Links for 29 May 2009

Politics:
Dick Morris Thinks Convincing the Japanese to Develop Nuclear Weapons is the Solution to Dealing With North Korea (Oh, yeah, that's the ticket! Bring all of Northeast Asia into a nuclear arms race. No, thank you!)

Another Ralph Peters idea: Eventually, soldiers will need to start killing the media too (Yesterday, I linked to a post where Col. Ralph Peters suggested we should just kill all the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Some people have been looking into his previous statements, and found that he's also suggested that the military kill the media as well: "Rejecting the god of their fathers, the neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar. ... Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media." Unthinkable now, unthinkable in the future, too, you nitwit!)

Fox News Embraces Right-Wing Theory That Obama Is Forcing GOP-Owned Car Dealerships To Close (Of course, no one seems to consider that "...all car dealers are, in fact, overwhelmingly more likely to donate to Republicans than to Democrats — not just those who are having their doors closed.” But why let facts get in the way of a good hysteria? See also TBogg's Negro president locks Republican car dealers in the trunk and Yet another intrepid Malkin 'investigative scoop' goes pffffft.)

Was Rape an Enhanced Interrogation Technique? (The answer: YES! No wonder the Obama administration is trying to keep the new photos from Abu Ghraib secret.)

Rachel Maddow Responds to Tancredo's Racist Screed

Countdown: Jesse Ventura on Torture Prosecutions and Waterboarding (Ventura on "why he thinks we haven't had any prosecutions for torture in the United States, 'Mancow' Muller's waterboarding and Sean Hannity never agreeing to go through it himself.")

How to talk to a right winger ("What was ostensibly good for Israel for 40 years will also be good for another 400 years. For 40 years we were able to deceive ourselves, to mock the world, to occupy, to oppress, to trample and to kill. So why shouldn't we continue?")

The Potential Korea Escalation


Economics:
Yield Curve

"Fermi Problems" (Fermi Problems are interesting; I've run into a few, and I know that Microsoft has used them as part of their recruiting process. Thoma mentions that "Watching someone work out a Fermi problem in real time reveals a lot about their brainpower." More specifically, what it really does, IMO, is show how one works through a problem: the assumptions made and the logic necessary to solve the problem itself. Whether the solution itself is correct is mostly irrelevant. How one comes up with the solution is what's at stake.)

Are Durable Goods Orders Bottoming? (Another sign that might indicate the recession is beginning to fade.)


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
A quote to remember...


Miscellaneous:
Closer: The Cutout Of Delight (Always carry an extra hand in your purse, my dear?)

Russian police find feral girl in Siberia (Astaghfirullah! Poor girl. Russian police have taken into care a 5-year-old girl who has been shut up in a flat in the company of cats and dogs for her entire life, police said on Wednesday. ... The girl, who lived in the Eastern Siberian city of Chita, could not speak Russian and acted like an dog when police took her into care. ... "For five years, the girl was 'brought up' by several dogs and cats and had never been outside," a police statement said.)

Crater on Mars named for Isaac Asimov (An asteroid was already named after him, but this is still an overdue honor.)

Links for 28 May 2009

A little late but I have my reasons... :)

Politics:
Rachel Maddow Show: Cutting Through the Spin on Sonia Sotomayor

Fox talker Peters has a Gitmo solution: Just kill them all ("You have to wonder just what level of moral and ethical depravity you have to reach to be a Fox News talker these days. ... Col. Ralph Peters -- who doesn't exactly have a track record for probity to begin with -- went on Neil Cavuto and offered a solution to dealing with terrorists at Guantanamo Bay -- just kill them all.")

Krikorian: People should stop pronouncing Sotomayor’s name correctly. (It's amazing the amount of stupidity permeating the Republican party.)

Sotomayor and MLB (Interesting. "It was Sotomayor's ruling that forced Major League Baseball players and owners to resume the national pastime in 1995 after a 234-day player strike wiped out the final six weeks of the regular season and the entire postseason in 1994.")

‘Censored’ Abu Ghraib photographs show rape of detainees. (Both of male and female prisoners.)

Countdown: Worst Persons May 27, 2009


Miscellaneous:
The Phantom Torso Returns (The European Space Agency (ESA) sent a mannequin into space to determine radiation levels astronauts face. The conclusion: short trips (six months) to the moon are fine; trips to Mars may make the astronauts toast.)

Volcanic Terrain on Mercury

Links for 26 May 2009

Politics:
Mapping the Fallen (Someone has done a mash-up of all the American and coalition soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and marked both their hometowns and the place in which they died on Google Earth.)

Terror Plotter's Sick Brother: 'He Did It For Me' ("What's worse: A healthcare system where someone is so desperate, he'd blow up buildings to pay for his brother's treatment [the brother apparently has a bad liver], or an FBI that thinks nothing of setting people up so they can claim they caught some 'terrorists'?")

Andrew Breitbart says Oprah is secretly running the Obama White House (This guy is a real loon!)

The North Korean Nuclear Test

Israel's Plans For Launching A War On Iran

Obama Announces SCOTUS Pick: Sonia Sotomayor. Now Let The Games Begin! (See also Judge Sotomayor, Right-Wing Interest Groups Driven By Financial Motives In Attacking Obama’s Court Pick, and Obama To Name Sonia Sotomayor As His Supreme Court Nominee.)


Economics:
As Unemployment Claims Run Out, Many Workers Are Opting for Early Retirement


Business:
Cut your ad budget at your own risk (The advice here is frequently taught in business school and is really a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often managers do just the opposite. The results of the study are interesting: "Almost half of Americans believe that lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession means the business must be struggling.")


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Upcoming Productions (Bin Gregory announces his future seventh, insha'allah, and writes a wonderful bit of snark about the "Muslim Plot to Take Over the World™.")

Lesson of the Death of 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte

A school 'condemned to death' ("Why are the authorities refusing to fund France's oldest Muslim school, now facing bankruptcy?")


Miscellaneous:
Hubble Floats Free

Oslo Grand Prix: Horserse (I missed this one a couple days ago, but it's too good not to link to. Ever see a six-legged horse before? ;) )

Jesse Ventura on The View about Waterboarding

"If waterboarding's OK, then why don't we let our police do it to suspects so they can learn what they know? ... If waterboarding's OK, why didn't we waterboard McVeigh and Nichols, the Oklahoma City bombers, to find out if there were more people involved? ... We only seem to waterboard Muslims. ... Have we waterboarded anyone else? Name me someone else we've waterboarded!

Note to Elisabeth Hasselbeck (the dumb blond in the video), to (the coward) Sean Hannity, and any other moron who thinks waterboarding isn't torture: If you really believe that, if you have the courage of your convictions, then, man or woman, you should undergo waterboarding yourself. No if's, and's, or but's. Until you've undergone the experience, as Ventura has, you have no reason to claim that waterboarding isn't torture. Prove that it isn't torture. Until then, shut up!

Links for 9 May 2009

And be sure to wish your Moms a very happy Mothers Day tomorrow!

Politics:
The Colbert Report: Let's Get Ready to Humble!!!

The face of naked eliminationism (You're just going to love the guy who carved a Nazi swastika on his forehead.)

Pete Hoekstra: The Terrorists at Gitmo Are a Bigger Threat Than the Nazis Were (Another Republican moron.)

Swine flu genes traced to North Carolina factory farm (Remember how the Republicans were running off at the mouth about how it was the Mexicans who brought swine flu to America? It turns out that the original source of the virus comes from "an industrial hog farm in Sampson County, North Carolina's leading hog producer.")

Hating America (More on Sean Hannity: "I get it, Sean. You're too much of a pussy to eat spicy food. Next thing you know they are going to call [Obama] an elitist for washing his hands after using the bathroom, or weak for apologizing after burping.")

Worst Person in the World indeed: CBS sports analyst fantasizes about soldiers shooting liberal leaders


Economics:
Male Unemployment Rates At Or Near Post-War Highs


Business:
David Simon on the Death of Newspapers: 'My Industry Butchered Itself'


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
US Army: "We hunt people for Jesus" (The comment section is mostly between Naeem and myself so far.)


Miscellaneous:
Galaxies of the Perseus Cluster

The Top Five Awful Star Trek Tattoos (Includes a grinning George Takei (Mr. Sulu) pointing at a tattoo of his face on some guy's back.)

Meep! (Very cute photo.)

Links for 6 May 2009

Politics:
The Daily Show: Republicans, the Lost Party

Countdown's Worst Person: Laura Ingraham

US Airstrike Kills Dozens; Christian Proselytizing in Muslim Afghanistan (Juan Cole has a number of links to the continuing controversy over American troops passing out Bibles as "gifts" in Afghanistan; moreover, that one of the soldiers had pulled the same stunt in Iraq.)

The Georgian Mutiny That Wasn't

You’re only a whore if you show nipple (This is one reason why I'm glad I don't live in the U.S., where the masses and the media obsess over truly trivial people.)

Limbaugh Mocks Recession During Speech To Wealthy Right-Wing Donors

Dodd: Torture investigations may need to go as high as Cheney’s office.

Q: Even if it goes up as high as — A lot of this stuff seems to point toward Cheney’s office.

DODD: You gotta go where you gotta go.

Business:
20 resumes and 40 business cards FREE from Staples (For everyone in the US unemployed during this recession, now might be a good time to go visit Staples.)

Branding: The Psychology of Color


Economics:
You Are Here (That second graph puts the whole stock market into perspective, doesn't it?)

James Galbraith remarks (A similar post about Galbraith's speech was posted on Economist's View on May 2nd.)

There is a difference between then and now?

What a shame we let ourselves be talked into the “creative destruction” of the rail system, an asset that represents $3.3 trillion dollars in unskilled wages. That's a lot of labor just gone. It represents a relative share of GDP bigger than our actual current GDP! It makes you think about who has managed their wealth better; the US? or Europe who did not creatively destroy their original investment, but built upon it and thus saved themselves from having to generate as much income as we have had to in order to have our now killing us (war for oil?, pollution, resource waste, etc), personal transportation system. I guess that is why we don't get to have 6 weeks vacation for all, we have to work to rebuild what we had.

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
What do you get (Naeem's amusing account about being on "The Road to Mecca." :) There's an interesting overhead photo of al-Masjid al-Haram from his hotel window.)


Miscellaneous:
Cosmos/The Matrix Mashup (Someone with too much time on their hands has overdubbed "Agent Smith" with Carl Sagan's voice from "Cosmos" in a scene from the first Matrix movie.)

Actor, comedian Dom DeLuise dies at 75 (Below, Dom in Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles" - The French Mistake:)

Links for 5 May 2009

I don't know if this will become a regular feature, but I'm going to give it a try. Here are various stories, grouped under certain topics, that I found of interest in the past 24 hours:

Politics:
Hunting People for Jesus: Growing Fundamentalism in the U.S. Military

Neal Horsley, the mule-loving Republican candidate, said he would kill his own son for liberty and to secede from the Union

Joe the Plumber: I would never let gay people ‘anywhere near my children.’

Gonzales And Ashcroft Disagree With Rice: Just Because A President Says It Does Not Make It Legal

Volcano continues to make a mockery of Bobby Jindal

Economics:
Right to Water

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Ibu Susuan/Wet Nurse

Science:
Rembrandt Impact Basin on Mercury

George Will, Snob

George Will shows how much of a snob he is today in a column devoted to demonizing (of all things) denim jeans. More comments below.

Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults ("Seinfeld," "Two and a Half Men") and cartoons for adults ("King of the Hill"). Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six -- so far -- "Batman" adventures and "Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps," coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy's catechism of leveling -- thou shalt not dress better than society's most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism -- of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.

Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances. But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

Do not blame Levi Strauss for the misuse of Levi's. When the Gold Rush began, Strauss moved to San Francisco planning to sell strong fabric for the 49ers' tents and wagon covers. Eventually, however, he made tough pants, reinforced by copper rivets, for the tough men who knelt on the muddy, stony banks of Northern California creeks, panning for gold. Today it is silly for Americans whose closest approximation of physical labor consists of loading their bags of clubs into golf carts to go around in public dressed for driving steers up the Chisholm Trail to the railhead in Abilene.

This is not complicated. For men, sartorial good taste can be reduced to one rule: If Fred Astaire would not have worn it, don't wear it. For women, substitute Grace Kelly.

I came across this article through the blog Moon of Alabama, where I made the following comment:

On the one hand, Will has a point about how badly most Americans dress. This point was driven home to me when I lived in South Korea; Koreans dress extremely well, even on occasions when one might not expect them to. In short, Koreans make most Americans look like slobs.

On the other hand, Will only shows himself to be out of touch with the public by writing such a column. Most people will give a rat's @$$ about why people like Will think they shouldn't wear jeans or what clothing Astaire and Kelly wore.

(And, for the record, I gave up jeans long ago, when I lived in Arizona, but that was because it's too hot there to wear denim; I prefer khakis, myself. ;) )

One other comment at M of A was very interesting, where anna missed wrote:

This is one of my favorite and insightful passages by Guy Debord:

The root of the spectacle is that oldest of all social specializations, the specialization of power. The spectacle plays the specialized role of speaking in the name of all the other activities. It is hierarchical society’s ambassador to itself, delivering its official messages at a court where no one else is allowed to speak. The most modern aspect of the spectacle is thus also the most archaic.

Of course what Will is ranting about is the "absurdity" of the elites masquerading as commoners wearing blue jeans as a signifier of our wonderful egalitarian society, when nobody, especially himself, really believes it. And, as the veneers of the great society of spectacle continue to delaminate like cheap plywood in the rain, people like Will gaze wistfully back to a 19th century Dickens world where instead, the poor imitated the rich, wearing filthy collars and threadbare top hats, and not the reverse - thus broadcasting their class. Nonetheless though, like Debord says the grand illusion of modernity is in fact archaic at its root - some of which we are now beginning to witness. And it ain't very pretty.

Update: BTW, did you notice this little gem in the first paragraph I quoted above?

Seventy-five percent of American "gamers" -- people who play video games -- are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote.

Apparently, in Will's Bizarro World, if you play video games, you're much too immature to be allowed to vote. I guess it's not only "George Will, Snob," but "George Will, Closet Aristocrat" as well.

George, why do you hate democracy?

Wanker of the Day: Texas State Representative Betty Brown

Think Progress has posted a story out of the Houston Chronicle about Texas state Representative Betty Brown (R-Terrell), who suggested to Asian-Americans that they change their names to something that is “easier for Americans to deal with.” Apparently, misanthropes like Ms. Brown can't find a more thoughtful solution to solving identification problems when Asian-Americans try to vote in elections:

Brown suggested that Asian-Americans should find a way to make their names more accessible.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ko: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Milady, of course, was pissed when she read the story. Personally, I'm not surprised at either the thoughtlessness of Rep. Brown for actually making the statement or her refusal to apologize for her comments, instead blaming the Democrats (naturally) for "using racial rhetoric to inflame partisan feelings against the bill."

Instead I will award Rep. Brown with my first "Wanker of the Day" award. Rep. Brown, I salute you!


Update: The Youtube video of Rep. Brown's comments is available, which I've added to this post below. The offensive comments start at the 0:30 mark:



Crooks & Liars had a good riposte to Rep. Brown's remarks:

Oy. I guess Rep. Brown should be grateful she was not facing Zbigniew Brzezinski. That might have made her look stupid.

Update #2: Rep. Brown has now apologized for her remarks. In The Dallas Morning News:

Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, said that she "apologizes for her remark in the Elections Committee on Tuesday, April 7," in a statement issued late Thursday.

She said she appreciates testimony that made legislators aware of problems faced by Asian-Americans when acquiring identification and that she understands the "diversity of Texas" and the "enrichment" that Asian-Americans have brought to the state.

...

Brown, in the statement, said the controversial quote was one sentence from a conversation dealing with the difficulty in translating names. She pointed out that she was talking about the issue of transliteration and told Ko that she wasn't asking him to change his name.

John C. Liu, a New York City Councilman who had called on Brown to apologize, said Brown's statement is "a fair first step," but doesn't go far enough, in his statement. Liu noted that Brown's comments during the exchange with Ko went well beyond the concept of transliteration.

Corri Fetman's Sexual Harassment Case

Corri Fetman's back in the news; if you don't remember who she is, she's the Chicago divorce attorney who advertised her law firm on the idea that it's better to divorce now in order to marry your trophy husband/wife. She later appeared in a nude Playboy pictorial and wrote the "Lawyer of Love" column for the magazine. (I wrote about her back in 2007; see Life's Short. Get a Divorce. Be a Pathetic Loser. (be sure to read the comment on that post) and Life's Short. Your Marriage Doesn't Have to Be.)

Anyway, it turns out that Fetman was allegedly sexually harassed by a former executive at the magazine. According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

Corri Fetman, 45, who authored the Lawyer of Love column, alleged Thomas Hagopian, an executive for the digital branch of Playboy Enterprises, bombarded her with sexually explicit email messages and phone calls, groped her and took away her column last July when she repeatedly rebuffed his advances.

...

Ms Fetman's suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks more than $US4.5 million ($A6.6 million) in damages for, among other things, "gender violence" and emotional distress.

Now, based on what I've read in the article, I agree that she probably has been sexually harassed, and that shouldn't have happened. As her attorney said in the article, "Sometimes attractive women get unwanted attention," and that's completely true. On the other hand, I have very little sympathy for her. I mean, really, what did she expect? That she could pose nude publicly and there would be no consequences? That men would respect her for her mind when she has no respect for her body? Where was your modesty and humility the past two years, Corri?

The Foreign Fashion Models' Employment Relief Act of 2008

An odd story out of The Economist this week: Apparently not enough foreign fashion models are able to get H-1B's, a temporary work visa the U.S. government gives to foreign nationals for specialized occupations. The H-1B, of which only 65,000 are allotted per year, is frequently given to tech workers; companies such as Microsoft and Infosys sponsor many of the H-1B employees, and even they are feeling the pinch from not enough foreign talent coming into the country. "Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, testified to a Senate committee last year that the only way to solve the 'critical shortage of scientific talent' was to open up the country's doors."

This is causing the New York fashion industry to get their knickers in a twist. Coming to the rescue is Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY09), who has proposed a bill that would allow models to be reclassified into their own special immigration category. "This would free up more visas for the nerds; and it would allow 1,000 models to strut their stuff in America each year, compared with just 349 in 2007, half the annual number admitted between 2000 and 2005."

So why is Weiner sponsoring this bill?

Steve King, an Iowa congressman, thinks the bill should be called the “Ugly American Act” because it implies there are not enough beautiful people in the United States. But Mr Weiner, a bachelor accused by the tabloids and his fellow politicians of using the visa issue to get himself a glamorous date, says he's only thinking of New York's economy, which is heavily involved in the fashion industry.

The business generates thousands of jobs and millions in tax revenue: the average photo-shoot costs about $100,000. If a foreign model is denied entry, he says, the production is likely to be lost to other countries. New York's skyline or California's hills can be easily photoshopped in later. This “beauty drain,” as the newspaper Politico calls it, affects make-up artists, stylists and photographers as well as media companies and advertising agencies.

In other words, if this bill becomes law, all those foreign models, who have such limited prospects for modeling in their own countries, would be allowed to model in the U.S. if they're to avoid working at a real job.

But what about the "supermodels," you ask? Fear not! There's some good news:

...[S]upermodels like Gisele Bündchen are in the clear. They are eligible for O-1 visas, given to those with “extraordinary ability,” like Nobel laureates.

Darn Baseball Terrorists!

Mark Liberman at Language Log notes that Faux News isn't too concerned about the fifth column of terrorist baseball players that has infiltrated our great country:

Pat Burrell (left) congratulates Ryan Howard on his first-inning home run, one batter after Chase Utley's solo blast. Burrell followed Howard with a homer of his own. Howard hit another shot later in the game in St. Louis.

Fox News has apparently let their semiotic guard down on this one, because a search of their site turned up no evidence of concern that the "terrorist fist jab" may have infiltrated the national pastime.

My question: Did E.D. Hill come up with this ridiculous assertion because she works for Faux News, or was it just because she's a blond? (Inquiring minds want to know.)


HT: Economist's View
Photo credit: TOM GANNAM / Associated Press

Update:


Turns out the old man (George H. W. Bush) is a terrorist, too, along with former tennis star, Anna Kournikova. More at Wonkette.

HT: Things More Muslim Than Obama

Bill Moyers Pwns Porter Barry of Faux News

This was classic; I love how Bill Moyers was able to both suggest to Porter Barry that he turn away from the Dark Side and set up conditions for appearing on Bill O'Reilly's show that will be next to impossible for Faux News to fulfill. The sound is rather poor, being in a crowded hall; you'll have to concentrate to hear everything. From Crooks & Liars:

At the National Conference for Media Reform, Bill O’Reilly producer Porter Barry ambushes journalist Bill Moyers and asks him why he won’t appear on The O’Reilly Factor. Moyers, a class act to the last, makes Barry look like the small and petty man he is. But the joke is on Barry, because other journalists, including Uptake correspondent Noah Kunin, who got this raw footage, turned tables on ol’ Porter and gave him a little taste of the FOX News-style ambush journalism. I don’t think he liked it much.

"Rage Boy" at the Office

I think we can safely assume that "rage boy" here was fired. ;) Actually, I'm surprised no one tried to grab him when he fell down at the 1:16 mark of the video.

Words Fail Me

I just can't seem to write something that expresses my complete and utter disgust at this couple. Insha'allah, the authorities will throw the book at them. From CNN:

A man and a woman have been charged by police in Italy after they were found having sex in a confession box, it was reported Wednesday.

The Italian ANSA news agency said the young man and woman were taken into custody by police in the northern city of Cesena following a telephone complaint from a man attending morning Mass in the city's cathedral.

Authorities were alerted after a parishoner heard "rustling and groaning" coming from inside the confession box and pulled back the curtains to reveal a goth-rock couple engaged in oral sex, ANSA said.

The agency said the pair -- a 31-year-old laborer and a 32-year-old teacher -- defended their conduct saying: "We are atheists and for us, having sex in church is like doing it any other place."

However, Bishop Antonio Lanfranchi of Cesena-Sarsina took said the couple's behavior was "an outrage of notable proportions which bespeaks unutterable squalor."

He added that a special ceremony would be held to purify the confession box.

June 6th: Wear Your Kaffiyah with Pride!

Credit: ShaikR

The following comes from Facebook, which is what steps 2, 3 and 4 below refer to. Regardless, I hope you'll help support this event by wearing your kaffiyah (if you have one, insha'allah). Don't let clowns like Michelle Malkin frame the debate; wear your kaffiyah with pride!

A peaceful, visual protest against the clear racism displayed by a certain right-wing blogger, and her pals, after their ridiculous demand that Dunkin' Donuts pull an online ad featuring Rachael Ray wearing a distinctive black/white scarf, which apparently looked too much like the Palestinian kaffiyeh. According to said blogger, the kaffiyeh is the “traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad.”

Our response: what a load of xenophobic tosh!

More details about the incident here.

Instructions for the protest...
Simple: on Friday June 6th

1) Wear a kaffiyeh! Preferably whilst standing outside your local Dunkin' Donuts. ;)
2) Change your profile pic to one of the images listed at the top of this description.
3) Change your status message to: is wearing their kaffiyeh with pride! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20090243695
4) Take a photo/video of yourself wearing your kaffiyeh (with pride) and post it on the event page.
5) If you own a blog or website, please write about the event & either link to this page or to the following: http://imuslim.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/wear-your-kaffiyeh-with-pride-day/

Invite everyone to join in: Arab, and non-Arab. The more the merrier! A variety of participants will serve to highlight that the kaffiyeh is simply a piece of cloth, and not a symbol of murder and oppression, God forbid.

Kevin James, Moron

This guy, Kevin James, appears to be one of the dimmest of the dimbulbs that support the Bush administration. Truly amazing stupidity. And they asked him to be on TV??? This guy's a lawyer? Yeah, right! The following was taken from Wikipedia:

"You don't know anything. You don't know what you are talking about.”
— Chris Matthews to Kevin James

On May 15, 2008, James appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews, debating with Mark Green of Air America Radio to discuss remarks made by George W. Bush's speech to the Israeli Knesset in which the president drew a comparison between Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler in World War II with Barack Obama's expressed willingness to meet with leaders of U.S. adversaries.

After James vigorously supported Bush's comparison, Chris Matthews asked James for a "history check", asking James "What exactly did Chamberlain do wrong?" Frustrated by what Matthews perceived as James' inability to demonstrate any knowledge of the period, Matthews went on to repeat the question a total of 28 times. Finally with James' admittance of "I don't know," Matthews accused James of being a "blank slate" who didn't know anything about history. Matthews ended by telling James "When you are going to make a direct historical reference, get it straight," and then likened James to White House spokesman Dana Perino, who in an appearance on NPR's radio program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me admitted she had had no idea what the Cuban Missile Crisis was.

HT: TBogg

Update: Crooks & Liars has a rough, partial transcript of the video:

Chris: I want to do a little history check on you—what did Neville Chamberlain do wrong in 1939? What did he do wrong?

Kevin: It all goes back to appeasement. It’s the key term.

Chris: No, what did he do, tell me what he did?

Kevin: It’s the key term.

Chris: You have to answer this question. What did he do?

Kevin: It’s the same thing, it puts it all…

Chris: Well tell me what he did?

Kevin: It’s appeasement.

Chris: What did Chamberlain do wrong..

Kevin: His actions, his actions enabled, energized, legitimized

Chris: What did Chamberlain do?

Kevin: It’s the exact same thing.

Chris: No stop, Kevin. I’m not going to continue with this interview unless you answer what that thing is. What did Chamberlain do in ‘39, tell me? ‘38?

Kevin: Chris, it’s the exact same thing alright?

Chris: What did he do? What did he do!

Kevin: '38, '39 Chris what year do you want?

Chris: What did he do? I want you to answer, what did Chamberlain?

Kevin: He’s talking, He’s talking about appeasement.

Chris: What did Chamberlain do, just tell me what he did, Kevin? What did Chamberlain do that you didn’t like?

Kevin: What, what Chamberlain did? What, what, the President was talking about, you just said the President was talking about Barack. Look…

Chris: You’re making a reference to the days before our involvement in WWII. When the war in Europe began. I want you to tell me as an expert, what did Chamberlain do wrong.

Kevin: You’re not going to box me in here, Chris. President Bush was making that. I’m glad, I’m glad.

Chris: You don’t know, do you? You don’t know what Neville Chamberlain did

Kevin: Yeah, he was an appeaser, Chris….

Chris: You are BS’ing me… You don’t know what you’re talking about.

The Bill O'Reilly Meltdown

Hysterical. If you hate Bill O'Reilly, this is your video. :) And be sure to check out the remix (warning: lots o' profanity on the latter).



HT: WTF Is It Now?!?

Something Good Out of Something Bad

Some Islamophobic morons recently came across a Boy Scout webpage that lists the requirements for Muslim Scouts working toward their "Duty to God" award:

With that out of the way, since when did the Boy Scouts become a training ground for Imans and Islamists? This could be the curriculum at a madrassa, not the friggen Boy Scouts. Also, if Muslims in America are trying to integrate into our society this surely is not the way to do it......

What the morons don't seem to realize is that the Boy Scouts encourage kids of all religions to do their duty to God (Allah), regardless of their religion. This is the full list of all the religions who present to "Duty to God" religious emblem under the Boy Scouts:

Armenian Church of America (Eastern Diocese)

Armenian Church of America (Western Prelacy)

Association of Unity Churches

Bahá'í

Baptist

Buddhist

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Churches of Christ

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)

Eastern Orthodox

Eastern Rite Catholic

Episcopal

First Church of Christ, Scientist

General Church of the New Jerusalem

Hindu

Islamic

Jewish

Lutheran

Meher Baba

Moravian

Polish National Catholic

Presbyterian Church (USA)

Protestant (General)

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Roman Catholic

Salvation Army

Unitarian Universalist

United Church of Christ

United Methodist

Zoroastrian

But, you know, the morons would have you believe that the Boy Scouts are solely a Christian organization, no Muslims allowed here! And far from being not the way to integrate into society, this is actually one of the best ways for Muslim boys to integrate, where non-Muslim and Muslim boys can learn together about each other. Fortunately, the Boy Scouts don't listen to the likes of the morons.

The "something good out of something bad" is that despite having come across the morons' post, they provided a link and good information about the requirements for Muslim boys earning the Duty to God award. Even if your kids aren't involved in Scouting, the information can serve as a checklist for teaching (and reinforcing) the basic essentials of Islam to children, both boys and girls.

YOUTH EMBLEMS:

TIGER CUBS None
CUB SCOUTS Bismillah
WEBELOS SCOUTS Bismillah
BOY SCOUTS In the Name of God
SCOUTS/VENTURERS (14 & OLDER) In the Name of God
ADULT AWARDS: Allaho Akber


ABOUT THE EMBLEMS:

Bismillah: The Bismillah Emblem may be earned by Cub Scouts in grades 2 through 5. The requirements include a study of:

1. The Holy Books, including naming the Holy Books and identifying which one was the final revelation.

2. The Great Prophets, including naming the three greatest and writing an essay on Muhammed (PBUH)

3. Prayers and pilgrimage, including learning about Kaaba and The Pilgrimage.

4. Religious Holidays, including describing four major Muslim holidays, the names of Islamic months and writing an account of the importance of Eidul Adha.

5. The Mosque or Islamic Center, including attendance of religious services and drawing a picture of Masjid Aqsa and explaining its importance to Muslims.

6. Muslim Heroes, telling the story of the Scout's favorite Muslim hero and writing an essay on Hazret Bilal, the first Moazzin of Islam.

7. American Heritage, writing a report on a great American Muslim.

In the Name of God: The In the Name of God Emblem may be earned by Boy Scouts and older Scouts. The requirements for this award include:

1. Questions and projects including the study of monotheism, the name of the faith, the ways God has presented religion to the world, the "Absolute Justice of God", and characteristics of "God's Prophets", and a talk or essay on the Islamic way of life.

2. Questions and projects including the study of how a prayer becomes invalid, the five daily prayers, what governs the time of fasting, the significance of giving to the poor, the requirements and mechanics of making The Pilgrimage, and when you can go for haj, leading a congregational prayer, and participating in fasting.

3. Performing two projects of Religious Service to the Scout's Community. Projects may include a recommended project or a substitute authorized by the Scout's religious scholar.

4. Successfully Pass a Summary Examination on a range of topics including: naming the five major Prophets, explaining Ka'ba (what it is, its location and its origin), what God means to the Scout as a Muslim, what a person should do, if he arrives late to a congregational prayer, angels and their function in Islam, the five pillars of Islam, how a Muslim compensates, if he doesn't fast during the month of Ramadan, the proper method of slaughtering animals, and what Jehad means to the Scout.

For more information, see this page.

Hey, Where Are All The White Women At?

You remember Bernard "Bernie" Kerik, right? Former NYPD Commissioner, nominee for Secretary as Homeland Security, federal indictee (conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and lying to the IRS, plus a whole bunch of other crimes at other levels)? Yeah, that guy. Turns out that his time spent in Iraq as "Interim Minister of the Interior" back in 2003 wasn't too successful. Surprised? Not really.

The former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq took aim at Bernard Kerik in an exclusive interview with the Daily News Sunday, calling his efforts to train Iraqi police in 2003 "a waste of time and effort."

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military leader in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, blasted the former police commissioner for failing to produce results while Kerik was the interim minister of interior in 2003.

"I would be hard-pressed to identify a major national-level success that his organization accomplished in that time," ... "He is a very energetic guy. He is very confident - overconfident to an extent - and he is very superficial in his understanding of the requirements of his job," Sanchez said. "His whole contribution was a waste of time and effort."

Sanchez, who was in charge during Saddam Hussein's capture and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, said Kerik put U.S. soldiers in danger many times by not telling the Army about his police operations.

"I went to see Kerik and asked him to knock it off," Sanchez writes. "'You're going to wind up in a firefight with our soldiers,' I said. 'We've got troops patrolling the neighborhoods, and if they see a group of unknown armed Iraqis show up, they're going to engage.'"

Sanchez said Kerik focused more on "conducting raids and liberating prostitutes" than training the Iraqis.

"They'd get tips and they'd go and actually raid a whorehouse," Sanchez told The News. "Their focus becomes trying to do tactical police operations in the city of Baghdad, when in fact there is a much greater mission that they should be doing, which is training the police."

Sanchez said Kerik resisted communicating with Army leaders because of "a territorial issue."

...

Kerik disputed the allegations about his performance in Iraq - and said Sanchez was part of the problem.

...

Kerik denied arresting any prostitutes in Iraq and said the Army always knew about his operations.

"If we didn't notify them it's because they were involved in the operation," he said.

HT: TPM Muckraker: Sanchez: Kerik Was Focused on Busting Baghdad Whorehouses