The national debt… Not necessarily the sexiest topic, what with today’s headlines of bailouts, massive unemployment, frozen credit markets, and all the other goodies that come along with cataclysmic economic collapse. This program sheds some light on why we ought to be concerned about year-over-year increasing deficits and entitlement spending and our nation’s current ten (or thirteen?) trillion dollar national debt.
To the three or four of you who continue to follow this pathetic little “blog,” I wish to say “thank you.” I’m alive and… living. I hope to be a little bit more involved with the greater world around me in the coming weeks of Spring thaw. Winter has been a depressing little mess, and I can’t wait to get outside and breathe.
Here’s a new bit of mind candy for all you armchair philosophers:
Can’t wait to see it… I’m in need of new material upon which to pontificate and offer critique… As if I were qualified to offer my opinion on any subject other than my own ignorance.
The founder of a US Muslim TV network has been charged over the beheading of his wife, media reports say.
Muzzammil Hassan, 44, is accused of second degree murder of Aasiya Hassan, whose body was found last week at the TV station in New York state.
Both Mr Hassan and his wife worked at Bridges TV, a station aimed at countering stereotypes of Muslims.
Authorities said Mrs Hassan, 37, had recently filed for divorce. The couple had two children, aged four and six.
Bridges TV, a satellite-distributed news and opinion channel, was founded by Mr Hassan in 2004 and was based in a suburb in Buffalo, in upstate New York.
Mrs Hassan had filed for divorce after enduring previous incidents of domestic violence, her lawyer told the Buffalo News.
In a statement on its website, Bridges TV said it was “deeply shocked and saddened by the murder of Aasiya (Zubair) Hassan and subsequent arrest of Muzzammil Hassan”.
A family court hearing was due to address the future of the couple’s two children.
Their grandparents have travelled from Texas and Pakistan to attend the hearing, John Tregilio, a lawyer for the children, told the Buffalo News.
Mr Hassan also has two other children, aged 17 and 18, from a previous marriage, according to reports.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7894721.stm Published: 2009/02/17 12:53:36 GMT
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I’ve been following Rashid Khalidi’s career for over five years, ever since he arrived at Columbia University as the Edward Said Professor of Middle East Studies, which was right about when the U.S. began its war to overturn Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Khalidi’s 2004 book, Resurrecting Empire, takes recent Western intervention in the middle east and places it in its proper context, that of being a continuation of centuries-long European colonial efforts in that part of the world.
The New P.L.O.? (Palestinians Love Obama)
by Scott MacLeod
Will Palestinians have a “friend” in the White House if Barack Obama is elected president on Tuesday? Many supporters of the Palestinians think so or at least hope so. My advice to them: Don’t hold your breath. Get too close to a Palestinian, or voice too much sympathy for his cause, it seems, and you’re apt to be smeared as someone who is little better than a terrorist yourself. If you’re an American politician whose middle name is Hussein, you really could be in for a hard time.
Most of the evidence that Obama is an Arab lover, despite his strongly pro-Israel campaign statements, centers on some of his associations and comments pre-dating his successful run for the U.S. Senate four years ago. He became friends and occasionally dined with Rashid Khalidi, a University of Chicago professor whose family is of Jerusalem origin. In 2003, Obama attended a farewell party for Khalidi, who was moving to Columbia University in New York. As the LA Times wrote about the event in a report last April:
Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking. His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases… It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”
Whether it was heartfelt, as it apparently was, or just a politician playing to the room, the words strike you as a wonderfully enlightened if regrettably rare thing to say. At a time of massive misunderstanding between the West and the Islamic world–in 2003, at the time of the dinner party, as today–here was an American politician willing to be challenged in his acceptance of conventional wisdom about the Middle East.
Or, in private, anyway. If you do that too much in public–or if your private musings become public–such is the field for Muslim-baiting in America that you may have a problem if you are a politician. Imagine: here we were in the final week of a crucial election for president of the most powerful nation on earth, and what was the hot issue for too much of the press? Not the economy, not Iraq, but Obama’s attendance at a party five years ago–a Muslim man’s party. On Friday, the august NY Times, trying to keep in step with the media pack chasing the story, ran a1,000-word profile of Khalidi, reported and written by no fewer than three of its journalists.
To be fair and put the blame mainly where it belongs, a McCain ploy is what sparked the obsession with Khalidi: His campaign unleashed the witch hunt by hinting darkly at Obama’s secret connections with nefarious Middle East terrorists when it called on the LA Times to release the party videotape–as if it would show Osama bin Laden and Ahmadinejad were there, slapping Obama’s back–”to provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi.”
That’s detestable Muslim-baiting, whether McCain intended it that way or not.
The fact that Obama and Khalidi are friends is not a mystery to be unraveled, as McCain insinuates. What he and some of the media are suggesting is that Khalidi is a disreputable character, and that Obama showed irresponsible judgement in befriending such a man. The charge against Khalidi, an American citizen who was born and raised in the U.S., is that he is an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights, a very brash critic of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and of the pro-Israel lobby in the U.S., and has links to the P.L.O.
Khalidi, as far as I know, is guilty on all three counts. But, so what? He is an academic with outstanding credentials, a prolific author and energetic teacher who headed the Middle East Institute at Columbia, one of America’s most prestigious universities. He is a relatively rare prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause in the U.S., even as his voice is all but drowned out by American supporters of Israel. If he has offended some by using the words “Israel” and “apartheid” in the same sentence, that may be a misrepresentation to anyone who has lived under or witnessed white rule in South Africa, but former President Jimmy Carter, a Nobel peace prize winner, has made the same error.
Khalidi served as an advisor to the P.L.O.-vetted Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference in 1991. If you suggest there’s something sinister about that, well, you may as well say that all Palestinians are bad guys, whether they’re bombers or peace negotiators.
Funny thing about associating with Palestinians, the most unlikely people have been doing it. Did you know that the most frequent foreign VIP visitor to Bill Clinton’s White House was none other than Mr. Terrorist himself, Yasser Arafat. (Psssstttt. On at least one occasion that I personally know of, Clinton called Arafat “my friend.”)
But don’t expect Barack and Michelle to host any Palestinian poetry readings at the White House. If they do, I doubt they’ll let anybody videotape it. I hope the Khalidis at least get a dinner invitation from the First Family out of it. Obama’s been freeloading off Rashid and Mona long enough now.
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Heavy Metal monk talks about his love of Metallica
At first glance, Cesare Bonizzi looks like the archetypal Capuchin monk - round-faced, stout, with twinkling eyes and a long flowing white beard. But beneath his robes beats a heart of metal.
Brother Cesare is the lead singer in a heavy metal band which has just released its second album. A former missionary in the Ivory Coast, he lives in a small friary in the Milan hinterland. The 62-year-old monk’s love affair with heavy metal began when he attended a Metallica concert some 15 years ago. ”I was overwhelmed and amazed by the sheer energy of it” he says.
Brother Metal
Hard rock and heavy metal have, over the years, been criticised as the work of the devil. Its a claim which Brother Cesare, also known as Brother Metal, says is nonsense. He started playing and recording cassettes, firstly with “lighter” metal music, but gradually he realised that what really moved him was the hard core.
People think that I am in fancy dress, they can’t believe a robed monk is on the stage playing their music Brother Cesare Bonizzi
The members of his band were at first sceptical at the idea of teaming up with a Capuchin monk but their doubts soon evaporated. ”Five minutes after meeting Brother Cesare I decided to go ahead, because he manages to convey so much energy, that other musicians and youngsters often don’t manage to express,” lead guitarist, Cesare Zanotti, told Reuters.
Sex, drugs and alcohol
Brother Metal recently appeared in the Gods of Metal festival in Italy, along with giants such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica, playing to a crowd of leather-clad hard-core metal fans. ”It was wonderful being there among all these young people” he told the Rome newspaper La Repubblica. ”The only problem was that at one stage out slipped a “what the f…” because each time some people think that I am in fancy dress, they can’t believe a robed monk is on the stage playing their music”. With a booming voice, Brother Metal belts out lyrics that are decidedly gritty, talking about real-life issues and not shying away from sex, drugs and alcohol. He does touch on faith and religion but is adamant that he is not seeking to draw people to Catholicism through his stage performances. Video clips of his performances on YouTube have helped spread his popularity and fan base.
Devotion to God
His second heavy metal album, “Misteri” (Mysteries) has just been released. In a sign of Brother Metal’s eclecticism, it drew inspiration from a group of women in southern Italy who sang about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a heavy metal version of that song is on the CD. Other songs talk about how alcohol warms the heart but excess drinking can damage the liver, and how important sex is to man. Brother Cesare says he has never had any trouble with his superiors over his choice of musical career and would like to send his new album to the Pope. “He is a music lover and metal is music!” he says. While Brother Cesare always wears his traditional brown robe and sandals as a reminder that he has chosen a life of devotion to God, he is keen to distinguish established religion from faith, and from proselytising. ”I do it to convert people to life, to understand life, to grab hold of life, to savour it and enjoy it. Full stop” he says.
If you think you might be able to help me find a job, please get in touch. I promise to make it worth your while. (Yes, this is what passes for an “update” these days. Everything else in my life is just white noise.)
