Category Politics

One of These Things Is Just Like the Other

This story
(from Captain’s Quarters)
was posted at Free Republic last month:

Muslim Taxi Showdown In The Twin Cities (Muslim cabbies to transport people with alcohol in luggage)

The refusal of a large number of Islamic cabbies to transport passengers with alcohol in their luggage or service dogs for the blind and handicapped, and the local fatwa on which they rely for their position, has led to a showdown with the Metropolitan Airport Commission

Even excluding the “All Muslims are terrorists” lunatic fringe, the general consensus in the comments seems to be, “Tough. Taxis are a public service, and if a customer is doing something legal but repugnant to you, suck it up, that’s too bad. Deal with it.”

Next, there’s this story from last year:

Pharmacists Don’t Want to Sell Morning After Pill Despite FDA Approval

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Food and Drug Administration may have approved sales of the morning after pill over the counter, but some pharmacists are reluctant to sell the drug. The agency’s move to sell Plan B without a prescription may expand the nationwide debate about a conscience clause for pharmacists to allow them to opt out of dispensing the drug.

Here, the reaction is a bit more mixed: there are those complaining about government interfering with private business, the ones confusing Plan B with RU-486 and spreading misinformation about both, and the ones imagining the ACLU, NARAL, and NOW having a cow over this. But the majority opinion seems to be that pharmacists shouldn’t have to sell a pill that personally offends them.

So which is it, Freepers? Is it okay for someone to refuse service to customers who offend their moral or cultural values, or isn’t it? Is it okay for an atheist cabbie to refuse to drive people to church? Is it okay for a vegan cashier to refuse to ring up your steak? Is it okay for a nurse to refuse to take care of a woman who’s having her period?

And This Is Why the First Amendment Is a Good Thing ™

One more thing to be grateful for
if you live in a country with freedom of speech:

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) — An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet.
…

One of Suleiman’s articles said that al-Azhar in Cairo, one of the most prominent seats of Sunni Muslim learning, was promoting extreme ideas. Another article, headlined “The Naked Truth of Islam as I Saw it”, accused Muslims of savagery during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Alexandria in 2005.

He has also described some of the companions of the Muslim prophet Mohammad as “terrorists”, and has likened Mubarak to dictatorial pharaohs who ruled ancient Egypt.

“I was hoping that he would get a harsher sentence because he presented to the world a bad image of Egypt. There are things that one should not talk about, like religion and politics. He should have got a 10-year sentence,” said lawyer Nizar Habib, who attended the trial as a member of the public.

Point duh-one: freedom of speech is not there to protect popular speech. It’s for unpopular speech.

Point duh-two: an idea that needs legislative protection from criticism is one that can’t stand on its own. I’m sorry Mr. Habib doesn’t like the fact that Suleiman aired Egypt’s dirty laundry in public (any more than I like it when an American makes the US look bad in the eyes of the world), but frankly, the way to deal with this is to fix the problem, not shoot the messenger.

And if there needs to be a law against criticism of Islam, doesn’t that pretty much mean that there’s no rational reason to believe in Islam? What kind of god needs to be protected, like an endangered species?

Porn in Afghanistan

According to
the Scotsman,
people in Afghanistan have developed quite a taste for teh pr0n:

The heaviest fighting in five years has slowed reconstruction to a crawl in the deserts and oases of Kandahar, where the strict Taleban movement began in 1994, but pornography, opium and illegal alcohol are flourishing, officials say.
…

“Pornography is a problem,” admits new provincial police chief General Asmatullah Alizai. “According to our Islamic rules and beliefs, people cannot accept this kind of thing. I don’t want people to see this kind of film.”

Can you say “forbidden fruit, boys and girls? I knew you could.

Also, from the comments:

If they are going to be issued with a bevy of virgins
in their next life, I see nothing wrong with them veiwing a few training manuals. You wouldn’t want to look stupid on the big night if it was you.

(HT Plan 8 from Doubter Space.)

Let’s Hire A Grizzly as a Babysitter, While We’re at It

Brad Blog reports that someone managed to make a key that opens Diebold voting machines… by copying it off of an image on Diebold’s web site.

Can you imagine what would happen if an individual, rather than a company, had screwed up this way? If you answered “that person would be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom”, pat yourself on the back. Unfortunately, we can’t give medals to corporations, but this comes close:

NORTH CANTON, Ohio– Diebold, Incorporated, one of the nation’s largest security integrators with expertise in the government, commercial, financial and retail markets, has solidified its homeland security presence. The company recently earned certification from the General Services Administration (GSA) to deliver security integration services that meet the requirements of the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12).

I tried to come up with a better subject line. Really, I did. But all I could come up with was “It’s like letting Bush & Co. run the country” or “Like letting Halliburton handle the post-Katrina reconstruction”.

Gonzales to Judges: Don’t Worry Your Pretty Little Heads About the Law

From the Associated Press:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases.

In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday, Gonzales says judges generally should defer to the will of the president and Congress when deciding national security cases.

People have been saying for years that someone needs to give Bush a blow job so he can be impeached. I think we’ve just found the man to do it.

Bumper Sticker O’ the Day

Bush = Leeroy Jenkins

(Thanks to [info]mcoletti, who found the idea somewhere.)

im in ur mailbox

im in ur mailbox, readin ur mail



Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.

(Thanks to [info]doc-quixote for the idea.)

Well, Crap

The Baltimore Sun
reports
that after the vote-counting was completed, right-wing
homophobic
religious nutjob
assclown and
reanimated corpse
Don Dwyer
was reelected to the state legislature by 28 votes. I don’t live in Anne Arundel county, so I couldn’t make that 26.

(Update: Can someone explain why the first Google result for
“reanimated corpse” points to State Farm’s site?)

Those Who Do Not Remember the Dictionary Definition Are Condemned to Mangle It

I’ve started hearing the phrase “actionable
intelligence”
being used as a five-dollar synonym for “useful information”, particularly in the context of the debate on how to rebrand torture to make it seem acceptable.

Am I the only one to have noticed the irony here? In case everyone forgot, the first definition of
“actionable”
means “something you can get sued over”. This is not generally considered a Good Thing.

Maryland Politics

Headline O’ the Day, courtesy of the Gazette:

Victory will hinge on how many voters vote Tuesday

Let’s file that under D for Duh.

Secondly, if you live in Anne Arundel, please remember to vote against religious nutcase,
bigot, and all-around asshat
Don Dwyer tomorrow.