Islam Is Never To Blame, Is It?
This picture is one of a series of 35 at boston.com. The other 34 in The Big Picture series are no less harrowing. "Islam is incompatible with democracy and freedom. Islam and democracy are in the opposite sides of the spectrum... Islam is anti-democracy... And let us not be deceived - Islam is not a religion of peace. Citizens... must be vigilant in understanding the imminent threat of Islam to their culture and on their own soil. The threat of Islam is real." Amil Imani Islam: The greatest threat to Western Civilization and Christianity is a must-read article at Islam Watch, written by Amil Imani, "an Iranian born, pro-democracy activist who resides in the United States of America. He is a poet, writer, literary translator, novelist and an essayist." I'm not concerned about the threat to Christianity - I'm opposed to that to - but there can be no doubt that this barbaric, medieval cult is eroding progressive, liberal civilisation.
Islamic extremism accounts for a quarter of all terrorism fatalities worldwide, according to statistics gathered in 2006 by the National Counterterrorism Center of the United States. For a majority of the overall fatalities, Islamic extremism was responsible. A catalogue of Islamic terror attacks can be found here. Expect to see more stories from Islam Watch - Telling The Truth About Islam (Islam Under Scrutiny By Ex-Muslims) at the ka-os blog.
September 11 2001: World Trade Center, "The Falling Man."
July 7 2005: A bombed London Underground car.
July 7 2005: A bombed Transport for London bus.
Harvey Milk
God forgive me for my ignorance (which I might have said when I was Catholic) but I didn't know who or what Harvey Milk was/is. I dismissed the name in irritation as some America-centric thing, wholly irrelevant to me (maybe because the news flashes I read on sites like Towleroad assumed the reader would know who Harvey Milk was and didn't expand). And then I saw this post, at the lasciviously political SGL Café and my eyes were opened.
Don't walk around with your eyes shut as I've been doing. Watch the trailer. It's important.
Don't walk around with your eyes shut as I've been doing. Watch the trailer. It's important.
Brookside
Earlier this month, I wrote about the sad fate of Brookside Close, the real life street that was always a film set - until Brookside folded in 2003.
The Daily Mail online seems to love this story as much as I do, with this follow-up story.
Any millionaires out there wanna buy me a soap house? I'd be ever so grateful. Pretty please?
Goffney Twins Sentenced
Remember that Only-In-America story back in February, which reported the arrest of Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney - better known, perhaps, as Keyon and Teyon - for Mission: Impossible robberies?I was starting to think the whole thing was an illusion, a drug-induced and electronic dream (or something I cobbled together after a couple of bottles of wine whilst the sun was coming up). Particularly after Keyontyli's MySpace page was constantly updated - no, swamped - with stunning picture after fabulous image of the one formally known as Keyon.
I didn't dream it up, thank you very much, any more than their interlude with Marc Williams, and Taleon was sentenced on November 18 to between four and eight years. It seems he has been in custody since April, whilst Keyontyli has been free to pose and pout in front of the lense.
Let's hope he doesn't meet with the same fate as his brother, and those photos keep coming.
Speaking of photos, boy culture unearthed this little photospread back in February. If twin-on-twin action dismays you, then look away. And to think I went a whole year without it...
More coverage and comments on this story at the excellent SGL Café blog.
LENSED
"In the city nothing changes: It becomes cold part of the year, and hot another, but no trees lose their leaves, no crops ripen, there are only the streets, the fire escapes, the sky; the telephone, the echoing gymnasium, the angelic face of the Italian boy selling Christmas trees whom you see walking home from the Baths one cold winter night, glowing in the flames he has started in an old oil can to keep warm as he stands there on Second Avenue. Each winter you dance, and each summer you go to the beach. Each year you love someone new: Orientals in 1967, Italians in 1968, blacks in 1969, and bearded blonds in 1970; and always the Puerto Ricans, the angels, who take the form of messenger boys, waiting to cross the street across the pavement from you in their jeans and sneakers, their old leather jackets, on a cold winter day. You remember the eyes, as beautiful as bare trees against a sky; naked, cold, as they glance at you for a moment and then look away. Years pass loving such eyes. And the only way you know you're older is that you (once loved by older men) now find yourself loving boys younger than you..."
from Dancer From The Dance, by Andrew Holleran
...out of time
"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there..."
THERE'S SOMETHING I just love about this advert. I think it's the strings. The whole thing makes me feel all wholesome and pure. And I love grocery shopping. Boy, do I love it. Sniffing out the loss-leaders, the BOGOFs, reading labels for nutrional information, squeezing vegetables. And occasionally finding something strange and new. I like to seek out my favourite checkout lady (I have a phobia of male checkout attendants - it just doesn't seem right buying ones groceries from another man). One Asian lady even age-checked me when I was buying a bottle of Malibu a few weeks ago, bless her (the second time that's happened in Morrisons. Maybe it's some ploy to curry favour - unless you're 17, who hates getting age-checked?)
Supermarkets are heaven, but grocery shopping is a skill. I know people who succumb to the marketing, the mind control, and oppressive, depressive strain that is herds of Other People. These poor souls go into supermarkets and buy the things they want, things they want right now, and they pay the price the supermarket wants right now. And that just ain't how it's done. I wish I could impart my knowledge, my skills, but it's instinct, kids - and you either got it, or you don't. Happy shopping.
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