THE DAILY BLADE: Bush Haters Wish Life Would Imitate Art
The shocking pseudo-documentary, "Death of a President," that uses archival news footage to simulate the assassination of President George W. Bush, has been criticized by politicians on both sides of the aisle for depicting the killing of a sitting president. But at one movie theater just seven blocks from the White House, some members of a matinee audience were less interested in the question the filmmakers claim they were asking - "what if?" - than in indulging the sick fantasy, "if only." Reuters quotes one moviegoer, a Susan Wallick, 53, as saying, "I think it's sad that he's such a lousy president that we have to make a movie like this to get it out of our system."
"I think there are a lot of people who are so angry at Bush this is almost a fantasy film for them or a feel-good film," David Schwartz, chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette film critic, Barbara Vancheri, when the film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.
By the way, in her review, Vancheri, who praised the movie asks – but doesn’t have the guts to answer – the question: "How would I (or other critics) feel about "Death of a President" if the assassin's bullets hit Bill Clinton or Al Gore or a politician who would be president such as John McCain or Barack Obama?"
Kam Williams, film critic for "The Electronic Urban Report," an "urban/black entertainment" Web site, is a tad braver:
Most of the discussion surrounding this controversial docudrama has revolved around whether it's okay to depict the assassination of a sitting president. Now, if you believe in freedom of speech, next, you've got to ask yourself how you feel about specifically seeing George Bush wasted.
The answer to that question is likely to depend on which side of the aisle you align yourself with …
And then there’s Cinema Blend’s editor Joshua Tyler, who really lays it on the line:
Liberal extremists and just about everyone who doesn't live in America will get to see their shared fantasy come to fruition on October 27th when the controversial festival film Death of a President hits theaters.
Imam: Women Should Expect To Be Raped If They Go Outside "Uncovered"
In a sermon during Ramadan Sheikh Taj Aldin al-Hilali, Australia's most prominent Muslim cleric, said that women invite rape by not covering themselves head to toe:
"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside ... and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"
"The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred" …
Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward said al-Hilali's comments encouraged rape and that Muslims should force him to quit.
If The Stiletto understands the Imam’s warning, to be safe from sexual assault by any Muslim man who crosses her path, a woman must not only be imprisoned in layers upon layers of dark fabric, she must also spend her days imprisoned in her room. Since Muslim women who get raped are typically killed by their male relatives, it would seem that the only alternative to life imprisonment for them is the death penalty.
And for what crime? Being born female. Leaving aside the comparison of a woman to meat, notice that this Muslim cleric likened rapists to cats and not to dogs. Muslims believe that dogs are accursed, unclean creatures - hence "dog" is used as a perjoritive reference to Christians and Jews - and no devout practitioner of the religion of peace is supposed to come into contact with them. So even a rapist would not be reviled enough to be called a dog by this Imam - and, it goes without saying, that he should not be prosecuted since he committed no crime.
No Sex Please: We're British
Quoting a report by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), Reuters reports: "Britons are not having as much sex as popular perception might suggest."
In truth, The Stiletto wondered how the Brits procreate, as she was under the apparently unpopular perception that they didn’t have sex. The report pretty much backs her up:
The proportions of both men and women who did not have a sexual partner in the previous year was highest among those aged under 20 - 38 percent and 36 percent - which goes some way to exploding the myth that all Britain's youth is sexually active.
One third (33 percent) of all men and just over a quarter (27 percent) of all women who were single had not had a sexual partner.
A Dr. Petra Boynton of University College London tries to make lemonade out of lemons in an interview with The Daily Telegraph: "These are actually quite comforting figures. We are not a nation that sleeps around or takes risks."
Meanwhile, the average American woman is having so much sex she has to pretend to be British - you know, like Madonna - so that when she finally meets Mr. Right, she is not rejected for being a skanky slut - you know, like Madonna. Reports the New York Post:
To a woman, size does matter. But it's not the size you're thinking of. What women really care about is the length of the list of former lovers, which is usually either too many or too, too many. No matter how sexually liberated (or liberally sexual), most women believe that the number of guys they've had sex with … really does count. …
The apropos number of partners changes depending on which survey you check out. The Durex condom company states that the average number of partners for women is 10.5, while a survey conducted by physorg.com says the average is more like 7.2. …
Whether it is the pressure of friends or just the old-fashioned idea that men think that their mate should be pure, women care less about pushing the boundaries and more about pushing men away if it means one less digit.
Update
Free Speech Trumps Muslim Outrage
The City Court in Aarhus, Denmark, rejected claims by seven Danish Muslim groups that the 12 caricatures depicting Muhammad printed in the Jyllands-Posten daily were meant to insult the prophet and make a mockery of Islam. The Associated Press (AP) reports:
The court conceded that some Muslims saw the drawings as offensive, but found there was no basis to assume that "the purpose of the drawings was to present opinions that can belittle Muslims." …
One of the cartoons showed the prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.
The court said some of the drawings could be perceived as linking Islam to terrorism, but added the purpose was to provide social commentary rather than to insult or ridicule Muslims.
Jyllands-Posten Editor in Chief Carsten Juste called the court's decision a victory for freedom of speech. Muslims were - wait for it - outraged at the court decision:
"The dismissal of the lawsuit against the newspaper, which was expected, confirms the ongoing intention to harm our religion and our prophet," said Mahmoud al-Kharabsheh, an independent legislator who heads the Jordanian parliament's legal committee.
AP notes that, "Islamic law, which historically was not intended to apply in nations outside the Muslim world, forbids any depiction of the prophet."
I am convinced that the people who support Islam.. have not read and understood the Qur'an and all the hadiths out there in the world.
As to Britons having far less sexual encounters than previously ( my eyeballs are rolling because the sex lives of Britons are not my business ) I am somewhat comforted. I hope the Muslim nations take note.
Reply to this