Thanks, Michelle. Update Per CNN, newspapers in Denmark, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands have reprinted this and other Mohammed cartoons today. Berlingske Tidende, was one of the newspapers involved in the republication by newspapers in Denmark. It said: "We are doing this to document what is at stake in this case, and to unambiguously back…
Month: February 2008
Senate Votes for Telecom Amnesty
Glen Greenwald writes: The Senate today — led by Jay Rockefeller, enabled by Harry Reid, and with the active support of at least 12 (and probably more) Democrats, in conjunction with an as-always lockstep GOP caucus — will vote to legalize warrantless spying on the telephone calls and emails of Americans, and will also provide…
Deciding to Die
From the NY Times: Modern medicine can keep people alive into their 9th and 10th decades, when in years past they would have succumbed to any number of conditions. Now a small but growing number of these people are asking why. What is the point of living so long if you can no longer enjoy…
Obama at Risk?
Doris Lessing, the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature, made what I consider an ill-advised statement today: If Barack Obama becomes the next US president he will surely be assassinated, British Nobel literature laureate Doris Lessing predicted in a newspaper interview published here Saturday. Obama, who is vying to become the first black…
Toledo Mayor Boots Marines
Here’s more evidence that democracy can yield piss-poor leaders. Happily, the process is self-correcting. Carty Finkbeiner, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio – you know, that eminent American city in the heart of the midwest that’s known for producing the Mud Hens of M*A*S*H fame and very little else – has kicked the United States Marines…
A Feminist’s Regrets
Lori Gottlieb has written what can only be described as a soul-baring essay about her regrets over never having married. Highly recommended reading, though many "liberated" women may have a difficult time acknowledging what Gottlieb has to say about her own misspent 20s and 30s. Of course, we’d be loath to admit it in this…
The Myth of Biofuels
Two new studies clearly identify the major problem with biofuels, which is that they do more harm than good. Elizabeth Rosenthal wrote the following in an interesting – and long-overdue – article for the NY Times: Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of…
Saudi Thought Police Bust Mom in Starbucks
The 7th century geniuses who brought us jihad are still hard at work, this time making the world safe for male Muslim coffee drinkers: A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a…
Sharia "Inevitable" in Britain
Hot on the heels of Britain’s Department for Work and Pensions allowing extra benefits for polygamists comes this pronouncement from the Archbishop of Canterbury: Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4’s World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal…
No Stimulus From Senate
Senate Republicans held together, mostly, to stop the Democrats’ stimulus package from passing, according to the NY Times: The measure was opposed by Republican leaders who said the Democrats added too many costly provisions, including an extension of unemployment benefits, tax credits for the coal industry and increased subsidies for home energy costs. The total…