† Sarah Palin Makes Dems Cry “Uncle” On Death Panels: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd admits that the politician she refers to as “Caribou Barbie” has a “visceral talent for aerial-shooting her favorite human prey: cerebral Ivy League Democrats,” “managed to hijack the health care debate from Mr. Obama” and “successfully caricatured the White House health care effort, making it sound like the plot of the 1976 sci-fi movie ‘Logan’s Run.’” Heh, heh.

† What Freedom Of Religion Means To Muslims: Part II: Reuters reports that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan “promised democratic reforms on Saturday in a rare meeting with Turkey's religious minority leaders highlighting the issue of minority rights, a key stumbling block in its EU membership bid”:

Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and leaders of the small Armenian, Jewish, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic communities had lunch with Erdogan and senior ministers on Buyukada island near Istanbul, a patriarchate official told Reuters on condition his name not be used.

The lunch meeting coincided with government reform moves to address decades-old tensions with the country's 12 million Kurds. Erdogan, a devout Muslim whose government is viewed with suspicion by some for its Islamist roots, alluded in his speech to a broader reform process. …

About 2,500 ethnic Greeks remain in Turkey, as well as approximately 60,000 Armenians, 20,000 Jews and 10,000 Syriacs (emphasis, The Stiletto).

Reuters doesn’t explain what percentage of the historical population of Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Syriacs these figures represent. For instance, an estimated 2.5 million Armenians lived in Ottoman Turkey in the mid-19^th century - so the “remaning” 60,000 is 2.4 percent of this total. Reuters does not explain what happened to the other 97.6 percent of the Armenians between then and today. Ditto the other religious minorities in Turkey. Reuters does not explain how modern day Turkey became nearly 100 percent Muslim.

† Shut Up And Don’t Sing: “The Cartoons That Shook the World,” a soon-to-be-published book by Yale University Press that examines the murderous riots over the 12 caricatures of Mohammad that were published in a Danish newspaper and the related free speech controversy, will not reprint the cartoons, reports The New York Times:

Yale University and Yale University Press consulted two dozen authorities, including diplomats and experts on Islam and counterterrorism, and the recommendation was unanimous: The book … should not include the 12 Danish drawings … What’s more, they suggested that the Yale press also refrain from publishing any other illustrations of the prophet that were to be included, specifically, a drawing for a children’s book; an Ottoman print; and a sketch by the 19th-century artist Gustave Doré of Muhammad being tormented in Hell, an episode from Dante’s “Inferno” that has been depicted by Botticelli, Blake, Rodin and Dalí. …

John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said by telephone that the decision was difficult, but … [t]he cartoons are freely available on the Internet and can be accurately described in words … so reprinting them could be interpreted easily as gratuitous.

Donatich told The Times he did not want “blood on my hands.”

It’s bad enough when Muslims censor free speech abroad and even here in the U.S. through violence, intimidation and lawsuits, but when we start censoring ourselves we are doing the jobs of intolerant imams for them.

It’s a little early yet, but The Stiletto nominates John Donatich for Jihad Watch’s “American Dhimmi of the Year” for 2009.

† Warning: Dining Out Is More Fattening Than You Think: Los Angeles Times reporter Sandy Banks chokes on the nutritional information that fast food and chain restaurants throughout CA are required to include on their menus:

It was the sort of sticker shock that could make an innocent diner nauseated.

I'd ordered my usual IHOP special - Swedish crepes, with a dollop of lingonberry butter and jelly - and was feeling virtuous as my daughter tried to choose between an omelet and a stack of pancakes.

Then we discovered the menu's newest addition: detailed nutritional info.

What a revelation to discover that my four thin crepes had more calories than my daughter's stack of strawberry pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns.

In fact, I could have stuffed myself with a "Philly Cheese-steak Super Stacker" and had calories left over.

If you haven't eaten out recently, you may not know it, but last month California became the first state to require nutritional labeling to accompany chain restaurant menus.

That means it's easier to make healthful dining choices when you eat out. And harder to enjoy the foods you used to love, once you know how many calories, carbs, grams of saturated fat and milligrams of sodium you're scarfing down. …

In the month since California's new law took effect, I've made my peace with nutritional labels. In fact, I've taken to carrying a notebook around, jotting down sodium levels and calorie counts, trying to find new favorites at my familiar haunts.

Although my new vigilance might be making me healthier, it is also making me less popular as a dinner companion.

Even my daughters are turning down my invitations. They're embarrassed when I interrogate the waiters: Can I get the avocado rolls without the sauce? How many calories do I save by leaving ice cream off the brownie?

Editorial Note: NYC mandated calorie counts on restaurant menus a year ago. Ever since, The Stiletto, too, has been grilling waiters about the caloric effect of leaving off or substituting sauces and garnishes. And then, having lost her appetite (never mind her zest for life), she has been giving half of what’s on her plate to her frequent dining partner, The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm, and occasional contributor to this blog. So far, he’s not complaining.

† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): Given the irrational anti-Second Amendment views of its columnists (second item), The New York Times published a surprisingly sympathetic article on Charles Augusto Jr., the Harlem store owner who was forced to shoot two armed robbers to death and seriously wound two others after one of the thugs began pistol-whipping his employee:

Mr. Augusto, who is 72, was back at the store on Friday, in his navy blue work clothes. “I’ve been here 50 years,” he said. “I don’t really want to go nowhere. What do I do then?” he asked. “I’m not going to let these hoodlums run me out of here.”

The news of the shootings alarmed many of the business owners, workers and residents who believed that Harlem had left its feeling of constant danger behind. …

Adrienne Knox, a 55-year-old school lunch helper, echoed the feeling of many residents — not to mention hundreds of comments on local blogs and newspaper Web sites — when she said that Mr. Augusto’s actions might give some criminals pause.

“Even before the recession, there’s always been altercations in Harlem,” she said. “But what he did out there, nobody’s going to come around messing with nobody around here.” …

Neighbors said Mr. Augusto was known to give young men temporary work loading and unloading trucks. About 17 years ago, he hired a teenager named J. B. Now 35, J. B., who declined to give his full name, earns $25 an hour, though because business is slow, neighbors said, he spends much of his time sitting in front of the shop reading the Bible. …

“If it weren’t for Gus - ” said J. B. He paused, then alluded to one of the men who had attacked him. “Better him with a tag on his toe than my mother planning a funeral for me.” …

Despite all the congratulations, Mr. Augusto said he wished that the men had left when he urged them to and that he would not have had to use the shotgun.

“I know the pain these people must feel,” he said, referring to the families of the two who were killed. “I don’t know what feels worse, now or when my only son [committed suicide 12 years ago].” 

Does Augusto - a registered Republican who learned how to handle firearms during a stint in the Coast Guard – sound like a vigilante? The NYPD doesn’t think so. The New York Daily News reports that though he did not have a permit for his shotgun, he will not be charged with a crime.

Editorial Note: NY’s Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the dismissal of a lawsuit by Bronx gun dealer Angela Spinelli, who claimed her Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure and her due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment were violated when police entered her store without a warrant, removed 300 weapons and suspended her license to sell guns for 58 days after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, reports New York Law Journal. “Judges John M. Walker Jr. and Guido Calabresi decided the appeal in Spinelli v. City of New York, 07-1237-cv. The third member of the original panel, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, was elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court last week and did not participate in the decision.” Only the lower court’s dismissal of Spinelli’s Fourth Amendment claim was affirmed on the grounds that under Title 38 of the Rules of the City of New York, §4-06(a)(3), a gun dealer's "premises and firearms shall be subject to inspection at all times by members of the Police Department."

† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, Police Chief Crashes Car In Alleged Drunk Driving Incident): Former Alexandria police chief David Baker pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and will serve a five-day sentence in the Arlington County jail, reports The Washington Post:

[Arlington General District Court Chief Judge Dorothy H. Clarke] accepted the plea without comment during a brief hearing, sentencing Baker to 180 days in jail and imposing a fine of $1,500. The judge suspended 175 days of the sentence, meaning Baker will have to serve the mandatory five-day minimum sentence for driving at such a high level of intoxication. Clarke also suspended all but $300 of the fine and ordered Baker to attend the county's Alcohol Safety Action Program for DUI offenders. Baker will also lose his driver's license for the next year. …

Clark said that Baker did not have to retire from police service but that he decided that as the public face of the police department, it would be "impossible to overcome" the repercussions of his arrest. By retiring, Baker will collect his city pension.

Arlington Sheriff Beth Arthur, who runs the county jail, said Friday that she considers Baker a "high-profile, high-security-risk inmate" and will keep him separated from the approximately 515 other inmates there during his brief jail term.

"Because of his history in law enforcement in the area and his high-profile job over the past few years, I'm concerned about his safety and well-being while incarcerated … We understand the possibility that he has crossed paths with some of the people here."

†Updates To Previous Posts (last item, We Fight Them Over There So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over Here?: Part III): When Egypt-born Samir Megahed, 62, took his citizenship oath in Tampa, FL, it was a bittersweet moment, reports The Associated Press:

[He] expected that his son Youssef would be standing to take the oath with him and other family members at the Tampa Convention Center.

Instead, 23-year-old Youssef Megahed waits in a South Florida jail to see if he'll be deported - even though a federal jury acquitted him on all criminal charges and some of the jurors say he shouldn't be made to leave the country. His immigration trial begins Monday in Miami. …

In August 2007, two weeks after applying for U.S. citizenship, Youssef Megahed was arrested along with a fellow University of South Florida engineering student not far from a military base in rural South Carolina. …

Ivan L. Ortiz-Delgado, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Friday that Youssef Megahed's criminal charges and deportation proceedings have nothing to do with his family members becoming U.S. citizens. He declined to comment further. …

Despite what has happened to his son, Samir Megahed, who moved his family to the United States from Cairo in 1998 for better educational opportunities, has never wavered in his desire to be an American citizen. Taking the oath of citizenship with him were his wife, Ahlam, 55, and oldest son, Yahia, 26, who graduated from USF in 2004 with a degree in computer science.