I Figured It Out

Of course, the answer has been staring us in the face the whole time. It was a communications problem that grounded the six anguished Imams. Now that we've heard their complaints, it's clear: it wasn't their weight that required them to use seat belt extenders, it was their emotional development that required them to use child safety seats. They just got the words wrong.

Hero Dog

Not to throw cold water on a warm story but... you know the dog that tunneled through the snow to save his 81 year-old owners? He couldn't work the doorknob by himself.

Could have been, "Come on, bark, I'm getting cold, bark, bark, you can go back outside if you want, bark, just open the door for me, bark, I'm freezing my, bark, off, bark, bark, bark"

We Have Other Demands as Well

Poor, poor, poor Muslims at CAIR, as if they don't have enough suffering (sniff) on their plate, now must be distracted from their airplane misery in order to deal with very serious swearing-in anguish:

An Islamic group is demanding that a conservative talk show host and columnist, Dennis Prager, be ousted from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council because of his statement that a Muslim just elected to Congress should be required to be sworn in using a Bible, not a Koran.

Someone tell me how these men get up day after day, knowing they will have nothing but torment from sunup to sundown? Still, shouldn't they be sure that they believe there was a holocaust, before they meddle with the memorial? "We'll be damned if he gets to work on the memorial for what may, or may not, have happened."

These are very much like the trials of someone who may, or may not, be Job.

***Update:

DEARBORN -- Fitness USA, a gym chain, is investigating an alleged civil rights violation involving a local Muslim woman who says her afternoon prayer was interrupted by a fellow patron, and that her complaint to management about the situation was rejected.

I'll tell you what, I'm approaching empathy overload.

Flight Club

Flight Club : Being Naughty on a Plane


And the first rule of flight club is... I forget. What was the first rule again?


via flopping aces

Revealing X-Ray?

This new full-body x-ray machine has some people a little nervous. Me, I'm not so concerned. I always get shuttled to the pat-down lane, and let me tell you, that can get a little personal. Not that I'm complaining, and I have to say, the screeners are always as respectful as it's possible to be. But even so, I'd welcome the risqué x-ray.

Here's an idea, feed the live video to a jumbotron TV in the main terminal. OK, or maybe not.

The Walking Imams

Sarwat Husain (president of the Council on American Islamic Relations-San Antonio) says:

"One ignorant passenger got nervous and passed a note to one of the crew members, accusing the imams of something they did not do or say, only because he had watched the imams praying."

It's simple. People know and can recognize aggressive eye contact. They recognize scowls.

And here's a thought: how is it that of the three hundred people on the plane, not one passenger has come forward to say, "wait a minute, the Imams were minding their own business,"? Was it a plane filled completely with ignorant bigots? And again, one witness said, "I travel to Turkey frequently and know many Muslims personally. The behavior of the group in the gate area was atypical for my experience w/ Muslims, incl among other things, aggressive eye contact in response to mine."

Nah, the passengers did the right thing. I'm sure those who did come forward with their concerns did so with great reluctance. Nobody wanted a confrontation, well, except for the Imams. The walking-imams.

Silly Girl

Sure, stars are just like us - some of them are stupid. I'm talking about that blurb on Drudge: GWYNETH PALTROW: 'British much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans'... where she says:

"I love the English lifestyle, it's not as capitalistic as America. People don't talk about work and money, they talk about interesting things at dinner," she told "NS," the weekend magazine supplement of daily Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias on Saturday.

"I like living here because I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans," the 34-year-old added.

Which, well I'm sure you know, is on it's face stupid. All Gwyn can testify to is her dinner guests.

But even odder is her claim that the "British are much more intelligent and civilized." Ha!! Gwyneth, you hang out with your "British" neighbor Madonna. What do you do, discuss doing the pool guy in an intelligent and civilized way? Sheesh. Anyway, it's also kind of transparent: people who praise their intelligent and civilized friends, and deride the hoi polloi, are really just saying, "Hey, I'm intelligent and civilized," in a way that demonstrates that they're neither.

Scowling Imams

Why are they "the flying Imams"? They didn't fly anywhere. Many of the other passengers felt they were behaving aggressively though. So "scowling Imams" is probably a more accurate description.

I've typed out one of the handwritten witness statements from a 35 year-old clergyman:

I travel to Turkey frequently and know many Muslims personally. The behavior of the group in the gate area was atypical for my experience w/ Muslims, incl among other things, aggressive eye contact in response to mine.[in margin: "the way in which they observed their prayers"] On board the flight I sat next to someone whose boarding pass said Ibrahim Mohamed. I purposefully engaged him lengthy conversation. Over the course of the conversation the following was revealed:

He is an Imam from Egypt who has attended school from kindergarten through PHD at one of the oldest existing Islamic universities.
He first told me he was doing PHD work in Bakersfield,
as things didn’t add up I continued to question.
He eventually said he was only using the library in Bakersfield, then that he was really advocating/representing Muslims here in the U.S. and not doing the work he said related to his PHD.

He expressed views I consider to be extreme fundamentalist Muslim views. He expressed the problems of non-sharic (Islamic Law) governments and the extensive problems of this even in the Middle East. (i.e. Turkey repressing Muslims, should be under sharia etc.) Egypt as well, etc.
He indicated that it was necessary to go to whatever measures necessary to obey all that’s set out in the Quran.

I’m open to be of further, detailed assistance, if necessary.

(He said that he had an Egyptian wife and 2 1/2 yr. old daughter in Bakersfield and that all of their families were in Egypt)

This is as accurate as I could make it from the handwritten copy - if you see a mistake let me know. (in theory, I am subject to making mistakes, in theory)

The police report, and other related info, is available from PJ-Media.

The "Fun Drunk"

Ah, it's all ok now. Elisabeth Hasselbeck called him a "fun drunk." And Barbara Walters says they love him and will have him back. And, do I care? Nah, but I have to wonder if this would be the ladies' reaction had DeVito come out spouting obscenities and ripping on Hillary Clinton.

Ethics

Michelle Malkin points to an article about students cheating on an ethics test. Sure, I can see that. It's better to cheat than to get a poor grade and have everyone think that you lack ethics. Plus:

The course, which includes such issues as "Why be Ethical?" and "Tribal Loyalty vs. Journalistic Obligation," is taught by New York Times columnist Samuel G. Freedman, who could not be reached yesterday.

Obviously the "Why be Ethical?" section wasn't well covered. But, really, ethics as practiced at the NYT? Maybe it was well covered. As for "Tribal Loyalty," I'm sure the gist of that is: don't be afraid to work against the interests of your tribe. A concept which, to be fair, the NYT has been pretty diligent in demonstrating.

***Update: Michelle also has: Lessons in modesty for Britney Spears. I have to admit ambivalence here, but I've seen the pictures and I tend to be in the "let Britney find her own way on this" camp.