Since according to the link, the movie "Fitna" is a hoax, it has been proposed that a contest be held to create the most original "Fitna" movie.
It is the "Throwing Yourself A 'Fitna' Contest".
Using pictures and video, with text only captions, create and post to USENET and bittorrent YOUR version of 'Fitna', that will provoke screaming indignation and death threats from Muslims around the world.
For extra bonus points, it has been suggested that the soundtrack for movies should include either "The Numa-Numa Song", "Yakety Sax", or the Muppets version of "The Manamana Song", all of which fit under "fair use" copyright.
Winners will NOT be put to death, because they submit their films anonymously.
He fired the first salvo in 2003 and has been sticking his thumb in Islamist eyes ever since. Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury describes himself as a "Muslim Zionist." He is unabashedly pro-US, pro-Israel, and anti-Islamist. More importantly, he remains all of that from within the Muslim world, which he refuses to leave. I have fielded any number of asylum requests for him, and he declined them all. "Retreat is not in my vocabulary," he says, for he believes that if he were to leave his country, his credibility would be gone, and Islamists would claim victory; a satisfaction he refuses to give them. "Bangladesh is my country," he says. "Let the radicals leave!"
Since 2003, we have fought not only a battle of ideas but also a battle of wills with our adversaries; and the skirmishes never end. Shoaib has been imprisoned and tortured. He has been beaten, and Islamists bombed his newspaper before they and their cronies in the ruling party seized the premises. All of this happened after Shoaib published articles that exposed the rising strength of Islamist radicals in Bangladesh, urged relations with Israel, and advocated genuine interfaith dialogue based on religious equality.
In November of that year, he was about to board a plane for Bangkok and then Israel (there are no direct flights between Dhaka and Tel Aviv), agents grabbed him. Eventually, they charged him with sedition, treason, and blasphemy, which are capital offenses and could send Shoaib to the gallows.
In 2005, however, after an intense seventeen month campaign for his freedom, Congressman Mark Kirk (R-IL) took on his case. He summoned then Bangladeshi Ambassador Shamsher M. Chowdhury to his Washington office, and the three of us had a sometimes acrimonious, always difficult, hours-long meeting. As Kirk (a member of the House Appropriations Committee) describes it, we had a "full and frank discussion," after which Dhaka agreed to free Shoaib Choudhury.
Our elation was short-lived, however, when Shamsher Chowdhury clarified that Shoaib would be freed on bail even though the ambassador had just admitted that there was no substance to the charges. To be sure, we had won the most important point: Shoaib would be free. Still, I looked up and said, "Not good enough. It's an old and tired ruse used by tyrants," I continued. "Free the dissident but keep the charges pending in order to silence him." And so we argued some more until Chowdhury relented and agreed that Dhaka would drop the charges not long after Shoaib's release.
That was three years ago. The charges remain, even though numerous Bangladeshi officials have made the same admission as the ambassador; that the charges are baseless and are maintained only to placate the country's radical Islamists. Bangladesh's population is about 88 percent Muslim, a figure that is growing constantly, especially as Hindus are being ethnically cleansed from that country, falling from 18 to nine percent of the population. Although radical Islamists affiliated with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations represent only a small proportion of the population, they have infiltrated and taken charge of almost every major institution in Bangladesh from education and banking to police and the judiciary.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2008 00:00 ||
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WARNING: the following article contains horribly misused figurative language which may cause the formation of mental pictures too horrible to contemplate. Those with weak constitutions, or who are easily offended, should hit their "Back" button immediately.
Why am I so afraid that the Democratic Party is shooting itself in the foot?
The Dems are far from perfect--in any time--but here we are in what has to be a Democratic year and it looks again like we are self-destructing. I wouldn't say "looks like."
We have two great candidates--one a hard working, never give up eager beaver, and one an inspiring, heart-leapingly brilliant stallion. Careful with the double entendres there, Erica. Someone could lose an eye!
Both have their merits. Both care for what Democrats are best at caring for--working people, children's and women's rights, financial realism. . . . surrender abroad, higher taxes at home, centrally-planned political economy, the usual stuff.
And yet we have had great candidates before--think Al Gore--and lost to the low-level conniving, smearing and swift boating of the GOP (Grandiose Old Plutocrats). . . .
We need beavers and we need stallions. Erica, that's enough with the creepy metaphor.
Beavers get the work done. Stop it, you've gone far enough.
Stallions inspire us. Erica. Please?
And they both have limitations. Stallions have fragile legs (think Barbaro). And beavers are nothing without their teeth. Erica! Stop this right now! Put down the beaver-stallion metaphor, back away from the keyboard, and nobody has to get hurt.
It's not a matter of choosing between inspiration and hard work. We need both. We need to be inspired and then we need those who will never give up till they execute the inspiration.
Any fool knows that. The Democratic Party ought to know it too. And the sooner they bring the beaver and the stallion together, Stop it, already! That's a mental picture I Do! Not! Need!
the better off we'll all be. There is no choice here. There ought to be no ego, But there are Clintons involved.
no genderizing and no racializing.
You may want to sit down for these next three sentences. You are about to witness a truly shocking sight: Erica Jong saying something sensible!
Americans are neither black nor white. We are all as mixed as Brazilians. We are a honey-colored race--with Africans, Europeans, Asians and Native Americans intermingled in our DNA. That's the glory of America. If Dick Cheney is genetically related to Barack Obama, what more do we need to know? Well said, ma'am. You've stated the case against identity politics as well as anyone.
So let's stop talking about race and gender Cool. You Dems go first.
and let the beaver and the stallion Damn it! Put that metaphor down right now!
both serve our country--in their own inimitable ways.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2008 12:31 ||
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#2
You're afraid because you're a fuckin ditz, Erica. Just like you've been for the last thirty something years since you wrote that root canal of a book. Fear of Flying. I was going out with a girl in college who read it and insisted that I read it too for some kind of, I dunno, enlightenment?. Lasted about 25 pages. Told her if a guy wrote crap pr0n like that he'd be sleeping in the subway, not be some kinda feminist chick god.
She still writes like the fourth stringer for some high school newspaper. This is crap.
#3
We have two great candidates--one a hard working, never give up eager beaver, and one an inspiring, heart-leapingly brilliant stallion.
Somehow, thinking of Hillary as an "eager beaver" made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
03/24/2008 13:23 Comments ||
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#4
And the sooner they bring the beaver and the stallion together,
Ima sending this in to Conan O'Brien for the "If They Mated" morphing segment.
Posted by: ed ||
03/24/2008 13:29 Comments ||
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#5
Stallions are purty to look at, but them beavers have big, sharp teeth. Once the beaver bites the stallions nuts off, the poor horsey will just collapse in unremitting pain.
#8
She wrote a book or two after Fear of Flying about the same characters and her continuing obsession with sexual organs and activities. A single entendre girl if ever there was one. Although, given the apparent attitudes of her current tale's heroine, I don't think eager beaver is quite the phrase she really wants to use. Besides, I don't think cool people say that any more.
The latest polls reflecting Obamas near-collapse should serve as a morality tale of John Edwardss two Americas the political obtuseness of the intellectual elite juxtaposed to the common sense of the working classes.
For some bizarre reason, Obama aimed his speech at winning praise from National Public Radio, the New York Times, and Harvard, and solidifying an already 90-percent solid African-American base while apparently insulting the intelligence of everyone else.
Indeed, the more op-eds and pundits praised the courage of Barack Obama, the more the polls showed that there was a growing distrust that the eloquent and inspirational candidate has used his great gifts, in the end, to excuse the inexcusable. . . .
Go read the rest.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2008 10:52 ||
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This is the first time I have ever disagreed with VDH. He's right about the flags - but I think if Obama did that it would be too much of a flip-flop. Obama staked his flag deep into liberal victimization territory. To suddenly wave the flag now would deeply offend the self-proclaimed elites. The rest of us who have even an ounce of common sense will just feel our intelligence has been further insulted.
#2
If there was ever a sign of the death of the liberal victimization mindset - I think this election is it. Those who rode to power on the 60's issues can not move away from the fast enough. Has there ever been a generation that was so wrong and so stupid on so many issues?
#5
I predict Obama is going to try to spend his way out of this one. He's going to keep showing commercials about "hope" and hope every one forgets. If he doesn't start improving in the polls soon, thenhe should worry.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
03/24/2008 13:07 Comments ||
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Has there ever been a generation that was so wrong and so stupid on so many issues?
If you mean the Baby Boomers, a good deal of the blame can be laid at the feet of the generation who were born too early to be Boomers but too late to serve in WWII. Consider some of the members of that generation:
Noam Chomsky, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Trent Lott ...... Jane Fonda, Harry Belafonte .....
The list of them - too young for WWII but born before 1946 - is actually quite extensive.
#7
Will take a lot more than just 20 flags. Obama's big problem is his ability to work without the safety net of a teleprompter. His demeanor (stuttering, stammering, leaving sentences unfinished) on Friday night's questioning by Major Garrett was in stark contrast to his 'reading' his race speech in front of ardent supporters and invited guests.
#8
a good deal of the blame can be laid at the feet of the generation who were born too early to be Boomers but too late to serve in WWII.
I'd no idea they were that old, lotp. But don't let's forget all those parents who believed Dr. Spock's dictum on spanking, many of whom grew up during the war.
#13
I meant in terms of being a Red Diaper baby -- you write so knowledgeably about the various flavours of Socialists back in the day that I assumed you'd rebelled against your environment by becoming somewhat religious.
#14
Professor Hanson's prescription for Candidate Obama (what odds he'll be re-elected to the Senate after losing the presidency?) is a long-about way of saying he can't fix this. The only hope I see now is if he were to have Colin Powell by his side for the rest of the campaign, along with other successful men and women also known to have rejected Reverend Wright's religious point of view. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas might possibly do the trick.
#15
Unfortunately, dear TW, Justice Thomas is hated by the loony left even more than they hate President Bush, and would therefore cost Obambi his base.
. . . When you're questioned about whether the US government cooked up Aids in a laboratory in the late Seventies to kill black people, you're being asked whether you accept the objective reality of the world we live in. That's not a good thing to make a "dilemma" of.
The Reverend Wright is, to modify Cole Porter, not "dilemma" but "da limit" - a point beyond which Americans will willingly accompany Obama. So the simple fact that an absurd proposition for most people is a painful dilemma for the Senator has the effect of distancing him from those whose votes he needs. Rather than disown the kook he's spent 20 years listening to, Obama made his gran'ma the issue. Judith Apter Klinghoffer writes:
Does he have any reason to believe she was a "typical" prejudiced "white person?" No. The opposite is true. Unlike Barack himself, his grandparents were active anti-racist. So much so, that they had difficulty fitting into Texas' racist society of the early 1960s.
He writes(pp.18-21):
. . . At a bank where she worked, Toot (his grandmother's nickname)made the acquaintance of the janitor, a tall and dignified black World War II vet she remembers only as Mr. Reed. While the two of them chatted in the hallways one day, a secretary in the office stormed up and hissed that Tood should never, ever, "call no nigger 'Mister.'" Not long afterworlds, Toot would find Mr. Reed in a corner of the building weeping quietly to himself. . . .
They (grandparents) decided Toot would keep calling Mr. Reed "Mister," . . . . Grams began to decline invitations from coworkers to go out for a beer, telling them he had to get home to keep the wife happy.
He goes on to tell a story about his 11 year old mother who played in the front yard with a young Black girl. Neighborhood Children gathered outside the picket fence shouting: "Nigger lover!" and "Dirty Yankee!" The grandmother tried to get them into the house. The grandfather went further:
Gramps was beside himself when he heard what had happened. He interrogated my mother, wrote down names. The next day he took the morning off from work to visit the school principal. He personally called the parents of some of the offending children to give them a piece of his mind.
No, his grandfather did not say that he could no more disown racist whites than disown the white community.
Obama's gran'ma was consistently better than the times required. Jeremiah Wright is a lot worse than the times require. There is, in Gran'ma's conduct, the hope of change (as Obama would say). In Wright's, there is none. It's not difficult and all the portentous self-regarding rhetoric in the world can't make it so.
Obama's grandparents are, by all accounts, decent and honorable people, and set good examples of how race should be approached. What does it tell you about Obama that he's willing to trash them to cover for Jeremiah Wright?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/24/2008 08:49 ||
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There will be a very high price paid for dissing Grandma.
Posted by: Creling Darling of the Lichtensteiners8341 ||
03/24/2008 10:10 Comments ||
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#2
One thing this says is that he trusts his grandmother to love him regardless, and he doesn't trust his core voters to do the same without reassurance that he still loves them.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
