A Movie in a Minute .. Forrest Tucker as idi Amin

We went to see this movie out of curiousity. Forest Tucker is an actor of immense talent, ,imitted one assumes by the smallish literature for actors with black faces. Sure, one can do MacBeth with a black actor but I dubt that we have yet gotten to the place where no one would notice the casting.

So maybe that is why Tucker chose to do this movie. The movie is abuot one thing. idi Amin is awful, dreadful, disgusting and evil. His evil is secutive, charming, overwhelming, and maketh Richard III seem like a nicer guy than George W Bush. This sort of evil is not the evil of unintended outcomes or corrupted goodness. This is the evil of biblical proportions, an evil that ight just explain Stalin and Hitler.

It is an evil portrayal that will make Tucker a "Sir" if England ever decides we Americans need that sort of recognition if only to put greta acotr in a class with Gielgud and Olivier. We NEED a vehicle for Tucker's talents?

He needs to play Richard III, maybe the hump will hide his skin? MacBeth might be an easier do, but is that King of Scotland as evil as the self stuyled Scpts King of Ugandha?

Drinking LIberally .. an essay.

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

DL is a weekly affair at the Montlake Tavern. Formally hosted by a liberal organization, yclept Drinking Liberally, in reality this one is sorta like a 1700s French salon, with an assortment of Woody Alan/Seinfeld/Neil Simon characters orbiting around David Goldstein.
David is a political junkie-liberal-activist and likely eventual force in local Demo politics.
Actually, as I understand the salons, DL is very different in one way. The hostess at the salons
was the nominal attraction. The guests were her court, she gave favors and credibility. Maybe the beer serves this purpose at Montlake. But the Madame at a Paris salon of 1767 did did not lead. Instead she got her merit badges from attracting luminaries. The room was like a collection of small suns, each with tis own planets. Mostly, this salon is about one luminary. The rest of the crowd is interesting but they are in orbit around the star.

As "Goldie" David hosts a very informative local website, HorsesAss.org, with a political professional's insights and fascination with campaign detail. He gained fame for launching a state instigative to rename our local right wing instigative monger form Tim Eynman to "horse's ass." The initiative, unlike too many of Eynman's horrors, failed but it made Goldy something of a local celeb.

The website is a heavily visited local website and, as part of DL, Goldie launched a podcast.

The Pope

What can anyone say. The Pope screwed up. Only a leader embedded n the self-satisfying, closed world of the Papacy (or the White House) could make such a mistake. Jihad is all too real, but the Prophet did not preach the doctrines of conversion by the sword cited by the Emperor and quoted by the Pope.. True, Gregory MEANT the Emperor's speech as an example of what NOT to say. Yet ... given the bloody history of the Chair of Peter, it would have been better if he picked an example closer to home. How about citing the antisemitism of Pius IX ... or is he waiting until this evil man is canonized?

Yet, how does anything the coddled white guy said justify the Muslim rage? Does anyone in the rational world think the Pope meant to insult the Muslims? Is there NOONE amongst the callous headed worshipers of Allah willing to defend the intent of the Holy Father? If the US Muslim world is so moderate, where are they now???

Thehim

"The him" is the nom de web of Lee Rosenberg, a self announced liberal, employed in the software industry, and generally rationally liberal. Thehe is married to theher and edits a Blog.


I recommend Lee's blog for an occasional well done essay on plotics. he can be thoughtful and often is knowledgeable. Except when it comes to one thing. Somehow, Lee has a serious aversion to ethnicity.

This all started out with a diatribe he wrote about my comments about the Quran and Muslim teachings. Like some 60's kid yelling on the street, he accused me of all sorts of evil thoughts. No effort to reassure him that I was smart enough to distinguish the bad from the good, would help. To make matters worse, when he writes about me Lee seems to acquire coprolalia (another word for Tourette's syndrome, an illness where people spout obscenities for no apprarent reason).

Why me? Lee apparently resents my being openly Jewish. As matters progressed, it turns out that Lee has some sort of a problem with Jews, at least Jews who think being Jewish is different form not being Jewish. He identifies himself as being of "Jewish roots" but then spouts forth, for no apparent reason, and becomes defensive about his being intermarried and never having had a bar mitzvah. I would feel badly if I had ever said anything critical about these issues but it sseems to have arisen with thehim himself. I care no more about thehim's roots than Id about Madeline Albright's.

My guess is that Lee is a self conscious Jew who has, unfortunately, assimilated a lot of the subtle antisemitism that refuses to distinguish Jewish identity and pride from arrogance, ethnic superiority, and ...yes .. racism. All this from someone who claims (I find this hard to believe) to know nothing whatsoever about Judaism. I told him how proud I am of all the Nobel's we have won and he, of course, got angry and disparaged me for believing the Jewish heritage had anything to do with all this.

To compound all the criticizes ethnicity of the Jews as "tribalism," that classical Eurocentric distinction between "our" nations and the primitive folk's "tribes"." As in .. "It is unfortunate that the Nigerians can not rise above tribalism." Tell that to my Ibo classmate! Now, now ,, the quote is not from Lee, but it is the kind of racist clap Eurocentric folks say all the time.

The latest contre-temps came when he started swearing at me for expressing my respect for our County Executive, Ron Sims. Ron is a Black politician in the best sense. He is a role;e model for Black kids and has worked hard, when he was a local rep, to help the black community. He speaks movingly of the role his origins, church and culture, have had in shaping his career. He is a proud, successful Black man. But, not to The he. The he wants to rob Ron and the Black community of any pride but that of coming from a good home.

Of course, like all Eurocentrics, he is blind to the fact that his culture is a dominating culture. By denying Ron's ethnic origins, Lee is, in effect saying that the only good society is the he's own. Lee's predecessors are the very people who did so much damage to the cultures of the people's of Puget Sound.

Take a look at his Blog for more. The good part is that he has a lot of good things to say on other issues. But don;t call him a Jew, he might consider that an insult.

The Brother Faith is Dying

An article in today's NY Times predicts that Zorastrianism is dieing.

Zorastrianism is Judaism's not so secret lover. We once lived together in Noble Persia and much of modern Judaism grew from that contact ... angels, the devil, ... maybe even the tradition of milk and meat.

We, along with others of that 2500 years away world, benfited from this religion and this peole's tolerance.

Now, without the blood stained Holocaust, the religion of the fire is near death. Like Jews, Zorastrians are kept people in Iran .. their ancient home. Not allowed to control their own schools or live as equalas, the Zorastrians are leaving, intermarrying and just dieing.

Of course the Zorastrians have fled ... to the US, a country that owes much to ancient Persian tolerance. The Jesus story has dep roots in Zoraster's teachings.

But Islam's tolerance is not very supportive of this people of the book. It si ahrd to tell yor kids that they should remain in the people, marry in the people, when the reuslt is dhimmihood.

In the outside world, this tolerant religon is dieing through acculturation. Like the spotted owl, the last Zorastrian may have been borne already.

The great work of their prophet, Zoroaster still rings with the sounds of cows and the holy fire. A religon wiht a hisotry of tolerance .. may soon be gone.

The Jew, the toilet seat and the shicksa?

Over at Horses' Ass, Goldy has started a thread offering advice to anyone interested in Judaism.

Apparently the important credentials are that David Goldstein is secular (I guess that means he does not want to be considered a Jew by belief) and he was married to a Roman Catholic woman. Somehow, this is mixed up with his living near two orthodox shuls and his wife's wanting the toilet seat put down.

Not exactly impressive. What does Judaism or intermarriage have to do with anatomic issues like peeing forward vs downward?? Which is Jewish?

Anyhow, Goldy posts a Seinfeldesque self doubting pose. Kinda like imagining Dr. King dismissing his fervor as the product of eating too much watermelon. Can anyone imaging Cesar Chavez w/o the church? Imagine Kennedy w/o catholicism or Bushie w/o his identity. Why can't Jewish liberals just accept the Jewish liberal tradition? Jews can't be proud of Gompers? BTW, while his wife is described as Roman Catholic, Goldy never tells us if she was secular too? Are there secular Catholics or just lapsed Catholics vs secular Jews?

The remarks are followed n the comments threads by the chorus of a few choir members, assuredly goyische choir members, who applaud the Jew for the remarks .. rather condescending that bit, well it is hard to be nice.
"Hey look .. isn't the Jew funneee? He makes fun of himself!!"

OK OK .. we all need to make fun of ourselves, but do we need praise from others for doing so?? Goldy is a good guy and it would interest me more to know what part of that goodness came from Judaism, but then I am Jew. Maybe the goyem don't care what we have to offer?

Instead of sharing with others the part of Goldy that is Jewish, it is politically correct to turned that into a self deprecating joke.

Sad, you want a funny Catholics/Jews story?

Patrick and Sam grew up on neighboring streets. One went to parochial school while the other attended public school but the two remained lifelong friends. Beside public school, Sam went to Hebrew school and found that he enjoyed very much. Soon after Sam's bar mitzvah, the two boys decided to follow a common path .. Pat would become a priest and Sam a Rabbi. They vowed to remain friends.

Both did very well. Soon they each had a suburban congregation. They co-chaired the Catholic-Jewish civil action group and even hosted visiting Southern Baptists. After awhile, however, Pat was recognized by the church and became a bishop. Sam married, had two kids and wrote a book about a Jewish guy married to a catholic girl from Seattle. The book became a TV show and Sam was very famous.

Pat's career progressed too ... soon he became the Archbishop. The consecration and beautiful robes thrilled Sam, but it was still, after all just Pat. IN the meantime Sam's congregation was fine and even provided a Buick for their popular rabbi. Sam wasn't jealous at all of the large manor house that Patrick occupied.

Then Patrick was called to Rome for a red hat. Pat invited his Jewish friend but Sam couldn't go ... after all it was high holiday season. When the new cardinal came back, he invited the Rabbi to dinner. The joked about Rome and the aging Pope, and then Patrick asked, " Just think, if we had just switched houses 50 years ago, you could've become the cardinal!" Sam laughed. "And then? no wife, no kids! Patrick, all you have is your church." Patrick wrapped his cape a bit closer, a bit chilled by Sam's remark. "But then, look it is possible that when this Pope passes on I could become the Pope. I could have the power of the entire church!" The Cardinal smiled and sipped at his sherry. There was tension in the room. But Sam looked at his friend and said " and so? You get a white hat! Big deal." Patrick was mad. "You are just jealous! What more could anyone achieve, becoming God?"

Sam turned to him and said, "It happend once before!."

Fascism may be our future!

I recently read a post that was in awe about a foreign economy. The author was impressed at the success of socialism in Europe. I too would prefer to live in Europe to o our current Bush league version of the US. But, in the long term I think the the US and Europe are both in trouble.

Adam Smith rules; capital will move toward the best economics. This is even true at the level of nations marketing themselves. For example, it is cheaper, as I understand, to build cars in Canada despite the high Canadian wages. Canada is doing better than the US .. in no small part because their socialism is more efficient at heath care, education and retirement. If the state is paying for the cancers, that makes it easier for Daemler to build cars there.

BUT, the flies in this ointment are Sino-Indian. Despite a lot of stuff about the new economy, most jobs still come from manufacturing something (and yes, the Big Mac is a manufactured item). We are in real danger of our capital and Europe's as well being concentrated in China or India simply because the capital is more efficient there.

If this occurs, the US and Europe will be increasingly left with low capital investment type jobs. If we don't fix the US education system the jobs here will be making big Macs because the shipping costs from Shanghai are too high. A few % of Americans will be buying those burgers and trying to live in our extentended suburban slums because they can't afford to buy condoes n Seattle..

Education, however, can never employ more than a few percent of a society ... with one exception: education for capital management .. can you spell Suisse? Switzerland lives off of capital management ... banks and dysfunctional drug companies that now do their research in the US.

Similarly we can fantasize that Microsoft will always keep their capital, and high capital jobs, in Redmond, but why would Beijing or Delhi share that fantasy? As their own capital grows, it seems clear that they will want these jobs too and, if their model of state-capitalism succeeds why would they not buy and move Microsoft?

This is not a new idea. Before he became a bad guy, liberals across the world praised Mussolini for his version of state capitalism, Mussolini indeed made the trains run on time and brought jobs to Italy.

Fascism may be our future!

Why be Jewish?

This was done in response to a colleague's questioning the lack of values in contemporary university or Jewish education. He was esp. concerned with the latter.

I am however, much more dyspeptic toward the Torah than you. Like the Quran, the Torah reflects its age. It is a wonderful root and I worry about the tree surviving unless the root is cared for. We need to Lubavitchers and Charedi. But, they do not nourish the traditions, the branches and fruit that have grown out of the tree for the last 1000 years or so.

It is that tree ..Spinoza, Gompers, Alinsky, the Mississippi three, Einstein, and yes, modern Israel, that I see as important. I see that tree as fragile. In the USA, Judaism is becoming too like the Judaism of fin de siecle Germany. Other than the charedi, what do we stand for other than bagels and Israel?

In my youth, we led the civil rights movement, we created the pivotal literature of the time.. and founded modern science. Today's American Jewish youth seem to have no noble goals. Where is Ginsberg when we need him and why are so many of the Bush team vin unsere?

In my opinion this is, in part because, we teach the wrong things .. including Torah. The Torah should be taught as what it is .. a historical document of great import for the world. Kids should learn about the authors, the role of Josiah and the effect of Babylon. The conflicts of the Hasmoneans and mystery of the great council should be staples of Jewish education leading up to the Pharisees and the confrontation with the Greeks and Romans that gave us ... the modern European world!

Kids should honor Hillel and Ben Zakai so they, the kids can understand who Paul was an how weird, form a Jewish sense, Paul's creation of Jesus was. The kids should learn about central Jewish ideas .. not a simply revealed in the Torah but as evolved by our great men and women.

And then we come to modern times. Jews have won more than 20% of the science Nobels yet no Hebrew school kid can name 1! The Mississippi three are, if anything, white kids. Contemporary Jewish writers? I guess I can name Krugman and Friedman but no one is aware of their "roots." Spinoza might as well still be in cherem and the Ramban .. wasn't he Saladin's doctor? How many Hebrew School kids can name three Jewish Nobelists or describe the Jewish role in Civil rights, labor or South Africa?

Jewish history neglects "our" role in Andalusia, German liberalism, even our role as soldiers in WWII is neglected.

So kids get the Jewish version of the old testament stories, are taught a sort of JudeoChristianity, and visit Israel.

Why be Jewish?

"Aryan" Mythology in the Mosque?

YESTERDAY, schools in the American south and, of course in Hitler's Germany, taught a mythical view of the "white race." In this view the people of Northern Europe, somehow destined to become the true Christians, descended from an ancient and nobel root. Mixing the fruit of that root with inferior seed merited a 12 letter word, "miscegenation." The worst of European racism, the KKK, the Aryan nations, and the Nazis based their most odious policies on these mythical beliefs.

Do such beliefs exist in Islam? In one vital way the answer is no. One of the glories of Islam was the Prophet's teaching that all Muslims are one people. Indeed he taught that at one time in the past all people were Muslims and knew the truths of the Quran. Once a person reverts to Islam. the Quran teaches, there must be no distinctions based on race. Of course, as we all see today, the implications for those of us to blind or arrogant to accept Islam may not be so kindly.

Nonetheless, there is within Islam a teaching eerily similar to White racism and that teaching too is antisemitic ... or to be more linguistically correct .. attempts to strip Jews of their Semitic heritage .

TODAY's Islamic school in Seattle teaches that Arabs are a true ancient people, while Jews are a false people comprised of Europeans and others who have usurped the Jewish heritage. For what it is worth, modern genetics shows that Arabs and Jews are pretty much the same people, likely descended from the Semitic tribes of North Arabia back some 10,000 years. However, a large part of "Arab" included people who are descended form non-Semitic North African peoples.

This only matters if you are teaching your children to make racist decisions about others. There is much more in the Quran itself where Jews are depicted as siding with the (nonMuslim) Arabs against the Prophet, as rejecting his message (why not?), and as trying to poison him (in revenge for Jews he killed in battle). To cap it all, the Quran teaches that Jews exulted on the purported death of Jesus, " That they say (boasting): We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah." , But they killed him not nor crucified him. Only likeness of that was shown to them” (Al-Nisa’ 4: 157),

The only purpose of the following text is to deprive Jews of our heritage.

This is based on text taken today from the web site of the Idris Mosque in Seattle. The author of the text is Jamil Abdul-Razzak.

Origins of the "Arabs"

"The indigenous people of Palestine were Arabs for over 5000 years. They migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and lived in the land of Canaan or Palestine"

This is utter nonsense. Semites, including many peoples, did arise in Arabia, but were no more "Arabs" then they were Hittites. Moreover, amongst early peoples of Canaan there were non Semites, esp. including the sea people .. the "Philistines" of the bible. These people were related to the Greeks, Minoans, etc and it is THEIR name that is the basis for the term "Palestine".

"The Israelites, progeny of Jacob, remained in Egypt and assimilated with the Egyptian population. In 1290 BC, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) led his followers out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. Prophet Moses received revelations from Allah (God) which he inscribed into the Blessed Torah."

Perhaps. Archaeology says this is unlikely. What we KNOW is that Semites, (I guess in the Muslim mind all Semites are "Arabs") moved into Egypt and eventually established their own Pharonate as a people called the "Hyksos." The Pharaoh of the Torah and Quranic story, Ramses II, may have conquered the Hyksos and driven them from Egypt.

"In 586 BC the Babylonian army invaded Canaan and took the Jews to Babylon and placed them in captivity. During the years of captivity (586-539 BC) the Jews reconstructed from memory the Torah which is different from the original Torah."

By this time Canaan had ceased to exist and the people conquered by the Babylonians were know as Hebrews. Modern Palestinians, if they really have ancient roots would be the descendent of Jews.

The same essay on the Mosque's web site claims that the Torah was written in Babylon from imperfect memories. This is nonsense. Whether the Torah was really revealed to Moshe, it was finalized in pre-Babylon Israel under King Josiah.(ruled 640–609 bce). Jews have been literate for a very long time and it would have been as bizarre for the Jews of 620 bce to restrict the torah to oral transmission as would have been 620 AM for Muslims not to write down the words of the Prophet. Still, the effect is to dismiss the Jewish holy book. Imagine the Islamic anger if the Jutlands-posten, along with the Muhammad cartoons, had replayed the Salmon Rushdie claim that the "satanic verses" of the Quran represent errors in the Prophets thinking?

To make matters worse, Mr. Jamil Abdul-Razzak teaches us that Jews are not true Jews (as opposed, I guess to all Arabs, regardless if their ancestors were .. as in the case of all North Africa, NOT Semitic at all.

Origins of the "Jews"

In 539 BC, King Cyrus of the Persians "conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity. At this point we may say that the Israelites are descendants of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, and the Jews are the followers of Moses. This means not all Jews are Israelites or all Israelites are Jews."

This is an essential aspect of Arab antisemitism .. the claim that most of us are false Jews.

"Throughout the history, the Jews and Israelites coexisted with the Arab and Muslim majority in peace and harmony for hundreds of years."

Tell this to the Romans who defeated THE PEOPLE of Palestine in the JEWISH WARs.

Tell it to the Jews who suffered pogroms in Palestine in the era of a Muslim Majority.

Tell it to the Jew in Turkey who died after the Muslim world republished the charges of our drinking blood.

Tell it to the Jews of Arabia who were expelled from their ancient homes by the third caliph, Omar.

The saddest part of this all is that Jews and Arabs are ... beyond religion ... still the common descendents of the ancient Semites. Our religions share essential beliefs, as long as neither one denigrates the other simply for accepting or not accepting M. as a prophet. Can God really care which prophets a man follows if the man leads a moral life?

How can peace live with such bigotry taught to children?

What is taught in the mosque?

Freedom House, an institution created by Eleanor Roosevelt and others to promote inter-community tolerance undertook a project to determine what was taught in American Mosques in the post 9/11 era. Muslim volunteers went to 15 prominent mosques from New York to San Diego and collected literature disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic).

The result is a report of at least one part of what is taught in the mosque:
The results surely rival what might be found in a far right Christian church in the dim reaches of Idaho or Alabama ... except that this porn comes from the largest Mosques in the largest American cities.

Some points in the Wahabi literature:

Muslims must:

*

Muslims must avoid churches accept to convert others "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel."
*

Islamic law must prevail FOR ALL, not just Muslims: women must be veiled, punishments for infidelity are draconian, apostates from Islam "should be killed".
* Israel was created by a conspiracy of liberal protestants and Jews as a wedge to destroy Islam.
*

Muslims should not associate with non Muslims: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."
*

Citizenship: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."
*

Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government."

There is more and I strongly recommend that one read this report with an open mind to two thoughts. First, one hopes that this is only one sort of literature available in the Mosque. Second, imagine what would happen if the US government sponsored similar documents to be distributed to Christian minorities in Muslim lands?

The Blogs Nominate Their Democrat

Nate Lamont beats Lieberman in Conn. Democratic Senate primary.

This could be a pivotal event if it leads the progressive movement to a tighter commitment to acting as a political party. All too often Move-On has come across as a negative voice rather than supporting a winnable effort.

To me the big issues now. other than whether Lamont can beat Lieberman (I suspect he will) is who Lamont is. As of now we know less about NL than we did about GWB when he ran for Pres. NL is an affable son of traditional wealth who claims to be a likeable liberal (sorta like a mirror image of a compassionate conservative).

Lieberman never impressed me. As a Jew I was excited that one of us was finally running for the near-White House but I was disappointed by this little, shrill man who seemed to lack much n the way of interesting ideas. Put Lieberman and Obama or Lieberman and Hillary on a balance and the tilt would be the other way.

I hope there is a lot more to Lamont than a simplistic opposition to the war or reflexive response to the Bushies! I especially wonder where he stands on knee jerk liberal issues. For example, where does he stand on immigration? NAFTA? charter schools? reparitions?

However that happens, it would do the country a lot of good to refressh the left with a new, strong political party. At worst, the Blogoleft could be an effective counterbalance to the Churchedright.

A Great Muslim Site

It was heartening to read the posts and comments on this site .. Alt.muslim.
It would indeed be wonderful if some new insight and peace came of the tragedy in Seattle.

On the other hand, this link is to an in depth review by Freedom House of Wahabi materials used to teach in American mosques. Frightening.

The Offending Images

I have tried to upload the Jillands-Posten images here, but it appears that somehow Blogger is censoring them. A good site for these and other images in this controversy is http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/jyllands-posten_cartoons/.

I finally did manged to upload the most famous of the images, the image with the bomb in the turban, by lumping it with the rest of the images here.

Why the fuss? The cartoon shows the Prophet in a viscious guise .. the guise of a holyman who kills for his beliefs. But that is exactly the story of the Quran. M. was not just a prophet on a hill like Jesus or the leader of a fight for freedom like Moses or ML King. The Prophet was the leader of a great army, an army he assembled to conquer Arabi and expel all disbelievers.

This watercolor is from the book on the Prophet by Danish author Kåre Bluitgen. The image shows the story in the Quran of Mohamed's masacre of the Jews of Yathrib for their refusal to side with him in the conflict with the Quraishis from Mecca. Bluitgen's inability to find a cartoonist to draw images like this was the original reason for the Jillands Posten cartoon contest.

The association of M. with violence is hardly limited to the effort by a Dutchman to make the Quran accessible to the West. The fires of hell image is from Muslim Persia, showing the Prophet presiding while demons burn women for showing their hair.

Which of these is most offensive to Islam. You vote.

The War Of the Images

When the furor over the images of Mohamed in Jillands-Posten was active, I decided not to post anything ... thinking that respect for the feelings of Muslims, even misguided feelings, was better than a perhaps meaningless gesture.

My level of tolerance has changed. The cartoon at the left, IMO fairly, makes fun of all deities. It is interesting in who is left out. G-d somehow did not make the cut .. though the Christian version, spelled Je--h did. Maybe there is an advantage in being nameless? Of course Allah means G-d and is not a name> Moreover the anmeless deities of the Muslims and the Jews are not believed to have faces visible to humans. .. so maybe we ... the Mulsims and the Jews,, or at least our shared faceless, namelss Deity. both escaped this humilation.

This sort of idlolatry and idolatry-hatred is nothing new. In the Quran and the Jewish books of the Canaanite wars, Jews and Mulsims kill others over the worship of idols. Though I don't remember any great celebrations of these events in Hebrew school like the celebrations in Afghanistan when the Taliban destroyed the statures of Buddha. Of course, the prophet is celebrated for destroying the Gods of Mecca. Is this different from the French cartoon?

The cartoon of Muhamed is part of a very important book . Danish author Kåre Bluitgen complained that he could not find an artist brave enought to illustrate his upcoming book about Mohammed. Jyllands Posten ran a contest and the result was the furor over the images "disrespect" for the prophet. The book is about to be released and includes this very accurate painting, depicting a well known Quranics story ... painted by an anonyous artist no doubt frightened for her life.

And the cartoons that elicited this hatred?

He Killed The Jews

July 18, 2006. Naveed Afzal Haq, an American Muslim invaded the Jewish Federation of Seattle and shot six people. No doubt he said, Praise be to Allah, as he shot at a pregnant woman. HE KILLED THE JEWS:

(CTV.CA 29 July, 2006) On Friday, a man armed with a large calibre
semi-automatic handgun walked into Seattle's Jewish Federation and opened
fire -- killing one woman and wounding five others before he surrendered to
a SWAT team minutes.

One is dead. One is still pregant and lightly wounded.
The others will bear their wounds and live on, maimed.

My response in words is this: MOHAMED KILLED JEWS.

I have been too quiet about Islam's evil side for too long. I read the Quran more than 30 years ago and have reread parts of it many, many times. The Quran shares much with the Book of Moroni, the Vedas, the Torah, the New Testament, and the Hymns of Zarathrustra... Before science, some guy comes to earth and spreads "truth." The truth has many good things .. often liberating people form oppressive priesthoods while combining moral lessons with cosmological nonsense. And all portray truths that lead to hate if not abetted. Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, have evolved since their revelations. The Hindus have their Bhagvad Gita and Ghandi, the Christians have Luther and Martin Luther King, We Jews have too many teahcers ot mention even a few. Even the Mormons, with their science fiction soap opera of a revelation, have evolved to accept Black folks as humans.

Jews have not wanted to kill idolaters for 2500 years and have become leader of social reform for Marx to Alinskly. Today in the hell of Lebanaon how many Muslim schools teach hatred of the Jews? The teaching of the Quran is that WE betrayed Muhamed by allowing with his enemies to pass through Jewish territories. If only the Jews of Yatherib had joined the anti muslim forces, maybe Islam would have died then and there. Instead, HE KILLED THE JEWS.

Am I evil for reciting this part of the Quran? Do I not see beauty in Islam?

I love much in the Quran. I admoire muslims who submit to G-d, submit to a brotherhood of man where all ahev the same needs and rights to learning and food. I only wish in preaching the Ummaya, the concept of one mankind, there was room in that house for thoise who worhip Krishna or accept the Torah.

I hope I am not Evil, There is no Muslim more proud than I of the eras of Jewish/Muslim collaboration, the era of Harun A Rashid in Baghdad (763-800), Saladin (1138-1193) in Egypt and Jerusalem, and, of course the magnificence of the Andalusian era in Spain. In an era of Christian darkness, Islam’s celebration of the intellect and acceptance of Jews and co-believers in G-d, led to an explosion of knowledge that would not be rivaled until the Enlightenment. Yet, even then Islam failed to reform itself. While the Imans of Harun al Rashid’s Baghdad or Toledo may have studied with Rabbis, they never questioned the evil parts of the Quran.

Islam is today an evil religion. The evil is not confined to primitive madrassa in Pakistan or the bizar goldened robed Wahabi congregations in modern Medina. It is endemic and will be until, one must hope, a new Islam .. a Quaker movement, a movement like Hassidism, or perhaps a return to the too brief teachings of Akbar the Magnificent rule of India.

Until then, I will believe that the term “good muslim” is akin to “good KKK.”

Peace be unto all humans, even if that means those that hate others must die.

Go, Go, Go ... the Sonics

Lets be honest ...

The Seattle pro basketball team, the Sonics, have been sold to some Oklahoma City types who claim they want to keep the team here. Now that is honesty!

Prof sports:

A publicly funded subsidy divided amongst highly talented practitioners.

Problem:

the owners want more and more dollars from the public till to finance the salaries .. the multi million dollar salaries .. of the athletes. Without the subsidy, the players would not be able to demand these obscene salaries.

Solution:

Since prof sports are now a well recognized socialist function of govt, then the practitioners would need to submit competitive bids for the franchises ... just a Boeing and Lockheed bid to build airplanes.

So:

1. Sports would become agencies of govt. ... just like universities and museums and parks.
Cities hosting these teams, should legislate their ownership to make them into utilities .. like a publicly owned electric company. Call it the Enron approach.


2. In order to run a prof sports team, an organization/sponsor would have to bid for the privilege.

The bid would, presumably include a profit. The effect would be to eliminate the tax subsidy associated with athlete depreciation and appreciation of the team's value.

3. If no one bid, the sport would die or find a way of reducing its costs.

Is this too simple?

When Does This End?

Quote from Pete Hoekstra,Republican, Chair of Intelligence Committee.

"I have learned of some alleged intelligence community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of the law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies."

The American System seems to lack an enforcer. What soes a President have to do to merit impeachment? Defrauding the public? ..nah!!! Violations of habeus corpus? nahhhh! Murder, nahhh. Treason, nahhhh. Being of the party not in power?

Some years ago I attended a seminar by an Army General. One topic was why the Constitution was impregnable to a putsch. Say it ain't so.

Fort Lewis and the Truth

Today was the 4th. For something a bit different I decided to spend the afternoon at the "Freedom Fest" at Fort Lewis, an Army base about 70 minutes south of here.

Part of my motivation was that KTTH, one of Seattle's two far right conservative radio-talk stations, announced that they were sonsoring the Fest. Sponsor? Far right? On a US Gov. Army Base? This sounded bizar. I figured I would be immersed in great opportunities for outrage.

Here a cross, there a cross.
Candidate, candidate, gay bashing,
Cigar smoking preachers,
Flags in everything but the burgers ....

None of that. What we saw was a nice, lower middle class, child centric street fair.

Lots of nice folks ... often in the form of nascent families .. Poppa tall and crew cut, two toddlers plus one in the oven. Kids rides run by clean cut soldier boys and gals ... who also ran the busses to the parking lots.

I really liked the non-racism. The Army must be a real meting pot. Every race based in our species seemed to be represented, even the poppas and mommas seemed selected to show of diversity. What a contrast with the usual Seattle street fairs where, somehow, Seattle's fable racelessness holds forth as lilly whilte, pudding yellow, or sable 'n chocolate depending on the neighborhood.

The major commercial endeavour seemd to be credit unions, one in particular touting free 3D glasses for watching the fire works ... to be shown after we left. Then there was loudspeaker, talkng about an opccasional lost and found item and about the raffle. Some soldier's welfare fund was sponsoring the event, the Voice was begging folks to buy raffle tickets ... tickets good for a drill press! or an airplane ticket! 50 cents! I woulda bought one or some, but I never could find their booth.

The Truth ... that is the motto of the rightist talk station, KTTH, but truth be told, their booth was largely empty and never seemed to attract much attention. Seemed like a good opportunity for the liberal bloggers to show up!

Namkung

Images: Upper image is from the river show and the Monson Collection at the Burke. I feel bad about showing it here with the lower image, a wonderful image of grass, just grass, by Johsel Namking. Read on ..............

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I hope anyone who reads this will take advantage of the wonderful work of Johsel Namkung now on exhibit at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

I have been so lucky to have known Johsel for 30 years. When I joined the Dept. of Pathology at the UW in the early 70s, Jo was our "scientific photographer." Actually his real job was to do art. The Chairman of the Dept., Earl Benditt, was very much involved in art as well as science and saw Jo has a wonderful addition to a department doing a lot of electron microscopy.

This was a "marriage" blessed by the gods. Jo was far, far better than just a scientific photographer. In effect Earl was playing Medici.

Jo's real work was, and is impossible to describe. He was a member of the small clique sometimes called the Seattle Blue Movement ... Toby, Callahan, Hovaness, Graves, John Cage ... and Johsel Namkung. I suppose a deconstructionist might see something in common ... calligraphy, atonality, muted colors in the mists. I am not so certain.

There always has been something in Jo's work that was .. ordinary. Ordinary things, ordinary beautiful things. Ordinary beautiful things that I probably would not have seen if I were next to Jo with my own camera because they were too ordinary. When he talks about the work there is a lot of reference to the discipline of Ansel Adams,. Adams, besides a romanticism that I find overwhelming and even a bit kitsch, was also a musician and taught how to see photographs in tonal terms .. like notes. This teaching is called the zone system, Yes Jo is a master of the zone system. But, like Adams Jo is also a musician. a wonderful singer of lieder. His images are as much music as they are graphics.

On the past, the orderliness of Jo's images got in the way. But now, with is latest work, he seems to have me to have found a way to play the tunes so we can all hear. I was overwhelmed. For an interview with Johsel, click here.

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At the same time, the Burke museum has an insipid, boring collection of historic images of rivers .. including the awful image reproduced here. How sad. At one time the Burke championed real art. Unfortunately they made a deal with a rich donor, Monson, and have bought his collection. Truth be told, a lot of it is good but some of this belongs back chez Monson. Worse, the Monsons got a big tax benefit out of donating this stuff. Sad.

The Dems and Their Governor-ess

I am far enough to the left to have worked in the SDS, to read Lenin with interest, treasure a McGovern button, and to donate to Jimmy Carter. However, coronating Gregoire is an example of why our party is failing to convince the public we are ready to return to power,

Here are some facts:

1. Atty General Gregoire’s role in the tobacco negotiation is controversial among leftish lawyers who feel the companies were let off too easily. Yes they paid a settlement, but that cost came out of their raised prices for cigs so the consumer really paid. That might be OK IF the settlement had required an ONGOING penalty, It did not. In effect, Gregoire negotiated as ransom payment that let the companies free to do whatever they wanted in the future. They adapted their advertising technique, maintained their profits.

2. Atty General Gregoire was unsuccessful in convincing the legislature to use these funds for tobacco related issues. The settlement in this state has mainly gone into the general fund. The reported 350 mill for research is welcome (I am a scientist) but the allocation has let the legislature off of what might otherwise be pressure to support the development of the biotech industry in our state. 350 mi is tiny $$ compared to the funds being spent to support biotech initiatives in North Carolina, Massachusetts or Michigan. W State, despite the strength of the UW and a lot of hype, is not competing well in attracting new biotech $$.

3. As the official UW attorney, Attny Gregoire presided over horrible legal messes, including the huge fines the medical school received. Legal experts I know feel the case was bungled by the attorneys representing her in court. The there was that mess with the football coach and the mess in her own office.

4. Under her aegis (and, to be fair, continuing with the current amateur lawyers), the UW has developed a prolix and fragile legal apparatus of non-attorneys who have greatly complicated and raised the costs of education at the UW.

5. On critical issues … immigration for one, the National Guard for another, Gov. Gregoire is feckless. Or maybe we are not a border state with lots of immigrant farm workers?

6. Candidate Gregoire ran dirty campaigns against Sims and then Rossi. Her charges against Rossi for his religious beliefs turned a lot of voters off … YAY for Washington State voters.

7. As governor, Ms. Gregoire gave one of the most sexist speeches I have ever heard, extolling our state for electing three women …as opposed to electing equally competent vagina deprived males? WADR, we should be long beyond gender identification as a criteria for office … unless you want Anne Coulter as your next President.