Dinah Lord

Moonbats on Parade: Ahmadinejad calls Hollywood delegation on the carpet.

Update:  See pics of Annette Bening and Alfre Woodard in hijab here.

They meekly submit.  White House gives nod to their visit.  (It sure sounds like visas were obtained with ease and dispatch...)

Courtesy of The Wrap.

In an historic visit to one of America’s most entrenched adversaries, a delegation of Hollywood dignitaries led by the president of the motion picture academy Sid Ganis is in Tehran on Saturday and Sunday for a cultural exchange. 

But the trip took a tense turn as the Iranian News Agency reported that the art adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedenejad said that Hollywood must apologize for "insults and slanders" about Iranians in films.

"(Iranian) cinema officials will only have the right to have official sessions with... Hollywood movie makers when they apologize to the Iranians for their 30 years of insults and slanders," Javad Shamaghdari said.

He added: "The Iranian people and our revolution has been repeatedly unjustly attacked by Hollywood," he said, citing '300' and recent Oscar nominated movie 'The Wrestler' as among offending films.

 The Hollywood blockbuster hit '300', about the Greek and Persian wars, angered Iranians in 2007 for its portrayal of their historic ancestors as bloodthirsty.

Similarly 'The Wrestler' was heavily criticised for a scene of breaking and tearing of the Iranian flag by the picture's star, Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke, the news agency reported. (editor's note:  Reading this, I just might have to see this one.)

"We will believe (US President Barack) Obama's policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too, and if Hollywood wants to correct its behaviour towards Iranian people and Islamic culture then they have to officially apologize," Shamaghdari added. The delegation was led by Ganis and included Annette Bening, Frank Pierson, the former president  of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, and producer William Horberg. Ganis’s wife, Nancy Hult Ganis, said in an email that the State Department had approved a small delegation from Hollywood “for cultural purposes only.” But AMPAS spokeswoman Leslie Unger told the AFP that the visit was a "completely private initiative for educational and creative exchange and with no political agenda." Any visit to Iran would need approval from the State Department because the United States has no diplomatic relations with with that country, and maintains sanctions against it.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in an email that the report that the group was sent by the administration was “not true.”  Regardless, the delegation is an unusual cultural opening toward Iran, and comes in the context of Obama’s promises during the campaign to start a dialogue with the country which has been a traditional enemy of the United States and its allies.  The origin and the precise purpose of the delegation was still unclear.  The Tehran Times reported that other bold-faced Hollywood names were there for a seminar, writing on Saturday:  "Actress Alfre Woodard “Follow Me Home” (1996), Special Events Programmer and Exhibitions Curator Ellen Harrington, as well as Tom Pollock, the former Universal Pictures chairman, will also be attending the seminars" at a cinema studies house in the capital.  

The group also will visit the Film Museum of Iran, a college of cinema, and several cinematic locations, the paper said.  Iran specialist Reza Aslan, who advised Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Iran during her presidential bid, said the initiative seemed odd, and could "backfire -- maybe not backfire, but could fail to have real positive impact."

Gee, ya think?

Justice: Iranian style

From Mirror.co.uk

More than 1,000 men, women and children have been hanged in Iran in the three years to last December.

In the first month of this year, 59 died, including a 35-year-old woman after 12 years in Rafsanjan prison. In December two men were stoned to death, a third being spared after he managed to clamber out of a pit where he was buried up to his shoulders.

The official 170 forms of punishment include limb amputation without anaesthetic and gouging out eyes with a spoon-like instrument.

Iran has executed the highest number of children in the world since 1990. Currently 71 sentenced to death await the gallows.

Since the Islamic Republic of Iran was set up 30 years ago, about 120,000 political prisoners have been hanged. About 600,000 have been tortured in the mullahs' notorious prisons. This is medieval murder on an industrial scale.

Spearheading opposition to it all is Maryam Rajavi, 56, presidentelect of the coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran.

One of her sisters was executed by the Shah who was exiled in 1979.

A second was murdered by the mullahs while pregnant.

Geert Wilders' Freedom Party surges to become largest political party in Netherlands

Okay, file this one under REALLY unintended consequences.

Thanks to FReeper Dutchiepat for the translation services of this NOS.nl article.

The Party for the Freedom of Geert Wilders is according to a survey of Maurice de Hond the largest party if elections were held now. It is for the first time that in a survey the Freedom Party obtains most of the seats.

According to De Hond Wilders' party would get 27 seats, one more than the conservative Christian-Democrats (CDA). The PvdA (Labor-Socialists) stands according to De Hond at 21; Liberal D66 is with 19 seats the fourth party.

Since the Court of Justice ruled six weeks ago Wilders should be prosecuted, the Freedom Party surged with 10 seats. Wilders also came in the news because him was denied the access to Great Britain.

Meanwhile, back in the Netherlands, the Islamist's gender apartheid proceeds apace.  From Christopher over at Islam in Action: Netherlands:  Theatre brings in gender apartheid.  (don't be surprised if the women start having to wear pink badges like the yellow ones Jews were forced to wear in WW-...oh wait - the hijab serves that purpose already.  Here's my thing.  Look at all the dhimmi wimmen meekly trotting up the stairs and submitting to the cheap seats.  It boggles the already boggled mind.)

 

Get up in the cheap seats, bitches.

And did you know the tribunal to investigate Lebanese President's assassination of former President Rafiq al Hariri is set to convene in the Hague tomorrow?  Me neither, but then I've been kind of out of it this week.  So here is the story just in case you were too...

THE tribunal created to try the suspected killers of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri is set to open its doors in The Hague on Sunday with no indication of a first trial date.  The Special Tribunal for Lebanon will be officially launched in a special ceremony at its new seat at former Dutch intelligence headquarters in the far-flung suburb of Leidschendam.

The ceremony would be presided over by the tribunal's British registrar, Robin Vincent, and addressed by Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare who has hitherto led the international investigation of Hariri's assassination in a car bombing in February 2005 that also killed 22 other people.

The tribunal, created by a 2007 UN Security Council resolution, will apply the Lebanese penal code. It has a initial, renewable, three-year mandate.

The identities of its 11 judges, four of them Lebanese, are being kept under wraps for security reasons.

In its early stages, the UN probe into the murder implicated top officials close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Damascus has consistently denied any involvement.

In an open letter to the Lebanese people, Mr Bellemare vowed Saturday to 'do everything that is humanly and legally possible to ensure that the truth emerges and that those responsible for the crimes that fall within our jurisdiction are eventually brought to justice.' Four Lebanese generals are in detention in Lebanon over the killing. Three others, civilians suspected of withholding information and misleading the ongoing probe, were freed by Lebanon on Wednesday.

From taking office officially on Sunday, the office of the prosecutor will have 60 days to apply to the Lebanese authorities for the transfer of suspects and evidence files.

The tribunal, which has a US$51.4 million (S$80 million) for 2009, has a separate wing of holding cells at the Dutch penitentiary in Scheveningen, which 'is operational, staffed and ready to receive anyone we get,' according to Vincent.

The courtroom, to be erected in what used to be a spies' gymnasium, was unlikely to be completed before November this year. -- AFP

And did you know that Lebanon had been placed on high alert in advance of the hearing? 

Chechen President: 'Women had 'loose morals and deserved to be shot...'

The bullnecked president (r) role plays Mohammed and Aisha at a recent local folk festival. 

"You just wait young lady!  One of these days you'll get what's coming to you!  And don't think you won't!"

And the Islamic beatdown on women goes on.  Read this story and then think back to Phyllis Chesler's major differences between domestic violence.  View the Chechen president's automobile collection beneath the fold and ask yourself, "If Islam is such a religion of peace then why does it act like nothing but a mobbed up death cult?"

From the IHT.

The bullnecked president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die. Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.

"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.

The 32-year-old former militia leader is carrying out a campaign to impose Islamic values and strengthen the traditional customs of predominantly Muslim Chechnya, in an effort to blunt the appeal of hardline Islamic separatists and shore up his power. In doing so, critics say, he is setting up a dictatorship where Russian laws do not apply.

Some in Russia say Kadyrov's attempt to create an Islamic society violates the Russian constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state. But the Kremlin has given him its staunch backing, seeing him as the key to keeping the separatists in check, and that has allowed him to impose his will.

The Chechen Republic - where Honor Killing is a 'family tradition', the corpses of dead women give men their honor and no records are kept.

Kadyrov describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children. He encourages men to take more than one wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Russia. Women and girls are now required to wear headscarves in all schools, universities and government offices.

...

Many people suspect Kadyrov is branding the seven late November slayings honor killings to advance his political agenda. He said the women were planning to go abroad to work as prostitutes, but their relatives found out about it and killed them.

Few Chechens believe that.

"If women are killed according to tradition then it is done very secretly to prevent too many people from finding out that someone in the family behaved incorrectly," said Natalya Estemirova, a prominent human rights activist in Grozny.

Estemirova said two of the women were married, with two children each. Their husbands held large funerals and buried them in the family plot, which would not have happened if the women had disgraced their families, she said.

Kadyrov's version also has been contradicted by federal prosecutors in Moscow, who have concluded relatives were not involved. No arrests have been made and the investigation is continuing. Kadyrov's office refused to comment on the investigators' conclusion.

The Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that some of the women worked in brothels frequented by Kadyrov's men. Many Chechens say they suspect the women were killed in a police operation. The truth of the killings may never be known, given how much Kadyrov is feared.

Rights activists fear that Kadyrov's approval of honor killings may encourage men to carry them out. Honor killings are considered part of Chechen tradition. No records are kept, but human rights activists estimate dozens of women are killed every year.

Call me crazy, but I saw these pics and had a Uday Hussein flashback...

Bear with me...

Good morning.  I'm happy to report that my IT guy got home last night and was able to jerry rig the router enough to get us back online - after a fashion.  We still get knocked off from time to time but - we're up!

So here I sit in my cozy possum lair, listening to Van Morrison's latest; Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl, FBN is on mute and I'm staring at my computer screen with a blank look on my face (more about this later).   And I've been looking that way for a while now, too.

Is it hard for you to get back in the flow when you've been offline for a while, too?  I know it's best to just hold your nose and jump back into the swiftly flowing datastream of world events.  But man oh man, I always have a hard time doing it.  I try sticking my toe into the water but I just can't bring myself to jump back into that torrential cyberstream.  C'mon, get busy I tell myself.  So I put my toe back in again - and again, again, again.  I know the current is rough and tumble and I'm always asking myself "Do you REALLY want to do this?  Do you really want to jump back in?"

But then I'll see, hear or read something that gets my bloomers in a bunch and I not only jump back in - I do a cannonball and I'm in over my head again. 

That's where I'm at right now.

Off to see what the posse is up too...they usually have content guaranteed to push my buttons!

Oh lord, won't you buy me...

A statement of great political and social import.

This song has been running through my head since I watched the Messiah's speech last night.  (And if I thought I had fallen down the rabbit hole before?  After watching that performance I think I am spinning and tumbling down through the socialist's googy chute! ) 

This part of the speech was exceptionally rich given the fact that the Messiah has jetted around the country more in his first month in office than any other president. Oh, and his lovely wife is picking up the drapes for the Oval Office as we speak.  And let me tell you, she ain't shopping at Pottery Barn...(bespoke fabrics from Scotland?)

And I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. (Applause.) This time -- this time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over. (Applause.)

And while you'd never know it from the glowing reports in the MSM, Obama is actually less popular after his first month in office than George Bush.

This should help boost his flagging popularity:  First dog to arrive in April.

All righty then.

My ISP went down this morning and I have spent the day trying to get it fixed. Now it looks like the problem resides in the wireless router.  Wireless routers are above my pay grade, so the problem will continue to reside there until the L&M returns from his UK trip. 

Right now, I am coming to you from the L&M's office where I am sitting all humped up and hunched over a tv tray with my laptop (the one that crashes without warning - that one) hardwired into the modem on a short, teeny cable plugged into the back of the entertainment center. 

 It looks like posting will be light over the next couple of days, possums.  The good news?  Maybe my pantry will get cleaned out.  Maybe.  There's also a Brad Thor on the reading pile that's been calling my name.  And the weather's supposed to be in the 60's here this week...

'The Taliban have turned the Swat valley into a hellhole of bodies.'

And there's more about the reporter killed in the wake of the Black Flags of Islam march through Swat.

"In a characteristic Taliban flourish, there were signs his killers had tried to behead him."

Quite. 

Scroll it and weep, possums. 

You sure aren't hearing much from the 'hope and change' crowd about this, are you? 

They're too busy having Oscar parties, I guess.

 

September - Earth, Wind & Fire - video powered by Metacafe

I'm thinking the perpetual campaigner is talking about his win in September.  Just saying.

Gee what do you think our president is up to? 

Earth Wind and Fire, baby!

7:30 p.m.: (Indiana Governor) "Daniels is scheduled to attend a governor’s dinner with President Barack Obama and the first lady at the White House — Obama’s first formal dinner of his administration. According to The Washington Post, 1970s Chicago rhythm and blues band “Earth, Wind and Fire” will perform at the dinner. No word on whether there’ll be a dance floor set up. The Marine Band will also perform.

The Messiah busts a move.  The Taliban bust heads.

From The Deccan Herald: 

Taliban have converted the Swat Valley in Pakistan, once known for its scenic beauty, into a hell-hole of bodies and ruins, a media report said here on Sunday.

In Mingora, Swat's largest city which once buzzed with foreign tourists, now has empty shops and hundreds of hotels in the valley have been destroyed or forced to closure after threats from the militants, The Sunday Times reported.

The women's clothes markets were either closed or have banners proclaiming: "Women are banned from entering this market". Barbers have pasted handwritten posters in front of their shops saying: "Shaving a beard is un-Islamic. We have stopped shaving beards. Please don't visit the shop for a shave."

After two years of fighting between 5,000 Taliban militants and 12,000 troops from the Pakistan army, a ceasefire has been hammered out between the government and the rebels.

It has left the Swat Valley, just three hours drive from Islamabad, the capital, under the control of a hardline cleric known as Radio Mullah for his fiery sermons on an illegal radio station.

According to the report, American officials are concerned that the cleric, Maulana Fazlullah, who is intent on imposing a harsh version of sharia (religious law), will allow the valley to become a base for Al-Qaeda and other terrorists.  (ed. note:  Gee, ya think?)

On Wednesday, a journalist for Pakistan's Geo TV network, Musa Khan Khel (28), was killed when he tried to secure a interview with Fazlullah. In a characteristic Taliban flourish, there were signs that his killers had attempted to behead him.

Describing the scene, the correspondent observed that what he found in Swat was a hell-hole. Suicide bombings, car bombs and artillery have scarred the valley's roads and buildings. The charred remains of hospitals and even a madrasah (seminary) litter the landscape.

Nearly 200 schools have been destroyed, all girls over the age of eight are banned from lessons and, in a symbol of the Taliban's hatred of learning, the public library in Mingora has been wrecked.

The Taliban have banned music and dancing, television and internet cafes. Women cannot leave home without wearing a burqa, the all-encompassing robe. Justice has been enforced with floggings and public executions. Police stations are deserted and fewer than 100 local policemen remain.

Green Square, the heart of Mingora'a bazaar, is now known as khooni Chowk - or bloody square - because of the public executions carried out there by Taliban who leave the bullet-riddled bodies of police and soldiers for all to see.

Paging John Kerry.  Please go to the nearest white courtesy telephone for an important message.

Domestic violence v. Honor Killings.

Phyllis Chesler's new study "Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?"  finds a number of key differences between Honor Killings and Domestic Violence in the US.  (Here is a listing of them so the next time one of your loony lefty moonbat friends start claiming that they are one and the same you can set them straight.  I'm laying in wait like a snake in the tall grass for my lib girlfriend to start spouting off about it.  Heh.)  Study it.  There will be a quiz.

Honor Killings	Domestic Violence
Committed mainly by Muslims against Muslim girls/young adult women.	Committed by men of all faiths usually against adult women.
Committed mainly by fathers against their teenage daughters and daughters in their early twenties. Wives and older-age daughters may also be victims, but to a lesser extent.	Committed by an adult male spouse against an adult female spouse or intimate partner.
Carefully planned. Death threats are often used as a means of control.	The murder is often unplanned and spontaneous.
The planning and execution involve multiple family members and can include mothers, sisters, brothers, male cousins, uncles, grandfathers, etc. If the girl escapes, the extended family will continue to search for her to kill her.	The murder is carried out by one man with no family complicity.
The reason given for the honor killing is that the girl or young woman has "dishonored" the family.	The batterer-murderer does not claim any family concept of "honor." The reasons may range from a poorly cooked meal to suspected infidelity to the woman's trying to protect the children from his abuse or turning to the authorities for help.
At least half the time, the killings are carried out with barbaric ferocity. The female victim is often raped, burned alive, stoned or beaten to death, cut at the throat, decapitated, stabbed numerous times, suffocated slowly, etc.	While some men do beat a spouse to death, they often simply shoot or stab them.
The extended family and community valorize the honor killing. They do not condemn the perpetrators in the name of Islam. Mainly, honor killings are seen as normative.	The batterer-murderer is seen as a criminal; no one defends him as a hero. Such men are often viewed as sociopaths, mentally ill, or evil.
The murderer(s) do not show remorse. Instead, they experience themselves as "victims," defending themselves from the girl's actions and trying to restore their lost family honor.	Sometimes, remorse or regret is exhibited.

Interestingly enough, Ms. Chesler also discovers that contrary to Muslim advocacy groups claim that honor killings are committed as often by Sikhs and Hindi as Muslims is not true in the US where the majority of honor killings by are Muslim men on Muslim girls/young women.  (In US domestic violence, sadly, it is committed by men of all faiths against adult women.)

Now, didn't I tell you there was going to be a quiz??

Question:  Does Sarah Said's murder meet the honor killing criteria?  Watch this video about the results of her autopsy and then answer the following questions.  (The vid isn't too graphic.  There is one computer generated image of her mortal wounds - seen below.   I have to admit I had tears in my eyes when I finished watching it.)

1.) Was it a Muslim father murdering his teenage daughter or a daughter in their early twenties?  Was it a husband against his wife? 

2.)  Was it carefully planned?  Had death threats been issued as a means of control?

3.)  Did the murder's planning and execution involve multiple family members? 

4.)  Is the motive for the honor killing, the daughter/wife's 'dishonoring' the family?

5.)  Was the killing carried out with 'barbaric ferocity'?  Was the victim also raped, burned alive, stoned or beaten, cut at the throat, decapitated, stabbed numerous times, suffocated slowly, etc?

6.) Did their extended family and community honor the honor killer?  Did they condemn the murderer in the name of Islam?  Or did they attempt to make Islam as big of a victim of the honor killing as the dead girl? 

7.) Did the murderer show remorse?  Or do they play the victim - defending their actions against the victims dishonor?

Sarah and Amina's brother and mother were complicit in their murders.  Her father escaped (it is believed to have been with the help of relatives and he is now believed to be hiding in his homeland,  Egypt. 

For 9 months the authorities refused to identify the girls' murders as honor killing and when they did?  The Muslim Groaners kicked in big time.  This is what CAIR spokesman, Mustafaa Carroll had to say:

"As far as we're concerned, until the motive is proven in a court of law, this is [just] a homicide,"

Just the homicide of 2 young girls.  Nothing to see here, sheeple.  Move along.

Jacko's bro to build slavery theme park...

in Nigeria....  Rides!  Robots!  The Jackson 5 - the 'Biggest African Group in the world"?

"This will be an adventurous ride giving you an historical overview of African music. From hologram images, concert footage, a state of the art recording facility, to robotic figures displaying the rhythmic beats from 300 years ago where music began leading up to the biggest African group in the world, The Jackson Five," The Motherland Group (TMG) said.

From news.com.au

Marlon Jackson is said to be prepared to invest in a $5.3 billion theme park where tourists can visit a replica slave ship and walk the route of shackled slaves, before playing a round of golf or relaxing by a pool, reports The Guardian

The former Jackson Five band member and the Badagry Historical Resort Development Project hope the park will attract African-American tourists keen to trace their roots back to Nigeria.

But critics have labeled the theme park inappropriate and an insult to the dead.

"It is not appropriate from a cultural or historical point of view," Nigerian historian Toyin Falola told the BBC.

"Moneymaking and historical memory are allies in the extension of capitalism. You cry with one eye and wipe it off with a cold beer, leaving the other eye open for gambling."

However, the investment group behind the plan says it will honour the history of the transatlantic slave trade and provide employment opportunities for Nigerians.

...

TMG believes the resort will pull in 1.4m visitors in the first year, rising to 4.4m in five years.