Category Archives: Opinion

Boing Boing, Censorship, and Hypocrisy: Commenters, Watch Your Language!

by Cimaxion | 23 Comments

This article incorporates adult themes and language.

This is a flat-out attack on the hypocrisy and thin-skinned holiness of a major blog that purports to stand for freedom of expression and open ideas.  The blog is BoingBoing.net.  I’ve had my problems with the site before, having made comments that their moderators found to be excessive or too foul-mouthed for their rather puritanical tastes.  I say puritanical and I mean exactly that.

Boing Boing has a problem with genitalia.  You’ll see why in a few moments.

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Why I Think the New York Mosque Near Ground Zero is Good

by Cimaxion | 1 Comment

Today, I found out, purely by accident, that I am connected to the ‘ground zero’ mosque in an unexpected way.  First of all, ‘ground zero mosque’ is a terrible name.  The building is not on ground zero.  It’s a couple of blocks away.  It’s simply a New York Islamic center.  I lived in New York for many years and I know perfectly well that lower Manhattan is tiny.  Everything is near ground zero!  For weeks, I have been reading articles about the plans for converting a building in lower Manhattan into an Islamic center and the accompanying controversy, based in large part upon the notion that an Islamic center close to ground zero somehow insults the memories of the 9/11 victims.  I have made my thoughts on the virulent anti-Muslim bigotry spreading across the United States and Europe very clear in an earlier post.  This form of bigotry is going to be seen eventually as one of the great shames of the early 21st century.

During my web travels this morning, I came across a Salon article about how all the fear-mongering surrounding this Islamic center got started.

Here’s a quote from the article:

Dec. 8, 2009: The Times publishes a lengthy front-page look at the Cordoba project. “We want to push back against the extremists,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the lead organizer, is quoted as saying. Two Jewish leaders and two city officials, including the mayor’s office, say they support the idea, as does the mother of a man killed on 9/11. An FBI spokesman says the imam has worked with the bureau. Besides a few third-tier right-wing blogs, including Pamela Geller’s Atlas Shrugs site, no one much notices the Times story.

Well, as chance would have it, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the older brother of my very best friend throughout my teenage years.  I grew up in Washington, D.C. where Mr. Abdul Rauf’s father was the director of the Islamic Center.  It is a beautiful mosque located on Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest D.C.  I spent many of my days there in the seventies and early eighties because my friend’s family had their apartment inside the center.  Those were days filled with the adventure of young minds trying to explore and figure out what they were going to do in life.  I was – and still am – a non-religious liberal-minded fellow, more interested in riding bikes than attending services.  My friend was the youngest of three brothers and he was very intelligent, rather sensitive, but always an irritatingly persistent arguer on almost any topic we could find.  We’d argue on buses, in cars, walking through D.C., watching TV, going to movies, playing football – just about anywhere was a good spot for an argument.  I spent many weekends there at the Islamic Center playing soccer with my friend and the young men who worked there.  They tried to teach Backgammon to me down in the basement of the mosque where they smoked in secret because if Mr. Abdul Rauf found out about it they would have been in a little trouble with him.  The father took his work seriously.  But he was a gentle and kind man.  He treated me like his son.  I had many dinners at home with the family and Mr. Abdul Rauf never once tried to make me feel bad for not being a Muslim.  He would answer my questions with simplicity and understanding.  He would tell some little stories in order to illustrate a point.  I was always told that he spent much of his time studying the Holy Qu’ran and writing books about it.  I was amazed by his library of books.  His office was a quiet place where books were piled and papers were spilled across his desk.  I liked this man.  He was reserved and slightly imposing, but profoundly kind and he took care of everyone I ever saw him come into contact with.

My friend’s father knew that his son and I had developed a keen interest in Super 8 film cameras.  He invited us to come into the mosque for a wedding ceremony and he said we could film it.  We were to be the chroniclers of a real Muslim wedding!  We prepared for this over several weeks.  My friend taught me the ways of showing respect in a mosque.  He showed me the beauty inside a mosque.  I felt comfortable there even though I didn’t have a religious bone in my body.  Frankly, I felt more comfortable there than I’ve ever felt in a Catholic church.  Much more relaxed.  And the beauty is of a much less imposing and ostentatious nature.  The beauty is subtle and serene.  Like water.

So my best friend and I filmed his father performing an Islamic wedding.  We felt very much in charge of what we were doing and we did the best job we knew how.  I always felt proud that I had this connection to the mosque and its activities.  There were plenty of other occasions the family invited me to.  I even helped them prepare for some of the big feasts and celebrations.  I’d haul dessert trays and pile foods onto tables out in the courtyard.  I’d help clean the family apartment after some big gathering or dinner.  Then my friend and I would sneak into all the leftovers when his parents were asleep.  I believe that this was where I had my first taste of a magnificent dessert called baklava.  It was a good time then and I had experiences that are very rare for an American boy who doesn’t worship a god.

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Special Treat For The Anti-Defamation League: How to Build a Mosque

by Editor

Since the Anti-Defamation League has just decided to support the mission of bigots opposed to the building an Islamic center in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site in New York City, I thought I’d offer them a special presentation on the building of a mosque.

Another suggestion for all bigots like those who work at the Anti-Defamation League would be to schedule a field trip to a local mosque to see just how well-treated one is upon entering a mosque.  If you have never been inside a mosque I would recommend going.  What you imagine goes on inside a mosque is most certainly not what goes on inside a mosque.  Give it a try sometime.  Get to know the people inside the building and when you start to feel really bad about the way you have behaved, just chalk it up to your own uneducated imagination.

Here’s an article about the raging anti-Muslim attitudes spreading across the U.S. and Europe.

Click here for the other 6 parts of the video

Anti-Defamation League Joins Anti-Mosque Bigots in Hatred

by Editor | 3 Comments

Anti-Defamation League - Fighting Anti-Semitism, Bigotry and Extremism - Yeah, unless you're a Muslim.

The Anti-Defamation League, an organization that ostensibly stands up for religious freedom and tolerance in the United States has shocked and disgusted many people, including me, by announcing their opposition to the construction of a mosque in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site.

In the vicinity! We’re not talking about on top of Ground Zero. We’re talking about nearby, somewhere in the general neighborhood in New York City.

The Anti-Defamation League appears, as a result of this bizarre proclamation, to be an organized group of bigots pretending to support tolerance.

Muslims have every right to build a mosque near the World Trade Center site.  There’s nothing inappropriate or wrong about it.  In fact, I think it shows a concerted effort to be a thriving part of the New York community.  It’s healthy to build this mosque.  It’s a better decision than building the ever-stalled ‘Freedom Tower’ which never gets an inch off the ground.  Why not rename it ‘Freedom Hole.’  These people who have been protesting, including some of the relatives of 9/11 victims, are nothing more than the worst form of bigot.  They couch their hatred in ‘protecting the emotional well-being of families and victims.’  By their logic we should cordon off every site of a plane crash and forbid construction by people who are of the same religious beliefs as the pilots.  We should ascertain the religion of every person who commits a murder and prevent people of that religion from ever constructing churches near the murder sites.  Insane.  Hateful.  Nonsense.

Muslims are not terrorists.  Muslims are simply people who worship in a particular way.  Associating Muslims with terrorism is bigotry by definition.  I think someone should build a mosque on top of the Anti-Defamation League.

Here is what the Anti-Defamation League says:

Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.

So don’t build your mosque because it’ll make a bunch of backwoods idiot bigots feel bad.  Wow!  I’m just blown away.  You know, I never give money to organized bigots.  But I’ll certainly contribute to the mosque-building fund if there is one.

This insidious and creeping connection of Islam to terrorism is becoming very dangerous.  It’s getting worse quickly.  It’s spreading all over the U.S. and Europe.  If the Anti-Defamation League feels that is can say something like this then we are in very bad shape indeed.

The Mona Lisa Curse: Do High Prices Ruin the Art World?

by Editor | 1 Comment

This is a 12-part film on YouTube called The Mona Lisa Curse by art critic Robert Hughes. The film is fascinating for its overview of the art scene in New York since the 1960s. Hughes, the art critic for Time Magazine, goes on an extended diatribe against the fast-paced and overpriced world of art collectors and auctions that he says have debased recent art. He hates Damien Hirst because, according to him, the work does not merit the inflated prices. He hates Andy Warhol and thinks he was stupid and stole ideas from Robert Rauschenberg.  He thinks wealthy collectors have become simple investors without a thought in their heads about why the art is important.

But I think Mr. Hughes is a giant bore.  He walks around with a comical scowl on his block-like face.  He lumbers into a collector’s home to question him about why he would want to own 800 Andy Warhol pieces.  The collector gives him decent and somewhat thoughtful answers that are soundly rejected by the ogre in the room because he thinks Warhol was ‘one of the stupidest people he ever met in his life.’  Why?  ‘Because he had nothing to say.’

Nothing to say.  First of all, if you are waiting for someone to say something, you are going to waste half of your life doing so.  Warhol never said a damn thing that I can recall reading anywhere except that when asked why another artist was so good he said that it was because he made good lunches.  But Mr. Hughes is looking for something else.  Warhol had nothing to say.  In fact, I met him at a bookstore in Manhattan once and he just said, ‘Hi.’  It fit the occasion quite nicely in fact.  There’s your answer, Mr. Hughes.  The quietest voice in the museum must be Andy Warhol’s.

But if Hughes insists on asking some uninspired collector about what made Warhol so good, he is only going to get an answer culled from some brochure.  He needs a real answer.  Here’s mine.  Andy Warhol was great because he tried to destroy meaning.

Hughes’ most scathing remarks are saved for the wheeler dealer art auctioneers and representatives in New York.  They run around selecting high-priced art for their clients and hold bidding wars at places like Sotheby’s and Christie’s.  This pushes art prices up into the stratosphere, making every artist want to earn the big bucks.

So what?  Who cares?

The money people are having much more fun than tiresome old Mr. Hughes.  This guy should live under a bridge.  Who cares if a painter does something that costs $400 one day and $40,000,000 the next?  Where’s the problem?  It’s fun to trade money for art.  The more expensive it is the more well cared for it will be.  If you don’t want to spend large sums on art you don’t have to.  There are plenty of fine artists selling for a few hundred dollars.

I like Mr. Hughes’ film, but I don’t accept his views.

For instance, he despises this huge sculpture by Damien Hirst:

Why?  It’s an astounding statue.  Reminds me of ancient Egypt.  Look at the feet.  And those cut off fingers!  Look at what that face is doing.  It’s a face!  I would jam this thing into my backyard if I could unseat it from its pedestal.

But watch the film all the way through.  It’s very unusual and I have to love Mr. Hughes for making it and for being so willing to be so cranky.  Cranks are always fun.  I say stupid things just to make them mad.

Go here for part 2 and you’ll find the other 10 parts as well.

I Think BP is Faking its Spill Fix

by Editor

Fake. It should be obvious. Any twelve year old child can look at the volcano of oil and tell you that it will never fit inside a narrow pipe. This is just public relations for the sake of the video feed. President Obama should get into a military posture immediately and remove BP from the Gulf. It is time to start arresting BP employees. This is terrorism. The ideas and execution on display from BP make no logical sense and therefore must represent something beyond what we are being made aware of. Obama needs to ask Congress to convene specifically to authorize a takeover of all BP assets and physical property worldwide by the United States. They need to basically declare a state of war against a multi-national corporation. And if they refuse, then Obama needs to move without them. I’m dead serious in my opinion on this. This is one of the worst attacks ever perpetrated against the United States. The reason I call it an attack is because what started as an accident has changed now into an ongoing effort to confuse observers of the situation and mislead them into thinking that BP is trying to stop the leak. What are other BP people doing around the world right now? What is going on in their banks? Where are they moving their money? Obama is missing the big red ball here and he’s never going to recover. I think it would be wise to very quickly and quietly remove all BP personnel from any offshore oil rigs near the U.S. and shut those rigs down asap. NASA engineers need to be pulled into this emergency and the military must provide logistics and hauling support for the effort to shut the gusher down.

The entire southern and eastern coasts of the U.S. are at severe risk and the volume of oil in the Gulf is far beyond what BP or the government have stated.  This company has absolutely no concern whatsoever for what happens to the Gulf waters or the U.S. coasts.  It concerns itself only with limiting financial losses and maximizing oil profits.  Cleanup and stopping the spill are completely irrelevant to this company.  Obama needs to consider what he would do if he wakes up tomorrow and realizes that BP is falsifying the entire operation at the spill site.  What would you do, Mr. President?

Further thoughts: Extreme language and extreme action are required in this very odd situation with the Gulf disaster. I think it is only this kind of extreme, left-field thinking that will somehow break the massive inertia that is apparent in our government’s response to a major world emergency. I continue to hear high government officials, including the President, talk about what the government, military, and BP can’t do. Everyone seems to think that there’s not much that can be done that BP isn’t already doing. This thinking is very dangerous and indicates a total collapse of the nation’s intellect and general technical infrastructure. That is not the way the United States expresses itself. We are seeing what is either an anomaly or an indication of failure on a massive and existential scale. The United States that has existed up until recently would never say that it could not plug a hole 5,000 feet below the sea. Never. It would turn all of its technical, military, industrial, and intellectual resources toward filling that hole immediately. I’ve heard reports that President Obama has an IQ of 160. Really? Really? I’m not sure which test was administered to this guy, but it is quite apparent that somebody got paid a little extra to score it.

This country is bleeding out of its asshole. And our President is modeling business casual slacks on the oil-slicked shores of a destroyed southern coast.

The President should be using extreme language and taking extreme actions to get this hole filled instantaneously. He should be reacting in very much the same way he would react if a nuclear bomb had exploded somewhere on American soil. Nothing less will suffice. What is wrong with our President and what is wrong with America?