Obsession: Radical Islam and the US Election
Most of you know that I have a niece I admire as well as adore. She speaks Arabic fluently, and even better, she is interculturally fluent, from Morocco to the Gulf to Beirut, she flows with the Arabic culture, and works with an organization promoting intercultural understanding. I couldn’t be more proud of the work she does.
Please, before you read any further, take a deep breath. This is going to get bad.
Today, Little Diamond wrote about a DVD sent out by a facade-organization through newspapers in US swing states. The DVD is called Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.
Although it never claims to be a Republican support organization, or a McCain support ad, what the DVD does is to try to scare people into voting for McCain. The message is this – all Muslims are radical, and we need a strong leader like McCain to counter their insidious influence.
As my niece says, she doesn’t believe McCain would ever approve such a tawdry piece of nasty propaganda; the Clarion Group who sent this DVD out probably did it on their own.
I urge to to go to Little Diamond’s blog and read her experience, and the comments. She quotes one individual, saying:
“Whoever they are, they sure must have a lot of money. H pointed out last night that each DVD probably cost $1 to produce and $1 to distribute. That’s $56 million, not to mention the cost of placing the DVDs with each newspaper. Even if H’s estimate was too high, assuming $.50 to produce and $.50 to distribute means $28 million + advertising contract costs. That’s quite a lot of money for a no-name non-profit to have gathered since its creation in 2006.”
Elections can bring out the best in people and/or the worst. Both McCain and Obama have so far treated each other respectfully, as is appropriate for educated, senatorial leaders of a country. This kind of hate-tactic is NOT the American way. It makes me see red.
Joanna Brady and Tumbleweeds
I have a lot going on right now, and that is when I turn to books, I don’t know why. The more scheduled I am, the more important it is that I have fairly lightweight reading. My favorite genre is mystery, and there are a number of authors I follow, some more important than others.
I was reading the lastest Joanna Brady mystery, Dead Wrong, by Seattle author J.A. Jance. Joanna Brady became Police Chief in the small (fictional) Arizona town of Bisbee when her husband, then the police chief, was killed and she was asked to fill his position. Since then (several books) she has been elected and re-elected, and solved a lot of crimes, and re-married.
Now, in Dead Wrong, she is heavily pregnant, trying to solve a tricky murder that involves a puppy breeding mill and dog fighting ring.
“We have to go to Tumbleweeds tonight!” I call out to AdventureMan. “Joanna Brady is pregnant and she can’t eat creme brulee, but she dives right into tacos and enchiladas! Now I am starving for Mexican food!”
AdventureMan just laughs, he is always ready for Mexican food.
So just after sunset, we are king of the road, and we drive to Tumbleweeds.
I would love to say something nice about Tumbleweeds.
The service was slow. The servers were poorly trained. The food was SO mediocre. The chips were thick, and cold, and you could see fat congealed on them. The salsa was dull. The burritos and tacos were bland. No wonder we go there so rarely.
Kuwait Lifts YouTube Block?
Reports that the ban has been lifted are unconfirmed, according to this morning’s Al Watan. So if the ban is lifted, who countermanded it?
Kuwait reportedly retracts YouTube block
Nancy Oteifa
Al Watan staff
KUWAIT: Unconfirmed reports indicated on Monday that a decision to block the online videoـsharing Web site YouTube has been revoked by the Ministry of Communications. According to a blogger writing under the name of ”Falantan” who claims to work for a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), officials at the Ministry of Communications held a meeting Monday morning to discuss the issue and consequently decided to revoke the decision.
Sources stated on Sunday that a memo had been issued by the Ministry of Communications to all local ISPs ordering them to block the Web site Youtube.com.
However, speaking to Al Watan Daily, local ISP Arab Telecom denied having received any memos from the Ministry of Communication asking them to block this site. “We didn”t get any orders from the Ministry of Communication about blocking YouTube but the minute we receive the memo we will immediately block YouTube,” a company representative stated.
Reports that the Web site was to be blocked generated heated reactions from many people in Kuwait, some of who stated that this is a blatant disregard of freedom of speech, while others claimed that any site that displays material that is disrespectful to Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) should rightfully be blocked.
Kuwait Blocks YouTube?????
Kuwait blocks Youtube
Published Date: September 22, 2008
By Jamie Etheridge
KUWAIT: The Ministry of Communication has issued a memo to all internet service providers in Kuwait asking them to block YouTube access. The popular video website came under fire from the ministry due to content considered offensive to Muslims, a source within the industry told Kuwait Times. The Ministry pointed to content including a video of a man signing verses from the Holy Quran while playing the oud and another video showing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
A Fasttelco source confirmed receipt of the memo. “It’s supposed to be blocked right now. But due to technical preparations the blocking may take until tomorrow [Monday],” said the source. The site was still accessible yesterday evening. The Ministry of Communication regularly issues memos to ISPs asking them to block certain websites, including those containing pornographic photos or ones like Skype that can be used to make international phone calls over the Internet.
YouTube is widely used in Kuwait. A search of the word ‘Kuwait’ turned up 59,000 videos, including everything from videos of car crashes on Fahaheel Expressway and Jessica Simpson’s concert for US troops in Kuwait to protests in front of Abdullah Al-Salem hall in the run up to the 2006 parliamentary elections.
You can read the entire article at Kuwait Times.
Glassy Shimmer
This morning, it is once again only 81°F / 27°C at 0700 – it gets hot later in the day, but not so much humidity as before. Yesterday, after being outside only a short time, I felt like my skin had turned into cracked alligator hide – the dry heat just sucked all the moisture out. My eyes also felt gritty, even through it appeared fairly clear.
Another gorgeous morning, just a hint of that sulphery yellow haze on the horizon, sea flat as glass:
A fisherman is trying to snag something for the pot for tonight’s dinner:
Change in the Weather
At 0700 this morning, it is only 81°F / 27°C. What a change! No steamed up windows, the humidity is also down.
I love October in Kuwait, when the temperatures swing dramatically into the comfortable zone, and we can even start eating outside at night. We are yearning to go back to the Souk Mubarakiyya after church on Fridays, or on a relaxed Saturday night. Or Paul’s in the Fehaheel Al Kout Mall, out by the fountains. For six months, Kuwait is a delightful place to be. While my fellow Americans – or at least those not stationed in Kuwait or Iraq or Qatar – are slogging their way through the rain and wind and snow, we are basking in a sweet mostly-warm climate, our reward for the brutality of the summers here.
Although – there ARE people who love the heat! I even notice that I am not so uncomfortable in the summers as I once was. Unless it is humid, I don’t even break a sweat when I am out, or else it is so hot that it is just evaporating off me and I don’t even know it.
Yesterday, when I got up, it was too late to catch the sunrise, but what I did catch was lovely – a whole fleet of boats out fishing. Thanks to Enviro Girl telling me about the enhanced zoom capability on my camera, I was able to get some fairly clear shots, even at a distance:
Here, they’re hauling in something for dinner!
(Or maybe they are just hauling in the anchor. 🙂
If you want to see all the photos from the Souk Mubarakiyya, just do a search in the search box to the right and it will show you all the articles and photos I have taken there.
Kuwait Tsunami and Earthquake Warning
This is from Al Watan (thanks to Mrm for telling me what a good, reliable source they are!)
Expert warns of powerful earthquakes in Strait of Hormuz
Al Watan staff
KUWAIT: A leading Kuwaiti expert on earthquakes has warned that the Gulf region may face a devastating earthquake that could measure 7.0 on the Richter scale and cause a devastating tsunami.
Dr. Feryal BuRabee said the prospect of such an eventuality is great, particularly since repeated earthquakes have been reported in the Hormuz Straits.
Stressing that such a forecast must be taken seriously; the expert said the shallowness of the area where the earthquakes took place makes the possibility of repeat earthquake very likely.
“Though there were no huge losses from the 6.0 degree earthquake that took place on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008, experts should realize that such a sequential order of earthquakes began since early August and still continues to date,” said BuRabee.
She recalled that an earthquake measuring 5.7, which is part of this sequential order of quakes, took place on Sept. 17.
BuRabee pointed out that an 8.3 earthquake that hit the Strait of Hormuz in 1945 caused a tsunami that destroyed a number of areas. The Kuwaiti expert called for the establishment of a regional early warning system that alarms the Gulf of any possible tsunamis. She stated that it would be difficult to accurately specify the date of such a high magnitude earthquake.
You can read the rest of the article by clicking Al Watan.
Peter Bowen and Nails
Three men trundle a naked woman through the desert to a remote place, where she was placed in a container, 6 x 6 x 6 with only a candle, a cot, water and a holy book, until she could come to her senses and behave.
Four girls were strangled, one each day, for refusing the sexual advances of their father and his brother. The two youngest girls, their older sisters dead, complied.
Women with inconvenient views, women who start having thoughts of their own disappear. Many in this tribe are home-birthed and home-schooled, so there aren’t records of their existence, and when they disappear, no-one is the wiser.
Saudi Arabia, you ask? Pakistan? Afghanistan? Where on earth are women treated this vilely?
Peter Bowen, in Nails, gives vent to his frustration of minor fundamentalist Christian cults roaming the American West, many of them ending up in Montana where they believe they will have the privacy to practice their beliefs without interference, and where those who are well-funded can influence poverty-stricken school districts to toss out Science classes and incorporate Intelligent Design. Bowen has utter contempt for their studied ignorance, their need to be the sole authority on what the scriptures say, and their insistence on the utter submission of women.
His worst scorn is for their treatment of women – he attributes it to their fears about their own sexuality. Women are often the victims, Bowen states, when men worry about their size, worry about how to keep women faithful, tractable, and docile. (And let’s face it, who can successfully control a woman? 😉 )
This is the latest Gabriel du Pre novel, or at least the latest I have read. Gabriel du Pre is a retired brand inspector (he goes back every now and then when needed, when the brand inspector is overstretched, insuring that the cows sold are from the herds they are being sold from), Metis (French and Indian mix), a renowned fiddler, and a deputy sheriff when the sheriff – or the FBI – needs help solving a particularly tricky murder. It takes a while to get your ear used to his dialect, and he spends a lot of time in bars, but the man has a real knack for figuring things out.
Gabriel du Pre is everything a straight-living woman like myself shouldn’t like. He drinks, morning to night, keeps his flask of whisky under the driver’s seat in his car. He drives way over the speed limit. He doesn’t go to church, he goes to an ancient Indian spiritualist / medicine man when he needs guidance. He isn’t married to the wry, very smart woman with whom he lives. He breaks the rules, he goes outside the boundaries.
For all his flaws, du Pre has a deep down, rock solid core of decency, and a way of looking at life and situations that is practical and . . . forgiving. He is charitable toward his brothers and sisters. He detests cruelty, especially when the strong take advantage of the weak or the arrogant walk all over the humble. There is something about this flawed hero that keeps the reader coming back for more.
His Gabriel du Pre novels are not heavy reading. You can toss one off in about half a day, but they are not so simple as they appear. You find yourself thinking about the issues he raises, and you find yourself looking to see when the next Gabriel du Pre mystery will appear.
You can find this on Amazon.com for $16. new or from $3.07 used, plus shipping of course. (Yes, I own stock in Amazon.com.) 🙂
Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children
I received this e-mail this morning:
Hi there,
My organization, International Medical Corps, has the ability to save the lives
of malnourished children around the world and we just received some very
exciting news. We have been nominated to be one of the Top 25 in American
Express’ Projects, “Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.” Our project was
chosen out of 1,190 projects and is now eligible to receive up to $1.5 million
to help feed hungry children. Because your blog, here there and Everywhere, has
a loyal following, I thought this would be an issue you would want to share with
your readers. I’ve put together this microsite explaining everything.
http://internationalmedicalcorps.smnr.us/
If you could post about this on your blog it would really help to spread the
message and potentially could save many lives. At the minimum, please vote for
“Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children.” Please let me know either way.
Thanks.
Chessia
—
Chessia Kelley, International Medical Corps
ckelley@imcworldwide.org
http://imcworldwide.org
I googled the organization and it is legitimate. Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
International Medical Corps (known also as IMC) is a global humanitarian nonprofit organization established by volunteer doctors and nurses. The organization provides disaster relief, delivers health care to underserved regions, builds clinics, and trains local health care workers with the goal of creating self-reliant, self-sustaining medical services and infrastructure in places where that had previously been lacking.
IMC’s focuses include primary and secondary health care, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases such as malaria, cholera, dysentery, and HIV/AIDS, supplemental food for malnourished children, clean water and hygiene education, mental health and psychosocial care, and microfinance programs that allow people to earn their own income.
International Medical Corps is a founding member of the ONE Campaign and a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Sunrise 17 Sep 08
Such a change from yesterday! Still a little hazy, off in the distance, but beautiful silvery-gold shimmer on the water, and the temperature still hasn’t broken 100°F – the weather is shifting, you need only the eyes to see!
Thanks be to God for a beautiful day in Kuwait!
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Early Voting in Florida
