battle with pancreatic cancer. He was just 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. Swayze died in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press.

Like Michael Jackson and John Hughes, who both passed away earlier this summer, Swayze was an '80s god, appearing in 10 big-screen movies as well as starring in the TV mini-series North and South. His appeal transcended the decade, and in the '90s he would win praise for roles in Ghost, Point Break, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything... Julie Newmar and Donnie Darko.

Some of the memories that come to mind tonight...

STAY GOLD: His first big-screen role was a biggie -- playing Darrel Curtis in 1983's The Outsiders. He shared the screen with a bunch of actors who would go on to be huge in the '80s including Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez and C. Thomas Howell, with whom he'd co-star again with in Red Dawn and Grandview USA. "I have always had a special place in my heart for Patrick," Howell said Monday." While I was fortunate enough to work with him in three films, it was our passion for horses that forged a friendship between us that I treasure to this day. Not only did we lose a fine actor today, I lost my older Outsiders brother."

KING OF THE GUILTY PLEASURE: Swayze's films may not have become as critically acclaimed as some of his '80s peers, but to fans of the decade, flicks like Youngblood, Red Dawn and Road House would become treasured guilty pleasures.Though so many of his roles, he found a niche: playing the tough guy with the soft heart.

FINALLY A LEADING MAN: In 1987, Swayze found a breakout role in Dirty Dancing. The unexpected success of the movie catapulted him to instant fame, something he wasn't necessarily expecting but wasn't unprepared for. "It's been an insane schedule, and also, the racehorses are going inside my head," Swayze told an interviewer back in 1988. "But I have a well of energy that's never run dry. People say, 'You'll burn out.' I say, 'Really? Watch me.' "

BUT ALWAYS READY FOR A LAUGH: Few people will ever forget Swayze and Chris Farley, lampooning their respective images during a Chippendales skit on Saturday Night Live in 1990. Five years later, Swayze set aside his "sexiest man alive" label and played a cross-dresser in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

STOIC TO THE END: The tabloid media seized on Swayze's cancer diagnosis in March 2008, pronouncing him all but dead within a month. Swayze brushed them off casually, while admitting he knew the odds were stacked against him. "I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

TOP 5 FAVORITE PATRICK SWAYZE MOVIES - ALL TIME:

5. YOUNGBLOOD (1986): "Thank God there is a sport for middle-sized white boys."

4. GHOST (1990): "The love inside, you take it with you."

3. TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, JULIE NEWMAR (1995): "Internal combustion, the ultimate accessory."

2. RED DAWN (1984): "It's kind of strange, isn't it? How the mountains pay us no attention at all. You laugh or you cry... The wind just keeps on blowing."

1. POINT BREAK (1991): "It's not tragic to die doing what you love."

whitney on Oprah show

Whitney Houston took drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, with ex-husband Bobby Brown, who was emotionally abusive during their marriage and at one point spit on her, the singer said during an interview that aired Monday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“I had so much money and so much access to what I wanted,” Houston told Winfrey. “I didn’t think about the singing part anymore. I was looking for my young womanhood.”

After a long absence from music, Houston is staging a career comeback with a new album “I Look to You” released last month and a two-part appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Houston is one of the best-selling artists of all time, but her career stalled as she grappled with drug problems and a troubled marriage to Brown.

Kanye west

Last night's MTV Video Music Awards were a bit of a gong show, but not necessarily for the reasons we were expecting. For weeks, pop oddball Lady Gaga promised fans and media rubberneckers that the performance she was planning for the VMAs would blow our collective minds. She claimed her vision was "rooted in New York-style performance art," and that she'd been planning the stunt for "months and months."

Gaga did her best to commandeer everyone's attention right off the bat, surprising folks on the red carpet with her choice of date. While Muppet-human relationships are strange to begin with, Gaga's decision to make out with Kermit the Frog was even more unnerving given that she recently decapitated a colony of Kermie clones for one of her insane outfits. One feared that by night's end, her escort might suffer the same tragic fate.

Her performance of the single Paparazzi was certainly histrionic. While Gaga's fond of name-checking Andy Warhol, I'm not sure there was a clear link between her gory shtick and the stylized, deadpan work produced in the late artist's Factory. The Paparazzi stunt found Gaga in a blonde poodle wig, oozing blood from her chest as she staggered and stuttered, pretending to have been mortally wounded while dancers clad in white spandex looked on.