Links for 13 May 2009

Politics:
The Daily Show: Excuse Me Your Dick is Out

The Daily Show: Bill Bennett Finds Comedians More Offensive Than Waterboarding

Detainee-abuse photos about to be released, Fox's Smith and Herridge report (Abu Ghraib 2?)

Bristol Palin Has Miraculously Transformed Herself Into the Abstinence Fairy!

Colbert uncovers an Alpha Dog counting gonad wrinkles in Montana (Perhaps the dumbest person ever to try to get out of jury duty.)

Liz Cheney on waterboarding: It's not torture, and besides, the end justifies the means (You'd think some people would get the hint and lie low somewhere. Antarctica, maybe?)

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

Feingold says Cheney is wrong: ‘Nothing I have seen’ in the CIA memos proves torture was necessary.

Cheney: For diplomacy to work, U.S. must threaten to bomb Iran. (The man's a madman.)

Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter to speak at ‘anti-Islamist’ conference. (The man's a DINO.)

‘Smokey’ Joe Barton: Regulating CO2 Could ‘Close Down The New York And Boston Marathons’ (Remember, kids: If you're the dumbest one in your class, you can still become a Republican politician!)

Wilkerson on Cheney: He's Destroying What's Left of the Republican Party ("He's destroying what's left of the Republican party. I think the latest polls show we're down to 21% of Americans who identify as Republicans. ... I suspect that if Cheney continues it will be down in the low teens. He's destroying the party. There needs to be someone with some ahhh.. as we say in the Army some intestinal fortitudes, some guts who steps forward and tells this man to go home and shut up.")


Economics:
Tracking the recession

De-globalization and Development

Energy Update


Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Yusuf Plays First U.S. Gig In Over 30 Years

Bruthaz of Blogistan (Thanks for the link!)

Richard Pryor As President (Does the younger generation even know who Richard Pryor was?)

Busy (Take your time, dude. Baby and momma come first. Love the pic!)


Miscellaneous:
Rose is Rose

Digitigrade leg extensions will make you taller and let you walk like an animal (This one is very odd; be sure to watch the video.)

Harlan Ellison Rejects Hometown Prize (Good for him: "According to Cleveland.com, the author was offended that he would have to pay his expenses for the trip to the ceremony, apparently calling the award "a fraud and a sham." ... [S]ome members said they had never heard of Ellison, who will be 75 this month, Roberts said. The jury voted to give Ellison the lifetime achievement award anyway.")

The Freakin' *Grumble Grumble* Book Meme

Courtesy of a vengeful Izzy Mo. ;)

The Rules:

1. You have to look up page 123 in the nearest book around you.
2. Look for the fifth sentence.
3. Then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
4. And then tag five people, just like you were tagged!

The nearest book around me? In a tiny room filled with three bookcases, which book qualifies? Seeing how I was tagged all five times, I'll do a little penance and write out two passages, one for fiction and the other for non-fiction.

Fiction: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

She did not let her parents know, and above all never hinted to Peter how often she thought about Ender, how often she wrote him letters that she knew he would not answer. And when Mother and Father had announced to them that they were leaving the city to move to North Carolina, of all places, Valentine knew that they never expected to see Ender again. They were leaving the only place where he knew to find them. How would Ender find them here, among these trees, under this changeable and heavy sky?

Non-Fiction: The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... and Why, by Richard E. Nisbett

Imagine that you see a college student being asked to show possible donors around the campus for a day and that for this service the student is offered only a small amount of money -- less than the minimum wage -- and imagine that the student refuses. Do you suppose you would think it is likely that the student would volunteer to help in an upcoming Red Cross blood drive? Probably not very likely. But suppose a friend of yours had seen another student offered a reasonable amount of money -- say, 50 percent above the minimum wage -- to show the donors around and the student had agreed to do so.

Whom shall I piss off today? ;) How about Rob Wagner, our sister in Islam Kay, another sister in Islam, DramaMama, fellow drum corps alum James Chappell (who completely missed my recent posts of the 20 best SF novels), and (let's see if he even notices a lowly blog like mine) Mr. "IZ" of IZ Reloaded.

Response to "A Rosie By Any Other Name"

The following is most of a comment I left at Izzy Mo's post, A Rosie By Any Other Name.

At first I was going to write a smarmy “we don’t have this sort of problem here” comment, but then I thought about this a little more. It is true, we don’t have these types of programs on here - no Rosie, no Glenn. (You can get Faux News on cable here, but I doubt that many people subscribe to that channel. We certainly don’t.) But why aren’t these programs on here?

Your politics is not our politics. What concerns American voters doesn’t concern Asian voters. Asian politics is often about pragmatic issues. During the last S’pore general election, even I was surprised to hear that a major campaign issue here was infrastructure: “We want better lifts (elevators) that will stop on every floor instead of those that stop on just three.” The US, by and large, doesn’t have infrastructure concerns except on a limited, local level, and those are treated in a more-or-less bipartisan manner. Instead, US politics have mostly degenerated into vague issues, like “values.” US politics have degenerated into contests that are shaped through religious and ideological litmus tests, which have increasingly polarized society. “You’re either with us or against us.” Values aren’t as important in politics here, not only because pragmatic issues like economic development are the higher priority, but because Asians don’t lack for values. With so many diverse religions here, it’s far easier to work together by not holding one group’s values above the others.

Smaller countries make for better media. Much of the media here, magazines and TV in particular, are spread over a wide geographic area that include many different countries. When I watch, say, "Law & Order" on the Hallmark Channel, they’ll show the program’s air times for Seoul, Hong Kong and Bangkok. Some programs will even show air times for as far east as India and the Middle East. That’s a lot of countries between Japan and the KSA. With so many countries, cultures, religions and governments to contend with, it’s easier not to make waves by being controversial. On the other hand, we want our news straight here. There isn’t the celebrity overkill here that there is in the US. JonBenet Ramsay? So what? Anna Nicole Smith? Who cares? The media here is also less likely to dodge difficult issues. Check out the covers for Time and Newsweek magazines here and here. These are the covers for the US and three international editions. Given the choice between a cover story about the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan vs. a story in favor of teaching the Bible in schools, which one really is more important? What’s the more important story, “Losing Afghanistan” or Annie Liebovitz’s “My Life in Pictures?” Yeah, Americans have got their priorities straight.


The situation in America isn’t going to improve until you change the culture and the way people think. Many people go to college, but few develop critical thinking skills. It’s far easier for people to be sheep, to be told what to think, to follow “Dear Leader” (regardless of who “Dear Leader” is, the President, the local pastor, whomever). The government and media gives the people what it wants; right now, yes, the US is in its panem et circenses stage, and I doubt that it will leave that stage any time soon. Perhaps never, insha’allah.

One more comment regarding Izzy Mo's "Society for Caucasian Muslims" post

Izzy Mo wrote: "This is John, better known by his Muslim name Yahya. He was raised in a moderate Christian family and converted to Islam after he took a class in World Religions. He recalls to us in our April 23rd meeting this story. 'So, after being a Muslim for about two years, I figure it's time for me to be married. You know, fulfill the other half of the deen. I'm looking around for potential spouses, letting everyone know I am interested in marrying a good Muslima. I was so rejected. There was even a nice Pakistani sister who I seemed to have a lot in common with but her father flat out rejected me. "Convert someone from your own community." I thought this was my community.'"

"Convert someone from your own community." Actually, this is what John and Juan, our African-American and Hispanic brothers, would be told. White American Muslim converts, both male and female, tend to be sought after by non-American (and sometimes even American) Muslims. (Heck, I had a black American brother - a friend - tell me that he wished he had a sister so that he could have her marry me. I was very honored by that comment.)

The problem is, I've heard lots of black and hispanic Muslim brothers complain, in person and over the internet, about how difficult it is for them to find spouses among the immigrant community (which, of course, represent about half of the American Muslim population - a very significant number). In looking for my own wife, I had very few problems. I did initially try the internet matchmaking option, and got tons of responses to my ad. (I quickly realized that I didn't need to hunt for women to write to; why should I bother? They all wrote to me first.)

And so I understand why Izzy wrote the above, but this problem tends not to be ours (meaning, us white Muslims).

My Response to Izzy Mo's "Society for Caucasian Muslims"

I've been meaning to respond to izzy mo's take on what a Caucasian Muslim Society might be like. She wrote: "I remembered an article about Caucasian Muslims printed in Islamic Horizons which stated that out of all the various ethnic groups in our umma, Caucasian Muslim never started a group specifically for Caucasian Muslims. There's Black groups, Latino groups, Indian groups, even Vietnamese and Native American groups, but no White, Anglo-Saxon or Caucasian groups."

I haven't read the article in question, but I would agree that there probably aren't any Caucasian Muslim groups in the US. (If there are any, they're probably very small in size.) Actually, I suspect that most American whites tend to think that we, as the current majority ethnic group/race in the US, don't need to create organizations specifically for Caucasians because it's assumed that we can join these groups anyway. (And, historically, those Caucasians who did create organizations specifically for whites have been criticized publicly over the past few decades due to discriminating against people from other races who wanted to join. So the general attitude by most whites now I think is, why bother?)

The funny thing is, here in Singapore, there is a "Caucasian Muslim" group, known as the Euro Club, which is affiliated with Darul Arqam - The Muslim Converts' Association of Singapore. Despite the name, the Euro Club is really for any Muslim (of any race) who comes from Western countries. Most of the members I know come from either Australia or New Zealand; I also know two Europeans, and then there's me, the only American in the group that I know of (although there may be more).

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A few months ago, a friend from Arizona asked me, "How do you feel being a minority?" Meaning, in a country where 77% of the population is Chinese, 14% is Malay, and 7% is Indian, the remaining 2% or so is mostly white (in three years here in S'pore, the number of blacks I've run across could probably be counted on both hands and feet). The irony is that I've felt like a minority since my reversion to Islam five years ago. Going to masjids, regardless of the country I've been to (US, Switzerland, Korea, Singapore), there is rarely any other white Muslim praying there with me. Years ago, I used to worry a little as to how I might be treated by the other Muslim brothers; after all, white Americans hadn't always treated black Americans that well (and likewise, Americans haven't treated the rest of the world that well either). But all of my worries have been for naught. In fact, instead of being treated poorly, I am treated very well. I am frequently the object of attention, the great curiosity: a white male American Muslim. Whodathunkit? And there are also times when I feel I'm a type of ambassador for American Muslims in these countries that I visit. People are curious as to how Islam is practiced in America, how big the Muslim population is, and so on. I try to be honest with them, telling them about both the good and bad. But the conversations tend to be interesting, and I hope we all will profit from the encounters.

One thing that I do enjoy about Islam, though, is the lack of emphasis on skin color, especially during salat. In the masjids I've been to around the world, there's very little segregation between different communities like you might find in American churches (white churches over here, black churches over there). I like the fact that in most places I've been to, there is a rainbow of skin colors, meeting Muslims from around the world (perhaps 20 nationalities so far). When the Qur'an talks about being a universal message for all mankind, I can believe it because I've seen so many diverse people who are Muslims. Alhamdulillah!

(Insha'allah, I hope to post a second comment to Izzy Mo's post later.)

The Dutch-Muslim Culture War

An interesting article, from izzy mo's blog.