Mishegaas
- Ann Coulter and Hitler: Can you tell the difference? I can: Hitler wasn’t a fake-ass Deadhead.
- All about H.R.2679 and why you should urge your representatives to oppose it.
- Stephen Hawking: Pope John Paul II told me not to study origins of the universe.
- A Chinese boy was born with an exposed heart — a medical condition likened to a Christly miracle. Perhaps he could use some Jesus band-aids.
- According to Reason, like Irish American anarchist author Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson), the supposed terrorists plotting to bomb the Sears tower were Moorish Orthodox — and thus not precisely Muslim.
- A German newspaper is reporting that the Gaza beach bombing may have been staged by Palestinians.
- Newsweek takes an inside look at the violence currently engulfing Gaza.
- The GOP has killed a bill that would demand accountability from military contractors like Halliburton which have a history of ripping off the public. They also killed the minimum wage increase.
- Hugo Chavez is stocking munitions.
- Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place producer Aaron Spelling has died.
- DJ Danger Mouse of “Grey Album” and Gnarls Barkley fame hearts Woody Allen.
- Pro-Israel activists are throwing their support behind Joe Lieberman in his bid against Democratic newcomer (and actual Democrat) Ned Lamont.
- The Globe & Mail purports that Palestinians prefer life in Israeli jails.
- Nearly 100% of Egyptians and Jordanians surveyed say they hate Jews.
As for the Gaza beach article… Muslim women often swim whilst clothed especially if they do not wear bikinis in public, and it would have been very unlikely for the camera man to willingly film an undressed female, especially with so many “fully bearded” men around who would not have allowed it to happen. I also think it’s funny that they call them “Hamas style full beards.” Since when is a beard indicative of support for Hamas?
As for who was actually responsible, it doesn’t look like anybody is going to provide anything 100% conclusive at this point. It seems predisposed biases regarding the credibility of one side or the other is what is letting people make their decisions on a personal level. Short of a full-fledged expose of a Palestinian cover-up (that article does not count–it raises questions rather than provide solid evidence), I can’t imagine a way in which the coverup would resonate around the world like the initial reports did.
It certainly is not beyond imagination though that such an event could be staged, though it is unlikely that Hamas would have been behind it–maybe Hamas members. Other groups have been known to kill Palestinians (intentionally or accidentally) and then put the blame on Israelis so that they could call the dead “martyrs” and then cover their grounds. I remember reading something about a teenage boy being shot and killed on a farm last summer by a Palestinian group (it might have been Islamic Jihad or Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) which then pinned the blame on IDF.
Here’s a question I find to be more compelling though: why is this single civilian death, if Israel is responsible for it, so much more compelling than the dozens that have occurred since?
Oh, and about the Jordanian and Egyptian polls: even though I think the 100% number makes it kind of suspicious (you know, kind of like how the Syrian president is elected with 99.7% of the vote… riiight), I think it certainly does raise some good questions for Israel. How valuable are peace treaties with autocratic, repressive governments? And how will Israel deal with the moral dilemma that supporting those regimes to reinforce the stability of the treaties is also synonymous with opposing democratic freedoms in the same countries?
Many news outlets and bloggers have weighed in on the Gaza beach incident this week. Judy spent some time on it. Also Solomonia. Also Richard.
(All these blogposts refer to news articles.)
It looks like another Muhammed al-Dura passion play. After all, that worked so well, why not replicate it.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/730779.html
The German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung cast doubt on the authenticity of the picture and made its own determinations without checking the facts: Why were bodies covered with sheets?, it asked – although they were not. Why were Huda’s clothes dry? – although they were actually wet. Mohammed Salman, Abu Arabid’s boss, is considering a suit against the German paper.
“If a foreign photographer had taken the pictures, no one would have had doubts. Because we are Palestinian journalists they immediately claimed we staged it,” Salman said, adding, “How can one stage such horror?”
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=14708
US Corporate Media Misses Target in Israel’s Aerial Assault on Gaza
How is Joe Lieberman not an actual Democrat? I don’t have polling data in front of me, but I’m pretty sure that more than 0% of Democrats in this country support the war in Iraq. Is the war in Iraq the new litmus test for who is a good democrat? I really hope Lieberman wins to at least show that the Democratic Party allows for intellectual diversity. I find this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/nyregion/25brooklyn.html
a lot more interesting…
Ann Coulter may suck major balls, but I wouldn’t go so far as to compare her to Hitler. By comparing her to Hitler, you’re giving her what she wants. She thrives off of pissing off liberals.
And btw, do Arabs have the most drastically fluctuating public opinion ever or what? 10 years ago they were much more tolerant of Jews. I mean, Jordan and Egypt are allies of Israel, and in the hopeful post-Oslo years, people from those countries were way more open in their attitudes towards Jews.
hey–i couldn’t read the article about palestinians liking israeli jails … can you post the text somewhere?
Smoot–it goes both ways. My recollection is that Israeli Jewish opinion of Arabs was much higher then than it is now. I must say, “do Arabs have the most drastically fluctuating public opinion ever or what” sounds like a huge racial stereotype, and I trust that you’re not trying to say that.
Re: Lieberman, I used to live in CT, and I have to say that he’s far to the right on many issues other than the war. The guys one of the leaders of the Democratic Leadership Council, which is all about making Democrats look like Republicans on economic issues. After Gore named his as his running mate is 2000, he met with the Congressional Black Caucus because they had major concerns about really euqivocal statements he’d made on affirmative action. he convinced them that he supported it, but his record didn’t inspire much confidence.
My comment isn’t supposed to be positive or negative. It’s joking more than anything, although about a serious subject.
Actually they were not Moorish Orthodox, they were practitioners of Moorish Science. Believe me, Moorish Science definitely distances itself from Moorish Orthodoxy.