Slog
News & ArtsThursday, September 13, 2012
News The Morning News
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 8:01 AM
The vitriol against US embassies (sparked by that half-assed YouTube satire of Islam) spreads to Yemen: "SANA, Yemen — Turmoil in the Arab world linked to an American-made video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters attacked the American Embassy, two days after assailants killed the American ambassador in Libya and crowds tried to overrun the embassy compound in Cairo. News reports also spoke of a separate protest in Tehran, where around 500 Iranians chanting 'Death to America' tried to converge on the Swiss Embassy, which handles United States interests in the absence of formal diplomatic relations with Washington. Hundreds of police officers held the crowds back from the diplomatic compound, witnesses said... For a third straight day at the American Embassy in Cairo, protesters scuffled with police."
I'm becoming increasingly suspicious of this whole thing—it's almost as if groups like the Muslim Brotherhood tried to coordinate some false event, and subsequent manufactured outrage, that resembled the secular, spontaneous, and more humane Arab Spring for their own drama-queeny ends. (What should we call it? The "Muslim Winter"?) And if you've watched the YouTube clips of the movie, you've seen that it's so weak and ridiculous, it's hard to believe it could inspire wrath in anyone. And, as of yesterday, it had a ridiculously tiny number of viewer-hits to justify its global significance. In fact, it's hard to believe that anyone actually took the trouble to launch that piece of crap into existence.
But wait a second... that controversial piece of crap might not exist? "First off, no one has been able to obtain a full-length copy of the film. The only evidence of its existence is in a 13.5 minute trailer on YouTube that is riddled with red flags. As BuzzFeed's Rosie Gray noticed, 'The video is a compilation of the most clumsily overdubbed moments from what is in reality an incoherent, haphazardly-edited set of scenes.' Just look at the horrid way the desert backdrop is green-screened into the background. This is a film with a $5 million budget?" Even if the movie is fake, the deaths are real.
Another nail in the nonprofit-model coffin? "'Discovering Fiscally Sponsored Dancemakers,' published Sept. 7, suggests that a funding method called “fiscal sponsorship” is overtaking the traditional non-profit model for dance organizations in the city [NYC]. The majority of the city’s dancemakers now operate without their own non-profit status, instead opting for protection under the umbrella of a larger public charity."
Mariners and marittime businesses don't like the stadium deal: "In a letter to the Seattle City Council, the maritime leaders object to the 'irreversible momentum' for a Sodo location and say the site is clearly preferred by the city, despite assertions that alternative sites will be evaluated in an environmental review. Investor Chris Hansen, a San Francisco hedge-fund manager who grew up in Seattle, has spent $51 million on land in Sodo and has said he's not interested in building at a different site."
If you need cheering up, try some election-time political cartoons by Horsey.
The vice president vanishes, part II: Xi Jinping, the incoming Chinese President, the man in line to run the world’s second-largest economy, has cancelled a string of meetings in recent days, and hasn’t been seen in public in more than a week. His government has dodged all questions about his absences... Most plausible, for the moment, is that Xi’s people are managing the optics. If, in fact, he is hobbling around with a slipped disc, or had a mild heart attack, they will almost certainly prevent him from being shown in public looking frail. In modern Chinese history, physical robustness has always been used as a proxy for political health; when Chairman Mao was locked in battles with internal foes in late 1965, he sequestered himself for months of plotting and then burst back on to the scene to show his vigor by swimming the Yangtze."
The viaduct/tunnel project is displacing gajillions of rats and cockroaches: Is anyone working on the project reading Slog? Because I want to be there—with a rat biologist—when you all think you're hitting the rat motherlode. [UPDATE! The link in this section is just a press release by the Sprague Pest Solutions pest-control agency. It was deceptively reposted as a story in the Puget Sound Business Journal. I hate it when press agencies pull that trick, and when publications let 'em do it. I've lost a little respect for you, PSBJ. To make it up to you all, here's a story about a newly discovered rat in Indonesia that is almost toothless.]
Etymology of the day: "O.E. ræt, of uncertain origin. Similar words are found in Celtic (Gael. radan), Romanic (It. ratto, Sp. rata, Fr. rat) and Germanic (M.L.G. rotte, Ger. ratte) languages, but connection is uncertain and origin unknown. Perhaps from V.L. *rattus, but Weekley thinks this is of Germanic origin, 'the animal having come from the East with the race-migrations' and the word passing thence to the Romanic languages. American Heritage and Tucker connect O.E. ræt to L. rodere and thus PIE *red- 'to scrape, scratch, gnaw...'"
A clever bank robber: "One member of the crew of bank robbers who led authorities on a 40-mile chase while eventually throwing wads of money into the air remained at large Thursday, according to a Sheriff’s Department report... The money snarled traffic, and authorities are telling the public that any money retrieved must be returned." (Fat fucking chance!)
Etymology of the day, part two: "Bank" comes to English from the Old Italian "banca" (moneylender's table) which may have come from the Old High German "bank" (bench). The phrase "cry all the way to the bank" was allegedly coined by Liberace in 1956, after a concert at Madison Square Garden that critics loathed, but sold a shitload of tickets and made him a shitload of money. The slang verb form you can "bank" on it—as in you can "trust" it—originated in the 1880s, but hasn't been used much lately.
I wonder why.
https://gawker.com/5942748/it-makes-me-s…
I'm not going to watch it, but if you want to dismiss that anger as simply ridiculous, go to a small town with a Bible, a cross, and an American flag, lay them in an intersection, invite residents to walk and drive over them, and then let us know how that goes.
5
At what point will rational world citizens collectively come to the conclusion that religion is a virus and should be relegated to a distant corner of the universe?There, I fixed it for you.
Islam, christianity, judaism, etc. They're all equally insane.
I wonder when the first radical extremist violent mormons start appearing? Or the first violent extremist scientologists?
Religion - ALL religion - is worse than foolishness. It's dangerous foolishness.
so true.
did you know that 22% of practicing religionists have HIV?
and more than 55% have syphilis and gonorrhea?
and worse, they inevitably give it to innocent non-religionists they come in contact with.
perhaps they should be thrown down a volcano?
it's almost as if groups like the Muslim Brotherhood tried to coordinate some false event, and subsequent manufactured outrage
Let's be careful with how specific our accusations get. I would be quite surprised if the Muslim Brotherhood was coordinating these protests, at least in Egypt, because the overrunning of the embassy there reflects poorly on their ability to provide law and order, especially since Egyptian police are among those trying to constrain protestors.
Similarly in Libya, where there has been an outpouring of sympathy from the locals against the extremists who attacked the consulate.
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What was coordinated, either deliberately or opportunistically, was the well armed assault on the Embassy in Libya. That was political.
Direct link to the release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/…
Excellent point, and a deep search of geographically-proximate social media appears to support your thinking.
It appears (emphasis on appears) from the statements of those closer and on the ground who have been posting and tweeting, an extremist group lured the ambassador and his fellow State people to the Consulate for the planned purpose of the attack by those heavily armed 100 soldiers; whether it was that protest or another, a protest was scheduled for that day, apparently a vengeance kill of some sort from a previously vile type having died?
This extremist group, not surprisingly, is funded from Saudi Arabia, according to a number of the comments, if correct.
The vilest governments in that area are Saudia Arabia, Iran and Israel, and with Saudi Arabia and Israel frequently working in tandem -- such as their actions in Syria and PR hype on Iran in America -- it gets very, very confusing, but while some of the soldiers who attacked the consul mission had once been affiliated with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, it appears to be an extremist local attack, although probably coordinated across many fronts.
As with so many other neocon policies, President Obama has managed not just to extend the George W. Bush policies, but to expand them.
While Bush went after the students to sabotage their education with his "No child left behind" fiasco, Obama has expanded that to go after not only the students, but the teachers as well, with his "Race to the top" -- moving towards the final Wall Street goal of the complete privatization of American education.
At the Chicago --- or city --- level, Obama's former chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, now Mayor Rahmney of Chicago, carries on the corporate model. (Rahm, or Rahmney, was a former private equity banker with Wasserstein Perella, so he's well suited for the job of the destroyer of public education.)
It was Obama's man, Arne Duncan (formerly of Chicago, now Sec'y of Education), who stated that Hurrican Katrina was the best thing to happen to education in New Orleans. Aside from the sheer obscene crassness of that remark --- Katrina killed thousands in New Orleans --- Duncan intended that remark to mean that the aftermath of Katrina's destruction allowed for the establishment of widespread charter schools --- the privatization of education --- and the destruction of the teachers' union.
The standard scam, or process, is exemplified in Chicago: the testing is non-curriculum based, producing poor test results, which leads to support for shifting to charter schools, or the complete privatization of education.
The building of charter schools is a lucrative profit center, given the tax breaks and structure for educational real estate development.
Profit, profit and more profit, coupled with the further destruction of unions with the subsequent reduction in workers' rights and quality of education.
While education suffers in Chicago, Rahmney's children attend the best of private schools.
While education suffers nationally, President Obama's children attend the best of private schools.
Once again the American electorate is given real "choice" by Wall Street: Mutt Romney who supports the complete privatization of America, or President Obama, who supports the complete privatization of America.
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Not that we're supposed to admit that, mind you.
As a gay man I'd feel equally uncomfortable surrounded by angry Bible thumping fundamentalists in Kansas as I would surrounded by angry Koran thumpers in Kansas.
I'd also be uncomfortable surrounded by either groups thumping their religious books in Egypt. Yes my foolish friend there are Bible thumpers in Egypt.
Would my fears in those situations be different? Of course but not because of the religion of the angry mob. The difference would lay in the difference in degree in the Government monopoly on the use of violence in Kansas vs. Egypt. The Egyptian State having just come out of a revolution has a much weaker grasp on that monopoly then Kansas.
That said, here in the US I fear the radical Christianists far more then radical Islamists.
@5's was making and indictment against all religion in all forms. One I disagree with but that matters not. You, once again were just being willfully ignorant.
20
Um... both situations would make me fear for my life.
Religion is evil. All of it. They are all equally insane.
"With or without [religion] you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." -Christopher Hitchens
22
I really think you should pause and reflect before you type. You'll come off as more mature and sophisticated.
"Would you rather be a gay man surrounded by angry Bible thumping fundamentalists in Kansas or Texas or by angry Koran thumping Islamic jihadists in Egypt or Iran?"
Haven't both of those groups killed people for being gay?
Yes, yes they have.
How is it that you do not know that?
24
a) religion
b) culture
The line between the two is blurry and indistinct, but would you say that an abortion clinic bomber is acting on "religious imperative" too?
"... or as we saw with Mohamed Atta 11 years and 2 days ago, radical Islam transcends all forms and reaches of government, as does Christianity but to a far less bloodthirsty extent - at least in the modern era."
You might want to re-evaluate that.
In the past 10 years, Christians have killed quite a few Muslims in places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Pakistan and so forth.
Because the Christians have better equipment and don't have to resort to suicide bombers does not mean that they have not killed more.
But then, you spend most of your time defending racists and bigots, don't you?
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I don't want to go down the road of religion bashing. You shouldn't either.
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Oh, bullshit. You and I and everyone on the planet knows the violent streak in Islam is far wider and more deeply ingrained than it is in Christianity, or Hinduism, or Shintoism, or any other religion you care to name. False equivalence is false.
Cuz last time I checked all the killings in Mexico are done by Catholics. They even use lots of religious themes in their propaganda. This is true throughout Latin America.
Ultimately, most violence is commited by the poor and uneducated.
Once again you place blinders on yourself rather then address the complexities of scope and nuance.
Yes the Arab world is in a terrible state of flux right now. Yes the world is a much more interconnected place then it was 1000 yrs ago. There are two fundamental facts you seem incapable of seeing.
1. The Arab world is not our world, their culture is not our culture. Specific to the crises at hand, their understanding of "free speech" and the separation of church and state is springs from a fundamentally different combination of philosophy and theology from ours.
2. This is not a clash between civilizations it is a clash within the Arab civilization into which we get drawn due to the interconnectedness of todays world.
With regards to point 1, it is possible for those of Islamic, Christian, and Jewish faiths to live peacefully side by side. Proof of this can be found everyday all over the world.
With regards to point 2, there is little we can do to predict or control how and when we will impacted by the clash going on within the Arab world. There is however a lot we can do about how we respond to it. If we respond to it as Bush, the neo-con Republicans and the Christianist have, as a clash of civilizations we will be drawn into violent clash after violent clash, war after war.
Obama has been charting a different course but course changes of this scale move very slowly and their effects are frequently only clear in hindsight.
Just to be clear here.
Your best option for some kind of human interaction is being told that you're an idiot by a bunch of people you do not know on the Internet.
And to make sure that these strangers know that you're an idiot seeking some response from them, you defend racists and bigots.
That is one sad life.
36
No, they are all violent.
They are all equally deluded into believing in things that don't exist. That kind of delusion is insane. They're all equally insane.
Just because the christian American nation you live in trumpets all the violent acts committed by muslims and conveniently ignores violence committed by jews, christians, hindus, and so on, doesn't mean it's not happening.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/romney-j…
Check it out it is very well informed commentary on what is going on in the middle east right now in response to that stupid "film clip".
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And how many before or since then? How about now?
"Hindus constantly clash in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan."
Yeah. With Muslims. Huh, that's weird.
"They are all equally deluded"
Perhaps, but as a point of fact they not even close to equally violent. Muslims easily take the cake on that score, both within their own communities and towards others.
Thanks.
_A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom_
SECTION I. Well aware that the opinions and belief of men
depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence
proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind
free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by
making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to
influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil
incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness,
and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion,
who being lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it
by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to
extend it by its influence on reason alone; that the impious
presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as
ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired
men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their
own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible,
and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established
and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world
and through all time:
http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/statute…
42
I disagree. There are plenty of examples of religious violence that is mostly non-political (it's sort of hard to seperate politics entirely, but anyway...):
Female genital mutilation (and, in my opinion, male genital mutilation too).
Christians encouraging war in Israel to hasten the "second coming."
Attacks on gays and lesbians (happened long before politics got involved).
Mixing religion and politics certainly doesn't help, but religion isn't some kind of benign, innocent bystander either.
Yes you are correct politics and religion are extremely hard to separate. The prophets of the old testament were as much diplomats as they where prophets. The Koran was as much Mohammad's attempt to unite a nomadic people as it was a theology.
Intrafaith politics in the mainstream Protestant religions in the US over gays and lesbians have threatened to rend some major denominations and communions.
That said, there is another side of the coin that your stance ignores.
Faith matters, faith comforts, faith heals, faith gives hope when all around is despair, faith encourages us to reach out a hand to help, faith gives us the strength to reach out for help. Faith is the quiet prayers when we are in need of succor, not the proud pronouncements in the public square.
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Yeah, I sort of got off track as well. Meh. It's a blog comment board, what should we expect...
I think we both agree that religion, ANY religion, can be perverted and twisted to suit the whims of evil people - frequently evil people with political power.
I'm happy to leave it at that.
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