So apparently Dan Simmons is convinced that Islam is Out to Get Us. His arguments prove that like Scripture, people can cherry pick history to bolster their argument.

Gee, Dan, and I enjoyed your books and everything.

Thanks, autopope and james_nicoll for enlightening me.

So on FB I posted a question on my wall--"name me the last heroic fantasy you read where there were black people in it."

Ungrammatical, perhaps, but you know what I mean.

And the responses?  Sweet green-eyed bespectacled hermaphrodite Christ.

El Cid, for the love of God.  Because, you know, Moors.  Because Moors are North African ( Read more... )

Damn hippies, students, socialists, layabouts, women, muckrakers, lazy-good-for-nothings, Jews, feminists, Catholics, housewives, reporters, Indians, intellectuals, union workers, homosexuals, slackers, instigators, liberals, immigrants, Democrats, moderates, commies, old-school Republicans, 99%ers--and Muslims!

Oh, America, you crazy mixed-up ( Read more... )

So over on FB I had posted a picture of the "plus-size" model shoot done by Glamour in 2009.  All comments were very positive.  Except this morning I wake up and in my FB msg box, there's a note from some young man in his 20s who wrote: "Hey, I don't like this photo. Please remove it."  I wrote back, "Um, respectfully, no."

Here is the offending ( Read more... )

But I am lucky; and for the grace of God, there I am.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2078622,00.html

"I hope that I will have the honor of marrying one of these girls," he said, as
Merhi treated an almost healed gunshot wound in al-Masry's upper right thigh. "I
know that these girls suffered, they were taken against their will. I don't ( Read more... )

So I was watching "Legacy" on Netflix, hosted by Michael Wood, and I surprised myself by getting all teary. This was the first episode, which talks about Sumer, and Uruk, and Babylon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNSO9xKVcv8

This is the first part.  if you follow your nose, you should be able to go through all the  parts of the first ep.  One of ( Read more... )

So Osama Bin Laden is dead. (I went to bed early; I only found out a few minutes ago ( Read more... )

A huge thanks to jimvanpelt for posting this. I'm spreading it. (You may have to scroll down a bit to see it; I don't know.)

Click to view

The Taliban vs. the Sufis.

Excerpt:
Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn’t mean he’s in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of ( Read more... )

Link to Muslimah Media Watch--

Sexiness for Everyone (Even For Muslims)

The video, really, if you're clued in, will make your gorge rise.

Krista hits the response to this just fine, as do the comments.