Ramblings on politics, film, music, literature, current events, pop culture, lists, dirty words, trapezoids, birds, cartoons and any other damned thing that strikes my synapses. A 39ish-year-old freelance journalist and writer living with his wife and baby daughter in the hardscrabble environs of Oklahoma, Chase McInerney now spends much of his time frozen in stark, cold sweat-inducing, gut-percolating fear. For it will be soon .
.. yes, very, very soon.
Dead Men Tell No Tales, but They Do Vote
You think so? Looney Toons: "Death to Everyone!" The insanity rages on.
Over the past two days, nearly 30 people have died in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan in the midst of more cartoon-inspired riots, and now -- surprise, surprise -- a and a new car (the trusty Bob Barker-as-terrorist approach) to whoever kills one of the Danish cartoonists who dared sacrilege by illustrating the Prophet Muhammad.
AP reports on the bounty offered up by Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi:
"'This is a unanimous decision of by all imams of Islam that whoever insults the prophets deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize,' he said.
"Qureshi did not name any cartoonist in his announcement and he did not appear aware that 12 different people had drawn the pictures.
"
Slam! Looks like the joke's on Qureshi, who evidently will have to cough up $11 million more if he doesn't want to look like, you know, a total cheapskate.
While I admit there's really little on this subject that hasn't already been said, indulge me (it's my blog, after all): I'm starting to wonder more and more if the Bush administration didn't totally have its head up its proverbial ass when it decided to open the floodgates of democracy throughout the Muslim world.
Hamas wins the Palestinian elections. Iraq is going the way of Iran in a theocracy of anti-Western fundamentalists. And now it is abundantly clear that hundreds of thousands of enraged Muslims would rather rip the entrails from untalented Danish cartoonists than they would, say, like to settle the score with a really offensive comic strip, those precocious rugrats of " .
" Oh, if only Bill Keane had disgraced the prophet ...
I'm still waiting for moderate Muslims to sound off. Where are they? Even the presumably peaceful Islamic protests occurring in Great Britain these days are a joke.
Why are they still protesting the cartoons? What about, um, protesting the bloodshed over the cartoons?
The lunatic outrage over some offensive cartoons is spurring the worst kind of moral equivalence.
notes another pathetic example of how no one in the Western world seems capable of condemning the rioting without also tsk-tsking the cartoons in question:
"In Islamabad, visiting former President Bill Clinton criticized the cartoons but said Muslims wasted an opportunity to build better ties with the West by holding violent protests.
"'I can tell you, most people in the United States deeply respect Islam ..
. and most people in Europe do,' he said."
Can the world stop groveling its apologies for the actions of a Danish newspaper?
Yes, they were tasteless. Guess what? Take a cursory look at popular culture today and tell me that rude, offensive stereotypes aren't also heaped upon blacks, Jews, Asians, Latinos, American Indians, homosexuals and more.
Surely there is a method of protest better than bloodthirsty violence when it comes to proving the fallacy of cartoons suggesting Islam is a bloodthirsty religion.
Call me crazy, but torching embassies, killing people and calling for the destruction of Denmark (on the To Destroy List: Israel, America, Denmark ..
.) just seem to muddy the issue.
See Luke Run. See Luke Jump. See Luke Hasten the Destruction of the Evil Galactic Empire.By Conrad Spencer
It's become something of a Spencer family tradition to watch Star Wars movies regularly-- probably one every other weekend or so--at the request of my five year-old son, who never tires of them.
This weekend's selection (he can choose any of the original trilogy or Episode I--Episodes II and III being a bit too intense for a kindergartener) was , which in the first hour includes quite a bit of subtitled language.
I was busy cooking during this time, so young Ian was left to his own devices.
Turns out that this is a great educational resource. Using the pause button to slow things down, he could read most of the subtitles. His kindergarten class hasn't got to contractions yet, so words like "I'm" and "you're" posed a bit of a problem until I explained them.
Oddly enough, though, he read the phrase " fodder" like he comes across it everyday.
For our next lesson, I'm considering either Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece, or Chase favorite, Federico Fellini's .
Having just watched Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry's State of the State address, and having seen many a State of the Union, I have to say that one of the more interesting aspects is watching what the cameramen choose to show to illustrate the pontification.
Do they get the speech and then plot their moves?
Of course, they do oblige the speaker by showing the official people-props in the gallery. But then they start doing funny stuff, like showing random blacks and women to illustrate lines like "opportunity for all our citizens.
" Do you think black officials tire of being perennial props?
The most amusing thing, though, is that between pithy lines, the photographers seem to make a sport of seeking out everyone who is asleep or picking his nose. A typical moment from today was footage of legislators smiling over a whispered private conversation as the governor was talking about Internet sexual predators.
It doesn't take much to imagine the camera crew sharing a Beevis and Butthead laugh.
It's a whole lot like conspirators at a slumber party putting the sleeping kid's hand in a bowl of warm water. Watch out!
They are...
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