Head Scarf Controversy in Atlanta Courtroom

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

The Associated Press is reporting that an Atlanta judge briefly jailed a Muslim woman named Lisa Valentine for contempt of court, for refusing to remove her head scarf at the security checkpoint. Mrs. Valentine was apparently at the court accompanying her nephew who was facing a traffic violation hearing.

According to Mrs. Valentine’s husband, Omar Hall, she was stopped by security guards at the metal detector for refusing to remove her head scarf and barred from entering. She then apparently turned to leave the courthouse, and swore at the security officers. Officers arrested her on the spot and took her before the judge where she was held in contempt. She was quickly released following pressure brought by the Council on American-Islamic Relations with Federal officials, citing a violation of her religious freedoms.

Naturally Muslim groups are calling her jailing “outrageous” (source), but is it? Is it really outrageous to expect courtroom security officers to enforce these rules for everyone’s safety?

Here’s an image of a Muslim woman in a Burqa. Can you really say you’d be fine with letting her pass through a security check point dressed like this?

So what’s the answer? Putting a Muslim woman at all security checkpoints so they can go and privately be screened by a member of their own faith? Definitely not. Not only would this be outrageously expensive, it smacks of preferential treatment and in my opinion violates the separation of church and state. How could the government hire Muslim women to take this security position without violating discrimination laws? It could not.

Maybe you don’t think it’s a big deal. So some Muslim women want to enter the court wearing the head scarf or Hijab. What about Catholic Nuns, do they have to remove their head gear? What about Sikhs, do they take off their turbans? My answer to that is an emphatic yes, and yes.

Religious tolerance is one thing, but it should always take a back seat to the welfare of the citizenry. For example, when Christian Fundamentalists refuse medical treatment to their critically ill children, they have been charged with child abuse. Or when other Christian Fundamentalists have beaten their children, in some cases to death, while “exorcising them of demons” they’ve been rightly charged with assault and murder. (Reference)

Mrs. Valentine said, she “just felt stripped of my civil, my human rights,” but what about the rights of everyone else in the court room to a modicum of security, surely that supercedes any argument of religious tolerance.

Tags: Atlanta, Burqa, Court, Hijab, Lisa Valentine, Muslim, Security
Posted in Internet, Opinion, Religion, news | 1 Comment »

Facebook is Beating MySpace Like a Baby Seal

Friday, November 7th, 2008

MySpace takes a beating

The word on the interwebs is that despite MySpace’s commanding lead in users, Facebook is p0wning them in cool. Speaking for myself, I have a foot in both camps, and until recently would have considered myself a MySpace user and Facebook dabbler, but that’s flipped 180 degrees.

Here’s one reason why I think Facebook is winning the war for our hearts and minds. The Facebook team, captained by Mark Zuckerberg, (general douche and founder of Facebook) is focused on growing the community.

“Growth is our top priority. The challenge that we have is to bring people along the whole path, first bring people along to Facebook, and make people comfortable with sharing information online.”

“We got people through this really big hurdle of wanting to put up their full name, picture – their mobile phone number in many cases.” - Zuckerberg

(Source)

Meanwhile what are the geniusoids at MySpace doing? Creating a new Zune. Yup, according to Chris DeWolfe, MySpace Chief Executive Officer, they ‘may’ have plans for creating a new handheld device to rival the iPod, trying to capitalize on the success of MySpace music.

Oh yeah, and ads. Lots and lots of ads. MySpace MyAds program has been rolled out and is generating buckets and buckets of cash or about $140,000 - $180,000, a day! (Source) That means MyAds is at least a $50 million a year money machine for Rupert (douche and ultimate corporate owner of MySpace) Murdoch. (Wiki)

Tags: Facebook, Internet, Mark Zuckerberg, MySpace, Rupert Murdoch, Social Media
Posted in Internet, Opinion | 1 Comment »

Twitternalysis of the Veep Debate

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

The Twitterers were hard at it again last night tweeting through the debate. Here are some selected highlights:

stevehoff: 2) Palin blaming crisis on “Predatory Lenders”. banks=bad/borrowers=good What happened to GOP mantra of personal responsibility?

kerryank: Crap - hard to tell who the biggest bimbo is in this debate!

bitterpurl: how do people think Palin “exceeded expectations” when she didn’t answer any questions? must’ve been the winking

verybigjen: I saw a powerful and intelligent woman during the #vpdebate last night - unfortunately it was the moderator.

yoga_mama: My.02: Palin did better than I thought she would, but Biden was stellar! He holds a balance between accessibility and countenance

lunarboy: Is Sarah Palin George W. Bush 2.0? She’s trying to charm her way through

mugwump2: If Palin were a river, she’d be the Platte: Wide sparkling surface, but an inch deep.

smith1022: so if mccain is maverick, is palin goose? is obama iceman? that’s cool, iceman rocks.

joshbuckner: Most important Biden/Palin distinction: the VP powers question. Palin endorses unchecked executive power. That’s not democracy.

orbitaldiamonds: She’s a “maverick.” That means she can change her mind as many times as she wants (apparently).

fusedlogic: Biden talked about his family situation with real emotion, then stomped on the Maverick BS…won him the debate

JSto: Sarah Palin reminds me of Dolores Umbridge

freeplay: sarah palin is very good at answering the questions she feels like answering, which are not the ones she’s asked

erinely: Think Palin did well? She charmed you. Read the debate transcript. She spoke gibberish. http://twurl.nl/ryuu8u

Tags: Biden, Debate, Election 08, McCain, Obama, Palin, Veep, Vice President
Posted in Election 08, Opinion, Politics | No Comments »

McCain and the Politics of Distraction

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Why did John McCain “suspend” his campaign and pull out of the debate? Is it because he’s so concerned about the banking crisis that he has to roll up his sleeves as a good Senator and pitch in to write new laws? Is it because Bush’s 700 Billion dollar bailout just won’t fly without the Maverick twisting a few arms?

Why did John McCain pick ultra-conservative right winger, and political unknown Sarah Palin for Veep? Was it because she can see Russia from her house?

No, of course not. It’s purely political; the politics of distraction. He’s trying to draw attention away from his lack of vision, and now his sagging poll numbers too. The Palin ploy worked for a little while, and even gave him a boost, but now with the public’s growing recognition of her complete inadequacy to lead the nation, he needs a new dodge. Pretending to be committed to banking reform, will do this week.

“We need leadership, not a campaign photo op. If there were ever a time for both candidates to hold a debate before the American people about this serious challenge, it is now.” - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

(Source)

But perhaps Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, when referring to McCain’s politics of distraction, said it best:

“The longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.”

(Source)

Let’s hope the MSM doesn’t drop the ball.

But one thing Senator McCain hasn’t counted on is that the public, like most of the Senate, is turning on the Bush Bailout plan. The idea of pouring more billions of unaccountable taxpayers money down the rat hole is less and less appealing - go figure.

And John McCain wants to be the champion of that? Go get ‘em, tiger.

Senator Obama wisely rejected McCain’s call to postpone the debate noting that Presidents need to be able to focus on more than one issue at a time.

“It’s going to be part of the president’s job to be able to deal with more than one thing at once.”

Senator Obama (Source)

Tags: Campaign, Debate, Election, McCain, Obama
Posted in Election 08, Environment, Opinion, Politics, Weird | 1 Comment »