The notion that Charlie Hebdo is a purely satirical magazine that attacks everybody and cannot, therefore, be considered racist seems to generally be espoused by well-meaning but uninformed people. The fact of the matter is that in 2009, Charlie Hebdo fired a cartoonist after he mocked Jews and yet, has no issues consistently running Anti-Muslim cartoons that go out of their way to offend the...
I’ve said before that “If you want to find the truth, assume that everybody is lying, but if you want to solve a problem, assume that everybody is telling the truth.” Today, I find this relevant. We have what appears to be a recurring pattern. A terrorist attack takes place, whether it’s on the WTC in New York, or (with much lesser casualties) at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, and the...
This is a letter Philip K. Dick wrote in response to Israel’s bombing of the Osirak reactor in Iraq in 1981. It’s worth reading these days because, as with his science fiction, PKD remains prophetic…. Philip K. Dick is, arguably, the science fiction author, and the mind behind such movies as Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and many others. The letter is...
If you’ve been paying any attention, you already know that last week, while Joe Biden was in Israel to supposedly help move along the peace process – Israel declared, as though by accident, that it was ‘allowing’ the construction of 1,600 settler housing units in East Jerusalem. Now the Israelis know damn well that the more they try to claim East Jerusalem, the less there’s any chance of peace...
When Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, announced that Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, the reporters, or so it’s been reported – gasped. That should’ve told him something. In explaining the committees’ choice, it was explained that Obama was awarded the prize not for what he’s done but for what he might...
It’s an easy enough lie to digest. Ahmedinejad is a nutcase. Look at him; he’s been wearing the same jacket for years, ever since we ever laid eyes on him. He’s unshaven, looks scruffy. He exudes an informal, almost clumsy air and doesn’t seem like much of an orator. He’s soft-spoken enough to make a cynic disbelieve anything he says, and the claims that he’s...
Well, here he was. Massive hype, of course, an event touted as a game-changer for American/Arab relations and something that many people were eagerly expecting. Even before the event, certain facts were being highlighted within the region – Unlike most, if not all, US Presidents of the last few decades, Obama would not be visiting Israel and would not be driven straight from the airport to...
Despite the supposedly promising move of making George Mitchell the Middle East Envoy – it appears that any work he attempts will be under the glowering shadow of none other than second of the two infamous Clintons, good old Hillary. Consider, if you will, the article at Reuters entitled “Clinton says Israel has the right to defend itself. ” This is not a novel or unique statement, and...
Mr. Obama, President-Elect – you have won, and the people cheer – and in huge neon letters, or so the media would have us understand – the world itself now sees the words ‘Hope’, ‘Change,’ ‘Obama’ all writ large onto some bright fantastical chimera. My skepticism is founded mainly on your foreign policies, which, unfortunately, sound to me almost identical in attitude to the ones that have...
It seems that we must take on the role of reminders. We must remind Americans of who they claim to be in the hope that they do not instead become who we dread they might already have become.
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