Archive Listing
June 1, 2011 - May 25, 2011
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Flotsam and Jitsm
Be
patient. I'll get to it. I promise.
EMERGENCY BUTTON (If you need it). Every once in a while we do a blog-type blog entry like most people do, taking credit for noticing what's going on, with nothing personal to add but a wry quip at the beginning or the end. Call us lazy, but you have no idea how much effort is involved in scanning the Intertubes for links that are, well, wry quip material. Especially when the normal IP inclination is toward a machete, only in reverse, if you know what I mean. And who cares if you don't?
Be that as it may. I'm doing my best. Think of this as IP's version of the measured, friendly, bloggery of Instadumb**it. It's just pointing and wrying for a day. Like the good guys we are I am..
NBC BLINKS: No more Olbermann on NBC Sunday Night Football, the network that's presently crowing like crazy that it is "more colorful:"
Liberal cable news talker Keith
Olbermann has been benched from NBC's Sunday night NFL broadcasts this
season, according to various reports.
The move, originally reported by SportsByBrooks last week, was apparently no reflection of his political views, but the gig conflicted with his daily MSNBC broadcast. Olbermann, 51, had taken an occasional Friday off to focus on NBC's pre-game show, something his bosses at NBC News weren't keen on.
The New York Post reported NBC officials told reporters that Olbermann's left-leaning political views had nothing to do with the move. Olbermann, who rose to the national scene as a co-anchor for ESPN's "SportsCenter," had been a part of NBC's football broadcast -- termed "Football Night in America" -- in some capacity since 2007.
Olbermann, who was paired with fellow "SportsCenter" expatriate Dan Patrick, did lace some of his sports takes with politics, including a minor ribbing of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. [Ya think?]
The move, originally reported by SportsByBrooks last week, was apparently no reflection of his political views, but the gig conflicted with his daily MSNBC broadcast. Olbermann, 51, had taken an occasional Friday off to focus on NBC's pre-game show, something his bosses at NBC News weren't keen on.
The New York Post reported NBC officials told reporters that Olbermann's left-leaning political views had nothing to do with the move. Olbermann, who rose to the national scene as a co-anchor for ESPN's "SportsCenter," had been a part of NBC's football broadcast -- termed "Football Night in America" -- in some capacity since 2007.
Olbermann, who was paired with fellow "SportsCenter" expatriate Dan Patrick, did lace some of his sports takes with politics, including a minor ribbing of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. [Ya think?]
Like nobody at NBC noticed that the ratings fell like a rock ("30 Rock"?) when last year's telecasts went to halftime. Right. How smart does a network executive have to be to detect that pissing off at least half your audience isn't the best possible move in sports coverage?
DOG BITES MAN: Almost two years into his presidency, The One is still snivelling about his predecessor:
Obama
attacks Bush policies in Bush's home state
Obama hammers Bush's "disastrous" economic policies
By Ross Colvin
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush's home state on Monday as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections.
At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president's "disastrous" policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.
Obama defended his repeated references to Bush's policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.
"The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?" Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush's eight years as president.
In reminding voters about the policies of the unpopular Bush, Obama is trying to protect his fellow Democrats' majorities in Congress and limit anticipated Republican gains.
Obama hammers Bush's "disastrous" economic policies
By Ross Colvin
AUSTIN, Texas, Aug 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama attacked the economic policies of his Republican predecessor George W. Bush in Bush's home state on Monday as evidence of the way Republicans would operate if given power in Nov. 2 U.S. congressional elections.
At a fund-raising event for Democrats in Dallas, where Bush now lives, Obama said the former president's "disastrous" policies had driven the U.S. economy into the ground and turned budget surpluses into deficits.
Obama defended his repeated references to Bush's policies, saying they were necessary to remind Americans of the weak economy he inherited from Bush in January 2009.
"The policies that crashed the economy, that undercut the middle class, that mortgaged our future, do we really want to go back to that, or do we keep moving our country forward?" Obama said at another fund-raising event in Austin, referring to Bush's eight years as president.
In reminding voters about the policies of the unpopular Bush, Obama is trying to protect his fellow Democrats' majorities in Congress and limit anticipated Republican gains.
Good luck with that. Louis XIV tried blaming Louis XIII too. Pretty sure that didn't work, either. And excuse me, but what's so 'cool' about this strategy? Did Pacino blame anything on Brando in Godfather II? Maybe he was thinking of the famous scene in which Brando exploded, "Be a man!" Advice worth considering, we'd say.
RIFT IN THE GLOBAL MSM: Even the Brits are noticing that the American mainstream media are a bunch of lame, lazy, ass-kissers:
The
Obama presidency increasingly resembles
a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and
out of touch with the American people
What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain...
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has a far less deferential approach towards the White House...
a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and
out of touch with the American people
What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain...
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has a far less deferential approach towards the White House...
When Americans "turn to the British press," shouldn't that be a wakeup call for their betters in the States? Nah. They are the unchanging hope that went down the drain a long long time ago.
MUSLIM TO THE RIGHT OF BLOOMBERG & O'REILLY: Just love this one because O'Reilly is such an ass. He's so determined to be the open-minded middle-of-the-road "traditionalist" that he utterly fails to see when events have passed him by. This is the ONE time I have seen him nonplussed into breaking his unthinking pose that he's the one who speaks for "the folks."
Enjoy.
ROSABUD BACK IN THE NEWS: Pardon a bit of self-promotion here. Back in 2000, there was BoomerBible.com and Shuteye Nation, where we had this to say about someone(s):
Rosabud. Leading real-sized°
TV talk show host. Didn't she used to have a sitcom, where she was fat
and loud and obnoxious to everybody? Well, now she does it on her talk
show, except she's only fat and loud and obnoxious to people who are
part
of the vast right wing conspiracy°,
because there are so many people out there who need the kind of
political°°
[crap] you can only get from
a turd in a pantsuit.
Now she's back in the news. Twice. There's this:
George Bush, in the middle of a war,
had an all-station news conference to announce how horrible it was for
the safety of America that gay people were getting married in San
Francisco, which pissed me off enough to get on a plane and go get
married.
And this:
Israel: What a vile and hideous
country. I have reached the point, after reading today’s news where I
can really no longer support in any way anything having to do with
Israel or its apologists. I know that this means I will most
likely never work in US media again. I have tried to navigate my
way through attempting to be a person of moral courage and a performer
in the US. I have come to the realization that there is just no
way to remain mute on the subject of the horrid oppression by
Israel of its neighbors and workers and have any conscience at all.
We think she's still a turd in a pantsuit.
A SERIOUS (but hilarious) PROPOSITION: What wasn't around back in 2000 was Greg Gutfeld. We're happy about the progress he represents. Here's something this normally mosquito-weight scamp appears to be serious about:
I’m announcing tonight, that I am planning to build and open the first gay bar that caters not only to the west, but also Islamic gay men. To best express my sincere desire for dialogue, the bar will be situated next to the mosque Park51, in an available commercial space.
This is not a joke. I’ve already spoken to a number of investors, who have pledged their support in this bipartisan bid for understanding and tolerance.
As you know, the Muslim faith doesn’t look kindly upon homosexuality, which is why I’m building this bar. It is an effort to break down barriers and reduce deadly homophobia in the Islamic world.
The goal, however, is not simply to open a typical gay bar, but one friendly to men of Islamic faith. An entire floor, for example, will feature non-alcoholic drinks, since booze is forbidden by the faith. The bar will be open all day and night, to accommodate men who would rather keep their sexuality under wraps – but still want to dance.
Bottom line: I hope that the mosque owners will be as open to the bar, as I am to the new mosque. After all, the belief driving them to open up their center near Ground Zero, is no different than mine.
My place, however, will have better music.
No, Gutfeld isn't gay. He pants too much in the presence of his female guests on Redeye for that. But he's hit on a new idea, I think. Satire acted out, invested in, made real in an insane reality. Wish I'd thought of it first.
Which is the end of our blog-type blog entry. Except for the footnotes. Any time you challenge the left anymore, you have to have footnotes. I have one. I guess that's the minimum.
FOOTNOTE. I suppose there are those who think the Barney Frank video above merits a post of its own. I disagree. Even if the whole purpose of this post was to get, finally, to Barney Frank, that wouldn't make him any more than a footnote in American history. You can do a LOT of damage without being more than a footnote. To transcend that status, you have to have some actual stature. You know. Character. Wisdom. Or at least tragically wrong convictions. You can't just be the living embodiment of every stereotype associated with the monolithic identity you choose to inflict on everyone. So here's our Barney Frank footnote.
THE STEREOTYPE'S STEREOTYPE: So what do gay men want that we can all agree they might deserve? That they be freed from the cartoon notion that if they're not effeminate, victim nonentities, they're shrill, vicious, conniving composites of all that is worst in both sexes, with the arrogantly predatory instincts of a male with a grudge and the poisonous, eternal, criminal resentments of a female scorned. Welcome to Barney Frank. This choleric, corrupt, delusional, self-ordained Poof Pontiff of the Congress is the worst possible advertisement ever for the cause he purports to believe in most. He's nothing but a rutting hog with a snarling lisp and a liar's preference for the pigpen from which he hurls the dung he's spent his life squeezing into the shape of Massachussetts rhetoric
Yeah. Nobody else will say it. I will. He's the best argument against gay rights alive on the planet. Compare the gotcha video up top with this account from Jonathan Alter's suckbutt paean to Obama, The Promise:
At the Washington Independent Aaron
Weiner highlights another F-bomb festival, this time from a September
2008 meeting that included House Financial Services Chairman Barney
Frank (D - Mass.), Obama, John McCain, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
and President Bush.
Frank was apparently incensed at Paulson's attempt to stop Democrats from criticizing the huge plan to bailout the financial sector -- in fact, it was Republicans who balked, Weiner observes. Here's Frank's blowup at Paulson:
Barney Frank muscled his way past Harry Reid and started yelling. "F-- you, Hank! F-- you! Blow up this deal? We didn't blow up this deal! Your guys blew up the deal! You better tell [GOP Rep. Spencer] Bacchus and the rest of them to get their s-- together!"
Frank was apparently incensed at Paulson's attempt to stop Democrats from criticizing the huge plan to bailout the financial sector -- in fact, it was Republicans who balked, Weiner observes. Here's Frank's blowup at Paulson:
Barney Frank muscled his way past Harry Reid and started yelling. "F-- you, Hank! F-- you! Blow up this deal? We didn't blow up this deal! Your guys blew up the deal! You better tell [GOP Rep. Spencer] Bacchus and the rest of them to get their s-- together!"
Hardly an exception. The public record is stuffed with his vulgarity, sanctimony, venom, overflowing rage, sense of superiority, and utter, utter personal and political corruption . (Go here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
This from a man who should have been tossed out of the Congress for personal ethics violations long before he betrayed his office in matters of state.
Shortly after coming out, Frank met and
began dating Herb Moses, an
economist and LGBT activist; their relationship lasted for eleven years
until an amicable break-up in July 1998... Moses, who was an executive at Fannie Mae
from 1991 to 1998, was the first partner of an openly gay member of
Congress to receive spousal benefits and the two were considered
"Washington's most powerful and influential gay couple
Compare:
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Troubled mortgage
giant Fannie Mae planned to pay four
top executives retention bonuses
ranging from $470,000 to $611,000, according to a February SEC
filing.
Executive vice presidents Kenneth Bacon, David Hisey, Michael Williams and Thomas Lund will be receiving bonuses of close to half a million dollars each. Bacon supervises community development for the company, Hisey is its deputy chief financial officer, Williams is its COO and Lund oversees the single-family mortgage business.
By contrast, Fannie Mae CFO David Johnson received no bonus on top of his salary of $625,000, while CEO Herb Allison received no compensation or bonuses in 2008 or 2009.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae deferred comment on the bonuses to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The bonuses were necessary to keep Fannie's most experienced executives working to reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis, FHFA Director James B. Lockhart told CNN.
Executive vice presidents Kenneth Bacon, David Hisey, Michael Williams and Thomas Lund will be receiving bonuses of close to half a million dollars each. Bacon supervises community development for the company, Hisey is its deputy chief financial officer, Williams is its COO and Lund oversees the single-family mortgage business.
By contrast, Fannie Mae CFO David Johnson received no bonus on top of his salary of $625,000, while CEO Herb Allison received no compensation or bonuses in 2008 or 2009.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae deferred comment on the bonuses to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The bonuses were necessary to keep Fannie's most experienced executives working to reverse the effects of the mortgage crisis, FHFA Director James B. Lockhart told CNN.
But he's escaped all accountability for his turpitude because he's gay, hostile, and vicious? Sometimes, stereotypes rule. But gays shouldn't be surprised that straights are still resistant to their demands for surrender across the board. Who wants to surrender anything to the Barney Franks of the world? They don't even deserve accommodation. They deserve to be locked up.
ANTIDOTE: No. We don't -- I don't -- hate gay people. I just hate whores, manipulators, crooks, and bullies of every stripe. That's not who most gay people are. At all. So let me leave you with scenes from a movie I genuinely liked, with no inclination to feel that I was being patronizing. I'd have enjoyed being at that dinner party. Not kidding. Here's some background and the scene I'll leave you with:
Night all.
posted at
12:43 pm
by
InstaPunk
Monday, August 09, 2010
A Bi-Polar Exercise
DONE THIS BEFORE. God bless C-Span. On the same day this weekend, the network featured book tour presentations by the authors of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America and Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. I doubt you'll read either, though you Ayn Rand fans may be more tempted to the former by the fact that one of its co-authors, Pamela Geller, is the leading light behind AtlasShrugs.com. She's fun to watch, if a bit more shotgun than rifle, but I was more intrigued by Alexander Zaitchik, the contemning voice of the Glenn Beck book. I think it's fair to say he's a lot more disrespectful to Beck than Geller is to Obama. I found his Amazon bio and (some) more elsewhere about his past endeavors, read the "Look Inside" excerpts, and then examined the Amazon customer reviews of his first magnum opus.
Which, more than anything else, is what I want to share with you today. That's why I call it an exercise. Amazon customer reviews are one of my favorite forms of polling. Not because they're scientific. Quantitatively, statistically, they mean nothing. Qualitatively, they mean a lot. The sample always represents those with the strongest opinions. We get to see how they think, what they regard as evidence for their opinions, and how cogently, factually, and persuasively they make their case. When the subject of a book is politics, it's usually those with the greatest personal, emotional animus regarding a subject or author who predominate. Curiously, this means that if there is a numbers game of sorts in the Amazon jungle, it's often the case there are more irrational, hysterical, dismissible reviews than rational, measured ones.
I know that Beck is controversial on the right as well as the left. That's why I thought it would be fun to have you look through the reader reviews. Will they make you more or less likely to look more deeply into what it is Beck is actually saying. I'm suggesting you take in the whole population of reviews presented, but I'm giving you two right here to get you started: One five-star rave and one one-star pan.
119
of 154 people found the following review helpful:
***** Portrait of a Dangerous Lunatic, May 10, 2010
By Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
There's no denying that political discourse in America today is more rancorous and uncivil than at any previous time in our history. There's no denying that misinformed talk-show demagogues and their fawning followers have hijacked key debates about national issues, and drown out the voices of thoughtful moderates with their strident, ignorant clamor. And there's no doubt that the broadcast media has played a major role in amping up the hype over controversial issues in their endless quest for ratings at the expense of truth, accuracy, balance and integrity.
"Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance," paints an appalling portrait of one of the darlings of today's paranoid, fact-challenged, know-nothing, right-wing political fringe. In this review, I won't summarize Beck's rise to prominence--I find him too thoroughly detestable to be worth that unpleasant task. But I will say that this book chronicles that rise in clear, chilling, footnoted detail, using primary sources that leave no doubt that this is an accurate picture of the man. That his racist, bigoted, militaristic, hyper-religious, fact-free, self-serving bombast has any appeal at all for any Americans is a sad statement on the extent to which willful ignorance has today become a virtue. That Beck, and others of his ilk, continue to draw oblivious, adoring listeners into their hate-filled fantasy worlds testifies to the immense power of the modern media, a power that Nazi propaganda minister the late Dr. Josef Goebbels would envy. That they continue to do so also shows the distressing triumph of mindless entertainment over factual substance. "Common Nonsense" tells the story of how this condition came to be, in a highly readable, fast-paced, compelling, disturbing narrative that would be hard to believe in some places if it weren't true.
Some books self-limit themselves to readers in certain demographic niches. If you hang on every hateful word of Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh, you need not waste your money or time on "Common Nonsense." Make no mistake about it--this is not a complimentary book. If, on the other hand, you take pride in being open-minded, want to know some of the story behind modern American demagoguery and seek to get a look at the thought processes that motivate the knee-jerk radical right, it is a must-read. I recommend it most highly to every intelligent, thoughtful American who cares about the nation's future. Dittoheads and extremist wackos need not apply...
36 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
* Worthless tripe, June 4, 2010
By _porterhouse "_porterhouse" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This book purports to be an examination of the phenomenon that is Glenn Beck. It begins with the unquestioned premise that Glenn Beck is, self-evidently, (1) corrupt, (2) immoral, (3) ignorant, and (4) wrong.
It then moves through most of the principal fallacies in formal logic in supporting, or "proving", that which it presumes via "examinations" of central episodes in Beck's life. Character assassination, red herrings, straw men, you name it, they're all here in plentiful supply. In fact, they're all that's here.
In the end, all it boils down to is the following:
Beck is wrong because he is wrong.
Beck is a liar because he is a liar.
Beck is corrupt because he is corrupt.
Beck is immoral because he is immoral.
This makes for a highly convincing, enormously satisfying read for everyone who agrees with the aforementioned premise. In addition to being a masterstroke of tautology, it is successful as a screed, a veritable festival of tantrum, a juicy slice of propaganda.
But it makes for a worthless bit of tripe as concerning an honest, objective examination of the man and his message. This is precisely as you might expect, given the threat that message poses to the millions whose very livelihoods depend upon the status quo. The status quo in which 300 million Americans are pitted against each other as the massive apparatus of the state is constructed and extended, and in which the foundations of country are gutted and/or abandoned.
***** Portrait of a Dangerous Lunatic, May 10, 2010
By Terry Sunday (El Paso, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
There's no denying that political discourse in America today is more rancorous and uncivil than at any previous time in our history. There's no denying that misinformed talk-show demagogues and their fawning followers have hijacked key debates about national issues, and drown out the voices of thoughtful moderates with their strident, ignorant clamor. And there's no doubt that the broadcast media has played a major role in amping up the hype over controversial issues in their endless quest for ratings at the expense of truth, accuracy, balance and integrity.
"Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance," paints an appalling portrait of one of the darlings of today's paranoid, fact-challenged, know-nothing, right-wing political fringe. In this review, I won't summarize Beck's rise to prominence--I find him too thoroughly detestable to be worth that unpleasant task. But I will say that this book chronicles that rise in clear, chilling, footnoted detail, using primary sources that leave no doubt that this is an accurate picture of the man. That his racist, bigoted, militaristic, hyper-religious, fact-free, self-serving bombast has any appeal at all for any Americans is a sad statement on the extent to which willful ignorance has today become a virtue. That Beck, and others of his ilk, continue to draw oblivious, adoring listeners into their hate-filled fantasy worlds testifies to the immense power of the modern media, a power that Nazi propaganda minister the late Dr. Josef Goebbels would envy. That they continue to do so also shows the distressing triumph of mindless entertainment over factual substance. "Common Nonsense" tells the story of how this condition came to be, in a highly readable, fast-paced, compelling, disturbing narrative that would be hard to believe in some places if it weren't true.
Some books self-limit themselves to readers in certain demographic niches. If you hang on every hateful word of Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh, you need not waste your money or time on "Common Nonsense." Make no mistake about it--this is not a complimentary book. If, on the other hand, you take pride in being open-minded, want to know some of the story behind modern American demagoguery and seek to get a look at the thought processes that motivate the knee-jerk radical right, it is a must-read. I recommend it most highly to every intelligent, thoughtful American who cares about the nation's future. Dittoheads and extremist wackos need not apply...
36 of 128 people found the following review helpful:
* Worthless tripe, June 4, 2010
By _porterhouse "_porterhouse" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This book purports to be an examination of the phenomenon that is Glenn Beck. It begins with the unquestioned premise that Glenn Beck is, self-evidently, (1) corrupt, (2) immoral, (3) ignorant, and (4) wrong.
It then moves through most of the principal fallacies in formal logic in supporting, or "proving", that which it presumes via "examinations" of central episodes in Beck's life. Character assassination, red herrings, straw men, you name it, they're all here in plentiful supply. In fact, they're all that's here.
In the end, all it boils down to is the following:
Beck is wrong because he is wrong.
Beck is a liar because he is a liar.
Beck is corrupt because he is corrupt.
Beck is immoral because he is immoral.
This makes for a highly convincing, enormously satisfying read for everyone who agrees with the aforementioned premise. In addition to being a masterstroke of tautology, it is successful as a screed, a veritable festival of tantrum, a juicy slice of propaganda.
But it makes for a worthless bit of tripe as concerning an honest, objective examination of the man and his message. This is precisely as you might expect, given the threat that message poses to the millions whose very livelihoods depend upon the status quo. The status quo in which 300 million Americans are pitted against each other as the massive apparatus of the state is constructed and extended, and in which the foundations of country are gutted and/or abandoned.
I'm not trying to prejudice you, but if you'd like a bit more info about the author, go here and here.
Read on. Then tell me what you've learned.
posted at
12:24 am
by
InstaPunk
Islamic Legends
Yeah,
we used to be paranoid too. Back before Mayor Bloomberg set us straight.
We thought there'd be two Osama towers. Just one is supposed to be better. Cool.
We thought there'd be two Osama towers. Just one is supposed to be better. Cool.
HELPFUL TV TRASH. There's a show I've seen called Urban Legends. They spell out a few wild internet legends and then invite you to decide which ones are true and which aren't. That's what we're doing here today.
True or false?
1. The Ground Zero Mosque design was actually modelled on Stanley Kubrick's threatening monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Sharia
gonna get'ya, soonah or lateh.
2. The Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial for Flight 93 is really an Islamic star-and crescent design that aims the properly placed observer at Mecca.
Many of you were outraged in 2005 when
the Crescent of Embrace
design was unveiled to be a half-mile wide Islamic shaped crescent:
Left: 2005 publicity shot of the Crescent of Embrace design.
Right: typical Islamic crescent and
star, viewed from a similar angle.
Few people know that this giant
crescent actually points to Mecca,
or understand the religious significance of this orientation. A
crescent that points the direction to Mecca is a very familiar
construct in the Islamic world. Because Muslims face Mecca for prayer,
every mosque is built around a Mecca direction indicator called a mihrab.
The classic mihrab is crescent shaped.
3. The Freedom Tower, planned replacement for the demolished World Trade Center, will ultimately be at least partially financed and run by Arab money.
The construction of the Freedom Tower,
a 1,776-foot office tower that will be built at Ground Zero is back on
track and the bidding process involves two companies, Durst
Organization and Related Companies.
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson reported on the status of this project on the Fox News program, Fox & Friends Monday morning.
Johnson reported on the financial dealings of Related Companies and its ties with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the Saudi Arabian royal family and to fifteen financiers based in Dubai.
The partner will invest at least $100 million into the office tower and memorial building.
Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson reported on the status of this project on the Fox News program, Fox & Friends Monday morning.
Johnson reported on the financial dealings of Related Companies and its ties with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the Saudi Arabian royal family and to fifteen financiers based in Dubai.
The partner will invest at least $100 million into the office tower and memorial building.
4. The Spanish vacation trip over Obama's birthday was actually an excuse for Mrs. Obama and her daughter to pay a visit to one of the greatest mosques in the world, the one in Cordoba.
Cordoba is gorgeous, of course. Like the fashions of Michelle and her daughter.
The latter are by noted couturier Xchristian LaCroix, who designed these outfits
befitting the (female) First Family's obeisance to the Moorish Conquest of Spain.
By the time
they have completed reconfiguring the Ground Zero project's
architecture and content, the place will be absolutely 100 percent
safe. There will no longer be any doubt that however much foreign
insurgents may hate America, it's nothing compared to how much elite
and powerful Americans hate America. This has to be an enormously
effective deterrent to further acts of violence in the city whose most
powerful people lead the world in hatred of this country. That's why
the over-engineered tower described in the piece referenced above will
never be built. It just won't be needed. The whole idea of a single
fake-me-out tower with 50 stories of panic room office bunkers and 50
stories of uninhabited, bomb-repellent gridwork can be tossed in the
trash where it belongs. New Yorkers will be able to go all the way to
the tippy top of the new twin towers design that will soon be unveiled
by Soros and company. What do you think of it
6. The next really big architectural project planned for a major American city is the new CAIR (Council on American-Islomaic Relations) headquarters building, which will be built northeast of the Pentagon.
The red-highlighted part is the planned new construction. It's
only an accident that a pentagon also describes a star. Right?
You can vote in the Comments section. We'll announce the winners and losers later.
P.S. I'm not proposing a conspiracy here. I'm reminding you all of a tactic. Isn't that what we keep telling ourselves is wrong with the designation 'War on Terror'? That it substitutes a tactic for an enemy we dare not name? Well, we should be mindful of tactics regardless of what kind of war we're in or pretend we're not in. The tactic is "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." If you're really aggressive, you don't even let your enemies breathe because you're so close.
I'm from the country. We have a greater critical distance than most of you. That is, you get too close and we back away or make YOU back away. What we country folk have noticed about middle easterners. They stand too close to you in the subway, in line, and in every other situation too. You city people may be inured to it. You're so close to everyone every day you create the necessary distance by living your lives looking at the sidewalk or sucking on your cellphones. We aren't inured to it. There isn't anyone in any tavern or pool hall in south Jersey who doesn't know that the guy who stands too close to you is preying on you or seeking to dominate you. That's when we push back. Sometimes very damn hard.
But we're rednecks. You're the quality. Precisely the people we have to pick up and cart to the hospital after you've misunderstood the body language in a real-world bar or ballpark.
Final point. We don't spend our days looking at the sidewalk or muttering into cellphones. Maybe if you could break that habit in yourselves, you'd stop being such dim-witted wimp bitches for all the predators who keep bending you over the barrier and... well, you know.
With all due respect.
