In the News, Week of January 9th
The week’s reading, straight off the razor wire:
FRIDAY
Something from the Arab News about the gender gap in Saudi Arabia:
When you have groups of 15-25 year old boys doing nothing every day but watching TV, playing games, and cruising the streets, there is hardly any time left to do research.
As if any of them had any idea how to do research in the first place. And believe it or not, it is for this reason that you find girls are more innovative then boys; not being able to drive and roam the streets is somewhat of a blessing in disguise for them.
“I know what the advantages of women driving are and I agree with all the arguments, but it is not enough. What I know is the way I feel when my daughter tells me she wants to drive her own car like her brothers one day. I can’t help it; I panic when I think what might happen to her,” says Saudi father, “Tamer”.
—Well, put down the chair and the whip, and let’s talk about it…
THURSDAY
From The Scotsman.com about a new front in the culture wars:
CHINESE CHIP IN WITH CLAIM TO GOLF
Professor Ling Hongling, of Lanzhou University, claims to have uncovered evidence of golf being played in China in AD 945 in a book called the Dongxuan Records written during the Song Dynasty (AD960-1279)…According to Prof Ling, golf only arrived in Scotland after it was exported to Europe by Mongolian travellers during the late Middle Ages.
—I don’t care. I just rike to pray gorf.
WEDNESDAY
This from the NY Times about the Jews and their quirky traditions…
…now, with the NYC mayoral election over, the city’s Health Department, while not banning the procedure, is angering Hasidic leaders just the same by pushing a public health campaign against the rite, in which the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the circumcision wound to clean it. The department took the action after linking the rite to additional cases of herpes in infants, one of whom suffered brain damage as a result.
— Okay, using God to justify blowing babies. I’ve changed my mind: Go Hamas.
TUESDAY
And this from the Iraqi online newspaper Azzaman:
IRAQ’S POPULATION SOARS TO 28 MILLION
—Now you see the why the US doesn’t bother with body counts.
MONDAY
Here’s this from the Washington Post about Wal-Mart’s racial. . . ah, what’s the word? Insensitivity. . .?
WAL-MART WEB SITE MAKES RACIAL CONNECTIONS
When visitors to Walmart.com requested “Planet of the Apes: The Complete TV Series” on DVD, four other movies were recommended under the heading “Similar Items.” Those films included “Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream/Assassination of MLK” and “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson”
…similar titles were called up when the DVD of the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was requested…
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said in a written statement that it removed the combinations at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time. By last evening, “Planet of the Apes” was linked to DVDs of the fifth season of the CBS comedy “Everybody Loves Raymond” and the 10th season of the NBC hit “Friends.”
— As a white man, I find it offensive to have a movie about blacks linked to icons of white culture like “Everybody Loves Raymond” and “Friends.”