Iran is a terrible, horrible country and if they were to follow the American model, we would be in terrible trouble.
This morning's headline is clear: Iran Threatens the U.S. if Attacked. The Associated Press reports: "If the United States were to attack Iran, the country would respond by striking U.S. interests all over the world, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday."…
Article comments
26 - moonraven
former Cat Stevens, sorry.
27 - D'oh
moonraven - would depend on which time he was denied, it had happened more than once.
My apologies that I don't have a link handy, it's very old news, and I am on a new computer (3 months old) and no longer have access to all of my archives since replacement was due to hard drive failure.
I'll try and find it, but don't hold out much hope. Both incidents were covered by the MSM at the times of the happening, not something I'd fabricate...especially in light of the heartbreak the incidents cost me due to having grown up listening to Teaser and the Firecat as well as Buddha in the Chocolate Box.
In either case, a nation does have the absolute right to deny access to those it deems dangerous or even undesireable.
Fair enough?
28 - Richard Rothstein
The facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens
29 - D'oh
Damn Richard, you beat me to the same link!
There was video of his speech, but I can't seem to find it.
the Tao of D'oh.
30 - Nancy
Can't even if I wanted to - gotta go for (most of) the weekend.
31 - moonraven
The enemy within is much scarier than Cat Stevens could ever be.
Compare him with Dick Cheney. Which of the two would you rather not have in the US?
I am not in the US, but I am a US citizen and, of the two, I would take old Cat in anyday....
32 - moonraven
And I didn't even like his songs!
33 - Nancy
No argument there, MR. I ditto. Ciao.
34 - D'oh
Fallacious argument, even tho I agree.
Cheney, for all his faults (and there are too many to be listed) is still a US citizen...Stevens/Islam is not.
35 - Martin Lav
Now that's it Moonraven YOU'VE FINALLY CROSSED THE LINE WITH ME........don't like Cat Steven's music? That's going way too far!
I love his music!
36 - Dave Nalle
Yeah, Cat Stevens wrote sweet, innocent songs and that outweighs his post-60s drug-induced religious mania.
Dave
37 - moonraven
Cat's songs--especially the infamous "Moonshadow"--have been absolutely beaten to death in ESL programs all around the planet.
Even if I had started out liking them, I would have ended up hating them.
38 - Martin Lav
I hate anything to do with the moon too!
er....moonraven.... seriously maybe that song and I get your irony, but well for me.....
Cats in the Cradle brings tears to my eyes, but maybe it's just for boyz to men.
Or was that Harry Chapin?
No matter, love that song and the Cat sang it I thinks....
39 - Clavos
It was Harry Chapin...
40 - STM
Cat Stevens ... what a cat
41 - Baronius
Ruvy, you haven't been here in a while, have you? "The holidays" refers to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's Eve/Day. Easter gets less attention than St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day - both of which used to be religious feast days, but have been sucked into America's secular blender.
42 - STM
That sounds like a complete rort that Kwanzaa business. What poor gibberer invented that and turned it into a made-up holiday?
43 - Baronius
"What poor gibberer invented that and turned it into a made-up holiday?" Ron Karenga, inventor of the "seven principles of blackness". It's amusing that American non-blacks are just getting up the guts to make fun of Kwanzaa, but blacks seem to be grudgingly accepting it. I don't know how it's going to pan out.
44 - STM
I must admit my question was rhetorical and a gee-up; I knew it was Karenza, and he was hardly a paragon of virtue - a violent cult leader who did three years in jail for torturing his own followers. The vast majority of African-Americans are descended from people of West African descent, yet Karenza used Swahili as the language of choice for "Kwanzaa" (Kwanza is the real name) - which is the language I most often hear down the local pub about 2am just before closing/booting-out time.
No problem celebrating a culture ... just make it more fair dinkum. At the moment, it's just made-up bunkum.
Perhaps the PC mob in the US should take that on board (but I bet they won't), and then perhaps the black community could come up with something more befitting their real origins.
Otherwise, what does it really mean? Not much, I'd wager. Still, I must admit I've always loved any excuse for a piss-up.
Perhaps we could have Convictaa here in Australia to celebrate our cultural origins - a week of thieving (borrowing), forgery, conning, drinking, fornicating, speaking treasonously, and refusing to accept any demands put upon us by authority figures. Actually, that's just a normal week Down Under.
But there you go - the seven pillars of Australianess.
I have now officially invented the new holiday of Convictaa and will begin agitating immediately to have it introduced ...
45 - Clavos
a week of thieving (borrowing), forgery, conning, drinking, fornicating, speaking treasonously, and refusing to accept any demands put upon us by authority figures. Actually, that's just a normal week Down Under.
You Aussies sure know how to party!!
46 - D'oh
STM says - "I have now officially invented the new holiday of Convictaa and will begin agitating immediately to have it introduced ... "
I second that emotion and move for passing without objections...
I've said ti before, and I'll say it again...Mother England had three sons
the "good son" - Canada...polite and goodhearted to it's collective soul
the "naughty son" - Australia...proof that the downtrodden, the political agitators, thieves and Irish are better people than most
and "the bastard son" - U.S. - what happens when you mix Puritans with just about everything else too far away for Mama ta spank...
but I digress...
47 - STM
Doh ... you forgot the kiwis. They hate being left out
48 - D'oh
Thought they were grandkids...but good point.
heh...
Let me see if I don't have some goodie fer a cobber ta taste...
the Tao of D'oh.
49 - SHARK
This article is a piece of shit; not work the digital paper it's printed on. It has no humor, no satire, no irony, no imagination, no originality -- and its point is about as subtle and interesting as a case of Ebola.
It inspired one of those moments when I say to myself, "Jeesus, I hate that these people are on 'my side.'"
...Which is why I prefer the term Liberal Reactionary Situationalist to all others.
=====
re: Cat Stevens - the only time I'd hear that crap in the 70s: we'd end up at some yahoos house after a concert, an anti-war march, or a hedonistic drug-addled orgy in the local park. Some dopey chick or dude would put on a Cat album -- and I'd KNOW at once that our Host was what we used to term a "jesus freak". At the first strains of "Peace Train", SHARK would jump thru an open wiindow screaming.
It still gives me the creeps when I hear it.
=====
Re: Dave Vox Populi Nalle's opinion on anything: Y'know, after NALLE LIED and ALTERED OLD COMMENTS TO COVER IT UP, I really have a hard time reading anything he writes. I don't take it seriously anymore. It's like he's feeling SO FUCKING GUILTY that he's gotta pop into every thread and say the equivalent of "Hi everybody! Anybody want some candy?"
Either that, or he's posting some EXTREMELY well-researched, well-balanced, semi-non-partisan new essay of importance to the universe in order to distract from his NEW ROLE as A DECEPTIVE LYING FRAUD.
That's kinda too bad. I miss actually reading his stuff and taking it seriously.
signed,
SHARK <--the only name i've ever used
50 - Richard Rothstein
Shark must have been looking in a mirror when he wrote the first comment. Shark, are you driven by cheap whiskey or crystal meth?
51 - Clavos
He's driven by his new crusade...
52 - Clavos
the "good son" - Canada...polite and goodhearted to it's collective soul
Except, of course, for the Quebecois.
But then, they are not sons of Mother England...
53 - Baronius
STM - I love that list. It kills me that you put forgery before drinking (to improve the quality of the counterfeiting) and sex after drinking (because we usually make our bad decisions with some alcohol in our bloodstreams). You've used this list before, haven't you?
54 - D'oh
It's tattooed on the back of their necks when they graduate school.
the Tao of D'oh.
55 - SHARK
re: "...a week of thieving (borrowing), forgery, conning, drinking, fornicating, speaking treasonously, and refusing to accept any demands put upon us by authority figures."
We have one in the US.
It was originally called "Mardi Gras".
Last year, it was called "Katrina".
Yer welcome!
56 - Marcia L. Neil
According to historical accounts, the U. S. also has no tolerance for foreign troops amassed at the borders. Because the atomic bomb and perhaps ICBMs as well were originally intended to crack glaciers or fill the Niagara Falls river basin, Iran is in the spotlight as a possible "how do you like it?" putative force.
57 - Zedd
Baronious
Democracy is our religion.
58 - Zedd
STM
KWAANZA is non of your business really.
Please compare that holiday to a celebration of a virgin birth and because of that we go shopping and put gifts under a tree IN THE HOUSE and we tell children that a fat man dressed in a red fur outfit, riding rein deer, came through the chimney and put them there. OR a man who dies and comes back alive three days later so we hide eggs and put them in baskets and dress like large rabbits (in the US). I understand that in Australia its a large rat looking mammal.
Mind you, I am a Christian but come on.... None of this sounds all that sane now does it?
Kwanza celebrates and highlights principles. Each day celebrates a principle. I haven't celebrated it yet but it think its a noble idea. It doesn't matter what country the person who thought of it came from.
You are not Jewish and you celebrate the life of a Jew.
Just being myself... Sorry :o)
59 - Tedd
Zedd
You are so clever.
Zedd
he he he he
60 - S.T.M
Hello Zedd ... yes, you're right about fat men in red suits etc. I still think Kwanzaa might be better if it actually really related to African/American heritge. And of course it's my business ... what happens if I go to the US and have to buy someone a Kwanzaa pressie?
61 - Baronius
Zedd, it's true that I shouldn't care about holidays I don't celebrate. Sure, Kwanzaa is silly, but a lot of things are silly.
But Kwanzaa really bugs me, and here's why: it's being marketed as an alternative to Christmas. The US has some ethnic holidays, like Columbus Day. We have some religious holidays, like Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah and Christmas schedules don't conflict, because they represent belief systems that don't overlap. But Kwanzaa is an ethnic holiday being pushed as a replacement for a religious holiday. It's as if celebrating Christmas isn't an authentic experience for a black American.
62 - Zedd
Baronius
No its not supposed to be a replacement for Christmas at all. It has nothing to do with Christmas or replacing religion. It support religion. Its secular but spiritual in its effect. It may have begun as an alternative to Christmas but right now its not. It took some of the good things from Hanukkah and added some core African values, which are actually African American values. Why should it bother you??
It celebrates and emphasizes Unity, Self Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith. Whats silly about that??
Again come on.... a man who is born of a virgin, a star that leads men who walk across the world, a fat man in a red fur suite, talking angels, flying rein deer, entering and departing through a chimney, a choir of angels in the sky yet no one asks questions...... Ummmmm now which sounds silly??
Again, I'm a christian and a committed one too but as for what sounds silly or even rational...........
Rituals don't have to be European approved to be legit.
STM
Why would you get someone a Kwanzaa gift. I mean it would be sweet, especially if they didn't celebrate Christmas and if its a client, it would be a home run out of the park but under normal circumstances, most Whites don't get Black people Kwanzaa gifts. Also it could be offensive, if the person doesn't celebrate it.
63 - Baronius
I apologize for going way off-topic here. If anyone wants to return, feel free.
What's so silly about lighting a candle in remembrance of "Purpose"? I can't imagine anything sillier. The fact is, nearly every ritual is absurd. People just don't think of good ones very often. That's why everything from folk masses to "Survivor" torch-extinguishing ceremonies have that air of the ridiculous.
"Rituals don't have to be European" - of course not. Conan O'Brien does a very funny routine about European holidays: "on this day every year we put on wet clothes and go to bed early". I'm not endorsing Christmas on behalf of the brightly-dressed elves. Any time a secular holiday nudges out a religious holiday, I'm offended. Even when that secular holiday is modern, mall-oriented Christmas.
The only way for Kwanzaa to succeed is for it to crowd out Christmas. You've said that was its original purpose. I'm opposed to it on that grounds.