inkbluesky

driftwood and boulders

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

* Overall, Muslim Americans have a generally positive view of the larger society. Most say their communities are excellent or good places to live.

* The survey shows that although many Muslims are relative newcomers to the U.S., they are highly assimilated into American society. On balance, they believe that Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs, rather than trying to remain distinct from the larger society.

* Roughly two-thirds (65%) of adult Muslims in the U.S. were born elsewhere.

* A majority of Muslim Americans (53%) say it has become more difficult to be a Muslim in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Just some highlights from a longer version of a study done of the American Muslim community. The contrast between two of those stats struck me - while 65% of the Muslim community are foreign born that most feel they should adopt American lifestyles. I might be jumping to conclusions, but that would seem to mean that they want to come to America because they already prefer a more modern liberal culture then that typical of most of the Middle-East. As most of you have probably noticed certain people get shrill real fast whenever there is some plot by a small group of American Muslims. Out of a nationwide community of almost 3 million Muslims, most of whom are foreign born we’ve had a total of a few dozen actual plotters. In the case of the little group in Miami and near Fort Dix they actually asked the FBI informant how to  carry out their plans. So as a group anyway they present less of a threat then the one out of ten drivers that is drunk on Saturday night.

Elwood the mutt crowned ugliest dog

Elwood, dark colored and hairless — save for a mohawk-like puff of white fur on his head — is often referred to as “Yoda,” or “ET,” for his resemblance to those famous science fiction characters.

“I think he’s the cutest thing that ever lived,” said Elwood’s owner, Karen Quigley, a resident of Sewell, New Jersey.

Good on Karen for giving Elwood’s self esteem a boost, but how did she explain the contest.

+ Paul Krugman recently noticed some links between international trouble maker Rupert Murdock and a certain level of ignorance - The Murdoch Factor

In October 2003, the nonpartisan Program on International Policy Attitudes published a study titled “Misperceptions, the media and the Iraq war.” It found that 60 percent of Americans believed at least one of the following: clear evidence had been found of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda; W.M.D. had been found in Iraq; world public opinion favored the U.S. going to war with Iraq.

The prevalence of these misperceptions, however, depended crucially on where people got their news. Only 23 percent of those who got their information mainly from PBS or NPR believed any of these untrue things, but the number was 80 percent among those relying primarily on Fox News.

The TV media in general could do much better in disseminating the facts, but Fox is like the National Inquirer of cable news.

salida del sol azul del desierto - wallpaper 1280×1024 

This week’s theme has turned out to be bones. Old bones of people that depending on how you look at it are long gone or have just become part of the carbon cycle and are thus still with us in some ways. ‘Find of century’ for Egyptology

Egyptologists say they have identified the 3,000-year-old mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt’s most powerful female ruler.

….Hatshepsut was an important 18th Dynasty ruler in the 15th Century BC, having usurped her stepson, Thutmosis III.

She was known for dressing like a man and wearing a false beard, and was more powerful than either of her more famous female successors, Nefertiti and Cleopatra.

Hatshepsut’s funerary temple is one of the most visited monuments around the pharaonic necropolis of the Valley of the Kings in Upper Egypt.

But after her death, her name was obliterated from the records in what is believed to have been her stepson’s revenge.

The big bad “internets” a combination of library and instant access user friendly 24 hour news channel and what has it gotten us, Public Knowledge of Current Affairs Little Changed by News and Information Revolutions What Americans Know: 1989-2007  

On average, today’s citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago. The new survey includes nine questions that are either identical or roughly comparable to questions asked in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 2007, somewhat fewer were able to name their governor, the vice president, and the president of Russia, but more respondents than in the earlier era gave correct answers to questions pertaining to national politics.

Statistically error taken into account we’ve remained about the same, but the actual numbers say we know a little less now then 1989. Fox News watchers are particularly ignorant. I still occasionally run into someone that thinks Iraq attacked us on 9-11 and they are always Fox watchers rather then on-line news readers or even ABC watchers. It’s one of those sad funny situations - how can someone make good decisions about the future of their country if they’re uninformed about the most basic facts.

Speaking of same, shame on Mr. Giuliani, Giuliani’s 9/11 Conspiracy Theory. And he thinks he’ll make a great president.

one thing leads to another 

Right-Wing Judicial Activism Runs Amok

The conservative activists on the Supreme Court decreed in a series of 5-4 decisions:

* Individuals, who believe their tax dollars are being unconstitutionally misused by the White House to promote religious beliefs, aren’t allowed to enter a courthouse to make their case.

* The Environmental Protection Agency can avoid its responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act, even though it’s a law reflecting the public will as passed by the democratically-elected Congress.

* Corporations can once again use their checkbooks to flood the public airwaves with political ads during election season, again overruling Congress.

I’m a little uncomfortable with how the last decision has been portrayed. The way the legislation was written it did, in my non-lawyer’s view seem to squelch free speech. While it is true that corporations can now flood the airwaves with false and misleading advocacy ads just before an election so can more progressive groups. Those progressive groups will be at a disadvantage for money, but that might be where our legislators need to get back to work and design some kind of public campaign financing. It’s difficult to legislate ethics - Dear Mr. Special Interests would you please not run ads that are out right lies or distortions. Adults that run these special interests aren’t much different then petulant children, they just have more power and money.

Color Inspiration from the Masters of Painting 

Why are the master works of art considered master works? Form, composition, spatial tension, texture? While I have my own ideas, one thing they each have in common is a thoughtful  combination of color. Color+Design has extracted the color palette from some of my favorite paintings including Les Amants by Magritte and The Scream by Munch. Click over and you might get inspired.

acacia leaves wallpaper 

I swear this is not Yale bashing week this story just caught my attention, Geronimo’s great-grandson wants bones returned

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Legend has it that Yale University’s ultrasecret Skull and Bones society swiped the remains of American Indian leader Geronimo nearly a century ago from an army outpost in Oklahoma, and now Geronimo’s great-grandson wants the remains returned.

If the skull and bones are in a tomb at the club’s headquarters Harlyn Geronimo wants them returned so they can have a properly consecrated burial.

Murdoch’s Muckraker Invents Iranian Invasion 

And torrid gossip is about the best characterization of a story, headlined “Iran bombers attack Our Boys”, about Iranian ‘copters in Iraqi airspace. It’s a story so obviously made-up that it’s buried on The Sun’s news pages beneath the latest on Tiger Wood’s baby and who is hot on the Big Brother reality TV show. It doesn’t even warrant the same amount of space as the story about the Sun’s interpid reporter who stipped off at a nudist rally!

There is at least one fringe Right blog that has pointed how how ridiculous this story is.
Bush has certainly botched up wars on two fronts, but we still have plenty of nukes and daisy cutters. While individual Iranian militants might be running across the border it is difficult to imagine that the government in Tehran would be stupid enough to do something provocative as send helicopters on missions into Iraq. I think Rupert Murdock is an Australian citizen, can’t somebody over there put a leash on this guy and get him a rabies shoot because he causes more trouble.

35,000-Year-Old Mammoth Sculpture Found in Germany 

Archaeologists at the University of Tübingen have recovered the first entirely intact woolly mammoth figurine from the Swabian Jura, a plateau in the state of Baden-Württemberg, thought to have been made by the first modern humans some 35,000 years ago. It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found. “You can be sure,” Tübingen archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard told SPIEGEL ONLINE, “that there has been art in Swabia for over 35,000 years.”

Not only is humanity over 3,000 years old, but we had hobbies 35,000 years ago.