Saturday, September 4, 2004

Coming around

The New York Times gets it. The Associated Press gets it. The Washington Post doesn't, nor does Reuters nor the BBC. The first two (correctly) use the term "terrorist" to describe the perpetrators of the horror that occurred in Russia; the last three two can't bring themselves to use the word. The WaPo does come close; it uses the word to characterize statements from Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian police, but substitutes the less accurate "guerillas", "insurgents", or "attackers" to describe the terrorists. Reuters uses the word once, in a direct quote from one of the children. The Beeb manages to avoid using it altogether. At least some of the major players are willing to call terrorism terrorism; now we need to work on the rest.

posted at 07:05 PM | permalink | Comments (1)

Idiotarians

Dr. Weevil ran across another example of Eric Alterman unwittingly revealing himself to be a clueless tool, as well as a shameless partisan. He also takes C-Span to task for booking Alterman to promote yet another screed against the Republican party (and more specifically, Bush). The good Doctor tags Alterman as "Dork of the Week", which is accurate, if a trifle undignified, although Alterman doesn't deserve any dignity.

posted at 06:33 PM | permalink | Comments (1)

Friday, September 3, 2004

More of this, please

Many in the blogosphere (including me) have decried the lack of backlash against Islamofascism from the more moderate practitioners of the religion. So when I see something like this, I feel compelled to present it, as we need to encourage this sort of expression.

We are women and men of Muslim culture. Some of us are believers, others are agnostics or atheists. We all condemn firmly the declarations and acts of misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism that we have heard and witnessed for a while now here in France and that are carried out in the name of Islam. These three characteristics typify the political Islamism that has been forceful for so long in several of our countries of origin. We fought against them there, and we are committed to fighting against them again-here.

As they note, not all of the signatories are active in the faith, but all were raised in the culture (and the majority are likely to be Arab, as are most French Muslims), and by virtue of their heritage, their manifesto will carry more weight than that of any western group ever shall. They have taken pains to make it accessible to as many as possible (the manifesto is available online in five languages, including Kurdish). It doesn't specifically address the more virulent expansionistic tendencies of fundamentalist Islam, but it does address the injustice against women, gays, and Jews that are being propogated (in France, and elsewhere) in the name of Islam. Read the whole thing.

(Link courtesy of Jonathan Derbyshire, by way of Shot By Both Sides.)

posted at 02:10 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Irony Alert

Teresa LePore, the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections and architect of the notorious "Butterfly Ballot",which was the keystone of the 2000 election recount fiasco in Florida, has lost her re-election bid.

After being hung out to dry by her party during the protracted court battle, LePore, a life-long Democrat, changed her affiliation to Independent. The Democrats fielded a candidate to run against her. She received some support from the Republican party, but her challenger is leading by about 6000 votes, with all but three of the precincts reporting.

The irony is the name of her challenger, a former school board member named Arthur Anderson. No, not THAT one; this one is a professor at the College of Education at Florida Atlantic University, with a specialty in Multicultural Education. (I'm not going to touch that; he's a Democrat.)

More information about the race can be found here .

posted at 11:37 PM | permalink | Comments (0)

Misleading headlines, again

An article with a title like NYC Police Arrest Some 300 GOP Protesters would lead one to believe that some Republicans in town got a little out of hand. However, the article isn't about GOP protestors, it's about anti-GOP protestors. One has to read past the headline to realize that it's not Republicans who are acting out, but rather a bunch of left-wing loons.

More than 800 people have been arrested in convention-related protest activity since late last week. One of those arrested late Tuesday at a demonstration in Union Square Park was a 19-year-old East Harlem man who was seen on a videotape assaulting a detective a day earlier, police said. The anti-GOP activism has been largely peaceful, with only a few exceptions.

Contrast that figure with this one, from the 30 July San DIego Union-Tribune:

Protests have largely fizzled here this week amid a massive show of force by law enforcement. Police had prepared to jail 2,000; yesterday's arrests brought the total for the convention to six.

None of the anarchists, anti-globos, socialists, or other assorted malcontents protested in Boston when the Democrats were having their convention. Seperate peace, or tacit alliance? Your call.

posted at 07:20 PM | permalink | Comments (0)